bourne & hollingsworth buildings, clerkenwell - review

We’ve done a pretty good job clinging onto the last of summer this year. And by we, I mean the great British weather. 

I write this on Sunday 28th September, a mere three days from the month of October. It’s almost Halloween (which means it’s practically Christmas) and today I not only dared to leave the house without a jacket, but also without sleeves. Thorpe Parked reached a sizzling 26C (LOG FUME!), and tourists dressed for England’s brisk autumnal weather could be found slowly melting in jumpers and boots across the city.

New all day brasserie Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings in Clerkenwell is attempting its own last hurrah for summer with its choice of interiors. Or at least, half of it. Described as having the ‘faded grandeur of a stately home’, the design is more of an odd marriage between two quite different halves; one with a becoming and moodily-lit cocktail bar complete with piano, low tables and a lot of suede sofas to recline and sup tipples upon, and one labelled the greenhouse.

The latter is where we were seated for dinner. It’s a cross between a John Lewis living room display and the set for a summer garden party. There are soft furnishings upholstered in bold floral prints, salvaged and weathered white iron and cane garden furniture, and ferns and ivy creeping around the fireplace and out of hanging baskets, all in an entirely closed space.

It’s a nice idea. But I can’t help but think that if it was indeed a glorious summer's day, I’d rather be seated in the real outdoors. And if it was a blustering winter’s day, I’d prefer to hunker down with a toddy out the front rather than sit in a pretend garden, without the grass. I didn’t dislike the greenhouse theme, I’m just unsure as to its point. We moved to the other half for post-dinner cocktails; I preferred it.

The kitchen is commandeered by Head Chef Alex Visciano, with a CV that includes stints at two Michelin-starred Michel Rostang in France and Sous Chef at the Connaught. The things coming from it were mostly agreeable, bar a couple of initial wrong foots.

Bread (very standard, at that) was served in a brown paper bag. Now, I know Duck & Waffle deliver their pigs ears in a brown paper bag, but that bag has a fun faux-wax seal of the restaurant’s logo on it. That bag also provides a medium via which the ears can flirt with you - with speckles of inviting piggy fat seeping through the paper - before you even see them. When the bag reaches the table, you instantly know you want in your mouth whatever is inside. There is a point to this bag.

There is no point to the bog-standard, corner-shop brown paper bread bag at B&H other than to irritate. I can think of no reason as to why this presentation was chosen, except that whoever made that decision is under the misguided pretence that it is in some way, cool. It is not. The bag became a makeshift plate on which to place the bread so we could see it. An actual plate would have been preferred.

The second questionable foot was the marinated squid with potato and fennel salad, which according to my dining partner, tasted ‘just like chicken tikka picnic bites you get from Waitrose’. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a little unexpected and it could have been better. It was also a cold dish (hence ‘salad’); I think it would have come across better hot (£9).

Onwards and pleasingly, mostly upwards. A rabbit and hazelnut terrine, wrapped in bacon, and served with a pickled apple slaw was cool and creamy, with great hits of pepper (£7). The lamb cannon with minted crust was full of the taste of iron, like a rare steak but with better texture and without the blood. We cooed over it a fair bit. It came with a well-seasoned ratatouille stuffed courgette flower, a nice alternative to the more commonplace goat’s cheese filling (£20).

Four scallops with good texture came with a parsnip puree and hazelnut gravy, a clever combination and pleasant plate, if not a little steep at £23. Sides were unfortunately, wholly uninspiring. Carrots, orange segments and cumin achieved two out of three in that there were carrots (£4). Seasonal vegetables were bland and boiled generic roots (£4).

On a high note it did finish. The insides of a caramel fondant oozed into a pool of pleasure around the sponge, served with peanut brittle and chocolate ice cream. I’ve never come across a fondant that wasn’t chocolate before; I think I’ll need to make this one at home. Big fondant fan, me (£5).

The cocktail bar and the guys behind it served us some great concoctions. Don’t ask me for details, but I can just about decipher in my (by this stage, inebriated) notebook scrawl the words: ‘West Indian Gimlet’, ‘navy strength gin’ and ‘homemade felerneeeum’ which I believe should say  ‘homemade falernum’. All terms conducive to good drinking, which was certainly entertained. And I liked the bar stools. Black padded and velvet; plush and comfortable.   

The accessories to the experience let it down: gimmicky paper bags, poor sides, a lack of attention to detail in some design aspects such as cheapo brown plastic Homebase plant pots on the table. But the core components are there: good plates of food, good service, good cocktails, good ambience and the potential for some spontaneous drunken serenading at the piano, I'm sure.

The B&H Buildings is not a bad place to while away some time and eat decent food. It's certainly nothing less than fair to mention I visited during their soft launch period, and the whole point of those is to iron out any teething problems in time for the full launch, which for them was the 22nd September. 

Certainly worth poking your head around the door.

Liked lots: great tasting lamb, caramel fondant, cocktail bar, staff
Liked less: sides, squid, outside-inside interiors
Good for: I suspect the greenhouse is better enjoyed during the day, perhaps for a lazy Saturday lunch; potent cocktails, after work drinks

My rating: 3/5

Afiyet olsun. 

Note: I was invited as a guest to review this restaurant.

a tapas feast - recipes

Surprises in the fridge are almost always exciting. Unless they’re in the form of disintegrating lettuce-slush at the bottom of a salad bag - is there anything more gross? Probably.

Returning home from work the other day and making a beeline for the fridge, I opened it to find a bag of Padrón peppers beaming up at me. Not something I had purchased, but produce Matt had found in the supermarket near his work.

Any tapas lover worth the salt on their Padrón peppers will know all about the dish pimientos de Padrón, the only real way to treat these little green bites of delight.

It is blessed with simplicity as is so much of Spanish cooking, in that the dish in its entirety are these peppers fried whole with olive oil and then sprinkled with coarse sea salt. They’re the first things I request when placing my order in a tapas restaurant (without even needing to locate them on the menu) and Fino in Fitzrovia do them deserved justice. 

But it’s only in restaurants I’ve ever eaten them, as until now I’ve been unsuccessful in sourcing these little Galician peppers. And the purist in me will be damned if I was going to attempt the dish with anything but. 

A solitary tapa consumed in isolation goes against the very essence of what it means to eat tapas - tasting many different flavours, sampling small amounts of a wide range, enjoying and sharing with others. And so from this little bag of capsicums an entire Spanish feast was born.

A Spanish Tapas Feast

The below dishes all served in one sitting will feed two hungry people generously. If you're cooking for more, just scale up the ingredients. I've ordered them according to how long they take to cook, starting with the longest. They are all incredibly simple to make with very few ingredients. Some (such as the above pimientos de Padrón) require nothing more than a quick fry.

For almost all the dishes you will need olive oil so do ensure you have a good amount to hand before you begin. Salt and pepper goes without saying.

At any one time you will need four hob rings on the go - one for the chickpeas and chorizo, one for a griddle or saucepan for the seafood, a small saucepan for the tortilla, a final pan to first cook the potatoes and then fry the peppers.

Timings

My suggestion in terms of timing to serve everything hot and simultaneously (or as close as one can get to that) is as follows:

Earlier in the day

1. Marinate the prawns and keep in the fridge
2. Toast the almonds and set aside
3. Create your topping for the mushrooms
4. Prepare your squid, asparagus and peppers so they're ready to be cooked and keep in separate bowls in the fridge

Start cooking

1. Get the chickpeas and chorizo on first as they'll need half an hour. Pre-heat the oven and grill
2. Finely slice the potatoes for the tortilla and get those cooking
3. Plate up any of the no-cook tapas and take to the table
4. When the potatoes are done, remove and set aside. Drain the oil from the pan ready for the peppers later
5. Put the mushrooms and asparagus in the oven to cook. When they have done so, leave the asparagus in there to stay warm but turn the oven off. Top the mushrooms with the cheese mixture and place under a hot grill. When complete, leave under the grill to stay warm but turn the grill off
6. Now give your full attention to the tortilla. Leave in the pan when cooked until ready to serve. If the chickpeas are now soft, turn the heat off but leave the lid on to keep them warm.
7. Whack the prawns and squid on the griddle right at the end, which will take a couple of minutes to cook. Fry your peppers in the previous potato pan at the same time.
8. Plate everything up, relax and enjoy

Garbanzos con Chorizo - Chickpeas with Chorizo

100g of cooking chorizo 
200g canned chickpeas 
2 tbsp tomato puree
100ml passata
Pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika) 

• If a paper skin comes off easily from the meat then remove it. If it doesn’t, don’t bother
• Chop the chorizo into 2cm chunks
• Add to a dry pan on medium heat and cook until form to bite and slightly crisp
• Add drained chickpeas and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the tomato puree and enough good quality passata to just cover the chickpeas
• Season with salt, pepper and a good pinch of paprika. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly
• Cover and cook for 30 minutes on a low heat 
• Pour any condensed water that has formed on the lid back into the pan and stir
• Cook until the chickpeas are soft and the passasta has reduced to a thick sauce
• Serve hot

Tortilla - Spanish Omelette

1 small King Edward / Maris Piper potato
¼ small white onion
3 eggs 
Olive oil

• Peel the potato and slice finely (approximately 5mm) - a V-slicer will do this wonderfully and in seconds. Thinly slice the onion aswell
• Lightly fry the slices of potato in enough extra virgin olive oil to just cover them and season with salt. Move them about regularly so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan
• When the potato is soft, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper
• Add the onions to the oil and fry gently until caramalised, soft and golden. Remove with the slotted spoon and also drain on kitchen paper
• Remove most of the oil from the pan but leave a little, enough to coat the base.
• Using a fork, lightly whisk the eggs and then gently mix in the cooked potato and onions, and add a little salt
• Pour the mixture into a hot pan set on low - medium heat and spread the onions and potato out evenly. Keep scraping the egg away from sides and into the centre whilst cooking, to stop it sticking and to create room for raw egg to occupy and cook
• After a few minutes the bottom will be brown and the whole tortilla almost set, but still with uncooked egg on top. At this stage, get a spatula under the tortilla and carefully flip it over so the uncooked side is now face down 
• Tip This is a little tricky and if the bottom isn’t brown, it will break up and become a mess. To aid the flip, tip your saucepan on its side while you gently ease the tortilla out onto your spatula to flip
• Cook for further 10 secs to ensure a runny middle and serve immediately

This recipe makes a mean tortilla. Who knew eggs, potato and onions could make something so entirely delicious - no doubt something to do with all the wonderful frying.. Either way, this was one of my favourite things on the table.

Gambas a la Plancha - Grilled Prawns

160g pack of fresh prawns in shell
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
Extra virgin olive oil

Tip you can purchase the prawns either already cooked (pink) or raw (grey) - it makes little difference to the cooking time.

• Thoroughly rinse the prawns, drain and place in a bowl
• Add the garlic, a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper and mix so the prawns are well coated. Cover the bowl and leave in the fridge for a few hours
• Tip If you fancy a bit of heat, you can also add some finely chopped red chilli to this mix
• When ready to cook, heat a frying pan or griddle on medium heat and place the prawns on the base so they sizzle
• Cook each side 1-2 minutes until they turn pink (if cooking raw prawns) and then brown.
• Serve with a squeeze of lemon and chopped parsley

Pimientos de Padrón - Fried Padrón Peppers

130g pack of Padrón peppers
Coarse sea salt
Olive oil (you can use the leftover oil from the tortilla)

• Put the peppers in a bowl and coat with a little oil
• Fry in a hot pan until blistered black and soft
• Sprinkle with good quality sea salt to serve and eat while hot

Champiñones Rellenos - Stuffed Mushrooms

2 x portabello mushrooms
100g Manchego cheese, grated
Small handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped (including stalks)
1/2 clove of garlic, crushed

• Place the mushrooms on a baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper 
• Bake in hot oven for 10 minutes until brown and soft
• In the meantime, combine the parsley, cheese and garlic in a bowl
• Top each mushroom with this mixture and put under a hot grill until bubbling
• Serve immediately

Calamares a la Plancha - Grilled Squid

2 x prepared squid bodies (approximately 200g)
Juice and zest from one unwaxed lemon
Capers (optional)
Salt and pepper

• Thoroughly rinse the squid and pat dry
• Butterfly to open up the body into one large piece and score diagonally on one side with a sharp knife to create a diamond pattern, but make sure you don’t go all the way through the flesh
• After scoring, cut each body into quarters
• Place the squid into a bowl and coat with a little olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and generous helpings of salt and pepper
• On a hot griddle or frying pan, place the squid scored side up and cook for a minute. Turn them over and cook for another minute.
• Turn them back to scored side up again and they will begin to curl up - squeeze with tongs to encourage them to do so
• Cook for further minute until lightly browned
• Serve immediately with a sprinkling of capers and more lemon

  
Espárragos con almendras tostadas - Asparagus with toasted almonds

100g young asparagus spears
50g skinned and blanched whole almonds
Olive oil

• Gently toast the almonds in a dry pan on medium heat, constantly tossing them so they don’t burn 
• When they have taken on a golden colour, remove and set aside
• In the meantime, coat the asparagus in a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper
• Place into a hot oven for five minutes or griddle until soft and cooked.
• Serve the almonds and asparagus together 

In addition to the above, we decorated the table with a few other no-cook tapas dishes including: roasted artichokes, fresh anchovies, mild noceralla olives, ripe tomatoes, sliced Manchego, and jamón ibérico de bellota.

Altogether, an entirely heavenly Spanish spread. And a huge thanks to Matt who cooked it all this evening.

Afiyet olsun.