Simple spring sunday lunch: Green tea poached salmon

I love inviting friends round for a get together over Sunday lunch but when the sun shines I must admit I do find a traditional Sunday roast too much (although we are spoilt for them around Bristol – some of my favourites are The Cowshed, The New Inn, The Kensington Arms). I always fancy something a little lighter for alfresco lunches in the garden.

So when I happened upon Karen Mordechai‘s lovely blogspot, Sunday Suppers, I was delighted to find some wonderful new inspired recipes to try. This one was a must for me (for obvious tea loving reasons) but instead of Lapsang Souchong I tweaked the recipe to try it with Japanese green tea.

It’s delicious and just the perfect dish to serve up with iced green tea and mint cooler (recipe to follow on this blog soon) on sunny spring Sundays. You could even take it on a picnic. Enjoy!

Green tea-poached salmon with apple and fennel salad and potato cakes – serves 4

Image by Karen Mordechai at Sunday Suppers Blogspot

For vinaigrette:
3 tb roasted fennel seed
1 tsp anise seed
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup white wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper

—-

1 ¼ cup rapeseed oil

Combine all ingredients and let them sit for 10 minutes. Whisk in the oil and set aside.

For salad:
2 british apples
1 fennel bulb
1 small red onion
¼ cup capers
¼ cup chopped parsley
2tsp chopped chives
Juice of 2 oranges, zest of 1
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper to taste

Peel and core apples. Peel onions and slice very thinly. Slice apples and fennel bulbs thinly. Toss with remaining ingredients and refrigerate.

For salmon:
4 portions salmon
—–
1 onion peeled and quartered
1 carrot peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery chopped
2 bay leaves
3 star anise
1 red chili
4tbs japanese green tea (I used Guri-cha)
coarse seasalt
2tsp sugar
2 cups white wine
4 cups cold water

Combine ingredients and bring to simmer.
Place fish in pan and lower flame. Poach gently for 8-12 minutes, or until cooked to taste.
Remove fish and allow to cool before handling.

For potato cake:
2 large potatoes
1 spanish onion
2 free range eggs
½ cup spelt flour
Salt & pepper to taste

Peel onion and potatoes. Grate both using the largest available side. Stir in eggs and flour, and season to taste. Pan fry in vegetable oil.

Place potato cake next to salad on the plates and top with salmon.

Lahloo Tea: real tea for real people ♥

This is me as a little girl. I’ve always loved nice things to eat and drink – especially jam on toast! In those days, tea wasn’t my thing like it is now! But people were. I have always been a real extrovert – I love people!  So, one of the things I love most about running my own business, Lahloo Tea, is meeting really interesting people.

With all the things we get involved in with Lahloo Tea throughout the year, we meet some wonderful people and make really great friends. It also means I get to do what I love most – talk about (and I can talk for England) truly fabulous tea! We even meet interesting folk on the 5th floor of our hub – this window cleaner recently dropped in for a cuppa. Real tea for real people!

At food festivals like Abergavenny, Dartmouth and The Real Food Festival the highlight for me is meeting gourmet-loving foodies, fellow food and drink producers, chefs and restaurateurs and retail buyers. And with a simple cup of tea, I can open their eyes up to this gourmet epiphany that is just waiting to be unearthed.

Not only is it great fun meeting people, it’s also fun to taste wonderful things (and take home swapsies)! My fav’s have been Orchard Pig, Pieminister, Rude Health, Yeo Valley and Hobbs House and Trethowan’s Dairy Gorwydd Caerphilly!

I’ve also enjoyed (and look forward to working with) other passionate producers to create something really unique.  Working with the Willy Wonka-like Damian Allsop to create our sensational tea chocolates was so much fun – not to mention tasty! And we love our bite-sized shortbread treats from Hart’s Bakery.

But one of the most interesting parts is meeting those people who take the plunge and choose to help me challenge people’s views on serving loose leaf tea. They’ve chosen to upgrade their tea offering by serving and/or retailing Lahloo Tea. Not only do I get to meet brilliantly talented chefs, like The Walnut Tree’s Shaun Hill (he is a great character and a real advocate of Lahloo Tea), The Seahorse and Rockfish Grill chef-owner Mitch Tonks and Gordon Ramsey’s Best Restaurant winners 2011 Jonray and Pete Sanchez, I also meet inspirational, fun entrepreneurs like James Layfield and Steve Pette at Central Working.

Thank you so much to all of you who have helped me spread the word that Lahloo Tea really is real tea for real people ♥! Long may we continue!

Say goodbye office and hello Central!

One of the things I love about twitter is the people I’ve met. As weird as it sounds to all of you out there who aren’t fans, I have met some great people. I have built really strong friendships, like me old muckers Dan @essesxeating (not to be confused with TOWIE) and Elly @pearcafe, as well as business relationships.

I recently met these two top chaps, Steve and James from @centralworking, when I replied to a tweet hunt for a cracking tea supplier to work with at their exciting new venture in London. I popped to the big smoke for a day and met with them to see how I could help. I loved their concept and less than a month later they’ve opened, I’m a member so I have a fab place to work from when I need to, and whatsmore they’re serving Lahloo Tea. Speedy!

When I was looking at launching Lahloo Tea I really struggled to find the right place to work. I had always worked with lots of people, both leading teams and well as looking after customers, in hospitality and retail and so to be stuck at home alone in my spare room-cum-office was a real struggle. But I just didn’t have the budget to pay for an office and neither was it very appealing having never worked in an office before! So I had to balance between noisy coffee shops and home and make do. Now, if there had been somewhere like Central I’d have joined in a flash!

I think it’s a wonderful solution to people who want to run their own business and want somewhere to do it and be able to meet people doing the same thing. Here’s what they say about Central. And I hope you agree, it’s a great concept!

We believe that there are endless opportunities to build the business or career you dream of. The problem is a lack of space, resource and inspiration to help you maximize this opportunity.

So we want to fix this. With your help Central’s going to be a place where you can find the people and essential things you need, when you need them, whether that be a desk, a friendly smile or a lovely cup of Mozzo coffee or a mug of Lahloo Tea.

We want to build a membership full of interesting, passionate and driven people who want to make the best of the opportunities the world has to offer, be that a new venture, a new connection or a bit of inspiration.

You’ll have had times when your office is too distracting, or when you’ve tried to “work from home” but found it too isolating. Maybe you’ve tried a coffee shop but it’s just not right, you can’t even go to the loo without losing your chair. So maybe a private members club, not if you want to print and bind documents, make a phone call, register your post, get a courier, or you need a USB key.

We believe it’s time for a change. Central provides a welcoming and collaborative place to meet, eat, work and be inspired. We are on the high street, just where you need us, and we want to be full of people who are passionate about their business, whatever that may be.

We’re a new concept, we know we’re not going to get everything right. We are going to launch in Beta, which means we want you to tell us what you think and much more importantly we are going to listen. We will be the world’s first physical Beta. So why not get involved and shape a better way to work?

We will be opening our first site, Central Bloomsbury, in London in April 2011 so please share your thoughts on how you work and what you need to help make sure Central is just how it should be.

Get involved at www.facebook.com/centralworking

Become a fellow member at www.centralworking.com – I’ll hopefully see you there one day, maybe over a cuppa!

Or say ‘hi’ over a virtual cuppa in twitterland here @centralworking and here @lahlootea

Well done, The Angel Hotel at Abergavenny for winning The Tea Guild’s Top City and Country Hotel Tea Award 2011

We would just like to congratulate one of our new(-ish) customers on being awarded, one of the best places in the UK to enjoy afternoon tea. The Angel Hotel in Wales, a charming Georgian hotel, has achieved the highest accolade of the tea world by winning The Tea Guild’s Top City and Country Hotel Tea Award 2011. 

This Tea Guild event, now in its 26th year, is considered the ‘Oscar’ of the tea world, with the best tea rooms in the UK competing for the hugely coveted honour. The Angel Hotel was voted into the top spot after it gained a near perfect score from The Tea Guild’s inspectors. The judges praised it for its smart and elegant surroundings, attentive and efficient service and tasty sandwiches, cakes and scones. The judges were also very impressed by the choice of teas on offer and the quality of tea served. The judges concluded that “it was a smooth operation from start to finish. Everyone was made to feel special.”

Well done on such a wonderful achievement William and the team, from all of us here at Lahloo Tea.

PS we’ve also just discovered that we are going to be going to Abergavenny Food Festival again this year. So why not book into The Angel Hotel and come and visit us at the most important food festival in any foodies’ diary. Oh, and don’t forget to stop for a spot of afternoon tea too!

The Angel Hotel, 15 Cross Street, Abergavenny, NP7 5EN, Tel: +44 1873 857121

http://www.angelhotelabergavenny.com

Lahloo launches at the South West’s Chandos Delis

Here at Lahloo we have been celebrating! We are absolutely delighted to be supplying one of, not only our favourite but also, the South West’s favourite specialist food retailers Chandos Deli.

Most Saturday’s you’ll spot Kate popping in to Chandos on her way back from her morning run across Ashton Court for the ingredients to make her favourite weekend brunch – boiled eggs and toast and marmalade! Leaving Chandos with her arms full – a loaf of real bread, either Hobbs House Sherston loaf or Richard Bertinet’s delicious sourdough, local salted butter, free-range eggs and marmalade – and stopping to pick up the FT, Kate  finally makes her way home!

Not long after, Kate and partner Neil fight over the foodie pages by Jancis Robinson and Nick Lander, slurp  pots of nice strong breakfast tea, dunk toast soldiers into their runny eggs and hum along to BBC radio 6. Only then is Kate one very happy bunny!

Chandos’ deli was first set up in 1992 on Chandos Road in Bristol (hence the name). After humble beginnings, they went from strength to strength. The quality of their produce and exciting range (without forgetting their friendly and knowledgeable staff) meant that their business was an overnight success.

Chandos is a top spot for food lovers in Bristol (Whiteladies Road, Clifton Village, Henleaze and Quakers Friars), Bath and Exeter. So, when the opportunity arose we jumped at the chance to work alongside Iain and his passionate team, confident they would showcase Lahloo tea’s in all its glory and do us proud!

It’s easy to see why it’s gone from strength to strength, and become one of the South West’s favourites. Great food, pure & simple: their concept is very simple!  And it goes hand in hand with Lahloo’s. Iain’s passion and dedication to sourcing exciting/authentic produce is why he has chosen to stock Lahloo. Like Lahloo, Chandos is an independent, vibrant company that prides itself on its attention to detail and customer service. So, it would seem like the obvious partnership and a match made in foodie heaven!

So, this weekend why not head on down to your local Chandos?  Check out what’s going on, pick up some of your favourite ingredients for a lazy Sunday brunch and (it goes without saying) don’t forget to do them justice by picking up the perfect accompaniment to all that delicious food; Lahloo tea – real tea for real people!

February – take time out and escape

There’s nothing quite like glugging pots of tea and reading the papers while somebody else makes you breakfast! Imagine taking time out this February for a really lazy weekend with someone special at one of these fabulous places. If getting away isn’t possible, then make sure you create your own little sanctuary. For just one weekend forget the housework, washing etc and make sure someone makes you breakfast in bed!

Cosy in the Cotswolds

The Montpellier Chapter, Bayshill Road, Montpellier, Cheltenham, GL50 3AS,

01242 527788  http://www.montpellierchapter.com

I’ve fairly recently discovered the beautiful regency town of Cheltenham. A real gem. And right in the heart of the town is the sophisticated, calm and contemporary Montpellier Chapter. Interiors of soft colours and textures create a cool relaxed feel – imagine a pot of Lahloo Tea and the Sunday papers in this library! Neat touches, paperless check-in and iPod technology make things super easy. Bliss.

Read a recent review in The Guardian Book now  ➤

 

Snuggle up in Somerset

Archangel, 1 King Street, Frome, Somerset, BA11 1BH

01373 456111   http://www.archangel.com

When I went to the wonderful artisan market in Frome last summer I discovered the stunning, sumptuous and stylish Archangel. A luxury boutique hotel, restaurant and bar  in the heart of Frome, Somerset and within easy reach of Warminster, Bath, Longleat. I was there on Wednesday and it was almost impossible to drag myself away from the roaring fire and huge purple sofa! I did but I can’t wait to go back again (hopefully  to stay)!

Read the recent review in The Telegraph Book now ➤

 

Wholesome Welsh weekend

Felin Fach Griffin, Felin Fach, Brecon, Powys, LD3 OUB

O1874 620111   http://www.eatdrinksleep.ltd.uk

Having visited The Gurnard’s Head nr St Ives I just had to visit their sister place. The Felin Fach Griffin is right on the edge of the Brecon Beacon National Park and very close to Hay-on-Wye (perfect for the Hay Festival).Beautiful, homely, comfortable and relaxed; the owners like to think that everyone’s time at The Felin Fach Griffin is as relaxing as staying in someone’s home. The ethos behind EatDrinkSleep is the simple things in life done well. And they do just that!

Read Jay Rayner’s review Book now ➤

There are so many more places I could’ve mentioned so I’ll keep sharing. Watch out for more!

Relax, unwind and indulge your senses in style at Cowley Manor in the heart of the English countryside!

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve been taking Vicky, our new ‘tea apprentice’, on a tour around some of our customers. It’s been great fun but also really wonderful to take stock of some of the amazing people and places we supply with Lahloo Tea. One of these very special places is Cowley Manor in the heart of the Cotswolds near Cheltenham.

A few months ago we started working with the team at the incredible luxury hotel spa. Cowley Manor is a contemporary chic country house hotel set in the idyllic British countryside. With an emphasis on comfort, service and very few rules, Cowley Manor is the perfect place to relax, unwind and indulge your senses. The hotel oozes simple luxury and everywhere you look there is a another special place to daydream.

Not only do they now serve a fabulous cup of tea in the hotel, but they do so in style. You wouldn’t expect anything else from the team at Cowley Manor though; they use the Lahloo Tovolo Tea infuser. A unique, simple yet stylish way to enjoy loose leaf tea-cup by cup, at work or on holiday.

Then there is their fabulous C.side Spa! The C.side Spa uses only the most natural of products during each experience and their own in-house Green & Spring product range. Its such a stunning setting with a beautiful range of products it was a pleasure to be invited to create three specific blends. Each had to be in keeping with Cowley Manor’s ethos of relax, unwind and indulge the senses with natural ingredients taken from the British countryside used throughout the Green & Spring range.

The 3 teas Kate created – Bliss (a blissful, indulgent blend of Green Jasmine and Rosebuds), Revive (a reviving blend of Japanese green tea, fennel and peppermint) and Unwind (an utterly relaxing blend of Chamomile Flowers and Lavender) – are delicious as well as therapeutic. Whatever your mood or feeling, these teas complete the Cowley Manor experience. And they have been hugely successful with guests at the hotel, spa and village shop.

This place is the perfect place to getaway from it all. They even have wellies you can borrow!

To discover a very special place nestling in the Cotswold countryside and to book a luxury getaway, visit http://www.cowleymanor.com or to visit their Paris ad Amsterdam hotels visit http://www.curioushotels.com

To buy Green & Spring products visit http://www.greenandspring.com or to follow them on twitter hunt our @greenandspring

To find countryside seasonal inspired recipes like Lemon & Thyme Shortbread click here

Well done Casamia, winner of Gordon Ramsay’s best restaurant

As you know we supply Lahloo Tea to fabulous cafe-bars, gastro-pubs, restaurants, delis and spa hotels around Bristol, Bath, the Cotswolds, Devon and Wales. I love working with the truly inspirational people we supply (we wouldn’t be here  – they are all doing something very special in their own way. It’s great to see them being rewarded!

Our customers are on a roll! From Best Dining Pubs 2010 (see the post right here) to the Best New Cheese Retailer – Runner Up 2010 at The British Cheese Awards (well done Dave and Debbie at Arch House Deli) and now Gordon Ramsay’s Best Restaurant 2010 – the superb Casamia in Westbury-on-Trym.

First of all, huge Congratulations to you all at Casamia! You deserve it!

Secondly, what makes them so special in our eyes. Always one to hunt out new and interesting places, I came across Casamia and was intrigued by their amazing menu. When I was treated to dinner by my wonderful other half for our wedding anniversary, I was blown away. Down an unassuming alleyway in a suburb of Bristol was a hidden gem!

At the heart of this little Italian restaurant is a truly lovely family – the Sanchez-Inglesias’. Mama and Papa, Paco and Susan, ran Casamia before, in 2006, their sons – Jonray and Peter – took over with their experimental, ground-breaking, boundary-pushing fabulous Italian inspired food. Now, eating at Casamia was a real experience and I loved it. Not surprisingly the young chefs, only in their twenties, soon won a much coveted Michelin Star. The boys are inspirational and full of new ideas – some of which I have been sworn to secrecy on!

I spent some wonderful afternoons tasting and discovering tea with the boys and their passion for ingredients was exciting. It was their appreciation of ingredients as a holistic sensory experience that stood out for me. Just like the liquid nitrogen they used in the final to create the fresh aromas of lemon groves on the Amalfi Coast! We finally chose a list and began working out just how to serve each one. They have been serving Lahloo Tea beautifully since the summer this year. Thank you for your enthusiasm and interest, boys.

When the boys told me they’d entered, I was so happy for them. And now, I’m even happier. Well done!

Visit their site at: http://www.casamiarestaurant.co.uk/

or follow Casamia chefs Pete and Jon Sanchez on Twitter
twitter.com/jonraysanchez
twitter.com/peter_sanchez_

Well done to our award winning stockists – The Hardwick, The Potting Shed, The Felin Fach Griffin

We always knew they were great places but it’s great to see four Lahloo Tea stockists receiving nationally recognised awards for their fabulous food, drinks and hospitality.  Congratulations! You deserve it!

Stephen Terry picks up the AA Restaurant of the Year Wales Award for his Abergavenny restaurant, The Hardwick.

Known for its mighty reputation as an outstanding place to eat and drink, Terry’s restaurant was expanded in time for this year’s Abergavenny Food Festival to offer visitors an astounding place to stay.

The Hardwick is a gastronomic hideaway in the heart of Wales’ lush, verdant hills . I love driving over the Severn for a Sunday walk followed by a cracking roast. And now they have 8 contemporary bedrooms, combining elegant, understated design with Welsh charm. The ultimate autumn gourmet getaway.

The Hardwick, Old Raglan Road, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, NP7 9AA
Website: www.thehardwick.co.uk Email: info@thehardwick.co.uk

 

The Inkin brothers’ EatDrinkSleep scoop not one but two Good Pub Guide Awards 2011 for Dining Pub of the Year Wales and Cornwall

The Felin Fach Griffin, a dining pub with rooms, nestles between The Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons, near Hay-on-Wye. Charles Inkin likes to think that everyone’s time here is as relaxing as staying in someone’s home. The ethos behind EatDrinkSleep is the simple things in life done well. And things are done very well here – I can vouch for that!

The Felin Fach Griffin, Felin Fach, Brecon, Powys, LD3 0UB, 01874 620111
Website:  www.eatdrinksleep.ltd.uk Email: enquiries@eatdrinksleep.ltd.uk

The Felin Fach Griffin’s sister, The Gurnards Head, is in the most beautiful part of Cornwall perching on the cliffs high above the Atlantic between St. Ives and St. Just, near the Minack Theatre, Zennor, Penzance and Newlyn.With the same ethos as The Felin Fach Griffin, this is another very special place.

You will truly unwind you as you enjoy one of the country’s most dramatic coastlines. And the salty air is proven (I can vouch for that) to make you sleep deeply in the most comfortable beds.  Eat simple, earthy and delicious food.

The Gurnards Head, Nr Zennor, St. Ives, TR26 3DE, )1736 796928
Website:  www.gurnardshead.co.uk Email: enquiries@gurnardshead.co.uk

 

The Potting Shed, Crudwell have won the Good Pub Guide Award 2011 for Dining Pub of the Year

A proper country pub! Rustic, log fires, flagstones, beams, comfy worn chairs and sofas, Barney and Rubbles (the owners’ dogs), garden-fork door handles, spade beer pumps, board games, an excellent locally sourced seasonal menu, range of wines by the glass, home-made seasonal cocktails using local or home-grown fruit and of course fantastic tea!

Go and see ‘The Blaze’ at Westonbirt Arboretum, stay at The Potting Shed’s sister hotel, The Rectory, overnight and then stroll over to The Potting Shed for a lazy Sunday lunch.

The Potting Shed Pub, The Street, Crudwell, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 9EW,
01666 577 833

Website: www.thepottingshedpub.com Email: bookings@thepottingshedpub.co.uk

 

Well done all of you!

These are just some of the fabulous places we are proud to say we supply around the UK. For more, click here >>

 

Join us for tea in Cheltenham

This week is looking busy but really lovely. I am going to be spending rather a lot of time in and around Cheltenham. I love Cheltenham and despite there already being some lovely spots in other parts of the Cotswolds that serve and retail Lahloo Tea, we haven’t taken our lipsmackingly tasty tea to Cheltenham yet. Don’t panic Cheltenham we are coming this week!

I’m starting by sharing a lovely cuppa at elevenses with The Daffodil to tell them more about serving really delicious tea, then I’m going to train the wonderful team at Cowley Manor Hotel and C-Side Spa on serving Lahloo Tea (they are serving it in the really cool Tovolo tea infusers rather than tea pots so it’s going to be great) and finally I’m delivering new tea orders to the gorgeous Bob Parkinson’s Made By Bob and SallyAnn Bliss’ gorgeous PUREbliss Organics barn.

18th, 19th and 20th June 2010

Then on Friday we’ll be at the 2010 Cheltenham Food Festival sharing Lahloo Tea with festival goers.The Cheltenham Food and Drink Festival 2010 returns to Montpellier Gardens in the summer, for more gastronomic delights, a celebrity guest appearance from Antonio Carluccio and the chance to eat, drink and be very merry. Come along to stand E17 and find our more about how delicious Lahloo Tea is.

We look forward to seeing you there.