elBulli

The culinary gods were on my side. With just two free hours to spare, we stumbled on the elBulli Exhibition at Somerset House in London and had time for a whirlwind tour of Borough Market.

I never ate at elBulli. But I did get to see the exhibition. It would have been torture if I had not eaten such a huge brunch that morning. Do not go there  hungry.

The exhibition charted the evolution of elBulli from its roots in 1964 as a coastal restaurant, complete with mini golf,  run by a couple – Dr Hans Schilling and his wife, Marketta. The Schillings were always serious about food and were awarded a Michelin star in 1967. The restaurant was named after Mrs Schilling’s  bulldog  – Bulli. To honor Bulli there was a larger than life model of him made out of meringues.

Tomato Time in Jersey

Tomato time signals the end of summer. With 46 bushels of them delivered from a local grocery store my neighbors work for a few days to make jars and jars of tomato sauce.

The whole family comes together to make “gravy” as tomato sauce in these parts. Most of it is just plain old tomatoes, but there is some marinara sauce too.

Borough Market

I have been to London many times but never made it that mother of all farmers markets – Borough Market.

I was determined to get to the oldest market in London and that is up against some pretty ancient competition.

The architecture itself is impressive dating back to the 1860s with an art deco entrance added on in 1932.  It used to be a real gritty wholesale market but with the advent of retail hours on Thursday, Friday and weekend it had become a very high end fine foods market.

The Montclair Farmers Market

And today at the Montclair Farmers Market

Coconut and Key Lime Pie

It’s getting hot in the kitchen check out my latest post on What’s For Dinner? on Barista Kids – Cool, refreshing coconut and Key Lime Pie. Inspired by a fabulous weekend in Montauk where I ate zesty, refreshing iced Key lime pie.

The coconut and ginger crust make it  more tropical than your average Key Lime raising the delicious quotient.  You might find yourself dreaming of giant coconut pies.

Rhubarb Compote (with delicious Lemon Posset) and Good Old Rhubarb Crumble Recipes

Rhubarb has a short season so get it while you can.

We had a bit of a rhubarbathon this weekend: rhubarb and strawberry compote for breakfast…

..the compote served with Lemon Posset became dessert.

Then there was the  good old rhubarb crumble – made with almond flour, and oatmeal – a bit more interesting than white flour.

All recipes are on my What’s for Dinner? column on Barista Kids.

Roasted Daikon Chips and Daikon Salad recipe.

It is quite daunting to follow the epic pie made by King Marv in his guest post. Using up the vegetables in your veggie box seems so mundane in comparison to boiling pigs’ hooves for three hours to make a jelly.

I was flummoxed by the abundance of daikon radish I got the other week. The large, mild flavored radishes are okay to eat – bland and inoffensive but nothing to get excited about, definitely a “meh” root vegetable. The reality was if I did not tackle them soon they would be forgotten and neglected at the bottom of the fridge destined for reincarnation in the compost bin.

I knew offering daikon raw to The Ladies™ was going to be a hard sell. So this is what I came up with: daikon radishes prepared in two ways – roasted as chips and as a salad with carrots, sesame and ginger. No surprises – the chips were the clear winner. The salad would have had The Ladies™ approval had I reduced the amount of ginger.

An English Gala Pie Recipe fit for Saint George’s Day

I’m really excited about this special guest post from King Marv.
(AKA my husband, Neal.)

He has talked about making this gala pie for well over a year so it was a major event when he finally got around to doing it. Sourcing the ingredients was an adventure in itself: after all, it’s not every day that a girl buy pigs trotters and lard. And don’t start me on the epic saga of actually making the pie. Suffice to say that it was a journey that started with a mere three hours of simmering pigs fat and trotters…  I now understand why one rarely encounters home-made pork pies, let alone the gala variety that comes embedded with hard-boiled eggs.

So, over to Neal. He affects a more cultured demeanor than me, so please humour him while he starts with a little Shakespeare…

Vegan Chocolate Truffles

I wanted to make an Easter treat to take to our friend’s house for lunch tomorrow. I had planned to make chocolate truffles you know the incredibly rich, creamy ones but had a last-minute change of plan…

…I put aside the heavy cream, butter and chocolate and instead I started mixing cocoa powder, nut butter and some coconut oil. I added some interesting toppings such as crystalized ginger, toasted coconut with cardamom and toasted nuts. The result was these really tasty chocolate morsels (albeit vegan ones).

I could fib and say I was thinking of our health but it was nothing more than sheer laziness. These chocolates just needed one large bowl to be mixed in.

All you vegan cynics need to try these. I had to hide them from King Marv and The Ladies™ so we have some left to take tomorrow. I posted this recipe on my What’s for Dinner? column on Barista Kids.

St. Patrick’s Day recipe: Colcannon

La Fhéile Pádraig Shona Daoibh!

As a fellow Celt I feel a lot of empathy to the Irish. I also have some Irish credentials –  that’s if you can count a grandfather who changed his name from Brien to O’Brien to join the Irish marching band in Cardiff – those Irish boys must have been the cool kids in town.

Anyway in honor of all things green and delicious I made colcannon, the recipe is in my What’s for Dinner? column on Baristakids.

How could this creamy, buttery mash not be a winner when it is full of the rockstar of the vegetable world – kale.

So I’m now off to make a Leprechaun House with The Ladies™. As an activity it beats drinking green beer.