beetroot gratin

marmalade souffle

books for cooks

A cosy shop lined from top to bottom with cookbooks... and smells of the lastest creations wafting out from the kitchen tucked away in the back. What a perfectly magical idea, taking recipes and whipping them into life for all to taste.  I wandered in, too early as always for lunch which starts at 12 and gazed at the four plump warm cakes sitting on the counter.  Each with their own little tag stating which cookbook and recipe was followed. I recognized a cake which I had made from Green and Blacks - Chocolate Salt Caramel Torte a firm favourite. I have been advised, if coming for lunch to arrive at 11.45 to ensure a seat.  The menu changes daily and consists of a starter, main and dessert from those millions of cookbooks.  One day I'll time it perfectly but in the meantime I'm going to daydream about which cooking class to take... http://www.booksforcooks.com

lamb navarin

Between the milkman telling me I had a sexy voice (those stories must be true), trying to say sensible things to a suicidal stalker and spotting my perfect bike it was an unsettling afternoon. The bike was leaning in a perfect sort of faded glory outside a shop window and after gazing at it for a while in what can only be described as love stricken stupor (for I have been back since my friends and had exactly the same reaction) I discovered it had been assembled by the owner. He seemed confident in my ability to do the same thing... but he doesn't know that I blew up a car twice last year and I always feel nervous about putting oil in the wrong place. This bike was really something. Stylish and old fashioned, low enough that my feet could comfortably touch the ground if necessary without that harley high handlebar look. I can feel a desert coming on. In the meantime, while I ponder making my own motorbike I'm making my bosses favourite stew. She calls it hearty and honest, from a cheap cut of meat - lamb neck fillets slowly cooked with spring vegetables and swedes.

LAMB NAVARIN (adapted from Leith's Cookery Bible)
Serves 6
1200g middle neck of lamb
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 litres lamb stock
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tablespoons tomato puree
1 bouquet garni (parsley, bay leaf and a stick of celery held with a string)
1 onion roughly chopped
1/2 swede diced 
3 parsnips sliced
20 baby chantenay carrots washed and trimmed
5 chestnuts mushrooms finely sliced
curly parsley to garnish
Cut the lamb into large chunks and season with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in heavy saucepan and brown the meat on all sides. Sprinkle the meat with flour and cook for another minute or so. You may need to do this meat in batches and then transfer to a large saucepan.  When all the meat is browned and floured place together in a large saucepan and add the stock, tomato puree, garlic and bouquet garni. Bring to the boil then simmer for 1 hour.  Remove surface fat.
Heat a little oil or butter in another frying pan and add the onions, parsnips, swede and carrots. Gently brown and then add to the meat. Simmer for a further 45-60 minutes until the meat is tender and the vegetables are cooked through.  In the last 10 minutes add the sliced mushrooms.  Season to taste and sprinkle with the parsley before serving and maybe a fresh red chilli to add a little zing although I don't want to alarm anyone or ruin this beautiful heartwarming dish!

champagne tasting

We put our palates to the test over Christmas blind tasting an expensive (to us) champagne (Ruinart £55) with a cheaper champagne (£30) and a prosecco. It was not a clear outcome. First of all we nearly confused each other with what we were actually testing - 'which one did we prefer?' or 'which did we think was the most expensive?'. Settling on the answer that what we prefered would be the most expensive obviously. Of the three of us, we each chose a different one as our preference. I chose the cheaper champagne but have no idea why. The strange french sommelier who sold us the Ruinart swooned and almost fell to the ground in an overwhelming rhapsody of praise for this gloriously fat bottle and I was so impatient to see if it really was special. Maybe our palates need to be trained (mine has let me down on every taste testing so far even choosing cheap orange juice and cheap UHT milk). Does the average person really examine the taste or does the cost influence the taste? If you were at a beautiful party would you feel let down to be served Prosecco, or if the bottle was covered would you really know the difference? My local wine shop man adviced to me keep on tasting! I will I will! So henceforth I go to glug champagne, and to develop my taste buds along with strong opinions one way or another.

The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”― David Orr, Ecological Literacy

pomegranate seeds

Oh these beautiful things! I find a way to put them in everything. In rustic salads, adorning green beans, madeleines, flung over a savoury mousse or simply floating up and bubbling over in a glass of sparkling wine. And sometimes it feels I spend hours just slicing up the fruit and extracting the pomegranate seeds.  A friend once said every time he sees me in the kitchen I'm slicing up a pomegranate. Another said the secret of quickly getting all those beautiful jewels to tumble out is to cut it in half and tap the bottom of one half with a spoon and they should all fall out nice and easy. Which hasn't really worked. So today as I walked along the Portobello Road I thought I might ask the 'Pomegranate Man'. What is the quickest way to get all of those seeds out? I passed him by and turned back remembering my question. He was engrossed in his task, with gloves, carefully taking out each seed one by one. Then I wondered, well after all what is the rush?  Why can't we just take our time?

That pleasure which is at once the most intense, the most elevating, and the most pure, is, I believe, found in the contemplation of the beautiful. Edgar Allan Poe

hollowed out baked potatoes with butter, mushroom and garlic, soft scrambled eggs and crispy pancetta

There is a surreal mist hovering over London tonight. A conversation with a gentleman who loves white wine in a teacup and has recently been on a souffle making course... and his wife who adores conversation. Don't you just love foodies? A feast incorporating the said baked potato skins, chestnut mushrooms cooked forever in butter to soften delicously packed down deep in the crispy potato skin with garlic and seasoning, covered with barely scrambled eggs in butter and crispy pancetta crumbled on top. Jeruslalem artichoke dauphinose with finely sliced leeks and chopped onion in garlic cream. Rack of lamb with Raspberry Jus cooked for 20 minutes at room temperature 170C fan oven. Podded baby broad beans with sliced broad beans and Raspberry, Pomegranate salad on the side.