I have never eaten at Harvey Nichols Bar and Brasserie before, but last week I went for lunch there on both Thursday and Friday. If you read my previous blog post, you will already be aware that on the Thursday, I was treated to lunch there by a very special friend and had been really pleased with the service and cuisine. Well, Friday was my husband’s birthday, so after such a favourable experience the day before, we decided that it was definitely worth returning.
Manchester’s Harvey Nichols Bar and Brasserie is situated on the top floor and there are great views of the street and shops outside & below. I wanted to share those views with you, which is why so many of my food photographs for this blog post are framed against the huge Harvey Nichols window.
There is a familiarity, especially in the North but also across the UK, with sitting inside a warmly lit room, while observing a brooding and sometimes stormy grey blue sky outside. I personally find that experience comforting – I like the rain and stormy weather anyway, even being out in it, but for me there is something lulling and quietening about your proximity yet protection from the foreboding gloom. And it is surely enhanced if you have something hot and nourishing to eat in your possession.
For most of our meal, the sky was as it is depicted in my photo, but from our sheltered viewpoint, it only served as a perfect backdrop to the glistening lights and digital signs reflecting in the rainy streets below.
If you look carefully, you may also notice that the right hand side of the sky in my Rice Pudding Dim Sum feature image is showing a reflection of a crane. I could have easily photoshopped this out, but if you go into Manchester now, it is very evident that there is a lot of construction work going on, which for those of us who are Mancunian, is exciting. So…I left it in.
This is what we ate.
For our starter, we shared a Baked Camembert with apricot, honey and ale chutney and a variety of breads. I have to admit, baked Camembert is one of my favourite things.
Here is another picture of our Baked Camembert, but again with a view of the street and buildings outside.
Next we chose to have the same main course, which was Ox Cheek with truffled celeriac puree, glazed parsnips and straw potatoes.
Oliver my husband had red wine and I had a lovely Bramble cocktail, which was really fresh & fruity. It was more of a natural delicate pink rather than the punchy day glo red in my picture – I got a little carried away with the curves feature on my Photoshop software! I just think it looks so pretty!
And we finished with Rice Pudding Dim Sum with Rhubarb & Lemongrass as shown at the top and it was absolutely scrumptious. All in all an excellent meal. When we first arrived I had mentioned to the delightful Harvey Nichols staff that it was my husband’s birthday and for a surprise at the end of our meal, they brought over this lovely birthday plate. Thank you so much Harvey Nichols!
Shambles Square, one of the views from Harvey Nichols top floor Bar and Brasserie in Manchester.
Hi Alison
Your photos are stunning, as was the food, as I was ther on Wednesday and ate the same delicious food. I am trying to work out how to make the rice pudding with rhubarb, which my husband had. Was the dim sum made using filo pastry?
Hello Susie,
Thank you so much for your lovely comments, I am very appreciative. Please forgive me for not getting back to you this morning – I have been away from home & can’t easily access my Disqus account via my phone.
That’s amazing that you were at Harvey Nichols on Wednesday and ate the same food! Regarding the Rice Pudding, I agree with you, the Dim Sum was definitely made of filo pastry.
If I was going to recreate the dish, I would poach 500grams fresh, trimmed and chopped rhubarb in a baking dish in a low oven, at say approximately 130oC, with about…. 110 grams caster sugar and 4-5 tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of food grade orange oil, or 4-5 tablespoons of orange juice. I would poach it for about an hour and a half, but checking after 45 minutes and making sure to stir the rhubarb only very gently at the beginning of the cooking time and again half way through. I would probably add a star anise to the poaching pan as well and about a quarter teaspoon ground ginger, to add an oriental flavour.
I would normally only use 2-3 tablespoons poaching liquid (plus the 110 grams sugar), because if the rhubarb was young, that is all it would need to cook without turning into a mush. However the Harvey Nichols Rice Pudding Dim Sum is served with quite a bit of poaching liquid/syrup and so… for the purpose of accurately replicating it, I am thinking you would need to add more.
To make the pudding rice, I would suggest using Nigella Lawson’s ‘Stovetop Rice Pudding For Emergencies’ recipe which can be found in her Nigella Bites cookbook. You could use a traditional recipe for this, but I think the exceptionally creamy & slightly caramelised result you get with her stovetop recipe, would add depth and contrast to the fresh, clean, tang of the fruit, the syrupy aromatic juices and the crispy thinness of the filo dim sum.
I’m not sure if that’s any help, but that is more or less how I would do it.
Please let me know how you get on?
Thank you so much again,
Alison
Hello Susie! Thank you so much for your lovely comments. I have tried to reply to you last night, but for some reasons my reply is showing in the comments moderation facility on my website, but not showing on here. Please bear with me as I try to repost. My original reply was sent via my blog dashboard, but I’m replying now via my Disqus account, so I may simply rewrite my reply and post via Disqus. Please bear with me, I have a very busy day today, but hopefully will be able to reply properly this evening. Thank you so much again
Alison :))
Hello again Susie!
Thank you so much again for your lovely comments, I really appreciate it.
That’s amazing that you were at Harvey Nichols on Wednesday and ate the same food! Regarding the Rice Pudding, I agree with you that the Dim Sum was definitely made of filo pastry.
If I was going to try and recreate the dish, I would poach 500 grams fresh, trimmed and chopped rhubarb in a baking dish in a low oven at say approximately 130oC with about…110 grams caster sugar & 4-5 tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of food grade orange oil, or just 4-5 tablespoons of orange juice (with no orange oil). I would poach it for about an hour & a half, but checking the whole concoction isn’t drying up after 45 minutes and making sure to stir the rhubarb only very gently at the beginning of the cooking process & again half way through.
I would probably add a star anise to the poaching liquid as well and a quarter teaspoon dried ground ginger, to add an oriental flavour.
I would normally only use 2-3 tablespoons of poaching liquid (plus the 110 grams sugar) , because if the rhubarb was young, that is all it would need to get the juices flowing & cook without turning into a mush. However, the Harvey Nichols Rice Pudding Dim Sum is served with quite a bit of poaching liquid/syrup and so… for the purpose of accurately replicating it, I am thinking you would need to add more.
To make the pudding rice, I would suggest using Nigella Lawson’s ‘Stovetop Rice Pudding For Emergencies’ recipe, which can be found in her Nigella Bites cookbook. You could use a traditional recipe for this, but I think the exceptionally creamy & slightly caramel-ly result you get with her stovetop recipe would add depth and contrast to the fresh, clean tang of the fruit, the syrupy aromatic juices & the crispy thinness of the filo dim sum.
I’m not sure if that is any help. I haven’t spoken to any of the Harvey Nichols staff or any representative of their company, this is simply more or less how I would do it, if I was going to try to recreate their exceedingly delicious pudding.
Please let me know how you get on?
Thank you so much
Alison
Hi Alison
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
So!
I had such a happy day yesterday in the kitchen, deconstructing the recipe in my head. I used wonton wrappers, which are very similar to filo and added two bashed up stalks of lemon grass and lime zest to the rice pudding, which gave a great flavour. I like your idea of adding star anise to the rhubarb compote and will try that next time. I did use orange zest which brought the rhubarb to life. I also tried deep frying the dim sum then also tried spraying them in one calorie spray and baking and I was actually quite surprised at how good the baked variety turned out (which isn’t like me, as I go for full fat everything!). It turned out really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed making it.
Love your blog and look forward to reading more of your posts. Thanks again X
Hi Susie,
It’s a pleasure, I”m really delighted to have someone to share culinary notes with.
It sounds like you had a very happy day in the kitchen indeed!
I’m really interested to hear about the wonton wrappers, I didn’t know that you could get those, so I assumed that Harvey Nichols had used filo pastry, but I did wonder how they had achieved softness around the rice pudding bundles, as well as the characteristic crispness at the edges of the wonton twists. Now I know!
Also, I realised when reading how you had deconstructed the recipe, that I had completely forgotten that Harvey Nichols had used lemongrass – even though it is in the title; I am woefully forgetful at the moment!!
I think putting the bashed lemongrass stalks into your rice pudding mixture, as opposed to the compote, is a really excellent idea – I can imagine how good the flavour must have been. And… great to hear how successful your one calorie sprayed, oven cooked dim sum were.
Like you I don’t really go in for low fat anything normally (I feel it is a dietary false economy), but agree that as an alternative to deep frying, it absolutely has to be tried! Actually, I am thinking of putting a section on my blog soon, which explains my approach to low fat/full fat, and especially as I am about to blog a recipe in the next 2-3 weeks where I have both full fat and unusually for me too, a low fat version of a product to recommend.
Thank you so much again Susie, for your encouraging words re my blog, and for sharing your thoughts/success with our mutually admired dessert – I’m grateful! I would love to hear about any other recipes you have created/tried. Do you blog your culinary exploits? If so , I would love to follow your blog too.
Kind regards
Alison Xx