E5 BAKEHOUSE // BREAD MAKING COURSE

On one of the hottest days of the year, I was taken along to a one day bread making course in London Fields, situated in three disused railway arches under the overground railway. The course was at the E5 BAKEHOUSE who have been going since 2011. The course had been given to me as a birthday gift back in April.

Will (the guy above taking the bagels out of the oven) was our tutor for the day and took us through the whole process of working with sourdough. From making a leaven, starter, kneading dough, to some fantastic tips of how to bake a good loaf at home without a proper 'bread' oven.  

There were ten of us on the course, some local and some who'd travelled from further field. After a cup of coffee and some delicious fruit buns, we were set up with our aprons and team mates ready for the four breads we were to make.

Hackney Wild (just prepped the dough, so could be baked at home)
Sourdough Bagels
Rye
Ciabatta

There are two kitchens at the back of E5 Bakehouse, so that whilst the courses take place the actual bakery can continue with creating the never ending supply of delicious loaves. 
Half way through the day we were given a quick tour of the main working kitchen. WOW the speed in which these guys work is impressive! See the quick little video below that I managed to capture on my phone (hope the video works ok). We were all in awe of the speed and preciseness of the bakers. 

We were then taken to the third and most recent arch, that holds the grain store. This is newest addition to the bakery and is currently a working progress. The plan is to mill 'heritage' gains and create their own batches of flours. 
It was fascinating to hear how the old 'heritage' grains have nearly but all disappeared due to preference of fast growing but less nutritious wheats. Their aim is to source the small growers of these more nutritious wheat growers which are notoriously harder to grow. 

After our insightful tour we went back to our kitchen where a delicious lunch of salads, soups and breads had been set out for us.

At the end of the day Ben and I walked out with 7 loaves, 2 prepped doughs and 8 bagels!  good thing we took a couple of massive sacks with us to carry it all home in.
Fortunately we'd previously contacted a few local friends to pop over that evening to try out our creations!

You probably noted that we also took home two balls of proving dough, to bake at home. You'd think that these wouldn't have come out as well as the loaves cooked in the professional bread ovens.. well you guessed wrong! Will, gave us one of the best tips ever for creating a superb loaf (if not better than in a professional bakers oven) and that is to bake the loaf in a large Le Creuset casserole dish. The trick is to heat the empty casserole dish and lid in the oven, until the oven is up too temp (Depending on the loaf and oven, we did it at 220c) Once up to temp carefully take the dish out of the oven and place the proving dough into the dish replacing the lid.
By baking the bread inside the dish, means the outside crust won't dry out and will keep in the moisture and allow the loaf to rise more than if it was baked directly in the oven.

I can't recommend the course enough and look forward to creating a new leaven for my very on sourdough soon! All in all a superb birthday present which I shall enjoy again and again.

E5 Bakehouse

395, Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3PH, United Kingdom

Breakfast, brunch or lunch.

7am until around 7pm every day of the week.

Serving lunch between 12 and 3pm.

www.e5bakehouse.com

WHEELERS OF WHITSTABLE

My recent trip to Whitstable was some time ago now, but I couldn't miss out on putting up another post up about the WHEELERS OYSTER BAR. It is such a fantastic place and nowhere quite like it. It is like sitting in your grans back room but being served high end delicious food. You usually have to book well in advance to get to eat here. However Ben somehow managed to book a table for five just after they'd had a cancellation! Yes lucky indeed!!

We took our friends Holly, Elliot  & little Rosalie along to sample their food. I think they also fell in love with the place too. Here is what we had...

Homemade Sourdough and Focaccia Bread with Wild Garlic Pesto

1/2 A DOZEN ROCKY OYSTERS

1/2 A DOZEN GUINNESS BATTERED OYSTERS

A Ceviche of Sea Bass Marinated in Grapefruit, 

With a Lime Granite, Chilli, Micro Coriander & Cucumber, 

Finished with Hand Picked Crab, Apple & Kohlrabi Salad.

Pan Fried Scallops, Crispy Slow Cooked Pork Belly, 

Smoked Bacon Jam, Sage & Squash Puree.

A WHEELERS MEZE - can I add Ben and I shared this 

Wheelers Home Smoked Prawns with Lime Chilli & Garlic, Wheelers Hand  Carved Smoked Salmon, Crispy Squid with Coriander, Chilli and Spring Onion served with Sweet Chilli Dip, Crispy Pesto Stuffed Courgette Flowers, Deep Fried Whitebait & lemon.

Elliot and I both went for the John Dory - My favourite fish!

Pan Fried John Dory on a Crisp Cos, Lobster & Panzanella Salad 

with Pesto Dauphine & Razor Clam dressing

Pan Fried Black Bream, on Harissa Crushed Potatoes finished with Crab & Coriander,
With Gazpacho Dressing & Baked Ratatouille. 

A Lasagne of Whole Kentish Lobster with Leek & White Crab Ragout,
Lobster Bisque, Wild Mushrooms & Shavings of Aged Parmesan.

A Kentish Cherry Tart, with Salted Almond Ice Cream, 

Sweet and Sour Cherries and Homemade Cherry Vodka.

A Banana and Fudge Parfait with Peanut Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce

And finally The Knickerbocker Glory with Vanilla Ice Cream, Toasted Flaked Almonds!!
I've been waiting a long time to try this and I can safely say it was well worth the wait!
Absolutely divine!! :)

Can't wait to find an excuse to go back....

BOW BOATS & SMOKEY TAILS

The last day of August 2013, TOUCH DIGITAL, the company I work for, decided to squeeze in a Summer Party before it was too late. So all eight of us plus partners headed out to East London for a day in the remaining bits of summer on The London Canal! 

We commandeered Bow Boat, Hazel and her Crew and they steered us from Limehouse Basin to Hackney Wick and then finishing off at London Fields.

Arriving at Hackney Wick we went off in search for the recently new Smokey Tails! It was a bit tricky to find but after a bit of perserverance we did get there. On route we did come across CRATE, also based along the canal (serving up delicious thing crust pizzas and good beer) 

On arriving at Smokey Tails, they were still setting up but were happy for us to settle in. ST was set up by two guys with help from some of the people from The Secret Garden Party

We put in order for food and set about deciding on cocktails pritchers £26 each.

Cuban Mule - Havana club, lime, bitters and ginger beer
Smokey Summer Cup - Gin and lots of fruit?... It was good though!
Moitjo

LUNCH

Choice of three smoked meats; Chicken wings with choice of sauce.

 Pulled Pork in a brioche bun or sticky BBQ ribs, £12 each. 

They then come with two really tasty salads from a choice of three; Tomato salad with pickled walnuts, Courgette and rocket with parmesan, New potato and dill salad with lemony dressing.

We also had the desserts which included the Hackney Mess (the Hackney being a lemon curd sauce) and a Chocolate Brownie & creme fraiche, both £4. Have to say I wasn't that impressed with the puddings. The chocolate brownie was a little lifeless and was missing that gooey coco hit and the Hackney Mess, well really did look like a mess and was just whipped cream with lemon curd mixed through it with the odd chunk of merging and blueberry. Wouldn't bother...

Our final leg took us onto Broadway market/London Fields for more chilling in the sun in the park then finishing of at London Field Brewery for a beer or two. 

www.smokeytails.co.uk
The Container Yard, 119 Wallis Road,
Hackney wick, London E9 5LN

For private hire please email info@smokeytails.co.uk

Opening hours: Thursday 1pm – midnight. 
Snacks 1-6pm. Dinner from 6pm.
Friday, Sunday 11am – 12 midnight

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Nearest station: Hackney Wick

WHITSTABLE // WINDY CORNER STORES

My second visit to Whitstable and there was a couple of places I was desperate to visit. One of which was  Windy Corner Stores. Based a little bit away from the town centre it's well worth the short walk.

As a community cafe it is both kid and dog friendly. Which was perfect considering on this visit we were their with our friends Holly and Elliot and their new born, Rosalie. At only six weeks old she was absolutely adorable and remarkably 'chilled' out. 

As it was a Bank Holiday Weekend, Whitstable was fit to burst! So we decided it best to head over Sunday morning just as Windy Stores had opened to make sure we could get a table and settle down for a relaxing breakfast.

They opened at 8am and we managed to get over there for 8.40am. There was the odd person bobbing in for a paper and takeaway coffee but other than that, we seemed to be the first to arrive. I noticed a couple of tables had been booked for breakfast, which in retrospect was something we could've done rather than just getting there really early. However by the sounds of Rosalie's routine early mornings it didn't seem to matter.

We ordered a large pot of tea and a couple of coffees, grabbed a couple of papers and set up camp (They have Newspapers on sale and to be read if sitting in). Breakfast was served from 9am which gave me plenty of time to decide on what to have. After originally planning to have a small light breakfast, I ended up succumbing to a full veggie brekkie!

As you can see from the photos the serve up an impressive start to the day! Elliot and Ben both went for the Classic Full Monty which included 3 sausages, rasher of bacon, creamed mushrooms, beans, grilled tomatoes, wilted spinach, fried egg and toast. The veggie had also the creamed mushrooms, beans, grilled tomatoes, wilted spinach, fried egg and toast with also broccoli frittata.

Holly went for more 'Windy Eggs' with poached eggs on toast. These eggs were poached to perfection!

Great food, great coffee and a wonderful atmosphere! Highly recommend it but try and get there before rush hour as it does get very hectic when it's packed. The menus do change depending on the season, here's what was on the board that morning...

Windy stores also make fabulous wholesome food for lunch platters & I believe they can do picnic hampers too! They include things like a meze of salads and dips and a main meat or veg dish. Delicious cakes, the best brownies.... was so tempted but was just to early to get one! Such a shame....

WIFI is available if food and drinks bought.  They also do private evening dinner parties, which you can see photos on their facebook page. But best of all they do "Bring a dish for us to fill - windy lazy meals" Where you can take your own large caserole dish and leave it with them and pick it up for of tasty food that you can bake that evening. Such a superb idea. I just wish they were based in South East London!!