Chris Tubbs is a great photographer. We met him last year when he came to take some pictures of our shop and home for Elle Decoration. We have since worked with him directly on three different occasions, commissioning him to take images of the shop for our website and for our new shop in Hampstead. So like proud parents we would like to share these images with you. They speak for themselves, so there is nothing else to add apart from to say “Thank You Chris”.
Monthly Archives: June 2010
We love pickled cucumbers
Today I pickled cucumbers. Our recipe makes 24 500g jars per batch. It can take up the best part of an afternoon. Wash and chop the cucumbers (British of course) as you like - be creative. We chop ours to fit the jar length ways. Sprinkle with a handful of sea salt and leave to one side for a few hours this will help preserve them. We like to put dill, chilli and garlic in our cucumbers but feel free to make up your own recipe and experiment with flavours. Heat your vinegar with a little bit of sugar and some pickling spices, bring to the boil and then chill. Rinse the salt off the cucumbers and pack into clean jars - pour the stock over the cucumbers in each jary and ensure they are all covered. Seal tightly and leave for a month in a cool, dark place before eating. Keep them in the fridge after opening. Great with almost everything!
Busy bees
I attend a beekeeping course once a week in Hampstead Heath run by the North London Beekeeping Association. Last week my bees where very busy doing what they do best - making honey. Its this time of year the the hives become “swarmy”. This is when the colony is strong and will produce another queen and will swarm if the correct procedure is not undertaken by the keeper, leaving the colony weakened. So its with a careful eye that the keeper must inspect each frame to make sure new queen cells (eggs) aren’t being produced, if a queen cell is found that it must be destroyed, so keeping the colony strong and engaged in the making of honey or “stores” for the winter months. The hives are run by working bees 30,000 at the height of the summer - they are all female, the handful of male bees called drones are used to mate other queens and then kicked out or destroyed. The workers are very organised and the different tasked in the hive are shared, cleaning, guarding, feeding working their way up to graduate as a forager living sometimes only three weeks in this job role until they die of exhaustion. I thought my life was tough! More later in the season.
Elderflower Harvesting
The elderflowers have been out for a few weeks and with the sunny spell over the weekend i thought it time to start the harvest today for my annual elderflower cordial. The flowers should be harvested mid season when they are at their fullest and most floral. I have a secret hedgerow where I can pick at ground level and this year it’s packed full of them. Everywhere I look in London I see them - often sadly, in private gardens.
My tip for making the cordial is to remove all the thick stalks as this can make your syrup bitter, only use white flowers as the brown flowers can give off a nasty musky smell that can impair the flavour. Then dissolve your sugar thoroughly by gently heating with water and stiring and then pour your “stock syrup” (1/2 sugar 1/2 water) over the flowers once it has cooled to around 75 o C as to sterilise the flower but not scorch them. Leave to steep overnight or longer if you want deeper flavour. Pass through a fine sieve or muslin and bottle and keep in the fridge. If you would like the complete recipe please contact me through this blog.
Bowdown House, Thatcham
So whilst Andrew and his team were busy on the first weekend of trading in the new shop, Josh and Flori were out in the field (literally) catering for a 50th birthday banquet for 150 guests under a tipee at Bowdown House near Thatcham. On the menu was a feast of poached, dressed Wild Sea Trout with Samphire and lemon mayonnaise, roast sirloin of beef, platters of roasted Isle of Wight tomatoes with garlic and thyme, salad of Chioggia, Ruby and Golden beetroot with sorrel, toasted walnuts and walnut oil , char-grilled asparagus with tarragon mayonnaise. The guests started with sharing plates of Buffalo mozzarella from Laverstoke Park in Hampshire www.laverstokepark.co.uk and cured meats from Trealy Farm in Monmothshire www.trealy.co.uk and finished with a trio of seasonal desserts made in our kitchens at Chalk Farm. Everyone was thrilled and delighted with their food, so a big thanks to the M+M outside catering team.