The Chophouse, Dublin 4

 

 

The steak chips and bernáise sauce taster I had from The Chophouse at last year's Taste of Dublin event in the Iveagh Gardens was the best thing I tried on that pretty underwhelming day.  For me, it was perfect, big handcut chips cooked in what tasted like beef fat, a fantastic little piece of fillet and probably the nicest bernáise sauce I had ever eaten.  

 

I immediately vowed to visit the restaurant but didn't get around to it until Christmas when, though I enjoyed my lunch, the (ribeye) steak I was served was overcooked and a world apart from the beaut above. However, I put that down to the Christmas rush/ lower lunchtime prices and vowed to return for the full evening experience as soon as I could.

 

 

 

My birthday last month seemed the ideal opportunity and so we made our way into the bowels of leafy Dublin 4 once again with our hopes still high.  It was a Sunday evening when we visited and the restaurant was very quiet with just a few tables occupied. (We had been warned that it actually closes at 8pm on Sundays and so decided to book for 6pm). My fishcake (above) was a little on the bland side but was crammed with fish (mainly salmon I think).

We both went for the special of the evening, a fillet served with a pulled pork topping. This was brought to the table with the pronouncement that we should get ready to enjoy the best steak of our life or words to that effect. Even if it had turned out to be the case, I found this attitude quite offputting; given that it didn't, it was even more so.

 

The dish wasn't a disaster or anything like it. The pulled pork was absolutely gorgeous and the celeriac puree super rich and moreish. However, the plate was cold and, more importantly, the steak wasn't great . It was soft to cut and cooked as I asked (medium) but if I had closed my eyes I would have sworn I was eating liver, so strong and metallic was the taste.

I happen to quite like liver so I could at least eat mine but K loathes it and abandoned his after a couple of bites declaring it 'disgusting'. I have purchased fillet steaks before that had a similar liverish quality but never as strong as this. I don't even know how this can possibly be detected before cooking but, overall, on the strength of my two visits here, this place is absolutely not serving the best steak in Dublin.

 

The chips too were poor relations of the ones in the top photo. They were much thinner and, I woud guess, cooked in oil not animal fat, lacking that lovely savoury flavour.We left before dessert, pretty disappointed.

On the strength of what I ate last summer, The Chophouse is or at least has been capable of great things.But it's not maintaining those standards.

The Unicorn, Merrion Row

I was so sad when Il Segreto on Merrion Row closed. It had been my 'go to' bistro style restaurant with excellent food, a relaxed atmosphere and super charming service. But I have good news, it's back in all but name on the site of the famous Unicorn just a few doors up. I had visited the Unicorn a couple of times in the past, never by choice though and only when someone else was paying and had found the food pretty uninspiring and eye-wateringly expensive. The old Il Segreto website now directs visitors to the Unicorn and it does seem that they have taken most of their staff and a lot of their menu up the road, along with much better value.

The Unicorn looks a lot smarter since the Stokes brothers took over, more polished( a bit more like them really!) For lunch there this week, I chose from their 2 course set menu (€20) starting with a lovely goats cheese, pear and hazelnut salad. I wasn't so keen on the truffle-laced honey they had drizzled on top but that was my fault for choosing something with truffles when I know I don't really like them!I suppose I was hoping it would be a less pronounced flavour. I still ate the lot though.

My main of cod fillet with a shrimp and caper sauce was excellent, a big chunk of perfectly cooked fish on some gorgeous mash and some lightly cooked broccoli for good measure. (cancelled out all the butter in the sauce don't you know?!)

This is a picture of the bread which I can't comment on as I didn't taste it but it looked to be the same served in Il Segreto which was very nice indeed.

It is great to see the Unicorn now offering very good value and serving good decent bistro classics right in the heart of the city (though I did feel the supplement of €7 on the steak was a tad excessive for lunch. )I will be back!

Peperina Garden Bistro, Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh

I've said on here before that Ranelagh really doesn't deserve its status as a culinary mecca. I like the place a lot, having lived here for 7 years but I really think there are a lot of restaurants in the area charging bloated prices whilst offering a sub-standard experience.

We actually gave up eating around the village for a while as we were sick of feeling ripped off but a Menupages offer for the fairly newly opened Peperina Garden Bistro was good enough to tempt us out into the rain last night. For the modest sum of €35 we were promised a 3 course meal for 2 with a glass of wine thrown in, a very tempting prospect, especially when a middle of the road sandwich with some chips on the side and a couple of soft drinks in most of the local eateries seems to cost that or more these days.

Peperina is very cute to look at, looking like more of a cafe really with lots of little wooden tables and pretty bits and bobs(kitsch storage tins etc) dotted about, many of them available for purchase.We were warmly welcomed and advised that we were restricted to ordering from the Early Bird Menu which, though not a problem, wasn't mentioned at the time of booking.

Strangely enough the deal I purchased was only available from Thursday - Saturday. Since restaurants usually seem to use these kind of deals to bring in customers on quieter nights, I thought that was a bit unusal. When we arrived, the place was about half full (including several pretty vocal children) but I guess that's what you get for going out to eat at 6.30pm.

From the list of 5 starters, I chose the chicken wings which came with the usual accompaniments of a blue cheese dip and a couple of stalks of celery. These were great, the skin nicely crisped and doused in a really nice, hot spicy sauce. There were about 6 decent sized wings and I would have eaten more but that is unsurprisingly chicken wings and pizza are the 2 foods my tummy(embarrassingly) seems to have no 'off' switch for, especially if they're as nice as these.

My rib eye steak carried a €5 supplement and came with a herby chimichurri sauce on the side, some strangely bland chips and a little pile of balsamic-dressed salad. It was small, but good and cooked perfectly medium as requested. I enjoyed it but left a lot of the chips as they tasted of absolutely nothing, even when extra salt was added.

My lemon posset was much more set than others I've had, more like a panna cotta in consistency really. but it was still light, creamy and really enjoyable, served with a scoop of raspberry sorbet, some biscotti and an obligatory drizzle of coulis.

I liked this place a lot and am looking forward to trying their brunch menu which seems to be exceptionally reasonably priced. And, though the waiting staff were all pleasant, the (I think Italian) waitress on duty last night (8 February) was as lovely, professional and helpful as you could hope for. Give that girl a raise!

Something fishy (or is it?)

K and I generally love to eat the same things - takeaway pepperoni pizzas the size of tractor wheels when we've had a few (and sometimes when we haven't), a good fillet steak cooked perfectly medium, a doorstep of a burger with all the bells and whistles. We also both like to fool ourselves that the teaming bowls of risotto we put away on a regular basis are 'healthy' because they contain a bunch of asparagus each (perhaps even a few peas for good measure) therefore balancing out the mounds of cheese and butter they inevitably also contain.

I know which is which ok?

But all is not always harmonious in our culinary world. I adore mushrooms and would eat them three times a week given the chance; he thinks they are the spawn of the devil. Same for avocados. And salmon. With the big three-0 now firmly behind me, I keep recalling that this magic fish is rumoured to do wonders for your face if eaten regularly (ie more than the twice a year when I find myself home alone and free to cook exactly what I want).

Some olive oil, lemon and a spoon of most of the jars in top picture  

I often remind K that he thought he hated cheese until he met me 8 years ago (and had no option but to get used to it). And so, this weekend I bought some- four big fillets of it. With no option B readily available in the fridge and the wind howling outside I decided to see if he really hated it or was hanging onto the idea that he did.

I decided to help him out though and threw together a quick spicy marinade to negate the full on fishiness. (I think the paste contained 1tsp each of of dried mixed herbs, paprika, chilli flakes, all-purpose seasoning, and about a half of crushed black pepper, dried onion powder and garlic powder together with the juice of a lemon and some olive oil )

Before it went in the oven

And he ate it! (You might say it was no wonder; (who could taste the salmon under that lot?!) but you still really could). We had it with some sweet potato cubes, red onion and asparagus tossed in some olive oil, salt and pepper and a blob of greek yogurt on the side.

Meanwhile, he is insisting he ate it simply because it 'wasn't a very fishy piece of salmon'.(I think he had a point - salmon does seem to vary widely on this score and I'm not sure it's only down to the width of the white fat lines?......any enlightenment welcome.)

 Still, we've broken the salmon drought in no 2, yay!

Roast sweet potato, red onion and asparagus

Another wedding cake and a couple of late resolutions

I have been a very bad blogger(but I resolve to do better). Mine has been a winter filled with a few too many hearty dinners and so I am looking forward to the challenge of making some healthier choices for Spring (and documenting them on here). 

I made this wedding cake for my very good friend Anne for her New Years Eve wedding to the lovely Mike. I had planned on going to town and making something really big (5 or so tiers) but the practicalities of not having a car of my own at the moment and relying on the kindness of others for transport put that idea to bed. 

From the Top - Carrot Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream, Fruit Cake (made by Anne's mam Joan) and Chocolate Cake with Chocolate/Hazelnut Buttercream.

I generally don't make New Years resolutions but this year I have two , to blog here at least weekly and to pass my driving test by the end of the Summer. There, I've put it on here now I have to do it! 

It's on! :)

The TapHouse, Ranelagh

I was blown away by my first visit to the TapHouse a few weeks ago. On the site of the former 18 year old's mecca, Russells, in Ranelagh Village, it is now a much more inviting space with a heavy emphasis on craft beers and a vastly improved menu. Had I put this review up then it would have been flawless but my second visit, just a few days later was an altogether different and very much substandard experience.

I wish I had comparison photos but I don't, only of the first visit which was really excellent. The menu is quite limited (but of course that's never an issue as long as what IS offered is good). The menu has several light bites at 6e a pop (hummus with various bits and bobs, prawns Pil Pil etc, a selection of sliders (mini burgers), a few sharing platters and a couple of desserts. And that's about it.

Service on the first day was brilliant.We were hungry (aren't we always) and chose 3 sliders each (one lamb flatbread, a bacon and quail egg version and another pulled pork effort.) We also went for 2 sides, chips and onion rings.

 The burgers on that first visit were incredible, two of them on a slightly sweet, buttered broiche bun. They came on a little wooden board which I am always slightly suspicious of hygiene-wise but were so nice I would have eaten them off almost anything! They were all uniquely sauced and flavored and each absolutely gorgeous.

The sides were also brilliant - crunchy onion rings and great chips with a very moreish malt vinegar flavoured mayonaisse - brill.We left full of the joys about this place and keen to return but what a difference a week made!

On what was bank holiday Monday the staff looked frazzled and overwhelmed. We were ignored for almost 20 minutes before we got the chance to beg for drinks, then menus and, later, cutlery). We were told they were 'out' of all of their speciality beers but 1(!) and also of onion rings (which would surely be very simple to batter up and fry?)We went for the chicken wings on this occasion which were the worst I've had -
 fatty non crispy skin dredged in salty seasoning (but after frying so there was a nasty powdered coating on them). Rank.

But the biggest disappointment of all was my beloved burgers! They had obviously ran out of the little broiche buns after the busy weekend and had instead sent someone into Lidl for a few packets of broiche finger rolls. The buns were cold and the whole thing slapdash and not a patch on the first time round.

I will return but cautiously so and really hope these are just teething problems and not complacency setting in so early.

Making a Wedding Cake

I know that my friends and family's hearts will sink to see this post appear on their social media feeds. I know they are sick to the back teeth of hearing about this cake. But I promise this is the end of the wedding cake talk, until the next one at least!

The Finished Product - slightly right of centre but standing!

I had originally been building up to making a wedding cake for my friend Anne for her NYE wedding but when the lovely Patrea asked me about 6 weeks ago to make hers for 1 November, I was certainly not going to refuse!I did have more than a few moments of panic as I remembered I had only made 1 stacked cake ever before (2 tier, this was to be 4), never mind a wedding cake. The bride was incredibly laid back which helped a lot but still, this was someone's WEDDING and I didn't want it to be a mess. So I began to do research - a lot of research!

Sugarveil Lace

One site I found to be invaluable was Cake Central, which, if you can get past the occasionally preachy tone of some contributors,  is an absolute goldmine for info;  how to dowel correctly, when to ice, what gumpaste is best, it was all there and I am honestly indebted to the community there for helping me ensure the cake wasn't a disaster!.

I knew I wanted to take this opportunity to learn as much as I could in the process and in fitting with the bride's preference so decided to make gumpaste roses, handmade pearls and also to use my great (but expensive at 100e a pop) Sugarveil kit.

Flower Detail

I had made roses before in a one day class but they certainly weren't at a standard I would have been happy to put on a cake. So I practiced - a lot. The pearls were a pretty tedious process but I discovered the best way to get them all the same size as to use marzipan spacers to make sure the paste was all the one thickness before cutting with round icing bag tips, rolling and dusting in lustre powder.

I have a loooong way to go in my cake journey and am certainly no expert but here are some things that might make a first-timer find the process that little bit more managable.


1) Let go of the search for perfection. If this is your first wedding cake, you are probably not a professional cake baker/decorator. Cut yourself some slack. That's not to say you shouldn't try your best but having a breakdown over a crack in a broken sugarflower or a crack in the icing (in my case!) won't help anyone. Remember, ribbon hides a lot.

2) Think about how early you need to start your decorations etc and start a week earlier.
Even though I did 'a bit (of varying lengths) pretty much each day for 3 weeks, I was still up against it as the date apprached (not to say I didn't enjoy it but it WILL take longer than you think, especially if making anything involving gumpaste decorations.

3) Do not be afraid to freeze ahead. This was one of the many tips I got on Cake Central with many of the (American) professionals in particular saying they freeze all their cakes as a matter of course,
 not to save time/get ahead but instead to lock in moisture. I baked mine 4 days ahead and froze them wrapped well in greaseproof paper and cling film and I think they were as moist as if id baked them that morning. You can also freeze your buttercream ahead.

4) Don't scrimp on the sugarpaste. There are a lot of cheaper sugarpastes on the market at the moment (from Aldi etc) and I have used them with varying degrees of success but I'd definitely recommend buying one of the professional brands for such an important cake and definitely one which you have practiced with before. You want to give it and yourself the best possible chance of not cracking under pressure or tearing as you life the big sheet from the table.I used Regalice.

5) Use tried and tested recipes. Now is not the time to experiment! It can be tempting to try out new things but its probably best to save that for a rainy Saturday afternoon when the stakes aren't so high!

The face of relief

6) If using, lay a sheet of kitchen roll over your dried gumpaste flowers. I freaked out about a week before the wedding when I saw the fruits of all my hard work start to droop slightly as a result of the high humidity!(damn you Irish weather). I am convinced doing the above helped minimise the damage (that and placing them in a breathable cardboard box).

7) Do it for the right reasons. I took on this challenge on the first hand to fulfill a request for a friend
but also looked on it as the chance to  improve/develop some of my skills. Don't take on a request to make a cake if your heart isn't in it because the stress that WILL follow just won't be worth it and you may start to resent the whole thing!

Wedding Cake talk is OVER my friends!(now on to Anne's for NYE!;)