A Warm Welcome After the Rice Spring 2015 Preview in Malmo, Sweden

Colourful, welcoming, bright, bold and a little bit crazy - not a list of adjectives you associate with Scandinavian crime drama. However Malmo, where we have been invited to preview Rice's Spring 2015 stock, is just over The Bridge from Copenhagen airport. Yes - the bridge from The Bridge. Øresund Bridge. For two Brits abroad it's an interesting start to the day, to be driven across the hugely long span between Denmark and Sweden, the low coast lines of both countries barely seeming to break out of the water amidst forests of eerily silent wind turbines. We islanders are not used to such international mornings - at least on the ferry to France there's time for a nice cup of tea.

Kristina's home near Malmo is full of
welcoming spaces for socialising

Luckily for us, the lingua franca between the Danes and the Swedes is English so we don't have to get too far outside of our comfort zone. Over dinner later that evening one Swedish blogger asks me if I'm Danish. I tell her that no, I'm English - did I look Danish? and she says maybe and that she just thought I had only been speaking in English for her sake - "we can't understand the Danes, they sound like they are speaking with porridge in their mouth". The Swedes generally seem to consider the Danes to be extremely laid back - a way of being which they think extends to their lazy way of talking - so many written sounds are dropped or half pronounced that, although the two languages are closely related, they cannot understand the way the Danes speak. Certainly the time we have spent in Denmark recently shows them to be a very informal. hospitable and friendly nation.

But if this Danish laid back and homely style is supposed to be in contrast to the Swedes, then the
particular Swedes we met have definitely caught a dose of the Danish. After the preview day we were lucky enough to be invited back to Kristina's beautiful home in the Swedish countryside together with about 12 other Swedish bloggers and buyers. Kristina works for Rice in the south of Sweden but definitely lives her work - her house is stylish, colourful, beautiful, eclectic, welcoming and just a tiny bit crazy, but of all these adjectives the most important for Kristina seems to be welcoming. To invite colleagues and customers to your house is one thing, Kristina was actually hosting 5 or 6 of her clients overnight and had decided to feed us all a beautiful feast too. "I just love to have visitors" she told us, as we helped ourselves to salads, pulled pork, dips and pita breads which she managed to conjure from nowhere. 

And her house reflects that welcoming hospitality - there are plenty of areas to sit and chat, with

An inviting, open and welcoming kitchen greets us after the preview day

The scene already set for us includes a warm and welcoming table

chairs facing each other, not solitary or facing a TV screen. Places which have been designed for chat and socialising. The kitchen is abundant and open, with dishes stacked high in vibrant blobs of Rice colours - inviting you to help yourself, to be happy, to eat, to drink. Visiting that house made sense for me of why we love working with Rice - that kitchen made sense of it. We have always loved feeding people, socialising with people, talking and eating together more than anything else. If there isn't food in the fridge and a drink in the cupboard to share with friends who happen past then home isn't home for me. And apparently this is a sentiment shared by all around the table that evening. It's a sentiment which Rice as a company is built on, from its strong ethical values to its bright and welcoming style. There are quirky and unusual finds including many lamps and candles dotted around invitingly and most of the pieces Kristina has chosen seem to be picked to make you smile. And that, in turn, makes you comfortable and relaxed. 

Below are some more pictures of Kristina's fabulous house and a preview of the some of the Spring
2015 finds from Rice. I hope you enjoy them.

by Mark Fletcher

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The Rice Spring 2015 collection is peopled with quirky, bright and colourful creatures. Living life in glorious Technicolor seems to be raison d'etre of all Rice products. The creatures on board this colourful life journey are fun and playful and bring a smile to your face. A full album of finds can be found on our Facebook page. 

But see the way Kristina styles her home with these colours and creatures and you'll see that as well as playful and fun, it can also be sophisticated. Below is a selection of some of the amazing lighting pieces Kristina uses in her house. The cosiness of using so many low lights and candles, together with her use of pattern, shows a great way of working with Rice and other designers to produce a colourful but sophisticated effect. Once again, a complete album of images used from Kristina's home can be found on our Facebook page.

Colourful Christmas Inspiration

Owl Candle Holder by House Doctor

I've become obsessed with my camera of late. In the Spring I treated myself to a Canon 70D and it has become my constant companion, my friend and my plaything. I may even be a little in love with it. Remember when you were young how certain presents at Christmas invaded your imagination with their newness and you couldn't stop playing with them? I was like that with every set of Lego Technics I was ever bought and I'm like that now with my Camera. And like Lego, it keeps it's newness because there is always another bit you can bolt on - lenses, lights, flashes and tripods - and always new things you can make with it.

Last week I had the opportunity to help style a Christmas photo shoot for a magazine with a friend of mine - Kirstie Young - an inspirational photographer. It was a great opportunity to combine the visual styling side of my day job with some practical experience and learning from a great photographer. The day left me inspired to put together my own Christmas shots for Fig1.

Below is a sneak preview of some of the Christmas table ideas I've been working on. We have a collection of more traditional decorations in the shop too, but this was a chance to experiment with colour. Working so closely with the Danish company Rice for the last few years has been a shock treatment in the possibility of quirky and unusual colour combinations - I love throwing different colours into the mix and seeing what combinations take flight in my imagination. Some combinations come alive when you put together, seeming to tug at you invitingly. So why not? While I have the chance to play with colour and experiment with my camera, why not build, make and create something different?

_________________

by Mark Fletcher

In the pictures: I've taken some of the geometric and metallic influence from our other Danish companies House Doctor and Bloomingville and added in some crazy, quirky Rice-style colour combinations - mostly thanks to their beautiful ceramics - to get a non-traditional Christmas look. For me, a neutral background is essential to any bold use of colour to keep a sense of calm and to make the colours you want sing out. 

The presents in these pictures are wrapped in House Doctor double sided wrap, again with unusual quirky geometric patterns, the double sided nature of the wrap means you can turn back an edge to reveal a stripe of the pattern on the reverse of the paper. 

Character, fun and playfulness: characters like the Owl candle holder, bird and gnome candles add a sense of fun to an otherwise sophisticated setting. I like having something in the room which makes people smile when they see it. The photo below is my favourite from last years Christmas photo shoots and it still brings a smile to my face.

Keep an eye on our Facebook fan page for more Christmas ideas as we get closer to the big day and check out our Christmas section of the site and the Rice ceramics section for most of the products used in these photos.

Competition Coming Soon....

We have a competition to win 2 Rice kids storage baskets arranged with the Green Parent Magazine - out on 7th November - grab the magazine off the shelves or keep an eye on our Facebook fan page or our blog for more details around that date.

Frittering Time Away

In the world of retail, your annual calendar can go quite awry. January trade shows are full of
Christmas stock, we're about to take a trip to Copenhagen to buy spring and summer stock from Rice, and this week on Monday we put up a tree, had a feast and took it all down again in one day for a magazine photo shoot I was asked to help style with props from the shop.

In the here and now it is, of course, harvest time and whilst I was chatting to Kirstie, the photographer, and Lia, the journalist, on this photo shoot we discussed school harvest festivals. Apparently canned goods ready to be donated to food banks are "trending" at harvest festivals - a great charitable idea but canned goods rather misses the point of harvesting things to me. Harvest festivals are about the time of food abundance we get now as crops are bought in from the fields - about being in touch with the seasons; how food is produced, stored, shared and celebrated. All those things and, of course, making loaves which look like sheaves of wheat with mice climbing up them. And squashes. Lots of squashes.

But Kirstie, it turns out, isn't at all keen on the eating of squashes, claiming they taste of nothing whilst she does concede they look quite snazzy in an Autumnal picture. So in an attempt to convince her, I have written a recipe designed to make you want to eat those beauties as well as look at them. After they've adorned the harvest table at school, try taking them home and doing this to them. We'll skip over the fact that this recipe is designed to make them taste of mint and feta, rather than of themselves. And don't worry - if you go squash crazy and buy more than you can stomach - if the beauty of these beasts overcomes you and you strip the greengrocer clean of them - you can always spray paint them silver, tie a red bow on top and shove it on the Christmas table when we get there. You can't deny they look good.
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By Mark Fletcher

Squash and Feta Fritters

For the Batter

100g plain flour
Pinch of Salt
2 eggs
200ml semi-skimmed milk

For the Filling

500g squash, grated
125g feta, crumbled
25g mint, chopped
2 shallots, finely diced
1 tbsp sunflower oil or vegetable, plus extra for frying

For the sauce

200g Greek yoghurt
25g mint, chopped
juice 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed.

Make the batter first as it's best left to rest for 30 minutes. Put the flour in a bowl. Whisk the eggs with half of the milk. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the egg / milk mix. With a balloon whisk or fork slowly pull the flour into the egg mix as you whisk so it forms a smooth batter. Add the rest of the milk to thin the batter.

Next make the sauce by simply mixing all the ingredients together.

Finally, add the filling ingredients to the batter and mix through. Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat until it starts to smoke. Then add three or four table spoons of mix to separate corners or the pan to form the fritters. Fry for 2 minutes then turn and fry for a further 2 minutes. Put the fritters in a low oven to keep warm as your fry the next batch.

Fig and Goats Cheese Tart

It wakes me up at night, it's finger buns nudging my thoughts as I sleep, it whispers in my ears like the gentle sizzle of a frying egg, sometimes building up to something more like the shrill whistle of a boiling kettle when I'm really hungry. Food is definitely an obsession. I plan meals days in advance sometimes, thinking what I have in store, what is seasonal, what allotment vegetables need cooking, what will be good and healthy and what will be an indulgent treat.

These fig and goats cheese tarts tick the seasonal box, but probably not the good and healthy one. I'm a natural feeder too - I made the recipe first as a large tart (below) for a Friday night after work drinks get together, but the smaller versions picture above where made as an extra indulgent treat for my little sister's 30th Birthday celebration. Because food for me, is also about who you share it with.

The smaller versions were made with Paul Holywood's quick rough puff pastry - because you're littlest sister only turns 30 once. They also had a spoon of home made pesto in the bottom. The recipe below is for the larger version - easier to make because you can get the egg custard and the pastry all cooked more evenly on a larger tart, but the small ones were a particularly good indulgence with the lighter pastry.

Fig and Goats Cheese Tart

Ingredients for the short crust pastry:

250g flour
125g butter
60 - 90ml water to bind

This will make slightly more pastry than you need but I think it's always best to have more than to be desperately trying to find enough. Crumb together the butter and flour in a mixing bowl until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Put the water in a jug and using the fingers of one hand, bring the pastry together as you add a little water at a time until it forms a dough. Do not overwork the pastry. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Grease a 25cm diameter dish. Roll the pastry thinly and line the dish letting the pastry overlap the dish. Trim back but leave it overlapping as the pastry shrinks during the blind backing and you can trim off the excess afterwards. Prick the bottom of the case with a fork Fill the case with a layer of grease proof paper and some baking beads / dried pulses to weigh the pastry down. Blind bake 190 degrees 15 mins then remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before trimming back the pastry to the rim of the tin.

For the filling

3 medium eggs
75ml single cream
75ml milk
100g grated goats cheese
4 figs, halved and peeled if the skins are tough

Lower the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Whisk together the egg, milk and cream in a jug and season with salt and pepper. Put the goats cheese in the base of the case. Lay the figs around the edge on top and place the dish on the shelf of the oven. Pull the shelf out a little and carefully fill the tin, then slide it into the oven. The tart isn't deep filled as the figs can over cook if there is too much filling. Bake for around 20 minutes, checking after 15 minutes. The tart is cooked when there is still a little bit of a wobble in the middle when you give it a shake as the egg custard will continue cooking for a few minutes once it is out of the oven.

Tartlet Variation

The tartlets took a little more goats cheese than this and weren't blind baked but instead were made with the lighter rough-puff pastry to help the pastry cook through. The were cooked until the pastry was golden, which also took about 20 minutes but was checked by running the knife around one and lifting it out gently for a visual check of the base. I also added some home made pesto to the base of each for a little extra flavour.

Autumn Show Time

We loved the packaging on these fab, fun foods - we think they'll make great gifts

As the owner of a proudly independent small business, finding great new products for each season is both one of the most fun parts of my job as well as the most important part. Like putting on any event, with Christmas in retail, preparation is key and September can be busier than December for me as I visit trade shows, find new products, begin to promote the things we find to magazines, devise ideas for Christmas and put our busiest season of the year together.

We've just spent a great few days in London and Birmingham at big trade shows, where we go to meet new companies, order from our existing friends and start the ball rolling. And I'm so excited about some of the things we've found that I've put together a quick preview.

____________________

By Mark Fletcher

We always love And Mary's quirky range of ceramic jewellery, but dogs as drawer handles? Well you can't beat it really. What a great way to dress up a dresser.

Our favourite fair trade company Nkuku have their usual classic combination of natural dark woods, simple ceramics and glass: a mix which we love for the autumn. Particularly when dressed up with the occasional fun item to break the serious vibe. Personally I can't wait for one of these Cubebots pictured below to dress up my wooden shelves of cook books at home.

Cubebots, postcards, labels and - of course - animal wrap. We love fun, bold and graphic things!

And there's loads more from Christmas decorations to cards to jewellery coming in so keep an eye on the new stock section of our site to see what's in already.

Cook Book Review - Crazy Water Pickled Lemons by Diana Henry

The danger of reading a cook book at bed time is, of course, the midnight snack. Cook books, for me, are so evocative - food tastes and smells so powerfully vivid in my imagination - that I love reading them. Like travel books, those tastes and smells can transport you to far away lands. They can also make you crave food like there's no tomorrow.

Crazy Water Pickled Lemons is a journey around some of my favourite parts of the culinary world, centred around the Mediterranean sea. Split into chapters on different types of flavours, from Mediterranean herb flavours, to the warmer earth spices found in Middle Eastern and North African cuisine, Diana Henry has put together a culinary tour which delves into detail of how certain flavours combine to produce food magic. Reading cook books, for me, is not just about producing that night's supper but also about learning good flavour combinations for my own repertoire. I follow a recipe to learn skills for when I'm cooking free form. Diana Henry's book has chapters on how the different Mediterranean flavours combine: how and when to use them together. Each chapter has 3 or so pages of description of different flavours before you get into the recipes - well written, interesting and informative.

This all-important knowledge on how flavours work together reminds me of another great cooking resource - The Flavour Thesaurus. This book does what it say on the tin - it provides complementary and alternative flavour combinations: ingredients and tastes which go well together. If you're the kind of cook that likes to learn flavours so you can get on with the real fun - inventing your own - then both these books are great for honing your skills.

And the recipes in Crazy Water Pickled Lemons? They're easy to follow and straight forward. In her introduction, the author mentions that she has simplified some of the more complex traditional methods. All in all I suspect this is a good thing. Much as I enjoy spending time cooking, when you are pushed for time it is often good to be able to get the essence of something quickly and I am regularly known to short-cut bits of a recipe to save time. I tried the Chermoula-Marinated Tuna with Pomegranate Couscous recipe. This was quick and easy as long as you have a well-stocked spice cupboard and packed a lot of flavour.

Try it Yourself?

The Chermoula marinade itself I would recommend as well as for tuna or sword fish, for chicken or even halloumi. With barbecue season in full swing, I've made a jar of the marinade to keep in the fridge. Topped with a little extra oil to stop the air getting to it, I imagine it will keep OK for a week or two like that. The ingredients for the marinade are:

90ml (6 tbsp) olive oil
15ml (3 tsp) ground cumin
7.5ml (1.5 tsp) sweet paprika
1.24ml (Quarter tsb) ground cinnamon
1 medium red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Zest and Juice 1 lime
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Small bunch each of coriander and parsley leaves, finely chopped

This was enough for 4 tuna steaks. I've made up a double batch of the marinade to keep in the fridge. At this time of year especially I like to have flavours like salsa, dressings and tzatziki ready to go. If I manage to keep the marinade long enough without squandering it all, I'll update this on how well it kept!

Winner - High Summer Melamine Competition

Congratulations to Karen Henson of Holmfirth who has won our selection of high summer melamine patterns - they're on their way to West Yorkshire as we speak, where we fully expect them to be used for picnics, camping trips and summer parties.

Summer Moods - Competition

Loving the summer? We are. As well as the summer mood boards we published earlier this month, we're running a competition - a chance to win a set of the melamine pictured above worth around £50. All you have to do is to tell us which of the 3 "summer moods" boards featured on our blog is your favourite and why? - comment on this or one of the mood board posts and fill in a quick form on Survey Monkey so we have your details if you win. The competition closes at midnight on Thursday 3rd July 2014. A winner will be chosen completely at random. One entry only per household, UK residents only. Winners will be informed on Friday 4th July 2014 by email.

Everyone's a Winner

Each entrant will also receive a 10% discount code to use on our site. This will be on the last page of the survey and it will be valid until Friday 4th July 2014. This code will be additional to the discount already on our mood board items. You can also use the discount code in our shop.

Follow us on Facebook?

If you follow us on Facebook you can also enter by commenting on the post on our Facebook page - it's a great place to find out what's new at fig1.co.uk - we update regularly with news and offers. 

How to Enter

To enter the competition please:

1. Comment on one of our Summer Moods blog posts or on the Facebook Page
2. Fill in the form on Survey Monkey so we have your details
3. Do all of the above before Thursday 3rd July 2014
4. The competition is available to UK residents only. Only 1 entry per household

The prize consists of 4 bowls and 4 cups from the High Summer Rice Melamine collection.

Please note - all comments on our blog are moderated and may not appear straight away.

Summer Moods 3 - Alfresco

One of the things I love about Summer in the UK is the length of the evenings. OK so we're often dodging rain showers and wishing it would be a bit warmer, but when those perfect, golden-warm summer evenings happen they are amazing. I love living and eating outside as much as possible on those long, long days. Like the typical Brit, the first signs of sunshine and warmth and I put shorts on and get out in the garden. We've had a few memorable evenings already with friends making the most of the long days, listening to music, chatting and eating. So the next of our Summer mood boards is in homage to all things alfresco - the perfect things to make a long summer evening eating outside even better. There's 15% off all the items featured and selection of matching bits on our site.

1. Acrylic jugs and glasses
2. Funky bird candles
3. Metal trays
4. A selection of melamine and ceramics by Rice
5. Colourful string lights
6. Andrea Letterie banner
7. Paper covered candle holders
8. Paper lanterns

Summer Moods 2 - Indian Summer

The Indian sub-continent has had a huge influence on decorative arts across the globe, particularly during the 19th Century when plant motifs common in Indian design since the 17th Century became the height of fashion in British society. But whereas modern production techniques, modernisation and globalisation has changed the way decorative objects are made, and indeed appear, India is still the home of small-scale artisan production. Our favourite fair trade company Nkuku taps into this wealth of skilled craftsmanship which India epitomises, including the hand-decorated Eva enamel range and much of their mouth-blown recycled glass. The second of our mood boards puts together an Indian theme for the summer, not strict in provenance but with a feel of Indian influence on design. We hope you enjoy it.

As with all our mood boards, we have 15% of selected items from the theme our our site.

1. Etched Glass Pot - Clear and Antique Brass by Nkuku
2. Mint Hand Painted 3 Arm Metal Candle Holder with Birds and Flowers by Rice
3. Melamine Side Plate in Assorted Bird Prints by Rice
4. Hoopla Glass Bottle by Nkuku
5. Laboni Silk & Linen Scarf by Nkuku
6. Plastic Glitter Picnic Glasses by Rice
7. Hand Painted Eva Enamel Tiffin by Nkuku
8. Background - Paper by Nella

Summer Moods 1 - The Village Fete

Strawberries and cream, Pimms and lemonade, hay bales and the tombola ... the Village Fete was the highlight of life in every Cotswold village for miles around when I was growing up. It wasn't summer unless you were batting a rat or racing with three legs, a spoon and an egg - in a sack whilst singing along to the Wurzels. In celebration of summers past and this summer yet to come, we've put together the first of our "summer moods" selections. And to get the party started, they're all in our summer moods 15% off offers on our site together with a few other choice summer party bits.

We're developing some other mood boards so watch this space for more ideas and offers.

1. 10 Cake Decoration Sticks Assorted Designs by Rice DK
2. 10 Paper Cake Decoration Cones 5 Assorted Prints by Rice DK
3. Kids Sequin Masks 6 Assorted Designs by Rice DK
4. Small Paper Lantern Available in 2 Assorted Prints by Rice DK
5. Original Bunting by Engel
6. Melamine Bowls in Assorted Prints with Lid - Set of 3 by Rice DK
7. Carnival Set of 3 Cake Tins by BlissHome
8. 6 Picnic Plastic Wine Glass with Glitters Assorted Colors by Rice DK
9. Paper Cake Stand in 2 Assorted Prints by Rice

Rice DK Autumn Preview Near Malmo, Sweden

Design with a social conscience seems to go hand in hand with Denmark, so when our favourite Danish design brand Rice asked us to visit to preview their Autumn Winter 2014 collection we jumped at the chance. As a small independent business we were really proud to find out that we are now one of the biggest independent stockists of Rice in the UK, a brand which we love promoting as it was always set up to be ethical. Rice are one of the smallest companies ever to be certified by "Social Accountability 8000", which is an international standard stricter than Fair Trade.

One of the things we particularly love about Rice is their bold use of colour. Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau, who started the company, is a colour fanatic and the company found a beautiful farmhouse just over the border in Sweden to display their new season's stock in. The farmhouse was spacious with white washed walls and rustic wooden tables - a neutral background which really made the colours zing. The team of stylists at Rice work so hard to make these events look beautiful and inspiring - great for us to pinch ideas for display in our shop and for our on-line photos.

Colourful Ceramics by Rice DK

An exciting decisions for us is that we're planning on taking on many more of the beautiful ceramics Rice produce. No other brand we know can combine both sophistication and fun so successfully - it's one of the great things about Rice. The soft organic shapes of their ceramics and beautiful colour combinations sit wonderfully with their quirky egg cups, mixed in with pieces of patterned melamine and crazy jugs of flowers. If eating and entertaining is theatre then the stage Rice presents is lush, opulent and populated with exotic creatures.

We love Rice Toy Baskets

One of the products we really love by Rice is their toy baskets - they're tactile and natural, made in a small village in Madagascar where the toy baskets now provide steady work and income for most of the families. Typically bright and bold, the new designs now fold flat for easy storage when not in use. As Fig1 is based in Bristol, home to the largest international balloon fiesta in the world, we're particularly keen on the new Hot Air Balloon design!

The Danes love entertaining, whether it is a few people or a party and the new collection is certainly ready for any knees-up. Of course, each season Rice introduce new patterns of melamine and this year is no exception, with both floral and geometric designs coming in for the party season. But we're also loving the disposable Martini glasses and the fabulous, bold and bright paper decorations. To be honest, we think it is all as suitable for a summer party as a winter one, but then, when isn't it a good time to have your friends around, eat, chat and entertain?

Easter Afternoon Tea

Ceramic Cake Plate by Rice

My sister had a habit of keeping her Easter eggs for months until the chocolate had lost it's sheen and started to go white by being left on the window ledge. She'd eat a small and controlled amount each day. Mine went by the time we got to the end of Easter day and I felt queasy from the sugar overload, but at least it didn't go off. Time may pass but I've never learnt much in the way of self control, so although I love baking, I like to have people to ply with the finished product else I'll only eat it all myself. With the longer days and bank holiday weekends, Easter seems the perfect time to have people over for tea, occasionally leading to G and T. Here are a couple of Easter afternoon tea recipes - one sweet, one savoury - both perfect for sharing.

Easter biscuits are traditional particularly in the West Country where we are based. An alternative serving suggestion might be with a picnic involving lashings of cider and a door stop of cheddar cheese.

Cheese scones

100g butter

400g self raising flour

75g cheese (mature cheddar or half mature cheddar half parmesan for some extra kick)

250ml milk

3/4 level teaspoon cayenne pepper

Crumb together the butter, flour and cayenne with your finger tips until well combined. Mix in the cheese.

Add the milk and bring together into a soft dough with your fingertips. I usually try and use one hand whilst pouring in the milk with the other as you may need a little more or less depending.

Lightly flour the surface and roll out to 2-3 cm thick. Cut out the scones with a 2.5 inch / 6cm cutter. If you want a glossy finish on the scones you can brush milk over the top with a pastry brush.  

Place on a lightly greased tray and bake for 12-15 minutes at 220 degrees centigrade. Makes around 15 scones.

Easter Biscuits

100g butter

75g caster sugar plus extra for decorating

1 egg
200g plain white flour
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

50g currants
15g chopped mixed peel

15-30ml of brandy or milk

Cream together the butter and caster sugar with an electric whisk or a wooden spoon if you want arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Keep going until the colour starts to lighten and they are a little fluffy. Separate the egg and whisk in the yolk. Whisk up the white a bit and set aside with a pastry brush at the ready.

Sift and fold in the flour and spices, then stir in the fruit.

Mix in the brandy or milk (I'd recommend the brandy). I usually use the finger tips of one hand whilst pouring with the other so I can feel when the mix becomes wet enough to be a workable dough.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to about 5mm thick and cut out the biscuits with a fluted cutter - I used quite a small one although traditionally Easter biscuits are fairly large.

Bake on a lightly greased tray at 200 degrees for 10 minutes then take them out of the oven and brush over the egg white and lightly sprinkle with caster sugar. I found it helps to do a few biscuits at a time so the egg doesn't set from the warmth before you get the sugar on there. You also want to be careful not to brush the egg on too thickly.

Finally, return to the oven for 5 more minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack. 

Tray, Jug and Ceramic Two-tone Cup by Rice

We have a Winner

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition to win a set of Andrea Letterie melamine - it was a really popular competition and all the entrants came up with some great summer food idea. The winner was picked entirely at random from the entrants. Congratulations to Alissa Hankin from Southampton - your prize is on its way!

One theme stuck out from the entries seemed to be strawberries, cream and meringues. Being not far from the strawberry farms in the cheddar valley we can't help but agree that the strawberry is one of the highlights of the British summer. One of my other favourite ideas included a delicious sounding chickpea, feta, caramelised onion and coriander salad - sounds right up my street for a hot summers day. A few people also mentioned gooseberries - we used to have great bushes of gooseberries when we were kids and they got turned into jam, ice cream and fools. I love them!

As a small consolation prize we have a 10% discount code of MyGiveaway which can be used on our site in the basket page until Sunday 13th. And congratulations again to Alissa on her win!

Andrea Letterie from Rice DK - Competition Time!

It's competition time, folks!

NB - The competition is now closed!

Our favourite Danish brand Rice has launched this fab new range of melamine with prints by Dutch illustrator Andrea Letterie and we're so excited about it that we've decided to give a set away to one lucky fan. We're thinking ahead to picnic season here and we want your ideas for what you might pack up for the park to serve on your beautiful new tableware. So here's a chance to win over £100 worth of the beautiful melamine.

Andrea takes the inspiration for her artwork from everyday things - whether it's her collection of tea cups, her dog, or a bunch of colourful flowers from the garden. It's this love of bold, bright colour and simple pleasures which makes the collaboration with Rice DK such a good fit. As well as their fun and exciting design, we've always loved Rice for their ethical outlook, being one of the smallest companies ever to achieve Social Accountability 8000 accreditation, and it seems like a love of the simple things in life goes hand in hand with care and commitment to others.

Competition deadline: Midnight on 6th April 2014

How to win!

In case you hadn't noticed, we're very keen on food at fig1.co.uk. With the signs of spring firmly shooting up everywhere, we're thinking about picnics, barbecues and alfresco lunches - in fact, we rarely think about anything

else. So to help feed our obsession, give us some ideas of your favourite summer foods, either in a comment on this blog or on our Facebook page. Make it as simple or complicated as you like - go to town with a full recipe or a link to your blog, or just a quick word or two! We're looking forward to your ideas, but the winner will simply be picked at random with no judgement call so just a few words is fine if you are short of time. If you enter on Facebook we'd also like you to share the post about this competition - it helps share the fun!

This competition is only open to UK residents and shipping is to UK addresses only - we're a small UK focused company and our reach doesn't yet stretch beyond! Sorry to anyone outside of the UK!

We then have a simple form for you to fill in on Survey Monkey - this is just so we have details to inform people of the results - we'll use it to send one email to let you know if you have won or not, and we need the address so we can send the prize to the winner, but we will not store these details after the competition - you'll have to make sure you are on our mailing list separately if you want to receive future information from us by subscribing using the link on the bottom left of our home page at www.fig1.co.uk.

In Summary, to enter:

• Comment on this blog OR comment and share on the competition post on our Facebook page with a summer food idea
• Complete the form on Survey Monkey
• Deadline is Midnight on Sunday 6th April 2014
• Winners will be informed on Monday 7th April 2014
• UK entrants only

What you can win!

You can win a set of four dinner plates, cups and side plates with Andrea Letterie prints, an Andrea Letterie candle holder and one of these pretty glass bottle vases by Rice DK - worth over £100.

Good luck!

Rhubarb Compote and Pistachio Biscuits served with Saffron and Cardamom Cream

Square Bottle Vase by Rice

Bold, bright, cheap but beautiful and fresh from Cornwall. No, I am not immodestly talking myself up, newly
returned from our winter break to the far south west, but refer rather to a bunch of daffodils I've just bought from the green grocers. A customer recently commented on how she likes to take pleasure in small things whenever she can. If that is the happiest way to live life - and I think it might be - then the promises of spring beginning to show everywhere must be making her a very happy woman.

I think my Mum's excitement at seeing the first daffodils in the garden and picking some for the table has always left me with a particular fondness for the flowers and so, thinking forward to Mother's Day, I've been letting my imagination loose on my childhood to help dream up a recipe full of the colours and tastes of spring. My Grandmother on my Dad's side was Cornish so the almost indescribably unique taste of saffron she used to use in her baking also provokes particularly powerful maternal memories for me. There is something about those early formed memories which stay with you in vision and smell, taste and texture more than in words and description. Trying to dredge up those thoughts of spring and childhood, my mind explores the garden we grow up in from a child's height eye: the bank of daffodils, the towering stems of rhubarb and the pea shoots amongst their netting which would grow soon enough into giant, yet
delicate and abundant plants.

Candle holder by Rice

It's partly these colours and textures which have inspired me to come up with this dish and, although it is actually quite sophisticated, I wanted to present it in a fun way - again, a homage to baking at home with Mum or Gran, when decorating things up would be so much part of the fun.

The below quantities serve 4, with maybe a few biscuits left spare. It is quite a rich desert so you don't need too much.

Rhubarb Compot

Ingredients

100g sugar

70ml water

4 stems of Rhubarb, cut unto 2 inch lengths

Rhubarb is just coming into season at the moment. The early stems are often the forced ones, but soon it will be in full flow. It tends very tender this young so I don't bother to take off the outer skin, which becomes stringy later in the season. Put the water and sugar in the pan. Bring to the boil. Add the rhubarb and gently simmer for 5 minutes or enough time to allow the rhubarb to soften without going completely to mush. Set aside to cool.

Saffron and Cardamom Cream

Ingredients

300ml Double Cream

300ml Condensed Milk

20 Green Cardamom Pods

20 Strands of Saffron

Zest and Juice of 2 Lemons

The taste of this part of the dish is partly inspired by the Indian ice cream "kulfi" - made using condensed milk
and often subtly spiced. It is set in the same way as lemon posset, by the acidity of the lemon juice.  The lemon zest and saffron give this part it's spring yellow colour.

Bring the double cream, condensed milk, cardamom pods (lightly crushed to release their flavour) and saffron slowly to a gentle boil in a pan, stirring and being careful not to let it boil over. Simmer gently for 3 minutes, add the lemon zest then leave to cool and infuse. After 10 minutes, pick out the cardamom pods from the cream. Now add the juice of the lemons and stir thoroughly. The cream mix should instantly thicken when you add the juice. 

Depending on how you want to serve it, you can either add a spoon of the rhubarb to the bottom of a glass or coffee cup now, then put the cream over the top in individual portions and leave it all to set in the fridge, or leave the cream for 2-3 hours in the fridge as it is and then pipe it or spoon it onto the desserts at the end.

Pistachio Biscuits

Ingredients

190g Shelled Pistachios

100g Ground Almonds

120g Caster Sugar

2 medium egg whites

Preheat oven to 170 centigrade. Toast the pistachios for 10 minutes to bring out their flavour. In the meantime put all the other ingredients in a bowl. I also added a drop of green food colouring as I was feeling particularly colourful.

Put half the toasted pistachios in the food processor and blend down finely. Add to the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Roughly chop the rest of the pistachios. Spread them out on a lined baking tray or silicone sheet. Now
spoon, pipe or use wet finger tips to add small balls of the biscuit mix to the tray. It is quite sticky and difficult to handle so I find the piping bag easiest. Having the chopped nuts already spread out like this it makes rolling the balls of mix in them easier - as they pick up the chopped nuts they become more handleable for
shaping. You should have enough mix for about 10 small biscuits.

Bake for 14 minutes. They should remain quite soft and chewy in the middle, so don't bake them until they are solid. When they are done, use a pallet knife to gently remove them from the tray and place on a cooling rack.

Acacia Chopping Board by House Doctor

Presenting the Dish

I wanted to go for an ice cream sundae look, so I carefully cut the biscuits down the centre and piped some of the cream in it. I then added a crumbled biscuit to the bottom of the cup, soaked it with some of the rhubarb juice and then piped in some of the cream, followed by rhubarb, then cream, so it was a mixed bag of surprises. Finally I topped it with some piped whipped cream, some chopped puts and a little lemon zest. Served with a biscuit on the side. I'm sure you can let your own imagination run wild.

Pictures: presented on Rice "Japanese Style" Melamine ... although we think it is more Ice Cream Parlour. Maybe a recipe for Green Tea Ice Cream next??

Coming Soon....

We're having a give away of some of the new beautiful Andrea Letterie illustrated melamine plates from Rice. We love this new range. We should be launching the competition in our news letter on Monday - simply go to our website www.fig1.co.uk and fill in the form on the bottom left of the page to subscribe to our mailing list.

Give away coming soon....