Inspiration

The Kitchen Garden is looking beautiful at the moment. 

I've just popped a dozen chocolate and lavender pekin eggs under a broody .. so watch this space because in 21 days we will have some more chicks.  

This week has gone in a flash. I love teaching especially when it involves Fairtrade products combined with local seasonal food.  It is perhaps my favourite thing to do.  On Tuesday a lady simply hugged me because she was so thrilled as we took her sourdough out of the oven and it was the best feeling in the world. 

I suppose I value my quiet time more then ever when I am busy.  The time to reflect is in my garden and even though the weeds are giving me a real run for my money ... and the cutting garden is a month or more behind I love it. The truth is that the garden is always slightly out of control .. but oh how time disappears when I am phone free and alone.  I never thought I'd say that I actually enjoy pulling weeds.

At heart I am a cook who gardens rather than the other way around.  I plant with my stomach in mind, and do my absolute best to plant and grow things that minimise our impact on the environment, herbs and salad being my first priority but fruit and vegetables are never far behind.  I grow my food,  talk about food, write about food, photograph food and teach other people to make delicious food.. so on the odd occasion I get totally fed up of food.  So where do I go when I am looking for inspiration?  I always end up in the same place.  I sit at my kitchen table with Nigel Slaters Tender I a cook in his vegetable patch.  It is my absolute favourite book because the recipes are delicious, practical and always get me back in the mood to cook.  

Thank you Nigel.  Your books are wonderful.  

The Kitchen Diaries II

Autumn Blackberries 

Sunday morning and it’s my radio day. It’s a packed show with a prerecord of Rose Prince opening The Weston and Lois Weedon Horticultural Society's Annual Produce and Flower Show. It’s a nightmare title and despite saying it out loud as I am driving to the show and yet as I go on air  I get it wrong.  Suddenly I get a jab of nerves.  I am unable to say it properly.  Of course Kevin is amused and picks up on it creating second chance for me to get it wrong again.  I determine to say it correctly.  I can feel the people in Weston and Lois Weedon rolling their eyes. Maybe I’ll get it right next year.  

The horticultural show is in it is 72^nd year and was a fabulous afternoon. The audio with Rose Prince was made all the better by the chatter and noise of people in the background.  There is atmosphere and  I enjoy chatting with a genuinely lovely lady.  We move out of the tent to get a second audio about her pop up bakery and find a quiet spot by a gate.  As we are talking she spots a mop of black glossy elderberries.  I catch a look of intention and smile as she worries that the farmer will mind.  I like her all the more for thinking about the farmer. 

Having a crumble cake for dessert makes a change from just the usual crumble and custard

I tweet during a record to @RealNigelSlater that I am going to chat about his new book, and read a random paragraph out loud.  His words are poetry and I am thrilled as Nigel tweets back that he was listening in.  I am so glad that I didn’t know beforehand.  I think that there is an assumption that bubbly people don’t get nervous.  We do.  We just hide it really well behind a big smile.

Nigel's new book is an absolute treat to read. The style is consistent with the previous diary, but this book is closer in design to the Tender volumes.  It is a work of art, with an exquisite font, textured cover and heavy paper.  It is in every sense beautiful, but I don't want to to just sit on the bookshelf   ...  I want to bring it to life by cooking lunch from it so I head home via Waitrose. 

As the rain pours down we pop buckets about the garden room to catch the drips and the children get under my feet. We can’t repair the roof until some other work is done ..  I won’t bore you .. but a comforting chicken and parsley pie from The Kitchen Diaries II and a favorite Blackberry Hazelnut and Cinnamon crumble cake from Tender II is exactly what’s needed. 

 When I get home I brave the rain and run into the garden to pick some parsley, but the weather and slugs have got the better of my poor plant and the paltry amount I have left is not worth using. It seems unfair to send my husband out in this rain.  Not having parsley is not the end of the world though when it comes to cooking pie and Nigel’s recipes have a structure, a simplicity, if you like of using uncomplicated delicious combinations and so if like me you run out of a key ingredient you can often substitute without loosing the main characteristics of the recipe. I peer into my fridge and am relived to spot some dill.  It’s remarkably fresh considering it is a few days old. 

The eggs my chickens lay have such yellow yolks they make the pastry golden.

With the crumble cake I have to swap two ingredients because William is allergic to apples and oats. I substitute apple for a conference pear and scatter chopped hazelnuts over the crumble to add texture, but the cake is in essence the same. Nigel suggests that the cake is better the next day ..  but despite making this cake a dozen times I’ve yet to find that out.

It's a perfect rainy Sunday afternoon. There is a constant pitter patter on the roof and the kitchen gets steamy. As I roll out the pastry Isobel asks why it is Nigel’s pie.  She insists that the pie is mine.  I show her the book and explain that the recipe was not by me and so with a five year olds logic she decides to mark it with a pastry N for Nigel and I leave her to it as the phone rings.  It is my sister. I ask if she wants to join us for lunch.  There is no hesitation. She heads straight over with a friend arriving as I am serving up.  She ignores my husbands begrudging welcome as he remarks that now there be no leftovers. There is laugher, rain, a bottle of white wine from my brother’s vineyard and pie. Delicious warming chicken pie, with golden pastry, bay leaf infused gravy and soft leeks. 

My husband was right.  There were no leftovers.  Not a scrap.

Chicken, leek and parsley pie - from page 347 The Kitchen Diaries II

A big, informal pie for a family gathering. Use cooked roast chicken if you wish, but this is something worth roasting your chicken pieces for. By all means crimp and primp your pastry, but I prefer the simpler approach of laying a ready-made pastry sheet over the top, brushing it with seasoned egg and milk for a good shine.

chicken pieces: 800g, on the bone

leeks: 4

butter: a thick slice

plain flour: 3 heaped tablespoons

hot stock: 650ml

bay leaves: 3

parsley: a small handful

all-butter puff pastry: a 375g sheet

beaten egg and milk, seasoned,

for brushing

Set the oven at 200°C/Gas 6. Put the chicken pieces in a roasting tin and

bake for thirty minutes, till golden. Remove from the oven, leave to cool a

little, then remove the flesh from the bones in large, bite-sized pieces and

set aside.

Thinly slice the leeks, wash them thoroughly, then cook them with the

butter and about 100ml of water till soft and brightly coloured. It is essential

not to let them colour, so keep a lid on and don’t have the heat too high.

When they are soft, stir in the flour, leave to cook for a few minutes, then

gradually pour in the hot stock, stirring as you go. Continue to cook, letting

the leek mixture simmer for ten minutes or so, till you have a thickish sauce.

Add the cooked chicken, bay leaves, chopped parsley and some salt and

pepper and continue cooking for a good five minutes. Try not to let the

chicken break up too much.

Spoon the chicken and leek filling into a pie dish. Unroll the pastry and

place it over the top of the dish, letting it overhang the sides. Brush the

pastry with the seasoned beaten egg and milk, cut  small slits in the top to

let out the steam and bake for twenty-five minutes or until the pastry is

crisp and golden.

  Enough for 6

*Please note that this recipe was reproduced with kind permission from Nigel Slater and Forth Estate.

BBC Radio show & Encouragement from Nigel Slater

It's official. I can share the news!

From Sunday 6th February ( Thanks for correction Lucy !) 10am I shall be heading up the 2nd half of the Kitchen Garden Show on BBC Radio Northampton!

I am so excited and I could waffle on for some time about all the plans, but I am not going to. I'm totally up to my eyeballs in the last 3 days of editing Prepped and to be honest I haven't got time to be bragging about how fabulous it is going to be! .. Well okay .. perhaps a little bit of bragging then .....

As a regular guest on the John Griff Show I was utterly delighted to be asked to join the team by Mark Whall, my Programme Editor. He's been fantastically supportive giving me the opportunity to make the program around my food life and writing commitments. There is so much to learn, and I know it's not strictly writing a recipe book, and I certainly didn't set out on this adventure to be on the radio - but the opportunity is here and oh boy it's such an opportunity!

I want so much to do a good job .. and I am thrilled to bits. I'd like to be interesting and professional and showcase the best food and people around. Food is such a wonderful subject, bringing the opportunity to discover so much about the people. I feel very privileged. .. and yet I feel nervous. I told Nigel Slater, who has been such an encouragement for Prepped, and these are the kind words he wrote.

“There is something gentle about radio, very different to television, and I think you will enjoy it. You might expect the first time to be a bit traumatic, but once your microphone is switched on you may suddenly find you become strangely calm and actually rather enjoy it. People are listening to you because they want to, and will be on your side. Just think of them as friends. I bet you come out of there having had a good time. Trust me.

Very much looking forward to your book. There are so many fresh voices around at the moment - Stevie Parle, James Ramsden, Alice Hart etc – and there is a wonderful energy right now. Your book couldn’t come at a better time."

Am I still nervous? Well yes. But I am I excited. Really excited!

I hope you will listen in!

Nigel Slater's Tender II

There is nothing quite like the thrill of a new recipe book. Especially when it's from one of the best food writers in the country. Waiting for it to arrive is like waiting for a first date, with someone who you really fancy. I get excited, there’s the anticipation, a flutter of nerves even and generally within the first few minutes you know if you are going to get on. This one's a keeper. It was always going to be .. but this book is perhaps his best yet.

My guests have gone home. It is late. Almost midnight. I am a little the worse for wear, but I have decided to blog in the moment . Forgive this post for any mistakes .. it will be short. I have to get to my bed.

Today started with pancakes, and ended with the Tagine of Lamb with Apricots from Nigel Slater’s new book Tender II. As I finished looking through I dashed straight off to the local butchers, Chambers, in Brixworth. Keith diced some lamb up, as I tried to persuade him to start a blog of his own. He just smiled and carried on cutting up the lamb.

The recipe ( See page 712) was, on a practical level, simple and took minutes to make. It was the layering of the flavours and the composition that just worked. . The apricot sweetened the lamb. It was a complex well thought out combination of taste, texture and flavour.

As ever Nigel’s recipes work. But, it’s not just the feel, the texture and the color of this book that I love. It is the weight, the setting of the text and the beautiful photography that hold Nigel’s words together. The recipes are enclosed in the beauty they deserve to be in. From the heavy deep red cover to the weight and shade and texture of the paper it is printed on – this book evokes desire. I wanted to cook from the pages. In fact I couldn’t wait to create. Reading his turns of phrase, and intimate style it is as though I am listening to a classical piece of music. I am moved. He doesn’t write. He composes.

I can’t wait to cook from it again.. but it may have to wait a while as I get back to my own writing and recipe developing .. but when I am done writing my book .. I will return to Nigel and Tender, both Volume I and II.

This book is a practical work of art.

A rare thing indeed.