Christmas is coming!

My NEW BOOK for the wonderful people at GBBO, titled Christmas, is out next week on the 9th of October!! It is an absolute stunner full of wonderful recipes to cook in and around the festive season, though really many of them are just perfect winter dishes so don't think that this is a book to get out only once a year!

A copy has just landed on my door mat and it looks completely beautiful! I had such fun writing and shooting this book, i can't wait to share it with you all! As soon as it is properly out I will tell you all about the behind the scenes action that went into creating my Christmas Cracker of a book!

I so hope you will all buy it and love it!

end of summer supper

Summer is still clinging on by a thread, October looms and with it all the joys of autumn but for now I am delighted that my tomato plants seem to have survived abandonment for two weeks and though the plants themselves look more like sticks, the tomatoes on them are ripe and plentiful.

I feel like something light and summery to capture the last of the rays and to even the balance somewhat as to the vast quantities of meat I have eaten over the last two weeks in the States.

I have some hake fillets in my freezer left over from a shoot and these will be perfect for what i have in mind.

pan fried hake with tomatoes

serves 2

6-8 ripe tomatoes

drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and pepper

175g small new potatoes

bunch of spring onions, trimmed

olive oil to drizzle

2 hake fillets

good knob of butter

chives, snipped

Slice the tomatoes and put them into a bowl with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and seasoning. set aside. Place the potatoes in a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes until tender. drain and set aside.

Drizzle the spring onions with olive oil. Heat a non stick pan over a hight heat and add the spring onions and cook, turning, until slightly blackened and very soft. Set aside, keeping the pan on the hob.

Rub a little oil over the fish and season. Place, skin side down, in the hot pan and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the fish is almost cooked all the way through and the skin lovely and crisp. Turn the fish over, add the butter to the pan and remove from the heat. Spoon the butter all over the fish as it melts then add the chives.

Add the potatoes and spring onions to the tomatoes and divide between two bowls. top each with a fish fillet and drizzle with the nutty butter. sprinkle with more chives ann a little sea salt and serve.

craft beer the American way

I think one of the things I love most about NC is the amazing amount of craft breweries that open their doors and serve beer in bars actually within the breweries. I don't think, sadly, that this is something that does or could ever happen in the UK with our many licensing laws, which is a shame as it’s a fantastic idea. Small independent breweries opening their doors and selling their beers in the very place they are made.

Two of my favourites that I have come across are Frog Level in Waynesville and Wicked Weed in Asheville.

Down at Frog Level, so named by Waynesville locals because of its low-lying location by the river, or the "frog level" when the area flooded, the newbies at Frog Level Breweries have been making craft beer for the last two and a half years. I'm learning fast that what we think of as IPA in the UK and what our state side cousins call IPA are two very different things! It's pretty hard to find a brew under 5% down here, but I'm quickly hooked on their Lillys Cream Boy Ale, which is pale as straw and not too sweet (as many US beers seem to be). The bar itself is part of the large warehouse that is home to their brewery. Polished concrete floor and high ceilings with a retro vibe of 50's furniture mixed with a corrugated Iron bar and wooden bar stools. It also has one of the loveliest beer gardens, a large terrace with steps down to leafy wood right next to the river. It is easy to spend many hours sitting here in the sun waiting for the man with the banjo to start playing.

In contrast, Wicked Weed in Ashville is a more established and bigger brew house, with a much larger number of craft beers, a mix of the big, bold, hoppy, West cost style and authentic Belgian style beers. At first glance Wicked Weed looks like a cool bar, but down some wooden stairs you find the real deal. A large cavern of room packed with people, opening onto a yard of trestle tables under a large awning, surrounded by all the brewing gear and the Harley Davidsons of their regulars. There is no official bar down here, just table service, and the hipster, tattooed staff welcome you with warm Southern charm. All the beers have intriguing names: Chinook Me All Night Long, Porch Crawler, Bretticent Wild Ale and Abigail Dubbel to name a few. You could spend days working your way satisfyingly through the list, accompanied by a short but delicious menu that is first come first served. Boiled peanuts (of course), local charcuterie and cheeses, juicy full on burgers and sandwiches of fried chicken with kimchi and miso mayo. Several glasses of their seriously drinkable Reticent Saison (a smooth, classically Belgian number) and we are filling up large 64oz growlers to take away.

These are the kind of pubs of dreams. Friendly and honest, they exist because of the love and passion of their beer addicted brewing owners who want to share a little of the magic with the world.

cow bacon

I just realised I completely forgot to mention the incredibleness of beef bacon! It's not quite made in the same way as pork streaky bacon, which is from the belly, where as the cut of beef is the short plate, between the brisket and the short rib, and I think is the same cut you would use for pastrami.

We fried it up as you would piggy bacon, and ate it for breakfast with eggs and toast fried in beef dripping until golden. Much meatier somehow than pork bacon, it has a slightly but really moreish chewy texture, turning to crisp and crunchy in the places where the pan was hottest. Honestly one of the most delicious breakfasts I have ever had.