Sloe Cooking

We're coming into the most abundant time of the year...the hedgerows,trees and fields are starting to bow down under the weight of the fruit they hold. I've just come back from a wonderful walk with Alice in our favourite place. We met my parents, sister, nephew and my Mum & Dad's dogs, Jojo & Ivy. My father is the most knowledgeable person I know on all things wild...flora and fauna. He spent the time pointing out edible mushrooms, wild marjoram bushes, the best blackberry places,wild raspberries, hazelnuts...I'll be back with proper collecting bags!

On my way to meet them, I found lots of wonderful sloes, with their vivid blue bloom,all ready for picking:

luckily I had a clean plastic bag in my pocket and I quickly filled it with the gorgeous bounty!

So now, my task is to prick each one with a long pin and pile them into jars to fill with caster sugar and vodka. Then I'll leave the jars in a cool, dark place and turn them over once in a while. By Christmas at the earliest, we'll have a deep ruby red liqueur to sip on frosty nights...and the shrivelled, alcohol-soaked fruit are wonderful stoned and added to brownies (NOT for general consumption!) and served after dinner with coffee. Mother Nature gives us so much for free if we know where to look, I'll be searching out more treasures in the months to come.

The cake I was trying to think of in my last post turned out to be a Spiced Honey Cake...gorgeous. Today I've made a Fresh Lime Drizzle Cake, a Raspberry Vanilla Sponge, Toasted Pecan Brownies, Banana Blueberry Cake and Spelt, Cinnamon,Raisin Muffins. Time for tea and to look forward to the weekend.

In complete contrast, my friend Rami is in Thailand with his family and is posting the most wonderful stories of their meals there....I am enjoying reading them so much as I sit in windblown, autumnal England!

Happy Weekend! xo

Beautiful Soup!

The days are beginning to feel a little Autumnal now. Yesterday was beautifully hot, but there was a cool edge to the wind and the garden is looking a little ragged and faded. Today is overcast and I have to stay in as the attic is being insulated...lots of crashing going on overhead!The Farmer's Market in Marylebone was wonderful on Sunday - stalls piled high with the new season's corn cobs, English plums, bunched ruby beetroot and apples, but still there were late Summer bouquets of old-fashioned deeply scented roses and wonderfully warm-greenhouse-smelling tomatoes, the best of two worlds...it was hard not to buy everything!

Today I've decided to make a soup for lunch, thick with vegetables and pasta and sprinkled with pecorino cheese just before serving.

Cavolo nero cabbage is something I always buy when I see it. Trim the leaves from the tough stalks, wash & chop into thick ribbons and cook immersed in the tomatoey broth of the soup. I also love it cooked in olive oil, chili and garlic and stirred into pasta.

yellow courgettes - just because I adore their sunny cheerfulness against the red and dark green of the soup, cut into dice.

I try not to use tomato puree from a tube in this soup as I find it can be a little metallicand overbearing, but the tomatoes are so ripe and full flavoured that they need little help anyway. I stir in some orzo pasta, the kind that looks like little grains of risotto rice, to thicken the thin broth and add their unique, silky 'mouth feel'.

I have a chunk of Pecorino to grate roughly on top of each bowlful

plenty of ground black pepper, roughly chopped flat leaf parsley - and that's it! Along with the white sourdough loaf that I also bought, which I'll toast and drizzle with some grassy extra virgin oil and sprinkle with a little Maldon salt flakes....absolutely delicious.

I'm also making several batches of Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies today, and then I have to think of a big cake to make for the coffee shop tomorrow....I'll let you know!

Hope you're having a gourmet day too....xo

Return to disappointment....

Today we decided to go out for lunch (as we often do on a Sunday) and we drove in beautiful sunshine back to the village I was born in.

I only lived here until I was 6, but it holds many happy memories for me, even though the village - in common with so many small English places - has changed from being the vibrant little community with shops & post office that I remember to a purely residential place...the butcher and hairdresser now estate agents, the chemist, grocers and newsagents all private homes. But my first little school still stands on the village green, the pond is the same one I used to 'fish' in with a bamboo pole & piece of useless hanging string, and if I close my eyes I can almost see 2 tiny girls, their newborn sister in a pram, running over the harebells to play on the common by the church.

Before I drowned Paul in all this nostalgia, we stopped for lunch at a gastropub we've been to before. It's part of a small chain, we know & like the others but this one has been disappointing before so we thought we'd give it another try to see if it's changed. Sadly not. It's a beautiful, ancient building that has been renovated and decorated beautifully and sympathetically....authentic low beams, flagstoned floors, mismatched chairs, tapestry rugs and muted colours on the walls. The staff are young, efficient and friendly, there are newspapers to read and dogs are welcome (they have their own jar of biscuits on the bar) What's the problem, you may ask. In short, the most important thing....the food, of course! The menu looks and reads wonderfully (almost the most frustrating thing, it promises so much!) All the right things : Local ham hock terrine with home made piccallilli, locally reared roast pork, Organic smoked salmon with caper berries and horseradish creme fraiche....mmm. But everything was slightly wrong. I ordered 2 starters (something I often do at lunchtime) homemade hummus and pumpkin seed flatbread for my first dish, poached pear, walnut & blue cheese salad with wholegrain mustard dressing to follow., with a side order of unusual beetroot fritters with horseradish.Perfect.

The flatbread was certainly homemade, looked good (chargrilled in stripes, a nice touch) but SO oversalted - and I'm someone who loves salt - that it was almost inedible. And the hummus. My friend Rami would have had a fit of apoplexy! I don't think there was much tahini in it, no garlic, minimal lemon juice and a strange, bitty texture....almost separated. I've thought long and hard about the taste and what was wrong. I honestly think that they hadn't cooked the chickpeas.....soaked, yes, but if they'd seen boiling water I'd be very surprised. So weird. I'm just hoping (3 hours on) that there will be no toxic effects - although I obviously didn't eat much.

Salad next....really just an assembly dish, no real skills involved. Pear, blue cheese & walnuts with watercress and mustard dressing. No walnuts. Anywhere. I called the waiter over. "I think they may have forgotten to add the walnuts to my salad?" "yup, highly likely" he laughed and went to the kitchen, returning with a small bowl of nuts fresh out of the packet. Somehow the magic was lost! The beetroot fritters - more tempura really - were the best bit of my meal, although the batter was chewy and slightly tough instead of being crisp and light. The beetroot quarters themselves were lovely and the horseradish went perfectly with their earthy blandness. Hardly a meal, though.

We didn't have coffee or dessert (we wouldn't usually at lunchtime anyway) but left unsatisfied and frustrated. Great looking building, good location and such a dearth of  other good eating places in this very affluent area so close to London..... but so badly let down by lack of attention to detail and poor kitchen skills. At a time when even wonderful places are having to think of new ways to attract and retain customers, it seems a big mistake to actually repel them like this. We won't be back in a hurry.

Great Meal....

at Great Queen Street...

We went to the theatre on Saturday afternoon ( you can read about that here if you want!) and walked to Covent Garden from Marylebone - a gorgeous thing to do in the sunshine. We arrived about 90 minutes before the performance...just enough time to find a little place for a bite to eat and a glass of something refreshing. We've been to Great Queen Street (which, handily, is in Great Queen Street....) a few times and always enjoyed it. The cooking is rustic and beautifully thought out....fresh, unusual ingredient combinations, shared slow-cooked dishes on Sundays, wines served in chic unfussy french tumblers, efficient but informal staff....all the things we love really. We never thought we'd get a table (all the chain restaurants were packed) but, happily (for us) there was no problem at all. We could hardly believe our luck!

As we had a tight schedule, we had a combination of small plates and asked for them all at once. I had a Ticklemore (a hard goat cheese) Peashoot, Mint,& Lemon Salad with fried crunchy breadcrumbs AND a plate of cheese & biscuits (well, I didn't have dessert & shared the cheeses with Paul!) which came with home made oatcakes and a wonderful pile of sharp/sweet chutney. I also treated myself to a Margarita - still served in a tumbler, beautifully rimmed in salt (several I've had lately have omitted that - to me-essential step!) All just gorgeous. I could have stayed there all afternoon had Jeff Goldblum not been calling me from the Vaudeville Theatre (and you just CAN'T ignore Jeff!)

I'd highly recommend Great Queen Street or it's sister restaurant The Anchor & Hope in Waterloo (if you can ever get a table!) Particularly wonderful when shared with good friends, they are London eating at it's best....and London eating, I'm pleased to say, is very, very good!

Comfort over style....

I woke up this morning at 2.15am....that dark, lonely time of night when it seems you're the only one awake in the world. I have a really bad cough at the moment, the kind that sort of strangles your throat at intervals and makes you cough until your neck & stomach muscles hurt & your eyes run and sting. I went downstairs and took some medicine, had a glass of water...but when I went back to bed it all started again. I knew that Paul had a really busy day today, so I took my pillow and went to sleep on the sofa downstairs (the upstairs bed is covered in books and I didn't have the energy to move them about!) Alice was pleased to have a companion and I slept until 5, propped up with cushions....

Of course, I had to bake this morning but when the first deliveries were over I came home, walked Alice & then decided what to have for lunch. It was a really hot & humid day today....little knots of gnats buzz in patches over the water butt...a day for salads and cool cucumber sandwiches. But I was tired, my eyes swollen, my throat sore. I just didn't feel like anything beautiful, pure and summery. Actually there was only one thing I did feel like, and it's what I had in the end:

baked beans on hot, brown, buttered toast. Perfect. Comforting, warming and nostalgic all at once.

It may not have cured me, but I certainly felt better.

I now have a pot of Beetroot & Tomato Soup with Preserved Lemon bubbling gently on the hob. My dad gave me a bag of his wonderful homegrown vegetables yesterday, and this seemed a good way of utilising some of them (we had his roasted new potatoes, cabbage with cumin seeds & garlic & more beetroot baked with feta & a little pomegranate molasses drizzled over last night)

Style reigns in our kitchen once more....but, every now and again, there's nothing like a bit of comfort eating to give your soul a little hug.

xox 

The Delectable Lake District!

We recently returned from a wonderful week in Cumbria - the Southern Lake District to be exact. I'd never visited this part of Britain before and left wondering why I'd let so many years go by without seeing it. It's truly an amazing place - not least for the quality of local produce and food in the area. It is the only holiday we've been on where we've walked (literally) miles every day - up hill too - and actually put weight ON! It was worth it, though. I would heartily recommend the area for a gourmet break that would be hard to surpass in the UK, combined with the most beautiful countryside....true foodie heaven!

Highlights were:

The Angel Inn in Bowness on Windermere, which was a lovely mile walk from where we were staying (this walk helped burn at least SOME of the calories....)

Especially good for a wonderful brunch on Sundays....lovely Bloody (or virgin) Marys, friendly staff and gorgeous food!

The Drunken Duck at Barngates, Ambleside

which boasts one of the most amazing views I've ever seen from it's garden tables. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera!! The bar was cosy and just modern enough but with plenty of tradition intact.

 Great wine selection too!

The Samling is a super- luxurious hotel with fantastic service. We only went for dinner but were bowled over by the beautiful interiors, superb food and little extras like the canapes served to us in the garden overlooking Lake Windermere while we mused over the menu...

The service was young and friendly but impeccably professional too.

Finally, my favourite (I think - so hard to choose!) It was extravagant and total luxury but we had a truly wonderful evening at Gilpin Lodge

It helped that we were joined by our great friend David and his new partner - we always laugh so much when we're together and the wine flows - ahem - generously! But everything about Gilpin was superb. Service - immaculate, lovely french and local waiting staff with a touch of humour too! The restaurant was so beautiful,-there was also a zen-like garden (although sadly it was too chilly to sit outside)

We sat in the conservatory

at the far table in this picture.

Of course, the food is what made it an unforgettable experience. David is a restaurateur with two successful businesses and, as you know, I've been in the professional food world for a long time too....but the two of us are still waxing lyrical over this meal, especially the pre-dessert we were given. This was a shot glass of intense, deepest purple blackcurrant mousse topped with an aniseed granita. It may sound a little strange, but it worked so well that I was surprised to see my 'real' pudding arrive, so happy was I with that little piece of heaven in a  glass!

We could have eaten out every night, easily, but restricted ourselves to these 4 divine places as our wallets, livers & waistlines wouldn't have stood much more.

It wasn't only the restaurants & inns that were marvellous either. There were superb independent butchers, grocers...and a family-owned supermarket chain called Booths which supports local producers and has the most fantastic range of goods.

Truly a region to be savoured in more ways than one!

The English Lake District - 10/10

                                        

All Cakes Considered....Review

I have so many cookbooks that it's almost ridiculous....although I justify buying more and more because baking IS my job (and I can claim back the tax, YAY!) Where baking books are concerned (as opposed to more general cookbooks) I am quite choosy, however. I bake 6 days a week...so they really have to say something new and give me inspiration.

I saw this book when we were in the US last year and made a note of the title(far too heavy to buy there and bring home!) American books are usually my favourites for baking ideas as I find the cakes are just the kind my customers expect - tall, beautiful & unusual. A little bit different to the normal coffee shop offerings.

The first thing that attracted me was the fact that it's published by my VERY favourite company, the San Francisco based Chronicle Books. Their titles are always beautiful, well laid out and in a wonderful format (smaller than average) and I can spot them anywhere!

Melissa Gray has produced a gorgeous book,packed with unusual recipes that I couldn't wait to try. As I write, the smell of her Key Lime Cake is wafting it's way from my oven. Mmmm!

The author works for National Public Radio and, every Monday, brings a different cake into the office for her co-workers. This book is a collection of the recipes, often accompanied with a little story about where the cake idea originated. She writes in a contemporary, witty & chatty style that I find very appealing - she feels like a friend.

Most importantly, I've made many recipes...stand outs include Cinnamon Almond Coffee Cake, ATF Gingerbread, Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting & Triple Chocolate Orange Passion Cake...they are all delicious & they ALL WORK first time.

There are also cookie & pie recipes and great, informative sections on ingredients and equipment that would be really useful for someone who doesn't bake so often (or isn't too familiar with American ingredioents etc)

This book is at the front of my shelf and I use it regularly when I need a new, zesty idea to stun my customers. Highly recommended to all who love baking!