Pasta Minchia

 

LEFTOVER ROAST DUCK 

PLUS

 

PLUM GUMBO

EQUALS

 

PASTA MINCHIA 

I recently took a trip to Liguria Italy where I met many lovely people and learned many things...mainly mangia, mangia, mangia and aperitivo, aperitivo, aperitivo. Wherever I travel I love investigating food markets, supermarkets and studying local ingredients and specialties. This trip included introductions to Ligurian olive oil, pasta, fresh seafood, bruschetta, spritzi, delicious fruit and cheese as well as stoccafisso, of which I will blog about at a later date once I have developed photos that I took on my Fish Eye camera.  I had brought some Plum Gumbo as a gift to those who I stayed with and mentioned that it goes extremely well with duck.  The citrus overtones, walnuts and sultanas just work wonderfully with duck.  They noted that they do use duck in their cooking but are more apt to use it in the colder months.  When I came back to London I was really craving duck which is one of my favourite meats to roast.  I ended up roasting a duck and had enough left over for sandwiches and then some.  Thinking of ideas of what to do with the remaining leftovers I came up with a duck recipe that I have christened Pasta Minchia.  I am aware that it may not be the most polite of recipe names as "minchia" is an Italian word of some profanity, but I think it fits and I'm quite keen to learn of Italy and its many ranges from polite to vulgar and back again.  So I give you Pasta Minchia:

Leftover duck meat or duck breast
500-600g Tagliatelle
Several cloves of garlic
1 Leek
2 Tbsp Smy Chutney plum gumbo
Generous amount of double cream
Parmesan cheese
Ligurian olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

The above recipe is for two and is very easy.  If you don't fancy roasting a duck first then take one or two duck breasts (really I think one would give you sufficient meat) rub some olive oil, salt and pepper into both sides of the duck and heat a pan to a really high temperature and put the skin side down until it is nice and crisp, about 4-5 minutes.  Turn the breast and grill that for 4-5 minutes, remove from the pan and then slice the breast thinly or chop as desired.  You may find that they duck is a bit undercooked but you will be returning it to the pan shortly.  The recipe gets going rather quickly so you can put your pasta on cooking a bit earlier or now depending on your own pace.  If you have roasted your duck and are using leftover meat you will want to heat some olive oil in a pan or you can use the duck fat if you have just roasted a breast and gently fry your thinly sliced garlic making sure to not let it brown. Add your leeks and get those going and then add in the duck making sure to either heat up the leftover meat or get your cooked duck breast to the right temperature without overcooking them.  Then add in your double cream and cook for just a few minutes.  Once your pasta is ready and drained you can add your duck, leek and garlic sauce and simultaneously add in 1 or 2 Tbsp of Plum Gumbo depending on your taste.  Stir together well, season as necessary, top with grated parmesan cheese and serve.  I am really pleased with this creation and I expect that as we creep into duck and Plum Gumbo season that this will be in regular rotation in my kitchen.  Why not try it in yours?

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

Twin Bananas

Behold the twin bananas that I discovered today whilst making a batch of banana and date chutney! I've photographed them next to a standard banana but they were totally smooth on each side.  They were hiding underneath a small bunch of individual bananas and I gasped as I saw them and turned them over and around, looking at them from all their angles.  The twin hemispheres of my brain were working rather fast but they were slightly confused until they determined, yes - it was a banana but as my hands prodded them I could feel two distinct bananas, twin bananas under one peel.  If they were a hardier fruit I might have thought about keeping them around a bit longer but I'm funny about my bananas, twins or no twins, and these two were already teetering on the wrong edge of how I like to eat and/or use them for my banana & date chutney.  I was obviously wondering if they are a rare or common phenomenon and was planning to take to Twitter to find out but thought I would need photographic evidence.  Had I not lost my camera last month I would have made a video...but please do not get me started on that or the fact that I also lost my Smy Chutney notebook in the same evening, alas, it could have been worse.  But back to the twins, I felt like little Phoebe here and eerily had an almost identical conversation to the one that she has below:

There are lots of images of other twin bananas and even a query on yahoo asking, "Will a pregnant mother give birth to twins if she eats twin bananas? If she splits them behind her back, will she still have twins? Please include research. :)" I do not think this blog constitutes research for or against twin bananas having the power to banana split an embryo into twins, I would think that research is not actually necessary so moving on.

Here are my twin bananas sans peel, just before they were chopped up and sacrificed to a batch of banana and date chutney and as @EllieBry stated, "it was a sacrifice any decent banana would make."

 

I salute you twin bananas, thank you for the memories and I look forward to spreading you on ham and cheese sandwiches.

 and remember:

What a Lovely Birthday Card!

 

Words cannot express how much I love this birthday card that my lovely friend Emma sent me for my birthday....thanks Emma!!!

 

and remember...

it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.


please follow Smy Chutney on facebook and twitter...

Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party - Saturday 30th July 2011

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be asked to be involved in the Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party at the Avo Hotel Dalston.  Lots of care and planning went into an amazing day which saw over £400 being raised for Marie Curie which will help this brilliant charity continue with its work.  Delicious food and drink were donated and prepared by generous businesses and lots of locals came out to enjoy cups of tea, sandwiches and the cakes and other goodies that were available.  The weather cooperated and everyone was in high spirits and feeling good.  Here are just a few photos from the day, apologies on the quality but I lost my handbag the previous weekend which had my camera in it:

 This is only some of all the donated food and drink.

 My lemon curd cupcakes (curdcakes somehow sounds wrong...) and my chocolate and six-pepper jelly cupcakes.  They were very well received!

Strawberry & pineapple jam standing at the ready to be teamed with homemade scones and cream!

Lots of amazing individuals and businesses were involved in this day including:

Avo Dalston Hotel

Boulevard Catering

Juno Says Hello

Rosy Lee Tea

NikoB Chocolates

Vegan Peasant

Borough Wines

Scipmylo

Beyond Thrilled

Mary's Tea Parties

and me,

Smy Chutney

(apologies for anyone that I have not included!)

You can see more photos by checking out the Avo Hotel Dalston's Facebook Marie Curie event photos.

Click on the link to find out more about Marie Curie Cancer Care or if would like to donate to the cause.

  and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

Hollie's Raspberry and Lemon Curd Birthday Cake

Here are some photos of the lovely Hollie's birthday...which was 17th June... and they are lovely so I wanted to share them.  Hollie is a massive Smy Chutney fan as well as a really good friend.  Another dear friend Aimee made Hollie's beautiful birthday cake using Smy lemon curd and raspberries:

and remember...

it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.


please follow Smy Chutney on facebook and twitter...

Orford Food - Part 1

There are famous eateries in Orford including the Butley Orford Oysterage, Richardson's Smokehouse and now Pump Street Bakery. The commitment to local, seasonal and quality ingredients are natural elements of country living, “sustainability” isn’t a trendy buzz-word, it’s just what you do. I’ve always thought that the village isn’t behind the times but far ahead of the times. The village is also teeming with history and an appreciation for crafts, more of that to come in future posts. Although I haven’t spent my entire life in the village it has influenced my entire life and all the decisions that I have made.

On my recent trip I was very excited to stop into Pump Street Bakery as I have been tweeting with them for quite awhile now (@pumpstbakery) and hearing from everyone how amazing their baked goods are. They offer real bread and slow food and are open Wed-Sat 9-4, Sun 10-4.
My cousins, Auntie Chrissie and I stopped in to have a coffee and fresh apple juice. The bakery looks and smells amazing and it was so nice to put a face to the tweets. We were very pleased and grateful for the jam donuts that were kindly given to us and I can honestly say that they were the best donuts I can recall eating for some time. They were fresh, filled with delicious jam, light, with a hint of citrus and sugary. All too often donuts can be stodgy, jam-deficient and a bit of a let down, but these were heavenly, thanks again!


We ended up getting some baguettes and meringues to have with our tea later on and I couldn't resist a photo of the baguettes resting on the grass with their lovely packaging.

The meringues were delicious and we topped them with blueberreis, raspberries, strawberries and oh yeah - lashings and lashings of cream.

We ended up going back for some loaves of bread for Sunday's sandwiches. I will definitely be back and I hear the eccles cakes are very tasty and popular. I almost forgot to mention that the cafe latte that I had was outstanding as well. It's so good to see such a well thought out bakery and cafe operating in one of the most beautiful buildings in the village. I know that for ages people had been saying that it would make a great this or that but it's great that Jo and her family have had such a positive impact on the village and beyond with what is best summed up by their tagline - real bread and slow food, all of which is very good.


Next up is the Butley Orford Oysterage which is pretty much a world-famous restaurant offering locally caught seafood. There is also a shop on the Quay that has all sorts of delicious food for sale.

Last but not least is Richard's Smokehouse which offers delicious smoked seafood, meat, game, cheese, pates and more. It has an outstanding reputation is as renowned as it's neighbour the Oysterage.




Steve let me have a peek inside, unfortunately nothing was in the process of being smoked but the smoker is fascinating and I loved the textured layers of smoke that over 18 years of use has created.

I also love the Richardson's Smokehouse bicycle which is used for deliveries. It makes me think I should brand up my bicycle a bit better than the stickers that I have on there now.


There are many more shops and pubs in the village that I will feature in future. There are also amazing events going on throughout the summer that will be featured as well. You can find out more information by clicking on the links or checking Well Associates who have details of activities going in and around Orford, such as the Jazz at the Pavillion Picnic which will be held on Sunday 24 July. It should be a great day and all the proceeds go to local charities.

and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.

Long Weekend in Orford - May 2011

I come from a small village in Suffolk, called Orford, where there is such a connection to the countryside. My auntie says she used to find me as a toddler, sat in her cupboards taking fistfuls of sultanas out of her jars and stuffing them in my mouth. My earliest memories are of picking potatoes and strawberries, making mudpies in Granny and Grandad’s garden, being down the quay or on the castle green and getting my wellies stuck in the mud on long country walks. Last weekend I went home to Orford, Suffolk - it was well overdue. I've lived in a lot of places but Orford is my first home and I have always considered it my true home. A lot of my family are there and the memories always come flooding back. It may only take a few hours to get from London to Orford but it sometimes feels like I've travelled through a space-time worm-hole and I end up somewhere where time behaves differently. Perhaps it's hearing the birds instead of hearing the traffic that leaves me so relaxed. The village is lovely and beautiful and faces a lot of the issues that many British villages face. I relish my time there and do hope to one day live there again. This would complete the full circle of local turned world traveller turned Londoner turned Londoner who moves back into the village.

Whenever I'm in Orford I always spend a lot of time in Auntie Chrissie's garden and alottment, both of which are lovely. I always end up taking loads of photos of the hard-working bees who go from flower to flower in her garden. They always seem so focused and massive.

Speaking of hard-working, we went past Orford Castle on our way to Auntie Chrissie's alottment.

Through the gates we went...

Until we got to Auntie Chrissie's alottment.

We picked a few bunches of asparagus

Auntie Chrissie picked some sweet peas.


And then we went home to put the sweet peas in some water and to have a nice cup of tea before meeting up with my cousins, their partners and children for lots of good food and drink and even more laughs. A massive thanks to them for another lovely weekend.

and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.