Honouring the Secret Garden Rose

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Flower of the week and for the rest of the summer is the delicate Secret Garden Rose. My last London posey.

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I Do Not Want to Be a Fish

I do not want to be a fish,
”Gulp,” is all I can say.
When fierce and hungry sharks chase me,
I’d have to swim away.

I’d have to eat the yucky seaweed
in the big blue sea.
The very salty water is what
I’d have for my tea.

I don’t want to be caught by fishermen
who come in ships.
They’ll then sell me to people who
will make me fish and chips.

I do not want to be a fish,
I think it is not cool.
And honestly, I really don’t want
to live in a school.

I would love to eat my cod in this house of VITA SACKVILLE-WEST

Sometimes I just get tired pretending I’m not thinking about food….

Suggestions for a rainy Sunday afternoon for baking in the kitchen, along with making Valentines cards and creating Flamenco playlists

Elizabeth David’s Flourless Chocolate Cake

* 4 oz bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate
* 1 t vanilla
* 1 t brewed espresso (or any other *strong* brew)
* 1 t brandy
* 6 t butter
* 1⁄2 c Sugar
* 1⁄2 c ground almonds
* 3 large Eggs, divided

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. and butter and 8-inch springform pan. 2. In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate with vanilla and brewed espresso and brandy.
2. Add butter, sugar, and almonds and heat the mixture until the butter has melted.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and cool slightly.
4. Beat the 3 egg yolks until they are lemon colored and stir them into the chocolate mixture.
5. Whip the 3 egg whites until they are just stiff and fold them into the chocolate mixture.
6. Turn the batter into the pan and bake the cake in the middle of the over for 45 minutes.
7. The cake will have some cracks on top, and a tester inserted into the cake will not come out clean.
8. Let the cake cool completely on a rack and remove the sides of the pan. The cake will rise and then fall.
9. Serving suggestions: brush with raspberry jelly; sprinkle with powdered sugar; cover or serve with whipped cream.

 

Hoisting up the Hellebore for my flower love of the week

HELLEBORE

They originate from the Ranuncula family. Otherwise known as the Christmas Rose.

For a super quick vase arrangement try mixing the below:

1. White Muscari

2. Lime Green Guelder

3. And the elegant catkins

Spooky alert! The witchcraft community uses this flower! Just thought I should let you know.

Today was spent with Vix in a studio across from Kew Botanical Gardens with a sizzling hot and exciting Brazilian florist who works wonders with delicate flower heads. Zita Elze, without doubt the best in England has been adorned with Gold from Chelsea and featured in every single magazine and is the darling of the BBC. The flower magician also known as Tage Andersen based in Copenhagen who runs a museum and boutique is her main inspiration and a place she sends her tribe to check out reguarly.

Greeted with vast amounts of freshly brewed coffee and homemade almond & sesame cakes Zita embarked on her unique way of working with flowers, first she asks about the mood so we quickly noted all the adjectives that came to head and chose the flowers that jumped out at us. Then the real fun… the creative funeral work we were learning began to come together. Take a look at Zita’s work and then a heart cake which made the entire carriage I was in on the train home bemused. I am so inspired to work with the floral couture style again that any excuse, not suggesting you need to die but atleast get married!

New Must try RECIPE

We went to Bocca di Lupo the other day for a friend’s birthday dinner and ate many plates of delectable food. By the time the fourth course arrived we were full, except that the fourth course was roast suckling pig, and we had to make room for that. But even given our considerable appetite, we couldn’t finish the generous portion we were given, so we asked for a doggy bag and took it home. (We nabbed our companion’s leftovers too!)

Two evenings later we added it to pan fried fennel and new potatoes, boiled until just tender, then thrown in with the fennel to brown along with a squeeze of lemon juice and some herbs. It’s a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe from his great book River Cottage Every Day. The recipe is so easy and good, and you can use any left over pork – roast loin, shoulder, whatever you’ve already cooked for a Sunday lunch or dinner. From now on, whenever I roast or braise pork I will always, always buy and cook enough to have leftovers, so that I can produce this fabulous meal a day or two later with minimal effort. The kids adored it too. The photo shows it before I added handfuls of chopped flat leaf parsley, so imagine it looking prettier flecked in green. The camera was abandoned at that point due to greed. We ate it with swiss chard dressed with oil and lemon, and a green salad. Full recipe below the photo.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Leftover pork with fennel and new potatoes

Serves 4

2 large fennel bulbs (or however many you’ve got. We used one).
3 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil
About 400g cold cooked new potatoes, cut into chunky pieces (ours were hot as we’d just cooked them. Doesn’t matter either way. Likewise, skins on or off, whichever you prefer).
300-400g cold roast pork loin, shoulder or belly, thickly sliced, then cut or torn into strips (or however much you’ve got leftover).
Juice of half a lemon
A few roughly torn mint leaves (we used parsley, as we didn’t have mint. Worked very well).
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Trim the top and bottom of the fennel bulbs and cut into thick wedges, keeping a bit of the rooty base on each wedge if possible, as it will hold the wedge together.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the fennel with a pinch of salt and saute over a medium heat for 6-7 minutes, until tender and golden, or even a little tinged with brown.

Add the potatoes to the pan and fry for a few more minutes until they start to turn golden, then add the pork and fry, stirring a few times, until heated through.

Squeeze over the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper to taste and scatter over the mint, if using. Serve straight away.

Flower of the week

PHALANOPSIS

Mix with odd buttons and change into a wrist corsage to spruce up any outfit.

Wire onto bright canes or spring branches to add support.

When it comes to pairings the orchids are much better left alone like the one’s below…

A formidable American Independant movie from the 60′s which is unknown. I adore the style of that era. Burt in his trunks diving in and out of pools from beginning to end.

Little Silver Spray Rose, Faith Rose, Secret Garden Rose, Vendella

 

 

Peach Rose

 

 

Flower of the week

FORGET-ME-NOT

 

• Forget me nots I use as much as I can in the spring, an old enamel white jug crammed with them, plus scented paperwhites, snowdrops and mascari will make any kitchen table a joy to sit around.