Ben, Sophie Grigson, and I

I am smiling. There are times when luck is with you. Having only ever met two famous people in my life, I have, this weekend, met both Raymond Blanc and Sophie Grigson. Luck does not mean that I don’t work exceedingly hard, but it can certainly give you a heads up in life.

Today I went to the Northampton food and drink show at Holdenby House where Sophie Grigson was giving a food demonstration. With over 20 books published she is considered to be one of our top food writers, having written for many years her columns have been published in both The Independent and the Times. It doesn’t get much better than that. Above photo taken by Sara Browne.

For me Sophie has a way that puts the food right at the front of what she talks about. Before herself comes the food. She is both highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic with a clear sense of communicating to her audience both on screen and in her books. She is one of my food hero’s, so I was nervous about meeting her. As a not even published author, I wanted to ask her if she would give me her opinion on my book when it is finished.

I ummed and arrred about how she might react to my request, playing various rejection scenarios out in my head as I approached back stage. I appreciate how busy she is, after all this was the end of a working day for her. Despite several people telling me how lovely she is I was quite concerned I would be interrupting her. Really, I need not have been the slightest bit nervous. Even though she did not know me from Adam, (no pun intended as Adam Grey was there in mid demonstration, ) she greeted me with warmth and genuine interest. Along with her adorable dog Ben, she put me at ease instantly. Thank goodness, she really is as lovely as people said she is.

What did strike me, aside from her relaxed demeanour and warm laugh, were her bright green eyes, glowing skin and her verve for both food, and life. There is an energy, which radiates around her. You could quite literally see the effect she had on people as they were exiting the demonstration. They left purposefully full of intention to buy the ingredients and get home to cook. That’s influence.

She is a leading food ambassador, a seriously successful author as well as being the sort of person you would want to phone up to tell good news to, because she really would be pleased for you. I was indeed cheeky enough to ask if she would have a look at Prepped before it is published.. and I asked if perhaps she would say something nice about the book for the cover. She fixed a wry smile and said yes .. of course …. as long as I actually do like it.

Now you can’t argue with that!

She inspires.

Raymond Blanc & Eating my words in Oxford

I am sitting at my computer wondering if my day could have been any better. No.... Today was one of the best days ever.
For our 10th wedding anniversary my husband promised to take me to any restaurant of my choice. My first thought ran to Le Manoir, Raymond Blanc’s place in Oxfordshire. It was fully booked. The receptionist seemed genuinely sorry, but she was also delightful, suggesting that we try instead Le Brasserie Blanc on Walton Street, Oxford. I will admit I was a little disappointed not to get in at Le Manor, however I took the opportunity to book for my birthday in November. Looking the Brasserie Blanc up online, Raymond says

I am often asked what a Brasserie Blanc really is, well if the Manoir is a delicate waltz then the Brasseries are the Can Can.

I pictured a rambunctious French cafe, and thought it was hardly likely to be found in England no matter how hard you try. Now, you must remember that, I have spent years in France , and I know French Cuisine. I am not fooled by francophiled English food and bad British service.. so I arrived highly sceptical of a good meal.

The instant we arrived the waiter greeted me like an old regular, and to my childish delight there was a balloon wishing us happy anniversary on the table. The room was light, airy and spacious, without feeling crowded, and yet intimate even at lunch time. I looked around with an ever critical eye. The place was spotless.

Two glasses of real champagne arrived, unbidden, along with some French bread. Ah ha. They never get the bread right I told Al. I ate my words - literally. The starters arrived; my chicken liver parfait was just that. Parfait. With toasted bread the warm crunch, buttery softness and sweet mellow onion chutney was an absolutely sublime marriage of texture and flavour.
The lamb shoulder was aromatic and tender with just the right amount of seasoning. I expected the vegetables to have suffered the fate of death by long cooking process. Not so. The carrots, in particular, were tender, bright and fresh. This meal was, so far, faultless.
The view by the window seats meant we could watch the world going by.
Observing the staff interacting and serving other customers I was stuck by their professionalism. These waiters and waitresses were seriously in tune with everything going on at every table, in a totally discrete manner. Nothing went unnoticed, except them.

Feeling somewhat relaxed and unwilling to finish my meal in any hurry we ordered a sweet. Alastair was enjoying the meal, more than he normally does, perhaps partially down to the fact that I had nothing to find fault with for once. This is a new experience for him. I am a nightmare to take out. As a former chef and one time waitress, there is nowhere I am more critical than in a restaurant.

The Chocolate soufflé and pistachio ice cream arrived. It looked seriously impressive. The top was caramelised, and dusted in icing sugar, the middle soft and voluptuous and the bottom dense and gloriously chocolaty. Eaten with the pistachio ice cream the flavours blended creating a perfect contrasting combination of cold cream and oozing warm chocolate. It was a superb sweet, don’t get me wrong.. but it could be improved on. The soufflé could have done with a tad more sugar. Not much .. just a little. The ice-cream was, on its own single dimensional. My suggestion would be that a cardamom base behind the pistachio would take it up another level and add some top notes between the chocolate and pistachio, and finally, I was a spoon of ice cream short .. just a tiny bit more needed next time

I finished the meal acknowledging that Monsieur Le Blanc had indeed done what I believed impossible. He has brought a real French brasserie to England, every tiny detail and aspect, right down to the apron and even the attitude worn by my waitress.

As I asked one of the waiters for a copy of the menu, as I wanted to write up the meal on my blog, assuring him that it was indeed a wonderful meal we had eaten. He smiled and suggested I tell Raymond myself. There... eating a meal right behind us was Raymond Blanc, his beautiful partner, Natalia and guests. You can imagine my absolute delight as the waiter interrupted Raymond’s meal to ask if I might say hello and Raymond sign a menu? I grinned insanely at my unbelievable luck and chattered nonstop in a jabber of nervous French .. explaining, without pausing for breath, that I am writing a book, and that I follow him on twitter, ( yes.. I honestly said that .. Duh!) and that I will be visiting Le Manoir in November. I did forget to tell him about the variety of pumpkin I grew that he recommeded.

Despite having his family lunch interrupted unexpectedly, Monsieur Le Blanc was charming..... No.... He was more than charming, he was the perfect French gentleman, asking his colleague to take a photo of us and writing good luck with the book and à bientôt on my menu. Can you dream up any better ending to Lunch ? Parfait. À bientôt.

Caraway and Orange Pumpkin Soup

I am always initially slightly intimidated by squashes. They look burly and tough. Nevertheless you couldn’t fail to be impressed with the fabulous team of pumpkins that have returned from the allotment today. There are assorted sizes of various odd shaped orange balls, yellow saucers and green giants with tough waxy skins that are part of their appeal. With the recent rain they have beefed up enough to get to an impressive size and I welcomed them home the shelves in the laundry to be stored for use over the coming months. My husband is so proud of them.. and rightly so, for they are magnificent and they do play a major part of our autumn food stash. Of course the reality is that pumpkins are actually soft and buttery once cooked, but I have to remind myself of that. They make super soup, fabulous pies and are great just roasted and tossed in herbs and butter, and with some zest added these will work really well in combination in the caraway chapter.

The two eldest children have been to the seaside with my parents for the weekend. I expected them to be worn out so I decided to tackle the roast pumpkin soup recipe today. Alastair and isobel prepared the squash for the oven, whilst I watched them for a moment; Daughters's little hands held the squashes with reverence, whilst my husband coated them with olive oil. Her big blue eyes followed every move with wonder. In those few still moments concentrating on the transformation, she was filled with wonder. It is such a treat to watch her thought process. What magic - this thing was to become soup!

The pumpkins looked far less intimidating once they resembled giant leftover orange skins from a rugby match. I salted them and roasted them for forty five minutes. Their tough exterior melted and caramelised. Exposed to a constant gentle dry heat that softens and sweetens them, the fruit developed a depth of flavour that becomes the base for a mellow soup. Deep orange with citrus overtones and caraway undertones this is a sweet autumnal soup, perfect for children. What could be more comforting than a steaming bowl of pumpkin soup when you’ve been at the beach all day? I am happy. My Children are home and I have another recipe ready for the book.

Ingredients
1.8 kg of pumpkin
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Zest of one unwaxed orange
2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
Pinch of salt
125ml of single cream
300ml of water

Method
Chop the pumpkin into quarters. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Transfer the pumpkin to a medium oven fan oven and roast for 45 minutes.
Allow the pumpkin to cool for a few minutes then scoop the flesh into a blender with the orange zest. Using a pestle and mortar grind the caraway seeds up and add to the blender. Add 300 ml of warm water and blend. You can adjust the consistency to your liking, but I prefer mine thick served warm with crusty bread and sprinkled with black pepper and parsley.

Discovering a Local Plum Orchard

Each of the chapters in Prepped follows a flavour. Researching into the flavour is part of the background, and the fun, of writing this book. These next few weeks I shall be working on plums. Their round shiny, smooth skin giving way to sweet succulent orange flesh, they are summer lusciousness itself. Of course I know that there are Victoria plums, but aside from that I’ve never given much thought to which varieties make the best cooking .. so to find out more I thought I’d find a local orchard. After 2 hours of searching on the internet, and several phone calls to find a plum orchard anywhere .. at all ... in Northamptonshire I gave up. Instead I called Mansfield Farm in Kent. They grow about 8 varieties of plum and supply Waitrose. Craig, the manager was more than helpful and despite a protest from my husband, we were due to drive to Kent this weekend, to meet Craig and find out more about plums. Luckily for Alastair, I was complaining about lack of local fruit to Mrs Smith in our nearby farm shop, when she smiled and said that I needed to go and see Andy at New Creation Farm – just 5 miles away. I was, of course, a little disappointed not to be meeting with Craig, he sounded so interesting. However, I was seriously delighted to discover a local orchard. Andy kindly agreed to give me a special tour of the orchards and rather than just take photos I decided to try and share some of the visit with you. Forgive the home video approach, I am new to this side of things, but I hope you will enjoy the footage despite this. Thank you Andy, I shall be returning bearing plum food gifts soon.