Summer loving…..

Posted on July 4, 2014 by lardersaga

Salad days are here and I can’t help but tingle with excitement as I walk out into the garden to see what little delicacies I can harvest. This is fast ‘food to table’ eating,  it is a little ad hoc and edgy, forget the recipe book, it is just what looks good and takes my fancy, a handful of leaves here, a few beetroot there, etc etc, I’m sure you get the gist. Our little vegetable patch is just beginning to bloom though it is streets behind the rest of England, or so it seems. A combination of water logged ground and a rather cold valley pocket means everything has taken a good month longer to get started. That said, the asparagus has now been devoured and left to do its’ thing, the potatoes are just about legal to be eaten, there are plenty of salad leaves, the carrots and beetroot are coming on and the radishes are in their prime, the artichokes are triumphant, the broad beans and peas are a little on the small side,  the strawberries have been nailed by mice, the raspberries are having a ball and we have buckets of fresh mint and herbs in general. There’s a lot going on. The ‘little people’ adore it, crawling round the fruit cage picking and gobbling raspberries I can’t reach, digging up potatoes and then eating them smugly gloating that they planted them, which they did! It’s a rare treat and nothing gives me more pleasure than eating from our own plot, and golly it tastes good!

Of course I supplement, we are still a long way from becoming self sufficient, so I use the wonderful ‘Riverford Organics’ to top up the fruit and vegetable store.  Every tuesday a box arrives and I peep inside with trepidation as to what delights are waiting. It’s rather fun from my point of view largely because of the diversity, there are unquestionably vegetables I would not normally buy, but being a shrewd cook would never waste, so every thing gets used, however challenging I find it. This time of year it is full of color and flavor with the odd random vegetable I would not even dream of growing, hello Mr.Kohlrabi! And random is exactly what this post is about, at least it is what the salad I made is all about, the salad that I fortuitously threw together earlier in the week and have been salivating over ever since!

???????????????????????????????I love strawberries but have always been a little hesitant using them out of context. Of course I have eaten them in salads before and not even reluctantly, but I have never been a strong advocate of flinging them with the green stuff, that was until yesterday. It was a little like ‘old mother hubbard’. I went to the cupboard which was not quite bare, but it was pretty spartan with a rather odd array of food, and this is what I ended up with: ‘Avocado, strawberry, ricotta, mint and pistachio salad with white balsamic dressing’! It was sensational. It just danced with color, taste and summer and was really just very good, so good that I got annoyed that I had been so greedy and polished it off quite so speedily. This salad is a doddle to put together, relatively cheap, healthy, light, and with no cooking involved, what’s not to like? It’s my kind of food for steamy, summer days.

Strawberry, avocado, ricotta, mint salad with pistachios and white balsamic

Serves 1 for lunch

1 ripe avocado cut into slices

2 handfuls of washed garden mint leaves

1 handful of strawberries (the few the mice couldn’t reach)

Fresh ricotta or fresh goats cheese or feta (ideally use really good ricotta)

1 table spoon of chopped pistachios

Dressing: 1 dessert spoon of white balsamic whisked together with 3 dessert spoons of olive oil, salt and pepper

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl, toss together and drizzle over the dressing, season with extra salt and pepper.

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White Peach and Chargrilled Asparagus Salad with elderflower dressing

Posted on June 20, 2014 by lardersaga

May june 14 164Given that we are half way through June it suddenly dawned on me that 2014 has been marching on with some pace. Summer is unquestionably here, the sun is even shining, 6 months have rocketed past and I am reminded that back in the deep dark days of winter I did make a couple of New Years resolutions that bordered on being within reach for once. Previously I have set out with just a long list of damn right ridiculous notions but this year was different and so much more satisfying because of that. On the eve of midsummer day I thought it the perfect time for a little reflection, a quick pat on the back as one of those new year numbers has been achieved, hurrah!

‘Reading’; yes pretty simple stuff but somehow the last 4 years have created a barren wasteland of half read books, or no books at all. I’ m a fussy reader so I knew I needed to get it right, to lure me back into the literary fold I had to get totally hooked on a couple of really good books. The magic worked! I find reading intoxicating, a luxury, it is just finding the time to do it. Now the ‘little people’ have embarked on a more civilised sleeping regime life has thankfully regained some sense of normality and my stack of books I want to read grows ever more magnificent. It’s a diverse mix, usually with a few unifying undertones. There’s occasionally the odd random entry such as ‘A Spy Among Friends’ by Ben McIntyre, a good scattering of autobiographies, a lot of food related books and the odd parenting/ child rearing number for good measure. There is nothing I love more  than a friend passing on a much loved book, and hence the merry go round begins, personnal recommendations are like nuggets of gold and I want to share them again and again with an ever larger network of friends, family and indeed strangers. So with the summer holidays in sight, you hopefully may get more than a snatched 5 minutes to read, here are a few of the books I have enjoyed and would happily share with anyone prepared to listen.

 ‘A Spy Among Friends’ – the story of Kim Philby, and the great spy betrayal within MI5 and MI6, totally gripping, ‘sneaky beaky stuff’, you can’t put it down. Beautifully written.

 ‘A Change of Appetite’ Diana Henry- the ‘grande dame’of cookery writing strikes again with a most delightful recipe book packed full of refreshing ideas, exquisite photos and some good common sense writing on food and what to eat – utterly refreshing, and a great house present if you are staying with friends this summer!

 ‘Not on the Label’ Felicity Lawrence- a must read for anyone interested in where our food comes from, what has happened to farming in the past 100 years and the power of the supermarkets. Not that palatable, so be warned this will change the way you think about food, shop and eat. Brilliantly researched, no stone is left unturned in her quest for the truth particularly over the horse meat scandal. Life changing, but for the right reasons

 ’21st Century Boys’ Sue Palmer – if only I had read this book 2 years ago! But thank goodness I have read it now. A real eye opener into the male psyche, childhood and how very different the blue and pink really are, literally from the moment they are born. A brilliant must have book for anyone who feels challenged by their little darling boy and wants to understand them more.

 ‘Cooked’ Michael Pollan – I can’t quite claim to have read this, honestly I have only just started but if you adore food and are trying to justify why you spend so much time thinking about food and cooking it, this may be the ‘cheap shrinks’ answer to make you feel better. Written by the man whose famous mantra I totally subscribe to: ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants’ . It is in essence about why we cook; he takes us back to basics, to cook with fire,  with water, with air and with earth. It’s about the importance of food, the importance of cooking for family and friends, and the reason why food and the cooking of it has knitted society together since time began. Compelling – to date!

‘Wildflower’ An Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Death in Africa- Mark Seal – the inspirational story of Joan Root. Easy and light to read and perfect for anyone who loves East Africa, wildlife and adventure. Tragic in part, with a fascinating chapter on the rose / flower industry in Kenya that may result in you never buying flowers from a garage forecourt ever again! (as if you ever did) !!

Apart from reading, my other new year resolutions haven’t gone too badly either. Coffee has been given up, lipstick is being worn, exercise taken, the curtains have finally been made for the dining room (it did take 18 months), the sewing machine is up and running (though I still need lessons), and I have started working again in an ‘ad hoc’ fashion (Canapés for 200 last week- oh such fun). I still haven’t learnt a foreign language, don’t really ‘get’ social media, have not seen ‘Frozen’ (much to the pink ones horror) and am amazed (if a little baffled) by the unbelievable technological advances that grip our world; hello UBER I love you!

Cooking as you can see is my saviour so let me leave you with this pretty, seasonal summer salad, perfect for lunch in the garden or just a starter to get your taste buds dancing!

May june 14 162White peach, chargrilled asparagus and goats cheese salad with elderflower dressing

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter

2 flat white peaches, I call them angels navels but I think they may be called

1 bunch of English asparagus

150gms of soft white goats cheese

1 handful of washed rocket or mixed garden leaves, including mint and oregano

Rosemary flowers or chive flowers to garnish

Elderflower Dressing

1 tablespoon of elderflower cordial

3 tablespoons of really good olive oil

1. Cut the asparagus in half and chargrill. Once the chargrill lines are obvious set aside with a good splash of olive oil, salt and ground pepper.

2. Segment the ripe white peaches. You can peel them but I prefer them with the pink skin on.

3. Layer up the salad, leaves first, asparagus, peaches then crumbled goats cheese, followed by the herb flowers and the dressing. Remember to season with salt and pepper and serve with sourdough toast.

May june 14 160

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A Princess Party

Posted on May 28, 2014 by lardersaga

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It was always going to be a ‘Princess Party’ but the rendition of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ was above and beyond the ‘Pink ones’ wildest dreams. The stage was set, the sun shone, the tent erected and bunting hung. Low and behold we had one ‘Prince Charming’, one ‘Princess Aurora’, a throng of delightful fairies and a King and Queen. This was Mr.P’s first production, and one that had the audience in stitches and tears simultaneously. I am only sad that it will not be staged again as it was a true classic, performed in the open air on one of England’s balmiest and most beautiful of days, it was a triumph. Party games swiftly followed with an exhausting bout of ‘What’s the time Mr.Wolf’, ‘pin the jewel on the crown’, and ‘pass the parcel’, which the ‘blue one’ always finds deeply traumatic. A hectic gymnastic workout on the trampoline, led the little Princess’s and Prince happily into the tea party banquet.

A small attempt was made to introduce a nod to  savoury food; mini chicken fingers and chips, tiny sausages, cucumber and carrot batons, hula hoops and little cups of summer berries and then it was on to the serious stuff. Naughty, sugary and very pink. Well you only have one party a year so why not? Princess crown biscuits, pink swirly meringues, butter iced cup cakes with fondant hearts, jelly boat galleons, butterfly wands, and of course the birthday cake (what a nightmare). My mistake is that the having picked up a few ideas on pinterest I had an ‘idea’ but actually no plan…..big mistake! By friday night I was weeping into layers of pink icing as what looked like a cake made out of play dough confronted me. To add insult to injury, it appeared that one of the seven dwarves had sat on said cake, it was listing, a little like the Titanic, and looking decidedly dodgy. Refusing to be defeated by the pile of sponge and icing I set about on a major operation in cosmetic surgery and I think just about pulled it off. Note to oneself, keep it simple, what’s wrong with a simple ‘Victoria Sandwich’?

So the cake was a headache, nothing new there, I am always way too ambitious. It did taste good though thanks to a genius recipe by Mary Berry, that incredible ‘phoenix-ish’ icon of British baking. A four egg sponge seemed pretty excessive even to me but it was light as a fairy and quite sublime. Cupcakes are always a winner, as not only are they more portable so work brilliantly in party bags but also just a lot more practical for little people to hold and eat. However the ‘piece de resistance’ was the ‘Princess Fairy Crown Biscuits’, each uniquely decorated by yours truly in order to pull off that bespoke Princess party feel. After all you’re only ‘3’ once so a little excess icing and biscuit is just what was in order, though frankly I would welcome them at my birthday.

All you need is a little patience, time, a steady hand,  and a ‘princess’ ready to party!

Princess Crown Biscuits

150gms soft butter

50gms golden caster sugar

25gms icing sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

250gms plain white flour

Set the oven to 180C and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

1. Cream together the butter, sugars and vanilla extract either in a Magimix or in a Kenwood with the beater going at full speed.

2. Slowly add in the flour until you have a pliable ball of dough. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes or so.

3. Dust a surface with icing sugar and roll out the dough till about 2-3 mm thick and stamp out your crowns. Pop on the baking trays and put in the fridge to chill again for another 15 minutes. This mix makes about 20 crowns (slightly depending on the size of your crown cutter).

4. Bake in the oven until just beginning to turn golden at the edges. About 12 – 15 minutes. Leave to cool on a baking tray.

Decoration

1 small packet of pink fondant icing

1 packet of icing gels – made by Dr. Oeteker and found in the baking section of most supermarkets

1 packet of icing flowers

Roll out the pink fondant icing to really quite thin – 2 mm, and then cut out your crowns.

Pop some of the icing gel or if you have butter icing on the biscuits and stick the fondant crown on top.

Decorate your biscuits with squiggles and swirls in true regal style and maybe a few flowers.

Serve to all Princess’s in the kingdom.

 

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Curly Wurly Cake

Posted on May 9, 2014 by lardersaga

IMG_9992‘Let them eat cake’ . That’s all jolly well but where’s the choice? If I was lucky enough to have one it would have to be the ‘Curly Wurly’ cake! For the love of cake this is supremely delicious and extremely naughty, it knocks the socks off any other chocolate cake I have baked pretty much ever. Just in case any of you happened to miss the article 2 weeks ago in the saturday Telegraph magazine I will share the secret with you and increase your calorie intake by several hundred or possibly thousand! Imagine my joy when I noticed ‘Gerhard Jenne’, the genius behind the famous London patisserie, ‘Konditor & Cook, had spilt the beans and divulged some of his most sort after recipes to the masses; ‘there is a God’, I muttered as I set about recreating his famous, legendary cake.

The cake was surprisingly easy to make. The dark chocolate sponge is straightforward, I did not have the right size sandwich tins (I never ever seem to) and hence rather bravely cooked it in a 24cm round, loose bottomed tin. I only made one cake so to speak, as opposed to splitting the mixture as he suggests into 2 x 17cm cake tins. To be honest it was fine, maybe not perfectly cooked to a patisserie chef, but it was as good as. Having baked the cake I then split it in two. Now the only aspect of the recipe that I found a little dubious is I just could not get the icing to work. I did follow the recipe but found that I ended up with a breadcrumb like texture as opposed to icing. At this stage I went off piste,  added more cream cheese and a little more butter, that seemed to do the trick, yet I will happily go back to the original recipe to try it again and will hopefully have more luck next time.

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‘Curly Wurly’ cake on outing one met with squeaks of excitement from the little people. The ‘blue’ one inhaled it and demanded more, the ‘pink’ one was a little more reserved, declaring it to be ‘very rich’, that however did not stop her from eating it. This cake keeps well for several days, that’s if you can hold the vultures and gannets at bay. It is a very bad cake but devilishly good. If you have a weakness for chocolate cake this one is certainly for keeps. It is certainly going into my recipe archive forever.

Curly Wurly Cake – Gerhard Jenne – the recipe was featured in the The Telegraph Magazine 26 th April 2014

Dark CHocolate Sponge

250ml milk

275g soft light brown sugar

100g dark chocolate (54% cocoa solids) chopped

175g plain flour

1sp baking powder

100g salted butter, softened

2 medium eggs, lightly beaten

Heat the oven to 190c, gas mark 5. Line 2 17 cm sandwich tin with baking parchment.

Heat half the milk and half the soft brown sugar together in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved, then add the chocolate and stir over a low heat until melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder together and set aside. Put the butter in a large bowl with the remaining sugar and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, alternating each addition with a tablespoon of flour mixture to prevent it from splitting.

Fold in the rest of the flour, followed by the remaining milk, then add the still warm chocolate milk.Mix until smooth, it will have a very runny consistency.

Divide the mixture between the 2 tins and bake in the over for 20 -25 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch.

Cream Cheese Frosting

20g full fat cream cheese

400g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

50g unsalted butter

Put the cream cheese and vanilla and icing sugar into a bowl and beat slowly with a handheld electric mixer. Soften the butter in a small saucepan and when it has just disintegrated pour the butter into the cream cheese mixture while beating slowly. Beat till you have a smooth consistency and use it straight away.

Sandwich the cakes together with some icing and then ice on top. Sprinkle the cake with chocolate flakes or pipe on chocolate ganache swirls.

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Shakshuka – alternative eggs!

Posted on April 28, 2014 by lardersaga
Blackberry farm eggs
Grannies mint
Ingredients

It’s an ‘egg’ time of year. One thing we are really long on is ‘Easter’ eggs, no surprises there, and ‘hens’ eggs. Exactly a year ago Mr.P in his wisdom generously gave me 1 cockerel and 8 hens, thankfully we still have the rather fine cockerel, a few more hens and a lot of eggs. I love my chickens and I particularly love their eggs. Free range and organic, they are without question quite delicious, the down side is I have become a complete egg snob. The supply of fresh eggs is a real luxury and we consume a lot of eggs. We date our eggs but have never kept count of how many our hens lay. I really should as it is quite fascinating. Needless to say not all eggs make it back to the house, the race by the pink and blue to collect and deliver has meant a few casualties but that aside in chicken speak, we have some ‘good layers’!

Happily my chickens are laying about 8 to 9 eggs a day. That seems an awful lot of eggs yet somehow we seem to consume every last one. Naturally there have been some quieter months, typically the colder and darker ones, but what with the warmth and light of spring the entourage appear to have gone into overdrive and are laying for Britain! Amazingly, and I may be tempting fate, Mr.Fox has kept his distance, though the blighter has had a feast on our lambs, 2 in one week is just rude, enough said. Alas we have a few woeful tales, we inherited 5 ‘Buff Orpingtons’, and 2 literally fell off their perch, the heat of last summer seemed to get the better of them, 1 of my ‘Light Sussex’ got munched by the hunt followers and 1 ‘Copper Maran’ had a stroke!! So current inhabitants at Blackberry Farm look like this:  2 golden Buff Orpingtons, 1 matronly Black Buff Orpington, 3 Light Sussex, 4 Marans, 1 Copper Maran and 1 very fine cockerel! The result, a fully integrated PC flock, though the pecking order still mystifies me, I’ve got my bets on the matronly black buff. The eggs come in every shape and size, some are beige, some brown, some white, some speckled,  some big, some medium and some small. How very diplomatic of our hens!

Shakshuka

Scrambled, poached or baked, omelette, tarts, cakes, custards, carbonnara,; you name it our eggs always find a home. The ‘blue’ one rather shockingly has scrambled for breakfast every morning, and I mean every morning, the wheels literally come off if we are eggless! I adore a scrambled egg however my recent discovery of ‘shakshuka’ has changed my ways. This is my new favorite egg recipe. ‘Shakshuka’,  is allegedly Tunisian in origin or was it invented in the Ottoman Empire? The food jury is out, but what cannot be denied is its’ populairty from North Africa to the Middle East, Turkey, Yemen and with me. It is quite simply, ‘poached eggs in spiced tomato sauce’, the recipe changes wherever you are but the foundations remain the same; eggs and tomatoes. Cumin, harissa and chilli are the favored spices but there are other additions, to name but a few; feta works well crumbled on top, spicy sausage is ‘Nigel Slaters’ choice, ‘Ottolenghi’ uses peppers, and rather randomly I used cavolo nero. I know it sounds peculiar, and frankly ‘poached eggs in spiced tomato’, is pretty odd to our rather pallid palletes; I grant you it is foreign but I promise this is a triumph, once eaten you will return to it again and again. Unctuous and comforting, hearty and punchy, it is really good ‘agricultural’ fare but something you rarely ever see in this country. It makes a great brunch or lunch and a wicked sunday night supper. You can spice it up or tone it down, it is remarkably accomodating and tolerant of change! One only has to peep online to see how many ways this dish has been written, tweeked, interpreted and changed. Like its’ history it is rich and interesting and well worth the effort.

Spring 14 451

Shakshuka (adapted from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp harissa paste

2 tsp tomato puree

1 large red pepper cut into strips

1 large yellow pepper cut into strips

1 red onion sliced

4 garlic cloves finely sliced

1 tsp ground cumin

5 large ripe tomatoes – failing that I have used tinned

4 free range organic eggs

2 large handfuls of chopped coriander

3 handfuls of Cavolo nero blanched – optional

4 tablespoons of natural yogurt

2 tablespoons of fresh mint

1 tablespoon of tahini

 

  1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the harrissa, puree, peppers, red onion, garlic, cumin and a pinch of salt. Stir and cook on a moderate heat for 10 minutes to get the peppers to soften. Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer amd cook for a further 20 minutes till you have quite a thick sauce.
  2. Mix in the cavolo nero into the spiced tomato sauce and then make 4 dips and break the eggs into the dips. Simmer gently for 5-8 minutes ideally with a lid on, till the egg whites are set but the yolks still runny. Remove from the heat and serve.
  3. To make the yogurt mix the tahini and mint with the yogurt with a squeeze of lime juice if you have. Serve the yogurt piled on top of the ‘Shakshuka’, sprinkle with some coriander and serve with some crunchy bread.

 

 

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The humble cauliflower

Posted on March 26, 2014 by lardersaga

Cauliflower salad 047Spring is in the air, not just in the air it feels like it is here to stay, hallelujah; everybody is happy; the birds are singing, flowers are radiant and the trees weighed down with meringue style blossom. Some days are really quite warm, and if you are ‘pink’ or ‘blue’, of the ‘little’ variety you may even declare summer has arrived. Take last Sunday, both monkeys had stripped off and were paddling in our recently acquired ‘Capability Brown’ style lakes. I hasten to add neither lake, nor flowing river should be there, that did not however bother the rascals, they thought they were in St. Tropez! So having determined spring has arrived in all of its glory one immediately assumes there should be a glut of fabulous homegrown vegetables available, yet low and behold there is not. Yes one starts to see broad beans from Italy, strawberries from Spain and other such treats but homegrown English fodder is harder to come across, it’s still just a bit too early. To be honest it is all a bit of a false dawn, with the exception of asparagus, not much else comes in any profusion until May, at least not from my garden!

Roast cauliflower salad
Pomegranate jewels

So with Spring vegetables still at arms length let me indulge in a little rant over the ‘humble cauliflower’. Rather rudely known as ‘the chicken’ of the vegetable world, it is frequently forgotten and often relegated to the back shelf. I don’t know if this is a hangover from bad school food or possibly an overdose of too much cauliflower cheese but this rather serene brassica deserves a facelift. Welcome to the cauliflower renaissance and what better time to eat it than now when one has exhausted every root vegetable in sight and is craving something different and new. I can’t take any credit for this recipe but without question it is one of the ‘sexiest’ ways to serve the vegetable. ‘Ottolenghi’, is the wizard behind this little gem and it really is worth a go. This is from his third book, ‘Jerusalem’ and I have to admit has become a firm family favorite. Roasting the cauliflower adds a wonderful nutty flavour and the combination of pomegranate, celery and parsley just make this dish sing. Crunchy, exotic and colorful, it is refreshingly different and with the stolen words from ‘Love Actually’, (used out of context, I hasten to add) a real ‘taste sensation’!

Cauliflower salad 059Ottolenghi’s Cauliflower Salad – from ‘Jerusalem’

1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 large celery stalk, cut on an angle into 1/4 inch slices
5 tablespoons hazelnuts, with skins
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1.5 teaspoon maple syrup
generous 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
generous 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180c

Roast the cauliflower by placing it on a baking sheet, drizzle with 1-3 tablespoons of olive oil and toss it together with some salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25-35 minutes until parts of it are turning golden brown. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool down.

Turn the oven temperature to 150c. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes or thereabouts.

In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil, sherry vinegar, maple syrup, cinnamon and allspice. Set aside.

Coarsely chop the nuts and add to the cauliflower, along with the pomegranate seeds, celery, parsley, and the dressing. Stir, taste, and season with salt and pepper accordingly.

P.S- a few other heavenly cauliflower numbers….: Cauliflower and Jerusalem artichoke puree is an indulgent and rich little luxury worth a try; Cauliflower and Gorgonzola soup is a knockdown showstopper and lastly cauliflower couscous is complete winner!

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‘Tartiflette’ territory – Boys food !?!

Posted on March 21, 2014 by lardersaga

IMG_9491Last week we did a bunk, well the ‘little people’ and I did, we skipped school and extremely cheekily headed off to the alps for a spot of spring snow, sunshine and skiing. It was glorious. The little people adored the snow, so cheesed off are they at our wash out winter, and naturally thought skiing and sledging the business. It’s a bit of a learning curve heading to the mountains with the ‘littles’, there’s a lot of kit, clobber and stuff to organise and remember. We just about survived, and I think the grandparents are broadly speaking intact, after a riotous week, anyone who thought the famous ‘mountain air’ might exhaust my darlings, need think again. Quite the reverse really, once the standard recharge of fuel in the form of food had been achieved, they were both literally bouncing off the walls, mountains and snow. Talking of food, it’s probably the first time I have been to a ski resort and not eaten out; don’t worry, I am not on a diet (utterly pointless) I just simply did not get the chance, too busy charging up and down with the little hooligans!

Just to be clear no one starved, far from it, we just happened to have the luxury of staying in my aunts chalet. This without question had its benefits and though I missed the ambience, atmosphere, and joie de vivre of dining out, we ultimately had the flexibility to cook up and feast in residence, which with the ‘little people’ in tow was a complete blessing. Alpine food broadly speaking is a cheese and meat ‘thang’, think fondues, raclettes, cured meats, and of course the notorious cheese and potato bomb, more commonly known as the ‘tartiflette’!! And strangely enough it was the latter that I got cravings for and have cooked not once but twice in the last 6 days. It is a bomb, a bomb of deliciously bubbling Reblochon cheese, crispy lardons of pancetta, onion, garlic and of course potatoes, yet curiously NO cream. A simple salad is all you need to go with this quantity of naughtiness and hey presto the whole house smells of the mountains again and one can almost taste the vin chaud. Of course the footnote to this is that healthy it is not, slimming it is not, girly food it is not, but unctuous, rich and irresistible it is, bring on the ‘tartiflette’!!

IMG_9500‘Tartiflette’ for alpine lovers and cheese bomb enthusiasts

5/6 medium pototoes

2 banana shallots – or 2 small onions

2 cloves of garlic sliced

2 large handfuls of pancetta lardons or smoked bacon

1/2 a Reblochon cheese, cut into slices

olive oil, Maldon sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

1. Slice the potatoes thinly and pop in a saucepan, cover with water and cook until al dente, drain.

2. Meanwhile cook off the onions, garlic and pancetta. Pop the onions in first and when they begin to go translucent add the garlic and lardons. Cook until the lardons are just beginning to color.

3. Rub some olive oil around a larger earthenware dish, or individual dishes, or any oven proof dish. Drain the potatoes and place a layer of the sliced potatoes in the bottom of said dish, salt and pepper, follow by a spoonful of the pancetta and onions, followed by slices of the Reblochon, repeat this process until the dish is full, finish with a layer of Reblochon on top. Pop in a pre-heated oven of 180 and cook for at least 20 minutes till the cheese melts, bubbles up and just begins to turn color. Serve with a simple green salad.

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Friday fish

Posted on March 7, 2014 by lardersaga

Darling dinky meringue kisses 019As you may or may not have seen I have started contributing on a fairly regular basis to the awesome ‘mybaba’ blog. It is mainly ‘little people’ focused with the occasional ‘grown up’ recipe thrown in for everyone’s sanity. The interesting thing about food for children is that so much of the popular stuff is appealing to both young and old alike, I mean honestly, when can a ‘grown up’ authentically turn down a beautifully fried fillet of plaice? Take ‘anything’ coat it properly in a good breadcrumb mix and actually it usually gets inhaled without a backward glance. This recipe is exactly that. Very simple plaice, coated in a combination of panko breadcrumbs and polenta and then cooked speedily in a frying pan. Perfect friday food, deliciously fast and a world apart from the nasty breadcrumbs that came from my childhood. Panko breadcrumbs are a brilliant larder staple, they keep for an age, are known as ‘Japanese style breadcrumbs’, and have a courser texture than your average crumb, once fried, the result is a very light and crispy finish. They can be bought online, are sold in some supermarkets, and unsurprisingly, also in some fishmongers. The recipe below uses plaice but I have coated pretty much all sorts in this mix, haddock, mackerel, monkfish and salmon. For a real lottery I pick up the off cuts from our local fish monger (which he sells as fish pie mix) and coat the whole lot for a complete spectrum of taste and color, imagine the ‘blues’ surprise, slash horror, as he tucked into a piece of breaded salmon and announced loudly, ‘Mummy the fish has gone PINK’!!

Serves 4 Toddlers

1 small plaice filleted, cut into finger pieces

40gms of panko breadcrumbs

40gms of polenta

4 tablespoons of plain flour

1 large organic egg

A little butter and a splash of olive oil

1. Crack the egg into a bowl and whisk together and set aside. Place the flour in the bowl and set aside. Place the polenta and breadcrumbs in a bowl and set aside.

2. Flour the plaice (or whatever fish you are using) by dipping the fish into the flour on both sides, now place the fish in the egg and when each sliver is covered in egg, pop it in the breadcrumb mix pressing hard down to make sure it gets well covered. This is a little messy and you definitely do not want to be answering the phone mid dip!! Have a plate ready to put the fish on to.

3. When you are ready to eat, fry off the fish in a large frying pan with a little butter and olive oil. It does not take long – just a couple of minutes on each side and serve with either homemade olive oil chips or mashed potatoes and peas, and of course lots of ‘red sauce’ if you are pink or blue!!

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Girly food

Posted on February 25, 2014 by lardersaga

IMG_9413A quick trip to the Natural History Museum led the ‘pink one’ and myself past the greengrocer on Chelsea Green, ‘Andreas’. He (if there is a he) really does have the most wonderful array of fruit and vegetables and a stunning selection of Italian cheeses. Alas it was monday and I was determined not to be distracted by oozing gorgonzola’s and other such delicacies, so unusually, we were restrained, and the ‘pink’ and I opted for a bag of cherries. Sweet, succulent and incredibly moreish we had devoured the lot in no time. Thankfully our return trip led us straight past his shop front so once again I returned to buy a handful more. This time they were earmarked for a stylish ‘girly salad’, just the kind of lunch I crave when I’ve exhausted my patience eating nursery food!

I, we, the ‘little people’, don’t really eat much rice. We rather naughtily gravitate towards pasta so rice rarely gets a look in. Obviously basmati has its place but I probably could take it or leave it, if I never ate it again I really would not to be too fussed. But, and here is the but, I really do like some of Mr.Basmati’s cousins, in particular Camargue red rice, wild rice and brown rice. Camargue red rice has an unusual nutty taste and is somewhat grainier and more textural than it’s basmati friend giving it a decent bite that works really well in salads. Curiously I paired the rice on this occasion with the cherries, which was an interesting move but remarkably does work. Cherries and hazelnuts, parsley and some rather fine blue-veined cheese from the Isle of Wight and the Camargue red rice makes a sensational little number. This is ‘girly food’ in its true unadulterated form; gluten-free, vegetarian, nutritious and healthy. A refreshing change from ‘green pasta’ which is hands down the ‘little peoples’ favorite food!

Camargue Red Rice salad with cherries, hazelnuts, parsley and blue cheese

Serves 1

80gms Camargue red rice

1 handful of blanched hazelnuts, chopped

1 handful of stoned cherries, broken up

1 handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

A slither or 2 of blue cheese or goats cheese or feta

A good splash of olive oil, pinch of Maldon sea salt and a grind or 2 or 3 of black pepper

1. Cook the rice as directed on the packet. It takes quite a bit longer than normal basmati, about 30 minutes. Once cooked drain.

2. In a separate bowl mix the stoned and broken up cherries, chopped hazelnuts and parsley, some crumbles of blue cheese, the olive oil and salt and pepper. Add in the cooked rice, stir well and serve immediately. Add a drizzle of white balsamic if you wish.

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The butchers of Blackberry

Posted on February 18, 2014 by lardersaga

IMG_9322Rain, wind and floods, nothing was going to stop the home team of butchers tackling the carcass that was presented to them on Saturday. One of our lambs from last year had made a visit to the grim reaper and armed with a little knowledge, one ‘Ginger Pig’ butchery course, and a ‘you tube link’, the ‘butchers saw’ was swung into action and this is the result. Pretty impressive I think for an amateur father and son team.

Sadly none of the above was eaten this weekend simply because the gale force winds on friday knocked us clean out of electricity and after 24 hours of camping and boiling water on the log burner my appetite for creating a makeshift oven had diminished. The Lambourn valley and our little farm is struggling to stay above water and with the exception of our new resident ducks, everyone is a little saturated. We now have the most stunning chalk stream running through our garden with crystal clear water, it’s just a shame we can’t utilise it and stock it with trout or grow watercress or something, instead all it is doing is flowing at some speed straight down to Lambourn and flooding the poor villages beyond.

Being without electricity is a gentle reminder of how unbelievably spoilt we are in this country and just how for granted I take switching on a light, flicking on the kettle, turning on the oven. Funnily enough the ‘little people’ rather rose to the occasion and were absolutely brilliant at dealing with being plunged into total darkness. The lights went out, conveniently, just before their bedtime on friday night. The wind had been howling all afternoon, rain lashing down and I just had an inkling that our power could go. Luckily we always have a good supply of candles and having lit the house with my little helpers looking somewhat like ‘wee willy winkles’ I then embarked on dinner (a romantic one don’t forget and made more so by the lack of lights)!

I love my aga, and never more so as on friday night. Bare in mind it is not an old oil fired one but electric, yet even though the electricity was off the latent heat was enough to cook dinner for Mr.P, relief all round. A little salad of blood orange, tardivo, raddichio, fresh goats cheese and pistachios followed by some pan fried halibut with braised fennel. Needless to say this standard of cooking did not survive, we managed saturday lunch but purely fortuitously as I had made some squid ink pasta the day before. That was cooked on the log burner and tossed together with fresh crab, chilli, garlic and parsley, so pretty easy, and then we bailed out, landing as refugees with cousins on saturday for dinner and the pub for lunch on sunday. By that evening the power was back on and life back to normal. Rather sadly in my view, I rather like candlelight and having to seek alternatives and the challenges it presents with little people demanding scrambled eggs for breakfast, which we did, of course, nothing a little fire can’t cook!!

Blood orange, raddichio, goats cheese and pistachio salad

This is a really pretty salad to have in February, blood oranges are abundant, with most green grocers and farm shops stocking them, as is raddichio. If you are lucky you may find some tardivo which is the thinner more elegant leaf I have used in the photos above. It’s a bright, happy salad with a gorgeous yet simple combination of flavors. It is also quick and easy with no cooking required, the perfect starter for a power deprived house! It could of course be the perfect salad to go with some of that lamb, another time!

Serves 2

2 blood oranges (segment 1 1/2 of them and juice the other half for the dressing)

1 head of raddichio or a combination of tardivo and radichio

1 handful of pistachio nuts finely chopped

50g of fresh goats cheese

Dressing:3 tablespoons of really good olive oil, 1 tablespoon of white balsamic, 1 tablespoon of blood orange juice, salt and pepper

1. Segment the orange being careful to cut away the white bitter pith, I usually segment into 8’s, remove any pips.

2. Wash the raddichio and spin dry and then start layering up the salad, raddichio, orange, crumbled goats cheese and then pistachios, and then repeat.

3. Whizz all the dressing ingredients together and dress just before serving.

Note – if the the pistachios are a little chewy pop them in the oven to roast off for about 10 minutes before chopping them!

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