second chance!

a holiday is often hard to commit to due to work however the appetite and enthusiasm with which I return always make me think holidays should be compulsory not optional!
this weather all white and wintery has me craving for stews and spices, soups and root vegetables, all good I think after the rich indulgence of Christmas, New Year and a birthday!

I made, this week, delicious little fritters, crisp and hot with flecks of red chilli to off set the green of the main ingredient. The sauce that was drizzled over was perfect but certainly not something i would normally have put with this seasonal vegetable, soy, rice vinegar, sugar and lime. The smell and then the taste seemed to have the family forming an orderly queue without being called!

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the main ingredient, might be due to the fact I don’t like them, never have, but may be now I love them! Brussel sprouts, give them a second chance. check out Jamie Oliver’s brussel sprout fritters.  They are good.

Supper

New cookery books always get me excited but also  a little anxious! Odd I know but my dilema comes when I find a recipe I want to cook but then when I turn the page I find another! And so it goes on. I often feel torn as to whether I stay on that page & cook said dish before turning to the next.

So tonight with two books “on the go” we are having a combination of things that may or may not go together, but I have a good feeling about this even though both cuisines are quite different.

a couple of hours later……………………….

Now I will start with an apology.

Sorry no pictures.

This speaks for its self.

Too delicious, eaten before you could say “iphone, where……….. is…….oh forget it”!

And what was it that was so delicious? Rick Stein’s “Far Eastern Odyssey” – Deep fried chicken wings with a chilli & tamarind sambal and a mango, mint, coriander & lime salad. I amended a couple of things here

a) used skinless thigh fillets

b) made up only half the sambal, which was more than enough (and used tamarind concentrate for ease)

c) shallowed fried the chicken

d) and served it with lots of rocket

Plus from the new Yotam Ottolenghi “Plenty”- Sweet potato cakes, but without the sauce and just a big squeeze of lime juice.

Please take my word for it, but so delicious may have to sit quietly for rest of evening.

a “don’t” not a “do”!

Word on the street is they are the cake “de jour”! No longer the cupcake (hurrah) I grant you lovely to look at, some fabulous flavours, but just a bit too much icing to cake ratio for me. No, the new temptation goes by the name of “whoopie pie”.

Don’t be fooled by looks.

I baked this delicious looking, I stress “looking”, cake yesterday when I was finding any diversion possible to avoid my tax return. So with that in mind you would imagine that the simplest of things would have made me happy, but no this cake didn’t do it. In my book this is more “whoopie don’t” than “whoopie do”.

However that diversion proving inadequate it was back to my on going quest to bake perfect macaroons. These are still not quite right but on the way……………

spring doing it’s thing!

I just don’t know how or even why, but it happens. A  bit of tidying, which could happen at any time of year I grant you, but somehow at this time of year it get’s special!

Found this tin……………

and then ribbons to be sorted……………………….

how could I have left these all at the back of a cupboard!

Love spring, love clearing out cupboards, love my hidden treasures unearthed.

PS this clearing, cleaning thing will wear off, but for now I love it!

Rhubarb

Ok maybe this post is a little late, but I have been enjoying the joys of spring (and working but enough of that!)  Grass so green you want to eat it, tiny lambs and those warm tempting rays of sun that fool you in to shedding some layers. Yes, spring has sprung.

And blossom so beautiful everywhere.And of course rhubarb. Bursting forth and growing with such vigour it will encourage even the most novice gardener to venture forth with spade in hand and try other things.

Not many things things are still seasonal and maybe rhubarb is just hanging on in there but thankfully it still is. Hurray, so enjoy it while it is here.  It’s so versatile. As a tart relish with crisp pork belly, in a pie or piping hot crumble where the juices have bubbled up and turned the edges to a gooey fruit caramel. Pooled in a deep vanilla custard, simple, comforting and guranteed delicious. Or simply stewed and served with whatever you like.And on this occasion it was a richly spiced, warm & sticky ginger bread.

A taste of what’s to come.

Sticky lime and coconut fairy cake

The sticky lime and coconut fairy cakes needed to be eaten and not by me! It’s Sunday morning and the sun is shining even if it is bitterly cold.

And what better thing to do but go down to Columbia Row & donate the surplus cakes to fernandezandleluu while trying to reassure myself that winter is coming to an end with the arrival of all these gorgeous Spring flowers.

Sadly no picture of the very yummy Pork Banh Mi baguette that I feasted on from Fernandez & Leluu , too good to save.

You will just have to have the whole experience yourself one Sunday.

Okay so where are the Oompa Loompa’s?

So when I asked if some product could be delivered to me, so I could get some testing and prep done before the photo shoot, I never for a moment thought it would result in a courier, followed swiftly by a postman saying ” let me help you in with these boxes. They are heavy!”

Yeah right,  like 30kilo’s heavy! That is 66lb in “olde sweete shoppe”, pink stripy bag, heavy!

Oh and then there was the sack, yes sack, of very fine cocoa.

Oh boy did I get “the Golden ticket”.

Got to dash expecting Jonny Depp any moment.

Salted Caramels

butter, sugar, condensed milk, syrup & very fine sea salt

On holiday one year in France I fell in love. This was no ordinary holiday romance, fleeting, when you are caught up in the moment & mood, all giddy with exoctic foreign -ness, and a sense of adventure, only then to be deemed impractical when you return home “to your real life”.

This was real love…………. I had eaten my first salted caramels.

From that moment I knew I had to learn to make this deliciousness, I was possessed!

The smell is intoxicating, and is capable of rousing the sleeping!

We served these at our Valentine’s tea. Join the group click on the link and sign up -

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=286672131433

loving and giving

Mmmmm……….

Chocolate cake

This is not going to be low calorie. Or low fat. Or come to that low sugar, wheat or even dairy free.  But I reckon that, allergies aside, a little of what you fancy does you good!

Am I saying chocolate cake does you good?

You decide.

Afternoon tea

This blog is about food and also about the start of a new venture, involving food.
Enjoy

Born out of this recession has come ” underground dining”, truly the silver lining of a rather large cloud.

It works like this you place your booking on line (email me at pearlbarley@hotmail.co.uk ), please ensure you leave your email address, we will confirm availabilitywithin 24 hours. Then 2 or 3 days before your booking we will send you the address (we are based in north london ). The suggested minimum donation is £25 per person. You are likely to be sharing a table.

Our first event will run over the weekend of 13th & 14th February, so if you fancy a decadent afternoon devouring homemade treats both sweet & savoury – warm scones, brown sugar meringues, white chocolate tarts, salted caramels, to name but a few, contact me now, places are limited and it really is “first come first served”………. was that saying ever more apt? x