Epicurean Dream: Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason is one of our favorite stores in London. Established at 181 Piccadilly in 1707, it offers everything you could dream of from a specialty department store, but the best thing about F&M has to be the grocery and wine selection on the first 2 floors. From beet cured salmon to violet petal marshmallows, it is an epicurean playground, my grown-up idea of the biggest and best candy store. F&M focuses its selection on sourcing the finest food, with its own private label that offers an extensive selection of quality wines.

They have an amazing wine and champagne bar on the ground floor, intimate and with a fantastic selection. It's a great place for a date or a really nice catch-up. Enjoy a flight of 3 wines starting at £16, a great selection of wines by the glass, or any of their fabulous in-store bottles for only a £10 corkage fee.  There's a great nibbles menu, plus if you'd like to sample any of their delicious in-store and yet off-menu treats, simply ask and they would be happy to accommodate.

Now through March 13, they have a special deal in all of their 3 restaurants to enjoy a set 2 courses for only £15. Delish.

Get a taste here and stay tuned for my attempt at violet marshmallow and white chocolate s'mores. Yum.

Accidentally Delicious Cookies

I love happy accidents in cooking and baking. I've learned the hard way that it is best to write down what you did so that you can repeat it. This Sunday I was dying to bake something, as it was Sunday and the sun hadn't been out in a few days. So after searching for an open store to get butter, when we returned home I discovered that we were 1 cup short of the 3 needed to make oatmeal cookies. Forced to make oatmeal cookies with what we had on hand, they turned out quite delicious, less oatmeal-y than expected, quite nutty, a great cookie batter to use as a rich base milk or white chocolate chunks, cranberries, macadamias, or even a cinnamon sugar cookie. It’s also lower in saturated fat than the original version and higher in good fibers. It’s as close to a healthy cookie as I would want to make!

One of the funny things about finding recipes online is that no two are the same. The one that I used and altered, claims to be the classic Quaker Oats recipe, but alas, is slightly different than the one on the Quaker Oats website. So below is the recipe I used, and here are my substitutions.

            

Instead of the 3 cups of oats, I used 2 cups plus 1/2 cup of oatbran and 1/2 a cup of buckwheat flour. Oat bran and buckwheat are key components of the Dukan and Perricone diets respectively, and in a New Year's effort to incorporate more healthy elements into my cooking, they are now on hand in the kitchen. Turns out they are very useful! The oats I used are slow cooking, not instant, as the fiber in quick oats has already been broken down, so the health benefits are greatly diminished (according to Perricone). These oats taste much better than the instant, and only take a few minutes to cook to eat anyway. Also, seeing that the recipe called for an entire cup of butter, I decided to halve it with safflower oil, an oil that is low in saturated fat, also on hand. I used 1 cup of mixed dried fruits that are readily available here in the UK, which contain orange and lemon peel as well as red and white raisins. They do however have added sugar, which is a minus. Raisins and cranberries are easy to find with no added sugar. Speaking of sugar, instead of the amounts below I used ¾ cup of brown/unrefined granulated sugar and ¾ cup Splenda formulated for baking. I was quite happily surprised with the results.

Bake at 350 f, 180 c, for 15-20 minutes on a greased or non-stick pan. The original recipe calls for less time but the longer fibers and the oil need more time to set. Check at 15 and bake until light golden brown (see above).

Cookie recipe as found:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2  cup granulated sugar

 2  eggs

 1  teaspoon vanilla

 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour

 1  teaspoon baking soda

 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon

 1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)

 3  cups oats

 1  cup raisins

Welcome the The Novice Gourmand!

Dear Friends,

We love food and wine, whether we're cooking and hosting at home, our going out to discover new places. Having a blog is a great way for us to share our passions while also keeping notes for ourselves, as a great recipe, restaurant or wine can so easily be forgotten. We hope this can be a great place for us to share our memories and adventures!

Susannah and Cyrille
The Novice Gourmands