Update!

So it's seems that since starting at the restaurant I'm destined to begin every post by apologising for how long it's been since the last hint of blog activity...So yep apols. Will try harder!

Planning on get new recipes up soon, but in the meantime thought I'd write a bit of an update on my life as a chef at Nahm.....

So it's been a little over 3 months since i started there. The time has flown by, even though my first week there seems an age ago.

Guess that's due to the number of hours you clock up. It's a far cry from my old office life of desks, meetings and presentations...just the same kitchen, with, give or take, the same handful of chefs, runners and kitchen porters every week.

The hours

The basic regime at Nahm works like this: you do 5 or 6 days, at least two of which are doubles (start 10am work til close), the rest are late starts 2pm. You have to be in the kitchen ready to go this time, not strolling through the doors with a latte in one hand.

In terms of hours it's not the worst kitchen I've been to (think Maze...which from what i could tell was 7.30am - 12.30am at least 5 days a week, with no hint of staff food or breaks) but it's by no means the easiest either.

On a good day we get 15 mins to grab some food, but it's not uncommon to have days when if you dont eat standing up, you pretty much don't eat. I can think fair few occasions when I've not really eaten, or sometimes gone to the loo, for 12 hours or so!

I should probably point out that this is not so much company policy; it's just because you're so busy (& often stressed) you don't have the time or inclination to stop...you go from doing one urgent thing to the next (thinking to yourself if i don't do X in the next 2mins, I'm screwed, then ok now if i don't do Y in next 30secs chef is gonna start shouting for it etc etc).... which is the way it goes in busy kitchens all over.

Weekends come and go with much less relevance than in my old life. More than once I've only remembered it was a Friday or sat night when I'm cycling home in the wee hours - as i have to dodge an especially large number of hammered people pouring out of Soho (fighting, puking, hailing cabs and so on).

The contrast between me cycling home along Piccadilly at 1am (sweaty, knackered, smelling of fish sauce, prawns or something) and the swanky crowd in their glad-rags mincing outside Nobu or Mahiki, is fairly amusing too; they'd probably call the police if i stopped to ask the time!

The hours, staying on your feet all day etc doesn't bother me really, you expect that and get used to it. The only time i get demoralised is if i don't think I've had a great service. If you feel like you've done a good job the whole thing makes more sense.

Conversely when you've worked bloody hard all day and not eaten but end up annoyed at yourself because of some silly mistake during service or because you didn't chop shallots fast enough, that's when i find it most draining.

'Sections'

There are 4 'sections' at Nahm - 'Soups', 'Hots' (curries and stir-fries), 'Larder' (salads, relishes, starters etc) & pastry (desserts). 2/3 of my time thus far has been on the 'Soup' section, with the rest on 'Larder' (aka 'Colds').

'Soups' has been good for me; it's a one man show, you run it yourself - manage your own orders, do all your own prep / 'mes en plas'. You're responsible for cooking dishes from start to finish, plating up and getting it up on time. Then finally you clean down and make sure you're good for the next day and have a prep-list of what ya need to do ready for you or whoever is on there tomorrow to crack on with the following day.

Oh and there's also the small complication of the soup section also doing room service for the hotel (Nahm restaurant is in a 5 star hotel, called the Halkin). So at any time you gotta be prepared to knock out a sirloin steak & Caesar salad for room yadda yadda, salmon and clams for table blah blah in the bar....etc etc.

Finally it's also the soup guy's job to knock up staff food, from whatever is available, for about 30, to be ready for staff canteen at 5.30 each day. Needless to say being put on soups was a plenty challenging start to my first full time job as a professional chef.

Being 'in the shit' (pardon my french)

Being in the shit (ITS hereafter) is basically being 'in trouble' / 'up against it' / 'swamped' etc.

On soups it might happen like this: you've got a busy service looming in the eve with some nice big tables coming in early, you're trying to knock up some decent food for staff while getting stitched up by constant room service orders every 20mins..... you start to get behind, but every time you get back to your all-important prep the bloody ticket machine chugs out another order for a club sandwich or cauliflower soup. So before you know it service has started and you're still trying to finish prep which you're going to need any moment now....e.g your praying you don't get an order for mussel soup because you haven't had time to shell that tray of mussels you just steamed off...and what's that order chef is now shouting out? "duck curry, blah blah....4 mussel soup" Doh! So you start to frantically shell clams, when you should be working on the table that's going out in 3 minutes, another order comes in, then another, and because you were rushing you didn't hear table XYZ being called away and you realise with only minutes to go that you need 2 more soups on.........you get the idea!

You are now well and truly ITS. You can feel like a rabbit in headlights, about to be squashed. Sometime you get a merciful lull in orders which can give you breathing space to get back on track but, if not, it can then get to the point someone from another section has to drop what their doing to come help dig you out. Not much fun. Happened to me fair few times in my first few weeks and even experienced chefs find themselves thoroughly ITS from time to time, but it's rare and they handle it pretty well.

N.B From what i can tell being 'in the shit' is generally such a thoroughly unpleasant experience that the fear of being back in it is probably the number one source of motivation for chef's all over.... you just close my eyes and imagine yourself well and truly ITS in a few hours time - trust me, is enough to make anyone work faster!

So you learn the hard way....to try an push and be more organised to get yourself ahead of the game. So if the sods-law run of room service orders arrives while your trying to get ready for service, then, yes, you swear at the machine a bit but you've got the time to knock the orders& get pretty much back on track for when the opening salvo of restaurant orders arrives.

When i started i was ITS quite a lot, i know I've come a fair way since then. But am still far from being immune to it, and as soon as i get comfortable i get thrown on to new & different section on busy night and the learning the hard way cycle starts all over...

Quick 'Scudding' update

Before i finish i should provide one update though: in my previous diary post i mentioned 'scudding'. This is basically sneaking bird's eye chillies in to fellow chef (waiter, runner or whoever)'s food or drink and watching them unknowingly consume - a proud Nahm tradition. I previously mentioned the fact that no one had scudded me yet...

Well that didn't last long, in fact i foolishly mentioned it to David Thompson when he asked how things were, i said "good, i cant believe i haven't been scudded yet" or something equally foolish.

Needless to say David sent the word out and i got a multiple scudding that day - in my double espresso (saw that one coming, but David kindly encouraged me to down it anyway, interesting flavour sensation it was), rubbed around the rim of my water bottle, in the water with my tasting spoons etc etc!

So never fear, i haven't missed out on this important rite of passage, and i now have integrity when i share the love and scud others (in fact i get so much childish amusement from it that i think i might give a few family members the treatment over the Xmas period!).

Scudding: these little beauties, hidden in your food & drink.









Will write more soon, some recipes coming too.

Andy

At last... a new recipe! Geng jeut with duck and water chesnuts

A thousand apologies for lack of action on the blog of late. Gonna get stuff on here more regularly from now on, errrr, honest.

So to kick things back off here's a recipe for a geng jeut - a Thai, clear & non-spicy soup. It's not one we do at Nahm but is inspired by things i've learnt while working on the soup section there.

I'm a real convert to this type of soup; it's simple and really lets the ingredients speak for themselves. It's Thai but with strong Chinese influences. I've been surprised at home much soy an oyster sauces are used in authentic Thai cooking. We use light soy a lot at the restaurant.

Thai food has such a wide variety that some dishes seem Indian, others could be easily passed off as Chinese scram. But, no, they're Thai, and such dishes can fit perfectly in to the context of a multi-dish Thai meal.

E.g this clear refreshing soup can, for example, provide the perfect cooling conterfoil to other searingly hot n spicy dishes that might be served at the same time.

Plus it's well tasty and cooks in minutes.

Eat as part of Thai meal or on it's own as a 'light lunch'.

Anyway. The recipe...,

Geng jeut with duck and water chesnuts

Ingredients (serves 2 - 4):

• about 500ml good quality chicken stock*
  
• a duck breast, skin on
• 5 spice powder
  
• light soy sauce
• oyster sauce
• pinch white sugar
  
• ground white pepper
• some asian greens e.g choy sum / bok choy / pak choy / spinach leaves - i used baby bok choy
  
• a small tin cooked water chesnuts (you could even used cooked fresh ones if you fancy / can find)
  
• a handful of oyster mushrooms, or use shitaki or other such 'shroom
  
• roasted sesame oil
• 2 spring onions
  
• a few coriander leaves, if you have them.

*N.B it's well worth making your stock here - a few chicken bones (e.g from 2 or 3 legs), simmered slowly for an hour or 2 with few spring onion trimms, slice of ginger, unpeeled garlic clove and if you have them a white peppercorn or 2 is easily done and would be perfect.






















Method:

• First cook your duck breast - score the skin, season well with salt and pepper and dust with 5 spice powder
  
• Now fry skin side down in a medium heat frying pan (tip: you dont need oil here as so much comes from skin, and if cook on a medium heat it gives time for fat to render out and skin to get crisp). When skin is crisp either flip and put in a 180 oven for 5 mins or cook in pan on all sides for about 5 mins or until just a little bounce to the touch. Put aside to rest.
• Open and drain tin of water chesnuts, cut them in half to form thinner same shape discs, give them a rinse under running water, cut the green veg into spoon managable sized pieces, tear the oyster mushrooms up a bit if large (or slice if using shitaki or wot not).
• Put your stock on and bring to simmer. Then season with a glug of oyster, splash of soy pinch of salt, sugar and white pepper. This is to your taste and depends on stock but go lightly - too much soy or oyster can ruin. You're looking for a just salty enough broth with some depth from the oyster and soy. Tasting & adjust until the balance seems right.
• The rest is easy - add your chesnuts and mushrooms simmer for couple of mins, now add greens and simmer until just tender.
• To serve slice your duck thinly, slice up some spring onion and divide these between serving bowls.
• Ladel over steaming soup, mushrooms, chesnuts and greens. Finish with few small drops of sesame oil and, if you like, a sprig of coriander and pinch more white pepper.

There's hundreds of possible variations here - use poached shredded chicken instead of duck, perhaps blanched squid or try stirring in minced pork, plus all sorts of different mushroom-greens combos... etc etc.

Hope you like it. Will follow v.soon with some more recipes and restaurant kitchen diary ramblings!

arghhh

just quick note to say: i have in fact not died or given up on this blog.

my life has just been in total chaos due to moving house, working 14 hour shifts and coming home to no internet & a broken computer (also no clean clothes, furniture, food etc ...but that's by the by).

anyways, interweb arrives today, new laptop this week sometime.

so v.soon i will make up for this woeful blog performance with an avalanche of news, annecdotes and recipes inspired by my new nahm-kitchen-bound existence.

watch this space.

Fresh pappardelle with slow roast tomatoes & pesto

A really simple one this, but is one of my fav pasta dishes and, while not exactly quick, it is easy, especially once you get (or if you are already) comfortable with making fresh pasta.

i've done a rough pesto here here but you could do pistou (no pinenuts or cheese) or even not bother and just scatter some basil leaves over the finished dish.

The secret to making this especially tasty is a) to make nice fresh pasta with good eggs and b) to buy good tomatoes and roast them nice n slow.

Fresh pappardelle with slow roast tomatoes & pesto












Ingredients (serves 2)

For the fresh pasta - this is basic recipe here but if you like it richer you can add more yolk than whole egg, just adjust the volume of egg / amount of flour accordingly to get the right consistency (soft but not sticky):

• 200g italian pasta flour (type 'OO')
• 2 large organic free range eggs
• dash of EV olive oil
  

For the slow roast tomatoes:

• best quality tomatoes - between 4 and 8, depending on the size
• a large clove of garlic
• some fresh thyme or dried oregano
• sea salt and fresh black pepper
• EV olive oil

For the pesto (use the below rough guide or whatever your fav recipe for pesto is):

• 1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked (reserve a few leaves back for garnish)
  
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1 - 2 tablespoons of EV olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan
  

Method:

Make pasta dough - if you already know how to knock up some pappardelle then skip this:

• i almost always use a food processor for this for ease (and because most restaurants i've worked in do too), though if your processor is huge you might want to do by hand if your doing the smallish quantity above.
• Processor method basically = sieve flour in to processor bowl, add pinch salt and splash of oil, mix your eggs in bowl then tip in and pulse until well mixed (should form tiny balls), tip out on to work surface and push together to form ball of dough.
• Knead a little and cover with cling film and, ideally, rest for an hour (while you get your tomatoes and pesto done - see below).
• Roll out your pasta to the penultimate thickness on the machine, you can do this through any method you please but i think best results come from the folding and turning method (see guide by Giorgio here).
• Cut resulting sheet in to sections of pasta length (25cm or so, i guess) then cut these into wide strips - 4-5cm or so. You may need little flour or semolina to stop strips sticking to surface etc, but use only a very light dusting (otherwise you get gluey coating when cooked).

Tomatoes:

• Preheat oven to about 100 degrees C.
• Half your tomatoes (across the middle, not through the stalk end - see pic) and place cut side up on baking tray.
  
• Scatter with finely sliced garlic, thyme sprigs / pinch dried oregano, salt, pepper and then drizzle liberally with EV oil (option additions include few drops of good quality balsamic, few dried chilli flakes etc)
• Slow roast in oven for 1hr or even a bit longer.

Pesto:

• Reserve few basil leaves and then mash the rest with the other pesto ingredients - i like a pestle and mortar here, by all means use hand blender if you prefer.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To finish:

• Cook the pasta for about 2mins in large pot of boiling salted water, drain and toss with splash of EV olive oil, now divide between two bowls.
  
• Place tomatoes around and finish with large helping of pesto, scatter over few reserved basil leaves and drizzle with touch more olive oil.

Hmmm... feel like i made a v.simple recipe sound quite complex there!

Basically boils down to: make nice pasta, cut into pappardelle, slow roast tomatoes, make your fav pesto, put all these together and eat!














N.B great varation on this might involve adding torn pieces of buffalo mozarella to the plate at the end, in which case i'd probably then remove the pesto and just go with plenty of fresh basil leaves.

Thai-style fish salad

Here's a recipe for an easy Asian style fish salad. It is loosely based on Larp (or 'Laap' as it's sometimes written) - a salad of minced meat or fish found throughout northern Thailand & Laos (it's often described as 'the national dish' of Laos). But the recipe below is not true Larp, so I'm not gonna call it that. I will try an stick an authentic (e.g a version with home smoked fish and the essential roasted chilli powder) recipe up here at some point, because, although its more work, it's damn tasty. Working at Nahm is really strengthening my belief in doing Thai food the authentic way, which, 9 times out of 10 = the hard way i'm afraid (both in terms of work and the difficulty of finding the ingredients)! I believe it's worth it, but here on my blog i also want to do fair few dishes which are pretty accessible so hence 'Thai-style fish salad'. Should still taste good.

Thai style fish salad

Ingredients (serves 2 as a stand alone dish, or 4 as part of a Thai meal):

• 400g fish fillet - sea bass, bream, snapper or any nice flakey white fish
• Large handful of beansprouts
• 4 or 5 thai red shallots or a small bunch of spring onions
• 2 tablespoons of uncooked Thai fragrant / jasmine rice
• 1 - 2 long red chillies
• Optional: 1 - 2 bird's eye chillies
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
  
• 3-4 tbsp lime juice, plus some extra lime pieces to garnish
  
• 2 sticks of lemon grass
• small bunch thai basil, or large handful of mixed coriander and mint or mixture of above as you please.
  
• salt and white pepper
  

Method:

• Take your fish fillets, season them with salt and white pepper and put them in a steamer or colinder in a pan and steam until just cooked - about 3 - 4 mins above boiling water. Take out and allow to cool a bit, peel the skin off (if there is any) and flake the flesh into a mixing bowl.
• Take the raw rice and toast in a dry frying pan on a medium heat, stirring fairly regularly for about 5 mins, until toasted. Grind in a pestle and mortar or whizz in a blender until a coarse powder (sounds weird i know but it gives some real texture to the dish).
  
• De-seed and finely slice the long chilli, peel the tough outer layers off the lemongrass and slice the tender inner part very finely, now slice the shallots or spring onion and throw all this, plus the beansprouts and ground rice into the mixing bowl.
• Now make your dressing - mix the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar together until sugar dissolves. If you want to heat things up then bash up a couple of bird's eye chillies and mix them into the dressing too. Taste the dressing and adjust with more fish sauce / lime / sugar.
• Add two thirds of the herbs to the mixing bowl and tip in the dressing, toss it all through.
• Plate up and garnish with reserved herbs and lime pieces.

N.B ideally dishes like this are best eaten as part of a Thai meal - along with rice, a curry, soup and relish and perhaps some raw sliced veg along side.

pic by www.benbroomfield.com

Quick lunch - aubergine, courgette, tahini, yogurt salad thingy

Hmmm, all the recipes i seem to be blogging at the mo are of my thrown together lunches on days off from work! Will endeavor to get some more fancy (& some Nahm-inspired) stuff up here soon but, in meantime, here's another of said thrown together numbers...

Roast aubergine & courgette salad with tahini an yogurt dressing

Was in back garden when took this pic, would have looked nicer if sun had come out from behind cloud before i took, but was too hungry, so i ate it.

Ingredients (serves 2, but easy to double/ triple/quadruple for numbers):

• 1 medium aubergine
• 2 medium courgettes
• some natural yogurt - about 4 or 5 tablespoons
• a tablespoon or so of tahini
• some herbs - coriander & mint is an ideal combo here, oh and some thyme for the veggies if you have
• black onion seeds, and dried chilli flakes - optional, but desirable
  
• a long red mild chilli
• a lemon
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• a tomato or two

Rough method (vary as you please):

• preheat the oven to pretty hot (between 200 & 220 degrees C) chop you aubergine in to largish chunks (e.g one medium aubergine into 8 pieces or so), cut the courgettes slightly larger. Irregular shapes is good, but aim for roughly the same size.
• put them on a baking tray, smash 2 or 3 cloves of garlic up with pestle and mortar or blade of knife (leaving skin on is fine) and scatter over, season wit salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, oh and if you have them then throw some sprigs of thyme around & scatter over some dried chilli flakes.
• roast until nicely colored and cooked through - about 20-30 mins (give a shake half way through if you remember/ can be bothered).
• make dressing by mixing together yogurt, tahini, good squeeze or two of lemon juice, add salt n pepper a finely chopped/crushed clove of garlic and some chopped mint and/or coriander leaves. taste and adjust seasoning or lemon juice.
• quarter tomato and take seeds out, then roughly dice, finely chop the chilli and pick some mint &/or coriander leaves
  
• to serve take a platter or individual plates out the roasted veg on, spoon yogurt sauce over liberally, scatter with tomato, herbs, chopped chilli and then black onion seeds
• recommended with hot pittas alongside (and would go very well with some simple fish or grilled meat).
  

Off to work shortly, no more time off this wk for me!

Andy

Easy frittata

Here's a quick recipe which i sometimes cook because i've nothing in the fridge but a box of eggs and some half used herbs (add an onion, a few frozen peas from freezer and you've all you need).

Frittata with caramelised onions, peas, mint & parsley:


Ingredients (serves 2)

• 5-6 large good quality eggs
• 2 medium onions (red or white, as you prefer) or 1 large
• A large handful of frozen peas
• A small handful of fresh mint & parsley leaves (but you could use basil, tarragon, chervil etc)
• Olive oil, and butter too if possible
• Parmesan (optional)
  

Method:

• Take a small frying pan and put it on a low heat, while it's warming up slice your onion
• Add a splash of oil and nob of butter to the pan throw in onions, season & cook for 10-15 mins until soft and just starting to color
• Meanwhile crack your eggs in to a bowl, give a quick forking, season and then roughly chop and mix in your herbs and then add your peas.
  
• When your onions are ready tip them into the egg mix bowl too and mix through one last time
• Put your frying pan back on a medium-low heat, add another small splash of oil and blob of butter (if you have) and tip in the egg mix, don't stir just make sure the heat is fairly low and leave it be to cook for about 5 or so mins.
  
• Preheat the grill and place a rack a 25cm or so below the heat
• Pan is ready to go under the grill when egg mix in the pan is set round the sides with pool of liquid eggyness left in middle.
• Add grating of parmesan if you have / like and place under grill until top just browns and sets, it should still be bit wobbly under the surface.
• Now turn out by placing plate over the pan and turning upside down.
  
• Cut into slices and serve (it should be set but nicely gooey towards the center).
  
• Goes well with bread and salad dressed with dijon, oil and vinegar.