Confit Duck

Confit Duck Leg

Occasionally, when roast duck is decided upon I claim the legs.  A disappointment to some until "confit" is mentioned.  If you have a good plump duck it roasts perfectly well without the legs and gives you the opportunity to make one of my favourite dishes in the world - Confit Duck.

Both Simon Hopkinson and Nigel Slater have recipes for roast duck stuffed with potatoes and onion.  I have yet to try the Hopkinson version, but have cooked the Slater recipe several times with great success.  The one time it didn't work out, the fault lay entirely with the quality of the duck. Pre-ordered and ticked-off the shopping list, I collected it, trustingly, unseen.  A more malnourished bird it would be impossible to imagine.  Other times, the dish has been astonishingly good with tender, juicy meat and crisp skin, achieved by adopting the Chinese way in its preparation.  The potato and onion stuffing emerges fragranced with bay and rosemary and rich with rendered duck fat.  The last few spoonfuls scraped from the cavity are sublime pan-fried the following day.  I only wish I could give you a link to that recipe but although you can find Slater's Roast Duck with pancetta and potatoes on-line, the recipe I use is an earlier one.  It appears in Real Food first published in 1998.

Roasting a duck leaves you with a good quantity of leftover fat for cooking the duck legs.  The word confit comes from the Latin conficere, meaning simply 'to do', 'to make', 'to produce'.  In Medieval times the French applied their verb confire to fruits cooked and preserved in sugar syrup or honey or even alcohol. Later it was used to describe vegetables, meats and other foods preserved in oil, fat or salt.  Ancient civilisations are known to have preserved cooked meats under a seal of fat.  Today we generally use the word confit to describe something cooked slowly and gently until it is soft and succulent and not necessarily with the intention of long keeping.  That's a shame because the flavour does develop with storing.  Confit duck, or perhaps pork belly, are foods that immediately come to mind, but it's a good long and slow method for any meats with a lot of connective tissue.  It renders the meat silky soft and luscious.

Duck legs after marinating 

Duck confit is incredibly easy and, given the cost of those sold in jars or vac-packed, well worth preparing yourself.  Once you've gone through the first 2 steps the meat will keep in the fridge for several weeks so long as you make sure it's completely covered in the fat.  Simon Hopkinson suggests at least 3-4 weeks and as much as 3-4 months.  Mine have never lasted more than 2 weeks before my resolve has cracked and I just couldn't resist a moment longer.  You don't have to restrict yourself to the legs but their fatty plumpness gives the best result.

I use either rosemary or thyme to flavour the flesh, sometimes both, depending on what I have, but bay leaf is a must.  I don't tend to worry too much about proportions but I turned to Simon Hopkinson's 'Second helpings of roast chicken' to bring some precision to the mix.

Confit Duck Legs
(serves 2)

2 plump duck legs
2 tablespoons of good salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 bay leaf
3-4  sprigs of thyme or a 5cm branch of rosemary
4-5 black peppercorns
A grating of nutmeg
350ml duck or goose fat
3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled but bruised

Step 1:
Briefly pound in a pestle and mortar or just mix together the salt, sugar, herbs and spices.  Pour half of the mixture into a shallow dish, add the duck legs, flesh side down, and pour the remaining mixture on top.  Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning the legs once.

Step 2:
Preheat the oven to 130C/Fan oven 110C/Gas 1
Dry the duck legs throughly with kitchen paper, removing any herbs/spices.
Melt the duck or goose fat in a solid cast-iron pot over a low heat. Add the duck legs and the garlic, bring to a simmer, then transfer the pot to the oven.  Cook for around 2 hours until the meat is soft and yielding to a skewer.
Once cool, place the duck legs in a clean glass or ceramic dish (or a sterilised jar if you plan to keep them for more than 2-3 weeks), completely cover with the fat and refrigerate.

Confit Duck with onion marmalade

Step 3:
Remove the duck legs leaving behind as much of the fat as possible.  To enjoy them as I've shown above, heat a frying pan on a moderate heat and fry the duck legs skin side down for about 10 minutes until the skin is crisp, then turn and fry for 10 minutes more to ensure they are thoroughly re-heated.

Plain mashed potatoes and Savoy cabbage are perfect to balance out the richness of the duck.  A spoonful of onion marmalade provides a good sweet/sour counterpoint.  Alternatively, they are delicious served with Puy lentils and peppery watercress.

Sweetmeat Cake

Candied Citrus Peels

Following a winter of gorging on particularly good citrus, there's a stash of candied citrus peel in the fridge. Maybe I'm a bit mean but I do like to get my money's worth out of citrus fruits.  It's a frugal point I've made before - Candied citrus  - but home-made is far better than anything you can get in a supermarket and way cheaper than the, admittedly, good stuff from up-market stores.  Having urged you to make it, I notice I've been less than helpful on how to use these carefully preserved peels.  Time to remedy that.

We're talking lemon, orange, grapefruit and cedro, sweet and bitter flavours essential to much of our cooking when you stop to think about it.  Chopped peel has to be in the mix for many British fruit cakes like Christmas Cake, and Easter Simnel Cake.  Ditto Tea Cakes, Fruit Tea Loaf, Hot Cross Buns, Yorkshire Fat Rascals, Cornish Saffron Cake and Wiltshire Lardy Cake (although some would disagree). Christmas Sweet Mincemeat too benefits from the tang of bitter that preserved peel brings to the party.  It goes into Italian Christmas Panettone, Colomba di Pasqua, Panforte and Pangiallo.  Chopped candied peel is fantastic in a Cassata ice cream or scattered along with some raisins in a Bread and Butter Pudding.  A little added to a Brioche mix or a Steamed Sponge Pudding works well too.  You can elevate a simple Pound Cake by either folding candied citrus, chopped, into the batter or decorating the top when cooked with thin slices.  I'm sure you can think of more now we've got going.

Here's another idea for which, as so often, I'm indebted to Jane Grigson and her book English Food.  'Sweetmeat Cake' is an 18th century open tart.  There is also a version of it as 'Sweet-meat Pudding' in Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747).  I always approach these old recipes with caution.  Tastes change.  In this case the recipe was very simple and the ingredients list rang no alarm bells.  What caught my attention was that rather than candied peel providing just a background note, here it has the starring role.  There's a 19th century version of this recipe, known as 'Duke of Cambridge Pudding' which dispenses with the hazelnuts (optional in the earlier recipe) altogether and calls for 4 egg yolks (no whole eggs).  Grigson implies she prefers the Sweetmeat Cake recipe and declares it her favourite of the 18th century open tarts.  For her its butterscotch flavour and semi-transparent filling has a "much superior flavour" to the later 'Treacle Tart'.  I get what she means, there is an almost jellied quality to the cooked filling, and a slice of this is lot lighter and less sweet than a portion of treacle tart.

Sweetmeat Cake

Personally, I'd include the hazelnuts because I am a fan of frangipane.  For this tart I made a sweet shortcrust and, because I have a horror or undercooked pastry, I baked it blind before adding the filling (the original recipe does not).  I've given my pastry recipe here but Jane Grigson's recipe states simply "Puff or shortcrust pastry". I've changed her wording in the method a little to allow for giving you my pastry recipe.  I've also slightly reduced the amounts of candied peel, sugar and butter in the filling from the first time I made this.  Otherwise, it is just as she instructs.

Sweetmeat Cake slice

Sweetmeat Cake
(makes a 23cm shallow tart)

PASTRY (this will make twice as much as you need, so freeze half the pastry for later):
250g (10oz) plain flour
25g (1oz) ground almonds
Pinch of salt
150g(6oz) butter
75g (3oz) icing sugar
Grated rind of half a lemon
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons milk

FILLING:
100g (4 oz) chopped candied peel
50g (2 oz) chopped roasted hazelnuts (optional)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
150g (6oz) caster sugar
150g (6 oz) lightly salted butter, melted (gently)

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the ground almonds and salt.  Add the butter and rub in with fingertips.  Sift in icing sugar and add grated lemon rind and mix.  Lightly beat the egg yolk and milk together and stir into the dry ingredients.  Mix until the dough just comes together then turn out and knead gently to smooth the surface.  Divide into two and freeze one for later.  Cover the other half and rest in fridge for just 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C (fan 180C)/Gas 5.
Roll the pastry thinly and line a greased 23cm shallow flan tin with it.  Prick the base several times and rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.  
Line with greaseproof paper and baking beans and bake the tart base for 10 minutes.  Remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
Reduce the oven to 180C (fan 160C)/Gas 4.
Scatter first the chopped peel over the tart base and then the chopped hazelnuts.
Beat the remaining ingredients together thoroughly then pour into the tart case.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, checking it after 30 minutes.  The top should be crusted with a rich golden brown all over.  Expect the mixture to rise above the pastry then sink back down a little after its removed from the oven.  The top will crack on cooling, a bit like a brownie mixture does.  Do not worry if the centre part of the filling is a little liquid beneath the crust as it makes a delicious sauce.  The consistency is a matter for individual taste.

Best eaten warm (though it does keep a day), with or without cream.  A very good use for some of your winter stash of candied citrus.  What do you mean, you don't have a stash - Candied citrus

Barcelona January 2016

Catalan facade

Barcelona at the end of January?  A bit of a risk we thought.  But if we were thinking that maybe other people were too, which meant it could be the perfect time to go.  And so it proved.  Four days of blue skies, warm sun and few tourists.  Bliss.  I've written about Barcelona more than once so rather than repeat myself too much, I've put a couple of links at the bottom of this post.  You may want to get to Barcelona 'ràpid', so here's a speedy roundup for you.

Nomad Coffee (Lab)

First up coffee (and food), which has  changed so much in Barcelona over the past couple of years.  Onna Coffee was on our radar on previous visits but we'd never actually sampled it at it's previous home in Poble Nou.  Bags dropped at the hotel, we headed to C/ de Santa Teresa 1, just above Passeo de Gracia where they have now put down roots specialising in roasting and serving Costa Rican coffees.  It's a great place to start and grab a little something to eat too.  The Polenta, honey and rosemary cake was very good.
Satan's Coffee Corner proved as good and welcoming as ever.  On previous visits it's been hellish to find in the maze of narrow Barri Gotic streets but this time instinct took over and we wondered why we'd ever had problems.  The coffee is really good and the simple Asian-influenced food is freshly made, beautifully served and delicious.
But, as ever over the past couple of years, the one we returned to again and again on this visit was Nomad Coffee.  There is so much to love about their 'Lab' on Pasatge de Sert 12, and I've expressed my own before.  Set in a peaceful, dreamy passageway in El Born, it's a space I feel very much at home in.  They now also have a beautiful, understated 'Roaster's Home' at Carrer Pujades 95 in Poble Nou.

Lunch at Satan's Coffee Corner

For more on coffee in Barcelona, and beyond, I recommend cafeandleche.org 

Pescaditos at La Plata

Next up Food and Drink.  Bar Zim is a tiny, perfect little bar at Carrer Dagueria 20 in Barri Gotic serving just a few good wines with small plates of Sobrasada-smothered toasted bread and plates of excellent Spanish cheeses from Formatgeria la Seu a couple of doors down.  Very simple and just perfect, I think.
Quimet y Quimet opened in 1913  and a 'must' for any Barcelona visit
Bar la Plata is a tiny placed tucked away behind Passeig de Colom at the bottom of the Barri Gotic.  Another very simple set-up offering wines and beers along with very good fried Pescaditos and Pan con Tomate with anchovies.
Can Paixano proved to be a good pit-stop for a glass or two of decent, well-priced Cava.  The food came recommended but maybe it was a little early for us as we just weren't hungry enough to eat here.  A good place to get a speedy breakfast, I'm told.
We didn't go to Bar Brutal/Can Cisa at El Born's Princesa 14 on this visit but it's a good place to head if you're looking for natural wines.  Just round the corner is L'Anima del Vi serving good, well priced, natural wines and bought-in quality canned fish, pates and rillettes - I just wish you didn't have to bring your own atmosphere.
MONVINIC is often on our schedule for its excellent, and huge, wine list and great value Menu del Dia.  I've got to say the food wasn't quite up to par on this visit.

Two places I definitely want to check out next time: La Cova Fumada and El Vaso de Oro, both are in Barceloneta.

Pescaditos at Mercat Barceloneta 

There are some 40 Food Markets in Barcelona and I'm gradually working my way around them.  There's the best known, Boqueria Market, of course, which for history and atmosphere is a must - at least once.  New ones explored on this trip were the Abaceria Central in Gracia which started life serving a close-knit working class community; Mercat Poble Nou serving a mixed neighbourhood of long-time residents and incomers to this up and coming area; Mercat Barceloneta was the liveliest of the three.  And markets I always love to check out are Mercat de la Llibertat in Gracia and Mercat Santa Caterina in El Born.

Almond pastries at Pasteleria Hofmann

Food Shops I recommend include Pasteleria Hofmann at Carrer des Flassaders 44 in El Born which never lets me down.  Buying an almond pastry and wandering over to the nearby Parc de la Ciutadella to eat it is one of life's great pleasures. The Kouign Amann and lemon cake (which came back to London with us) are also some of the best ever.
Casa Vives at Rambla de Catalunya 58 (and Carrer de Sants 74) is still my favourite traditional style pasteleria in Barcelona for cakes, chocolates, delicious Empanadas and light as air Bunyols (Lenten doughnuts).
Baluard Bakery is a much-lauded bakery opposite Mercat Barceloneta.  The bread looked great but time was running out for us and we weren't able to sample any of the bakes.  One to revisit when we have more time perhaps.  Baluard also have the bakery at Praktik Hotel at Calle Provenca 279.

Antoni Gaudi's Casa Battlo

There are so many 'Sights' to be seen in Barcelona but Gaudi never fails to appeal and soon there will be another Gaudi building to enjoy.  The scaffolding is up at Casa Vicens, Carrer de les Carolines 24 (Metro: Fantana).  Until recently in private hands, there are plans to open Casa Vicens to the public in 2016 but our visit suggested it might be rather later.

Silver Birch in Parc de la Ciutadella

You might also want to read:

Barcelona Spring 2015

Barcelona Spring 2012

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!

Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb

When I started 'big' school, the maths teacher was less than impressed with my homework.  He would show his despair at my inability to grasp calculus by writing 'rhubarb', with a furious flourish, across my pages of painfully reached conclusions.  What he meant, of course, was that my work was nonsense, rubbish, worthless stuff.  This slang use of the name of one of my favourite fruits/vegetables (discuss) presumably dates back to the 16th century when rhubarb was grown in the UK, not for its eating possibilities, but, as a purgative.  The increasing appetite for bitter coffee led to  affordable sugar in the 1700s and opened British eyes to eating rhubarb for pleasure rather than purging.  By the early 19th century we had learned, by accident, how to manipulate rhubarb's growth to produce a very different food from the thick-stemmed, pink/green shafts topped by exuberant, non-edible, leaves that grew in our gardens.  I've written about this before so go to Rhubarb Triangle if you want to read more.

Why am I returning to the subject of rhubarb?  Because of seasonality, each year in early January slim stems of soft-pink through to ruby-red 'forced' rhubarb stems briefly appear at market.  And this year photographer Martin Parr has a perfectly timed exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield gallery, part of which focuses on 'The Rhubarb Triangle'.

If ''Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb' is familiar to you it's likely to be for those, supermarket, small pink, plastic-wrapped, decapitated  bundles or, if you're lucky, glowing sticks laid out, untrimmed, on the shelves of your greengrocer's shop.  Martin Parr's 'The Rhubarb Triangle' project digs beyond the beauty of the candle-lit harvesting of the crop and its consumption.  When I posted a snap of what I was seeing at the exhibition, someone commented "It looks like a horror movie."  Parr's project captures the dirty, cold, labour-intensive work of moving the plants from field to shed, its back-breaking nature clearly etched on the faces of the workers in this triangle of West Yorkshire land between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell.  It's an exhibition well worth seeing, along with the fantastic permanent collection of Barbara Hepworth's work and that of her contemporaries.

Image taken by me at The Hepworth Wakefield
The Rhubarb Triangle Exhibition by Martin Parr

On my visit, a detour into Wakefield market yielded no rhubarb and in Leeds market only a few sticks of the local speciality.  I hope this means that local people buy direct from the growers thereby getting the very freshest produce.

I'll happily use my allotment-grown rhubarb in various ways - crumbles, cakes, muffins and jams - but for me, by far the best way to enjoy 'forced rhubarb' is simply, and gently poached.  The addition of one of the following before poaching is good - a vanilla pod; a little preserved ginger; orange zest and/or juice; or a single clove.  Best of all, I think, is to add a teaspoon or two of rosewater just before serving.  Forced rhubarb is expensive - think of all that hard graft - particularly this winter when the necessary frosts have been few and far between.  But it is special and poaching it will give you a pot to keep in the fridge to be eaten by the spoonful, with yogurt or cream perhaps.  Here's how I like to poach my forced rhubarb, along with a great recipe for Hazelnut Shortbread from The Kitchen Revolution by Rosie Sykes, Polly Russell and Zoe Heron.  These biscuits add an accompanying buttery crunch.

Poached Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb
with Hazelnut Shortbread (and a dab of cream)

Poached Rhubarb

1 kg (36oz) pink forced rhubarb
175-200g (6-7oz)  caster sugar
Just before serving - add a teaspoon of rosewater to each serving

Preheat the oven to 160C (140C fan).  
Wash and top and tail the rhubarb.  Cut into 1 inch/2cm lengths.  Place in an ovenproof dish.
Sprinkle with the sugar (if you opt to use a flavouring other than rosewater - see above - now is the time to add it).  Cover with a cap of greaseproof paper and cook for 30 minutes.  If your spears are thin ones they should be soft but still holding their shape.  If they are thicker then give the dish a very gently stir, replace the paper cap and cook for a further 10-15 minutes.  
Remove from oven and leave to cool a little.  Using a slotted spoon, gently place the rhubarb in a bowl (if you have used a clove, remove it now).  
Pour the juice into a small heavy-based pan, bring it to the boil then simmer until the juice is reduced by half.  
Cool and stir the thickened juice gently into the fruit.  The compote will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to a week.

Hazelnut Shortbread
(makes 30-40 small biscuits)

125g (4½oz) softened unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing)
50g (2oz) caster sugar
100g (3½oz) skinned, toasted hazelnuts
150g (5½oz) plain flour
pinch of salt
A little caster sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 160C (140C fan).
Grease a baking tin, approx 26 x 16 x 2cm, with butter.  Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor (or bash them in a tea towel) into small pieces and add them to the butter and sugar mixture.
Fold in the flour and salt to form a light crumbly mix.
Press the dough evenly into the greased tin and score into fingers without cutting all the way through.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Remove, dust lightly with caster sugar and allow it to cool a little before breaking the shortbread into fingers along the score lines.

For the biscuits in the photograph above, I rolled the dough into a cylinder (handling it as little as possible), chilled it, then cut coins of dough to place on two greased baking trays and baked the biscuits for about 20 minutes.

My maths may not have improved much but I do know that rhubarb is very far from being worthless stuff, particularly when it's Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb.

Good & Proper Tea

Good & Proper Tea

The first really cold day of winter and I'm in need of something hot and comforting.  It's more than two years since I first queued at Good & Proper Tea's silver Citroen H van, parked up in south London, for a steaming hot cuppa.  There were hot buttered crumpets too, with honey, marmite or jam for those in need. The sheer simplicity of a good and properly made cup of tea and a freshly made crumpet was such an obvious winner, I wondered why I'd never seen it done before.

There are food and drink trucks all over London serving up everything from Pizzas and burgers  to pork buns and gumbo.  Personally, I can pass on 90% of them, but, when they really focus on what they do best, they are a glorious part of London life.  Good & Proper Tea is definitely in my top 10% category and, finding myself in Old Street, I headed straight for its first premises to refuel.

It's not easy to find right now being in a not-quite-finished office development, but if you find yourself by Old Street roundabout it's worth seeking out.  The space is small but functional.  A long bar allows you to see all the teas on offer - a selection that has grown over the past couple of years and ranges from a strong Indian Assam black tea through a savoury Sencha to a tart, ruby-red infusion of Egyptian Hibiscus.  You can take-away or, as I did, shelter from the cold on the single bench inside in the warmth.  A delicate cup of fresh, floral Oolong was very welcome and, joyously, there are still crumpets for tea - now made with a sourdough starter and all the better for it.  It's not at all compulsory but I confess I like to talk tea and Manager Ashley happily and knowledgeably obliges.  I hear a second branch, in Soho, is planned.

Somehow they've managed to keep the easy-going air of that Citroen van - which is still on the streets by the way, including south of the river at Brockley Market where I first encountered it.  Good tea, properly made, and crumpets.  I like Good & Proper Tea very much.

Good & Proper Tea Co  
The Bower
211 Old Street
London EC1V 9NR

What excites you for 2016?

Celeriac & Ardrahan Pie
at 40 Maltby Street

The last weekend before the return to work and the last party of the holidays.  The hosts are generous, they have the ideal party space, and the food is simply delicious.  It's the perfect start to the New Year.  Maybe because the guests are mostly from the arts world rather than food, and I've successfully switched off from the food side of my life, but I shouldn't have been taken by surprise by the question "What excites you for the coming year?"  He wants to know what new things I think will be interesting, intriguing and inspiring in the food world in 2016.  I open my mouth and nothing comes out for a good 10 seconds.  I'm shocked at my initial lukewarm answers - a couple of promising restaurants openings, some good new voices in food, like the lyrical Rachel Roddy.  But surely it isn't all about the new.  A quick glance back to the food press predictions of 12 months ago confirms how over-excited we can get about all those new restaurant openings and book launches.   How many lived up to promise?

I was still thinking about the question, and my reaction, 24 hours later.  So it's the subject for my first post of the New Year, because if I can't get fired up about what's happening in food in London, there is no point to this blog. For me, and most Londoners, our food lives are mostly about the tried and tested  favourite restaurants, producers,markets, shops and bars.  I'm as likely to tell you about a restaurant that's been around a while as I am to introduce you to a new one - plenty of other people are doing that and by the time I've satisfied myself they are not a flash-in-the-pan, they are no longer the newest.  But here goes.  Firstly, 2015 restaurants I haven't yet managed to get to include Bao in Soho (I love their pork buns but not the pavement queues here at their permanent home); The Good Egg in Stoke Newington, serving up all-day Middle Eastern breakfasts; Lurra in W1, which describes itself as a "Basque Grill" and is sister to one of my favourite places, Donostia, next door - excellent meat and fish, I'm assured; Kitty Fisher's in Shepherd Market - I like the sound of everything that comes on the menu but I'm no good at booking ahead; Pizza Locadeli where Giorgio Locatelli has created a pop-up pizza joint.  It may sound an unlikely diversion for the chef behind Locanda Locatelli unless you remember Spiga in Soho's Wardour Street which opened in 1997.  In its early days when, Locatelli was involved, it served up the best pizzas and pasta in town and it was a sad day when he cut loose.  Originally Pizza Locadeli was meant to end its short life at Christmas but will now, I hear, go into March 2016.

As usual, there have been plenty of announcements for the coming year but the ones that have caught my attention are Clare Smyth, having just cut her ties to Gordon Ramsay, planning to set up her own restaurant in London; Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes returning to his Viajante roots in Wapping (if he can raise enough crowdfunding cash); Monica Galetti setting up Mere in Fitzrovia's Charlotte Street after leaving Le Gavroche; and Greg Marchand arriving from Paris to set up Frenchie in Covent Garden.

Page from
30 Ingredients by Sally Clarke

There are voices in food well worth tuning into.  One book that just managed to squeeze into 2015 sounds well worth a read - First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson explores where our food habits come from, how we can influence our childrens' tastes and change our adult ones for the better.  Joanna Blythman's Swallow This was a must-read in 2015 with insights into the reality of the modern food processing industry.  On the cooking front, one of the freshest voices has to be that of Olia Hercules, whose first book Mamushka hit the bookshelves in 2015.  She is everywhere right now with recipes and stories straight from her Ukrainian heart and a work ethic to go with her talent.  And soon we'll have Rachel Roddy's second book - expect it to be laced with her lyrical prose along with excellent recipes.  Her first, published in the UK as Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome is coming out in Canada and the USA in early 2016 with, for some reason, a name change to My Kitchen in Rome: Recipes and notes on Italian Cooking.

Edmund Tew
from Blackwoods Cheese Co

We all have our favourite shops and producers.  In London when a loved small producer sells out to big business it doesn't go down well with the customers and when it's a brewery it cuts deep. The end of 2015 saw London-based Camden Brewery take the money and run.  Other producers I like who are still doing it their way, and doing it well, include Bermondsey-based The Kernel Brewery, just a few doors up from cheesemaker Bill Oglethorpe of Kappacasein whose Bermondsey Hard Pressed, along with a few other cheeses, is maturing nicely.  His cheese toasties from a stall at Borough Market still can't be beaten - many have tried.  Another cheesemaker to watch is Blackwoods Cheese Co based in Brockley, South London.  Starting out with a simple, delicious feta-like cheese, Graceburn, sold in jars, they've added Edmund Tew and William Heaps to their range (named after convicts who were transported to Australia's penal colony for stealing cheese!). These guys know what they're doing.

I can't fail to get excited by bakeries.  Good bread used to be really hard to find in London but these days you don't have to go far to find a decent loaf or croissant - E5 in London Fields, The Little Bread Pedlar in Bermondsey, Brick House Bread in East Dulwich, Hedone in Chiswick, Bread Ahead at Borough Market, and Brixton-based Brockwell Bake being among the most notable.

Cinnamon Bun and coffee
at Brick House Bakery

A lot of these small producers are able to sell direct but London's small independent food , coffee shops and markets are invaluable in making them available beyond the close range of production.  Here are a few, The Quality Chop House shop on Farringdon Road; General Store in Peckham; Leila's Shop in Shoreditch; Jones of Brockley; Neals Yard Diary in Covent Garden and Borough; Sally Clarke's Shop in Kensington; Monmouth Coffee in Covent Garden and Borough; Fowlds Cafe in Camberwell; and La Fromagerie in Marylebone and Highbury.  It's not easy being a small independent shop in London.  I wish there were more because without them I wonder if some of London's small producers would have a local market.  Weekly food Markets are all over London, Some of the best being Brockley Market; Crystal Palace Food Market; Herne Hill Market; and, London Farmers' Markets.

I'm not one for resolutions but this year I have plans to get out of London more and try places like The Sportsman in Seasalter and the Arts Cafe in Aberystwyth, but where London's concerned there's plenty to interest, intrigue and inspire.

Now, ask me that question again, just don't expect my answer to be all about what's new.

Gifts for Food Lovers 2015

Panettone
from The Little Bread Pedlar

As usual my end of year gift choices for food lovers focuses on modestly priced gifts from small independent businesses plus one pushing-the-boat-out item.  Some are made by the seller, others are simply, carefully selacted, products for their customers.  As I live in London, all of these can be bought direct and, where possible, I've mentioned alternative sources that may be closer to you. In some cases you can also buy on-line.  These are things I buy for myself or for like-minded food lovers.  I hope it gives you some inspiration for gifts for the food lover in your life and makes you think about buying gifts from small businesses close to you.


Panettone  £15.00-£17.00

Why: Much as I like a slice of Christmas cake, a Panettone always comes home with me at Christmas.  I can never resist the Ulcigrai family panettone from Trieste.  It's available at Leila's Shop in Shoreditch and also sold at Monmouth Coffee's Covent Garden and Borough Market shops. 
This year The Little Bread Pedlar has a strong homemade challenger.

Where in London: Ulcigrai at Leila's Shop (E2) and Monmouth Coffee (WC2, & SE1); The Little Bread Pedlar (SE16 Saturdays)

Coedcanlas Delton Martins Ontario Maple Syrup   £7-£8.00

Why: This pure maple syrup has been added to the fantastic Coedcanlas range of honeys, marmalades and fruit jellies they make themselves.  The syrup is made by the Delton Martin family from the Mennonite community in Southern Ontario, Canada from sap collected from their own maple trees.  It's the best maple syrup I've ever tasted.  I know of only two sources in London for this, both of them keep a great range of food and drink.

Where in London: General Store; Jones of Brockley 

Hand-blended teas and wooden scoop
from My Cup of Tea

Hand-blended Tea & teaware  from £8.00

Why: A beautifully blended quality tea is always appreciated.  My favourite London-based tea blender has an aromatic Earl Grey which matches Chinese Keemun black tea with natural bergamot essential oil and cornflower and marigold petals (£8.00/100g); a Spicy Indian Chai, black tea with ginger, cloves, red peppercorns and cardamom (£12.00/100g); and a Chinese Osmanth d'Or Oolong, a lightly fermented  green tea with the aroma of Osmanthus flowers (£20/100g).  They also keep a beautiful range of handmade tea bowls, scoops, strainers and more.

Where in London: My Cup of Tea (Soho W1)


La Retorta Ewes' milk cheese  £6.95

Why: This unpasteurised ewes' milk cheese is sourced from Cáceres in Spain's Extremadura region.  Made with a rennet extracted from thistles, typical of the area, it's creamy and intense with a slight bitterness on the finish.  If you prefer British or French cheeses, Neals Yard Dairy and Mons Cheesemongers are among the best sources in London. 

Where in London: Brindisa (Borough Market SE1 and Brixton SW9); Neals Yard Dairy (WC2, SE1); Mons Cheesemongers (SE1, SE16)


Pump Street Chocolate Bars  from around £5.80 

Why: Pump Street Single Origin  'Bean to Bar' chocolate is still one of my favourites.  In particular a Madagascar Criolla 74% using beans from the Åkesson organic estate producing natural flavours of raspberry and membrillo.  Pump Street Bakery has quite a long list of stockists now so you shouldn't have too much trouble tracking some down but I've mentioned below where I know you can find a good selection of bars.

Where in London: Quality Chop House Shop; The General Store; Jones of Brockley


Microplane Cube Grater  £19.95

Why: There are any number of accessories to choose from at one of my favourite kitchen equipment shops but this Microplane Cube Grater caught my attention.  As I have learned, you really can't beat Microplane and the shape and design of this one is both stylish and practical.

Where in London: David Mellor (SW1W)

Josmeyer Le Fromanteau
from Dynamic Vines

A Bottle of Natural Wine  around  £25

Why: Which wine you choose depends, of course, on what you are going to eat with it but I would be very happy to receive this Josmeyer Le Fromanteau Pinot Gris from Alsace.  "Soft and sensual" it certainly is.  Suggested pairings are meat terrine, veal and mountain cheeses such as Vacherin and Reblochon.

Where in London: Dynamic Vines (SE16) Other good sources of natural wines in London are Gergovie Wines/40 Maltby Street (SE16), and Aubert & Mascoli (SE16).  Also, there's a limited selection at General Store and Leila's Shop.

Fern Verrow - a year of recipes from a farm and its kitchen
by Jane Scotter and Harry Astley

A Book: Fern Verrow - a year of recipes from a farm and its kitchen by Jane Scotter & Harry Astley  RRP £25.00

Why: Choosing just one book to recommend is very difficult.  I have 5 on my book stack this year but this book draws you in with its rhythmic prose and page after page of recipes for uncomplicated seasonal food that honours the ingredients. 

Where in London: All good independent book shops

Leach Pottery Porcelain
from Sunspel

Ceramics   £18-75

Why: I'm a sucker for ceramics and love the fact The Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall is still going strong almost 100 years after Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada set it up.  You can buy Leach ware direct from the Pottery but a collaboration with British brand Sunspel means you can buy this range of porcelain from Sunspel's London stores.  Prices range from £18 for a small creamer, mugs at £22-28, and various bowl sizes from £30-75.  Alternatively, if you want to commission a one-off piece there are plenty of potters working in London.  The Kiln Rooms is a very good place to start.

Where in London: Sunspel (W1, E2, SW1, W11) The Kiln Rooms (SE15)

Happy shopping.

Five Books for Food Lovers 2015

A page from Sally Clarke 30 Ingredients
(original photograph by Tessa Traeger)

Time for my annual food-book roundup.  This year I've limited myself to five, three of which I reviewed in full earlier in the year.  It has been a pretty good year for food books, so the choice wasn't easy.  As usual, I've included one book that wasn't newly published, but let's start with those that were.  The first is a story of adapting and living with the rhythms and cycles of the year and the delicious uncomplicated food that results; next comes a book that helped me to unlearn what I thought I knew and is constantly in my kitchen both for the recipes and the writing; there's a baking book stuffed with brilliant recipes and fine writing taking you into the life of a busy bakery and restaurant; next up is an offering of 30 favourite ingredients from one of my all time favourite chefs. My final choice delves into the culinary and social history of Sicily whilst taking a close look at 'Virgins' Breasts, Chancellor's Buttocks, and Other Convent Delicacies'


Fern Verrow - A year of recipes from a farm and its kitchen
by Jane Scotter and Harry Astley

Let me say from the outset that I know the authors of this book, in as much as I've bought produce grown on their farm ever since they started to load up a van and bring it down to London for sale most Saturdays.  Last Saturday they slipped some copies of the book on the back of the van so I was able to buy a copy a few days before publication date.  I grow some of my own fruit and veg so I know a little bit about where this book is coming from. I'm an enthusiast, but that's not the reason I found this book difficult to put down.   The Fern Verrow land is farmed  biodynamically, but this is not a book only for those of us who embrace the methods of Rudolf Steiner.  If you care about how your food is grown and how it's cooked you'll love how this book draws you in with its rhythmic prose and page after page of recipes for simple seasonal food that honours the ingredients.  This is food that you really want to eat. .......... Read more .....


Five Quarters - Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome
by Rachel Roddy

Five Quarters may seem a strange title but it's easily explained.  The number five recurs as the book goes along but Quinto Quarto (the Fifth Quarter) is the name of the distinctive style of cooking created by the workers at the Testaccio slaughterhouse towards the end of the 19th century.  Wages were partly paid in-kind with offal.  This being a quarter of the animals weight, it was known as the 'fifth quarter'.  The slaughterhouse is long gone and, no, this is not a book about offal, but it is firmly rooted in the Testaccio quarter of the city of Rome which this Englishwoman calls home.

The "notes" referred to in the sub-title are as delicious as the "recipes".  Arriving in Rome, almost by accident, the tourist decided to stay a while in a tiny flat above a bakery, next to the "coarse and chaotic" old food market.  As she began to get under the skin of this "straightforward, traditional, ordinary" part of Rome, a sense of guilt that she was part of the gentrification taking place in the area led her to resolve to buy local and truly embrace the life of this quarter and its "fierce sense of community". ........ Read more .....


Honey & Co - The Baking Book
by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich

"Our days are governed by the rhythm of the pastry .... ".  For Honey & Co, this tiny restaurant in a London backstreet, it's the pastry section that provides the essential underpinning to their busy days, from breakfast to end of dinner treats.  Here is the book that has been so anticipated since last year's publication of Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich's much loved debut Honey & Co Food from the Middle East.  I wrote about the 2014 book here.  Where the first book concentrated mostly on savoury Middle-Eastern food, The Baking Book offers recipes for sweet and savoury bakes, with the emphasis on the sweet ones. ....... Read more .....


Sally Clarke 30 Ingredients
by Sally Clarke

This second book by Sally Clarke comes 16 years after her first which was meant to be her only one: 'Sally Clarke's Book - recipes from a restaurant, shop and bakery'.  The latest is a celebration of 30 years of her eponymous, hugely influential, London Restaurant.  The principle is as simple and effective as the Chef's style of cooking - offering 30 favourite ingredients with a variety of ways to use them.  A glance at those 30 foods, from apricots and asparagus to sweetcorn and tomato, suggest a vegetarian focus and this is true in many, but not all, of the recipes.  For me, it's the way I want to eat - a little good meat and fish, and lots of fruit and vegetables.  The stated intent of the book is to "help to build confidence in the inexperienced cook and give guidance to others who simply need inspiration".  With Alice Waters as a friend, influence and mentor and 30+ years in kitchens, Sally Clarke is well qualified to to deliver on this aim.  The book is full of simple, effective suggestions like cracking the stones of apricots to extract the kernels to add another dimension to a a jam; how a generous seasoning of freshly made Gremolata can lift a meat or fish dish; how to make a classic Petits pois a la Francaise that truly celebrates the peas, lettuce and butter; and how to make perfect roasted potatoes. Uncomplicated recipes range from Scallop ceviche with landcress  lime and chilli; Salad of blood oranges, beetroot and pomegranate; Smoked haddock and leek pasties; Quince and rosemary Tarte Tatin; to Tomato salad with nectarines and feta.

I've long been a Sally Clarke fan, eating her delicious food countless times and reaching for her first book, particularly when I had some exceptional ingredient to do justice to.  Her philosophy of "the fewer ingredients on the list, the better the product" is one I share .  You'll never find Sally Clarke 'gussying-up' a plate of food unnecessarily.  I've only had this book a few weeks and am bookmarking recipes constantly.  It's also a beauty as photographs are by the fantastic Tessa Traeger.  


Sicilian Food - Recipes from Italy's Abundant Isle
by Mary Taylor Simeti

Mary Taylor Simeti's book was first published in 1989 as Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-five Centuries of Sicilian Food.  I have never lived in, nor even visited, Sicily so whether this is "the definitive work on Sicilian cooking" the book notes claim, I cannot say.  I do know that Giorgio Locatelli admires Simeti's work and references her several times in his own excellent book Made in Sicily.  I enjoyed reading Simeti's writing for the culinary and social history it explores, taking us on an odyssey through the exotic tastes of conquering Greek, Roman, Arabic and Norman invaders to the cooking of more recent times, "those of hunger and faith, of pride and jealousy and joy". The book is peppered with quotes from Homer, Plato and Apicius as well as later travellers to the island who recorded their experiences there.  Recipes, collected from written sources, word of mouth and experimentation range from 'Strattu, the intensely flavoured dark red paste made by salting and sun-drying tomato puree; Tabcchiere di Melanzane (Aubergine Snuffboxes); the classic Cassata Siciliana (Sicilian Cassata Cake); to Granita di Limone (Lemon Granita), mentioning the delightful sounding habit of many bars in Sicily of dropping a scoop into a glass of iced tea.


I hope there is something in this list to inspire you.  

Spiced apple and hazelnut upside-down cake

The Orchard at the end of October

When we first took our allotment the orchard always felt like it was off-limits.  There were the bees, of course.  Seven hives of industry standing sentinel-like, strategically located at the northern end of the old orchard.  Through spring, summer and autumn activity is intense, a constant stream of one-track-mind bees roaming the allotments.  Dispersed, we welcome them, waggling from raspberry to gooseberry blossom, borage to squash flower.  Where they come together, in the vicinity of the hives, we growers keep a respectful distance most of the year.  Undoubtedly they are the most effective guardians of the orchard.  But there was also the Committee.  The first year we took on our allotment nobody mentioned the orchard.  In the second year we were invited to gather up a few windfall apples.  It was five years before we were invited to pick some plums and pluck a few apples direct from the trees.  Finally, it seemed, we were accepted.

One gnarled old apple tree hugs a hive, its weighted boughs bob invitingly in the breeze.  All through late summer we eye the tree, longing for the bees to calm down.  By the time the traffic to and from the hive slows to a lazy trickle, everyone else has filled their store and lost interest in the tree.  All except me.  Because this is the best variety in the orchard and this year the crop is spectacularly good - thank you bees.  Finally, right at the end of October, the bee activity began to slow down and we dared to approach the tree.  It was worth the wait.  Not that anyone knows what kind of apple it is.  Three varieties of plum and five apple of unknown variety in the orchard.  Each year there is a plan to find out what they are.  Each year this doesn't happen.  One day I will take on the task.

Late pickings in the Orchard

Apple trees thrive in wet and windy Britain.  The cultivation of over 2,000 dessert, cooker and 'inbetweener', in addition to several hundred cider apples is testament to our love for them.  Late July/early August sees the first apple harvests with Discovery, Gladstone, Laxton's Early Crimson, Beauty of Bath and Grenadier arriving at market.  Late summer brings Egremont Russet, James Grieve, Scarlet Permain and, in late September, a favourite of mine, the tiny but exquisite Oaken Pin.  Blenheim Orange, Falstaff,  Howgate Wonder and the cooking apple Bramley follow on through October, with Braeburn, Sturmer Pippin, Boiken and the cider apples like Herefordshire Redstreak bringing the season to an end by mid- to late November.

Spiced Apple and hazelnut upsidedown cake

I love an apple pie or crumble as much as the next person, but a good dessert apple cake recipe has eluded me up to now.  Having such a good crop this year, I've been able to experiment a bit and at last I have a recipe I will make again and again.  I knew I wanted a kind of apple upside-down cake, so I borrowed the creamed butter, muscovado sugar and honey mix from a Nigel Slater Honey Pear Cake recipe which I cut out of the Observer magazine a couple of years ago.  I wanted hazelnuts for flavour and for the oil they contain to keep the cake moist.  Personally if I'm buying nuts shelled I prefer skin-on.  I dry roast them in a frying pan until the skins loosen enough to, mostly, rub off.   I also wanted spice, particularly at this time of year, and went for plenty of cinnamon, a little vanilla and nutmeg.  I hope you like it too.

A helping of Spiced apple and hazelnut upside-down cake

Spiced apple and hazelnut Upside-down cake

(for an 18-20cm round cake tin)

50g (2oz) softened unsalted butter

65g (2½oz) muscovado sugar

1 tbsp mild honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
About 450g (16oz) eating apples

115g (4oz) softened unsalted butter

115g (4oz) raw cane caster sugar

A few drops of vanilla extract
A little grated nutmeg (about a quarter of a whole one)

2 large eggs, lightly mixed

65g (2½oz) plain soft flour
50g (2oz) hazelnuts, dry roasted and ground medium fine

1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

1 tbsp milk

Heat oven to 180^oC/160^oC fan/Gas 4.

Lightly butter your cake tin.
Cream together 50g butter, 65g sugar and 1 tbsp honey and mix in the cinnamon.   

Spread evenly over the base of the cake tin.  

Peel (or not if you prefer), core and slice the apples fairly thinly.  Arrange in a closely overlapping spiral on top of the mixture.

Sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in the ground hazelnuts and nutmeg.  

In a separate bowl, mix very well 115g butter with the 115g raw cane sugar until soft and fluffy.  Add the vanilla extract and gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little of your dry mixture if it looks like it might curdle.  Fold the dry mixture in gently, incorporating the tablespoon of milk at the end.  Smooth the mixture over the top of the apples.

Bake for about 45 minutes.  Rest for 15 minutes.  Place a plate on top of the tin, hold securely and turn over to release the cake upside-down.  Give the plate and tin a jiggle if it doesn't turn out straight away.

Best served warm, with our without cream but the cake does keep well for 2-3 days.