I’m always on the lookout for some not-totally-unhealthy snacks to get me through each day of legal paper shuffling. Often I bake granola bars on Sunday evening, but in this hot spell I have been avoiding switching on the oven. Instead I have been buying “Nakd” bars in multi packs.
They sound so sin free:
When the Barbican Foodhall (always my first choice, natch) is packed out, there is always the other place – the fairly new “Camera” cafe. This was part of the development to create the new cinema screen (hence the name) and the Cote restaurant. It’s stylish, with sleek decor and totally the opposite of the Foodhall. Where tea comes in a mug in Foodhall, you get a cute artsy pot in Camera; where you help yourself in Foodhall, you pay at the desk and the staff bring the food to you in Camera. But unfortunately the upmarket vibe is not reflected in the food comparison, and it’s the taste that counts, right? My scone was a little sad and no amount of warming through could cheer it up. As a result I applied lashings of clotted cream and still feel guilty…
It seems Camera is more a place for the local music students to mull over a much needed coffee* or to plug on a laptop and plough through some work. For hearty fare and to satisfy a sweet tooth, the retro Foodhall can’t be beaten.
* Camera does benefit from an alcohol licence so transforms to a bar at work home time, which probably suits the space better. Perhaps its true calling?
“Right,” I said to myself, “I will NOT be defeated by sugar and eggs.” So this weekend I found myself in Waitrose buying more eggs than a one person household should ever need and begging a shelf stacker to search the stock room for ground almonds.
This time, I decided to actually follow a recipe book (“The Secrets of Macarons”) and adopted the Italian method. For those not in the know (like me until the last week), there are two basic methods to macarons. Either beat the egg whites and fold into the dry ingredients (French) or make meringue with boiling sugar and eggs before folding into a paste of liquid egg white and the dry ingredients (Italian). Continue reading
Last night I tried baking macarons for the first time. On the bake off James Morton used to whip them up so quickly. “How hard can it be?” I thought.
Using a slightly dubious recipe from the interweb I made some chocolate macarons. Although they taste ok, the texture is too grainy and they are not quite how they should be. I thought I had done it all by the book: the resting to form a skin, sieving the ground almonds, weirdly opening the oven door during cooing to let out steam… Continue reading
I felt reasonably excited to visit “Bill’s”, a (fairly wide spread) chain doing all day coffee, lunch and dinner, hoping it might be a less victim-of-its-own-success version of Carluccio’s. So in I went for morning coffee with a friend – all very civilised! We ordered a portion of scones, which gives you two scones (one each), cream and jam. In theory, ideal; in reality, very disappointing. I am not sure why it is that so many cafes make such appalling scones, but my best assumption is that the scones were frozen or made the day before, then microwaved to serve the described “warmed scones”. If not, they just make very heavy scones in the morning. To give Bill’s the benefit of doubt, perhaps they would be better if we have ordered them in the afternoon when scones are more traditionally ordered? Also, all the other customers were having a cooked breakfast, which looked lovely. On the plus side, the tea came in the largest enamel tea pot I have EVER seen and, like Mary Poppin’s bag, the tea kept coming out of the spout and I seemed unable to pour out every drop… All in all, maybe in the morning, pick Bill’s for a traditional breakfast and lots of tea, but not so much for the scones.
This loaf was baked following the Waitrose magazine Autumn recipe booklet- with the substitution of flaked almonds on top rather than the raw plums. It def requires a lot of baking but the result is scrummy – moist and more-ish!
pistachioplum 