Piri Piri Starfish

I am reading this new cookery book instead of doing my stinky VAT return. It's about the food of Portugal (which I hold in high regard) and in this particular recipe, the writer's talking about a lovely small town where Rob and I once had an idyllic holiday, halfway up a mountain, surrounded by lemon groves (though the villa was owned by a hairy nudist so I didn't like sitting on the chairs). I really could eat these prawns for my lunch now. Though I'd settle for the whisky.

Prawns with Piri Piri, Whisky and Lemon by Tessa Kiros
Tavira is a wonderfully sleepy, ancient town in Portugal's south. I ate this one night in a small restaurant there and it was so lovely that I asked the lady how she made it. This makes a perfect starter before a main course of grilled fish.
400g raw prawns
1 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
2 small bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
ground piri piri
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
3 - 4 tbsp whisky
juice of 1 small lemon, plus extra lemons to serve

Remove the heads from the prawns but leave the shells on the bodies, make a shallow cut down the back of each one so they take in the flavour of the sauce and de-vein them. Rinse and pat dry.

Heat the oil and half the butter in a large non-stick saucepan until very hot and sizzling. Thrown in the prawns and bay leaves gradually, trying not to lose the heat, so the prawns get crusty and golden. Toss the pan and season with coarse salt and pepper. When the prawns are nicely golden on bth sides, add the garlic, parsley and as much piri piri as you like, the paprika and the last of the butter.

Toss until you can smell the garlic, then add the whisky. When it's been absorbed, add the lemon juice and toss it all together. Let it bubble for a moment, then use a slotted spoon to lift the prawns onto a plate.

Add about 4 tablespoons of water to the pan and let it bubble up to thicken the sauce. Remove for the heat, return the prawns to the pan and toss through the sauce. Serve with some bread for the sauce and a lemon wedge or two.

'Le Cake' Aux Olives Et Au Reblochon

I've been reading this book by Orlando Murrin all about how he and his partner quit London, bought an old manor house in South-west France and turned it into a super-luxurious B&B. It all looks incredibly idyllic and the recipes are lovely - I am sure we could never afford to stay there so I made this easy loaf from the book instead and it was just delicious. Reblochon is available from the East Dulwich Deli and Ocado.

Makes 3 small loaves or 1 large
In the past three years French cooks have been swept by a craze for ‘les cakes’. I am not sure how the misunderstanding occurred, but by cake they do not mean something round and sweet, but something loaf-shaped and usually savoury.
We serve the Raynaudes ‘cake’ in slices with aperitifs – it is especially elegant when baked in a dainty cocktail size. You can vary the flavouring as you choose – fried mushrooms, diced ham, herbs or other tasty morsels.
75g lardoons
handful of black olives, roughly chopped
85g Parmesan, coarsely grated
500g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt and plenty of ground black pepper
110g cubes Reblochon or other semi-soft cheese
2 tbsp freshly chopped herbs
225ml milk
40g melted butter
1 large egg
175ml crème fraiche

Fry the lardons still just beginning to go brown. Leave to cool and mix in the olives.

Grease a 13 x 24cm loaf tin or three 6 x 18cm tins and sprinkle half the Parmesan evenly around the base. Whisk the flour, baking powder and seasoning in a large bowl (easier than sifting). Mix in the Reblochon, herbs, lardoons and olives.

In a large jug or bowl, whosk the milk, butter, egg and crème fraiche. Using a large rubber spatula, fold the wet into the dry until just mixed.

Turn into the tin(s), sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and bakes for 30 mins (small) or 45 – 50 (large) till a skewer comes out clean, though be aware that if it hits some oozy cheese it will come out sticky regardless. Cool in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes then turn out and serve warm.

Books Do Furnish A Blog

If you spend more time staring at a screen than you do staring at well-stocked, improving shelves, then this fantastic collection of 60 years of Pelican covers might bring you pleasure. I want to read this one, this one, this one and this one (and, to be honest, pretty much all the others, including this one).

Jamie Oliver & His Sexy Salad

It seems 'indifferent' is the best way to explain the results of our latest visitor poll.
Jamie Oliver: Yes or No?
Not many votes but the yeses just about have it. Personally, I like Jamie but I am a bit confused by his sudden swing from Dinner Lady to Lord of the Manor on his latest and let's face it, a bit boring, new tv show. The new book of the series, Jamie at Home however, is very, very lovely. I did hope to steal a recipe from it for Landcroft House but it's not out until next month so I'd probably get sent to prison. Here's a modest old salad of his instead.

The Easiest, Sexiest Salad in The World
"... I love this salad. Apart from being a great combination, it always seems unbelievably effortless, which is the kind of recipe I like. The constant success of this is due to the common-sense marriage of salty Parma ham, milky buffalo mozzarella and sweet figs, which obviously need to be of a good quality. The best figs to use are Italian and the best time to buy them is June to August when they are in season. Greek figs are a good second-best and are in season from September to November. The best figs always seem to be those that are about to split their skins. Use green or black figs - it doesn't really matter.

One thing I do is to criss-cross the figs but not quite to the bottom - 1 fig per person is always a good start. Then, using your thumbs and forefingers, squeeze the base of the fig to expose the inside. At this point you'll think, 'Oooh, that looks nice, I think I'm quite clever ...' or at least I do. More importantly, it allows your dressing to get right into the middle of the fig. All these little things really help to make a salad special. Simply place the figs in a dish, weave around 1 slice of Parma ham or prosciutto per fig, throw in some slices of buffalo mozzarella and rip over some green or purple basil. Mix 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, a tablespoon of good honey and some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper together in a bowl and drizzle everything with this dressing. As far as salads go, it's pretty damn sexy.

PS It's a good idea to have some spare bread on the table to mop up the juices - always a treat..."

Rye Hotel? I say no, no, no

When we got woken up at 6am this morning, the sun was already shining so brightly that we all had a quick bowl of cornflakes, pulled on our wellies and headed out to Dulwich Woods. It was fantastically muddy and we came back filthy and rosy-cheeked. We stripped off in front of the washing machine and Scrap went straight back to bed for an hour and a half while we read the papers and listened to the radio. Did you hear Andy Kershaw on Desert Island Discs? I really loved him. And all of his record choices. It's repeated on Friday at 9am, if you missed him.

Then we went to the Rye Hotel to meet our friends Liz and Steve and their two girls Lily and Ollie. Really, we wanted to go to the Herne Tavern which I've heard very good things about but when Liz called to book on Monday, it was already fully-booked for today! It must be good. Which to be honest, is more than can be said for the Rye Hotel. It was very far from good in fact it was very poor. To start with the whole garden was fenced off because the grass was being treated. Yes, on a Sunday afternoon. So we sat under the gloomy marquee beside a gas heater even though it was a brilliantly sunny day outside. The house wine was rough. The food was shocking. Where do I start? We all had the Sunday lunch roast chicken. You know, I think I'm quite easy to please but they obviously roasted off a ton of chicken leg portions at 10 in the morning, so by the time we got them, they were dry and flabby-skinned. The potatoes had definitely not been roasted from fresh, in fact I'd put money on them coming from a bag in the freezer, they were hard on the inside and soggy and greasy on the outside. The veg was limp and very greasy and the whole thing was cold. It was bad and it cost us £45 per couple. Waste of money, waste of calories, waste of all our time. We were so fed up we decided to get out as quickly as we could and went in search of cake.

The only place I know that actually serves proper home-made cake is Petitout on Choumert Road. We all sat outside in the sunshine, chose from three different types of fresh, light and buttery cake and had great milky, frothy coffees. On the way to the little park down the road for a game of footie, the kids each got a new book from the Review book shop on the corner, Scrap chose Igor, The Bird Who Couldn't Sing by Satoshi Kitamura and Liz and I went nuts and bought a dress each in Fenton Walsh. We all went home skint but happy. Rye Hotel? No, no, no!

Good books

I got given six new books for Christmas!

1 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2 Bagdad Burning, the blog by Riverbend
3 The Accidental by Ali Smith
4 The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
5 A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka
6 Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith

Anchor and Hope

I met Angela in the Anchor and Hope on The Cut for a quick lunch today. I sat in the bar (just across from the actor Rhys Ifans - he's very handsome close-up you know) and read the brilliant book that Sally and James bought me for my birthday Tuesdays with Morrie while I waited. It's one of those books that makes you feel happy about life - it's making me like my husband and wish for another baby. Anyway, we both chose crab on toast and shared a fresh, beautifully dressed leaf salad and new potatoes. Fantastic!

Gastropub

I ended up having one of those unexpected nights out tonight. After spending the day in a chocolate factory in Winchester (I love my job!) I called Angela on the way back and it just so happened that we we’re in the same part of town at the same time. So we met at 6 for a glass of wine in St John in Clerkenwell. Having only eaten chocolate all day, booze was a bad idea. From there we went to the launch of Trish Halferty’s new book Gastropub Classics at The Eagle in Farringdon where she used to be head chef. It's a nice-looking book and sure enough is packed with Gastropub classics like Shellfish Risotto and Lancashire Hotpot . There was a big round of applause for the photographer Jason Lowe who had forgotten to attend. On leaving, Angela called Jason to berate him for his lack of appearance. We then stopped by Moro for one for the road, it was after all, only 8.30pm. We'd just settled ourselves on the last two stools at the bar when in burst Jason who orders several rounds of Whiskey Sours and the Jamon plate with Padron peppers, takes a bit of flack, and picks up the bill on the way out! Thank you very much. I'm going to regret those Whiskey Sours in the morning. And all that chocolate.

Feasts

Peck’s brilliant bookshop review held a signing this evening for local food writer and my near name-sake Silvena Rowe. I had a little shot of Silvena’s delicious home-infused cranberry vodka (recipe on p32) while Scrap tried hard to resist pulling all the books off the shelves. I also bought two copies of the new book, Feasts and a copy of Clementine and Mungo for Scrap. I shall let you know how I get on with my new book once I get a proper read of it, but it’s very beautiful and has some lovely recipe titles in it like Basil and caraway dumplings and Blackberry and buttermilk tart. Yum.