Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Trouble with Trousers

Posted on by

0

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

Posted on by

2

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

Foodie Penpals pt.1

Posted on by

0

My latest foodie adventure has begun by signing up to be a foodie penpal via Rock Salt (who got the set up from  The Lean Green Bean)…and it’s bloody brilliant! Basically, you’re added to a database of foodies. Each month the coordinator picks someone from the database to send you a parcel of interesting foodie goodies and at the same time you’re chosen to send a parcel to someone else. Then you get in touch (to say thanks or check it all arrived ok) and then blog about what you got. Easy.

A couple of weeks ago my first parcel arrived, it was like an early birthday present, with a card and everything! The lovely Teresa had neatly packed a wonderful mix of goodies and cooking ingredients and tucked into the card was one of her favourite recipes for me to try.

foodie parcel goodies

I made very short work of the nãkd. snack bars, and coconut macaroon, but I did then share the bombay mix with Richard so I’m not a total meanie.

The maize meal (fine polenta) was my favourite ingredient in the parcel because I’ve hardly ever used it but kept meaning to.

I was surprised how easy it is to make soft polenta and I followed this recipe which turned out great. I had planned to put any leftovers into an oven proof dish so they could set, allowing me to slice it and make polenta chips…but there were no leftovers :-)

roasted tomatoes, olives and polenta

To go with the polenta I just grilled a few tomatoes, then at the end I threw in a few olives and a tablespoon of sundried tomato pesto, then returned to the grill just to warm everything briefly. Serve the tomato and olive mix over the polenta with some fresh basil and black pepper.

roasted tomatoes, olives and polenta

The rest of the maize meal was earmarked for Teresa’s recipe suggestion – Glamorous Raspberry and Polenta Cake by Jane Hornby.

raspberries

This is a great recipe to make all year round because it makes smashing use of frozen raspberries.

frozen raspberries

raspberry and polenta cake

slice of cake anyone?

raspberry and polenta cake

I can highly recommend the foodie penpal scheme as it’s as much fun packing up a parcel as it is receiving one – do it!

x

Foodie Penpals UK & Europe:  http://thisisrocksalt.com/foodie-penpals/

Foodie Penpals US:  http://www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals/

Auntie Mim!

Posted on by

0

I am very, very happy to announce the arrival of the newest addition to team Nice – my first nephew Milo! Milo

He’s absolutely brilliant! And the whole family is over the moon. My Dad is a National Trust volunteer and he baked some jam tarts to take into work to celebrate becoming a Grandad! He used my recipe from my last blog post and made Milo’s initials out of pastry –  check it out:

Dad's Jam Tarts for Milo

I am so pleased to be an Auntie, but I have absolutely no idea what to do. Babies baffle me, as do so many of my female friends who seem to instinctively know how to hold a them, change a nappy and understand all the crazy noises they make. Why don’t babies arrive with step-by-step guides like flat pack furniture? And as for crying, turns out they are just sleepy or a bit hungry – so why do they sound like they are in mortal danger? It’s misleading, like when you get a work email marked URGENT but it’s for a marathon in six months time.

Ok, so we’ve established my hopelessness with babies, but I like to think I’ll do pretty well at the unending stream of “Why?” and “are we nearly there yet?” questions later on… and I could cook for them too (seamless link)!

So to welcome Milo and to give the new Mum and Dad a bit of a break I spent a day in the kitchen making a whole plethora of ready meals, freezer meals and baked goodies so they can spend even more time with the little fella. I tried to do some research on the kinds of foods most suitable for new Mums and Dads but the results were conflicting – some websites have huge lists condeming ingredients like fresh herbs, peanuts and eggs, whereas other sites seem to advocate eating whatever you like as long as it is healthy and doesn’t include too much shark. Hmm. So I just made a selection of foods I thought they would like, but included a list of all the ingredients, just in case. Worst case scenario they’ll give the food to visitors – which I hope is still vaguely helpful.

Here we go. My menu for my Brother and his Wife:

Eat Now…

Blueberry Lemon Drizzle Cake

Blueberry and Lemon Drizzle Cake

Soda Bread

Soda Bread

Eat Later…

Couscous

Spiced Couscous (just add water, serve with pomegranate and fried Halloumi cheese)

Mashed Sweet Potato

Mkomazi Cardamom-Mashed Sweet Potato (from the “World Food Cafe” Book)

Garlic Hummus Very Garlicky Hummus

Freeze…

Lentil Moussaka

Lentil Moussaka

Giving food seemed to be a good plan, and I would recommend doing this for anyone you know who has just had a baby. Making a selection of dishes that won’t all go off at the same time is also a good tip…oh and things they can eat with one hand :-)

xxx

Bring Back Jam Tarts!

Posted on by

2

Tangerine and Raspberry Tarts
Ok, so Jam Tarts haven’t disappeared completely, but as cake trends go…they’re no macaron right now.

Well, take a hike cupcakes and cake pops, move over oversized meringues and make room for the Jam Tart because…

  • Firstly, Jam tarts are easy to make – comprising of only 4 ingredients 
  • They’re cheap to make  - one of the 4 ingredients is water and another could be any old jam at the back of the cupboard!
  • Speedy, too – needing only 15 minutes in the oven!
  • and they’re a bit magic – well not actually magic but there’s definitely something very exciting and totally delicious that occurs when jam is baked in pastry

Yes they’re simple, but some of the best things are. You really don’t need to spend all day in the kitchen to bake these and the house will get that wonderful homely smell without so much as a balloon whisk in sight.

Jam Tarts

Makes 12 small tarts

Ingredients

100g plain flour (plus a little extra for rolling out)
50g butter
cold water to bind
Jam, marmalade or fruit curd of your choice

Method

1) Rub the butter into the flour until the butter is well incorporated and the texture is sandy or like fresh bread crumbs

2) Mix in enough cold water to bring the mixture together to make a smooth dough which picks up all the flour in the bowl – I used about 3/4 of an espresso cup full of water…if that helps :-)

3) Leave the dough in the fridge to rest. You can leave it in there for about 30 minutes but I don’t usually time it. Instead, I just leave it in there until I’ve preheated the oven to 180°C, cleaned and floured the surface, found my rolling pin and pastry cutters and greased a 12 hole bun tin.

4) When you’re ready, roll out the dough onto the floured surface til it’s about 2-3mm thick and cut out 12 circles.

5) Line the prepared bun tin with the pastry discs and fill each one with a level teaspoon of jam

Making Jam Tarts

6) Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through and the jam is bubbling (just enough time to put away the rolling pin and get the coffee on)

Before Baking
After Baking

7) Once baked, let them cool in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to go completely cold.

If you’re still not convinced that Jam Tarts are snazzy enough for your fanciest of guests, then do go ahead and add an arty drizzle of chocolate, dusting of icing sugar, scatter a few slivers of lemon zest or use any leftover pastry to well, tart up your tarts!

x

Chocolate Drizzle I heart Jam Tarts Jam Tart with Pastry SpotsJam Tart with Pastry Lattice Tarted up Tarts!

Are there any old fashioned foods you’d like to bring back, or any trends you could do without? Let me know – I’d love to hear from you. x

Spring Cake

Posted on by

5

Mummy Avocet

For this Easter Bank Holiday Weekend I thought it would be nice to post a cake recipe. But already I have a bit of a headache (which I think could possibly be attributed to an over consumption of chocolate eggs) so I’ve gone for a light, chocolate-free, fruity number!  I made some fresh tropical fruit orb thingys to decorate it, which you can see as Easter eggs or as Spring flowers (or just bits of fruit), and then added some paper Avocets. There’s nothing significant about the use of avocets, I just wanted to draw some black and white birds with long legs to give the cake some height and these wetland birds seemed to fit the bill…(sorry it that a bad joke?).

Spring Cake

Spring Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:
150g light soft brown sugar
2 large free-range eggs
100g sunflower oil
200g grated carrot (about 3)
Zest of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon baking powder
200g wholemeal flour

For the filling:

300g cream cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons icing sugar
170g 0% total Greek Yoghurt

For the icing:

8-10 dessert spoons of icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

To decorate (optional):

1 Pineapple
1 Melon
1 Mango
Fresh mint sprigs

You will also need 1 small round cake tin, greased with butter and lined with a circle of grease proof paper

Method

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 190°C
  2. First make the cake: Whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy (or in my case until your arm aches because you’ve been making cakes all day and can’t be bothered to wash the electric whisk again)
  3. Whisk in the oil then add the grated carrot and lemon zest.
  4. Fold in the baking powder and flour until fully combined and then tip everything into your prepared tin
  5. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out cleanly
  6. Turn the cake out onto a rack to cool completely
  7. Mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl then put into the fridge to firm up a little while you slice the cooled cake horizontally through the middle
  8. Sandwich the cake together with the cheesecake filling and pop the cake into the fridge for 10-15 minutesSpring Cake filling
  9. Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with the juice of 1 lemon until thick and smooth – you want the consistency to be somewhere between double cream and smooth peanut butter, so add the icing sugar bit by bit to the lemon juice and add more or less if needed
  10. Use a melon baller to carve little pastel spheres from a fresh pineapple, mango and melon. Ice the cake and then decorate with the fruit, mint leaves and a gentle snow flurry of icing sugar.

I added some drawings of avocets to mine, which I taped to cocktail sticks, but you can add your own drawings or any other cake decorations you like.

Mummy Avocet

Spring cake

Have a lovely bank holiday. What are you baking this weekend? x

Blog Birthday!

Posted on by

3

This food blog is now a whole year old, whoop whoop! So a dinner party seemed to be the only suitable way to mark the occasion. In my enthusiasm I decided to serve dishes which had featured on my blog over the last 12 months exclusively…although I realised this might have been a pretty half baked idea when I started trawling through past posts to assemble a vaguely balanced menu. In a nutshell – I’ve done a lot of posts about cake.

After writing lots of things down, crossing them out and then writing them down again I came to the conclusion that if I served loads of tiny courses it might be quirky enough to make sense. Here’s the plan:

First Course

Orange, banana and passionfruit smoothie from Sundays & Smoothies 25th March 2012

fruit

***

Second Course

Flatbreads and Guacamole from Faster Flatbread! 28th June 2012

Red Pepper Pesto from Pre-Payday Pepper Pesto 19th July 2012

20120628-172615.jpg

20120719-141442.jpg

***

Third Course

Seared Beef Salad from Capers on a Train 17th of August 2012

20120817-163832.jpg

***

Fourth Course

Bulghur Wheat Risotto from Sugar-Free 24th of March 2012

Mojitos & Grilled Pineapple from Adventures in Canapés 28th September 2012

bulghur_risotto

Grilled Pineapple

***

Fifth Course

Walnut Shortbread with Greek Yoghurt & Poached Apricots from Total London 13th July 2012

Ta dah!

***

Sixth Course

Coffee and slices of Twelfth Night bars from Twelfth Night 8th February 2013

twelfth night bars

Recipes hyperlinked, glasses washed and table extended all was going smoothly…and then it snowed. A wave of what I can only describe as doom washed over me in the supermarket at 4pm yesterday, when I realised that not only were there no ripe avocados anywhere to be seen, but half of my guests had just cancelled due to the bad weather.

The show must go on! I’d already bought the ingredients and baked my height in walnut shortbread, so I ploughed ahead. With a few last minute texts and phone calls the empty chairs were filled. As for the single avocado I found behind the tomatoes – with enough blending it yielded a decorative quantity of guacamole, which satisfied my obsessive need to stick to the plan.

I made my diners work for their meal a little bit by getting them to play “Blogsquences” which is essentially “Consequences” with a few minor food blog themed alterations. For example – instead of resulting in an assortment of bizarre dating scenarios (as is the norm with the original game) we had fictitious blog posts by characters like Mary Berry visiting Nando’s to be served Jellied Eels by Ainsley Harriott, or Stephen Fry blogging about his trip to Greggs where Gordon Ramsey serves him a lion cub! Most of the stories in our game ended in the restaurants being horribly destroyed and on more than one occasion, involved wild animal attacks! Make of this what you will.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures, recipes and ramblings so far. I’d love to hear more about your blogs…how long have you been writing yours? Do you do anything special to mark the aniversaries? xxx

Here are some pictures from last night…there was a lot of rum.

Photo 23-03-2013 19 42 11 Photo 23-03-2013 19 42 32 Photo 23-03-2013 19 47 59Photo 23-03-2013 23 54 07 Photo 23-03-2013 20 17 50 Photo 23-03-2013 20 17 55Photo 23-03-2013 23 50 44 Photo 23-03-2013 21 02 25 Photo 23-03-2013 21 02 34Photo 23-03-2013 23 55 01 Photo 23-03-2013 21 51 54 Photo 23-03-2013 21 52 03 Photo 23-03-2013 22 45 50Photo 24-03-2013 00 13 50 Photo 23-03-2013 22 45 57Photo 23-03-2013 23 53 45 Photo 23-03-2013 22 46 19Photo 23-03-2013 23 51 18 Photo 23-03-2013 23 35 59 Photo 23-03-2013 23 40 25Photo 23-03-2013 23 55 45

Wedding Cakes & Headaches

Posted on by

0

The Wedding Cake. Probably the most important of all the cakes. Get it wrong, and EVERYTHING EVER is RUINED!

Please now multiply this baking pressure by a hundred when you learn that this is a wedding cake for a family member…again! Making my brother’s wedding cake in 2011 was the most terrifying culinary challenge for me to date but, this Summer (to be said in that really cool, low, movie trailer voice please, that’s why it’s in bold) I’m making my cousin’s cake!

Joking aside, it is an absolute honour to be asked to bake a wedding cake, but it is quite a scary business. The bride to be has a pretty good idea of what she wants so I fired up the mixer for some sample cakes last weekend. I made a chocolate fudge cake from the book ‘Boutique Wedding Cakes’ by Victoria Glass and whipped up some dark chocolate butter cream, white chocolate butter cream and cream cheese frosting for her to try.

DSC02334

DSC02333Deep in concentration, trying to cover sample cakes in butter cream at 2am (and peripheral vision impaired by my long fringe and trendy thick black rimmed glasses) I failed to judge the proximity of the corner of the kitchen cabinet when I sharply looked up from my work. OUCH! I wasn’t badly hurt but I was a massive wuss about it and had a little cry.

Next morning (neurotic late night baking session over) all that was left to do was to cover the cakes. She’s requested for the cake to be cream or ivory in colour so my immediate thought was to use white chocolate…but the wedding is in July so I think that might be pushing my luck (and sanity) so instead, I made a satin icing (which I think is roll-out icing) adapted from this recipe, using water instead of lemon juice and adding vanilla to give it a yummy custardy vibe…although it’s a bit sticky to work with but I’ve got a good 4 months to practise :-/

My cousin arrived just as the last bit of cake was being iced and had brought her lovely Yorkshire terrier and bridesmaid-to-be Maisy along too!

Maisy

DSC02327

The cakes went down really well, she made her icing selections and we had a good chat about logistics. I think wedding cakes are 20% sugar and 80% logistics. I cannot wait for her wedding. I will be nervous, but only because I want it to be right for my super-duper cousin and fella (and Maisy too).

Wish me luck xxx

Maisy

Kiosk

Posted on by

0

Lunch!

Beth

In an unassuming corner of Sherwood, just over the hill from Nottingham city centre, something very exiting is happening. This is Beth (pictured above). Around 9 months ago Beth turned her pop up supper clubs into “Kiosk” a small café/bistro tucked away next to the Winchester Street car park.

Lunch - breaded mozzarella skewers

Lunch – breaded mozzarella skewers

Mint Tea with LunchThe food that her and her team whip-up from scratch every day could easily rival anything that Islington High Street or Broadway Market have to offer, and all this from a kitchen the size of a broom cupboard. Inspired by the work of Yotam Ottolenghi and Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall; fresh herbs, pulses and vegetables form the basis of their culinary creations. They cook whatever they like using ingredients sourced locally, which I thought would be tricky in a city but the only thing Beth struggles to get hold of is good artisan bread (get on it East Midlands bakers!!)

Counter

Kiosk team

Kiosk Team

Cake

watering can

More Lunch

More Lunch

Coffee

Drinks board

Shelves

I know Beth through a mutual friend (who thought we would get along) and we have been following each other’s recipe pictures via various social media platforms, but had never actually met in person… until now!  Through Facebook and instagram I had a good idea of what Beth, her food and the new outside seating area (made from an adapted shipping container) would look like, but it was all so much better in real life. The delicious smell of toasting hazelnuts, spices and the large pan of tomatoes simmering away on the hob was a wonderful welcome. Anyone who has ever even considered starting a business will be bowled over with the achievements she has made when the venture is not yet a year old.

Beth talking plans

There are exciting plans for these

There are exciting plans for these

Beth’s creativity and passion for great food has generated a well needed positive buzz in a city where the recession has claimed far too many good independent businesses.

Kiosk feels so much better than a restaurant. It feels like Beth has cooked a delicious lunch and wants to share it with you.

Book a day off, take the train to Nottingham, climb the hill to Sherwood, eat at Kiosk and be inspired.

Kiosk, 1 Winchester St, Sherwood, Nottingham NG5 4AH

Beth’s blog: Don’t forget to turn the oven on