Preserved lemons

Here's a little experiment I undertook with some lemons that I had.  I sliced whole lemons rather thin and immersed them in different flavours so that I could use them for cooking and teas.  The jar on the top far left has the sliced lemon, demerrara sugar, sliced ginger and more lemon juice.  The top middle jar has the sliced lemons, whole dried chillies, sea salt and is topped with more lemon juice.  The jar on the top far right has the lemons, sliced garlic, sea salt and is topped with more lemon juice.  I'll keep shaking them and once I've opened them up I will let you know how they turned out.  I think the lemon and ginger mix will make a great lemon and ginger tea or an addition to a cheesecake.  The other two should work well in soups, roasts and all sorts.

Here are the jars before I topped them with the juice of more lemons.

I inadvertently was wearing my new tights while making my preserved lemons which all went towards brightening a grey day in London.

Cakewich by Fred & Friends

 Is it a massive sandwich? Is it a cake? No it's another brilliant product from

Fred & Friends

...the Cakewich!

Using this mold to make a sponge cake then get creative with your icing, jelly or jam and you can make your own cakewich.

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

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De Beauvoir Flower and Produce Show 2012

I unfortunately did not get a chance to go to the Orford Flower Show this year...but on my runs along the canal I kept seeing the sign for the De Beauvoir Flower and Produce Show so I knew that I would attend as I tend to cycle past there most days anyway.  When I say "there" I mean St Peter's Church, De Beauvoir Square and the bit in between where the event was held on Sunday 9th September 2012.

De Beauvoir bunting on the ramp to the crypt.

I was involved in the Christmas Market that was held here last year and it is a great space.  I went in the morning, after my run, to deliver anonymous preserves to be judged in the show.  I entered some newer flavours that I've been working on...greengage jam, gooseberry and green tea jam and a greengage chutney. I went back several hours later and here are some photos of the different classes of entries:

I love this delicious looking cake...complete with bunting!

Local young artists.

A cake that looks delicious, beautiful and is probably soothing all at the same time...genius.

Diorama flower power.

Fruit...

and veg.

Second prize for my greengage jam.

Second prize for my greengage chutney.

The preserves table...sadly my gooseberry and green tea jam didn't garner a ribbon but I was informed by a lovely gentleman outside that this year was highly competitive so I was very pleased with my two seconds from my three entries.  I donated my jars to be auctioned for charity at the end of the event.

Outside the De Beauvoir Gardners had loads of beautiful indoor and outdoor plants for sale.

There were the much talked about 2012 Rodent Racing events...

...as well as the Snail Games.

There were very excited creatures of the two and four legged variety gearing up for the Dog Show.

After the dog show I started to make my way back to my bicycle and learnt a fair bit about the tasty local De Beauvoir honey bees and resulting honey.

I won three prizes from my four tombola tickets! A faberge-esque egg which I will use for egg and soldiers, a necklace and an Ikea mystery...I'm not sure what the use is for item 610 but it was still very exciting to win it.

Just before left I treated myself to a delicious strawberry ice cream cone from the

Rosemary Branch mobile ice cream cart

.  Overall it was just a lovely way to spend a Sunday at a well-organised local event.

Ready Steady Cook!

It's Ready Steady Cook but not as you know it.  Ready Steady Cook nights as I know them started when I lived with my friend Aimee and one would call the other and simply say, "Ready Steady Cook?" When we arrived home that evening we would each have brought ingredients that did not exceed the amount of £5 and you use those ingredients to prepare a meal.  Then you get together, have a glass or two of wine and then reveal your ingredients.  The ethos of Ready Steady Cook nights is that by bringing random ingredients to the table you end up cooking something that you wouldn't normally cook.  The rules are that you should choose your ingredients based on what tickles your fancy, something that is reduced, in season, a bit random or something you haven't cooked with before.  I have to admit that there have been accusations made against me that my RSC ingredients were selected with a dish in mind, I choose to not dignify this with a response but will say that it is hard for me to do a shop this way so I really have to get to a zen-like state of mind and just select ingredients that are interesting to me.  Thankfully another rule is that the £5 does not include alcohol so once you've had a drink and a chat and revealed your ingredients you are free to pretend that you are on a cookery programme and discuss what gastronomic delights could be created with the ingredients before you.  You are allowed, within reason, to use general pantry type ingredients like flour, oil, butter, onions but each dish must use the main ingredients.  On this night back in April Aimee brought to the table:

• beef mince
• mozarella
• plums
• lemon
• bread

I brought:

• sardines
• samphire
• Camargue red rice
• sweet long peppers

In the history of RSC most dishes have been really tasty experiments although there have been some that didn't turn out as we'd hoped, one that springs to mind was a prawn and ricotta cannelloni which was probably the only dish that we didn't even finish.  Aims is a phenomenal cook and what I love about cooking with her is that she is quite experimental in her cooking style so this combined with the random nature of RSC always results in some exciting dishes. Sometimes we have a quite laborious RSC and cook about nine different tapas dishes, for this night we decided this RSC that our menu would be:

Starter 

• mini-burgers topped with mozzarella served on toasted baguettes topped with a pepper & plum relish

Main

• grilled sardines served with samphire and roasted peppers stuffed with red rice

Pudding

• plum oatcakes topped with plums poached in cava

The menu was set so it was time to get cooking! We divvy up the tasks with Aims doing the burgers, sardines, stuffing for the rice and me making the plum relish, samphire, oatcakes and poached plums.  Throughout the evening and as the wine flows we continue to pretend that there is a camera crew with us and implore them to, "let's take a look at what Aimee's doing with the sardines...do you have any tips for the audience about grilling fish?" - of course she does!

We made the relish with the plums, long red pepper, onion, red wine vinegar, six-pepper jelly and some salt and pepper.

We added some seasonings to the mince made little burgers and topped with mozzarella after they had been grilled.

The sardines we kept simple and just grilled with lots of juice from the lemon.

I always have homemade oatcakes around as they are handy snacks and make brilliant bases for a quick pudding.  For these I simply added butter to oats and we put in some chopped plums and some of my plum jam and baked.

 Ready Steady Cook Starter

 mini-burgers topped with mozzarella served on toasted baguettes  

topped with a pepper & plum relish

Ready Steady Cook Main

grilled sardines served with samphire and roasted peppers stuffed with red rice 

Ready Steady Cook Pudding

plum oatcakes topped with plums poached in cava

Since Aims and I no longer live together it makes a fun and inexpensive way to spend an evening together.  This was quite a satisfying RSC in that everything was relatively easy to cook, everything was really tasty and we had plenty of catching up time...if we scored the RSCs this would be right up there in the top three. Perhaps that is the next evolution of RSC, that we each mark the night at the end in areas of creativity, taste and execution...sounds like Aims and I are due another RSC!

Corsican Bunting

Bunting spotted in Saint-Florent in Corsica.

De Beauvior Bunting

 

Bunting from the De Beaviour Flower and Produce show.I will be posting more about this in the next few days!

  

City Bunting

Night time bunting spotted near to St Paul's Cathedral...thanks to Sarah and Ashley of Squirrel Modelling Agency and sorry for the photographers blurry shot!

Bobbie the Bobbin Bicycle

Here's Bobbie the Bobbin Bicycle not long after I got her from

Bobbin Bicycles

three years ago.  I can't believe I've never properly posted about her as she is such a huge part of my life.  She's actually a purple Glorie bicycle and it was love at first sight. Actually it was more like stiff competition from a Pashley Princess but after test driving each two times around Myddleton Square when the Bobbin Bicycle shop was on Arlington Way.  I took a Glorie out for a third go and decided that she just seemed to get going a bit quicker than the Pashley and I had more fun on the Glorie.  From test drive to purchase to everytime I stopped by this shop or while they were at St John Street the whole Bobbin crew were so relaxed, helpful and lovely.  I even brought them some chutney after they tweaked a dynamo for me free of charge.  The next decision was which colour - at the time they were available in green, red, blue, black and purple.  After much deliberation I went with purple which is a colour that I love and I felt it was an everyday colour. 

Not long after I had Bobbie I started doing regular markets, lugging 60 kilos of chutney around in suitcases and backpacks which resulted in backache and bruising.  I was trading at a View Tube event and explaining my situation to a gentleman as he was sampling some six-pepper jelly.  He said, "You need to get yourself a cycle trailer, go speak to the guys here," and handed me his card, he was the proprietor of

Bikeworks

near Victoria Park.  I went there the next day and they showed me their different cycle trailers and I ordered a

Carry Freedom Y-Frame trailer

which arrived at Bikeworks a few days later and they set it up for me and gave me some cycle trailer tips as I was a bit nervous.  The Y-Frame trailer is one of the best purchases that I have ever made, along with Bobbie of course. It has meant that I can cycle up to 90 kilos of chutney or whatever around town with ease.  Here are a few of the loads that Bobbie has transported:

I eventually got rid of my wicker basket on the front because I prefer to see the road and I like the look of Bobbie without a basket.  I did attach some Basel wire panier baskets to the rear rack which are amazing! They fold out when needed and it means that I can place any handbag, shopping, etc in there and fold them up when they're empty.

This was probably the heaviest load most awkward load that Bobbie has coped with, a red antique chair is on the trailer protected by a duvet and the wire paniers are stuffed with all sorts and the rear rack is topped with my Patagonia courier bag which is bursting at the seams.

This was an awkward load which required many bungee cords.  I took two redundant printers to the St John Community Centre where young people fix them up and sell them.  One is an A3 printer and both were incompatible with my Mac drivers.

I've also used Bobbie and the trailer to transport a sewing machine, locker, many large shopping and wine purchases as well as countless trips back and forth to market.  Bobbin Bicycles are now all over the world and in so many amazing varieties and colours, sadly I think the Glorie is no longer offered.  Friends have called her the Rolls-Royce of bicycles.  She's a proper workhorse and a dream to cycle...she is a bit heavy, but she's my Bobbie.

Canal Bunting

When the weather permits I run along the canal and the past two weeks have been gloriously sunny and there has been plenty of bunting spotting.

Not technically on the canal but part of my canal run on the way home.

Whitecross Street Bunting

Whitecross St looking towards Old Street.