PRESS
by Nick Harman - Monday February 6, 2012 10:30 am26 D'Arblay St, W1F 8EP copita.co.uk
Packed in the evenings, Copita is currently nicely calm at lunch.Executive chef James Knight's menu changes pretty much all the time, so your mileage may vary, but it always stays sensibly short and offers some intriguing options. Prices are low but it’s easy to run up a bill through quantity when dishes are this good.I love jamon but I fancy a change and the morcilla de bellotta does the trick. Unlike Burgos morcilla it’s not staunchly stolid with rice; instead it has globs of bellotta fat translucently winking inside it and almost dissolves in the heat of my fingers. Gloriously good stuff.Mopping up fat with the bread we order a round of various things almost at random. An ajo blanco with beetroot is hard to share, being a virtual liquid but who wants to share? It is a remarkable bowl of flavour and texture and it is quite sublimely tasty. Too much would be too much though as it has an intensity that might sit badly on the stomach, a dish best taken in small quantities.But then tapas are of course small; those people who have complained about Copita portion size are surely confusing tapas with raciones? Our quite large anchovy fillet with broad bean ice cream we fight over like seagulls and it’s gone in a few pecks. Slightly too salty it was nonetheless another victory for the Spanish crew and the ice cream was straight out of the modern tapas cookbook, but without being silly or fussy.
Review of The Lansdowne, Primrose HillAn early frontrunner among London's gastro pubs,
this Primrose Hill fixture is still a class act, delivering good cheer and good food in a well-used, open-plan setting of mismatched wooden furniture. You can eat in the bar or plump for the more relaxed atmosphere of the upstairs restaurant.The blackboard menu makes fashionable reading, bringing on board the likes of red onion and goats' cheese risotto perked up with garlic leaves, and seared salmon with baby leeks and Jersey Royals, as well as more familiar grilled ribeye steak with aïoli, watercress and chips. To conclude proceedings, there are desserts like apricot tart, pannacotta with strawberry coulis or Greek yoghurt bavarois.The pub has some decent real ales on tap, some unusual organic tipples and plenty of well-chosen wines by the glass.Also featured in: AA Guide.
James Knight's recipe for Christmas leftovers
As part of our exclusive series, chef James Knight divulges his favourite post-Christmas recipe: Brussels sprouts with bacon and apple
By James Knight, Executive Chef at COPITA, London
6:20PM GMT 22 Dec 2011
Comments
This is good with all cold white beast and bird, so ideal with any leftover meat - lightly spiced and cut through with cider vinegar and apple juice, this makes enough for approximately four.
Stuff
• Half a good savoy cabbage, one hispi or two bunches cavalo Nero
• 150 grams pancetta or fatty fatty bacon, chop into smallish pieces
• Bit of chilli chopped
• 50 grams butter
• Sprig of rosemary leaves removed and chopped
• Sprinkle of cumin powder
• Teaspoon of cider vinegar
• A slug of apple juice up too how good you want it cheap and cheerful is good
Method
• Step one large pan of salted boiling water
• Step two if using savoy cut the half in four, hispi the same and cavolo remove from stem and keep the leaves
• Step three cabbage etc to boiling water, lid it
• Step four when soft remove and drain cabbage etc
• Step five melt butter in too a frying pan large enough to fit the cabbage( do batches if you have too and obviously use only half the ingredients) add pancetta/ bacon wait till its brownish add the rosemary when you notice a piney aroma add chilli, vinegar apple juice and half the cumin. Now place the drained cabbage in the pan, turn up the heat, wait three minutes turn and it should be slightly golden , do other side, put on serving plate and sprinkle rest of cumin.
James Knight is Executive Chef at COPITA, 26-27 D'Arblay Street London W1F 8EP
http://blackfootrestaurant.co.uk/press/
Fashions change in how we want to eat, life moves on, malt vinegar loses its pre-eminence as a sharpener, but there is succour to be found in the new venture at this address. Allegra McEvedy and Tom Ward, partners in the observance of the pig that is Blackfoot and both once involved with the Leon chain, have kept some of the look of Clarks — importantly its weathered white tiling for which you would now pay a premium. They have also introduced into a street replete with admirable independent restaurants a cleverly constructed, reasonably priced mix of indulgence and rigour. Happily the chef is James Knight, formerly at the ebullient tapas bar Copita.
http://www.copita.co.uk/reviews/
A gin and tonic, served in the kind of goldfish-bowl-sized goblets you get in the finest (read: deadliest) Spanish bars and a stool looking out on to Soho, with the promise of a steady stream of gorgeousness from kitchen head honcho James Knight’s stoves. I am so there.
Plancha-ed meat – Ibérico pork pluma served fashionably rare, maybe; or rosy petals of properly hung venison with Jerusalem artichoke purée – is a real strength. A dish that could encapsulate the whole ethos is this one: tiny rounds of rabbit with a topping of buttery hollandaise. There are little chunks of fresh, sweet scallop here and there, plus crisp, frazzled pancetta. It’s sophisticated, creative, not hidebound by any notions of authenticity – and totally works. Yes, the servings are tapas-teeny. The only generous serving is of morcilla de bellota, not mulchy, cooked black pudding, but a cold, slicing blood sausage; ironically, so rich, fatty and highly flavoured we can’t finish it. But, oh my, I’ll cross town happily for more of their truffled pea croquetas.
Rotorino – view the menu
Homegirl London
February 12, 2015
Eats
Chef Stevie Parle and Head Chef James Knight have created a selection of southern Italian simple home cooked dishes. Stevie’s and James's experience includes the River Café and Moro and much of his inspiration comes from his extensive travelling. The menu is split into three main sections called First, Second and Third. We did find this a little confusing but after a bit of studying and some explanation it all became quite clear. My friend was a bit worried about there being enough veggie options for me but I found plenty to keep me content!