Recipes

I was watching the hairy bikers new show the other night. It's all about family recipes, one of the problems they've had in collecting the recipes is that if they are handed down through the family there isn't much of an actual recipe. This got me thinking, I have a stack of recipe books, plus the internet, plus a couple of apps for smart devices but how do I actually use them ?

Nigel Slater & Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall tend to be goto books for meat cooking times . Jamie Oliver & Nigella Lawson (happy birthday for yesterday) for cakes & pastry. The Hairys, Heston and the Two fat ladies mainly provide inspiration. (Though I am making Heston's treacle tart, his recipes are very exact). McGee whilst not exactly a recipe book gets consulted when I'm trying new stuff as it provides information about the presence of ingredients. Then I know if I can leave them out, substitute them or have to stick with them, rather than trial & error.

Looking at several things I've posted, I don't give recipes, I'll occasionally link to one but in general, I'm all about some, or a pinch. Pastries, doughs, and batters I weigh out, Indian dishes I do use a recipe quite heavily to get the right proportions of the right spices.

Cocktails at the Ritz

Every now & then I go and treat myself to cocktails at the Ritz

The surroundings are great (especially in the Rivoli bar) and the cocktails are very good indeed I've not yet managed to order of menu, to give them a proper test, but the menu is fairly extensive and the drinks are very well made.

The main thing though is the ambience, how you can't feel a least a little bit James Bond leaning back in one of the huge comfortable chairs & drink a large very cold martini I don't know, of course you should really be drinking a vesper, but who cares (also vespers are very trendy at the moment, I'd be happy ordering one at the Ritz & 1 or 2 other places).

So cocktails at the Ritz, check the dress code, it is enforced, take along a reasonable amount of money (the prices last time were about 10 pounds a drink which for a well made cocktail in central London is not too bad). It helps if you know what you like to drink, order and wait whilst a man in a white jacket brings you a marvelous drink sit back with it & make up stories about the other people in the room.

A little gardening

I have a garden, it is quite small. If I had my way, it'd be quite large, part of it would be for the growing of roses, part would be for sitting out (BBQing & the like), and part would be for fruit & veg.

I don't have that though, so I have to creatively squeeze things into the space I do have, this means herbs in pots, strawberries & tomatoes in hanging baskets and a couple of multi-purpose plants around the roses(*).

The multi-purpose plants are currently nasturtiums and lavender. Nasturtiums are quite cool, they grow like blazes, the flowers are both cheerful & edible, and the leaves make a spicy addition to a salad (think rocket/cilantro). The lavender is a shade odder. Of course you can harvest the flowers to use in bath salts, herb sachets, pillows and other asstd smelly/aromatherapy uses, but you can cook with them too.

The first trial was a lavender syrup (simple syrup, 2 sugar, 1 water plus a couple of tsp lavender flowers). This added to a standard gin martini, makes a really relaxing summer drink. An attempt at lavender shortcake followed, andwhilst it was ok wasn't quite right.

The internet provided a recipe for lavender loaf cake, a bit of reading around & jiggling quantities & ingredients, making a lavendar infused honey drizzle (2 tsp honey, 4 tsp water, 3 dashes lavender syrup. Heat till free flowing drizzle of loaf as soon as it comes out of the oven). Its a winner, the cake is moist enough to withstand the loaf form and the flavour of lavender is not overpowering.

Now what to do with the abundance of Sage ?

(*)The roses are non-negotiable.