A weekend in the Tarn...

 This post is a little different from my normal ( baking related) one...because I wanted to tell you about a wonderful long weekend we went on recently, to South West France on the edge of the Pyrenees...a break with a difference because it included a wonderful cooking course....

 I've followed Robin Ellis' blog for a few years now. He is an actor, most famous for playing Ross Poldark...the lead in the original 1970's series 'Poldark', based on the addictive series of books by Winston Graham. He and his wife, Meredith, moved permanently to France about 15 years ago and they live in an idyllic former presbytery in a tiny hamlet just outside the ancient hilltop village of Lautrec. As well as continuing to act (he has a part in the current Poldark series, although he is a crusty and cold-hearted judge this time around...leaving the dashing Captain Poldark role to Aidan Turner) he also writes delicious cookbooks and runs these lovely courses in healthy Mediterranean cookery for small groups a few times a year...

 I have to confess here that I wasn't the one taking this course...I do quite enough cooking, as you can appreciate! But Paul loves to cook and was really looking forward to expanding his repertoire! I just went along for some relaxation, the French countryside and to make new friends...
The weekend started well (we were so lucky with the weather, too...) We met everyone else on the course under this vine arbour, drank tea, ate cake and got to know a little about everyone. The courses are deliberately small and manageable..8 cooks on ours, with 3 of us along as spectators...so everyone can participate easily.

 

 The venue for the course...and our home for the weekend...was the idyllic La Terrasse de Lautrec (do visit their website...English translation at the top...you will see just how gorgeous it really is!)

 The attached 'gite' was where all the cooking tuition - and much of the eating - happened. Although I had initially imagined lounging around for the weekend, it was actually much more fun to be around the 'Bravehearts' (as Robin dubs his band of cooks) ...laying the table for our communal lunches and dinners...chatting with Meredith (a beautiful, serene woman whom it is a joy to know) and smelling the delicious fragrances of garlic and olive oil drifting from the kitchen...

 The classes are very 'hands-on' with everyone contributing to the meal...

 ...the aprons are given out at the start of the weekend, and taken home as a lovely reminder (Paul's was stained with tomatoes and peppers..but this just makes it more special!)

 The food is simple, but created from the finest local ingredients cooked 'just so' to bring out the beauty of them...

 As many of you will know, eggs are my nemesis (in a recognisably 'eggy' form) but I loved this frittata because it was so full of sweet red onions and fresh garden herbs...delicious!

 We also visited markets....the little one in Lautrec on the Friday morning...

 and the much larger one in nearby Castres on Saturday morning. I love any food markets...great for people watching as well as produce..and these were no exception! Plus we had time for a wander around Castres too...visiting the magnificent cathedral and having a coffee in a cafe overlooking the market, soaking up the brilliant Autumn sunshine...

 All the meals were memorable...stuffed mackerel fillets with fennel and cucumber salads...full of dill and lemon...

 ...a starter of french beans, olives and tiny tomatoes with a beautiful garlicky dressing...

 In fact, garlic was a recurring theme of the weekend...Lautrec is the home of pink garlic (l'ail rose de Lautrec) which is renowned for the strength of its flavour...although it's not at all harsh, and strangely doesn't seem to cause the dreaded 'garlic breath' (although I may just have thought this because we all ate so much of it!) As part of the course, we visited a nearby garlic farm...

 These are the bulbs drying off before being planted for next year's crop...hanging up for the air to circulate, in time-honoured tradition!

 The garlic is everywhere here...tied into intricate trusses, which help to preserve the bulbs (and look lovely too!) The farm was a real working one...a hotchpotch of contented animals stared at us interlopers as we wandered around...beautiful cattle (Blonde Aquitaines) an inquisitive donkey, many chickens and this 'on guard' gentleman...

 who reminded me very much of the goose from 'War Horse',if you have seen the play, as he shepherded us around!

 Our favourite times, I think, were spent as a group...we all got on particularly well, with none of the tension you can sometimes find within a gathering of very different people. We were either American or British and I like to think that we made some new friends for life during the weekend...

 Shared meals were a joy - this was the fantastic spread created by the Bravehearts for our last lunch on the Sunday. We were lucky to be able to eat outside, with wine and laughter as accompaniments..

 All the food was paraded out proudly by the cooks, from the blue doors of the gite...

 I loved standing under the little kitchen window, hearing the murmur of Robin's melodious voice as he gently guided and instructed...

 One of the students, a lovely American lady who was celebrating a significant birthday with us, persuaded me to join her for a swim...how could I resist this gorgeous pool?!
And the village of Lautrec itself...with the influences of the Romans who were once here still visible...was captivating...

 Traces of the past everywhere...so unmistakably French, too!

 On clear days, you can see across to the Pyrenees from here, but those are the Black Mountains on the horizon...

 The medieval market place is very special...and the church has a breathtaking interior...

 I found it much less intimidating than many Catholic churches...much lighter and less forbidding, somehow!

 We loved these little clasps that held the wooden shutters back on many of the houses...tiny details make a place so special...

 And views...breathtaking and captivating wherever you turned!

 This is France, seen from our plane on the way home....au revoir, ma cherie!

 And the white cliffs of Dover...that have meant 'home' to so many returning to England (we were no exception!)

Our abiding memories of the weekend are of warmth and happiness...of the sun, of new tastes, of friends made, and of the welcome of our hosts Robin, Meredith, Simone and Dominique...it all added up to a very special time!



** More information on Robin's books and courses on his blog here....I believe the courses are already fully booked for next year, but there are sometimes cancellations so you may be lucky! And the books (a third will be published early in 2016) are highly recommended as a source of simple, tasty and healthy lunches and suppers...I use them both a lot! The courses are very friendly, informal and inclusive...even if you are a novice, you won't feel out of place!**

And the winner is...

....after a later surge of entries (thanks to all of you, I truly wish you could all have won!) I have just pulled a name from all the comments...not very scientific, I put them all into a bowl and picked one with my eyes shut! The winner of the fabulous Honey & Co - The Baking Book is:



GEORGIE!!!! Many congratulations, Georgie. I must admit that my heart did a little loop of joy when I opened the scrap of paper to find your name, as I know after recent events and traumas you are definitely due a piece of good luck! I will get it sent off to you and I really hope you enjoy it. Let us all know when it arrives!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Georgie, along with everyone else who owns this beautiful book, will now be able to recreate the cake above...which is a larger version (I doubled the quantities) of the Peach, Fennel Seed & Vanilla Mini Loaf Cakes in the book. This, along with many other delights, will be on the stall tomorrow at Aylesbury Farmer's Market. The forecast isn't great from lunchtime on, but the morning looks ok...so if you are in the vicinity, do pop down to see me and my fellow stallholders! We really love to see you! 9am - 2pm in the lower Market Square.

Hoping you have a wonderful week....x

Recipe for an August afternoon...& a giveaway!

 My newest acquisition in the vast library of cookbooks that threaten to take over our home is 'The Baking Book' from the fabulous Honey & Co . You may remember that I wrote about their first book 'Food from the Middle East'...and gave a copy away here too! Well, this one is just as good...it contains some wonderful recipes - not all sweet - and I've been having such fun with it in my (not too copious) free time! I wanted to share the cake I made yesterday with you. As usual, I tweaked the original recipe. NOT because there was anything at all wrong with it - but just because I was giving it away to my family, and I know what they like! The 'real' recipe for Coffee, Cardamom & Walnut Cake has a rich coffee cream icing as a filling and on top. Delightful as that sounds, I knew that this wouldn't go down too well with 'my lot' as they prefer things less creamy and more fruity. So I followed the recipe for the cake, but added fresh apricots and finished it simply with the syrup from the original and a sprinkle of toasted walnuts after baking. The perfect marriage of flavours for a sultry August afternoon.

The cake itself is not difficult to make and has no weird ingredients...the only technique that may be new to you is making the 'burnt butter' that adds a deep, nutty note to the batter. This isn't difficult either...you simply melt the butter over a low heat and then increase it slightly, 'cooking' the butter until it turns a rich brown. It will smell delicious...sort of caramelly & hazelnutty...and you'll notice little brown specks at the bottom of the pan. These are good! Don't leave it, though...or it WILL burn, and black is not the colour you need....
                                     
 ...it should look like the photo above, in fact! It will be really hot to start with, so it may help to make it first and then set it aside while you get the rest of the ingredients together.

Coffee, Cardamom & Walnut Cake with Fresh Apricots
Inspired by an original recipe from Itamar Srulovich & Sarit Packer from their book Honey & Co - The Baking Book 

For the cake batter:

330g icing sugar
120g ground almonds
130g self-raising flour
80g roasted walnuts (plus a few extra to garnish)
1 tsp ground coffee (I used ground espresso beans)
1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom
3 whole eggs
150g egg whites (from about 4 eggs)
140g burnt butter (see above!)
Approx 4-5 ripe apricots 

For the syrup:
2 tbsp honey (I used runny orange flower honey)
60g/ml water
50g caster sugar
a double espresso (or 60g/ml strong black coffee)

Preheat oven to 190c/170cfan/gas mark 5
Line a 9"/23cm square pan with baking parchment (or circular if you prefer!)

Stir the dry ingredients and nuts together in a large bowl, 


then add the eggs and egg whites and mix really well until smooth (I used my Kitchenaid for this) Pour in the warm melted butter (scrape in all the nutty brown bits too!) and stir carefully, then transfer to the prepared tin...

...break the apricots apart gently using your fingers, remove the stones and arrange in rough pieces lightly over the surface of the cake batter. Don't push them down, just lay them on top...

 Let the batter rest in the tin for about 10 minutes, then bake for about 35 minutes until set and golden brown...this may take a little longer depending on your oven. Meanwhile, bring the syrup ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan and remove from the heat. Once the cake comes out of the oven, brush the top generously with the syrup while still hot and let it absorb...

 ...sprinkle with the remaining toasted walnuts and allow to cool in the tin...

...before you dive in...(although it's lovely slightly warm, too...I'd eat it like that, with a big spoonful of labneh or creme fraiche...)

 Totally divine!

To celebrate this beautiful book, I'm giving away a copy to one of you loyal readers of this blog! 

All you need to do is leave me a comment on this post to qualify. I'll send it anywhere in the world, so don't worry that you'll miss out if you don't live in the UK. I'll make the draw two weeks from today, on Monday 24th August...good luck...and thanks for reading! Have a great week x

All-New Granola Bars

Firstly, my apologies for the lack of posts recently. My father died recently...expected, but very sudden at the end...and I found that amongst other things, the immediate grief really sapped my creativity. I've been ok just keeping things together...baking brownies as usual...keeping up with orders and even the Farmer's Market. But any new ideas just didn't seem to flow at all. Happily, this was a temporary state and I now feel more myself a couple of months on - so expect to see plenty of updates !

Granola/energy bars are one of those troublesome things to bake, I find. Not because they're difficult to make at all....throw a load of ingredients into a bowl, mix, bake and they always taste delicious! But cooking professionally is different. At home, no one minds if their cake disintegrates on the plate into a heap of crumbs...as long as it can still be scooped up and eaten, it's all good. But if you're buying that piece of cake, you expect it to look perfect all the way through - quite rightly, when you're spending good money on it. And here is where the problem lies. Flapjacks and granola-type bars are notorious for falling apart when cut and crumbling into an oaty heap. It's something I've battled and puzzled over for years!

Well, at last, I think I've found the way forward. I have done so much research on this topic and found  useful information in posts by Heidi Swanson on her fabulous blog 101 Cookbooks & Deb Perelman on hers, Smitten Kitchen (both are wonderful for so much more too...if you love cooking in general and have a few hours to spare, visit either or both and get lost in them!) These, together with my original and much tweaked recipe has given me All-New Granola Bars that are luscious, chewy, fresh-tasting and - most importantly - stay together when cut!! The secret is that I made the mistake of increasing the fat content, believing that this would stick the ingredients together. This is, in fact, what makes them crumble, so too much is fatal! Water is the magic ingredient...

The measurements are a bit of a combination at the moment...when they are standardised for the book I'm planning, they will be one or the other...but at the moment they are a combination of cups and metric (I have a plain metal set of US cups, which I'd really recommend you invest in if you love baking...they open up a whole new world, literally!) so do forgive me.

All-New Sugar Moon Granola Bars

1 & 2/3 cups porridge oats

1/3 cup oat flour (just whizz porridge oats in a food processor until they become a powder)

1/2 cup bran cereal (I use All Bran)

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

1 tsp ground cinnamon

50g pumpkin seeds

50g sunflower seeds

1/4 cup broken pecan pieces

3/4 cup whole almonds, roughly chopped (skin-on or blanched are both fine)

3/4 cup pitted dates, soaked in boiling water (I just use enough to cover them)

50g flaked coconut (you can use desiccated if that's all you can find, but the unsweetened flakes are in many supermarkets and give a more interesting texture)

1/2 cup rice malt syrup OR honey

1/4 cup soft brown sugar (you can omit this if you like...I find they are sweet enough without)

1 tbsp pure organic coconut oil

60g unsalted butter

2 tbsp water (I use the soaking water from the dates)

1 tsp pure vanilla powder, or natural extract

Line a 23cm/9"square baking tin with parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 170c/325f

In a large bowl, combine the oats, oatflour, bran cereal, salt and cinnamon.

Put the seeds, nuts and coconut flakes onto a large flat baking sheet and toast in the preheating oven for 10-15 minutes until starting to turn golden brown.You need to keep an eye on them to check they don't burn, and stir a few times to distribute the heat. Remove from the oven and add to the dry ingredients in the bowl.

Gently melt together the butter, coconut oil, syrup or honey & sugar - if using - either in a small saucepan over low heat or in a microwave. When the fat has melted, remove from the heat and pour over the dry ingredients. Add the drained dates and the water and mix really well.

 It should look something like this.....you can add another tablespoon of water if you don't feel it's damp enough...

 Tip into the prepared tin...

 Pack down well using a flexible spatula...

 and smooth the surface...

 Bake for approximately 30 minutes. The top should be golden brown and fairly firm to touch, but not have a 'dried out' feeling. Remove from the oven and leave to cool thoroughly in the tin. You can refrigerate once cool, to really firm them up. Remove from the tin using the parchment paper to help you and,with a sharp knife, cut into approximately 12 bars (or as many as you like!)

 Store in an airtight box in the fridge for best results...but anywhere cool will do. They'll keep for at least a week like this.

Brilliant for lunch boxes, picnics or - as my great friend Charlie does - as the ultimate running fuel!

Hope you enjoy them....thanks so much for reading, and visit again soon for more Sugar Moon magic!