Thalis from Pri's Kitchen

Last Thursday evening a lovely lady called Priyanka delivered a hot, freshly cooked thali directly to my door - my door which is attached to a cottage in a very small village tucked away in Cambridgeshire. Things like this don't happen often around here, if you don't fancy cooking our options are a questionable pizza delivery or trekking out in the car to a supermarket or to the dreaded golden arches.

Really you shouldn't require a knife and fork...

Pri's Kitchen is based in Priyanka's home in Saffron Walden - every Thursday, Friday and Saturday she cooks up orders of thalis for residents in Saffron Walden and the neighbouring villages. She'll make you a meat thali or a vegetarian thali and deliver it to you in the proper metal tray and bowls piping hot and smelling delicious.

To explain, a thali (Hindi for 'plate') consists of various different Indian dishes, which vary from region to region, consisting of several different curries, rice, dahl, raita, rotli or puri, sometimes a chutney or pickle and a sweet too.

Meat Thali

We ordered a vegetarian and a meat thali. Both had dahl, aloo jeera (cumin potatoes), chole (chickpeas), gobi (cauliflower), raita, rice, roti and a chocolate burfi as the sweet. My meat thali had a lovely lamb curry and a spinach and chicken curry. The veggie thali had a paneer curry and bhindi - okra.

Spinach & Chicken Curry, Lamb Curry

                                     

Aloo Jeera

My god everything was delicious! Everything was perfectly spiced, not too heavy on the chilli which good Indian food should be, perfectly cooked and each dish so different from the next - which is the best thing about a thali. It might sound odd but it was nice to eat it from a proper plate, it was obviously the authentic way to do it but it also just made it more like homecooking, which it is, very much so.

Gobi

If you're local, or fancy coming around my house for a thali, you can order directly from Priyanka's website. She will then contact you to arrange a delivery time and day. And then a week or so later she'll come and collect your empty plates and bowls - and if you are smart you can arrange it for when your next Thali is arriving!

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Rome Round Up: Eating, and a bit of sightseeing

I knew before we went to Rome that I'd come back loving all the food, everyone I'd spoken to said they loved it and would definitely go back again, for the sights and the food. They definitely weren't wrong.

We ate a lot of pizza, and we didn't tire of it, each place is different and has their different specialities. I've decided to do a (quite long) round up of our favourite spots, edible and non edible. We came back nearly exactly a month ago and I am sure by the time I've finished writing this I'll be mentally planning our next visit.

Pizza
On pretty much every street you'll find little Pizzeria's selling slices of Roman style pizza - a very crisp base with a generous layer of topping. You choose the flavour you'd like, try to gesture in broken Italian how big you'd like your slice to be, they weigh it, heat it and wrap it up in paper (or put it on a tray) and hand it to you. Perfect fast food - slices cost between €2-4 a slice, which makes for a brilliant value and filling lunch.

La Renella
Via del Moro 5
(Trastevere)

I don't know if we are exceptionally unobservant, or if the heat was getting to us, but we walked past this many times trying to find it - and gave up in the end and went somewhere else. I looked it up when we got back to our flat and realised we'd be staring it in the face all along - some ivy had grown over the sign!

My pizza was the 'fiori di zucca' anchovy with courgette flowers, delicious and so fresh. Mr opted for a mixed vegetable pizza with courgette, pepper. We ate on lent against the little bar running along the side of the bakery, watching more pizzas being made opposite us.

Pizza Florida
Via Florida 25

A very generous truffle pizza for the Mr and a proscuitto slice for me set us back €6, this was really close to our tram stop, they had so many toppings and also some stuffed pizza, we had a hard time choosing. I think Mr won with his truffle pizza choice, we ate on the move as we headed for sightseeing at the Colosseum.

Forno
Campo d'Fiori

Famous for the pizza bianca, you must try this before anything else. Simply a base sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt, it was beautiful! The base was sourdough like in taste, fluffy inside and salty and crisp on top. We didn't try anything else (mainly because we'd just eaten gelato), but they sell a range of breads too. They close at 2.30 and open again at 5.00 so don't get caught out if you are planning a visit.

Pizzeria on Via Giovanni Caselli

I don't remember the name of this place, we visited on the off chance as it was directly under our apartment building, and we were rewarded with excellent pizza. Surprisingly they had a wood fired oven which was nice for a little local place, I had a pizza rosso (tomato sauce) and Mr one topped with thinly sliced chargrilled aubergine. If you fancy a trip out of the main area (about 10 mins on the tram plus 5 min walk) this place is great.

Gelato
If we weren't eating pizza we were eating gelato (or drinking gallons of water because of the 34 degree heat). I had the gelato places I wanted to visit very clearly set out in my mind - San Crispino and Giolitti, and we also took a trip to Blue Ice, one of the very few chains you'll see in Rome. Each place normally has different sized tubs and you choose as many flavours as will fit into a tub, a small tub for 2 flavour is between €3-4.

San Crispino
Via della Panetteria

A smart little gelateria a couple of streets away from the Trevi Fountain, there is a tiny little sign leading you in, a chalkboard menu and a neat counter with gelato hidden under metal lids. I'd heard a lot about the flavours with meringue so I jumped straight for the hazelnut meringue flavour, and also had a scoop of the honey flavour. Mr had the caramel meringue and a fantastic pistachio one.

Giolitti
Via degli Uffici del Vicario

Our landlady at the flat enthusiastically told us that Michelle Obama had visited Giolitti recently, and so we must go! Giolitti is very popular, because of the latter and also because of the sheer number of flavours they have - a sight to behold. It is the oldest gelateria in Rome, and they also have a shop near the Pantheon. I had raspberry and also oreo (very Roman!) flavour, they weren't as good as San Crispino but it was an experience going there. As you can see it was boiling hot the day we went, the ice cream melted rapidly as we ate outside the shop.

Coffee

Sant'Eustachio Cafe 
Piazza di Sant'Eustachio

Best cappuccino I've ever had, hands down. Slightly rude and hurried service (you will find this in Rome, you get used to it after a couple of days!) and you have to pay €1 more per cup to sit outside, but you do get to enjoy the Piazza and watch people (and scooters of course) go by. You can also buy their coffee beans to take home. David Lebovitz' blog post made this cafe go top on my list of places to go.

Tazza D'oro
Via degli Orfani
I had an espresso here, very very strong but good, they have a range of different blends which you can ask for when you order - and you can take the beans home - which we did. They operate the very common system in Rome (and maybe Italy?) where you buy a ticket for what you'd like at one till, and then bring it over to the bar and they'll make your drink.

Other
Forno Roscioli
Via dei Giubbonari, 21

 
The oldest bakery in Rome, this should maybe be under the pizza section but we also had a gorgeous cherry tart. An amazing bakery with so much choice of pizza, sweets, breads, pasta and little deli goods. I also had a pizza rosso which was brilliant, I'd love to create a tomato sauce like that.

Freni e Frizoni
Via del Politeama / Piazza Trilussa
Trastevere

We came here for aperitivo on our last night in Rome. Aperitivo is a brilliant idea! Between about 6pm to 8pm you can visit a bar, buy a drink and have access to either a buffet or a small menu of snacky foods to have. The drinks are more expensive than normal because of the food, about €8. At Freni e Frizoni (means Brakes and Friction, it used to be a garage) they have a gorgeous middle eastern inspired buffet - cous cous, crunchy salads, tabbouleh, fresh cumin spiced bread, herby vegetables and homemade sauces. After a week of pizza and gelato this was a perfect end to our holiday, great cocktails too. Arrive early as it gets very busy, if you'd like to sit outside overlooking the Piazza you need to call up and book a table.

Il Vascellari
Via dei Vascellari, 21
Trastevere
Our landlady heartily recommended this restaurant, everything was great - amazing truffle pasta, lasagne, tiramisu and mille feuille, and really friendly staff. Not too expensive either, around €40 for two glasses of wine, two mains, two puds and water. Popular with locals.

Ristorante New Station
Via Giuseppe Parini
Gianiconesi 
I had a pretty terribly salty carbonara, but Mr had an amazing 'Rigatoni Alla Norma' which was chargrilled aubergine and courgette and smoked garlic tomato sauce. Excellent puds too, tiramisu and hot chocolate pudding.

De Spar
in various locations

As you can guess, the Italian version of 'Spar' - but much better. To save money we ate in the flat on a number of evenings and the little 'De Spar' stores dotted around the city were a great place to pick up things for dinner. They do all manner of cheeses, pizza rosso and bianca, foccacia, sourdough, fresh pasta, lots of veggies and fruit. I wish our Spar stores were like that. Only downside was that they didn't stock any decent tea bags, must remember to bring our own...

Sightseeing

I'm no travel blogger but here are some places (along with the usual sights) that I'd recommend.

Ostia Antica - about a 30 minute train journey outside Rome, an amazingly well preserved Roman port town which is just fascinating, takes a whole day to walk around.
Trastevere - In general! A lovely part of Rome to wander around, we didn't stay too far away so we visited regularly. Santa Maria in Trastevere church is beautiful too.
Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary - A cat sanctuary in Roman ruins! There aren't many (or any other?) cat rescue centres in Rome and this place is run by a formidable and kind Italian lady with the help of lots of volunteers. Healthy cats are free to roam the ruins and injured and unwell cats are looked after inside. Visit, stroke the cats and buy a gift or donate to the shelter - you can also sponsor a cat.


So there you are, hope those of you lucky enough to be reading this and heading off to Rome soon find it helpful. I can't wait to go back some day.

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Gujarati Recipe Series - Handvo, Savoury Cake

This post marks the first in my series of Gujarati recipes! This is something I've been meaning to start for a long time and I have been encouraged by many of my twitter followers to do so too. I think it is pretty fitting to start off with a cake, but this time a savoury, spicy vegetable cake.

Handvo, or Andvo, is made from chickpea and semolina flour with carrots, peas, onion and sweetcorn, chili and ginger inside with a crispy top with mustard seeds on top. We always used to eat this on Saturday nights, with other snacky food like samosas - although it is a pretty filling meal in its own right.

Handvo
Makes one 18 x 6 cm dish (though will work in slightly bigger or smaller dishes)
You need to start this the day before you want to eat it. 
My cups are American cups, teacups also work well.

Part 1 - the day before
Ingredients
1 cup of coarse semolina flour
1 cup of chickpea (gram) flour
1 tsp of grated fresh ginger
1 - 2 green chillies (to taste)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cup of natural yoghurt (my Mum said the cheaper the better as you want a nice tangy yoghurt!)
2 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil
warm water - about 1/2 - 1 cup

Mix together all the ingredients except the water, add the water gradually to loosen the mixture til it is the texture of cake batter. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight (or up to 24 hours) when you want to use it remove from the fridge and bring to room temperature.

Part 2 - the next day
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder 
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbsp of frozen peas
2 tbsp of frozen or fresh sweetcorn
1 medium carrot, finely diced

Add all of the vegetables to the 'cake' mixture plus the baking powder, stir briefly (don't overwork the mix) to combine. Preheat your oven to 180c / gas mark 4. Grease and line your dish and pour in the mixture.

Mustard Topping
1 tsp of black mustard seeds (the yellow ones don't really work as well, try your local asian grocer or health food shop for black mustard seeds)
3 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil

With your mixture ready in your dish and your oven heated up. Heat the oil in a high sided saucepan on a med/high hob. Put in the mustard seeds and quickly cover the saucepan with a lid. Allow the mustard seeds to pop for about 30 seconds. Turn off and remove from the heat and allow it to cool for about 1 minute. Then pour the oil and mustard seed mixture over the cake mixture in the dish.

Bake for 45 mins - 1 hour in your preheated oven. You want the top to be quite brown, possibly looking a little overdone (I erred on the side of caution here so mine is a bit paler than it should be). 

Handvo is supposed to be served hot so slice up as soon as it comes out of the oven, it is best served with a dollop of good old tomato ketchup! It is also great cold the next day

Am hoping to return soon with more Gujarati recipes, I've got lots of things I'd like to make next. I hope you might make this, its a great recipe to try if you like baking cakes.

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Bibimbap House, Cambridge

On what I think has been the coldest day of the year, or maybe the last decade, so far we made the most excellent decision to finally try the much raved about Bibimbap on Mill Road, Cambridge. And it was such a good decision.

Formerly a not very good Chinese restaurant (I had the misfortune of going there once) Bibimbap House has been open for probably just under a year, and I've heard lots of good things about it from fellow bloggers Nora and Ivana.
As the name suggests, has one type of dish that it serves. I always like simplicity in a menu, it excudes confidence! There are 7 different kinds of Bibimbap, some veggie, some meat. Some come with an egg, some with sweet potato or 'japchae' noodles. Each bibimbap comes with a bowl of miso, pickled vegetables (I'm sure I'm getting the terminology wrong), creamed corn, and for a couple of lucky dishes you will get kimchi too. You are presented with it on a tray and in the centre a huge stone bowl, which keeps the dish hot, you mix everything together - add a bit of their homemade soy sauce or chilli sauce, and then tuck in.

I had the pork bibimbap which came with the most tender marinated pork I have ever eaten. It had a little chilli kick and was mixed in with sweet caramelised onions. Mr had the vegetarian japchae noodle bibimbap, which was a mixture of veggies topped with sweet potato noodles.

Everything was very good value, with 2 bibimbap, a coke and a corn tea for £18. I can't wait to go back, and with a beautifully small menu I think it is achievable for me to eventually try every dish on it. Let's hope so.

Bibimbap House
60 Mill Road, Cambridge

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Sort of Sea Spiced Aubergine

Whilst it might seem a cliche, since Mr. Giraffe became vegetarian we've been eating a lot more aubergine, a lot of people describe it as being meaty - although I don't really see that - but it is very substantial which means it is easy to make it the centre of a meal.
This is my 'sort of' sea spiced aubergine, it is probably not very authentic but it has all the right mix of flavours - deep savoury, chilli burn and a little sweetness. This always takes me longer to make than I think, due to the fact that aubergines take SO LONG to roast. After they are roasted the dish comes together pretty quickly though.

Sea Spiced Aubergine - serves 2

2 medium sized aubergines
olive oil
2 fresh chillies

For the sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons of  Tamari (or just add in another tablespoon of dark soy sauce)
2 teaspoons of chili bean paste (or any good chilli sauce, or sambal oelek)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 teaspoons of honey
juice of 1/2 a lime

Heat the oven to 180 degrees c / gas mark 4.
Line a baking dish with foil and wrap your aubergines and chillies up in the foil, drizzle with sunflower or a mild olive oil before you seal. Roast in the oven for about an hour to an hour and a half, about half way through remove the chilis and turn the aubergines. Slice the chillies in to small pieces. If you don't want too much heat you can use 1 chilli, or leave the seeds out.

For the sauce mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with the roasted chillies.

When the aubergines are ready, remove from the dish and let them cool so they aren't going to burn your hands off when you slice them. They should be very very soft and collapsed slightly.
Cut your aubergine into rough chunks, about 2 inches.
Heat up a large frying pan or a wok, add in some sunflower oil and then your aubergines. Fry for a minute and then pour in your sauce, followed by a little hot water if it is a bit dry. Simmer for 5-10 minutes on a medium to low heat.

Serve with egg fried rice or fine egg noodles.

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Byron Hamburgers, Wardour St, London

I am by no means the first or the last person to review Byron but I am going to anyway!

The smell of meat is the first thing that hits you when you walk into Byron, and instantly makes you hungry. There are lots of burger joints all over the country but mostly they aren't very inventive, tasty or interesting.

I was most looking forward to the sides, which is probably an odd thing to say. We ordered the skin on fries and the much talked about courgette fries. The courgette fries were just brilliant, lightly battered and really fresh tasting.

The other highlight of the meal was my amazingly big pickle, something which seems to be much more popular in the USA but you don't get much here. Unfortunately my burger was a little underseasoned but otherwise it was very tasty once I added some seasoning.

I also ordered the Oreo Milkshake, which was a bit like cookies and cream ice cream but melted, it was a lovely, and quite filling, so much so that I uncharacteristically didn't have any room for pudding.

We booked for Saturday night at Wardour Street, but arrived half an hour earlier which I was glad of because by the time we left about 7.30 there was a huge queue out of the door. I'd recommend booking or going at a quieter time in the weekdays to secure a table.

Byron Hamburgers

Wardour St
London
http://www.byronhamburgers.com/

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Ohn No Khao Swè - Burmese Coconut Noodles

This is one of those recipes that you see and bookmark and promise to make immediately, only thing is Meemalee blogged it way back in August 2010. So I didn't exactly get to it! I've never ever tried Burmese food, or seen any Burmese restaurants in the UK, I think Meemalee is helping it catch on here though.

Ireena blogged  her version with tofu (instead of chicken) recently and the craving was too strong to put off for any longer! I really like the preparation of silken tofu from Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu so I did it this way - coating the cubed tofu in seasoned flour and frying til crisp. Tofu is then added at the very last minute so it stays crispy.

The coconut sauce was slightly spicy and with depth of flavour, I love coconut milk so I always like to make new things with it (p.s. it makes a great cake ingredient). I am glad I tried the fried rice noodles too because they were really fun to make and yummy! I'm afraid I didn't make the soft boiled egg to go with it, mainly because I ran out of time and I have a bit of solid egg white phobia ;)

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Food Blog Discoveries - More Blogs!

A few more food blogs that have been added to my reader recently, hope you find some inspiration like I have :)

 image from Desserts for Breakfast

Desserts for Breakfast - I only followed this food blog because it had an awesome name (and matches my philosophy in life, clearly), but it is also a really lovely blog with gorgeous photographs.

Une-deux Senses - food but also fashion and music, beautiful photos! she has just been to New York too so some great recommendations if you are visiting soon.

Kitchen 22 - Cambridge food blogger, restaurant blogger. Yummy recipe for Oxtail Ragu.

Anne's Food - blogger based in Sweden, some really interesting recipes here, and if you like Swedish cookbooks then you'll find it very useful ;)

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Elderflower Fritters

Happily I located an elder next to my office the other day, off the road and with lots and lots of flower heads to pick. So I made fritters!

The finished fritters were lovely, not the most attractive I hasten to add, but crispy and doughnut soft in the middle. I sprinkled them with sugar and served with some softly whipped cream. The flowery scent is gorgeous here, not to overpowering and it is so lovely eating basically free food!

I think I need to make my batter a bit lighter next time, for some reason it was very thick.

Head over to Colour It Green's blog for a fabulous recipe and a better picture of finished fritters - she is an elderflower connoisseur!

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sweeties

I like two things a lot. Sweets and beads.


There are two new things in Cambridge - a bead shop and an old fashioned sweet shop.


These two things formed the basis of my Saturday!

First I popped along to the Beaderie in Cambridge, the last bead shop closed here about two years ago and was no where close to the quality of the Beaderie. I had a long chat with the lady who runs it, actually somebody I'd met via Handm@de Craft Fairs last year. She's very much into Etsy and the new wave of interest in the handmade scene, something I was glad to hear. A lot of bead shops I have been to are run by the more 'old school' style crafters who focus more on hobbyists rather than those who are looking for good supplies for the work that they sell.And excitingly, the Beaderie should be stocking vintage beads in the future - yay!

I picked some lovely glass beads and unconciously I ended up picking an assortment of spring time colours. I got some lovely glass flowers, beautiful green shell beads, some pretty pink glass and some beautiful high quality glass pearls. I'll definitely be back!
Next up - the sweet shop.

I'd popped in before but having spent way too much money on pork pies and posh chilis in the Cambridge Cheese Shop the same day I couldn't justify the sweeties. This time I did get something though.

A Wham! bar - anyone remember those? And a bag of rhubarb & custard and a some lemon bon bons. All wrapped up in a little paper bag as an olde fashioned sweet shoppe should.

Now I must be careful to eat the sweets and not the beads. They are both yummy looking.

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Sunday Dinner

Not a recipe as such but we had a lovely sunday dinner today and I just had to post a picture (and most welcome it was too as we've been trying to cut back on eating meat recently).

Roast pork, crackling, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding and creamed spinach.

If you try one thing here it must be the creamed spinach recipe from Smitten Kitchen. We filled our pancakes with it on pancake day too, its very versatile and yummy.

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a humble stew

Now that autumn is coming to an end I am pleased to be able to spend a Sunday afternoon cooking a roast dinner, and then come home on a Monday evening to a big bowl of stew and dumplings.

This is a very easy and adaptable recipe but you do need a the remnants of a roast chicken to help you along - this is where the flavour is. The day before I'd made the Zuni Cafe roast chicken recipe with the usual trimmings and most importantly a lovely gravy from the roasting tray.

We had lots of chicken leftover and also lots of gravy, the chicken was stuffed with thyme so there was lots and lots of flavour there. also the Zuni Cafe method (which is extremely popular, as you will see when you google it) ensures a chicken that is roasted with perfectly crisp skin and incredibly moist and tender meat - the latter very important for a stew.


Firstly I should apologise for the pictures, my new camera is doing a good job in artificial light but chicken stew is hard to make photogenic!

You will need:

Leftover chicken -shredded up
About 100ml of gravy
Approx 50ml chicken stock (I also made my own stock before making the stew rather than using a cube)
Carrots - about 2 medium ones
1/2 large white onion
1-2 cloves of garlic
Thyme

Finely dice the carrot and onion and fry with olive oil in a casserole dish (or ovenproof dish with a lid) until the onions are nice and soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so.
Add in the chicken and then the gravy and the stock - make sure the chicken is well covered.
Season and add a sprig or two of thyme - use less if you had a lot of herbs in the chicken when you originally roasted it.

Bring to the boil and then put in a medium oven with the lid on, cook for 20 minutes whilst you make the dumplings.

For the Dumplings

I've never really been a fan of dumplings, I always thought of them as being stodgy and cloying - this recipe is much different. It doesn't use a lot of flour and no suet - instead milk and cream are used to make light and fluffy dumplings with an almost mashed potato like quality. It is adapted from this recipe on Bread and Honey.

approx 60grams plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
thyme, sage, rosemary or any other herb you think goes!
100ml double cream
50mls semi skimmed milk.

Mix dry ingredients and herbs together and then slowly add in the cream and then the milk. You aren't aiming for a dough but a wet mixture that keeps its shape - does that make sense? You may find you need more or less milk, cream or flour - just add more or less to get your mixture right. If you add more flour make sure to add a little more baking powder.

When the stew has been cooking for 20mins take it out and spoon the dumplings over the top. Put the lid back on and cook for 20mins again. Take the lid off after 20mins and cook for another 5-10 to crisp up the dumplings slightly.


Serve in big bowls and try not to think about the wind and rain outside.



xx

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Orange Drizzle Cupcakes

I've been neglecting the food side of things for a while but fear not, I am back, with more drizzle cakes!
We've recently started getting a fruit and veg box from the lovely people at Abel and Cole , in an effort to eat more veg and also maybe because they have a little special offer on :)


I'm not a big orange eater, so I was a bit disappointed when we received 4 big oranges in our box (something I forgot to add into my dislikes list) this week, but then my thoughts turned to cake and all was well!

I make lemon drizzle cake a lot, its easy and tasty and I generally have the ingredients in the cupboard/fridge. I've been meaning to try orange drizzle cake for a while, its just as easy and just as tasty.

Orange Drizzle Cupcakes
makes about 20 - 22 cupcakes

for the cake:
200g self raising flour (or plain flour with 2 tsp of baking powder mixed in)
200g butter, softened
200g brown or caster sugar
2 medium eggs
zest of 2 large oranges
1 tsp cinnamon

juice of 1/2 orange

for the icing:
juice of 1 1/2 oranges
juice of 1/2 lemon
icing sugar - approx 4 tbsp

Cream butter and sugar, add the eggs. Zest the orange and mix into bowl with juice of orange. Stir in flour and cinamonn until all combined.


Spoon into a cupcake tray lined with cases. Bake on middle shelf at gas mark 5 for about 10 - 15mins until golden and cooked through.

Normally lemon drizzle cakes require you to wait til the cakes are completely cool to ice them, but I find that you don't need to so much with cupcakes. Allow them to cool slightly for a few minutes.

Mix the sugar in slow with the orange, sifting through a tea strainer to make it nice and fine. I normally use a fork or a whisk so the icing isn't lumpy. You may need more or less icing sugar than I have said above, depending on the juiceness of your oranges and lemon! Mix until it has a consistency like double cream.

Prick the cupcakes lightly with a fork or small knife. Brush or spoon the icing over the cakes generously.

Eat!

I was really pleased with how these came out, I may add a little more lemon next time to counter the sweetness and give it a slightly more citrus flavour. This is not very cheffy or even food blogger-y but you could use a tiny bit of from concentrate orange juice to up the orange flavour a little.



xx

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Damson Vodka

I've been innocently making jam from our garden plums lately but I had something altogether more interesting for our Damsons. My neighbour mentioned that they make a wickedly good damson gin and I've had it in my thoughts since the spring blossom!

They finally ripened a couple of weeks ago (yes I have been lax in my food blogging ;)) and I rushed almost immediately out and bought a nice bottle of vodka for them. We aren't big gin drinkers so we went for the more neutral option of vodka, hoping for more of a fruity taste than a gin taste.

This is a very very easy recipe, the work of moments, really. I used the recipe on Cottage Smallholder (one of my favourite small holding type blogs).



All you do is prick the fruit, add it to a kilner jar, pour on some sugar and then the spirit. Seal up the jar and shake well. Keep the jar in a dark cool place, shake the jar every day until the sugar dissolves (usually about 3-4days). Taste a nip after a week to see if the sugar is right, add a little more if its too sharp and redo the shaking thing.

We are going to drain out the fruit and bottle it to have at Christmas time, although the recipe does recommend you strain the fruit after 3 months and mature for upto a year. Not sure we can wait that long!

I can't wait to try this, its going to be perfect on a cold Christmassy evening.

UPDATE : We bottled the Vodka just before Christmas and took it down to test it out on our relatives! The resultant vodka was just as a expected, fruity and far too easy to drink. I'll definitely be making this next year!
xx

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