London Eating

It's been a pretty busy August, first Whitby, then I went to visit my friend in Edinburgh and had a jolly good time at the Fringe (I urge everyone to see Alex Horne in a venue near you!) and then I went to spend a week in London seeing shows and binge-eating cupcakes and sushi! I was so sad to read that Betty Blue Eyes was closing early after seeing the show the night before, it was so good. As were the 5 other shows I saw! Phew! Very busy! A new Laduree shop opened in Covent Garden in May, a fact I didn't know till we were walking past. A nice discovery! It was pretty impossible not to walk away with some macarons.From left to right we got: pistachio, raspberry, salted caramel, lemon and thyme, rose, liquorice, blackcurrant and violet and orange blossom. La Mama thought the pistachio, liquorice and orange blossom were the best flavour but found the cream centres a little sickly. I however preferred the cream ones and liked the rose, lemon and salted caramel ones the best. It's inspired me to have a go again at making some. I really wanted to try their seasonal strawberry and mint macaron but I was told it was too warm for them to sell it. Not quite sure why they could sell the others.

Also saw some beautiful flavours of macarons at the Real Food Festival on the Southbank from Cafe On, really interesting combinations.

We ate sushi everyday, there are so many great places in London and we needed quick and filling food between shopping/gallery visiting and shows. This lovely lot came from the Japan Centre. Such good prices and really popular.

Delicious salmon sushi.

A new obsession - soft shell crab tempura. Not the prettiest thing but gorgeous.

Walking back from Waterloo station after seeing The Railway Children (and then seeing Marcus Brigstocke again at the Comedy Store that night!) we came across the Real Food Festival at the Southbank. I wish we'd found it on the friday instead of at 5pm on sunday, I would have tried loads if we hadn't been rushing. I did find the time to drink a delicious fresh apple juice from one of the stalls and then try a coley fish taco from Luardos - fried fish, red cabbage, avocado, special sauce and mango with lots of lime. Amazing. It was great to see all the pretty food vans too.

Decided to have lunch at the National Dining Rooms again as it was so nice last time. Not so great this time around. Big plus was that we walked straight in, but they were obviously down on staff as it took an absolute age to order. I had a chicken, tarragon and leek pie which was quite small but filling. It was really nice but at almost £10 it's a bit too much. And I think our lovely waiter made a mistake last time by giving us a massive mixed salad in addition to our dishes as we certainly didn't get anything else this time :-( And I don't like that they add a 12.5% 'discretionary' service charge. Don't think I'll go again next London visit.

More sushi, this time from Wasabi. Had this selection twice as it was so yummy. The chicken katsu had a gorgeous chili sauce and the edamame and french bean salad was a nice addition to the sushi.

Also had a seafood noodle soup from them, lots of goodies inside including two mahoosive green-lipped mussels.

Then, after all this healthy sushi it was cake time! I visited The Hummingbird Bakery everyday as I wanted to try out all the sweet shop flavours! Greedy yes but I felt it had to be done! My days were slightly ruled by getting to the bakery on Wardour Street before all the cupcakes sold out but we made it! On the first day I saw the Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie which I've wanted to try for 2 years but they never baked it when I was around. It was nice but it didn't live up to my huge expectations, the flavours altogether were great but individually they weren't the nicest brownie/cheesecake/mousse. Oh well.

The first sweet shop cupcake to be had was the Rhubarb and Custard. The frosting was unexpected as it was actual set custard with a slight skin which was slightly disconcerting!! The flavours were great though.

There was some rhubarb compote in the middle which was nicely sweetened and also tasted like it was slightly spiced. It looked really pretty too.

The second day, as well as getting my Hummingbird fix I also bought a cupcake from Cox, Cookies and Cake in Soho. Have to say I felt quite dirty doing so, it's a pretty dark and seedy looking shop! They guy serving wasn't terribly forthcoming and there were no explanations of what the flavours were so I just went for the most Nathalie one on offer - the skull!

The frosting was a little runny so it didn't completely survive our day but it didn't do too badly. The flavour was chocolate and raspberry - chocolate cake with a raspberry centre and the frosting tasted like white chocolate. The skull was made of chocolate too with loads of glitter added which was cool. £4.25 though - ruddy hell! I kept the box for that price! I didn't really think it was worth it. The sponge was very moist and it was really difficult to eat. Shame as I really like Eric Lanlard. I've got their book from the library but haven't decided if it's one I'd want to buy yet.

Saturday was Flying Saucer day which was a lemony sponge with a sherbert frosting. I couldn't really tell there was sherbet in the buttercream but I found lovely bits of lemon zest and it was really tasty and a light flavour. I think their sponge is second-to-non and always consistent. I'd love to be able to produce cupcakes like this, mine are way too hit and miss.

Sunday was Sweet Peanut. This was La Mama's winner of cupcake of the week and I have to say it was up there with me too even though I'm not really keen on peanut. This was a lighter version of a usual peanut cupcake which was great, not so sickly and little nuggets of peanut in the mix.

Monday brought us Blackcurrant and Liquorice which I thought would be a favourite as it was so different to the usual cupcake fare but it was a little disappointing. The cake was supposed to be liquorice but I couldn't taste any hint and I don't particularly like blackcurrant so the jam in the middle wasn't the greatest for me. Shame as more liquorice would have balanced the flavour. Still a well made cake though.

I was looking forward to the Mint Humbug and it didn't disappoint. The sweet had melted a little on top by the end of the day but that was fine. It was a caramel and mint fest in both the sponge and frosting. Granted it was a little toothpastey but in a good way! Very refreshing and tasted exactly like a humbug. I'd like to try and make something like this myself.

I brought home the last cupcake I could try, the Chocolate Lime, along with a red velvet (which never, ever disappointments me, completely delicious). It wasn't my best, the chocolate cake was nice but the frosting was a little strange, a bit fake tasting. The cake and the frosting were nice together but I just couldn't put my finger on what made it taste a little odd.

The flavour I missed out was Rosy Apple which I'm sad about as they're my favourite sweets along with Pear Drops (I think they missed a trick there!). I don't think I did too badly on the cupcake front though, maybe one more cupcake would have made me burst in some sort of horrendous cake-eating explosion! Nice!

And finally I just had to include this eaterie I walked past one day - Herman Ze German!! It reminded me of German at school where the one word remembered for the rest of time was Currywurst! They sell them here! The name just made me giggle, maybe I'll try it next time.

No more holidays planned for a while so I can get back to my cookbooks - already made a start on Simon Hopkinson's The Good Cook for next time.

Whitby in Food

This week I've been mostly galavanting to Whitby for a few days as my grandparents were over from France. Luckily we mostly had nice weather and the apartment we stayed in was stunning - The White Linen Guesthouse - they even had a Magpie cookbook in the kitchen! It's not the biggest of places so a couple of days would probably suffice, I think I ended up knowing every window display of each shop! But I came home with a few skull items from the various Gothic shops and I ate a lot of delicious seafood. I think the seafood would lure me back.

We had fish and chips to take away on our first night there, from Trenchers no less, James Martin's favourite place for fish and chips! Brilliant! We had haddock, cod and scampi plus chips, tartar sauce and mushy peas. I've never fancied eating mushy peas, they're far too bright green, but they were actually yummy. Glad I tried them again. The fish had loads of flavour and the scampi was really sweet and succulent. The chips weren't greasy, there were just too many of them and we only had 2 portions between 4!! Fish and chips certainly isn't my favourite meal but it was lovely. The next day we found a tiny little fishmongers who only sold around 5 different things, obviously incredibly fresh and local produce. We had the buy the prepared crab. Bit of buttered brown bread and the crab - perfect for tea that night. I adore brown crab meat, it has so much flavour.

We tried to eat at the Magpie Cafe that lunchtime but the queue was pretty huge so we walked (and walked) to try and find somewhere else that everyone fancied. Not the easiest of tasks but we decided to give a place called Mister Chips a go. The dodgy name really doesn't do the restaurant justice. There was the usual fish and chips but the specials sounded delicious so I had the Roasted Ling Fillets with Tiger Prawn Beignets, Steamed garlic, lemon and basil Samphire and Crispy straw Vegetables. 2 of us had the same thing. It looked beautiful and the fish was cooked perfectly. The samphire was amazing, so much flavour, definitely want to cook it like that at home. The beignets were light and fluffy and it was a nice surprise to find a prawn inside.

The grands both had the Pan-fried Seabream with Crushed New Potatoes infused with lemongrass, chilli, garlic and herbs, served with roast pepper and tomato salsa. I am reliably informed that it was tasty!

All dishes came with a side dish of all sorts of vegetables. It was a nice touch to have small amounts of lots of things to try. This is definitely a restaurant to try, just ignore the slightly dodgy name - no offence! We tried to make a reservation for the Magpie for the next day but they only have a few reservations per day and they had already been filled. We thought we'd try anyway for lunch and then eat somewhere else if it was way too busy. Thursday lunchtime - 11.45am - we walked straight in!! They're proud to have been in the Good Food Guide since 1980 and have a great reputation. The menu is absolutely huge and there are TV screens in the restaurant showing specials and which fish and seafood is available and which aren't

The grands both had the Magpie Trio which was salmon, scallops and wild seabass with a white wine, lemon and chive butter sauce on spinach. Big thumbs up on this dish.

I had the Chilled Seafood Taster with prawns, hot smoked salmon, poached salmon, anchovies, scallops, mop herring, an oyster, local mussels and local crab. Wow. This is my ideal sort of dish, lots of small portions of delicious things. I think the anchovies were the least exciting, but that's because I like the ones that taste of pure salt and these were in vinegar. No matter, there was plenty of other things to eat!

La Mama had a lobster salad, great local Whitby lobster. They're so lucky having these readily available. We bought both of the Magpie cookbooks which were signed so will look forward to cooking from those soon. The desserts sounded good but I couldn't fit anymore in. I did have a Bram(ble) Stoker ice cream later on though from a milkshake place selling Mr Moo's ice cream. The ice cream was gorgeous! Blackberry flavour which was really creamy and tasted of actual cream. I went back the next day and had a Plum and Damson Crumble ice cream. I also tried a Yorvale Turkish Delight ice cream from a place on the pier which was really light and delicate. I love being able to try unusual flavours.

We thought we'd put together a tasty ploughman's for our evening meal. Plenty of Wensleydale, not traditional but local, some gorgeous Yorkshire ham and a pork and apple pie from a butchers close to our accomodation.

Mmmm, tasty handmade pie.

On our last day we ate at Graveley's, alas no photos as I'd taken so many pictures of the Abbey I ran out of space on my memory card! The staff were lovely, as everyone had been on our whole trip. More lobster and crab was eaten which were great. Strangely the dishes came with a small portion of pasta salad as well as coleslaw and a green salad. But oh, the chips were amazing! You could taste they'd been cooked in beef dripping and they were absolutely perfect. Get rid of the pasta and give more chips!

We found a great local shop called The Shepherd's Purse who sold loads of wholefoods, local cheeses and most importantly for me - loose teas and spices. Bought some dried spearmint which I'd not seen before and some sumac and sweet paprika. It's great to be able to buy as much or as little as you want. I wanted to bring back some kippers from Fortunes but I'm not sure how they would have done on a 4 hour train journey, and how much other people would have appreciated the smell! They looked great though.

Whitby is well worth a visit if you want to eat copious amounts of fish and chips or some amazing local seafood.

Love Bakery: Cupcakes from the Heart Cookbook Review

I'm quite partial to a cupcake, as some of my other posts will attest to, so when I was making a Book People order a few months ago and saw this book for cheaps I just had to add it to my basket! I hadn't even heard of the Love Bakery before but I figured I'd take a punt. I was glad I did as it's a lovely book, both to look at and to cook from. The book is a good size and actually stays open while you're trying to follow a recipe - always a bonus! The photography is gorgeous and there is a full-page photo of each cupcake. The super huge images really help as they add a lot of decoration to their cakes and you can recreate the designs much more easily when you can see every detail. The flavours are original enough to justify buying yet another cupcake book! There is a great section with Cuptail recipes! There are also the classics, breakfast cupcakes, fruit, afternoon tea, retro and kid's cupcakes. Flavours include Rhubarb and Custard, Toffee Apple, Chocolate Lime amd Cosmopolitan. There is also a recipe for English Whoopie Pies, Cake Pops and the ubiquitous giant cupcake. There are even a couple of preserve recipes.

What also makes this book great are the little additions throughout the book like the really useful tip of using an apple corer to remove some sponge to then add a filling to the cake. Brilliant! At the end of each recipe there is a 'To add the love' section which details how to fill and decorate the cakes; and then a 'Love tip' which gives information about ingredients or alternatives. They have also given gift-wrapping ideas, a few mood boards they have created and there are gift tags to use and templates for sugar-paste decorations. A really well thought out book.

What do you do when all your surfaces are covered? Take your cupcakes into the garden of course!! I love Red Velvet cupcakes but have never attempted to make them so I thought I'd choose it as my first recipe from the book. The recipe was well laid out and clear, it even lists all the equipment you will need, down to the smallest detail like a teaspoon and a wire rack. I halved the quantity and the mixture made exactly six, as did the frosting - take that Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook!!

Haha, cat looking on! This is the first time I've been truly successful with a frosting which made me extremely happy. The cakes also rose beautifully though the sponge wasn't as red as I'd hoped, even with a little extra colouring. They were very moist but not too sickly. Very happy.

Then today I made the Pimms Cuptails. Again, the recipe was a pleasure to follow and the buttercream was easy to make while the cakes were baking. Another successful frosting - joy! I didn't follow the Love addition of blitzed cucumber, strawberries, raspberries, mint and orange for the centre of the cupcakes which probably lessened the flavour a little but they were lovely as they were. We couldn't really taste the Pimms in the sponge which was a shame and the orange flower water overpowered the extra Pimms in the frosting but it still made a really tasty, light cupcake. I'd probably leave out the orange flower water in the frosting next time and add a little more Pimms to the mixture for a stronger flavour. I used a piping bag for the first time today too!! These were definitely the two prettiest ones but I think with practice I might be ok next time! There was obviously glitter involved too, I think it might be against the law to have a bling-less cupcake!!

Next time I want to try the Whisky Mac Cuptails - a spiced cake with whisky frosting sounds amazing. All the cuptails look pretty fab, as do the It's Not Terry's But My Chocolate Cupcakes and the Lemon Curd Mascarpone Cupcakes. Most things really. Can't say I fancy Cake Pops much though, the idea of compacted cake crumbs makes me feel a little queasy!

I'm so, so pleased I own this book. The recipes quantities have been bang on and have been really successful. An absolute treat and lovely to look at too. I think a trip to their shop is in order when I go to London next month. I hope it lives up to my expectations, and I also hope they make another book with more flavours one day! The book is still available for £4.99 over at The Book People if I've tempted anyone to try it!

James Martin - Masterclass Cookbook Review

I've been dipping in and out of cookbooks these last 2 weeks but haven't really stuck with one. I decided however to try James Martin's new book - Masterclass - properly. Unfortunately I had a run-in with some freezer burnt squid so there went my idea of making of making his Chilli Salt Squid. Boo.

There seem to be a fair amount of cookbooks out this year all about teaching cookery, such as the Rosemary Shrager book I reviewed a few weeks ago, and the Cookery School book I looked at a while back. James Martin's new book also follows the same idea, though it doesn't alienate a more confident cook. The book is split into 10 chapters including Soups, Stews and Pies, Red Meat, Pasta and Grains and Vegetarian. The introduction is very brief, it pretty much goes straight into recipes which I appreciate. There only seems to be 1 photograph per 3 recipes which is a shame but what is there is mouthwatering, apart from the Braised Fennel with Breadcrumbs and Ricotta - it's very beige! There is a good mix of the simple which could be made easily (Cream of Cauliflowers soup, Bang Bang Chicken and Poached Pears in Perry) to the more challenging (Chocolate, Mint and Satsuma Bread, Classic Beef Wellington and Potato and Duck Confit Terrine with Sweet Red Cabbage Chutney).

At first I wasn't sure if there was a lot I would want to make, I don't tend to make pies, I don't eat lamb and the side dishes are pretty boring, but on second and third viewings there were more and more things I fancied trying - unfortunately the chilli squid being one! Oh well! There wasn't any fresh in our local supermarket either so I was obviously being told something!

There are a few step by step pages to teach you how to do things such as filleting round and flat fishes, how to cut a chicken into 10 pages and how to poach an egg. I don't think I'd buy the book for these guides, there are books that do it better but it is a nice addition. For my first recipe I tried the Best Beff Burgers in the World. How could I not check if these lived up to their name?! The quality of beef is key in this recipe, James asks for tail of beef fillet or great quality minced beef. I went with the cheaper mince offer which worked well. There were plenty of additions to the burger including dijon mustard, chopped gherkins (more the better in my opinion!), shallot and double cream. The cream was a surprise but there was no egg in the mixture so it helped to bind the burger.

The burgers were easy to put together and grilled well. The additions added a great richness and tang to the burger. Maybe it wasn't the greatest ever burger I've eaten but I'll definitely be following this recipe again.

The other recipe I made was Basil Chicken with Lime. I made this with chicken thighs instead of breast which just took longer to cook. I prefer chicken thighs as they stay moist much longer and they have a lot more flavour. The marinade was quick to make and smelt gorgeous. It only needed marinading for an hour and this gave enough flavour to the chicken. The sauce wasn't the prettiest after being in the oven but it tasted gorgeous. The green chilli added a hint of spice and the mix of the mint, coriander and basil was really fresh and fragrant. The lime at the end really lifted everything. The sauce would be great with fish too and I'll be keeping this recipe safe.

Not the most exciting recipes to try but I couldn't fault them on taste. The book's recipes aren't earth-shatteringly new but you can pretty much guarantee that they'll taste delicious and will be easy to follow and make which is pretty important. I do prefer his My Kitchen book but I think there are some lovely additions in this new cookbook. The Chicken Kiev recipe using panko breadcrumbs looks gorgeous, as does the Rum Babas with Chocolate Sauce. The Cinnamon-Dusted Doughnuts are also going on the 'must make soon' list along with the Pork Burgers with Apple Chutney and Rarebit. Actually, most of the book looks pretty tasty! Maybe it's one to buy afterall ...!

Also this week I needed a cake recipe to use up some cherries we had. I looked through book after book and there wasn't much call for fresh cherries till I found a recipe for a Cherry Crumble Cake in Rachel Allen's Bake book. La Mama wanted some cakes to take for a party she was having for one of her French classes so I split the mixture into muffin cases rather than making one whole cake. Rachel's Bake book hasn't failed me yet and they were probably the most successful cakes I've ever made - and I only got to eat 1/2 of one! Oh no! But I'll probably make these again this weekend as I want more! Try them too here.

I also really enjoyed Simon Hopkinson's new show The Good Cook on BBC1 last friday. The Sticky Toffee Pudding looked amazing, I think I put on weight just watching it being made! We had some chicken thighs left after making the Basil Chicken so decided to make Simon's Coq Au Vin. I liked how the chicken was marinated overnight in the red wine, herbs and garlic. It was a last minute make so we had no celery or carrot but it didn't matter too much. I also put in diced chorizo instead of pancetta which added a really nice background flavour. It was absolutely delicious with some wild mushrooms. The sauce was just thick enough that you didn't waste any (before one of the cats got to it that is!) and I'm looking forward to seeing what he makes this week. Another accompanying book that's going on my wishlist!

Kitchen Hero Cookbook Review

I had some Amazon vouchers so I thought I'd treat myself to a few books; a couple of amazing cross stitch books (with skull designs no less!) and then Donal Skehan's Kitchen Hero. I didn't know that much about his cooking, I'd read his Good Mood Food blog a couple of times, but it was really his appearance on This Morning one day that made me sit up and take notice. Ok, I thought he was incredibly handsome, no lie! But his food seemed easy to make and his enthusiasm was infectious. Oh, and have I mentioned he was really cute?! Then I saw an excerpt from his book in Yum magazine which swayed me further. I'm so, so pleased I got this book. The photography is bright and colourful, taken by Donal himself, and there are some nice black and white illustrations every so often by Zoe Barker.

There is a quick introduction and then some kitchen essentials, most of the ingredients I already had which was good, ditto for the kitchen equipment. Then it's straight into the 1st chapter - Meals in Minutes. I like that there are no sprawling essays, just quick intros and then on with the recipes. Chapters include Party Food and Drinks, Comfort Food and Stretch Your Meals. I honestly don't think there's one recipe, lamb aside, that I wouldn't want to eat.

The first recipe I tried was the Dig in Fajitas but I can't find the photo. I'm sure everyone knows what a fajita looks like! The seasoning for the meat was absolutely perfect, not too spicy and plenty of flavour. Really lovely and I'd definitely make it again, with chicken this time instead of beef probably.

The 2nd recipe was the Squash and Crispy Pancetta Risotto. Mine was darker than in Donal's photo but that's because I used red onion instead of white. I also used smoked bacon instead of pancetta. I love risotto and this one tasted great. Even without the butternut squash it would be lovely. Risotto is always a good stand-by dish.

The last recipe I made was the Pulled Pork. The recipe was for burgers but I wanted to serve the pork with some cornbread instead. Again, completely perfect. I've made BBQ sauce before, from Nigella's book, but this one doesn't compare - it was way better! It was cooked on the hob rather than roasted but it worked well as it shredded easily. I was afraid the sauce wouldn't reduce enough but with enough boiling it did. I didn't leave the marinade for that long but it still imparted a lot of flavour into the meat. La Mama licked the bowl clean after every serving of this dish! The cornbread is for a later blog, from Supper Club by Kerstin Rodgers.

This book is worth buying just for this recipe if you love pulled pork. Delicious and one to make again and again. I'm super impressed with the book and so glad I bought it. I haven't even ventured towards the dessert section, the Cupcakes and Whoopie Pies sound particularly impressive. I also want to try his Swedish Meatballs recipe having just tried Ikea's version. I bought some Lingonberry Jam in preparation! There are a few Swedish recipes as his girlfriend (dammit!!) hails from there. Great to have such variety in cuisines.

This week I also made some Rocky Road Ice Cream, cheating with some lovely custard from Waitrose! I added so much to the mixture, there are mini marshmallows, glace cherries, brazil nuts, raisins and Dairy Milk chunks! It's pretty sickly but it's also tasty! Not the greatest photo but you get the idea!

We also had our first Farmer's Market in the village, starting off our Festival week. It was a really lovely thing to have locally, with an amazing variety of fruit and veg, fish, meat, olives, gifts and these stunning mini cupcakes and whoopie pies by Tinakiiana. Had to put the 50p there to show you just how miniature these cakes were! There was no compromising on flavour either. I had Raspberry and Coconut, Almond, Summer Fruits, Lemon, Chocolate and Orange and a Butterscotch whoopie pie. Just so cute! They'd be so cool at a party or a wedding. I really hope we get another market soon, would be a great addition to our local shops.

Rosemary Shrager's Absolutely Foolproof Classic Home Cooking Review

After my ice cream adventures last week I thought I'd try out a new library book - Rosemary Shrager's Absolutely Foolproof Classic Home Cooking. It seemed like a challenge, could I make a hash of these recipes - was I a total fool?!
The book contains a lot of recipes and it's really well laid out. There are several chapters including Salads and Dressings, Emulsion Sauces, Custards and Souffles. Each chapter starts with a classic recipe such as a Fish Pie or Pasta with a Fresh Tomato Sauce. There are photos of each stage of the recipe and the instructions are very clear. There are then some tips and ideas and also some variations so the dish can be practiced a few times without making everyone eat the same dish again and again!

The other recipes vary from the easy to the more advanced so the book is suitable for all levels. One negative aspect of the book's design is the font for the recipe titles and ingredients lists are in red and can get a little lost in bright light which is a little annoying. The instructions are in black which are much easier to read.

My first recipe was for the Tiny Meringue Mouthfuls to go with my ice cream last week. They were really easy to whip up - I even did the 'holding the bowl over my head' trick and there were no accidents! They took a little longer to bake than stated but this was because of our rubbish oven. The texture was absolutely perfect, squidgy and marshmallow-like in the middle and crisp on the outside. For me they were a little too sweet so I'd probably reduce the amount of icing sugar next time, or maybe follow the recipe for her Classic Meringues instead. They kept really well in a tin, not that they lasted that long!

The second recipe I tried was from the Pancakes and other Batters chapter. The main recipe here was for Pancakes stuffed with Ratatouille but also has Pancakes stuffed with Ricotta, Mozzarella and Ham and Toad in the Hole. I made Cherry Clafoutis as it's a favourite but only my Grandmere can make a really great one. A test indeed! The batter was easy to put together and the quantities were just right. I added a little kirsch to the cut cherries before putting them in the dish, as I saw on Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets a while back.

The cherries tasted lovely after adding the alcohol! However the clafoutis was really solid! I'm a fan of really heavy yorkshire puddings so I didn't mind too much but it didn't compare to Grandmere's - but her's is a lot more like cake so the ingredients must be different and I'm well aware I made a recipe from a batter section. I'd probably give another recipe a go next time but if you're in the market for a bit of stodge then this is definitely one to try.

My last recipe was Fougasse. I've made this a couple of times before, following a recipe from the Hairy Bikers and been happy with the results. This time I decided to make the dough completely by hand rather than use a bread maker or my food mixer to knead the dough. I think I'll probably go back to the machines! The bread looked lovely coming out of the oven but it wasn't as light as I'd have liked it. I made it with black olives and thought that the suggested extras should have been taken into account when adding salt to the dough as I thought, even as a huge salty food lover, it was a little strong. Shame. It worked better a little toasted though that's not really the point of fougasse. A miss for me here, but maybe my kneading skills were to blame.

I think I'd recommend the book to people who want to try and extend their repertoire while having someone there to help them out and offer advice. I think I probably have most of these recipes in other books so I'm not sure if I'll buy it or not. Definitely worth a look from your local library though.

Iced: 180 Very Cool Concoctions Cookbook Review

It's hard to tell if it's summer or not. Yesterday the weather was glorious and I was outside, today I'm back in a cardigan and cold at work. So annoying! But I thought I'd attempt to bring summer to our house by making some icy delights. I think I picked up my copy of Iced: 180 Very Cool Concoctions from TK Maxx a while back. It's a pretty hefty size, but then the title kind of gave it away - there are a lot of recipes featured! The recipes are by various people but the book has been photographed and styled by the same people so it feels like a coherent cookery book. It's published by Murdoch Books who make a lot of compilation recipe books - I've collected almost all of their 'Chunky Cookbooks' and find them great to dip in and out of. They also publish the book of Stephane Reynaud, Tessa Kiros and Bill Granger amongst others.

The recipes go from the traditional and expected flavours such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry; to the highly unusual like goat's cheese ice cream, licorice all-sort ice cream and rosemary, carrot and orange granita. There is so much to choose from I don't think you could ever be bored with ice cream! The recipes are one or two pages long so there's no struggling with turning the page when you're elbow deep in cream and sugar (slight exaggeration!). The photos are really bold and usually full page - I'm impressed by the different ways they present the ice cream, quite jealous of some of the bowls!

There are six chapters, including Ice Cream Parlour, Gelateria and Soda Fountain. I especially like sound of the Soda Fountain section as it's full of sickening, fatty recipes you'd expect to find in a 1950s diner like bourbon and brown sugar ice cream and pink peppermint candy cane ice cream! Wow!

I plumped for a simple strawberry ice cream to start with. I've never made ice cream before but La Mama used to make it when I was younger. We've always had a few strawberry plants in our garden and I have memories of going to pick-your-own farms for raspberries.

I started with the custard base first after pureeing and sieving my strawberries. This was another first - making my own custard and ruddy hell was it delicious! Much easier than I thought it would be and I had to restrain myself from just eating it like that straight from the pan! I had to keep stirring it as it cooled to make sure a skin didn't form on top, but mostly it was because I wanted to lick the spoon each time! Double-dipping times about 30 but it was only feeding immediate family so no worries!

I didn't make the full quantity stated in the recipe as I didn't want a litre - too many recipes I want to try out, who wants to be tied down to just strawberry ice cream?! The recipe gives instructions for an ice cream maker and for just freezing and whisking regularly. It was the first time in a long while that our ice cream maker has seen daylight so I just guessed as much as possible about how to use it! The pot didn't really have time to completely freeze so the consistency of the ice cream wasn't quite as creamy as it should have been but even with the ice crystals in place it was completely amazing. If I can improve the texture then I'm never buying ice cream again! I made little meringues (review coming next week) to accompany it. Great.

Very, very happy with this first ice cream recipe and impressed with how it easy it was to make.

The other recipe I tried out was for a pear sorbet. The recipe was for pear and apple sorbet but I fancied pear just on its own so adjusted the recipe accordingly. I also left out the cinnamon as I wanted just the pure pear flavour, plus some pear liqueur for an added little kick. The hardest bit about this recipe was peeling the pears! I find prep work so boring and time consuming. But once that was done the pears just needed poaching and pureeing, I also sieved it as I didn't want all the fibres in the sorbet. Bit of sugar and water and the mixture was ready to freeze. Brilliantly simple and it had such a nice flavour. Again, far too many ice crystals but nothing a few attempts can't iron out, and in the mean time I'll call it a granita!!

Really happy with the book and I feel I'll have to be exercising everyday if I'm going to work my way through all the recipes! There are also sauce recipes, sundaes and even a recipe for ice cream cones. The only thing I would question is the quantity of egg yolk required in each ice cream base, but I'm sure the amount could be reduced without affecting the recipe too much. I'm looking forward to my next attempt, I think rocky road might well be on the cards!

Also this week we found a chocolate and raspberry mousse recipe by Mat Follas, winner of Masterchef 2 years ago. The recipe was tucked in our Happy Egg box! It made a lovely, light mousse but it was quite sharp despite the raspberries being nice and ripe, but you got used to the flavour and it looks so pretty in the little espresso cups. Find the recipe here: http://www.thehappyegg.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/28