32 great queen street , london wc2

 

newly opened 32 has its roots in favourite gastropubs the anchor & hope and the eagle. add chef/food writer tom norrington-davies and a link to st john, another much-loved london eaterie, and you know you’re going to be in safe hands.

we visited 32 for lunch and were the first to arrive at noon. no matter, we were seated in one of the window booths and settled back, with the sun pouring in, to enjoy a meal of simple, well-executed dishes.

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eat the right stuff featured on uktv food

eat the right stuff has recently been featured on uktv food's market kitchen.

i was contacted by a researcher from the programme a few months ago and two recipes were filmed while being made. in case you're a viewer and need help tracking them down, or are just curious to see what piqued their interest, here they are:

• gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free lemon and raspberry roll
• my fabulous (she says modestly!) vegetarian shepherd’s pie with goats’ cheese mash and cheesy leeks

if you try either of these, let me know how you get on.

euro blogging by post: swedish sweeties

 

oh dear, a parcel full of sweets has just arrived in the post, what’s a blogger to do?!?

johanna, the passionate cook, is responsible for the thirty-something parcels, all containing various varieties of childhood sweet memories, that have been criss-crossing the continent as part of euro blogging by post.

my parcel arrived courtesy of kristina from clivia’s cuisine. kristina lives in sodertalje, just outside stockholm.

my parcel was packed full of swedish sweets and chocolate. the different types of jelly sweets (brio, fruxo, zoo and tutti frutti) came in cute little boxes and small sachets. i happily munched my way through the different types, barely pausing as i moved onto the little black jelly sweets, salta kitten, which were liquorice flavoured.

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yucatan recado chicken

 

mexican food contains many of the flavours i love – the heat of chilli, the tang of lime, the complex layers of spices and the freshness of herbs.

despite this it’s not something i have often enough. london is sorely lacking in decent mexican restaurants (although there have been a few opened in the past year or so) and it’s not something i cook very often as i don’t really know that much about the cuisine.

however, i’ve been craving the mexican combination of flavours and a rummage through the spice routes by chris and carolyn caldicote provided me with a fabulous marinade for some chicken and peppers.

the flavours in the marinade are fantastically well balanced and if anyone who is reading this finds themselves resorting to pre-mixed spices for mexican food, please try this instead. or if you just fancy ringing the changes with a new chicken dish, this should be on your list as it’s definitely worth trying. let me know how you get on.

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birthday pavlova

 

i had meringue recently, made by my friend toby, which sent me into raptures. it was golden, chewy and full of flavour. sadly we managed to demolish everything that he presented us with so there was no doggie bag full of (meringuey) leftovers to take home. not that anything it contained would have lasted long.

it was my birthday last friday and pavlova was my obvious choice of celebration. this is also my choice for meeta’s big birthday bang, not least as she and i celebrate our birthdays on consecutive days. happy birthday meeta!

this pavlova was a bit special. the chocolate meringue was flavoured using rococo jasmine chocolate, which was gift from toby’s wife julia. i also used valsamica instead of normal vinegar. both the jasmine and vanilla flavours added depth and complexity to the chocolateyness.

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