Aloo Tikki Chaat

Despite having moved to London in August, I feel like I’ve hardly seen the city. This is down to a combination of factors; I’ve been working on my PhD (an alarming truth), I’ve been tired (thanks a lot, underactive thyroid) and like most PhD students I’ve been paranoid that going out and doing something for an afternoon makes me a bad person who is doomed to fail. But one Sunday morning, rather than sitting slumped in front of my laptop madly planning my research schedule in different coloured pens (and not actually achieving anything, of course), I went outside, crossed the river, hit up the Tate Modern, then walked to Borough Market.

Rough Puff Sausage Rolls

One thing that I love about the patisserie course is learning new skills. I thought I was pretty clued-up before but there are always things to learn and a few weeks ago it was puff pastry. Practicing pastry so often doesn’t come cheap though and using butter actually makes the product unstable, as it has such a low melting point. Although we were all shocked on our first day to see Fabrice advocate the use of pastry margarine in lieu of butter, when it comes to rough puff, I’m now a convert.

Plum-go Chutney

Sorry if this is a boring photo, but you can't really sex up chutney.

It’s no secret that I love fruit straight from the tree at harvest time, but when I got back from the Scilly Isles and took the train home, our neighbour Ken gave us a BUCKET of plums and I began to feel pretty scared that they might go off if I didn’t deal with them quickly enough. The end result was that I embarked on a large-scale operation of chutney and cake making. We had crumbles coming out of our ears and compotes filling up the freezer, not to mention sauces and pickles taking up every empty jar.

After I’d made an old favourite (Nigella’s Chinese-style plum dipping sauce), I began to consider the other options that were open to me. Having looked up a few recipes online, I decided to make a few jars of mango chutney: with plums. Hence “Plum-go” chutney. Basically, all of the spices are the same as those that you’d find in a mango chutney and it does taste very similar. It’s a good idea if you’ve got a glut of fruit to use up, rather than shelling out for precious mangoes!