snow and grandaughter

the reason for my silence is my new grandaughter Anna. She arrived punctually, on her due date, and without delay....and we are all delighted with her, with the possible exception of Ilya who now has to share his beloved mama. However, he is having fun in the snow and ice, and is enjoying having papa home on paternity leave.

The photo above is of Rab, emerging from our veg store. On the whole, restaurant life in the snow is a lot simpler than in the height of a hot summer, and our veg store outside is, for the moment a walk-in fridge, and there is refridgeration everywhere! Plus, the cold makes people hungry. We are always very aware of the weather and what people might feel like eating when we are deciding on the day's menu.There aren't too many salad orders at the moment! and yes, lots of soup. We had fennel soup today with the secret ingredient of parsnip in it to give it some body. The roast turkey dinners continue to appeal...I love all those flavours....and then, because of the cold, we DESERVE a desert. There is going to have to be a serious amount of exercise after Christmas if I am to do the Mourne Marathon thing in June, even if its just at a walk.



new hazlenut dressing recipe

I am a great fan of Skye Gyngell having been to a cookery demonstration by her during the summer at Ballymaloe. I buy the Independent on Sunday because she writes in it, and today I had a Skye inspired salad on the menu. Here is the hazlenut dressing recipe:

100g/3.5 oz whole hazlenuts, toasted,skinned and pounded
2 anchovies
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs red wine vinegar
120ml/4fl oz extra virgin olive oil
and we added the grated rind of half an orange

Pound the anchovies and mustard together in a pestle and mortar, and add everything else. Season if necessary.
Our salad was of roasted beetroot, broccoli, Fivemiletown goats cheese and orange slices, with the hazlenut dressing, and, despite the cold weather, it was quite popular......well, I made about 5 out of the 70 orders we had, whatever percentage that is. My brain doesn't do percentages.
We aren't open on Tuesday nights for dinner, so Tuesday afternoon is kitchen scrubbing day when all the fridges are pulled out, the filter in the extractor fan is changed, and as much as possible is 'rationalised' and cleaned. I had planned to get my first batch of Christmas puddings in the oven at about 3pm, but only managed this at 6pm. I make individual puddings now, easier to make and easier to serve than the larger ones I used to battle with. I then made shortbread and wheatmeal biscuits for the week, and meringues for tomorrow, and left Mandy to take out the Christmas puds and meringues. I was rushing to get home for 8pm to go to a gig with Bridget and Jeremy. They were going to see The Tallest Man on Earth, but they mentioned that it would probably be standing......at that point, I ran out of steam, and knew I couldn't stand up for another 2 hours. I also realised that were I to be seated, I would probably fall asleep, so I stayed at home and had a glass of brandy.

Hello

I hope to use this blog as a diary and a means of helping to order my thoughts. I want to talk about the food of the moment at The Bay Tree, taste combinations I have found that work, new recipes, interesting cookery writers, teamwork in the kitchen (or not, as the case may be!)what I am teaching my cookery pupil.......and all sorts  of things like this.This week I must think about the definitive stirfry as my pupil (pupil P)wants to master this.