Loving Lille
After Marrakech another French-speaking long weekend . I had been really enjoying London foodbloggers posts on trips to Lille , Brussels & Paris as part of Eurostar Little Break Big Difference Campaign , then London Eater announced two free Eurostar tickets – if you could say why you were most deserving ? Well I had promised my mum a girly weekend & I commute through St Pancras everyday jealously eyeing the people heading to more glamourous destinations than the East Midlands so I made my pitch . I was delighted when I was picked by the lovely people at We are Social. A few week later following a few grumpy looks from my abandoned boyfriend, I was meeting my mum at St Pancras station we passed over the champagne bar in favour of Prosecco at Sourced.
Once we boarded the lovely Eurostar train & settled in with another glass of wine and magazines , we even got some delicious food in fact I so busy munching away I managed to miss the point we went into the tunnel.
We arrived the other side super-relaxed and I was ready for a packed weekend of mooching and feasting . We had a lovely two days wandering around Lille is very beautiful lots of grand & higgledy piggeldy buildings & markets.
But first some dinner I was delighted to see bone marrow on the menu, a first for me but lovely on french baguette , later I had langue de Beouf ( Beef tongue, braised in wine ) I was chuffed it tasted very similar to dish I cooked at home , though more piquant with capers and a little chilli.
You cannot really start the day in France without coffee and croissants, even though I am an exclusively tea drinker at home I was really craving plenty of bowls of milky coffee.
Saturday night was Moules and Frites, Lille is very close to the Belgium border, so the food has that edge to it , plenty of garlic , celery and parsley , with cooking liquor to dip your chips in . Accompanied by Belgium Beer Chimay.
My favourite day in France though is Sunday when it seems everyone hits the patisserie and flower shop to buy goddies and then heads off to visit their Mum . The store with the biggest queue though was Patisserie Aux Merveilleux de Fred , where you can watch them make signature Meringue cakes
The markets in France are something to aspire to and I think England is getting there but still nowhere near the variety and they get it every week , where we get Farmers Markets once a month , I can see why people hop over on the Eurostar and stock up eveything is so vibrant and everyone is as food obsessed as I am.
I am feeling culinarily inspired following my trip and after a longer than planned gap the blog juices are flowing again. Merci France and thankyou agin Eurostar Little Break Big Difference Campaign , London Eater and We are Social.
Marrakech
Somehow desite not having summer holiday this year I managed to book two long weekends in two weeks Marrakech and Lille , I picked Marrakech because I was thinking of my stomach. Marrakech is a massive culture shock it is impossible to walk down the street without being hassled dragged into shops or asked to smell something. Though it’s hard to browse it’s real experience, pottery , leather & spices.
The food was delicious expected tagines slow cooked with plenty of preserved lemon , saffron ,olives and spices. The ingredients vary slightly meat is chicken or lamb cooked with vegetables, turnips, onions , courgettes , peppers and carrots. The spices cardamom, clove, cinnamon, paprika, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, peppercorn, and turmeric forming Ras el hanout. One stallholder told me his had 24 spices in it. Spices are sold whole then ground to your specifications ensuring they are as fresh as possible.
Moroccan Bread is delicious, walking down side-streets you see tiny bakeries almost under the floor and everywhere there are people driving scooters or pushbikes, loaded with Moroccan loaves of bread, which is delicious, a little sweet like pizza dough. Lovely with jam for breakfast though pancakes were popular too.
Moroccan Salad , I am not sure how authentic it is, but it was served everywhere a nice counterpoint to a hot tagine . Light and fresh salad of tomato , green peppers, onion, garlic , coriander and lemon juice
Grilled Meats mixed lamb or chicken, cutlets and kebabs all spiced and barbequed, sticky fingers ensure but worth it.
As mentioned before I found shopping pretty stressful and the markets in Marrakech itself look pretty European . However one day we went walking in the Atlas Mountains & our driver stopped off at Ismil a small weekly market visited once a month by inhabitants of the surrounding Berber villages .
Men travel for hours by donkey , men only women stay in the homes. tiny smokey restaurants cooked the meat for the men who ate before journeying home. Amazing to see the halal butchers , complete with goat heads on the floor of the market to show how fresh the meat , lots of offal . You got the sense it hadn’t changed for hundreds of years and showed no signs of changing .
Around the river in the Atlas mountains ever inch is used for farming , apples , walnuts , olives every inch terraced and harvested by hand.
After the massive activity in Marrakech , it was really lovely to sit on a sunny terrace with a cup of sweet mint tea and some delicious honey-almon pastries. These pastries are everywhere often served by the 10pcs or kilo.
In fact the one slightly difficult thing about Marrakech is it is dry city, though alcohol can be found it tends to be at horrible touristy restaurant nights complete with bellydancing. In fact walking in the main square , you are constantly approached by people saying “Beer ,Wine , Nice Restaurant…?” Although I think a drink with a Tagine would be nice it’s better to do without.
Welsh Wine and Bilberry Pancakes
Back from camping and the Green Man Festival it was a wonderful opportunity to camp on the site a few days before the festival started properly , despite it being the 4th time I have been to Green Man you never get the chance to explore the area.
The festival is held near Sugar Loaf Mountain on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, Wales the mountains around dominate the festival but I have never climbed them.
During the three days we managed a walk a day but the most major of which was a walk was up Sugar Loaf Mountain
At the foot of the moutain is the Sugar Loaf Vineyard well worth a visit they do tours, and wine-tastings with welsh cheese. 
Apparently the grapes grow well, so long as there is no heavy rain before the grapes fill with juice and the skin become thin and easily bruised. We bought a couple of bottles an Abergavenny, a medium dry fruity wine and a Rose , which is a new wine for the vineyard but is thriving in Wales. While there I heard an ansaphone message placing an order for a few cases of the sparkling wine, so business is good.
We enjoyed the Abergavenny on the campsite it was delicious and nice to be having something so unexpectedly local.
Some other delicious little berries to be found this time growing wild on Welsh mountains are Billberries a little like Blueberries or Blackcurrants they are tart little berries growing close to the ground, flame red and yellow leaves and the season wears on. Plenty still available on the hillsides though it is coming to the end of the harvest.
They take some gathering without a proper tool but are delicious in pancakes should you inbibe a little too much Welsh wine
Pancake Recipe
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups milk
butter for frying
Make a well in the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, beat in the eggs, melted butter, and milk, and transfer to a jug
Leave the batter for 20 minutes before using it
Add a dot of butter to a hot pan , once the top begins to blister add the billberries and turn the pancake cook for a few minutes
Off to the Green Man Festival
Girl Interrupted is off on holiday …. I am off to see the folks then camping for a few days before the Green Man Festival next weekend… Looking forward to some excellent food and tunes.
Christmas Dinner well maybe not
I think Christmas dinner might be the most boring meal all year for some reason though it was my first year cooking it and nothing burnt but I did not find it very satisfying , perhaps its because I am not a huge fan of roast dinners. however Christmas Breakfast and Evening Meal and lots of fantastic leftovers to be posted later.
Christmas Breakfast
Toasted Bagels with cream cheese smoked salmon with plenty of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon with , cava ( well breakfast was about 11am so not too decadent ) and some orange juice for the vitamins.
Our evening meal on Christmas Day was lovely too a spiced ham with the leftover turkey tonnes of chutneys and some spiced red cabbage.
Spiced Ham
1Kg of Ham
A handful of cloves
1 garlic cloves
6 dried red chillis
1 litre of apple juice
- Spike the surface of the ham with cloves .
- Place the ham into a oven proof pot, pour over the apple juice and add the other ingredients.
- Place in the oven while the turkey cooks so for about 2 hours or so on approx 190degC
Spiced Red Cabbage
200g of Red Cabbage
1 small Red Onion
1 small apple
1 red chilli chopped
Honey
- Shred red cabbage , red onion , apple
- Slowly warm in a pan, with a drizzle of honey and a little water
- Cook for approx 30 minutes on a very low heat, they should .
This goes fantastically with cheese and cold lamb too
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Christmas Holidays
So Christmas is being spent in an isolated cottage in Wales which means I am trying to make sure we have enough food and drink for a fantastic Christmas and work out if I can live without internet access for over a week. Still plenty of books access to beautiful walking ….. See you in the New Year
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Happy Holidays In Turkey – Something Fishy
Our last day before a scary 2am flight we had our final tour of the lovely town we had been staying in Dalyan ,situted on a river delta where they filmed The African Queen I swimming in sea lake and river so I think I was beggining to develop gills
On the last day we had a extra trip out to the beach the lunch break we had what the guide said was Chicken Fish … with tiny bones you could eat it might take me a while to identify it .
After the beach we ate blue crab caught by fisherman just a the end of the river delat who hang all day on tiny boats . The crab is boiled in a large pot with water, olive oil and paprika then left on a BBQ to stay warm you don’t get a lot of meat but the boat was contented with a gentle cracking of shells.
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Happy Holidays In Turkey – Slow Baked
If the kebab is the quick cook food then it is perfect that the country should also have some delicious slow cooked dishes.
One restaurant even cooked then in large terracota clay pots broken open at the table , bit overly dramatic if you ask me , choices of fish , lamb beef even octopus.
My favorites were a beef stew that just melted in your mouth in a restaurant run by on man and his mum where they let you sample the mezes first and then have more of your favourites. The stew was flavored with chilli and cinnamon served with bulgar wheat
Most restaurants asked you to book a slow roast lamb the day before and it would be well worth it , in case of the lamb on the top of this post was roasted and then grilled slightly giving a combination of melt in th mouth dissolving and cripsy caramelisation
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Happy Holidays in Turkey – Kebab anyone ?
When is a kebab not a kebab?
I never knew before there were so many different types of kebabs but a week in Turkey is highly educational , from the first day a delicious cast iron pot served an Anatolian Kebab , lamb meat which had been kebabed and grilled was then baked with spices , chilli tomato aubergine , haloumi cheese and lashing of olive oil took my breath away
Even a snack kebab that cost less than a pound was made with warm fresh flat bread , parsley and tomato the meat itself spicey but not greasy like kebab meet in this country
Kebabs were sometimes made with minced lamb but seasoned to perfection, even BBQ finger licking good from the back of a boat
The final kebab blowout was the last night but one with the Okyanus Mixed Grill served with flaming trumpets of foil
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Autumn is here
The autumn colour change has been delayed by unusually warm weather but it seems to be here
This Sunday in the woods the beech leaves had turned yellow and were floating down the forest it looked like an amazing cathedral as the stress flowed out my body walking through the woods kicking leaves and picking fungi the Faithless song God is a DJ was flowing through my head ….This is my church…this is where I heal my hurt…..
This was my Sunday service ….. 6 hours in the woods……smiley smiley happy Beck
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