Four and twenty blackbirds...

I’m not really sure how I ended up with a flock of blackbird pie funnels. I don’t exactly have four and twenty but I have ‘accidentally’ ended up with more than is really deemed necessary. The urge to procure my first pie funnel was when I watching Mark Hix making his magnificent Rabbit and Crayfish Stargazy pie on the Great British Menu and I pondered how I could have managed so long without one. Then a casual glance on eBay with D whilst she was looking for some Clarence Cliff pieces allowed my beady eye to spot a fine Clarence Cliff blackbird funnel, hmmm I really should bid for that little birdy. But when this one flew in, I really felt that it probably should be kept as a thing of beauty and not baked in anything. It is rather old after all and has been well looked after by one careful owner. So I went back to eBay for one with less esteemed provenance and somehow managed to bag a job lot of them. It was an accident I can assure you! But in the usual fashion of eBay browsing I also espied a Royal Worchester darling black bird pie funnel which was unusual as the elegant sculptural bird is inserted into the plain white ceramic funnel after baking. The advantage being that the gorgeous bird doesn’t suffer the ministrations of an unforgiving oven and it adds a certain stateliness to the pie proceedings you must admit.

I had threatened that my next pie would feature all my burgeoning collection of pie funnels randomly gulping for air above the pie crust but I resisted. This elegant bird is my favourite after all, it is rather a little black beauty!

Making a ‘proper’ pie, one with a funnel and all I am immediately transported back to the homely and grown-up kitchen of the fabulous R & G. After a hard day’s work it was so comforting to arrive there and exchange a large bunch of flowers for a fat wodge of the finest of steak and kidney pies. Sat around their antique table, we’d drink wine; listen to music and gossip about just about everything! Happy days!

But what about my pie? I don't have some steak and kidney begging to be given one of the worthiest of treatments so it was rather a let’s use up those bits lurking around the bottom of the fridge again. The filling was finely sliced sautéed leek rounds, chunks of the last of the unsmoked back bacon, sliced hard boiled eggs, one large field mushroom, some double cream and a little thyme, now more dry than fresh. The pie top was fashioned out of the rather stiff leftover puff pastry. It had gotten somewhat dry in the fridge and when I attempted to unfurl it the pastry snapped into four useless slivers. So I had to resort to re-rolling the puff pastry and hoping it would forgive me. I figured that it wouldn’t puff as much as it should but that’s fine, the P - I - E adornments wouldn’t balloon and swell out of all proportions as you’d expect with un-mucked about with puff pastry. I also dampened the pastry a little with a very squeezed out sheet of kitchen towel, I know, you bakers out there are now reading this with eye wide open in terror. I had initially pinched the edges of the pie together in the usual way but then I rather randomly forked around the pie dish also. Hence the extra rustic appearance of my egg and bacon pie. Ah well, I’ll never get a job at Bighams’, Pie Minister or Pukka and I'm sure R & G would be shocked but it was rather gorgeous, extremely delicious and my sweet little bird got to spread its wings for the first time.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to serve before J?

Chopping - Epicurean style

I've been on a chopping frenzy! I bought a new chopping board from the Art of Living website and it's really rather good. I found out about the Art of Living site when I was looking for stockists for the Nigella liquorice espresso cups and this was one of the places recommended by Nigella's site. And I want to recommend them also, it's so rare that when you purchase something from the internet that you get a personal email about your items and when I asked if they could bring the delivery date forward, they did. I'll definitely use them again.
So whilst I was browsing for my gorgeous liquorice goodies, my eye was drawn to one of these boards. I have seen Epicurean chopping boards in cook shops but not in black before. And as everything I bought in this order was black, it seemed appropriate to continue the theme. The boards are very unusual, they are light and thin and made of wood pulp and resin which is good for your knives. They could go into a dishwasher, if that's important to you, but also are heat resistant - though I am not entirely sure I want to test that property. But what is important is that they're environmentally friendly as they are constructed of a composite laminate. The brown ones always looked a little too MDF for me hence me not being a great fan before, but who ever heard of black MDF?

And every time I chop something, I'm always reminded how delighted I am still with my fabulous drop-forged Global knife (GF32). It has a very pleasing weight and makes many other knives, even others in the Global range, just seem too light. I keep it super sharp with my Shinkansen water sharpener as I've never really grasped the steel sharpening technique and these water sharpeners are recommended for Global knives.
I do have a great chopping board already, but I wanted a second bigger one as I really like chopping things. I even have a chopping board under my desk at work in case I get the urge to chop something up there.
Does that sound vaguely sinister?

Two little pigs

I had mentioned previously that D had bought me the fabulous little salt piglets from the new Nigella liquorice range for Christmas, but I was waiting to get another salt before showing them off. I had considered the aromatic red 'piment d’ Espelette' much prized by Pascal Aussignac of Club Gascon. But then I remember that I already had some unopened Fleur de Sel from my last trip to Normandy. I guess you're supposed to display salt in one of the pigs and pepper in the other but as I insist on my pepper freshly ground, it will have to be two salts instead for me.
In the left one I have Maldon sea salt with its fat soft crumbly ever so white crystals and in the right the hand harvested Brittany Fleur de Sel (flower of salt) with its smaller and slightly off-white crystals.
And the piglets themselves are just so very lovely, pleasingly ovoid and curvaceous, they just beg to be stroked. They come complete with a little black tray to catch any errant salt crystals. Here they are with all their oily and otherwise friends lorded over by the Alessi tripod lemon squeezer - another thing of beauty!
I use pepper more often than salt so my electronic pepper grinder is very useful for one handed grinding.

This is my first foray into the Nigella liquorice range but I 'may' have some other goodies on order! What is particularly delightful about the design of most of the range (piglets excluded) is the matt black voluptuous curves on the outside contrasting with the glossy black convex interior. I first heard that Nigella was branching out from the cream and eggshell blue range (which lovely as it was, would never be happy in my monochromatic home) to the gorgeous black on my birthday whilst in Gap in Manhattan with DD shopping for crocodiles. And how did I find out about them in the middle of Gap? Because D spotted them in a Sunday magazine and immediately texted me as she knew I would just have to have them for my kitchen paraphernalia collection.
And now I do!

A black and white picture

Today I have mostly eating and thinking in black and white.

In between all those work things I have to do, I have been trying to decide what I want to conjure up for the eighteenth blog party - which is all about black and white and I need to RSVP by tomorrow . I haven’t take part in one of these events before but the idea seems to be to produce some food and drink in keeping with this month’s theme. And this month, when the wonderful Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness suggested “black and white“, I immediately thought that was totally up my boulevard. Well, if the event was only about table decoration this would just be a page from my diary but I had to think about black and white food also. And M’s suggestion to eat whatever I like and take the picture in black and white is not the spirit!
It could have whipped up some little predictable mash potato number, perhaps with some very rich beef dish (like the fabulous daube I had at Le Pont de la Tour which looked almost black) but that‘s too obvious. I guess black olives might have been a good idea, but there only slightly behind tomatoes in my revulsion list and I didn't want to prepare something that I couldn't face eating. I had considered some of my favourite scallop soup with a little caviar flourish as an exotic garnish but it seemed a scallop overload as I'd already decided to see if I could get some fresh scallops for the main feature.

And then of course it was all the decisions regarding crockery. I have black, white, black with white, white with black, black shiny both square and round, black matt, white square, round and with a variety of different rims. Hmm maybe I’ll admit to having a lot of crockery! So decisions, decisions! In the end it was espresso cup and saucer, plate then cappuccino cup and saucer. Particularly odd as I don’t drink coffee!So after due consideration, I got out the black table cloth, the white table runner and napkins, black beaded table mats, the black and white sequinned flowers and then hit the kitchen.

For my starter, with the aid of my trusty shiny Bamix I turned a neat little organic cauliflower into a pale creamy concoction. Though I didn't actually add any cream as I thought my extravagant garnish would be decadent enough. This white onion and cauliflower soup was topped with a few black truffle shavings and served in my new Rosanna “la petite black dress” espresso cups. I’d been hankering for Nigella’s liquorice espresso cups ever since Christmas but they are incredibly tiny (I still really like them though!) and thought these slightly more substantial Rosanna cups would be nice. Though, I should really mention that I don’t really approve of the shameless Franglais range name of “la petite black dress”. Obviously it should be “la petite robe noire” or “the little black dress” not a bizarre mixture of both. But that aside I do rather like these cups, each one is a different black dress and a different phrase written in script in each. I'm using the “femme fatale“ one, there’s also “c’est chic”, “bèbè doll” and again “la petite black dress”. Très chic!
The black truffle wasn’t maybe the most usual accompaniment to the cauliflower, but it was okay.

And then I had some extremely delicious scallops and black pudding on the black damask plates accompanied by a glass of Orange Muscat & Flora sweet white wine.
And in deference to the theme, in a black wine glass! It was either that or Guinness and wild horses wouldn’t persuade to consume stout. I’ve always thought that scallops and black pudding go particularly together, it wasn’t just to fall in with the theme; the translucent sweetness of the scallops is a good foil for the dramatic earthiness of the black pudding. I can assume it’s my Northern roots coming to the fore here as this black pudding came from fine Bury in Lancashire stock (some say home to the black pudding). I suppose I could kind of say “I’m a lassie from Lancashire” though I normally say "Manchester" but I been told by M I should say neither, as I’m actually from Cheshire. The problem with Cheshire is that is used to be famous for two things - one, the perma-smiled cat in Alice in Wonderland or two, the mild white cheese that’s often overlooked in favour of Wensleydale.
But now it’s all about the Cheshire set – the WAGS (wives and girlfriend of highly paid generally England footballers!) spending their days playing golf, in the gym of having their perfectly manicured nails rebuffed at ‘the’ salon of the moment. And is that me? Er no, no and no though I do tend my own talons – Chanel "Noir Ceramic" today in case anyone’s interested! So I’ll stick to saying "Manchester" unless a serious handbag habit forces me to seek a footballer of my very own!

For the finale I plumped for a great new discovery - this rather wonderful white chocolate ice cream that I studded with plump frozen blackberries and blackcurrants. I particularly liked the fact that as the berries defrosted they spread a vibrant purple streak to mingle seductively with the melting white chocolate ice cream. This was seriously fine and was served in my black and white “Baci di dama” Harvey Nix cappuccino cup.
I would never have picked white chocolate ice cream normally as I would always go for Belgian chocolate, raspberry, ginger, mint chocolate chip or strawberry. Also I’ve never been a massive fan of white chocolate per se but it works incredibly well in an ice cream, I guess the inherent vanilla characteristic of good white chocolate really shines in an ice cream.
Clearly I’ve been more than eating black and white today; I’ve also been living it. I unintentionally dressed in black and white this morning; I can only assume it was the subliminal thoughts that drew me to that selection but nevertheless am I well coordinated with my table and the food?
Thank you Stephanie for organising this; I had great fun pondering some sort of liquorice allsorts creation or cod with vanilla or even squid with some sort of squid ink sauce. Thinking of squid ink I considered making some stripy pasta. I would leave half the pasta dough plain and dye the other half with squid ink. I would then cut the black pasta width into fettuccine and then lay the strands on the rolled out white plain pasta. The resultant creation is re-fed through the pasta machine and hey presto, stripy pasta! It looks totally fantastic as say an open ravioli. But I promised to make MC and D some fresh pasta to prove that the so-called finest abomination we had on New Year’s Day is not really how fresh pasta should taste and as they’re staying this weekend, I decided to hold off.

If you want to read how everyone fared in the latest blogging party escapade, check Stephanie's round-up here.

I think my little black and white heart has been sated tonight and tomorrow I might add a bit of colour to my food again!

New Year Soup

Another bowl of the fabulous Waitrose creamy scallop soup but this time with some bacon lardons added to the Parmesan bruscettas. And of course a chance to christen by new black bowls and plates from M&S. All very tasty indeed!

Object of desire

Isn’t this just such a fine specimen of kitchen loveliness? I stumbled across a competition to win a black Kitchen Aid on the Nigella site – unfortunately after the competition had ended though! I’ve lusted after a Kitchen Aid for ever so long but when I was confronted with a bargain shiny and gorgeous chrome one several years ago when a small kitchen shop at Borough Market was closing down, I came over all un-customarily practical and admitted that my kitchen is just too small to give it the sort of statue and space it deserves. And frankly I’m not a very prolific baker at all. I need to chop and blend more than mix and these jobs I generally do with my Bamix now, I really can’t remember the last time I used my food processor or blender. Though if I did have the space for one, I'd probably make bread more often and perhaps become more domestic goddess-like just so I could drool over my Kitchen Aid.

I have a picture of a whisk from a Kitchen Aid from one of Nigel Slater’s Observer cooking columns from years ago. This may be the nearest I get to having one in this tiny kitchen. Never mind I can but dream!

Nigella does Christmas

And isn't this just a fabulous photograph of the stunning Nigella?

I have really been enjoying the Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen show on Wednesday at 8pm on BBC1. She does shows like this so very well and clearly she enjoys Christmas and all the festive paraphernalia a huge amount (deep breath, D!) and she certainly does a good party! On the first episode we saw gingerbread Christmas tree decorations (I know you think it’s cannibalism flamed-haired H!) made which the aid of her children Bruno and Mimi (Cosima) who looked almost as glamorous as their mother! We also saw a aromatic spiced ham, a chocolate fruit cake and amongst other things some very interesting mulled cider. If I hadn’t already plumped for Winter PIMM’S for ‘the gathering’, I think this would be the drink.

On the second show my favourite idea was the Parma ham bundle but my version will NOT contain goats’ cheese in any shape or form but will still be very, very tasty! And another drink that caught my eye was the ‘Christmas in a glass’. The party poussins looked really great though I’m not crazy about couscous and some of the other bits so I’d probably do the little with less of a Moroccan vibe and perhaps do Jamie Oliver’s “Roasted Hamilton poussin wrapped with streaky bacon and stuffed with potatoes and sage" from Return of the Naked Chef. I’ll definitely be tuning in on Wednesday for the final episode with recipes for Spiced and super-juicy roast turkey with all the marvellous trimmings.

A lot of these recipes come from Nigella’s last book Feast and it’s definitely encouraged me to get out my copy and consider some of her recipes for this year’s festivities. In fact there’s now one heading up North to make this plan a bit easier! Ding dong merrily on high.

And looking at this book again I've had a yen for one of these big cooking pots ever since Nigella waxed lyrical about them and brought both a shiny and brushed steel version out in her living kitchen range. But I really wanted the shiny one, and it seems I could have left it too late because everyone seems to have the brushed steel one only. Shame!

A better foodie by far

I'd been meaning to try out one of the very popular Divertimenti cooking courses for ages but whenever I remember to check the schedule, the sessions I'm most interested in have been snapped up and I kick myself for not acting sooner. But this time I was quicker off the mark and managed to secure two rather interesting foodie experiences, the first was tonight entitled 'The serious foodie's store cupboard' hosted by Marcia Barrington doing the cooking and Sudi Piggott author of the fabulous little chocolate and raspberry coloured book 'how to be a better foodie - a bulging little book for the truly epicurious' that I've raved about here before. I do consider myself a foodie though I'm certainly not in Sudi's league! Though I have had my foodie credentials called into question recently because of my extensive 'food black list' and of course especially my singular effort to eradicate the world of tomatoes. Okay maybe that's harsh, I just want a permanent tomato exclusion ring of steel around me. Other non-believers can indulge in their wicked tomato pleasures but leave me out of it. And for those of you who always say 'go on try it, it doesn't really taste of tomatoes' I have two answers: a) I can detect the merest whiff of the evil red stuff and b) if you can't apparently taste it, what's the point of including it at all? Anyway aside from the food dislikes foibles, I am strictly lower division in the serious foodie stakes. Sudi even says that you should choose where you live based on the proximity of quality foodie haunts. I do get her point but I'd be loathed to move because of a fantastic organic ruddy-cheeked butcher on your doorstep to find that they've decided to retire after 40 years of butchery the moment you sign on the dotted line. An old girlfriend of mine ummed and aahed over buying a flat in a fairly dubious area of London, I won't say where. But the deciding factor was that there was a Marks & Spencer on the high street and there was a whiff of 'up and coming' about the place. However, almost the moment they started to unpack their worldly goods, M&S closed down and the place started to decline. Very unfortunate!

I'm am pleased to say however that Sudi singled out a chocolate shop where I live, so a few foodie points there then. Part of the whole idea seems to be to never miss a foodie opportunity to snaffle up some exotic ingredient be it home or abroad, make time to slip out to that fabulous cheese shop, hidden gem deli or farmer's market. And if all else fails, there's always the Internet.

Tonight's event was all about "Prada for your larder", ensuring that a few choice ingredients are always squirreled away in your store cupboard and fridge so that exotic titbits can be conjured up at a moment notice. Sudi gave us oodles of insightful snippets whilst Marcia rustled up firstly Muhamara - a dip made from pimientos del piquillo finely chopped, pomegranate molasses (a particular obsession of both Sudi and Marcia), roasted garlic cloves and walnuts. Whenever I attend these foodie events, I always endeavour to try everything, even if I'm fairly sure I'm not going to like it, and yes that unfortunately occasionally includes the dreaded tomato! I've never been partial to a pepper, I find the skins rather impenetrable and they can add a strange sweetness to a dish. No, not a fan! So when proffered the red pepper dip I only scooped up a little corner onto my pita bread crisp and was pleasantly surprised to see what a transformation a whizz in a food processor with walnuts and the ubiquitous pomegranate molasses could bring about. I definitely think that would be one to add to the repertoire. I have since checked out pimientos del piquillo on the www, and found the following interesting piece “I'd never recommend a canned product over a fresh one, but in this instance I will. This has to do with both the fact that the pimientos del piquillo are quite different in flavour and texture from regular bell peppers, and also the fact that preserving can create something new, and not just poorly imitate the "real thing". In the case of piquillos, the essential flavour may actually be enhanced by the preservation, and the texture is definitely improved.” So maybe I still don’t like peppers, but I’m willing to give pimientos del piquillo another go.

Next it was the turn of another food I'm not crazy about - noodles! These were oriental herb chilli soba noodles and were served with seared scallops with ginger, lemongrass and yuzu lime. Noodles are normally slippery and smell oddly of a sickly sweet soy sauce, or are those just the ones flamed-haired H eats next to me at work! The soba noodles are made of buckwheat and could be substituted with linguini. I enjoyed the scallops, the Yuzu was a very interesting flavour and the soba noodles were okay. I guess my choice would be to match the scallops with linguini; I still haven’t really managed to develop an Asian palate yet.

Next Marcia served up pan-fried duck breast with garbanzos, saffron and pomegranate. The duck breasts were painted with a rose petal jam, which was really nice. The garbanzos was a mixture of warmed chickpeas, saffron infusion and pomegranate molasses. Hmm, you’ve guessed it – I am not a fan of chickpeas either. I ate them but I think they were the most unsuccessful part of the meal; I just don’t get them at all. Never mind, the duck was fabulous!

Next it was a very refreshing Medjool date and orange remojón with rosewater and fresh mint. A remojón is a Andalucían orange based salad. This can be served as we had it as a plate cleanser but also dusted with a little icing sugar would make a fine dessert.

The final dessert was a very succulent Oven roasted plums with verjus, which was served on a slice of chocolate panettone.

I really enjoyed the evening, Sudi Pigott is very entertaining, knowledgable and a serious foodie of the highest order; I am not worthy! I must have another look at her book, and if you haven't checked it out yet, I urge you to. Really the only foodie to be is a better foodie!

I also took enormous pleasure being at the Divertimenti lock-in. You get the opportunity to do a little discounted shopping after the event and I wondered around in an indulgent haze. There’s so little I haven’t got already but I did manage to get the rather wonderful yellow lemon squeezer than I’d just seen Marcia use to very good effect. It is rather an elegant beast isn't it?

I have another event planned for next week, I am so glad I finally managed to finally get to these Divertimenti foodie evenings it was worth the wait. Now, where's that schedule for next year?

Lunch zipped up again

My second attempt with my new Zip ‘n Steam bags was even better than the first. I don’t know whether it was the addition of some sliced brown mushrooms that released juices to mingle with the cream cheese to make a tastier sauce or whether carrying the chopped up ingredients around in the Zip ‘n Steam bag in a chiller bag whilst I was running around the city helped the flavours to merge. Whatever it was, it was not bad at all. I had a momentary pang when L was waxing lyrical about the Waitrose Cauliflower Cheese she’d just tucked into but I just guess I’ll have to see if I can do a cheesy cauliflower thing in one of my bags. It felt good doing some proper cooking in the office, I even brought in one of my old Global knives to keep in my drawer to help with future prep. It can join the lemon zester, cheese grater, mini whisk, cheese slicer, assorted cutlery and a veritable larder of condiments.

Lunch zipped up

I mentioned previously that I’d been keen to think of some way to eschew ready meals at lunch in the office when I haven’t made some soup or have brought in some leftovers that I could enliven.

With limited time and resources it really needed some creative use of the microwave – not my favourite method of cooking. But I happened to stumble across Alan Coxon doing an infomercial about Zip' n Steam bags. These are bags that steam and pressure-cook your food but in the microwave. I’ve never indulged in a buy from television experience so I googled the bags and found their website and had a box of bags delivered to the office. Also I found that Lakeland sell the bags, which give me a bit of confidence regards to their effectiveness.

So here is my first attempt. I’ve chopped up an organic leek, a fat happy chicken breast and added some half fat cream cheese with garlic and chives. The bags do come with recipes, and the consignment of bags also came with a recipe book. There are definitely some interesting ideas, you can ‘bake’ a potato in 6 minutes and you can also steam a whole corn on the cob, which I have been meaning to try for ages.

You place your choosen ingredients in the pouch and seal it. There is a valve on one side of the bag which turns it into a steamer. The bag puffs up and cooks the food keeping all the juices in.

And 3 ½ minutes later I had a rather nice fresh, home cooked plate of food. The cream cheese makes a sort of sauce and I intend to experiment with various vegetable and meat combinations. If I have the fresh ingredients I can prepare the bag at home and then take it in a chiller bag or I can grab a few bits whilst running around the city. I am hoping that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would approve at my attempts to ensure a tasty freshly cooked lunch.

Soup-er

When the season of mellow fruitfulness kicks in my thoughts turn to soups. I find the making of a soup quite warm and comforting in itself and of course I have my shiny new Bamix to christen. But what soup do I make? I have a particular penchant for cauliflower but I've also got a Savoy cabbage that is begging to be used and some dry-cure smoked bacon. I could whip up a colcannon soup if I had some potatoes. I don't normally add potato to my cauliflower soup so I guess a lot depends on whether I can procure some potatoes on the way home or not.

I had intended to make a suitably spooky Halloween soup last week and if I'd been feeling rather creative I was going to hollow out a small pumpkin to serve it in. Clearly I wasn't so the spooky pumpkin soup never materialised but when catching up on some fellow food bloggers this weekend I realise any effort I made would have paled into insignificance compared to others. I was particularly taken by the happy sorceress's black bat shaped pasta. How fabulous would that have looked on top of orange pumpkin soup? Hmmm I wonder where one gets bat shaped pasta? I can see a bat-tacular themed meal on the horizon! I'm not sure if I can wait to next Halloween though! I was also so impressed with Warren the pumpkin on Roo’s site. I hope you did something fabulous with the resultant pumpkin flesh?

As it turned out my lovely shiny Bamix helped me whip up my old favourite cauliflower soup. I tried to capture an action shot but really there's very little to see. The wonderful Bamix made light work of chopping the cooked cauliflower and then with a crucial touch of nutmeg and some freshly ground pepper it was ready to serve. I have a rustic bowl of cauliflower soup to eat tonight topped with grated Cheddar and two bowls for warming up in the office later in the week. But after devouring Sophie's fabulous new Pies book, I feel curiously disappointed by soup, sigh!

Pretty in pink!

On our trip to York last week M and I popped into Lakeland Limited as neither of us have one that is easily accessible. We found it difficult to find gadgets to buy as we’re both rather well tooled up however I did spot something that made me smile. Lakeland are selling a limited edition pink Bamix. How fabulous! Not that I would replace my gorgeous silver one with it but if you haven’t got one you might to check this out. Though would you only be inclined to chop and blend pink food if you had one?

Strawberry soup anyone?

Mmmm, shiny Bamix!

I bought my shiny new Bamix today! Now I already have a fine white Bamix but at one of the food shows I attended, I noticed they now have them in silver and I very much hankered after it. At the time I couldn’t justify such a wild expense just because I wanted a silver one instead of the white one but when I was last at D’s and she bemoaned that a small accident of dropping her Bamix from a height into the floor had broken a foot and somewhat incapacitated it, I hatched a cunning plan. I thought I could get myself a silver one and sell my old one to D. She gets one that works and doesn’t have to pay for a new one, albeit white and I get a shiny new SILVER one – hmmmm. Now Bamix are very good and probably would have repaired her old one, but that might have meant an extended time 'sans Bamix' whilst it vacationed in Switzerland, this seemed a better plan. A cunning plan indeed!

And doesn’t it look lovely?

For those who are unaware the legend that is Bamix, they produce super fast stick blenders that can operate in any receptacle, they make amazing soups and crush ice and turn all manner of unlikely liquids into thick, frothy desserts and very importantly – are incredibly easy to wash up. Very important! And I believe Gordon Ramsay is a huge fan also! I think they’ve been going for 50 plus years and my grandmother had one. I don’t know where my grandmother stumbled across one but nowadays you can get them from Lakeland (but to be honest, this is a lower powered, lesser model), from the Bamix UK distributor or from the same people at one of the trade shows – the advantage of that is that you see them in action and they are cheaper than on their website. I honestly can’t remember the last time I used my super large food processor or my blender, the Bamix just sits on my work surface and is ready for action at a moments notice. The huge advantage when Bamixing a soup over using a blender is that you need to cool the soup down slightly before adding to the blender (in batches normally) or you may find the steam inside the blender will force the top off and you’ll decorate your kitchen in butternut squash soup as I did! The Bamix you take to the pan you cooked the soup in so no bizarre soup decoration on you or the kitchen.

And no I’m not a salesperson, just a happy customer!

Ready, Steady (Mother Hubbard) Cook!

If I’d thought ahead I would have scheduled an Ocado delivery to arrive after my return from New York – but I didn’t and the cupboards were seriously bare. So if I wanted to satiate my hunger I’d have to see what was still alive in the fridge. Normally I’d relish the challenge to whip up a hearty meal from a few disparate ingredients or leftovers but I would rather have tackled this challenge when not so jet-lagged.

But hunger prevailed. There’s always pasta and I found an unopened and not past its sell by date packet of dry cure smoked bacon, a pot of half fat crème fraîche, a lump of fine Parmesan and an rather ancient yet unopened jar of very good Harvey Nichols pesto.

Seems like a feast to me! And it was extremely tasty and definitely hit the spot!

Luckily my new Marks & Spencer Black Damask crockery turned up in the biggest ever box this morning which fortunately I was around to sign for and I thought it would be rude not to test it out. I think it’s a fine addition to the crockery collection.

I think Mother Hubbard would have been proud of me!

Most favourite kitchen gadget(s)

I stumbled across a site today called ‘Is my Blog Burning?’ - which appears to be a site for food blogging events. I blog, I am a food blogger so I was immediately interested. They are posing a question about favourite kitchen gadgets and this has really got me thinking. I love kitchen gadgets; I have a fine, extensive and mostly shiny collection of kitchen objects but as for a favourite, hmmm…

To make it easier I will make a short list.

I swear by my Bamix, it so good for whizzing up a soup, grating cheese, crushing ice, making mayonnaise (even though I don’t like eating mayonnaise, I enjoy making it. Is that weird?) and so much more. Bamix’s are a joy to wash up which is so much more that I can say about a food processor or blender. D’s Bamix is not very well at the moment due to a small accident of dropping it and it losing a foot. It seems that all three feet are most integral to a Bamix working properly. I have been hankering after a new Bamix as they are now a pleasing dull silver colour – so I intend to get one at the next food show I attend and sell my three footed one to D. A cunning plan indeed! I also love my mandoline and my authentic v-slicer. The mandoline is better looking, shiny and industrial looking but the v-slicer is just so easy to clean which makes it a more viable option.

I have a beautiful black, granite and curiously curvy John Julian mortar and pestle but I’m not Jamie Oliver I don’t need to bash stuff every day so even though it’s very tactile and lovely, I just don’t use it enough to be my favourite

I have a favourite wooden spoon which has a china Alice in Wonderland style cake on the end for absolutely no reason whatever, but a wooden spoon could never be my favourite.

My favourite spatula type/slotted spoon/turner is an old favourite from Lakeland Limited only slightly marred by it not being heatproof so it is gradually melting every time I use it. And Lakeland have discontinued it otherwise I’d upgrade it – how tragic! I like a nice butter knife and this one has a bee on it (well it is a Laguiole) so is my favourite butter knife. My latest pastry brush is very pleasing – brushed steel and black little tendrils. I was compelled to get it after a bad experience with a Beef Wellington and a balding pastry brush that shed so many nasty plastic bristles I had to warn everyone to check each mouthful.

I was rather taken by this spoon balance for weighing small quantities many years ago in Paris but it wasn’t until I discovered it again in David Mellor I was able to add it to my collection. My favourite peeler is nice and wide and produces satisfactory curls of chocolate and Parmesan and is also a great potato and other vegetable peeler. But still not my favourite gadget! I have several excellent cheese knives but this one is very good for Brie and Camembert and is pleasingly mouse shaped.

And then there’s the top five!

Microplane graters do such a brilliant job of grating and zesting. I love the gossamer of lemon zest it produces which then just melts into my risotto or sauce or salad.

An electric pepper grinder seems such an indulgence but I do so like a quick one handed grind of the aromatic black spice to whatever pan I’m stirring. And I do use a lot of black pepper.

When magic whisks started being recommended by many cooks, it was such a revelation and it has the word 'magic' in the title. No one likes a lumpy sauce and the magic whisk can fix a multitude of sins and whip up a very fine vinaigrette or dressing. I even keep a spare one in my drawer at work - just in case!

A potato ricer - as I’ve said before it does a fantastic job of turning cooked potatoes into pleasing worms to enable creamy mashing and it saves me from having to peel potatoes – excellent! And with my love of mash it’s a close thing.

And then there is my pointiest, spotty handled, heaviest and most favourite knife – my drop forged Global chef’s knife. It feels so comfortable in my hand, and it probably gets used nearly every time I enter the kitchen to prepare any food. Saying that a knife is my favourite kitchen gadget seems so obvious but probably true, I’ve tried cooking in a kitchen with no decent knives and you realise how important they are to nearly every dish you produce. And even though some of the kitchens I have the pleasure to cook in (D and M etcetera) have excellent knives - it's just not this particular knife and I do miss the feel of it in my hand.

But to be less dull I’ll select my knife and magic whisk as my joint favourites.

Though really all of these fabulous gadgets are my favourites and I love them all dearly. And if I think about it more, I'm sure I'll find even more favourites. So I better stop now!

What's your favourite kitchen gadget?

Life is a bowl of cherries

I have a late appointment at Canary Wharf and pop to Waitrose Food and Home for some food. I am drawn inexplicably to the home wares section and stumble on a rather lovely new line – Sophie Conran’s new range of crockery for Portmeirion. I can hear voices in my head saying that I don’t need any more plates but I ignore them and go for a dinner plate, side plate and bowl. Was has attracted me is that they have pleasing concentric ridges (a very rustic version of the new Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Doulton crockery) but also a slightly misshapen appearance which is very pleasing. I will have to demote something from the crockery cupboard as there really is no room at the inn, but I am sure I can find a small gap. I think the succulent Waitrose cherries look very happy in my new bowl too.

Pan-tastic!

I know I shouldn't have but I was 'forced' to by a new frying pan at the Taste of London festival. I could blame the intriguing pink champagne/red wine/cider and excessive meat combo but honestly... I'm just weak! It has a removable handle which is black and silver (can you see how I was seduced?!) and is certainly lighter than it's predecessor. My largest, finest Wol has been thwarting me recently. It has decided to abandon all thoughts of being non-stick and just ruin everything that comes close to it. So until it can learn to behave again, I has been retired. RIP Wol, long live BergHOFF! I will be playing close attention to its nonstick-ability. Watch this space!

What fork?

If I have a fork - what fork would I choose? The answer is the beautiful three pronged (four prongs are so last season!) work of loveliness from glazebrook.com accompanied by their pistol handled knife. I am also rather partial to their steak knives and cheese knives as well. In fact I like knives probably more than forks but 'have knife will travel' sounds like some sort of mugger's manifesto! Don't they look shiny?