Birthday cake (and a patisserie and book recommendation)

Yesterday was my birthday and in honour of this I took a short trip to Summertown to try out a new Patisserie a few people had told me about recently, Gatineau. I sampled their custardy tarte aux framboises (pictured) and the tarte aux myrtilles et amandes, both lovely and with gorgeous pastry, but as I have a thing for almonds and pastry the blueberry just won the toss. It’s definitely worth a visit if you are reader from the Oxford area – I will be heading back for more cake and also to test their organic sourdough.
Due to the horrible snotty cold I was complaining about earlier in the week, we decided to stay in with a couple of bottles of wine while Nik cooked me dinner from Jo Pratt’s beautifully pink and swirly In the Mood for Food book. The menu was hearty stuff chosen from the “In the mood for comfort” section; a one pan masterpiece of roasted organic chicken, shallots and new potatoes with peas and sherry gravy, followed by a zingy berry and ginger crumble with my sort of topping, full of oats and flaked almonds. These were prepared like a pro, even when I threw him the curveball of doubling up the crumble topping recipe so that we could freeze some for another day. Jo’s instructions must have been pretty good too, and I’m looking forward to trying out the recipes for some of the other moods in the book once I have recovered enough to move on from comfort food – I still have healthy, naughty but nice, lazy, extravagent and romantic to explore!

Back with something nutritious and/or ethical later in the week.
Gatineau can be found at 209 Banbury road, Summertown, Oxford, OX2 7HQ

“In the Mood for Food” by Jo Pratt was published this year (2007) by Penguin Books and is available from Amazon UK but not yet in most other countries.