Midsummer House, Cambridge

Midsummer House occupies a quiet spot overlooking the River Cam, a world away from the bustle and noise of central Cambridge.

It's hard to imagine a place like this exists, merely fifteen minutes walk from the town centre. A small rather unassuming cottage on the edge of Midsummer Common, the restaurant's exterior gives very little indication of the culinary powerhouse that lies inside.

Yet it's no secret to most Cambridge residents that Midsummer House is unquestionably the most highly reputed restaurant in the area. Headed up by chef Daniel Clifford, the restaurant proudly declares its status as "the only 2 Star Michelin restaurant in East Anglia".

It is a quiet Wednesday evening when I set out for Midsummer Common for a 7pm appointment. My excitement and anticipation are somewhat dampened by the time I finally arrive fifteen minutes late, thanks in no small part to my usual navigation aid which has conveniently lied about the restaurant's location. Nonetheless, I am swiftly seated, greeted and offered the menu.

Most of us decide to go a la carte (£76 for three courses) whilst Miss N next to me goes for the four-course set menu (£39.50).

Nibbles on the table... Left: Green olives ; Right: Gougères (choux pastry with cheese filling)

Several minutes of introductions and pleasant small talk pass before we realise the first of several amuse-bouches has already arrived and is melting as we speak. The sorbet is an unusual combination of sweet and savoury - slightly unremarkable on the whole, perhaps since it is unfortunately almost soup by the time we notice it.

Mystery sorbet... perhaps watermelon combined with some other green savoury stuff. Oh dear.

This is where I have to admit guilt for being an irresponsible food blogger, as for the most part, I didn't manage to keep track of what exactly it was we were eating... In my defence, the waitress serving us had such a thick French accent that none of us could really decipher more than about a fifth of what she was saying, although I do regret not asking her to repeat.

Next to arrive is an apple and raspberry foam, which is pumped out into amusing round-bottomed plastic coloured cups. The foam is incredibly light whilst managing to carry through reasonably strong flavour of fruity tartness balanced with sweetness, combined with a touch of something alcoholic. Definitely an interesting texture and an effective palate cleanser.

The final appetiser is a cauliflower velouté with cep and some kind of jelly. Once again, the soup is deceptively light in texture, yet with a wonderfully rich creamy flavour, covering over small cubes of both mushroom and a savoury jelly which I can't quite pin down. Not the most remarkable looking dish, but seriously amazing in both taste and texture.

My entree is seared hand dived scallops, celeriac, truffle, granny smith and caramel. I'm a sucker for good seafood, and the scallops are wonderfully large and plump, seared to a golden brown on the outside whilst remaining juicy and tender inside. The slivers of apple add a nice crunchy texture, although the truffle topping has surprisingly little impact. I am amused by the display of apple jelly cubes which provide a few sweet bursts of flavour. However, it is the creamy celeriac puree with truffle and the spot of sticky sweet thick caramel that make the dish my favourite of the night.

Arriving for main course is the slow roast loin of venison, braised choucroute, carrot puree, venison pudding, jus de cuisson. The meat is incredibly juicy and tender with a beautiful shade of pink throughout. I wonder if this has been done sous vide, although the description does say "slow roast". The carrot puree matches well whilst the choucroute (hidden under the slices of venison) isn't much to write home about. If there is only one minor negative for the evening, it is the venison pudding. Consisting of thin pastry encasing what is essentially a venison pie filling, I find the pudding a little heavy, not harmonising so well with the rest of the dish.

We are pleasantly surprised to see a pre-dessert arrive next - white chocolate sorbet with citrus foam. It seems the kitchen is big on its foams this evening, and the zesty foam is a nice refresher, whilst the sorbet hiding underneath is embedded with crunchy biscuity bits.

For dessert, two of us decide to split a pear tart tatin, vanilla, garlic, bay leaf. We soon discover that the "for two people" description wasn't kidding when we are greeted with a seriously generous tart straight from the pan, adorned with cinnamon, vanilla pods and star anise. Our waiter dutifully splits the tart into two, tops each half with ice cream and deposits a rather interesting garlic whipped cream into a smaller container lined with cubes of pear. Garlic with dessert? The subtle garlic flavour actually goes quite well with all the sugar and spices, even though it makes the dessert a little more savoury/heavy. The sweetness of the caramel and pear ooze through the deliciously flaky pastry layers.

So good, but so full now.

I have to say that my photos simply don't do justice to the food. Some of the others' dishes I didn't capture on camera were serious works of art. Whilst I can't say there was anything mindblowingly strange or out there Heston Blumenthal style (the foams came closest), each course was very well thought out and there was definitely no shortage of creativity. More importantly, every dish was solidly executed and the flavours and textures were fantastic.

Simply put, Midsummer House is a world-class restaurant, and in my mind deserves all the accolades it receives. There will always be haters and people who are disappointed. Don't expect explosions and liquid nitrogen pouring out of your dishes. Do expect seriously good food. Given the quality of the restaurant, their £35 three-course set lunch and £39.50 four-course set dinner are exceptional value.

I will definitely be going back sometime for lunch.

Midsummer House
Midsummer Common, Cambridge, CB4 1HA
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 369 299
www.midsummerhouse.co.uk

Warning: The map LIES. It's actually further west along the river, closr to Victoria Ave.
Update: It looks like somebody fixed up the location on the map!

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New Series -- QED: Zucchini omelette

 

This is the first post of a new series called QED. No, it is not quantum electrodynamics and we don’t prove a mathematical theorem in cooking science. With this series, we want to show that it is possible to cook Quick, Easy and Delicious meals with the limited kitchenware and fridge space available to the average student in college. The QED series shall become a collection of simple recipes that doesn’t necessitate a load of fancy ingredients or hours of cooking.

This dish is one my mom used to cook in summer with the fresh zucchini from our garden. I like this dish so much because of its taste of gently stir-fried zucchini and because, apart from the zucchini, usually I have all the ingredients in my kitchen cabinet. For two people you will need:

• 2 zucchini
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• flour
• herbs (e.g. rosemary, oregano, provencial herbs)
• a clove of garlic
• salt and pepper
• oil
• parmigiano cheese

Whisk the two eggs with the milk and add the flour a little at the time, trying to avoid the formation of lumps. Add as much flour as needed to obtain nice omelette batter, not dense and not too liquid. Press the garlic into the mixture and add the herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Fresh herbs are preferred but any dried herb you can find in your kitchen will do. Don’t be afraid to use quite a bit of herbs, it makes the omelette more savoury.

Cut the zucchini lengthwise in half and then into semicircles. Gently stir-fry them in a hot pan with little oil. Don’t cook them to death, they are best when they start to get just slightly brown but they are still “al dente”.

Fry the omelette on both side till golden brown and top one half of it with the zucchini. Fold over the other half. Finally place on a nice plate and serve with some grated parmigiano on top. Bon Appétit!

PS: If you like you can add small pieces of cooked ham to the batter, which makes the omelette even tastier.

PPS: As I child I loved to eat it with ketchup. It might sound outrageous, but it tastes quite good. Try it. The noble alternative is to decorate the plate with halved cherry tomatoes.

Grease is the word...

When work gets you down, it's a Saturday and you wake up at midday, the only thing left to do is demolish a plate of french toast and bacon slathered in leftover maple syrup.

Disgusting or delicious? 

Cocum, Cambridge

Before I start about Cocum, just a few random bits and pieces I wanted to mention. Firstly, why the knife and fork?  Well the Dancer brought her DSLR camera to dinner to take some decent photos, rather than using my little old point-and-shoot. The result? Pretty sure I'll need much more practice handling such serious equipment, although I was not helped by the fact that the lights above our table were broken. I now have seven 20mb (raw) photos of the same set of cutlery on my computer, so I thought I should use at least one of them.

So actually I've been contemplating buying a new camera for food photography amongst other things. I've mainly been looking at the expensive compact range - the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 has been recommended to me, whilst PC says there's a better Olympus which has just been released (this one perhaps). Do you guys have any suggestions?

Two other exciting things:
* This blog might see something from the other side of the Atlantic in the near future;
* Last night I paid a visit to what is (theoretically at least) the best restaurant in Cambridge... oh yes, will get blogging soon

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Pre-movie dinner? It's good for you. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d-qENAaNbM)

Cambridge has so many Indian restaurants, each offering a disconcertingly large number of options, making for a rather mind-boggling number of Indian (and other subcontinental) dishes. However when you take into account that they mostly serve similar variations on North Indian style curries, naan and this so-called Balti cuisine which apparently is a Birmingham invention, the choice is not as expansive as it might seem.

Given this, a few of us were keen to try out Cocum, a Keralan (southwestern) Indian restaurant suggested by Lady G all the way back during our gnocchi-making fest. We finally got around to trying it out one evening before going to the Arts Picturehouse for a movie.

Someone clearly had a lot of fun writing this.

We arrived to a find a reasonably peaceful and subdued Sunday evening unfolding in the restaurant. Upon reading the menu description however, it became apparent that this would be a life-changing experience. Nothing wrong with a little hype! The four of us on one side of the table decided sharing was indeed caring in order to maximise the number of dishes we each could try.

The Pope's requests for 'the one with butter' were met with the paneer butter masala, whilst the vegetable kootu was a recommendation by the waiter after the Dancer's aubergine thiyal wasn't available.

Left: Vegetable Kootu (£4.75) ; Right: Paneer Butter Masala (£5.50)

The servings were modest in size but reasonable given the price. To be honest, the kootu was a little reminiscent of Trinity curries, where rather unfortunately the dominant spice is salt. The paneer was a little more to my taste, with precious few cubes of the cheese in a thick creamy sauce. However I do think that butter chicken/paneer is one of the most generic and over-popularised dishes, and most definitely North Indian in style. The Pope didn't seem to mind (and rightly so I guess), because it has butter in it, and butter makes everything taste good.

Left: Kerala Paratha (£1.95) ; Right: Appam (£1.75)

Strangely enough, the breads were more exciting than the curries themselves. My only prior experience with parathas are the frozen kind you buy in supermarkets which turn out slightly crisp like puff pastry when cooked. This one was still full of delicious pastry layer goodness but with a soft texture, perfect for scooping up curry sauce. The appam was wonderfully light and spongy, and I probably could have gone through quite a few of them if we hadn't ordered rice too.

Chicken Shashlick (£7.95)

The chicken shashlick was solid if not inspiring, with generous cubes of barbecued tandoori chicken and onion. Again I think tandoori cooking is more of a North Indian thing, although I'm no expert. Also I'm curious about the origins of shashlick (Wikipedia says it's spelled shashlik) as it was basically chicken kebab with indian spices - perhaps for the naming of this dish, the word has just been borrowed from Russian.

Lamb Masala Dosa (£7.95)

By far and away, the star of the show was the lamb masala dosa - a giant larger-than-plate sized crepe filled with spiced lamb and potato, accompanied by sambar (a lentil curry) and coconut chutney. The crepe itself was thin, light and crisp, with a generous amount of satisfyingly starchy lamb masala in the middle. Whilst overpowered by the lamb, the sambar and chutney worked better with the plain unfilled dosa sections flanking either side of the plate. Based on sheer size, a thumbs up from me!

On the whole, I suspect that it would have been a more enjoyable experience if we had chosen some of the more unusual or authentic Keralan dishes. We also weren't helped by the time pressure which comes from needing to finish eating before a deadline, like the start of a movie! All that remains now is to try that other Keralan restaurant in Cambridge, The Rice Boat...

We'll save that for some time later.

Cocum
71 Castle St, Cambridge, CB3 0AH
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 366 668
www.cocumrestaurant.co.uk


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