Cutie-Cauli-Gate….

So although Dorking has a super-huge, mega-swanky, shiny new Waitrose on South Street, I know I’m not alone in quite enjoying my mooches around Vincent Road’s Lidl store. It just feels strangely exotic with its German deli salads, Polish sausages and that aisle in the middle where you can lose small children and husbands if you’re not careful.  There’s always something different to catch your attention (who else lived on the whole serrano ham at Christmas/Easter?) and there’s also that additional pull: It may be the Easyjet of supermarkets but no-frills means you get what you pay for without paying over the odds.

Normally,  I’m chuffed with my bargain but quality,  shopping. 69p for a sweet, juicy pineapple? Wow. I was though, a little dismayed by this week’s cauliflower. Yes, it was only 49p but by the time I’d stripped the outer leaves off it was tiny. I mean seriously, seriously tiny……

(No eggs were harmed in the taking of this photo – and just to prove the petiteness of my cauli, it’s a medium sized egg by the way)

It didn’t seem right just to floret it and steam it so I thought I’d try something new (#TryOutJune a day early? ) and roast it whole. I made a little paste with some garlic,  thyme and olive oil in the pestle and mortar.  I confess I am one of those who can never remember which implement is which. I also confess to standing gormlessly in the narrow,  dank, ever so slightly pungent streets of Tangier in Morocco marvelling at how the women used their pestle and mortar combos far more efficiently that I have ever managed,  I am a truly rubbish pestle-and-mortarer! Nevertheless, I persevered and rubbed my Cutie-Cauli with the paste, splashed a bit of vino blanco over it, a squeeze of lemon and put it in a Pyrex casserole that made it look even more diddy.

In case it’s felt that I’m dissing Lidl, I’m truly not: I am a fan. I mean, in true contrast to cauli-gate check out the size of the garlic cloves (same egg by the way…)

These are garlic cloves which are worthy of Rick Stein recipes,  you know where he says “25g of garlic” and normally this equates to 10 cloves and it feels a bit excessive.  (Tip-top-tip: Trust the Steinster, he’s rarely wrong) 3 of these beauties feels much more sensible even though the weight’s exactly the same, it’s a bit like the age old pound of feathers versus pound of lead thingummy.

Appropriate, perhaps that Mr Stein came to mind at this point as the cauli was being prepared to go with a roast chook (you may call it a chicken in your house). Having caught a very old clip this morning on the Saturday Kitchen on a Sunday programme I drew inspiration from a roast turkey dish of his.

More of those awesome garlic cloves fried whole in some olive oil with some sage (note to self- stick a sage plant in the garden soon, as it would’ve been so much better with fresh). Proper salt and pepper, coat the chook in it,  garlic cloves in the cavity and shove it in the oven. Or panic slightly when you realise there isn’t enough room in your oven for a roasting chook and your cutie-cauli filled Pyrex casserole. (I am actually laughing out loud now as I write, my phone having turned “roasting chook” into rotating cook……which brings us back to Lidl, remember the story the other week about predictive text: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/goodlife/11623093/Predictive-text-disasters-Ive-found-the-secret-of-life.html )

In case you’re as much of a fan of the Steinster as me by the way,  check out today’s Food Programme on Radio 4: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wnqwp I caught it totally by chance but it was a good listen.

The good news is the chook came out like this…

…and tasted fab (thank you again Lidl). And Cutie-Cauli? Well, he was delish too, and still cute, it’s a great way of cooking a cauli:

The gravy, (I’m a tad obsessive when it comes to my gravy) full of chook and Cutie-Cauli juices, was declared “the best we’ve had for ages” and, even better, the sun’s finally come out.

#HappyontheHill 🙂

What a miserable day…..

I’ve checked,  double checked,  and checked the calendar again and I suppose I have to believe that it really is May 31st today – looking out at the Hill though, wrapped in my fleece, it’s VERY hard to believe.

If I were the Domestic Goddess I think I should be, I’d use the greyness of the day as an excuse to spend it baking in a warm cosy kitchen. Maybe if I had the Aga I’d my dreams I would but I’d still be stuck with the real problem of baking though: The fact that it all needs to be eaten and there’s just no room in my skinny jeans for sponge cakes and apple pies, and definitely not proper, homemade vanilla-infused custard!

Instead,  it’s a curl up in the armchair with a good book kind of day. If I had a cat I’d even let it purr contentedly on my lap while I read,  huge cup of tea at my side. As this is a local blog,  re-reading Agatha Christie doesn’t really count (faking of her own death in Shere notwithstanding) so a better option is The School Gate Survival Guide by Redhill author,  Kerry Fisher.

I really enjoyed Kerry’s debut, being instantly grabbed by the very first line,  so important on any sorry I think: “Posh women with dirty houses someone’s phone me. Posh men never do”. It allows so many possibilities as to where the story may be going to go and being written in the first person as it is you know that you’re going to love the main character, Maia Etxeleku. I honestly have no idea how “Etxeleku” is pronounced but, with a name like that, you know she’s going to rock. And she doesn’t disappoint.

It’s a very witty, well-written tale.  You’ll easily put faces to the characters (assuming it’s not just me that does that) because you know them.  You’ll also,  I suspect,  put a local twist to the tale: It is very Redhill versus Reigate. I suspect that’s not a coincidence?

The best not of all is its an easy read. If you’re a don’t-want-to-put-it-down reader, then you’ll be fine with this.  You’ll laugh; you’ll smile; you’ll nod in agreement, but most of all,  you’ll enjoy it and when you get to the end,  you’ll breathe a huge sigh of relief for Maia as you’ve been rooting for her all along.

The School Gate Survival Guide is available to purchase as a paperback and an e-book, for example here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0007570236/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1433069624&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=kerry+fisher&dpPl=1&dpID=51WvQPhWNxL&ref=plSrch

Go for it, you’ll enjoy it 🙂 And if you do, book number two, The Island Escape, had just been released. I’m off to buy that now…….

Straw Hat Bank Robber

If you know Reigate,  even just a little bit, you’ll probably have been as shocked as me at the news of a robbery at Lloyds Bank on the High Street.  No doubt though you’ll have been pleased to hear reports of the robber’s sartorial elegance – had the current Test Match have been at the Oval,  I’d perhaps suggest he’d spent the day at the cricket in his straw hat!

Let’s hope straw-hat-guy is apprehended soon. Happily, Surrey Police reported that they are taking the incident seriously. I’d like to think that goes without saying,  but…..