James Martin - My Kitchen Cookbook Review + afternoon tea take two

My grandparents were over from France during the summer so I decided that an afternoon tea would be a nice British thing to do and oh so fashionable! As with my previous attempt at a full afternoon tea I tried to make as many things as possible in advance so I didn't cry on the day! I think all were impressed with how it turned out. Ooooo .... pretty!

The scones were not made by me, made by my fair Mama from her Good Housekeeping 'Cooking is Fun' cookbook which can safely be called vintage! It may be older than me but it does make very nice scones, back when food was 'proper'.

For the other offerings I used a combination of Rachel Allen's Bake cookbook and James Martin's My Kitchen. I'll be focussing on James Martin's book today - the brownies and the ham terrine.

Look at how much effort I go to - flower shaped toast with smoked salmon!!

On the strength of the success of the ham terrine from my last afternoon tea I decided to buy the book - it deserved a place in my collection (plus it was a bargainous £6.99 - huzzah!). There are honestly only a handful of recipes I wouldn't try, and that's only because I don't eat things such as rabbit or lamb. Recipes are sorted by seasons and all look very unfussy and simple to make which makes me believe that Mr Martin really does make this food at home.

There is a nice short introduction to each chapter with a few examples of what is in season at that time of year. It makes it look easy to shop locally and seasonally when food looks this tasty.

Recipes include Sliced duck breast with winter stir-fry and Scallops with black pudding and apple puree, both of which I made from the taster booklet from Good Food magazine. The winter stir-fry made a very nice accompaniment to the juicy duck and manages to make sprouts tasty! The scallops and black pudding made a gorgeous dish with apple and has quickly become part of my repertoire. It is in fact making an appearance for La Mama's birthday meal next week if nice scallops can be found.

The pressed ham terrine was ultra successful once again, in fact I think it was even better this time. Still no ham hock found so used a gammon joint and boiled it till it fell apart beautifully. I tore the ham into smaller pieces this time so it looked a little bit prettier, but only vaguely! But who cares when it tastes this good?! I was glad that there was plenty left to eat more later on toast.

The other recipe I used was the Black cherry brownie recipe from the summer chapter. He admits that there is nothing particularly special about this recipe but it's the best one he's found in 20 years. Would I agree? Well, again they just didn't set very well. I'm not very lucky with brownies. They did taste absolutely yummy though and the fresh cherries cut through the chocolate nicely. It was quite a job trying to get nice petite squares onto my cake stand though! The rest of the pan of brownies were eaten with a spoon with cream on top. Double indulgence. Oh, and obligatory glitter.

So pretty darn successful, bar a soggy brownie- definitely one that everyone should add to their cookbook collection. Next I want to try Slow-roasted tomatoes with Worcestershire sauce, Potted salt beef with gherkins and Grilled halibut with champ and lemon caper butter. Tempted yet?

Next time, afternoon tea part two with Rachel Allen.

London Town

More holidays! This time 6 days in London. Had breakfast at the hotel (mmmm, more pancakes, maple syrup and bacon, while being intently watched by a couple of Italian women, in both disgust and fascination!) so tended to eat lunch quite late and then had a quick tea as we had a play to attend every night! Phew, needed a holiday to recover from the holiday!! But we saw Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act!!! Woo! Not to mention Jeff Goldblum and Meera Syal in 2 other plays. I'll start with our visit to the Southbank. We weren't hungry till we reached the Tate Modern so we decided to have a go in their restaurant. What a good choice. A bit expensive but completely delicious. My mum had the Cornish crab with mimosa dressing and sourdough toast, as seen below. We didn't realise it would be a whole crab so it was a lovely surprise when it arrived at our table. The drink was an apple and honey iced tea which was equally lovely.

I chose the cured Iberico meat plate with pork rilette, Catalan tomato bread, caper berries and sweet guindilla, with an apple, mint and ginger cooler which was incredibly fiery!! The meats, as I knew they would be, were yummy and there was plenty of it. I felt a little short-changed by the little mound of rilettes but actually there was plenty as it was so rich. The Catalan bread was gorgeous but wow did that garlic stay with me for the rest of the afternoon!! And as for caper berries, I've wanted to try some for a while as I love capers but I'm not so sure about all the crunchy seeds inside. Think I'll stick with pretty little capers! Each dish was £9.95, I think the crab was probably better value but then I know how expensive Iberico meat can be. It was a good treat meal and the staff were really nice.

One tea consisted of a slice of tarte fromage blanc and a puff pastry tart with salmon and spinach from Paul's. A taste of Paul's in Paris just wasn't enough for me. I wish we had a Paul's in Manchester, their food is quick and delicious and the choice of bread from there is great. Had to have a bacon fougasse as I'm quite sure it's the law when passing one of their bakeries! They do bread making classes which I'm sure would be really good to attend.

Salmon and spinach puff pastry tart:

Another favourite in London is Wasabi. I think there are quite a few branches there but they haven't filtered through the rest of the country. They have a really nice selection of individual sushi so you can make your own choice according to what you fancy at the time. Makes it a good time to try out different flavours without the commitment of a whole dish. Wasabi also make gorgeous broth soups with different meats and seafoods.

Can't quite remember the kinds I picked but I know there was a katsu chicken one and a salmon and mango one. All very nice anyway!

I'd been on the lookout for some diner food for the whole trip and had written a few addresses down (blame my obsession with Diners, Drive-ins and Dives) but we were never in the right place at the right meal time. I finally got some on the way home outside Euston station at Ed's Diner.

I loved the look of the place and everyone seemed very happy with their order, just a shame it took an age for them to acknowledge me as I wanted to order something to take-away. Grrrr. That put me right off, I was obviously standing right there but oh well. Eventually my order was taken, a classic burger and some fries.

The burger was very nice. I have to admit I prefer the flavour of the meat from my Paris McDonalds trip (shock horror) but you could tell it was good quality, and there was the very welcome addition of pickle, my favourite bit of a burger. Not sure I'd go out of my way to eat here again next time I'm around but it was ok. Didn't like the fries very much as they were really thick and I strangely don't like the taste of potato that much so I like them nice and thin!!

But on to the most important part of this entry - the thorough cupcake testing!

Tried out 4 different cupcake eateries to try and find the best place. First up was Lola's, purchased in Topshop on Oxford Street where they have a little stand for the summer. Got a peanut butter one for my mum and a red velvet for me.

Cute box. The peanut butter one got the big thumbs up and the red velvet was light and had a really nice flavour. A good example of a tasty cupcake. £2.25 which is a bit much but worth it.

Next was Ella's Bakehouse in Covent Garden. A tiny little shop which used to be another brand of cupcake last year. I'd been looking forward to trying out this shop as I'd read great things about them.

Boo, major disappointment. Another peanut butter one and I chose a 'designer cupcake' flavour - maltesers. Should have been wonderful but it was so heavy and I could only really taste maltesers when I ate the one of the top. And at £2.75? Not again. Lola's winning so far. Peanut butter the same heavy texture, at least it was cheaper.

Third was the one I had the highest hope for - the Hummingbird Bakery. Not the friendliest and most helpful of staff but hey, you get your cupcakes and you leave.

Got another red velvet as I wanted to compare with Lola's, and my mum chose the violet special of the day - so pretty and a much more exciting option compared to the two previous bakeries.

The violet had most of its flavour in the little violet pieces of top but the cake was really light and the frosting wasn't too sweet. My red velvet was absolutely gorgeous. Just enough chocolate to make it taste rich, the colour was beautiful, light as anything in texture and I really like cream cheese frosting. The winner thus far but Lola's isn't too far behind at all. The packaging is the prettiest too! £2 I think but can't quite remember.

Lastly - Primrose Bakery in Covent Garden. There wasn't a massive choice and there were no labels on the cakes so you had to ask what each flavour was, not great. I wanted an unusual flavour to end my trip with but there was nothing that took my fancy, a rose one would have been nice. So I ended up with nothing but my mum thought it would be wise to try out another peanut butter concoction!

Another heavy texture. The frosting I'm told was nice and a nice amount of peanut butter in the cake itself but it didn't compare to Lola's or Hummingbird Bakery. Disappointing.

So final placements are:

1. Hummingbird Bakery

2.Lola's

3.Primrose Bakery

4. Ella's Bakehouse

Paris in food

Ah, lovely Paris. I hadn't been since I was very young (and quite frankly I was far more excited about going to Euro Disney at the time!) so it was nice to see everything with fresh eyes. Don't expect any restaurant reviews or anything high-brow! I eat supermarket food in hotel rooms and eat in places I'll be left alone! But I eat well.

Found a really great food court underneath the Louvre - Le Carrousel Du Louvre. It's apparently the biggest food court on the continent, not sure about the size but it's certainly the best choice of food I've ever seen in a fast food setting. Different outlets with similar meal deal, ie. a drink, main dish and a dessert for about 14 euros. There is Moroccan, Labanese, Japanese, French, Spanish and Italian then a sandwich place, an ice cream outlet and the obligatory McDonalds (more on that later).

We decided to go for French as the ham looked completely edible. Got massive wedges as the girl behind the counter admitted she wasn't very good at carving! The french beans were gorgeous, cooked with garlic and mushrooms and the ratatouille reminded me that I should eat it way more often.

http://www.carrouseldulouvre.com/

For later on I visited the Italian counter and bought myself a cannoli. I've always wanted to try one of these having seen them in loads of New York Italian delis, except last year when I was ready to buy one and couldn't see one anywhere! I was very glad to finally try one. The pastry was really crispy and the filling was really creamy, almost mousse-like in texture and the candied orange peel cut through everything. Lovely, and one to seek out again though not sure if I'd bother to make some myself. Will check out a recipe to see how much of a faff it is!

As it was August rather a lot of bakeries were unfortunately closed for the month so I didn't come across as many cakes as I'd have liked. We glanced longingly at fine creations in Laduree and Fauchon but the prices were just stupid and I'd have felt guilty about every mouthful! I think I'd rather have clothes anyway. Things did look beautiful though and I'll go back when I win the lottery!! (I can dream)

I did however take a photo of the Fauchon window - oooo, pretty but about 20 euros for just one of those cakes - eek!

We did buy a bit of bread from there though, seemed reasonable! Nice parmesan, tomato and black olive mini bread. I've had things just as nice from other places though.

Looking in the side streets near our hotel we found a gorgeous bakery which was closing for the summer a couple of days later. They were selling equally pretty eclairs as Fauchon and for a third of the price. I couldn't resist the rose eclair and my mum chose the pistachio. Oh yum, the rose eclair tasted like turkish delight. I would have gone back for one everyday if they weren't closing. Oh well, it saved me a few calories!

Pretty and delicious.

Had some lovely steak hache from Galeries Lafayette in their 6th floor casual restaurant and some lovely steak hache from Casino Cafeteria - notice a trend?! I love steak hache and always had it growing up, either with chips or with half rice and half buttery rice. It always had to be cooked through thoroughly but now I'm a grown up I'm having it 'au point', still maybe a little bit raw in the middle but at least you get served quicker! No pics but I'm sure you can imagine a plate of beef and chips!

One major suprise was McDonalds in Paris - have you ever seen a McDonalds in Britain that looks like this?!:

They have created McCafes, don't know if they exist everywhere in France but there were loads in Paris. They looked gorgeous! And they sell macarons! There was apparently a lot of controversy about this as it was seen as cheapening the art of pastry making. But it was a useful place for breakfast, the coffee was made properly and the croissants were completely fresh and crisp - and most importantly they were open in August! I wish we had them over here.

And I have to admit that we did eat a couple of times in McDonalds but with very good reason, you got these little ceramic cups free with a meal and a coffee:

So cute! They did exist in some gorgeous colours but we didn't find ourselves there on the right day. Boo, I really wanted a blue or purple one. They are made by Revol, a famous brand in France and I found these cups in a department store for 8 euros so a great bargain in McDo. And actually, hamburgers are rather delicious aren't they?!

And holidays don't stop - off to London this week for more restaurant avoidance, cupcake eating and plenty of theatre going. So excited to be seeing Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act! Woo!

Artichoke season

Still no cookbook review (slap wrist) but I was excited to share my first fresh artichoke of the year. It might well also be the last of the year, why is n0-one selling them? There were all of 2 available at Waitrose, for, eeks, £1.99 each. Phew. But if it's the only one we're getting then hell, it's worth it. It makes my insides cry when I see chefs on TV cutting into an artichoke and only using the heart or the bottom, especially when they're obviously so expensive. No doubt in their restaurants they would use the remainder to make soups or foams but I think the best way of eating artichoke is simply, with a nice vinaigrette, and eating as much as possible.

Too right it's a bit of a faff getting through all the leaves but it's good to fool your brain into thinking you've eaten loads when you've only had a taste of the bottom of the leaves until you get to something more tender. I've always been the vinaigrette maker in the house, learnt from my French side of the family - Dijon mustard, vinegar (your choice of flavour), pinch of salt and oil mixed in little by little until it tastes nice! This time I used sherry vinegar as we've had it for a while and never really used it, very nice. I like balsamic but I use much less as it's so strong. I also avoid using olive oil as I think it's too strongly flavoured, sunflower oil is perfect.

So very happy with this simple meal, just wish we could find them somewhere else.

The only other dish I can report on is a Jamie Oliver risotto recipe from the Sainsbury's Magazine from October 2009. The upside to tidying up magazines is that you re-discover some nice looking recipes. I went for Jamie's red wine and mushroom risotto as we already had all of the ingredients at home. I used a gorgeous selection of dried wild mushrooms, using the water they'd soaked in as the stock for the rice. The red wine added a nice depth to the flavour without hiding the flavour of the mushrooms and cubes of pancetta in the dish. I didn't go for celery or onion for the base as I'm not a great lover of either but I honestly don't think the risotto was lacking anything without them. Plenty of parmesan on top and it was great. A good recipe to have on hand when you can't think what else to eat but want something homemade.

I'm now going to be creative in other ways, making a card for my friend's birthday and then testing out a new nail art kit! Do I go for flowers, stars or leopard print?!

My rubbish updating

I have been incredibly lazy recently so don't have any proper cookbook reviews. Terrible. We're trying to empty the freezer in order to fill it again when my grandparents come over from France. Hopefully then I can try a few more recipes and there will be another afternoon tea to be made.

At the moment my favourite recipe is crab and noodle soup which I seem to be making at least twice a week. It's so easy to make, tastes amazing and makes good use of the corriander and chinese leaves I'm growing at the moment. So impressive just being able to go in the garden and pick your own leaves and eat them 2 minutes later!

I did venture into another 200 book, this time 200 Thai Favourites. You're probably sick of these books by now but I'm still finding them excellent. I had some tofu I'd been holding onto for a while, feeling I should cook with it but not quite sure what to do with it. I found a tasty sounding recipe in this book, fried rice with beans and bean curd. Turns out tofu is pretty boring if you cook it yourself!! I just don't have the magic touch. The rice and beans were nice though and the mint added a nice fresh flavour.

The second recipe comes courtesy of Simon Rimmer from the BBC website. There were good prices on rhubarb so decided to have a go at a crumble, usually opting for the traditional apple version, throwing in the occasional blueberry when they're available. I thought rhubarb and star anise crumble sounded like an interesting option and it was absolutely delicious. I left out the almonds from the topping as I'm not mad keen but I don't think it needed it anyway. The star anise was really subtle and the orange juice sweetened the rhubarb really nicely. Looking forward to eating this again while rhubarb is still in season.

Why not try making it yourself?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rhubarbandstaranisec_85142

I will try my best to apply myself a little better in the next couple of weeks, it certainly isn't stopping me from taking every cookbook out from the library (slight exaggeration!). There was also a lovely sounding lentil recipe in last week's Stylist magazine so will have to have a go at that soon. Plus - great excitement! I bought some really pretty plates from Lakeland and TK Maxx yesterday so I can up my presentation a bit from now on yay!

200 Super Soups / 200 Meals for Two cookbook reviews

This week I'm reviewing two rather natty little cookbooks, both from the Hamlyn all-colour cookbook range. I've gone a little mad for these at my local library, I think I have everything available out at the moment. They are only £4.99 each, or an even better bargain on Amazon - £2.99, I'm just figuring out which ones I want to buy! But don't let the price deceive you, there are loads of brilliant ideas contained within. First up in the 200 Super Soups cookbook by Sara Lewis. This is definitely one I'm going to buy. I don't really need more soup books in my life but this book is a thousand times better than the 2 New Covent Garden books I own. The design is clear and concise, there are photos for each recipe and there are a ideas for accompaniments - and even alternatives to recipes making the already brilliant 200 recipes a much bigger number.

There is a short introduction about different types of soup, how to make stocks and ideas for finishing touches. To the point and all the info you need. The different sections of the book include speedy soups, chilled soups, winter warmers and something special.

The first soup I made was the Vietnamese beef pho, a dish I've enjoyed eating out but have never made before. The ingredient list looked quite long but I already had all the ingredients as I make fragrant soups quite often as they're easy to make, healthy and most of all, delicious. The pho was equally fragrant and delicious. I didn't simmer the stock for long enough, I will do next time as the ginger and star anise flavours probably weren't as strong as they should have been - that's what you get for not reading the recipe properly in advance! There is a nice alternative recipe with prawns and kaffir lime leaves which sounds lovely so that's one to add to the 'to make' list - getting longer by the second! So this book was on to a good start.

The other soup I tried was the summer vegetable soup, opting for asparagus as we had stalks which seemed a shame to waste; nice and seasonal too. Again, very easy to make with a very short list of ingredients needed and a really gorgeous flavour. Both recipes I made were from the healthy section but they certainly didn't feel worthy dishes! I didn't even need to season the asparagus soup as the flavour was strong enough. Obviously the quality of the veg will always affect the dish you're making so seasonal soups are best if possible.

So very pleased with this book, if you couldn't already tell! Price is amazing, it's just the space I'm running out of! Luckily these books are petite and oh so browsable.

The second book to try was 200 Meals for Two by Louise Blair. The introduction this time contains information on food groups and store-cupboard and fridge essentials. Perhaps not as useful as the soup introduction but still nice to have. The sections in this book are brunch, light bites, quick suppers, special occasions and desserts. I love brunch recipes and with full-page photos everything is even more inviting, especially the baked eggs with salmon and the blueberry French toast.

I have made just one recipe from this book so far, hot haloumi with fattoush salad. I'd never eaten haloumi before and always wanted to try it, it just seems so expensive to buy for one meal so I waited till I found a good price (Asda grilling cheese - good stuff!). My god does that cheese squeak! It was pretty weird to eat but I loved the flavour which went really nicely with the fattoush salad, with added avocado. The dressing was really simple and added a nice subtle garlic flavour. I would make this again, just gear myself up for the freaky texture - I know what to expect!

Not a concise testing of the cookbook but I can tell that everything looks really tasty and easy to make. Yet another one I want to buy. There are 26 different titles in this collection which is extremely dangerous! I have 200 Desserts on it's way to me, and 200 Chicken dishes waiting for me at the library. It's a serious addiction! The only ones I've read and wouldn't buy so far are the 200 Super Salads and 200 Barbecue Recipes. The salad book is nice to glance through but nothing complicated enough that you couldn't put together yourself, and I wouldn't get enough use out of the BBQ book to justify buying it.

A little addition for this week, a lovely and fresh recipe from the June 2010 issue of Prima magazine. Ginger and lemongrass chicken with mango and basil. The topping was easy to make, just ginger, lemongrass, 5-spice, soy sauce and olive oil all whizzed up together. No need for hours of marinating which was great, just straight in the oven. The little mango salad was perfect with the chicken and absolutely perfect for these hot days when you don't want to cook for too long or eat really heavy food.

I'm now going to cook some tofu fried rice from yet another 200... book and cry over how rubbish the French football team is :-(

Bill's Sydney Food cookbook review

It's been a while since I've written a new review - but I was checking out the lovely food available in Stockholm! Below are a couple of photos from the Saluhall which is a gorgeous indoor market with loads of things on offer. All the salads and sandwiches looked gorgeous, unfortunately we were still incredibly full from breakfast and no eating was involved. Oh well. It was also super expensive, as was the rest of the holiday. Lots of window shopping instead of actual buying.

But breakfast was outstanding at our hotel, the Rival (owned by Benny from ABBA - oh yes! And we saw him there!). The hotel had its own bakery and the breads were absolutely scrumptious, yup, scrumptious! One morning I ordered french toast which was lovely, and another morning these rather lovely looking pancakes.

On the other plate is a very red concoction of crispy bacon, serrano ham, gravalax, said example of scrumptious bread and a tomato slice to appear healthy! There was also eggs any way you pleased, pastries, a cheese board and the usual suspects. I'm dreaming of going back soon! Oh, and Stockholm was lovely too!

But on to my own cooking. I bought some ricotta on special offer and then wasn't too sure what to so with it so purused my cookbook collection for something other than spinach and ricotta lasagne, yummy as it is. Bill Granger came up with the goods in his Bill's Sydney Food - the original and classic recipe collection. I'm trying to own all the Bill Granger cookbooks, falling for the man when his series was on BBC1. His grinning got me, the looking just a little too long at the camera while smiling widely made me love him! I keep waiting for another series of his to be shown over here as we only got his holiday series, but there's a new cookbook due in September so maybe we'll see something soon.

The book is really cleanly laid out, representing the food really well, and no faffing around with loads of introductions, just a nice foreword and straight into the breakfast section, where I found my 1st recipe - ricotta hotcakes. I think these are the main attraction at Bill's cafes, never to be taken off the menu. I can see why.

They were incredibly light and fluffy, a combination of the whisked egg white and the ricotta. I halved the quantities and the mixture easily made 10. The only downside was waiting for the next batch to be cooked before I could eat them!

A serving suggestion:

And don't be mean with the maple syrup. If I can't have pancakes in Stockholm then I can have hotcakes in Manchester!

The rest of the breakfast section looked just as inviting, coconut waffles, homemade crumpets and breakfast muffins will certainly get me reaching for this book again.

My second recipe was from the lunch section, chicken noodle soup with lemon. Another big thumbs up. I'm a big sucker for soup, my next post will actually be on a soup book. There seemed to be quite a few ingredients but I already had everything I needed, just opting for sweetcorn kernels rather than baby corn and rice noodles instead of lasagne sheets. The lasagne sheets seemed a bit of an odd choice but visually I suppose it works quite well.

I really liked the twist on the usual chicken soup recipe and the broth was really light and flavoursome, and just enough chili to make the lips tingle! Without doubt I would make this again and it's incredibly healthy, easy to make and a joy to eat. Again the rest of the lunch section looks simple, healthy and inspiring. Same goes for the dinner section. I like that there are full page colour photos next to each recipe so you know exactly what you're aiming for.

So another recommended cookbook with maybe one downside - no grinning photos of Bill himself!!

And one last little recipe I tried as a side dish, hot paprika potatoes with garlic mayo from the July 2010 issue of Good Food magazine, hot off the press. Except I forgot to take a photo, but you can tell from the empty plate that they were really nice! Easy to make too, just boil new potatoes for 5 minutes, then coat in oil, paprika, chili powder, sea salt and cumin and roast till crispy. Maybe I'll get a picture next time I make them!