2nd Anniversary

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Last weekend saw mine & Tim's 2nd wedding anniversary. Apart from booking the weekend off from work we hadn't planned anything so when we woke up on Saturday morning we decided on a last minute day trip to Southwold. In my eyes it is the perfect English seaside town, from the colourful beach huts dotted along the sea front to old pier its just full of charm. We settled on lunch at The Crown where I had a crab claw risotto which came served with samphire & Tim, a smoked cheddar grilled cheese sandwich with the best chips.

After lunch we took a stroll around the town looking in the green grocers, bakeries, charity shops & the Adnams store before enjoying macaron on the sea front watching the waves & children flying kites. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking along the seafront before taking the scenic route home stopping in villages along the way for an explore.

When we got home we treated ourselves to our favourite sort of meal, a meze of cheese & charcuterie all washed down with beer brought home from the coast. The perfect end to a perfect day.

Dartmoor

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Like I mentioned in the post about the Ethicurean, Tim and I recently returned to Dartmoor to teach another printmaking course at Dartmoor Arts. Dartmoor Arts is a week long art school run by artists surrounding the beautiful village of Drewsteignton. It was great to be back there and we were blessed with amazing weather. I really enjoyed getting my hands inky again and realised that there are a lot of similarities between old job and new, aprons, gloves and even colour mixing isn't too different to making a cake. We took full advantage of being in such beautiful surroundings and embraced our new found spontaneity with drives in search of stone circles and even a dip in the river. We stayed in the same beautiful house as last year, an old rectory where we got to enjoy eggs from the roaming chickens & Indian running ducks for breakfast along with milk from the farm down the road.

The workshop was run from Peter Randal-Page's studio which was in the middle of a luscious green valley with swallows flying in and out all day (occasionally leaving little gifts on people's work). Other gifts included elevenses of homemade scones & clotted cream and afternoon tea of an amazing fruity sponge on our last day brought in by a student. A group meal was included every night but we snuck off mid week for a meal in a nearby pub where we enjoyed mackerel served with golden beetroot and hake with sautéed fennel. We even managed to bring some of Devon home with us in the form of chutneys made with apples from the local orchard. We had a really magical week and I can't wait till next year!

To find our more about Dartmoor Arts, check out their website

White Courgette Pizza with Feta, Mint & Chilli

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The other night I had the best intensions to make a nice healthy dinner of the courgette soup I posted a few weeks ago (here) but my stomach growls told me that I needed something naughtier, a bit more indulgent. This is where this pizza was born. Cream cheese is used as the base of this pizza with a crunchy layer of courgettes, a kick from the chilli, creaminess from the feta & freshness from the mint & lime. Its safe to say we both went back for seconds.


You will need-
Pizza Dough- this recipe makes enough for 2 large pizzas so why not use the rest for this fried dough or double the toppings to make enough for 4 people.

• 500g strong white bread flour or Tipo '00' Flour
• 1/2 tbsp fine sea salt
• 7g sachet of dried yeast
• 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 325ml luke warm water

Topping- enough for 1 large pizza which will happily feed 2.

• 1/2 tub cream cheese
• Garlic salt
• 1 large courgette cut into really thin discs, you could use a mandolin here
• 1/2 red chilli, seeds removed and chopped finely
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper
• 1/2 block feta
• A small handful of mint
• Wedge of lime

To make the pizza dough combine the yeast, sugar, olive oil and water in a jug and leave for 5 minutes. In a large bowl combine the flour and salt and then make a well in the centre then pour the liquid in. Using a wooden spoon, slowly mix the flour mixture in till it all starts to come together. This can be done in a food mixture with a dough hook attached or a bread maker. Knead the dough on a floured surface till its smoothy and springy. Then place in a floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place till it has double in size.


When your dough is almost ready turn your oven on to 220C and place your baking tray or pizza stone if you have one in. When it has heated up roll your pizza out to the size of your baking tray. Dust the tray with plenty of flour and then transfer the rolled out pizza onto it. 

Now its time to get assembling. Spread with the cream cheese leaving a small border all the way round then lightly dust with garlic salt. Next lay out the slices of courgette so they cover the cream cheese then sprinkle with the chilli & pepper. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven. The pizza shouldn't take more than about 5 minutes to cook so keep a close eye on it. Its ready when the edges are golden brown and the courgette is just cooked.

To serve, crumble the feta over and spread with the torn mint before squeezing a wedge of lime over the pizza. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil and serve right away.

Roasted Pork Belly

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After the success of the pork belly and gooseberry relish at the last Plate Lickers supper club Jo I and decided to share the recipes (Jo recently posted the recipe for the gooseberry relish which you can read here). We ended up using 8.5kg of Dingley Dell pork belly and 3 bottles of wine for our supper club and despite it being the course we were most nervous about, it was definitely the star of the night. The butchers at Andrew Northrops on Mill Road we so helpful. They advised us on how to get the best crackling, the juiciest meat & how much meat we would need to feed 30. 

We decided to keep the meat on the bone as this was the best way to ensure it would stay nice & moist. They told us that to get good crackling you need to make sure that the skin is really dry. The meat you normally buy in supermarkets is shrink-wrapped so it tends to be quite wet, but at Northrops they they always hang theirs which means the skin gets a chance to dry out. They also suggested that before salting the skin to slightly dampen your hands and pat the skin gently so that the salt had something to stick to. If you do this, make sure not to add too much salt as it will end up forming a crust across the skin. One last tip is to ask your butcher very nicely to score the skin for you (and also to remove the nipples!) This takes them seconds and will save you a lot of work trying to do it with a knife at home.

We used the basis of an Ottolenghi recipe for the pork but scaled it up to feed 30. The recipe can be found in the Ottolenghi Cookbook. The trick is to fill the baking dish with wine really carefully so you don't get any on the skin then to start the pork off on a really high temperature before turning it down ever hour till its  perfectly cooked and falling off the bone. I am really looking forward to recreating this with a smaller piece for a sunday lunch soon. I very luckily have a little of the gooseberry relish hiding in my fridge so I really need to get roasting before its all gone!