rose petal jam

'like the sea'

The subject of this post is what I say to anyone who asks me what an oyster tastes like. Isn't that true? I have tried really hard but I can't come up with a better description. They taste like the sea! I introduced Mum and Maggie to them recently when I ordered them for lunch when we were all in Edinburgh and they agreed. They do. (BTW we ate in The Ship in Leith which doesn't appear to have a website but is very very good and if you are ever in the area do pop in as the food was really memorable).

Anyway, this isn't a recipe, just some nice pictures of oysters and my favourite place to get them! We are going to the cottage this weekend and I will be nipping into Whitby to visit this wee stall.

What's that? You can't see the seafood? Oh Ok then...

Not that much better but they were busy and whilst happy to be photographed by their greediest customers (we go a lot) we didn't want to interupt their busy trade.

However we did buy these...

Aren't they GORGEOUS?

Now it is of course lovely to eat Oysters in slingbacks with a glass of champagne at the ready. But there is something unbeatable about eating them, with a squeeze of lemon, sat on Whitby Pier with the wind in your hair and the sound of seagulls in your ears, watching the boats go by.

Sit. Slurp. Sigh.

So if you are ever in Whitby, walk down the harbour on the side opposite the Church and Abbey, past Woolworths, towards the pier. Next to a Gyspy fortune telling caravan with a mysterious scarved lady you will find Nobles and three freshly shucked osyters for £2.

Guilty of simplicity

Do you have a dish that you make where the effort that goes in is inversely proportionate to how amazing it tastes? I have a couple and this one in particular makes me feel quite guilty! When I cook it for people I get embarrassed if they ask for the recipe as it’s so simple and requires so few, easily available ingredients that I feel a bit of a fraud. I really MUST do something about my belief that for something to be good or worthwhile it must be hard to do or difficult to attain. Must be my puritanical upbringing (JOKE mother).

This dish is something I created a few years ago and was one of the first things that I made up entirely from nowhere but my own head and what I thought would taste good. It was just after I discovered that coriander was actually really nice, after a childhood of disliking it. It also uses fresh chilli and has a wee kick and so went down very well with Dominic.

And as if it couldn’t get any better (see how I am learning to blow my own trumpet Janice?) it is

a. Good for you – low fat, good lean protein, contains veggies and

b. You can make it in well under 30 minutes – I’d say you could do it in 15 mins to be honest if you concentrated, didn’t have to root around for the ingredients and weren’t listening to The Archers at the same time.

I haven’t really had a name for it until now so…err….

Spicy prawn pasta with lime & coriander

serves two

Enough prawns for 2 people, defrosted
150g linguine pasta
Punnet of cherry tomatoes
Handful of coriander leaf and stalks, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
A tray of sugar snap peas
The juice and zest of a lime
1 fat red chilli, deseeded and chopped
2 big dollops of half fat crème fraiche
1 dessertspoon of olive oil

Do all of the chopping and defrosting
Put the pasta on to boil according to packets instructions
Put oil, garlic and chilli into a saute pan and gently soften. Add the tomatoes and cook out for 3 mins
Add the prawns, coriander and lime to the pan and mix together. Cook for minute the turn off the heat so the prawns don't become rubbery.
When pasta has 4 mins to go add the peas to the water.
When al dente, drain pasta and peas and add to prawn mixture.
Add the crème fraiche and combine everything together.

Serve, guiltily but defiantly!

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.