A new venture

My blog has faded into the background once more as my husband and I build up our new venture. It's something that we have dreamt about since first meeting 15-16 years ago and we've finally decided to take the plunge. Although this dream has taken various guises they have followed a similar vein which always centres on printmaking.

So we've bought an Adana press, a little table top press which enables us to print cards. We've decided to start off by selling online and then through craft fairs, whilst doing some soft marketing and networking through social media; blogs, website, facebook and twitter... We both have part time jobs and of course, a home and family to keep in line but we are LOVING it! We finally have a focus for our creativity and a goal to build The Smallprint Company into a self-sustaining business within a determined amount of time.

Making impressions

Reception of The Smallprint Company has been good and we have sold to some interesting parties both in the UK and the US. We would love to get a studio as currently our laundry room / dining room have become the studios but that should come in time.

Anyway judge for yourself (and please leave feedback, we're always keen to hear from you)!

A trip to London; Yotam Ottolenghi and Carluccio's

My husband gave me a copy of the beautiful book Plenty from Yotam Ottolenghi for Christmas. You may already have guessed that I'm not a vegetarian (& neither is Ottolenghi, I hasten to add!) but this book is dedicated to vegetables. Using his particular talent to create exciting dishes with strong flavours and drawing inspiration from his Lebanese background and beyond, he's created a book that makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

We had to drive to London at the weekend and what should we drive past but Ottolenghi's (& I swear he was standing in the doorway chatting to a customer as we drove past!). Having conducted our business, we hot-footed it back. The display in the window was mouthwatering - beatiful delicate pastries, cakes and biscuits against huge bowls of salads. It looked wonderful and the queue trailing out of the door was testament to the amazing mounds of food pouring out of the kitchen. I managed to return later and bought some oat, cranberry and white chocolate cookies which even my husband (an anti-fruit weirdo if ever I met one!) fell in love with. I came home from work tonight to find a freshly baked batch of white chocolate and cranberry cookies made by my husband's fair hands cooling in the kitchen!

We'd passed a Carluccio's eatery on the way back to Ottolenghi's which is another place I've fancied trying. We ended up sharing an antipasti platter and a couple of espresso's which was spot on. The pasta that another diner was eating looked very tasty and if I'd have had room the white chocolate panna cotta with a raspberry sauce was sorely tempting! The platter was a lovely selection of sliced meats, mozarella, capers, balsmaic pickled onions, tiny peppers stuffed with tuna, juicy prawns wrapped in bacon, a delicious pate, artichoke, delicious thin slices of courgette marinaded in a delicate lemon dressing and similarly, a beautifully marinaded aubergine.

The marinaded courgette and aubergine are something I would like to try at home. I wonder if there's something similar in Yotam's book...?

Christmas meal

As we live relatively close to both sets of parents it means that we can enjoy a day at each parents over Christmas. This invariably leads to an excess of food and drink but you won't hear me complaining! Lovely as both Christmas meals were, we still like to cook our own celebration meal which is guinea fowl with all the trimmings and is now a firm tradition in our yuletide home. if you've never had it before I describe it as somewhere between a chicken and duck. It has a gamier flavour without being over powering and I admit that I struggle with duck for this reason. It seems to be coming more common place in the shops around Christmas and we generally go to the local market for ours.

This year I found myself cooking the meal as my husband had been struck down by one of the dreaded viruses currently floating around. Never having cooked guinea fowl before, I was a little daunted but determined to cook an enjoyable family meal... I roasted it for 1 hour and 10 minutes on gas mark 5 having stuffed the cavity with a handful of fresh thyme, some cloves of garlic and a quartered lemon.

I'd made the red cabbage earlier in the day as it benefits from a good slow cook: Shred a red cabbage, rinse under water and leave to drain. Meanwhile finely slice a red onion and gently fry in a knob of butter until soft. Add the drained (but still wet) cabbage, a teaspoon of cider or wine vinegar, a couple of cloves, a teaspoon of brown sugar and season. Cook on a low heat with a lid on the saucepan for at least an hour, checking it from time to time. If it looks like it's going to stick to the pan add a drop of water. This is so delicious with roast meat!

I also made a quick stuffing of breadcrumbs, finely chopped onion, some more fresh thyme, lemon juice, seasoning and once it was mixed up, I drizzled the top with olive oil but you could use the juices from the roasting meat or a knob of butter.

This was all served with sliced sprouts stir fried with bacon (lardons), carrots, broccoli, roast potatoes roasted in goose fat, mini sauasages (pigs in blankets without the blankets, after all you can over-do things!) and of course, cranberry sauce. Mmm. Can't wait for Christmas to eat it all again!!

Wintery sweet treats!

I've put my baking head on recently. It's not something I've really done in a very long time (except for the odd 5 minute mug cake but more of that another time!!) and I am constantly surprising myself with just how easy it is, not to mention how satisfying. I have to admit the main reason I don't bake is becaused then I would have to eat all those lovely muffins, pies and puddings but ah well, it is Christmas!!

Homemade pastry is certainly something I have not made in a very long time and as my Mother-in-Law's pies are easily the best in the Northern hemisphere, I have indeed been daunted. But no more!! This recipe is from my trusty bible Prue Leith's Cookbook.

Mince pies - makes 12-24 depending on the size of your cutter!!

Jar of mincemeat (for me) and a jar of jam for the rest of the household
6oz plain flour
pinch of salt
3 1/2 oz of butter
1 egg yolk
2-3 tbspn very cold water

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter and crumble with your fingers to a fine crumb. Mix 2 tbspns of very cold water to the egg yolk and add to the flour mixture. Start stirring with a rounded knife and then mix with one hand. Add a very small amount more of very cold water if the mixture is still dry but you will not need a great deal more. Do not overwork the pastry. Cover and place the dough in the fridge for half an hour.

Roll out, cut your bases out, place in a baking tray (pie tray), place a small amount of mincemeat or jam in and then place a smaller shape (circle of maybe a star, depending on your cutters) on top. Brush with milk. Place in a preheated oven - gas mark 6 - for 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove pies from the tray and place on a cooling rack until you can no longer bear it and then EAT! Mmmm...


We are also enjoying a homemade treacle sponge after Sunday lunch at the moment. So quick to whip and once again so satisfying, particularly on a gloomy winter's afternoon in front of the fire. Although you can steam treacle puddings, this baked recipe is a firm favourite - the sponge is lovely and soft with a crisp base and a wonderfully sticky topping of treacle. Best served with custard. Recipe to follow...

And talking of steamed puddings my Dad and I are in agreement; our family recipe for Spotted Dick is the one and only recipe for this particular dessert delight. No other recipe beats it. This is best served with cream (or custard if you must) and an extra dollop of treacle. Another recipe to follow!

Tasty muffins galore!

My son had an inset day from school, so I planned a day of activities to keep them entertained.

We started off with some baking sessions which worked a treat. First off, banana muffins which worked well as a breakfast treat and then some rather special blackberry and chocolate chunk muffins.

If you've never made muffins before, they are incredibly easy to make, with very good results. I have to admit that they taste much better on the day of baking but they do last well and freeze well too.

The blackberry recipe actually makes 18 muffins, so we weren't going to get through those in a day (although I was seriously tempted!!). This was also a good way of using up a glut of blackberries picked from the allotment and then frozen. I think the fact that they were semi defrosted when they went into the recipe may have helped the final outcome but I could be kidding myself! This recipe could be adapted to many other berries, I imagine, with similarly tasty results.

Banana muffins (makes 12)

200g (7 oz) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large bananas, mashed
150g (5 oz) caster sugar
1 egg
75g (2 1/2 oz) butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4 & place 12 paper cases in a muffin tin. Place the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in one bowl. Combine mashed bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter in another bowl. Fold in flour mixture and mix until smooth. Spoon evenly into baking cases. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until muffins spring back when lightly tapped.

So simple! I shall be making these again.

Courtesy of allrecipes.co.uk


Blackberry and chocolate chunk muffins (makes 18)

This recipe has been adapted by a recipe from the Goddess's Kitchen blog. It is a classic example of a muffin mix - combining all the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients and finally combining altogether. If you're using frozen fruit, allow it to defrost but not fully so that the fruit holds its shape when cooked.

250g blackberries (fresh or frozen)
30g bar of chocolate (milk, plain or white depending on taste)
2 eggs
240ml milk
120ml vegetable oil
200g caster sugar
375g plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
50g brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 6, 400°F)  and put the baking cases into the muffin tray. Place the eggs, oil, sugar and milk in a large mixing bowl and beat together.
Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon and add to the wet mixture, stirring thoroughly. Smash the bar of chocolate into chunks - bigger than chocolate drops. Gently stir the chocolate and blackberries into the mixture. Spoon the mixture (about two thirds full) into the cases. Sprinkle sthe brown sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Delicious!!

A Sunday Lunch to look forward to!

A little squeal of excitement was heard in our housethis afternoon when I discovered that our favourite pub The Exeter Arms is going to be serving meals on Sundays now. I can't wait!

We've already sampled some of their amazing food which is locally sourced, freshly cooked and served with a smile: Their Great British tapas board is amazing - thick cut, skins-on chips served with a beautiful scotch egg, sausage roll, pork pie, all of which are homemade, a chunk of locally made cheese and a picallili which is probably the best I've ever tasted! We've also had a beetroot cured salmon served with wasabi cream (part of the fish board), a humous grazing board and a chip shop platter (fish and chips with a twist). Their burgers are calling me and I could go on... and on... and on...

It was borne from their micro brewery, The Dancing Duck and you're always guaranteed a good ale (or wine). It's a lovely welcoming traditional pub with roaring fires in the winter and a lovely courtyard to sup in, in the summer. They have bands playing regularly which I have yet to experience but all look interesting  and their Monday night quiz (Dr Pippen's Paradoxical Perlustrations - not as scary as it sounds!) packs the pub out.

You just can't fault the place and my only complaint is why can't there be more places like this that take their food, ales, environment and clientele seriously - with a cheeky twist. Oh and prices (as we must consider in these straightened times) are very good. Considering the standard, you're not going to get any better for your pounds!

Anyway, looking forward to trying a Sunday lunch there in the not too distant future!

A meal with friends

It's been a while since I posted unfortunately but this meal is worth writing about! We'd had a lazy day getting things ready for the evening which always help our creativity when putting a food together I think!

Chris had recently presented me with a lovely little book of ice cream recipes and browsing through I found a recipe for brown bread ice cream. It took me back to the times my parents made it for special occassions... excellent, that was pudding sorted! To top it off it's a very simple recipe which needs to be prepared hours before, leaving you more time for friends. If you've never had it before bear with me. It's a lovely delicate, toffee-like ice cream. Well, Phil came back for seconds so that says it all really!

I wasn't going to do a starter but Chris came back from a foraging expedition (some call it a trip to the supermarket I think) and proudly presented me with smoked duck breast; tiny, delicate slices of cured meat. We had a fresh seeded loaf which I thinly sliced and lightly toasted, placed a couple of slices of the duck on top, added a garnish of salad leaves and finished with a honey and walnut dressing.

Main course was a slow roasted affair which added to the general air of tranquility! Slow roasted pork with star anise, cinnamon and coca cola. Done right, the meat is tender and juicy and the crackling, well, crackles! This was served on a bed of wilted spinach which complemented the meat beautifully, together with roasted vegetables; carrot, parsnip and apple which had been tossed in olive oil, lemon juice and chilli flakes.

Honey and walnut dressing
100ml olive oil
50ml white wine or cider vinegar
50 ml runny honey
chopped walnuts
seasoning

Mix well and leave to marinate for half hour for all the lovely flavours to infuse.

Brown bread ice cream, serves 6-8
3 thick slices of brown bread
4 oz brown sugar
300ml double cream
150ml single cream
2 eggs separated
1 tbsp whisky, rum or brandy (optional) 

Crumb the bread in a processor, removing any difficult to crumb crusts. Spread on a baking tray and lightly toast, turning every few moments for an even toast. Leave to cool. Pour the cream into a bowl and whisk with the sugar until thick but not stiff. Separate the eggs and add the alcohol to the egg yolks, if using, mix and fold into the cream. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and add to the cream mixture together with the breadcumbs. Pour into a freezer container and freeze for at least 4 hours. Remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving and enjoy!

I actually couldn't taste the rum when I made it, so maybe add another tablespoon but you have to be careful as alcohol will prevent it from freezing if too much is used. Other flavours to add could be honey or ginger. And I may try a version where some of the brown sugar is mixed in with the breadcumbs when they're toasting for an extra toffee explosion...

And a note to self: I must invest in some walnut oil!!