Create: Pressed flowers

Pressed flowers are a Simple cost effective project. They make beautiful affordable art for your home which can be changes as you wish to reflect the seasons. All that's really required is a little patience...

I gathered this bouquet in my Mum's garden a few weeks ago, Mum tells me she doesn't grow flowers but I have evidence to suggest otherwise. I've also collected further bouquets on Aylestone Meadows and along the canal path which is easily accessible instant green for a city dweller and a rather lovely way to spend a slice of the weekend, if i'm in need of escaping my kitchen!

You will need:

• Freshly picked flowers, herbs and/or grasses
• scissors
• greaseproof paper
• heavy hardback books, cookery books work particularly well here

Trim sheets of greaseproof paper to the size of your book, place the flowers onto a sheet of paper, allow plenty of space between the flowers, being careful not to overlap, else they'll stick together. Top with a further sheet of greaseproof paper and close the book.

Store in a bookshelf, preferably out of reach from marauding cats, Truffle destroyed a few stalks she found poking out of a book.

Leave the flowers for 10-14 days to dry completely. You'll see some variations on colour and texture from the drying process, this is part of their charm I think. 

Glass photo frames are available from Nkuku (Though i've actually borrowed the one on the right from Kayleigh Tarrant!) For Leicester locals Harriman and Co have a selection also.

As always, we'd love to hear from you if you have any tips and tricks for pressed flowers or affordable artwork, give us a shout in the comments!

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Recipe: Granola

So, it's Friday again and suddenly next week sees the arrival of June. Six months into the year and I just can't believe how quickly the weeks have flown by! This is down to being busy, I know. As I type I have a wedding cake in the oven, macarons cooling in the kitchen and a weekend of baking ahead. Being busy is great, especially when working on some very exciting projects with brilliant people (watch this space...) but at the same time I can't help but worry about all the things I've forgotten to do, all the boring chores of daily life that get swept aside whilst I get carried away with the fun stuff.

This has got me thinking about time-saving and morning routines. I'm really not a morning person and It's something I need to get better at. There are a few things I can't go without in the morning to give you an idea, here's how my mornings go down, ideally.

• 6.30 - press snooze on the alarm several times, eventually wake up, brush teeth and drink a pint of water, try and avoid looking at social media on phone at all costs
• 7.00 - 20 minutes to half an hour of yoga, depending on how I'm feeling, and on weekends depending on whether I've been to the pub the night before!
• 7.30 - hit the shower
• 8.00 - a strong cup of earl grey tea
• 8.30 - a swift breakfast before heading to work, either at home or with a client
• 9.00 - coffee, strong coffee. 

Those first few hours are important I think to set me up for the day, although sometimes I have to start work at 6am which means step 2, 3 & occasionally 4 (depending on how many times I've hit snooze) are usually bypassed.

Skipping breakfast is bad right? 

So here's my solution. I always keep a batch of granola on the go. It's a fairly forgiving recipe is open to a variety of modifications to keep it interesting, feel free to experiment with different fruits, nuts and even swap the maple syrup for honey or coconut sugar. It would be rude not to touch on this recipes virtuous qualities, naturally sweetened, wholegrain and with the addition of gluten free oats could be made NGCI also. I find spending half an hour on a Sunday making granola makes a remarkable difference to my working week time-wise and I'm much less likely to skip breakfast!

You will need:

• 100ml coconut oil
• 100ml maple syrup
• 50g nut butter, such as peanut or almond
• 50g dried dates
• 150g rolled oats
• 50g nuts, almond, pecan, brazil nut, whatever you fancy
• 50g mixed seeds

Pre-heat oven to 145°C (fan). Place the coconut oil, maple syrup, nut butter and dates in a saucepan and melt together over a gentle heat, the dates will soak up some of the oil and syrup to make them extra chewy and gooey. Once melted, stir in the oats, nuts and seeds until evenly coated. Spread the mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Store in an airtight container for up to a couple of weeks. Combine with yoghurt and fruit in the morning for a swift healthy breakfast, even at 5.30 in the morning!

If you have any time-saving tips for early mornings or any swift recipes then do give us a shout in the comments...

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Recipe: Labneh

I'm never more excited about a weekend than when there is the prospect of a food festival, and this weekend sees the return of what is quite possibly my favourite of all local foodie events. The Melton Mowbray artisan cheese fair. With 61 artisan cheesemakers and over 300 varieties of cheese on sale Its the largest event of it's kind in the uk. Cheese is a bit of a passion in our household and there is some preparation undertaken in advance of this momentous occasion, a strict spending budget needs to be set (To then be ignored!) But most importantly the fridge needs to be cleared to make way for our cheese hoard. This year however we were a little over excited and found ourselves in the preceding week with no cheese. This doesn't happen very often in my house and does induce a certain amount of panic, but fortunately I have an emergency recipe up my sleeve. 

Labneh holds it's origins in the middle east and is created by straining the whey from greek yoghurt. This results in a creamy tangy cheese, texturally it's almost akin to cream cheese but has so much more flavour. Cheesemaking can seem a daunting and highly technical pursuit but this recipe is really very simple, all you need is 2 ingredients, one of which is in fact optional. You also need just a little patience, but the end result is well worth it.

You will need:

• 500g full fat greek yoghurt
• A good pinch of salt, around half a tsp (optional)
• a cheese cloth or jay cloth for straining
• a wooden spoon and a measuring jug 

Place the yoghurt and salt together in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Transfer the yoghurt mix into the cheese cloth. Tie up the four corners of the cloth knotting them tightly around the wooden spoon then place the cloth, with spoon attached into the measuring jug, using the wooden spoon to suspend the cloth so the bottom of the straining cheese is a few cm away from the base of the jug. Adjust the tightness of the knotted cheese cloth as necessary to achieve this.

Place the jug into the fridge and allow to strain for 18 to 24 hours, the longer the cheese is left the firmer it will become, go for less time for a creamier texture.

The strained liquid can be used instead of water in the making of a loaf of bread, it will add a creaminess to the finished loaf and create a firmer crust.

Labneh makes an amazing addition to a meze style platter, simply place it into a bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil. I like mine generously slathered over a nice slice of bread, preferably sourdough, and perhaps just a sprinkle of Dukkah just to keep with the middle Eastern theme.

If you are visiting the Melton Mowbray cheese fair this weekend have a great time and hope to see you there!

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Recipe: Olive Focaccia

One of my favourite weekend pastimes is baking. This comes as a surprise to many, as I spend my days creating sweet treats, So this is how I balance it out. My weekdays may be filled with cake, but on the weekends I like to bake bread. I've had a love affair with bread since I first learned the craft whilst working as a pastry chef in a bustling little restaurant in south east Leicestershire. It was soon after that I stopped buying supermarket bread and began to bake my own. Sourdough, ciabatta, cinnamon rolls, challah, anything goes. Although this particular recipe has remained with me since those early days, I know it so well I can remember it off by heart, in fact this will be the first time i've written this recipe down for quite a while. It's the recipe I always return to when all I really want is a simple, delicious slice of bread. 

You will need

• 500g strong plain flour
• 1 tsp fast action dried yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 30ml olive oil + 1tbls extra for drizzling
• 300ml warm water
• olives, thyme and sea salt to decorate

This recipe makes enough dough to fill a 33cm pizza pan, or a 36 x 25cm baking tray.

Place the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil into a mixing bowl. Slowly add the water to bind the dough together, you can do this either by hand, with a handheld blender or with an electric mixer. Once you have a wet paste knead the dough for around 5-10 minutes to build up the structure of your dough. You can test the elasticity of the dough by gently pinching and stretching it, if it pulls away to form a thin transparent sheet you know you're there, if it snaps you need to work the dough for a little longer.  Once you have a stretchy elastic dough leave to rest in a warm place for an hour or so.

Once the dough had doubled in size turn it out onto a well floured work surface and roll out to the size of your baking tray. Leave the dough to prove for a further hour or so. In the mean time, preheat your oven to 200

Once the dough has doubled in size, press your fingers into the dough to create indentations then drizzle over the olive oil, herbs, olives and salt.

Bake for 20 minutes, serve warm.

We ate ours with herb crust chicken, sweet pepper and Halloumi salad, watercress, avocado and sundried tomato, and a little homemade pesto.

All photographs by Matt Horan

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