Tricolore

This classic salad is so simple to make but tastes delicious and looks beautiful. The colours compliment each other so well. We picked up some of the ingredients in the Farm shop and wanted to use them as fresh as possible. Creamy milky mozzarella with tomato and buttery avocado was just sprinkled with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil. Make sure you use the Extra Virgin ones for salads. Peppery rocket adds another flavour and we finished it with lovely prosciutto ham and toasted ciabata. Now how could we make this more wintery ...?

Visit to a Farm Shop

I love Farm shops, they excite me a little bit too much. There are many around UK, even in London which is nice, I don't have to travel too far. This lovely place is called Priory Farm and is in Nutfield, not far from Redhill. If you do have a farm shop near you, pay them a visit, it doesn't disappoint.

The fresh produce is wonderful. They focus on seasonal fruit and vegetables with most of it grown at the farm. They also source salads from nearby farm Secretts. The surrounding area belongs to the farm where they also have a discovery walks, pick your own  and a lovely cafe.

Creperie in Le Croisic

Last weekend we retreated to Le Croisic, a picturesque village in the western France. It is famous for its port and as you can imagine, the local produce is exceptional. As the winter is closing in, we spent the evening in this wonderful traditional creperie Le Bot. The Interior design is rustic and the Crepes are delicious. I had a savoury one, with caramelised onions, ham and cheese, followed by a sweet version with salty butter and sugar.We drunk a local cider from old fashioned cups, it felt as if we had gone back in time.

Dinner Party (part two)

Big part of most dinner gatherings is alcohol. Of course we had some prosecco and some beer, but these little cocktails stole the show. After dinner we had White ladies consisting of gin, Cointreau, lemon and fluffy egg whites. It was rather sour, but nicely refreshing after dinner.

Then we had a go at Scottish mojito, also from gin, cucumber, mint, brown sugar and some lime.
It was lovely (first picture). The cucumber really comes through and compliments the gin beautifully.
We finished the evening with a desert. I made apple and plum crumble with some praline hazelnuts on top and fresh custard. It simple, easy to make but everyone enjoyed it.

Dinner Party (part one)

I love entertaining my friends. And I love cooking. This time it was a meal for 5 and I decided to try something new, maybe a bit risky. I cured a side of Salmon, better known as Gravlax, the great Swedish classic. It takes 3 days to marinate and cure the salmon but its absolutely worth it. I used a marinade from Sloe gin, blackberries and clementines. Then I added the herbs after 2 days. The rest of the spread was also with a Swedish touch, beetroot, dill boiled potatoes, cucumber, crème fraiche. It was delicious and light. So there was enough room for the desert.

Autumn Pasta

Autumn is a pumpkin season in England. You see them everywhere. Until recently I was not convinced, I found it too sweet not versatile. How wrong I was. There is so many possibilities. I have roasted the Butternut squash in the oven and mixed it with pasta, crumbled feta cheese, sliced red onion and Chorizo. I added toasted pumpkin seed for extra texture. It looks very seasonal and tasted great too.

La Soup au Potimarron

Today I would like to share a recipe for a pumpkin soup from Red Kuri squash.
Everyone in Paris knows Rue Montorgueil where you can find many restaurants and different grocery shops specialising in fruit and veg, cheese and many more. But there is more secret place for food in Paris - Rue du Nil.

It's a very narrow street filled with small independent stores including fishmongers, butchers, coffee shops as well as my favourite vegetable shop with lovely seasonal produce. They all come from small producers around France. My red Kuri squash comes from there.
If you are lucky like me, you can even spot a Michelin star chef like Jean Francois Piege.
My soup au Potimarron is very easy, quick to make and gives you a lot of energy.

Pear tart

This is rather simple tart. I used Rocha pears, but feel free if you have other preference. They must be ripe and juicy. The case is sweet crust pastry which is rolled very thin and chilled in the fridge for 30 mins before I filled it with frangipan and arranged the pears on top.  Sprinkle of Demerara sugar on top and bake in hot oven for 35 mins. The pears are lovely and soft, the pastry is crisp and frangipan is fragrant from vanilla and almonds. Hmmm lovely...