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Here's a couple of comments received, the first concerning the Summer Pudding:

“We all loved the Summer Pudding, took it to a

party, adults and children all had a slice, there were

no leftovers – very easy to make”

and the second, the Risotto:

“Even a kitchen simpleton like myself could

pour and stir then wait – something happened

and it was a meal!”

Outside the box

…..the chocolate one that is!

It's that time again and the summer holidays are upon us. For those out there who'll be entertaining the children and/or grandchildren I thought you might like an idea or four in the chocolate line that may occupy the older kids (with some supervision) in that they can make these treats themselves.

First up,

Malteser Cake

125g unsalted butter

400g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

2 tbsp golden syrup

250g digestives - crushed

135g Maltesers

Line a 20cm tin with parchment.

Melt the butter in a large pan, then add the chocolate and syrup until melted.

Remove the pan from the heat, allow to cool slightly then stir in the biscuits and Maltesers. Pour into the tin and refrigerate for two hours.

Cut into squares.

Alternatives:

Could make with chopped Crunchie bars,

Could drizzle with melted white chocolate,

Could decorate with extra Maltesers.

I say Malteser Cake, you can make it in a circular tin but these days I make it as a tray bake (standard size) – it's easier to cut into squares and therefore portion control – bite size pieces. I got this recipe from Whizzer's best friend – another thank you. A couple of tips – if you think the ingredients a tad expensive, buy “own brand” versions from one of the well known cheaper supermarkets. Sainsbury's Basic range produce 100g bars of milk chocolate and I have to say it's ideal for this recipe – at 35p. On the upside the tray bake cut into said bite size pieces will give you 4 x 500g pots so quite a substantial amount. I should be able to say how long its lifespan but in all truth it has never lasted long enough to be able to say. Realistically a week kept in sealed containers.

Here's a photo of what you can expect-

Conversely if you feel like making a posher batch for the grown ups, use a more expensive Swiss/Belgian milk chocolate and serve as the ultimate “understated petit four” - it's a bit like the old fashioned sweets – sit back and watch it disappear.

And second:

Rocky Road

250g dark chocolate

150g milk chocolate

175g soft butter, unsalted

4 x 15ml tbsp golden syrup

200g of hobnobs

*150g shelled Brazil nuts

*150g red glace cherries

*125g mini marshmallows

Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin to get a mixture of rubble.

Put the Brazil nuts into another freezer bag and bash them too.

Chop both sorts of chocolate into small pieces, or use chocolate buttons made for melting and then put them into a heavy-based saucepan to melt with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat.

Take the pan off the heat and add the biscuit and nuts, cherries and mini marshmallows. Turn carefully so that all the ingredients are coated with the syrupy chocolate.

Tip into a foil tray (I use a tray bake size), smoothing the top as best you can, although it is meant to be bumpy.

Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1½-2 hours. Take the set block out of the tray. With the long side in front of you cut 6 slices down and 4 across so that you have 24 squares.

Make ahead tip:

Make the Rocky Road and refrigerate to set, cut into bars and then store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week.

Freeze ahead tip:

Make the Rocky Road as above and free for up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in a cool place. Decorate as above before serving.

Taken and tweaked from 'Nigella Christmas'.

Here's a photo of what you can expect -

The above recipe is the basic Rocky Road recipe. You will see three ingredients above marked “*”. These ingredients can be swapped to suit your own personal taste. You can take any of the ingredients given on the following “Design your own Rocky Road” sheet.

Design your own Rocky Road

Traditionally Rocky Road is made using Brazil nuts,

glace cherries and marshmallow.

Rules are meant to be broken - take a look at the

list below and if you'd like to design your own

Rocky Road swap any or all of the three

ingredients above

(or may be four if you can't bear

to leave a real favourite ingredient out!)

Peanut

Pistachio

Pecan

Hazelnut

Glace cherry

Dried sour cherries

Cranberry

Apricot

Banana chips

Pineapple

Sultanas

Nougat

Turkish Delight

Fudge

Toblerone

Praline

Salted Caramel

Mini Marshmallow

Popping Candy

Lest you should start to suffer from a chocolate overdose, the remaining two recipes next time.

Outside the box - take II

and third,

This is an adaptable recipe, whether the children are making it, in which case you'd probably want to use milk chocolate, or for adults when you'd opt for plain chocolate.

You can swap and change your “handfuls” of ingredients to suit your own taste. Sour cherries work really well with plain chocolate. Pistachio nuts and pecan nuts are also really yummy.

If you wanted more ideas you could have a glance at the Design your own Rocky Road list.

If you live in Northamptonshire and know of the Daily Bread Co-operative (Bedford Road, Northampton NN4 7AD) they sell a fantastic selection of dried fruits not to mention gazillions of other products. Definitely worth a visit.

Chocolate Bark

Handful of chopped dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots and toasted, roughly chopped hazelnuts.

Line a baking sheet with clingfilm. (Baking sheet should be approximately 30cm x 18cm) You will find the clingfilm easier to control if you oil the baking sheet.

Break 300g of dark or milk chocolate into pieces and put in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Melt.

When the chocolate has melted pour it onto the clingfilmed sheet.

Scatter over the fruit and nuts. Wear a disposable glove and very gently ease the fruit and nuts into the chocolate.

Leave to set for 4 hours before breaking into chards.

You can use any combination of fruit and nuts to suit your taste.

Last, but by no means least,

Chocolate Hokey-Pokey

75g unsalted butter

100g pecan halves, roughly chopped

sea salt flakes

300g dark chocolate

2 tbsp golden syrup

3 x 40g Crunchie bars

Heat a small knob of butter in a pan and when foaming, tip in the pecans with a pinch of sea salt flakes. Stir over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes or till toasted – you will smell them when they are ready. Tip the nuts into a bowl and leave to cool.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt, in a medium pan, with the rest of the butter and the syrup, stirring. Once the chocolate mixture is smooth, take the pan off the heat. Bash the Crunchie bars (in the wrappers – less messy!). Add the Crunchie pieces, along with the toasted pecans, to the chocolate mixture. Gently mix together before transferring to an 18cm round or square foil tray (or cake tin if you prefer to wash-up!)

Leave to set in the fridge. Once set, remove from the tray and cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into seven or eight angular chunks.

Taken from 'The Camper Van Coast'

by Martin Dorey

I've used the toasted salted pecans in the first part of this recipe in others, for example, as a topping for the toffee apple crumble. You could also chop them, pop in a screw top jar and use as a sprinkle over ice cream.

Hope there's at least one of these four that you'll find useful and tasty!

Happy holidays.

The Ivy The Restaurant and its Recipes – AA Gill

For the uninitiated The Ivy is a restaurant in Covent Garden near London's theatre district – it is thought to have been around since about 1917 evolving into the most famous of the theatre restaurants. Even though it has a lunch service, 5.30pm sees early diners through its doors for pre theatre dinner.

Do not however expect to call and book a table for next week – or next month for that matter. Their waiting lists run to months ahead and if you'd like to think you can blag your way in and infer that you're a regular, the Ivy's definition of regular is three or four times a week.

This book is in two parts – “a day in the life of” and the recipes that form part of that life.

The phone begins to ring 9am onwards, building up to the lunch service - to the first pre-theatre early dinner guests at 5.30pm – onto 8.30pm dinner guests and then first night post theatre parties and a 1am finish. You get the idea!

For example, the fishcakes recipe used in GOM 16 came from The Ivy and it is, without doubt, the best fishcake recipe I've ever used.

From a cook's perspective it “does what it says on the tin”. There's nothing high faluting here - if you could transport your ideal comfort from home, wrapped in a throw with your favourite plate of comfort food on your lap whilst watching Love Actually (or whatever film floats your boat) then this is the place to be. In a word, unpretentious.

This book is rich in history and in recipes too. The greatest compliment any restaurant can be given is that at the heart of the menu are dishes that have been there year after year as demanded by its customers.

Mr. Gill is well known as the restaurant critic of “The Sunday Times” and his book, first published in 1997, is a worthy addition to any cook's bookshelf.

GOM: Chapter 16 The Dinner Party and Mobilising the troops

Busy day, best foot forward – of course the day begins as usual with the GOM doing their morning thing and I'm in my hide. It seems ages since I've been on duty but my efforts are rewarded. Perched on the top dock is the bluest bird I've ever seen – if I didn't know better I'd think that someone not a million miles away was playing tricks! You may not be surprised to learn it really is called a bluebird – I forgot to mention it also has an orange breast. Size wise in the UK – similar to a thrush. Another glorious addition to my every growing wildlife list. I'm sorry there's no photograph, you have to sit still or they tend to fly off!

Let's get the party started and mobilise the troops, washing the best china and crystal, laying the table, organising the wine and anything else I can think of. There's no show …... even though dress is absolutely casual, it doesn't mean you can't have a great looking table – how very Martha Stewart.

Whilst the GOM are doing their chores I prep the mash and poach salmon for the fishcakes so that they can cool in readiness for the “class” later on. Peel potatoes and carrots for the main and prep trays for the Tarragon Chicken.

Organisation is the key ….... not really sure why but I always work backwards, dessert first and my friend observes as I assemble the Orange Tiramisu – cover and refrigerate. This dessert came from my Cordon Bleu Course and is really useful – not everyone is fond of coffee.

Next step is to assemble the fishcakes and again student observing – cover and refrigerate together with the “instant” tartare sauce.

All done, can now rest up and return to the hide for an hour before glad rags on.

You'll be pleased to know that all went well, but probably the best comment came from my friend, who – like me, is not a dessert eater. High praise indeed for the Orange Tiramisu and he's adding it to his reportoire – phew!

Well done to all the troops, a good night was had by all.

Here are the recipes:

Fishcakes

(a la The Ivy)

(makes 8 – freeze what you don't use)

800g dry mashed potato, no cream or butter added

650g salmon fillet poached in fish stock and flaked

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tsp anchovy essence

3 tsp English mustard

salt and black pepper

Plain flour for coating

Mix together the potato, half the salmon, the ketchup, anchovy essence, mustard and seasoning until smooth. Fold in the rest of the salmon. Mould the mixture into 8 round cakes and refrigerate.

When you're ready to serve preheat the oven 180fan/200c/gas 6. Lightly flour the fishcakes and fry them until they are coloured on both sides. Bake for 10/15 minutes.

There will be more to follow on “The Ivy The Restaurant and its Recipes AA Gill” soon.

Quick tartare sauce

Hellmann's mayonnaise – approximately two

heaped tablespoons

Caper paste – 1 teaspoon

Cornichons – two, finely diced

Capers to taste

Mix the caper paste with the mayo and fold in the

diced cornichons and capers

et voila!!

Tarragon Chicken

Bunch of spring onions, finely diced

1 tsp dried tarragon

Fresh tarragon – chopped – approximately 2 tbsp

160ml Vermouth or white wine

Half tsp of sea salt flakes or quarter tsp of pouring salt

120ml double cream

White pepper

4 chicken breasts

Drop of canola oil (rapeseed in UK) and a knob butter to seal. (You could use a flavoured oil i.e. garlic or tarragon if you wish)

Optional

One Knorr chicken stock pot melted in 250ml of hot water and 2 tsps garlic paste, mashed together.

Heat oil and butter, add the onions, then dried tarragon.

Add the chicken fillets, seal on both sides, put on one side. (Add mashed garlic and stock**see below) Add the vermouth, let it bubble up, add salt. Pop the breasts back in the pan and cook on the stove or in the oven – 20/25 minutes (depending on size of the breasts). When ready to serve, remove the breasts, bring the liquid to the boil, add cream and fresh tarragon, then white pepper.

**You can vary your sauce by adding roasted garlic paste, mashed into concentrated chicken stock. I've tried adding this element and it's great - obviously you have to like garlic.

Roast Potatoes

I use either Maris Piper or King Edwards in the UK but here I'd use either Russet or Yukon Gold – as a rough guide 2lbs gives you 12 small to medium roasties – parboil them – just so you can insert a paring knife and take it out with some resistance. Drain well, sprinkle 1 heaped tbsp of semolina over the potatoes and then shake well – don't forget to put the lid on the pan!!!! Your aim is to coat the potatoes.

Pre-heat your oven 210c/190fan/Gas 7

It's important that your fat is hot before the spuds go in. You can use 1-2 tbsps size lumps of goose fat or beef dripping or, in my case, either vegetable or rapeseed oil. They will take an hour and straight from oven to table is best.

This is Nigella's way and it has never failed me. Taken from “How to Eat” p281.

Lemon glazed carrots

I would suggest 6-8 medium to large carrots. Peel, top and tail and cut into batons, approximately 5cms long x 1cm thick (or in old money 1 ¾” long x ¼” thick). Try and keep them a similar size. Lay a sheet of foil onto a baking tray (large enough to be able to wrap into a parcel) lay the carrot batons on the foil add salt and black pepper, a couple of slugs of lemon juice and 2/3 generous knobs of butter. Wrap tightly and pop into the oven after your roasties have been in for 30 minutes. This recipe came from my sister, Whizzer - thank you!

Steam the snow peas at the last minute.

Orange Tiramisu

Grated rind and juice of 2 oranges

20fl oz whipping cream

4tbls Cointreau (optional)

20 sponge fingers or Madeira cake

4tbls caster sugar

8oz Mascarpone or curd cheese (Philadelphia)

2oz plain chocolate (grated)

Mix the orange rind and juice with the Cointreau. Mix the cream carefully with the sugar and mascarpone. Cut up the cake in shapes that suit the bowl you are using and dip into the orange mixture.

Grate the chocolate. Layer the mascarpone mixture with the sponge and sprinkle with chocolate.

GOM: Chapter 15 – Easy down East Bay Street

Today is doing the tourist thing – a wander down one of my favourite streets Downtown Charleston, East Bay Street. It suits all of us. I drop the GOM off at their watering hole – the wine and cigar shop – looks really tiny from the outside but inside opens up into a lounge big enough to house large squidgy leather sofas and a wide screen television (you know, the sort that only shows sport) with wall to wall, floor to ceiling wines. It's a serious business wine tasting.

I'm off across the road to Charleston Cooks! - I mentioned in Chapter 7 I visit this store at least twice - today I'm spending dosh. I wouldn't describe myself as a gadget/gizmo person but now and again I come across a piece of kit that is not destined to join the box, already full to bursting, of junk that, when purchased, the mantra was “this is brilliant, I'll use it all the time”......tell the truth - how much stuff have you got stashed away gathering dust.

My purchase, I can confirm, has not been committed to the junk box. A corn stripper. The best way to describe it, is similar to a potato peeler, it has a blade in the same way and strips a cob evenly and easily without any danger of inflicting multiple stab wounds. Photograph attached so you can see what I mean. I threatened previously to book a class at the school and so pick up information.....a tempting treat for next week.

Collect the GOM and grab a fizzy water whilst they finish their Merlot. Off for a spot of lunch.

Welcome to the Brown Dog Deli - garden salads, deli salads, wraps, specialty (their spelling, not mine) sandwiches, deli classics and sides. The “specialty sandwiches” - mainly burgers, were truly inspirational, two examples, Carribean Black Bean Burger with pineapple mango salsa, 3 pepper cheese, red onion & raspberry chipotle sour cream, Broad St. BBQ – pulled pork on a brioche bun with Cheerwine BBQ sauce, bacon, cheddar, coleslaw & pickles.

The best “side” I've ever eaten - potato salad like no other. I tried very hard to isolate various flavours both with eyes and taste buds. As is the custom in the USA your “server” (not an attractive term in my view) returns to ask if you've enjoyed your meal. Our server turned out to be a guy who knew his stuff and so consequently I was able to extricate the recipe (or at least the bare bones thereof) for the potato salad. The twists to the norm were three different types of potato, new, baked and sweet. Minimal mayo, a touch of American mustard, salt and white pepper but the crowning glory, sour cream – heavenly – so much so that I rapidly made notes on a napkin before my aging memory gave out and stuffed it into my handbag, (for future translation into a recipe on my return home). Nobody does a deli better. Btw, they used small brioche buns for the burgers, it might sound weird but it works, the combination of slightly sweet but quite light in texture with the savoury burger works for me. We now know it works in the UK too for we now have brioche buns/rolls at BBQ/summer time – another excellent BBQ side or slider!

Need to walk off the lunch and so we browse a few art galleries along East Bay Street. I just love the Gullah art, it is simple and straight forward using bold and in your face colour. Should anyone visit Charleston - Lowcountry Artists, a gallery on East Bay Street is a joy, and Lynne Hardwick is one of its local artists. We had a great time chatting and exploring.

Lower down East Bay is “Marion's in the French Quarter” - photograph attached – tee hee, I wish!

How good was that.

Party Planning

A word or two about dinner/supper party planning. What you want to avoid is finishing up like a piece of chewed string, retiring to a darkened room with a bottle of gin and a straw.

So, your aim should be to do as much as you can ahead and, if at all possible, bits and pieces each day leading up to your party.

Back to the list – or in this case several lists!

First up choose your menu taking into account the likes/dislikes of your guests (and it goes without saying, any specific dietary needs). Stick with what you know. I would never cook a dish for the first time for a party – this takes flying by the seat of your pants to a whole new level.

When you've chosen your menu, taking into account what's seasonal and fab – think about the temperature – you wouldn't want to serve a winter meal in the summer if you get my drift. Conversely if you know that your guests are really into desserts – mega ones – like death by chocolate then ease up on the previous courses. Don't serve a starter - serve a canape with drinks, then straight into the main course. Warn your guests that their favourite dessert is on its way.

Sit down with your recipes (and a glass of something although this is not compulsory) and make your shopping list. Check your pantry/store cupboard – you may think you've got the herbs/spices or the icing sugar – bitter experience has taught me it ain't necessarily so – save your legs and your sanity, it takes two minutes and don't forget the lemons. You'll always need them – don't ask me why or where, trust me.

Decide what drinks you'll be serving and adjust your list, not forgetting any mixers required. Is there ice in the freezer? Ice bags are quick, easy and don't take up space. Is the white wine in the fridge?

Basic stuff – serviettes – linen or good quality disposable. Speaking of which, if you want to look fancy see the photos attached - you'll need 33cm square – two different colours and a standard wine glass. If you're using larger wine glasses you can get larger napkins.

No matter whether it's an informal supper or a formal dinner party decide on your plates or bowls you'll be using – there's so much to choose from these days, along with serving dishes too. If it's formal, set your table ahead of the game. Place the wine glasses upside down to avoid interlopers of the flying variety and dust.

Even if you don't normally use foil trays, give yourself a break – you'll be glad you did when it comes to the washing up!

Work out from your menu what's to take the most time to prep and then to cook. Prep the non perishables for each course separately (on trays if you can). Prepped perishables can be refrigerated. Your goal is to have as little work as possible to do on the day.

As an example I would choose a dessert that is better for being made the previous day – fancy desserts like the perfect chocolate fondant fall into this category and indeed can be made ahead and refrigerated or even frozen.

Success comes in the form of a relaxed and happy host who spends time with guests and not in that darkened room.

Have the best time!