Sunday Brunch

I know it is the middle of the week and is early to be discussing weekend breakfast, but this is the first time in a while, I have had chance to post. However I made this omelette/frittata a couple of weeks ago and have been wanted to share it with you since.

I love getting up early sometimes on Sunday morning to have the house myself, have a cup of coffee, watch TV, do a little housework perhaps and enjoy breakfast in peace by myself. The other Sunday, peace and tranquilly was achieved and I was able to make my favourite omelette/frittata (not quite sure which one it is, please decide for yourself after reading the recipe.)

Spicy Sunday Morning Omelette/Frittata

Ingredients

• Half an onion, chopped finely
• 1 medium sized chili, chopped finely (with or with seeds, it depends on how hot you like it!)
• 2 eggs
• Ham, chopped into squares
• Chorizo slices (I just used the ones from the supermarket – they are OK for this and pizza toppings – not much else)
• Garlic and Herb cheese, broken up into rough chunks (I used Boursin but it’s up to you)
• Cheddar Cheese, grated (my favourite is Cathedral City- however I have a sample of Kerry Low Low Cheese to try now so expect a post about this soon)
• Salt and Pepper
• Dried mixed herbs (any you like really. I used Italian mixed herbs)
• Olive Oil

Method

1. In a frying pan, put in a glug of olive oil and fry the onion, chili and a small pinch of salt until softened.
2. Meanwhile, break the eggs into a jug or small bowl, whisk lightly and add the dried herbs and some salt and pepper.
3. Pour into the frying pan with the onion and chili and turn heat down to the lowest setting. Allow to cook until the eggs are set on the bottom
4. Add your toppings. Chorizo and ham first, garlic and herb cheese and top with grated cheddar.
5. Put under a preheated grill until cheese has melted and bubbling. I enjoy leaving the garlic and herb cheese in chunks, as it doesn’t melt completely then as it can be quite thin and runny once melted. Then serve and enjoy with a glass of orange juice.

That’s it for now. Short post this time but I will be back with another post soon, either involving cheese or a joint post with my friend Marie about cooking for a crowd.

Happy Cooking!

Biggest Baking Adventure Yet!

A few weeks ago, it was my friend Marie’s eldest son’s birthday. His name is Owen and he is 3 years old. Marie decided that she wanted to host a party for Owen and we would need to make a big cake for it to feed about 30 family and friends.

This sounded like a quite a large undertaking but I am always up for a challenge and agreed to help Marie make and decorate the cake. The first problem that we had was that neither of us, had a cake tin that large enough for us to make the cake. Then I remembered seeing a massive cake tin in Lakeland that might do the job. I ordered it and it came a few days later.

The second problem we had was getting a recipe to make a cake that big. We had already decided we wanted to make a sponge cake as it is what most kids seem to prefer. I asked the people of Twitter for help and eventually found a recipe from netmoms.com that would be able to do the job. We decided to double the recipe to begin with, but the resulting cake was quite thin so in the end, we doubled the recipe again and made a second cake to go on top. We used strawberry jam and butter icing as the filing for the cakes.

The final problem was actually decorating the completed cake. Marie and I were helped by my cousin Faye, who has been on a cake decorating course. Faye made Roary the Racing Car to go on top of the cake. It is fantastic as I am sure you will agree. Thanks Faye for your help. It is much appreciated. Marie and I did the rest of the decorating. One tip is to have some icing glue (thick icing sugar and water paste) to cover up any holes or texture problems in the icing. We cut the cake into a round as we cheated and brought ready rolled icing, which is only available in rounds for some reason. We used writing icing to add the other decoration. Overall, I think the cake worked quite well for our first attempt. What do you think? Comments, tips and suggestions welcome.

Madeira Cake Recipe (adapted from netmums.com)

Ingredients

Cake

• 700g butter (softened)
• 700g caster sugar
• 12 large eggs
• 1kg self-raising flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 12 tbsp milk

Filling

• 1 jar of jam (your choice for middle and top of cake to hold icing on)

Butter Icing

• 200g icing sugar
• 250 g butter, softened
• Ready Rolled Icing (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease the cake tin, line the base and sides with greaseproof paper
2. Put all the ingredients into a bowl or food processor. Mix until just combined (do not over mix)
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the mixture out.
4. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.
5. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 30-40 minutes, then turn it out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
6. Repeat all steps to make second cake.
7. Make butter icing while second cake cools.
8. Place bottom cake on board and cover with jam and butter icing. Place second cake on top and cover top with jam, then put ready rolled icing on top (if using) and decorate to your heart’s content!

Happy Cooking!

Christmas Pudding Challenge!

As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am a member of the UK Food Bloggers Association. A couple of weeks ago, a competition was put on the site from Matthew Walker – the world’s oldest Christmas pudding maker. They have been making puddings in Derbyshire since 1899 and their recipe contains the 13 core ingredients that represent Jesus and his 12 Apostles. They have since trademarked it has ‘Recipe 13: The Perfect Christmas Pudding Recipe’.

The aim of the competition is to create some alternative Christmas fare with Matthew Walker’s ‘The Pudding’ Christmas pudding as the main ingredient. My entries are below. I decided to do a Christmas pudding ‘bread and butter’ pudding and a Christmas pudding trifle. The reason why I chose these dishes is because, custard is a traditional accompaniment to Christmas pudding and there is chance that you may have both Christmas pudding and custard leftover from Christmas dinner.

Christmas pudding ‘bread and butter’ pudding

Ingredients (quantities depend on size of serving dish and how much leftovers you have)

• ‘The Pudding’ Christmas pudding, cut into slices
• Butter (brandy butter if you like or have some leftover)
• Custard (for a recipe see here)
• Icing Sugar
• Glacé cherries (optional – add a bit of festive colour)

Method

1. Put Christmas pudding slices in a serving bowl or dish (one suitable for use in oven) and spread butter onto the slices
2. Make custard and pour over the buttered Christmas pudding slices and put in oven about 180°c for about 15- 20 minutes.
3. Allow to cool slightly and top with Glacé cherries (if using) and sprinkle with icing sugar snow. Enjoy!

Christmas Pudding Trifle

Ingredients (quantities depend on size of serving dish and how much leftovers you have)

• ‘The Pudding’ Christmas pudding, broken up into chunks
• 1 tablespoon of brandy or other Christmas spirit (add more if you like)
• Custard (see recipe link above)
• Whipping cream
• Glacé cherries (optional – add a bit of festive colour)
• Grated chocolate, chocolate drops, hundreds and thousands – anything you like to decorate the top

Method

1. Put Christmas pudding chunks into a serving bowl (I don’t have a nice trifle bowl so I used a normal Pyrex dish) Pour the brandy over it and allow it to soak it.
2. Make the custard, allow to cool slightly and pour over Christmas pudding chunks. Allow to set in fridge
3. Whip the cream in whatever way you want (hand power or electrical means) until it forms stiff peaks
4. Pour over custard and allow it to set in fridge again and then decorate however you like. Serve and enjoy!

Overall, I think these recipes worked quite well. However, I made the custard a bit thin and it completely drowned the Christmas pudding in the trifle and with the cream on top, it looks like a big bowl of snow! I also slightly burned the ‘bread and butter’ pudding. I think with some slight refining these recipes would be suitable to be made for a Boxing Day buffet as dessert alternatives to use up the leftovers.  I welcome any suggestions for any improvements/refinements that could be made to these recipes. I enjoyed taking part in the competition, especially since my kitchen smelt of yummy Christmas pudding all afternoon!

Happy Cooking!

Bloggers Lunch at Pizza Express

A few weeks ago, Margaret (from Kitchen Delights) and I, were invited by We are Social to sample Pizza Express’s new Leggera range of starters, pizzas and deserts. The Leggera range is the lighter option of their menu featuring a pizza with hole in the middle that is filled back up with salad and options for starters and dessert. The dishes are designed to be around 500 calories and are low in saturated fat. We went to the restaurant, in Brindleyplace in Birmingham.

Margaret and I both had the same starter. We chose the ‘Crostini al Pomodoro’, which is ciabatta bread topped with tomatoes marinated in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and oregano. It was served on rocket with shavings of grana padano and balsamic syrup. We both enjoyed our starter but I found my ciabatta to be very crisp and at one point, when I tried to cut it, it flew across the table. It was quite embarrassing! Otherwise, apart from that, it was a great start to our meal.

We decided to have different pizzas for our main. Margaret had ‘Margherita Leggera’ that had mozzarella with tomatoes marinated in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and oregano, topped with basil leaves on it. I had ‘Gustosa’, which had prosciutto, mozzarella and slices of Portobello mushroom with yellow peppers and thyme on it. We both agreed that pizzas were lovely, full of flavour and fresh tasting. Our only complaint was the limp appearance of the rocket salad in the middle of pizza. It just needed to be refreshed in water or something to make the whole appearance of the dish look better. I did however think it was the best pizza I have ever tasted at a pizza restaurant of any description and I will be having it again.

For dessert, Margaret stuck with the Leggera range and had ‘Sotto Zero’, which is two scoops of low fat natural frozen yoghurt topped with blackcurrants in syrup with a dark chocolate straw. I moved away from the Leggera range and had ‘Lemon Gelato’ that is lemon ice cream and it was served with a dark chocolate straw as well. The service was excellent and the waiting staff were really nice and friendly.

I would to thank We are Social for inviting Margaret and I to sample the Leggera range and I would like to say a very big thank you to Margaret as well as we had a fantastic time and talked non-stop for nearly 3 hours. It was a great day out and I would like to do it again soon.

I will be back sometime next week with tales of biggest baking challenge yet.

Happy Cooking!

Farewell to Floyd

Some of you may have noticed that when the great culinary legend, Keith Floyd passed on a few weeks ago, that I made no mention of it on this blog. The reason I did not at the time is because I had spotted this bloggers competition on the UK Food Bloggers Association to cook one of Floyd’s dishes, an adapted version of one of Floyd’s recipes or to create your own inspired by him. The competition is the idea of James Brewer of Back to the Chopping Board, a fantastic new blog and Julia Parsons, of the well known A Slice of Cherry Pie blog and the creator of the UKFBA.

Keith Floyd was a legend in my mind. I remember watching his shows as a child and wanting to travel around the world and cook. I unfortunately do not travel around the world much at the moment, but I am, hoping that will change in future. However I do cook. Ocassionally, with a glass of red wine in my hand too!

David Pritchard, the producer who discovered him and brought us all his shows was helped by Keith into bringing Rick Stein to our TV screens. Another culinary genius, in my opinion. Therefore, I think we need thank David for bringing us both Keith and Rick as they are an inspiration to many and have helped to change the face of british food over the last 20 years.

My tribute dish to Keith Floyd is his Garlic and Coriander Chicken, which comes from the Floyds’s Great Curries cookbook. I slightly adapted the recipe by using ready ground spices (they were already open) and reducing the quantities for 2 people. Also, I was ill at the time of cooking it so was limited to my local shop, which sells no fresh coriander.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp of corainder, cumin and chilli powder
• 3 tsp veg oil
• Yoghurt and mint dip and salad to serve

Method

• Put garlic and salt in pestle mortar and crush.
• Add other ingredients and mix into a paste.
• Rub over chicken and leave to marinate for 2 hours.
• Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes at 190°c
• Serve with yoghurt and mint dip and salad with a glass of red wine to toast Keith. Enjoy!

That’s all for today folks. I will be back hopefully at the weekend with review of a meal I had recently at Pizza Express.

Happy Cooking!

An Interesting Week!

First, of all I would like to apologise for the tardiness of my blog post. I said on my last post that I would be back last weekend, not this weekend. This post is going to be a bit unusual as I need to tie up a few loose ends so that my normal blogging schedule can resume.   To begin, I would like to tell you about my crazy week this week so that you may understand why my blogging is haphazard at the moment.  It is one of many crazy weeks that I am currently experiencing but is an extreme example . Then, I would tell you about a couple foodie treats that I found in a recent work trip to Scotland, followed by a recipe and finally,  I would like to  discuss the new Virgin1 cookery entertainment programme called ‘Restaurant in Our Living Room’.

My Week!

Last weekend was spent baking a large cake for a 3 year old’s birthday party (future post on the blog), attending the birthday party and going a few beers afterwards. Then I decorated and mowed the lawns at my parent’s rental property before coming home to get ready for my work trip on Monday.

Monday and Tuesday was spent on a work field trip with first year archaeology students in Monmouthshire, Wales visiting archaeological and historical sites. We spent Monday night staying in a reconstructed Iron Age Roundhouse sleeping on hay bales. Sleep was only achieved by drinking local ale and mulled wine!

Wednesday was spent doing half a day at work (I had a lie in to recover from Monday and Tuesday), popping to Tesco and visiting my in – laws.

Thursday started as a normal day but as I pulled onto the car park at work, my power steering pump broke and I had to call the AA. This resulted in me and my car having to be towed home at the end of my day at work. I was very late back and very tired after all the additional stress the day had created. To make matters worse, I am getting a brand new Ford Fiesta on the scrappage scheme in 5 weeks, so my car only had to last until then. The pump is to expensive to replace so it looks like it is the train for the next few weeks!

Friday started off bright and early as I had to get the train to work. I got to work ok but did not feel 100%. I carried on for a couple of hours but didn’t feel any better so I came home, went to bed and caught up on cookery programmes on the Sky +.

Today, I feel a bit better. However, this post is being brought to you by the power of Lemsip Cold and Flu capsules.

Scotland

A few weeks ago, I spent a week in Scotland in the Cairngorm Mountains on a field trip with students. I would tell you about a couple of foodie treats I discovered while I was there. No pictures, I am afraid. It was a work, not a foodie trip.

1. Mountain Café, Aviemore – This café serves excellent coffee, freshly made home-made cakes and lovely food in general. It was one of the highlights of the trip and I recommend that you go and experience it for yourself.
2. Clootie Dumpling – which is quite similar to a Christmas Pudding but has slightly more cinnamon and nutmeg in it. In the Cairngorms, the place to get it is at the Speyside Heather Centre where they sell it 21 different ways! (there are lots of red squirrels near by too)

A Recipe: Apple and Damson Traybake

A few weeks ago, I discovered that I had lots of apple and damsons in the fridge. They needed to be cooked with as soon as possible as they had been sat there waiting for me to do something with then for a while. I saw this recipe in the Tesco Magazine and decided to adapt it.

Ingredients

* 100g (3½oz) softened butter

* 175g (6oz) self-raising flour

* 1tsp baking powder

* 175g (6oz) demerara sugar

* 2 eggs

* 1 lemon rind

* 2 apples, diced

* 20 or so damsons, stone removed and chopped.

Method

* Preheat the oven to Gas 5, 190°C, fan170°C. Line a shallow 20cm (8in) square cake tin with baking parchment.

* Place all the ingredients, except the apples and damsons, into a large mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

* Stir in the apples and damsons and spread into the tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and the centre is firm to touch.

* Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out and allowing to cool completely. Cut into squares. Keeps for three days. Enjoy!

Restaurant in Our Living Room

You may have noticed that a new cookery entertainment show has appeared on our screens in the last couple of weeks. The show is called ‘Restaurant in Our Living Room’ and it is about couples competing against each other to run a restaurant for one night in their living room. It is shown on Thursday nights at 9pm on Virgin 1. The show has caused a lot of debate and discussion in the foodie world – see for example MsMarmiteLover’s article in the Guardian a week or so ago. I am not going to enter this debate, I think you should all make up your own minds as to whether you like the show or not. I think it is like ‘Come Dine with Me‘ on steroids!

I have been asked by Holler to tell you about the map community that has been created as part of the project, but run totally aside from the TV show to allow food lovers to get involved with the ‘pop-up’ restaurant trend themselves. The map offers a way for existing or prospective restaurateurs /diners/ produce sellers to get in touch with each other and discover what is available in their area. This is also a great way for vegetable gardeners, allotment owners, jam makers, beekeepers and so forth to let people in their area know they have stock for sale, and generally for such services to use the site to promote themselves for free. I think this is great idea, however I was slightly disappointed by the lack of people in my area so please join and help make this a success for everyone.

To get involved the website is here.

You can also join the Facebook group here.

That’s all for now folks. I will be back as soon as I can with another post.

Happy Cooking!

Down on the Cyder Farm!

Good afternoon all. This post is my final post about Cornwall and it will mostly be about my trip to Healey’s Cornish Cyder Farm. I will also be giving you a few more foodie places that I recommend that you go to in Cornwall.  Anyway, back to trip to Cornish Cyder Farm (by the way, I am not spelling ‘cider’ wrong, ‘cyder’ is the Cornish way of spelling it) We went to the Cyder Farm on the last day of our trip to Cornwall. It was a lovely sunny day and although it is free to go into the farm, you have to pay £6 per adult to see the apple orchards on a tractor tour and have a guided tour of the factory and museum.  We paid and had a 2o minutes wait until the first tour was due to start so we went  straight for the free sample tasting. Stuart and I tried all the cyders but our favourites was the Cornish Rattler and Healey’s Classic Cyder. I also tried Healey’s Cyder Apple Brandy which retails for£75 per bottle. (See picture above) However, you can pay £3 per sample to try it and I did. It was lovely but quite strong for 11:30am on a Tuesday morning! I spoke to  one of the members of staff who told me, they are planning to sell the brandy in a smaller and cheaper bottles soon.  We had lunch at the café on the farm. I had Healey’s apple juice and scones served with home-made raspberry and apple jam, with clotted cream. It was yummy! Stuart had a Cornish Pasty which he liked quite a lot as well. We to shop after this and purchased a few bottles of cyder to take home for presents and one for ourselves of course!

Our trip to the cyder farm was an excellent way to end our short holiday in Cornwall and I would like to recommend them for your next visit to Cornwall, along with few other places below:

• Halzephron Herb Farm which sells wonderful sauces, chutneys, dips and all sorts of other stuff. It has lots of free samples of its products so you can try before you buy. It is well worth a visit.
• Fore St Deli -  which has such a fantastic display of fruit and veg, I am inspired to start cooking before I even enter the shop.
• Trevaskis Farm - which I have never visited. It was recommended to me by Mapperz (his blog is here) who unfortunately gave me the recommendation as I was coming home from Cornwall so it is on my list for the next time I visit. Please visit it and tell me what it is like.
• The Harbour Deli (The Wharf, St Ives TR26 1LG) – which is relatively new opening in St Ives and has no website, as far as I can tell but one thing it does do, is sell ready meals from The Cook Kitchen. This is a company which specialises in ready meals which actually taste good and are made by real people! (the person who made it name is on each meal) We brought a few and took them home with us and we are very happy with them. I am going to order some more on-line as they are good quick dinner when you are busy.
• Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall Restaurant - I have visited here twice and had a great meal each time. You must try the tasting menu with wine. It is the best and with great views of Watergate Bay,  it is the best restaurant I have ever been too!
• Rick Stein’s Fish and Chip Shop – Not the cheapest fish and chip in the world, but it does excellent fish which you can have cooked any way you like. It does the best chip shop curry sauce that I have ever tasted. I have never been to any of restaurants so I cannot comment but if you have been, please let me know what you thought.

That’s all for today. I will be back again over the weekend with a brief post about my trip to Scotland and  my first recipe in a few weeks. Until then,

Happy Cooking!

Something Fishy in Newlyn

Good afternoon all. I hope you  had a lovely weekend. I  had a relaxing weekend to finish recovering from my two weeks away. Today I would like to tell you about my visit to Newlyn Fish Festival which was held on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August.  It is held annually to raise money for the Fisherman’s Mission which offers a 24 hour emergency support service for fisherman and their families.

We arrived at about 10.30am and the place was packed full of people. There was not quite so much fish at the festival as I was expecting. There were lots of charity stalls, craft stalls and other foodie stands. However, when we eventually found the fish stalls, we saw some of the best fish, crab, lobster and shellfish that we have seen.  There were a couple of companies that stuck out to be as the best and I would like to mention them here.

The first company is called Seafood and Eat It and was first brought to attention by an article in Olive magazine, just before I left for Cornwall. In the article, Richard and his brother, Neville are Jimmy Doherty’s food heroes for the month of October.  I was really happy to meet them, having just read about them a couple of days before. It is their crab and lobster that are above.  I purchased some white and brown crab meat from them and intend to make crab cakes with it, in a later post.

The second company that interested me was The Little Cornish Curry Company which were giving away free samples of some of the best curry I have ever tasted. I brought a Magic Mix of spices from them, that is supposed to help you make many types of curries, rice, bhaji’s and fish cakes. I have no idea what is in the magic mix, but I am making a curry tomorrow night (for recipe, see earlier post) and intend to add it to my usual recipe to see what happens. I love an experiment!

We had a fun day in Newlyn and I would urge you all to go next year. It is wonderful day out and you are helping to raise money for a fantastic cause. Also, for any GIS/mapping nerds out there, Newlyn is one of the places in the UK, where they work out the average height above sea level, which you see on  Ordnance Survey maps. I would like to visit the Newlyn Tidal Observatory to find out how they do it, but did not get chance – may be next year.

On a different subject, I mentioned that I had been given my first award for ‘Honest Scrap’ on my last post by Nora the Kitchen ‘Splorer who has since explained to me what I am supposed to do. A very big thank you Nora for the award and for your help with telling me what to do. I have to give you 7 facts about myself and pass the award on to 7 other deserving blogs. They are all deserving, in my opinion so thinking of only 7 was very hard!

7 (Foodie) Facts about Me

1. My favourite dinner as a child was fish fingers, mashed potatoes, peas and parsley sauce.
2. Until I went to Cornwall 2 weeks ago, I had never eaten scallops before.
3. My favourite takeaway food is pizza.
4. I dislike with a passion bananas and nuts.
5. I broke my first Le Creuset  casserole pot and am now on my second one, since starting this blog.
6. I am useless at making pastry
7. I would like to go on the Channel 4 show ‘Come Dine with Me’ but have not plucked up the courage to enter

7 Deserving Blogs

1. Geofooding – Karen is one of the first foodie bloggers I had ever met and she is one of the major inspirations for me starting a blog. She is lovely and always willing to help.
2. Grubblog – Gary is great person who is  happy to help and always has a recipe to hand whenever I need one.
3. Helen Thornber - Helen is another fantastic lady who writes almost daily after her life and thoughts. It is a joy to read.
4. Consuming the Harvest – Kadeeae always inspires me with her weekly menu planning. I only wish I could be so organised!
5. With Knife and Fork – who gave me loads of help when moving from Blogger to WordPress. She is always happy to chat on Twitter as well.
6. Kitchen Delights – Margaret’s blog inspires me every time I read it. I am looking forward to meeting her next weekend too.
7. Meet and Two Veg – Emily lives near Birmingham just like me and her blog makes me want to discover more about the local food scene. I am looking forward to meeting Emily next week too.

That’s all for now folks. One more post on Cornwall to come and a brief one about Scotland then more recipes will be returning to these pages.

Happy Cooking

Foodie Fun in St Ives!

Hello everyone! I am back from my nearly three weeks off and ready to blog. We have lots of catching up to do, so stay tuned for a few posts over the next couple of weeks. To begin, I thought we could kick off with three posts about my foodie adventures in Cornwall and then one short post about my working trip to Scotland. This is post about some of foodie places I recommend in St Ives.

The first place I recommend is the Seafood Café which is so good, we went there twice. The first time we went was for a late lunch and we both had the lighter lunch option. Stuart had the squid, chorizo and olive salad and I had crab cakes with tartare sauce and salad. These were both washed down with Cornish Orchards Black and Gold Cider. It was a very enjoyable lunch.

The second time we went was for an evening meal. To begin, I had scallops, pea purée and a balsamic glaze and Stuart had King Prawn Teriyaki. Both were very yummy, however Stuart said his tasted too much of ginger. For our  main course,  Stuart had sea bream with a garlic and caper brown butter sauce and I had monkfish in a ginger and spring onion sauce. You get to choose your fish, fresh that day (or meat alternative) from the counter at the entrance to the restaurant. Veggies are catered for as well but do not expect too many choices.  For dessert, I had raspberry crème brûlée which was very yummy! Overall, I think the Seafood Café is one of the best eateries in St Ives as the service has always been excellent and the standard of the food is fantastic, with a great choice and everything is always fresh.

The second place I recommend is the Porthminster Café, which was featured in the Telegraph’s Best 50 Summer Restaurants, which brought it to my attention. If you book at this eatery you get to sit in the small inside area, however we just turned up on a whim and sat outside. It was quite a cool evening and I was very happy when a member of the waiting staff offered me a blanket. The menu is based on a tapas style and the offer is buy 4 tapas dishes to share and get free bread and balsamic vinegar/olive oil to go with. The four dishes we had were; sardines in salsa verde, sea bream with vegetables, pressed crispy pork belly with apples and celeriac and finally, lemon and fennel chicken skewers (which had too much fennel on them for our taste) with polenta and olive tapenade. To finish, I had a dessert of lemon tart and clotted cream. Overall, we think this is great little place to eat, with fantastic service, very fresh produce and fish with a slightly limited menu being the only downside.

The third place I recommend is called Alba which I have wanted to go to for ages, but whenever we have been to St Ives before, it has always been really busy. However, when we walked past this, we noticed that they did a set menu for £25 each (I think) as long as you sat down between 5.30-7pm. We went there one night after Stuart had watched the football and managed to get a table at 6pm. Stuart and I decided not to have the set menu so we had, a pork and chorizo terrine with tomato chutney and peppered tuna with shiitake mushrooms, bok choi and a balsamic glaze for our starters. Stuart had the terrine and did not enjoy it, but I did! Stuart had linguine with crab and saffron in a light and creamy sauce and I had sea bream with a cucumber dill salad with new potatoes and home-made mayonnaise. We both loved our main courses. For dessert we shared a strawberry tasting plate with strawberry sorbet, jelly, ice cream and sherbet. We enjoyed the tasting plate but thought it was weak in strawberry flavour. To wash it down, I finished with Taylor’s Vintage 1983 port which was delicious! Overall, we enjoyed this restaurant and its food. Just make sure you book or arrive early to get a table.

The final restaurant/café I would like to recommend is called Alfresco and we went there on our last night. The first thing that struck me about this restaurant is that, it is the only restaurant we went to that serves local Cornish Camel Valley wine. This gave me a good feeling about the place straight away. For starters, I had scallops with pea purée and Cornish hogs pudding and Stuart had lobster and crab tian with avocado purée and mango sorbet. Both starters were very good, but I do not really that sorbets are meant to be starters. For mains, Stuart had John Dory with lemon and dill sauce which he described as excellent. I had cod loin with a chorizo crust, basil mash and sweet and sour peppers which was way too many flavours for one plate. The cod was cooked perfectly but was lost completely with the crust and the mash. The sweet and sours peppers added nothing to the dish either, as they were only one flavour: sour. For dessert, I had a raspberry bakewell tart with clotted cream, which was yummy. Stuart had a variety of sorbets and ice creams: chocolate and chili ice cream/ginger ice cream/mango sorbet and raspberry sorbet. He thought the chocolate and chili ice cream and the raspberry sorbet were excellent but that the other two needed some work. Overall, we though this restaurant was good but needed to improve round the edges slightly.

I would like to say a big thank you to norathekitchensplorer who gave me an Honest Scrap award a while ago. It is  my first blog award and I am really chuffed! Does anyone know if or what I am supposed to do now, as I have not got a clue! Please check out Nora’s blog too- its fantastic!

This is the end of my post for today, but I shall return sometime over the weekend with another post on Cornwall describing my trip to the Newlyn Fish Festival. I also have some more local foodie places that I would like to recommend.

Hope you have a lovely weekend

Happy Cooking!

Plenty of Plums

Last weekend I was very fortunate to be given a great big load of plums from Trish, one of my work colleagues. I love plums but there were so many and they were all really ripe. I knew that I had to cook with them otherwise they would go past their best very soon.  I decided to make a plum cake, instead of making my usual easy do not have to think too much crumble.  I have never made a fruit cake with fresh fruit before so I was unsure how it was going to turn out. I found the recipe for the plum cake from here.  However, as I am sure you know by now, I like adapting my recipes so my variation is below.

Fresh Plum Cake

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100g (3.5oz) unsalted butter
• 50g (2oz) sultanas
• 50g (2oz) demerara sugar  plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tbsp golden syrup (I used honey – it worked just as well)
• 275g  plums, stoned and chopped

Method

• Preheat oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.
• Grease and line an 8 inch square baking tin.
• Rub the flour, half the cinnamon and the butter together.
• Add the sultanas and 50g (2oz) demerara sugar and stir.
• Beat eggs and syrup together in a separate bowl, add plums, then stir into flour mixture.
• Transfer to tin and level surface.
• Mix rest of brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over top of cake mixture.
• Cook in centre of oven for 45-50 mins and then test. It should be risen and just firm to the touch when cooked. (It took an hour for my cake to cook)
• Cut into squares to eat.

The cake worked out fantastic. It suggests eating it warm, however it is equally delicious cold as the cake is really moist and fruity. There are plenty of plums around at the moment so why not have a go at making this cake. You will not be disappointed!

I have been quite quiet on the blogging front recently as I have been really busy at work. I am going to even more quiet for the next two weeks, as I am on holiday in Cornwall over the bank holiday weekend, then I am going to Scotland next week with work. I will be back in middle of September with my blogging groove hopefully switched on.  When I return, I will be blogging about the fantastic restaurants/food  in St Ives and hopefully, other parts of Cornwall. I am only there for a few days so I will see how I get on.

Have a great Bank Holiday Weekend

See you again soon

Happy Cooking!