London Foodie Weekend

I have just returned from a wonderful food filled weekend in London. I was staying with my brother and we went for pizza at Franco Manca, for soup and sweets things at Ottolenghi, lots of chocolate at the Southbank Chocolate Festival, Dinner at the Cinnamon Club, and afternoon tea at Bea’s of Bloomsbury. I was actually in London for two reasons. Firstly my brother graduated from Birkbeck College with a Masters in Global Politics (yep pretty serious and heavy stuff) so my parents and I were down to go to the ceremony. The second reason is a bit more relevant here as I was attending an audition.

Hot Cross Buns

Easter is just around the corner so I thought it was the perfect time to try my hand at Hot Cross Buns. Traditionally baked for Good Friday as part of Easter celebrations they are now available to buy over a much wider time period. Interestingly, to me at least, food writer Elizabeth Day explains that whilst the buns are now known for there link to Christianity that was not always the case and actually they have their origins in paganism where they represented the moon and its four quarters. The reason they are only available around Easter? Queen Elizabeth I passed a law restricting their consumption to the religious holidays.  Wikipedia explains that Queen Elizabeth wanted an outright ban because they were seen as a hold-over of catholic belief but they were so popular they could only restrict there consumption. I have always loved them and actually quite like the fact they are not available all year round, it makes them that bit more special. I was brought up in a Christian household and my parents are fairly traditional so we were always served these on Good Friday and aside from the Easter eggs these were my favourite part of the holiday. This was the first time that I have actually had a homemade version and even though they are far from the prettiest version, they still tasted pretty good. For my recipe I turned to one of my most reliable baking sources, Dan Lepard.

Ginger Brulee Tarts

Hi my name is Edd and im an addict. I have very rarely spoken about my problem here but I think its time to share. I have an addiction to…cookbooks. I finally thought i’d managed to kick the habit but along comes another book that peaks my interest and somehow just ends up in my collection. Thankfully the only people my habit hurts are my bank manager and me. I had decided not to buy anymore books for a while, lord knows I have enough recipes keep me going for plenty of time, but when I saw the new book “Bourke Street Bakery” it just jumped out at me. Its a wonderful book two thirds of which is dedicated to breads and pastries and the other third is centered around the sweeter side of things. There is a very generous section on sourdoughs from the basics to delicious sounding anise and fruit sourdough and even an apple and oat sourdough. The other bread sections cover yeasted and olive oil breads. The pastry section runs the gamut from the traditional croissants and danishes through to interesting sausage rolls and pies such as lamb, harissa, and almond sausage rolls, which are definitely being added to my cook list. There is also a great selection of cakes and desserts but for the purposes of todays post I chose something from the tarts section. There are 12 different individual sweet tart recipes but I chose the Ginger Brulee Tarts with cardamom and cinnamon.