Good afternoon everyone, To start, a debrief on our Provence themed wine tasting with food, which took place yesterday evening. We kicked off with some punchy tapenade on country loaf, made with olives from Nyons in Provence and Salina capers, both courtesy of the Ham & Cheese company. The olives featured again on Pissaladiere, Hamblin rough puff pastry, topped with white onions that had simmered away for six hours or so, and criss-crossed with fat anchovy fillets. There was a brief respite from the olives with a stand alone vegetable course of ratatouille, the vegetables cooked in stages in plentiful olive oil, and infused with basil. There was aïoli, of course, and then lamb shoulder, cooked until falling apart, with the braising...
Good afternoon everyone, First of all a huge thank you to everyone who visited our scone and bric a brac stall on Saturday. Despite the rain, spirits remained un-dampened and we were quite overwhelmed with the response. We will certainly be doing this again soon, so watch this space. Now on to news of our upcoming wine event. As a lover of food writing and something of a francophile, the books of Richard Olney hold a special place in Hugo's heart. The prose is fluid and precise, the aesthetic a refined and exacting version of rustic cooking, and the evocation of France, particularly Provence, indelibly appealing. Happily, our stagier from New York, Remy, is also a fan, and with so...
Good afternoon everyone, Saturday 7th sees the return of the Magdalen Road Village Summer Festival, a day which celebrates the eclectic community of independent vendors of which we are proud to be part, even in an off-Broadway sense. This year we have decided to embrace the village féte atmosphere by throwing our own mini yard sale, with a couple of stalls on the forecourt. On trestle table number one we will be setting up a Scone Stall, because no village féte is complete without these most nostalgic of baked goods. As we still have Remy staging with us from New York, we will be representing the scone traditions of our two great nations. Expect classic British buttery scones with house strawberry jam and Ivy House cream,...
Good afternoon everyone, It's one of the the most divisive week of the bakery calendar: Mint Choc Chip ice cream sandwich week. Even amongst our body of staff we have many colleagues for whom it's the iteration they look forward to the most, yet we've had others for whom it was the one Hamblin product they could not stomach. The technique we use these days is from the Happy Endings Cookbook. We blanche fresh mint, then blitz with sparkling water before infusing cream overnight with this vivid paste. Little flecks of Pump Street chocolate complete the Italian meringue parfait. Some say it's marmite, we say it's delicious. A nailed on crowd pleaser will make its debut this week. Hazelnut caramel thumbprint cookies. The same...
Good afternoon everyone, We have written before in these pages of an aspect of the hospitality industry which we really value, staging, the practice of professional bakers or chefs undertaking informal, unpaid work experience as a way of gaining inspiration, learning new skills and exchanging ideas. Our current stagier, Remy, is joining us from New York, having worked at the River Cafe inspired King, and more recently the three Michelin starred fine dining institution, Le Bernardin. Over this weekend, Remy introduced us to the American classic, coffee cake. Somewhat confusingly, the cake doesn't contain coffee but rather is designed to be eaten with coffee. Remy's version was enriched with creme fraiche, and topped with walnut and cinnamon streusel. As with...
