Cambridge Cookery School

More food from me today...

Once again I realise how fortunate I am to belong to that special group of food lovers that is Cambridge Eat Up. Members of the group were invited to the Cambridge Cookery School cafe last Saturday evening  for complementary food and drink. This was a new experience for me as although I have been to the cookery school before, when I took part in the Cambridge Bake Off, (oh the memories of that spongy sponge!) I had never visited the Scandinavian style cafe which is a relatively new venture. Expecting a drink and possibly a few snacks we were instead treated to feast of wonderful food, beautifully prepared and presented. 

About twenty of us, mostly food writers and bloggers, plus partners were welcomed on arrival with a refreshing cocktail of grapefruit liqueur and prosecco along with little bowls of sweet and salty almonds flavoured with Rosemary. I couldn't help noticing the beautiful screen printed napkins too... such lovely attention to detail.

I would have been happy to sit sipping and nibbling on these all evening but there was so much more to come - in the form of four amazing sharing platters.

There was a heavily laden Mezze platter with hummus, baba ganoush, olives, feta and flatbread

A Japanese platter with tempura vegetables, pork dumplings and the most wonderful sushi. I'm not the biggest fan of sushi as I often feel it can be a bit second rate (I won't go near the supermarket stuff) but these little crab rolls were about the best I've ever tasted.

There was an Italian platter  laden with meats, cheese, marinated vegetables and focaccia presented together with a plate of wonderful homemade pasta.

And finally there was a Scandinavian platter with pickled herrings, gravad lax, Vasterbotten cheese, beetroot relish and fabulous rye bread... it transported me back to our lovely trip to Copenhagen.

And just as we were all feeling we couldn't eat another thing we were each presented with these little glasses of Eton mess with a brownie on the side. Just the perfect size to finish off the meal along with little cups of espresso with a scoop of ice cream. Food is so often about memory and these made me think of the "coke floats" of my childhood. I can't recall when I last drank cola, nor do I have any desire to ever do so again, but somehow it was still a comforting memory to recall those glasses of coke (or a personal favourite, cream soda) topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream..

This was a very generous evening from Tina and her staff at the Cambridge Cookery School but I think I should point out that everything I have written has been my own opinion and in no way was I obliged to write anything... good or bad! And I will definitely go back again. If you know Cambridge it is a little tucked away behind Hills Road College, off Purbeck Street but it is worth seeking out for brunch or lunch and if you fancy an informal Saturday night supper it is perfect!

Not only was it an evening of wonderful food but also an evening of meeting up with old friends as well as meeting new ones too so I thought you might like to meet one or two of them too as they are a really interesting bunch!

There was Naomi who is a very talented artist. Some of her pictures are up on the walls of the cafe.
Charlotte, a blogger who has written her own entertaining account of the evening.
Estafania,  a cook, who I met for the first time... I just wish I had the chance to chat to her more not to mention a chance to taste her tapas!
Jin, winner of the Cambridge Bake Off, who makes amazing cakes
Meggy who runs Bridges cafe on the centre of Cambridge
Laura, a food writer, photographer and cook
Bee a food writer... I was so pleased I had written nice things about her book back in February!

Apologies for the people I haven't mentioned but these were the ones I got to speak to at yet again, another fabulous outing with Cambridge Eat Up.

Cookery Calendar Challenge

About a year ago I joined in with Penny's Cookery Calendar Challenge to use the cook books we all have sitting on our shelves but never use, because I have so many cookbooks that it is a bit of an obsession! I think I did it for one month and then got sidelined by cakes and a broken ankle... Not necessarily in that order. But one year on I decided to join in again and during March I picked a couple of new dishes from Sirocco by Sabrina Ghayour, a book I've had for about a year as it was free with a Good Food magazine subscription, but which so far I've only ever used for the recipe for some date and cinnamon scones... Which were pretty amazing since you ask!

The first recipe I chose was for an aubergine and tomato stew.

I didn't have a green pepper so used a red one instead (which I prefer... does anyone really like green peppers?) but I don't think it made that much difference to the outcome. Basically it was just a ratatouille without the courgette but with some added eastern spices... nice enough but nothing extraordinary. I served it with some bulgar wheat and a crumbling of feta cheese for some protein and it made a good weekday supper.

My second choice was far more of a special dish - a chickpea, butternut squash, preserved lemon and harissa tagine. The title pretty much lists most of the main ingredients!

I love butternut squash and this made a fabulous dish, full of interesting flavours that went down very well when my vegetarian son and his girlfriend came round for supper. Served with some warm garlicky flatbread and accompanied with a good red wine this made an excellent meal with the added bonus of plenty of leftovers for another supper for us later in the week.

And then I got carried away and decided to try a third recipe, this time for some goats' cheese and za'atar puffs... really an excuse to use up a packet of puff pastry that had been lurking in the freezer for ages.

I took these to a gathering of friends where they went down very well so I'll definitely make them again, especially as they were very quick and easy to put together.

And if that wasn't enough I also made some caramelised braised fennel with coriander and orange, because I'm loving all things with fennel at the moment. I did take a photo of these but they didn't look very attractive so you'll have to take my word for it that they were very tasty. The recipe says to grill the fennel but I stuck it in the oven with the salmon I was cooking and I think it could have done with a bit longer as it was a tad chewy... but it didn't really spoil it.

So my verdict for this book... I enjoyed all the recipes and would happily make them again but I can't help feeling that it is trying a little too hard to emulate the style of Yotam Ottolenghi, but not quite managing it. But there again, Ottolenghi does set the bar rather high so on that note I thought I'd pick one of his cookbooks for April... Plenty. I do use this book occasionally and have a few favourite recipes but there are so many more to try so I'm looking forward to cooking from this throughout the month.

Do check out what others have made this month by clicking on the links at the bottom of Penny's Post

The Evolution of a Book Club

I have written about the fact that I belong to two book clubs before...  One where we read books every month and the other where we don't! I may have even already mentioned how it is that I to belong to a book club where we don't read books... but I'm about to tell you again. Feel free to go away and come back next time if you've heard it before. To be fair as individuals we do all read a lot of books between us but not necessarily the same ones, however I digress.

Many years ago in a village near us there was a book club with members who were erudite and well read. The books they chose to read and discuss were worthy tomes filled with challenging ideas and deep themes, deserving of discussion. So when one particular member put forward the suggestion that one month they might read something a little lighter, frivolous even, there were mutterings and tuts and it was generally frowned upon. So in true anarchical style a break away group was formed of six or seven friends who just enjoyed a good book... And I was invited to join this little revolutionary group.

That was about seventeen years ago and in the beginning, every couple of months we met and took it in turns to suggest a book which we all read and then discussed in a gathering involving wine and nibbles, at one of our homes. We wanted a name for our club and after the first few books we realised that so far every book we had read had at least one sex scene and so "The Mucky Book Club" was born... or MBC as we became known! As the years passed, there was less emphasis on the books or the necessity for "mucky" content and far more emphasis on the wine and nibbles which evolved into full blown sharing suppers. We continued to meet and bring along books we had enjoyed to share with the others but even that has stopped in recent times. We now meet to eat, drink and chat and generally laugh and have a good time. As it was my turn to host recently I picked a tapas theme to the evening. Everyone brought along a dish or two along with a bottle of wine and as you see we had an absolute feast. There was tortilla, stuffed tomatoes, chorizo, devilled prawns, patatas bravas, artichokes, olives, sardines... it really was a feast and all so good.

There was much laughter as always and a wide range of topics discussed from funerals to flannels (the wash cloth variety... I'll say no more other than one of our group is a carer), pets to whiskery chins (female ones, we are with the exception of one, all of a certain age), travel and old age and all sorts of other things too... the only book discussed was the "Life in the UK" handbook because one of our group LeeAnne is an Australian citizen who has recently taken the Life in the UK test! She knows an awful lot more about UK life than the rest of us!

By the time pudding was served we were all very mellow indeed... Or slightly deranged if my face is anything to go by!

In keeping with the Spanish theme I made a Tarta Di Santiago, a cake of oranges and almonds eaten widely across Spain to celebrate the feast day of St James. It isn't a dagger you see before you...  but the cross of St. James 

I love Christine's face in this photo... very appreciative of the cake!

So no books, but good food, good wine, good conversation and most importantly good friends. And on Christine's suggestion it looks like we might just be changing the name of our little group, keeping MBC but altering it to the Munch & Banter Club!

As for my other book club, where although we do all read the same books each month it is never snobbish or elitist and we get through a wide range of topics from the deep and worthy ones to the frivolous too, we are currently reading The Muse by Jessie Burton. It's not often a story keeps me gripped right to the last page but this one did. The story is set between 1960's London where Odelle, recently arrived from Trinidad, is about to embark on a new job in an Art Gallery... one that will change her life, and in 1936 in rural Spain amid revolutionary uprising. The stories gradually come together solving the puzzle of a mystery painting. It is a pacy story, full of suspense and I can definitely recommend it.

Our book club choice last month was A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding. I didn't read it before the meeting as I didn't really fancy this account of Litvinenko's assasination but after the meeting I was intrigued to find out more so borrowed a copy. It's one that I'm dipping in and out of in between reading His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet which I'm really enjoying.

Reading anything good lately?

Ely Markets... the follow up tour!

I don't think we could have picked a more beautiful morning for a visit to Ely's market. It's always a pleasure to visit Ely and whenever we come we always wonder why we don't venture out here more often. There is the magnificent cathedral, beautiful riverside walks, independent shops and tea rooms, free city centre parking and of course a fabulous market which was the purpose of our visit. You may remember we had a tour of the market's food stalls back in September and we returned this morning for another chance to sample the wonderful produce available.

We started the morning at The Lemon Tree Deli, run by Debbie and her husband. They started out with a market stall but have successfully transitioned to running an independent shop, which is not surprising given the wonderful fare we sampled.

We tried a savoury "afternoon tea" in the form of a cheese scone with cream cheese and a tasty chutney, some cheese and crackers with an amazing chilli marmalade ( I really want to try making that!)  and then some lovely sweet treats - chocolate orange brownies, caramel shortbread and good old fashioned bread pudding. It was tempting to clear the plates but we knew there was plenty more to come!

The next stop was to see Suzannah who is relatively new to the market. She runs Hum-Closen who work with small producers in rural Europe, bringing natural organic wines and raw milk cheeses to the UK. We sampled several of the excellent cheeses, buying a very tasty "1924 Roquefort"  blue cheese to bring home and also tried  the Prosecco Suzannah is holding. Okay, I know it was only 10.30 am but do not judge me... it would have been rude not too! And in case you were wondering it was light and refreshing, not a typical Prosecco should you be used to the supermarket stuff but delicious nevertheless!

And with it being Mother's Day in the UK tomorrow we all appreciated the blackboard sign!

Next was another newcomer to the market Jonathon, The Dessert Man, who specialises yummy desserts... as you might have guessed from the name! We got to sample millionaire's shortbread and brownies, both very good, and if that wasn't enough we all got a slice of cheesecake to bring home. I'm looking forward to my Mint Aero cheesecake later!

From there we went to see Andrew who runs the food cart I am Dumpling. We sampled Andrew's wonderful food last time we were in Ely and once again he didn't disappoint. Excellent quality Asian dumplings served with fresh herbs, fried shallots, sesame seeds and freshly prepared sauces... plus excellent and entertaining conversation from Andrew whilst we waited for our dumplings to steam.

Next up was Al Chili, one of my favourite stops last time. This is a food truck founded by Mexican brothers Octavio and German, serving authentic Mexican food. Unfortunately the samples this time were meat based so I didn't get to try them but I was very tempted by the slow cooked pork tacos... and that's from someone who hasn't eatem meat in over twenty years!

From there we headed to Ely Gin who were celebrating their fifth birthday. Nancy and her husband are another Ely Markets success story having started with a market stall and now they run a shop and a successful online business. They have launched a "Breakfast Marmalade" gin to mark their fifth anniversary and we got to try it... it was after midday by now, okay... and in case you were wondering, it was good! We also sampled some fun gin " infusions"... little bags of herbs and flavourings that you can infuse into your gin... hooray for gin teabags! The strawberry and mint was very tasty.

After that we scooted by George's Bakery, picking up some cakes for later and headed to Replete to try some delicious flatbreads...

and then we stopped at Lizzie's stall to try some of her vegan food which I enjoyed far more this time around... good savoury rolls and scotchless scotch eggs.

After that it was time to visit another newcomer Cha Kombucha where Esther introduced us to her fermented green tea, which I never even knew was a thing. It was surprisingly refreshing and apparently very good for us... possibly a good thing after all the cake and alcohol consumed. Although I confess that the scoby culture that was growing in the fermenting tea was rather alarming!

It was then time to try some delicious preserves from Cambridge Preserves Kitchen, where I bought a jar of raher good beetroot and orange chutney. We then moved on to Sudesh and his Luxury Samosas. All I can say is that these were the best samosa I have ever tasted... and no Sudesh, I don't say that to all the samosa sellers! These were cooked on site in a giant wok in true street food style.

We also got to sample some delicious African inspired chilli sauces from Madam Sunshine who was indeed very sunny and smiley! Her sauces were very good too!

And we finsihed our tour at Silver Oak Coffee where we ate cakes from George as well as fabulous cakes from Audrey too. All of Audrey's cakes are vegan and although it feels a little insulting to say so... you would never guess!

I'm not a big coffee drinker but it was very good coffee!

So yet again, a fabulous tour of the passionate food and drink producers and suppliers at Ely Market. Many thanks to Michelle for organising it as well as to the team from Ely markets. If you are close enough to Ely for a day out then I urge you to just do it... don't put it off, just go! And if you live too far away then please make yourself a cuppa and spend half an hour clicking on the links checking out what these people have to offer. Not only becase I think it is increasingly important to support small independent suppliers... and these are all excellent independent suppliers... but it also took ages to add all the links and write this post... make it worth my while!

You can find the general market open on Thursday, Craft and Collectables along with the street food every Saturday, the farmers market on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month and there are also Sunday and bank holiday markets as well as special events.

And I would like to finsih by saying it has taken so long to write this that I've now eaten my dinner and have finished my mint aero cheesecake from The Dessert Man which was top class!

Pina Colada

It's Cake Slice Bakers time again already, when I join in with other bloggers on the 20th of each month to bake from World Class Cakes by Roger Pizey. This month our choices were a rather lovely sounding banana loaf (tempting), an extravagant multi layered coffee chocolate cake (maybe just a bit too much work involved), a mandarin, polenta and macademia cake (also tempting) and a Greek coconut cake, that for various reasons I decided to make.

My eldest son's girlfriend is Greek and a keen baker/cook and has shared some lovely Greek recipes with me so I thought it would be fun to try this... although I was then disappointed to read this traditional cake is usually made with semolina but not so in this recipe! Also, consistant with my past experience of this book, the oven temperature and timings seemed way off the mark, which I think could really throw an inexperienced baker. Which is a shame as there are some fabulous looking cakes... but I digress.

The amount of mixture specified in the recipe was vast. There were vat loads of batter so I actually made it in two 23 cm (9") cake tins rather than just the one and I added the coconut toffee topping to just one of them as I had plans for this cake!

As it happens last week I attended another Clandestine Cake Club meeting in Cambridge and the theme for the evening was beverages. For some reason when I saw this coconut cake I immediately thought about Pina Colada. I've always thought coconut and pineapple make a lovely combination of flavours in a cake... although absolutely vile in a cocktail!

So I took my two relatively plain coconut cakes, soaked them in a rum syrup (rather than the specified lemon syrup), then sandwiched them together with a layer of pineapple conserve (made very easily from a tin of pineapple in juice) and some coconut buttercream. I finished the whole lot off with some piped buttercream and dried pineapple flowers.

I don't think I have ever made such an enormous cake!

It did look so pretty when I photographed it at home...

But after driving it into Cambridge and then walking with it from the car park, I took the lid off the box to reveal a bit of a disaster... the entire top had slid off and the pineapple and buttercream had oozed everywhere. The photo below is after I had attempted a rescue. I guess I should be grateful that at least the whole lot hadn't slid onto the floor like last month!

Fortunately everyone seemed to agree that it tasted really good even if it looked a mess. And I managed to bring what remained into my class the following day where it was also well received.

I think it might have said something about our Clandestine Cake Club that the majority of offerings for our beverage theme were alcoholic. There was a delicious limoncello cake and a strawberry Pimms sponge sandwich.

A chocolate Guinness cake and a peach, blueberry and amaretto sponge (yummy!) also made an appearance, along side a coffee chocolate cake and a tea loaf

Despite appearances I can definitely recommend the coconut cake and this is my version of the recipe:

Greek Coconut Cake (adapted from World Class Cakes)

You will need two 9" (23cm) cake tins, greased and lined. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C (150 fan)

 

Ingredients:

• 9 large eggs, beaten
• 455g caster sugar
• 315g self raising flour, sifted
• 225g butter
• 300g dessicated coconut

Syrup:

• 50g caster sugar
• juice of a lemon
• 100ml white rum 

Toffee topping

• 150 ml double cream
• 80g soft brown sugar
• 100g shredded coconut

Method:

•  Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy
• With a hand mixer, add the beaten eggs a little at a time, with a spoonful of flour with each addition, to prevent curdling
• Fold in the remaining flour and the coconut until well mixed.
• Divide between the two tins and bake for approximately 1 hour (the book says to bake one cake at 150 deg (130 fan) for an hour and a half to two hours)
• While the cake is baking make the syrup by combining the caster sugar, the juice of a lemon and the white rum in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar
• When the cakes come out of the oven, brush the tops with the drizzle until it is all used up.
• Cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then make the coconut topping.
• For one cake combine the double cream and soft brown sugar in a small pan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the shredded coconut and then pour the mixture over one of the cakes. Turn up the oven temperature to 190 deg C (170 fan) and return the cake to the oven for ten minutes or so until the top has browned.
• Allow to cool for ten minutes and then turn out of the tin. The cake is perfectly delicious as it is (and you can freeze one for later) or you can go the whole hog like me and sandwich together with the fillings of your choice, where you will have a cake that is impossible to cut, tastes amazing and is big enough to feed about thirty people!

You can see what the others have baked this month here:

   

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