RANDOM JOTTINGS

Busy busy busy and I must post more.

At the weekend I was at Kew with the family and had a lovely time as per. For lunch my son in law cooked the most wonderful leg of lamb which he cooked very slowly and just fell off the bone when it came to eating it. With stuffing, roast potatoes and fresh veg I ate and drooled. It seems the lamb came from the butcher just five minutes from their house in Kew Village. This is a really attractive area slap bang next to Kew Gardens Tube station which is also very attractive, with the platforms being above the ground and a feel of a country station.   On the first Sunday of every month the Kew Village Market takes place and it is full of the most gorgeous stalls with so much food and delights around that you are in danger of totally pigging out and spending lots of money. 

I purchased a copy of the Kew Village Market Cookbook (available from a stall there and also the Kew Bookshop in the Village and through their website given below) as I had spotted a copy in my daughter's house, read it and thought ooh yummy. All the recipes are from the stallholders/local shops and were compiled by Sarah Edington who has lived in Kew for many years and, as a professional cook, has fed members of the Royal family as well as several prime ministers and the archbishops of Canterbury, so she clearly knows her onions.

One of the recipes which caught my eyes came from La Crepe Des Delices, a chef from Lyon in France, who makes savoury and sweet galettes from his bright blue Citroen van. I spotted him straight away and Beatrice, Florence and I had a cheese and ham galette and we watched him make them, incredibly quickly and served up in a folded paper plate, piping hot and just begging to be eaten straight away. They were. Beatrice sat on her scooter while she ate hers and I found a seat by Kew station and scoffed every mouthful.

Do check out their website here http://www.kewvillagemarket.org/ and if you are visiting Kew Gardens, you will find the market just a few minutes walk from the main Garden entrance.

We had a really lovely time pottering around and looking at all the stalls and I ended up bringing back three pies for myself, lamb and rosemary, steak and ale and chicken and leek. I have chomped one already and the other two are in my freezer for future treats.

It was a pleasure to meet Sarah Edington when I purchased this book and I said I would post about it on Random Jottings so I hope she finds these few words about a delightful pocket of villagey charm in the heart of London.