Shanghai Blues: A place for dim sum in London

One of the things that I miss most about Singapore, besides my family, is the weekly dim sum brunch that I used to have at either Crystal Jade or Lei Garden. Over the last seven months, I have been searching high and low for a good dim sum place and have always been vaguely disappointed by the various places that I've been to. These places include a michelin-starred place, some places in Bayswater that seem popular with the Asian crowd and several others here and there. Don't get me wrong, some of these were actually quite good and I would absolutely go again but I guess I've been looking for a place that would match up to what I could get back home.

About a month ago, while looking through some restaurant guides for a weekend brunch, I chanced upon Shanghai Blues, a modern Chinese restaurant in Holburn that also served dim sum. Most of the the reviews I read were favorable so I booked us a table, hoping that this would be the place that I was searching for.

Although I found the restuarant location to be slightly out of the way, my first impresions were positive. The decor is decidedly modern and although a little on the dark side, evokes a feel similar to that of E&O and Yauatcha. I was a little worried when I noticed the place to be fairly empty despite it being 12:30pm but took comfort in the fact that many of the diners that were there were Asian.

After being shown to our table, I started perusing the menu. The menu is fairly extensive and offers a mix of traditional Chinese dishes such as xiao long bao and har gow (shrimp dumplings), as well as more inventive creations such as barbecued chilean sea bass rolls. Since M and I were both longing for the flavours we used to get back in Singapore, our order consisted of mostly traditional dim sum offerings including xiao long bao (shanghai soup dumplings), shanghai chilli dumplings, pan-fried turnip paste with XO sauce, cha siu bao, cheong fun (rice noodle rolls) and kai lan in oyster sauce.

The dishes arrived in fairly short order and soon we were tucking into the spread that lay before us. From the first bite, I was decidedly impressed. On the whole, the food was flavorful and tasted authentic. In particular, the xiao long bao was exquisite - probably the best I've had in London thus far. The skin was not too thick, which I've found that they often are here in London, and the soup inside was delicious and just the right temperature. The shanghai chilli dumplings, another favourite of ours in Singapore, were also yummy with the right amount of kick in its spice. I was further impressed when I had my first bite of the pan-fried turnip paste - it was even better than what I've had in the past in Singapore. While the turnip cake in Singapore tends to be of a fairly dense texture, the Shanghai Blues rendition had a crisp exterior with a meltingly soft interior. Not all was perfect, however. I was somewhat disappointed by the cheong fun - usually one of my favourite dim sum dishes - as I found the ratio of noodle to filling somewhat overpowering. All in all, though, Shanghai Blues definitely ranks as the best dim sum I've had to date in London.

I just returned for my second visit this past weekend (which is when I had the chance to take these pictures you see here) and had another good dining experience. This time I also got to try the aforementioned barbecued chilean sea bass rolls and the salted chicken and peanut congee. Again, both were delicious and I'll be having them again the next time I go. Is Shanghai Blues better than Crystal Jade back home? Probably not, but unless I find something better, Shanghai Blues is going to be my go-to dim sum place here in London!

Shanghai Blues
193-197 High Holborn
WC1V 7BD
0207 404 1668/9

A grown up chicken pot pie

I always find it challenging to use all the ingredients in my fridge before they go bad, so whenever I'm planning what to cook, I always try to find recipes that will use as much of the stuff that I currently have and that requires minimal new purchases. Today was no different. The most important thing that I wanted to use was some chicken stock that I spent four and a half hours making on Saturday night. Several options came to mind immediately. I could make a mushroom risotto perhaps, or maybe a chicken noodle soup or maybe chicken pot pie, which I have to admit I really like.

With these options in mind, I started searching on Epicurious. Always a good option when I don't have access to my cookbooks. After surfing for a few minutes, I came across the perfect recipe: Chicken and vegetable pot pies with cream cheese crust. Now for those of you turning up your noses because you think of chicken pot pies as using frozen peas and carrots, this one is different. Instead of peas and carrots, it uses more sophisticated ingredients such as sundried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms. I definitely wanted to see if this grown-up twist on a childhood favourite would live up to the original. Besides, I had a tub of cream cheese in my fridge that I needed to finish.

Prep for the dish was not all that involved seeing that I had already completed the hard part - the stock. All it required was chopping of some ingredients and using the food processor to whip the dough together. After sauteing the onions, peppers and shiitake mushrooms, I was ready to make the filling. That was also a breeze and soon I was assembling my pot pie and ready to put it in the oven.

The hardest part I find (as is always the case when I'm baking) is waiting for it to finish. I guess I like instant gratification. Thankfully, M came home at this time and chatting with him make the time fly by. Before I knew it, it was done!

So, was it worth it? Absolutely! M and I both loved it and it'll definitely be going into our dinner rotation.

A healthier kind of baking

M, my fiancé of 2 weeks :), has been the lucky (or unlucky) recipient of much of my efforts in the kitchen - cookies, muffins, ice cream, etc. Since I bake at least once a week, our waistlines are starting to show the effects. M is always urging me to invent baked goodies that are yummy and have NO calories - he swears that will make us millionaires...

Since I have yet to come up with our golden ticket to a life of luxury, last week I decided to bake something that we could indulge in without guilt - bread! Having not had much experience with bread baking and having read so much about the phenomenon of no-knead bread, I decided that this was what I was going to begin my bread baking experiments with.

Although it requires some planning, since the recipe calls for a total of 20 hours of resting time, it couldn't have been simpler. Mind bogglingly simple in fact! To make it even healthier, I made it with whole wheat flour and it turned out great. I should know - M ate the whole loaf!

As for that zero calorie baked wonder, I'm working on it. I swear.

No-knead bread
Adapted from Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups whole wheat flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Then add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended. The dough will be shaggy and sticky, don't worry about this. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature (~70 degrees).

After 12-18 hours, check the dough. It is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Sprinkle the dough with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for another 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal. Put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

I did it!

Start a food blog that is. I have debating whether to start blogging about my baking and cooking escapades for ages and have always fallen back on the age old excuse "I'm not going to have enough time." I'm still not sure how much time I will be able to devote to this but I'll take it one step at a time. I have gotten so much pleasure from reading other people's food blogs, Kuidaore, Chubby Hubby and Dessert First, to name just a new, that I finally decided to bite the bullet. I have no illusions that I'll garner as wide an audience as they have but the fun for me will come from having an excuse to bake / cook more often and the opportunity to share my escapades with friends, family and whomever else wants to read about them.

So you're probably wondering "Who is this girl anyway?" Well, I think the name of my blog says it all - I'm just a girl with an enormous passion for food! I am also a baking hobbyist, something I try to indulge in as often as I can. I did a basic patisserie certificate at Cordon Bleu in Paris but I'm still trying to improve my skills everyday! In between my adventures in baking, I dabble in cooking since you can't eat sweets everyday, or so I've been told. To top this all off, I love trying new restaurants and what better place to do that than in London, my home of about 6 months now!

Before I sign off, I thought I'd share with you a picture of a crepe cake (a la Lady M's cafe in NYC) that I made recently. I hope to be back soon with my first real post!