rose petal jam

Let the sunshine in!

What do you do when you get up on a grey and wet Saturday? Make a breakfast full of sunshine! I got up this morning and it was the worst kind of start to a weekend. The sky was gunmetal grey, the light looked ominous and I could hear the gentle pitter patter of rain against the windows.

As I walked into the kitchen to put the kettle on I spied two juicy peaches and started to think what I could do with them. As Dom was going to the gym after breakfast I knew that a peach alone, even if I poached it in rosewater and served it with Greek yoghurt…mmm… it wouldn’t be enough.

So what else to do? And then it came to me. Roasted peaches with American pancakes and maple syrup!

I first had American pancakes in a proper American diner in San Mateo, California in 1998 and have never forgotten the experience. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a crepe and pancake Tuesday is always celebrated at our house, but there is something really satisfying about their American cousins that I just love. Light and slightly stodgy at the same time and usually with the addition of maple syrup and some sort of fruit, blueberries, raspberries, I am not fussy.

Roasted Peaches with American Pancakes and Maple Syrup

you will need;

2 peaches
maple syrup
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
115g plain flour
150ml full fat milk
oil/ butter for frying
some unrefined caster sugar

Firstly, halve and stone the peaches and then cut into eighths. Put on a baking tray covered with foil or baking paper and sprinkle with unrefined caster sugar. Not too much, maybe a scant desert spoon for the lot.

Put in a preheated oven, maybe 175 degrees C and cook until they have gone slightly caramelised and a mixture of puckered and shiny. Remember to turn after about 20 mins – takes 35 mins in total but keep an eye on as depending on how ripe your peaches are will take longer/ less time. Mine were firm but with some yielding.

For the pancake batter, mix all ingredients with a whisk or in a blender until completely smooth. The batter should be thick but capable of being poured/ dolloped.

Heat a frying pan. We have a tefal pancake pan which is good as it has no edge and therefore it is easy to get your spatula underneath the pancakes when it’s time to turn. Don’t even try to flip American style pancakes, it will ruin your day before it’s properly begun and we wouldn’t want that now would we?

Oil the pan and get making the cakes. You need enough mixture to make a pancake which is about 10cm in diameter. Cook on a medium heat. You’ll notice that air bubbles will start to appear on the raw side of the pancake in the batter. When there are many of these and the cake is looking golden around the edges then carefully, using a spatula, flip over to the other side. Cook for another 2 mins or so until you feel the pancake is cooked through.

Once all you pancakes are cooked (you should get about 6 out of this recipe) then stack on plates, top with the roasted peaches and a generous slug of maple syrup.

Whatever the weather is doing, you’ll have sunshine and thoughts of California inside and that’s what counts.

Reclaim your lunch hour

We as a nation don’t make enough time for weekday lunches. All too often we grab an unsatisfying sandwich or carton of soup from somewhere and eat it whilst still sat at our desks. Not only is this bad for our health and digestion, it is bad for our souls and our overall happiness. All meals are an opportunity to stop, relax. To talk to friends and loved ones. To daydream, read a book or do the crossword.

We Brits need to reclaim our lunch breaks. Get away from our offices or workstations and take time to slowly, thoughtfully eat something that will fuel and uplift us and take us through the rest of the working day. Taking time to make a fabulous lunch is a way of telling yourself that you’re worth it. That’s hard to do with a bought egg and cress on white plastic bread.

Currently where I work I have no choice but to eat at my desk. We’re in the middle of building works and don’t have a staff room. However, I do have a choice whether to pop across to the evil empire (Tescos) for a rubbishy sandwich or over vinaigretted salad or to bring something from home; something delicious, nutritious and mood enhancing

Yes it takes time, and yes you have to be prepared, but I will gladly trade 20 minutes of TV watching etc in the evening to ensure that I have something to look forward to come 12.30pm the following day.

Feta, grape and lentil salad

This is a gorgeous lunchtime treat. The combination of ingredients may be hard to imagine together but the nuttiness of the rice and lentils, the sharp, salty tang of the feta, the sweet and juicy grapes and the ping of the parsley (See what Sunila has done to me!!) combine to make a salad that is comforting, uplifting and lively all at the same time. Perfect.

Makes enough for two lunchboxes

1/2 mug of uncooked brown rice
1 small tin of brown lentils
a handful of red grapes
2 matchboxed sized pieces of feta crumbled up
small handful of parsley, chopped
juice of one large lemon

Cook the rice and allow it to cool. I cook on a very low heat for 20 mins with the lid on, then turn the heat off and let it stand for 10 mins. In the meantime, crumble the feta, chop the herbs and halve the grapes. Drain the lentils.

Combine everything in a bowl. Add the lemon juice. Divide into two lunchboxes. Leave until totally cool before putting the lids on. Stick in the fridge overnight and don’t forget to take with you the next day. Nothing worse that getting to lunchtime and realising your lunch is several miles away. Spoken from experience. You can also pack a little bag of salad leaves to eat alongside - watercress would be lovely.

the joys of garlic

My sisters lovely boyfriend/ partner (never sure what the current description is) has an allotment and is always popping round with stuff for us to eat. His lettuce is phenomenal, so thick and tasty and totally unlike that which you buy in the supermarkets and greengrocers. Anyhow, his latest offering was his first bulb of garlic of the season. We had never seen garlic with its whole stem – all 60cms or so of it, and the sight of the fat little bulb with its pretty purplish skin and white underneath makes a very pretty picture as you can see.

We decided straight away that we should honour it by making garlic bread with it, a big favourite with me and a fab accompaniment to the mussel dish described earlier.

Dom took charge of the making of the butter and having whizzed the garlic and the parsley in our wet and dry grinder, made an amazing, vibrant green butter to smear into the slices of the fine baguette we’d bought that morning. It looked almost unreal it was so green and again, makes a very pretty picture.

In hindsight we used too much butter (yes, it IS possible) but it was utterly delicious and lost none of it’s vibrancy in cooking. It went so well with the mussels, especially to help mop up all the lovely juices.

Green garlic bread

You will need:

A large handful of parsley, more than you think necessary
1/3 of a pack of butter
A whole head of garlic
A medium baguette (about 30cm long or so)
salt

Finely chop the parsley and the garlic, in a blender if possible to get really fine pulp/ paste.
Mash into the butter and season with salt.
Cut slits almost all the way down the bread, about 2cm apart. Smear the butter into the cracks making sure both sides of bread have some butter on.
Wrap tightly in foil and bake in the oven at about 200 degrees c for 10 mins.
Open the foil and bake open for another 5 mins.
Serve. With a napkin.
Don’t go out, breath on strangers or kiss anyone else who hasn’t eaten it with you.

In season or not in season? You decide...

First of all, slapped wrists for me for cooking a meal that isn’t strictly speaking in season. However, I did find fresh, live mussels at Fenwicks fish counter so they were there! They wanted me to eat them! Honest! (STOP PRESS, Fenwicks in Newcastle is getting a Yo! Sushi bar – very excited).

I absolutely love mussels. Gone are the days when I used to scream if my mum showed me one or tried to make me eat one, usually out of a polysterene cup on a seafront in Yorkshire somewhere! I hated the look of them but now I think they’re really beautiful with their blue black shells and the gorgeous, frilly, peachy yellow flesh nestling inside.

I’ve recently taken to eating bacon again and I have noticed over the years that on many a restaurant menu they combine mussels with bacon so I thought I’d have a go at concocting something with both ingredients. It occurs to me as I write this that pancetta would also be good. And then I saw a lovely fat bulb of fennel in the greengrocers which was begging to be sliced up and roasted. So this little beauty is what I came up with.

Mussels with roasted fennel and crispy bacon

Serves two

200g of live mussels, cleaned and debearded
1 bulb of fennel, sliced and with tops chopped for sprinkling
2 medium white onions
1 mug of fresh chicken stock
175ml white wine
Handful of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
150ml single cream
2 slices of good quality smoked back bacon
Salt & pepper
A knob of butter
Olive oil


Slice the fennel and place on a baking tray. Season, drizzle with olive oil and roast in a medium oven (150 c) for about 45 mins until squishy and slightly frazzled at edges.

In a frying pan, place the snipped up bacon and fry gently until crispy but not burnt (a fine balance, don’t leave alone!) Set aside in a bowl.

Slice the onions and sauté in a pan (one big enough to hold everything else too) with a knob of butter and some olive oil (about 1 dessert spoon) until squishy and a sort of light caramel colour. Tear up the fennel and add in. Add a mug of chicken stock and a glass of decent white wine. Bring to a simmer.

Add the mussels and shake around in the juices. Put the lid on the pan and leave for 4 mins shaking every so often.

After 1 min, pour in the cream and place lid back on for a further minute.

Take off of the heat, add the parsley, chopped fennel tops and bacon. Stir and serve in deep bowls with plenty of the broth. Serve with garlic bread, a smile and the rest of the wine.