Foodie Pen Pals: July Edition

"What's a foodie pen pal?" I hear you ask. It's a straightforward concept really. Every month you are assigned a foodie that you must send a package of tasty and delicious morsels to. This foodie could have their own food blog, or they might just enjoy reading other people's blogs whilst enjoying food themselves. On the 5th of the month you are sent a database containing all of the foodie penpal matches for that month. You are told the name of your recipient, their email and links to their blog and/or twitter account. Seeing the entire database, you can also look into who will be sending you a box this month. Once you've sent off the box you've painstakingly created, you can sit back and wait for your own to arrive. The idea is then to blog about your experience and the box that you received.

I was more than excited to discover this venture and within half an hour of uncovering the idea, I had joined and was anxiously awaiting my first match. My box this month is from Paula who writes All About the Bake (definitely check out her blog for some incredibly tasty looking treats and recipes!). We had a really lovely chat prior to the box creation and I discovered she used to live in my neighborhood back in the day. I love the family feel to her blog, as if I needed anything else to make me broody... But the pictures of her kids baking and enjoying life are no less than adorable. Her blog being entirely bake based meant that I was apprehensive to see whether Paula would share one of her creations with me.

I walked into the office, rather wearily, on Monday morning to discover an exciting parcel on my desk. I have to say that Paula's handwriting is absolutely gorgeous! It was the perfect Monday morning antidote and I was bouncing around with excitement for a good while. Here is my box for July:

Paula included a beautiful hand written letter explaining what she had included and why. Everything felt really personal, which I loved because it's always interesting and exciting to share your passions with others. 

The first thing I noticed was these bad boys. I am a huge Reece's Cups fan, although I don't like peanut butter without chocolate to accompany it. I'd seen Reese's Pieces before but had never tried them (I was always too distracted by the cups). Even though it was 9.10am, I am ashamed to say that I ripped these straight open and devoured each and every last one. They are like M&Ms but filled with peanut butter. I am in love. I am now inspired to make chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes and cover them with Reese's Pieces! It was a good start.

The next thing that I indulged in was a cup of Charbew Strawberry and Cream tea. I am a big herbal tea fan and who doesn't love strawberries and cream?! These smelt incredible and I even reused my first teabag twice because I didn't want to waste a single drop of it's delicate flavour. They even donate 25p to Breakthrough Breast Cancer, a cause which is close to my own heart. 

This little jar intrigued me. I was lucky that Paula had taken time to explain what it was because otherwise I would have been completely stumped. Soffritto paste is used as base for sauce, soups and stews and is a broken down mixture of carrots, onions and celery. It originated from Tuscany, Italy. It is not to be confused with the spanish 'Sofrito', a paste made from garlic, onion and tomatoes. Paula told me that she uses Soffritto as a base for risotto. Risotto is something I have yet to conquer, but last night I did and I will post the recipe in due course!

These little bastards (please excuse my French), have been distracting me from work all week. They are extremely moreish and addictive. Yesterday I went home with a dress covered in salt and nut residue. Generally I'm not a huge nut fan, but these are a revelation. I cannot stop eating them. They are comparable to popcorn kernels with a roasted, salty flavouring. The office has smelt of popcorn since Monday because of my new addiction. Mpphsff nurff srfffrrm (sorry, can't speak, eating more corn nuts).

Another item in my box was a Schwartz Grill Mates Mojito Lime Marinade mix. I, like any other modern girly girl, love my cocktails. Mojitos being one of the most summery, and summer is something we have definitely been lacking as of late. Unsure what use to put this to, I think I will wait until the next barbecue we have and create some chunky chicken kebabs with peppers and onions, maybe with a touch of fresh lime and chilli for a kick. 

Ah, the pièce de résistance of my box. The homemade Rosemary Loaf Cake. I am a big fan of fresh herbs and love our herb garden at home, as does Paula - well, not our herb garden... that would be a bit strange, I mean her own of course. With this cake, I was the most popular person in the office. I shared it with anyone I could think of, to spread the joy and tastyness throughout Barnes! It was incredibly light and floral for a loaf  cake, which meant I could eat lots of it without feeling too guilty for piling in the stodge. The sugar covered crust was so pleasurable to eat, that I pinched many of the crunchy parts before anyone could get a slice. I felt honoured that she had gone to so much effort - to make me a whole cake! If anything, you could really see the passion and love that had gone into it.

Finally, another personal touch from Paula, was the huge broad beans from her garden in Lancashire. My dream is to have a little cottage in the country (à la River Cottage) with a huge vegetable patch and orchards... and horses... and baby lambs... and lots of homemade pies. We used to grow runner beans when I was much younger, and so these really transported me back to happy childhood summers of picking them straight from the plant and crunching. That lunch, I used them to make myself a delicious lunch. So I shall leave you with a recipe:

Broad Bean, Beetroot, Pea and Ricotta Ciabatta

This was such a quick, simple and flavousome lunch and was a great way to feel indulgent whilst eating fresh veg at the same time.

Ingredients:

 -2 Slices of Ciabatta (toasted ideally)

- 1 Cooked Beetroot, diced

- A Handful of Broad Beans

- 2 Tbsp Fresh or Tinned Peas

- 1 Tbsp Ricotta

- 1 Clove of Garlic, finely chopped or crushed

- 1 Tsp Oregano

- A Squeeze of Lemon Juice

- Drizzle of Olive Oil

Directions:

• Toast your ciabatta if you can as it will help support the topping. I couldn't when making mine but it was still lovely to eat. Make sure it is cooled before moving on.
• In a small bowl, mix the ricotta with the oregano, lemon juice, garlic and seasoning.
• Spread the mixture evenly across your ciabatta.
• Sprinkle your broad beans, peas and beetroot across your slices.
• Season with some black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
• Enjoy!

Recipease

When it comes to food, I am very easily influenced. One moment I'll be detoxing, the next I'll see some salted caramel bites and will have eaten the lot. You might say I've got poor willpower, but I just see it as knowing what I want and taking it. I've been in some serious need of London girlie time for a while, and my go to girlie had been busy with moving house and starting a new job. Finally we had managed to arrange a meet up after work, where we would grab an M&S two for £10 deal and head for her new abode. This was all going swimmingly until, on our way to Marks, we spotted this magnificent sight. 

HELLO. After minimal persuading, we ran for the shop and I stood in awe at the incredible interior. Recipease is a Jamie Oliver project, with branches in Clapham Junction, Brighton and Notting Hill, where you can get high quality, delicious meals to take home for your family, kitchen equipment or to attend a cooking class. At the back of the Clapham branch, a class was taking place and I was itching to jump in. I even suggested that we spent longer than necessary in the back portion on the store so that I could pick up a few tips. Spending a long while oohing and aaahing over the ready made food, incredible selection of chocolate and beautiful equipment, we decided that we would buy dinner here instead. Depsite the fact that neither of our bank accounts would be particularly happy about it. The shop assistant that helped us was so friendly and passionate about what she was doing that I then wanted to work there as well.


So, for dinner we had....

My gorgeous Recipease bag!

Herby Chickpea Salad with Feta and a Chilli Kick.

Savoury Mozzarella Muffins.

Sourdough Baguette.

Roasted Pepper Houmous.

Chocolate Fondants.

Quite a feast indeed. The chickpea salad was the highlight for me - it was beautifully seasoned with just the right amount of heat. The chilli and feta complemented each other perfectly, my tastebuds were thrilled. The houmous was good, but I'm not screaming about it from the rooftops. The muffins were a delight also. Delicate and flavourful with a wonderful texture. As for the sourdough... I'm still not entirely sure what to say about it. It was nothing to write home about and definitely wouldn't match up to the bread at Gail's, but it was sturdy and held our houmous well. 
The chocolate fondants took a little longer than expected to cook and both fell apart on turn out. Disappointing really, as the best part of chocolate fondants is being able to plunge your spoon in and nervously await whether its filling will ooze. Perhaps that was fault at our end with the cooking. Taste-wise, they were to die for. Extremely rich and chocolatey, with just the right amount of sweetness and some cheeky hazlenuts hiding at the top. It was so rich however that I couldn't finish mine. This is an extremely rare feat and I felt really sad leaving just a couple of spoonfuls forlornly on my plate, but I could not eat another bite.
Overall it was well worth spending that little bit extra, and I will definitely be taking a couple of classes there soon. Just as soon as I stop buying food and start saving. Hmm.

The Chocolate Covered Flapjack Cake

I love birthdays. Other people's birthdays that is and never my own. There is too much pressure surrounding your own birthday when really you'd rather be hiding in a dark cavern and praying to a God that you won't get any older. But other people's birthdays are great. As long as it's not you having to look at those never ending, accelerating numbers on the front of a hilariously offensive card. A big reason I love birthdays is because I love to spend hours choosing the perfect present for someone and anxiously watching them open it. It gives me a rush once I see their delighted face and realise that all that time and effort has paid off. It's also a great reason to bake and eat cake! 

As a relatively new recruit in my office, I hadn't yet had much of a chance to show off my skills in the kitchen. But when the boss' birthday arrived, I jumped at the chance to bake a cake for the occasion. It was unknown what his favourite flavour was and so I had decided on a safety Brooklyn Blackout chocolate cake, courtesy of my Hummingbird Bakery book. This was the plan until last week, when there was a scrum over a flapjack. Occasionally we get a visitor to our office who comes to use one of our desks and will always bring a hamper of treats for us. One of the treats this time was said flapjacks (a pack of 3). I heard a commotion coming from the kitchen to discover that one of our editors was contemplating the last flapjack, much to the boss' dismay. Suddenly it dawned on me. I had to make a flapjack cake! 

I spent a few hours googling 'flapjack cake', only to find normal trays or bars of flapjack. No cake shaped beings in sight. So I took it upon myself to create one. 

Here is my recipe for:

 Chocolate Covered Flapjack Cake

Ingredients:

450g Oats

300g butter
75g demerara sugar
6 Tbsp Golden Syrup

2 big bars of chocolate

Your favourite cake decoration

Directions:

1. Line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to Gas Mark 4
2. In a saucepan over a low heat, place the butter, sugar and syrup. Stir until melted.
3. Take the pan off the heat and add the oats. Stir until all of the oats are covered in the mixture.
4. Distribute the mixture between your two sandwich tins and pat down with the back of a spoon.
5. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden and starting to crisp on the outsides.
6. Flip your flapjacks out onto a cooling rack or plates and pop in the fridge to cool.
7. Once they have cooled, melt two big bars of chocolate in your microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.
8. Spread a thin layer of chocolate over the top of one of your flapjack layers.
9. Place the other layer on the top.
10. Spread the remaining chocolate over the top and decorate in any form you see fit!
11. Place back in the fridge for the chocolate to set.
12. Make sure you take the cake out of the fridge a few hours before eating for the flapjack to soften!

Outsider Tart

Wide leafy roads. Delicatessens. Hazy afternoon sun. Yummy mummys guarding their Mamas and Papas pram whilst indulging in skinny lattes and artisan croissants. It can only be Chiswick. Those who have been to Chiswick will know how appealing it's peaceful streets can be. Filled with quality shops, restaurants and a few good old gastropubs, Chiswick mixes London style perfectly with suburban heaven. Of course, you have to be disgustingly wealthy to have a nice house here, unless you fancy renting a pool-house cupboard for your entire months salary. 

That doesn't stop me dreamily wandering it's streets and staring through windows at things that I will never be able to afford. But food is a necessary expense. At all times. Let me introduce you to one such necessity. Outsider Tart is run by a couple of New Yorkers, living the Chiswick dream, and sharing the American love for a great piece of cake. Their menu never ceases to confound and amaze me. From brownies to cookies to the up and coming trend of whoopie pies, if you need an excuse to sit down for a brew then look no further.

We first discovered Outsider Tart at an international Southbank Food Festival. My eyes meeting with a delectable selection of brownies and whoopie pies across the crowded courtyard, there was no way I couldn't just have a look. Despite having sampled many of the great food on offer already, including a huge piece of Apple Strudel, a Maker's Mark brownie had found it's way into my hands for later and a whoopie pie had made it's way into Robs hands for immediate consumption. I've only previous tried supermarket whoopies, but this had no contention. The beautiful chocolate sponge with the marshmallow centre melted in my mouth and made me want to raid the rest of their stall. I needed all of the whoopies. 

I'm of the opinion that no brownie at all is better than an average brownie, and I have been questing to find that moment of brownie heaven for quite some time now. I like my brownies squidgy and rich with a crumbly outside and the closest I've come to that, surprisingly, is Pret's chocolate brownie. But that all changed the moment the Outsider Tart brownie hit my belly. I was in brownie heaven. Four times the size of the meagre Pret brownie, this was fudgy, crumbly and sickenenly good. I tried to savour it, I really did, but it was gone in a matter of minutes. I'm also a big bourbon fan, so the additional Makers Mark flavouring made it all the better.

Since that day, Rob and I had been obsessing of their website and the sweet memory of those treats. But last weekend, I finally had an excuse to visit the place itself! I could not contain my excitement. After a stroll and a bit of book shopping, we finally arrived at our tasty destination for the true American experience. Another great factor of Outsider Tart is their huge selection of teas. As a tea freak, I had serious trouble in deciding what to have. I settled on a Teapigs chilli chai whilst Rob went for a cream soda (of which there were 3 varieties to choose from!). The shop is full of US goodies, stocking a huge variety of peanut butters and other treats. 

There were so many delicious looking cakes to choose from. I opted for the Mile High Bar. Is it a brownie, is it a cake, is it a cookie? I have no idea, but it tasted beautiful. Chewy cranberrys, fudgy chocolate and crunchy biscuit made this an explosion of textures and flavours - a joy to eat. Rob sampled what appeared to be an oatmeal whoopie, although I couldn't tell you for sure. Full of dried fruits and nuts, his treat felt as though you were eating something remotely healthy. Balanced with the creamy centre, getting your mouth around this was an exciting feat. Our only problem this time was finishing our treats. We had to take a doggy bag home, although I think we managed to get about 10 minutes down the road before I was snuffling for the bag again.