The Modern Menu: chef Nicholas Balfe makes sea trout crudo with peas, horseradish and ponzu at Levan in Peckham
At Salon, a relaxed eatery occupying a former hair salon in Brixton market, chef Nicholas Balfe has served up crowd-forming brunches, inventive bar snacks and casual evening tasting menus since 2012. A next-door wine shop has sprung up since then and, in 2018, a new venture, Levan in Peckham, opened on Blenheim Grove.
The second incarnation of Nicholas’ no-pomp approach to serving European fare bills itself as ‘an all-day bar and dining space’ where a quick breakfast could take the form of a cinnamon brioche bun, while dinner could include several sharing plates, washed down with a drop from the natural-focused wine selection.
In our series ‘The Modern Menu’ we’re asking some of our favourite chefs for their take on home cooking, getting their tips and culinary tricks, while also tapping them for a dish that can be made at home. Here, Nicholas recalls how growing up with a baker dad informed his decision to become a chef, tells us what he likes to make on the weekend and shares a recipe for a summery sea trout crudo with peas, horseradish and ponzu.
Nicholas, what were your formative food experiences?
Nicholas: “I’ve was surrounded by good food growing up. My dad’s always cooked and was a baker until he retired. And my mum cooked as well, so I’ve always been exposed to interesting food and different flavours, and I don’t remember ever being fussy. In fact, I don’t remember ever not eating anything throughout the whole of my life.
“The first ten years of my childhood were spent in Dorset, and then we moved to Yorkshire, where I lived until going to university. We were a family who ate at home, rather than going out, and my mum would make meals during the week, while my dad would cook more elaborate stuff at the weekends.
“I remember lots of country-style cooking and seafood dishes. We used to go fishing for mackerel off Weymouth Pier, we’d pick elderflower in the summer and my parents had a back garden where we grew a few things, like gooseberries and some rhubarb. Good ingredients and seasonal produce were always on my radar before I was aware of that idea as being a thing that would drive food trends or anything like that.
“My dad worked in a really boring administrative job for many years and then got made redundant when he was in his early fifties. He went back to pursue his first love, which was cooking, retraining as a baker aged 52, then running a bakery for ten years before retiring. He did an amazing job, and I remember helping him, getting up at 3am, driving for 45 minutes to get the ovens on, and opening the doors at 7am. On a normal day, he didn’t finish until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. It was incredible hard work, but it probably drove me in some way to want to work in restaurants.”
What else inspired you to get into cooking professionally?
Nicholas: “Before I went to university and during my studies I worked part-time in restaurants, just to earn a bit of money. When I left university, I got a normal office job, which didn’t really suit me that well. After a couple of years of doing that I quit and went back to cooking.
“I remember I used to pour over cookbooks and read them almost like they were novels, sitting in bed going through things like the River Cafe book, which was really inspiring. To think that I would have been seven years old when their first book came out, when you couldn’t go to the supermarket and buy cavolo nero, or Datterini tomatoes, it shows you how way ahead of their time they were.
“Also, I think the restaurant scene back then celebrated pernickety haute cuisine, that fine dining crap, which now has become almost obsolete. So they were really trailblazing, along with people like St. John and the generation that followed, which was about a much more pared-back way of cooking and eating.
“But it has also influenced whole swathes of home cooks, who want to emulate what they’ve read, or eaten. It’s all rooted in tradition and simple ideas like seasonality and a balance of not only flavours but how nothing is overly ostentatious on the plate. None of those ways of cooking are about big, grand ideas – it’s just good food that’s delicious to eat.”
Have you always found the time to cook at home?
Nicholas: “I’ve definitely been through periods in my professional career when I have barely cooked at home at all. Three or four years ago, when I was really busy with running Salon, the level of input that was required meant I was basically working all hours, and I had very little time to do anything at home other than sleep and, if I was lucky, do my washing. If you had opened my fridge at that time you would have seen a pot of hummus and half a bottle of wine.”
And now?
Nicholas: “Now, things are very different. One, I’m a bit older and I move a bit slower! Two, I have an amazing team at both restaurants that mean they can run the two businesses so, while I’m very much involved, I’m not on the front line every single day.
“Most importantly, I now have a family with my partner, so cooking at home is a really crucial part of the week. The time we spend cooking together at home are such focal points to the week.
“We make an event of eating together, not in a fancy way – we would never go to any big trouble – but it’s more about planning what we’re going to eat the day before and between us we make sure we source good ingredients, whether that’s going to the fishmonger or going to the farmers market.”
What’s your home kitchen setup?
Nicholas: “I live in Haggerston now, after spending six or seven years living in south London. My kitchen is pretty basic, and we don’t do anything fancy in there. We were chatting last night actually, because we had some family over for dinner and our oven was at capacity. We did a sort of Greek feast, and my partner did this amazing potato gratin made with lots of olive oil, garlic and oregano, then we made tzatziki, roast chicken, Greek salad and slow-cooked cannellini beans, also with oregano and fresh tomato and shredded red onion. The oven was full, so we think it’s time to think about upgrading. But, actually, we get by, and we both cook a lot – although it’s relatively simple, humble food.
“We’ve got some bits of equipment, like a food processor and things like that, so we can bake cakes, but we never do anything technical – that would feel like work. I don’t go home and make ice cream or purees, for example! It’s just well-seasoned, nicely cooked fish, meat and vegetables.”
How often do you eat out?
Nicholas: “Probably once a week. This weekend we ate out at a place called Ombra in Hackney, but we try to mix it up. I try to go to places that specialise, like having Thai food, or Turkish, which I love, especially salty lamb chops.
“I think it’s important for chefs to eat out as it’s great for inspiration and broadening the palette. It’s good to know what other people are doing, not to copy but just to see what else is happening in the industry.
What’s your favourite thing to eat at the end of a shift?
Nicholas: “I’ve been trying to cut down on what I eat at work. As I’ve got older, I’ve noticed my metabolism is slowing down, and if I eat at the end of service I wake up feeling a bit chubby!
“Having said that, at the end of a night, if there’s ever some leftover pies we make here, I have been known to have a slice of the potato and vacherin cheese one, which certainly isn’t slimming.
“Sometimes at the end of the night at Salon, if we’ve got a bit of meat that we can cook off we’ll make sandwiches with the focaccia we make ourselves. At the moment we have lamb on the menu so we’ll make roast lamb with salsa verde, aioli, pickles and mustard leaves, all in toasted focaccia… delicious.”
Nicholas’ recipe for sea trout crudo with peas, horseradish and ponzu
“This is chalk stream trout, marinated in horseradish and a ponzu dressing, so lots of bright summery flavours. I love ponzu for its bright, vibrant acidity, it’s almost like a flavour enhancer in that it’s got all that citrus and tamari, which livens up flavours and it gives a backbone umami flavour, without being heavy.
“Source the freshest sea trout you can find – it will be available in good fishmongers in the summer months – June, July and August. Otherwise, salmon is a good alternative. The ‘ponzu’ dressing is a very simplified version of the real thing, which will be easy to prepare at home.”
Serves four people as a starter.
For the ponzu dressing
1 tsp white miso paste
2 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp mirin
For the sea trout crudo
200g fresh peas in the pod (will yield about 150g of peas)
180g very fresh sea trout fillet, all skin and bones removed
A small piece of fresh horseradish
12g sea salt
A handful of pea shoots, or other green shoots or herbs, such as baby watercress
A few nasturtium and/or pea flowers (optional)
A drizzle of olive oil
First, make the ponzu. Add the white miso to a mixing bowl, and gradually whisk in the tamari until there are no lumps. Whisk in the other ingredients and check the seasoning. It should be generously sharp with a strong umami undercurrent.
Next, pod the peas and blanch for two minutes in salted boiling water before draining and plunging into iced water. Drain once the peas are completely cool and set aside.
Finally, prepare the fish by dicing the flesh into 1.5cm cubes and transfer to a mixing bowl. Using a fine grater, grate the horseradish over the fish so all the pieces are covered. The more horseradish you use, the more of a kick the finished dish will have.
Season with the salt, then add two-thirds of the ponzu dressing and mix everything thoroughly. Allow the fish to marinade for 5 minutes.
Divide the fish between four bowls, adding some of the liquid as you go. Add the peas to the mixing bowl so they get coated in the sea trout and ponzu juices. Divide the peas between the four bowls. Gently dress the pea shoots in the remaining juices and place on top of peas and sea trout. Add nasturtium flower petals, if using. Drizzle each dish with a little olive oil and serve.
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