Baked stuffed courgette flowers with smoked paprika
SocialJoy
Welcome to my July blog and all the news from this month. I hope we are all making the most of summer time with showers and sun, the weather cant make its mind up !
The veggies have gone wild with the climate and therefore have been able to enjoy my nasturtium flowers on salads, which are very pretty and of course edible. There is an abundance of different lettuce leaves and tomatoes. I am now picking my courgette flowers, which are lovely stuffed and baked which is healthier than deep fried. Recipe below and as per photo above.
Yet another and probably final birthday celebration with my school friends, to Chicama in Chelsea which is a Peruvian seafood restaurant. The food was exquisite and very unusual and just so amazing to taste different foods. We sampled tapioca marshmallow with octopus sauce, popped corn monkfish cheeks, scallop ceviche, spicy crab and green papaya salad, and blackened octopus. https://www.chicamalondon.com/
We have a new boutique cinema https://www.chiswickcinema.co.uk/ opened in Chiswick which is exciting and only across the road from me, with reclining seats and taking a glass of vino in to watch a film is wonderful. Already seen great films so far: Supernova, The Father, Another Round and Truffle Hunting, so really making the most of our local amenities.
I had a mini break in the Cotswold and was very lucky with the weather, in fact it was too hot and with the hound in tow, we went open swimming at the river to cool down. I think it was probably Rhubarb’s best day ever! We stayed at Barford St Michael, which was a village in the middle of nowhere, so lovely and peaceful and Chipping Norton was a few miles away. Hence we had to visit Jeremy Clarkson’s farm, but when we drove in the queue was at least 45 mins long just to attend the “diddly squat “ pop up shop as the main shop was closed, so we turned around.
We walked 1 hour to the nearest village called Deddington for a coffee and to our surprise there were no coffee shops open, well it was a Sunday and we were in the country! We asked a local and he was bemused about our request and asked if we were “DFL”, to which we were confused and he quoted “Down from London” 😂 On that note he suggested going to Great Tew where we found the most wonderful coffee shop called Quince & Clover, where we ended up visiting later in the afternoon when it was very hot and had a home made ice cream espresso milk shake, best ever!
We had booked dinner at Daylesford farm at The Trough on the terrace which was just delightful. https://www.daylesford.com/locations/kingham/the-trough-cafe/ and ordered bbq monkfish with lots of healthy sides such as kale salad and heritage toms.
We arrived early to browse in the shop which was full of home furnishings, pet store, plants and food area, all very wonderful. Rhubarb was spoilt with an expensive large rubber mallard duck which now has its head chewed off 🙄
On the way home, we did a pit stop at Woodstock which is a gorgeous village and lovely independent shops to browse and a long walk in Blenheim Palace grounds
WorkJoy
I did my first external Corporate since lockdown this month at Venture X at Chiswick Park. The theme was Brain health and hence made a brain power smoothie with avocado, spinach, flax seeds, maca powder, walnuts and plant based milk, all to support brain function. This was followed by a smoky Harissa, red pepper dip and finished with vegan chocolate and orange mousse. There were plenty of tasters for all the staff and lots of interaction and Q&A on nutrition and balancing your body physically and mentally. It was so good to get back out there and share my passion on health in person with an attentive audience.
I am booking up Corporate events for Autumn now which is motivating moving forward from lockdown. I am working with KCWC (Kensington, Chelsea Women’s Club) https://www.kcwc.org.uk/ which is an international women’s group, who want a cookery class at my school in September. The theme will be Good Moods Food class which I think is quite apt coming out of the restrictions, and how we an mindfully make good food choices.
I have just signed up to a new platform called the Joy Club. What a great name 😄 https://thejoyclub.com/ The Joy Club is a membership website that provides inspiration for a more joyful retirement and offers creative classes such as arts & crafts, attraction & tours, volunteering and food and drink + many more.
I am still attending some networking events online, but I do feel my business offering works better face to face and happy to see we are meeting up in person for some networking groups. I am a member of West for Women http://www.west4women.org.uk/ which is so beneficial in a lot of ways, sharing information and supporting each other + very social. We had a picnic at Chiswick House this month which was lovely getting to know other members over a glass of rose and nibbles.
KitchenJoy
The main class of the month was Gut Health in person at my cookery school. This was a fun and relaxed class with a group of young women who all brought something to the table. We made a gut health smoothie with coconut milk and pink grapefruit (& greens) for the vitamin C for the gut. We talked about the benefits of kefir, and how you can make your own with the live kefir grains. I always take a couple of swigs of kefir each morning before I have my breakfast. You don’t need to take too much as it is just about rebalancing your flora in your gut with billions of live active cultures.
Please contact me for more details if you are interested in any other types of medicinal cookery classes or 121 tuition. This also applies to online private cookery classes and team work building sessions.
BAKED STUFFED COURGETTE FLOWERS WITH SMOKED PAPRIKA
Serves 20
1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed
20 courgette flowers
250g fresh ricotta cheese, well drained
1 egg
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 leaves fresh mint, sliced, or more to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tsp smoked paprika
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line a baking tray with parchment and spray a little bit of olive oil on the paper.
Remove stamens from courgette flowers; wash and dry the flowers.
Combine ricotta, egg, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, mint, salt and pepper in a bowl; mix well. Carefully stuff about 1 tablespoon ricotta mixture into each courgette flower and pinch the ends closed. Sprinkle on smoked paprika. Place on the prepared baking tray.
Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 20 minutes.
. 🙂
Enjoy ……..
