Peach Shortbread

It's been far too long since I last done some baking, and having a free Saturday morning, I decided to make some peach shortbread to take to a friend's house for dessert. I found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen - an EXCELLENT foodie website created by a chefess (and photographer) in New York working from her home kitchen. You'll find everything you need on here, from simple 10 minute spaghetti with tomato sauce to colourful layered cookie cakes that will take you the whole weekend to make!

OK anyway, so you will need -


200 grams white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder 
360 grams plain flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
227 grams cold unsalted butter
1 large egg
2 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced (about 1/4-inch thick)


Brown your butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it smells nutty. Set it in the freezer until solid (about 30 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Butter a pan. In a bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices. Then blend the solidified brown butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will be crumbly. Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile peach slices over crumb base in a single layer. Scatter remaining crumbs over peaches and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until top is slightly brown.
Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.Voila!


Mine came out closely resembling a crumble (I think I packed the bottom layer too thick) but it was still pretty damn good (if I may so myself)!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon...

On Sunday, fancying a bit of a lazy afternoon, we headed out to the Red Lion pub in Ealing. We first discovered this Fullers' gem sometime back at the beginning of the year whilst strolling around off the main road of Ealing Broadway looking for a nice quiet little boozer just like this. This lovely, homely pub has to be one of my London favourites. It has also been one of CAMRAs favourites for the last 5 years!!


The Red Lion serves a wide range of fine ales and good food, and the reason we decided to come, is because Sunday at the Red Lion is PIE DAY!! Pieminister pies are served from 5pm - although we arrived a little earlier than that to enjoy some tasty ales in the beer garden. My choice of tipple was Fuller's Discovery - a light, golden ale with a fruity taste. Simon was on the Golden Delicious from the Burton Bridge Brewery, a slightly more bitter tasting ale than mine but really moorish!

Then the pies came!! Mine was a Wildshroom and Asparagus and Simon's a Heidi pie - with goat's cheese and herby roasted sweet potato - Just the ticket for a lazy Sunday afternoon! Ahh.

Equinox Tide

Also whilst we were in Brittany, we were lucky enough to witness the Autumn equinox tides! The particular place where we were staying has the third most lowest tides in the world next to somewhere in Canada and the south of France! During the lowest tide we experienced (rated 116 on a sliding scale, with 120 being the lowest!!) we were able to pass several beaches and harbours. It was such a surreal feeling to be walking on what is the seabed, and all underwater for most of the year.

The locals also make the most of this time of year to walk out and dig or literally scrape (with rakes and claws) for all kinds of shellfish - scallops, razor clams and mussels. There were so many people out gathering and it was so amazing to see them all returning home with their bags and baskets full of their daily catch!

Some photos of our walk below - you can just about make out where the sea begins on the horizon!

Kermaria-an-Isquit

I spent last week on the north coast of Brittany, where it is BEAUTIFUL!! Whilst we were making a little jaunt one day, I spotted something interesting in my guide book that was really close to where we were passing, so we decided to take a detour and go off road to find it. It was the village chapel of Kermaria, a tiny village which nestles amidst corn fields set back from the main road. The reason for our visit was this - the chapel's painted depictions of The Danse Macabre, or The Dance of Death, the last festive dance you dance before you die, brought about during fear of death during the black plague.

The chapel was built around the 1400s and in the 1800s when it came to be demolished, the paintings were uncovered - they had all been white-washed over some time before! And thankfully it was decided to let the chapel stand after all!

Harvest

This week I have reaping the awards of my hard work (sort of), loving care and attention. Fresh mixed salad leaves...

These amazing tomatoes, of the heritage, Tiger variety, so named because of their stripes!
And soon, this tasty looking baby...

These toms are still green, they should hopefully ripen soon, if not they can be used to make green fried tomatoes, a tasty dish from the southern states of the US introduced to me by a certain intrepid explorer.