Speros, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

 It was our first night out in seven and a half months. Now the baby is sleeping through (ish) we were able to ask Mum and Dad to babysit and head off in the boat for a couple of hours to ourselves. We decided to head off island to Speros on St Mary's. It's right on the beach and makes a perfect landing spot for the boat. 

After dropping anchor Richard and Amelia gave us a table out on the patio (you might as well be eating on the beach!) and it was such a warm evening it was the perfect start.

We were both keen to have some local crab as we haven't had any this year so started with a mixed seafood platter. A great big pile of white crab meat with smoked mackerel, smoked salmon and prawns. It was the perfect choice. 

Then I had chicken breast with cured meats, pesto, boiled potatoes and vegetables which was delicious. I love chicken and it's never on menus enough so I was really pleased to have it for once.
We tend to go half and half on desserts but we both wanted the chocolate brownie which was divine (and gluten free!). 



























Speros is such a lovely place to eat on St Mary's. The location in fantastic, the food delicious and the service hard to beat.

And if you've got a boat it's got just about the prettiest 'car' park you can imagine!

Home alone....

I'm in the sitting room watching the rain pour down outside. It's the kind of rain that hits the window like a child throwing gravel. It's a foul day. The waves are rolling in off the Atlantic and are hitting the west coast of the island making a noise like a creaking ship. Last night the wind gusted up to 90mph. It's the perfect day to be inside, to watch Scilly at it's most exposed and at its most perfect. 

We've been decorating the house. Using masking tape to cover the light switches and skirting boards and using big rollers to cover the smudges and scrapes from our guests suitcases as they came and went. Painting over 2012 and creating afresh for 2013. We've got another three weeks until our first guests arrive and it all starts again. We can't wait to share our house with people. To meet new faces and to welcome back some from 2012. But for now we are wrapped up warm, enjoying our solitude.

Chicken and vegetable pie (serves 4)....

1x 500g packet of puff pastry
a little flour
2 small chicken breasts
1 small leek
a little olive oil
1 fat clove of garlic
1 good handful of a green leafy vegetable (I used pak choi)
1 good handful of a sturdier vegetable (cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms etc)
10g butter
10g plain flour
125ml milk
salt and pepper
20g parmesan cheese
egg for glazing

Cut the pastry block in half and roll both out to about the size of an A4 piece of paper (one should be slightly bigger than the other.)

In a pan gently fry the chicken and chopped leek in the olive oil until the chicken is cooked through. Add the other vegetables, stir and take off the heat. Grate in a clove of garlic.  In another pan melt the butter and add the flour. Stir for around a minute. Add the milk and keep stirring until the sauce has thickened a little. Add salt and pepper and stir into the chicken and leek mix. It should create a shiny wet glaze rather than a creamy sauce.

Put the smaller pastry half on a greased baking tray. Spoon the chicken mix on top leaving any remaining sauce in the pan. Grate half of the parmesan over the top and season. 

Lay the bigger pastry half over the top and seal around the edges using a fork. Glaze with the beaten egg and the rest of the parmesan and make a small snip in the top.

Pop in the oven for around 20-30 minutes.

Serve with vegetables.

* I actually made a lower dairy version of this pie substituting the butter and milk for soya spread and soya milk and the parmesan for pecorino. The pastry of course is still full of butter but it justified it to me! 

City eating.....

I'm London on what will probably be the hottest weekend of the year. My sister thinks I'm mad because I want to hit the shops. In the same way I would think she was mad if she came to stay with me and wanted to spend days trawling around town. The sunny weather did make for a spectacular train journey through Cornwall.....

After being met at Paddington I was whisked across London to Herne Hill for a London dinner. I'm not sure if you can even get sumac in Cornwall but it was delicious...very cosmopolitan...

(The recipe comes from Moro East by Sam and Sam Clark)

Roast chicken with sumac, onions and pine nuts (serves 4)....

4 tbsp olive oil

8 chicken pieces

12 spring onions

2 tbsp sumac

50g pine nuts

3 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 220'c. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a ovenproof frying pan. Season the chicken and brown then on all sides. Remove from the pan and drain off the fat.

Put the onions in the still hot pan and add half the sumac, the remaining oil and some salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken on top (skin side up) and sprinkle with the pine nuts and sumac. Put the pan over a medium heat for 5 minutes then put it in the oven.

Roast for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

Transfer the chicken to s serving plate. Add the water to the onion mix to make a sauce and serve.

It's so much fun being cooked for! We are off to Borough Market today...foodie heaven.

Chicken, chorizo and courgette fajitas...

Some nights I get home from work ready for a bit of hard graft. Grating vegetables, chopping herbs, marinating meat. I enjoy it. Sometimes I'll spend hours getting tea ready. (Only for the other half to smother it in tomato ketchup!)

But I don't have a problem spending an afternoon in the sun, wearing sunglasses and reading Red magazine. Then wandering home when the sunset forces me in....




Chicken, chorizo and courgette fajitas.....(sreves 2)

1 chicken breast
200g chorizo sausage
4 tortillas
1 red and 1 yellow pepper
1 courgette
4tbsp sweet chilli sauce
salad leaves

Stroll into the kitchen and put the oven on to 180'c. Now go back to Red magazine for a bit. Painy your toenails the colour of candyfloss. Watch Home and Away.

Slice the chicken into chunks and throw into a baking tray with the chorizo. Pop into the oven. Deseed the peppers and chop into small chunks with the courgette. Drizzle with a little oil. Pop in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Do a bit more toenail painting, maybe have a drink...

Take the meat and veggies out of the oven. Put the tortillas on the oven shelf. Mix the veggies and meat together. Take the tortillas out of the oven (they only need a minute maximum). Stuff with the meat and vegetables. Drizzle a bit of chilli sauce in there. Wrap. Ps put some salad in if you wish.

Still sunny....

I didn't actually take this picture. The other half cycled 81 miles today...yes that's right 81 miles. This was about halfway when he stopped at Lands End and took a picture of Seven Stones.




I spent my morning at work. But escaped at lunchtime for a sandwich at the Sunset Beach Cafe at Gwithian....



It has the best view in the county...

Did I tell you about my cauliflowers? Remember I planted them on Saturday? Well a big, fat rabbit came along and ate them. I almost cried. Luckily a drive down the tram road at Devoran cheered me up.

Smoked garlic and rosemary potatoes with lemon chicken.....(serves 2)

2 jacket potatoes

1 sprig rosemary

3 cloves smoked garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

2 chicken breasts

1 lemon
black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200'c. Peel and chop the potatoes into small cubes.

Put in a baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil. Add the chopped smoked garlic and the rosemary. Bake for 30 minutes.

In another baking tray put the chicken breasts withe the chopped lemon. Drizzle with a little oil and crack some black pepper over the top. Put in the oven 10 minutes after the potatoes.

Serve with a herb salad and mayonnaise.

Smoked garlic barbecue kebabs.....

I went for lunch at Sennen today......



The food at the beach cafe was very good. Chorizo with butter beans and fish goujons.

We looked out to sea......

Scilly is there somewhere... Then we drove to Porthcurno.....

And Lamorna....

We were going to have a barbecue but it's not as warm as yesterday. So we had an indoor barbecue instead. Unfortunately our oven isn't as smokey as a beach barbecue. Luckily I remembered that a listener gave me some smoked garlic a while back.

Smoked garlic barbecue sauce chicken kebabs (makes 5)

4 chicken breasts

1 onion

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tbsp smoked paprika

3 smoked garlic cloves

1 sprig rosemary

1 pinch dried chilli flakes

1 bay leaf

1 dsp honey

1dsp balsamic vinegar

1 dsp olive oil

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

Put the dry spices, rosemary, bay and garlic in a pestle and mortar and grind into a paste.

Add the vinegar and oil. Then the honey and ketchup.

Spread over the chicken.

Slice into chunks and thread onto kebab sticks with small chunks of onion inbetween.

Bake in a 180'c oven for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with pitta, mayo and salad.

Birthday beach day....

It's the other half's birthday....this is what we've been doing....