Inntravel the Slow holiday people
Ooh la la! The new issue is on sale today
HAVE A FLICK through the brand new issue of The Simple Things by clicking here.
And don't forget our special offer – Save 50% – 2 years for the price of 1 when you subscribe today!
On sale from 31st January in all major supermarkets, WHSmith, M&S and larger newsagents.
Sponsored post: Found! The gift that goes straight to his heart
Struggling for gift ideas for the men in your life? The Man Box Collection from award-winning Ross & Ross Food could be the answer to your problems. The Cotswold-based fine food company specialises in handmade pates and terrines using the best British ingredients. Each Man Box has a combination of English craft beer, British charcuterie, chutney and Great British pork crackling to form the ultimate snack box. The products are either made in-house or from local artisan producers. What man wouldn't be happy with a box full of fine British beer and his favourite snacks?
Available in Original, Spicy and XL. Prices start from £20. The Man Box is available online at www.rossandrossfood.co.uk and NotontheHighStreet.com
Ross & Ross Food are recent winners of the Bursary Award and the Midland Street Food in the BBC Good Food Show and were Finalists in the Cotswold Life Best Local Producer. The pair currently supply their award winning pate and terrines to the likes of Harrods and Daylesford as well as number of quality fine food stores and delis.
Where is your favourite tea room?
In issue 20 of The Simple Things we share 'the 10 tea rooms we like a lot'! Find out how to add your favourites to the list.
We’re a nation of tea rooms: there’s not a market town, beauty spot or city without its little gem. In issue 20 of the magazine we've compiled a list of our favourites in the following hugely scientific categories:
- For retro indulgence
- For cream teas with a conscience
- For being pretty as a picture
- For coffee drinkers
- For heavenly smells
- For a huge slice of cake
- For the best cuppa in Britain
- For the sea views
- For the treacle tart
- For the English tea
Post your favourites on our Facebook page and share the love! As a little taster here's our favourite retro haunt.
FOR RETRO INDULGENCE... Blackbird Tea Rooms, Brighton, East Sussex In a townhouse just behind the Brighton seafront, they know how to do vintage. Potted palms, broderie anglaise tablecloths, wooden dressers laden with antique jars and tins; even the waitresses sport victory rolls to match their red lips and neat black uniforms. The wobbly cakes on their reclaimed glass stands taste as irresistible as they look, dusted with icing sugar, topped with berries and petals and served on fine bone china – what else. www.blackbirdtearooms.com
Find all 10 of our favourites in issue 20 of The Simple Things.
Photographs: Decades of Elegance
3 tips for small business success
You'll never guess number 3… Nick Cooper, the creative force behind successful small business Stamp Shoes, shares the top 3 things he's learned from setting up his own bespoke shoe workshop.
NICK COOPER, founder of Stamp Shoes, lives in Northampton and creates beautiful bespoke footwear from his own designs.
After my religious studies degree I tried admin at a charity in London but didn’t last long! I ended up moving back to my parents in Shropshire and shelf filling at a supermarket. At this point I asked myself, “What do I really want to do?” I arrived at ‘craft’. I ended up moving to the 'shoe capital' of Britain, Northampton, to learn about shoes. I wanted to create my own set-up as soon as I could, make the designs that I wanted to make and then work out how to generate money from it! Nothing happened for about a year, but then I found a workshop space at the Innovation Centre in Northampton University. I bought a little bit of machinery and some materials and started experimenting. It's all taken off from there.
3 THINGS SETTING UP STAMP SHOES HAS TAUGHT ME
1. Don’t give up your day job until you’re established. Go part-time if you can and develop your passion alongside your other work, or at the weekends. Start your business gradually and slowly scale back your hours of employment when you know you can.
2. I never set a goal of making even a single penny. It was daunting setting up a business so I set my goals fairly low. I just wanted to have a complete shoemaking workshop and create a collection of shoes I was happy with, with designs that I’d wear myself.
3. If you’ve never done it, go and stay in a monastery for at least a week, even if you’re sceptical of religious belief. Every summer I go and stay with some monks in the Burgundy countryside. It’s perhaps the only time when I feel completely safe and fully myself. The monks do ‘simple’ on a daily basis and in a way that enables people to experience a complete and lasting joy.
Read more about Nick in our regular series, Beyond The Nine-to-Five in issue 20 of The Simple Things.
The best rich chocolate tart
Try our rich chocolate tart with a hint of cardamom and cinnamon and you'll be smitten. It's the perfect finale to a romantic supper or a weekend indulgence with friends. Divine.
Few desserts make a dinner guest’s eyes light up like a rich chocolate tart. Serve in lavish quantities.
RICH CHOCOLATE TART Cloves, cardamom and cinnamon make for a grown-up take on a gooey pud.
- 375ml double cream
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 3 tsp cinnamon powder
- 3 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 150g dark chocolate, chopped
- 150g milk chocolate, chopped
- A few whole cherries with stems for garnish
1. Prepare and bake a pastry case in a 25cm tart tin. To make life a little easier, you could buy a ready-made pastry case as the base for your tart. We promise we won’t tell…
2. Take a small saucepan, add the double cream and spices and place over a medium heat.
3. Bring to the boil and then immediately remove and set aside. Leave for about 30 mins.
4. Place chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl and set aside.
5. Place saucepan back on the heat and bring to the boil. Remove immediately and then pour over the chopped chocolate. Stir until the mixture is lovely and glossy.
6. Pour the chocolate mix into the prepared pastry case. Transfer to the fridge and leave to set for approximately 2 hours.
7. Serve tart at room temperature topped with the whole cherries.
-
- Photography: MINDI COOKE Recipes & styling: LYNDEL MILLER
Find the recipes for a complete Valentine's Day Supper including Mushroom Soup, Herbed Buttered Oysters and Pomegranate Mignonette Oysters in issue 20 of The Simple Things.
Create your own indoor herb garden
Create your own indoor herb garden this weekend and you could be picking homegrown rosemary to flavour your Sunday roast!
WHAT TO GROW There's nothing more rewarding than enhancing your cooking using homegrown freshly picked herbs. Plant this trio and you're covered for a host of dishes.
THYME can be grown successfully indoors – it simply needs a bright windowsill and some basic care and attention to thrive.
ROSEMARY The heady scent emanating from rosemary is delicious, and this highly fragrant herb is very easy to grow. Being a Mediterranean herb, it will appreciate a warm sunny spot.
LAVENDER The lavender plant makes a lovely partner for both the thyme and the rosemary. Lavender is hard to resist, boasting beautiful flowers and an arresting scent. It adds a delicate flavour to cooking that’s especially wonderful in light desserts.
HOW TO PLANT YOUR CONTAINER A wooden crate found in a junk shop makes a perfect herb garden planter.
You will need
- An old wooden crate
- Drainage material eg. gravel or small pebbles
- Potting compost. We recommend environmentally friendly, peat-free enriched BioChar compost eg. GroChar from Carbon Gold.
- Decorative mulch eg. fine gravel or shells
1. Cover the bottom of the crate with a layer of drainage material, such as gravel or pebbles, aiming to fill about a quarter of the container’s volume. This will allow the roots to breathe and prevent them from drowning.
2. Fill the container with potting mix to bring the plant up so that the top of the root-ball is just beneath the rim of the container. Make sure it is not lopsided.
3. Carefully feed more potting mix in between the plants and container, and firm it down. Avoid compacting the potting mix too much, though, as this will hinder drainage.
4. Add a layer of decorative mulch, such as fine gravel or shells, to finish off the planting. Not only does this make the container look more attractive, but it can also help to reduce the rate of water evaporation.
Find more inspiring indoor gardening ideas in issue 20 of The Simple Things.
Bliss in a bite
Impress your friends by offering up these delectable macarons.
Macarons (makes about 30)
175g ground almonds
175g icing sugar
50g (1-2 eggs) egg whites
100g egg whites (about 3 egg whites)
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For different flavourings: Pistachio macarons (replace ground almonds with ground pistachios), Coffee (add 2 tsp instant coffee), Raspberry (add 1 tbsp freeze-dried raspberry powder) and Mango (1 tbsp freeze-dried mango powder).
Cookie cutter (about 4cm), large piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper.
1. Take the cookie cutter and a sheet of paper or card. Draw around the cutter to make rows of circles on the paper, leaving a bit of space inbetween. This is your template.
2. Put the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and process to a fine powder. Transfer to a mixing bowl with the 50g egg whites and beat together with a spatula until paste-like. Set aside.
3. Put the 100g egg whites in a separate, heatproof bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until soft peaks form. Get a saucepan ready on the heat with a shallow depth of simmering water. Set the bowl on top of the saucepan making sure the bottom doesn't touch. Add the sugar to the egg whites and whisk until it starts to increase in volume.
4. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue to whisk until thick, glossy and cool. Add the vanilla, gently fold in the almond mixture being careful not to over-mix. Add flavourings if using and a couple of dots of food colouring paste to boost the colour if you like.
5. Slip your template between the prepared paper and baking sheet. Fill a piping bag with mixture and pipe rounds onto the paper, gently pulling the template out after you've finished. Set aside for 30-60 minutes to firm up and form a slight skin. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 160C (325F) Gas 3.
6. Sprinkle any chosen decorations on top but not too much otherwise they won't rise. Bake the macarons with the oven door slightly ajar for 10-12 minutes, keeping an eye on them in case they brown too quickly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Fill with creme patisserie, (loosened with a mixture of whipping and double cream) a flavoured ganache (see below) or just jam.
Recipe taken from Patisserie at Home by Will Torrent, Photography Jonathan Gregson (Ryland, Peters and Small, £19.99). For details on how to make raspberry, pistachio, coffee and mango ganache see page 108 of the book.
Read our mouth-watering interview with king of patisserie, Will Torrent, in Issue 20 of The Simple Things, on sale 31st January.
Say it with a poem
You'll notice we're in rather a romantic mood in the next issue of The Simple Things (Issue 20, on sale 31st January). In the wonderfully nostalgic The Lost Art of Writing a Love Letter we uncover the principles of penning the perfect love note. A few lines from a beautiful poem can capture a feeling perfectly. If you're looking for inspiration check out three of our favourite love poems. Click here to read Carol Ann Duffy's 'Words, Wide Night', here for Frank O'Hara's 'Animals', and here for 'You're Beautiful' by Simon Armitage. Get your tissues at the ready..
Those who can, do
IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF Do Lectures you're missing out on free talks on big ideas and clever thinking from very bright people. Think Tim Smit of the Eden project, the chief of the Sioux nation, the man who reinvented meditation for modern living and the woman who directed Pixar's Brave. For starters.
You can read our interview with the inspiring Hieatts (David and Clare) who began Do Lectures in issue 20 of The Simple Things. And when they are not doing Do they have got a town in Wales making jeans again.
Make your own simple spit
In the new issue (on sale 30 January), our adventurous River Cottage chef Gill Meller wraps up warm and prepares fire-roast leg of lamb. But first you need your fire – and something to roast it on. Gill used an old estate railing he found but for those of us not so lucky, click here for instructions to make your own. And if that's too much trouble, you can buy one here. How to light the fire? You're on your own there.
Wordless Wednesday
Inntravel the Slow holiday people
The Simple Things – Beth Nielsen Chapman
American singer songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman has long been a favourite of ours, so we were thrilled to hear that the lead track on her new album is called The Simple Things!
A beautiful song with beautiful lyrics we're sure you'll agree.
Uncovered by Beth Nielsen Chapman is now available to order from her website.
Just fondue it
You don't need to live in the Alps - or, indeed the 1970s - to enjoy the fun of a fondue. Our gathering this month have reinvented this unfairly ridiculed dish into a pretty classy looking supper party.
Fancy having a go yourself? John Lewis has a cast iron fondue set. And here's the recipe for a classic version:
Cheese fondue (for 4)
800 g cheese (Gruyère, Comté, Appenzeller, Beaufort)
250 ml white wine
1⁄2 garlic clove, peeled and halved
1 teaspoon cornflour
1. Cut the skin off the cheese and grate it.
2. Using the cut side of the garlic clove, rub the bottom and side of the fondue pot. Pour the wine into the fondue pot and warm over a medium heat until the wine starts to simmer.
3. Turn down the heat and add the cheese step by step, stirring constantly (drawing an eight pattern)*. When all the cheese has melted and the texture is smooth, mix the cornflour to a paste with a little water and then add to the pot. Stir well. Remove from the heat and place the fondue pot on top of the burner on the table. Serve with cubes of good quality bread.
* If your cheese starts to curdle just add extra warm white wine.
Fireside Reads
Invest in a quality book for the long winter nights (just add hot chocolate).
Don't even think about spending your Christmas book tokens without first reading our reviews. In this month's copy of The Simple Things (Issue 19, out now), Katie Allen reviews her ten favourite fireside companions. Among her edit are Stoner by John Williams (Vintage Classics), The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough, The Story: Love, Loss and The Lives of Women, Edited by Victoria Hislop (Head of Zeus) and The Curse of Lovely by Jacqui Marson (Piatkus).
Living Mindfully
Make mindful living your one simple goal for 2014 and enjoy a happier, calmer and more productive year.
Mindfulness is about living in the present. It's about paying attention to what you're experiencing at this very moment rather than rushing around trying to do a zillion things at once. In this month's issue of The Simple Things (Issue 19, out now) writer Perri Lewis explores how we can live more mindfully. Make a start now by downloading one of these apps.
Headspace's Meditation App Free 10-minute meditations from mindfulness guru and former monk Andy Puddicombe - or sign up to the Headspace Journey from £3.74 a month. Click here
Mindfulness Meditations with Mark Williams, £6.99 A series of 10 to 40-minute guided meditations in this iTunes album. Click here
The Mindfulness App, £1.49 An easy-to-use meditation app that allows you to meditate with a guide or just to pleasant sounds. Click here
Wordless Wednesday
Inntravel the Slow Holiday people.
Cabbage never tasted this good
The star of our Seed to Stove series, Lia Leendertz, is turning her winter crop of cabbages and kale into tangy winter treats in this month's The Simple Things (Issue 19). Cavolo nero crispy seaweed anyone? If you're inspired to grow your own crop, Lia has persuaded the good people at Otter Farm in Devon to do a special offer on her favourite varieties of cabbage. So click here to buy seeds of Cavalo Nero (25% off) and Red Russian at £1.50 per packet instead of £2. Type in the code SimpleThingsKale.
Otter Farm is a treasure trove of unusual and forgotten foods. Smallholder Mark Diacono grows them on his plot and has written an award-winning book A Taste of the Unexpected. He sells plants and seeds through his online shop.
Sponsored post: Time for some New Year TLC?
Do you need some wholesome, hearty food to get you through a cold and wintry January? This delicious soup, brought to you by Yeo Valley, is the ultimate comfort food to keep you warm and cosy. And, what's more, it’s super speedy to make and healthy to boot! Why not put that boot camp on hold for another few days and treat yourselves to a little soul food...?
Smoked Haddock and Leek Soup
Serves 4 / Prep Time 5 mins / Cooking Time 25 mins
Ingredients
2tsp oil
3 sticks of celery diced
400g potatoes cut into small cubes
1litre vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
2 leeks cut into disks
200g Sweetcorn, tinned or frozen
600g Smoked Haddock, skinned and cut into bite sized chunks
200ml 0% Yeo Valley Natural Yeogurt
Small bunch of parsley
What to do:
1. In a large saucepan gently heat the oil then add the celery, put the lid on a sweat for 5mins. Add the stock to the pan along with the potato and bay leaves and simmer for 10 mins until the potatoes are tender.
2. Add the leeks, sweetcorn and haddock and a good grind of black pepper. Bring back to a simmer and cook for a further 5mins until the fish is cooked through.
3. Remove from the heat, stir in the Yeogurt and check the seasoning then divide between 4 bowls and top with the parsley leaves.
Notes: For a change use half smoked haddock and half prawns.
Save up to 30% at People Tree
Don't miss this fantastic saving from ethical fashion brand, People Tree.
Browse People Tree's beautiful range of ethical clothing, accessories and gifts at www.peopletree.co.uk and save a fantastic £15 when you spend £50 or more. All you need to do is enter the code SIMPLE15 when you check out.
Discover how the wonderfully inspiring People Tree founder and CEO, Safia Minney, persuaded the Dalai Lama and Prince Charles to wear organic cotton and earned herself an MBE for services to Fair Trade and the fashion industry in the January issue of The Simple Things, out now.
Terms and conditions: Offer is valid from the until the 31st January 2014. Receive £15 off a purchase of £50 or more of any products including sale products on the People Tree website, www.peopletree.co.uk. To redeem, enter promotion code SIMPLE15 on the shopping bag or during checkout on the People Tree website. Offer cannot be combined with any other promotional codes. No cash alternative.