S&H is a new, collaborative kind of food blog where we talk (and cook) while you read (and cook)! We are three different voices that all share one true passion – a love for food.
We love: great meals, new cookbooks, exchanging recipes, making a bit of a mess in the kitchen, ice cream before dinner, and… cheese!
Join in the fun that is food.
How does everyone feel about potentially doing a breakfast series – i.e. everyone take pictures and describe their typical weekday breakfast vs weekend breakfast?
I think that could prove to be illuminating! 
The three of us had our weekly catch-up at the Chelsea Bun today, which is a vaguely ‘American’ style breakfast location here in London. They don’t really take bookings for the weekends but since it can get really crowded, it’s good to try to get your name on a list of some kind anyway. I think ours was on the ‘I’ll see what I can do’ list. When we go there though, a table had just freed up and we were able to sit down and start studying the big menu right away.
The most American-breakfast part of the breakfasts offered here is really their size! Otherwise, they can be slightly ‘exotic’ for what they call their ‘gourmet breakfasts’. For example, Priya had the Tijuana eggs benedict with chorizo – delicious! Minyi had (actually, very tiny!) Scotch pancakes with ice cream and maple syrup. And I had the some poached eggs, hash browns and a piece of french toast.
And then we all snacked on the cookies that Priya had backed the day before and brought along for us, but that’s a whole other story!
So, what do you think?
So, completely out of the blue, I ended up baking a new kind of apple pie today. It is a slight variation of a recipe that Clotilde has in her original Chocolate & Zucchini book. She calls it le gâteau de mamy, but I think it’s more apt to call it not your gran’s apple cake!
Really, I was meant to be practicing various savory cake recipes for our Russian bar night in a few weeks but it was getting late and all I really wanted after dinner was a piece of gooey, golden deliciousness. This turned out to be just that kind of cake, with the dough having almost a souffle-like texture with a bit of caramelized crunch.
Not your gran's apple cake!
This cake is now firmly on the list of my new favorite (but also easiest!) things to bake.
You’ll need the following ingredients:
- 125 g (1/2 stick) butter
- 70 g regular flour (approx 1/3 of cup)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- cinnamon and ginger ,to taste
- 2 medium-large apples, preferably Bramley
- 150 g sugar (2/3 cup)
- 30 g ground almonds, finely ground or processed are both fine (approx 1/8 cup)
(Since measuring conversions is sometimes confusing, this is a handy online measure conversion reference guide by ingredient.)
1. Preheat oven to 180 C (170 for fan ovens; about 350 F).
2. Melt the butter (easiest to do in a microwaveable bowl). Grease bottom of a round non-spring cake pan with some of the butter. Keep the rest for later on in the recipe.
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder.
4. Wash and core the apples. I prefer not to peel them. They will cook really thoroughly so it won’t matter and I think the flavor and texture is better this way, but by all means peel the apples if you want. Cut the cored apples into half-inch (1.25 cm) slices and lay out along the bottom of the pan. Cover generously with cinnamon, a bit of ginger, whatever else you like. The overall flavor of the cake is relatively delicate so I wouldn’t recommend any other spices that are too overwhelmingly strong.
5. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until fluffy and golden (this takes some forearm strength! I am still impressed with how Chef Christophe at the Cordon Bleu here in London whipped eggs into meringue in about a minute while chatting away to a group of prospective students, including Priya and I).
6. Add the dry ingredients (flour etc.) into the egg mixture and whisk until combined. Add the melted butter and whisk again to get everything blended together.
7. Pour batter evenly over the apples in the pan. Bake for about 40 minutes. The top of the cake will rise a little like a souffle (this may happen a bit unevenly i.e. the top of the cake will look ‘hilly’, that’s totally fine because you will actually be flipping it over!).
8. Let the pan cool slightly, for about 10 minutes. Run your knife along the edge of the pan, then cover the pan with a big plate/platter and flip the cake onto it, turning it upside down. It will be very delicate, as I said, so it will get squished easily so, be gentle!
9. Eat! My favorite part .
Best eaten slightly warm still. This is so good I can’t even tell you. I would imagine it would be quite good with nice juicy pears as well. We’ll have to try it out sometime soon.
Enjoy!
- K
So we spent some of last week hunting around the Antibes marche provencal for various saffron (and honey) themed ingredients. The market did not disappoint.
honey at the marche provencal
We tried a bit of the local honey made from Provence flowers (unsurprisingly, has a bit of a lavender taste to it).
If you are interested in honey harvesting techniques and benefits, there was a great article in the NY Times this week about the White House beehive (part of the White House cooking theme they seem to have going there this week/month).
We also looked at different saffron(s) – in threads and in the more common powder form; mostly it seemed to have come from Morocco.
spice 'rack'
As part of a project for a food writing course that I’m taking, I am going to research the origins and value of saffron in various cultures in more detail – so, you’ll know more as soon as I do! I am also going to interview my friend Meena, who has much more firsthand knowledge of saffron than I do.
So stay tuned for more.
-K
Here’s my recipe for jerusalem artichoke soup with chestnut and truffle oil – good news for everyone, it’s a relatively easy starter to make – takes circa 30mins -20mins to soften the artichokes+onions and 10mins to re-heat and serve.
p.s: read it was difficult to clean jerusalem artichokes but I lucked out with some clean ones (good on you harrods!) and a really good veg peeler (kuhn rikon).
Ingredients:
- 250g of jerusalem artichokes
- 1/2 or 50g of onion (diced)
- 250g of chicken stock
- 100ml of water
- white truffle oil
- chestnuts
- seasonings: salt
- window dressing aka garnish: parsley
1. these are main ingredients in artichokes soup (visually):
2. First, clean, peel and cube the jerusalem artichokes; then dice the onions.
jerusalem artichokes - scrubbed and peeled
3. melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan, cover and sweat the onions+artichokes til tender (turning it occassionally); turn up heat after 10 mins, pour 250ml of chicken stock and 100ml of water. Bring to boil, reduce heat then boil for another 10mins or so until artichokes yield when you poke with fork.
4. Blend stock and artichokes.
5.Re-heat pureed soup, add 2 tablespoon of milk (or double cream, up to you)- taste, add salt and adjust.
6. Add chopped chesnut, parsley and serve with a dash of truffle oil.
The soup has a rich and velvety texture and from now on, this will be one of my favorite winter starter dishes (until I find another worthy contender of course) 
love, minster
Our first recipe post!
I found this recipe on the Food and Wine website and tried it out right before our adventures in France. Yummy plain or with ice cream or fresh fruit or even with chocolate chips baked into it (or rose water which I am currently obsessed with)!
Ingredients
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs (!!!)
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups plain flour
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Butter a 10-by-5-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with a strip of parchment paper that extends 2 inches past the short ends of the pan (I didn’t do this and it came out fine).
- In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar, vanilla and salt at medium speed until fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 2 at a time, beating between additions. Beat in the milk. Sift the flour over the batter and whisk it in until smooth. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
- Bake the cake for 1 1/2 hours, until it is cracked down the center, golden on top, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold the cake and let cool completely.
So simple. It stays moist for at least two days (not sure what happens after that since we ate it all by then)!
Hello, everybody!
I’m Ksenia, and I’m one-third of this wonderful new blog called Saffron & Honey. We hope that this will quickly become the place for you to share in our cooking experiences and offer your thoughts and contributions to our culinary adventures!
Over the next few weeks, each of us will take a turn introducing ourselves. The main point is: we are not professional chefs, but we are definitely professional cooking, eating and everything-food enthusiasts. We approach it like a profession, working at it non-stop and never ceasing to be curious about trying something new.
Each of us brings something new to the table (pardon the pun!). I love to bake and would definitely say that is my main passion, but I do love to cook, especially with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Priya is often the more experimental of the group and will try her hand at anything that sounds interesting! She has a great hand at spicing, seasoning and developing flavors. She also makes a mean frozen yogurt! (That said, please post that pound cake recipe – I want it!)
Minyi loves working with ‘new’, modern cooking as well as Asian flavors, but is also great at executing classic dishes. She also really values presentation and her plates and dinner, lunch or breakfast tables always look absolutely beautiful.
We all love: great food, new cookbooks, exchanging recipes, making a bit of a mess in the kitchen, ice cream before dinner, and… cheese!
This is a new process for everyone here – though a couple of us are ’seasoned’ bloggers – so we’ll really be taking your thoughts on board. To that end:
Next up: a recap of our culinary adventures in Antibes last weekend. See you soon!
