Gratuitous food shots from eating out

Time for some eating out pics - the desserts naturally.

From Yautcha - The Mandarin with mandarin sorbet and rice cracker (Yum, but the coconut was better.)

Here is the Coconut Charlotte - coconut mousse, raspberry sorbet, mango jelly, mint and basil sponge (Yum.)

From Michael Caine's Cafe Bar and Grill in Exeter, Dark Chocolate tart with malt ice cream (too rich, too dark, too heavy, too boring - I actually left some) Go for the Ginger pannacotta... when they have it, it's lovely although not heavy enough on the ginger and a little bit white all over the plate. You'll see. FYI if you're there the mains and starters are pretty yummy but they tend not to cut the meat into sizes where you can get away with just using a fork. Try the Boutique for takeaway lunches. The chicken salad was gorgeous, fresh, with tons of chicken, just a shame they can't ripen an avocado to save their lives.

Tea at Kensington hotel That's a sort of softset version of a trifle, carrot cake (frosting a little bland and no tang), fruit tartlet (poor show, premade pastry and a few berries), fruit cake and a multitiered mini victoria sponge. Worth it at the price (2-4-1) and with the rather lovely scones with lemon and passionfruit curd and with the strawberry and rose jam. Sandwiches were also fresher than usual. Hot chocolate (milk or white) also included. Kudos. Ask to sit in the drawing room which is beautiful.

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Rachel Allen's Chicken Pie

Some things should be noted. I'm not a major fan of Rachel Allen. She always seemed such a poor man's version of Nigella. Some trophy wife of a producer somewhere making a lady of leisure's living of cookery shows playing up the Irish accent in a cavernous show kitchen. Perhaps it was because all her helpful "tricks" had already been touted by others a long time ago - like getting the garlic smell out of your hands... But over the years she's kind of grown on me. The format is a little twee, the pink accessories want to make me barf, but she isn't the spawn of all things faux goddess anymore. (FYI I have no idea with regards to her personal life etc, but like my distaste for Ashley Judd, one wonders how she gets good films with little acting skill.) So here I was, tapping away on the internet last week whilst she was on tv, and there it was. A beast of a pie. It was so beautiful. Her job was done. Out I trotted to buy a huge pie dish (we don't own cera...

Cookie Carnival: Lemon Bars

My first Cookie Carnival project. Many thanks to the organiser and this month's host for letting me join in. Lemon bars from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy. I have no idea who Melissa is but I'm not a fan of her lemon bars. Hmm, I sense I'm already at odds with the cheery Cookie club mentality, but to thy own self be true. (Lord, I'm quoting Clueless again...) The recipe looks close to Lemon Meringue bars, but with less yolk and a touch of flour. And missing all important meringue. Now here’s the thing. This is the UK . We don’t HAVE Lemon Bars. I’ve just done a quick search on Google Images and it appears they have a very standard appearance. Adding meringue would definitely be cheating, as would my first thoughts of drizzling these babies with dark chocolate. These babies are rectangular, they are dusted in icing sugar and they better be made with lemon. I made a few changes but not enough as far as I'm concerned. More yolks would have made the ...

Cookie Carnival: Hazelnut Macaroon Sandwiches

I made these insanely early, but here is my schedule: 4th May the Cookie Carnival email came out from Kate, this weekend I made them, next weekend I'm in Scotland, that gives me two weekends left. Yeah, looking at that, now I have no idea why I thought I HAD to make them this weekend (10th) :S I'll figure out what I HAVE to do in May soon. Probably some hen-do or wedding for someone I've forgotten. Ouch. I've always struggled with macaroons. I've made them... twice. Once using the Roux brother's book, once from the wonderful Tartlette blog (see right). Both failed miserably. The first one was edible. It probably wasn't a good idea to try and use teaspoons which they SAID was okay, the second time I tried to risk it with greaseproof and naturally everything stuck everywhere. They also make scarily little so by the time you've peeled them off the tray, you've eaten most of them. This recipe made a shed-load. There's pictures of the macaroons on eve...

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