You can never have too many muffins.

Aaron sent me a photo of these muffins he made... Theres nothing I don't love about these!

It has encouraged me (yeah, as if I need that much encouraging) to make some myself, so tomorrow my beautiful assistant Emma and I, will be having a long baking session!

Check back for that- but for now, satisfy your cravings with this...



Muffins are a lot of fun because they don't need a food processor and are super easy to mix. The key is to fold the flour in carefully to the batter and not mix it too hard. You want lumpy unmixed bits of batter to give it that distinct muffin texture. You can also experiment by throwing in whatever you like. These have carrot, apple, sultanas, coconut and marzipan, and they are topped with a sandy, crumbly mix of oats, three seeds, honey and sugar. Make sure you have plenty of people around to try them, or you will end up eating more of them than you intended, as I discovered to my cost!

Aaron, if you're reading this- I want one I want one I want one I want one!

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How to Solve a Problem Like Giovanni Rana.

I have never been a fan of prepackaged stuffed pasta.
I love fresh tortellini and ravioli, and its high on my list to accomplish making my own, but I can't help but finishing a plate of pre filled and packaged pasta with a crushing sense of anti climax.

And post-feed anti climax, along with wasting food, skipping breakfast, fast food, bad grammar and mispronouncing 'specific' is one of my greatest pet hates. (Yes, the list grows.)

I find it so hard to get right. The Italians recommend 'keeping it simple' with butter and oil. With fresh ravioli, I can see the appeal of this, but with anything from a packet I find it a little bland and tasteless, my mind wandering across and away from the plate.
Conversely, if I make a sauce (Generally a Ratatouille style tomato creation) then the pasta itself is lost, the filling utterly unrecognisable. They are, generally, little more than a suspiciously coloured sludge.

On Friday, whilst in London, I found myself face to face with a promoter handing out free packets of Giovanni Rana Pasta. I'm the kinda lady that will take anything thats free, on principle. Its what student life does to you. So I was filled with great excitement to recieve not just a tester, but an entire pack to take home with me.


I decided to take the opportunity to have an experiment and try and create a way of serving the troublesome tortellini that didn't leave a sour (yet oh so bland) taste in my mouth.

And so...



I served the Ricotta and Spinach Tortelloni (apparently) on a bed of mashed butternut squash, seasoned with pepper. I don't add butter as I like my squash to taste absolutely light and fresh. I then placed a thin layer of fresh spinach over the mash. I briefly boiled the tortelloni with shredded spinach and tossed it together before placing on the plate.
Finally, I sprinkled with powdered garlic and drizzled with chili oil. (Chili oil goes beautifully with both pasta and butternut squash.)
The heat from the pasta above it and the squash below slightly wilted the layer of fresh spinach sandwiched in the middle.

I have to say this recipe was kind of win. It tasted super fresh and light and was delicate enough to not overwhelm the pasta, which added a bit of substance to the vegetables. Next time, I'll try it with my own, home made tortellini and the world will be my oyster.



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Focus on: Borough Market

Borough Market is without question not only one of my favourite places in London, it is easily one of my favourite places to be anywhere. As a lover of good quality produce, it fills me with such open mouthed joy and excitement I often have to remind myself to breathe.

For those unfamiliar, the market is a vast sprawling, and often overcrowded affair located under the arches of London Bridge. Housing hundreds of stalls, it sells a variety of food and drink from organic vegetables, cider and game to Italian mozzarella, home made pesto and hundreds of varieties of chutneys. Stalls also provide lunch options in the form of world street food such as Ostrich burgers and Boreks or treats including smoothies, biscuits and cakes.

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so if that hasn’t yet convinced you…



The lovely gentleman at deGustibus

Tuna. The most pornographic of foods.

The Owls, by The Cinammon Tree

LouLovesFood Recommends:

Balsamic Glazes- Borough market stocks a massive variety of oils and vinegars, but I would particularly recommend The Olive Mill, for their range of sticky and sweet fruity balsamic glazes- Orange or Fig in particular.

Muesli- Mini Magoo is a great company selling breakfast mixes to cater for a variety of tastes and intolerances. Their Ginger Granuesli is uber tasty!

Pate- I partially attribute the breaking of my mushroom abstinence to the Mushroom Pate made by Pate Moi. A good alternative for vegetarians, it is beautifully creamy and rich and full of flavour.

Pesto: Borough Market is a great place to stock up on Pesto, and I always make it my mission to pick out my favourite. This time, I sided with La Tua Pasta. The beautiful Italians that work there aren’t all that bad either…

Cakes and Biscuits: This is almost impossible to decide, with the plethora of pastries and cakes on offer. Though Flour Power are always popular for their huge brownies, and Artisan make a gorgeous looking cheesecake, I went with the little company The Cinammon Tree for their simple but adorably cute Owl biscuits and Indian Elephant Cookies.


Thankyou to the kind people who allowed me to lurk around their stalls and permitted me to take photos, especially to the good people at deGustibus, Artisan, The Olive Mill, The Cinammon Tree and Une Normande et Londres.

Food Fact of the Day

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Food writer Clare McDonald discovered an enzyme in beetroot that breaks down the fibres in Venison, making even the oldest meat tender, so if you're meat has lost the spring in its step or you're short of time, throw it in a casserole with some red wine, redcurrant jelly, fresh beetroot, and voila!

That was a good one- thanks to Aleks for educating me!

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Dinner 04.06.10

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After a trip to Borough Market the other day (coming soon..!) I was all stocked up for cooking dinner round friends. Aleks had bought huge amounts of roe deer and fresh beetroot, which I was really excited about as I've never cooked game before.

There are infinite possibilities for cooking with beetroot, so it took a while for me to make any menu decisions, Here's what I came up with...

Starter:

Baked beetroot slices topped with a smoked salmon and horseradish cream, with beetroot thins.
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Grilled Holloumi and melon (classic!)

Main Course:

Roe Deer, Red Wine and Beetroot Casserole- (see Food Fact of the Day!)

It was, of course, delicious. And pretty simple! I'm really pleased to have tried roe deer. Next time, we're doing Ostrich :)

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Food Fact of the Day

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Frangipane Tart was named after Muzio Frangipane, a 16th Century Italian Marquis who created a perfume based on the scent of bitter almonds. Parisian pastry chefs then tried to capture this scent by adding almonds to the custard they used for filling tartlets...

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You know what its the perfect weather for..?

Porridge of the Week #4

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Porridge of the Week #4

Banana split porridge
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Category: Evening
Mash up a banana, and stir into porridge that has been blended with warm milk. Stir in cubes of chocolate as it warms, so the chocolate starts to melt and leaves streaks through the porridge, but small lumps remain. Removed from the heat and add a spoonful of icecream (Vanilla would be the obvious solution, but you could also try toffee or chocolate chip.)
Finally, sprinkle with chopped hazlenuts, et voila!

This porridge is delicious! It makes a fun pudding, and a good alternative to banana split for my little cult of porridge obsessives. I like to think of it as a wintery equivalant to banana split... I spend a lot of time (Of which I clearly have too much) fantasising about classic puddings that can be adapted into porridge recipes (rather like the muffins) so you can expect more of this!

I think my nxt P.O.T.W should be another 'flavoured' classic. Recommendations, please!

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Food Fact of the Day...

5 Facts about Coffee:

~ The word coffee comes from the arabic, 'qahwah', a poetic word for wine.

~ Coffee was first made from boling the leaves, as oposed to grinding the bean.

~ Coffee was first recorded as being made by an Islamic hermit, ad- Shadhili, around 1200 AD.

~ In Algeria, you can still ask for a cup of ad-Shadhili instead of coffee

~ Hazrat Shah Jamer Allah Mazarabi smuggled seven green beans out of Mecca, taped to his stomach. This was punishable at the time by death. He took them and planted them in India, single handedly beginning the entire Indian coffee Industry.

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Natalie's Baking

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I'm proud to say that my blog has got my sister baking.



Jam filled shortbread with white chocolate flakes



Apple and raspbery crumble. My sister swears by this! Lighter than apple and rhubarb, but sweeter and more exciting (Not to mention prettier, might I add..?) than plain old apple.

Girl done good!

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Octopus Stew Puglian Style

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People get scared of octopus because they think it will be tough and rubbery. If you cook it properly there's no need to worry.

Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed casserole dish and throw the octopus in for about 30 seconds, then turn the heat right down and leave it simmering gently on the hob for a couple of hours (no need to add water, the octopus releases all the water it needs to cook in). It's tender when you can slide a knife in to the thickest section without resistance, just like a potato. Cook it for too much longer and it will dry out and become tough.

There are so many fabulous ways of cooking it. I stewed it with some garlic, fennel, salad onions, thyme, bay and peppercorns.... adding fresh podded peas at the last minute and garnishing with fennel fronds and a good lug of olive oil. You could stew it with tomatoes and olives, or maybe add some potatoes. The skin of the octopus dissolves and turns the coking juices into a goopy, rich stew. I chopped the tentacles up into bite sized chunks before stewing them and boiled the head in bouillon for later use in a seafood salad. Don't waste any of this beautiful animal, it's all edible.

Make sure you freeze it for a couple of days before cooking (or buy it ready frozen) as this breaks down the cell structure and makes it easier to cook and more tender to eat.

The only problem with octopus is that it looks so beautiful uncooked that I am always sad to chop it up!

Recipe and photo donated by Aaron. I have to come cook with you sometime soon!

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