Mexican is the new Thai

Mexican is, it seems, the current flavour, with a few new venues opening nearby and a very established one in the city centre. William's day off is incomplete without a 'Boojum'! How clever they are in Boojum.....they offer a small range of  fantastically tasty food, they serve it quickly, (even though there is often a very conspicuous queue at lunch time) and their location is spot on.

In The Bay Tree, we have gone for a bit of Mexican too, with the help of Thomasina Myers and her lovely colourful books. Well, actually, it's just her books that have helped us! I sent off to The Cool Chile Company for some Chipotle chillies, and I have become less of a coward with the Scotch Bonnet chili, which I can get in Tesco.

 

From this book, we make Chipotles en Adobo. As Thomasina says 'this smoky, slightly sweet puree harnesses the intense flavours of dried chipotle chillies, lasts for months, and is an indispensable ingredient.....a small teaspoon is delicious stirred into stews, pasta sauces, dressings and mayonnaises'. So, that's what we do........

We are currently serving Chicken Adobado on our Friday night menu. Adobado means marinated, and what a marinade it is....punchy and aromatic, and we serve it with refried beans, soured cream and pink pickled onions. Refried beans are another thing I used to be a bit afraid of. I thought they would be fairly dull and give me wind. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Delicious and hardly any wind.

I am going to Australia in July to visit Bridget, and I shall photocopy a few more Mexican recipes to try while I'm there. I'm looking forward to lots of eating!

 

 

 

Friday night dinner

Well, we have gone back to opening just one night a week (down from 5) It has been a bit liberating really. Liberating and exciting. I have been serving dinner on Friday night since September 1994, and recently it has felt like those old days. One night a week makes it just a bit more special, a private dinner party almost. Also, now I don't do quite so much in the kitchen, I have time to go out into the restaurant and chat with customers. Restaurateurs are hosts after all. I always used to have a word with everyone at the end of the evening, but then the workload seemed to increase, in terms of getting ready for the next day etc, and I stopped communing with the world outside the kitchen. Having a beer,clearing up and going home became what I did. How much better to hear what people have eaten and get a few tips about making things better!

wedding and christmas

It's been a long time since I've been on my blog, and, like running and ironing and everything else, the longer you leave it the harder it is.But it's Friday night, and I ......well, here I am.
The wedding, with which I was a bit preoccupied in previous posts, was marvellous. We very luckily selected the one good weekend of the summer. Bridget had put in a lot of planning and effort to make everything pretty, and I had agonised about the garden and to a lesser extent, about the food. Dear brother Nick helped us out with the drink. Jeremy, the groom is a musician, so that was the music sorted, and Bridget's cousin Ben, Nick's son, makes music videos, and so has captured the day on film. It now all seems so easy! It was really lovely.
Now, it's back to The Bay Tree. Tonight was the first night of the new menu which is a bit Christmassy. First nights are always a bit tricky, and there are maybe a few forgotten bits and pieces...eg the first turkey customer only got one of the promised two stuffings (a lost in the fridge situation), but they did get bread sauce which they weren't expecting.Our Christmas dinners are good....homely and good. I always hope that the providers of the great meal on 25th December get to come to The Bay Tree in the weeks beforehand and enjoy turkey etc that they haven't had to prepare themselves.

That's all for now, but hopefully I've got going again....we have lots going on.
The photo is from the wedding day, and features mainly Rudbeckia, but also a fab Dahlia that Bridget carried, some white Larkspur, which I loved, and a gorgeous lemon Sunflower all of which I shall grow again.

more gardening

Quite a lot of the seedlings mentioned in my last post have found homes. Not all of them have survived the lack of rain, and watering is an onorous evening task. No hose here. The water barrels are all empty. However we do have a well in the vegetable garden. Not a well with a pump or anything convenient like that. We chuck a watering can with a rock in it into the well, holding on to the rope which is attached to it. We hold the watering can under the water with a stick until it is full. Then we haul it back up the steps of the well losing quite a bit of the water on the way, and then  set off to water one of the 30 rows, and repeat the process many more times. It's rustic! But things are growing and it's looking good.
I have been having a go at growing pea shoots and micro leaves in the green house. I have sprouted seeds for years now, and they are sometimes on our super salads at The Bay Tree. While sprouting seeds just involves rinsing the seeds twice a day, the micro leaves are grown very thickly in compost. I have a lovely box of purple basil seedlings or micro leaves, which i can't bring myself to cut so gorgeous are they. The other box of Basil I didn't manage to sow thickly enough, so they aren't quite so successful. I must keep sowing and keep them coming.
The Bay Tree is entering summer mode. We will be experimenting with lighter dishes, and I will be looking up Skye Gyngell and Nigella Lawson for inspiration.Maybe even Delia might help. When designing menus, I like to think what I personally would want to eat on a night, or lunch, out. We want to offer light, tasty and gutsy food, using ,sometimes, unusual ingredients, and we need to be able to serve it quickly and easily. My brother Nick says that a dish should have no more than 3 parts so that it can be accomplished speedily. I always bear this in mind.

flowers

Well, once again, I come to my blog tardily. It's not that I am not at The Bay Tree as much as usual, or that I am not trying new recipes and food combinations, or that Jonny (chef) and I havn't been working on the new evening menu. No, all these things are as normal. However, my greenhouse, outside my greenhouse and my car are all overflowing with seedlings, many of which I now need to get into the ground or pots. I hardly know where to start, and I can't decide which would look best where. And then there is the  large amount of soil preparation also needed ....Sundays are spent pulling out ground elder and dividing yet more plants (plus mixing and making compost with all the peelings from The Bay Tree)
There seems to be so much to do....aaaaagh, I'm in a frustrating paralysis. The garden is at a very demanding stage of the year, and were you to see it, you wouldn't think I cared about it at all, so messy is it. Tidiness doesn't come naturally to me, and this applies to the kitchen too.. I feel I can achieve more by just blasting on and getting everything done, but now that I share the kitchen with other chefs.....well, lets just say they disagree. I'm self taught, and didn't learn in the tyrannical regime of a hierarchical kitchen. So, you are reading the blog of an old dog learning new tricks. This is good for me, but is still work in progress.There is one small corner of the kitchen that now actually offends me when its messy, so I can honestly say I keep that half a square metre very nicely, but I need to start having those feelings about the whole kitchen at work, and at home, and in both my gardens.
The reason for all the seedlings is ofcourse the wedding, and this is why its a bit important that they should be put in the right place, although William did point out that no one is going to leave the wedding saying 'nice wedding, shame about the plants'. I'm looking forward to 2 days in the garden at Easter, and hopefully that will make me feel I'm more on track.

I must just finally report....that Simnel cakes have been made (ref my last blog). We even made some cup cake sized ones, which look great, but couldn't carry the required 11 marzipan balls. We will try Lorraine Pascale's Rum and Pear Simnel cake from the Observer Food Monthly magazine next...sounds great.

This is a photo of Jonny the chef, chopping scallions, and in the background you can see the very precious soup whizzer.

Go! Bay Tree

We have had our take away shop for almost 2 years now. It is located just opposite The Bay Tree door, within the courtyard. We sell primarily cinnamon scones, but also soup, chowder and sandwiches. Ideally, we sell anything that we serve in the restaurant, and, also ideally, we make some things in Go! that we don't serve in the restaurant. We have been experimenting with new flavours of cinnamon scones....currently we make apple ones. People are curious-ish, but prefer the old favourites. The difficulty with Go! is that there isn't quite enough space to bake easily. Storage is another problem, as take away needs a lot of packaging. HOWEVER, I love our take away, and feel it needs more attention, more research and more application. To this end I have bought 3 new cake books on Amazon.....Lorraine Pascale (who makes it all so easy on TV), a new Hummingbird book, and one other whose name I have forgotten, and which I probably didn't need.
I am still making the red velvet cup cakes, but need to find a source of red food colouring in larger quantities. Must phone cash and carry today about that. I saw a great cup cake stall at a market in Manchester city centre a couple of weekends ago, and had to walk past several times memorising the flavour combinations, and then scribbling tham down! I obviously havn't got to the creative stage of cup cake making, as I still need so much inspiration from others. I shall keep working at them.....I think William is coming round to the idea (see second last post)

Tuesday seems to be blog day

In 2006, in the white Bay Tree book, I wrote 'For years I fought against having systems. I felt they were soulless, that they suffocated spontaneity and that they would make The Bay Tree predictable: I was wrong! My lack of systems made me predictably chaotic and meant that I achieved a fraction of what we all achieve now. The evolution of the meringue is a good example. As you know, meringues need a very low temperature to cook, but they must go in at exactly the right temperature and remain undisturbed for the right length of time. In a busy kitchen with only one oven, that is just not possible before or during lunchtime, so the system is to make them at 2.30 at the end of lunch, set the timer, and John the wonderful dishwasher turns them off if I have gone running. It's the perfect slot, and the system provides us with an appealing, simple to serve dessert ready for the next day.'
So now, my system is to write my blog on a Tuesday....I'm not happy that it's always the same day, but it does make it happen.
Planning is equally important as the achievement of systems, and I must now plan both my menu for tomorrow lunch and my 'girl's' evening menu for tomorrow night (that's at home, not at The Bay Tree).We will be repeating today's roast loin of pork with roast potatoes and Nick's honey and ginger sauce, as we got lots of compliments for it.

Below is a photo of my latest batch of red velvet cupcakes. At least they are red.



red velvet cupcakes

I have started to make cup cakes for our take away shop (go! bay tree). This is in spite of William's abhorrance of them, and total discouragement of any activity in the direction of producing them.The thing is.... I really like the cake part of cup cakes, but the icing is what makes them special, and I often find it a bit sweet. To make cup cakes ( or buns as I would have called them)  look desirable, you really have to go to town with the topping. This isn't my forte.
Anyway, I have the lovely Hummingbird cook book, and every now and again I hit on a new recipe to try, and the latest one is the red velvet cupcake. You use an incredible amount of red food colouring....20 grams to a mixture that only has one egg, and my first effort was quite successful in terms of the cake, but the icing wasn't voluptuous enough. My third batch didn't even manage to be red, so they are just labelled as mere cup cakes, and, to be honest, 'voluptuousness' is still absent.
I saw lovely red velvet cup cakes in Tescos this evening.....
Maybe Olwen from 'in the gateaux' could give me some tips?

Stars

Wonderful news recently that Skye Gyngell got a Michelin Star for Petersham Nurseries. I can't help wondering how she selects and manages her team of chefs. She cooks so instinctively, and has worked out her own way to do things, there must be some bending of wills for chefs to unlearn what they have previously been taught. She doesn't wear whites in the kitchen, which indicates that she doesn't even see herself as a 'chef ', rather as someone who cooks, both at work and at home. The thing is with cooking, that there is no right or wrong way (with the possible exception of baking). What matters is the combination of flavours and textures that go on the plate. I feel that Gyngell aims for clean, fresh, true food, and her methods would be derived from a desire to achieve this. This is not to imply 'flimsy' or 'delicate' or that she has a  'feminine touch'....gutsy flavours will be there when necessary. I suspect that Petersham Nurseries is unlike anywhere else to work in. The Bay Tree, also, is a bit unlike anywhere else to work in. Obviously, there will never be a Michelin Star for The Bay Tree, not least because I try too much to be all things to all people, ...... we serve anything from a simple baked potato up to the gorgeous coley with fennel veloute that Jonny made last week.

To read the Rose Prince article about Gyngell's Michelin Star, go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8269863/Why-women-chefs-are-the-real-Michelin-stars.html

this week's tasks

The build up of rubbish all needed to be cleared away at the end of last week by the bin monitor, (that's me) that took about half a day, and is part of the reason that not much progress has been made.

An update on the last post's resolutions.....as yet, no sour dough; as yet no daily ice-cream, despite egg yolks in the fridge; as yet no home made pasta. However, a slight nudge in that direction has been made. As we had run out of strong flour, and no delivery was possible for another few days, when I was in the Asia supermarket, inspiration struck, and I inquired as to whether they had strong flour,(to save me calling in at Tesco on the way back). Yes, the gorgeous foreigner replied, wait there. He produced a very large and expensive bag of 'oo' flour. I dithered a little, as it was so expensive(£23.50 for 25 kg), but, thinking of the check out queue in Tesco, and allowing myself to see this as a sign that pasta making was about to begin, I bought it (along with the Chinese carry out boxes, the coconut milk, the frozen Kaffir lime leaves, Fenugreek powder, Pomegranate Molasses, Tsing Tao beer, etc). I think we might start next week with everything.....oh yeah!
Things to do this week include an orange and brandy bread and butter pudding, marmalade, carrot cakes, and Baillies and Banana Toffee pies. I was watching Lorraine Pascale's cookery show this evening on telly, and I think I can definately learn a few tips from her to smarten everything up a bit. Our desserts taste good, but they aren't 'wow' enough visually. The picture above is of our pecan pie. It looks a bit overdone; we must be braver and take it out of the oven after the hour, even if it is still wobbly. I shall photograph any successful efforts i have in the future.
We made a little progress with our terrible lighting today. The low voltage bulbs that we have are so dim during the day that it's difficult for customers at certain tables to read anything, and then at night, when we need to create some atmosphere, although we use a dimmer switch, it seems too bright. So these are all going to be changed, quite soon....after we have acquired a new mouli machine for the mashed potato,( and the ice-cream maker!).

back to normal

It was wonderful that my first day of 'back to normal' was actually a bank/public holiday...I'm not sure which. This meant that we were very busy, and the kitchen just thrives on 'very busy'. We did 142 lunches, which is quite good use of our 60 seats. Tomorrow will be a lot quieter, and will give us time to catch up with desserts, traybakes and cakes. We really must make some new desserts.
There are three things that I want to tackle this year. 1) sour dough bread; 2) homemade pasta; and 3) ice_cream. I mean I want to really make them regularly, so that it isn't a big effort. Skye Gyngell told us at the previously mentioned cookery demonstration at Ballymalloe, that she makes ice-cream every day. This must mean that they have a routine of making a custard at the end of every day (and we could easily do this as we always have lots of egg yolks over from making meringues), and then first thing in the morning the ice_cream maker does it's churning, and it would be ready for lunch. Well, we don't have a machine yet, but maybe I could find a second hand one, and then it would just be about sticking to systems.
I might delegate the sour dough bread.
The pasta will be fun if we have a team effort, I think. we must set a date. I was reading Stevie Parle in the Saturday Telegraph last Saturday...he was writing about how the pasta sauce dictates the shape of the pasta. But I long to make tasty ravioli....so I must practice at home.

We are changing the evening menu again on Wednesday which is exciting, although we will be keeping the Coley dish that has been well received. I like this dish because it is light, individual and very tasty. The above picture is of Glen chopping parsley or something. He will play a major part in the new menu.

Christmas day

The family are coming to our house on Christmas day. This is lovely. It's a recent change of plan, but I have help at hand in the form of Bridget and Jeremy who live with me. It's much much easier for someone who cooks for a living to produce Christmas dinner, than it is for someone with less experience. HOWEVER, there are factors which may influence the outcome. Firstly, I never drink alcohol during service at work, and I almost certainly will on Saturday. Secondly, I have a fully equipped kitchen in The Bay Tree.....not so at home. The next thing is that I hardly ever cook at home for others because I am usually at The Bay Tree, and the standard of my home assistants may not be quite what I am used to.
 It will all be grand though. My timings might not be quite right, but we will have the same meal we always have, with some nice wine, followed by mother's Christmas brandy soused  pud with brandy butter.

Tuesdays are long

I must have just become a bit slow, but I didn't get through my list tonight. The pheasant terrine didn't get made....however the meringues, Christmas puddings, mincemeat cheesecake, and cranberry and walnut torte/pie did. It often happens that one task needs several others to be performed prior to it being possible for that task to be achieved. Hence, the cheesecake needed more sweet mince to be made. The cranberry and walnut needed sable pastry made, rolled out and sealed, and the Christmas puddings needed me to find and clean all the dariole moulds from several corners of the kitchen. All of this is easier to achieve when I am alone in the kitchen on a Tuesday night, but it makes a long day for an auld girl! I always do service on a Tuesday lunchtime, and then cleaning on Tuesday afternoon. However I'm home now and sitting down. Early start tomorrow to make the cinnamon scones!

neighbours

About 5 years ago, in November, the Coffee Yard and Yard Gallery opened up a few doors away from us. It was modern, smart, and spacious. We were well established at the time, and we had weathered the opening of several other cafes and restaurants in the town. However, this was right next door, and they seemed so organised. We felt threatened. The Bay Tree emptied while all our customers tried out the new place, and what they had to offer. It was understandable. William wanted to compete with them, but I felt that that was a red herring. I felt it was important to keep doing what we had always done, but to try to do it better. The smart new place beside us forced us to smarten and tidy ourselves up a bit, modernise a bit, and think about what our customers wanted from us. I think it made us take ourselves more seriously. I certainly felt that I loved The Bay Tree far too much to allow ourselves to be swallowed up by competition. The Bay Tree gradually filled up again in the following weeks, and we felt a bit more reassured. Then, in the week between Christmas and the new year, the Coffee Yard took a few days off. The result of that was that we got all their customers as well as our own, and we found ourselves fervently wishing for them to reopen! That was the first breaking of the ice between us. Another milestone in our relationship was the borrowing of some coffee...us borrowing from them, not the other way round. Lending and borrowing between neighbours is a trusting and friendly experience(a better word escapes me) and the thaw continued. We both now frequent each others' establishments, William and I always have meetings in the Coffee Yard, and Jim and Nikki quite often have dinner in The Bay Tree on Saturday nights.
However, what has prompted me to write about all this today is that the staff of the Coffee Yard had their Christmas party in The Bay Tree last night. I was touched and gratified that they should have chosen their neighbours for this occasion, and really hope they had a good evening. I know the chefs were super organised for the event.
We are now officially friends!

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.



saturdays

I have always quite enjoyed Saturdays in The Bay Tree, because Fridays are over. There is a lot of work to do on a Friday, and Saturdays are a bit more relaxed. It's hectic, but still a bit more relaxed. Today lots of things went wrong....coffee machine broke down (it often does on a Saturday), superviser slept in, and the electricity went off for about 30 minutes at the height of the morning melee, so there was no till, no coffee machine, no microwave, no toaster, no heater, no lights......but yes a gas cooker, so we could still cook breakfasts. I think you have to quite enjoy a crisis to be a restaurant owner.....I love to find alternative ways, and am far too good at making do. I was nevertheless relieved when the lights came back on and things returned to normal. Lunch was quite quiet: everyone must be shopping elsewhere or be suffering from the cold. Thought I would have been able to leave during the afternoon, but tasks expanded to fill time available, and it was after 6 when I found my keys and defrosted the car windscreen. I'm working tomorrow lunch too, so not too much wine tonight.

Feedback

It has been a good week....I did lunch service with Kate and Jonny the head chef on Tuesday. It was steady and quite fun. Then a day off yesterday when I took my grandson out for the morning with a friend and her grandson. I must say that my grandson was much more easily managed than I remember my son to be! Maybe that will change.
Today I got a batch of sweetmince made in preparation for 24 days of mince pie making.I used the recipe from my Goodhousekeeping book and include it here:
1lb each of raisins, currants, sultanas and mixed peel, all chopped up together
1.5lb finely diced cooking apple
4oz chopped or flaked almonds
1lb soft brown sugar
2 lemons, rind and juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
8oz shredded suet
Just mix everything up together, and store it for a week or so before using.
The feedback I refer to in the title of today's post is  because a kind person rang us up this afternoon to say she felt moved to contact us because she had such a delicious meal last night! How nice was that? She had our coley dish which is one that I am particularly pleased with.

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.