Month: May 2013

The Trouble with Trousers

Events, Recipes

Taylor & NiceThis week Bradley Taylor & I have re-launched our catering business Taylor & Nice with a new Private Chef Hire offering. We’ve been booked to do some quite exciting events over the next few weeks, so we’ve been busy buying new chef jackets, plates and cutlery in preparation. I think I could lose whole days in cookware shops. I am completely obsessed with seeing pans in every possibly size – ranging right from dolls house scale to a saucepan I could probably install a kitchen and a couple of bedrooms in.

The only thing we’re struggling with is trousers. Here’s a venn diagram I’ve put together to explain what I mean:

trouble with trousers

Rant over, it’s back to the kitchen to get perfecting some of our recipes ready for our upcoming events. This week I have been putting the finishing touches on a recipe for a melon & ginger biscuit dessert.

Melon Curd

We’re serving this homemade melon curd with lemon posset, ginger biscuits, and fresh melon pieces but I’m sure it would be lovely on toast, stirred through yoghurt or in a tart.

Taylor and Nice biscuitsIngredients:

1/2 a Galia Melon, deseeded and chopped
juice of 1 lemon
200g of caster sugar
100g of unsalted butter
3 eggs and 1 egg yolk whisked together with a fork

Method

1) Put everything except the egg mixture in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water

2) Stir together until the butter has melted

3) Whisk in the eggs and keep stirring or gently whisking for around 15-20mins until the mixture thickens.

4) Take the mixture off the heat and allow to cool, don’t forget to remove any remaining melon pieces and discard them (or eat them, they taste a bit like stewed apple and custard) then put the curd in the fridge to chill and thicken up a bit more ready for spreading, or drizzling.

Melon Curd Breakfast

If you’d like to find out more about Taylor & Nice or you know where we can get catering clothes that don’t look like we’ve had little accidents and had to change, please get in touch via our website: taylorandnice.com

x

Pomegranate Syrup

Recipes

Pomegranate Syrup with Pomegranate & Greek Yoghurt

This stuff is brilliant. I came across it whilst testing a recipe for a new Taylor & Nice client, where Pomegranate Molasses/Syrup was listed in the ingredients. I had no idea where to even begin looking for it. Instead I flicked through a few recipes online and got experimenting. Subsequently I have found that it is quite readily available in smaller shops but I quite like making it, it’s really satisfying and you can control the flavour and consistency yourself. I intend to have a go at making similar syrups from other pressed fruit juices; I tried it with pineapple juice and it was equally delicious – any other suggestions?

Pomegranate Syrup with Greek Yoghurt

Pomegranate syrup

Ingredients

300ml of pomegranate juice – you need 100% juice for this not anything labelled “juice drink” because then you’re just concentrating additional sugars, sweetners and water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dessertspoon of caster sugar

Method

1) Put everything into a small pan over a high heat, occasionally swirling the pan to mix the ingredients, no need to stir

2) Heat until it starts to bubble rapidly

3) Once the mixture is the consistency of runny honey or golden syrup (and has reduced by about two thirds) take it off the heat – and that, is that!

It’s so delicious. The recipe we were working on was chicken based so deffo drizzle a bit on grilled chicken or barbequed meat. I mixed up a quick salad too with a load of couscous, feta, rocket, pomegranate seeds and a drizzle of this syrup – delish! It’s very sticky, sweet but also sharp so it works really well with sweet and savoury dishes, also you can drizzle it nicely over the plate so my normal everyday cooking can look super extra fancy 😉

Toasted bagel with cream cheese and either pineapple or pomegranate syrup

Why not have it for breakfast folded through yoghurt with some fresh pomegranate seeds scattered about.

Pomegranate-based Breakfast

It’s Eurovision this weekend too, so if there’s any left it’s going into a cocktail for sure! Yummers! x