Lunch in the Teahouse, Petersham Nurseries

Earlier this week I met a friend for lunch at the Petersham Nurseries.  I always find it very relaxing there, the place is very laid back.  One day I'll save enough money to go to the Cafe, but that is for the future.

Fortunately there was a gap in the showers on Tuesday and I was able to cycle.  Parking there is a nightmare, there is so little space, and it is only a few minutes away, so I really shouldn't drive.

I arrived early so had a little look around, there are always so many quaint things to see, and some really lovely ideas I would love to use in my own house.

They also have a super selection of herbs, I am going to buy a few more unusual ones to plant in my garden in Brittany.

The menu is very simple, and we both chose the leek tart which was delicious, my friend drank coffee and I had some of the lovely Canton Tea Company's Jasmine tea.

Always travel in style.

Springtime is here, look at all these beauties.

We decided to sit inside!

I love the Petersham elephants.

Fantastic blues.

Coffee and Tea.

Flan and Salad - delicious.

The elephant again - whoops!

We had a lovely few hours, relaxing and gossiping, just the most ideal midweek lunch!

Sorry the food photos aren't better, I find it tricky outside.  Next time I had  better have some cake, they are always tasty, look lovely!

Sunday baking: Banana Bread and Flapjacks.

There is something so relaxing and calming about baking on a Sunday afternoon.  It is one of my favourite times.  The radio is on, usually with the Classic Serial and then some great poetry and literary discussions.

This weekend we had some rather sad looking  bananas, they had been left uneaten and needed using up.  Thank goodness,  they do make the best sort of tea cake.

You will need:

8oz flour (self raising)
1/2 tsp salt
a good grating of nutmeg
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
the grated rind of a lemon
2 eggs
4 tbsp honey
4 (very ripe) bananas!

In a good sized bowl, sieve the flour with the salt and the nutmeg, rub in the butter.

Now add the other ingredients, making sure you have mashed the bananas.

You need to put the mixture in a 2lb loaf tin, I always use a lining from John Lewis, so there is no fiddling about with greasing the tin, and the loaf is easy to remove from the tin, when it has cooled.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees, for 1 1/4 hours.   The honey will brown quickly, so I find it easier to cover the cake after about 20 minutes with parchment paper.  This ensures a lovely golden glow, rather then a rather sad, over cooked looking cake.

It is really scrummy sliced for afternoon tea, with a scraping of butter, but it will also keep happily in a tin for a couple of days, so can make a thoughtful gift.

Flapjacks were another regular in my sons' childhoods.  I used to bake them weekly, and they often had one in their lunch boxes at school.  I find them much easier to bake nowadays with the super parchment paper that is available for lining the tin. I don't know how many tins I have damaged in the past!

I usually make a nice thick flapjack, but on Sunday I had to fiddle around with ingredients as I didn't have quite enough oats to make my proper flapjacks.  (So imagine them thicker, then in the photos!)

Usually I use this recipe:

6oz butter
4oz light brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
12oz rolled oats

Melt the butter with the sugar and syrup, in a glass bowl, over warm water.

Pour the oats in and stir thoroughly.

Put into your pre lined tin (10x6x1 inch).

Bake in the oven at 180degrees for about 20 minutes, let them cool in the tin, and cut out squares or rectangles.

Yum! Yum!  Delicious tuck or clacky(?).  These were wrapped up in foil and then put in an old ice cream tub, for my eldest son to share with his friends.

Lasagne and Garlic Bread

Sometimes it's great to cook and eat an old favourite.  No great planning, just select automatic and get cooking.

I tend to make a simple meat sauce with onions, garlic, lean minced organic beef, herbs (mixed and oregano) and tomatoes (tinned).   I always brown the mince, and drain away any excess fat, before I add the other ingredients, sometimes I stir in a teaspoonful of marmite, to enhance the flavour and maybe a spoonful or two of tomato puree.  I then leave it to simmer for about half an hour.

In the meantime I make the white sauce.  I make a simple roux of butter and flour, forming a soft paste.  I add a tiny grating of nutmeg and some black pepper, and slowly add some milk, stirring all the time.

Meat sauce, white sauce and lasagne sheets waiting to be combined.

Once I'm ready to combine the ingredients I layer the mince, white sauce and sheets of lasagne in a bowl.  I try for meat, sauce, lasagne, meat, sauce, lasagne, meat, sauce and then cheese.  I always use a mozzarella cheese as it crisps beautifully in the oven.

Lots of lovely mozzarella forming a super cheesy crust.

Dinner, (or lunch) is served!

The then bake the lasagne in a moderate oven for half an hour to forty minutes.  Delicious with a green salad and garlic bread.

Finely chopped garlic, with salt.

Garlic butter in the bread.

Ready to bake in the oven.

The garlic bread is so simple.  Crush a couple of cloves of garlic with some salt, mix with a good helping of unsalted butter.  Cut slices into a french stick (leave the base of the bread intact - don't slice right through).  Spread the garlic butter into the bread, wrap in foil and bake in the oven, for at least 15 minutes.  Serve as a side dish.

I used to make lasagne regularly when my sons where at home.  It was a great midweek supper and always popular.  If you have hungry mouths to feed I highly recommend it.  Enjoy!

But last weekend I made it as a special treat for my eldest son.  He has been working very hard and even when your grown up it's good to come home and be spoilt by Mum!!

 (NB if you and your brother, are reading this, don't forget it's Mothering Sunday, this week!)

 (NNB this reminder applies to all men, whether fathers or sons!)

Eating in France! (I wish!)

Spring colds are often so slow to get over, so instead of cooking lunch on Saturday we decided to go to one of our favourite little restaurants in Kingston.  It's a simple French bistro, and makes a change from all the chains that abound in Kingston.  While there we couldn't help remembering that this time last year we were already in Brittany and eating wonderful French food.

The bistro we ate in is called Frere Jacques, it is just near the bridge and overlooks the river.  We decided to cycle (between showers) and arrived just before midday, to discover that All The Other Universities were racing (or doing time trials) so there was an air of competition and anticipation along the towpath.

The meal was great, we even had some authentic rain to look at and our lovely waitress was Breton!  I am now counting down the days until we can get away, and am beginning to think about meals in my Breton kitchen.

Our little girl was particularly delighted with the Alien her chocolate ice cream came in, it is now in residence in the bathroom!

First glass of Rose this year, Spring is here!

We ordered from the Day's Specials.

Chicken Liver Parfait with Toast and Cornichons.

Fish Cake with Tartare Sauce and Rocket.

Lamb Kidneys with Mash.

Fish (I think it was called Topkapi!) with Roasted Vegetables and Potatoes

An unusual Ice Cream Bowl!

Oh Dear! Not much cooking this week!

Last week I had a bout of posting and then this week, nothing!  Put it down to a bad cold, and nursing a sick child. Cooking and thinking about food were not a priority!  However we are all back in good health and I did manage to squeeze in a little cooking, but not great photos.  So today's post is a bit of a hodge podge!  Sorry:-)

Here is the birthday cake, I smoothed the icing and tied a lovely blue organza ribbon around it. We had a lovely celebration and the cake was a great success.

 For tea on Sunday I usually make scones, (see posting in February for the recipe.)
Last Sunday I decided to make round, rather then square scones, they were delicious and light.

Perfect with butter and jam, just the simplest afternoon tea imaginable, and wonderful after a large Sunday lunch.

I did manage to bake during the week, I made some cakes for my dear friends at the school I used to work at.

I used this Waitrose Lavender Sugar to make Chocolate Cupcakes, using a recipe I found at www.madewithpink.com (posted 5th March 2011)

I decided to use a butter icing rather then make the lavender cream as I was keeping them in a tin for the next day, they seemed to go down well, when I popped in with them at lunch time.

I also made Lemon Madeleines.  These are my own version, I use my fairy cake recipe,  with oodles of lemon flavouring!  A large teaspoonful of pure lemon extract (I use Star Kay White) and the finely grated skin of a whole fresh lemon.  It is truly scrumptious!

 
The real secret of a Madeleine is to use the correct tin.  I have a couple bought at the supermarket in France, but you can get them from Lakeland or from John Lewis.  They are the prettiest cake, and have the added advantage of not needing icing, just lovely unadorned.

As always watch carefully once the cakes are in the oven, don't overfill the tins and remember because they are shallower then fairy or cup cakes they take less time to bake, (I find that if I'm not paying attention, they can  quickly become biscuits!)

Here are the finished cakes.  They were delicious and I always think individual cakes or biscuits are far easier for a large group of people to share.  They do make a lovely gift, and I particularly believe school teachers deserve little treats every so often.

PS A couple of weeks ago  I took some of these cakes to the staff at my little girl's school.  They are all super, and work incredibly hard.  They got a great and really well deserved inspection report.  Well done!

I should be back on schedule next week, and am planning a few new (very easy) recipes!

PPS Sorry I don't yet know how to link back to previous posts, and to other peoples blogs,  I will eventually have to do some massive housekeeping on this blog, once I've learnt.  (I need to concentrate,  easier without a four year old in the background!)

Tea fit for a Duchess - Tea Tasting Workshop

A friend and I spent a super afternoon at Ham House, tea tasting today.

Firstly we were given a talk in the private closet of Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart and  Duchess of Lauderdale, who owned and decorated Ham House in the 17th Century.  She was one of the earliest drinkers of tea in England, following the example of the Queen Catherine of Braganza.  We saw her tiny teapot and cups (without handles) as well as the chest were the tea was kept under lock and key.

We then went to the Orangery Cafe in the garden, were Jennifer Wood of the Canton Tea Company [www.cantonteaco.com] presented us with six delicious teas, which her company import.  She talked us through the preparation and taste of each tea, and then we were able to sample the tea. The tasting workshop was really informative and the Chinese teas were a revelation.  Perhaps the most interesting point was that to really enjoy this green tea at it's best it should not be made with boiling water!

Sadly at 3.30 we  had to rush off, to collect our daughters from their school, so had no time to buy any tea today,

However, I am planning to pop into the Petersham Nurseries to buy some of the Jasmine Pearls tomorrow!  I would highly recommend the tea, and also would say that if the opportunity to join a workshop arises you should give it a try.  The website has the tea for sale, but also has a great deal of information, so is well worth a look.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day.

We have made fairy cakes, and had a great deal of fun with green icing!  My little girl will be taking these to share with her friends (and teachers) tomorrow morning!

We used fondant icing sugar and holly green colour to make the runny icing, and then a bought fondant icing (Lincoln Green) to roll out our Shamrocks!

Enjoy!

Fine Dining in Richmond and Iced Birthday Cake!

As you probably know there are two Michelin Star Restaurants in Richmond.  The Petersham Nurseries and The Bingham Hotel.

But fine eating is not the reserve of those two establishments, as you will see.  Yesterday my little girl was coughing, and I kept her home for the day.  It was difficult to cook, but while I posted the bread and pizza recipes she was busy organising a very tasty meal for us!

Go to work on an egg!

Keep the cake warm!

The Three Bears weren't forgotten.

Today I iced a fruitcake for the first time.  I had baked it in February, using my mother's traditional fruitcake recipe.  When I bake it for Christmas I leave it plain, as my husband doesn't like icing.  This one however is for my father's birthday, so I thought I had better finish it correctly.  I covered it with marzipan on Monday, and today I iced it.  I think it's not too bad for a very first attempt.  We will see.  What do you think?

Next week I will post the three steps, the fruitcake, the marzipan and the icing.  But now I think I better pop along to John Lewis to buy a blue ribbon to tie around the cake, to give it more of a finish.  NB it should look better on a silver board.

Pizza! Pizza!

This seems appropriate to follow on from the simple bread I have just published.

Pizza is one of wonders of the world.  I enjoy eating it in restaurants, it's always reliable, and there are so many options, that it makes an easy choice if your eating in a crowd, or with children.  However, I cannot abide a takeaway pizza.  Yes, my sons do order them, but the boxes are greasy, they smell unpleasant and when they are soo simple to make.  Why waste your money?  Why not have a go? It's easy and far more delicious.

To make two pizzas:

1 1/2 lbs Strong White bread Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
2 packets of instant yeast
Warm water

Sieve the dry ingredients together, (the sugar helps the yeast ferment, that is why it is included.)

Use the dough hook and add enough warm water to make a flexible dough.

Roll the dough into a large ball, and put it in a lightly olive oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel (or cling film) and leave in a warm place to rise.

You can see the bubbles here, creating air in the bread, as the dough rises.

Depending on time, I do try to knock back the dough and let it rise a second time, this makes for a tastier pizza.

Divide the dough into two equal balls, and roll each out into a circle.

You now need to add toppings.

You need tomato puree and a mozzarella cheese.

Spread the puree over the dough and either cut or tear the cheese and put onto the pizza, (you do not need to cover it with cheese).

You can then choose whatever other toppings you desire.  Don't forget a sprinkle of oregano.  Bake in a hot oven for 15 - 20 minutes.

Here they are finished, though not completely round, they are totally yummy.  Lovely with a simple green salad, or perhaps some roasted vegetables.

Please try, eat  and of course, enjoy:-)