Home grown goodness

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Spring is finally in the air and my thought are turning to what I will grow in my little garden this year. I have a small patio that is a perfect sun trap for pots and taking inspiration from Landshare and London’s Guerrilla Gardeners, I have commandeered the flowerbed outside my flat since the council has given up tending it. This gives me a manageable amount of space to grow my own fruit, veg and herbs each summer in a attempt to cut food miles, save money and eat fresh produce that actually tastes of something! Read more

Woodcocks provide pleasure for two?

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Woodcock: so small, but so tasty…

Back in the gamebird season Miss South visited the depths of the snow-covered Pennines to see in the New Year: in respite from the cold we took solace in cooking homely hotpots and sitting in front of the fire, reading cookbooks. One of these was the massive River Cottage Meat compendium by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, in which he raves about the joys of snipe and woodcock. As luck would have it, next time we visited my favourite butcher he had both birds freshly delivered by his game man, and I could pick up a brace of prepared fowl that coming weekend after they’d been hung and dressed. Miss South had unfortunately gone back to London by this stage, so after I picked up the plucked woodcocks they went straight into the freezer, awaiting her next trip north.

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rabbit with morcilla and chocolate

Morcilla and chocolate rabbit with a fluffy mash tail

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Conejo En Salsa De Chocolate Con Morcilla

This is a recipe which perfectly chimes with the Easter theme for me –  a chocolate rabbit –  although I actually cooked this in November last year. I found the recipe online when I was trying to pair up rabbit and morcilla (Spanish black pudding) after I found I was in possession of both elements. I believe it originally featured in “The Art of South American Cooking,” by Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, and was republished by Jayne Benet writing in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1992. It’s absolutely fantastic! Read more

It’s my party and I’ll fry if I want to…

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The Ulster Fry is the national dish of Northern Ireland. It must never be referred to as a ‘fry-up’, but can be affectionately called a ‘heart-attack on a plate’ instead. It varies from the Full English by the judicious addition of soda bread and potato farls fried to golden crispness and a soft fluffy pancake to soak up the oozing yolk of a fried egg. The sausage can be beef or pork and it can be served with either black or white pudding if to your taste. No matter which way you serve it, an proper Ulster Fry is a vast plate of fried heaven that will keep even the biggest appetite sated all day.

I only eat a real Ulster Fry about once a year on my annual pilgrimage home. Anymore than that might kill me, but it’s also because there’s something special about a fry cooked by yer mammy. It always tastes that little bit better for that. Of course the other reason I don’t eat a fry too often is that it’s difficult for me to get my hands on potato or soda bread easily. Some branches of Marks and Spencer and Waitrose stock speciality Irish breads, but sadly I don’t live near any of them. Instead I stockpile farls brought by visitors from Belfast and save them for hungover days that need grease to get through them.

This St Patrick’s Day, fresh as a daisy from the fact it fell on a Wednesday and no one else wanted to celebrate on a school night, I have decided to take advantage of my clear head and happy liver and make my own potato bread and soda bread for a proper homemade fry. It will be delicious, if not slightly inauthentic as I tend to grill the bacon and sausage and don’t fry anything in bacon fat or dripping. It’s almost healthy… Read more

Afternoon Tea

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Afternoon tea is a delightfully English tradition and one that has become increasingly fashionable in the past few years, usually with a hefty price tag and a tendency to be overrated. I was slightly nervous therefore when a friend suggested meeting at the rather on trend Bea’s of Bloomsbury for afternoon tea this week.

My mind was put at rest the instant I walked in the door of this independent cafe. I was greeted by friendly staff who seemed genuinely pleased to see me when I said that we had booked a table. Taking a seat I noticed how low key and subtle the surroundings were and just how roaring the trade in teas, coffees and truly mesmerisingly good looking baked goods at the counter was.

Bookings are only taken for afternoon tea and the neatly laid table was ready and waiting. I looked at the lengthy tea menu while waiting for my friends and decided on Earl Grey. My companion chose English Breakfast and we chatted while waiting for our third guest. She got slightly lost trying to find the cafe and was a bit late. The staff were happy for us to sit over our tea and wait for her, swooping in almost immediately she arrived to tend to her rain soaked, stressed self with a pot of hot tea and a stunning stand of ready prepared baked goods. It doesn’t get better than this!

We weren’t quite sure where to start on the abundant selection of goodies, but trying to be well mannered we began with the huge plain scones offered. Glorious golden on the outside and soft, fluffy and light inside, we smothered them with lashings of clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam. I’m fairly ambivalent about scones usually, but these were sensational. I may have gobbled mine down like I had never seen food before…

I was surprisingly well filled by the scone, so it was perfect that the stand was filled with little morsels of the desserts sold at the counter. Who could resist a teeny tiny chewy raspberry meringue or a bite sized chunk of Vahlrona chocolate brownie studded with chopped walnuts or a little titbit of soft creamy melting Belgian Blondie no matter how stuffed you feel? The fact that they were all fantastic didn’t hurt either.

We nibbled these mini sweetmeats and drained a second pot of tea each while chatting away. We were just wondering if we could do justice to the signature cupcakes that were waiting patiently on the stand for their moment of destiny, when our waitress appeared to say they were closing in ten minutes and would we like our cakes boxed up to take home? We of course did and while we were finishing up our tea, the cakes arrived back in little boxes marked raspberry, vanilla and praline. We each made our choice and went to settle the bill.

The Sweet Tea we had came to a very reasonable £9.90 per person. This is excellent value for such pleasant and helpful service, beautiful baked goods and enough tea to sink a battleship. The cafe was busy and bustling the whole two hours we were there, but it was surprisingly quiet and easy to talk with the way the tables were laid out. I had forgotten that tea and cake could be a relaxing experience in London due to the modern vogue for loud music, screaming children and in-your-face staff in most cafes. Bea’s managed to feel very grown up and welcoming.

It is open until 7pm each evening and it was a real treat to wend my way home through the rush hour stragglers with a little box of raspberry cupcake for dessert when I got home. If you are in the Theobald’s Road area en route home some evening, I heartily recommend nipping in for a post work treat! (The cupcakes are light and airy little numbers with a buttercream topping unlike the cloying lumps of sugar some other bakeries sell. Do not miss!)

I will definitely be returning here as soon as possible thanks to the fabulous atmosphere and top quality baked goods. Individual items were well priced with many under a pound. I’ll be trying the coffee next time too as they roast top quality Square Mile beans and I think it will be a match made in heaven with the blondies…

Do make a booking for Bea’s. It’ll restore your faith in afternoon tea in London!