I am rather fond of cherries . . . when we lived down South in Kent, during cherry season the roads and byways were filled with local sellers plying their wares . . . fresh English cherries, served up warm in paper bags.   I could never get my fill.  Half of each bag purchased always disappeared in the car on the way home . . . as if by magic.



Normally I would only eat these tasty little babies in season . . . I am a lover of seasonal eating, because usually these types of things really only taste wonderful when they are in season . . . the way they were meant to be eaten.   But when I received the latest and last installment of the  Ultimate Cookbook from the Sunday Times, I couldn't resist one final foray into cherry-indulgence for the year.   The Cherry Clafoutis recipe by Gordon Ramsay (from his book, Sunday Lunch) was screaming my name and I just had to make it.



Over the past three weeks, and finishing this week, The Sunday Times has been  publishing a pull out Ultimate Cookbook as part of the Incredible Edibles Food Series, dedicated to food and dining.   This final week's focus is on the Dinner Party,  and you can get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Dinner party this weekend, on Sunday the 8th of December, featuring a wonderful variety of the finest and most delicious Dinner Party recipes brought to you by a great ensemble of celebrity chefs and restaurants from  here in the UK.



I love Dinner Parties.  They are the perfect opportunity for you to really bring your culinary and entertaining skills to the forefront!  This lovely little pull out cookery book is filled to overflowing with delicious recipes . . . impossible to resist . . . and for the most part simple to prepare, because as we all know, part of the fun of entertaining is being able to enjoy the evening with your guests in comfort, knowing that you have done your best to plan and provide for them a delicious repast, from beginning to end . . . free from stress and pressure.



You can pick from such tasty delights as Rowley Leigh's Parmesan Custards with Anchovy Toasts and Gizzie Erskine's delicious looking Beef Wellington, which is not as difficult to make as one would imagine!  Each recipe looking more fabulous than the last, it was really difficult for me to choose just one to prepare to show you . . . but I do have a rather sweet tooth and so the Cherry Clafoutis won out!



Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.  Butter four individual oven dishes, or one large shallow oven dish, really well.   Dust the base and sides with icing sugar.   Scatter the prepared cherries amongst the dishes, dividing them equally.   Give the chilled batter a stir, and then pour it over the cherries in the dish(es).  Stand the dish(es) on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and risen.  Check to be sure the clafoutis have set in the middle.  If they haven't, then bake them for an additonal five minutes.   Allow to stand for 5 to 10 minutes before adding a dusting of icing sugar and serving warm. 

Don't forget to pick up your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Dinner |Parties this weekend, on Sunday the 8th of December 2013, the final installment in a four-part series.  Featuring a selection of the finest recipes of the celebrity chef era.  The Ultimate Cookbook is part of  The Incredible Edibles Food Series dedicated to food and dining.  Many thanks to The Times for allowing me to participate in presenting this fabulous series to you.

Visit thesundaytimes.co.uk to subscribe and to find out more details about exclusive Times + chef events hosted at some of the country's best restaurants.

 

The chemistry of cooking has always fascinated me.  I think it is amazing how a good cook can combine a few simple ingredients and come up with something which is totally delicious . . . and how depending on how you combine them with any number of other ingredients, you can come up with something new and different each time.

Take birds eggs for instance . . . they come in all shapes and sizes and colours . . . and are all basically the same thing,  no matter the size or colour.  Humans mostly consume chicken eggs, although duck eggs are also quite popular as are quail.  Filled with vitamins and coming in their own fragile package you can eat them on their own, cooked or raw and depending on preparation you can come up with no less than 4 different ways to have them all on their lonesome . . .  boiled, fried, scrambled, poached . . . and even those can be varied according to what you choose to do with them.  What is a frittata or omelette but eggs, beaten and scrambled and put together in different ways with different additions!



But then, beat them up with other ingredients like flour, sugar and eggs, and you have a cake, or cookies, or pies . . . again depending on what you add and how.  Then there are the  sauces you can make with the components of an egg . . . which again can differ widely according to what you put in and with them, and which part of the egg you use!

I think eggs have to be  the most versatile of all basic ingredients!  And one of the things we look forward to most when we start to think of breakfast or brunch, and they are something which I always have in the larder.


Over the past two weeks, and for the next two weeks The Sunday Times is publishing a pull out Ultimate Cookbook as part of the Incredible Edibles Food Series, dedicated to food and dining.   This weeks focus is  on Brunch and Baking, and you can get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Brunch and Baking this weekend, on Sunday the 1st of December, featuring a wonderful variety of the finest and most delicious Brunch and Baking recipes brought to you by a great ensemble of celebrity chefs and restaurants here in the UK.




Three weeks in to this feature and we are enjoying another beautiful selection of recipes which combine two culinary traditions, Brunch and Baking.  Brunch is a lovely idea we have adopted and adapted over here from America and it is something we have really taken to here in the UK.  It's a wonderfully leisurely way to entertain . . .which can be as indulgent and complicated . . .  or as simple as you like it.  There are no firm and fast rules.   it only really matters that you enjoy yourself and that something incredibly tasty is involved.

If you are looking for indulgence then I am sure a nice hot stack of Nigella Lawson's pancakes, dripping with butter and syrup will do the trick, or maybe  Paul Hollywood's, Raised Pork and Egg Pie . . . and if you are looking for something tasty to bake you can't do much better than Mary Berry's Whole Orange Spice Cake, which also graces the cover of this lovely pull out mini-mag.



I could not wait to get stuck in and it was really hard to choose just one recipe to show you here today, there are so many lovely ones, but today I chose Eggs Benedict from Le Caprice, a most prestigious West End London establishment, which was quite popular with the late Princess Diana.

Who doesn't like Eggs Benedict??  You get all the elements of a delicious and simple breakfast . . . ham, poached eggs, and toasted muffins . . . slathered with a rich, indulgent and buttery sauce . . . what's not to like about that!



Some people might be put off from making their own hollandaise sauce.  It can be rather fiddly and difficult to do, but the instructions in this recipe were simple, concise and easy to execute and as you can see I ended up with a beautiful sauce.  We both enjoyed this very much.

  

Note:  I like to sprinkle a few chopped fresh chives on top for colour and presentation. 

Get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Brunch and Baking this weekend, on Sunday the 1st of December 2013, the third  in a four-part series.  Featuring a selection of the finest recipes of the celebrity chef era.  The Ultimate Cookbook is part of  The Incredible Edibles Food Series dedicated to food and dining. This series will finish with the final edition,  Dinner Parties on Sunday December 8.

Visit thesundaytimes.co.uk to subscribe and to find out more details about exclusive Times + chef events hosted at some of the country's best restaurants.

I make no apologies for it . . . when it comes to my every day cooking, I can be rather lazy.   I don't like a lot of fiddle faddle and faffing about.  I like to just get on with it.  I also don't like to eat out of tins, so I try find a compromise somewhere in the middle.   A middle place where I can cook from scratch, but where the cooking is quick, easy and simple.

Don't get me wrong . . . I do enjoy a challenge and will rise to it on occasion . . . but occasion is the key word here, and every day cooking isn't an occasion.  Which doesn't mean that the food isn't tasty or delicious or exciting.  It just means that it doesn't take a lot of work to create it.



That's why I like to keep a well stocked store cupboard and larder of essentials such as pasta, tinned tomatoes, fresh lemons and herbs, cheese and dairy, amongst other things.  Those are things you will always find in my house and having them means I always have a tasty and quick meal at my fingertips.

Over the next three weeks The Sunday Times is publishing a pull out Ultimate Cookbook as part of the Incredible Edibles Food Series, dedicated to food and dining.   This weeks focus is Quick Eats, and you can get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook: Quick Eats this weekend, on Sunday the 24th November, featuring no less than twelveof the finest, tastiest and quickest  recipes brought to you by twelve different celebrity chef's.



As you can see there are some very nice names there . . . and you will find amongst the twelve a delicious recipe for Tom Kitchin's Pork Chops with Tomato Compote and James Martin's (The King of Desserts) Marshmallow Whiskey Ice Cream, not to mention a signature pudding from "The Ivy" restaurant in London.  Who says quick eats have to be  un-exciting!



I could not wait to get stuck into the recipes and since I had some lovely De Cecco Linquine pasta in the cupboard and a lovely bowl of fresh un-waxed lemons I decided to make Nigella Lawsons delicious sounding Lemon Linquine.  The pasta hater was out for the day, so I did not make the whole recipe.  Happily I was able to successfully reduce it to serve just one.

 

It used simple ingredients . . . liguine, fresh lemon, cream, parmesan cheese . . . some seasoning, fresh parsley as a garnish . . .



It went together lickety split . . . in the time it took to cook the pasta . . . it was basically done and I was indulging myself in a delicious carb fest . . .



Which made me very . . . very . . . VERY happy indeed!   As I sat there munching away on this lemony, creamy, buttery deliciousness  with a big smile on my face . . . I had to ask myself the question . . . why aren't more things in life this quick, delicious and easy?




Note:  I served extra Parmesan cheese to grate over the individual servings at the table.

Get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Quick Eats this weekend, on Sunday the 24th November, the second in a four-part series.  Featuring a selection of the finest recipes of the celebrity chef era.  The Ultimate Cookbook is part of  The Incredible Edibles Food Series dedicated to food and dining.  Upcomng editions in the series are  Brunch & Baking on Sunday December 1st and Dinner Party on Sunday December 8.

Visit thesundaytimes.co.uk to subscribe and to find out more details about exclusive Times + chef events hosted at some of the country's best restaurants.

Sunday Lunch has to be one of the nicest traditions here in the UK.  It's actually a dinner . . . not a lunch (usually served early to mid afternoon).  Not sure why it is called lunch, but I have noted that most celebratory dinners here in the UK are referred to as lunch, prime example being Christmas Lunch.  Who am I to quibble when we are talking about something as delicious a meal as Sunday Lunch generally is!

Over the next four weeks The Sunday Times is publishing a pull out Ultimate Cookbook as part of the Incredible Edibles Food Series, dedicated to food and dining.   This weeks focus is Sunday Lunch, and you can get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Sunday Lunch this weekend, on Sunday the 17th November, featuring no less than twelve of the finest  recipes for this occasion  brought to you by twelve celebrity chef's.

You will be able to enjoy and recreate such tasty delights as Jamie Oliver's Sunday Roast Steak and Marcus Waring's  Mushroom Cobbler (for the veggies), only two of the delicious recipes on offer.




 Who doesn't love a delicious Roast Chicken dinner??  It has to be one of the most popular Sunday lunches ever.