One week to go......

With only one week left before we fly to Canada for the Fisa Rowing World Masters, training has taken priority over everything else (and my healthy diet has gone out of the window as I am in need of lots of calories right now!).  Training at least once and mostly twice a day does take its' toll and with work being super busy too, I will be relieved when we get to Ontario and can just focus on racing.
So, despite my trying to offer healthy options for our apple harvest, today I decided to treat myself to something a little more indulgent!


Tart Tatin
This may not be the healthiest apple recipe but it is certainly one of the tastiest.  And despite how impressive it looks, it is very simple to make.

50g unsalted butter, diced

100g light muscovado sugar

3-4 eating apples, peeled and cored and thickly sliced

225g puff pastry

             Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

            Place the butter and sugar in a medium sized ovenproof frying pan and heat slowly to dissolve the sugar.  Raise the heat and let the mixture bubble and caramelise for a few minutes.

       Take the pan off the heat and place the slices of apple in the pan, making a spiral around the outside then working in towards the middle.

        Place the pan back on the heat and cook for another 8-10 minutes while you roll out the pastry.

        Roll the pastry to a circle that is just slightly bigger than your pan.  Take the pan off the heat and place the pastry on top of the apple, tucking the edges inside the pan.

       Cook in the oven for 15-18 minutes until golden then remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

       Turn out using a plate placed over the pan, then turn them both over together.

Harvest Time?

At the beginning of spring this year, my neighbours Colin and Audrey and I decided we would like to have our own, shared allotment.  We got very excited at the prospect of spending sunny Sunday afternoons digging up wonderfully fresh crunchy carrots and picking succulent fruits from the many bushes we would plant.  And then our dreams were shattered......by an eight year waiting list for local allotments!  I am patient, but even I can't wait that long for a good meal!
So we had to resort to our very small gardens - Colin and Audrey were far more focused on the task than I, and experienced the delights of fresh salad leaves, the aforementioned carrots and lots more besides.  I, on the other hand, am still waiting for my tomatoes to turn from emerald green to ruby red!
However, also in our street is Ness, who has a apple tree that is positively straining to hold itself up under the weight of all the apples - and she doesn't cook - what a result!

Colin suggested we should see how many recipes we could make with Ness's apples (don't worry, I will not make you suffer all of them!).  Colin instantly went for the rich, indulgent Apple and Olive Oil Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting from Ottolenghi's first book Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.  As I am trying to avoid both wheat and dairy, my recipes have tended to be a little healthier, but obviously equally delicious!

Summer (wheat and dairy free) Crumble

900g cooking apples, peeled and chopped

2 oranges, segmented

125g strawberries, chopped

1 tbsp honey

100g oats

few fresh mint leaves

25g walnuts

25g cashew nuts

15g hazelnuts

55g light brown sugar

50g coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F/Gas mark 5.

Place the apples, orange segments and strawberries in a baking dish and spoon over the honey.

Blitz the remaining ingredients in a food processor until you have a crumble mixture.

Spoon over the fruit and bake for 35-45 minutes until golden. 

Ginger Baked Apples

4 cooking apples, cored

3 knobs of stem ginger, diced

2 tbsp of stem ginger syrup

140g Cherry Active dried cherries

45g walnuts

1 tbsp freshly chopped mint leaves

2 tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.

Place the cored apples into an ovenproof dish.

Mix together the ginger, dried cherries, walnuts and mint then stuff the mixture into the holes of the cored apples, sprinkling the remainder around the apples.

Pour the stem ginger syrup and the honey over the apples then cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes, or until tender.

Another Italian Break

Last weekend I was invited to visit one if the most beautiful areas in Italy - San Gimignano in Tuscany.  Stunning countryside, really friendly people, and obviously most importantly for me, amazing food.

Not only we were spoilt by staying in a converted farmhouse just a (very!) steep stroll down from the gorgeous town of San Gimimgnano, with an enormous kitchen that was once the cow shed (it still had the original eating troughs all along one side of the very large kitchen), but the gardener of the property insisted I visit his allotment for fresh produce - I was in heaven.  From that moment on, nobody else was allowed in the kitchen!  Interestingly everybody was very happy with that arrangement, and couldn't believe that even on holiday I wanted to cook.  What I can't believe is why people don't cook - if you want great food it is the only way (unless you want to eat out at restaurants every night, but even that surely would get boring?!).  My bounty included courgettes topped with brightly coloured flowers, celery, beautiful multicoloured large tomatoes, basil, radicchio, cucumber and  red rose for each of the signoras!  Our own garden was full of apple and plum tress that were dripping with fruit, so plum crumble was also on the menu more than once.

There is one thing that I could not make at home as well as the locals, and that was the local ice-cream at Gelateria dell'olmo - the best I have ever tasted.  Even the dairy-free was so creamy and luscious you would be hard pushed to know the difference (I sampled quite a few........for research purposes obviously!).  I figured my run up the hill and around the town walls every morning allowed me a few tastes of local produce - by the end of the week I realised running around twice may only just about cover it!!

Getting back into the saddle...

This weekend was the big overnight cycle ride and despite really wanting to do it, for once I listened to my body and realised that just over two weeks from surgery is probably not the best time to cycle for nine to ten hours with no sleep.  I am constantly telling athletes that they should not train if they are not at the peak of health, and this was a prime example of that!
Luckily there are always other options that are less stressful to the healing process - a quick burst of dragon-boat racing last Sunday (each race only lasted 1 minute, so not too much strain on the body, and with a fairly novice crew I knew my stamina would not be put under too much pressure!).  It was a great event, organised by Dragon Boat Events, with 48 crews taking part and although it was for charity clearly we were all out to win it!
My other form of gentle cross-training has been to head out to the Chilterns and hike up and down the hills, which I find is not only great for the legs but also for the mind - escaping London is a great way to de-stress.  Luckily it's not a busy place for walkers, despite it being so close to London, not many people realise what a great area it is, with rolling hills, great little country pubs and hundreds of miles of well-marked footpaths.

Tempting your Taste-buds

I am constantly asked if, after a hard day of cooking for photography shoots, I cook myself dinner when I get home.  My answer is always the same - I want to eat good, tasty food, so that naturally involves cooking great ingredients from scratch, which thankfully I find extremely relaxing anyway.
But something else that struck me this week is how important making food look good actually is, not only for a photograph.  Your digestion starts by food being broken down in your mouth by chewing, and by the enzymes in your saliva.  So getting your salivary juices flowing is very important, and this will not happen if you quickly open the fridge, put the box in the microwave then shovel the food in your mouth whilst standing leaning against the kitchen door.
There has to be a build up to the event, and cooking can do this.  But also how you present the food may help.  Often on shoots we get caterers to provide lunch, and nine times out of ten they provide paper plates and plastic cutlery.....instantly I am put off eating the food.  Transfer that food to a beautiful serving dish or plate, and it is transformed....it's a bit like respecting the food by serving it on something special.
This was brought home to me even more this week when we were shooting on location in a house that was full of French antiques, including crockery and kitchenware (the photograph on the left was taken in the kitchen).  Serving food on the crockery felt like I was making a piece of art!
And the other delight of a photography shoot - an abundance of food!  This time beautiful red peppers, which are one of my favourite things to eat.  Such a simple ingredient and so easy to turn them into something delicious - halve the peppers and take out the seeds and stalk, lay in a roasting tin, sprinkle with sliced garlic, chopped parsley, seasoning and olive oil and cook for about 20-30 minutes until softened.  Delicious served with grilled fish or a salad and nearly as quick as placing the box in the microwave!!
For more beautiful French antiques, go to www.josephineryanantiques.co.uk - the owner of the stunning house we were shooting in.

An extremely quick recovery!

Well, if some of you are wondering why I haven't been on my travels, or up-dated my blog recently, it's because I had a few days away in sunny.............Hammersmith Hospital!  A little lump that I had known about for a few years, suddenly started to grow a little bigger than I liked, so it had to go.  Unfortunately it was in my neck, so I am now sporting a rather dashing 8cm scar across my throat - very attractive.
But what was so interesting is how quickly I have recovered - everybody is amazed (me included) and obviously I put it all down to a healthy diet and lifestyle.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a saint living on broth and water, never leaving the safety of my home.....far from it (ask anybody that knows me!).  BUT, I do believe in feeding my body everything it needs to support the lifestyle that I do want to live and, as I am constantly telling the athletes that I advise - you can't expect your body to perform if you don't give it what it needs!
So, now it's summer at last and I am feeding myself with lots of healthy herbs - the garden is full of them (if you don't have a garden they will grow perfectly well in a window box!).  Not only do herbs add great flavours to dishes, they also have health giving qualities, so incorporating them into your daily diet is a great idea.
The recipe I have cooked up today includes parsley (diuretic), oregano (anti-microbial), mint (soothing for the digestion), garlic (anti-microbial) and lemon balm (calming) - all of that in one dish!

Quinoa and Feta Salad
Serves 4-6


450g sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
seasoning
2 tbsp olive oil
120g brown basmati rice
150g quinoa
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped mint
1 tbsp chopped oregano
1/2 tbsp chopped lemon balm
175g feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp flaked almonds


1.  Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ Gas mark 6.
2.  Place the sweet potato into a roasting tin and season well before sprinkling with 1 tbsp of the olive oil.  Roast for 15-18 minutes, until tender.
3.  Cook the Basmati rice and quinoa according to the pack instructions then drain and place in a large bowl.
4.  Heat the remaining olive oil and over a gently heat cook the garlic and cumin seeds, just enough to give a good aroma.  Take off the heat and squeeze in the lime juice and stir in the herbs.
5.  Spoon the herb mixture into the bowl with the rice and quinoa, then add the sweet potato with any oil from the roasting pan.
6.  Finally, add the crumbled feta and flaked almonds and gently stir to mix well together.
7.  This salad is great served warm or cold.


Happy Eating!  Jx

Summer Madness

It's that crazy time of year again when all the summer sports are competing with each other for our attention - the social calendar is in full swing!  And on top of that we now have World Cup fever in the middle of all of it too.  I'm finding it very difficult to decide what to focus on right now, and work is way down on the list!
But on Friday afternoon there was no question where I wanted to be - Henley Qualifiers.  For the uninitiated these are time trials that are held on the Henley Royal Regatta course, to decide who goes through to race at Henley Royal Regatta the following week.
There is no dress code (having to wear a skirt or dress that covers your knees!), expensive Pimms, or exclusive member's enclosures to worry about, this is purely about rowing and everybody there is either racing, or supporting somebody else that is, and the atmosphere of anticipation is great.

I was supporting a number of girls from my club, Mortlake Anglian and Alpha as well as some great, slightly older, girls I row with who were also attempting to get through!  As the stroke girl  Hilary said "If we get through I will possibly be the oldest, lightest and smallest competitor ever to row at Henley Royal - she is 51!  Unfortunately they were pipped at the post, but did put on a great performance.  Oh well, there's always next year!