my kitchen : a series : one

10 years married! and a gf orange & cardamom ricotta cake.

i’m currently writing this from my cosy bed in tomales bay, marin county—the rain beating down on the wooden roof above me, as we speak. there is a storm passing through. it got me thinking of some rainy day photos that i took a while back, that i have been meaning to share.

ria from kitchen gems reached out and asked to interview me for her substack—which you can read here.

to accompany her questions, i took a few photos of our space, which is truly my sanctuary and the place where all of my cooking ideas come to life. i have decided to create a new segment for my substack which will sweetly document my beloved kitchen, and how it changes over time depending on what i’m doing, what new cookbooks i have, and of course—what food i’m cooking and eating.

here are the photos i took for ria a few weeks ago.

our space is something that feels so sacred to my husband and i. inviting friends over for dinner is one of our favourite past times, and has been ever since we met in bristol. there really is nothing better than gathering and cooking for friends around a big table.

i love it when friends come over a little early, and help themselves to snacks and wine. i want my house to feel very much an extension of who i think i am—warm and inviting. which i think it is. i want people to help themselves. i like it like that, it feels comfortable.

my friend parky will always come over, shaker in hand—and first order of business is a martini for everyone as soon as he arrives. i love that about him! it’s an unspoken rule now.

annie will always help me in the kitchen, no matter what i’m making. she will always ask ‘right, how can i help?’ and we usually get started on some sort of glorious salad together.

kate always pops the kettle on, as soon as she arrives at mine—usually to brew our favourite liquorice tea.

i love the communal participation. it’s like a warm hug when we are all just pottering in the kitchen together. sometimes talking about our week, our life, intimate moments and most likely belly laughing about something hilarious.

there is always a lot of laughter in our house.

christmas with friends in bristol

i often think about why i started my supper club originally, and why i have loved hosting for such a long time now. and indeed, where and why my love of hosting strangers came into play. the idea of bringing new friends together around a table—strangers in some ways, but also not strangers, really. we are all already connected somehow because of our love for food.

combining our love for food—whether that be cooking it, eating it, talking about it—whatever. food connects us.

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as i mentioned earlier on, i am in northern california with my husband, celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. i still can’t believe we have been married for 10 years—i don’t feel like i am old enough to have been married for that long. but in actual fact, i am old enough. i’m 37 years old!

march 1st 2014 - our wedding day

we got married in london 10 years ago today! we had a little ceremony at stoke newington town hall with some of our closest family & friends. it was such a magical, fun filled day. however, it truly feels like a lifetime ago—and maybe because it was. a year after we married we moved to california and our entire lives changed. all for the better, i might add.

i wish i had more pictures of the food we ate that day. we had a big whole hog roast with all the trimmings. it was truly incredible! my friend sophie made our wedding cake, and believe it or not she’s not even a baker. regardless, it was fabulous—chocolate and salted caramel, you can’t go wrong.

~

for our anniversary we came on a little road trip up to norcal, as we used to live in san francisco (we lived in sf for 3 years). it holds so many special memories for us. indeed—memories around food. especially seafood, especially oysters.

i will get to writing a more in depth post on our trip, what we have been up to, where we stayed and of course—where we ate. but in the meantime, here are a few pictures of the best bits, so far.

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a few months back chelsea invited me to guest chef for the wiley canning company dinner, it was such a beautiful evening. everyone seemed to really love all of the food, but especially my gf orange, cardamom & ricotta cake with cardamom cream and salted pistachios.

the cake itself was so fluffy and light—quite unheard of for a gluten free cake. the addition of ricotta really helped with this i think. i have made multiple, similar versions of this cake using different citruses or berries and it never misses.

here is the recipe!

1 1/2 cups of gf ap flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1 cup of ricotta

1 tsp of vanilla or almond extract

1 tbsp cardamom

1 orange, zested

1 orange, juice of

1 cup of sugar

3 whole eggs

1/2 cup of olive oil

powdered sugar / icing sugar if you have it

start by lining the bottom a 9” springform cake pan and make sure to also grease the sides. i brushed with olive oil but you can also use butter. and this is also a good time to set your oven to 350 degrees f or 175 degrees c.

mix dry ingredients in a bowl, and then mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. 

combine both wet and dry ingredients together in a bowl and stir in gently. 

pour the cake batter into the cake tin and pop into the oven for 60 minutes or until the top of the cake is a little golden and a cake poker comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.

let the cake cool. once cooled, run a knife around the inside edge of the cake pan then pop the lever open on the springform. dust the top with the powdered sugar.

i served with a whipped cardamom cream, salted pistachio crumb and wiley canning company satsuma rum marmalade.

xo