Nigel Slater: English Apple Cake

This weekend was spent at home, sitting nibbling on a piece of Nigel Slater's English apple cake in maman's vegetable patch (the apples grown just the other side of the stone wall), sipping a cup of tea, catching the last moments of sunshine at the end of an idyllic autumn Saturday. 

When it came to returning to London on Sunday, discussing weekends past and present hiding out in the country - or more specifically in the veg patch - I realised that we were here this exact weekend the year before, which was the time I started this blog.

And so apple cake and ginger tea was eaten on some beautiful new furniture, in the dappled autumn light, thinking about all the cakes baked in the past year, and all the fruits and vegetables grown in this little space of abundant land. I'm so grateful for all you readers, unknown or known to me, silent or chatty, for spending some of your life in this little space: it warms my heart to share everything I place on here with you.

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Joy the Baker: S'mores Brownies

This is what happens when I start wandering through Joy the Baker's archives. S'mores brownies. An inevitable, heavenly crime on a weekday evening because I have no control over my baking desires. 

Cakey, chocolate brownies with crunches of chocolate hobnobs (my English replacement for the graham crackers), and gooey, toasted marshmallow nestled on top. There's nothing not to love here. My addiction to all things S'mores has just increased (something I didn't think was possible). 

It's raining outside and it's a Saturday so I can only recommend you flick through Joy's recipes and wind up baking something as wonderfully bonkers as these brownies.

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5 Things

5 happy moments from this week:

1. Lima Floral

2. Walking through London in the dark with my headphones on

3. Porridge

4. When the rain finally stopped

5. Knowing that this evening I'll be at home in the country

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Lima Floral

By the time we arrived at Lima, we were all soaked to the bone, freezing cold, and cursing the British weather. In other words, we were more than happy to be transported to the sunshine and bright colours of Peru that can be found hidden away in Covent Garden, at Lima.

We hurried downstairs, past the beautiful food being served to those dining on the more serious menu, to the beautifully turquoise-tiled bar.

A round of Pisco Sours ordered to warm as up before we tried to translate the food menu. Three Spanish graduates struggling with a Peruvian menu. I'd love to know how everyone else survives. But maybe that slight element of surprise makes the Lima experience all the more enjoyable.

Seated on a high table, all the booths around filled with people smiling and drinking, this was a comforting place to be on a miserable Wednesday evening. 

After lots of menu debating (the best kind of debating), S memorised what we were having and spilled it all out to the waitress. 

Some of the most beautiful food which we'd ever seen and eaten was bought to us in staggered servings throughout the evening. Each plate intricately decorated, each ingredient delicately positioned, and each flavour flawlessly balanced. 

Beef tenderloin, panca chilli pepper, pachamanca sauce & aubergine, limo chili pepper, hauncaina sauce anticuchos. The aubergine a favourite as always, but the beef was amazingly cooked - the best kebab in the world.

Sea scallops, giant corn, cornbread toast tostada. Just admire.

Sea Bream ceviche, yellow Tiger’s Milk, camote chips. The highlight. Obvs.

Salmon, rocoto tiger’s milk, limo chili pepper. We didn't want this to end. It was too good.

Eventually we forced ourselves back out into the rain, not overfull (in fact we all went home in search of cake), but completely in awe of the plates that had just been presented to us: magical, artistic food. 

Highlight: colours. 

Lowlight: walking there in the rain.

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