Today has been a day for the celebration of eggs.
To help recover from a ridiculous hangover, caused by drinking a bottle and half of wine (each) with my friend Eleanor, I went for brunch at The Modern Pantry with Peter. His way of coping with a (separate) hangover was to order a glass of prosecco with his breakfast, but I couldn’t even stomach that thought and went for full fat coke. We both had poached eggs, his with haloumi (salty and grilled, with very little ‘squeak’) and mine with chorizo and plantain. Both were excellent and incredibly tasty. The portions were slightly too small, so we both had dessert – he had some kind of pistachio cake with grapefruit and vanilla ice cream and I went for the hardcore option of a chocolate brownie with caramel and coconut and lime ice cream. Again, both delicious.
I had heard mixed reviews of the restaurant – not because of the food, but just because of the service – and I have to say apart from one forgotten order of tap water, the service was very good. I would definitely recommend it, and would quite like to go back another time for a more substantial meal.
The rest afternoon was spent wandering around London, walking from Farringdon to Monument to Tower Bridge to Liverpool Street, and then back to the flat to prepare some fresh pasta.
In around November of last year, my friend Aline told me that for her birthday (in July) she wanted me to make soft egg ravioli. Apparently she saw it on Masterchef. So today was my first practice run for her. And wow it was good.
I mean look at that. What a beauty. Yum. The egg is sat on a bed of ricotta and basil. The pasta is plain fresh pasta, but next time I will probably try to infuse it with some saffron, as I think that would be amazing.
The four raw raviolis.
Served on a bed of Hertfordshire asparagus and parma ham.
Soft egg perfection.
All in all, a great day for food. I didn’t write a reasons to be cheerful last week, but my reason today is: The Egg. What an ingredient.
Katie Sadler 