Ox heart stew

It be proper hearty!

Lots of people eat steak these days but most of them neglect other parts of the cow, such as the offal. It could be dismissed as awful, but offal is actually tasty and people need to get over their phobia of such things. So, this is the first post of many to come about the offal side of life.

Ox heart is huge and cheap. I bought mine for £5 from the local butcher and they were perplexed that someone asked for heart. I did initially want lamb's heart as they fry rather nicely, but they only had ox heart in stock.

That's what an ox heart looks like. Not that dissimilar to your own heart, just a lot bigger. To prepare the heart you want to rinse it first, washing out the ventricles etc., because congealed blood isn't that nice (unless it's in a black pudding). Then you want to grab a sharp knife and cube the heart. Be sure to leave the fat on as it'll make the stew rich in taste, but if you come across any sinew you want to cut this out and discard. It gets tough in the cooking process.

 Half way done and the heart will look like this. Finish off the cubing process.

Complete cubed ox heart in a slow cooker. If you've cooked a stew before you can do what you want to finish it off. If you haven't cooked a stew before, pay attention.

Dust the heart with flour as this will help the sauce thicken up and you'll have a nice jus. If you want a gravy at the end, you'll have to take the jus and add a cornflour paste to get that sort of thickness.
Add some vegetables. What you put in is entirely up to you. For this I went simple with potatoes, onion and carrots.
Add some stock (beef, chicken or vegetable is fine) and season to taste. Cook slowly for a good few hours and you'll be the proud owner of one of the most delicious tasting stews there is. Also suitable for freezing.

Karpo

On Tuesday (30/07//2013) evening I was taken by my lovely friend Kay to this unassuming restaurant on the Euston Road, opposite Kings Cross. The style of the restaurant is seasonal French cuisine. When Kay told me about this place I was rather excited. I like French cuisine as it is largely simple but tastes heavenly.

We entered and were shown to our table, which was two seats on the end of a large table. At the opposite end were another pair of diners. We spent some time mulling over the options - should we go for a starter and main or just focus on the main and dessert - we finally settled on main and dessert. Kay went for the Linguine of girolles, peas and ricotta. I went for the Herdwick lamb, charred aubergines, olive and salted courgettes. We were asked if we understood our choices, which I found rather bizarre as I was having a particular breed of sheep. There wasn't anything to misunderstand. Our food took about 20 mins to arrive due to the fact that we weren't having starters.

My lamb was exquisite. A fillet of lamb, with a lamb kebab and an aubergine and olive mash decorated with thin slices of salted courgette. The fillet was tender, moist and succulent. But the flavours were mind boggling. There was a lot going on, not too much, but just enough to excite the taste buds and want more. Apparently I had a pained look on my face but I was trying my hardest to disseminate all the flavours that were going on.

I was lucky enough to also have a taste of Kay's linguine and it was good. No, it was great! Bold, easy flavours hitting every taste receptor. It was vibrant.

Dessert was an easier choice and went for the yoghurt, raspberries and cream tea. Little did I know at the time that it also came with miniature meringues, popping candy and small chunks of jelly. It was simple and a taste explosion, aided by the popping candy.

During our dining experience, Kay and I were talking about the food but also how empty the restaurant was. It could be that not many people fancy going for food in Kings Cross on a Tuesday evening or it could be that on the outside Karpo looks like a nightclub and an uninviting one at that. The styling of the building has made it unappealing. The interior is dark, perhaps to give a more intimate vibe, but I feel that it would be better off being lighter with a more rustic French feel and to show off the marvellous living wall which could be easily missed due to the dark lighting.

Marks
Food: 10/10
I gave Karpo top marks because I could not fault the food. It was excellent and used ingredients that were, more or less, locally sourced and seasonal.
Service: 8/10
I felt at times that the staff were a bit too condescending because we weren't "trendy" enough for the establishment.
Atmosphere: 5/10
It could've been much better and I've addressed this further up the page.
Overall: 8/10

Price: average price of a main meal is £15 and a dessert is about £5