(14/20) Overly extensive menu promises a lot and (expensively) delivers much less.
Seated in a boutique hotel towards the lower end of the once-painfully-hip-now-painfully-expensive Amsterdam neighbourhood of the Pijp, Izakaya serves up small plates of Japanese/South American fusion to tourists and (wealthy) locals, alongside cocktails and live DJs.
A review of the astonishingly good restaurant Kadeau in Copenhagen
Legina Auzoa, S/N, 48195 Larrabetzu, Bizkaia, Spain +34 94 455 88 66 http://www.azurmendi.biz 3 Michelin stars since 2012 1 in Europe : Opinionated About Dining 16 : World’s 50 Best Restaurants 1st Visit: Lunch Saturday 11th November 2016 As close to perfect as I can ever expect a restaurant to get : 19.75/20 Travelling along the motorway some way between Bilbao and San Sebastiaan, Restaurant Azurmendi appears in the distance, a vision in glass and steel, high up on a hill and jutting out over the Autumnal Basque countryside, looking half greenhouse, half minimalist Hollywood Hills mansion. The restaurant itself hasn’t even been there that long to have soared to the giddy heights of 3 Michelin stars, best restaurant in Europe on the OAD list, 16th on the worlds 50 best list and winner of the 2014 Sustainable Restaurant Prize. Indeed such is the reputation that chef Eneko Atza, trained at Martin Berasategui and Murgaritz, and still early in his 30s, has built in such a short time, that taxi drivers, even if you aren’t on …
A colourful and delicious dish which can easily be adjusted for vegetarians without losing any of the fun Really this is more about the carrot rather than the duck so, like much of my cooking (which I often need to adapt for my vegetarian wife), it works perfectly well either way just by adjusting quantities of pasta, substituting goats cheese for the protein, and of course adding a flower! The underlying sweet and buttery carrot puree gives a solid base on which the toasted crunch of hazelnut and the beetroot tuile sit, with sharpness from the pickled ribbons of carrot, earthiness from the burnt leek, and rich umami from the duck (or cheese if substituting). This is the first time I’ve tried to make this little biscuit, which is really for decoration as much as anything else, but is perfectly delicious too! Ingredients (Meaty/Vegetarian) As usual I forgo exact quantities – use what feels right to you, have fun, and see what happens! Duck breast / Fresh goats cheese Carrots Leak Beetroot, flour and oil …
A satisfying and relatively straight-forward vegetarian dish of mushrooms and pastry, with a rich chive cream balanced by the tart earthy kick of lightly pickled beetroot. Perfect for an autumnal lunch, and easy to both scale-up and pre-prepare, so ideal for stress-free entertaining. Ingredients Chanterelles of similar seasonal mushroom Goats cheese Chives, garlic and capers Pre-rolled puff pastry Beetroot Salad leaves for garnish Method Really the most challenging part of this dish is the construction of the pastry box, but mastering this itself only really requires a quick measurement. Once you have decided how long you would like the base (I recommend 4 inches or so), it is simply a matter of cutting two thin ends of the same length as the short edge of the box, and two further longer sides which should be slightly shorter than the long edge to account for the corner overlap. (I originally planned to have a top to the box so you also see two lids in the picture). Bake in a pre-warmed oven at 200c/392f for around 20 mins or …
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