Try Next Year
What was in Jan's Pan?
February
Read on for a riot of chocolate, chandeliers, coffee and Chinese dragons, plus snowdrops, stews and soup to thaw your frosty feet.
You made it through January - congratulations! Dry January, veganuary, broken resolutions, gym memberships (already abandoned) can be pushed to one side, February here we come.
As February springs straight into action with my birthday and then swiftly onto Valentines day, I'm always happy to welcome it along (we all need a little love in our life). Mainly, as anyone who knows me, this is an excuse to celebrate all month if possible, with all my fellow Aquarians (all other star signs welcome to join the celebrations).
Talking of star signs, apparently I'm a Chinese water rabbit, and it looks to be a good year for us bunnies. That first weekend in the Capital saw Chinese new year celebrations welcoming the year of the Snake, with parades of Chinese dragons doing incredible acrobatic displays in Trafalgar Square and Chinatown.
It brought back memories of the time we took the boys to Chinatown when they were very young and introduced them to the new year celebrations with a meal at the infamous Wong Kei restaurant renowned as the rudest restaurant in Soho, but nevertheless a great one to start your appreciation of Chinese food. The service was as expected, with menu numbers scribbled on place mats, and dishes delivered abruptly and without ceremony. The food was exemplary as always, but every five minutes the door opened, and an imperial Chinese dragon threw in some lucky lettuce leaves with the associated banging and clattering, much to the consternation of two small boys intent on eating their noodles (the longer the luckier of course). Certainly a childhood memory the boys are unlikely to forget.
No Chinese food for us this year, but another unforgettable dining experience of a very different style. Our promised trip to the Georgian rooms at Harrods for a combined Christmas and Birthday treat for myself and Hub, courtesy of Cheffy Son. No less memorable, but certainly a very different dining experience. There are definite perks to having a chef de partie and a pastry chef in the family, especially when they are keen to show off their skills.
I also promised an update on the Great Taste Awards Coordinator workshop I was lucky enough to attend - a full day of chocolate and coffee tasting led by passionate experts. We were all buzzing afterwards, quite literally.........
The Guild of Fine Food has officially opened its Great Taste Awards judging for 2025, where small producers hope to gain the coveted Great Taste Stars endorsement for their lovingly crafted products.
My career has always involved sensory analysis in some format or other, but I have never quite experienced tasting like this. In my role as Coordinator, we may taste up to 30 products in one 4 hour sitting, discussing and assessing with fellow judges. I've always tasted like-for-like products blind and in solitude in the past, so in theory the Guild's method shouldn't work. But the process is so rigorous and thorough that only the most worthy products are given the prestigious 3 stars. My job is to capture that feedback to provide constructive criticism back to the producer, and having worked on all sides of the fence, that's no mean feat.
Luckily, the Guild of Fine Food sees the value of investing in sensory education for their tasters before the season starts, enlisting enthusiastic experts to talk about the language of taste. This time beans were the common denominator with a workshop on both coffee and chocolate.
Coffee connoisseur, Marcello Geraci kicked off the session at the Southwark Street offices, and his Sicilian passion for his subject was contagious.
I love good coffee, but more than one a day is enough for me, and that's usually a milky cappuccino, so I don't think that the life of a coffee taster is for me. So many variables affect the taste, such as growing, selecting, sourcing, roasting and grinding of coffee, down to how it's served. Bitterness in coffee can be due to the level of roast, and we learnt that coffee chains often use a blend with a high roast to standardise their coffees. All the more reason to support smaller independent coffee shops.
I'd happily be a chocolate taster though, and Spencer Hyman, co-founder of Cocoarunners, who source and supply craft chocolate, told us that 25% Brits eat chocolate every day, so I definitely qualify.
He taught us about the chocolate 'tasting wave', which involves assessing the 'snap' then allowing the chocolate to melt gently in the mouth to release the aromas and help to identify the balance, length, intensity and flavour (BLIC). We also learnt about the Bliss point - that perfect combination of fat, sugar and/or salt that producers aim for to make it almost impossible to stop eating something that tastes so good. Golden Arches, we know your game, but check out Pump Street Rye Crumb, Milk and Sea Salt 60% chocolate bar for a quality example of this.
This took me back to the time when my youngest, aged around four, put some chocolate in his mouth and when challenged, declared 'I’m not going to eat it - I just want to hold it in my mouth for safekeeping.' Clearly a chocolate addict in the making, but who knew he was such a flavour connoisseur at such an early age. These days he's far more likely to be guilty of wolfing down chocolate quickly (for fear someone else will get to it first) and for the sugar rush given by cheap chocolate, with the sweet stuff at the top of the ingredients list. Note that good craft chocolate only has 3-4 ingredients, a far cry from some mainstream chocolates.
More good news when we discovered that a small piece of chocolate after a meal can actually help digestion (I'm on it!). The taste receptors in our stomachs make way for a sweet hit, part of the phenomenon that is known as 'stimulus satiety'. No matter how full you may feel, there's always room for dessert - something we had first hand experience of at our epic birthday meal.
With the knowledge that Brits' average spend on chocolate is higher than that for music and books combined, I'll leave you to imagine how much I have in the house as a music loving bibliophile....
It's not just the food but a sum of its parts. The ambience, the company, the service - even where you are seated and how comfortable you feel. Our birthday treat at The Georgian at Harrods ticked all the boxes - glamour, fabulous food that you definitely wouldn't recreate at home and special service in the company of close family.
Our meal was spectacular, and we tried almost everything on the menu. It's such a glamorous room, with crystal chandeliers, a pianist, double bass and singer playing contemporary songs in a classic style - all very Bridgerton. We sat in one of the semi-circular booths which allowed us to enjoy our meal in comfort on the pink velvet banquettes, and kicked off with a glass of champagne. We soaked this up with the sourdough served with two perfect spheres of butters - the marmite, black treacle and walnut was far too moreish for its own good. I made the schoolgirl error of ordering another basket of the bread (far too delicious) as I hadn't anticipated just how much more was to come....
We tried one each of the starters that our very own Chef de Partie is responsible for; he went on to regale us with tales of the quantities of crabs he has to hand-pick for the delectable Devonshire carb tart, and copious quantities of quails eggs to cook and shell perfectly for the smoked haddock scotch egg. He's perfected the pate en croute, a gala pie style terrine of rabbit, taught by consultant chef Calum Franklin himself, the king of pies.
As pies are the house speciality, we shared 'the Georgian Pie' with its golden 'G', filled with tender lamb, served with ratatouille, anchovy tempura and sweetbreads. Along with side orders of whipped pomme puree, crispy French fries with rosemary salt, grilled hispi cabbage and marinated beetroot salad (my personal favourite).
Thank heavens the phenomenon that is 'stimulus satiety' kicked in when our resident Pastry Chef insisted we try every one of the desserts she creates, which includes their signature chocolate dessert.
The intricate chocolate shell is cut to reflect the art deco ceiling domes where three glorious chandeliers hang. Unlike the dessert, which is designed to be smashed to reveal a chocolate mousse with a yuzu and praline confit centre to die for, this was the last thing in mind for the chandeliers. Designed to slowly rotate, during its installation one unwound itself and, according to our inside sources, crashed to the ground in a Del Boy style moment. A rather expensive technical hitch at a cost of half a million pounds each, so I'm told that they now remain strictly static.....
But there were more desserts to try, including the services of the 'Trifle Waiter' whose sole purpose is to layer our treat at the table according to our wishes (perhaps 'Trifle Genie' is more apt?), plus sauce-laden sticky toffee pudding and the lemon tart topped with the most delicately crisp tuiles.
Then, as if we hadn't eaten nearly enough, both Hub and I were presented with 'Happy Birthday' plates featuring some of the morsels served at afternoon tea - a pistachio choux and a slice of chocolate mouse cake.
All was washed down with mint tea - no wafer thin mints here thankfully, for fear of a Mr Creosote moment (if you know you know...)
We were treated to a tour of the kitchen - much smaller than you'd expect considering the intracacy and quantity of food that is created there daily.
Overall, I'd call the food 'elevated English' - with its traditional fayre of perfect pies, and classic puddings. I was struck by how many of the photos I'd taken of the food looked brown (pastry, gravy, puddings), but the attention to detail and flavour combinations make this a cut above. It's a meal worthy of a special treat, and affordable if you don't go quite as mad as we did (the joy of staff discount and extras from the kitchen). There are deals and offers to be had too, if you look in the right places. I definitely plan to sample the Afternoon tea when I finally have room (£75 per head, pricey, but not unreasonable for London venues, and I'm told to expect an afternoon tea like no other with plenty of theatre at the table).
If you want to make someone feel a million dollars, and as sparkly as the chandeliers, then this is definitely one for your wish list (magic lamp not included.....).
Beef and Mushroom Stew with Horseradish Scrumplings
February means that snowdrops are just starting to peek through the ground to check if the coast is clear, and one place to see them in all their glory is Harlow's Gibberd Garden, somewhere that's been on my list to visit for some time.
This is the home of Sir Frederick Gibberd, the town planner and architect who prepared the master plan for Harlow new town in 1946. The Grade II listed garden is the perfect place to view snowdrops amongst the sculptures he collected and curated. Back in the day, new residents extoled the virtues of two dancehalls, a cinema and coffee shops. I wonder what he would would make of Harlow now, with coffee shops two a penny, and its urban sprawl almost as far out as his bolthole, and a new motorway junction passing close by.
I visited on a soggy Sunday, so a slow cooked beef stew was just the thing to throw into the pot to simmer away while I was out. The rather fine homemade soup and cakes in the Barn cafe kept us warm in the meantime, between snowdrop sightings.
I used 250g meat and made it go further with plenty of carrots, leeks and mushrooms. Quantities aren't important here, just add what you veg have. I dusted the meat with seasoned flour to help thicken the sauce then covered them with stock full of lots of rich flavour. I soaked some dried porcini, along with some concentrated mushroom and red wine stocks. Marmite and miso are also make good stock options if you have them to hand in your store cupboard. I added a big dollop of wholegrain mustard, covered the meat and veg in the stock and left it to do its magic for around 8 hours on medium.
Half an hour before we were ready to eat I added in these horseradish dumplings.
Dumplings are usually made with suet, which makes them very easy to whip up (assuming you have suet to hand), but this can easily be replaced by stirring in some grated butter instead. They're known as scrumplings in our house, as these are more like a cross between a scone and a dumpling, and frankly, just because they are scrumptuous.
Just bring the mix together with your hands to make a soft dough. Add fresh herbs if you'd like. Take small handfuls and roll into balls and drop into the stew to steam.
Horseradish Scrumplings
200g self raising flour
100g cold butter, grated
2 tbsp horseradish sauce
2-3tbsp milk
seasoning
Add to the stew and cook for the last half hour until they are set, soft and pillowy.
The perfect end to a cold, damp, wintery February day.
Carrot, coriander and ginger soup
I'm still experimenting with my air fryer. As it's a single drawer, I agree with my brother-in-law that it's less easy to cook a whole meal in it, without switching the oven on or using the hob, but it can still earn its place in the kitchen.
It's particularly good for roasting veg quickly, to add extra flavour to curries or soups.
Here I made a carrot and coriander soup, with carrots roasted with coriander seeds and my new discovery that is air fried roast garlic. Just put a couple of unpeeled cloves into a twist of foil with some olive oil, and pop it in to soften as the veg roast. Then squeeze the soft golden flesh out onto the veg, or alternatively spread it onto toast for garlic bread.
To make my soup more flavoursome, I made a vegetable stock in a pan on the hob, simmering some soft sad carrots, leftover trimmed leek tops and a couple of bay leaves, along with peppercorns, star anise and a knob of ginger in plenty of water.
Once the carrots were roasted I strained the stock but saved the softened ginger and combined this with the carrots and squeezed garlic then whizzed it together with my hand blender.
I'd say that the carrots could be softer, but don't burn them, so cook for slightly longer on a lower temperature rather than a high roast for maximum colour, say 180C for 15mins
I'm not entirely sure that the settings on the air fryer (ie roast, bake, crisp) make a lot of difference, as it's the same cooking principle for all, just different starting temperatures.
But I can confirm that I have now tried the dehydration function and it gave me beautifully crisp apple rings in around 7 hours. Ideal to set off before bedtime, and it switches off by breakfast in time to add to my granola - perfect timing.
Gosh, how can the shortest month have been quite so jam-packed and eventful. It's been quite the rollercoaster, with highs and lows we really hadn't bargained for.
It started well, with birthday celebrations, theatre and dinner treats, plus the annual Great Taste workshop (hello Crunchy crickets) and Chai & infusions tasting (pass me the magic mushroom broth), all crammed in to the first week or two. We sent Student Son off on his travels to the other side of the world, as he began his big adventure to study in New Zealand, complete with a journey to the airport that was the stuff of nightmares (he made his flight, but no thanks to the rain, rush hour traffic and Sussex potholes).
We enjoyed the heavenly combination of pancake day and Chinese new year as they fell together on the same day. We indulged in both sweet and savoury pancakes (rude not to - see March 2025 archive for my sweet pancake recipes). Not one to miss out, Student Son introduced his new American and New Zealand flatmates to the concept of pancakes for Shrove Tuesday within a week of arriving. And the lunar new year was a good excuse for a spread of crispy duck and appetisers to celebrate the Chinese year of the fire horse with its promise of progress and fast paced change for all.
Then of course there was Valentine’s day to squeeze in, so we shared the love at our local pub, the Millstream, for their special menu in their cosy garden cabins.
And then the month came to a close with a sad and unexpected farewell to our much-loved Dad, as he slipped away quietly without a fuss, just a week before his 93rd birthday on the 3rd March.
But as he would say 'nothing to see here, carry on as before', and so I must, and I am dedicating this month to the most wonderful, kindest, cleverest, most positive, supportive and generous father a girl could ever wish for - you're the best. Sleep tight, Dad, and give our love to Mum.
Great Taste Coordinators Workshop.
We always kick the month off with a Coordinator workshop in preparation for the Great Taste tastings from February through to June. This means a trip to Southwark Street on the outskirts of Borough Market. My first stop is usually at Maria's for a piping hot cappuccino to combat the cold of the outdoor seating in the middle of the market.
This year we had some fascinating speakers, AJ Sharp of Sharp Communications, and Eleanor Ford, author of four spice books including the 'Nutmeg Trail'. We are sometimes asked to taste and assess whole spices for the star awards and she shared her knowledge and expertise to help with descriptors when judging and recording comments. We were also blown away by her 'rice puddings of the world' map - who knew such a simple pudding varied from country to country with just subtle changes of spice, from a Jamaican version with allspice, rum and raisins to chocolate and dried salted fish in the Philippines!
AJ Sharp has a great overview of the business, and her presentation 'Opening minds, expanding palates', did exactly what it said on the tin. We talked about food trends and innovations and had the joy of tasting foods for the future: cheese tea or chocolate seaweed anyone? We sampled crunchy teriyaki crickets - reminiscent of prawns, and protein-rich, the teriyaki flavour made them no different from any other crunchy snack. Mushroom coffee is big everywhere too at the moment - reputed to help cognitive and immune functions as well as inflamation - a truly 'magic' ingredient. It certainly popped up again in various guises for the chai and infusions tasting I coordinated later in the month.
Part of the benefit of entering the Awards is to provide feedback to the suppliers to help them to develop their products and hopefully attain that revered set of 3 stars. This means that as Coordinators we need to write positive constructive comments and we're told that we should not write anything we wouldn't say to the producer's face, so Anna May, a seasoned judge and editor of the judges’ feedback, gave us an update on the best way to present the information. According to her, 58% of consumers recognise the Great Taste Logo and understand it represents trustworthy, quality products that deliver on flavour. Everywhere you look you can find the prestigious stars, and with the rigorous testing you can guarantee a quality product. There’s a phenomenal 14,500 products vying for stars this year so we’ve our work cut out. Bring on the tasting!
Sea Bass with sweet potato and vinegar peppers a la Hawksmoor
One of my birthday treats was to see Moulin Rouge the musical (for the third time - it's a must see spectacular Spectacular, so see it if you Can Can Can). We went to the Hawksmoor in Air Street for their good value set lunch, 2 courses for £23. Despite its' reputation as a steak restaurant (their bone marrow gravy is a must), they do offer a fish dish on the menu, and that day we chose the hake with vinegar peppers and charred sweet potato. It was so good that I replicated it at home using sea bass fillets for a very easy weekend dinner treat for hub and I - suitably spectacular but minimum effort.
Sea bream or sea bass fillets take minutes to cook, and are readily available in supermarkets, or ask your friendly fishmonger to fillet the fish for you. My local, Clayton's fishmonger, sadly closed a good while back due to retirement, but there continues to be a regular stall on the market to keep us in fresh fish from Billingsgate.
The vinegar peppers are a form of peperonata, with soft sweet, stewed peppers. The addition of capers gives that salty acidity, and rather floral flavour that is not to everyone's taste but adds piquancy and lifts the soft sweet peppers along with a sharpness from the vinegar.
Halve a large sweet potato and bake at 220C/200Cfan/Gas 7 for 15-20mins until softened.
Meanwhile, cook 1 yellow and 1 red sliced pepper and 1 sliced onion with a clove or 2 of garlic in a good splash of olive oil over a medium heat for 5-10mins - you want to soften but not colour them.
Add in the capers and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, then pop the lid on and let the mixture steam and soften allowing the flavours to mingle for a further 5-10 minutes.
When almost ready to eat, heat a splash of oil in your frying pan on high heat. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides. Add the fillets to the pan skin-side down and leave to cook for 3-4 mins. Once the skin is crisp and golden, carefully turn and cook the flesh for another 1-2 mins until the flesh is cooked through.
Heat a dry pan or griddle pan until hot and char the cut surface of the sweet potato to colour, then serve with the peppers alongside the fish with some steamed kale sprinkled with toasted almonds.
As Harold Zidler would say - everything's going so well!!!
EASIEST EVER RED PEPPER & LENTIL SOUP
with leftover bread croutons
Serves 2-4
Makes approx 1 litre
Prep 10mins
Cook 10-20 mins
1 x 390g tin lentils in water
1 large or 2 small red peppers, halved, deseeded and chopped into bite-sized pieces
4 medium fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
400ml water or vegetable stock
For the croutons
a drizzle of oil
any leftover bread, roughly torn into cubes
· Tip the contents of the tin, the lentils and their water, into a medium-sized pan
· Add the peppers and tomatoes to the pan
· Pour over the water or stock (fill the empty tin to the top to measure 400ml )
· Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the pepper has softened and the tomato breaks down
· Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add any other flavourings here if you have them (see tips below)
· Serve it chunky, or lightly mash everything together with a fork to thicken the soup. If you have a hand blender or processor you can blend it until it is smooth.
· To make the croutons heat the oil in a pan over a medium-high heat. Add the cubes of bread and fry until crisp and golden
· Serve with the hot soup straight away.
The soup will keep for a day in the fridge and can be reheated.
Recipe Tips
· If you don’t have any stock cubes a teaspoon of Marmite adds extra flavour
· Add a tablespoon of tomato puree or tomato ketchup for extra flavour if you have it
· Use a tin of chopped tomatoes instead of the fresh tomatoes if you prefer
· If you have dried red lentils use 150g and cook in 525ml liquid with the tomatoes and pepper for 15-20 minutes until cooked through
· Sprinkle over some herbs or sliced spring onions if you have them
· If you have a toaster or grill, use this to brown slices of bread then cut or tear into cubes
· Alternatively, cut a crusty baguette into cubes and drop straight into the soup
Beef and Mushroom Stew with Horseradish Scrumplings
February means that snowdrops are just starting to peek through the ground to check if the coast is clear, and one place to see them in all their glory is Harlow's Gibberd Garden, somewhere that's been on my list to visit for some time.
This is the home of Sir Frederick Gibberd, the town planner and architect who prepared the master plan for Harlow new town in 1946. The Grade II listed garden is the perfect place to view snowdrops amongst the sculptures he collected and curated. Back in the day, new residents extoled the virtues of two dancehalls, a cinema and coffee shops. I wonder what he would would make of Harlow now, with coffee shops two a penny, and its urban sprawl almost as far out as his bolthole, and a new motorway junction passing close by.
I visited on a soggy Sunday, so a slow cooked beef stew was just the thing to throw into the pot to simmer away while I was out. The rather fine homemade soup and cakes in the Barn cafe kept us warm in the meantime, between snowdrop sightings.
I used 250g meat and made it go further with plenty of carrots, leeks and mushrooms. Quantities aren't important here, just add what you veg have. I dusted the meat with seasoned flour to help thicken the sauce then covered them with stock full of lots of rich flavour. I soaked some dried porcini, along with some concentrated mushroom and red wine stocks. Marmite and miso are also make good stock options if you have them to hand in your store cupboard. I added a big dollop of wholegrain mustard, covered the meat and veg in the stock and left it to do its magic for around 8 hours on medium.
Half an hour before we were ready to eat I added in these horseradish dumplings.
Dumplings are usually made with suet, which makes them very easy to whip up (assuming you have suet to hand), but this can easily be replaced by stirring in some grated butter instead. They're known as scrumplings in our house, as these are more like a cross between a scone and a dumpling, and frankly, just because they are scrumptuous.
Just bring the mix together with your hands to make a soft dough. Add fresh herbs if you'd like. Take small handfuls and roll into balls and drop into the stew to steam.
Horseradish Scrumplings
200g self raising flour
100g cold butter, grated
2 tbsp horseradish sauce
2-3tbsp milk
seasoning
Add to the stew and cook for the last half hour until they are set, soft and pillowy.
The perfect end to a cold, damp, wintery February day.
Carrot, coriander and ginger soup
I'm still experimenting with my air fryer. As it's a single drawer, I agree with my brother-in-law that it's less easy to cook a whole meal in it, without switching the oven on or using the hob, but it can still earn its place in the kitchen.
It's particularly good for roasting veg quickly, to add extra flavour to curries or soups.
Here I made a carrot and coriander soup, with carrots roasted with coriander seeds and my new discovery that is air fried roast garlic. Just put a couple of unpeeled cloves into a twist of foil with some olive oil, and pop it in to soften as the veg roast. Then squeeze the soft golden flesh out onto the veg, or alternatively spread it onto toast for garlic bread.
To make my soup more flavoursome, I made a vegetable stock in a pan on the hob, simmering some soft sad carrots, leftover trimmed leek tops and a couple of bay leaves, along with peppercorns, star anise and a knob of ginger in plenty of water.
Once the carrots were roasted I strained the stock but saved the softened ginger and combined this with the carrots and squeezed garlic then whizzed it together with my hand blender.
I'd say that the carrots could be softer, but don't burn them, so cook for slightly longer on a lower temperature rather than a high roast for maximum colour, say 180C for 15mins
I'm not entirely sure that the settings on the air fryer (ie roast, bake, crisp) make a lot of difference, as it's the same cooking principle for all, just different starting temperatures.
But I can confirm that I have now tried the dehydration function and it gave me beautifully crisp apple rings in around 7 hours. Ideal to set off before bedtime, and it switches off by breakfast in time to add to my granola - perfect timing.