This was made with Gluten Free flour (which tasted like wallpaper but it was still OK other than that!)

(makes a change from Crumble doesn’t it?)

1 vanilla pod, cut in half lenghtways and seeds discarded

juice and peel of 1 lemon

500g/1lb 2 oz fresh blackberries, rinsed

150g/3oz caster sugar

500ml/18fl oz whipping cream

2-3 drops vanilla essence

Extra blackberries to decorate

Place the vanilla pod into a pan with the lemon juice and peeol, the blackberries and 130g/43/4 oz of the caster sugar. COver with a tight fitting lid and simmer for 7-8mins until the blackberries start to breakdown. With the lid still on leave to cool. Remove and discard the lemon peel.

Whisk the whipping cream with 2-3 drops of vanilla essense and the remaining sugar until semi-whipped.

Transfer the cooled blackberry compote into a large mixing bowl then carefully fold in the cream in 3 lots using a spatula. You may want to tase themixture before adding all the cream. Spoon into tall sundae glasses and served with a blackberry.

There’s a bit marketing campaign (rather invasion) for American ‘Oreo’ biscuits….

I thought I would warn you!

There was a legal suit in 2003 about the fat content of them. However, apparently they have slightly altered that.

Now.. Jaffa Cakes (the name came from Jaffa in Israel) are British and they’re a lot more healthy, with less fat than these Oreos.. ‘whatever that means’.

bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2005/09/chelsea-buns-of-london.html

This is great reading.. all about the origins of Chelsea Buns

I made this one today because ‘it was quicky and easy to make’. I have to admit I burned a couple because ‘I was on the phone’ and forgot about them, but fortunately, they were still edible, just shrivelled and crispy.

Here’s the recipe:

For 1

2 kippers

2oz butter

1 dessertsp anchovy essence

1 generous tablesp mushroom ketchup

2 tablesp double cream

1 tablesp flaked almonds

2 tablesp dry herbs

black pepper to taste

2 slices wholemeal bread

Pound the flesh of the kippers with a fork, together with the butter, black pepper, anchovy, herbs, mushoom ketchup and double cream or mix in a blender.  Add the flaked almonds. Spread on wholemeal bread and stick in the grill for about 10 minutes until it is lightly brown (do not go on the phone like I did). Then I added fresh parsley to garnish.

Notes

I didn’t use anchovy or the mushroom ketchup as I thought the taste would be just as good without it. It also meant an extra £2 or so. The meal was about £5 mainly because of the fish but maybe Lidl has cheaper fish and I will have a look out for that. 

Taste:-

Very nice and the almonds looked great and made it look attractive and ‘ homemadey’.

We don’t see much of kippers much these days do we?

I will add enitharmon.wordpress.com to my blogroll as she is a fan of English Grub and talks about english cooking in her blog (amongst other things). She is from ‘Oop North’ and is a ‘Radio Star’.

(Even though she admits to liking French Jams). (I am can be so politically incorrect in cooking).

After work in Kent, I enjoyed a delicious ’Waitrose’ Cream Tea for £2.95 (well, it was either doughnuts and muffins again). Actually, perhaps other people were asking about it as I feel this addition was fairly recent. It was interesting seeing that a number of other customers were buying it too.

The scones were lovely and fresh (do they make it themselves?) and the cream was real Cornish Clotted Cream. However, they made a ’faux pas’ by serving ‘French’ strawberry jam (it even had no lumpy bits!). Why can’t they have chosen ’proper’ jam?!

I was in Spitalfields today (hunting for something else) and I ended up bumping into a shop called A Gold at 42 Brushfield Street. Blimey, it was a proper British Shop with humbugs,  sugar mice, chelsea buns, brandy snaps,   proper fruitcake and cakes I hadn’t seen for ages. There were loads of nice things perfect – for tea, I nearly fell over! There were no muffins, croissants and cookies to be had. The Chelsea Buns looked wonderfully sparkly and fresh, nothing like buns that could have been delivered three months before by a nameless company such as 3663.

I will go there again for some inspiration. I was in a bit of a rush so couldn’t stay too long.

I did notice that some of the ‘fast food or trendy shops’ nearby were almost empty.. but this shop, though small, was ‘jam’ packed. Everybody looked excited and happy, and like me, reluctant to leave for the office.

web.mac.com/sabinaspaldi/iWeb/Site/Local food shops .html

J is a ’scouser’ and I’ve been talking to him about his ‘Northern Origins’ (as he says).  He was saying that he was brought up on Bubble & Squeak, Black Pudding, Everton Mints and Pigs Trotters.. apparently his father is fan of them. I didn’t realise that pigs trotters were ‘English’… My other side of me is German, so I knew they go potty about pig trotters and when you talk about it to people in the South, they ‘think it’s weird’.

I did find Everton Mints in Woolies recently and bought him some. It’s not always easy to find. He was pretty happy about having some.

In the South we get a small tart with white icing and a cherry on top otherwise known as ‘Mr Kipling’. However, when I went ‘up North’ to Bakewell, a Bakewell Tart is completely different! Why? Has the Southern Bakewell tart been ‘Americanised’?

I love what I suppose is the northern ‘Bakewell Tart’. It’s really delicious.

I went to a Farmers Shop in Kent a while back and they stocked lots of British cakes. but they also had the ‘Southern or Americanised Bakewell Tart’.. It would be lovely to get the gooey Northern Bakewell Tart down here.

Will Toad in the Hole be tampered with in the future…. maybe they will make one with bloody waffles?

Now, here’s my favourite Bakewell Tart Shop..but even they know call themselves ‘a patisserie’ . A patisserie in England? Eh?!

 www.bakewelltartshop.co.uk