eatori

My perfect brownie (for Ascot)

06:49 PM, June 23, 2012 |

I’m a sucker for a horserace.

I hate to gamble. I’m not a huge one for picnics. There’s nothing worse than coming to the end of a day and seeing girls with too many glasses of cheap fizz down their gullet, feather head fixings all askew and slingbacks dangling from their fingers.

But there are few things that make my eyes water like beautiful horses surging at full clap. In the lands of fiction, Seabiscuit and Secretariat have both reduced me to a blubbering mess.

This morning it’s all about Black Caviar, the Australian mare We’re off to Ascot. Us and 5000 other antipodeans in London and who have flown to the other …

Frozen cherry souffle

02:38 AM, June 23, 2012 |

berries, dessert, Granny's recipes, ice cream, Seasonal menu

The notion of a frozen cherry souffle calls forth images of butterflies, gambolling through sun deckled woods and women who have possibly been dressed by bluebirds. It’s a fantasy of a dish, most probably dreamed up on a very cold winter’s day.

It’s very title is a promise of summer. Frozen treats, fresh cherries and a buoyant rise in a pudding.

I’m sure this is exactly what my grandmother had in mind when she listed it as dessert in her fantasy June menu, way back in 1937.

Except for the fact that Granny’s recipe took me to a very strange place. In order to ensure the vibrant rosebud red of her iced souffles, …

Duck with roast apple sauce

03:02 AM, June 22, 2012 |

chicken, feeding a crowd, gluten free, Granny's recipes, hazelnuts, Seasonal menu

Roast duck is not something I’ll often serve for supper. I’d cast it off as too rich. Too fatty. Too temperamental. Too… much.

The last time I ordered roast duck was in Prague. It was either the bird, or half a pig. I thought I’d end up with a modest portion of poultry which I could pick at while shovelling more bread dumplings down my throat. What arrived was half an adolescent duck. It was as if it had been put through a log shredder- straight down the centre. I ate about a third of it. The Hungry One offered to help, but was up to his elbows in a …