Painting Easter Eggs - Photo Blog

Saffron Poached Pear and Goat’s Cheese Salad

It’s still difficult to believe with the temperature barely above freezing, but spring is on its way. I love the colours of this salad for early spring – the yellow of the saffron, the white of the goats cheese and the green of the watercress give it a real Easter feel – however it is made with produce which is all available from the UK at this time of year, before the growing season has really started. We like the goats cheese to be soft and a little salty, but maybe not as salty as feta. The salty and sweet tastes go well together with the peppery watercress but too salty can be too much. This is a very imprecise recipe - as so much with this kind of dish depends on personal taste and the ingredients you have to hand. Cooking should always be about tasting, trying and using a little of your own experience and inspiration.

Ingredients

6 pears
20 strands of saffron
100g of watercress
100g goats cheese
250ml of extra dry vermouth of white wine
Sugar, salt, pepper and water to taste
Olive oil

75g walnuts
1tbsp icing sugar

Serves 6 as a light lunch or more as a starter

We tend to use fairly hard pears for this recipe and poach them until they are soft – that way they are not too sweet. How sweet you want them is a matter of taste, but the ripeness of the pears will greatly effect the time they need poaching, so we’re unable to give you an exact poaching time – test them with a skewer to see if they are soft, but try not to make them too soft or they will reduce to mush!

Soak the saffron in a cup with 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Peel and half the pears. Remove the core with a sharp knife or a melon baller. Put the infused saffron, vermouth and half a cup of water in a flat, wide pan with the pears face down. Bring to a low simmer and cover with a lid. The liquid should come half way up the pears and will need to be topped up with water depending on how long you cook the pears. Turn the pears half way through cooking so that the saffron dyes the outside yellow and they cook through evenly. After cooking for 2 minutes, taste the liqueur. Depending on how sweet the vermouth and pears are you may want to add a little sugar – 1 or 2 teaspoons.

While the pears are poaching warm a heavy based frying pan on a medium heat to toast the walnuts. The pan should be hot but not burning. Add the walnuts and stir for 2 minutes until they start to colour. Dust on the icing sugar with a fine sieve, and season with black pepper and a little salt. Stir for a few more minutes as the icing sugar dissolves.

Once the pears have finished poaching remove from the pan onto a board and reduce the liqueur by boiling it until you have half a cup. Pour into a small jug for dressing the salad.

We like to fan the pears so you see the more intense yellow on the outside, but how you plate the salad is also a matter of personal choice! Pile on some watercress, add the pears, crumble over the goats cheese, pour over some liqueur and a good grassy extra virgin olive oil and finally top with some walnuts. Use your favourite serving dish, or plate up individually on white plates. We like either viola or chive flowers to decorate up the plate with a little extra colour for a real Easter garden look.

Pictures credits: 

Served on House Doctor Linen Plates
Retro-style dispensers and kitchen timer by Capventure
Duck-egg blue patterned by House Doctor
Lemonade tray in background by House Doctor

A Sweet Something for Mother's Day

One of the things we love about our work at fig1.co.uk is that the business is so rooted in our community in Totterdown, Bristol. As well as our local customer base and all our staff, who are active members of this creative part of Bristol, our business is a real family affair.

I am often calling in photography help from my Dad, graphic design help from my brother, my sister sells her illustration work in the shop and I have been known to babysit my niece at work after school. But my mum we really couldn't do without. She helps buying stock at shows, unpacking stock as it arrives, assisting with photo shoots, styling the shop, business planning ... pretty much anything and everything. But then that's Mums isn't it?


We thought this lemon cake recipe was a particularly good and easy way to say thank you. My Mum loves zingy, citrusy tastes and this cake is great for that. A few years ago we made a giant version of this cake for a  friends wedding, which we decorated, at the time, in a summer fashion with icing bunting, fresh flowers and birds. So while making the prototype for the blog we decided to have the happy couple, Seth and Sara, and baby Bea over to help eat it, along with my niece Rosa. It turns out that Bea approves of the recipe.

Easy All in One Lemon Drizzle

Ingredients

225g butter

225g caster sugar

280g self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

4 tbsp milk

Grated zest of 2 lemons

For the syrup:

The juice of the 2 lemons
225g granulated sugar

Oven: 180 centigrade or gas mark 4

This recipe is a particularly good one to make with the kids for Mum or Gran as it is an all in one recipe, but we do find that the ingredients combine together best if the butter and eggs are at room temperature. Ideally you need an electric hand blender too as it needs a good amount of beating.

Start by zesting the lemons. Weigh out the butter and sugar in the bowl - you can choose to cream them together a little first if you are worried about it combining. Add the lemon zest and weigh all the other dry ingredients into the bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the lemon juice and granulated sugar - set aside for when the cake comes out of the oven. Finally prepare your tin by lightly greasing a 9 inch cake tin or a loaf tin. Once all this is prepared you can start making the batter. 

Pour the egg and milk mix to the dry ingredients. You can whisk the eggs and milk lightly together first if you like. Using the hand blender, blend the ingredients together for a good time until all the lumps of butter have gone.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for around 40 minutes. Check the cake is cooked by putting a skewer into the centre. If the skewer comes out clean it is cooked.

While the cake is hot and still in its tin, pour over the sugar and juice mix. You must do this while the cake is hot as it slightly cooks the juice and crystalizes the sugar. After 15 minutes of cooling you can take the cake out of the tin.

Items in this photo shoot include rose loaf tin by Rice, multi-coloured whisk by Rice, bird gift wrap decorations by Rice, yellow jug by Rice and love, care and attention by fig1.co.uk

Going Nuts at Christmas

At fig1.co.uk we're looking forward to the Christmas Eve shut down. The team here has been working extra hard to dispatch the last few of the Christmas orders and serve all the shop customers, and after we shut on Christmas Eve we'll be celebrating with a few drinks and bite to eat at my house. I've been putting together this recipe for rosemary and honey nuts as part of the celebrations. It is a variation of a recipe my mum made us all for Christmas last year. They make a good small gift for people too and I am going to jar some of them up for friends. With a cool gift tag and ribbon they make an alternative to the classic Christmas card.

Sticky Rosemary and Honey Nuts

200g almonds

200g walnuts

200g hazelnuts

2 tsp whole fennel

1 tbsp whole cumin

200g pumpkin seeds

4 tbsp runny honey

2 tbsp olive olil

4 tsp rosemary, finely chopped

1/2 tsp clove powder

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp smoked paprika

Sea salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 190C

• Line a baking tray with foil or baking parchment. Roast the almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts for 5-8 minutes on the tray. The tray should be large enough for the nuts to be spread out in a thin layer so they toast evenly. They should turn a pale golden colour
• Lower the oven to 140C
• Toast the fennel and cumin seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, tossing occasionally, until they start to brown. Be careful not to burn them as they go bitter. Roughly grind them in a pestle and mortar.
• Put the pan back on the heat. Toast the pumpkin seeds for a few minutes until they too start to brown and pop. 
• Making sure the heat isn't too high, add all the ingredients to the pan including the toasted nuts. Stir them really well to make sure the nuts and seeds are coated. The honey should start to caramelise. Season with sea salt, tasting until they are of your liking. Personally I like a salty-sweet combination  but if you are trying to be healthy or are serving them to children hold back a little.
• Put the mix back on the lined baking sheet and pop them back in the oven for a further 5 minutes. The mix should start to dry and set, but be careful not to overcook them.
• Remove from the oven and cool. Store them in air tight containers. 

Picture above: presented as a gift in this lidded French jar by Bloomingville.