New Blog - Food Mela

I've moved! My new blog is called Food Mela - you'll find all my usual kinds of posts over on Food Mela - baking, Cambridge reviews and now more Indian recipes. I'm quite excited about this refresh and I've got lots of inspiration so there will be lots of posts in the next few weeks.

You'll need to add my new blog address - www.foodmela.co.uk - to your feed reader (Feedly for example) if you use one, then you'll continue to be updated when I post a new blog. You can also sign up for email updates on my new blog.

Thank you!
Deepa

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North China Dumpling, Cambridge

The Mr is my Cambridge spy, as he works in the city, and he mentioned on Friday 'that dumpling place has opened on Regent Street' - feeling like we needed something to shake the damp feeling this weather is giving us, we went along for dumplings on Saturday.

It's where the Otto Cafe used to be, a small place with about 8 tables and a tiny kitchen. They serve up steamed dumplings with pork, beef, lamb, chicken, fish or vegetable/tofu fillings. There are a few extras too like hot and sour cucumber salad, char sui pork with rice and pickled vegetables. It's a very simple menu and extremely good value too - 12 dumplings are £6 and sides about £3/4. They also do sweet steamed buns, with black sesame or peanut fillings.

I went for the pork dumplings with kimchi served in a hot and sour soup, Mr opted for the tofu and chive dumplings. The service is a little slow and confused here, but they have only been open a week or so, but the staff are really friendly, I'm sure this will improve with experience.

The food however is great, it's fresh and packed with flavour. The vegetarian dumplings were filled with crispy tofu and stuffed with lots of chives, and the surrounding pastry was light. The pork dumplings were similarly good, tender on the inside with lots of ginger and kimchi, and the hot and sour broth had a really good chilli kick.

We spent £19 on 2 servings of dumplings, soup (an extra £1.50) and two cokes. The cheapest lunch I've had in Cambridge for a long time! We'll definitely be back, we had no room for pudding but I will on my next visit.

North China Dumpling,
57 Regent Street
Cambridge

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Aloo Tikki Style Celeriac Cakes - Using Up Sunday Leftovers

Following on from my last post about a Baked Celeriac Sunday roast, here is a quick recipe for using up the leftovers! I had about 1/4 of celeriac left so I combined this with some mashed potato (if you have roast potatoes left these work too) and lots of spices to create an aloo tikki style cake, which made for a simple Monday dinner.

I served the cakes with a tomato and fenugreek sauce, also made from some leftover tomato soup from Saturday evening dinner. I simmered it for about 20 minutes til it reduced before adding in turmeric, chilli, dried fenugreek (also called methi or kasoori methi) and grated ginger.

Apologies in advance for the worse than usual photography, let's give it the excuse that I was hungry and wanted to eat them up...

Spicy Celeriac & Potato Cakes
makes 4, enough for 2 

1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
150g leftover cooked celeriac, mashed
150g potatoes, this can be leftover roasties too, mashed
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
sunflower or groundnut oil

Fry the onion in a large deep frying pan, until soft with a little bit of colour, for about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and fry for another 1 minute stirring often. Add this to a large bowl with your potato and celeriac, and then add in all the spices, plus salt.

Mix and then form with your hands in to patties. If they aren't feeling substantial enough, pop them in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.

Heat some groundnut or sunflower oil in your large deep frying pan, and once hot add in your cakes. Fry on a medium high heat for 4 minutes on each side, try not to move them otherwise you won't get crispiness. Flip over and fry on the other side for another 4 minutes.

Serve with your tomato sauce and a side of veggies.

This post is part of Sainsbury's Love your Leftovers Campaign - thank you to Sainsbury's for sending me vouchers to use for this challenge :)

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Vegetarian Sunday Roast - Baked Celeriac & Mushroom Gravy

The thing I miss the most about Mr going veggie is the roast dinners. I love putting lots of herbs and butter on a chicken and roasting it for a while before adding all the necessary trimmings. Poussin is not the same before you ask.

Sainsbury's got in touch to ask if I wanted to take part in their 'Love your Leftovers' campaign, and come up with a dish to use up Sunday Lunch leftovers. Thinking that I wanted to change up our usual sad poussin plus a few baked mushrooms I took up the challenge to think up a robust vegetarian Sunday roast that would also provide leftovers for Monday.

Inspired by the fantastic celeriac Mr had at Morston Hall I decided to bake a whole one, with lots of garlic, sage and butter (olive in the week, butter at the weekend!) and serve it with roast potatoes, green veg and a killer vegetarian gravy (gravy is important).

It really couldn't be simpler to prep, much like a slow roasted piece of pork or lamb, but without the basting. You wrap it in foil, and leave it in the oven for 2 hours, and for the last hour make your spuds and get your gravy on.

Baked Celeriac - serves 2 with leftovers 
adapted from BBC Good Food

1 medium celeriac, approx 500g
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed with a knife, but with skin on.
large bunch of sage
2 knobs of butter
seasoning

Preheat your oven to 160c fan / 180c electric. Wash your celeriac, and if it comes with any frondy bits (technical term) trim those off. Prick with a knife, around 1cm in to ensure it cooks, and the flavour gets into the celeriac. Place a large piece of foil on to a baking tray and pop your celeriac on and tuck the herbs, garlic cloves and butter around, season and wrap in 3 layers of foil.

Bake for 2 hours, check about 2/3 way through to see if it is cooking through. When you're ready to serve simply cut into wedges, and keep the garlic to serve on the side. Depending on your celeriac, you can eat the skin if it isn't too tough.

Mushroom Gravy, enough for 2
adapted from Food 52

I made this gravy at Christmas, to serve alongside a vegetarian wellington, it's made with dried mushrooms, shallots and a secret ingredient, soy sauce. The soy gives the deep savoury flavour that you'd otherwise get from meat.

2 shallots, finely diced
knob of butter
1 tbsp flour
50g of dried mushrooms
1 stock cube dissolved in 250ml of water.
sage or thyme, small handful chopped.
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1. Fry your shallots in a small pan with the butter til they are translucent.
2. Soak your mushrooms in a jug, in 75ml of boiling water.
3. Once your onions are soft add in the flour and stir quickly on a medium heat.
4. Drain your mushrooms and add the mushroom stock to your vegetable stock. Pour this into your onion roux and whisk to combine and thicken.
5. Add in the herbs and let the whole thing simmer gently, stirring regularly, til it starts to thicken up.
6. Add in your soy sauce, and check for seasoning.

You can now serve your gravy, or if you want it to be smooth pass through a sieve and warm up again when you're ready to eat.

Thanks to Sainsbury's for sending me vouchers for our Sunday Roast challenge! Coming up next, how to use the leftovers - Celeriac & Potato Cakes, Aloo Tikki style. 

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Indian Supperclub - a 3 course feast - date announced!

I've announced a date for my supperclub, and booking is open! It's been a long time in the planning and I'm so pleased to be able to bring you a taste of authentic Gujarati cuisine.

If you've not eaten for a while I suggest you get a snack as this post will make you hungry.

My first supperclub is on Saturday 22nd February in a beautiful spot just outside Cambridge, I'll be cooking a very traditional Gujarati meal - crisp samosas spiced with cumin and chilli to start, a range of veggie curries with rotli (chapati), rice and accompaniments finishing with a sweet tooth's dream of a dessert. The menu...

Mela Supperclub, 22nd February
foodmela.co.uk

Welcome Drink: Nimbu Pani (sweet lime drink)

Starter: Pea & Potato Samosas with green chilli chutney

Mains: Chana Masala, Toor Daal, Venghan Bateta (Potato & Aubergine)
Rotli, Rice, Kadhi (spiced yoghurt sauce), Raita and Pickle

Dessert: Gulab Jambu (doughnut like dumplings in cardamom syrup) 

with Jack's Mango Sorbet & Cumin Gelato

~ 
Masala Chai & Cardamom Shortbread

Places are limited, I've still a few spots left - email me deepa@foodmela.co.uk to book a place.
£32 pp and you can BYOB, there will also be plenty of nimbu pani to go around plus water and juice.

Read more here, and get a little sneak peek into my new blog: www.foodmela.co.uk 

See you there, come with an empty stomach! :)

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Lemon Polenta Biscuits

Well we made it to February, well done everyone! What got me through the last week of January was these fabulous lemon cookies, made a on exceedingly dreary Sunday afternoon. Once they were cooled we curled up on the sofa with steaming cups of tea and dunked these sunshiney cookies (well I did, I'm the dunker of this household). For the next few days they provided a lovely accompaniment to our after work cups of tea.

I spotted the lovely Emma's tweet about her lemon polenta biscuit recipe, and immediately got up and surveyed the kitchen cupboards to see if we had the right ingredients in. Everything except the almonds, so I did a bit of searching and came up with this recipe, halfway between Emma's and this one on Taste.au.

These are forgiving biscuits, quick to make and if your dough starts to get a bit soft, pop in the fridge for a bit and then bring it back out again to separate into balls.

Lemon Polenta Biscuits
makes 12 - 15

100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
grated zest of 2 lemons, plus juice of 1/2 lemon
150g plain flour
75g polenta

1. Put your butter and sugar in a large bowl, and cream together. Or if you are fancypants (me) pop them both in your stand mixer and mix for a couple of minutes with the beater.
2. Add in an egg yolk at a time and keep beating.
3. Add in the lemon zest and juice, flour and polenta. Mix with a spoon (if you're using a mixer it's best to switch to a spoon now), and then knead with your hands briefly to allow it to come together.
4. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, then separate the dough into 12 - 15 balls around the size of a walnut. Preheat your oven to 200c
5. Arrange on a lined baking tray, and then squish with a wet fork to flatten.
6. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly brown on the edges
7. Leave to cool and then remove from your tray, and into your mouth.

They keep for about 5 days in an airtight container.

News! I'm holding another food event. My long awaited Gujarati Supperclub is on the 22nd February in Cambridgeshire. Find out more and book one of the last few spaces here: www.foodmela.co.uk 

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Restaurant Review - Red Onion Essex & Indian Food in the UK

I was recently contacted by a new Indian restaurant in Saffron Walden (Essex / Cambridgeshire border), Red Onion, to try out their menu. This post is two things really, a review of the restaurant and some ponderings about Indian food in the UK.

First, the Red Onion. It is a curry house based just around the corner from Saffron Walden Common, which opened last year.

For starters we had onion bhaji and Aloo Chaat. The onion bhaji was pretty textbook, they were crispy and quite big and not too oily- and served with that random salad that no one ever eats. My aloo chaat, was just a plain potato curry - what I had hoped for is spicy potatoes with crispy sev (chickpea noodles) or fried chapati with yoghurt and tamarind, that is what chaat normally consists of - it's about textures. This was unfortunately a potato curry with cucumber in it, bizarrely. It was good to see it on the menu but unfortunately it wasn't an aloo chaat.

For mains I ordered a lamb achari - the lamb was nice and tender and the sauce was tomato based with good heat and a lemony kick. Mr had a vegetable bhuna - a nice tomatoey sauce with good heat, but the vegetables seemed to be from those frozen 'vegetable mixes' you get in big bags. We also ordered muttar paneer, usually cooked with onions and a little tomato with plenty of chilli, and peas of course, our dish was coconut based, which I like with paneer, but unfortunately it was cloyingly sweet. I wouldn't have minded a little chilli powder!

We decided to try out some different breads - garlic naan, roti and chapati. The naan was really nice, fluffy inside and crispy on the bottom. The chapati was good, nice and soft and mopped up the curry well. The roti, I think it differs from the chapati as it is cooked on a tandoor, was nice too, possibly a bit too crispy.

To finish we decided not to go for the oddly presented kulfis (in coconut shells, plastic pineapple shells etc) that you always find in curry houses, but for a cup of masala chai each. Like the aloo chaat it was nice to see it on the menu, the tea was good although, I think, made from a spiced tea bag rather than brewed with a masala mix, meaning it wasn't as strong as it should be.

Overall it was a nice meal, and if you're after a 'British Curry' then that is what it will offer you. We really liked the breads and the sauces in each of our curries were good. The starters could use some work and the paneer was a little bizarre.

I think food in general has improved tenfold UK over the past 10 years, British food is better than ever, but I feel understanding about what Indian food, and probably that of other countries, is seriously lagging behind. A curry house will tell you that you are eating authentic Indian food when you're tucking into a chicken korma, dipping plain poppadoms into mango chutney, and that strange thin yoghurt sauce. When you're eating orange pilau rice and fighting your way through an oil soaked onion bhaji.

For me a curry house curry is a bit of a guilty pleasure, a bit like MacDonald's or a fish finger sandwich. It's mostly not authentic (a lot of Indian restaurants dishes are actually based on Bangladeshi cooking with Anglicised additions) but it is comforting in a way.

I think curry houses can give Indian food a bad rep. Indian food is different in each region you visit - and it is not always as unhealthy as it has a reputation for - yes we like our samosas and sugary snacks, and ghee is used - but everyday Indian food is fresh and nourishing. Lentils, fresh vegetables, wholewheat chapatis and pickles. It's not just cubed meat in a sauce served with a naan or rice.

This article in the Guardian about 'how to eat curry' is great - it explains what to look out for (south Indian food, pure vegetarian food) and what to order. Searching out restaurants like this is nearly always a good idea - you'll find plenty of them in Leicester, parts of Birmingham, Southall, Wembley and Ilford. South Indian restaurants will offer you a thali (plate) filled with different dishes, or a crispy dosa stuffed with homemade paneer or spicy potato. Pure vegetarian restaurants, which are often Gujarati (like me!) will serve chilli paneer, the best daal, chaat and sometimes gulab jamun for pudding.

Thanks to the Red Onion, Saffron Walden for inviting us for dinner. You can find out more about them here.

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The Perfect Healthy Granola Bar

Well now that is a statement isn't it? I've been searching, for so long for the perfect granola bar. I've suffered through batches of bars that just won't stick together (but thankfully do make good granola), and the ones that do stick are annoyingly the ones that are bursting with sugar and golden syrup. This just won't do. Granola bars are supposed to be breakfast food, and whilst I'm not pretending that I haven't passed a chocolate brownie off as breakfast, for a regular breakfast it isn't sustainable to eat sugar laden granola bars.

So what is the secret to a healthy sugar-free granola bar that will stick? An egg white.

What goes into your granola bar can be fairly flexible and a combination of coconut oil and honey plus that important egg white will ensure they stay together, and are robust enough to be wrapped up and chucked in your handbag for breakfast on the go (which is why I need them). Plus that egg will give you a little more protein to start the day.

Granola Bars
Makes 6 chunky granola bars, bake in a square brownie tin.

190g porridge oats
40g of desiccated coconut or coconut flakes
pinch of sea salt
70ml of coconut oil (melted) or groundnut or sunflower oil
60g of honey
70g of dried fruit
60g nuts, chopped if they are large
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 egg white

Optional but nice:
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Variations / Additions
Swap the coconut flakes for sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon of peanut butter encourages sticking together, and tastes pretty great
grated orange or lemon zest
dark chocolate chips in place of nuts (I won't tell if you don't)
Replace half the honey for maple syrup

Preheat your oven to gas mark 3 / 160c electric

Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl, except for the egg white. Mix with a large wooden spoon, or if using a stand mixer (I've just bought a very shiny new Kitchenaid!) mix on a slow speed with the paddle for 2 minutes. Add in the egg white and briefly mix to combine, mix for 10 seconds in the mixer.

Transfer to your tin, lined with greased proof paper. Press down with a spatula, so that it is all tightly packed together and evenly in the tin. Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes until it is golden on top.

An important bit for when it comes out of the oven - whilst still in the tin, cut the bars into pieces. Don't worry if they crumble a bit whilst they are warm.

After you've got the bars into slices just smoosh any crumbly bits down again. As they cool the bars will continue to stick together. Leave to cool completely then your bars are ready to be set free from the tin.

They'll keep for about a week in an airtight container. It makes me all kinds of happy that I can whip these up on a Sunday evening and know that breakfast is sorted for 5 days.

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Franglais Kitchen, Cambridge Supperclub, December 2013

In December I was fortunate to be able to go to the very first Franglais Kitchen supperclub in Cambridge, hosted by Nazima and her husband Pierre, in their home. The theme was Indian French Fusion to bring together the couple's roots - think of classic French cooking techniques but with spice and inspired by popular Indian streetfood dishes. 

We started off with a glass of a French 75 cocktail - gin, sugar syrup and lemon topped off with Prosecco - perfect with the accompanying appetisers of bhel puri, pani puri and homemade Bombay mix. Bhel puri is one of my favorite Indian snacks - a mixture of small chickpea noodles 'sev', puffed rice, potato, onion topped off with tamarind chutney and green chilli chutney.  Find my recipe here.

A plate of pani puri was also laid out, another classic Indian street food, they are little puffed shells which filled with either potato or chickpea and onion before being topped with a chilled spiced 'pani' (water) which you fill the puri with, and then pop the whole thing in your mouth and crunch! Nazima's were just as they should be, a nice hit of chilli with refreshing pani and soft filling.

After the treat of the appetisers we moved to the mains. I went for a vegetarian main, mini peppers stuffed with homemade paneer served with chilli chutney. I've never had homemade paneer before, it's a lot different to shop bought, crumbly and tender and it takes on spices really well. 

After this we had a soup course, a spiced 'haleem' stew made with squash - comforting and something a little different. The soup was served with gorgeous sourdough naans, cooked on a barbecue, spiced with cumin - the idea of a sourdough naan is something I've never come across before and I definitely want to try making it.

Next was the main course, spiced poussin with stuffed okra. This was more French in style but made different by the spicing. Nazima also passed around a jar of her homemade achar, mango pickle to go alongside. 

Puddings, three of them! A delicately spiced masala chai chocolate mousse with popping candy, chocolate burfi (sweet) and a chilli chocolate macaron. A choice of puddings is always welcome and we all enjoyed working our way through each element of the last course.

Nazima and Pierre are holding another supperclub on the 31st January, this time featuring the cuisines of France and Indonesia. You can find out more and book here, not one to miss!

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Bonjour French Food Hamper - Review

French food is great, I think we can all agree on that, and I like having a snoop around French supermarkets when we are over there. The cheese, bread and cured meats, caramels, jams, chocolate and everything else in between. I heard about Bonjour French Food on Twitter, a monthly hamper full of unique and sometimes hard to find French treats, with a specific theme each time. They were kind enough to offer me a box to review, and I eagerly awaited their next shipment date at the beginning of November.

The theme for November was tartine, a traditional French open sandwich layered with any number of things - cheese, vegetables, pate or cured meat. A perfect quick lunch. My box contained a mix to make Pain de Campagne (country style bread), pork and mushroom terrine, tomato spread, olive tapenade, comte biscuits and apple caramel.

Our plan for the box was to nibble through the contents for dinner, with some excellent cheese and bread (making the pain de campagne had to wait for another day).

The tomato spread was by far our favourite - so intensely tomatoey, like fresh summery tomatoes with a hint of herbs.

Olive tapenade is one of my favourite things, but it is normally not made very well, due to the cheapness of olives used. The Aix & Terra black olive tapenade was gorgeous, so intense and really good quality. You just need a little spread on a piece of bread. I'm sure this would be great stirred into pasta, although it is a little precious for that.

The little spreads made a lovely addition to a cheeseboard and we nibbled on the gorgeous Michel et Augustin comte biscuits with a glass of wine, after dinner. They were generously packed with cheese and I liked that they are made with wholemeal flour - giving a nice nutty taste and extra texture.

Finally, the sweet. The apple caramel reminded us of the apple galettes we had in Paris - intensely fruity, buttery and sweet. I made french toast for breakfast the next day, and the caramel worked perfectly in the place of syrup. 

We really enjoyed nibbling through our box, it was full of interesting brands, most of which are small producers, that we'd not heard of before. The box came with a card explaining the stories of each item, and where you can buy them. It felt like a real insight into French food, and like a great secret that was being shared with us across the Channel. 

Each box is £29 per month, with discounts if you sign up for longer, quite reasonable when you think about the quality of each item, and the time that is spent sourcing them. Find out more here.

Thank you to Bonjour French Food for sending me a box to review.

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Pint Shop Preview Party, Cambridge

A very exciting addition to the Cambridge restaurant opens today - Pint Shop. Their slogan is 'Meat, Bread, Beer' and if that doesn't make you happy then you can stop reading now. Although don't actually, because even if you're a vegetarian or don't like beer, there is something here for you. A magnificent vegetarian pie is on the menu, and 40 different kinds of gin!

I was lucky enough to be invited to their preview party last week to sample what their bar had to offer along with the kitchen. I was greeted by the lovely manager, Clare, who told me simply, there are gin and tonics inside - sold! I was there to see this fabulous new restaurant open but also to celebrating landing a brand new job (yay!).

Pint Shop is a three story former bank, inside which is a bar area and a dining room plus further rooms upstairs. It's nice that the rooms are split this way so you don't feel lost in a huge open plan restaurant. I believe in the bar area you can just grab a drink and a bar snack or a full meal, and the dining area for meals only.

I'm not a beer drinker but I have recently developed a liking for gin (my age maybe?) so I was glad to see they have 40 gins on the menu, plus a regular house gin specially picked out. On the preview night it was Adnams Copper House gin so I gladly ordered a G&T which was expertly and quickly made up. I've mostly had bad experiences with G&T but this was really nice, not too bitter and just the thing after a long day.

Beer wise they are chalked up on a huge blackboard daily, with plenty of variation to suit all tastes. There is a good looking selection of wine but disappointingly no cider  - maybe this is something they will have in the future? Hopefully, there is some great cider being made locally and it would be a shame to miss out.

As we settled down food started to come around, so much of it too! There were chilli 'beer sticks' made from cured pork and spices, a nice hit of spice and perfect with your drink.

Then we were treated to rabbit and potato mini pasties with pickle, fish pie scotch eggs with saffron aioli, potted pork with plum on lovely Jigsaw Bakery sourdough, rolled shoulder of lamb with welsh onion cake and cabbage and finally beetroot with a herby nutty pesto on more of that lovely sourdough. Everything we tasted was really novel, comforting homely food with a nice twist - I can't wait to dine there again.

Potted Pork and Plum 

Rolled Shoulder of Lamb, Potato Cake, Red Cabbage

As part of the festivities there were also talks from their suppliers  - we got to learn all about the Cambridge Gin Distillery and their yummy 'P' Gin made from, you've guessed it, peas, in honour of the Peas Hill address of Pint Shop. We first got to taste a pea spirit which amazingly captured that freshly picked pea taste but in booze! Amazing. Their unique vaccuum distillation process means that they can capture delicate flavours in a spirit. The actual P Gin is made from Juniper (as required by gin, to be called Gin), fresh peas, mint and spices. It was very interesting indeed, the peas are less strong but you get a lovely fresh, mint, herby taste backed up with the obligatory juniper. Novel stuff.

Pint Shop opens tonight, and I believe it is already proving to be a big hit. Get there as soon as you can, it will be great. Find out more here. 

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Morston Hall, Norfolk

Every year we visit an excellent restaurant, with a Michelin star (or two) to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Last Sunday was our fourth year married and we carried on this excellent tradition with a trip to Morston Hall. Located on possibly the most Northerly Norfolk part of Norfolk we drove up on a blustery day looking forward to a sumptuous Sunday lunch in beautiful surroundings.

This might be the most positive restaurant review I've ever given - everything was brilliant - we started with a Kir and canapés in the cosy lounge - the two canapes were a fresh herb pate with a confit tomato and girolle cream with a crispy piece of ham hock. As Mr is vegetarian they also whipped up an additional vegetarian one, marinated chestnuts with pickled elderberries. The staff are so friendly, and we even had a visit from Chef Rich Bainbridge before lunch - to wish us a happy anniversary - such a lovely touch and excellent start.

The dining room is split into several rooms meaning you don't feel lost in a large restaurant. First we started with bread - poppy seed & fennel sourdough, a really lovely combination - perfectly crunchy on the outside and pillowy soft inside. As the lovely Dollybakes said in a recent post, it was genuinely upsetting how good this was. Bread is not going to be the same for me again. I also had some of the white sourdough which was just as delicious.

Sunday Lunch is 4 courses for £35 which also includes said canapes and coffee plus petit fours - very good value. We started with Cauliflower Soup with a cheese mousse and a chive oil - it looked like a very small portion when it arrived but once we dug in, it was very rich so a small portion is only required. A smooth base of cauliflower soup is whipped up with a rich cheese mousse and finished with a swirl of chive oil - I couldn't taste the chive too much but otherwise it was a fantastic start.

Second starters arrived - a beautifully poached salmon fillet for me sitting on a tomato butter sauce that tasted so fresh, summer tomatoes concentrated in to a sauce. Mr had gorgeous roasted beetroot with lots of thyme and a refreshing blackberry sauce - so much flavour for a simple vegetable dish. Often you can struggle with the vegetarian offering at fine dining restaurants, but nothing was too much trouble here - the vegetarian menu was just as inventive and tasty as the meatier option.

On to mains following the tradition of Sunday Roast but like you've never had before. Sage roasted celeriac - such a simple but great idea - fluffy on the side and crispy and smoky on the outside with a herby flavour throughout - they must do this on wood beforehand to get the crispy smokey flavour. Oh, and they put truffles on it too - truffles! Accompaniments included rich buttery fondant potato, silky confit carrot, mini Yorkshire pudding, roast parsnip and a lemon butter sauce.

Onto pudding - we both opted for a sticky toffee pudding - it had been the subject of much conversation earlier in the week on Twitter as it was being served at a conference I was organising - and it would have been rude not to try it at Morston Hall. This was textbook - dark, rich sponge covered in a dark, sticky sauce topped with a whiskey ice cream. Rib stickingly good, and we both really liked the ice cream, it wasn't too strong with whiskey as they can be sometimes.

Before our puddings arrived the waiter very kindly offered us a complimentary dessert wine, as we were celebrating our anniversary - such a great touch once again. He recommended an Hungarian dessert wine to go with our sticky toffee puddings, a great choice. I'm not much of a wine expert but the rich, golden dessert wine was a great match.

After a breather we were offered coffee which came with petit fours. Raspberry marshmallows and little green tea chocolate cakes. The marshmallows were great, and I got to have two as they contain pork gelatine, score! I wasn't so impressed with the green tea cakes, I'm not much of a fan of the matcha/green tea fad, luckily Mr thought they were great, so maybe just a matter of taste?

We thoroughly enjoyed our relaxed lunch at Morston Hall, the staff could not have been more helpful and each course was cooked beautifully with some surprising touches. We left feeling very happy, full and well looked after.

Morston Hall also do an Afternoon Tea which looks excellent, so if anyone fancies a trip to the Far East, sorry, Norfolk, there is an exquisite tea waiting for you and a willing companion.

Morston Hall
www.morstonhall.com

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Mushroom Lasagne

Vegetarians tend to get a raw deal when it comes to lasagne - either rubbery soy mince in a lacklustre sauce or underdone vegetables that tend to not belong in a lasagne. Or sometimes people seem to think vegetarians want to eat healthy lasagne, which is just wrong. I've made veggie lasagnes and despite being quite able to get flavour into soy or being able to cook vegetables, they just haven't had the comfort of a meat lasagne.

You can always trust Deb at the Smitten Kitchen to make things right - I always have faith in her vegetarian mains as she used to be a vegetarian herself. This mushroom lasagne recipe of hers will make for one very happy vegetarian, and one happy meat-eater who misses making a big pan of lasagne. It is cheesey, substantial and feels like a proper lasagne.

I splurged on some 'posh' mushrooms for this one, because I wanted it to be fantastic, so I used chanterelles, oyster mushrooms and chesnut mushrooms. However, if you don't want to spend all that much on mushrooms, chesnut mushrooms are just as good, and better than ordinary button mushrooms. Another thing to note, if you are cooking for vegetarians, Parmesan isn't vegetarian (animal rennet is used) but Sainsbury's and Tesco do a very good vegetarian 'Italian Hard Cheese' which tastes nearly the same.

I bought some fantastic fresh egg lasagne sheets from Natoora via Ocado, they are as good as making your own, and the pack makes one lasagne plus enough sheets to cut into strips for tagliatelle.

Find the recipe on Deb's blog here.

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