Friday 28 March 2014

Week beginning March 31st - April Fools and London Coffee Festival

This week we celebrate not one but two events, the first is an informal holiday, April Fools day. The second is the London Coffee Festival, which gets bigger every year and is very relevant to Kaffeine. We have a couple of items on the menu that represent both festivities. 

First is a salad made with spaghetti plant, this of coarse doesn’t really exist. I got the idea from a prank the BBC pulled in 1953. The BBC prank viewers with a news item called the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, where they broadcast a fake film of Swiss farmers picking freshly grown spaghetti. The BBC were later flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing them to declare the video as a prank on the news the next day. In honour of this prank we are serving very thin long strands of cucumber tossed in a pesto dressing and garnished with foraged ramsons. This salad looks identical to pasta, minus all the carbs. 

To celebrate the coming the Coffee Festival this weekend we will be serving a delicious beef soup cooked in coffee. The coffee gives the beef an ultimate savoury flavour likened to marmite and French onion soup; it really is amazing and will keep you alert for hours. 

We also welcome the return of alexanders, which is an old world vegetable and has been forgotten in the last century. These herby green stem taste like a cross of parsley and celery and when cooked takes on a more earthy asparagus flavour. These greens are often mistaken for deadly hemlock, which is probably why we don’t see it on many dinner plates these days. But if you know what to look out for they truly are lovely and the best part is they grow in abundance throughout the UK. You will find the alexanders during lunchtime baked in a quiche with gorgonzola.

So don't be a fool and eat an average lunch, come in and eat some clever food, supplied by us.

Jared Bryant
Lead Chef
@redjar50

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passion fruit) 3.70
Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Ciabatta roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with home made preserves 1.90
Pumpkin seed and apricot fruit toast 2.40
Banana bread 2.40
Porridge with choices of cinnamon, dried fruit, chopped nuts, honey, golden syrup or compote 3.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissant 1.90
Pain au chocolat 2.50
Almond croissant 2.80

Baked Treats
Sweet Muffin:Red plum and ginger 2.40
Savoury Scone: Asparagus, mustard and Gruyère 2.40
Yarrow and blood orange friands 2.40
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.40
White chocolate blondies 2.40
Portuguese tarts 2.00
ANZAC cookies 2.00
Afgan Biscuits 2.00

Lunch:
Soup: 4.50
Coffee and beef with semolina bread

French retro baguettes 5.00
Ham, gherkin, red onion, Gruyère, dijon and rocket
Roasted red peppers, courgette, red onion, olive tepenade and spinach.

Foccacias 5.30
Pancetta, baked apple, brie, aioli and spinach
Mushrooms, fennel, mustard cheese sauce and rocket

Salads: 5.50/6.90
Citrus prawns with paprika purple sprouting broccoli, Darwin's barberry and coriander mayonnaise
Pickled hispi cabbage with horseradish, juniper, caraway, mustard and ham
Spaghetti plant with a parsley pesto dressing and mini ramsons

Tart: 4.40 or 7.90 with salad
Roasted alexanders and blue cheese quiche.

Saturday 22 March 2014

Week beginning March 24th - Spring Cleaning Menu

This weeks menu is loosely based on spring cleaning as spring is well and truly in the air. Over the winter I had noticed we’d hoarded a lot of dry goods in the pantry. Ingredients just screaming to be used in the best possible way. Not only that it’s what a business owner would call ‘Money sitting on the shelf’.

So this week dry goods offering include fried polenta with soft goats cheese, avocado, tomatoes and foraged scurvy grass flowers. These purple little blossoms have an intense, mustard, horseradish kick and high in vitamin C to keep your immune system cleansed and gums healthy.

In our healthy salad range we have a high protein salad with tuna, cannelini beans, shrimp and one of my favourite seaside vegetables sea aster. This green blade like grass is salty and has a slight garlic flavour, lightly blanched or sautéed it texture becomes succulent.

We also have a fibrous salad consisting of black rice, pecan nuts, poppy seeds, pickled red onion and a new foraged item, pepperwort broccoli. A tender miniature steam that is the spitting image of broccoli just on a much small scale and has a slightly fiery nutty after taste.

Lastly we have salsify, which is a root vegetable belonging to the dandelion family. This root vegetable is similar in appearance to a parsnip and has the flavour of oysters once cooked. This week we will be roasting the salsify and served drizzled in a cheese and ramsons dressing. Ramsons are another foraged green and typically found during the spring. This leafy green has the most amazing garlic after taste but without the lingering odour, no minty fresh gum required.

Spring is nature’s way of saying ‘Lets party’. So please come in and party responsibly with us everyday this week.

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passion fruit) 3.70
Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Ciabatta roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with home made preserves 1.90
Pumpkin seed and apricot fruit toast 2.40
Banana bread 2.40
Porridge with choices of cinnamon, dried fruit, chopped nuts, honey, golden syrup or compote 3.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissant 1.90
Pain au chocolat 2.50
Almond croissant 2.80

Baked Treats
Sweet Muffin: Raspberry and marshmallow  2.40
Savoury Scone: Crushed curried peas and red Leicester cheese 2.40
Rhubarb friands 2.40
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.40
White chocolate blondies 2.40
Portuguese tarts 2.00
ANZAC cookies 2.00
Afgan Biscuits 2.00

Lunch:
Soup: 4.50
Romero pepper, olive and orzo with semolina bread
French retro baguettes 5.00
Ham, lychee, ginger and chilli mascarpone, avocado, cucumber and rocket
Smoked salmon, pesto, tomato, red onion, and spinach.

Foccacias 5.30
Pancetta, jalapeño cheese, roasted fennel and rocket
Panko crumbed butternut with sweet chilli sauce, coriander, brie and spinach

Salads: 5.50/6.90
Tuna, cannelini beans, sea aster, pine nuts, capers, shrimp with a light tomato dressing
Black rice with blanched pepperwort broccoli, pecan, poppy seeds, red onions pickled in rice wine vinegar 
Salsify in a cheese and ramson sauce.

Tart: 4.40 or 7.90 with salad
Fried polenta with ash goats cheese, crushed avocado, roasted cherry tomatoes and scrurvy grass flowers


Friday 14 March 2014

Week beginning March 17th - St Patricks Day menu

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passion fruit) 3.70
Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Ciabatta roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with home made preserves 1.90
Pumpkin seed and apricot fruit toast 2.40
Banana bread 2.40
Porridge with choices of cinnamon, dried fruit, chopped nuts, honey, golden syrup or compote 3.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissant 1.90
Pain au chocolat 2.50
Almond croissant 2.80

Baked Treats
Sweet Muffin: Cox apple and blackberry 2.40
Savoury Scone: Tomato and mozzarella 2.40
Rhubarb friands 2.40
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.40
White chocolate blondies 2.40
Portuguese tarts 2.00
ANZAC cookies 2.00
Afgan Biscuits 2.00

Lunch:
Soup: 4.50
Leek and potato

French retro baguettes 5.00
Ham, roast rhubarb, mature cheddar, basil, spinach
Hummous, grated cheddar, piri piri sauce, avocado, red onion, spinach

Foccacias 5.30
Pancetta with glazed yellow plums, perl wen, rocket
Roast aubergine, chilli mayonnaise, feta and spinach

Salads: 5.50/6.90
Salmon fillet marinated with Irish whiskey, honey, roast new potatoes, green beans and watercress
Roast parsnips with honey chilli dressing
Quinoa with roast cherry tomatoes, cashew nits and parsley

Tart: 4.40 or 7.90 with salad
Beef and Guinness and cheese pie

Friday 7 March 2014

Week beginning March 10th - Get it fixed

A very good manager I worked with a long time ago taught me this. If something is wrong or broken, fix it immediately. If something needs to happen to make the work of your staff all that easier, do it as soon as possible. If you need a new piece of equipment that will improve the quality of your product and your efficiency, buy it now. (within reason of course).

It seems like common sense, and it is, but in the rush of hospitality and within the pressures of business, it is easy to just let things slide. The thing is, as the owner, if you don't fix it, or buy it, or do it, then no-one will. And then your standards start to fall. And the respect you should have from your staff starts to slip.

I read somewhere once a very good method for this is to have a little pocket notebook that you write down everything in as soon as you see or hear about it, so then you can get it done.

I just use my iPhone notes section. For example one of our superstars asked me today, 'can we please have a separate set of tongs to be able to get the butter circles we cut from the Lescure butter rolls onto the plates that we use for banana bread or toast'. Brilliant idea.

So I type that into my notes,  I have a section called 'Remember' which often has 20 or 30 points in it. Then when I get to sit down I write it in my 'to do list' in my diary. The key point then is of course to action it, as soon as possible.

But what if you don't action it, or forget about it, it's so easy to forget. Not only this one point, but any of the million and one brilliant ideas/improvements/DIY jobs/equipment requests your staff hit you with continuously.

I know how I would feel as a staff member. Not valued.

Now you can't do all of them, not all are practical or commercially viable, but most of them are. If you explain the reasons why it is not viable, that is a good start too.

Keeping on top of these things is really, really hard, but it is really, really necessary. And it is an integral part of keeping your business at it's peak performance at all times.

(I'm off now to buy a new flat head screwdriver so we can change our Anfim grinder burrs tonight, otherwise who else is going to?)

Please enjoy the menu fort this week, as we will enjoy bringing it to you.


Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passion fruit) 3.70
Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Ciabatta roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with home made preserves 1.90
Pumpkin seed and apricot fruit toast 2.40
Banana bread 2.40
Porridge with choices of cinnamon, dried fruit, chopped nuts, honey, golden syrup or compote 3.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissant 1.90
Pain au chocolat 2.50
Almond croissant 2.80

Baked Treats
Sweet Muffin: Yellow plum and almonds 2.40
Savoury Scone: Pesto and red pepper 2.40
Rhubarb friands 2.40
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.40
White chocolate blondies 2.40
Portuguese tarts 2.00
ANZAC cookies 2.00
Afgan Biscuits 2.00

Lunch:
Soup: 4.50
Cannelini beans with cavolo nero

French retro baguettes 5.00
Ham, gherkin, gruyere, yellow mustard, red onion, spinach
Manchego cheese, baked russet apple, aioli and rocket

Foccacias 5.30
Roast duck with grapefruit mayonnaise, red onion, roast red pepper and spinach
Plum tomatoes with mature cheddar, chimichurri sauce and rocket

Salads: 5.50/6.90
Tandoori chicken, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, gem lettuce and yoghurt dressing
Rape green broccoli with pancetta and an anchovy dressing
Roast vegetable salad with tomato and rocket

Tart: 4.40 or 7.90 with salad
Mixed mushrooms with watercress and blue cheese

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Week beginning March 3rd - Shrove Tuesday and Lent menu

Religious or not this is the time of year people tend to give up meat, alcohol, sugar, butter and anything else that is deemed indulgent. Weather it’s for lent or for losing weight and getting ready to bare a little extra flesh in anticipation of longer days and tanning in the park.

Before we toss all fun consumption aside for 40 days and 40 nights and roam a metaphoric self-disciplined desert we must celebrate Shrove Tuesday. Shrove comes from the word shrive which means to ‘confess’. During the middle-ages Christians would confess all their sins on Shrove Tuesday before the start of Ash Wednesday (Lent). This also involved a feast of foods such as fat, butter, eggs and anything else that was deemed rich and banned during Lent. 

In honour of Shrove Tuesday (or Mardi Gras meaning Fat Tuesday) we will be serving a mini stack of pan-cakes filled with coffee mascarpone and sponge fingers that have been infused with a syrup of foraged yarrow. Yarrow is a green-stemmed leaf with a feathery appearance and small clusters of white blossom that sprout from their tops in summer and autumn. Originally yarrow would appear during mostly in summer months, however we’ve seen it popping up throughout winter and this year it has decided to keep growing all year long. Yarrow has a sweet herbal scent, similar to Chrysanthemums and has been used for medicinal purposes for centuries to stopping bleeding or reducing fevers. I often infuse milk with yarrow, later using the milk to make a custard-based desserts; yarrow flavour is a great substitute for vanilla. 

The second part of this menu is dedicated to cutting out rich foods and treating our bodies like a disciplined Buddhist monk. We‘ve cut out the meat and fat and replaced it with healthy grains, vegetables and protein-enriched foods. Ash Wednesday is the start of a 40-day challenge, dedicated Christians strip themselves of all things that may be considered fun in honour of Jesus 40 day fasted through a hot desert. Most modern religious folk give up one thing during this time, whether it is sugar, alcohol, cigarettes or romance. This doesn’t mean you can’t eat delicious amazing food of course. You just need to get a little cleverer and disciplined with your cooking methods. Our first lent item to feature on the menu this week is protein-enriched pretzels, salted bread dough made with flour and water. Pretzels are the symbolic bread of lent, the shapes distinct knot represent arms in prayer. Our recipe is incorporated with protein powder to keep the energy levels up and sustain those whole eat them throughout the day. Our pretzel dough is boiled in bicarbonate soda water to give them a dark, dense, shiny and crunchy surface when baked in a very hot oven. For those of you who shall want to give into temptation like myself I recommend you have these pretzels lightly toasted with cream cheese, we will have protein cream cheese on offer as well, willpower is not for everyone.

Our lunchtime menu this week is focused on health, textures and vibrancy. You’ll find salads with roasted purple mooli or black radish garnished with ash-covered cheese (purely for symbolic reasons), to black rice and foraged wild cabbage to glass noodles with hot smoked salmon.

If this all sounds a bit too healthy for you I suggest you contradict this week’s health kick menu with a calorific brownie and full fat latte. Amen.

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.60
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passion fruit) 3.70
Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Ciabatta roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with home made preserves 1.90
Pumpkin seed and apricot fruit toast 2.40
Banana bread 2.40
Porridge with choices of cinnamon, dried fruit, chopped nuts, honey, golden syrup or compote 3.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissant 1.90
Pain au chocolat 2.50
Almond croissant 2.80

Baked Treats
Sweet Muffin: Yarrow tiramisu pan-cake 2.40
Savoury Scone: Protein pretzel 2.40
Rhubarb friands 2.40
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.40
White chocolate blondies 2.40
Portuguese tarts 2.00
ANZAC cookies 2.00
Afgan Biscuits 2.00

Lunch:
Soup: Spiced lentil 4.50

French retro baguettes 5.00
Ham, grapefruit mayonnaise, avocado, tomato, rocket
Aubergine, sweet chilli, thai basil, goats cheese, spinach

Foccacias 5.30
Smoked salmon, buckthorn hollandaise sauce, cucumber, spinach
Tomato, mozzarella, pesto and rocket

Salads: 5.50/6.90
Black rice, wild cabbage, almonds, roasted potatoes, pickled lemon and black pepper.
Rhubarb, hot smoked salmon, glass noodles, celery, carrot, chilli, fish sauce, peanuts, coriander and mint
Roasted purple mooli and green beans with ash cheese.

Tart: 4.40 or 7.90 with salad
Semolina pastry filled with almonds and ricotta, potato and spinach