Brighton

Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside!



Brighton, on the south coast of England, on a sweltering hot day is such fun ... do take a look! I love the quirky shops, the beautiful gardens and the Royal Pavilion, and the beach, and the food, oh ... and all of it. We were lucky enough to visit on a beautiful sunny day - the best of the year so far.

The Royal Pavilion Gardens

 

 

 

 

Remains of The West Pier

 

 

 

 

 

Brighton Pavilion built in 1787 for George, Prince of Wales as a seaside retreat, he

 was later to become Prince Regent in 1811 and then George 1V in 1821: (b1762 - d1830)

 The building was later redesigned and extended in 1815 by the architect John Nash.

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal Pavilion Gardens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal Pavilion Gardens

 

 

 

 

And then to my favourite restaurant

The Salt Room

 

 

 

The Salt Room attached to The Hilton Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lemonade cocktail

 

 

 

 

Sea trout, courgette spaghetti, oyster, potato and wild asparagus

 

 

 

 

 

Monkfish, seaweed butter, samphire, bacon and clams

 

 

 

 

A taste of the pier!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has to be the best pudding of all time:

It is called Tastes Of The Pier:

 

Candy Floss

Ice Cream With Honeycomb

Custard Doughnuts

Rhubarb Marshmallow

Coconut Ice

Chocolate Pebbles

Lemon Meringue Fudge

 

and

 

Yes We Did Share It!

 

The Medicine Garden

What A Lovely Place To Relax And Enjoy The Air



Cobham is a small Surrey village nestling beside the River Mole. The countryside around is beautiful and a little way out of the village is a walled Victorian garden:  The Medicine Garden. Rather than tell you about it I shall show you some of its delights.

This lovely restored kitchen garden has beautiful walkways, shops, restaurants, cafe's, all set in a delightful country spot and surrounded by huge trees and wildflowers. Do pay a visit if you can - it is free!

Definitely Food For The Soul.

Window Box

Pretty In Passion Flower


Do you remember the exotic colour that I painted my front door? Mr Whizz Kid hated it - and even more so when I continued the theme and painted the door to the studio on the side in the same garish hue. I then found a small bistro table and chairs in the exact colour and placed it outside in the front garden, which gets the evening sun. Then came the pots around the door, and a lovely stool inside the front door, which mirrored the colour, and then a small painting ... oh the list goes on.

So it was with some surprise that he chose to make me a matching window box for the front garden, under the studio window on the side of the house, and guess what - he painted it in the same shade: (it is by Dulux and is called Passion Flower). I love it. What do you think?

The drinks on the table? They were Pimms!

Sarah Raven's Rhubarb Syllabub

 Thank You Sarah!

Sarah Raven is best known for her gardens, plants and books on gardens. She has an amazing website - here.  She is also a great cook! This dessert is to die for. I am not a particular fan of rhubarb and have never tasted syllabub before but this dessert is amazing and fairly easy to make. This is the recipe found online ... I varied it ever so slightly in that I left out the four cardamom pods - not being a fan of their particular taste. I also used the microwave to cook the rhubarb to speed up the process. So this is the recipe that I followed - slightly:


Ingredients:
Rhubarb
1 orange juice and zest
100g caster sugar
6 stick of rhubarb
4 star anise

Ingredients:
Syllabub
250 ml double cream
1 lemon juice and zest
100g caster sugar

Method:
Cook the orange juice and zest, the caster sugar and the rhubarb along with star anise until well cooked. I did mine in the microwave for about four minutes. Drain the syrup and put in a saucepan. Place the strained rhubarb into glass dishes, (sundae dishes or just plain glasses), and leave to cool after removing the star anise.

In the saucepan, along with the orange juice and zest add the lemon juice and zest and remaining sugar and bring to the boil and boil rapidly until a thick syrup is achieved. Cool the mixture.

Meanwhile beat the double cream, and gently combine with the cooled syrup.  Top the rhubarb mixture with the syllabub. Chill and enjoy!


Sarah Raven says "This is a classic spring pudding - easy and quick to make - as well as being light, frothy and delicious". She is so right. She also suggests that this recipe is suitable for 6 - 8 persons - she is so wrong. I made two huge glasses full and we ate the lot!

Needlecraft Female Genital Mutilation

Needlecraft At Its Best










Do please watch the following YouTube video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgbvZzCZU_4


I thought it was brilliantly done and is very thought provoking.

Broad Bean, Onion, Asparagus Fritters

Perfect Little Snack

Asparagus is wonderful just now and I am always trying new recipes to use it. This one is a variation on a traditional vegetarian snack found online. It only takes a few minutes to produce a tasty snack.

Ingredients:

bunch asparagus
cup broad beans - cooked
half onion
cup of flour
pepper and salt
pinch paprika
2 eggs
olive oil

Method:

Chop all ingredients finely except for the broad beans then add eggs and beans and mix
Spoon small quantities into the hot oil and fry for ten minutes turning once

Serve hot or cold with a dip, (maybe the avocado one in the previous post?)

This is my cooks treat- just a little taste before I give them to my guests. I am going to use a pretty platter, with its own dip pot, that I bought back from New Zealand, (wrapped carefully in my PJs). It was made by Hector Pottery and bought at the South Street Gallery in Nelson, South Island, where I often find many treasures.

This recipe makes about twelve small fritters

 I served mine with a sweet chili dip.