Packet Soup... It's Not What It Used To Be!

I can't quite believe it was June 1st when we last posted, much has happened since then, including the tartists' birthday just a week ago. One of the more unusual presents she received was a packet of soup mix, even more unusual as you can see is the flavour, suffice to say we will be conducting a taste test very soon and will report back with our findings.

The Search For A Diabetic Cake

Has anyone out there got any fabulous cake recipes for diabetics?

Having cracked (albeit with just one cake) the gluten free barrier, I am now on the hunt for a diabetic cake that is good enough that non diabetics will like it too. I have found that often the recipes for diabetics are a sort of last ditch attempt to pretend that you are allowed cake.

My dad pretended for years that Orange Fruit Teabread was ok for him because he liked it, but for the diabetically challenged it was disastrous. I would like to find a cake that leaves diabetics feeling spoilt & lucky, not disappointed. I've tried two types of apple cake but as my guinea pig Mrs. Borrie will tell you, they were horrible. What's needed is a 'sneaky cake' that looks, feels and tastes fantastic but is, almost accidentally, good for us all.

Lemon & Almond Polenta Cake

Since opening 'Cake-Hole' we've been asked often for something for those of you who have to follow a 'gluten free' diet. I'm now pleased to say we have a cake on offer that is both gluten free and ruddy delicious, these two adjectives are sadly almost never used in the same sentence. It's been our experience with gluten free cake often the flavour is all there but the texture is dissapointing, in contrast the tartist's Lemon & Almond Polenta Cake is both zesty and has a lovely texture... come on down all you gluten avoiders!

St. Valentine's Biscuits

Contrary to popular belief St. Valentine was in fact a humble biscuit maker from Mersea Island, so, to celebrate this little known fact our Jenny has made some rather nice homemade biscuits for today. One batch of ginger, one of chocolate and one of shortbread...that's one each, plus one to share for £1.50, lovely with a pot of tea.

Global 'Cooling' & Red Onion Marmalade

Whilst our corner of the globe continues it's cooling spell this afternoon the tartist is making about 3kg. of red onion marmalade. As I enter the kitchen my eyes immediately start streaming with the vapour coming from her endeavors, but it's well worth this minor hardship as her red onion marmalade is so delicious.




The view from the studio this afternoon

I for my part am working on a watercolour that I think I'm going to ironically call 'Deckchairs and Ice Creams'. I'm being accompanied this afternoon by the dulcet tones of Elbow, who produced 'The Seldom Seen Kid', one of the albums of the last decade in my humble opinion.

Mince Pies

This is why we call her the 'tartist'...mince pies in full production. I have to say I never tire of watching her deftly make her superb pastry and the wonderful smell from our kitchen as they bake.
The history of our humble mince pie goes back centuries but the tartist's never last much longer than about five minutes because they're so delicious, especially warmed up with a 'dollop' of clotted cream. She's selling 'em this year for 50p each, or 75p warmed with the 'afore mentioned cream.

Ginger Cake & Coffee & Custard

The tartist and I have just enjoyed an afternoon cappuccino accompanied by a slice of Jenny's Double Ginger Cake which is a new arrival at the Artcafé. Our Jenny has certainly inherited the tartist gene if her new cake is anything to go by, a very moist and substantially gingery cake which prompted us immediately to discuss how comfortably ginger as a flavour sits with coffee. There are certain obvious partners to coffee, chocolate for example or vanilla or almond perhaps but I hadn't really thought of ginger before this afternoon's slice of ginger cake and it was something of a minor revelation. A bit off topic but still on the subject of ginger cake, Jenny's recipe came up in conversation and Clare from Colchester Artcafé revealed that she used to have ginger cake and custard as a pudding, then the tartist piped up and said 'ooh yeah my mum used to do it too in our house' and I have to confess there were many times when we as kids were treated to McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake and Birds custard as a pudding (quite often after Cubs whilst watching Z-Cars or Rising Damp). Now I recon this combination was possibly going on in the seventies up and down the land and I'd be curious to learn if anyone else had this as a pud. in their household at the time?

Another Trip To Orford

The tartist and I have just got home from another of our battery re-charge visits for a few days to The Crown & Castle in Orford, Suffolk. As you may recall from a post last year on this blog the C&C is run by Ruth and David Watson, Ruth you may know from Channel Five's 'The Hotel Inspector and more recently Channel Four's 'Country House Rescue' and they seem to instinctively know how things ought to be done, both on the accommodation side and the restaurant. Unfortunately for this visit the weather stayed extremely grey and drab so I can't share too many great pictures with you.

On Monday we arrived about 3pm and read in companionable silence in our room as is often our wont, until dinner at 8pm. The artist with 'Mother Tongue' by Bill Bryson, the tartist with Kate Colquhoun's 'Taste', the story of Britain through its cooking, which is a foodie 'must read' in our opinion. After a typically good dinner in the 'Trinity' restaurant and a better than average bottle of sauvignon we turned in.

In the morning I took a walk through the village down to the quay where there is a good view across to Orford Ness and although the weather has been milder in recent days the wind was still biting and I had trouble drawing for more than ten minutes before moving on.







So, off up the gentle hill past rows of beautiful cottages many of which must be hundreds of years old, back towards the large church of St. Bartholomew, like many East Anglian churches it seems nowadays out of all proportion to the village where it stands, but I guess years ago Orford really was a very important port on the East Coast. Until this visit I'd never ventured inside but this time I'm pleased I did.





I was really taken with the beautiful large font with stone carvings all around



particularly this one of god the father shown as an old man holding god the son on a cross between his knees


and inlaid lettering around the base.

On Tuesday we took ourselves off to Snape Maltings, just a few miles up the road from Orford and a lovely drive through Tunstall Forest. Snape Maltings is always worth a visit as it has lots of departments that are right up our street, from a good gallery exhibiting some interesting work by mostly East Anglian Artists including the wonderful Maggi Hambling to a really well stocked kitchenware department...

where the tartist is in her element.

There are also a couple of fairly good cafés too for when the urge for a pot of tea and a lemon tart gets too much, shame about the lack of cake forks though.


On wednesday we decided to take a drive out to the old market town of Woodbridge by the river Deben and what a nice little town it happens to be, with lots of independently owned interesting shops to browse, and a nice salty-marshy thing going on down by the river. No sooner had we parked the car when we bumped into Patrick


who owns a lovely delicatessen called The Woodbridge Fine Food Company

selling really excellent local produce; vegetables, pies, fish, meat, dairy, the lot (and we have to thank Patrick here for the sample sausages). Parick wasn't backward in coming forward and said 'if you like what you see here you should try our café down by the river'. So, with Patrick's directions we headed down to the Waterfront Café where we enjoyed a spot of lunch, homemede chicken and ham soup and potted shrimps with organic brown toast and butter, yum!



I can't leave Woodbridge figuratively speaking without telling you about another gem in the High Street we discovered called Browsers Bookshop and Café. They are just what most of our provincial towns need right now and describe themselves as 'a one-off independent bookshop and the antidote to bland high-street chains'. They were well stocked with a wide range of books particularly local titles and lots of 'arty' cards with the added bonus of a good little café. I think if we didn't have our art cafés the tartist and I would be tempted start something similar where we live.

So, quite content and with tired feet we headed back to the C&C for our last night, I think we could actually have done with a couple more nights away. Once again we've found more interesting places to visit just a short drive up the coast in Suffolk.

Is The Food On Your Plate What You Think It Is?

The other day I decided to have a look around to see if I could find a cheaper supplier of the ingredients we use for our cakes and desserts etc. At the moment we use Brakes who are not too bad if you ignore the short deliveries, the fluctuating prices, the often broken packaging and the delivery seemingly timed to coincide with lots of customers. I did wonder if another supplier might have a slightly different way so I had a look on Google for 3663, another famous name in the world of catering.
I never did make it to their site because I was riveted by this piece from The Independent. It showed completely the theory that I have, that too many restaurants are using food that sounds as if it was made by a person using fresh, real ingredients but in actual fact the dish is bought in and is a fraud. The descriptions are worded in such a way as to be very close to dishes that have previously be developed by truly talented people. For instance Sticky Toffee Pudding is a most delicious pudding. Created in The Lake District by John Tovey some time in the 70's it is now copied by most mass producers and comes in a little pot with the sauce included. It is a recipe which is so simple that everyone could make it if they wanted to...if they don't that's fine with me but if they do here is the recipe I use:-

Sticky Toffee Pudding

8oz Dates
4oz Butter
6oz Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
8oz Self Raising Flour
8 fl. oz Boiling Water
1 tsp. Vanilla Essence
1 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
3 tsp. Strong Coffee
Gas 4 / 180 - 25 minutes

Chop the dates and put into a bowl with the bicarbonate of soda, vanilla, coffee and boiling water. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and the sugar. Gradually beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour and then the bowl of dates, water etc.
'Plop' into a lined tin and bake.

Full English Sir? ...I'll Open A Tin.

I think I must have been living a very sheltered life, because there isn't too much that brings me and my trolley to a grinding halt in the supermarket. Yesterday while I was doing my rounds at the co-op I caught sight of a product (let's call it that shall we) in a tin that dismayed and amused me in equal measure.

One of the finest things anyone can eat for breakfast in my opinion is a well cooked English Breakfast, by this I mean locally produced sausage, bacon, with bubble & squeak from real mash and cabbage/greens with a good amount of 'crisping', mushrooms fried in butter as opposed to oil or any of those hydrogenated substances posing as 'healthy alternatives'...I'm not a big fan of this type of industrial chemistry at breakfast, fried, poached or scrambled egg, and grilled tomato (sprinkled with cracked pepper and sea salt). This list could justifiably be enhanced by the addition of 'Heinz' baked beans, although I'm not as enthusiastic about these with my fry-up as at teatime with toast, black pudding or indeed haggis if you find yourself further north.


Imagine my surprise to find the bold claim of 'All Day Breakfast' printed by messers Crosse and Blackwell on their can. I'm as indebted as anyone to Nicholas Appert and Peter Durand for the discovery of the canning process to preserve food but really do flinch at the idea of the institution that is the English Breakfast being bastardised in this way. I realise this rant is not in the least bit scientific as I didn't purchase one to sample (to be fair it could well be delicious, and I may now have to buy one and write a future post about it) also there are many factory made comestables that I have to confess to eating and enjoying from time to time but somehow with the 'All Day Breakfast' in a tin I sense a certain line has been crossed...and blackwell'd.

Rye Bread In A Carton?

On a recent trip to that mecca of slot together furniture that is IKEA, the tartist and I browsing around the little in store Swedish food shop found this rye bread mix in a tetra pak carton. Yes, that's right bread in a carton. So, always keen to try something new in the cooking line, however improbable a delicious outcome may seem at the time, we brought one home with us. Last night while the tartist had four orange fruit teabreads in the oven I gave the bread a go.

It's so simple you simply pour the correct amount of tepid water in the top of the carton (everything is inside...rye flour, sunflower seeds, yeast etc.) then shake it like a bugger for a minute, and pour the mixed contents into a greased loaf tin. Leave it to proove for 45 minutes then pop it in the oven for an our. After fairly limited expectations the resulting loaf was really excellent. A most pleasant Swedish surprise.

Peak Chocolate

Look in any body's tin of sweets this very day, any given year and I guarantee all that you will find are the crappy old dessicated coconut centres, toffees that a toddler has discovered are in fact vile and then has returned to the tin plus teethmarks or a few nutty offerings that even granddad's post-war NHS dentures would take a decade to break down. Gone are the velvety cream centres that go so well with a mid morning coffee, gone are those solid little facsimiles of a Cadbury's dairy milk, you'll be hard pushed to find even a 'purple one', you know the sort, soft caramel with a whole hazelnut. 'How does he know that our tin looks like this?' I hear you ask. Well, every time I've visited some one's house at this time of year for as long as I can recall, I've kindly been offered a cup of tea/coffee and this is always a gratefully received but then around comes the tin, like some quarter full poisoned chalice. 'Would you like a sweet? help yourself' is the well intended next question, to which I have no doubt most of us will reply 'oh no thanks, I've really eaten far too many sweets already this Christmas' all the while thinking where have all their b*#*dy strawberry creams gone? Don't get me started on those individuals who insist on putting empty wrappers back in the tin!



It is indeed very likely your tin looks something like this.

One More Sleep!

The artist and tartist wishing you all a Merry Christmas!



We've always been big Muppets fans in the artistandtartist family and this happens to be one of our favourites.

Something I really enjoy each Christmas Eve amongst all the other excitements is the food 'prep' which for us includes boiling and honey-roasting a gammon joint. I also had to pop out to pick some bay leaves for bread sauce and Delia's recipe seems as good as most, to accompany our turkey tomorrow. Proper homemade bread sauce is not only completely wonderful compared to any 'packet' versions available but is also really pleasurable to make whilst sipping at a 'sharpener' (usually gin and tonic or whiskey mac in our case) whilst the bird roasts in the oven. It may well be 2009 before I get to post again...so in the meantime Happy Christmas!

We've been 'Friday Interviewed'

This morning the tartist and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Juliet for her regular Friday interview and what a pleasure it was to be drinking coffee, talking food and art and also to meet Jonathan who has taken some excellent pictures for the piece.

English Cox Time

I just munched my way through an English Cox apple and yum! They're so very sweet and crisp right now, I suggest you get yourself down to the green-grocers and treat yourself and 'keep the doctor away' into the bargain.

Real Food

The other day whilst baking my heart out at home I listened to You and Yours on BBC Radio 4 and was delighted to hear that someone (a big brewery) has at last got into trouble and been fined a hefty sum for advertising food as homemade when in fact it has been bought in. Nearly every week I get a list from one of the big food providers offering me things that look as if they have been carefully and thoughtfully prepared when in actual fact they have been mass produced in a factory.
I don't mind a bit if people choose to eat this sort of thing but it is vital that they know what they are getting. If I make you a cake you can been sure that I have used real, free range, eggs, that the lemon zest came off of a real lemon and I rubbed it off with my microplane myself.....by the way microplanes are brilliant. The naughty side of baking things myself is the bowls that need licking at the end but my children and 'theartist' are happy to help with this job if not the washing up.

The Tartist 'In The Wars'

Two Loaves


Fruit Soaking


More Loaves and a Couple of Victoria Sponges


My missus aka. the tartist has really been in the wars this past week. She cut the index finger of her left hand and then a few days later tripped over a sack of potatoes in the course of duty. Today with bandaged finger and strapped wrist she turned out eight (count 'em), eight loaves of orange fruit teabread. Sometimes I wonder what it would take to stop her baking each day, when the lure of packet/bought in product can be very tempting indeed. It really seems to both of us at the moment that the more adverse the circumstances become, the more important it is to us that we provide something genuinely handmade from 'proper' ingredients.

Garlic from Carcasonne

Our 'Lovely' Linda from the Colchester Artcafé just got back from her holiday in France and has furnished us with these two magnificent bulbs of garlic. Unfortunately the picture doesn't do them justice, I should perhaps have included a coin (a euro cent) to give you some idea of scale, they are indeed large 'puppies'. I'll let you know what became of them in a future post.

A Day at the Food Festival

A 'pie' trailer

Sarasparilla ~ very nice with sparkling mineral water

Ostrich or Venison?

My lunch, a chicken dish whos name eludes me

olives-a-plenty

This Sunday I went to the Food Festival in the Castle Park along with Jenny, Holly & Jack, unfortunately Maggie had to work at the Mersea Art Cafe which was a real disappointment as she'd been looking forward to this event for some time and in fairness being the tartist in this partnership a food fest. is more up her street. Anyhow, we persevered on her behalf around the really busy stalls sampling all sorts of tasty (and also bland) morsals as we went.

Some real treats were:~

Frozen Yoghurt from Margaret's Frozen Luxuries who are just up the road in Earls Colne.

Cordials and Presses from James Edwards Botanical Beverage Co.

A Chicken Dish that I can't for the life of me remember the name, but was served with some creamy potatoes with lardons of bacon all of which was cooked in a large pan over a charcoal fire.

Something I always find a disapointment are flavoured cheeses, especially cheddar. At it's best it has be as good as any from around the world, so, why bung cranberries or pineapple or whatever in it...what's that all about? and you can always find them in abundance at these shows. Still, we had a super day in the 'Essex' sunshine which I rounded off with a better-than-average cappuccino from one of those 'nifty' coffee vans equipped with a hand pump espresso machine. I'd love to get my hands on one of those for the artcafe!!

Teaspoons

Silver Teaspoons ~ Charcoal

t

A teaspoon is a small spoon, or a spoon used in measuring, commonly used to stir the contents of a cup of tea or coffee. Teaspoons with longer handles are commonly used for ice cream. Other spoon sizes include the tablespoon and the desert spoon. Much less common is the coffee spoon, which is a smaller version of the teaspoon. The tablespoon is a larger version of the teaspoon.
In some countries, the teaspoon is also used as a unit of volume, especially in cooking recipes and pharmaceutic prescriptions. It is abbreviated in English as t. or tsp. (German and Dutch: TL, from Teelöffel or Theelepel). It is often taken to mean 5 ml; in some countries this value is even defined in law, for example in the USA 21CFR101.9(b)(5)(viii). The same definition is used in some other English-speaking countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom). Older definitions included 1/6 U.S. fl.oz (4.93 mL) in the USA and 1/8 Imperial fl. oz (3.55 mL) in Britain.
A related unit is
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons (4 in Australia)
Common teaspoons for stirring drinks are not always designed to contain any standard volume. In practice, they may hold between 2.5 mL and 6 mL of liquid, so caution must be exerted when using a teaspoon to measure a certain prescribed dose of a medicine. For this reason and in order to avoid dispensing errors, special measuring spoons are available that hold exactly 5 mL. The common teaspoon is always smaller than the tablespoon.
If a recipe calls for a teaspoon of a powder ingredient (salt, flour, etc.), this normally refers to an approximately levelled filling of the spoon, just like with liquids. For example, a teaspoon of salt for cooking purposes, is 5 mL or about 4.75 grams.
Some recipes also call for heaping (or heaped in British English) spoon measures. Such a heaping/heaped teaspoon, refers to an inexact volume of the required ingredient, obtained by scooping it up with a teaspoon and not levelling it off. The amount obtained by heaping a spoon can easily vary by more than a factor of two.

...so there you have it!