We stayed in the glamorous Hudson Hotel with it’s beautiful minimalistic but striking interior and super tiny rooms. You need to be a size 6 to stay in the rooms because there is no room to turn around, Philip Stark did a good job and designed a beautiful hotel but boy oh boy did he not allow any space for ones suitcase. Anyhow we did not spend that much time in the room as we were busy testing out all the foodie establishments.

The hotel is situated near the foot of Central Park near the Time Warner Building and home to Bouchon Bakery. Thomas Keller is a very creative and clever business man. We visited the bakery every morning for a coffee and a different treat every time. We loved sitting at the high tables, close to the counter to watch the chefs at work through the hatch. We found the perfect spot and sometimes found ourselves there for too long observing them. They were superb craftspersons and produced the most stunning and beautiful goods.

Mr.P became partial to a biscuit fairly similar to this salted peanut brittle biscuit. He had the ideas in his head for quite some time to recreate that indulgent buttery salty taste of those Bouchon Peanut Butter Biscuits. The recipe is entirely a development of our own and after a few attempts we finally recreated a recipe that we feel represents the taste sensation of the biscuits of New York.

Watching the world go by in New York City is wonderful and sometimes very amusing too. At Bouchon they baked Foie Grass Dog Biscuits as the early joggers with their posh pooches stopped off for a skinny de-caf, a slice of watermelon and a delectable treat for the dog. We struck up a conversation with the ladies behind the counter as they eagerly told us a tale about a chap that came in regularly to buy himself one of these doggy treats. He was constantly told that the biscuits were for his dog and not for  him but he insisted that  it was delicious and continued nibbling away. Well that story left us giggling all day, typically a tale of New York.

This lavish lobster macaroni is the exact dish that we have put on the menu for the opening and will enable me to produce proper costings  I thought it best if I cooked this dish to give all the British Larder readers a look test and once the doors are open you could happily tuck in on the taste test. It’s not going to be the cheapest dish on the menu as you can imagine but it surely will be lavish and cooked with a lot of love.

When I cooked this dish, I so enjoyed every moment as it took me right back to the years when I used to cook lobsters every day for the lobster raviolis on the exquisite  menu of the restaurant where I used to work . It was a daily task performed early in the morning and it was my job to cook the lobsters, pull them apart and prepare the meat for the raviolis. I have a mild allergy when I touch cooked lobsters, my fingers swell up and they itch fiercely. I remember how the boy’s used to call me a “pansy” for wearing the yellow marigolds, they thought I could not stand the pain  when the sharp bits of shell pierced my finger but it was due to the mild allergy. Boys!! I can eat it  which is a good thing because this is one of those dishes I would not miss for the world.

Lobster is still classed as a delicacy with its incredibly high prices. Lobster should not be taken for granted and for that reason I use the whole lobster to make this lavish dish. It takes the average lobster about eight years to reach maturity, hence the strict fishing regulations that ensure a caught lobster must measure at least 10cm from the eyes to where the tail is attached to the body. There are several groups of crustaceans known as lobsters. However, the most commonly known and used by chefs in the UK is the North American or European lobster, with its blue coloured armour. See the one in the picture above, it was brought in from the river Ore near Orford.

I found the original recipe very rich and the treacle was a bit too much for me, especially when the loaf matured after one day, it was very strong. Nevertheless it’s a superb recipe and I love Dans reference to  this recipe being the original British “energy bar”.

We particularly enjoyed it toasted for breakfast with a thin scraping of slightly salted butter and a cup of ‘builders’ tea. It’s the perfect loaf to start my busy and hectic day.

When I first read the recipe I was baffled about malt extract as I had neither heard of  nor used it, so I was slightly unnerved as I did not no where to get it  or what I could use instead. I was determined to make this recipe as it was meant to be, so after a bit of internet research I realised it’s a normal regularly used ingredient. I found that the Julian Graves stores stock malt extract so I trotted off to our tiny town centre and to my sheer delight  I found a jar.

Dan’s recipe says that you can use raisins or prunes, I decided on prunes as I’m not a great fan of raisins. I also chose to use St Peters golden ale and Woodbridge Mills whole meal flour that I had bought from the Snape farmers market last month. I could nearly call this loaf a Suffolk Power loaf, I wonder if Dan would approve ?

I liked the tip of lining the loaf tin with oats, I thought it gave my loaf the perfect professional touch. It looked well rounded off and also added to the final taste.

I feel less guilty about indulging in this loaf as it’s got all the makings of a healthy product, shall we just turn a blind eye to the butter and golden syrup!?

As I found this loaf keeps well and after a day or two it’s even more delicious. I have frozen a few leftover slices and it comes in very handy to be toasted for breakfast.

This malted prune loaf will be lovely in a picnic basket at the seaside as it gives everyone extra energy to enjoy a swim in the sea.

Following the success of the British Larder website, we have decided to take the next step and give the concept a spiritual and physical home. As Mr P puts it, “This will be a place to taste and touch what you see on the British Larder website.”

We have wonderful and far-reaching plans for the new restaurant, which will be christened the British Larder, Suffolk. In the first instance we will make the place look pretty with all the necessary British Larder paraphernalia, such as jars of cookies and baskets of bread, as well as some new furnishings to make the place look and feel more like home!

Why Suffolk? Well, it was love at first sight and, after several conversations with Polly and Tim from Food Safari, we decided it’s the place where we would like to grow old together. This captivating corner of England has so much to offer, not least fantastic local suppliers offering superb food from land and sea.

The idea is that the British Larder Suffolk will be all about being local, and we will be using local farms and producers to source our ingredients so that the fantastic food which ends up on your plate didn’t travel very far to get there!

The website will continue to develop, with more mouth-watering recipes, along with reminiscences about my career in cooking. Unfortunately, we won’t initially have a kitchen garden for the meantime, but we will be making the most of the wonderful wild produce around us.

The story of our relationship with food has a romantic flavour. We met in the kitchen and spent several years working together as professional chefs. Having subsequently worked for different companies, we had a yearning to cook together again. We make a great team, sharing a passion for high quality food, yet having different approaches and attitudes which complement each other perfectly. We’ve also collected just about every kitchen gadget known to man and are running out of space in our house!

Running our own establishment is an exciting but daunting prospect. However, we’re both totally committed and look forward to turning that commitment into success. Here’s to the future of the British Larder Suffolk!

We discovered Arabica Food and Spice at Borough market about two years ago and fell in love with the range of quality products that they sell. We got hooked on their spices Ras-el-Hanout and Wild Sumac, these are available elsewhere but nothing beats the quality from Arabica Food and Spice. Ever heard or used the phrase “you get what you pay for” well that is definitely so with these ingredients.

We met up with James Walters from Arabica Food and Spice and went for a “jamming session” in his kitchen. It was a fun day cooking on James’ house boat, we were perhaps slightly over ambitious attempting to do too many recipes and perhaps got a bit  drawn into the chore of cooking and  forget about the enjoyment factor. But all in all it was a fantastic day, the main aim was to use as many of Arabica Food and Spice’s ingredients and we certainly achieved that.

We used the wild sumac in the orange polenta shortbreads to compliment the citrus undertones from the orange, and  we also sprinkled some sumac over the mango and orange salad inside the pudding. We made  orange blossom air, by adding the orange blossom water to yoghurt and then dispensed it from a cream whipper which was charged with nitrous oxide. The gas injection expanded the volume of the orange blossom flavoured yoghurt and created the most delicious and fragrant mousse texture.

I wanted to use Alphonso mangoes for the pudding but unfortunately these were not available  but they will be coming in season very soon so they would be a great substitute for the normal mangoes that I used. The added floral fragrance alongside the orange blossom air, transforms this delicious pudding into something rather spectacular.

It might seem as if I wish my life away but what I’m actually doing is being prepared, one step in front and trying to not be stressed when it’s time to show my wares.

As a matter of fact I’m involved with drinks and canapé events all the year round so the need for inspiration and creativity is a constant demand.

I’m busy compiling another of my chef’s tips and fact sheets similar to the ones on gelatine and agar agar, this time it’s about espumas / culinary foams. Normally the information and techniques are in my head but the whole idea behind the British Larder is for me to share my knowledge and skill so that others can play and do it themselves. I find this immensely satisfying and rewarding.

Most chefs might cringe at the thought of a cheese foam as they think it’s passé; but then I’m so pleased food is subjective and it works for me. It’s a technique developed in my cooking era, something not  from the Larousse and a technique I think that will last for a while and will make it’s mark on the culinary map.

I have chosen to use Montgomery cheddar for this cheesy foam as it’s strong, packs a punch and a very little goes a long way. The crispy bacon adds a meaty smoky saltiness to this delicious canapé the only thing missing is a glass of bubbly! Salute!

As a matter of fact these have been  on my mind and have featured on my “to do list” ever since and that is to recreate Simon’s Orange and Polenta Biscuits.

I remember the orange fragrance and grittiness of the polenta very clearly,so it was a challenge  but I finally  made the time to create and perfect my own version of my distant memory of last summer.

I made and tweaked the recipe a few times  before I decided that I have done Simon justice and I’m happy with the result. I wanted to capture the flavours and textures. These biscuits are very short and crumble easily but the radical contrast in the texture of the polenta grains and the shortness that the cornflour brings to this recipe makes it even more exciting. In order to enhance and compliment the sharpness and acidic level of the orange flavour  I garnished each biscuits with wild sumac.The sumac has a sharp sour twang and compliments and  magnifies the orange fragrance and the best of all is it’s all natural.

What is sumac? Sumac is a deep red purple berry that grows on a small tree like shrub and is one of 250 species of flowering trees from the genus Rhus and is in the family anacardiaceae. Edible wild sumac is not to be confused with poisonious sumac which also has red berries. The two varieties are related and are also distantly related to the mango and cashew trees. The purple red berry is dried, ground and often used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony tang to salads and meats. In Arabic cuisines sumac is used to sprinkle over mezze such as hummus. In Iranian, Kurdish and Persian cuisines sumac is added to rice and kebabs. Sumac is also best known for its use in the composition of Za’atar spice mix as its the main ingredient.

The culinary world has gone into a macaron frenzy. It’s macarons wherever you turn your head. So it’s time that I jumped on the macaron band wagon and give it a whirl.

My recent visit to Pierre Hermé’s exclusive macaron boutique at Selfridges confirmed what a true master he is with funky flavour combination’s. My favourite must be the wasabi and strawberry.

I am also addicted to all pretty things in life, so my aim is not only to make my macarons as pretty as possible but also give it the professional look.

I achieved this with my macarons by using a garnish of  freeze dried raspberries, black sesame seeds and chopped pistachio nuts. I made one batch of macaron mixture, coloured it with one colour, used different garnishes and flavoured fillings. I made my own version of wasabi and white chocolate butter cream as well as a toasted black sesame seed butter cream and for the third flavour combination I used a strawberry and rose jam as a filling.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You might think that the wasabi flavouring is a weird combination, honestly I though the same but all I can say is WOW! The wasabi has acidic and citrus undertones and combined with a really good quality white chocolate, I chose one with floral notes,to provide an  absolute dream flavour explosion. It surpassed all my expectations. I even think it tasted more fragrant than the wasabi and strawberry one I bought at Selfridges. (Hope no one takes any offence to me saying that.)  You have to add the wasabi to suit your taste, I suggest you start with a little  and mix it very well. I used a butter cream made from unsalted butter as my carrier for the wasabi. I also used wasabi paste and not powder, it’s entirely your choice. If you only have powder then I suggest that you should first make it into a paste and then add, to taste, to the butter cream.

To add a bit of glamour and sparkle to your baked macarons dust with edible glitter. You can get all sorts of funky shades and colours.

What I love  most about macarons is that you can make as many interesting colour and flavour combination’s as you wish. I have listed only a very few in the recipe below. I hope this short video will also give every macaron lover the confidence to give it a go and crack the art of making macarons.

Joking aside; I finally had the courage and  was brave enough to make a very humble potato and leek soup. I have had the idea for quite some time but I never felt it was challenging enough to write a recipe. I love the simplicity of such a soup, but that would be before I really started thinking about it. The challenge was to make a soup that has a complex full body taste with multi layers of flavours and I think this is it!

The inspiration for this dish came when Mr.P and I were talking over dinner about the left over baked potatoes and what to do with them. The conversation then led onto this idea of a baked potato and leek soup. I happened to have two cooked chicken legs left from a roast chicken dinner so this recipe could easily be made up from all the leftovers.

The secret for the successful cooking of a tasty potato and leek soup is when you add the seasoning. I’m a bit pedantic about the acceptable levels of seasoning in food, so I would recommend that some seasoning is added from the start of the cooking process so that the soup can develop flavour. The mistake that most cooks make is not to season their food at all during the cooking process but to add a heap of “raw” salt to the food at the end. The problem is that you only have surface salt and you need to add so much to inject flavour that you end up using too much .

Pepper is perhaps an enemy of potato and leek soup. You will be surprised how obvious the taste of pepper is in potatoes. I learnt a very hard lesson once many moons ago when I was a commis chef.  We used ready milled pepper at that particular restaurant and I added too much pepper to my potato and leek soup. It tasted like a pot of pepper, potato and leek soup and I was gutted as the chef verbally abused me and I had to start all over again. Lesson learnt, take it easy on the pepper as you can always add extra but you cannot take it away. I know it sounds like a old cliche but it’s the honest truth.

The roasted chicken cigarillos add an extra touch and transform a humble dish into a filling and interesting meal.

This time of the year when the days are getting longer and there is more light I feel more alive and have more energy to do lots.  Easter is approaching and I have had my fair share of Easter buns  but then I can never get enough of these.

Last month I bought two freshly baked Chelsea buns at Great Garnets farmers market from an old lady and gent who bake bread and buns in their kitchen at home. I was gobsmacked as they were both of  retiring age and I could not believe that they were baking so much for a farmers market. Once we arrived back home we enjoyed the Chelsea buns, slightly warmed, with a cup of tea. When I took the first bite I gasped as it was the most delicious Chelsea bun that I have ever tasted. It was feather light, moist, the glaze was just right not too sweet and just simply memorably delicious.

I analysed the buns and was wondering if she had used suet as they where incredibly light. I was on a mission looking for the perfect recipe and must have paged through at least 18 bakery cookbooks and scoured the web but not even Dan Lepard’s bun recipe came close. Not one suggested using suet so I set off working on my own recipe, trying to recreate the taste and feather lightness of those Great Garnets buns.

So I have been pondering for a month on how to replicate these incredibly delicious Chelsea buns, and yes it took a month before I felt I had the right ammunition and knowledge to attempt the baking challenge.

Well the results were absolutely fantastic!!! Feather light, moist and simply delicious!!!

I had to add my own twist and as I love both cinnamon and Chelsea buns I thought I should combine the two and add my own addition of orange and blossom honey. Even though this is not close to the traditional hot cross bun it makes a well deserved alternative, perfect for breakfast and the spring picnic basket.