David in the kitchen.

First breakfast inParis

The first breakfast in Paris lived up to all of our expectations of the city. Breakfast had been included in the place the were staying at but instead we opted to venture out and explore. A chance to sit at a street side cafe in the Latin Quarter and watch the world go by was too good an opportunity to miss.

The scent of the freshly brewed, wonderfully strong coffee. The rustle of the crisp croissants as you broke them. This what we’d imagined about Paris and this was what Paris was delivering.

It would have been very easy to stay at that table and let breakfast become mid morning then become lunch, but in Paris there’s always another cafe just around the corner.

Coffeeshops

I spend a lot of time in coffeeshops. There’s something about them that I find quite addictive. I know they’re feeding my coffee habit but it’s more than just that.

A good coffeeshop is a cocoon where you can sit for hours pondering and watching the world go by. It’s a meeting point, a social hub, but also somewhere that the lone drinkers is happy to sit. A bit like me as I sit writing this. Perhaps I’m being fanciful but they always seem to have a slightly creative buzz about them to me.

Recent years have seen a plethora of new ones open. It almost feels as if we are going back to the time when coffeeshops were more important than pubs. Initially it was the coffee chains popping up but now even the smallest towns seem to have interesting independent places. I know that if I’m travelling anywhere prior knowledge of the local coffee scene is always part of the planning.

As the blog progresses I will write more about the world of coffee, think of this as an espresso ahead of some longer drinks.

The photo below was taken at the table in the Bread Source coffeeshop in Norwich where I wrote this.

Baking Bread

So you’ve reached the point when the bread goes into the oven.. You’ve mixed, you’ve kneaded , you’ve proved and now there’s nothing more that you can do. The tray has gone in, the timers set and it’s fingers crossed.

Making bread always feels like a strange mix of baking at both it’s easiest and it’s most difficult. You look at the ingredients required and what could be simpler ? At its most basic you’re talking flour, salt, yeast and some liquid, even when you start to get more adventurous it doesn’t go much beyond that. But as anyone who’s tried will tell you there is much more to it that that.

For most baking, and come to that most cooking, you know what your ingredients are going to do when you mix them. Of course there will be the occasional failure or disappointing result but fundamentally you know what is going on. Somehow baking bread just isn’t like that.

You can mix that same quantities of flour, yeast, salt and liquid but you are never sure that you are going to get the same dough as you made last time. It doesn’t matter if you knead to exactly the same patterns and prove to exactly the same times there is always something just beyond your control.

Whether you use fresh or dried yeast you have to remember that once activated it’s a live thing and won’t always react the same way.

I know that some cooks find that to be that thing that puts them off bread making. For me I think it’s one of the great attractions and part of what keeps bringing me back to it.

#That and the fact that whatever the finished bread might look like you just know that it’d going to make the kitchen smell wonderful.

My grandmother’s food.

Some of my earliest food memories are from trips to my grandmothers. Nana in my mum’s case and Grandma for my dad. Both grandads were there but somehow I don’t think either of them would have had anything to do with what was coming out of the kitchen.

Grandma was a big forceful lady, both physically and personality wise.

“Give Grandma a hug” was always boomed out as soon as we arrived. Quickly followed with “Oh haven’t you grown”

To be honest I think I always found her a little bit scary as a child, but when she fed you the whole world changed.

She’d had lots of practice, bringing up four boys, and always seemed to have something ready to serve.

My grandfather was a coal miner and they lived in a house rented from the Coal Board. They used to get deliveries of coal that would be tipped on the pavement, grandad would then have to shovel and wheelbarrow it to the coal shed. Any trip that coincided with a coal delivery was an added bonus as I got to help and also to get quite spectacularly dirty.

Grandma didn’t approve, but “do you want to help then?” from grandad was all the encouragement i needed.

I think grandma had an oven in the kitchen, but the main one was built into the coal fire in the front room. That possibly conjures images of an Aga but it wasn’t as grand as that. What it does mean is that the aroma of roasting meats and potatoes filled the house and you never went to the table anything less than starving.

It wasn’t just the Sunday roasts. I remember sweet and sticky coconut haystacks, rich fruit scones and perfect egg custards with just a hint of nutmeg. To this day any egg custard is compared to grandma’s and is always found wanting.

A visit to Nana’s was different.

It started at the front door with a big kiss and “Hello ducky” in her wonderful Berkshire accent. From the word go you were enveloped in grandmotherly love.

But the biggest difference was at the table. Nana loved to cook and there was always plenty for us but even at a young age i knew she was no Grandma.

I think I once told her about Grandma’s egg custard and on our next visit she proudly produced one that she’d made. One spoonful in I found jam in the middle and all enthusiasm waned . I hope I hid my disappointment but i’m not so sure that i did.

To this day i struggle with rhubarb and blame Nana for that. Grandad had been diagnosed as diabetic and they claimed that doctors had told him that rhubarb was the only sweet thing he could eat. As a result it went into pies, crumbles, cakes and purees . By the end of a stay you were sick of the sight of it.

Two very different grandmothers but lots of good memories.

Why I’m Doing This

Writing about food is something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. I’ve hummed and hawed, procrastinated and prevaricated but finally I’m sitting down at the keyboard and making a start on doing it.

I want to cover all aspects of what i think of as my food adventures. The joy of a recipe that works, and of course the disappointment of one that doesn’t. The excitement of discovering a new cookbook or a restaurant that you’ve never been to before. Finding a new ingredient that you have never tasted or tried before. Memories about moments in life when food was involved. In fact anything that can be related in some way, shape or form to food.

The joys of cooking, and particularly baking, are a fairly recent revelation to me. Up until about six years ago food was always something that someone else produced and I just did the eating

I can link the change to one pivotal moment. It was watching an episode of Rachel Khoo’s Little Paris Kitchen on TV. Rachel made croque madame muffins and they looked gorgeous.

Croque’s had always been a favourite on French holidays and the next day I decided I was going to make them. Armed with the ingredients and a copy of the recipe I ventured into the kitchen.

Thankfully they were a relatively straight forward task for a novice and the finished muffins tasted every bit as good as I hoped they would.

With that I was off and have never stopped baking since. I love the fact that i can produce things that not only I enjoy but also that I can share them with other people.

I know I’ve still got lots to learn, in fact I hope that there’s always something new to learn. But in the mean time I’m having fun.

Welcome to My New Food Blog

Food Adventures,Food Memories & Food Thoughts

The beginning

This is the first post on my new blog. A blog where I want to cover all things food related. I’m going to look to update on a regular basis and things I want to cover include..

Why I cook

What I cook

When I cook

Food thoughts

Food memories

Food adventures

Coffeeshops

Restaurants

Cookery books & magazines

Food photography

Successes & failures, likes & dislikes

The kitchen, the garden…and probably a whole bunch of other things as well.

So stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.