An Ode to Summer and to Stonefruit

The dessert equivalent of a fruity snog from someone you rather fancy

This little piece is about the humble stone fruit. It's been a great season for apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums this year. Early summer as the days hinted at warmth I ate them as they were, early sunlight streaming through the skylight, hacking off pieces with a little paring knife while I distractedly read the paper.

As August progressed and the weather settled into a constant steady heat I felt they needed jazzing up a little, one sunny afternoon they accompanied a fruity Wensleydale from the local farmers market and some idle girly chatter. Another relaxed evening they happily plonked themselves in some honeyed Greek yoghurt stacked high with bashed walnuts.

As the season draws to a close and the nights get colder, they, just like I, deserve to be warmed up a little.

Last night I roasted a whole heap of them with some vanilla and served the hot syrupy, sweet and gooey fruits with some beautiful cold organic ice cream.

If you aren't salivating yet, I don't want to speak to you any more.

Also, here's the recipe.

Roasted Stonefruits for a Chilly September night (c/o BBC GoodFood)

Ingredients 

175g of golden caster sugar
1 vanilla pod (split in two)
5 cardamom pods
Zest and the juice of 1 lime
6 apricots, halved and stoned (no illicit substances here)
3 peaches, quartered and stoned
3 nectarines, quartered and stoned
I also added 2 plums because they looked lonely

First, pre-heat your oven to get a bit of warmth in your kitchen brrr. Next get out your trusty food processor. If you don't have one, then go buy one! Now! They are only around £30, you have no excuse.

Once you've returned back from John Lewis with your brand new food processor (welcome back and congratulations, you won't regret it), blitz your sugar, lime junk, cardamom pods (not the whole thing, just the seeds- I probably should have mentioned that earlier), your vanilla pod (callously split in two and hacked to pieces) and all your sugar.

Now, I know what you're thinking, holy fuck that's a lot of sugar. And you are right. But just go with it.

So whizz all of that together until your sugar goes all soggy and awesome and then pour into a baking dish over all your nicely cut up fruit. I added my desecrated vanilla pods into the mix as well, mainly because they cost me a bloody fortune and they make it look all 'Jamie Oliver'.

Stick it in your hot oven for about 20-25 minutes, keep an eye on it and move the fruit around if some are looking more sticky and brilliant than others.

I served mine with Green and Blacks Organic ice cream, and whole lot of laughs.

Bye bye Summer, Autumn, let's be 'avin you!

Foodie Sitting Still

I’ve recently discovered the wondrous joy of sitting still in my life. It has been a conscious effort to do so, a mysterious warm comfort blanket of stability, of knowing where I’m going to live and work for the next couple of years, of setting down roots to nurture into a sturdy oak upon which I can lean and read my Kindle. For a frantic frequent traveller who has been a post-doc in flux for four busy years. This feels remarkably nice.

I made the decision to sit still after a recent spate of awful travelling luck. It began in Stockholm, having been privy to a delayed flight and having the misfortune to arrive into Heathrow as bewildered as a baby deer as the whole terminal was in a state of chaos due to wayward plane catching fire resulting in a temporary shut down. You don't need me to tell you that Heathrow in crisis at 2am is not a fun place to be. The mania of fraught, worried and wordless Swedes, the screaming of understandably cranky children, the patience-wearing-thin-but-still-wearing-a-veil-of-politeness British Airways Terminal 5 staff handing out baggage reclaim forms to snatching dismissive hands, the bad Costa coffee. After dragging my sorry behind home at 3am sans suitcase, I was a bit pissed off.

I returned home 10kg lighter to find that to add insult to injury, some genius criminal mastermind had stolen the majority of my money and was living it up in Singapore. I imagined him/her gleefully withdrawing hundreds of pounds at a whim, presumably to sit in fancy hotels and drink Singapore Slings, glasses clinking in the hazy afternoon sunlight, the muffled sound of the busy city below punctuated with endless toasts: ‘to fraud!’, ‘to illegal cash withdrawal!’, ‘to the poor girl in her overdraft at the age of 29!’ . Or at least that’s how I imagine it.

A few days later after navigating a mind-boggling British Airways baggage reclaim system and eventually resorting to Tweeting them directly because it was easier (what have we become?), my sorry suitcase made it’s triumphant return, the slight squeak of the wheel mirroring my residual emotional trauma.

After my money was returned, my credit cards reinstated, clothes unpacked and Buddhist abandonment of all possessions ceased. I made the decision to stop flying about for a bit and stay at home more.

The decision has been a rather fruitful one. I’ve begun to read more. I have time to make espresso and listen to the Archers on a Sunday (poor Lilian). I know vaguely what’s happening in Syria. I’ve swapped permanent shoulder damage from heavy bag straps to resting and reading in the bath. I've swapped consumption of dubious WHsmith sandwiches at a dingy train stations to crusty homemade bread topped with in-season crab and a dollop of glistening homemade mayonnaise.

So this weekend I will be sitting still and making Welsh Rarebit. The food of my people. Such a dish combines some of my favourite things: Wales, cheese and a lovely ale.

Recipe and obligatory insta-grainy photo to follow.

Bon weekend

The Art of (Coffee) Happiness at The Bean

The art of frothy happiness

I've been spending a lot more time in Nottingham recently, mainly due to cleaning out my bank account on spontaneous trips to America, having lots of work on and freak weather conditions making me not want to leave the house.

My weekends have settled into a happy routine, Friday night laundry, Saturday morning brunch at home with the paper, Saturday night dinner with friends usually huddled around a heater with a glass of red wine, and Sunday at The Bean.

Since my return to the UK, a good cup of coffee, much like a good man, is hard to find. Just when I was on the brink of giving up the thought of ever experiencing frothy milked joy in this country, The Bean came upon it's glorious milky horse to come rescue me. Ok this is a little over the top, I've had two coffees from there today.

The location of this aforementioned wondrous place is nondescript, in fact, you wouldn't even give it much thought. Curiously tucked in a side street next to Sainsbury's, it's view and location isn't what you would call beautiful. However, on closer inspection, the place is perfect.

The formula is simple, expertly made coffees with great milk art (I'm a sucker for a milky leaf or heart), simple and cheesy toasted sandwiches and a happy, friendly atmosphere. I almost always sit downstairs amid the Sunday papers, but upstairs has a tranquil atmosphere where you could type away on your laptop for hours on end without being disturbed. If it's there I always go for the tuna melt washed down with a large cappuccino. And I nearly always end up staying for far longer than I anticipated.

I've taken many a coffee connoisseur there to obtain their opinion. International coffee lover DP commented that it had a mild, drinkable quality (the taste of the beans not overpowering). New Zealand arrival SI noted that there may well be some kind of illicit drug laced within the milk that makes it so moorish. You can't usually stop at one.

So, to an unexpected lovely place. The site of coffees with old and new friends and sometimes many solo hours of contemplation about life, love and what to have for dinner.

Thank you Bean for making my winter that little bit better

The Bean
1 Stoney Street, Beeston
http://www.coffee-beans.co.uk/

Have your Steak and Eat It: The Meaty Version

To contradict everything vegetarian that I wrote in my previous post I absolutely love steak. For me there is nothing better than a great rare steak, a dollop of English mustard, a glass of red wine, some triple cooked chips and a big pot of hollandaise or pepper sauce for dunking.

When I lived in Melbourne I was absolutely spoilt for choice with venues serving up fantastic steak, I frequented two hatted Rockpool on not one, not two but three occasions (ah so that's where my money went). I also enjoyed beautiful dining at Steer with handsome housemate PW and Euro ladies man LM on more than one occasion and I reguarly visited the Napier for great value kangaroo with Melbourne foodie RF.

So moving back to the UK was a bit of a steak anti-climax. The problem is that despite watching a hundred videos educating me on how to cook the perfect steak I absolutely suck at it. I do everything by the book, I season the meat, leave it to get to room temperature, smear it with oil before putting it in the scorching hot pan as oppose to pouring the oil directly in. I leave it sizzle for one side for the appropriate amount of time for medium-rare NOT turning it (for fear of all hell breaking loose) until agonisingly eventually turning it to reveal a blackened bleeding mess rather than the beautiful scorched perfectly done meat ala Heston or Jamie.

I didn't know what I was doing wrong, well actually I did. I firmly decided that steak is a dish best served in a restaurant. From then on I vowed never to attempt to cook it but to jump at the opportunity to eat it whenever i'm in decent restaurant. With that in mind when I first moved to Nottingham I took my mum to a 'gastropub' in the Lace Market. Now I'm no snobby food critic but it was bloody awful, and by bloody I mean literally...bloody awful.

With the taste of failure and badly cooked pepper sauce in my mouth I vowed not only not to cook steak again but never to mention it's name in Nottingham. Steak was dead to me, that was until I went to The Library.

The Library (http://www.thelibrarybarkitchen.co.uk/) is a great little spot in Beeston, looking a little worn around the edges now and forgiving it's somewhat crazy menu and bizarre outdated website it's a great place for some candlelit treats and a damn good glass of Australian Shiraz. I eyed the steak nervously, could I do it? Could I dare risk £13 of my hard earned academic cash to run through the gauntlet of chewy meat and bitter disappointment? Feeling in a ballsy mood I decided to go for it, and for once, my steak gamble paid off. The meat was beautiful, the chips were perfection, I could have happily drank my pepper sauce neat, even the salad was brilliant.

I'm raving now, but seriously, if like me your are jaded by steak and apparently incapable of achieving anything remotely edible at home go to the Library. Just go, book a train, do it.

Actually i'm going to do it, right now. I'd better get moo-ving
Now THAT was bloody awful.

Have your Tofu Steak and Eat It: Best Vegetarian in Nottingham

Nottingham in Spring

Spring has well and truly sprung in Nottingham, the once barren trees are sprayed with beautiful pink blossoms, Britain seems to be undergoing a mysterious 'heatwave' spurring ridicious newspaper headlines ('Britain swelters under 19 degree heat') and the fields are full of painfully cute lambs bouncing around making me not want to eat them. With that in mind I have turned my altruistic attention to vegetarian food.

The last few years seems to have brought a new wave of vegetarians into my life. They are everywhere, ordering salad and nut roast and introducing me to new concepts like tofu, tempeh and facon and...um carrots (I'm a little new to this vegetarian thing).

I love my new vegetarian possy and I do concede that it is a very healthy way to live ones life especially if an odd bit of fish is consumed here and there. That said I will never say no to that rare steak but I can finally see the appeal of not hurting our fuzzy friends and packing more vitamins and minerals into your diet as a bonus.

So it's time to put away the steak knife and pick up the organic lactose free soya protein (is that a thing?) in my tour of the best vegetarian eats in the city.

Alley Cafe
Cannon Court, Nottingham NG1 6JE
http://www.alleycafe.co.uk/ (this link sometimes doesn't work, that's how laid back it is)

Tofu-licious

I love Alley Cafe, for many reasons but the main one being when I visited they had an 'awesome burger' on the menu which I attempted to order only to be very politely turned down because 'the burger was so awesome it sold out'. Touche Alley Cafe touche you have won me over.

Upon my first visit to Alley Cafe with a gang of work buddies with the awesome burger sold out I was forced to go for an alternative and ended up getting the tempeh burger dished up in an organic bun with loads of veg, house made coleslaw and the best sweet potato wedges I have had in a long time with a nice dollop of chutney. I took a glance around the room, people were smiling, knitting, eating delicious looking pizzas. There was great music playing, the bar staff looked energised and full of their 5 a day. I had a bucket 'o' hoegaarden (anyone else think it looks like a bucket?). This place is like the holy grail.

For my second visit I dragged my accidental starved vegetarian food and quirky cafe lover KM and attempted to stun his hunger senseless with some vegetables stat. I changed tactic slightly by getting the bean burrito which was slathered in cheese and full of delicious non-meaty beans (though this time a tad dry).

My revived dining partner ordered tofu steak on a bed of sweet potato mash and some oddly delicious tomato based gravy. The tofu was slightly charred giving it that authentic Burger King taste, I'm not really selling it here but trust me, it was delicious. Our meal was washed down with some German beer and some organic lager which was deliciously tasty. As we ate a girl in camel boots casually sketched the scene, a hapless couple tucked into some wine and frosty probably post-marital tension (we reasoned they were working on their relationship discord by eating hemp seeds, is there anything hemp seeds can't do?), a big gang of nerdy students arrived to order pizzas and occasionally stare at ladies backsides to the gentle soundtrack of Bob Marley. Lovely atmosphere, great food. A real find.

So in conclusion, visit Alley Cafe do it now. The place is so awesome it might sell out.

Cafe Roya (aka Flying Goose)
33 Chilwell Road, Beeston NG9 1EH
http://www.caferoya.co.uk/

I have recently moved to Beeston and I'm just a little bit in love with it, aside from being full of Asian groceries and local farm fresh produce the place really feels like a community and I get the sense that it's full of some really good hidden foodie finds. My trip to Cafe Roya confirmed that suspicion. My work friend and fellow Beeston lover LM arranged a little Beeston dinner at the Flying Goose, confusingly Cafe Roya by night.

The place is tiny and beautiful, filled with candles and two other tables of happy vegetarian diners. As soon as I spied the simple menu I knew that I was in for a special treat. It was simple, seasonal and divided into a three courses with only a few options for each. True to form and being a sodium rather than a sweet lover I decided to have a starter rather than a dessert and picked the haloumi skewers with caramelised onions and a shredded salad with lemony yogurt. It was absolutely delicious, I could have happily licked the plate.

The beauty of fried cheese

Second course was a no brainer, if pie is on the menu there is a 95% certainty that I will order it. This wasn't just any pie, the homemade egg washed crust was crisp and perfect and it was packed with delicious porcini mushrooms and topped with a light gravy and rich Irish Colcannon packed with spring onions and butter. I actually think this might be the best pie I've ever had. Wow, I'm losing my mind someone get me some steak.

There is always room for pastry

 The best bit about Cafe Roya is the atmosphere, book your table at the right time and it's yours for the evening, service is relaxed the wine is amazing and well priced. It would be a great place to take a special someone for a night of relaxed vegetarian dining.

So I will be back, and please please make that pie again.

Spanky Van Dykes
17 Goldsmith Street, Nottingham NG1 5JT
http://www.spankyvandykes.com/

I'm absolutely addicted to Spanky Van Dykes, for many reasons. The first being the fact that they had the balls to call themselves such a kinky name, second for the great music and the third for the food. I'm slowly working through the meaty menu including southern fried chicken and goats cheese beef burger but every time I go the vegetarian food catches my eye.

So this time I decided to do something shocking and order a hippy burger (I'm not being smart, that's what it's called). The burger was great, washed down with a Brooklyn Beer and some double cooked chips I was in heaven. I want to go back to try their hangover veggie breakfast and if I can muster up the energy to go dancing on a school night I'd love to top it off with a visit to Lust for Life for some nostalgic beats.

So that ends my mini tour of my favourite vegetarian eats thus far. For the future I am very excited to soon visit Ecoworks in St Annes a roaming vegetarian kitchen set on allotments and I shall be ordering their veggie box for some homemade healthy eats .Rumour has it that they also produce beautiful fresh and interesting food including weird Beetroot cakes that I just have to add to my 'to masticate' list.

http://www.ecoworks.org.uk/

So if you'll excuse me, I'm off to chomp on a carrot, frolic in the meadows and indulge in some guilt free lamb stroking.

Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog only a few innocent soya beans