RSS Feed

‘Live life’ Category

  1. Gwatkins Cider

    December 25, 2019 by jimkeir

    If there’s anywhere to begin, this is it. Cider has a bit of a reputation to lose; alco-pop, painfully sweet, flavourless, only for kids trying to get as drunk as possible as fast as possible.

    Wrong.

    Actually, in many cases, right, but that’s not why we’re here. I’m a cider fan and will usually try a local if we’re out and about in any cider-producing region. Northwest France does it pretty damn well, but no matter where it comes from, any and all cider or perry I try now is compared with Gwatkins and I genuinely doubt that any will come even close.

    We found this on tap at Ludlow Food Festival a few years ago. I’m fairly sure it was Mr. Gwatkin himself on the stand, it was a hot day, and a light perry (pear cider for the uninitiated) seemed like just the ticket. A couple of mouthfuls later we circled back round and told him this was the best we’d ever had by a long way. It still is.

    Perrys are harder to make than ciders because the fruit has to be perfectly ripe and perfectly treated – any damaged or bruised fruit affect it much more than they would an apple cider. It needs to be made with perry-specific pear varieties which aren’t common any more. This perry wasn’t overly sweet and had a sublime combination of fruit and floral flavours and then, after that had begun to fade, a wonderful tangy aftertaste that lasted longer than such delicate flavours should do. We had a few pints of that, that day.

    Ciders now tend to be incredibly sweet and, lordy me, made even sweeter by adding strawberry or rhubarb flavourings and shipping them from New Zealand. Not Gwatkins. They’re made in the traditional way using traditional, old, cider-specific apple and pear varieties and they have bite. A barman at a fantastic beer festival, Eddyfest (which will be listed here soon!), was muttering about having sold out of all of the ultra-sweet imported ciders and being completely bemused as to how people could drink them. We’d both just poured away a pint of two different ciders that were genuinely so sweet they were causing pain, and had circled back to the bar for pints of Gwatkins. I offered him a sip – I think it was the Yarlington Mill – and he did a bit of a double-take, took another sip, and said “by God you’re going to know you’ve had a pint of cider after one of those”.

    Gwatkins. The way cider should be. And they do mail order.

    https://gwatkincider.co.uk/


  2. In The Beginning…

    December 25, 2019 by jimkeir

    It all began, as some things do, with a cheese sandwich. This particular beginning wasn’t related to permanent intestinal damage the likes of which would make a Bupa shareholder cry, which is indeed something that can begin with a cheese sandwich. That was in India. This beginning was a determination to persuade as many people as possible that British food ought not to be dismissed, as many people – mostly Brits – seem to think. “Aah, British food, fish and chips, roast beef, terrible bread”. Yes, we do have terrible bread, but only if you buy it in [insert name of litigious supermarket chain here].

    I wish I could say exactly where this sarnie epiphany was created but it’s been lost to the depths of time. I clearly remember it visually but, other than probably being in the north of England, can’t narrow it down any more than that. What I do remember though, is the cheese sandwich. A simple cheddar buttie, salad and crisps, exactly like you’d get in any little independent tearoom that had a bit of pride in what it served – but this was different. A level above. The cheese paired perfectly with the bread. The bread was made in the same village. The salad was the exact right blend of sweet, bitter and crispy to counter the flavours and textures of the sandwich.

    Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it isn’t good food. In fact, it can mean just the opposite – simple dishes have less fiddly bits, less distractions, to hide behind if something’s not right. Picture being somewhere that advertises a “dining experience”; the decor, the waiters that spang into existence exactly, and only, when they’re needed, the extremely high china-to-food-coverage ratio of the plates, actually being able to get a parking spot. One detail being not 100% perfect might be noticed but is just one tiny detail out of the whole experience. With fish and chips in a bag, if it’s not right then it’s not right.

    I call it my “standard candle” test, a phrase stolen from astrophysics. If I’m somewhere that prides itself on it’s food and likely to eat there more than once, I’ll typically order the house burger. The heathen option, the last thing on the menu, added especially and grudgingly for people who balk at eating anything they’ve not personally microwaved in the past. Why? Because a burger gives you no place to hide. If a kitchen, a chef, can make the simple, globally-served, no-thought-required burger into something special then they’ve really mastered their art. Too many trimmings? Fail. Can’t taste the beef? Fail. Too thick to actually pick up? Fail. (Probably). Brioche buns? Those are a sweet breakfast or dessert item for chrissakes. Basic mistake. Fail.

    So back to the cheese sandwich. Britain really does produce world-class food, in a distinctive style. Just like the French, Italians, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Thai and so on – not necessarily better, but different and just as worthy of attention. We need to be able to persuade the rest of the world of that. Hell, we need to persuade most British of that, especially those that have only ever really experienced chain-pub and supermarket food.

    These short posts are simply listing places we’ve been, food we’ve had, real cider and ale, places we’ve stayed in a few cases, that have been outstanding. Few if any will be for “twiddly” food. Most will be for the simple, honest, dare I say rustic food that Britain does – or can do – spectacularly well. There’s a few overseas places listed too but in the main we’re showcasing British produce.

    Enjoy.


  3. Our Antarctica and South America trip

    April 2, 2018 by sarah


    We have been back from our trip of a lifetime for only a week and already in some regards, it seems a million years ago! But at least I have nearly 9,000 photos to sort to help remind me of this fabulous trip. I have managed to trim it down to 300 photos that capture some of the wonder things we saw and experienced. Remember these photos are copyrighted so if you’d like to use one or to have one printed, please ask. Enjoy!

    Antarctica and South America


  4. Papua New Guinea

    October 14, 2017 by sarah


    This year our main holiday was to the other end of the world, figuratively and literally, to Papua New Guinea! It was one of the most extraordinary countries I have ever been to. My overwhelming memory of the holiday is the people; friendly and open, quiet but happy, unassuming and generous. Much like my previous favourite place in the world, Vanuatu. We saw some wonderful and unique things and had a variety of special experiences, of which these photos only touch the surface.

    It was very hard to go back through these photos to prepare them to be viewed. For a start there were nearly 6000! Secondary, I did not want to spoil the magic by looking back at photographs rather than memories but actually having a space of a few months then going back through the photos has allowed me to re-enjoy the holiday again. In the interests of brevity, I have not included many of my ‘arty’ photos, instead concentrating on ones which tell the story of Papua New Guinea and our holiday. I have captioned most of them – please ask me any questions!


  5. Thame food festival – prize winning cakes

    October 1, 2017 by sarah


    After the village show this year, I decided to enter a bigger cake competition to acquire new skills and stretch my existing ones and so I entered the Thame Food Festival Bake Off. I chose to enter a fun category (Lotte’s kitsch cakes, judged by Lotte Duncan), a seasonal one to use up all those apples from the garden (harvest festival happiness, judged by Jane Beedle from the Great British Bake Off) and a challenging category (choux pastry, judged by Chris Wheeler). When I got the cakes to the show this morning (after a hideous 6am start), I was really chuffed with what I had achieved. And then I was even more proud to found that I had won two first prizes! I got these cute star baker medals too!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I definitely had fun with the kitsch cake, thinking of what to do to make it as kitsch as possible but still tasty and then how to make the decorations to complete my vision. I made a cake I titled ‘Little Red Riding Hood in the Black Forest (gateau)’ with my delicious chocolate buttermilk layer cake (recipe here) and Swiss meringue buttercream flavoured with cherry cordial and coloured pink. I made all the decorations except the figurine for Little Red Riding Hood and the squirrel, both of which I found in charity shops. There were Italian meringue trees and bushes, meringue mushrooms decorated coloured white chocolate (recipe here, but I used food colouring powder to colour the white chocolate so it didn’t seize this time), a fondant wolf and a red cape for Little Red Riding Hood, a bowler hat for the squirrel and mini fondant mushrooms and flowers. A few sprinkles and a bit of glitter and it was done! I was really pleased that my cake beat five others in this category, one of the largest in the show.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I must of been mad when I chose something challenging and then chose to make choux! If I had known how difficult this pastry is and how challenging weather would be then I am not sure I would have chosen this category. I must be the only mad one as I was the only entrant in this category! These final eclairs are the culmination of about 10 hours of baking trials and 6 different lots. Different ingredients, different recipes, different piping nozzles, to streusel or not streusel top, different baking temperatures and timings… I will write a full post on what I learnt, even if it is only for prosperity and I never make them again! Today was so humid that within seconds the choux had softened. Anyway, here are my rhubarb, custard and white chocolate eclairs – choux eclairs filled with rhubarb, vanilla cremeux and rhubarb gel topped with white chocolate and a rhubarb twirl.

    My harvest cake wasn’t placed but I was still happy with it. I knew I wanted an apple cake but after the flop of an apple cake at the village show (a little too moist), I knew I needed to up my game. It actually took several recipes over several weeks to find one I liked and then tweak it so that it came out how I imagined it. It may not have been placed but I am pleased with it – cinnamon apple cake with honey from our garden and cider soaked walnuts, honey glaze and buttered walnuts and dried apple slices to decorate. Recipe coming up in a future post.

    I will need to enter next year and try to win the Magimix Patissier machine, especially as they didn’t even have any for sale at the show! It was definitely challenging weather today as it was so humid that when we collected the cakes, the sugar work was weeping! We had a lovely day going around the stalls, sampling delicious food and drink and spending all of our pocket money!


  6. Honey, honey, honey… and now everything is sticky!

    September 21, 2017 by sarah


    This past week we (other half and I) have been busy with the honey harvest! The bees are really my husbands hobby, but I help out when I can. We have two hives at the back of the garden, behind the chickens. They are fascinating creatures to watch and generally placid as they are too busy going about their business collecting nectar and pollen. I say ‘mainly’ placid as I got stung on the face a few weeks ago though I was strimming the weeds around the hive without any bee suit on and Jim got stung multiple times last week when he was merging two hives together and they didn’t appreciate the move (he was only wearing a half length bee suit and so he got stung on the ankles – ow!).

    The honey harvest! The jars on the bottom look darker as there are other jars behind them.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    But now it is time for us to get our first honey harvest. This is the third year we have had bees and only the first time we have got any honey from them. It takes a couple of years for the colony to be strong enough to harvest and the first colony died in its first winter. We had a fair amount of ‘fun’ with the bees this year, what with swarming several times. Part of the merging of hives was to get rid of a weak queen (in a humane way, she was euthanised) and then bring together to the two smaller hives so they stand a better chance of surviving the winter. Which meant we only got to harvest the other hive.

    We turned the conservatory over to honey extraction as we could keep the cat out and minimise stickiness (to a degree!).

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Keeping bees is not a cheap hobby and the cost of the honey nowhere near covers the real costs of producing it which is why real, locally produced honey is the price it is. But you can come and meet the bees if you like and at least see where they live. Very low food miles! This honey is very local, totally natural (no added sugar unlike some supermarket stuff) and is raw (supermarket stuff is pasteurised which kills off the good enzymes). I also have a couple of jars of capping for sale – these are full of natural wax, pollen and propolis so are really good for you, especially if you suffer from hayfever. I am very pleased with the harvest – 26 jars of 1lb (454g). Some of the jars also have chunks of comb in.

    The capped honey waiting to be extracted from the comb.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Did you know that to produce one pound of honey, 2 million flowers need to be harvested? In its lifetime, one honey bee will only collect 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey! Wow, that is a lot of trips out and it is all very weather dependant; bees make great weather forecasters. In the middle of a summer, the hive will contain about 50,000 bees all under the care of one queen! And that 80% of our fruit, vegetable and seed production depends on the pollination of insects like bees!

     

    The swarm when it was in next door’s pear tree!

    Putting the swarm in a temporary box as the second hive hadn’t arrived yet.

    Jim up a ladder collecting the swarm the first time.

    Can you see the queen? She is marked with white.

    Jim inspecting sub-hive 2!

    Watch out for the camera!

    Removing the super full of honey!

    The honey ‘tap’ is called a honey gate and it makes a nice clean job of getting sticky honey into a jar with minimal stickiness!

    A frame of honey in the extractor – beautiful!

    This process is called uncapping – removing the wax caps from the cells of honey so it can be extracted.

    Frames waiting to be extracted – a nearly full super.


  7. A historic baking day

    September 16, 2017 by sarah


    Today I spent a lovely day at the Chiltern Open Air Museum near Chalfont St.Giles on a historic baking day. I discovered this delightful museum quite by chance when looking online for something to do when my parents were visiting. Together we had a lovely time wandering around the rescued building from the local area and talking to the volunteers there – I was very impressed with the allotment! My Mother booked me on this baking day as a Birthday treat (still 3 months off I might add) as it looked different.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There were only 5 of us and we spent the day in an 18th Century cottage with volunteer Jenny Templeton, preparing bread and learning how to get the oven up to temperature (over 2 hours of feeding it wood). The bread was very slow to rise as it was a cold Autumnal day and we were glad for the work out kneading the dough. I had a delicious light lunch in the tea room, including this slice of green and jasmine tea cake (unfortunately couldn’t taste green tea or jasmine but nice light sponge) and some Fentiman’s rose lemonade. In the afternoon we shaped the dough and while it was having a final rise, we made pastry and decorated jam tarts; I took along some of my lovely ‘Autumn Glut’ jam (windfall apples and pears with damsons and brambles from the hedgerows) which went down well.  Then the bread went in the prepared oven, sealed with clay to keep the heat in. We made some butter while the bread was baking; double cream beaten with a variety of authentic implements. The butter took a lot of elbow grease to make; it so much easier with a machine! During the day and at the end I had time to wander around the museum a little and get a good look in some of the buildings. Finally our bread and tarts were baked and the butter patted and wrapped and then time to go home. I lovely day playing at a different way of baking.


  8. Alps Trip

    June 10, 2017 by sarah


    Here are some photos from our latest holiday!


  9. I won a photography competition!

    November 27, 2016 by sarah


    I can’t believe it! This summer I won a competition for my food photography! I have never won anything before with my photography and in fact the only thing I remember winning is a bottle of blend whisky in a veterinary raffle! Here is my winning photo.

    competition

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    And here is the photo I was emulating. And I had to make the recipe too, which you can find on an earlier blog entry here.

    competition-3

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I have to be realistic though that it is not a major competition, just a food magazine competition. Nether the less, I won a set of professional knives worth £700. They arrived this week and I couldn’t wait to unpack them. Until this point in time I have had only one knife capable of cutting anything firmer than a tomato and now I have a set of eight! I think I’ll look at entering some more food photography competitions!

    knives-4 knives-3 knives-2 knives


  10. Essaouira, Morocco – holiday

    November 21, 2016 by sarah


    A couple of weeks ago we spent a lovely week in a small town called Essaouira on the coast of Morocco. We spent a wonderfully relaxing week wandering the souks, tickling cats,  reading books that I have been meaning to read for years, taking morning ‘nos-nos’ coffee and pastry and afternoon mint tea and pastries, eating delicious tagines/pastilla/grilled sardines, going to a real local hammam for a scrub and a touristy but luxuriant spa for a massage, watching a film (Ex Machina) in the open-air cinema… And spending time together, talking and getting to know each other again. All this (flights for two and a nice riad hotel in the centre) cost less than renting a cottage in damp, cold England! The world is crazy!