Well it’s finally sunny at Glastonbury so I can stop being anxious for friends who are there (I couldn’t face another year of mud, too tired, too tired - but I’ll be back) and start being just the tiniest bit jealous of dancing in a field with the sun on their faces surrounded by friends and the magic of the music festival par extraordinaire.

So to make my sunny Saturday a bit happier and to toast the festival emerging victorious from the mud I am having a kir royale, wine cocktail of delight.

Strictly speaking it should be made with Champagne but I prefer it with a good sparkling white, I like my Champagne unadulterated and flowing;) Prosecco is a little faint for this (works better in a Bellini) so I’d use something Chardonnay based.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Crème de Cassis (alcoholic blackcurrant liquer from France)
Good quality sparkling wine

1 take a tall fluted glass (like the one in the picture above) and put in the Crème de Cassis then top up with sparkling wine. It should be a delicate bruised pink colour, or a little darker if you prefer it sweeter - put in less cassis and top up if you aren’t sure.
2 Enjoy with good friends preferably on a beautiful sunny evening - also works well as an aperitif before a good dinner.

Hope it’s sunny where you are too.

Oof, the pizza went well, fluffy dough and spicy topping plus the cheese, oh the cheese - buffalo mozarella, so creamy.

I used some left over arrabiatta (leftover queen you’d be proud of me) for the tomato sauce but I also include a very simple tom sauce below if you don’t have any leftovers. I missed out the planned bacon as there was already bacon in the arrabiatta and replaced it with a tasty spring onion from the veg box.

Pizza Dough
(Courtesy of Annie Bell, Evergreen an unusual recipe book, some recipes are very involved and other simple but all are delicious - and vegetarian - a good one to dip into occasionally)

1/4 teaspoon dried yeast
1/4 teaspoon caster sugar
150g strong white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
85ml water

Makes single 27cm pizza, feeds 2 with sides (we had red cabbage coleslaw and a green salad)

1 Mix dry ingredients then add oil then water bit by bit until you have a dough that comes together well (use a bit less water/more flour as needed)
2 Knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface
3 Slash a cross and put it a floured bowl, sprinkle a bit more flour on the top (flour is a bit of a theme here…)
4 Wrap in plastic bag and put somewhere warm to rise for 1-4 hours - the longer the better - it should double in size
5 Knead for 2 minutes on a floured surface and roll out until you have a 27cm round (or rectangle if that is the shape of your tin, but a round one with holes is the best)
6 Leave the base to rise again for 20 minutes whilst you make the topping

Tomato sauce

200g passata
1 or 2 cloves garlic
S&P, herbs (I like basil and oregano)
Olive oil
small tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 Heat the oil in a pan and put in the crushed garlic and any dried herbs, fry very gently for a minute, add balsamic
2 Put in passata and simmer very gently for 10-15 minutes (whilst you prepare other toppings)

Assembling the pizza

1 brush a little olive oil over the base
2 add tom sauce
3 add other ingredients (2 or 3 is perfect - today I used some spring onions and field mushrooms) but don’t over pile it
4 Finally put on cheese (I have used a whole buffalo mozarella but a small rindless goats cheese log works well too)
5 Bake in a hot oven - 220 degrees - for about 15 mins, pizza is ready when the top turns golden. Enjoy with a salad or two and a glass of chianti.

Happy Friday!

Friday night in our house is, and always has been, pizza night. You can tell where I am in my life by what kind of pizza it is - at home my mum would cook a supermarket pizza with oven chips (there is something so wrong and yet so right about a crisp oven chip doused in vinegar) and serve it with a nice green salad. As a student I’d get those nasty little cheap frozen ones and add toppings to make them edible, or occasionally have a Dominos splurge. Once I started working I moved on and up through the supermarket brands and now I often go to my favourite little pizzeria, Il Bacio, but tonight I am making my own!

I have some left over arrabiatta that I’ll blend to a paste (maximising available resources), some dough rising in the cupboard and some lovely field mushrooms and bacon to use for toppings, I’m very excited. Will post picture and recipe later…

This is a delicious store cupboard favourite for when the fridge is bare. The only fresh bits you need are a lemon, garlic parsley and some chilli - even that can be subsituted for chili flakes. I keep a spare tin of white crabmeat in the cupboard so that I can make this tasty, quick, Omega rich supper at a moment’s notice. The texture is quite dry, the flavours zesty and spring-like.

Ingeredients

200g Spaghetti
2 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
olive oil
big bunch parsley (a whole supermarket packet is about right)
1 red or green chili (whichever you have at the bottom of the veg drawer, a good pinch of chili flakes will do as a substitute)
3 shallots (a small onion will do if you don’t have)
S&P

1 Chop the onion and fry gently in a pan. Pop the spaghetti on to boil
2 Pick and chop the parsley, zest and juice the lemon, chop the chili (if using), crush the garlic, open and drain the crab
3 Add the chili and garlic to the onion pan for the last minute or two
4 Drain the pasta, but not too well and mix all the ingredients well, adding a glug of olive oil to keep it moist. Serve immediately, ideally with a green salad, a little bit of bread and a fresh white wine (or dry french cider) on the side.

Well folks, my sincere apologies for my lengthy absence, work, MA and another project (not to mention the decorating of the flat) have taken up every waking hour as well as not a few sleeping ones these last 2 months. But I’m back and in a party mood.

So let’s talk cocktails, the cocktail is not a drink to be drunk all night long - although a sunny afternoon of champagne cocktails is a delight everyone should experience - but rather it is an elegant extravagance in a glass that should be enjoyed by the handful at most, after that you can only taste the alcohol and sugar so you may as well move on and not spoil yourself for your breakfast fruit juice.

I love cocktails, I love the drama of the making, the glistening ice and vibrant colours, the heady tastes and excellent accessories (a martini glass is a design classic) and the element of sparkle and mischief they can hold. So with this in mind I will bring you at least a cocktail a week, there are few that I make myself at home (a cocktail really works better in a bar, park or festival) but this next is one that is truly a great drink that can easily be mixed as a sophisticated party drink, just make sure you stick to the measures, too much alcohol turns a cocktail into sweet petrol and delights no-one:

The White Russian, king of all the milky cocktails as it is neither cloying nor too creamy but rather like a smooth coffee on the tongue. I never use cream in mine (too cloying) and prefer Khalua to creme de cacao (more of a coffee bite).

Ingredients

Ice
1 part Khalua
1 part Vodka
3 fingers of milk (full fat is best but semi-skimmed will do at a pinch)

makes 1 cocktail

1 Put ice in a large tumbler or medium high ball
2 Pour in Khalua and Vodka and then top up with the milk, if you pour carefully you can create a very attractive marbling to serve but mix well to drink.