Kitchen Stories

Long Weekend

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Hurrah, the first official long weekend of the year. And, what better way to celebrate than with a little low key experimentation in the kitchen. Days off are, for us, a great chance to try out some new recipes and get excited about seasonal ingredients in a more gentle domestic way.

To help inspire your own kitchen dabbling we’ve put together some of our favourite ideas and combinations for you to try at home.

Happy Easter.

Weekend breakfast

Lie ins and lazy breakfasts have got to be the ultimate luxury, so make the most of the four opportunities ahead of you with the perfect ‘wake me up’. Slice segments of pink grapefruit and dress with warmed Regents Park Honey and thyme leaves - lovely with thick River Cottage natural yogurt.

Warm salad

A salad of warm purple sprouting broccoli topped with a dressing made from salted capers, lemon zest, Ortiz Anchovies, parsley and mint. Delicious with new season roast lamb and a great way to update your Easter entertaining.

Classic leeks mimosa

Celebrate lovely, young new season vegetables - poach baby leeks in white wine and water with a few Steenbergs whole peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves. Finish with a simple vinaigrette and the finest grating of a hard boiled Fenton Farm egg.

Indoor picnic

If the weather turns out as bad as they say, then fret not, here’s your solution - cheat the season and have a Spring indoor picnic with our new British charcuterie from Native Breeds, some Caperberries, Gordal Olives and a bottle of 2007 Riesling Grand cru ‘Vorbourg’ Pierre Frick – the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Super side

Roast long, fine slices of Jerusalem artichoke with garlic and fresh thyme till caramelised and finish with Sun and Seed Organic Walnut Oil to bring out their lovely nuttiness. A great accompaniment for roast meats and just as delicious on its own with a good sourdough to mop up the sticky pan juices.

Easy supper

Steam and generously butter some Jersey Royal new potatoes then lightly crush with wilted spinach and steamed samphire and serve with one of our Roasted Salmon fillets and lemon mayonnaise. Deliciously light and perfect for when you need a break from the rich Easter feast.


Orange Scented Fog

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The Melrose and Morgan kitchen is literally a fog of orange scented fumes - which can only mean one thing - the Seville’s are in and our annual marmalade making has started.

Seville oranges are with for us such a short time, their season being only December to February, that a particular frenzy is attached to their arrival. Huge pans come crashing out of their hiding places and a certain reverence is placed over the careful pealing and juicing of the fruit that follows.

These smaller, harder oranges are definitely not ‘eaters’, but their fabulous sourness and complex bitterness lends itself wonderfully to preserving, and their juice makes a very interesting addition to salad dressings and marinades. Try a squeeze of juice with pink peppercorns and smoked paprika next time you marinade a piece of meat - not only do they add an incredible aroma and mouthwatering sharpness, but their acidity is a brilliant tenderiser too.

The lovely Seville’s we get through Organic Republic make the most fabulous (and award winning I might add!) marmalade. Having won a highly coveted silver at last year’s World’s Original Marmalade Awards for our hand shredded Seville Orange Marmalade, we are hoping to brew up another winning batch this year too.

Home marmalade makers take a look at our blog from last January for recipes, hints and tips. You can buy Seville’s at both our stores at £4/kg.

As I write, the kitchen is a foggy orange inpass - absolutely delightful and well worth the year long wait for!

Strange fruit and a perfumed road trip

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We are creatures of habit at Melrose and Morgan, and Christmas with all its tradition and comforting familiarity seems to bring out theses tendencies even more. We like knowing our turkey will always be a Goodman’s turkey, our roast potatoes will always be crisped to perfection in goose fat, that we’ll tell the obligatory bad jokes around the table and knowing we’ll definitely eat too much trifle!

The making of our Christmas puddings is very much part of that tradition for us, and something that we are very proud of. Call us crazy, but Mr James and I insist on making the pilgrimage ourselves to go and collect the quinces direct from the farm in order to make our puddings each year.

Clay Barn Orchard in Essex is a truly beautiful place and we gladly pack up the car and head off to collect the incredible ‘Vranja’ variety from Charles and Shirley that we love. These huge knobbly yellow beauties then fill the car with their heady perfume as we carefully escort them back home to Melrose and Morgan HQ.

Once back home our chefs can’t wait to get grating, chopping and steaming in order to get our puddings into our shops. We use a blend of dark and light sugars, which, alongside the quince and brandy, gives our pudding its unique auburn colour, lighter texture and deeper more complex flavour.

We then steam our puddings long and slow for a full five hours, and before they cool douse them in more brandy – this ‘feeding’ really develops the richness. After their feed our puddings are then put to bed for a short rest to allow the flavours to fully mingle.

So, if you imagine, after a four hour drive, a five hour steam, a feed and a sleep, each and every pudding has been given more than 24 hours worth of Melrose and Morgan love and attention before it arrives on your Christmas table.

Strange fruit that we are, we wouldn’t do it any other way!