Chestnut mushrooms, a quiet afternoon I took 20 minutes to shoot a few leftover mushrooms from last nights dinner. I love the simple beauty, subtle colours an soft curves of these most common of fungus.

Enjoy.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Lamb sausage and rosemary risotto, Alex’s latest creation is a beautifully rich and tasty dish. Creamy risotto packed full of red wine, rosemary and lamb flavours finished with tasty chunks of handmade sausage from our visit to the the farmer’s market on Sunday.

I love risotto I love the creaminess, I love the way you can develop the most amazing flavours from this simple base. This combination was a first for me, as were lamb sausages and it’s a winner. Great flavours, great texture and quite simply a great dish.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Alex amended a recipe she found in ‘Bread’ by Paul Hollywood to create these simple bread rolls.

Thanks Alex for another great bake

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Mackerel and clams with pak choi in an Asian broth, a homemade creation from our early morning visit to the Hampshire Farmers Market in Romsey, see my Facebook post for more photos.

Fresh whole mackerel and clams from the Hampshire Farmers Market Romsey steamed over fresh red chilli and ginger served with steamed pak choi and surrounded by an Asian style broth of vegetable stock, chilli, ginger, carrots and shallots.

This was a first for Alex and me, obviously we’ve both had mackerel before and I’d seen plenty of TV chefs prepare dishes with mackerel and Asian Flavours but had never tried it for myself. Seeing the fish and clams at the market got me thinking, the Asian idea came from Alex spotting a ginger and lemon infused rapeseed oil, I didn’t use it in the final dish. Super simple to cook the final dish had a light, fresh flavour with mackerel at the middle of it and picking up flavours and textures from the other ingredients.

Check out you own local markets if you don’t already, the Romsey HFM has an amazing range of ingredients from artisan breads, local cheeses and goats meat as well as the amazing fish from Kerri’s Catch.

A great meal source from great local people.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Maneesh, a Middle Eastern flat bread discovered in the pages of Paul Hollywood’s latest book ‘Bread‘ which was a birthday gift to Alex from her friend Penny. The book accompanies the BBC2 series.

This was a first for Alex and myself, having travelled in the Middle East in the past I’m a fan of the cuisine and found the idea of a flat bread baked with Za’atar (a Middle Eastern herb mixture) exciting. Alex as always was enthusiastic about baking a new bread.

We decided to combine the Maneesh with olives from Romsey market and a soft goats cheese, it made for a fabulous meal. The bread was slightly chewy on the outside with a soft middle and had absorbed the flavours of the crunchy, olive oil based Za’atar topping, which combined with the cream cheese and olives perfectly.

Thanks to Alex for baking this great bread, thanks to Penny for the fabulously useful present and to you for reading.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Breakfast bars, my favourite way to start a busy day, packed full of energy and flavour these crunchy, chewy treats are perfect.

Packed with oats, coconut, seeds, peanuts and cranberries all bound together with condensed milk they are the quick, easy and relatively healthy.

Hand made every weekend and wrapped in pairs they are easy to grab from the fridge and can be eaten on the go, although they are best with a hot cup of coffee whilst I plan the day ahead.

Another tasty treat courtesy of Alex.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Banana, oat and chocolate tea loaf; healthy (ish), hearty and packed full of flavour this has become a new favourite for Alex and me.

Beneath the crunchy crust of caramelised banana and oat lies a light sponge rich with banana. Due to the banana being cut very finely and beaten into the cake batter you get that beautiful beautiful banana flavour in every single mouthful. Very best of all (if you are me) is discovering little chunks of bitter dark chocolate hidden away in the sweet sponge.

Search online and you’ll find the recipe from those nice people at Waitrose.

Enjoy the photos and then go out and make your own

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food and Lifestyle photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

This has taken a while to get posted but is certain one of my most memorable weekends of gastronomic treats.

Great food is most certainly part of any great weekend for me and last weekend that was without a doubt the case.

Alex treated me to a weekend of tasty treats starting on Saturday evening with Smoked Haddock Brandade with chorizo, scallops and beetroot. For those of you like me who have not heard of ‘Brandade’ it is a rich creamy mash with a hint of smoky spice, chunks of flaky fish and liberal amount of parmesan cheese and tastes amazing surround this in crispy smoky chorizo, succulent fresh scallops and sweet beetroot. A first for me and a dish I’ll be returning too just goes to prove that time taken to flick through your cook books is worthwhile.

Follow that with a truly delicious and refreshing homemade ice cream of pomegranate and lime and I was smiling from ear to ear. Smooth soft ice cream with sour notes of lime and explosions of pomegranate was a totally new experience for us but one that was very much enjoyed.

Sunday brunch followed with Croque Monsieur Bake, a twist on the more traditional French classic but no less tasty and filling. Salty ham, a rich cheesy sauce wrapped around nutty bread with a crispy top, fabulous.

The  weekend finished off with a salad of crispy bacon, smooth warm goats cheese and sweet and slightly crunch beetroot, tasty and filing enough to enjoy but light enough after a weekend of fabulous food that I cleared my plate.

An amazing weekend of delicious food, create company and total relaxation.

Thank you Alex.

After we enjoyed a rare Sunday lie in, these Happy Eggs, were lightly scrambled and served on  heavy, dark wholemeal toast.  The simple combination provided us an easy and much appreciated brunch in bed with added  ‘get up and go’ energy boost.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK.

Whilst planning for an evening with our lovely friend Simon (the veggie), we saw this recipe in Waitrose and just had to give it a go.

A simple combination of beetroot, red wine, onion, rice, homemade stock and butter; this risotto is beautiful to look at and deep red colourings  would have been perfect for Valentine’s dinner but there were three of us so we kept romance to a minimum.

The dish is light, but still full of flavours and although we weren’t sure about the goat’s cheese topping, it was the perfect final ingredient adding tang and crispness to every mouthful.  In traditional risotto style this version is creamy and needs love and attention afforded to it throughout the cooking process.

Stuart Webster Photography provide Food, photography services throughout Hampshire and the UK