Baking in lockdown by Paloma Lacy

Even in this third lockdown, there are few signs for baking mania ceasing. It’s as if the country has gone back 50 years, making, baking and preparing meals from scratch once again.

Tala is one of the oldest and best loved kitchenware brands in the UK. A trusted supplier of baking and cake decorating equipment since 1899, it’s the go-to place for cake tins, whisk, spatulas, biscuit cutters and anything else you might need to satisfy the family’s collective sweet tooth. New in stock is every piece of equipment needed to make your own jam.
www.talacooking.com

Like so many restaurants, Crystal Palace stalwart Joanna’s has closed its doors more times in this past year than any regular diners would wish to see, but at last some good news.

Joanna’s asked customers whether they would like to see takeaway food available for collection and delivery again, or oven-ready comfort food that can reheated at home. People opted for the latter and the restaurant is now offering three courses for home delivery, via Plateaway. Each order serves two and costs £59.

Choose between a range of starters, including Lebanese chicken flatbreads and pickled shallots, marinated mackerel, compressed cucumber and horseradish cream. For main course, how’s about confit duck legs and braised lentils and cod, smoked haddock and prawn fish pie?

For the full Joanna’s experience, all orders also include freshly baked soda bread, smoked garlic and thyme butter, and all mains come with buttered mixed greens.
www.plateaway.com/product/joannas-at-home-for-2

During Lockdown, one Beckenham business is doing what it can to support local families struggling to put food on the table. Q Bar and Kitchen has launched its Kindness Campaign, offering a hot meal to those in need. Children under the age of 11 can receive a meal completely free, when accompanied by an adult. One meal allowed per adult and child.

Available between 2pm and 5pm, with a choice of two hot meals daily and orders made and collected in person. Sample menu for children: chicken goujons, mashed potato and veg. And for adults: fresh salmon and seasonal veg.

This is a massive act of kindness from a hospitality industry itself struggling with closure to dine-in customers, relying on takeaway for collection and delivery.
For more information : www.qbarandkitchen.com

We have just started working with Floozie, a 100 per cent vegan ‘stuffed cookie’ concept by ex-Claridge’s pastry chef Kimberly Lin. Available for nationwide delivery and takeaway from the Covent Garden branch, Floozie is inspired by the rebellious 1920s, is an all-vegan stuffed cookie concept knocking out plant-powered treats.

Kimberly earned her stripes working in some of the best kitchens in London including Claridge’s, Corinthia and the iconic Dominique Ansel. Utilising her pastry knowledge and professional training, Kimberly channelled her energy into creating the very best (and utterly moreish) vegan stuffed cookies.

Available for delivery nationwide and takeaway from their Covent Garden outpost, the stuffed cookies come in five indulgent core flavours along with a sixth rotating seasonal option. Far from regular cookies, the stuffed cookies – baked on-site daily – are bursting with a variety of plant powered sauces and chocolates like date caramel, speculoos cream, and dark chocolate ganache.

Accessible, fun, but most importantly, delicious, Floozie is an inclusive brand baking cookies for all – not just limited to vegans. Enjoy the likes of:

Cinnamon Crunch (vanilla cookie, coated with crispy cinnamon cereal, stuffed with rich speculoos cream and topped with a light icing drizzle); Celebration Cake (pink vanilla cookie, coated in rainbow sprinkles and stuffed with homemade raspberry jam); PB & J (homemade peanut butter cookie, stuffed with homemade raspberry jam and topped with an icing drizzle and toasted peanuts); Chocolate Chunk (Blonde cookie packed with milk and dark chocolate pieces, stuffed with a soft dark chocolate ganache and topped with a dark and milk chocolate melt); Pecan Pie (butterscotch cookie dough, studded with toasted pecans stuffed with silky soft date caramel); and one rotating seasonal special.

Kimberly honed her recipes and cookie creations over the past year, and made sure her plant-based bakes, using the best produce available, such as Valrhona chocolate, are different from the rest thanks to their taste, flavour and quality.

Alongside the cookie menu, guests can also enjoy a number of extravagant drinks, like the hot chocolates, which have already been dubbed ‘the fluffiest in town’ by customers. Choose from: Hazelnut (toasted hazelnut white hot chocolate with a crispy wafer and hazelnut rim cup, topped with whipped cream), Classic (silky dark hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream and a mini chocolate chip cookie and chocolate shavings); or the seasonal offering (dark hot chocolate laced with peppermint topped with homemade toasted marshmallow fluff and sprinkles).

The Rainbow Mylks offer a cold alternative, and all feature oat mylk as the base. Options include: Celebration, Strawberry, Hazelnut, Banana and Chocolate. With excitable, boundary-breaking and flavoursome cookies available, Floozie has already taken the vegan baking game by storm.
www.flooziecookie.com

Henry Freestone, head chef at Peckham Cellars, has a lovely winter warmer of a recipe to go with the this cold spell we’re having. Pairs perfectly with a large glass of full bodied red wine.

Beef Shin Stew

Ingredients:

500g chopped beef shin 6 rashers
Good streaky bacon chopped
2 white onion finely chopped
3 carrots large chunks
1/2 swede large chunks
5 garlic cloves finely sliced
2 heaped tbsp tomato puree
Large spring rosemary 2 bay leaf
1/2 bottle red wine
1/2 ltr beef stock (beef gravy pots work wonders 😉
200g chestnut mushrooms quartered
50g cold butter 50g room temp. butter
50g plain flour

Method:

In a large casserole dish, heat up a good glug of veg oil to smoking and brown off your beef shin pieces.

Remove browned shin and the bacon pieces, cook until golden, then add the onion. Turn down the heat and cook them until soft and lightly caramelised. Add the garlic, rosemary and bay leaves.

Cook for a further few minutes then add the tomato puree, the chopped swede and carrot and the browned meat. Thoroughly mix then add your wine. Reduce the wine by two thirds then add your beef stock. Bring this up to a low simmer.

In a separate bowl, mix the butter with the flour with your fingers, making a paste. Stir this paste into your simmering stew, mixing thoroughly.

In a big frying pan, heat up a good glue go veg oil till smoking then add the mushrooms. Fry them until they start to caramelise, then add the cold butter and salt. Cook until golden brown and shiny (this will give the mushrooms a good texture and robust enough to hold texture in the stew).

Add the cooked mushrooms to the stew. It’ll need about two hours to cook so the shin is soft but holding together and the sauce is nice and thick. If you think it’s reduced too much during cooking, use boiled water to bring it back to a good consistency.

Taste and season and serve with mashed potato and greens or just a nice hunk of bread.

Peckham Cellars remains closed for now but is still open to take wine orders, with free delivery if you spend over £30.
www.peckhamcellars.co.uk