maison d'être is a wonderful coffee house found at 154 Canonbury Rd, London N1 2UP.
The chalkboard pretty much sums it up and they do it so well. Kim and Kostas who run maison d'être set the tone as they are so friendly and sweet and you feel that throughout the two rooms of the cafe. You can find Smy Chutney preserves within some of their delicious sandwiches and yoghurt dishes. You can also buy jars of Smy Chutney to be found in their shop.
Thank you so much to Becca for sharing her photo of the New Year's Eve meal she made. Using one of my all-time favourite combinations of duck and Smy Chutney Plum Gumbo she explains:
"I pan-fried the duck with a squashed garlic clove and some sprigs of thyme, deglazed the pan with red wine and stirred in a good teaspoon of your plum gumbo, let it bubble for a few mins to reduce down a bit then poured over sliced duck for a NYE meal."
It looks amazing! All I want now is duck, chips and kale!
Check out How To Make a Mess for all sorts of fun regarding eating, cooking, crafting and baking...basically the creative quadrality of fun!!!
My amazing and dear friend Alison Pearson kindly gave me a massive bag of bramley apples a few months ago that she had collected from her mother-in-law's garden. From the apples I made a lovely Apple and Pepper Chutney with pink peppercorns and a secret ingredient - Smy Chutney six-pepper jelly. The resulting chutney proved really tasty and became a popular seller at Whitecross Street Market with the apples, pink peppercorns and six-pepper jelly combining to create a lovely crisp chutney with just a tad of background heat. I gave Alison several jars to enjoy with her family and to give to her mother-in-law. Alison and I used to work together and it was one of, if not the best working relationships that I have ever had. I love Alison and totally respect everything about her; she is so professional, creative and family oriented and has been such a good friend to me the entire time I've known her. My last gush is that she also has an utterly wicked sense of humour.
Cooking and mealtimes are a total family affair at the Pearson residence and Alison rang me to tell me that everyone was really enjoying the chutney and she gave me the following recipe that her family had created using the apple and pepper chutney. It sounded so lovely that I had to try it right away and I have since made it several times and wanted to share it here. It couldn't be easier, couldn't be tastier and is perfect for chilly autumnal evenings.
You simply grill sausages in a bit of olive oil for 15 minutes or until they are nicely browned and then transfer them to a tray lined with a large piece of aluminium.
Using the pan that you cooked your sausages in, add a little more olive oil, heat it and add sliced brampley or cooking apples, a sliced onion and lightly grill for a few minutes until they have a nice colour.
Add the grilled sausages back into the pan and grill all together for a minute or two.
Transfer the sausages, onion and apple back to the aluminium foil and place two big tablespoons worth of apple and pepper chutney on top. For an extra kick you could add a bit of six-pepper jelly as well. Fold the aluminium to create a sealed parcel and place in an oven preheated to 180 ℃ for 15-20 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and carefully open the parcel. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes and peas or broccoli, delicious!
Thanks again Alison for the apples and inspiration!
Thanks to Sarah for sending this recipe suggestion for six-pepper jelly. She marinated some chicken breasts in six-pepper jelly and then baked them. A nice gravy resulted during cooking and she served them with boiled potatoes. Thanks Wheelz!!!
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:
This was waiting in my inbox this morning. How could today be anything other than amazing. I am always saying how versatile Plum Gumbo is but Chee Rabbits' pictures are worth a thousand words, a thousand thank yous, thousands of pounds and sum it up better than I ever could!
and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.
Lately I've been meeting amazing people and sometimes becoming good friends with people on Twitter. It's often the case where I may start following someone whose blog I have found helpful or Tweetdeck highlights something of interest. Sometimes it feels like Twitter is tapping into the same cosmic stream that makes iTunes seem to predict what music you need to have "shuffle" into your life at exactly the right time. Several weeks ago I saw the following tweets pop up on my Tweetdeck:
I absolutely love chutney. Is there some kind of chutney lovers website or committee I can join? I wish to talk to like minded chutney lovers.
22 March
Both tweets were from Chee Rabbits, they made me smile and I started following him immediately. Entertaining discourse ensued and two people with similar interests and senses of humour forged a friendship. Together we have not succeeded in a #worldchutneyday, however we have gone on to recognise an entire Chutney Kingdom full of kings, queens, princes, folklore, creatures and music where every day is World Chutney Day. As you should know Chee Rabbits is himself a talented musician, writer and artist (www.snaek.org) as well as the Royal Sweetness of Confettiland, so it is a great partnership, friendship and alliance for all involved.
Chee Rabbits kindly placed an order on www.SmyChutney.com and since receiving his order he has been giving me lots of feedback and recipe ideas. I asked him for some pics and what I received today had me welling up as they are just SO fabulous. I am, as ever, so touched that someone would take such time and effort to celebrate Smy Chutney. I sometimes forget that jars of Smy Chutney have a whole other life that I don't often get to glimpse once they've been sold on. It's these glimpses that make me the happiest as does making new friends. So let me introduce you to Snaekdog: I've added this to my website as I do all feedback and pictures sent in but I will be putting this up on my actual wall as well as my virtual ones. Chee Rabbits and Snaekdog will obviously be rewarded in free chutney samples for their contribution to the chutney arts and as a show of thanks. I can't say thank you enough to Chee Rabbits for his amazing artwork and support and to everyone who enjoys and supports Smy Chutney.
and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.
For several weeks I have been selling my chutney on Wednesday evenings at Hackney City Farm while people come and collect their fruit and vegetable boxes from Growing Communities. You can also buy delicious bread from E5 Bakehouse. It has been a lot of fun and has also made me realise what an amazing resource Hackney City Farm is and how lucky I am that it is right on my doorstop. I knew that they had a lovely, functional and informative farm and I knew that the Frizzante Cafe was amazing. What I didn't know was that they offer courses in pottery, beekeeping, as well as courses on gardening and garden restoration courses to name a few. Everyone who works and volunteers there are exceptional as well so I really recommend that you go visit the animals, the cafe or......their brand new Farm Shop!
Last Sunday Hackney City Farm opened their shop for the first time. There are toys that you may remember from your childhood...
...and more children's learning tools, books, gifts, t-shirts, cards and chocolates.
You can buy plants or seedlings:
You can also buy chicken or duck eggs from the farm, lots of vegetables from the farm and oh yeah: Smy Chutney can be bought from the Hackney City Farm Shop! We are really excited about this! We stopped by today and bought some eggs to make our lemon curd and lemon curd cupcakes. And just look at that cabbage - it's in season, picked from the farm and begging to be bought, boiled, steamed, served with your Sunday Roast Beef Dinner or bubbled and squeaked. I once couldn't eat a cabbage as it was just too beautiful, so I ended up making prints from it and made a painting out of it. I recommend the above vegetables and Smy Chutney for eating though...I don't think this world is ready for mixed-media vegetable and chutney art.
Hackney City Farm is a community project that for over 20 years has offered free access all year round so that children, adults and the whole community can experience farming, learn about animals and where food comes from. Being from the countryside, my earliest memories are of picking strawberries and potatoes and seeing newly born piglets. 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. Connecting with animal and plant life within London is really important, inspiring and a valuable life skill. It is a total win-win to visit and support Hackney City Farm and the work that they do.
and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.
I love seeing where Smy Chutney ends up and in this case it was Ellie's Christmas cheeseboard that she shared with her family. Thanks Ellie, it looks delicious!!!
Please behold the beautiful sponge cake made for Smy Chutney by cake-ologist Ellie Spatchet. I did toy with the idea of saving it forever by shellacking and/or varnishing it but thought this might be bad luck and/or a waste of cake and/or disrespectful to said Spatchet. So I ate half and froze half and thought this would make everyone happy. I have made chutney-ology my life's work and this cake is a celebration of that. I will now dedicate part of my life's work to get Ellie to make cake-ology part of her life's work as this is just one of the amazing cakes made by Ellie in the past two months alone! If she won't make cake-ology her life's work....I believe motorsport has already staked a claim in this area (exhibit A: her cool blog - In the Kitty Litter - check it out!)...I implore her to at least make a blog for her amazing cakes and if she won't do that then in the new year I will do a post on this blog on her cakes.
Seriously...thank you SO much Ellie, it was delicious and thoughtful and I'm so grateful. You are brilliant...as are all people from East Anglia!
and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.
Check out these lovely mince pies made by Denise Mountain's friend Charlotte Dawson after she bought some of our mincemeat at Broadway Market Schoolyard on a visit to Denise, aka Candy Camper.
This was waiting in my inbox this morning. How could today be anything other than amazing. I am always saying how versatile Plum Gumbo is but Chee Rabbits' pictures are worth a thousand words, a thousand thank yous, thousands of pounds and sum it up better than I ever could!
Last Sunday Hackney City Farm opened their shop for the first time. There are toys that you may remember from your childhood...
...and more children's learning tools, books, gifts, t-shirts, cards and chocolates.
Smy Chutney can be bought from the Hackney City Farm Shop! We are really excited about this! We stopped by today and bought some eggs to make our lemon curd and lemon curd cupcakes. And just look at that cabbage - it's in season, picked from the farm and begging to be bought, boiled, steamed, served with your Sunday Roast Beef Dinner or bubbled and squeaked. I once couldn't eat a cabbage as it was just too beautiful, so I ended up making prints from it and made a painting out of it. I recommend the above vegetables and Smy Chutney for eating though...I don't think this world is ready for mixed-media vegetable and chutney art.
Please behold the beautiful sponge cake made for Smy Chutney by cake-ologist Ellie Spatchet. I did toy with the idea of saving it forever by shellacking and/or varnishing it but thought this might be bad luck and/or a waste of cake and/or disrespectful to said Spatchet. So I ate half and froze half and thought this would make everyone happy. I have made chutney-ology my life's work and this cake is a celebration of that. I will now dedicate part of my life's work to get Ellie to make cake-ology part of her life's work as this is just one of the amazing cakes made by Ellie in the past two months alone! If she won't make cake-ology her life's work....I believe motorsport has already staked a claim in this area (exhibit A: her cool blog - In the Kitty Litter - check it out!)...I implore her to at least make a blog for her amazing cakes and if she won't do that then in the new year I will do a post on this blog on her cakes. 
