Wonderful flowers from the Conservatory at Buxton

Last weekend we had a wonderful trip to Buxton in the Peak District to see the Chinese State Circus - lots of amazing acrobatics and aerial ribbon performances - just brilliant! Buxton is an old spa town with a wonderful opera house (complete with painted ceiling) and enormous conservatory and I could just picture Victorian ladies in crinaline dresses drinking the waters (we tried them and they were delicious!), bathing in the spa and walking in the park. Buxton even had old fashioned post boxes that are still in use. It was so lovely to be up in the peak district - I had forgotton how breath taking the scenery is. The wonky church tower is genuine - we saw it in Chesterfield on our way home.

I wanted to introduce you to the newest member of our family - a kitten we adopted from the RSPCA yesterday. She is a dear little thing - although very timid having been abandoned when she was just a few weeks old. It amazes me that people can be so cruel as she is so pretty and has such a sweet nature. She is a complete ragbag of colours - tabby, tortie, ginger cross with white front paws and grey back paws and a stripy tail! We are working on a name - Jemima, Lyra, Matila, Ginger Maisy (this is Josh and Rosie's choice), Pixie, Petal are all in the running. Any suggestions gratefully received! She looks contented already, doesn't she!

Although not edible, I have completely fallen in love with these Italian soaps that I discovered on my trip to London last week - tomato, pumpkin, lettuce and cucumber. They smell good enough to eat and are almost too good to use - although that hasn't stopped us. I am wondering whether they could be persuaded to develop a dessert range with pecan pie and lemon meringue perhaps!

Venison, Chorizo and Truffle Ragu


Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and thinely sliced
salt and pepper (I used truffle salt)
125g cubed pancetta
300g venison sausages
100g chorizo picante, skinned and chopped into small pieces
200g mini plum tomatoes, halved
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
250ml red wine
1 dessertspoon truffle paste or a drizzle of truffle oil
parmesan and tagliatelli pasta to serve

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and onion over a gentle heat until soft and translucent. Remove the sausages from their skins, cut into small pieces and add to the pan together with the pancetta and chopped chorizo. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until the meat has cooked through and the chorizo has released its oil. Add the wine, vinegar and tomatoes and leave to simmer on a gentle heat for 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Remove from the heat and stir through the truffle paste or drizzle with a little truffle oil. Stir the ragu through cooked pasta and serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Also tagging Lynne of Whetlands in the photo meme as she asked to be tagged and judging by the photos on her blog and her interesting travels her fourth photo will be worth seeing I'm sure!

I have been tagged in a photo me-me by lovely Phillipa of The Genius Academy

These are the rules:

1. Take your fourth picture folder

2. Fourth picture--no exceptions!

3. Post it, and tell about it.

4. Tag four more people

So this is Snape Maltings in Suffolk - two and a half years ago - at a food festival where Rick Stein gave a demonstration. There was a lovely cook shop and I spent lots of money without telling Sacha!!! We stayed at the Swan Hotel in Southwold, walked through the reed beds and on the beach and had a lovely holiday. This was one week before I was called to ask if I would be a stand in on Masterchef, before the days of blogging and writing recipes, before my live was turned upside down! There is an old sail boat in the distance - thats about it for interest in this photo!

I tag: Gareth of Operation Night Brace - as no doubt his 4th photo will probably be interesting or dodgy!
Jonathan of AroundBritainWithAPaunch - as he takes good photos and I am sure his will be worth looking at
Celia of PurplePoddedPeas - as I am secretly hoping her fourth photo will be one of her chickens
Aileen of Wishful Thinking - as she posted on my blog as I was typing this post!

Over to you guys!

On Friday I was invited to the studio where they are taking the pictures for the book. As you can imagine I was sooo excited! Suzanne the designer, Bridget the home economist and her son who was sous cheffing, William the photographer and his assistant - I would never have imagined that so many people would be there and how long it would take to do each shot. I really will never look at cook books in the same way again. My favourite part was the long tables of crockery and cloths of all different colours - lots of floral fabrics and dainty tea cups that I wanted to bring home (sadly they are all rented!). Bridget has such a dream job - cooking recipes for photos all day long.

My Christmas stocking this year contained a lot of salt. This may sound slightly strange but they were very welcome gifts. Truffle scented salt from Amy - perfect for adding to scrambled eggs. Spiced welsh Halen Mon salt which adds a wonderful flavour rubbed onto roast beef or pork (I used this salt to flavour my tomato foccacia in the final of Masterchef) and chilli salt from Tina which is great for spiced roast potatoes or adding extra kick to curries. All packed with flavour so that only a little of each salt is needed. To make chilli salt yourself, place flaked sea salt in a clean jam jar with a level tablespoon of crushed dried red chillies. Seal with a lid, shake well and leave for a week or so for the flavours to infuse.

Our lovely hen Cerys, who, despite the freezing temperatures this week has laid us a blue egg every day. It must be their diet of warm porridge, warm lentil soup and freshly baked bread that they have enjoyed this week as a special treat! My hens spoilt? Most definitely!

It is -8C outside today. My poor chickens are very cold and their water is frozen. What did I decide to do in this weather - make icecream!!!!! I know, I am completely mad. It came about because during out holiday in Suffolk we had snickers ice cream and since we returned, Sacha has been asking me to try and recreate it for him or to make peanut sorbet for him (which I think would be yukky). With our lovely German friend Maren staying for the last few days, we decided to give it a try. There was a debate about whether the chocolate chips were a step too far (I liked them but Sacha thought they were too crunchy) so these are optional!

Chocolate Peanut Caramel Ice Cream

2 large eggs
150g caster sugar
2 heaped tbsp crunchy peanut butter
225g clotted cream
250ml double cream
200ml ready made custard
3 tbsp caramel sauce
100g chocolate chips (optional)

Whisk together the eggs, caster sugar and peanut butter until light and creamy. Add the creams and custard and whisk again gently so that you have a smooth mixture. Do not overwhip. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturers instructions. When the ice cream is almost frozen stir in the chocolate chips and fold in the caramel sauce in swirls. As this contains raw eggs it is not suitable for pregnant women or young children.

There you are - completely inappropriate given the weather, but we ate it all just the same sitting in front of the log fire!!!

With Christmas festivities behind us, the long winter months until Spring lie ahead. January brings with it hope of the new year to come and bobbing snowdrops. The best cure for winter blues is indulging in scrumptious treats! If you are like me and have some smoked salmon left over after Christmas, this is a perfect way to use it up

Leek and Smoked Salmon Tarts
Preparation time 20 minutes Cooking time 25 – 30 minutes

Makes 6 tarts

500g/17½oz shortcrust pastry
3 large leeks, cleaned and finely sliced
85g/3oz salted butter, plus extra for greasing
100g/3½oz smoked salmon, plus extra for decoration
300ml sour cream
3 egg yolks
1 ½ tbsp finely chopped chives
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to season
Crème fraiche, to serve

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F and grease six 4inch tart tins. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to ½ cm thickness. Cut out six circles of dough and press one circle of pastry into each tin. Trim the edge of the pastry with a sharp knife. Line each pastry case with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans and bake blind for 12 – 15 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Cook the leeks in the butter over a gentle heat until they are soft. Season with salt and pepper and then set aside to cool slightly. Whisk together the sour cream, egg yolks, chives, lemon zest and juice. Divide the leeks and smoked salmon between the pastry cases and pour over the lemon and chive cream. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until the cream has set. Serve warm or cold, topped with a little crème fraiche, a small piece of smoked salmon and chopped chives.

Happy New Year Everyone! Thank you for all your lovely Christmas and New Year wishes. I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2009
Hannah
xxx

We have just been on a family holiday to Suffolk - it has been a long time since our last family holiday (so long ago that I can't even remember the last time) and it was so nice to spend proper time with everyone. We all visited Southwold - one of Mum's and my favourite places. Despite the bracing wind, we enjoyed the pier, with its wonderful water clock and the mechanical museum (Sacha got slobbered on by a mechanical dog and my Aunt tried out the Keep Fit machine - I don't think we have laughed so much in ages). We also went to the lovely old Harbour Inn and played in the penny arcades like we did when we were children. It is amazing how long £1 will last on the 2pence waterfall machines - we kept trying to loose all our money so we could leave and kept winning just when we thought we were done. In the end it took a team effort of all 10 of us to get rid of the final coins! We also had our traditional Wishing Well - this has been in our family for a long time (at least as far back as my Mum's Grandma) - a basket filled with little presents for every one which is normally had on Boxing Day to extend Christmas at little further! We impose a £5 limit and everyone bought something little for everyone else - we ended up with 9 wonderful presents each. Gareth gave Sacha some chive and onion flavoured crickets (yuk) but we got our revenge by getting the hotel to make some petit fours with them in which Gareth ate without realising until it was too late (we cried with laughter and luckily my brother saw the funny side!!!)

Last week, just before Christmas, Mum and I had a special Christmas lunch at Claridges. It followed some shopping in a rather manic London and we therefore welcomed the calm and tranquility of Claridges and the chance to recover from the shopping. The Christmas tree in the foyer was spectacular. Claridges offer a three course lunch for £30 - although I wouldn't call this cheap, it has to be one of the best offers in London - four courses if you include the Amuse Bouche of Michelin star food at this price is definitely reasonable - it was all so delicious! We feasted on wild game terrine with pistachio brioche, mackerel with cauliflower volutee, cod with razor clams and clam sauce and I had the most perfect pudding I have had in a long time - balsamic ice cream, gingerbread crumbs, apple sorbet and cranberry syrup, topped elegantly with an apple flower (which tasted delicious). One of the chefs in the kitchen had made it to the quarterfinals of Masterchef Professionals and we were given a tour of the kitchens - it amazes me that they manage to create so many wonderful dishes in such a small area and at furnace temperatures! It brought back many scary memories of Masterchef, but we were very pleased to be shown round.

Happy Christmas Everyone - I hope that wherever you are today and whoever you are with, your Christmas will be filled with good cheer, delicious food and lots of lovely presents from Santa. This is the sampler I have stitched for my mum this year and am giving to her this morning - an unusual Santa with sunflowers (my Mum loves sunflowers so I hope she will like this!) Have a wonderful day and Christmas blessings to you all
Hannah
xxxx

The presents are all wrapped and last minute Christmas cards posted and finally it is the eve before Christmas. My advent candle is down to its final day and we have ceremoniously light our new wood burning stove (installed earlier this week with a cloud of dust as the fireplace was cut away - not ideal a few days before Christmas!!!!) I know that for many of you, like me, Christmas eve will be full of last minute preparations and rushing about, but I hope that you will find time to sit and have a cup of tea (or a tipple of sherry) and spend a few minutes looking at your tree and breathing in the Christmas spirit before it is all gone by too quickly.

Even if you haven't had time to make your own mincemeat you can easily jazz up shop bought mincemeat to make extra special mince pies. Try mixing the zest of a grated orange, 100g/3 1/2 oz white chocolate chips, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 2 tbsp amaretto with a jar of ordinary mincemeat. Keep some ready made pastry in the fridge and a jar of mincemeat in your cupboard and you will be able to rustle up scrumptious mince pies for any unexpected visitors!

Sacha loves ham and even though I know that by Boxing day everyone will be too full to eat much, I always make a ham - just for Sacha. This year I poached our ham in prosecco for an extra special Christmas treat!

Boxing Day Ham

1 large unsmoked gammon joint
1 bottle of prosecco or sparkling wine
2 heaped tbsp of caster sugar
1 whole onion, peeled
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp whole cloves
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp treacle
100g/3 1/2 oz dark muscovado sugar

Place the gammon in a large saucepan and pour over the prosecco. Top the pan up with water so that the gammon is covered. Add the caster sugar, onion and cinnamon to the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 1 hour 15 minutes. Turn the gammon over half way through cooking to ensure that it cooks evenly. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F and drain the poaching liquid (this is a good stock base for soups). Remove the skin from the gammon and score the fat underneath with a sharp knife in a criss cross pattern and stud with cloves. Mix together the mustard, maple syrup, treacle and muscovado sugar. Place the gammon in a large roasting tin and cover with the treacle glaze. Roast for 30 - 45 minutes, basting half way through. Allow to cool and then store in the fridge wrapped in greaseproof paper until you are ready to serve.

Our lovely friends, Susan and Peter, came to supper on Saturday evening. Susan used to live in Sweden so kindly made us some traditional Gloegg. Mulled wine - only nicer as it has sultanas and almonds in which you eat with a spoon when you finish your drink (and a lot of alcohol which is always a bonus!). The last time we drank this was during a visit to Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen - a truly magical evening with fairy lights in all the trees, ice skating and sipping glasses of warm wine whilst browsing the winter market. If you look closely you can see my reindeer decorations above the aga!

Susan's Gloegg wine

1 bottle red wine
400ml port
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp whole cloves
zest of 1 orange
100g/3 1/2 oz caster sugar
100ml rum
100ml brandy
100g/3 1/2 oz sultanas
100g/3 1/2 oz flaked almonds

Place all the ingredients except for the sultanas and almonds in a saucepan and simmer over a gentle heat for 5 - 10 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the wine is nice and warm. Place a spoonful of sultanas and flaked almonds in the bottom of each of your serving glasses and ladle over the wine. Serve with a teaspoon so that your guests can eat the soaked fruit and almonds.

Thanks you Susan for the delicious recipe!

We do not have lights on the outside of our house. I have enough of a job persuading Sacha to let me decorate the inside of the house and I think I would be trying my luck to do outside as well. I think it must be the effects of the credit crunch but there are far fewer displays this year. The best display we have ever seen is near Marston Mortain just near Bedford - we go every year to see the lights there as they are spectacular in a very kitsch way! This is my Mum's neighbour's house - he has also decorated in the back garden into a santa's grotto - I imagine his grandchildren are so thrilled to see it - I was and I am 34!!!

I do love the run up to Christmas more than any other time of the year. The kitchen always smells of cinnamon and mulled wine and there are always lots of baked goodies to eat whilst wrapping presents and writing cards ( I still haven't finished either of these tasks!) Last weekend I visited some university friends, Fay Magdalen and Sonya and their cute little boys Ishan and Tommy. Before heading off I very quickly made a Christmas tree cake in a tree shaped cake case I found in our local cookshop. The cake was a chocoholics dream - chocolate sponge, with chunks of caramel chocolate and plain chocolate If you don't have a Christmas tree case or pan then bake a large rectangular cake and when it is cool cut out a Christmas tree shape with a sharp knife. Using a green buttercream, pipe large stars along the bottom of the tree pulling the icing bag away from the cake on each star so that it makes a feathered effect (to resemble tree branches). Repeat all the way to the top of the tree, then decorate with chocolate buttons, coloured sweets and edible glitter. This was such a quick cake to decorate and Tommy and Ishan loved it!

This morning I had a 7am meeting, about 45 minutes from home so I had a VERY early start - in fact it almost feels like lunchtime and it is not even 10am yet. The mincepies (which I was making at 11pm last night) and coffee did little to improve my mood as the meeting was outside on a very cold farm. Brrrrrr....I still feel chilly just thinking about it. The upside was that we were finished by 8am and I had a stunning drive back through the frosty sunrise. Everything looked so Christmassy! If you are going out today, wrap up VERY warm!

I was speaking to lovely Steven Wallis from Masterchef the other day and we were discussing how underrated Malibu is - neither of us had had it in ages but both confessed to liking it. It got me thinking about how to use it in cooking and so I dug the dusty bottle out of our cupboard and decided to make some "Tropical" mincemeat. The result was a very yummy (assuming you like coconut) pale mincemeat and it made lovely mince pies. I also added few heaped tablespoons of the mincemeat to a 4, 4, 4, 2 sponge mix for a lovely light coconutty fruit cake.

Tropical mincemeat
Makes 6 jars

200g shredded or dessicated coconut
1kilo dried mixed fruit (sultanas, peel, raisins, currants)
200g glace cherries, halved
Juice and zest of 2 oranges
Juice and zest of 2 limes
3 apples, grated
300g caster sugar
300ml malibu
250g vegetable suet
100g pistachios, chopped

Toast the coconut in a dry frying pan until lightly golden. Depending on the size of your pan, you may find it easier to cook in batches. Place the toasted coconut in a large oven proof bowl and add all the other ingredients. Stir well with a large spoon to make sure everything is mixed. Leave to stand for 1 hour to allow the flavours to develop. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 1/2 / 120/250/Aga Simmering Oven and place the bowl in the oven for one hour to allow the suet to melt, stirring half way through and at the end of cooking. Decant into steralised jars.