Mince Pie Heaven

In the shop we are selling hundreds of mince pies per day. People just don't bake anymore and they are so delicious I can understand why, it's not really a faff it's just people don't even own bun trays anymore. If you're a baker you'd be one of few amongst your friends, but very popular!
A sales rep tried to convince me to try their mince pies to sell this year, we've been selling them for 6 weeks now. Why don't these companies plan ahead? Also, they're made with puff pastry she proudly announced. Hello!! Wake up and smell the coffee. People do not want puff pastry, people want tradition. They don't want something different, they want to be taken back to the past with lovely memories of mince pie baking with mum.
My Dad posts me some in a tin which I have to take back at Christmas for the following years' mince pie delivery. What a good Dad I have.
Warm with brandy butter or just cold as they come.....Christmas heaven!
The Americans haven't a clue what they are, the amount of times in my life I've had the "so it's meat in pastry with sweet icing sugar....I don't get it" conversation. It's a peculiar concept to them calling it a mince pie I do understand.....but they do have pumpkin pie (sicky sweet) and maple syrup and bacon together so maybe not so strange, beef mince and icing sugar....now there's a new sales pitch.

My Motorway-Food-Torture Update

Leaving Yorkshire in the pouring rain for a long drive back to Sussex we listened to Jay Rayner, The Man who Ate the World. What a big mistake, by Doncaster we were licking our lips, by Grantham we were dreaming of marbled steaks (even though we'd left directly after a roast lamb 'dad-made' dinner), by Kettering we'd resorted to Haribo sours, by Stevenage we were eating each others arms. The audio cd is one of the travellers greatest friends, but make it a comedy, a romance, a play, an autobiography....anything but a book about food or you'll be joining the M25 hoping you hit traffic, just so you can hang out the window and indicate to a fellow driver that you'll pay a premium for that last bite of Twix.

A (Yorkshire)Lancashire Hotpot

Coming from a Yorkshire girl a Lancashire hotpot may seem wrong, but I wanted to be part of the pre-dinner conversation therefore needed a leave-in-the-oven meal.

We had friends over who love food and will try anything (I love entertaining for people like that). They were fans of my oxtail last winter and have even tried out something they ate at my table for their friends, which I think is the greatest compliment.

Lancashire Hotpot is so simply delicious that adding little extras is NOT the way to go. It doesn't have a lot of ingredients, P was a little worried and said "it'd better be good" when I refused his idea of adding rosemary or "at least some other veg...or something".

I would usually use neck but we were late to the butcher so I had to go for a lovely fatty shoulder. Four hours later, and after our starter of seared scallops with minted pea puree, we were in for a treat. I think this is one of those dishes you should serve at the table. My pub book tells me to split into 4 smaller dishes before cooking the last part, I think it's a sharing dish and should be presented this way.

Accompanied by (too much) good aussie shiraz which cut through the fattiness of the meat, it was superb. We were all full and ready for a light cheese board (but I don't do them light, so we had to find room in our tummies.....shame!)

Time for Tea

A delivery of rose tea arrived today. Now, some people may thing rose is a flower not tea, tea leaves from tea bushes make tea. I have to agree 100%. I am an avid tea drinker, nothing warms you up both inside and out as a hot cuppa.

It is drank after a shock, much better than any medicine. For cheering someone up, the cup-of- tea and sympathy remedy. Drank in the car, overlooking the stormy sea, it steams up the windows - very British. In small Irish villages some people have their own mug behind the bar for a cup of tea (when the hubby is drinking too much Guinness or Murphy's). In some workplaces unfortunate souls have to drink from polystyrene cups. The teapot sometimes wears a cosy...not sure where I am on that.

Tea can be Breakfast, Lovers Leap, Darjeeling, Gunpowder, Assam, Earl Grey, Afternoon, Lapsang, Oolong, builders, decaf (what's that all about?).......but when it comes to rose (or mint) I think we should think of a new name for the drink, lovely as it is if someone offered me a cup of tea and produced this it would be like being handed, say, a coffee when you requested tea.

Sun(all)day Lunch

Having eaten Sunday roast at home for the last few months I thought it was about time I indulged in a gastropub visit. I have heard only good things about the Griffin Inn, Fletching, East Sussex for a long time. And not quite got there. It's about an hours drive along small roads so you have to really want to get there, we did.
Cute village, looked a little quiet, opened the door and realised it was because the whole of Fletching and probably most of the surrounding villages were in the Griffin enjoying wine, beer (Harvey's Bonfire Boy, one of my faves), open fires and some of the most stunning food.
We had the 3 course for £30. Squid and sausage for me, scallops for P, calf's liver for me (P hates), Sussex lamb for P, chocolate torte with white choc sorbet to share, then a cheeseboard to share (the Olde Sussex turned out to be Montgomery's, they can't fool me, much of an improvement though if you want my opinion). Little bit stuffed, but then it's Sunday and you're supposed to feel a bit lethargic and over full. It's great going out for Sunday roast now and again, but there's nothing like the discussion over gravy when at home, "so-and-so on tv did it like this", "last week didn't you add something else", "it's better than that time you forgot the XXX", "are you sure there's enough?", "if Fay's coming to dinner, no".
Griffin Inn have really, really bad website by the way, would put you off visiting totally, so just ignore their lack of internet knowledge/design and take my word for it.