Staines’ best kept secret, until now…

Momo’s is the kind of place you want to tell the world about. A how-cool-am-I-moment – this chic and quirky little restaurant you have discovered. But also, very selfishly squirrel away in your address book so you know you will always be able to get a table.

No bigger than an average living room (ie quite small) with ten small hotch-potch-mis-matching tables – seating approximately twenty-two in the whole place – which when quiet is just peaceful and soul-restoring and when packed there is a lively, buzzy atmosphere which in the summer overspills onto European style outdoor tables outside.

However, this is not the Costa Del Sol. This is Staines high street – or Staines-on-Thames if councillors get their way to give it more grandeur and less Ali G. Momo’s is Staines’ best kept secret!

A cross between a conventional English café and a traditional yet quirky Japanese tea house – dimly-lit by spotlights, chandeliers, and delicate Chinese lanterns on the ceiling. Nothing matches – from old garden furniture, mixed with dark and tarnished wood, to random old children’s mugs adoring the shelves, jars and jars of little Japanese sweets, old cake tins, IKEA cutlery in old Victorian mustard jars, shocking orange chopsticks, hot steaming coffee from a Starbucks-esque machine and stunning ebony porcelain framing every dish into a work of art.

Fresh stripes of sushi with delicate sticky rice, hot and delicious edamame beans, traditional gyoza pork or prawn dumplings – but also wraps, offering a more English café twist on Japan’s fresh and exciting food.

The definite best value option is to go with is a ‘meal’. To start you have wonderfully musky, salty miso soup with chunks of silken tofu and is supposedly good for you. It’s not really my cup of tea, but if you like that sort of thing it is apparently delicious.

There are six main options to choose from, with either noodles or rice – but I always stick to the Chicken Satay – it’s too delicious to risk trying any of the others and leave feeling disappointed – although from the look of other people’s plates, all of it is all pretty darn good! The shredded chicken is slightly dry, but the sauce is sticky and rich, and with little chunks of roasted peanut, delightfully textured and nutty. The freshly steamed ‘Chinese green’, stirfried bean sprouts, artfully presented sticky rice, and the edamame beans make this both nutritious, delicious and great value for money.

This is usually washed down with their zesty fresh iced lemon tea – which I actually crave in the summer – it’s ice-cold-super-refreshing and seems to hit that right balance of dry yet sweet, but not sickly – which most other iced teas don’t always hit.

If I am feeling especially greedy (which if being honest, I think I have ordered them on every single Momo’s trip) – I also order their pork dumplings. Soft and beautifully silky,golden and crispy underneath, with moist and tender pork inside. Delicious. That’s all I have to say on them. No doubt fattening, but delicious.

When I first heard I was being taken to a Japanese café, which would be about three years ago now – I feared the worst.  But the great thing about this delightful little place is just how accessible it seems to make ‘Japanese’ food. Some people will say it is not living up to all the traditional standards, but in today’s modern world, if it works, really, who cares? The food is hot, fresh, delicious, the staff are friendly and nice, the quirky and somewhat beautiful surroundings make it a lovely, ‘cool’ and exciting place to be. The only thing I wish for is that it is open longer, and did delivery. But maybe part of it’s charm, is you can only get your delicious Momo’s hit not all the time. It’s a true treat.

If you happen to be going to Staines I would highly recommened a little trip to Momos.

Or even if you aren’t going to Staines – make a purposeful trip to Momo’s!

Now that I have let the cat out of the bag I will no doubt be cursing such a highly praising review of my super-cool discovery when they can’t squeeze me in. But for now, I am going to go back to another order of hot and sweet qyoza dumplings. Delicious.

Review – Fire and Stone, Covent Garden

Let’s set the scene. We wanted to go to Thomasina Myers ‘Wahaca’ – the exciting on-the-pulse Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden, to which I personally had wanted to go and visit ever since it opened. We craved flavour and spice, atmosphere and vibrancy.

However, the English winter was well and truly demonstrating it was on its way and there was an hour’s queue. Outside. (That is high praise indeed and we will definitely go back!) So we headed just up the road to Fire and Stone, the well recommended pizza joint in the hope of all the above and warmth.

 

After being told they had managed to squeeze us a booth table downstairs, but we only had an hour to get in, order, eat, and get out – not a great start for a relaxing evening – we found a great, buzzy, and delightfully warm restaurant. Upstairs looked sleek and chic with long leather benches, moody lighting and elegantly laid little wooden tables. We were led downstairs.

Downstairs, it felt like I was in an upmarket school canteen, crossed with an IKEA showroom and a sauna. It was hot, bright lighting and deep brown and vibrant orange walls. Wooden panelled ceilings and tables all very closely huddled together or in little American style booths. The kitchen fairly open to see chefs and staff and orders continually coming and going. But it somehow all worked and the noise and hubbub creating an alive and upbeat atmosphere to enjoy some “deliciously different pizzas” and a well earnt glass of wine over a catch up with friends.

The two levels of the restaurant are brought together by a large-Meet-The-Flintstones-inspired wood fired oven. A great colossal stone chimney rising up the full height of a restaurant, providing a great focal and talking point. It also has little windows to look through and observe the circles upon circles of dough, mozzarella and all number of toppings bubbling away inside.

We spent quite a lengthy time looking at the extensive choice in the menu. Did we fancy ‘London’ with bacon, egg and black pudding? Or the ‘Canberra’ with chicken, roast potatoes and mushrooms? Or how about the ‘Bombay’ – Roast tandoori marinated chicken breast, spiced tandoori yoghurt base, broccoli, sliced red onion, mozzarella, spiced mango chutney and cucumber & mint yoghurt. Now this, I was tempted with. But with toppings from all over the world and time not on our side I settled on the Maui. Double smoked shaved ham, Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce, diced sweet pineapple, mozzarella, basil, red onion & tomato salsa.– a jazzed up ham and pineapple basically – and a mixed side salad.

Upon arrival, the dough was light and fluffy, bubbling up around the edges after its brief time in that wonderful hot smoky chimney. The ‘smoked shaved ham’ didn’t come quite as I expected – two full whole slices of ham just put on top in the middle – an interesting way to top a pizza to say the least – but quite nice really, acting as a sort of bowl to allow the heady sweet pineapple to seep into the tomato salsa on top. It was sweet, very sweet. But the ingredients tasted beautifully fresh and I must say I wolfed the lot down.

The boyfriend went with the ‘Cape Town’ – Sliced Italian pepperoni, ground spicy beef, mozzarella, Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce and green chilli, topped with fresh basil & oregano. One taste and the chillies here were too over powering for me, to the point where I couldn’t taste much else – but he seemed to be enjoying it so I left him to it.

Our friends ordered the ‘Marrakech’ – Cumin spiced ground lamb, mozzarella, mint yoghurt sauce, green olives, raisins & sliced red onion drizzled with chilli oil and the Spicy Chorizo Rigatoni -  Spicy chorizo, pepperoni, black olives, chilli, oregano and Fire & Stone’s slow cooked tomato sauce or replace the chorizo and pepperoni for sliced roast chicken breast. (Yes, they do pasta (and salads!) too, and yes, she swapped the chorizo for Chicken).

The Marrakesh – what beautifully delicately balanced flavours. My friend wasn’t sure about the raisins, and nearly ordered something else – but they worked and we were both glad he didn’t. Delightfully sweet little nuggets against the hearty meaty spiced lamb and the cooling minted yoghurt. I wish I had ordered this!

The rigatoni looked nice, and it might have been too oily with both chorizo and pepperoni, so a wise choice to swap the chorizo for chicken. However, down to my friend’s personal taste it needed jazzing up and so two (not just one!) small bowls of fiery jalapenos were ordered – much to the surprise of our waitress who thought it was hot enough on its own!

Well over an hour into our allotted stay, we though why not order dessert – are they really going to kick us out?

I went for the mini-cheesecake served up in a little whisky type glass, was lusciously creamy, a good thick biscuit base and although on the menu alone, I asked for an additional scoop of ice-cream on the side – much to the boyfriend’s dismay. I am forever changing, or asking for different things! However, they gratefully obliged. Amongst our table was also an amazing warm waffle creation with both vanilla and chocolate ice cream (maybe it only needed one type?) and hot chocolate sauce. A sticky and what looked decidedly rich chocolate brownie and ice-cream – the boyfriend did not offer a chance to try…And a dainty and beautiful Tarte au Citron with Chantilly cream and raspberry coulis which had us dreaming of the sophisticated streets and patisseries of Paris.

All in all, two hours later (well over our allotted time!) mains, puddings, couple of glasses of wine and a very nice evening before back into the busy and cold streets of the wonderful Covent Garden. Good value for money, nice atmosphere, the staff were really nice and I would recommended to anyone wanting a different slant on your run-of-the-mill Italian-chain-pizza places. I might even go here next time first!

 

Inspiration

I went to a very inspiring food writing course on Saturday – it was exciting to be with like minded people, who all can’t stop thinking about food!

Met some nice people, thought about lots of new ideas and am inspired to write write write!

I’m getting squashed.

Autumn is well and truly here. It has rained for three days solid, I am considering putting the heating on – although trying to do the three-jumpers-is-better routine, and I am now excitedly cooking with squashes.

With the way our world works, we somehow seem to be able to buy butternut squash all year round – but now we are in October, I really feel it is definitely the right time. I do have three golden pumpkins attempting-to-become something in our garden, but at about 3cms in size I think I need to accept – it sadly is not going to happen. The amount of edible varieties of pumpkins and squashes always surprises me, and I wish I could say I have been down to our local farm shop and been very experimental with them – but at the minute, I have had to rely on our local large conglomerate supermarket and have stuck to standard butternut (although organic and absolutely delicious!) and sweet culinary pumpkin.

Butternut and Chickpea Curry

This felt like a detox in a bowl. It had been a busy (and alcohol fuelled) last weekend, and I wanted something hearty and as-many-of-your-five-a-day as I could fit into a bowl – with the star of the show to be butternut squash.

In a really quite-large-enough-to feed-an-army pan, I lightly fried off white and red onions, shallots, garlic and fresh red chillies. This seems a lot of onions, but it seemed a nice contrast to have them all caramelising away together in a pan. I then added a sliced courgette, a red pepper and a whole butternut squash chopped into attempting-to-all-be-even-in-size-chunks. I let these all lightly brown before adding some ground cumin, ground turmeric, ground coriander and just a pinch of pretty-darn-hot cayenne pepper. I couldn’t tell you how much of each spice was added – it is just whatever looks right, and of course you can adjust to your own particular taste. Traditionally, I am sure the spices are added and lightly fried off before the addition of other ingredients – but I wanted the squash to be on its way to being soft and able to readily absorb these nice strong flavours in the now starting-to-become squidgy edges. Once all nicely mixed together, and everything looking a startling yellow colour due to the fantastically sunny turmeric, I next added tinned chick peas – drained and washed – a tin of chopped tomatoes and approx 500ml of vegetable stock. I let this all bubble away until filling our house with warmth and spices before stirring in some fresh coriander, the flecks of green looking beautiful in contrast to the warm depth of colour in this rainbow in a bowl. I had this with white rice one day, and brown the next. The white was a beautiful palette to soak that bright sauce into, but the brown added a beautiful nutty-ness into the dish. Either way, the detox worked as I felt utterly restored afterwards, and as a bonus I now have three Tupperware containers in the freezer just lying in wait for future needing-a-detox or hug-in-a-bowl moments.

Butternut Wedges

I tend to put fairly decent sized wedges of butternut into a hot oven, skin on and all, with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, maybe a freshly sliced red chilli for an extra kick – and just let them get on with it. A quick shake 20 minutes in, and they are turning into soft and caramelised beautiful delights. This works well with sweet potato too and either are great with a chicken dinner, or torn up and added into pasta with some lemon, or even as a great alternative to chips! Not quite the same texture, but beautifully sweet and oh so good for you.

Maybe-Abit-Too-Spicy Pumpkin Soup

I had the pleasure to go to Wallace & Co’s farm to fork event last week – and their starter was just a delightfully simple, but beautiful recipe. It was served in little mini pumpkins making the food not only delicious, but exciting and fun. It was a heartily deep and rich orange colour, delicately spiced, and a thickness only homemade soups seem to be able to create.

On this cold, and wet weekend, it is therefore right that I try to recreate this (only in bowls this time) and put some squashy goodness into our lives. Further to my recent post about attempting to do some exercise – I was up early on the Saturday morning and had this warming and healthy soup bubbling away by 10am ready for lunch after a swim at the local pool. I cycled there, swam for 45 minutes and cycled back – I was lucky enough to be outside without any rain, which seems the only time it has not rained in I don’t know how long. Either way, the swimming was great – but length after length, all I could think about was how yummy the soup would be with some fresh warm bread and lots of lightly salted butter. This of course, defeats the point of burning those calories – but this was just how it was devoured – the boyfriend and I managed to eat a whole (quite small I promise!) loaf of bread.

(I sweated onions and garlic with cumin, coriander and turmeric to give it a nice and spicy kick – although possibly too much, but nevermind! Added the pumpkin, stock and let bubble away until soft, before pureeing the lot into a blender to give a thick and delicious, but hot and beautiful lunch – with or without a mountain of bread.)

I think this autumn, hopefully in time for Halloween I must attempt a lovely and oh-so-American pumpkin pie. My mother sent me a pumpkin muffin recipe last year too, which is apparently very similar to carrot cake in texture – and of course I will be carving one too!

The one thing I urge people to do, is to 100% make sure, that when you remove the flesh from a pumpkin – do not throw it away! Get all those little nuggets of future-perfect-to-snack-on seeds out first. Rinse, lay out on baking tray and put in a medium hot oven for about 20 minutes – keep checking – until they are golden brown. Leave to cool before eating as much as possible! It is a very different flavour to the shop bought pumpkin seeds – largely has they still have that lovely cream husk still remaining – but this just enhances that delightful nutty taste.

With months to come of hearty stews, more soups when I will add slightly less spice, a just spotted recipe of oven baked risotto in mini pumpkins, the pumpkin pie, sweet pumpkin muffins, pumpkin carving, roasted pumpkin wedges, a pumpkin and cashew nut curry I tried last year – a must to redo this year – butternut and feta salad…I am perfectly happy to be getting squashed!

Who ate all the pies?

A cold and nearly dark, Autumnal evening – home from work and with a plan. And the plan was to go to a local exercise group for the first time.

So, choices: 1) Go out, jump around, getting sweaty in badly-fitting-lycra and try to feel like I am doing my body something good. Or 2) Stay in, snuggle up on the sofa, in a warm, cosy house and eat a large steaming bowl of pasta followed by a hot, deep-fill, homemade and utterly-irresistible apple and blackberry pie…

That says it all really. I didn’t take much convincing! I may feel like I have eaten too many pies lately and the ‘thought’ was definitely there to go, and even try to burn some calories too – but how can you resist on an Autumnal-very-nearly-Winter-who-am-i-kidding-still-feels-like-Summer-evening than to settle into that Great British tradition of a classic, proper pie. That golden buttery pastry, that dark and sharp blackberry and apple underneath and teamed perfectly with proper vanilla bean ice-cream.

There is definitely something special about pastry, in all its forms. Some are a doddle to make at home from scratch and just as easy as popping to the shops to buy a ready-to-roll, and sometimes there is simply no way I would even attempt to use anything except a pre-made version! However, there is something extremely relaxing about gently crumbling golden chunks of butter into flour, a touch of egg, or icing sugar, or water and slowly this all comes together as the magical start to many a great thing.

My particular favourite is shortcrust – both to make, and definitely to eat. That crisp golden structure to break through and reveal whatever is gently bubbling away underneath. My favourite is fabulously luxurious chicken and ham pie – ideally as aforementioned cooked by the dear hands of my mother – with fresh vegetables, buttery mash or preferably (lots of) chips. Or a free-form sweet Peach and Nectarine tart on a beautiful summers evening with lashings of single cream, the pastry pinched up together ensuring those fabulous juices do not escape. Or a delicate pear frangipane tart with luscious clotted cream or maybe crème fraiche in healthier moments. Until recently the one debate I was never quite sure on with shortcrust pastry, but I definitely do not want (or especially my sweet tarts to have) is a soggy bottom…blind bake, or not to blind bake? Do you grab down those well-used bag of now-never-to-be-cooked bag of lentils to ensure the pastry stays exactly where intended, or just go ahead and chuck in the mixture? I do actually tend to this now where the recipe specifies, and especially since I now have some lovely ceramic beans. Although sometimes I just don’t think it’s necessary or simply do not have time!

Flaky pastry holds memories that I treasure dearly. Delia’s traditionally-made-on-Christmas-Eve Sage and Onion Sausage Rolls – no accompaniment required and are eaten whenever possible throughout the Christmas period. Or it takes me back to Saturday mornings being a seven-year-old girl and getting a what-became-a-tradition-and-a-weekly-treat of a hot sausage roll from the local bakers after gymnastic classes. They were greasier than I probably would prefer now, but were so crispy, so hot and just perfectly memorable.

I made puff pastry once at the request of the boyfriend on our 5 year anniversary with a hearty Beef and Ale pie. (And yes, with lots of homemade chips). It was more complicated to make than I realised before I set out, with all the folding, and chilling and getting the layers just right. I do like that texture of puff when you slowly crack through all those delicate layers beneath – but with the exception of a gloriously rich sticky and golden tarte tatin I am still with the shortcrust brigade.

Filo is something I would never, repeat never, make at home. Why would you when the supermarket versions are just so perfect? My dad makes a truly wonderful salmon-en-croute with filo. Layer upon layer of crisp pastry cut through with garlicy soft cheese, asparagus and lightly seasoned salmon fillets. Wonderful cold the next day and served with hot buttery new potatoes, a large green salad a chilled glass of white wine. Simply perfect. I love filo pastry in fabulously fruity strudels too, like Apple and Raisin or Winter Berry. Admittedly, these are always of the pop-it-in-the-oven-ready-made variety – but wow they are super delicious with ice cream.

Choux pastry is another one that looks extremely complicated – however, going back to my childhood again – and to my dads cooking – he used to make these wonderfully light and airy profiteroles – which I would watch in awe as they rose up gently in the oven before family parties. Large piles of these delicate little delights filled with luscious cream and as much thick chocolate sauce as a young excited girl could ever have wanted. I have never tried to recreate this feat before, but maybe I should just give it a go!

Pastry isn’t exactly your standard healthy eating ingredient – as alot of the above examples show! It is delightfully teamed with cream, and chips, and custard – but everything is good in moderation. Even moderation. And as for the exercise class, maybe I’ll go next week…

Lets cook!

I love cooking. I love the full on excitement of planning the perfect menu – which can sometimes be a meal, a day, or maybe even a week in advance. Or exploring a new found ingredient from a farmers market that was just simply too good to walk by. Or just going with whatever takes my fancy like a warming stew on a cold winters day, or a delightfully fresh and bright salad when you need more vitamins and less crisps. I love stumbling on a new recipe from a magazine which makes you try and invent occasions so they can be tested, or realising no occasion is needed and cooking a four course experiment for one. Sometimes cooking can be about retreating to a tried and tested favourite, like meeting an old friend that you know will leave you feeling satisfied, happy and ready for anything. Like a second helping, or pudding.

However, unfortunately sometimes it becomes just a need to eat. I don’t often lose my cooking mojo, and it is something I don’t particularly revel in. But, when I do, I really need something that will give me a good shake up and re-ignite my imagination.

So, what to do on this quest for culinary inspiration? Play the Masterchef Invention Test of course!

After sending the boyfriend on his merry way to quite a large (and somewhat expensive) trip to the supermarket, I was left to revise for my exam with the help of Gordon, Nigella, Jamie and Delia. I had no idea what would be coming back and it certainly got the creative juices going. What would I make if he brings back just chicken, or heaven forbid something I haven’t cooked before – like venison? How do you make the perfect mashed potato? How do I make pastry if needed? Should I make a starter too? Or side dishes?? Now the boyfriend is no John Torode or Greg Wallace – but he knows what he likes, and is not afraid to say so if he doesn’t…

So, after what seemed like forever, he returned with bags upon bags of beautiful ingredients. They were all laid out, and I wasn’t allowed to look until done just so. It was agreed that whatever wasn’t used would go into the freezer to be used at a later date (excellent – more challenges!) and that I would only have to cook one main course.

I had an hour and half to choose, prepare, and serve from below choices.

Lets cook…

Ingredients

Beef steak, Lamb escalopes, Pork loin or Beef mince.

Rice, Couscous, Pasta, Noodles or Potatoes.

Courgette, Onions, Garlic, Carrots, Parsnips, Cucumber and Tomatoes.

Cooking apples and Bananas.

Coriander, Rosemary, plus Mint and Parsley from the garden.

Plus…anything I could find in the cupboard – ‘bonus points’ if it needed using up and was caught before going mouldy.

Now, as someone who loves to be creative, and who prides herself on being able to try and turn half a withering courgette, a small-about-to-go-off chunk of cheese, some left0ver mash potato and a jar of marmite into a culinary delight – especially in student days – I thought, this would be a doddle! However, with so much choice, and to someone who definitely likes to plan…it was almost overwhelming, and rather daunting!

I started off thinking a good and proper steak and and homemade chips, with some sort of make-it-up-as-you-go-along tomato chutney. But we had fish and chips on Friday night and with a full on roast (and an attempt to re-create my mother’s famed roasties) planned for tomorrow, I think there are only so many greased potatoes my arteries and waistline can handle.

Then I thought, how about meatballs – I could turn that mince into something interesting and really pep them up with some garlic, chilli and herbs, and some nicely cooked pasta…but that just about says it all…there’s not alot of skill in cooking pasta. And although this was just me and the boyfriend in on a Saturday night, I had unsurprisingly started to take this rather seriously.

After eliminating from the table what I thought I didn’t want – and finding a half used open jar of harissa tucked away in the fridge, plus a tin of chickpeas – I settled on a Moroccan theme.

Firey harrisa lamb escalopes – accompanied with herby chickpea couscous.

I quickly got the couscous on the go and soon realised this was an excellent plan – as this takes almost no time to cook and zero attention.

I then marinated the lamb in olive oil, salt, pepper, harissa and coriander and got out my sturdy cast iron griddle pan on the heat for later.

After picking some fresh mint and parsley from the garden (or actually shouting at the boyfriend to do this – he is of course my official sous chef), and along with some finely chopped red onion, cucumber and some garden tomatoes, stirred through the cous cous with the chickpeas, this was looking quite good!

At some point, I had to realise that cooking couscous shows even less skill than cooking pasta, and with only the lamb to do and quite abit of my allotted time left… what else could I do?

Thinking on my feet and in danger of adding one (or five) too many ingredients, I thought I would sneak in some caramelised onions, tzatziki (thanks to some urgently-needing-to-get-used natural yoghurt in the fridge) and some little courgette pancakes to go along side – a recipe I had been hurriedly looking at only an hour previously.

Onions on the go, gently turning brown, quickly getting some mint and cucumber into the yoghurt, I had to start on the pancakes.

As the boyfriend had entirely banned books from the duration of the event – and with a danger of him taking every-single-one upstairs (which might have taken him the best part of an hour, but I suppose would have been good exercise and given him something to do) – I had to go with memory.

Half a courgette finely chopped and fried gently in olive oil. 50g of self raising flour sieved into a bowl. Add the yolk of an egg into the flour and stir until you have a thick paste. (Reserve the egg white for later). Add 1.5 tablespoons of semi skimmed milk until you have a thick-ish batter. In a separate bowl take the egg white and whisk until stiff peaks. At this point, I did wonder if it was really worth whisking just one egg white…but it did give the arms a quick, mid-cooking work out. Gently mix this into the batter. Add the now golden brown courgette. I also couldn’t help but adding some coriander and paprika – which gave it a nice pink-ish colour, with the flecks of green and fresh coriander running through.

By now, I realised I should get the lamb on, so onto the griddle pan and nicely smoking away.

Pancakes – a hot pan, with only a small bit of oil – and gently ladle in enough batter to give about 5cm wide little patties. To my delight, they didn’t stick, they didn’t burn and they actually smelt pretty amazing! This made 6 little cakes, which I kept warm in a low oven whilst I focused on presentation.

I wanted to make the dish look brilliant, and clever and how it might look in smart restaurants. Where the food seems to become art – not something to devour in a fit of greediness, but wasn’t sure how to begin.

I tried to elegantly squash the couscous into a small-ish bowl, and then turned out into our ‘good’ china. This created a solid domed shape, onto which I decided to go with a ‘tower’ scenario – where I would attempt pile up everything else on top. The now charred and spicy lamb was ready, and gently added here to rest. Next came the caramelised onions, that had gone gooey, sticky, sweet and golden. Then a spoonful of the only-just-got-it-together tsatsiki and a final garnish of fresh parsley.  The pancakes were just nicely warm, and sat alongside to mop everything up.

The boyfriend was suitably impressed (and in a-blow-your-own-trumpet kind of way, so was I!)

In a great Greg-Wallace-esque-inspired quote – with the earthy lamb, zesty tzatziki, fresh and delightful herbs running through it was exciting and well balanced. It was a flavoursome delight and a taste sensation!

Needless to say…we both wolfed it down!

And hurrah, the cooking mojo is back, with great plans for this to be a regular event.

So now, all that was left to do was to gently sip an ice cold glass of wine and leave the boyfriend to do the-pretty-large-but-worth-it mountain of washing up. Perfect.

Gooey, Sticky, Brilliant.

Rich, moist, gooey, fabulousy-chocolatey, perfect-with-ice-cream, sumptuous, I really want more-ish. Warm. Chocolate. Brownies.

Life’s simple pleasures.

One of life’s simplest pleasures, has to be Marmite on toast. Butter gently oozing through the bread, mixing with that salty deliciously marmitey love it or hate it spread. Ideally the bread should be white – especially when you are not bothering to consider how much bread is in your diet, let alone what colour it may be, and thick enough to allow plenty of butter to be naughtily soaked in – but not too thick you take away from the main event. The bread should be toasted to perfection – not under done like cheap hotel toast – and not overdone so you can taste charcoal – just perfectly golden brown. The marmite shouldn’t be so thick it sticks to the roof of your mouth, and not too thin it’s hardly worth bothering. If you get it right, you get that delicious combination of yellow and brown swirls across your artists white pallete. Although bread, as mentioned, should ideally be white – sometimes wholemeal will just have to do – seeded is sometimes nice, with that toasted nutty flavour doing all the more to enhance the idyllic breakfast.

Sometimes, thinly (or thickly if necessary!) cheddar cheese can turn this into a more lunchtime snack. Or beautifully sweet, juicy tomatoes. Or crisp watery cucumber as a delightful contrast.

I love Marmite. Its official, I am definitely that side of the fence. I spread it on crumpets – this also needs plenty of butter to seep into the holes and then underneath on to the plate. Naughty (again!). Or in any sort of sandwich, with a boiled egg, in mashed potatoes, or in gravy – a great secret ingredient, even for Marmite haters! – or even as a condiment to a roast chicken dinner. Try it – you’ll be surprised! But one thing you shouldn’t be surprised with, is the fact I mention Marmite more than just once on this blog.

The perfect addition to this salty, Marmite-on-toast delight is another of life’s simple pleasures – a hot steaming, milky, sweet cuppa English tea. For me, ironically – cups of tea – aren’t really my cup of tea. I don’t tend to drink alot of the stuff – but when I do, it has to be ‘just so’. The tea bag in long enough to diffuse the water into a golden brown – but not so stewed you can taste the slight bitterness of the tealeaves. Talking of tealeaves – this has to be Yorkshire Tea. Nothing else quite comes close. Then there is the sugar. Naughtily, I like two decent sugars, and then plenty of milk. The milk makes it instantly drinkable – cooling it down so you have a very sweet and delicious drink to warm the cockles of your heart. This is a great contrast and partner to anything salty – like our marmitey friend as discussed. It obviously also works with a good ‘proper biscuit’. Ideally just out of the oven, slightly cooled – but still warm and gooey. Or a fabulous very English cake – something with jam, and buttercream like a traditional and classic Victoria sponge.

Either way, I think you’ll agree – that for now, on a lazy Sunday morning, that ‘just so’ tea and delightful marmite-on-toast work in perfect sweet (and salty!) harmony together.

Quesadillas take II

This time with chunky guacamole type salsa and fresh corn on the cob. Soft avocados mashed into a silky puree and then pepped up with fiery chilli, lime juice, red spring onions, salt, a handful of fresh coriander and a hefty amount of garlic.

Corn on the cob doesn’t get much better than freshly steamed with butter and black pepper. Only beaten by coming straight from the BBQ instead – although with the British dreary weather at the minute, the oven will just have to suffice.

An unexpected appearance at the dinner table.

As I’ve already mentioned, I love to try and grow my own fruit and veg, nothing can beat those freshly dug potatoes with rich soil still clinging on or marvelling at the speed runner beans grow! Although, I had all but given up hope on our courgette plants this year. Lots of lush green foliage and stunning floral displays in the not so often sunshine. However, no fruits. On a last ditch hope to find some treasure I thought would just take a look this evening…low and behold  a beautiful courgette peaking out from the under growth. True excitement and over the top celebration ensued. Followed by garlic, butter, parsley, chives. Gently fried until golden brown and utterly delicious.