Out of the void

Hello everyone.... I know it has been such a long time but what can I say. I've been spending the majority of my waking minutes for the last few months living, eating and breathing law (of course this is an overstatement - I have been eating much tastier things than law but you get the gist). And now I am done for this year, meaning a long summer with lots of fun and exploration on the horizon.

Many changes have been afoot. The biggest being a shift from town to country. Yes, this self confessed city gal has shifted to a small village in east Sussex, and I love it.

The reason? Well that would be another change. This self-confessed singleton and dating cynic is well, err, ahem, cough, not so cynical anymore. Understatement of the year. I'm only going to say this once but well, I've met someone perfect and am head over heels in love. Have you spewed all over the computer keyboard yet? If not, I'll give you a few seconds to do so, and we shall move on.

It's all a bit funny really. I've written about bad date after bad date in here with careless abandon but when it comes to nice things, well I'm very much tongue-tied. Safe to say if you hear me talking about Jon and recounting our mutual adventures in food, that's the man himself.

Moving on....the countryside you say? It is brilliant. Yesterday I went running through the village and scandalized half the local population of old ladies in what, with hindsight, may have been slightly skimpy attire. Oops.

Foraging opportunities abound. I have been collecting elderflower like a maniac and we've already enjoyed the fruits of our labour in the form if elderflower champagne. Later today I shall be making some elderflower and gooseberry jam yum yum yum. Any other elderflower suggestions would be much appreciated, there is so much around it would seem a shame to waste it!

Although my capability to enjoy the new surroundings have been severely limited thus far the move also means huge potential for discovery and I've already been getting out and about a bit for tasty treats to surprise you with. Watch this space.

I'm still out and about in London lots so am not abandoning the home town. Just spreading things out a bit more.

In a slight pickle about supper club though. Can I lure you beautiful people out of town? Tis but a train ride away :p feedback much appreciated!

The Perfect Weekend

Those of you following me on Twitter will have figured out that I had a bit of an intense week with exams and revising and coursework and other fun tidbits. So it’s an understatement to say that it was a relief to finally make it to the weekend… it was well worth the wait. In fact, I might go so far as saying that it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very long time.

It started with quince cheese. A few weeks ago, my partner in chutney/pickle/jam/supperclub crime, Natalie and I were browsing through our local Turkish shop picking up ingredients for what was to evolve into the lime pickle.

Happily browsing through the vegetable section, we came across what I would describe as one of the ugliest fruits I have ever seen in my life. After a bit of rooting around the labels section we saw that the rather unfortunate looking fruit were quinces.

Tick tock went the brain. I have always loved quince jam, and, on my jaunts to Spain, the dusky membrillo (a form of quince cheese). For a long time too, fruit cheeses had rather appealed. 1+1= 2. And that was how the idea of the quince cheese came into being.

Brilliant as things are in theory, sometimes they are a bit trickier to execute in real life, as we found out on Friday night. The rudimentaries of making quince cheese are not that hard to get your head around. Essentially you peel and wash the fruit, deseed it, boil the hell out of it for a few hours, push it through a sieve, add sugar and boil the hell out of it a bit more before putting it into your containers of choice.

If only it was that simple. I’m never a fan of peeling things, however, it was the coring that proved to be a bit of a bitch, to put it politely. Somehow, it was only once that was done, we were a few glasses of bubbly down each and it was past 10pm that we realised that the rest of the recipe was going to take at least 4 hours.


Bubble bubble toil and trouble

What better reason to put on a soundtrack of eighties tracks and err air guitar to Toto – Hold The Line? None that I can think of. It totted up to around 5 hours in total. And at one point it looked like, well, like vomit...



But my goodness, I had a slice yesterday on a slice of Black bomber and it was heavenly.

That alone doesn’t a perfect weekend make. Those who have been reading for a while will know how forthcoming I can be about BAD dates. However, to balance the table a bit, for once I am going to tell you a bit about a good date (two to be precise, in one weekend).

The first involved True Grit and dinner at a local Spanish restaurant Galicia. Those that live within striking distance of Croydon would do well to make a beeline for this empire-sized restaurant who somehow manage to consistently serve up gorgeous tapas time after time in a convivial and friendly setting.

269-275 High St
Croydon CR0 1QH
020 8686 0043

The second involved (hold your breath)…. Leaving London. Well to get to Sussex, which isn’t that far but sadly, is a lot further away from the big smoke than I get most weekends. We went to an absolutely gorgeous place called The Hatch…..

It was delightful. Small, cosy and deservedly popular – you’d do well to reserve a table if you head down on a Sunday, as it was, we bagged the last available table arriving bang on the dot of opening. Though there’s quite a large menu involving quite a few fishy dishes that looked rather tempting, we’d come for the roast and that’s what we got…

The beef was tender, rare, juicy and saucily accompanied as you can see by the usual trimmings and lashings of gravy.



I did not take a picture of the sticky toffee pudding that rolled out for dessert but safe to say, the moment it ended was one of those moments. You know the ones where you honestly wish you could order the same thing right away and relive the unadulterated pleasure without a) feeling sick from being so gluttonous b) your stomach popping open and spraying everyone with the contents of your gut.

Colmans Hatch
East Sussex TN7 4EJ
01342 822 363
http://www.hatchinn.co.uk/

The rest of the day was spent tramping around Ashdown Forest, visiting Pooh Bear’s haunts and generally realising how overrated growing up is and how fun jumping in the mud with your wellies is. Maybe not quite enough exercise to burn off the luncheon calories but dammit, a pretty good way to start anyway.



And there we have it, the perfect weekend. Lets hope there are many more to come.