The Pantry in Hazlemere

I HAD quite possibly one of the best sandwiches I have ever tried at The Pantry in Hazlemere. It has been opened for about a year and I have kept meaning to go, so when my friend, Rachel came to stay we headed up there.

It's got a really nice feel to it, with young, helpful staff and nice wooden tables and bright colours. There was a lovely display of cakes but I stuck to the sandwich selection.

I had the beef, caramelised onion, aoili sandwich served in focaccia bread. The beef was lovely- perfectly cooked, soft and tender- none of this processed rubbish. And the combination of the sweet caramelised onions and not over powering aoili worked wonderfully together. The bread was also fresh and well done. All for £5.95 and beautifully presented on a wooden board.

Rachel went for the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel (£4.95), which was also excellently done.

The next day we went to the Cedar Coffee Shop in Marlow and again it was brilliant. I had the chicken, bacon and avocado brown baguette. It was presented so beautifully- so much care and attention had gone into the presentation. And to top it off it tasted great with fresh ingredients. The Chai Latte was also really good- sweeter than usual and better than the chains. This cost about £8, which was reasonable. Rach went for the home made soup, which was also lovely, and served with a home made baguette.

I would thoroughly recommend both.

Lovely puds!

I DO enjoy cooking a nice pudding or two. As I get older I get even more of a sweet tooth and I always hanker after something sweet after dinner. So when a family event comes along it is a great excuse to get cooking. In this case it was my mum's birthday.
I decided to cook a coconut meringue roulade and lemon curd cream and raspberries, a Victoria sponge and as there would be little kids I went for a chocolate and cola cake too.
It ended up being a strawberry and lemon roulade as the raspberries were sold out- but it was easy to make and for once my meringue worked. Think the trick is to do it very quickly.
The roulade is from Bake by Rachel Allen.

Tia with the three egg Victoria sponge

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
50g desiccated coconut
For the filling:
100 to 150ml of double cream, lightly whipped
150ml lemon or lime curd
250 to 300g fresh or frozen raspberries
To decorate:
Icing sugar, for dusting
Fresh raspberries
Fresh mint leaves

23 x 33cm Swiss roll tin

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, 350F, gas mark 4. Line the in with foil. Brush lightly with vegetable oil.
2. Place in the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl and whisk with an electric beater until soft peaks form.
3. Add the sugar in stages and whisk at full speed for about four to five minutes until stiff peaks form. Using a large metal spoon fold in the cocounut.
4. Smooth into the tin with a palette knife and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until faintly browned and firm to the touch.
5. Allow the meringue to cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a sheet of foil, deftly turning it upside down on the sheet and gently removing the foil base. Allow to cool completely.
6. For the filling stir the cream and curd together.Adjust to taste.
7. Spread it on the meringue evenly and leave the long edge nearest to you free of cream for 4cm. Cover the cream with fruit.
8. Holding the foil closest to you roll up the roulade away from you and leave it in the foil until ready to serve.
9. When ready unwrap and push it gently onto a plate.
10. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with strawberries and mint leaves, if you want.

The cherry and chocolate cake was from James Martin Desserts book. Interestingly the link below is slightly different to the book. The book had 50ml less of cola in the cake and 75ml less of milk. The topping also had 40g less of butter. I can really see that these added extras will improve the cake as it was a tad dry. The gooey sauce really finished it off.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolatecolacake_7614

A great evening supper: salmon and black bean tacos

THIS is a quick and easy weekday supper, which is also healthy. It's also a great way to use salmon and something slightly different. I love the salty goodness of tacos so this is a pefect combination for me. It's from the February edition of Olive magazine, which does a really varied and accessible selection of recipes.

Ingredients:

2 skinless fillets of salmon

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp of chipotle paste- I bought mine from Tesco

small 200g tin of black beans. Rinsed and drained. I bought these from Tesco- they are in the world food section.

A handful of chopped coriander leaves
6 chopped cherry tomatoes

1 lime, half juiced, half in wedges

4 taco shells.

Put the salmon in a heatproof dish. Mix the chipotle and 1tsp of cumin, season and rub all over the salmon. Grill for five minutes until cooked through. ( I cooked mine for a little longer).

Toss the beans with the coriander, cherry tomatoes, lime juiece and the rest of the cumin. Season, then spoon into the tacos with chunks of the salmon. Serve with wedges of lime to squeeze over.