eat the right stuff featured on uktv food

eat the right stuff has recently been featured on uktv food's market kitchen.

i was contacted by a researcher from the programme a few months ago and two recipes were filmed while being made. in case you're a viewer and need help tracking them down, or are just curious to see what piqued their interest, here they are:

• gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free lemon and raspberry roll
• my fabulous (she says modestly!) vegetarian shepherd’s pie with goats’ cheese mash and cheesy leeks

if you try either of these, let me know how you get on.

euro blogging by post: swedish sweeties

 

oh dear, a parcel full of sweets has just arrived in the post, what’s a blogger to do?!?

johanna, the passionate cook, is responsible for the thirty-something parcels, all containing various varieties of childhood sweet memories, that have been criss-crossing the continent as part of euro blogging by post.

my parcel arrived courtesy of kristina from clivia’s cuisine. kristina lives in sodertalje, just outside stockholm.

my parcel was packed full of swedish sweets and chocolate. the different types of jelly sweets (brio, fruxo, zoo and tutti frutti) came in cute little boxes and small sachets. i happily munched my way through the different types, barely pausing as i moved onto the little black jelly sweets, salta kitten, which were liquorice flavoured.

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yucatan recado chicken

 

mexican food contains many of the flavours i love – the heat of chilli, the tang of lime, the complex layers of spices and the freshness of herbs.

despite this it’s not something i have often enough. london is sorely lacking in decent mexican restaurants (although there have been a few opened in the past year or so) and it’s not something i cook very often as i don’t really know that much about the cuisine.

however, i’ve been craving the mexican combination of flavours and a rummage through the spice routes by chris and carolyn caldicote provided me with a fabulous marinade for some chicken and peppers.

the flavours in the marinade are fantastically well balanced and if anyone who is reading this finds themselves resorting to pre-mixed spices for mexican food, please try this instead. or if you just fancy ringing the changes with a new chicken dish, this should be on your list as it’s definitely worth trying. let me know how you get on.

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birthday pavlova

 

i had meringue recently, made by my friend toby, which sent me into raptures. it was golden, chewy and full of flavour. sadly we managed to demolish everything that he presented us with so there was no doggie bag full of (meringuey) leftovers to take home. not that anything it contained would have lasted long.

it was my birthday last friday and pavlova was my obvious choice of celebration. this is also my choice for meeta’s big birthday bang, not least as she and i celebrate our birthdays on consecutive days. happy birthday meeta!

this pavlova was a bit special. the chocolate meringue was flavoured using rococo jasmine chocolate, which was gift from toby’s wife julia. i also used valsamica instead of normal vinegar. both the jasmine and vanilla flavours added depth and complexity to the chocolateyness.

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the london carriage works, liverpool

over the recent bank holiday weekend we visited liverpool and had a superb meal at the london carriage works, the restaurant attached to the hope street hotel.

the restaurant has a brasserie and a fine dining space. we chose fine dining, which provides a three-course menu for £55 per person.

shortly after we were seated, a selection of lovely aperitifs arrived. olives (excellent), parmesan wafers, smoked salmon blini stacks, mini bacon pizzas, shrimps with crisp breads and most excitingly a pea soup served atop a clear mint jelly.

this was followed by an amuse bouche of richly flavoured calves liver parfait with warm rosemary jelly (the second jelly to feature). the parfait was served as a teaspoon-sized quenelle but given the richness and depth of flavour it was more than ample and a lovely way to prepare for our meal.

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