In search of the perfect scone
English summer weather – is that an oxymoron? I moved to the Middle East over 16 years ago and have managed to escape the frazzling summer temperatures for at least 6 weeks every year and spend it in my home country. Packing is a nightmare and includes fleeces, raincoats, thermal vests, shorts, bikinis, flip flops and woolly socks; all of which can be needed in a single day. A traditional English cream tea seems to be perfect whatever the summer weather. It’s light and summery enough to be welcome when the sun is beating down and everyone is expiring and looking for shade. You will overhear the following phrases uttered regularly “Phew – it’s so hot”, “the garden really needs watering, everything is so dry”, “it’s very muggy – we could do with some rain.” This sort of day will usually have been preceded by weeks of rain, cold and cloudiness in rotation with everyone saying “we never get a proper summer anymore”. I don’t mind any of these variations as a cream tea is also the best meal for warming up after you’ve been soaked to the skin or battled against gale force winds.
What constitutes an excellent cream tea? Warm, crumbly, freshly baked scones are a must – I prefer two smaller to one big one. I like butter on my scones as well as thick, yellow clotted cream. Jam should be homemade and raspberry or strawberry, the seeds speckling the jewel-like glaze. A hot pot of tea with another of hot water and lots of cold milk in a jug. I personally like a bone china cup but this is a rarity. Here are a few cream teas my daughters and I have sampled over the last few weeks:
The Edgecombe – Cothele, Cornwall
Cothele is a beautiful Tudor house, looked after by the National Trust and reached via some very narrow lanes. It feels like a place frozen in time with a fabulous view from the house over the Tamar river and Calstock. The Edgecumbe down on the quay is really cosy and feels like you are eating in someone’s house. Our visit this year was on the most glorious sunny day and we actually had to move inside as the sun was too strong. Homemade cakes are displayed on an old range. My youngest daughter ordered a cream tea, which comes with homemade strawberry jam, two scones and local clotted cream. My crab sandwich, was pretty good too.
Greenway – Galmpton, Devon
Our next cream tea venue was also at a National Trust cafe in the barn next to the main house which was Agatha Christie’s holiday home – also at the end of some ridiculously narrow lanes. I’d prebooked a parking space which is essential otherwise you have to take public transport (although several rather appealling options are available, including ferry from Dartmouth).
The day was cloudy and there was not much respite from the almost constant rain. I was really tempted by the set lunch menu in the Greenway House Kitchen (prebooking recommended) but we were eating out that night so a cream tea seemed a good option.
One large scone, an individual jar of Thursday Cottage strawberry jam (handmade but in Essex) and a generous, crusty dollop of clotted cream made this another good tea. Leek and stilton soup was really good too with a nice hunk of brown bread, as we sat outside under the awning watching the rain..
Koffee & Kreme – Seahouses, Northumberland
It had been tipping down all day but determined to make the most of visiting Northumberland we’d done a coastal walk to a castle and then a boat trip round the Farne Islands to see seals, kittiwakes, shags, puffins and the site of Grace Darling’s famous sea rescue.
We ran from the boat as the downpour itensified once again, soaked and shivering. Peeling off our various dripping layers we entered Koffee and Kreme and ordered cream teas all round. Enormous cups with a huge pot of tea and boiling water arrived along with the scones, butter, jam and cream. There was hardly enough room on the table. Although the large scone was warm and freshly baked, the butter was a portion, the jam smooth and commercial, the cream whipped and slightly sweetened. It was not the best cream tea in terms of authenticity and ingredients, however the warm welcome from the owner and the pride in serving this to us and making us comfortable was exceptional. All for £2.10 per head (about 3.4 USD).
The River Cafe – Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire
We needed a restorative after a visit to pretty Stow on the Wold, followed by a disappointing lunch at Daylesford Organic Farm shop (more anon) so stopped off in the village of Lower Slaughter which is immensely pretty despite its rather horrific name. The Mill lies at the end of a beautiful, stroll past golden cottages fronted by the small river.
Our table and bench was made of stone and overlooked the water and the fields and sheep beyond. Moorhens dart up and down. Our selection had to be ordered and paid for at a counter but is brought by a waitress. The tea could be hotter but is in comforting mismatching china tea pots (I recommend warming the pot and using tea cosies). The scone is craggy and definitely homemade, as is the jam. A decent portion of clotted cream is enough for a really good layer.
So to sum up so far:
- Best overall – The Edgecumbe for an excellent tea, location and view.
- Runner up – National Trust tea and scones never disappoint and Greenway upheld this.
- Best view – The River Cafe (on a fine day).
- Best value – Koffee & Kreme (who also deserve a mention for the warmest welcome)
If you are inspired to make your own scones, Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial has named this week as ‘scone week’ and is sharing recipes. Poires et Chocolat demonstrates the correct order for the jam and cream here and Dan Lepard has an interesting twist on a scone here. How do you eat yours? Any recommendations for where to eat the perfect cream tea?
Festival food
Music festivals abound in the UK and for the past few years we’ve joined friends to pitch our tent in a field all in the name of hanging out and listening to live music. I’ve started a ‘music festival kit list’ as it’s not exactly like normal camping. For a start you park a long way from your tent so you have to carry everything (this can be miles at a big festival like Glastonbury). At Chagstock, the local scout group are available for hire with some handy wheel barrows – but never when you are packing up. Regular festival goers bring an astonishing array of ingenious collapsible carriers on wheels; I saw one last year that turned into a table.
I take my kettle and gas burner and the usual crisps, dips and breakfast making stuff but to be honest you can buy everything on-site. A big part of a festival is the food. No greasy burger vans here. The culture of local talent also seems to extend to the food on offer. I wanted to try everything but due to the abundance of food that the other campers in my group brought with them, I only managed to sample a few things over the weekend. Everything was top notch though.
My favourite
I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but my top eats were:
1. Hog Roast – Succulent pork, apple sauce, stuffing and a big piece of crackling in a fluffy bun. A bit fell out when I was taking the picture – you should have heard the sigh of shock from the people watching me. I could eat this everyday.
2. Tom’s pies – Steak and ale was everything it should be. Robust but thin, crumbly, buttery pastry (not too rich though) with soft chunks of meat and gravy. So hot I had to blow on it – sublime pie-eating experience.
3. Bacon sandwich – This was my own made of Morrison’s ‘spoilt pig’ bacon with tom ketch in a roll eaten overlooking that wonderful view of Dartmoor.
The baked potatoes and Aberdeen Angus burgers were very good too, had to leave the Indian, Thai, Veggie burgers and crepes for a another year.
Music? Show of Hands, John Otway Big Band, Magic Numbers and Three Daft Monkeys all rocked my world!
Have you any festival food highlights?
My good, glam friend cooking breakfast
P.S. Thank you for all the nice messages about The Independent Best Food Sites – I was absolutely thrilled to be included.
In my kitchen…sort of
My walking boots have hardly been off my feet since I arrived in England at the beginning of the month. I have a few precious weeks out of the year to get my fix of the green and rolling countryside and have been alternately baked in sunshine, saturated by driving rain and had my breath taken away by howling winds in Gloucestershire and Devon. That’s English summer weather for you.
I’ve cooked almost nothing. It’s not that I don’t want to, but I’m on the receiving end of a lot of love by people I haven’t seen for a year. I’m being fed by family – and what could be better than siting around a table sharing home-cooking after being out in masses of fresh air.
So I’m not in my kitchen this month but someone else’s and having been an expat for 16 years some things in this English kitchen seem rare and almost exotic.
So in my Mother-in-Law’s kitchen…
A homemade Victoria sandwich cake (according to my ex-domestic science teacher M-in-Law it should never be called a sponge)…
Unwaxed lemons, and fresh beetroot from the garden; don’t these golden ones look beautiful?…
Local cheeses from the South-West (from Country Cheeses) including creamy, soft, ripe Goldilocks, and a plate painted by my daughter for her Nan-nan after her dog had died (can’t you tell it’s a springer spaniel?)…
New potatoes and pork sausages from pigs raised in the village (more of these sausages to follow soon)…
Rhubarb tarts and bright yellow homemade custard (300 ml cream and three egg yolks from hens who live up the road)…
And finally the view from the kitchen window when you do the washing up…
Visit Fig Jam and Lime Cordial to see what’s in Celia’s kitchen this month. I don’t know whose kitchen I’ll be next month, but would you like to have a peep?
Here comes the summer
England has been taunting me for weeks now. As much as I like Dubai with all it has to offer, the onset of summer makes me increasingly claustrophobic. I work from home and leaving to go to the shops or office becomes a chore at any time of the day, when your sunglasses steam up and the imprisoning heat saps the energy out of everyone. My dogs refuse to walk. I long to be striding across green fields, the wind in my face…and maybe even a drop of rain.
As I work through the lists of things I have to do before I leave, there are certain things I long to see, hear and taste again that spur me on:
Rain and the fabulous smell of the countryside after rain.
Masses of hiking in the countryside – if you’d like to read more I’ll be sharing this on Walking on Sunshine.
Tea – made with tap water.
Huge skies, rain clouds and sheep
A crab sandwich – the crab freshly caught off the Cornish coast and piled thickly into soft brown bread – preferably from the Crab Shop in Cadgwith.
Fresh rhubarb – the shrivelled stuff on our supermarket shelves is pitiful.
Custard tarts with a sprinkling of nutmeg (Marks and Spencers are really good).
Cream teas and Cornish pasties.
Civilised driving.
Chagstock, camping stove, pigs and carrots
Hills, narrow lanes, deciduous trees, huge skies.
High streets.
Good pubs and real ale.
Eating pork… in the street!
Gloucester Old Spot sausages at Stroud Farmers Market
English beaches and coastal cliff path walks.
Sheep blobbed with colours.
Dogs…in cars, in the street, in the park, on beaches, everywhere.
Extreme dress and appearance (Chagstock here we come).
Pigs in fields…and piglets.
Country churches.
Giffords Circus
Carrots with tops on.
Peas in the pod, tiny broad beans, runner beans – picked from the garden.
Camping on grass – making tea on a stove.
My family, friends and relations (of course).
Fields near Guiting Power
National Trust gems like Cothele, Buckland Abbey and Lydford Gorge, Giffords Circus and the Cotswold Farm Park are places that I visit every year but I’ve added some foodie venues onto my wish list including:
Sharpham Vineyard (and cheeses)
I may sneak in another visit to the Field Kitchen at Riverford Organic Farm, I’m pledged to share a bottle of wine with my sister at John Gordon’s wine bar and I’d love another cup of tea at Barnsley House.
Barnsley House
I can’t wait to meet, for real, many lovely food bloggers I know through their online presence at Food Blogger Connect at The Hempel in August (in fact my daughter is appalled that I’m staying on the couch of someone I only know through Twitter – not the best example she says).
Come November I’ll be treasuring the balmy weather and warm seas of Dubai, but an English summer is where my heart lies now.
Putsborough Sands, Devon
What foods or produce would you taste on a two month stay in UK?
Laurie Lee country – walking in the Slad Valley
A year ago, I was still on a high from walking part of the Lebanon Mountain Trail with Gulf for Good. My new levels of fitness made me run up steep slopes and desperate to rack up the kilometres across the English countryside – which I did in Gloucestershire, including the Haresfield Beacon, on the Isle of Islay and in Devon and Cornwall. This July, my first whole day back in England after a year, I was sluggish from the effects of sitting at my desk for hours on end, confined by 40 c and high humidity that summer in Dubai brings (when my dogs refuse to walk and I descend in a downward spiral of lethargy), exacerbated by a seven hour flight on inactivity. The results from my first 10km run in January were a distant memory.
I hauled my boots out of the cupboard, my sister dusted off our favourite walking book (which we are nerdishly ticking off) and we were driving off into glorious sunshine and the glorious Gloucestershire countryside. The trees through Cranham cast beautiful dappled shadows on the road, the Cotswold stone of Painswick houses was golden, the views across the fields shimmering. Taking a left as we entered Stroud we climbed the narrow road to Slad – famed for being the birthplace and former home of author Laurie Lee.
I went to his home once as a hanger-on at a teenage party given by his daughter Jessie. My alcohol fuelled memories are very hazy but I seem to remember he was wearing a white suit that Peter Wingate would have been proud of and was just as inebriated as we were. The superficial youth that I was failed to grasp the privilege of meeting a living legend and I sloped off. This lounge lizard image is at odds with the innocent youth of Cider With Rosie where motorised vehicles had yet to arrive in the area and a visitor from Gloucester was a rare occasion.
Parking at the top of Steanbridge lane (which is anonymous as the sign has gone) and walking down to the start of the footpath took us away from civilisation pretty quickly. Past a pond, over a stile and we were soon walking through shady trees while enjoying views of sunlit fields. It wasn’t too hard to imagine this unchanged for nearly 100 years. Read more…
Whenever I walk into Atlantis, Dubai on the Palm I’m taken aback. I forget just how vast the space is, how vivid the colours, how utterly over the top the interior decoration is – like ‘Finding Nemo’ on acid. It’s a Friday afternoon and I’m meeting a bunch of fellow foodies in the Grand Lobby. The place is heaving. The doors are continually opening and wafts of the saturated hot air billow in. There’s a constant flow of people dressed in everything from towelling robes to gold lamé to dish-dashes, walking from one side of this cavernous pink palace to the other.
We join the throng and make our way along the Neptune-inspired corridors, past the ocean (that is really a Brobdingnagian fish tank) to Seafire, the steak restaurant. It’s another vast, dark space with lanterns hanging from the ceiling equivalent in size to shower cubicles. The chef demonstrates his knife skills and whips up a steak tartare – he’s a dark silhouette in front of a gleaming glass-encased kitchen. We sip virgin peach mojitos and taste nuggets of rib of beef marinated in a Jack Daniels sauce (a lovely memory from an earlier visit), carpaccio of beef on spoons and the tartare with a barely poached quails egg which melts into the silky steak. The chef explains how, after extensive tasting, Atlantis developed their own cross-breed of beef which is now raised by a single supplier in Australia, grain-fed and shipped whole exclusively for the hotel. We taste and compare fillet, rib-eye and strip loin – all are fabulous, charcoal grilled and smokey, moist within, but the rib-eye (‘the steak-lovers steak’ according to chef) is stunningly good. Chef explains that cooking steak will come naturally to those who cook a good roast beef and depends on three things:
- Sealing – Your grill needs to be hot, hot, hot – at Atlantis they use a charcoal one. Some of the marbled fat melts and falls onto the flames which flare up theatrically adding a little more smoke.
- Roasting – If you want your steak more than rare, you should continue cooking your steak in a medium oven so the middle cooks without the meat becoming tough.
- Resting – Leave your steak to rest (as you would a piece of roast beef) in a warm place for about 10 minutes, so the muscle fibres relax and the juices are reabsorbed into the meat.
Onto TBj the newly launched burger joint. Now I can’t get that excited over burgers but it’s quite funky inside, the beef used is from the same Australian beasts as at Seafire. The menu is limited to four burgers (The Works, Cheesy, Rooster Booster and Mighty Veggie) and you can even buy a beer to go with them. We were served special mini versions which were tasty, not too salty with a nice balance of pickles; the veggie burger was a great texture with big pieces of chickpea inside.
The chips were made of ‘real whole potato’ – a sad indictment of our times that this is unusual – they are soaked to rinse off the starch, dried, fried at a lower temperature, then cooked prior to order at a high temperature. Just the way I cook my chips and the method of all great chippies. They were crunchy, hot and we managed to eat a big basketful. The milkshake was home-made ice cream mixed with ‘secret recipe’ chocolate sauce and slurped up through a massive, chunky straw. If you are coming out of Aquaventure with hunger pangs that only hours being flung about by moving water can induce, this is the perfect pit-stop. We signed our names on the graffiti wall and moved next door.
Rostang is a lovely environment. Very French, with cafe lamps and mirrors and acres of patisserie. This restaurant is so authentically French that a dish, created specially for my vegetarian daughter on a visit when they had just opened, contained ham and the staff did not think this was strange. We were led through the specially prepared dishes – French onion soup, foie gras with brioche and slow cooked onion chutney, a cheese section which could have been painted by Carravaggio and a dessert area that had us all flocking round. Did I mention the towering platter of oysters – two types including some from Brittany, both stunningly fresh.
We tasted some French Sauvignon Blanc which would have been better with oysters (but we’d eaten them all) and a nice Bordeaux which would have been brilliant at Sea Fire with the lovely steak due to some soft tannins. Damien our host joked that the food at our next spot wouldn’t be quite up to the same standard as the French.
I’ve got a soft spot for Rondo Locatelli despite the 1970s colour scheme of the interior. Italians are showmen and the chef rolled and tossed pizza dough at lightening speed – we looked on admiringly! The flour used is from Molino Vigevano, the dough proved for at 2 C for three days so it becomes easy to stretch and improves the flavour. The toppings were simple, fresh and delicious – the wood fired oven baked the crust to perfection in my opinion (sadly the salami is beef which is the only thing I’d avoid).
The manager had worked for three years at Locanda Locatelli in London and we discussed how much we admired Giorgio’s authenticity and integrity – something they are keen to carry on in the Dubai restaurant (“you won’t find any of the recipes that Americans serve as Italian here like spaghetti Alfredo”).
We managed to make a small dent in some tiny little morsels of dessert including a lovely lemon tart with a fresh raspberry on top. We started to talk about truffles (due to the Giorgio truffle session last Autumn) and the chef brought some black summer truffles from the kitchen and we inhaled the musky scent. I’m a bit homesick at the moment and nearly had a tear in my eye as the smell reminded me of a walk in damp woods.
A goodie bag of macarons from Rostang, amaretti from Rondo Locatelli and a recipe from Seafire was our parting gift. Fifteen happy food bloggers wandered back to the frenetic entrance where the whole world seemed still to be coming and going.
The final pizza and interesting shadows on the pizza oven wall
It’s easy to like something when you are a guest, especially when such VIP treatment has been lavished upon you – and this is my third visit as a guest of Atlantis. The warmth of the welcome, the openess and the generosity of the team is consistent and despite the hugeness of the operation (or maybe because of it) the attention to detail and the quality of the ingredients throughout the Atlantis restaurants is impressive. Sol Kerzner has found the perfect place for another of his ambitious projects here in Dubai (for more conventionally tasteful surroundings visit The One & Only Royal Mirage). I keep remembering the taste of the steak at Seafire (and the steak tartare which I ate three of) and this is tempting me for a return visit. Rostang does ‘Le Tour de vin’ on Thursday in June and July which I’d love to book and Rondo Locatelli is a good family restaurant for my gang. I’m an Emirates NBD card holder as well which means I qualify for 25% off all food and drink this summer – how good an offer is that?
The monthly theme nights and offers are a bit buried on the Atlantis website but range from moules and frites to cocktail making classes.
As well as having a splendid afternoon with a bunch of great people enjoying some exquisite food I was reminded to look more than skin-deep. Will I revisit Atlantis restaurants? Most definitely ….and not just at their invitation.
Like to read more (and see some really gorgeous pics of the food)? Foodiva, According to Dina, Ginger and Scotch, Lgeimat Junkies, Radotouille, Life in the Food Lane, Nappytales, Kooksfood, Foodee and The Hedonista were there too.
Using your loaf
…or not doing as you are told.
There’s a contradiction in child-rearing. We want our offspring to be perfectly behaved, polite and compliant children always doing as they are told and then, magically, we expect them to make their way in the world as confident, competent adults, capable of making good decisions, standing up for themselves, entrepreneurial, imaginative, daring and brave. I don’t think both halves of this equation balance.
My upbringing was the old-fashioned kind, about conforming to rules and rote learning and I find this has repercussions that creep up on me at the strangest times – including when I bake.
I like brown bread but my teens prefer white so when the Fresh From the Oven challenge gave a white sandwich loaf (recipe courtesy of Michel Roux Jnr nonetheless) I just cracked on and stuck to the basic recipe. Except I didn’t go out (in Dubai summer temperatures of 40 C) to get fresh yeast, I used dried from my cupboard.
There are three types of yeast you can use for baking bread:
The difference is that both fresh and dried active yeast needs activating before using (with warm water and, for fresh yeast, sugar or honey). Fast-action (also known as easy-blend and quick) yeast simply gets stirred into the flour.
Active dried yeast and quick yeast look very similar – in fact I thought they were the same until I started baking with the Fresh From the Oven group. So for this loaf I knew I had to change the instructions and stir my active dried yeast into the warm milk to re-activate it. White loaf accomplished, sliced up, toasted, slathered in Marmite.
Hmmmm….what should I do now?
There were teens in abundance hanging out for the weekend, foraging around the house, doing that random ‘open-the-fridge-and-peer-inside’ action they do so well. In a fit of nurturing I found a chocolate cinnamon bun recipe (from Poires au Chocolat) that I thought they’d love. The recipe for the dough wasn’t a million miles from the loaf but did I engage brain this time? No I did not. I simply followed the instructions. I knew as soon as I saw the lumpy bits of yeast in the dough that I’d made this mistake – the dried yeast in the recipe was assuming the quick kind. So instead of buns for that afternoon, 24 hours later and two long, long proves, some less than fluffy buns were served to, I must say, an appreciative audience. The glaze of butter and sugar that caramelises on the base of these buns or the deep chocolate flavour spiced up with cinnamon might have had something to do with their disappearance.
So the moral of this story…remember which yeast you are using when baking…and don’t always do as you are told (unless you are my daughter and I’m telling you to take the dog for a walk, make your bed, do your homework…).
- You can find the recipe for the sandwich loaf (by Michel Roux Jnr for the Great British Food Revival) here.
- Another nice easy white loaf recipe here.
- Super chocolate cinnamon rolls recipe from Poires au Chocolat here.
- And some other lovely cinnamon buns here.
- Oh and do pop over to see what the other Fresh From the Oven bakers have done with this white loaf recipe here.
Perfect panna cotta – Come Dine With Me Dubai (part 5)
A tinge of sadness as we entered J‘s comfortable home – this was the last round of Come Dine With Me Dubai, the fifth in a series of extraordinarily enjoyable lunches. J‘s wife was joining us as it was their wedding anniversary. I did feel a bit guilty casting my probing lens into the corners of their sitting room in her presence but I soon got over this when J poured us a glass of Fragolino – an Italian sparkling red which tastes of strawberries. This stopped H and me from discussing a raid on J‘s wardrobe to photograph his large collection of loud shirts (he had a narrow escape I’ll tell you). Proudly, J showed A a portion of tart that he’d made from one of her recipes – this is the ultimate compliment from one foodie to another.
J‘s cookbook collection was impressive and my eyes were drawn to the many groaning shelves. The room was full of ornaments and momentos from an abundance of different travels including Henrietta, the giraffe with shades. The dining room was decorated with Arabic influences – a tiny Royal Mirage.
J‘s menu was:
- Pan-seared scallops on a cauliflower puree, caper sauce
- Roasted fillet of fresh market fish with mustard lentils and crispy potatoes
- Rose-scented panna cotta with pomegranate compote
Not sure that there was a caper sauce with the scallops but the sweetness of the cauliflower purée set off the scallops perfectly. I never think that scallops travel that well and usually don’t order them unless freshly caught but these were nicely cooked and we all mopped up the sauce and purée on our plates with some excellent bread.
Golden cups arrived and we had to guess what was in them. H was spot on – white tomato soup à la Gary Rhodes. Having sampled it at Taste of Dubai I can honestly say that this was an improvement on the one served by its original creator. The tomato taste was much more intense and sweet and not overly creamy.
J had wanted to buy cod but only found hamour (which is also a bit scarce these days) a tasty, local grouper. He reappeared from the kitchen at one point waving a pair of pliers saying “every cook should have a pair of these. Pinbones…”! With scallops and fresh fish on the menu you may be surprised that the beluga lentils were the star of the show for me – dotted with capers and with a tiny amount of foam (the soup again which worked perfectly), they kept their shape but were soft without mushiness. Crunchy potatoes were a great foil – I think the inspiration for this dish was Gordon R.
Thank goodness that S (J‘s wife) shares his interest in food as we had a lo-0-0-ng conversation about the provenance of food, a topic close to our hearts but possibly not that riveting to those not similarly obsessed. Angel, the lhasa apso, hovered at our feet expectantly; the bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc above her on the table didn’t remain there long (and we weren’t sharing).
My love of milk puddings is topped by custard-based ones first, with panna cotta a close second so I was delighted that this rose-scented version was on the menu. Ground and pistachio praline accompanied it plus a drizzle of pomegranate molasses. More sweet treats arrived in the form of salted Scottish tablet (J commissioned Toffee Princess to make this flavour specially), raw chocolate with almonds and some new season local cherries. Our coffees and teas came in an assortment of cups with funny phrases.
S took the five envelopes containing our scores and went out of the room to count the votes for us (we averaged them in case you are wondering). Let’s just have a little snoop around before the big reveal.
Don't be fooled by the name
How many cook books?
There was barely a hair’s breadth between the marks and in second place was:
A – from Anja’s Food for Thought
The ultimate winner was J.
J said graciously that there was only one winner – all five of us.
A had made some gorgeous certificates for us all and I was proud to receive an ‘Impressive dinner host 2011‘ award!
Saturday lunchtimes had become a much anticipated oasis of good food and company. We all learned so much from each other’s cooking styles, ingredients and approach to the menu as well as getting to know each other better. It was foodie bliss.
Looking back on the highlights – I would eat H‘s menu again, in its entirety, any day of the week, S‘s smokey meatballs, A‘s Hollandaise and that fabulous tart and, strange as it may seem to rave about lentils, but J‘s were exceptional.
Watch this space – there might be a rematch!
Sad partings and spiced apple cake
My friend A has given me many things. She’s brought Vino cotto (grape must which is fab in salad dressing) from South Africa, goose fat from England (for roast potatoes) and even donated a beautiful sofa bed she no longer needed. She’s also given me many happy times, laughter and so much kindness. This week she arrived bearing many gifts including the contents of her spice cupboard, a lot of gin and this beautiful cake tin…
…and some sad news.
Being an expatriate has the advantage that you meet people from all around the world and make really good friends (especially with family far away). The down side is that you say your fair share of farewells. The reason for this foodie haul is that A and her family are leaving for South Africa. We haven’t seen that much of each other in the past year as our daughters are now at different schools but knowing that she is 15 minutes drive away is different to Johannesburg.
I had some egg yolks left over from making this for when A came round…
…so there was only one thing to do to console the sad, achey feeling – make a warm, comforting cake. This spiced, apple cake borrowed from Joy the Baker seemed to fit my mood. I’ve changed the ingredients list to weighed measurements (you know my dislike of volume in baking) but if cups are your thing pop over to Joy for this and how to make it. You could also use a bit of wholemeal flour but I would add at least another apple to keep the moistness.
Thank you my lovely friend, I’m eating a slice of this cake, drinking a cup of tea and wishing you all the best for your new life. Au revoir.
Thinking of apples I was reminded of a beautiful song that my daughter learned:
I’ll give my love an apple without a core,I’ll give my love a house without a door,I’ll give my love a palace wherein she may be,And she may unlock it without any key.My head is the apple without a core,My mind is the house without a door,My heart is the palace wherein she may be,And she may unlock it without any key.
I’m sharing this post with Nina’s Kitchen – an exuberant blogger in South Africa – for her ‘Apple Affection‘ Monthly Mingle (brainchild of lovely Meeta from What’s for Lunch, Honey?) I’ll pop a link to her apple recipe round up at the beginning of July.
P.S. Hazel, who likes apple cores a lot, was clearly very interested in apple cake too!
Spiced apple cake – recipe converted from Joy the Baker
Ingredients
Sauted apples
3-4 tart apples about 500g
20g butter
35g caster sugar
Cake
135g butter, softened
200g light brown sugar
4 egg yolks (at room temperature)
250g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
135 ml sour cream
55g golden granulated sugar
For the method pop over to Joy. This is great served on its own or with a dollop of calvados cream (creme fraiche sweetened with some seived icing sugar and a dash of calvados or apple brandy).
Note: If you have a similar sunflower tin, this amount of cake mixture wasn’t quite enough to fill it. I would make half again in quantity and be generous with the apple.
Prodigious prawns – Come Dine With Me Dubai (part 4)
After a short break, where Saturday afternoons had a gourmet-sized hole in them, we were back on the Come Dine With Me Dubai circuit at A‘s house. We were greeted by a photographer from Gulf News. I had forgotten that someone was going to be there and didn’t have a scrap of make-up on and bags under my eyes which would have given Alfred Hitchcock a run for his money, from three late nights out in a row. Oh no!
My expectation was that A‘ s house would be light, bright, neat and stylish – just like her blog – and it was. The table was set with some lovely flowers, folded napkins and place settings each personalised with an image from our blogs. Much to the amusement of Pankaj the photographer, we all whipped out our cameras and started shooting from different angles. There followed a little interlude of the photographer taking photos of the photographers taking photos!
A‘s passion is trying to make recipes healthier but still tasty and this was her menu:
- Roasted Wrapped Green Asparagus with Sauce Hollandaise
- Vietnamese Prawn Curry
- Raw Yogurt Date Tart
There was iced rooibos and honey tea or False Bay Chardonnay to cool down from the 40 C outside. We all watched A as she whisked up the Hollandaise for the asparagus with a hand whisk (she said she had practised this so much over the week that her husband never wanted to eat Hollandaise again). This starter was very high up on my most favourite foods list so I was eager to tuck in (although not before preserving its beautiful image with my camera). The Hollandaise was actually quite light with lemon juice and without huge amounts of butter. Its egginess was really excellent with the parma ham and roasted baby asparagus bundles. Why isn’t this sort of dish served in restaurants more often?
A remained cool while Pankaj took pictures of her every move including removing some ENORMOUS prawns from the fridge. While she assembled the next course we dipped teaspoons into cute little schnapps tankards of homemade lemon sorbet.
I’ve been having a prawn craving this week, maybe due to the hot weather and we all discussed how we like to eat them best. A and her husband can eat two kilos in a sitting just dipping them into mayonnaise, H likes her mayo spiced with white wine vinegar and a good dose of tabasco. Then we attacked these luscious beasts, pan-fried in a slightly spicy Vietnamese curry sauce with a neat mound of brown basmati and red rice. I ate every last morsel.
Puddings always inspire a bit of rapture when they arrive and these plates were pretty as a picture, the speckled (unbaked) crust of nuts, coconut and dates loaded with a billowing orange and honey flavoured yoghurt spattered (neatly) with a raspberry coulis and berries. I will share this recipe with you as soon as A puts it on her site; you need to taste this, you really do.
We rounded off the meal with a cup of steaming homemade ginger and clove tea so hot and spicy that a dragon might find it a little powerful. No wonder A runs marathons.
I realise now that I should have been a little more probing in my poking about – I’m sure I could have found a secret drawer of Skittles somewhere to put a dent in A‘s healthy image. My relaxed state induced by such a lovely lunch made me forget to do any serious snooping. I did notice that she has more books about child rearing than cooking.
Our next and final rendezvous is with J next week. He told us that it coincides with his wedding anniversary and could he invite his wife?! No pressure J but expecting great things from a Masterchef contestant.
My Custard Pie 