“My Nan’s St Clement’s Cake” from “Jamie’s Great Britain”

Anna: You know, this reminds me of the sort of cake you’d get at a village fair, with a cup of tea for a £1.  All proceeds to the NSPCC or something.

Kirstin: What, you mean a BRITISH village fair?

Anna: Exactly.

Kirstin: That sort that you got during the War, in Downton Abbey? For cheering up the troops? Did Mrs Patmore make it?

Anna: Daisy made it. She wept into the batter as she thought of our William at the Front. Surrounded by Germans one minute, back in Downton the next.

Kirstin: But she doesn’t love William! Or… does… she??!!

Anna: So, we’re agreed then. This cake is as British as Downton Abbey.

Kirstin: And possibly a little bit drier than it could be. I feel it should be moister.

Anna: Just living up to its wartime village fete image then. Haven’t you heard of rationing?

PostScript: We baked this last week before the tragic news of our William’s passing. Poor Daisy!

 

 

 

 

 

“Stir-fried Vietnamese lemon grass chicken” from “Bill’s Everyday Asian”

Peter: This reminds me of Szechuan chicken. It has that dry heat. Don’t look at me like someone’s put your head on wonky.

Anna: I’m just trying to understand what you mean. Is it because it leaves that hot tingle in your mouth afterwards?

Peter: Yes, that. And it’s quite a dry sauce. More of a rub some might say.

Anna: There is definitely a sauce to it it, but you’re right that the predominant flavours come from the marinade which is dry. 

Peter: The portions were definitely right here. It was a bit of a faff.

Anna: Why?

Peter: There seemed to be quite a lot of ingredients.

Anna: There really wasn’t actually. You obviously don’t cook that often! We made it together which made it very quick and easy from my point of view.  The flavours were quite unusual I think. And it was hard to know how much white pepper to put in. Maybe you weren’t supposed to get that much tingle!

Peter: Having never been to Vietnam this tasted pretty authentic…. it certainly wasn’t Chinese or Thai.

Anna: I really can’t be bothered with celery though. If we make this again I will be getting rid of the celery.  Would you like this again?

Peter: Yes, I’d eat it gladly.  Besides which, you’ve bought an enormous thing of white pepper.

“Chicken with lemon, rosemary and garlic” from “Easy” with guest contributors in Cape Town, South Africa.

Kirstin: I gave this book to Kathryn last Friday when they were visiting and we thought it might be interesting to try and cook a few of the meals at the same time and compare notes.

Tom: That’s a good idea! Let’s start!

Kirstin: Oops. Looks like I forgot the garlic. And I burnt the bread. Clearly I was having one of those evenings…but our guests have something to say about the garlic, so maybe it was no bad thing.

Miles: I love this! Please can we have this again?

Ella: It’s a little lemony, but I like it anyway. This bread is yummy.

Kirstin: This was Tamsin’s bread recipe suggestion. It was rather fun!

Tom: And we had lettuce from the garden, with some unexpected insect guests. Did you have to bash the chicken with a hammer?

Kirstin: Yes, between parchment paper. But I’m not sure about the 200ml of olive oil. 100ml would have sufficed.

Meanwhile, in Cape Town:

Sophie (aged 7, pointing to the lemony sauce): I did that.

Ingrid: Did you flatten the chicken? Mm … it’s very lemony.

Tom: Yes, it’s the South African take on things – it’s flattened because it’s township road kill.

“Spatchcocked poussins with lemon, green olives and rosemary” from “Easy”

Kirstin: You should never miss the opportunity to use the word “spatchcock”. I love the word “spatchcock”.

Tom: For my part I am very keen on the word “crepuscular”. I never miss an opportunity to use that word.

Kirstin: I can’t even say it. What does it mean?

Tom: Crepuscular animals are those active mainly at twilight, such as guinea pigs. And photographers!

Kirstin: Yes, I’m active at twilight. These pictures I’m taking are crepuscular, bokeh salad and all…

“Chicken with fennel, lemon and thyme” from “Good Things to Eat”

Tom: Well, Lucas hits it out of the park again. Yum!

Kirstin: Home run? That’s American, right? What’s the English equivalent of a home run in cricket then?

Tom: I am not an expert on sport. You might say. I don’t think there is a home run in cricket.

Kirstin: Getting a 6. Isn’t that the same thing in cricket? I can do tennis! But I don’t think they have a name for hitting the ball out of the court, for obvious reasons.

Tom: Right. Well, anyway, this was fantastic. Just what I like.

Kirstin: Yes, it made the house smell amazing. And you’ve already asked if we can have it again.

Tom: Well you did ask if we should do it with the chicken skin on.

“Spaghetti with courgettes, basil and lemon” from “Good Things to Eat”

Tom: Mmm… yum  AGAIN! This man can do no wrong!

Kirstin: This man is the perfect combination of Jamie and Nigel. And he clearly enjoys his food. I just looked up the recipe we used to use for courgette pasta, and this one is much easier, and much yummier.

Tom: I agree. What made this recipe easier?

“Pasta al Limone E Basilico” from “Two Greedy Italians”

How’s your Italian coming along, having read this blog this month? I made– but maybe you’ve deduced this already– Pasta with Lemon and Basil.

Maureen: So this is spaghetti with lemon, basil and tomatoes. What do you think?

Nicholas (8): It’s too sour!

Andrew (11): The lemon masks the taste of the other things, I think.

Maureen: It’s possible I did the lemon all wrong. The recipe said to take an unwaxed lemon “cut into small segments,” which I took to mean to slice it into sections as thinly as possible, including the skin. But now that I’m thinking about it, it probably meant to cut off all of the skin and then slice the remaining lemon up, like Nigella does for her green beans, which I make all the time. Sorry about that. You don’t have to eat the lemon slices.

“Chicken Tikka Masala” from I Love Curry and “Mojito Mini Cupcakes” from Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

Tom: So, what did you all think of the curry? Those were clean plates!

Kate: Completely mopped up. Yup. We were demanding more sauce. You need to triple the quantity of that sauce.

Liam: It doesn’t need rice. The naan bread was great.

Mick: I preferred eating the curry with the bread, rather than using weapons.

Kate: It had a gentle but intense heat that crept up on you. It didn’t overwhelm you, but left you wanting more!

Liam: I second that.

Kate: You just want another hit.

“Sticky Lemon Chicken” from “Best Menus”

Kirstin: Miles, did you like the chicken?

Miles: It was really, really really nice. The most yummiest chicken I have ever had.

Kirstin: But you only had two mouthfuls!

Miles: No, I had three.

Ella: The chicken was very good, but it was very filling, so I couldn’t each very much. It would have been nice if there had been some kind of sauce to go on the rice.

“Chinese-style Marinated Pork” and “Lemon Tart” from “Bill’s Basics”

Tom: This pork recipe smelt good from the moment Kirstin started making the marinade this morning. It made me want to eat Asian food. Fortunately we went to Wagamama for lunch.

Kirstin: Yes. Although the recipe says 400g for four people. And that’s not enough. So I went and bought another pork fillet. 800g for four people!

Mick: So we had 200g each? That was very nice. Perfect. If I’d had a few pieces less I would have been unsatisfied!

Kate: That’s gratitude for you.

Mick: No, I enjoyed it so much, if I’d had any fewer pieces, it would have been a disappointment.