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Waste not, want not

January 11, 2013 //
1

Today I finally got round to making Melrose and Morgan’s Chestnut Soup.

Nick gave me a taste of this luxurious velvety soup when I was in their office before Christmas and I have been thinking about it ever since. I know they recommend it for Christmas but with the temperatures dropping by the day, this is a wonderful rich heartwarming treat, even without the cream or sherry, which I left out. Such a simple way of using up old root veg lurking at the bottom of the veg drawer or in that veg box delivery that always seems to be just one or two items too many for that week. In my case it was also a chance to make the most of an old box of cooked chestnuts that was hidden away in the depths of my cupboard for many a year now. It was also a chance to christen my new blender which was my big Christmas pressie this year. How wondrous to be able to achieve such smoothness in seconds. Thanks Mum & Dad!

falcon-enamelware

Incidentally, I roasted my veg in last year’s Christmas present, a red falcon enamelware tin and then deglazed it with the stock to get all those caramelised bits into the soup. Those tins are simply a wonderful buy and should be in every kitchen. I love them.

There has been so much publicity this week about food waste and so all this using up is definitely a good thing. Having come from a retail background, I know that use by dates are necessary but have always been one of those people who used them as a guide rather than a religion, endorsing Oliver Thring’s advice to treat them with scepticism. There is nothing wrong with my 5 year old chestnuts, so I am happy to simmer them until they are as good as new.

The person who has most influenced me on my shopping and wastage habits is the wonderful Sofagirl from campariandsofa.com. Living in Cape Town means that the life of fresh produce is harder than ever to retain but somehow Sofagirl gets it spot on each and every week. I can arrive at hers and open the door to an empty fridge thinking there is nothing at all for dinner and the next thing you know, there is a fabulous feast served up for all to share.

The secret, I am told, is in the larder and freezer ingredients. Who can’t make something out of the remains of the fridge and some pasta, or one of those wonderful other pulses that we know and love. The freezer is truly the gift that keeps on giving in this circumstance as it not only offers treats to defrost if necessary (I always have raw jumbo prawns in there, plus peas and wonderful poilane bread to toast) but it can also be the store cupboard needed when I have over catered, which is most of the time.

Today I queued behind a lady in Waitrose who spend £247.13 on her shop, charged to her black AmEx card, and I wondered what she thought of the 2 billion tonne food waste statistics. Oliver Thring also wrote that if you could somehow take all the UK food waste and get it into the tummies of those starving around the world, then 2/3 of them would no longer go hungry. Now that is food for thought.

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Merry Christmas

December 23, 2012 //
1

Christmas is almost upon us and this weekend consumer are predicted by the BRC to break sales records with a £5billion spend as last minute shoppers go in search of price deals on their perfect gift.

All your shopping needs taken care of by the magical elfridge

All your shopping needs taken care of by the magical elfridge

My search of London didn’t really excite too much with predictable gifts for a food lover like me. I trawled the big department stores in the hope that places like Liberty, Fortnums and Harrods would inspire but to be honest none are a patch on Selfridges, who just got it right. It may have been the brigade of Elfridges, complete with Vivienne Westwood red ballgowns and roller skates, or perhaps the many one off concessions, or even the samplings and demos, but the overall experience is just top class.

popcorn

I managed to find my whole popcorn shopping here at a better price than I was looking at online. I went for the more traditional stove top version with funky containers and obviously lots of interesting corns. You could also add a jar of Joe and Seph’s if you wanted something ready made. As in the US, popcorn, waffles, DIY sets and all things with coffee or chocolate were featured in abundance.

Alcohol is also excelling itself with cocktails, one off unique blends, fantastic packaging and lots more to entice, but I am not a big drinker so I focused on the food this year.

Love brownies

For my gift buying, there were a few people that I would like to recommend. Firstly Love Brownies. The wonderful Chantal is from my home county of Yorkshire and bakes superb award winning brownies, but the real treat is the packaging which is clever, contemporary and colourful. Easy to order, simply delivered and great value, these are perfect for all occasions.

Lauden

The other Yorkshire company that has been a personal favourite of mine is Lauden Chocolates. This husband and wife team make incredible one off chocolates with real fruit centres and different chocolate coatings to match the filling. I am not one for fruit and chocolate but these really make you re-evaluate all that. And there is a fantastic salted caramel version just in case you want something else. Of course, there are the usual chocolate shops such as Paul Young and Marc de Marquette, but I like to support Lauden and again their product is superb and their packaging  clean and contemporary.

Other shops on my list which have continued to excite this year are The Sampler in Islington for wonderful wines, Ottolenghi if only for their clementine jam, La Fromagerie for great, if very pricey cheese, Sally Clarkes for general yumminess and of course my lovely friends at Melrose and Morgan. They just make the most wonderful things and a trip to either of their shops in Hampstead or Primrose Hill will inspire you to leave with huge armfuls of their home made treats, plus the best sausage roll around as a treat for you to indulge in … well, you have been schlepping around all day. This year, M&M’s stollen has been the surprise treat which has been added to their catalogue of wonderful things including their light, tasty Christmas pudding made with Clay Barn Orchard quinces and the best mince pies with crumbly buttery pastry and a juicy tasty filling. I don’t even like mince pies!

At this point, I do have to mention Anthropologie which is great for kitchen and gift inspiration. A friend of mine went there today having been all over trying to find something for her 21 year old daughter and was amazed and delighted. And for online inspiration, I like Not on the High Street. Once again, they have one-off gifts and great things to personalise. For something different and spot on with the whole Scandinavian trend, have a look at Daniel’s website: Bageriet. These treats are all home made and he is a superb baker. If you really want to push the boat out ask him about his gingerbread houses. I know they are not shown on the website, but take my word for it, they are amazing.

nudoadoptionpackges

Finally, for something a little different, the big fashion this year is to give an experience rather than a product. Book a course to learn how to make bread, or honey, or all things fishy, or even a full on butchery course. And if you want to send something out there, you could do worse than repeat my Rent a Cherry Tree gift (even if the weather ruined the crop this year) or adopt an olive tree for a year which promises quarterly deliveries of oil made from your very own olives. I used Nudo last year and their packaging seemed to impress my friend over in New Zealand.

So Merry Christmas one and all. Let me know if there was anything that you were particularly impressed with this year and have a wonderful celebration. Here’s to 2013.

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Categories Food, Retail

Past friends, present places, future talent

June 16, 2012 //
4

I recently hooked back up with an old friend of mine. That’s not to say that either of us are old per se (!) but that we were friends at school and as ever lost touch when our lives took different paths, but thankfully now those paths have merged together and it is lovely to be sharing experiences again.

When we first caught up, my friend told me that her youngest daughter got to the finals of Junior Masterchef and when I went online I was able to catch up on the wonderful exploits of Amber. This girl is special. There is no doubt about that. Her drive and determination to be a successful cake shop owner will undoubtedly come true and I am sure there will be lots of other success to follow her.

Once I met her (and tasted her incredible carrot cake) I really wanted to help out in whatever way I could and as I am more experienced in the food field, I suggested showing her around some of the places in London that I admire and today was the day we were to do that.

Melrose and Morgan, Hampstead

I obviously started at the wonderful Melrose and Morgan, showing her the original Primrose Hill shop and then the newer Hampstead one. Ian was working hard as ever and later on we caught up with Nick who was full of good advice for a budding new baker. Whilst in the NW area, we also popped into Maison Blanc, Ginger & White, Gails and Primrose Bakery.

Then we made a detour from the cake route to experience Chin Chin Laboratorists ice cream in Camden.

The Laboratory that is Chin Chin

I took Amber there to try and show an original idea as that is what she is capable of bringing to the already cluttered cake market. If someone said they wanted to create a retail environment that looked like a lab and displayed food in flasks and test-tubes, then they would probably be treated as ever so slightly mad, but this is exactly what works at Chin Chin.

Laboratory toppings

Vanilla ice cream with salted caramel sauce – my fave!

We chose a simple but favourite combo of mine, but I have to make special mention of the other flavour I tried which is this week’s special: cigar smoked caramel. Clearly this is not one for the kids, but as they say… “salted caramel, yawn! We smoke milk with Cuban cigars and then turn this into a rich, peppery, smokey caramel that’s strictly an adult’s only indulgence!” and indulge you should. It is genius.

Hopefully Amber was suitably inspired to think differently and so it was time for that classic outlet, Ottolenghi. Clearly the gods were looking down on us as the sun broke through the clouds and a parking space appeared right opposite and so it was we entered Yotam’s holy grail.

Salads the Yotam way

Now I know we were on a cake tour, but even this irresponsible temporary Mum couldn’t just purchase cake all day and what better alternative to offer than Ottolenghi salads. These give new meaning to the definition and whilst many have tried, the original really cannot be bettered. We both selected our favourites for a takeaway box to avoid the queues and realised that these offer much better value than the plated version anyway. It sufficed for my lunch and dinner and leftovers after that!

Cakes galore

Then we had the impossible choice of which cake to take with us. Everything was as fabulous as ever.

So replenished and inspired, we got the tube to our final destination for the day: Borough Market. I really couldn’t leave that out even though Saturday is not my ideal day to visit. Amber took to it like a pro, purchasing some choice goodies for the whole family to indulge in and really embraced the market experience.

Borough in all its glory

We watched raclette being scraped over potatoes, pufferfish guarding the fish counter, wonderful arrays of Summer berries and of course piles of chocolate brownies. We sampled salty fudge, smelly cheese, spicy sausage and lots more.

So tired, stuffed and happy we trudged back home to Mum to share our day and our purchases. And the highlight for Amber? well that would be the Fleur de Sel fudge and the innovative Chin Chin Labs.

Amber is a girl after my own heart. She will, I am sure, create something unique and wonderful to bring to the cake world when she is old enough to do it and until then, I am looking forward to sharing some inspiration and discovering new places with her in the very near future.

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Categories Food, Retail

Join in the Jubilee

May 31, 2012 //
2

Jubilee fever comes to Regent Street

Jubilee fever has taken over the nation.

You have to have been stuck in the London Dungeon for a long time to have missed the build up to this weekend and no retailer worth his or her weight in sterling could possibly miss this opportunity to sell fun products and engage with the optimistic vibe that has pervaded the country as a result.

Those lovely people at moneysupermarket.com have tried to quantify the commercial benefit and estimated we Brits will be spending £800m – double the amount paid to celebrate the Royal Wedding last year. Personally I think that is modest and with the long bank holiday, all the street parties and festivities as well as the promise of the weather just about holding out, it will be so much more than that.

So yah boo sucks to those grumpy senior economists who are predicting doom and gloom because they say our manufacturers are going to suffer disproportionately with the bank holiday closures and the effect will trickle through to the British economy. Come on!! Get with the programme…and crack a bottle of British sparkling wine.

So I smiled to myself when I read a comment from Matthew Rice, co-owner of Emma Bridgewater, that well known manufacturer of pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. They originally estimated to sell £1.5m pieces of commemorative product and are already over double that in their actual sales.

Emma Bridgewater crown shaped dish, £100

It seems we Brits are more than happy to splash out, which is proven by the fact that this £100 dish with crown lid has sold over a thousand against an estimate of 300. So I guess Mr Rice has every good reason to say to those cynical economists:

“I think ‘bah humbug!’ … Get a grip! Shut the doors! Get out and have a good time. If you are so sold on your business that you can’t enjoy a few days of bank holiday, then something has gone very wrong with your life,”

Whilst I admire those people who are prepared to pay £100 in celebration, it is a little too pricey for me. Personally, I was looking for more fun pick me ups that embrace the occasion in a cheaper, more creative way. And I wasn’t going to be disappointed. As ever, those clever people at Marmite have got it right. Love it or hate it, you have to smile at this bit of marketing.

Love those clever people at Marmite

And for my favourite Jubilee product of all, I once again turn to those wonderful boys at Melrose and Morgan who always do these products so well with an understated elegance. They have taken their popular Battenberg cake, which is a traditional recipe first created by the chefs in the British Royal household to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter. So it is totally clever of the M&M team to adapt that British historic celebratory cake into something that marks the current Queen’s Jubilee. No street party or bank holiday picnic should be without this. Genius!

The Jubilee Battenberg. Pure, unadulterated brilliance.

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Categories British, Retail
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