Photos From the Weekend

I suppose these days you will have a better chance to find me in a restaurant than at the gym. This week-end, I met up with old friends at s&m in Spitafields market. If you want comfort food and a blast from the past, you could do worse than this small fronted restaurant in the heart of what has become a very trendy area, hint hint : you will need to book, though it seat 100, it fills up very quickly

The food was OK and no I did not give this picture the photoshop treatment, yes the glossy aspect comes straight from a cornflour overdose. I was not allowed, by my conscience, to order 3 kinds of mash topped with chips, so I went for the very conventional veggie bangers and cheddar mash, good.

On the way back, as I sat in the tube for hours, I was entertained by an unexpected companion:

Food Blogger Connect 09

I am telling you next time somebody tells me "blogging is for nerds who are scared about meeting others in real life", or "blogging is a silly activity for sad people" or "there is no point in blogging", or any variation of the three, I will get my designer handbag out and will inflict some real damage.

Blogging is a real pleasure, meeting bloggers via the net is great but meeting 50, or so, food bloggers in a restaurant is paradise.

Last Saturday paradise was organised (somebody has to organise paradise otherwise it would be hell) by Beth from Dirty Kitchen Secrets, Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry, Mowie of Mowielicious and Jamie of Life's a feast. I have always been a tat jaleous of the Food-Bloggers Conference in the States, and now we have got our very own, hurray. A array of talented bloggers arrived to the Levant by plane, train, tube (that was not easy) from France, Germany, Holland and of course the UK, I am sure I have missed a few places in betweeny.

You immediately know when you meet like minded people, it does not matter where you start the conversation, they are there with you, we talked about things that matter to us, I met well I was going to say new people but are these people new to me, I already knew some, I had read their blog.
The Lebanese mezze was awesome: hummus, falafel, tomatoes topped with haloumi, chicken and lamb skewers, meat ball, warm pittas and of course that splendid dish (pictured) with pinenuts and things which name I don't remember, so if anybody out there recognises it, I would not mind being informed of its denomination. Wine was from the Beeka valley, next time you are in a supermarket go for Lebanese red wine, it never disappoint.

Then we paid attention, we were told about photography by Meeta and Kang, finding your voice by Jamie and Jeanne, copyright sorry...time was up for me, I had to leave. It was already getting near time to go to another event about which I will tell you next.

Can't wait for Food Blogger Connect 2010

Taleggio Recipe

I can't believe it, the result of a recent survey has revealed that mothers rotate 9 recipes to feed their families. 9! what does that mean?

At first I thought that is never enough for 365 days then I projected myself back to my childhood. I can't recall my mum having more than ....5 recipes to her repertoire and she was not working outside, she worked hard looking after me, she is not lazy, she is very dynamic. So what does it mean?

Without analysing the stuff too carefully it seems to me that people are not confident using new ingredients. They may have 9 only because they are confident cooking them, these 9 are quick, easy and well rehearsed and they will never hear "I am not eating that". But what about trying out all these ingredients which are out there? what about the pleasure of discovery?

Let's take Taleggio, never contemplated cooking with it before last month and then as I was hoping in the cheese alley, there it was, I grab a paquet. It is good in salads but I opted for the potato and onion gratin. Dead fast.

Take one large onion, one garlic clove, peel, chop, fry in a little olive oil, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to a high 205 in the meantime peel 3 large baking potatoes (about 800g), cut into thin slices.

slice 250 g of taleggio

In a baking dish, layer potato, onion, taleggio in what ever order and fashion. Finish with taleggio

Cook for 30 minutes at 200.

link to the nine recipes story

Interflora Christmas Hamper Has Arrived.......

Interflora! hampers! nooo, everybody knows that Interflora's job is to deliver flowers.... wrong. Well, right, they do but the companie has diversified, they also "do" champagne & balloons, personalised gifts and hampers for special occasions and when it comes down to hampers, there is no "specialer" occasion than Xmas.

Let me tell you something else: I love my job. Sometime ago, I wrote a recipe for Interflora, in return, I was highly delighted when I received one of their Christmas hamper. What a treat. If you were looking for brilliant present to distant (in geographic terms) friends, have a look their hampers Christmas collection.

First of all, you get the thrill of the delivery. My hamper arrived in a black box, classy. Then, on opening, you get the excitment of "this is all mine and this is very nice", tightly snug in the black box was a wicker basket. Followed by "wow".... look at all these Christmas treats! Being really well presented, this hamper has 3 levels, 3 times the pleasure of discovery.

Would you like to know what was in my hamper then here is a quick peep

but for the real professional run down of all the goodies have a look at the video

Partridge Breasts with Chocolate Sauce

Serge & Pat: She is a very good cook and he is almost always hungry. All they eat is locally produced, organically grown etc etc, and when you have friends of the sort, it gets a little tricky to plan menus. Not that they would not eat any thing and every thing because they would, but when they come over I am so very pleased that I go the extra mile.

So it was time for game, not the playing kind of game, the bird kind of game, I plump for Partridge and whom better to order my organic food from but Abel and Cole, they tell you exactly where their products come from. I ordered a pack 5 breasts, a total of 250g which cost £ 3.75, this is fantastic value for money. It arrived in a cool box, perfectly pack and delivered with a smile.

Partriges are in season from September to February. The big problem with this kind of bird is that it has a tendency to dry out when cooking it but not if you are extra vigilant. And of course I was....not.

The meat was just delicious, I don't think I ever ate partridge before and honestly you should give it a go, it was firm, tasty just like it should be.

As for the recipe, He picked it and what may have sounded a little crazy worked really well. It is a Sophie Grigson's recipe. Sadly Serge does not eat sweet things so the chocolate sauce was not to his taste.

Partridge with Chocolate Sauce

recipe adapted for the quantity

5 Partridge breasts

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

5-8 garlic cloves, peeled but whole

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

300 ml (10fl oz) dry white wine

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Salt and fresly ground black pepper

20g bitter or plain chocolate grated

Served with roasted sweet potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes.

Brown the breasts in 2 tablespoon of oil in a frying-pan over a high heat.

Transfer to a casserole.

Fry the onion in the same oil, adding a little more if needed, then transfer to the casserole.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the chocolate and potatoes.

Bring up to a gently simmer.

Cover tightly and continue simmering for about 10 minutes, until the partridges are tender. Transfer to a warm serving dish, surround with cooked vegetables and keep warm while you finish the sauce.

Stir the chocolate into the remaining liquid in the pan and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

Rub the contents of the pan through a sieve, pushing through as much of the onion and garlic as you can to thicken and flavour the sauce.

Stir, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Pour the sauce over the partridges and potatoes and serve.

Presentation:

When I was in Mexico, one evening, in a restaurant, I ordered chicken with a chocolate sauce. Next to our table were a couple of French people, when the dish arrived the guy commented assertively, very loudly, in this kind of unmistakable French direct elegance. "Look at this it looks like Shit" so one piece of advice do not cover the breast completly with the sauce.

Does a Potato Count as One of Your 5 a Day?

The answer is no. Potato is carb., on the other end Sweet potato is a vegetable and counts in "5 a day".

Sometimes I get asked food questions, I am always happy to do the research for you, so don't hesitate to use pebblesoup's email address which you will find on the left hand-side.

Now pay attention here are some guidelines for your 5 a day
1/2 a very large fruit such as mango, melon but avocado too
A whole medium size fruit : apple, peach
A couple of little specimen: figs, plums
A handful of smaller ones blueberries etc
A small bowl of mixed salad/ soup
A wine glass.........of fruit juice

A handful of veg including beans, lentils, chickpeas and .....sweet potato

the picture is a repro of Van Gogh's potato eaters

The BloggerAid Cook Book is Here

Earlier this year, when I joined "BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine", I had made up my mind: I was going to make a small difference. You see, I don't join very often. The result has exceeded my expectations. This is what happens when 140 determined food blooggers from 60 different countries come together with one goal in mind " to help alleviating hunger".

A Cookbook of original recipes from bloggers around the world. Each recipe has been created/adapted/tried/tasted/ especially for this one marvellous project. BloggerAid CFW supports the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations frontline agency and one of WFP’s largest areas of assistance is called School Meals. 100% of the profits generated by the sale of "The BloggerAid Cook Book" will go to the School Meal project.

So you can see why I am very proud to have a recipe in this book. “The BloggerAid Cook Book” is available for purchase online only, through the Create Space estore. The estore is a connection of Amazon. You will not find the book on the Amazon.com site – royalties for the School Meals Program are much higher through the estore. And these kids need all the help we can give them.

If you would like to purchase the book click here, thank you.

The venture does not end there, BloggerAid changing the face of famine is looking for new ideas to continue the work, if you would like to join, click on the icon on the top left of this blog.

Perfect Posset

Posset: I love this 15th century word. I love it even more now that I know it has several spellings: poshote, poshotte, cute isn't it? Further more it can be used as a verb when a baby brings up curdled milk: he,she possets, much nicer than puke don't you think?

The original posset was a drink of hot milk, spices curdled with wine, beer or vinegar used to cure colds. It moved on from the original spicy custard with strong alchol content to sweet dessert.

Mine is a LIME POSSET RECIPE found in the free ASDA Magazine.

Put the grated zest of 3 limes , 125ml freshly squeezed lime juice and 3 tbsp lime cordial in a bowl and chill 15 minutes to let the flavours infuse. Put a 397g can condensed milk and 150ml double cream in a bowl and whip for about 3 minutes or until it thickens slightly. Add the lime mixture and whisk for 1-2 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Spoon into six glasses and chill. serves 6