Riva del Garda

I’ve been a little absent from this little online home of late, in the past week that was because I was in Italy, Riva del Garda to be precise, to celebrate a friends wedding, or more accurately two friends weddings, only remove the plural as they were marrying each other :)

I’ve been to Italy three times previously, I love Rome and Naples, both buzzing with energy and with fantastic food, both cities to get lost, idle and indulge in. The furthest North I had been was Florence, which at the tender age of 19 was too quiet for me, so, I was looking forward to visiting Lago di Garda, somewhere quiet and visually spectacular with very different food to what I had experienced further South, the perfect counter to a hectic month in London. Added to this, I grew up next to the Atlantic and love being by water, I especially love ferries and boats, so I was very much looking forward to a first night relaxing with just my book, some good food and some nice red wine somewhere by the Lake.

Riva del Garda

This wasn’t to happen, certainly not as I intended, as I was very unlucky and I missed the only bus from the airport (there’s only one a day!), then the bank cancelled my cash card (due to a fraudulent transaction which was only me trying to withdraw money at the airport), so I spent my first few hours talking to my bank and various taxi drivers at the airport who were offering to take me to all corners of Italy for extremely extravagant sums. It all ended well, if differently to expected, with, following a ridiculously overpriced taxi journey, a three and a half hour ferry trip in the evening sun ending in Riva del Garda at sunset.

First impressions of culinary Riva? Good pizza that first night with nice red wine, all enjoyed in the company of a good book. The pizza was not as good as what I had experienced in Naples, but was on a par with the better ones that I have had in London and very fairly priced (Bella Napoli, should you visit). After this, it was a bit hit and miss, Riva being a tourist town and catering very much for German and Austrian tourists, lots of restaurants offered beef and roast potatoes or frankfurters, but, there were some gems, offering the likes of rabbit stew with polenta and wonderful fresh seafood from the lake. Veal was very common and any steak I had was very good.

Seafood Lasagne

My two favourite restaurants of the week offered the nicest dishes I tasted over my week there, had a lovely atmosphere and service, and are places I’d love to visit again. My favourite dish in the first restaurant, Osteria de l’Anzolim, wasn’t even my own, but I had a taste and was full of regret and main course envy, a beautiful and light seafood lasagne. I had a lovely linguine marinara that was so full of seafood I couldn’t even finish it. The service was great, the owner quite a character and lots of fun. I’d recommend. The second is slightly off the beaten track, Osteria La Contrada, and serves homemade pasta and bread with regional specialties. Here, they had a whole page of the menu dedicated to the truffle, how could I not indulge? So, I had Tagliatelle ai Tartufo and my friend Risotto, both divine, I am still thinking about them! For now, I’ll leave you with the images, until I can do a version to share with you.

Tagliatelle al Tartufo

Risotto al Tartufo

Homemade maccheroni with tomato and buffalo mozarella

Insalata Caprese

Grilled King Prawns

I love a decadent Sunday morning, that’s no secret. Lazy & grazy with big pot of coffee, the Sunday paper and a gorgeous brunch. Today I had lots of chanterelles to play with, courtesy of my lovely Italian grocer in king’s Cross. He has a friend who forages for them and kept some aside for me so that I could indulge this weekend.

This is really quick, easy and super tasty. For one person, all you need is a couple of slices of good bread, toasted. Serve atop a couple of handfuls of golden chanterelles, fried in a knob of butter for a few minutes until cooked, add a tablespoon of cream and a couple of tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley. Yum!

It seems silly to write a post about scrambled eggs, maybe I am having a silly day (possible), but, I am sure that it’s more that there’s few things as bad as badly scrambled eggs. Ok, there’s lots of things worse, but when you only have two eggs left and are too lazy to go to the shop, it can screw up your morning. Like it did mine last week, when I overheated the oil accidentally and the eggs turned into an instant omelette whilst splattering and burning me at the same time.

So, determined to redeem myself, the next day I went out and bought some lovely golden burford brown eggs, some smoked salmon and chives. I like my scrambled eggs simple, very simple, this is as a result of a discussion I had some years ago with a friend where I maintained you could put anything in scrambled eggs. I quickly proved that the results of such experimentation can be monstrous so, now, it’s only friends are tomatoes, herbs, smoked salmon and cheese. Maybe some shallots.

This doesn’t need a recipe, just a conversation :-) You need, per person: 2 eggs, a couple of slices of smoked salmon, some butter, some chopped chives and some nice bread for toasting. Toast your bread, heat the butter until foaming, beat the eggs lightly and season with s&p. Add to the butter over a low heat. The eggs will slowly start to cook, stir with a spatula or something similar taking care to pull it in from the sides. Just before the eggs are at the consistency you like them, take them off the heat, for me this is quite fluid. It’s important to do this as the eggs will continue to cook, even off the heat. Stir in most of the chives and half the smoked salmon. Serve on top of the toast with the remaining smoked salmon and chives. Eat immediately.

Enjoy!

I have been going through a slightly obssessive ham and pea phase of late, buying fresh peas at the market and eating them in a variety of ways from speedy dishes like peas with parma ham, spring onions, fresh garlic and lemon, to last minute soups with bacon on top. Peas and ham are perfect partners in every way, from the flavour combination of intensely savoury hamand the sweet pea, to the coarse texture of the ham contrasting with the smoothness of the pea, and the colours, green and pink dancing in your bowl, begging to be eaten.

I had seen a Heston Blumenthal recipe in the Times Online, and was keen to try it, but knew it wouldn’t be a quick affair. As much as I love what he does, I am not sure I have his dedication or stamina, at least with time being so limiting at the moment, amounting to, at most a rare evening or a weekend day. This particular recipe was from The Hinde’s Head, his gastropub, so I thought, surely, it won’t be too intense? I have also eaten there before and really enjoyed it, so I decided to give it a go.

How was it? If I had made the stock the day before it would have been very straight forward but doing it all the same day took alot of time. Especially as I started at 4pm. Was it worth it? Yes, every minute, I’d just organise it better next time. The stock was gorgeous, so savoury and I even got a secondbatch of stock from the bone, once I’d stripped the ham from it, I boiled it again with the fat that I wasn’t using, some suitable vegetables, herbs and peppercorns for a couple of hours.

The soup itself was a lovely bright green, with pancetta, ham and peas peeking through, very different to a traditional split pea and ham soup, it is much livelier, more fragrant and so very sweet. It was really substantial, bordering on a stew and would have been an ample main course.

I didn’t alter the recipe in anyway, so I’ll link to it rather than reproduce it. Enjoy!

Recipe: Pea and Ham Soup

• recipe adaped from The Hinde’s Head, by Heston Blumenthal for The Sunday Times

Ingredients

Serves 6

For the ham hock stock

2 onions, cut in half
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 celery sticks, coarsely chopped
1 large leek (white part only), chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
4-6 sprigs of thyme
4 black peppercorns
1 ham hock
2 litres water

For the soup

50g butter
200g shallots, sliced
75g pancetta, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
500g frozen peas, defrosted
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To finish

2 smoked bacon rashers, cut into 1cm dice
180g frozen peas

Method

Combine all the ingredients for the stock in a large pan. Bring to the boil over a medium heat. Skim any scum that rises to the surface and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer gently for 2 hours until the ham hock is tender. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, then strain the stock. Remove the ham from the bone and leave to the side.

Now for the soup. Heat the butter in a large pan, add the shallots, pancetta and garlic. Sauté for 10-15 minutes until the shallots are soft.

Add the stock and bring to the boil. Add the peas, raise the heat again, then purée with a hand blender or similar. If the soup is too thick, add a little water until the desired consistency is achieved. Check for seasoning, it is unlikely you will need salt but you might like some pepper.

Shortly before serving, fry the diced bacon in a hot pan until crisp. Cook the remaining frozen peas in boiling salted water until tender, then drain.

To serve as Heston does: divide the peas and reserved ham between 6 soup bowls. Pour the soup over this, then scatter over the bacon and drizzle a little of the bacon fat from the pan. (YES: you must!).

Enjoy!

Gooseberry Fool

Gooseberries are very much underrated and underused, fantastic on their own, with cream, in desserts or savoury dishes, they should be gracing every table at summertime. I’ve always loved them, my aunt used to grow them and I loved visiting so that I could indulge. I shouldn’t have liked them that much, they can be quite sharp and sour and they’re hairy when ripe, so, how could they be attractive to a child? Especially a little girl who doesn’t much like eating anything unless it’s almost all sugar? I suspect, the fact that hardly anyone liked them was attractive (there was lots more for me) but the flavour is something that I’ve always loved, that tart burst when you bite into a gooseberry is fantastic.

When I was last home, a friend gave me a gift of some delicious elderflower cordial, so I thought it fitting to pair it with this delicious seasonal fruit and some whipped cream, to create that favourite dessert of mine – fool. I keep my fruit fools quite simple, usually a fruit compote of sorts mixed with twice the amount of whipped cream. Sometimes, when I want to feel a little better about this indulgence, I stir in some greek yoghurt, approximately half yoghurt/half cream. Were I organised, I’d have made this when the elderflowers themselves were in bloom and stewed the gooseberries with a few heads of elderflower tied in muslin. Alas, that was the month of crazy business that was June.

Topped & tailed gooseberries

This recipe works well with the bright green sour gooseberries in the markets right now. It really is very simple and doesn’t require a recipe as such, I used 450g green gooseberries, 100g sugar, enough water to cover, and 2 tablespoons of elderflower cordial. Simply, boil the water with the sugar until dissolved, top and tail the gooseberries and add to this with a couple of tablespoons of elderflower cordial (adjust to taste) and stew until the fruit bursts, takes about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the amount of elderflower cordial if necessary. Stir this into your whipped cream, again to taste, I usually add it cream:fruit, 2:1.

Related recipe: Rhubarb Fool.

Borough Market Gooseberries

Every now and then, I like to treat myself to something nice to eat from Harrod’s Food Hall. I really like Selfridge’s and Harvey Nichol’s also, but Harrod’s is so vast and decadent and full of treats. On a recent visit I spied a buffalo cheese that I hadn’t seen before – burrata – of which there where two types, one normal and one with truffle. I was so intrigued but I didn’t actually buy any, I was on a mission that day and was looking for borlotti beans. I went back the following week, but, to my dismay, there was no burrata to be had. It’s delivered on a Tuesday and always sells out on the day.

So, the following Tuesday, I made sure I got down there to buy some of this intriguing cheese, but there was none there! I waited impatiently for the lady behind the counter, just to check, and happily they had a box of it stowed away in a fridge. They didn’t have the truffle one so I got the normal one.

Some background on burrata for anyone like me that hadn’t come across it before: it’s a fresh cheese made from buffalo milk and cream from water buffalos. Traditionally it was wrapped in vine leaves, but now is more commonly wraped in plastic. When making it, the hot cheese is formed into a pocket, which is then filled with leftover mozzarella. Fresh cream is added before closing and wrapping in the fresh or synthetic leaves. The fresh leaves would have been an indicator of the freshness of the cheese, if the leaves were green, then the cheese was fresh, if not, it wasn’t.

What does it taste like? A really fresh and milky mozarella. Really delicious. I ate it with with large slices of heirloom tomatoes and some fruity extra virgin olive oil. It was wonderful and shall be adapted for many lunches and starters in the future.

I love this time of year. By now I’ve been eating gorgeous seasonal asparagus for about 6 weeks. I should be getting sick of it but I never do. The end of the asparagus season would be depressing, if it were not for the start of the broad bean season with an overlap of a couple of weeks to facilitate gorgeous salads, or, for indulging in any number of dishes with broad beans in the starring role, as I did here.

I was at Marylebone Farmer’s Market at the weekend, rushing as always to get there before it closes at 2pm, and I was quite delighted to find that, as part of Marylebone Summer Village Fayre, it would be open until 5pm. There was the added bonus of new stallholders, albeit just for one week, including the Garlic Farm from the Isle of Wight with their amazing arrays of garlics and garlic products, including elephant garlic and green garlic.

Now green garlic is something that I haven’t had before. I know! What kind of foodie am I? I had read about it though, and was very keen to try it, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to purchase. I also bought some of the early season broad beans from another stall.

I thought I’d do a twist on a broad bean bruschetta that I do regularly, including green garlic this time and keeping it vegetarian. I would often include ham or anchovies, natural partners for the broad bean, but I wanted to experiment and try something where the green garlic and broad beans would dominate.

This doesn’t require a recipe, just a conversation – honestly, follow your tastebuds.

I used a half a kilo of broad beans in the pod, double podded and boiled briefly until tender, then plunged into iced water to stop them cooking and preserve that gorgeous colour and flavour. I then added a couple of teaspoons of chopped fresh mint, the juice of half a lemon, about twice that of a good extra virgin olive oil. Then add about 2 inches of the stalk of green garlic (substitute 1 clove normal garlic or a shallot), outer husk removed and the rest finely chopped, a couple of tablespoons of grated mature manchego (as mature as ou can get – substitute pecorino or parmesan). Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. That’s your bruscheta topping done.

I sliced some baguette diagonally to about half a cm in width. Toast lightly on each side, spread your broad bean mix liberally on top and drizzle some of your extra virgin olive oil over it, topping it with shavings of the manchego.

This is perfect summer food. Enjoy!

I went to a friends yesterday for dinner and she made the most beautiful sweetcorn and roast red pepper fritters with salsa. I had to try and recreate something similar tonight and I am very happy with the results, so unusually, I am happy to blog immediately and encourage you to try them.

Sweetcorn fritters remind me fondly of a holiday in Australia a couple of years ago when I had them for breakfast and had one of those – why haven’t I had these for brekfast before! – revelations. They also remind me of my vegetarian years, when, not a fan of meat substitutes, I instead indulged in sweetcorn fingers and fritters and the like. The texture is wonderful, and each piece of sweetcorn is just bursting with flavour. With a side of avocado and tomato salsa, I challenge anyone to dislike this quick and nutritious evening staple.

I kept these simple, the fritter batter contains only sweetcorn, shallots and fresh coriander with a vibrant and flavoursome salsa of heirloom tomatoes and hass avocado on the side. I used frozen sweetcorn as this was really last minute and I didn’t have time to seek out fresh, but fresh sweetcorn would be wonderful in this recipe, if you have it. I used a wonderful heirloom tomato for the salsa but you can substitute with a beef tomato, 2 plum tomatoes, or some cherry tomatoes. I used shallots but you could substitiute spring onions or red onion. Can’t have dairy? Substitute soya milk or coconut milk – both work really well. If adding the coconut milk, I’d add some green chilli to the batter too and maybe some lime. I sverved some extra heirloom tomato on the side, it was too good not to!

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I would love to tell you that the chicken of the woods in this recipe was the result of an exciting day spent foraging, prowling the likes of Hampstead Heath, waiting for the yellow glow of a strip of funghi beaming from a tree. Unfortunately, this is not the case. These are from Borough Market.

I would love to know how to forage for mushrooms without being in fear of my life. I’ve bought several books, including a mushroom encyclopedia, but the knowledge that 300 people die in France each year from eating poisonous mushrooms, terrifies me. I will do it, but first I need to learn from a pro, someone who knows what they’re doing and can impart that information to me. For now, I’ll forage the obvious, nettles, wild garlic and the likes, and buy my wild mushrooms when I can.

Don’t underestimate the excitement contained in turning the corner of the market and spying a table in front of a shop laden with large misshapen fungi. I had to know what it was and I had to have it. I was curious as to what I would do with it. I thought, originally: Risotto? Tagliatelli? With garlic and butter on toast? Then I thought, well, it apparantly tastes of chicken, so why not deep fry it? I could make it a wild treat and accompany it with a homemade wild garlic mayo?

As for tasting of chicken – what next?? Everything seems to taste of chicken, how did this become our culinary benchmark? A fungus, tasting of chicken? I had to investigate. I must confess that I didn’t find it much like chicken atall, it didn’t have a strong flavour, and the texture wasn’t particularly chicken like. Ok, so it’s more like chicken than other mushrooms. This may be because it wasn’t as fresh as it could have been, so I will try it again before discounting the chicken connection. I am too intrigued not to!

The mayonnaise is really straightforward, if time consuming. I promise that it is worth it! I made a small amount as I wanted to make it by hand and didn’t want to spend all night doing it. Even at that I have two blisters to show off tomorrow. I used beautiful Burford Brown eggs with large golden yolks, so if you’re not using these you might want to use less oil. I used the egg white leftover from the mayonnaise to coat the fungi. To coat I used panko (japanese breadcrumbs) – they are fantastic, but if you can’t get them, it’s fine to substitute normal mushrooms. I pureed some wild garlic with some walnuts in a small amount of olive oil. This was the result of an experiment earlier in the week, and for my taste too strong for a pesto, but really good with the mayonnaise. You only need a small amount so, if you are making it only for this dish use about 5 leaves and 3 walnuts, blanch the leaves for 20 seconds in boiling water to take the sharpness off them, and grind them with with the walnuts in a little olive oil in your pestle and mortar and add it to the mayonnaise. I would forgive you for using shop bought mayonnaise if you don’t have the time :-)

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Finding something new to cook with is always exciting. I love prowling food markets and shops looking for that new ingredient or spice. My most recent discovery is fregola sarda (or fregula sarda), a toasted pasta from Sardinia, similar to cous cous but coarser, and because of the way it is toasted quite nutty. Like alot of Italian ingredients, it is exclusive to its area, and is relatively unknown outside of Sardinia. It is also still handmade, something I would like to try sometime in the future when I have time to spare.

I have been cooking with alot of grains recently: pearl barley, farro, wheat, rye. They’re perfect for light summer lunches or side dishes, and fregola is a welcome member of this summer arsenal. With no strong flavour of its own, It combines well with almost anything, and is traditionally served with the likes of clams. This sounds wonderful and is on my list to try, but today, I felt like giving it a London twist, using seasonal produce for a nice light lunch.

Accompanying the fregula in this dish is English asparagus, absolutely bursting with flavour at this time of year. The season is short so I am making the most of it. A punnet of heirloom tomatoes from the Isle of Wight tomato stall at Borough Market accompanied, these incredible tomatoes are juicy and succulent with thick meaty flesh, and absolutely wonderful for this purpose. The final main ingredient is goats curd, a fresh cream cheese made from goats milk that is really light and delicious. I saw this for the first time when I visited Australia (Sydney) some years ago. It’s a great place for food, fresh ricotta and other culinary gems are so easy to come by, it was here that I first had goats curd and have lamented that it’s not available here since. Earlier this year I spotted a large bowl of it in Neal’s Yard Dairy in Borough Market and I’ve been using it since. I use shallots as a base ingredient, I used half an eschalion shallot as they’re quite large. If you don’t have any shallots you can substitute red onion or spring onions (scallions).

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It’s National Tomato Week this week, so what better week than this to celebrate this wonderful fruit.

Bright and cheery, it’s a regular visitor to my table, whether for breakfast in huevos rancheros or homemade baked beans, or for an evening meal in clam linguine, prawn curry, mutter paneer or homemade pizza. Not just a pretty face, tomatoes are packed with antoxidant goodness, lycopene in tomatoes is thought to have anti-cancer benefits and is associated particularly with a lower risk of prostate cancer.

I made a trip to Borough Market yesterday morning to visit the Isle of Wight tomato stall, it’s a wonderful, colourful place full of tomatoes of varying shapes, colours and sizes. The Isle of Wight gets more sun than any other part of the UK and so they produce beautiful flavoursome tomatoes there. I opted for some startling (and enormous!) heirloom tomatoes to cook with this weekend.

Unfortunately, I’ve no recipe for you now as I am about to head out the door for a bank holiday Sunday brunch, so, I thought I’d share some of the lovely recipes from other blogs and the web with you, so that you too, could celebrate the tomato.

Smitten Kitchen has a lovely Cherry tomato and green bean salad.

There’s gorgeous pasta with fresh tomato-avocado sauce at the Traveller’s Lunchbox.

Beyond the blogs and in traditional print, Mark Hix has a recipe for Slow roast beef tomato with goat’s curd and pickled walnuts in the Independent and Allegra McEvedy has a recipe for Fasoulatha in the Guardian.

Clam linguine is one of those dishes that I love but am extremely fussy about. Hang on, isn’t that every dish? I digress… I won’t order it out unless I am absolutely certain that the restaurant is reliable and uses fresh clams (fresh = very fresh) and not tinned or jarred clams.

Now, I have had many a “discussion” with friends about this. They think I am a snob, but, hey, clams come in a shell, so why not eat them that way? With seafood generally, the fresher the better, that fresh sea taste, like the salt air, and none of the fishiness that arrives when the fish are out of the water too long.

I really struggle with anything that isn’t extremely fresh, and although I hate to admit it, I really can’t stomach alot of tinned fish. For this reason, I always go to good fishmongers when I can, like in Borough Market or Steve Hatts on Essex Rd in Islington.

I distinctly remember the first time that I had clams. I had been eating mussels for some time but was a bit squeamish about other unknown shellfish. On holiday in Croatia, whilst island hopping and on a visit to a gorgeous island called Vis, we had the most lovely seafood experiences. Fabulous fresh seafood and lots that I hadn’t tried before. Fish there is sold as either white fish or blue fish, white fish being the deep water fish like hake or pollock, whereas the blue fish swim closer to the surface and are a bit cheaper, like mackerel. When you arrive at most restaurants they bring a platter of fresh fish and you choose which one you want them to cook for you and pay by the weight.

We ate in one restaurant there, as we had started talking to someone across the road from it when I noticed a fisherman nearby gutting a large white fish, it turned out that his daughter owned the restuarant and this very fish was destined for the pot, immediately after gutting. How could I resist? It was delicious, a leerfish barbecued over hot coals, with oil brushed on it using herbs as a brush.

It was another lovely local restaurant down the road where I had the clams, larger than palourde and full of meat as they were wild not farmed, they were cooked simply in tomatoes and wine and served with crusty bread, still the best way to eat them in my mind.

Back to the linguine. Clams are a little high maintenance, although this is balanced by how quickly they cook. Before using, soak in several changes of cold water for 5 minutes at a time, so that the clams release any sand contained within the shell. Then scrub the outside shell, they’re usually pretty clean, you just want to get rid of any excess grit that may affect your lovely pasta dish. This really is worth the time and effort.

I treat my clam linguine simply, like the clam dish mentioned above. Some shallots and garlic, sautéed in olive oil, followed by diced, peeled & seeded tomatoes, then some white wine and the clams, stewed with the lid on until the clams open, and finally some lemon to lift the flavour and some parsely to finish.

On this occasion, I got some palourde (or carpetshell) clams from Borough Market. You can get clams at any good fishmonger, and I’d recommend that you treat yourself to some.

Some notes on the recipe:

• I like this dish fruity so I use alot of tomatoes, feel free to decrease if you don’t feel the same. Alot of recipes use more clams and less tomatoes, you could do this here too and easily increase the amount of clams (up to double) and at the end remove some of the meat from the shells so that you are not fighting with the shells while eating.
• To peel the tomatoes, score a small cross at the bottom, barely piercing the skin and cover with boiling water for 15-30 seconds or so, as soon as you see the skin start to peel back.
• You’ll need a dish with a tight fitting lid for the clams.

This dish, as always serves two or one hungry person. I was hungry tonight :-) The recipe follows.

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Apologies to anyone who comes to my online kitchen looking for some recipes, I have been very remiss of late. There’s a few reasons for this:

• I have relocated to Battersea, this is the year of being topsy turvy and moving frequently, it seems.
• Shortly after relocating, some mice came to visit. Some big mice. That liked to run along the worktop. I hate mice, apart from them being unsanitary, they completely freak me out. There is no logic to this whatsoever, I know they’re smaller than me and I can do them more harm than they can me. It must be a phobia, I completely freeze when I see them and I wish I could say scream, but it’s more of a panicky croak. In summary, I steered clear of the kicthen for a couple of weeks.

I started to miss my lunches. I am used to bringing in something tasty and healthy but, whilst my house became the mouse house, I started to use the company canteen again. Our company canteen could desperately do with a Jamie style overhaul. It offers: hot things in bad sauces, pasta that’s been cooked for (I would estimate) an hour in bad or weird sauces, cold fish fingers in the salad section (YES: salad section) and random bits and bobs. It’s saving grace is the said salad section with the likes of grated carrot but that gets tired very quickly, say 3 days. Let’s just say, the company canteen is not my favourite indulgence.

So, I braved the kitchen – be very proud of me. For 2 weeks, if anything brushed off my skin, I immediately thought MOUSE and jumped or ran. I scanned the counter, peeked behind the door, opened the cupboard and peered in expecting to be face to face with a fat grey mouse. But, there was none there. So, I proceeded to concoct something, fresh, flavourful and quick for work. Something to match this lovely weather and to satiate my lunch time appetite. I made a delicious salad with israeli cous cous, feta, tomato, black olives, parsley and pine nuts with some lemon to lift the flavours.

The recipe is very simple and quick. I think it will become a picnic favourite. This made one large lunch. Continue reading

Did someone mention smoked salmon?? Oh, that’s right – I did! On Sunday and on flickr last week. Shall I let you in on a secret? I’ve discovered that Selfridge’s (in Oxford St, London) have started selling Frank Hederman’s smoked salmon from the Belvelly Smokehouse in Cork. Haven’t they always done that? Well, yes but now, it’s available not only at the Oyster and Champagne Bar as a dish, but, by the side and fillet at the, well, smoked salmon counter.

It’s not cheap, but I’ve been staying with friends for a bit and wanted to leave with a splash (decadent, moi?). Besides, it’s worth every penny and more. The texture is supple and firm with a delicate flavour and a beautiful smoky aftertaste from the beechwood chips. There’s a wonderful quote from the NY Times – Mr. Hederman smokes fish, which is a little like saying Steinway makes pianos. It’s just wonderful.

We know, I hear you roar! I blogged it when I had it in Selfridge’s last year and I mentioned it recently while in Ireland. I saw the man himself when I visited Midleton Farmer’s Market in Cork and I very much look forward to my next trip so that I can sample his smoked mackerel and smoked eel.

So, what to do with this beautiful smoked wild salmon? I prefer to keep it simple and let the smoked salmon sing. A simple accompaniment of good brown bread and cucumber pickle is all it needs – no cheeses, no cream, just the salmon, smoked with such care and attention.

The recipe for each is very straight-forward, there are more complex recipes with more delicate and elaborate flavours, but my quick, simple recipe was given to me by a friend that was a chef and it works for me. I love cucumber pickle, I love the sharp, tartness and intense sweetness of the pickle, it makes my mouth tingle, and in a very good way. As for soda bread, I grew up with it, and it’s something that I should make more often. I prefer a wholemeal soda bread, some people do half wholemeal/half white or white, but for me it’s wholemeal all the way.

This will make a large jar of cucumber pickle and a small loaf of bread. Soda bread is quite dense so it goes a long way.

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I made a long overdue trip to the farmer’s market at the weekend. It was Islington Farmer’s Market this time and quite by accident. I was meeting friends for a Sunday roast lunch and, despite rigorous planning, turned up an hour before the pub opened. So, we wandered off in the snow, after they had really sweetly let us in and allowed us to have a coffee in the warmth even though they were closed.

Snowy London

I love the snow. Well, that’s not quite true, I like the idea of snow. Until, after about half an hour out in it, I remember that it’s cold and wet and uncomfortable. Then I want to get out of it. Then there’s the snowball fights. Not such a problem as an adult, the last time that I was in one was about 5 years ago when I ran screaming into the house with one deposited in my hood. So, I love the snow, if there’s no threat of a snowball fight, and I don’t have to touch it but can just walk about in it and admire how pretty it looks.

Snowy London

So that we did, and we happened upon Islington Farmer’s Market. The last time that I was there was some years ago, when it was in Islington Green. It has moved further north now, nearer Highbury at William Tyndale School (behind the Town Hall), and has alot more space. There was quite a few nice stalls there, alot of the regulars on the London Farmer’s Market scene – Alham Wood Farm with their buffalo cheeses and meats, Chegworth juices and others I haven’t seen so often like Two Fishwive’s. In my rush, there was one stall that particularly impressed me: Kingcup Farm, they had a fantastic variety of leaves, herbs and heritage products that I have been looking for like candy beetroot and parsely roots. There was also a producer selling a fantastic range of potted herbs and salads, I’ll be going back to sample some of them and the other wares that I had no time to investigate.

Kingcup farm produce

One of the things I bought from Kingcup Farm was purple sprouting broccoli. This is a wonderful seasonal vegetable, more tender and flavoursome than the green broccoli (calabrese) that we are more familiar with. The ones on offer from Kingcup were very young and tender with slender shoots and small heads of purple broccoli.

I wondered what I would do with it, often like to serve it in a salad with a cheese like feta or pecorino shavings, simple dressed and still crisp having been briefly fried or blanched. This time I wanted to do something different so had a browse around to see what it’s paired with frequently. My searches quickly threw up the following: capers, anchovies, garlic, chilli and pasta with herbs like rosemary and parsley.

I decided to go down the pasta route, most recipes went with orechiette, rigatoni or penne. I fancied trying a taglliatelle recipe as the shoots were so tender it would be a nice complement. Having had an enormous roast yesterday, I wanted something light, so I steered clear of cream and kept it simple. It was tasty and light, I think perfect for lunch or a light summer supper. The anchovies imparted a wonderful savoury flavour and depth and the chillies some warmth, all topped with the lovely purple sprouting broccoli.

This served two. Continue reading

So, round about the time I started this blog, just under a year ago, I blogged one of my favourite dishes – Prawn Curry. We were eating it about once a week, it’s tasty, healthy and quick, and fit in perfectly on those evenings where you’ve had a long day in the office and all you want is something quick and tasty with a glass of wine. On some of these evenings, the wine may even be the most important part ;)

Now, when I like something, I tend to talk about it, and friends of mine were hearing alot about this prawn curry. Then they started to think that perhaps I was making it up! How can she be making a curry from scratch after work when she only leaves the office at 7pm? How?! So, to salvage my reputation I had to gather some of them together and cook it for them. Then they would see!

The recipe is based on a Goan recipe I found online some years ago. It requires using masses of fresh tomatoes and a fresh coconut. I urbanised it by using a tin of tomatoes and a tin of coconut milk, which makes it quick and convenient – almost a storecupboard dish. It really is super quick once you’ve ground the spices, I would estimate no more than half an hour, although try to buy peeled prawns to save your self time. I vary the amount of coconut milk depending on whether I want the fruity flavour of the tomatoes or the creaminess of the coconut milk to dominate. This time I went with the tomato so used one tin of tomatoes and half a tin of coconut milk. It works well 50/50 though if you prefer that.

The recipe serves 2 hungry people. Continue reading

Braised sausages with potatoes & puy lentils is one of my favourite comfort dishes, especially for dark dreary, wet evenings. Lentils, for me, are wonderful anyway, bursting with flavour and so savoury. When you combine them with a good stock, potatoes, onion, good pork sausages and accompany the dish with a full bodied glass of red wine, there’s no better counter to a March evening like we had last night.

I rarely measure anything for this dish, I normally do it by eye, but I thought that it was about time that I started participating in the food blogosphere so I’ve weighed everything and am entering this in Cooksister’s Waiter, there’s something in my… pulses!.

Enjoy! Continue reading

Carbonara is a dish I eat really frequently, usually the original pancetta one, as, purist as I tend to be, I want to do it the right way. Today I varied, as I had a bag of kale and some nice chorizo and some friends that I wanted to cook lunch for. Chorizo and kale are lovely together and I wanted to veer away from my usual chorizo & tomato sauce, which, while delicious, I make too often and I need some variety in my food.

So, after I came upon the idea of making a carbonara, I wondered, as it’s not just for me, wouldn’t it be nice to make it a little luxurious with a touch of cream? Purists, forgive me, carbonara should not have cream I know, but this has kale in anyway, so, surely, I can push it further? I added just a couple of tablespoons to the eggs and smothered the penne in it before adding the chorizo & kale. It was lovely, but feel free to exclude it, it should still be good.

This recipe was for 3 comfortable portions. The sauce takes only as long as the pasta so it’s a really quick meal. Forgive the photos, it was a bit of a battle taking the photo with a half working camera in low light, whilst catching up with old friends I rarely see, and (!)… without the pasta going cold. I am such a soldier, working in these conditions ;-)

Continue reading

I wondered if this warranted a blog post, it hardly requires a recipe, but, it is pretty and a delicious and healthy start to the day. All part of a new breakfast regime I am trying to implement!

I am on a rhubarb kick, you may have noticed, so I stewed a batch of rhubarb by chopping the rhubarb into inch pieces and stewing with a little sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water for 15 minutes or so until it is like a compote. It keeps in the fridge for a few days so doesn’t required this level of work in the mornings and makes it a speedy breakfast. To complement I pureed a fresh mango and stirred a couple of tablespoons of each into greek yoghurt (the real deal, no cows milk, just sheep and goats) and then sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. Delish.

Yum scrum! Spiced chickpeas with spinach. The humble chickpea, small and nutty, packed full of protein and fibre. So tasty and cheap, I bow before thee. I first had chickpeas in a youth hostel in Rome many years ago, at the tender age of 19. A fellow youthful traveller was eating them out of a tin that he had hacked open with a swiss army knife, I was curious and had to try. I’ve never looked back.

I love chickpeas, whether they are in dips, stews or curries. In salads with cheeses, herbs and tomatoes. I like them baked as a snack or spiced in a pitta. Like all pulses, it is worth making the effort soaking dried ones over night and cooking them until tender, if reasonably fresh, usually for an hour or so. There’s no comparison for me between dried and tinned – the texture of those cooked from dried is so much better, firm to the bite, rich in flavour and not waterlogged like tinned.

Earlier this week, I soaked and cooked off a big bag of dried chickpeas, and, for that evening, spiced about 2 tins worth with spinach and froze the rest. It’s a quick dish with tasty results. This will serve 4 and is good served stuffed in toasted pitta bread. Continue reading