Progress

Finally I feel like I am on track with the garden. Yesterday I got all the jobs on my list done. At last I sowed the first rows of lettuces, rocket and beetroot. This is so late, normally I start in late March, but I just haven't got around to it this year. And it might be a good thing as I am sure lots of tender seedlings have been washed away by all the rain.

Now all we need is some warmer weather and a bit of sunshine. Fingers crossed!

Glamour

Once in a while it is good to venture out of gritty Shoreditch and sample some of the truly glamorous things on offer in London. Last night we had a fantastic meal at the Northall at the Corinthia with lovely friends. The dining room is gorgeous, high ceilings and tall windows, opulent but cozy at the same time. Such surroundings call for oysters to be had. The champagne we drank with them tasted pretty good too. After dinner we headed to the Deco themed Bassoon Bar for drinks. Such a nice evening!

Notes

Bought these lovely notebooks from Anthropologie and this year I am really going to try to keep a record of what goes on in the garden. Today's jobs done: planted a new clematis 'Niobe', put some sweet peas in the ground and started weeding out the millions of self seeded poppies that have appeared.

Now I am going to try and get rid of the dirt from under my nails, put a nice dress on and meet up with friends for dinner here.

Roasted Cod with Butter Beans, Baby Plum Tomatoes and Asparagus

This is super quick and easy but looks quite fancy. Tastes very nice too. I made it on Sunday night when we felt like something nice and light. Most of the time you will find potatoes, pasta or rice on my plate at dinner time, but sometimes it is nice to leave them out. Roasting baby tomatoes is such a good trick to get a yummy dish very quickly. The seasoned juices make a really lovely sauce.

Cod Fillets

Butter Beans (Tinned)

Baby Plum Tomatoes

Asparagus

Garlic

Fresh Thyme

Lemon Juice

Olive Oil

Sea Salt and Black Pepper

Put the fish in a baking tray, dot with chopped garlic and thyme. Squeeze the juice out of a lemon over it, then season and drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Put the tomatoes in an oven proof dish, season and coat with olive oil. Roast together with the fish. Warm up a non stick frying pan to a medium heat then fry the asparagus slowly without any oil until lightly charred. When the tomatoes are soft but not completely disintergrated, place them in a bowl with the butter beans and let them warm through. Add the cooked asparagus and serve!

Sharing

Until things really start happening in my own garden, I look at my neighbours'. One has a lovely apple tree in blossom, another a beautiful wisteria.

Rhubard Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream

My most fun purchase from the LA trip were some mini cake tins. On Saturday we had movie night with lovely friends and I was in charge of pudding so decided to try them out. They are like miniature loaf tins so perfect for making individual portion sized cakes, but I'm sure they will be useful for other things too. I love baking tins and have way too many - it is quite dangerous trying to take anything out of the cupboard where they live, impossible not to make everything fall on the floor and make a terrible noise. But I didn't have any mini loaf tins before so of course I simply had to get them, and any less than eight would have been pointless!

Anyway, back to pudding. I went to the shop without much of an idea of what to make, but pretty much straight away saw some lovely rhubarb and then it was easy to decide the menu. I don't have an ice cream machine but it is very easy to make it without one...although now I'm thinking of all sorts of flavours I would like to try so am considering buying one.

As I was making small cakes, the cooking time was quite short so I pre-roasted the rhubard for 15-20 minutes to make sure it went soft, but if you use a normal sized baking tin it would be fine to put them in raw.

50 gms Butter

2 Eggs

180 gms Sugar

210 gms Plain Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 Tsk Vanilla Sugar

1 dl Milk

2 Ruhubard Sticks

Cut the rhubarb in half lenghtways, then into 5 cm long pieces. Grease a baking tin and place the rhubarb sticks in it, just chuck them in or arrange in a nice pattern if you fancy. Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and fluffy. Melt the butter. Mix the dry ingredients, then fold them into the eggs. Add the melted butter and milk. Pour into the tin over the rhubard and bake for 40 minutes at 180.

200 ml Milk

Cinnamon Stick

3 Egg Yolks

100 gms Sugar

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

400 ml Cream

Put the milk in a saucepan, add the cinnamon stick and leave to infuse for an hour. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Heat up the milk almost to boiling point then pick out the cinnamon stick and pour the milk over the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Pour back into the saucepan and cook for about 10 mins until you have a thick-ish custard. Add the cream then pour into a container, cool and freeze. After about an hour it will begin to set around the edges so take it out of the freezer and stir vigorously. Repeat a few times over the next couple of hours.

On my top 5 list of things to eat

This is definitely one of my top 5. Salt and pepper squid. Hot, spicy, salty, yummy. Love it. The secret to this is the crazy amount of garlic so make sure that whoever you are eating with also has some! 

We are lucky enough to live very close to Kingsland Road where there are more Vietnamese restaurants than you can count on both hands. This meal was had at Viet Hoa which is a classic, but normally we go  here or here where I actually prefer the food.

Most of the time I have the same thing: salt and pepper squid and a spring bowl. It never disappoints.