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.

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.]



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

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

1. 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.
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

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

Before the class began we helped ourselves to breakfast, the addition of a fantastic sauerkraut in the usual NY line up of bagels, lox and cream cheese not going unnoticed… as it turned out the chef cooking for the workshop that day was the pickling and canning expert Michaela Hayes, from Crock and Jar. I have to admit to a slight fear of canning and pickling, although I’ve always wanted to give it a try, so now I know that Michaela runs a workshop of her own I’ll be on the lookout for her posting new workshop dates!

As you can see from the photos, Sweet Paul took us through all aspects of setting up a story for the magazine. We watched the cooking preparation, prop selection, setting up of the shot, the photographing, how Paul chooses his final images, and all along the way we were given tricks, tips and suggestions for improving our images.

It turned out my subway ride was by far the shortest journey of any of the people attending. On the way up in the elevator I met two lovely food stylists both from Florida, followed closely by Melissa from My Sweet Remedy (who also co-authors a food blog with her sister), who had made the trip from Montreal, and Denise who works with Occasions Caterers in from Washington DC. One of the great things about these workshops has to be getting to meet all the other attendees who have a shared passion, everyone was incredibly friendly and it was so interesting to hear about their backgrounds. Three of the other attendees were also food bloggers, two both just starting out (too new to have sites), and the third was Gina Homolka of Skinny Taste whose blog featuring healthy low-fat, family friendly recipes is very popular and has been around since 2008. Rounding off the group were business partners, Susan Gibbs from Juniper Moon Farm (which is such a cool site and has a LambCam so you can watch the sheep!!) and Jeannie Martini, who are in the process of launching an online magazine of their very own.

I can’t say enough about how much you can learn just from watching really talented people do what they do. Paul made selecting his props and setting up his shots look so effortless whilst talking us through every detail. I was so impressed by his creativity and his generosity in sharing his wealth of experience with us. The same can definitely be said of Colin Cooke, our photographer for the day, just watching him go through the process whilst bombarding him with a ton of questions really helped me to understand his workflow. His assistant also gave me some great Lightroom tips – so thank you to both of them. I left the workshop fully inspired, having learnt many new things, and I’m also now anticipating what is likely to be an expensive trip to B&H – my local photographic superstore!!

So that about wraps things up for this post other than to say a final thank you to all the people I met on Saturday. I hope to bump into some of you again one day soon and wish you the best of luck for all your future projects. For those Green Figs and Ham readers who are now grinding their teeth and exclaiming “but where are the recipes” (you know who you are!) cooking will resume soon, I promise! – Melani

So the Holidays are officially over and 2012 is here, Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your continued support and kind comments!

Lorna and I did plenty of cooking while she was here which was so much fun, it was lovely to have the time together to try out some new things we’d discovered or been working on. It’s also a great time of year, not just for cooking, but for carrying on family traditions surrounding cooking. When we were growing up our Dad always served Christmas dinner at lunch time (of course) and then in the evening we’d have a cold buffet with roasted ham, shrimp, cheeses, pickles and leftovers from dinner like chicken and roast potatoes, it was always hard to decide which meal I enjoyed more. This year Lorna and I followed his tradition and made this recipe for the evening buffet. I usually reserve making this until I have a larger crowd coming over as I hate to have any wasted, but on Boxing Day I saw Lorna sneaking some leftovers into a salad which turned out to be delicious, so you could also make it for a smaller group and plan for a great lunch the next day.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how much I love Frank Stitts cookbook Southern Table. I have many many cookbooks, and although they are beautiful to look at (very important to me) and seem to have great recipes, it’s often the case that nothing in them really catches my eye when I’m flipping through for dinner ideas. Frank’s book is different, I often find just what I’m looking for and more besides, so it’s no surprise that a while ago whilst trying to figure out something new to do as a party hors d’oeuvre I came across this recipe…

Pickled Shrimp
serves 8 to 12 as an hors d’oeuvre 

to cook the shrimp
1 onion quartered
1 celery stalk cut in chunks
1 lemon sliced
4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon of kosher or sea salt
1.5 pounds of medium shrimp peeled

Put 8 cups of water in a large pot, add the onion, celery, lemon and parsley, bring it to the boil and then lower to a simmer for 20 minutes. Next add the salt and the shrimp and once the water returns to the very beginning of a simmer remove the pan from the heat, the water should not boil as it will make the shrimp tough – just look out for that first tiny bubble and then it’s done. Drain the shrimp but do NOT rinse as you’ll lose a lot of the flavor. Allow them to cool completely before pickling them.

to pickle the shrimp
1 medium onion, quartered and very thinly sliced
3 large garlic cloves very thinly sliced
2 lemons thinly sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
7 bay leaves
2 whole hot dried chili peppers
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1.5 pounds of cooked shrimp from above (completely cooled)

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and coat the shrimp throughly. Pack everything into a large glass jar (has to be glass and ideally sterilised), cover it tightly and put in the fridge overnight to allow all the flavors to develop. You can keep it in the fridge for about 3 days, but no longer than that. Once you’re ready for them tip them into a serving dish (do this about 10 minutes before they need to be out so the olive oil has chance to melt) and dive in! – Melani
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If you’ve ever been to Eataly, Mario Batali’s Italian grocery store on 5th Avenue here in New York, there’s a good chance you’ll have noticed their rotisserie prime rib in the back corner of the store, it always smells so good and I was keen to try and come up with a rub that would make steaks or a roast taste as good as that smell. That’s where the idea for this came from. I had to experiment with amounts, but I’m really very happy with the outcome.

Porcini Salt Rub
Makes 1/2 cup, enough for 4 large steaks

1/2 oz of dried porcini mushrooms
1.5 tablespoons of dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon of  kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon of black truffle salt (optional)

Pulse the dried porcini’s and the brown sugar in a spice grinder or food processor, pour what you have into a container, add the salt, put the lid on and give it a good shake. It’s now ready to use just sprinkle it liberally on your meat – Melani (& Lorna)

Nutty Granola
makes approximately 18 1/2 cup servings

1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup flaked almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped pecans
3 cups rolled oats
2 tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

Heat oven to 350F/180C, combine the nuts, sunflower seeds, oats and ground flax seed on a large sheet pan and bake/toast for about 20 minutes stirring a few times during baking. While that’s in the oven melt the butter with the rest of the ingredients together in a small pan. Remove the seeds, oats & flax from the oven and transfer into a large bowl, turn down the oven to 250F/120C, pour the melted ingredients over and give it a good stir to evenly coat everything. Spread it back out on the baking tray, return to the oven and bake for 1hr 30min stirring occasionally so it browns evenly. Once time’s up remove it from the oven and let it cool completely, then gently break it up and store it in an airtight jar; it keeps for ages this way – Melani

This recipe gets around the over cooking by having you take the Brussels sprouts apart so you can quickly sauté them, and includes bacon and shallots (let’s face it what doesn’t taste better with bacon – apologies to all you vegetarians) to give you a dish that is beautifully bright green – a hit on any holiday plate and one you might even be tempted to cook during the week without guests.

Sautéed Brussels sprouts

Serves 4

4 cups of Brussels sprouts
4 rashers of streaky bacon (roughly cut up)
1 large shallot (or a small onion)
2 tablespoons of water
Salt & pepper to taste

Trim the bottom of each sprout and cut in half before removing & discarding the core, separate out the leaves into a large bowl. This can be done a day ahead if you wish, just store the leaves in a zip-lock bag in the fridge.

Heat a dry sauté pan, throw in the bacon and cook until it’s crispy then remove from the pan and place to one side. Pour off the majority of the bacon grease, place the pan back on the heat and add in the shallots sautéing until soft (2 minutes or so), next add in the Brussels sprout leaves and 2 tablespoons of water, stir, and cook until the leaves are bright green – about 5 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper. Finally, gently mix the crisped bacon back in and you are ready to serve :) – Melani
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