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Last Tuesday I read on Dorie’s blog that Pierre Hermé sells croissants with Ispahan flavour. The picture she took of it looked sooo good, sooo drool-manufacturing, I decided to use my ‘wild-card’ & ask my Paris-residing brother to get it for me & bring it to London (I say ‘wild-card’ because I rarely want to ask him – the reason being, A, he is super-busy, & B, he is clueless about cakes!).

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This week is my lucky week. He happened to have traveled to London to see his Phd tutor about his papers. – And so there they were, MY croissants in a cute P.H. bag, with added bonus of twenty macarons (two each of ten kinds). Yessss…

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“Ispahan” is Hermé’s signature flavour, composed of rose, litchi & raspberry (Apparently he came up with this now iconic flavour-combo back in his days as a executive chef at Ladurée – & that the patisserie retains the rights to sell them too).

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This croissant version has rose-flavoured almond cream with a couple of lichis studded inside, & has freeze-dried bits of raspberry scattered on top of the white icing. Unfortunately mine wasn’t with pink icing like Dorie’s… (I want cute-sy PINK P.H.!) But regardless of the icing-colour, the taste was superb, with a mixed sensation of buttery almond cream & pastry together with the tangy raspberry bits & fruity lichis that refreshes the palate.

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Humpf… Why can’t we buy beautiful croissants like these in London?! Or, even better, why doesn’t Pierre Hermé open a shop here in London??

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Last Monday I was invited to a Heston Blumenthal event held by The Sherry Institute of Spain. I spent the evening sipping five types of beautiful Sherry, nibbling on small but very tasty Heston canapés – all in the name of “finding the perfect food pairings with Sherry”.

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((Heston Blumenthal is the chef & owner of The Fat Duck, a three Michelin starred restaurant here in the UK. He’s most famous for his scientific approach to techniques & flavours (coined molecular gastronomy) & pushing the culinary boundaries. – For example, he makes ‘aerated chocolate soufflé’ by use of a vacuum jar to increase expansion of bubbles during food preparation…!))

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I was expecting a lecture-like situ, where we all sit down facing one direction. But instead, it was like a party. After an hour of drinking Palo Cortado Sherry (the best tasting one of the evening in my opinion), topped-up with more & more Sherry (bring it on waiter!), Heston gave a speech for about five minutes, then one-by-one, different types of Sherry & suggested foods were handed to us with accompanying notes – for us to critique. Although me & my girl-pal “L” found it all a bit giggly, because the glasses & glasses of Sherry were an intoxicating 20% alcohol content, &, coupled with accompanied by “L” that I haven’t seen for a while, it became a rather merry evening!
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The Sherry & food combo’s were:

• Oloroso – paired with – Smoked mackerel & coriander seeds rillettes. – The aroma notes of prune, hazelnut, molasses & figs balanced the smoky & oily flavour of the fish.
• Fino – paired with – Gruyere fondue & ground cloves. – The stone fruit element in the wine worked well with the cheese.
• Manzanilla – paired with – Crab with paprika on toasted country bread. – Unripe peaches & green apple aroma. Crisp acidity.
• Amontillado – paired with – Pata negra ham, peaches, balsamic vinegar, rocket & marcona almonds. – Woody & spicy aroma with balsamic note.
• Pale Cream – paired with – Scotch quails egg. – Nutty, meaty, smoky, fruity aromas.

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In all, the flavours of the foods were perfectly extended by the Sherry. We were very much impressed with it all, & were hmm-ing & ahh-ing with every one of them. Undoubtedly, eating a three Michelin starred Heston food (& in his presence) was exciting, & every plate was indeed “perfection”, just like his book title.
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The most notable by far was the scotch egg. Firstly, I looove scotch egg. And this one had quails egg which I dig more than chicken egg too. AND I don’t know HOW, but the egg was still “soft-boiled”, gorgeous yolk still oozing. Pork sausage meat juicy n’ bouncy. Ahhhh-mazing.

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So I guess you’re wondering what the purpose of the event was & how I got to be there. Well, it was all about debunking the myth that Sherry is only to be drank at Christmas, & that it can be enjoyed with simple dishes that can be made at home, all year round. – And indeed, it was a definite eye opener for me. I really enjoyed drinking it, & if you can handle the alcohol, why not have it with your dinner? Count me in to the ‘convinced’ vote. – As for why I was invited, they think food bloggers can spread the word just like journalists can. Well, if it’s a fab food event like this, please invite me again – please.

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“L” & I sat comfortably on a sofa in the corner of the room all evening. I guess we ought to have mingled, but, it seemed to be full of industry-types, & what am I going to say to them? Hi, I’m just a market stall holder? Anyway, we left when it was starting to get uncomfortable – it is a PR exercise afterall. Not for two (tipsy) girls to giggle about at. There were to be two more dishes, apparently eccles cake with stilton and Sherry butter, & then a Sherry custard cream trifle with even more Sherry tastings – but any more Sherry would’ve been a bad move anyway – I’m surprised as it is that I got home without sleeping on the train! (I nearly did…)
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(We kept forgetting to take photos… because we were hungry eager beavers & needless to say, a little tipsy…)

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(New cakes in the line-up! WINTER FRUIT TART & LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE. – The winter fruit tart was a slow burner despite it being the most delicious of the lot… And healthiest too, as it uses honey to caramelize the nutritious dried fruit & nuts… But on the other hand, the lemon drizzle was a hit! I made two cakes, one to sell as slices, & one to sell as a whole. The ‘whole’ one went in no-time while I was still setting up the stall in the morning. – I’m going to make one more next week. )

(Tower of luxury brownies: for the recipe read my past blog post!)
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Last Saturday I returned to work. And it was… fantastic! I’m still buzzing from it!

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First, the weather was sunny & beautiful. Last month was super-rainy, like almost everyday, so this weekend, loads of people were out to enjoy quite possibly the last bit of sun for the year. Someone told me that the park situated at the end of the market was just simply a sea of people! No doubt armed with goodies purchased from the market. Fantastic.
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Though, it soon became so hot, that I started to get worried about my chocolate truffles. (Would it melt? Would people want to buy chocolates in the hot weather?) But, here being England, the land of chocoholics, I needn’t have worried, because by the end of the day, I managed to sell all except for 2 boxes! (One went to my neighbour who always gives us his allotment goodies. The other box, I’m munching on as I write.) I sold ALL the cakes too. Fantastic.
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During the afternoon, when I was (unnecessarily) worrying about my truffles sales, I decided to cut some of them up as tastings to offer to potential customers who stop by. I cut about 10 ‘bits’ from a truffle, & I would say I manage to get a sale at a 5:1 ratio. Quite good going I reckon. Y’see, I thought, if I was going to have some left anyway, I might as well use it up. And besides, even if the people didn’t purchase anything, you never know, they ‘might’ one-day come back to my stall because they remembered. So that’s the future sales sorted, right?
– – Mind you, it’s a funny old thing, because the act of offering ‘tastings’ is actually an art form. Especially at a food stall market. If you leave the plate at the front, it’ll easily be wiped clean in nano-seconds & crucially no sale. I once had a young lady literally cycling past & grabbing in non-stop action. Quite amusing, but rude, I thought.

– – Since then, I whip out the plate from behind the cakes only when people stop by for more than 3 seconds. Most times, this seems to pleasantly surprises them. I then look at them in the eye while they taste, & sometimes ask what they think. Most people come back with: “ahh, lovely”‘s & “oooh, it’s nice”‘s. Now & again, I get a connoisseur-type who’d give me a paragraph. The fact is, this is great. I’m genuinely interested in what they say. And if it turns in to a sale, double great!

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Through the day, there were some people who came by my stall mentioning this blog & one that came by because she read that I’ll be back. Sooooo touching! Thank you! – Loads of locals stopped by for a chat too. It’s good to know nothing’s changed. Still the smiley people that they are.
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I love Broadway market. I love the locals, I love the type of customers it attracts, & I love my fellow stall holders. Being back is great.

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Hello!

I’m going to restart trading at the market from next Saturday! (20th) Yay! It’s enough with the maternity break. Time to venture out of the coochi-coochi-koo-land & get active, pull my sleeves up, earn some dough. I tell ya, I’m sooo excited & sooo happy about restarting that I’ve got that wonderful “nervous but also giddy” feeling that is similar to when I started the market the first time round.

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I’m revved up & I’ll be armed with lots of chocolates & cakes. There’ll be the “usual suspects” (like the Flourless chocolate cake) & also one or two new products for the line-up that I am “hoping” to make (like the Caramelized dried fruits & nuts tart which I’m pondering on calling it “Winter fruit tart”, & the lemon drizzle cake that will be sold as slices).
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So if you’re around in London next Saturday, fancy popping over??

Love t xx

(Got a white edding pen & wrote direct on the bottles instead of sticking paper labels!)

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Hello, hows things? Hope life is treating you sweet.

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Thought I’d let you know of how my homemade vanilla extract turned out after the 5 week+ of brewing. – As you know, I made 3 samples – with vodka, rum & brandy – & I can say that the best one was… drum-roll please… with Vodka!! Ta-da〜!

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The clear vodka now coloured rich auburn brown, has the most heady scent of vanilla. Bliss. It’s a “happy-moment”. You know that the vanilla has been fully extracted. It has a slightly syrupy density, & when you shake the bottle then pour, you’d get loads of specks of vanilla beans. Gorgeous.

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The other two, the rum & the brandy versions, well, forget ’em really… The distinct flavour of the alcohol drowned the delicate vanilla scent. Quite disappointing & pointless. Despite this, I think I’ll use the rum for making “rum-soaked raisin chocolate truffles” that I used to make for the market sometime ago. Just chop raisins up & soak them in rum overnight before mixing it into ganache with some of the rum liquid you used to soak with. Slightly boozy & definately heavenly.

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As for the brandy version, well…, if anyone has a good idea on how to use that up, please let me know!
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– Since the last time I posted on this blog, I’ve been busy with perfecting my triple lemon drizzle cake, like changing ingredients here & there. I’ve made it 6 times now, & finally “got it right”. It’s soooo amazingly tasty, I’m thinking of adding it to the stall cake-line-up come from this September. I’m now in a process of writing about it for this blog, which is taking ages, because I want to explain about why it uses sour cream, etc…

– I also made a “3-tier wedding cake with chocolate swirly sticks” for my best friend recently, which I will also post about in the near future if & when the wedding photographer gives me some nice pictures of it.
– SO, ’til the next time, see y’all! ^^

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