My poor little blog, dropped like a hot potato the second a more interesting endeavour comes along. No doubt you've been coping with my absence as best you can. Well done. .
June has been spent painting and erecting Ikea flat packs in our new apartment, discovering the fabulous Tow Path cafe and Song Que Cafe (Vietnamese) which are both an easy stroll from our canal side apartment, enjoying an excellent Sunday lunch at our fave secret supper club The Shed, taking Aussie visitors to the Cotswolds, a dinner at Petersham Nurseries, and catering a private dinner in a lovely home in Hampstead. This post is about the latter, but I'll be posting about the Cotswolds and Petersham Nurseries very soon (no, seriously, I'm back on track now).
I've mentioned Farm Direct before, which is the little Islington business linking locals with farmers, the result being seasonal and delicious meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, cheeses, yoghurts etc and no supermarkets. Robert, the creator and owner of Farm Direct, came to one of our secret suppers and, as he escaped that experience unscathed, invited me to cater a private dinner party of 8 using produce from his suppliers. Although a little daunted about leaving my cosy kitchen to cook for 8 strangers in someone else's home, I decided to give it a go and collaborated with the hostess to plan a suitably summer supper. Here's the menu:.
Canapés
mini stack of frittatas: beetroot / parsley / parmesan / semi-sun dried tomato / olive tapenade
Thai-inspired spoons of crab, hand-picked in west Cornwall, with mango & cucumber.
tartlets of sour cream pastry with blue cheese (Stilton from the Cropwell Bishop Creamery in Nottinghamshire) & figs
Entréehand made tortellini stuffed with chargrilled red peppers & goats cheese, in fresh pesto sauce
.
Main
roast organic loin of lamb (from Beatbush Organic Farm in Methwold, Norfolk) with rhubarb compote, sweet potato & parsnip gratin, and British asparagus & broad beans
.
pescatarian - grilled whole Mackerel (line caught off the coast of Cornwall) on a bed of sautéed spring leeks, tomatoes & organic spring greens, with sweet potato & parsnip gratin, and British asparagus & broad beans
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served with freshly baked caramelised onion bread
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Dessert
lemon tart with home made raspberry ice cream and pistachio toffee
Y came along to help me, and together we managed to pull it off (in the rather luxurious surrounds that were our hostess' beautiful kitchen - from which I later had to be forcibly removed {photo above}). Y managed to take some snaps of the canapes and dessert, however we were a tad occupied in between those courses to capture the food on film!.
I very much liked the look of the frittata stacks (photo above) which are a recipe recommended by my Mum. They were easy to make in advance and then assemble before the guests arrived. Basically you're just making different flavours of frittata, each using 3 eggs and baked only for 10-12 minutes (or until the egg is set). You cook each frittata in a tin (approximately square 8 inch tin). You want the frittata to be no thicker than 0.5-1cm, so although it seems very thin when cooking, when you assemble 5 different layers, you'll see that any thicker and it would be difficult to eat.
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My layers were - beetroot (grated beetroot & thinly diced onion sauteed with some oil, then added to the 3 eggs & seasoned); parsley (finely chopped parsley, 3 eggs, seasoning); parmesan (grated parmesan, 3 eggs, seasoning); tomato (finely chopped semi sun dried tomato, 3 eggs, seasoning); olive tapenade (olive tapenade, 3 eggs, seasoning). Once cooked and cooled, slice the frittata into little squares, then layer (to maximise the contrasting colours!), then spear with a toothpick. What could be easier?!
We usually managed to twist our hostess’ arm and she would join us for dinner (and contribute further delicacies from her seemingly bottomless fridge) and the odd glass of the local Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine.
On the Saturday, once we were able to drag ourselves away from the sun on the terrace, we headed to the nearby town of Uzes (near Pont du Gard, where there is a lovely place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine with views of the viaduct - although beware the wild Labradors that guard it), where there is a market sprawling through the streets.
The market ranged from stalls heaving with delectable goats cheese, strawberries bursting with ripeness, and spicy cured meat and sausages, to every day household items like soap & socks. 
We recognised some of the food stalls the following day at the market in L'Isle sur la Sorgue, which is a gorgeous town with several canals running through it. 
I preferred the Sunday food market and we bought all sorts of goodies for our dinner including marinated anchovies and artichokes. The town had an incredible antiques market (the biggest in France outside of Paris) and if I'd had a car (ok, a van) with us, I could have relieved those stall holders of many a rusted iron chair or battered long wooden table. 
One night we ate at a tiny restaurant in the village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Pistou (below). The food was unpretentious, simple French food and the service was most welcoming. At night you can sit out on the front terrace which is rather lovely on a spring evening.
Other villages we enjoyed visiting in the area were Gordes and Roussillon (below) which are just beautiful, particularly the view of the former from the approaching road, and a stroll to the top of the latter.
On our final day we explored the Papal Palace in Avignon and then grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe in a theatre in the back streets around the palace, before jumping on the train back to reality. 