Husband is the whizz with pastry in our kitchen so he made this amazing pie at the weekend. It’s a Simon Hopkinson recipe from his book ‘The Good Cook’  Yum-yum!!

The Baker Brothers however, were just eye candy. Do I believe they are brothers with adjoining baker and butcher shops? Not really. The spaces they worked in were styled to the nth degree. It looked like a production company had dreamed them up.

Apologies to the brothers if that is what they are but for me Heston was the more real.

(pics to follow soon)

85g plain chocolate, finely chopped

2tbs water, brandy or rum

10g unsalted butter

3 large eggs, separated

Put the chocolate and liquid in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water. Leave until just melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and gently stir in the butter.

Leave for a minute then gently stir in the egg yolks one at a time.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Stir a quarter of the white into the chocolate mixture to loosen it then gently fold in the rest. Spoon into separate bowls or one big bowl.

Chill for at least two hours.

Serves 4

Well, we ate our way through about 16 different dishes and do you know, I left a clean plate every time! Even the snail porridge.

There are many, many reviews of the tasting menu around so I’m not going to go there! Anyway who am I to ‘review’ Heston  Blumenthal? All I can say is this – the whole experience is out of this world. It’s an amazing blend of science and whimsy. Some of the dishes are scary – the frozen cocktail that you have to ‘down in one’ and dry ice comes out of your nose, some are spacy – like eating fish and foam while listening to the sound of seagulls and shingle.

Some are confusing….how can a drink be hot and cold at the same time?

Others are amazingly complex – a wafer of oaky taste that melts on your tongue to precede a dish of chicken liver parfait, quail jelly, crayfish cream and truffle toast…..oh, and a little lawn of green moss in front of you with a fog of oaky dry ice.

One of the desserts arrived with ‘Happy Birthday’ scribed along the plate which made me cry.

The bag of  ‘Sweet Shop’ delights at the end which made me laugh! 

Whoever can invent a chocolate that tastes like a jam tart deserves a gold watch when he retires. But if it’s a Heston gold watch it will dissolve into a bouillon  to pour over the Mock Turtle soup! Mad as a Hatter………brillig!!

If that wasn’t enough, the recommended wines we chose were perfect, the service was impeccable and the bill was……….well who knows, we weren’t paying! All I know is that our children must love us very, very much!

Whatever the weather, well almost, hubby goes bike riding with a friend on Friday afternoons. What better to come home to, after a couple of chilly hours on The Ridgeway, than a rich warming casserole of lamb and beans – the scent of rosemary reminiscent of a mediterranean summer!

Serves 2

2 lamb shanks

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

500ml chicken stock (can be made with stock cube)

1tsp plain flour

1tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp Worcester sauce

1 tbsp mint jelly

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 can of cannellini beans

In a large frying pan, fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the lamb shanks and brown all over, then add the rosemary sprigs and leave to wilt for a minute. Strain all these into a lidded casserole.

Add the flour to the remaining oil in the pan and stir for 30 seconds. Add the tomato puree and stock and stir until thickened. Add the Worcester sauce, mint jelly and balsamic.

Pour this over the lamb shanks and put the casserole into an oven gas 4 or 180 for 2 hours or more. About ½ hour before serving add the cannellini beans to the casserole.

This is my entry for the competition at Sheepskin boutique holiday cottages.

1 small onion, thinly sliced
10 smallish new potatoes
4 medium sized carrots
1 clove garlic
4fl oz milk
2 tbs crème fraiche
1 small egg
75 g mixed Red Leicester and Cheddar cheese
Salt &pepper
Pinch nutmeg

(bacon or lardons optional)

Pastry made with 120g plain flour and 60g butter.

Line a tin with the pastry and bake blind until cooked. Cook the onion slowly in a little olive oil and butter. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds. Slice the potatoes and carrots thinly and simmer until nearly soft. Mix the onion, potatoes and carrots together and put half of them into the pastry case. Sprinkle over half the cheese. Add the rest of the potatoes, carrots and cheese. Whisk the crème fraiche, milk and egg together, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and pour on top. Bake at 180 gas 4 for about 20 minutes or until set.

This is my entry for the Lovethegarden.com Christmas Carrot Recipe Competition.

This week I came across the same ridiculous pricing on broccoli. Loose broccoli at £2 a kilo…packaged broccoli was £3.44 a kilo. You’re effectively paying 70% more for the privilege of someone picking and packaging it for you!

Aren’t supermarkets supposed to be cutting down on packaging? I don’t need my veg cling wrapped, I just pop it all into my ‘veg shopper’ – no bags, no plastic, thank you!

Someone suggested to me that, as its about the kitchen, this would be a good week to do my first ‘The Gallery’ post.My kitchen has evolved over 20+ years, it’s the hub of the house. I spend many hours cooking in it, we eat there most days, we sit around with friends and a glass of wine….and what is the most important thing in it? The table. This table is about 70 years old. It was my mum’s table, I grew up with it, made tents under it, had picnics with Big Ted under it….there are still scorch marks where I lit candles on the ledge where the drawer opens. Then my Dad used it as a work bench in his garage until I rescued it. One day it will belong to Baby Genie!!

I’ve always had a soft spot for pigs…and pigs there are in plenty! Pink ones, ginger ones, big ones, tiny ones, all happily rootling around. Destined for the pot but happy pigs nevertheless. Dexter cattle lazing around, ducks quacking by the pond and chickens and quail pecking about completed the scene. Oh, apart from the kitchen garden, an orchard full of old varieties of apples, pears, plums and medlars……and the falconry with regular displays of birds of prey. Back into the elegant conservatory restaurant for a glass of fizz and canapes – lighter than air tiny choux puffs with soft cheese, slivers of smoked salmon and squares of melt-in-the-mouth pork belly with apple sauce. We were then treated to an amazing 3 course lunch. Anthony’s vision for Fallowfields is for fine dining to rival any Michelin starred restaurant and as part of this plan he has recruited the talented Shaun Dickens who worked under Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir before spending time in kitchens such as Per Se in New York and nearer to home at L’Ortolan. Now he has his own kitchen from which he produced a Jerusalem artichoke Veloute, smooth and smoky with slivers of artichoke and a truffle cream. This was followed by local venison, cooked perfectly pink, and accompanied by potato puree, chestnuts, beetroot and a dark chocolate crisp.

A pre dessert of a shot glass of creamy merlot infused was followed by a dessert of walnut ice cream, honeycomb, candied walnuts and figs with a sweet red wine jus. Did I eat it all? Do you need to ask!!

The choice of Australian wines complimented the meal, a Semillon 2007 Mitchell Clare Valley followed by a Shiraz 2010 Bush Telegraph Petit Verdot. Why they had been chosen was ably explained to us by Restaurant Manager and Wine Master Benjamin Petit.

Much of the produce is home grown or local and seasonal – the venison, quail, pork and beef, the artichokes, figs and walnuts. It is important to Anthony to know the provenance of what he is putting on the table – what better way of doing this than rearing your own animals and growing your own fruit and veg.
Shaun then demonstrated the preparation and cooking of a dish of Fallowfields quail with fondant potatoes and talked to us about the challenge that lies ahead to put this delightful country house hotel onto the culinary map. With a winning team like Anthony, Shaun and Benjamin it won’t be long before the Michelin man is knocking at the door.

Chocolate squares and lime and elderflower jellies……well I just had room for one!!!

A big thank you to Fallowfields and EnergyPr for the invitation. I stick with the bloggers with integrity code to post honest and open reviews.