Review: Tombo, Kensington, London

The clean and contemporary interior of Tombo is a refreshing contrast to the smoggy, grimy London streets outside. Everything about the decor and the food is traquil and ordered from the emaculate maki to the wooden hour glasses to tell you when your tea is brewed to perfection. It's a great place to grab a cup of tea or a bite to eat.

We arrived a little before 6pm when they were relatively quiet and started with some delicate Flowering Osmanthus tea (£3.10) which, when steeped, turned a pretty rose petal pink and tasted mildly of Ribena. Delish! Food came in the form of a fantastically savoury black seaweed salad (£3.30) with chickpeas, french and edamame beans dressed in soy. A feast for the eyes and taste buds though a frustration for the chopsticks. The Tombo Combo No 1 (£7.50) provided an elegant centrepiece for our table for approximately two minutes - time enough for it to be duly admired before it was devoured. Each roll was embellished with fresh soft herbs pressed into the rice. We finished with a fragrant pot of blossoming jasmine tea (£3.10) which had a fantastically floral flavour that (plesantly) surprised us all.

The service was prompt and friendly and the café itself was perfectly turned out. It's mere minutes from the crossroad of Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road so it's ideally placed for a lunch when you're visiting the London museums.
Tombo can be found at 29 Thurloe Place, South Kensington, London SW7 2HQ. Tel: 0207 589 0018 Food can be enjoyed in or taken away.

Succulent Baked Plaice with Olives

Plaice isn’t necessarily the prettiest of fish. As a flat fish, it can look (as the name suggests…) a little squished and it’s dull grey skin with violent orange spots wouldn’t be a great advert for the latest face cream. Despite the fact that it won’t be winning any beauty pageants any time soon, it is totally delicious and a great base for flavours.

It’s a pretty fiddly fish so unless your fishmonger is willing to fillet it for you, I would recommend baking it whole. I like to pop it in the oven with some herbs to infuse the flesh while it cooks. Go for woody herbs as a base which will withstand the fierce heat of the oven without wilting into nothing. Their flavour will survive but their structure is hardy too so they’ll stay bushy and hold the fish away from the baking tray – this will encourage heat to circulate around the fish and allow it to cook evenly. Keep any softer herbs – like parsley and dill – for sprinkling on top just before serving.

I paired our plaice with fresh tomatoes and black olives but you could add a few anchovies or capers if you've got them knocking about. If you're not feeling the lemony hint, try a combination of sliced orange and fennel.

Succulent Baked Plaice with olives
Serves 2

1 whole plaice
1 bunch/handful of oregano, thyme or rosemary (or a mixture)
1 handful of parsley or dill (or a mixture)
½ lemon, sliced
12 or so black olives
1 handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
Drizzle of olive oil
25g butter

- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Rub both the sides of the fish and a baking tray with a little olive oil.
- Place the herbs in an oval in the middle of the baking tray and scatter with lemon slices.
- Put the plaice on top and surround with the olives and tomatoes.
- Bake for 15 - 20 minutes depending on the size of the fish – it should be white and opaque all the way through.
- To serve, cut along the centre line of the fish and gently peel the skin back. Add a knob or two of butter, the chopped parsley/dill and a little seasoning. The flesh can be pushed off the bones by placing the flat side of a fork against the spine and brushing outwards.
- Plate up with sauté potatoes and fresh summery salad.

Salmon & Samphire Maki

This time last year, I was trawling the food markets of Bristol and whipping up mayonnaise in search of a suitable birthday tea for The Boy. You may (or may not) know that The Boy has a passion for sushi - we're regular Yo Sushi dwellers (despite his best intentions) and he has been a domestic sushi master since a course earlier in the year. He loves the process of making maki and California rolls as wells as quick-and-speedy hand rolls.

This year, I ordered some fresh sushi-grade fish from the amazing Source in Bristol who have a fantastic selection of fresh meat & fish as well as lots other delicious and tempting things on offer. You can get everything from nori and local chili sauce to freshly baked cakes and marinated olives. It's amazing and, to top it off, the staff are friendly and pretty knowledgeable too. It's well worth a visit. They also have a café restaurant that I'm dying to try. One day! Anyway, I went to pick up my order of filleted mackerel, salmon and scallops but a handful of samphire and a piece of salted caramel and cherry brownie somehow found their way into my basket. I really couldn't resist!

Samphire is a fantastic post-season alternative to asparagus. It's actually a kind of seaweed which is in season from June until September. It's a natural partner to fish but it's also great with meat too. It's versatile and really refreshing if you cook it right - thankfully, this isn't difficult. I would recommend picking through the samphire when you're ready to cook and removing any brown or squishy bits. I thought that it'd be a lovely texture in the sushi so I blanched it for minute and then refreshed it in cold water to keep it succulent.

The Boy and I then spent a very companionable half hour making sushi. It's therapeutic and difficult in equal amounts - if you're a perfectionist, it may drive you mad but you do get to eat your attempts whether they're millimetre perfect or not. We made maki with raw salmon and samphire which was absolutely delish as well as mackerel california rolls and scallop nigiri.

Hand picked wild mussles and Moules Marinaire

Having anchored our boat in a quiet bay, The Boy was feeling intrepid and ventured out onto the scratchy, barnacle-clad rocks in search of little fishies. After a period of disappearance, he returned, pink cheeked with pride bearing all sorts of goodies. His bucket contained a variety of delicate, spritely fish, an baby starfish and five shrimps. 

The incy, wincy starfish (only an inch or so across) was coo-ed over and then gently placed back into its pool but we held on to the shrimps - good eatin' to be had there! Our seas and beaches are full of gorgeous goodies that anyone can make the most of if you know where to look.

Buoyed by his successful hoard, we went to for a wander along the surf and what did we find? Several mammoth rocks encrusted in midnight blue mussels which, in turn, were stuffed with silvery barnacles. We grinned gleefully at one another and picked eagerly at the shells. They weren't as stuck fast as I expected - I had memories of a mini-me whacking unsuspecting limpets with rocks in an attempt to knock them off their home rocks before they suckered themselves on. Mussels are far easier to harvest, as it turns out. 

After a quick google (the wonders of Smart phones) and some advice from our elders, we made quick work of collecting a box full. They were quite easily teased from the rocks by twisting them which broke their 'beards' away - the delicate strings that fix them to the surface of the stone - without damaging the mollusk. We mostly picked from the waterline and chose mussels which stayed in the water for as long as possible - our intuition told us that these would be the freshest but I've no idea if this is correct. We mostly went for mussels which were 6 - 7cm long and avoided the baby ones (less than 5cm). As with all foraging, we only took what we would be able to eat and left more than we took (we wouldn't want to spoil it for others now, would we?). Since our expedition, I've read that mussels actually spawn between May and August so harvesting is generally discouraged during this time. We stored them in a large plastic box which was filled with fresh sea water and kept them in the shade for the trip home.

Back at our rented caravan, we prepped our goodies. Have a look at the instructions above if you haven't done it before and are curious. It's a bit labour intensive but it's well worth it. Myself, The Boy and my Mum-in-Love stood around the sink and chatted away while we worked so it was no hardship. After the cleaning was done, there was one dish in the fore front of all of our imaginations that would showcase these little treasures of the sea.

Moules Marinaire

Serves five as a starter

1.5kg prepared mussels, rinsed

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

100ml white wine or cider

120ml single cream

Sunflower oil or butter

 - Sweat the onion and garlic in a splash of oil or knob of butter in a saucepan large enough to take all of the mussels until completely softened.

 - Add the mussels and stir well so that they're completely coated in onion.

 - Turn up the heat and pour in wine and cream. Cover and simmer for 3 - 4 minutes or until the majority of the mussels are open. Shake the pan every so often so move the mussels about.

 - Stir in the parsley and ladle into bowls. Serve with crusty bread to mop up any juices. Discard any mussels that have not opened during cooking.

Creamy smoked salmon and prawn pasta

Fancy a luxurious meal without breaking the bank? If you know where to look, there are bargains to be had which are cheaper, tastier and healthier than ready meals. Sainsbury’s (my supermarket of personal choice) ‘Basics’ value range have some great products. Their smoked salmon trimmings are a snip at 87p and are great for sandwiches or in pasta. Their frozen prawns are a bit on a weeny size but are a bargain at 300g for £2.00. We always have some in the fridge for throwing into stir-fries.

I whipped up a dish of creamy spaghetti with prawns and smoked salmon for only £1.38 per portion. Lovely with a green salad (they had British grown round lettuces for 40p when I was last in) or a broad bean salad (made with frozen beans and a little mint). Oh and a glass of white wine too if you’re pushing the boat out!

Creamy smoked salmon and prawn pasta

Serves 2

1 onion, finely chopped

100g frozen prawns, defrosted

120g smoked salmon trimmings

4tbsp half fat crème fraiche

½ pack of dill or basil

1 lemon

150g dried spaghetti

 - Put the spaghetti on to boil.

 - Meanwhile, sweat the onion in a saucepan (large enough to fit the cooked pasta in) for a few minutes until soft. Add the juice and a tsp of finely grated zest from the lemon, cover and turn to a very low heat until the pasta is al dente or just tender.

 - Add the crème fraiche to the pan and stir it into the onion as it melts. Add the prawns and allow to warm through for about a minute (longer if you are using large prawns). Loosen the mixture with a splash of the cooking water from the spaghetti or white wine (if you’ve cracked it open already!) if necessary.

 - Turn off the heat and add ⅔ of the smoked salmon to the mixture along with most of the dill or basil (reserve a few sprigs for decoration if you like).

 - Drain the spaghetti and mix well so that it is coated in the creamy mixture.

 - Serve topped with the remaining salmon and herbs.

An authentic taste of Italy

My mother - the networker, blogster and textile-artist extraordinaire - has a nack for using the Internet to its full advantage. She's the goddess of the search engine; if she can't find what you're looking for, it probably wasn't worth discovering in the first place. She's a social network aficionado and is often found glued to her emails.

Now, you're always told (particularly as a small child when you're first allowed to get your grubby hands on the Internet) that the net is full of lots of friendly people but you must not, under ANY circumstances, meet the people that you chat to. After all, they might turn out to be weirdos. Quite right too and this was preached to me from a young age. This rule, apparently, doesn't stretch to adults. Or mothers, anyway, because my Mum has met all kinds of wonderful people (and her fair share of weirdos... joke!) through various virtual meeting places and happily goes off on merry little jaunts around the country with her new posse.

Anyway, she's recently Facebook friended a guy (known through mutual friends) who rented us a gorgeous apartment in Florence a few years ago. While perusing his website, I came across some of his lovely recipes. He seems to be something of a seafood fan with lovely looking recipes for scallops, squid and langoustines. Despite the Florentine connection, the recipes remind me of the amazing seafood market in Venice. I do miss Italy!