<a href="http://www.greenfigsandham.com" title="https://greenfigsandham.com" rel="home">https://greenfigsandham.com

Sanda - Loved it!!Hope you 2 had great time together!!!

nadia - gorgeous pics and sounds delicous!

Krista - These look so fresh and delicious! I can imagine they’d be perfect as leftovers, tucked in a salad or spring rolls or something. :-)

Kankana - Just found your blog and it’s so gorgeous!Two sisters working together and sharing in the same space is such a beautiful idea :)
And the photos are OH SO GOOD!

Best of the Foodie Blogs: Ten at Ten (10) | Foodies 100 - […] Another photo that caught my eye this week was Stuart’s Sausage and Fennel Casserole it is simply stunning. As are Lorna and Mel’s beautiful photos in their post Pickled Shrimp. […]

Best of The Hungry Guest 2014

Monday, February 16, 2015

How time flies. It’s been a busy year away from GF&H and so I just wanted to share a little taster of what I’ve been up to in the last 12 months in terms of food photography. These are all shots for The Hungry Guest, a fast building food ’empire’ in West Sussex founded by Danish-born Master Baker, Troels Bendix. The Hungry Guest is all about combining renowned artisan foods and locally sourced, quality everyday supplies. I’ve been styling and producing shots for them since January 2014, ranging from recipe images to product and lifestyle shots for their shop, bakery, cafe and restaurant – trying to capture the essence of The Hungry Guest offer as it expands at a rapid rate of knots… {Lorna}

HG Cafe HG Cafe_2 HG Cafe_Pizza Cafe-terrace

HG-Shop_Tomatoes HG-Shop_Cheese-2

Eggs

Butcher-Boys Butchery_2

And a few images from their Petworth-based restaurant and bar, The Leconfield. I was asked to photograph their new daytime tapas menu, devised by consultant chef Pascal Proyart, the award-winning Executive Chef from One-O-One in Knightsbridge.

Pinchos-&-Chef Pinchos_3

Pinchos Pinchos_2 Pinchos-&-Sous

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Harvest 2013

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Preserved Tomatoes
BBC Harvest, hosted by Gregg Wallace (of Masterchef UK fame) and Philippa Forester, was a three-part series broadcast on BBC Two in mid-September which set out to reveal the secrets behind our crop-growing season, and shed light on British farming and its contribution to our food.

Aside from joining the team on location at a cherry farm in Herefordshire to discover the skill and serious hard graft behind the cherry harvest – a team of 250 workers struggle to delicately pick 40 million cherries by hand in just a few short weeks! – I had the added pleasure of cooking, styling and photographing eight of Gregg’s harvest related recipes for the BBC Learning guide to accompany the series.

This is just a quick post to share a few of my favourite shots as well as Gregg Wallace’s Ginger and Carrot soup recipe to put a smile back on your face as autumn officially kicks in!

[The full guide and all the recipes are available to download as a PDF via the BBC Harvest website.]

CarrotAppleSlaw1 Bgem-&-lett_DSC6037
Carrot-&-Ginger_6319GF&H
Carrot and Ginger Soup (courtesy of Gregg Wallace for the BBC Harvest season)
(Serves 4)

Heat the oil and 25g (1oz) of the butter in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry gently for 5 minutes, until softened but not brown. Add the celery, carrots and potatoes, cover the pan and sweat the vegetables over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add the fresh and ground ginger, the stock and milk and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, with the lid off for 15 minutes, until the carrots and potatoes are tender.

Towards the end of the cooking time, melt the remaining butter in a pan and fry the celery tops. When the soup is ready, whiz until smooth using a handheld blender. Season well. Serve sprinkled with some of the fried celery tops.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
50g/ 1¾ oz butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, sliced
450g/ 1lb young
carrots, sliced
2 small potatoes, chopped into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
1 litre/ 1¾ pints vegetable or chicken stock
200ml/ 7fl oz full-fat milk
2-3 leafy celery tops, chopped
Seasoning

Such a simple, but great recipe – I have never tried fried celery tops before and they literally just melt in your mouth – really stunning.

Lorna

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Zucchini Fritters

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Does absence truly make the heart grow fonder? And, if yes, can it work in the case of absent posts from long-lost food blogging sisters?

We are sincerely sorry for our neglect of GF&H of late; the truth is we have been positively distracted since last summer by a commission from New York-based food author, Elizabeth Gordon, of My allergy-free lifestyle fame.

Elizabeth’s third cookbook was published last month, May 2013, and guess whose names are on the cover? In our respective kitchens across the pond from each other, Mel and I cooked, styled and photographed 60 of the featured recipes and what a tough, but exhilarating journey it was!

And as a returning gift from us, with Elizabeth’s kind permission, today’s post is a sneak preview into the pages of ‘Simply Allergy-Free‘ with Elizabeth’s recipe for Zucchini Fritters, plus a couple of our favourite images from the book besides.As the name suggests every recipe in the book is free of Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Nuts and Eggs; those who don’t already know better may wonder what’s left. Certainly whilst cooking the recipes Mel & I were introduced to a plethora of new ingredients and very tasty substitutes. So, whether you have food allergies to consider or not it really is a great way to experiment and to begin thinking differently about food.

With this returning post, our intention is to once more crank up our contribution to the increasingly buzzing world of food photography and blogging. As ever, we aim to share more favourite recipes of ours and of others’ we admire for you all to enjoy – although for the next few months at least these may have a somewhat English bias as Mel is in the midst of revamping her Manhattan kitchen, which literally leaves her little room to manoeuvre until autumn comes around!

Recipe from Simply Allergy-Free: Quick and Tasty Recipes for Every Night of the Week

Zucchini Fritters

This is a great thing to make as a simple side in late summer when zucchini is abundant and really inexpensive. They fry up nicely and become crisp, making a more nutritious stand-in for French fries.

Makes 6 Fritters

1 large zucchini (about 1 pound) grated
2 medium Russet potatoes (about 1 pound) grated
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon potato starch
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons canola oil, divided

Place the shredded zucchini, potatoes, garlic, dill, potato starch and salt in a large bowl and mix them together until all of the ingredients are well combined.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
While the oil is heating, take about 1/3 cup of the zucchini mixture, squeeze out as much moisture as possible and form the mixture into a patty. Repeat until all of the zucchini and potato mixture is made into patties.
Place 3 or 4 of the patties in the oil, being careful not to overcrowd the pan, and fry for 6 minutes per side, only flipping once and pressing down on each patty with the spatula after flipping.
Remove the cooked fritters to a baking sheet and place them in the oven to stay warm while you continue working with the remaining fritters. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and repeat the process until all of the fritters are cooked.
These fritters are best eaten immediately, but leftovers may be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three days.

And whilst you enjoy a feast of Zucchini Fritters, here are a few more photos to hopefully entice you into picking up a copy of Simply Allergy-free in the near future. – Lorna

Photo for Chicken Brochettes Provencal, from Simply Allergy-Free: Quick and Tasty Recipes for Every Night of the Week by Elizabeth Gordon, photography by Melani Bauman and Lorna Palmer.

Photo for French Lentil Salad, from Simply Allergy-Free: Quick and Tasty Recipes for Every Night of the Week by Elizabeth Gordon, photography by Melani Bauman and Lorna Palmer.

3 comments

Sanda - Looks great, now I want a book :-))

Larraine - Wonderful-amazing images, well done lovely ladies x

COCINA DE VERANO Y EN MI BÚSQUEDA DE HACER COSAS NUEVAS - […] ZUCCHINI FRITTERS […]

Chocolate tart with a pecan biscuit crust

Monday, April 23, 2012

This tart is delicious and tastes even better a couple of days after you’ve made it, so it’s a perfect make-ahead dessert. The filing is a simple brownie-like cake and the crust is a favorite cheesecake base of mine, made even tastier with the addition of crushed pecans.

Chocolate tart with pecan crust
8″ or 9″ round pie serves 6 to 8

for the crust
250g pack of digestive biscuits (about 18)
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter

Line an 8″ or 9″ spring-form pan with parchment paper then heat the oven to 350F (180C). Pulse biscuits, nuts and sugar in a food processor until they are crumbs, or in an ziplock bag by giving them a good bash with rolling pin, mix them with the melted butter and press the mixture, while warm, into the bottom of the lined pan.

for the filling
9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup castor or superfine sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
2 tablespoons plain flour
pinch of salt

Melt the butter and chocolate together; once it’s smooth add half the sugar, the egg yokes and the flour.

Whisk the egg whites and a pinch of salt until you’ve got soft peaks, then slowly whilst still whipping add the rest of the sugar until the whites are smooth and glossy and form peaks that can hold their shape, you can do this by hand but you will get a sore arm, it’s much easier with an electric whisk. Use a spatula to fold the whites into the chocolate mixture about a 1/3 at a time; don’t over mix just go until there isn’t any white showing.

Pour/scrape the mixture onto the crust, place the pan on a baking sheet as sometimes the butter in the crust can leak slightly, and cook for about 35-minutes or until the centre is slightly firm, but not over cooked.

It will sink down and get a nice crackly look while it cools, and as I said earlier it really is best to give it a day or two before you eat it (I know that’s not an easy ask!) – Melani

5 comments

Honest Burgers
12 Brixton Village

Deborah Taylor - This looks amazing, we have friends for dinner this weekend and I’m going to make this for dessert!

Deb - What a marvelous dessert! Not over the top sweet, just decadent enough to be scrumptious.

Kankana - I Just love the cracks on top!I am gonna try this with white chocolate.

Jen L | Tartine and Apron Strings - Ooh! It’s like a brownie and shortbread biscuit all in one! Just lovely!

Rebecca - Whoops, I just drooled a little on my trackpad…
This looks gorgeous !! The texture must be heaven.
Definitely gonna try it.

Brixton Village : SW9

Monday, March 26, 2012

I mean honestly… I leave Brixton to its own devices for three short years and the transformation is astounding.

Thanks to one of life’s surprising detours, I found myself back in one of my old London haunts for the first time in a while, and what I discovered made me feel compelled to write about and share some of my finds.

The plan was to spend a morning capturing images and chatting to a few of the stallholders, but with the sunlight filtering through on the brightest of days I was drawn in. The more I talked and listened, the more I became infected by their enthusiasm. The planned few hours gave way to a couple of days, and a quick blog evolved into a somewhat feature length-post.

Brixton Village is the new incarnation of Granville Arcade, a once a ‘grand’ 1930’s indoor market that formed part of the sprawling labyrinth of Brixton Market. Escape out of the arcade, sidestepping Electric Avenue, and you’ll find yourself in Market Row, another covered avenue that retains a slightly more authentic, eclectic, mix of the long-established stalls (Caribbean fruit and vegetables, fishmongers, butchers, wig shops & hair salons) dotted amongst the new vendors of vintage clothing stores, delis and restaurants.

One of the first in the new mix of pop-up and permanent vendors was Anne Fairbrother, a Brixton resident of 20-years. Anne stands behind the counter of her Cornercopia Kitchen & Larder and reminisces about the cold November night just over three-years ago, when, after receiving word via various social networking channels, around 300 people gathered under the roof of the arcade. ‘It was a mess, a mass of empty units, some for 10-years or more, plastered with graffiti, but yet the level of excitement and energy was palpable. It was a moment of pure social innovation with an abundance of living ideas and enthusiasm for the potential laid out before us.’

At the time there was clear criteria for applications, they had to be environmentally and economically sustainable, sociable and with a clear link to the market itself e.g. ways to benefit the wider community with traders of 45-years plus who were struggling for survival. Proposals to Space Makers (a community regeneration agency) came flooding in and within weeks applicants were given the green light to move in, those successful being offered a rent free unit for the first three months to help kick-start trading.

‘We became a kind of micro-market economy – exchanging and swapping produce and goods, especially in the early days when we were all trying to establish ourselves. It was an exciting period with artists and community groups; it was constantly changing with each new story or workshop bringing a new audience into the space.’

These days they even have their own currency, the Brixton Pound (£B), to encourage more money to circulate locally. Each note plays host to the face of a Brixton icon voted on by the people of Brixton; from historians, scientists, and politicians to artists and musicians like David Bowie. Bowie lived with his family in Brixton in the late 40’s, early 50’s.

And so you have it. Two ageing market halls, in one of South London’s most vibrant neighbourhoods, transformed into culinary melting-pots, that in 2011 even won the accolade of Time Out Magazine’s Best Eating and Drinking destination. And below (prepare to scroll please) are just a few of my highlights.

Cornercopia Kitchen & Larder
65 Brixton Village

Cornercopia Kitchen & Larder has been described as ‘a tiny neighbourhood restaurant and new kind of cornershop’. On starting out they literally had one or two tables nestled in the store where they would serve up meals to a select few. It’s not so tiny anymore – now spread over three units with an ever growing fan-base. When they describe their food as seasonal and ultra-local they truly mean it, with honey from Herne Hill, Damson Jam from the fruits of Brockwell park, and award-winning English white wines, ciders and beers from a micro brewery in SE1.

They have established what Anne refers to as ‘digital foraging’, they tweet (@brixcornercopia) to encourage members of the community to forage for specific items like nettles, crab apples, elderberries and edible flowers such as wild garlic. These are then exchanged for produce, or in some cases a meal. ‘The only problem being, sometimes, people just don’t quite understand the quantities involved to make a nettle pesto, or a reasonable quantity of nettle soup for example – it literally necessitates a sackful of nettles!’.

They have also been working with Invisible Food in Lambeth who organise walks around the borough to find wild foods and teach people how to make things with them. Most recently a group of young people foraged, produced, branded and launched a nettle & ginger beer which was then sold, at a profit to them, in the Cornercopia larder – genius idea.

Federation Coffee
77-78 Brixton Village

Along the way from Cornercopia sits another of the original success stories. Federation Coffee, co-owned by New Zealanders Nick Coates and George Wallace. Federation started out life in early 2010 with a unit half the size of their current, apparently with little other than a bar and one state-of-the-art coffee machine. They are now roasting their very own coffee in their very own Brixton Roastery, whilst serving-up delectable coffee and Anzac biscuits to what is an undoubtedly more contented morning crowd.

Heritage Deli
87 Brixton Village

Around the next corner you will find Heritage Deli, one of the newest Village ventures. Daniel Fiteni, Australian born of Maltese descent opened his savoury pastry deli just 6-weeks ago to serve up ‘ballsy’ unusual flavours of Maltese specialities like the Pastizzi and the Qassatat all made completely from scratch on site. If you get the chance I would highly recommend trying the rabbit & pea stew Qassatat – deliciously deep flavours with just a hint of spice in a light, baked short-crust style pastry.

Set up by two cooks who apparently met in Brighton whilst dining at Riddle & Finns; ‘our’ famous Oyster bar & Seafood restaurant in the Lanes – you can already be reassured they share good taste. Honest Burgers is a small, humble establishment with incredibly friendly staff and most importantly great food. Following Phillip’s recommendation I ordered the original ‘Honest Burger’ a wondrous stack of beef, red onion relish, smoked bacon, mature cheddar, pickled cucumber and lettuce in a toasted glazed bun, with a side of homemade rosemary salted fries and a literal jar of fresh lemonade (very cutely presented with a striped straw). I was far from disappointed. The beetroot and apple coleslaw is also absolutely worth a shout out!

The meat for Honest, and a few of the other ventures I spoke to locally, is supplied by Ginger Pig whose ‘non-mission statement’ is so Yorkshire (county of my birth) it made me smile. I quote: ‘we simply raise the best animals, in the happiest of circumstances, on the finest stretch of Yorkshire Moors we could find’. Ooh the Yorkshire Moors – it’s true, you too would be pretty happy to roam there… anyway, I digress, it was a wonderful burger!

French & Grace
19 Brixton Village

French & Grace opened it’s doors in October 2011. Ellie Grace and Rosie French are close friends who started out co-authoring a food blog and hosting secret supper clubs in Ellie’s flat overlooking Electric Avenue. SaladClub has grown over the years into a private dining, location catering and secret suppers venture, and now they have their very own venue in Brixton Village. I met with Ellie (pictured looking just a little angelic), who since moving to Brixton several years ago, says she has rarely stepped foot in a supermarket, but then, with such a vast and well stocked range of fresh market produce literally on your doorstep, who would need to?! She describes the French & Grace menu as colourful and eclectic street food; it includes mezze, wraps and daily specials of dishes like Ham hock, mustard and Kale casserole with sourdough toast (I need to go back & try this!).

They are obviously very talented ladies with a clear passion for food, an Observer Food Monthly award-winning blog and an upcoming cookbook to boot – I shall be following with interest.

Mama Lan
18 Brixton Village

Oh to the Beijing dumplings on the corner! Ning Ma of Mama Lan describes her food as home cooking from her Beijing family upbringing and not what people would generally expect Chinese food to be. Mama Lan is, in its name, dedicated to Ning’s mother who taught her how to cook and handed down techniques from past generations. It’s worth mentioning Mama Lan is still to be found inventing and working her magic with Ning behind the scenes in the new Brixton kitchen. It’s somehow quite hypnotic to watch the dumplings being prepared… filled, folded, pinched and lined up at speed.

I plan to go back with a bottle of wine under my arm (it’s BYO or mocktails at the moment) and work my way through the ever changing menu of dumplings starting with the newly announced Woodear mushroom, chinese leaf and carrot option, whilst remembering not to make any mention of Dim Sum – refer to Ning’s very honest and humorous blog if you have a moment.

Casa Sibilla
67-68 Brixton Village

I only had the chance to meet Paola fleetingly, the bustle of lunch had just died down and before the hungry hoards were due to descend again for dinner she was busily prepping. Casa Sibilla is a delicatessen and restaurant serving and selling authentic Italian produce. Paola, a graduate of the School of High Italian Culinary Art, opened her new venture in the Village 18-months ago to serve up her family recipes of Southern Italian food – she grew up ‘in’ and was undoubtedly inspired by her parent’s restaurant in Puglia. And as if that’s not enough to keep her busy she’s also offering cooking lessons in several languages.

So far I have only had chance to sample one of their sweet delicacies; a lemon crème Sfogliatelle (a Neapolitan speciality) which Paola insisted I take home with me – it was met post-dinner with a smile and much appreciative sighing.

Wild Caper
11a Market Row

Meet Bridget Hugo (pictured below), founder of Wild Caper, café and producer of fresh organic produce and artisan foods. I get the impression Bridget is one incredibly busy, highly motivated lady. Co-founder of the acclaimed Franco Manca pizzeria (also in Market Row) and the new Shoreditch-based Bukowski Grill. Bridget very generously takes the time to chat and encourages me to sample a few of the many delights created and served up at Wild Caper, even as she’s on her way out the door for an afternoon in the company of Gordon Ramsay. I’m literally still savouring a large teaspoonful of lemon curd (her Grandmother’s recipe) as she approaches with the next offering.

The deli serves up freshly made salads, sandwiches and pastries and has a wonderful range of bread – you have to try the slow-rising sourdough, baked across the way in Franco Manca’s wood burning pizza ovens for a minimum of 20-hours! I took some home and lavished it with buffalo mozzarella, avocado, beef tomatoes, basil and olive oil – soo good.

Seven
7 Market Row

Last but by no means least I take a step into the familiar culinary territory of Spain and the Basque country. Since leaving my Barcelona life behind me, a little over a year ago, I often find myself craving tapas and have spent a fair amount of time seeking out the best of places in London and Brighton for said moments.

As I walk into Seven (what used to be an old luggage shop – take note the clever use of suitcases for shelving behind the bar) it feels good… Plates of Pintxos line the bar following the traditional Basque way of helping yourself and counting up the cocktail sticks when you’ve had your fill – I love this way of eating, but it can be costly, especially if like me you find it hard to stop when openly presented with such an array of colourful, freshly stacked foodie delights.

I was greeted by the friendly face of Glen (pictured above). Liam and Jonny, the owners, were upstairs with renovations to the overhead art gallery and bar area well underway; the art installations here evolve every few months.

From their Tapas menu I can so far recommend the Bravas, Escalivada, the Russian roulette of Pimientos de Padrón (I always manage to pick the hotties), Chorizo and of course the Jamón Ibérico carved daily by a well-trained hand. They had a master carver come in from Madrid to train them in the art – I even have a 13-minute recording of Glen talking with a passion about the Jamón as he’s expertly taking fine slice after slice from the leg… and moving gently around the hip bone. Ibérico is known as the king of Spanish hams, cured for a minimum of three years and fed on a free-range diet of nutty sweet acorns and it tastes amazing!

Seven also offer traditional Spanish desserts such as Tarte de Santiago (one of my all time favourites) and Cinnamon Churros to dunk in hot chocolate should you so wish. And with their now late licence you can wash it all down with a £5 cocktail of your choice, an Old Fashioned, Ginger Beer & Basil Mojito or perhaps a Vanilla Julep for those fast approaching English summer nights (ahem).

[In Brighton I am regularly to be found seated in Solera D Tapa (Cala and Arrobas) practicing a little Spanish and feasting on Manchego and Jamón Iberico with a bottle of Tinto Joven on the side.]

How to finish this? I have no idea. I went back to get a solo missing burger shot last Saturday (the perfectionist in me just wasn’t happy with the first) and found myself discovering more new places and wanting to take yet more photos… Bellantoni’s Artisan Pasta & Kitchen, The Breadroom (patisserie), Elephant (Imran’s authentic Pakistani street food), and the list goes on.

As I said at the start (which now feels like a pretty long time ago) it’s an addictive place, full of characters, life and atmosphere behind a very unassuming facade, and I was greeted with such warmth and generosity – it’s a place you just can’t help but want to spend time – Lorna.

(And did I already mention the cake stall outside Sweet Tooth? With Red Velvet cake that may just send you spiraling into the highest of sugar highs, but oh in the moment it’s just a moist chunk of divineness!)

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