the great tunnock teacake mystery

the Tunnock Teacake mystery!

I was walking into Kentish Town a few weeks ago, along Leighton Road; a modest street of narrow pavements, lined with London Plane trees and boxy Victorian villas. This is not a road that shouts "mystery" or even "excitement". In fact, Leighton Road is a rather typical, if dull, north London street of mixed housing, a couple of corner shops, a dodgy pub and a curry house. Although I do get my knickers in a bit of a proverbial twist every time a rather famous actor smiles and says hello to me. But apart from an occasional rise in my blood pressure, and a flurry of hormonal activity, this is not a road I find particularly thrilling. It is merely a way of getting me from home to somewhere else and back again. 

So I was surprised to see boxes of Tunnock Teacakes, nestling at the base of several of the trees along the road. One box for each chosen tree and one teacake removed from each box. It was as if a rather demented Goldilocks had tasted her way along the road for flavour, quality and consistency. I was intrigued.

it's all gone a bit jackson pollock! (or when food photography goes wrong . . .)

our Jackson Pollock moment!

It was going so well - Heathcliffe's birthday drinks party, food prepped and we moved the nibbles to the balcony to catch the late afternoon summer sun. I wanted to take some photographs for this blog.
 
It all went a bit Pete Tong as they say.

sausages roasted with honey and mustard dressing

honey mustard sausages

Cocktail sausages baked with a honey and mustard dressing have a lovely sticky, tangy flavour. Another good nibble for a drinks party, although I sometimes take leftovers into work, with a light cucumber salad. I am usually forced to sharpen my elbows to fend off marauding colleagues!

party food on a stick: cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto

cherry tomatoes stuffed with pesto and mozzarella (without their sticks!)

This is ideal party food - intensely savoury, yet slightly sweet, mouthfuls of deliciousness. On a stick. Use the sweetest cherry tomatoes or baby plum tomatoes that you find. I would say make your own pesto, but failing that, buy pesto from a deli or from the deli counter of your supermarket. (Please don't use that stuff in jars that has a strangely subdued colour and a distinct flavour of rancid cheese). So make your own, it's a revelation.

summer pea soup

summery pea and ham soup

A rather nice soup for spring or summer, whether using young sweet peas, floury late summer peas or even frozen peas, (which because they are frozen at source retain their natural sweetness). It is delicious served hot or cold and you can use just about any green herb, such as thyme, chives or even coriander with a bit of green chilli. I stick to mint, which traditionally enhances the English pea.

this being a tale of serendipity and liquid enchantment: the velvet slipper cocktail

velvet slipper cocktail

It sounds like such a small thing but I am feeling a little serendipitous; ("serendipity" is one of my favourite words, if you're interested and my only claim to fame is that I got it mentioned as "The Word of the Day" on the Words for Life website).

So why serendipity? Well a few days ago, I had restored an old CD full of ancient files I haven't looked at in years, because I had thought that the CD was damaged beyond repair. On it I rediscovered this fabulous cocktail, the recipe for which I had also assumed lost for good.

mezze: herby courgette and feta fritters

herby courgette and feta fritters

A friend's birthday drinks and nibbles and we are eating and drinking on his roof terrace on a balmy summer night. These fritters were perfect; a little bit of the eastern Mediterranean came to east London.

turkish-style stuffed tomatoes

On my mission to be frugal I had decided not to throw out some leftover rice, intending to make a Turkish or Greek rice stuffing for some kind of vegetable. I would decide on which vegetable to use when I actually got to the market and saw what was available. Of course all my frugal intentions went out the window when I saw (actually smelt first) a beautiful mound of the plumpest most scarlet tomatoes I have ever seen.

Still on the vine, you could smell their intense green clove-like aroma from about 30 feet away. I had to have them. At all costs. This turned out to be the debt of a small sovereign nation) All my frugal intentions went out the window. Well life is not too short to stuff a tomato!

who’s that man?

Heathcliffe: my favourite geius!

You may have noticed that recently in this blog, I have mentioned a friend of mine, called Heathcliffe. Since he has agreed to be a guest blogger at Marmaduke Scarlet, I thought I should really introduce you to him, so you can see him through my eyes before he actually opens his mouth (so to speak!)

To begin with let’s start with some History; I love it, Heathcliffe doesn’t. But in the same way that I use his brain to help me understand Science, he will tap my brain for historical context. So here is some of that historical context!

tip: making breadcrumbs

a simple loaf of white bread

I suppose I am lucky that I've always got a loaf "on the go". I make my own bread and if a loaf doesn't turn out so well then it is sacrificed to the altar of thrift. When life gives you a bread disaster, you make breadcrumbs! 

tunisian salad (salade meshouiwa)

Tunisian salad (without the egg and tuna!)

I thought I would start August's recipes with this gorgeous refreshing salad, perfect for this week's heatwave, perfect for the summer; it is a sort of North African equivalent of a Salad Nicoise and makes a great accompaniment to grilled or barbecued meat and fish. 

Tunisian cooking is a very rich and quite complex cuisine, with culinary influences both ancient and relatively modern, from Rome, Carthage and the Ottoman Empire, to the Middle East and North Africa. It really is a delightful combination of Mediterranean and Arab cuisine with a strong Italian and French influences, a sort of big hello from the other side of the Mediterranean.

what's in season: august

a glut of tomatoes preserved in
olive oil

August Heat
In August
When the days are hot
I like to find a shady spot
And hardly move a single bit
And sit
And sit
And sit
And sit.
Anonymous

I am rather fond of August, particularly when the sun comes out. It the perfect time to eat outdoors - preferably with an interesting selection of tapas or mezze, little nibbles of something amazing, under the vine-laden pergola while swigging lashings of cold white wine. Well a girl can dream!