Ruby Wedding #2 Norfolk Preliminaries

Our celebration of so many (FORTY!) years of marriage started in June with a trip back to Norwich where Jan and I met. This could have involved a bit of soppy nostalgia but the city is so darned vibrant and interesting that, whenever we visit, we have no need to mush over student days. 
Instead we discover what has changed (Oswald Sebley Jewellers ceased trading a while ago) or what is brand new. We did include familiar ground by visiting the university campus. The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts opened four years after we left but we have explored it since and this time viewed the latest in a fine series of exhibitions which are aimed at distracting from the fabulous regular collection. 

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It was terrific to see the Cartier-Bresson photographs lined up. Many of them are iconic images but having the chance to view them outside the pages of a printed book was refreshing.

The Giacometti 'Line Through Time' was our favourite of the two exhibitions. As a 'retired' history of art student, I found out much fresh information about an artist whose work, although comfortably familiar, had all sorts of nuances which had previously escaped me. Alberto's work is shown world-wide. You can see how transfixed Jan was by a quintet of the sculptor's figures when we walked round the Maeght Foundation seven years ago. I still insist that her expression here reveals a magnificent pout rather than a scowl.

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Picture not taken in Norwich

At the Sainsbury Centre our visit was supplemented and enhanced by a hugely knowledgeable attendant. He also alerted me to a lovely publication, giving a fascinating, sometimes rambling, history of the building itself... on sale at a knock-down price in the SCVA shop.

Both exhibitions are finished now but the Centre, along with the rest of the city of Norwich will continue to offer lovely things for any visitor.

We had already tried one of the newest, loveliest things in Norwich last November.  We rounded off our summer 2016 trip with a revisit.

'Benedicts' is now a year old and has developed at breakneck speed into a compulsory place to book for anyone who loves great food. Our bill tells very little about the delights which we enjoyed a second time round. I will provide a link to my proper review as soon as it's ready. Suffice to say that, after making impressive first impressions back in November, the Bainbridge Brigade still managed to raise the bar with the quality of food and service.

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We wandered around parts of the rest of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and made good use of our National Trust membership. One of their properties proved to be the source of a special item which we took home. More of that in a future post.

We haven't had any break beyond five days so far this year but that's not been a bad thing. Spring in Barcelona was vibrant and intense. Different areas of Britain have provided new bursts of historical, artistic and geographical interest but Norwich will remain most likely to draw us back again soon. 

It's a great place to meet someone very special.

Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons - Luxe

Bear with me. You won't find too many words here... "What a refreshing change," I hear you cry!

This is an interim post while I collect my thoughts and prepare to do some sort of justice to our recent visit to Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons.

Please explore the pictures below as well as the linked images. They go some way to representing the attention to detail and luxury of our experience.

"Aproche, aproche"... the welcome

Walnut

Marble

Red skin

Lapis Lazuli

Leather

Silk

Carpet

Green skin

Enamel

Opal

Lait

Peacock butterfly

Lace

I'm not a religious person but I do recognise and wonder at drama and innovation... both to be found in abundance at Le Manoir. Which gives me a lovely excuse to share a glorious creation from six hundred years ago at the same time.

Seraphim

That will do for now. As far as I can tell, we didn't encounter any fallen angels... but heavenly beings were certainly at work in Great Milton.

I will tell you more about their works when I have found the right words.

#101TTDBNT: Number 6

101 TTDBNT: Number 6 - Read An Insanely Complicated Cook Book

Heck, don't just read one... buy one. If you borrow this type of book from a library there will be so much detail to absorb that you may as well bite the bullet and purchase your own copy. The alternative would be to keep renewing your loan for a twelvemonth at least.

I didn't even have to buy the example of devilishly intricate instructions which I'm promoting here. It was a lovely gift from my son, James. I would call him Sous Cheoff but he is already far ahead of me in cooking skills at a much younger age. Little Cheoff (other son, Jonathan, not the occasional roadside stopping place!) isn't afraid to tackle tasks in the kitchen but chooses not to spend as much time in there.

A few pages are available on the 'Look Inside' feature here. Not the entire book - but you should get the general idea of complication, adventure, precision and eye-watering refinement which await.

The publisher's blurb says most of what needs saying. I put myself in their bracket of 'serious home cooks' who must have this book. 

“The essential guide to truly stunning desserts from pastry chef Francisco Migoya
In this gorgeous and comprehensive new cookbook, Chef Migoya begins with the essential elements of contemporary desserts like mousses, doughs, and ganaches showing pastry chefs and students how to master those building blocks before molding and incorporating them into creative finished desserts. He then explores in detail pre–desserts, plated desserts, dessert buffets, passed desserts, cakes, and petits fours.

Throughout, gorgeous and instructive photography displays steps, techniques, and finished items. The more than 200 recipes and variations collected here cover virtually every technique, concept, and type of dessert, giving professionals and home cooks a complete education in modern desserts.

More than 200 recipes including everything from artisan chocolates to French macarons to complex masterpieces like Bacon Ice Cream with Crisp French Toast and Maple Sauce
Written by Certified Master Baker Francisco Migoya, a highly respected pastry chef and the author of Frozen Desserts and The Modern Café, both from Wiley
Combining Chef Migoya′s expertise with that of The Culinary Institute of America, The Elements of Dessert is a must–have resource for professionals, students, and serious home cooks.”

I admit to having pored over the descriptions and techniques in this book more than actually cooking from it. There are accessible parts for the amateur but there is an immediate indication that we are in a world rather different to that of Fanny Craddock, Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith. The measurements in this American book discard cups and have very accurate weights given in grams and ounces. There is no other way to achieve the results on show. Precision is the order of the day. The photography reveals what is possible after so much care and attention. You can certainly eat with your eyes even if you don't attempt a recipe.

But with this sort of book on a shelf you will always have the option of tackling something which will challenge and develop you as a cook.

Do consider that option... before next Thursday, please.

#101TTDBNT: Number 5

101 TTDBNT: Number 5 - Grow Tomatoes

Here's the beauty of #101TTDBNT Number 5... you really don't need to actually do this one until a Thursday in 2017.

Since it's a bit late in the gardener's tomato planting calendar now this is intended as a bit of inspiration for what to do when next season comes round.

We have no greenhouse except for a four shelf plastic 'sentry-box' affair and have grown our crops from seed or with bought plants for almost ten years now. No allotment - just an eight by ten metre back garden which has about a third devoted to raised beds and borders for cultivation. We put in a few flowers for the first time this year... just for some extra colour after four decades of marriage!

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Our 2016 tomatoes were all grown along a west facing fence - ten plants in ten rough clay drainage cylinders which were at the bottom of the garden when we moved in forty years ago. They make things easier for dedicated watering and feeding and the roots have plenty of chance to establish before they reach the earth below. I'll have to exert a little more control next year. Growth was so rampant that it was difficult to keep up with the pinching out and nipping off to keep things from going 'Triffid'. Sweet peas, fennel, French beans and runner beans completed the jungle on view here.

Here are the varieties we grew this year. That one 'Big Boy' is the first to ripen on the vine. Experience suggests we might have to pick subsequent fruits for ripening indoors before attack from all sorts of things, including baby snails and slugs which rasp out little holes. 

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From top left, clockwise:

Supersweet (cherry), Moneymaker, Golden Sunrise, Black Cherry, Sun Baby (yellow cherry), Big Boy, Tumbling Tom Yellow (cherry), Roma (plum)

Tomato sauces have already been made and green tomato chutney beckons, made following my favourite recipe.

With such lovely ingredients inspiration is never far away but after a visit to Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons my most pressing task is to reveal the essence of tomato and use it for what must be one of the more simple but most exquisite dishes I have enjoyed for some time. If you or I make Summer Vegetable Risotto to just half the standard which was served to me last week we will be transported to a version of heaven which is not described in any religious writings. Those online recipes give you enough information to work through but Monsieur Blanc's 'Kitchen Secrets' offers deeper understanding of the methods and the way to achieve perfection. I already have the book and that risotto recipe is on page 183... Woo Hoo!

None of the recipe books or online offerings show the refined presentation which came from Le Manoir's kitchen but the flavours alone are the essential and wonderful starting point for this one.

First things first, though. Mrs Cheoff has already made her rather stupendous tomato soup from a batch of our plum tomatoes. A hint of smoked bacon and a lot of basil. It's not the only reason I love her for all eternity... but it does add another layer to the cement which binds us together - tomato yumtious!

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Of course you might find splendid people who can supply you with fine tomatoes but please consider finding space for at least a couple of plants of your own. If things go well and you discover even mildly green fingers the delights of the tomato are yours for the picking.

All because you did something before that Thursday in 2017.

Ruby Wedding #1 We Made It

Ah, there we both are... no wonder we couldn't resist each other. A couple of decades later we would meet in Norwich as students and fall in love. Before graduation we were engaged.

I remember that evening on Boxing Day 1974 when we walked to a children's playground in Grimsby and, already giddy, sat on the roundabout. I proposed. I remember Jan pointing out how much I had been drinking and suggesting I leave things until the cold light of the next day. I remember that next day when I coldly withdrew my proposal and said I'd think about it. 

Back in Norwich, I finally realised how serious my intent was and asked again. On Valentine's Day 1975 we went to choose a ring. Jan had already seen one she liked. So had I. We walked into the city and led each other to the same jeweller's shop. I pointed out the ring in the window. "That's the one I chose," said Jan. It was a good beginning.

I say beginning. Things had already started, of course. The rather wonderful thing is that 'things' have carried on going for another forty years since we married. 

At a check-up, the day before our thirty-ninth anniversary, I told our dentist that it would be a 'big one' next year... forty years.
"So, which one's that?" he asked.
"Ruby," I said.
"Oh, it can't be, can it... that's for really old people."
Hmmm. Thanks... thanks a lot.

So many different types of relationship. This has been ours. I rejoice that, now we are 'really old', it is still such a wonderful relationship.

The chances we are given to find a partner are not all the same and the support and threats given to any relationships formed are many and various. Having been granted the health and time to enjoy our love means that it is even deeper than it might have been. It also means that I easily regard our marriage as the greatest achievement of my life. Of course, I have only done half of the work... if that. I am more hard work than hard working. So I give public thanks here to Jan for her love which, in my case, passes all understanding.

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We made it to our landmark on the 31st of July 2016. Our Ruby Wedding Anniversary has been an excuse for a few indulgent ways to celebrate. Expect more posts about those.

lemon meringue tart

Maybe I can get away with that scan of the recipe title for the subject of this post. For copyright reasons and in a valiant attempt to get you to buy the publication it is taken from I'll give you nothing more. Instructions for all of the elements are to be found in David Everitt-Matthias' second book, 'essence'. It is the dessert which Jan (Mrs Cheoff) chose on our first visit to Le Champignon Sauvage. It was tweaked on that night with a stunning basil mojito sorbet. The opening picture is of the version I made recently... also with a different sorbet and, for good measure, an alternative jelly. 

Now and again I make something which demands more time than usual in the kitchen. The imminent arrival of my brother and sister-in-law was a fine reason to put in that time so that I could offer them something special.

Over a couple of days, the separate parts were prepared and ticked off a list, waiting for assembly on the night:

lemon custard
sweet pastry
meringues
lemon verbena jelly
raspberry sorbet
cardamom yoghurt

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That trio was snapped in the kitchen during the making... a spot of egg carnage to produce fourteen yolks for the lemon custard - 'Italian' meringue in the oven - and one very quick pic of the plated version presented on the night.

After we had waved our visitors goodbye I was determined to do more permanent pictorial justice to the dessert we had enjoyed together. That involved using some 'left-overs', the back of a baking tray and some curved black card. I am still my fiercest critic and am already shaking my head at that ragged custard surface, the cracked pastry and those lamentable quenelles of raspberry sorbet, one of which is behaving very badly and melting. I can hear you tutting as well.

I can also imagine some of you telling me to cut out my silly protesting and admit that it looks pretty good... and you would also be right!

So there is a half-decent photographic record of my efforts. For more, see this album under my 'PHOTOS' tab. But let's get to an important point here. Thoughtful presentation is a lovely thing but it really doesn't affect the flavour of food. Of course, your delivery will add an extra visual element but taking care to understand a recipe and pulling out all the stops with taste profiles before even thinking about appearance is surely the best approach. Each part of my dessert tasted pretty terrific. That's my assessment... thankfully it was backed up by three others.  

Choosing to attempt more complex recipes is going to present problems and will place demands on your patience. But, at whatever level you are cooking, the food you offer shouldn't be all about showing off. At the heart of things your efforts are giving an easily cracked coded message of love to special people in your life which tells them how much you think of them.  That approach starts to make even a difficult process as easy as pie. Or, if you prefer, tart.

It still tasted great when it looked like this!

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101 Things To Do Before Next Thursday: Number 4

101 TTDBNT: Number 4 - Make your own curry powder

It's still not Thursday, is it? And when Thursday does come around it still won't be NEXT Thursday, will it? No excuses then... you have all the time in the world. Wahey!

Mind you, this is such a simple treat to make that I wouldn't be surprised if you set to as soon as you've finished reading this.

I made one of Madhur Jaffrey's recipes from her 'Ultimate Curry Bible'. You can find the recipe here as well.

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Assemble your ingredients

There are a few yellow mustard seeds in with the brown. You could probably get away with using all of one or the other. Those chillies are a few from the cupboard where I store my jams, jellies, preserves and wine. When I want fresh chillies I always over-buy and string the excess on a wire hanging in that dark place. They are dry and crumbly enough after a couple of months.

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Dry roasted spices... your kitchen smells better than a freshly popped can of tennis balls

The dry roasting is best done in a pan which you can guarantee to clean well or it will taint future dishes. I keep an old wok dedicated to spices to avoid any such problem. Watch out during the grinding as well. Again, I reserve one of the four glass jars which attach to my electric blade grinder for spices alone.

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Let the 'Ruby' commence

I made three times the recipe's quantities which filled a 250g/8oz jar. Modify the ingredients, especially the chillies, and find a mix which suits. Never err too heavy on the turmeric or fenugreek delivery, though, as they can make things go from hot but fragrant to bitter and twisted.

Do try. The aromas as you heat the spices are nearly as terrific as the knowledge that you made this yourself.

I now feel the insatiable need to do something before next Thursday. Perhaps writing '101 Things To Do Before Next Thursday: Number 5' will satisfy me.