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I am addicted to the barrage of caramalized red onion products. The sweetness of the sugar, slight tartness of the vineger, the fragance of the caramelized onions – wow. They go so well stirred into gravies and sauces, eaten on crackers and cheese, included in sandwiches – anything really! I’ve made a few recipes, tweaking and testing out the inggredients and ways of cooking them, and I think I’ve got it pretty down to pat now. The problem with these is that it tastes better with some maturing, and leaving them on my very pretty contemporary coffee tables for a month before cracking them open is a tall order!

Now that the recipe is pretty much in order, I thought I should blog this before I forget about it and lose the recipe. So here it is, my caramelized red onion marmalade/chuntey thingymajig. I encourage experimentation, I have mixed and matched various spices, sugars and vinegars but found I love demerera with cider vineger best.

Inggredients
1 kg thinly sliced red onions – use a japanese mandoline for the best results
100g sultanas
1 cinnamon stick
4 bay leaves
20 cracked peppercorns
170g sugar – experiment with amount and type; white, molasses, demerera ect
220ml cider vineger – experiment with amount and type; balsamic, malt ect
3-6 CLEANED recycled jars; jam jars work well. Splash out for kliner-styled jars if it’s a gift.

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1) Saute the red onions with a tiny bit of oilve oil in a large pan
2) Continously stir until onions are caramelized – about 10-20 minutes depending on your pan
3) Add everything else in the pan
4) Cook over medium to low heat, ensuring that the spices are fully submerged
5) Stir occasionally to ensure it doesn’t burn
6) Stick the clean jars on a baking tray and leave in the the oven for 20 mins at 150 C degrees.
7) After about 30mins-40mins, the mixture should now be watered down enough with only very little moisture left coating the onions.
Continue stirring for another hour if you want to have marmalade instead; the onions will break down to a transparent goo if it cooks long enough.
9) Spoon them into the warm jars immediately. You can remove the cinnamon, bay leaves and peppercorn first, but I like to leave mine in.
To seal, water-bath the jars immediately by placing them on a pot of boiling water simmering for 10 minutes. I stick mine back in the oven in a shallow pan of water on 150 C. You do not need to seal kliner-styled jars, by the way.
10) You can dig into this immediately, but if left for a month – it’s scrumptious!

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There you go – delicious caramelized red onion thingymajig! This works very well for Christmas due to the flavours of cinnamon, you can add more cinnamon, some nutmeg , cloves – anything you like really! I am still experimenting with the different herbs and spices, but at the moment I am thoroughly loving the cinnamon and sultanas flavours.

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Continuing our adventures in London, we were at Koya for dinner after our meal at Gary Rhodes. Koya is well-known for its handmade udon noodles – a rarity in the UK. This little cafe-like establishment even made London’s top 100 restaurants! There is nothing 5 star about the deco or the service – the proof of the pudding is all in the handmade noodle.

As we were a party of 8, they had thought it appropriate to squeeze us into a table for 6. With a little organisation we could’ve been seated more comfortably – bacon was squeezed in a corner and could not move a muscle all throughout the meal. I had to balance my handbag between me & bacon, as there was just NO SPACE LEFT. There was a queue forming outside, but on the inside the service was most definately subpar. We waited ages for the sake to arrive, after all other drinks had already arrived. Orders were taken as soon as we’re ready, so I guess that’s not that bad.

The starters are pretty inventive -

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Fish & chips/ battered cod served with thinly sliced deepfried renkon/lotus root £ 7.50.

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Smoked duck breast – think this was ellefie’s – And yeah, they did not even bother wiping the mustard smear off the plate.

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Vinegered mackerel – which was what I had. Deelish, but why soooooo tiny for £5.50?!?

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My lonely tempura prawn udon

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ellefie‘s vegetarian tempura cold udon with hot broth – looks better, at least there is more than ONE item!

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Bacon’s gyu udon – thinly sliced beef with ginger & spring onion broth. I think his is the best amongst the lot – yummy, even though it is pretty simple. The flavours of beef, spring onions & ginger was lovely.

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Kelvin’s chicken udon.

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KJ’s kinoko (mushrooms) udon with walnut miso – the walnut miso is pretty special taste-wise.

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The quality of the noodles were indeed superb, but that was all there is – the dashi in mine was pretty watered down and tasteless. Tempura batter was ok – but I found myself having to fish out the batter bits as I was otherwise only eating noodles in a weak broth. Portions are minute, my starter looks like a hors d’ouveres and my main dish looks like a starter. It’s pretty expensive for what it is – if my noodles came with 3 prawns (or even TWO!) , I wouldn’t mind paying £9 for it. But for it to just come with one measly tempura prawn – that just broke my heart. The service is ok if it was a cafe – but most definately not worth the service charge they levied on our bill as they masquerade as a 5-starred establishment.

Would I go again? Hm. Probably not by choice. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the fresh noodles. I would still encourage you to go and try the noodles, just once if nothing else to see that udon noodles are not the usual stringy noodles that is served in noodle bars. But Koya had left me very disillusioned about their grasp of basic Japanese flavour combinations of mirin, soy sauce, sugar & dashi. There are ingenious spark here and there (i.e. walnut miso & renkon chips) but maybe I was just too upset with my lonely tempura prawn…drowning in a bowl of underflavoured dashi. Maybe I have been spoilt as I had tasted one of the best during my visit to David Chang’s momofuku, but I would say that Koya is miles better than other noodle joints that I have been to in the UK – just, not the very best there is. Koya have been the toast of London town since opening their doors earlier in the year, and I will probably be public enemy no. 1 (Just look at the queue outside on the first picture!!!) ; but seriously, I just didn’t feel that (other than their smooth and lovely udon) there was much there.

Koya
49 Frith Street
Soho, London W1D 4SQ

As part of the London Loves Food campaign, we were at Rhodes W1 (by Gary Rhodes) a few weekends ago. Gary Rhodes had always been bacon’s favourite ‘celebrity chef’ and he is well known for producing British staples. Bacon had never eaten at any of his restaurants before, but have a large-ish collection of his cookbooks. So I thought it would be a great time for us to pay them a visit at their Michelin-starred establishment in London.
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Located near the Marble Arch, Rhodes W1 is pretty easy to get to by tube; just be on the lookout for the Guoman Hotel as the restaurant is inside. Dark and moody sets the tone for lunch – it seemed more like a hip bar rather than a restaurant. Service was quick, efficient and pretty good. We both ended up ordering from the set menu (2 course for £15), but the main menu looks good as well with steaks, lamb ect.

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For starters, I had the salmon with an apple and celeriac remoulade. The salmon seems to have been cooked sous vide and then gently steamed, making it delectably melt in the mouth and delicately flavoured. There is nothing worse than overcooked salmon. The apple remoulade compliments the salmon very well indeed, with tiny tart lemon pieces bringing it all to life. It whet my appetite for the main course instead of making me overly full like some starters can do to you.

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Bacon had his favourite classic caesar salad. The sauce was on the mark, the super crispy bacon added complimentary texture and the anchovy filet completes it. Just one teeny weensy problem – they’ve used little gem lettuce instead of the classic romaine. Not a massive problem, but for a restaurant this level it was pretty strange – did they think we did not know what caesar salad was made of?

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My main was the mushroom risotto with parmesan crisp. I had never, ever ordered risotto in my life before. It always looked overly rich, undercooked and resembles a big giant pile of mush. I am a big fan of rice, but risotto I could never stomach. However, for some odd reason I decided to go with risotto that day, and it did not dissapoint. It was extremely well flavoured with the woody taste of the chestnut & oyster mushrooms, just the right amount of creaminess, and perfectly cooked risotto rice. The extra sauteed mushrooms and the perfectly round parmesan crisp just gave it extra oomph – I loved this dish.

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Bacon had the sea bream. Another new, I had never known bacon to order fish before. The vierge oil was light and complements the filet of sea bream extremely well with the fennel, spring onions, tomatoes and olives. The skin was deliciously crispy – so good that bacon actually ate it. He hates fish skin with a vengence, one of the reasons he dislikes fish. But this one, he mopped it all up. We paid an extra £3.50 for a side of boiled potatoes. Very nice, but not too sure if its worth the £3.50 they charged us for 4 baby potatoes.

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I declined dessert, but bacon went for the whole orange cake. We were fully expecting a whole mini-cake (possibly a cupcake?) so was sorely dissapointed when out came two slices of a loaf cake. Hm. It tastes very moist, spongy and orangey, but a whole cake it most definately isnt. Not exactly a decadent dessert that we were expecting, but ‘nice’ nonetheless. It is not a bad cake for a bake sale, but not what we expected in an establishment like this.

All in all, we enjoyed it there, and would return. The glitches were minor, which made it even more annoying. If they had used romaine, included potatoes with the fish and served up a whole mini cake instead of two slices of a loaf, the experience would have been perfect. We are looking forward to going for the Sunday Lunch at the bistro, £20 for 3 courses is a bargin price to pay.

As part of the London Loves Food campaign, we were at Rhodes W1 (by Gary Rhodes) a few weekends ago. Gary Rhodes had always been bacon’s favourite ‘celebrity chef’ and he is well known for producing British staples. Bacon had never eaten at any of his restaurants before, but have a large-ish collection of his cookbooks. So I thought it would be a great time for us to pay them a visit at their Michelin-starred establishment in London.
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Located near the Marble Arch, Rhodes W1 is pretty easy to get to by tube; just be on the lookout for the Guoman Hotel as the restaurant is inside. Dark and moody sets the tone for lunch – it seemed more like a hip bar rather than a restaurant. Service was quick, efficient and pretty good. We both ended up ordering from the set menu (2 course for £15), but the main menu looks good as well with steaks, lamb ect.

.

For starters, I had the salmon with an apple and celeriac remoulade. The salmon seems to have been cooked sous vide and then gently steamed, making it delectably melt in the mouth and delicately flavoured. There is nothing worse than overcooked salmon. The apple remoulade compliments the salmon very well indeed, with tiny tart lemon pieces bringing it all to life. It whet my appetite for the main course instead of making me overly full like some starters can do to you.

.

Bacon had his favourite classic caesar salad. The sauce was on the mark, the super crispy bacon added complimentary texture and the anchovy filet completes it. Just one teeny weensy problem – they’ve used little gem lettuce instead of the classic romaine. Not a massive problem, but for a restaurant this level it was pretty strange – did they think we did not know what caesar salad was made of?

.

My main was the mushroom risotto with parmesan crisp. I had never, ever ordered risotto in my life before. It always looked overly rich, undercooked and resembles a big giant pile of mush. I am a big fan of rice, but risotto I could never stomach. However, for some odd reason I decided to go with risotto that day, and it did not dissapoint. It was extremely well flavoured with the woody taste of the chestnut & oyster mushrooms, just the right amount of creaminess, and perfectly cooked risotto rice. The extra sauteed mushrooms and the perfectly round parmesan crisp just gave it extra oomph – I loved this dish.

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Bacon had the sea bream. Another new, I had never known bacon to order fish before. The vierge oil was light and complements the filet of sea bream extremely well with the fennel, spring onions, tomatoes and olives. The skin was deliciously crispy – so good that bacon actually ate it. He hates fish skin with a vengence, one of the reasons he dislikes fish. But this one, he mopped it all up. We paid an extra £3.50 for a side of boiled potatoes. Very nice, but not too sure if its worth the £3.50 they charged us for 4 baby potatoes.

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I declined dessert, but bacon went for the whole orange cake. We were fully expecting a whole mini-cake (possibly a cupcake?) so was sorely dissapointed when out came two slices of a loaf cake. Hm. It tastes very moist, spongy and orangey, but a whole cake it most definately isnt. Not exactly a decadent dessert that we were expecting, but ‘nice’ nonetheless. It is not a bad cake for a bake sale, but not what we expected in an establishment like this.

All in all, we enjoyed it there, and would return. The glitches were minor, which made it even more annoying. If they had used romaine, included potatoes with the fish and served up a whole mini cake instead of two slices of a loaf, the experience would have been perfect. We are looking forward to going for the Sunday Lunch at the bistro, £20 for 3 courses is a bargin price to pay.

Rhodes W1
Great Cumberland Place,
London W1H 7DL
020 7616 5930