Summer Fest - Spiced Red Plum, Ginger and Rhubarb Relish

I read about this year's Summer Fest on the White on Rice Couple's blog and as it so happened, I had plans to cook up a plum and rhubarb relish this weekend anyway, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and join in the super summer food fest fun (say that 20 times fast)!

On our trip to Borough Market on Saturday, we picked up what turned out to be an incredibly fatty and overpriced hunk of pork belly. I adore roast pork belly and I'd been wanting an excuse to try out the Ottolenghi recipe for ages, so this weekend seemed like a good time. The meat was delicious but I've definitely learnt a few lessons - the way they cooked it is massively over complicated for a domestic kitchen and rubbing on minced garlic then roasting for 3 hours leads to inedible pan juices. So so acrid. Not to mention wasting a whole bottle of wine... So anyway, I'm not going to give you the recipe as is because I think it needs some major tweaking, but I shall definitely persevere - if anyone has any tips for how to achieve the incredible crackling on top and the super soft meat underneath, please do let me know!

So the pork was fine, but the success story was the relish. Oh, it's good. And I don't like rhubarb. It's sweet and sticky with the plums, but the rhubarb tartness cuts through it and makes it the perfect pairing for a fatty cut like belly pork. The star anise, ginger and cinnamon give it an oriental (or JJ thinks more Christmasy) twist plus the slight heat of the chilli adds a great depth of flavour. I'm sure this would work equally well with any number of other roasted meats - I can imagine it with something fairly robust like duck or something even gamey like pheasant. Might try pan fried duck later this week... Sounds awesome! It will keep in a sealed jar for 1-2 weeks.
I'm probably guessing this would make a better autumnal dish than mid summer, but the UK's not really feeling that summery at the mo anyway! Actually, can you get rhubarb in the autumn? Spot the novice gardener!

Spiced Red Plum, Ginger and Rhubarb Relish

(Adapted from Ottolenghi, the Cookbook)

5 red plums, stoned and cut into quarters

1 red chilli, halved and seeded

2 cinnamon sticks

1 star anise

100ml red wine vinegar (we only had a little left so ended up being mostly white wine vinegar which worked just fine)

200g caster sugar

4 stalks rhubarb cut into 3cm lengths

2" knob of ginger, very thinly sliced and then cut into tiny strips

Heat the oven to 150C/Gas mark 2.

Place the plums and chilli in a heavy based saucepan and add the cinnamon, star anise, vinegar and half the sugar. Stir well, bring to the boil and boil gently for 25-30 mins, stirring occasionally. The plums should have a jam-like consistency. To check this, chill a plate and place a teaspoon full of the chutney on it. Run your finger through it and if it stays apart it's ready. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

While the plums are simmering away, place the rhubarb, ginger and remaining sugar in an ovenproof dish. Rub them together with your hands and place in the oven. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the rhubarb is tender. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Combine the plums and rhubarb and mix well. Remove the chilli and transfer the chutney to a jar. Either serve straight away or store in the fridge where it will keep for a week or two.

Enjoy! Rosy xx

Borough Market Part 3

It took me over 18 months of living in London before I went to Borough and it was love at first sight. As this was JJ and my long weekend in the city we decided to have a Borough market splurge - spending the morning picking out cured meats and cheeses, breads, wine and produce was heaven! And this was the lunch we had once we got home! So good. A bit of the raw milk Stilton close up...

In fact, just about to have a little more of the Stilton for lunch today! Sooooo creamy.

A brownie from the ultimate brownie pile...

Mmmmmm, brownie goodness... And just how cute is that strawberry!

So that's it on the Borough Market front! Although the post I have planned for tomorrow features some of the food bought at Borough, but it's part of the Summer Fest, a summer food blogging event that I'm so excited to be getting involved in! After that, I've got some great pics of our North London wanderings yesterday.

So yes, it would appear that new camera + super fun weekend in London with reasonable weather = muchos posting!

Rosy xx

Borough Market Part 2

Urrrrggghhhh, SO full after a frankly awesome meal at Hix's Oyster Bar and Chop House. Wow. Just wow. There are no words. Just amazing!

Luckily I have more pics from Borough so I don't have to worry about producing interesting chat when uber soporific from food. Borough is so full of incredible photos opportunities - this is a small sample of our photos, if you can believe it. Um, yeeeaaah, this weekend has thus far turned into a good excuse to stuff ourselves silly with all the foodie delights that London has to offer. But eh, what're you gonna do? When bread looks this good...

And this salami! We bought some for lunch - it's from 'Basque pig charcuterie' and was delish.

Aaaahhhh, Brindisa. I believe it was the Times that said they stock the best chorizo outside of Spain and it's true. We bought a LOT. Sitting in the freezer waiting for chorizo-themed inspiration.

We also bought some of this ham. Oh so good. I'm running out of words for utterly delicious! Just trust me on this - most things in Borough are delish. Of course, I haven't tried them all, but after this morning's expedition, I'm definitely a substantial step closer!

Flowers....

And chillies! Purple chillies. JJ was worried about the state of his precious chillies after seeing these but I'm sure his tlc will pay off soon.

Mmmmmmm, cheeeeeese - I would be lying if I said I didn't drool a little at the sight of all this cheese.

And it took a lot of effort not to upload about 20 pics of this Stilton. It really is fantastic - such incredible flavour! Probably from the unpasteurised milk as I've never tasted Stilton like this before.

The sweet part - custard tarts...

...and piles of white chocolate.......lemon and chocolate tarts......

.....and the biggest pile of brownies in the world. I'm seriously considering asking them how much it would be to literally dive into them head first. But then I might potentially be quite ill afterwards. And chocolate is never an easy stain to remove from clothes! I did however sample them and yes, they are as good as they look!

And I'm not done yet! Coming up there's photos of the lunch we had after our Borough Market gorging sesh - I'll post those tomorrow though. Night! Rosy xx

Borough Market Part 1

Oh how I adore Borough... Have to physically restrain myself from diving into piles of produce. Here's some of the veg stands...
I've never tried these but my, do they look good! (NB I re-read this post after publishing and realised it read as though I'd never eaten sweetcorn before. I was referring to the funny shaped tomatoes! For the record, I have eaten sweetcorn before. I promise!)

These are blue footed mushrooms and would make such a lush risotto - but we didn't get any this time. Not on the weekend menu so didn't go too crazy on the impulse purchases!

Carrots! Such a good photos - thank you JJ!

We did get some of this delish looking rhubarb - it's to go with the pork belly we also picked out. Have a roast pork belly with plum, rhubarb and ginger relish recipe I've been wanting to try for ages and so we're giving it a whirl tomorrow. Now that I've figured out how to upload pics from the camera (they were saved in raw format, silly me!) I'm hoping to be able to blog about that tomorrow. Provided the final dish looks vaguely reasonable of course!

Anyway, have lots more photos but have to dash as we're off to Hix Chop House for dinner. Yaaayyyyy! Wow, I'm going to need to run for a week after this weekend to stand a chance of shedding the extra pounds gained from such gluttony. But I shall worry about that on Tuesday!

Rosy xx

4 Day Weekend

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast - oh so good! I may not be able to get up off the sofa for the rest of the weekend. But that's ok because I have a FOUR DAY WEEKEND! WHOOP WHOOP! And JJ and I have such fun things planned. Very excited. Off to Borough Market first thing tomorrow - the only thing that will get me out of bed super early on a Saturday morning.

There's a bit of a lack of pics at the mo - I can't seem to get the thingumy to work in my computer, but finger's crossed the technical issues will be sorted in time to show you the AWESOMENESS of Borough! Eeeep, so exciting!

Rosy xx

Cook Books

I love cook books. My absolute favorite activity in the WORLD has to be sitting curled up on our sofa with our super huge living room window wide open (on a nice day, obviously), enormous mug of tea in hand and a stack of cook books at my feet. Just so relaxing - it's the endless inspiration they provide. I think that's why I love food blogs so much. Food porn, really!

This is definitely not my full collection. These are just the current favorites that have escaped from the bookshelf and taken up residence on my living room floor. I'm terrible at buying really pretty books - the one on top, Apples for Jam, is a prime example of that! I did judge it by its cover, yes. But it's so good! With the courgettes from our garden we make this yummy courgette, feta and mint pasta that's a doddle. So fresh and clean tasting - a far cry from the heavy creamy pasta that I normally make (and love!). I'll take some pics next time we make it for you.

But my absolute favorite has to be the Ottolenghi cook book. It's what dreams are made of. I could wax lyrical about it all afternoon, but I won't. I shall just leave you with pics of two of my fave Ottolenghi recipes. I make these roughly 100 times a week so shall be providing recipes soon, I promise! If you can't wait, the Ottolenghi blog has some recipes on and is a lovely read.

Rosy xx

ps I'm despairing at the moment - how do I alter how big the images appear on my blog?? The formatting seems totally random!

Strawberry Shortcake Cakes

Wow, that took a little longer than I thought to get organised! Sorry about that… The ol' recession’s hitting home at this end and it’s been a bit of a distraction this past week for several reasons that I won't bore you with. That, and a trip to Ascot on Friday where I was, ahem, a little ‘tired and emotional’ probably didn’t help! Ooops…. Anyway, I definitely won’t go into the details of that!

JJ has returned home in one piece and his camping stuff is now liberally strewn around the flat. I expect it’ll stay that way for a good few weeks until I cave and unpack for him. Actually, it’s going to have to be before then as in two weeks it’s my friend Laura’s birthday party and it’s being held in our flat! I’m SO excited. It’s Alice in Wonderland themed (but not fancy dress – too much hassle) and I’m busy designing the cup cake toppers. Any ideas welcome! I took delivery of the card suit cookie cutters yesterday and thinking up things to make. Really hoping I get some great pics to show you of that party. It’s my absolute favourite – an afternoon tea!! And, as Laura and I lived together at Uni, I know almost all of the people coming so SUPER excited to see everyone. Must not get ‘tired and emotional’ again though!!!! I’m getting too old for the morning afters.

Anyway, back to business. I teased you horribly with the pic of the mini cakes for Rachel’s afternoon tea – they are individual strawberry shortcake cakes. And they are soooooooooooo good. Fragrant, creamy, moist and sweet – just awesome. I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman (who I’ve been totally addicted to since I started reading blogs about a year ago) but decided that they had to be individual for Rachel’s do. I mean, what isn’t improved by making it smaller and cuter?!! So the only thing I changed was to convert all the measurements into metric (can’t handle the inaccuracy of cups) and cut individual circles out of a square cake rather than making the one large round cake. I have made the round version before and it’s equally delicious. In fact, just the left over scraps of icing and cake are mighty fine too...

It does sound a bit fiddly popping it into the freezer after every step, but it really does make the process a lot easier. I actually made the cakes ahead of time, froze them into the little circles and then added the strawberries and icing the day of the tea. I’ve recently taken to making and freezing cakes and it’s such a useful technique as the cakes stay fresher and icing is so much easier.

Strawberry Shortcake Cake
(Adapted from The Pioneer Woman)

Cake
1 1/2 cups (225g) flour

3 tablespoons corn flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

9 tablespoons (125g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ (340g) cups caster sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup (120ml) sour cream, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing

1/2 pound (225g) cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks (1/2 pound, 225g) unsalted butter

1 1/2 pounds icing sugar (675g), sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound (ca. 500g) strawberries

Sift together flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and corn flour.To make the cake, cream the butter with the caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined.
Pour into greased and floured 8-inch cake pan. Bake at 350F/175C degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Remove from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.

Stem strawberries and slice them in half from bottom to top. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries with a fork, leaving some chunky.

To make the icing, combine cream cheese, butter, sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and dash of salt in a mixing bowl. Mix until very light and fluffy.

Slice cake in half through the middle. Spread strawberries evenly over each half (cut side up), pouring on all the juices. Place cake halves into the freezer for five minutes, just to make icing easier.

Remove from freezer. Use a little less than 1/3 of the icing to spread over the top of the strawberries on the bottom layer. Place the second layer on top. (Pop in the freezer again for a bit if needs be). Add half of the remaining icing to the top spreading evenly, then spread the remaining 1/3 around the sides.

Leave plain or garnish with strawberry halves.
IMPORTANT: Cake is best when served slightly cool. The butter content in the icing will cause it to soften at room temperature. For best results, store in the fridge!