A massive thanks!

I participated in Aysgarth Fete yesterday and for the first time in my life I had a chance to sell my cakes, focaccias and preserves to the public. Funds collected during the fete are going towards Aysgarth Village Institute so it was a double pleasure for me - helping to raise the money and seeing people buying my cakes and preserves and actually some coming back for more! What a joy!

A massive thank you to all that bought my gluten free lemon & almond tart, dark chocolate brownie, onion, olives & oregano focaccia, onion, sundried tomatoes & thyme focaccia or preserves. Also another massive thanks to everyone who participated in the fete and made me feel welcomed. For the first time I participated in such a venue and hopefully not the last time. 

THANK YOU!

♥♥♥

Village ladies and me in the middle of cake stand

 

Season's Greetings

With very best wishes for festive season and 

the New Year to my dearest readers. 

With love,

from

Karolina

I can't promise new posts before January 2013, because I really feel like not doing anything but reading some books in the front of my fireplace during this short break, but what I can promise is that you will have more reasons to come back to this blog in new year - I am planning on improving the look of this blog and hope to cook even better dishes!

All the best! :)

Tasty Cornwall

Cornwall is a great place for food lovers. There are few Michelin starred restaurants in Cornwall and Devon but apart from those duchy is full of fantastic food producers, slightly cheaper restaurants run by celebrity chefs such as "Fifteen" (Jamie Oliver) or "The Seafood Restaurant" (Rick Stein), but traditional pubs serve good food as well - we managed to have a decent fish & chips and beef & ale pie in rather cheap spots. Tomorrow I will write a separate post about the best fish & chips in Cornwall.

Fish & chips with a view - pub The Port William in Trebarwith Strand

I would say the best Cornish Pasties we even had were those made by Pengenna Pasties (they have four spots in Cornwall) - pastry was exceptionally good, even I am not a big fan of pastry and the traditional filling with beef, potatoes, swede and onions very tasty and perfectly seasoned (peppery). We also bought 3 different ones to take away and all of the were equally good. Selection is nice, they even offer vegan ones.

Cornish Pastry, Tintagel

Cornwall is famous for pasties as well as clotted cream, fudge or ice cream (I recommend ice cream at Eden Project!) and in every tea room you are able to try thir famous Cornish cream - selection of tea with scones, clotted cream and fruit preserves. This is an absolute must try when you are in this region.

                                  Tasty and refreshing smoothie in tropical rain forrest at Eden Project

The only tea grown in United Kingdom is produced on the estate in Cornwall and it is called Tregothnan, if you are not keen to travel there you may as weel buy it at Eden Project. This tea is mainly producet to be exportet abroad so it makes it rare and valued in UK. At Eden Oroject I have spotted probably the most beautiful tin design! Local sardines in these great tins cought my eye, as well as duck rillettes. This was extremely good,made with duck, cranberries and Grand Marier and when I came back home and waslooking for some information about the producer Cornish Charcuterie I have found really enthusiastic review by Rick Stein saying how great this product is. Also in their gift shop there is a selection of famous  Cornish Sea Salts.

Tinned sardines and rillettes

Eden Project treats

Festivals, festivals... There are many food and drink festivals in Cornwall, I had a chance to go to Cornwall Food & Drink Festival  in Truro. To be honest it wasn't as impressive as my local one yet still there was a good selection of products.

top: cider, Cornish Yarg, saffron cake, bottom: Cornish Sea Salts, selection of cheese and bread

top: sausages, raw chocolate pies, fresh crabs, bottom: preserves, vegetable stand, Bramley apples and cider

I have done some shopping on the festival and decided to head to south coast to find a nice spot for a picnic. We were quite hungry, found a remote spot with lovely view and had improvised picnic. We had: fantastic wild venison salami (from Deli Farm Charcuterie), rosemary focaccia, ciabatta rolls, smoked goats' cheese Tesyn, traditional saffron cake with dried fruits, local ales (from a brewery called Penpont), and very tasty raw chocolate pie with pink Himalayan salt (from Raw Choc Pie). On the festival there was a nice selection of locally produced cheeses, probably themost famoous ones are Davidstow Cheddar, Cornish Yarg, or my favourite  Cornish Blue. We also bought Cornish Blue & fig pâté.- one of the best things I have ever tried. There is also very tasty pear and walnut version of this pâté. 

post-festival improvised picnic 

Probably the most popular and well known brewery in Cornwall is  St. Austell Brewery and we have tried their ales in every pub we went to. Town is not interesting ate all, but the brewr is worth visiting. There are guided tour, beer tasting and pint of beer of your selection in their pub after the tour is included in a ticket price.  You can shop in their gift shop and eat something in their pub. Menu is not impressive, but I was pleasantly surprise to see Cornwall's smoked hog's pudding - traditional thick sausage that can cotain an offal. It was tasty, but not as good as black pudding or Scottish haggis. 

brewery tour

Hog's pudding and ale

I can't think of anything else I should tell you about amazing Cornish food produce. I obviously know there are many, many more to discover and I will definately go back one day to this tasty part if United Kingdom to search more inspiring food and drink.

beef & ale pie in one of the pubs and famous Cornish cream tea: scones, clotted cream and fruit preserves

I'll be here...

.. when I am gone. 

Be good, spoil yourself, eat well and please come back at the beginning of October.

:)

I will have limited (if any) Internet access so your comments may appear with a delay and I will respond to them when I come back.

I am off to Cornwall. Take care of yourself!

 

My subjective guide to culinary books, part 4

I think it is right time for me to share with you my views on my new cook book. I showed you few recipes and to be honest I was planning to publish another two this week, but unfortunately it looks like I manage to cook them this weekend at the earliest, so I thought I publish the review first. Perhaps some of you who have seen some of the recipes from this book posted on my blog already decided to buy this book. For some of you this review could be helpful.

from Amazon.co.uk

This is the most recent book by one of my favourite foodies Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Three good things on a plate – does this sound trivially? Don't take this as three ingredient cookbook, this is slightly different. Hugh simply used a formula of putting three things in one dish, things that have different flavours, consistency, texture and created over 175 easy to follow recipes. You don't need some fancy ingredients, make sure they are at their best, also no need of spending much time preparing the dishes or any special techniques. Recipes most of the time use quite humble ingredients. Hugh has experimented for years so he knows what works together and what not necessarily should not be mixed on one plate. Take advantage of his knowledge!

There is so much more in this book than some of the classic combinations that may sound very obvious, everybody knows fish, chips and mushy peas, sharp fruit, crumble and vanilla sauce, crusty bread with melted cheese and salty ham or chocolate cake with salted caramel. Sweet, salty, crunchy. Sharp, rich, crumbly. Number three seems to be mystical also in cooking.

Book is divided into several sections: salads, starters & soups, snacks & sides, vegetable trios, fish & two friends, meat & veg, pasta, rice & company, fruity threesomes, triple treats. Hugh gives you not only the exact easy to follow short recipes in which three ingredients are the key and work incredibly well together, but also he suggests swaps or extra ingredients to build up the recipe. For somebody who likes a bit of experimenting this is ideal!

Hugh also says that this is cooking and there is a room for experimenting, adding a light touch and a sense of fun. He suggest that readers if they wish so should experiment and swap i.e. one crunchy veg for other but this principles may not always work. Here is a room for reader's improvisation.

If you are unsure how to improvise there are still exact, great recipes for you and perhaps this book will be next big step for you and soon you will be challenging yourself to become more experimental?

Apart from the above this book is very pleasant to look at, as most of the Bloomsbury's books I remember. Food photos are quite simple, not over styled, rustic I would say, Simon Wheeler who worked with Hugh before (also with Heston Blumenthal) did fantastic job. Also there are stunning illustrations by Mariko Jesse, whose work you may remember from Hugh's "River Cottage Everyday". 

If you haven't seen dishes from this book I had pleasure to cook and even more pleasure to eat, please have a look:

Roast tomatoes, onion & barley soup 

Baked eggs with tomatoes & bread 

Beet, apple & pecan salad 

Cauliflower, tomatoes & capers salad 

Sourdough bread with olive oil, honey & salt 

Celery, orange & mackerel salad 

If you still need some more examples of recipes you can find in this book, perhaps you should come back here in few days and check out a recipe for dessert and the most bizarre pizza I have ever seen.

"Hugh's Three Good Things (on a plate)"

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (August 2012)

Harcover, 416 pages

How to get rid of fruit flies in your kitchen

Today I have another tip for you, one that have changed my life (ha, ha!). Recently my kitchen has been full of fruit flies - this is natural in the summer, I have got plenty of fresh fruit in my baskets, also they love the smell of sour starter that I bring out of the fridge at least 2-3 times a week.

This is easy, homemade method, I have found it in users' comments below some article about getting rid of fruit flies on one of American websites. I tried it and it turned out to be a huge success.

You need:

- a glass
- cider or white wine vinegar
- about tsp of washing liquid  

Place some vinegar in a glass (1-2 cm should be enough), add washing liquid and leave near the place in your kitchen where you get the most of the annoying insects. After about 12-24 hours you will see plenty of dead flies on the bottom of the glass. Victory! I am not going to show you photograph of dead flies in the vinegar - it is not appetising, even this is very satisfying to get rid of these flies. May the Force be with you!

( text on the photograph says: Senses in the kitchen fight fruit flies!)

How to quick and easy scoop out the courgettes

 

It's a quick one today, no recipe, but kitchen trick instead. Perhaps you don't know this trick yet, and since I use this tool to scoop the flesh out of the courgettes (seasonal veg at it's best now!) I am more happy with the result. I used to use a small knife or a spoon, but I found it not very precise so now I use this metal thing - no idea how it is called? It is the tool of scooping out the melons, watermelons and other stuff. I also use it to scoop put the aubergines, biut for the large ones I prefer to use ice cream scoop. It scoops the courgette out more evenly and that makes the courgette to cook more evenly too - no undercooked or overcooked bits.  I hope this tip comes handy.

Have you got any secret amazing ways to scoop out the courgettes? ;)

There is a city

My blog on Pinterest

I decided to join it and please feel welcome to have a look at some of my inspirations - food, travel and my crush on shoes and some other things. ;)  Please click here to see my blog on Pinterest.

Subjective guide to British cheeses, vol. 2

Today's episode is dedicated to one of my true favourite local cheeses - Yorkshire Blue. I am sure there will be some more delicious cheeses from Yorkshire in this series, even from the same producer.

 

This particular cheese is being produced since 1995 however I think it is worth going back few years to introduce you to the history of Shepherds Purse. Judy Bell, farmer's wife and part time worker at osteopath's clinic came across people with diary products intolerance, especially cheese. This sparked her interest and she starter to research on this condition and this leaded her to discover that some people with lactose intolerance have less allergic reactions to sheep's milk. For years she researched different breeds of sheep and experimented with different recipes, helping on the farm and bringing her children up at the same time.

Finally in 1989 Shepherds Purse was launched and introduced ewe's milk cheese, but since then they successfully introduced many more - business has grown and became full time job, however it is still run by one family. Nowadays this cheese is available in well stocked delis and in many supermarkets.

When first launched Yorkshire Blue was first entirely cow's milk blue cheese produced in Yorkshire in last 30 years. This vegetarian cheese is a mild, soft, creamy and blue veined, with no sharp taste. It has very smooth and soft rind and smooth, pale yellow centre. Each cheese is hand made, turned every week to to ensure the consistent blue veining and creamy smooth texture. Maturing time - about 8 weeks.

Yorkshire Blue is award winning cheese and the list of awards is very impressive, i.e. Gold on World Cheese Awards 2010. 

Region: Yorkshire

Type: blue

Shape: round 

Milk: pasteurised cow's 

Rennet: vegetarian

Price: 15 punds sterling/kg 

Producent: Shepherds Purse,

Leachfield Grange, Newsham,

Thirsk, North Yorkshire YO7 4DJ

http://www.shepherdspurse.co.uk/

Casting, boobs and some other things

I know this is a food blog but today I would like to share with you my feelings about my recent casting. I was overwhelmed by the amount of warm wishes and simply feel like sharing my experience with you. Those who are not interested please stay tuned because I have new exciting recipe coming up, new photographs and also second part of guide to British cheeses! 

On Tuesday I traveled to Liverpool (about 3hrs drive) to Bravissimo/Pepperberry shop. (shop that offers lingerie in D-K cups and clothes designed with boobs in mind). I had very warm welcome, ladies offered me nibbles and sparking wine. I had a bra fitting session with one of their lovely bra fitters, she was very nice and I had a chance to discuss different styles and size of bras. I found this very interesting and strongly recommend it. 

 Next I was given black leggings and black tight t-shirt so that ladies could see my body shape. Also they measured my chest, waist and hips to determine which body shape I represent and what size I wear. They took  photographs of my back and my face and asked me to try two different styles on - these dresses I believe are from Autumn collection as I can't see them in recent catalogue neither on-line. Again some photographs were taken and then after filling the form in I had time for trying their dresses on in the shop. I was assisted by lovely ladies, they were very helpful, nice and finally I decided I am going for the dress you can see on the photograph, as this was one of their dresses I had on my wish list for some time and I think it fits me well:

Stripe Hem Dress (Pepperberry)

 

I think it was very kind of Pepperberry to offer me a free dress as their way to thank me for coming to the casting and being support to the brand.  Unfortunately I can't share any photographs from the casting, but Pepperberry mentioned on their facebook page that they will be sharing them with us soon, so check this out. When casting was finished my partner and I went to Wagamama to have some wonderful soup (one of our favourite places to eat!) and then for a walk to the docks and river Mersey. It is a shame that I forgot to take my camera with me (due to the excitement) - although Liverpool in not entirely my cup of tea, there were some interesting spots.

I have to say I would be over the moon if they decide I am good enough for the final photoshoot, but I am already very happy they've picked me especially since they got lots of applications and really were spoilt for choice. Casting also made me realise one thing. I fully and finally understood that I am not a freak of nature. Why I though I was a freak? When I was in high school and on university I heard thousands of times when shopping for underwear that my boobs are so large it is impossible to get a decent bra for me. If I only had one pound for every "you must be wearing at least 34 under bust" or "they don't make cups larger than DD" I have heard I would be rich today. So I struggled for years, even my breast isn't really that large! I was frustrated, my posture was awful, as I was trying to hide my breast and also due to the wrong fitting I didn't feel comfortable, I honestly thought my only hope was breast reduction surgery. 

The only thing I regret is that I didn't get into bra fitting bit earlier and did it around my 30th birthday. I was properly measured and feel so much better, well supported and many shops offer gorgeous styles for larger cups. I strongly believe that boobs any size deserve well fitted bra. I think things are getting better and more women are educated as to what size they should wear, but I can still see many women wearing wrong size (too loose on the band and too small cups) So ladies do it for yourself! For you comfort and health. With new fitted bra you will feel newborn. 

Right, this is all I wanted to say, now back to cooking and photographing. I have some more exciting recipes for you and really feel so enthusiastic about this. Especially that yesterday I found out that one of the Polish food magazines recommends my blog! I read so wonderful things about my blog that nearly made me cry.  I really feel like I have to keep going as never before. I know you will not understand a word of it, but still share with you screen of their recommendation. :) 

And one more thing. About week ago I decided to place adverts on my blog. Clear boxes with ads no product placement or sponsored posts. When I started blogging I knew this is going to be my hobby only and still feel the same about my blog, however this can be quite expensive hobby. I hope these extra earnings help me to develop this hobby, buy some new cook books (and believe me - my wish list on Amazon is VERY long) or perhaps go somewhere nice and write a review? I trust you will understand and accept it. 

That's it. Thanks for reading and talk to you soon! :)

Dales Food & Drink Festival, part 2

There were also other attractions and displays, not the food only. For example there was a dry stone wall sections. This is very typical for this region way of building the walls using natural materials. It stretches back thousands of years, examples of this craft going back years and years are on Orkney (Skara Brae). It is hard physical job, requiring a bit of imagination and nowadays there aren't many people skilled to build proper dry stone wall. I am proud to say that my partner is considered as a good dry stone waller in the area. 

You could also see sheep shearing - man on the photograph has 50 years experience in this!

Beautiful sheep, Swaledale breed as I believe...

...and a display showing different types of wool coming from a different sheep breeds. (more than 30 breeds in United Kingdom that I know about)

And now back to the tasty bits.

There were many exhibitors selling their good quality bread and other bakery goods and also the bread class was provided where you could learn how to make your own bread and knead and shape it under a watchful eye of the specialist.

Alcohols selection - not my cup of tea, but very colourful and pretty!

Frere Quenelle Liqueurs  - something for a liqueur lovers. No concentrates, no additives or colourings. Just fresh fruit, so told me the monk (?). 

Raydale Preserves are the preserves that I buy if I run out of my own homemade. Made in converted barn in Askrigg by one family since 1978. Truly delicious and no gelling agent added. I love it.

I love bruschetta with all my heart. To be honest, this is not Yorkshire thing, but I like the fact that the food area had versatile suppliers, for example there was one very good Italian stand expect this one with these beautiful bruchettas. 

 Swaledale Cheese is one of my favourite and no doubt I will wrote about this in my new series about British cheese, so stay tuned!

Sweets, sweets! It was than many of them that it could make you sick from looking only! A huge selection for those loving fancy sweet stuff.

Look at their enthusiasm! I hope they put as much positive feelings in their good looking fudge.

There obviously must have been a stand offering nice selection of British favourite - biscuits. Ginger nuts, digestives, shortbread - whichever you can think about - it was probably there. Did you know that Brits consume the most of the biscuits in the whole world?

Look at this lovely man - he had very nice selection of fish and meat products; I bought very tasty game terrine (pheasant and venison) and some smoked garlic. I came back next day and was offered discount! This is how customers should be treated. Thank you kindly sir!

Just to finish off  with this fine British cider I salute you all my readers who were patient enough to go through this long photostory. To good health!

Thank you! :)

Dales Food & Drink Festival, part 1

Yorkshire Dales is where I have been living for more than six years and is also a place where I will buy my first house when I win the lottery. I would buy two others elsewhere but first I have to be obscenely rich. Dales are part of the national park, so you can easily find here lots of lovely nature, but also fantastic food. Not only Dales as a matter of fact, but whole Yorkshire is a place of very good quality produce.

I was fortunate to visit local Dales Food and Drink Festival in Leyburn (6-8 May). Three days, twelve thousand visitors, over eighty exhibitors, good food, even better drink, music, entertainment, farming and more.


I hope you will enjoy my photo story.

I am not a big fan of cupcakes, so popular in Britain, however these look adrable and I am not suprised that some people are willing to have then on their wedding day. Beautifully decorated, little pieces of art.

"No denying times is hard, sir! Even harder than the worst pies in London!" (Sweeney Todd). Again something very British and very good. I have tried three different pies and every single one of them was delicious, not like those Helena Bonham - Carter baked in "Sweeney Todd". As a matter of fact these were the best pork pies I ever had.  Farmhouse Direct  make their pies from rare breed called Gloucester Old Spot, crust melts in your mouth and the toppings are very, very interesting and compliment the meaty filling very well - red onion marmalade and Leicester cheese or apple and cider chutney.

Porridge in the morning is so British, isn't it? :) This one was particularly interesting - a mix of oats, quinoa and cinnamon.

Festival of Food and Drink would be nothing without good tea. Beautiful flowering teas and wide selection of accessorize and leaf teas from  The Tea Experience.

Morris dance  form of traditional dance usually accompanied by music. Implements sticks, swords and bells may also be wielded by the dancers. "So this is what you do when you don't have sex anymore" - said my partner. No interest in this whatsoever if you ask me. By the way my partner has the same opinion about playing golf. 

Fantastic cold pressed Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil. No nonsense, chemical free. Plain or with a hint of chilli or basil - very, very tasty. Not only this oil is produced using rapeseed from local farms but the company  actively support low food miles and ensure that their bottles and labels are all produced using British companies. I like it, I buy it.

I mentioned about these cordials made by Country Cordials in my post about the lavender cordial. Wide selection and interesting flavours of cordials that I found on the festival inspired my to experiment more with my homemade cordials. I only bought one bottle - wild nettle flavour, but the decision was hard. What would you say about rhubarb, orange and ginger in one bottle? 

Time for lunch! What you can see on my tray is authentic Indian cuisine by Prett Tejura, who had her theater  of cooking the day before. I like it a lot, she seems to be such a nice person and experienced cook. Love the idea of cookery class (based in Leeds) as well as catering dinner parties! She also sells her homemade pickles and chutneys. Please don't be fooled by my outfit, it was very cold, at the beginning of May it was around 5-8 C!

I am fortunate to have great meat supplier locally in my favourite local deli called Campbells of Leyburn. It is worth mentioning because it is quite impressing that this shop has been run by one family since 1868. Today it is the fifth generation of Campbell family running the business. And the butchers... Lovely lads, who are always wiling to help and advise and those who I make cake for when I need odd ingredients such as beef bones. Kevin in the front cooking burgers.

Kippers, something not everyone like, but very tasty, especially when freshly smoked. This was  Port of Lancashire smokehouse. By the way - I am hoping to build our own this year.

Daleside Brewery was hosting the Yorkshire Dales Real Ale and Cider Festival which included more than 30 different beers and 10 different ciders. It is a shame that we had to drive back home, as we would try more, and more. As huge fans of  Monty Python we could not resist Holy Grail. I absolutely love this word game!

And this is Black Sheep one of my favourite to drink and to cook with produced as well as Holy Grail by Black Sheep Brewery in Masham.

To be continued...