SUNDAY LUNCH: WHAT'S YOUR SIGNATURE?

So, what's your signature dish?

Indeed, you may have more than one, dishes that you turn to very time you want to make a "no chance of failure meal" or dishes that other people beg you to cook for them whenever it's your turn to play host.

Mine? well, I don't have many. I tend to leave cooking to those with a lot more skill than me in the kitchen, while I just make appreciative noises at the end results. But, I do have a few. My LSD (Life Saving Dahl) is a thing of beauty, my pies draw sighs and I can make a steak & kidney pudding that should be put in a time capsule for future generations to marvel at.

However, when it comes ot my turn to cook Sunday lunch, HP's lower lip begins to shake a little if the word "mutton" is not used and, over the years, I have refined my method for stuffing and slow cooking a shoulder cut until the meat falls apart at the slightest fork pressure.

This time mutton from Farmer Sharp (a bargain with enough to feed four coming in at £11) was stuffed with ingredients from my chum, Mehmet at Embassy Electrical Supplies. He was touting his fine goods on a new stall at Whitecross Street Market and I came away with wild oregano and sweet paprika dried on the terraces of his farms in Cyprus and Turkey, preserved lemons and oil from the same to which I added lots of chopped garlic.

I rolled and marinaded the joint overnight and then sealed the roasting dish with a double layer of foil before low and slow cooking for nearly five hours with the foil being removed for the last half hour so I could skim off the fat and crisp up the skin.

It's a great dish, even if I do say so myself and with some simple wilted greens and some crushed cannelini beans mixed with more of Mehmet's oil and oregano, HP could hardly even muster a traditional Bengali criticism ("was the good butcher closed today?" etc etc)

I suspect I shall be doing this again sooner rather than later.

So, that's one of my signature dishes. What are yours?

EAT MY GLOBE: TAKING THE BOOKTRADE ON A BINGE

And so it begins.

Although EAT MY GLOBE is not published in the U.K until April of next year, the sell in has begun in earnest and my publishers, John Murray suggested that a good way to show the book trade what it was all about would be to take selected members on an afternoon food tour.

So, on a cold, windy and miserable Friday, I met with a gaggle of assorted buyers and trade journalists for a swift pint at The Market Porter before taking them on a whirlwind tour of some of my favourite places.

The pub served a shockingly bad pint, but made a great meeting place particularly as our first port of call was Mrs King’s Pork Pies where the estimable Ian Hartland gave us a little talk before cutting up a prime large example for everyone to try all the while making sure that real customers were not neglected.

Next stop, around the corner, where the good people of Brindisa had arranged for Master Jamon Carver, Zak to give us a demonstration of fine art of ham cutting before he too distributed fine slices of Teruel and Iberico for our eager group to taste.

If everyone had been eagerly anticipating the first two stops, the next caused a little more concern as we hopped in some waiting cars and trundled off to Aldgate East and Tubby Issac’s Whelk and Jellied Eel Stall, which has been on the same spot for a hundred years or more. It was a first taste of old London for most, but they were all very brave soldiers as I doused bowls of cockles, whelks and, of course, eels with extra special, extra hot chilli vinegar and handed them around for everyone to try. Wonderful stuff although a shame to think with all the parking restrictions in that area now, the owner was doubtful about the long term future of the stall.

There is no doubt, however, that Paul A.Young has a very bright future and, although Paul himself could not be there for our visit, his Managers, Jakob and Brendan looked after us when we bustled in from a blustery Camden Passage and were soon giving us tastes of a rich brownie and handing over little goodie bags that Paul had asked them to make up. We took the opportunity to buy everyone a cup of Paul’s superlative hot chocolate before climbing back into our cars for perhaps the most unusual stop of the day.

I have written about Memhet at Embassy Electrical Supplies before, but now was the perfect time to visit as he has just taken delivery of some of his wonderful olive oil. On top of which he now has a new range of infused oils, some paprika dried in the Sun on the terraces his Cyprus estate and stunning wild oregano from his farm. As ever, Memhet was soon ladling out tastes of oil and olives and everyone was filling their John Murray shoulder bags with ideal Christmas Presents.

All this eating is thirsty work, so our penultimate port of call saw a quick stop at Hawksmoor where Nick Strangeway had created a special EAT MY GLOBE cocktail containing Compass Box Oak Cross Whisky, Jostberry Cordial and Palo Cortado Sherry. Very good it was too thanks to Tim and Noal who did the mixing and, with an added round of Martinis and a few plates of Iberico which we had picked up at Brindisa, it fortified us for the short walk to our final destination.

Where else could we finish a tour of this part of London than Tayyabs? It was, of course, already mobbed when we arrived, but we were shown to the private room and plates of sizzling lamb chops were put in front of us almost before our coats were off. As good as ever and as the food came, I took the opportunity to propose a toast to my new chums and to all the amazing and astonishingly generous old chums who had been so giving of their time and products to make the day such a success.

Thanks All.

EMBASSY ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES & COFFEE CAFE: TWO TREATS ON COMPTON ST

A little over a year ago, I posted about Embassy Electrical Supplies, a small shop on Compton St, where, alongside fuses, wires and plugs for Clerkenwell’s handymen, Memhet Murat sells olive oil sourced from his own groves in Turkey and Cyprus. It is some of the best I have tasted in a long time, fresh and green, just the way I like it.

I popped in to see Memhet again earlier this week and came away with a bottle of his latest Turkish oil and a bottle of his Cypriot oil along with some rather lovely olives, which he recommended I rinse, drizzle with oil, lemon juice and a few chilli flakes.

It is people like Memhet who are the real food heroes of the U.K, unassuming, and dedicated to producing the best oils and olives he can, it is impossible to leave the shop without being given a taste of everything and almost as impossible to get him to take money from you. Well worth a visit.

Further along Compton St, towards The Goswell Road, is another unassuming little treasure. The Coffee Café may look like A N Other Sandwich shop, but one glimpse at their blackboard shows you that all is not as it seems. The owner is from Sao Paulo and, as well as offering the usual “something in a toasted ciabatta” The Coffee Café serves Brazilian pastries, a wide range of Brazilian juices and a very passable stab at a fejoida.

This being Clerkenwell, the only slaves are of the middle class wage kind, so the fejoida is lacking in the hooves, lips and assholes of the original dish and it needed the added punch of hot pepper sauce from a bottle on the table. But, it has the correct beans plumped out with meaty chunks of pork and bacon in a suitably rich sauce. It comes with rice, greens and farofa, toasted matioc flour, and for £4.50 is very good value for money particularly when, after ingesting all those carbs, supper will be unnecessary.

With a tall glass of Surinam cherry juice and a tip, the bill was £7 including a bottle of water.

Places like Embassy Electrical Supplies and Coffee Café are well worth supporting. Honest and good value for money, which in these times of credit crunch is all too rare.