In an English Country Garden

All photographs copyright © Heather Wilkinson 2012

Just a few photos from a recent trip to Loseley Park, near Guildford, Surrey. I'd actually gone there for work but it was such a beautifully sunny day it seemed rude not to indulge in a little ice-cream and a wander around the stunning gardens. Sitting on the grass scoffing said ice-cream with the smell of Wisteria wafting through the air - a summer's day in England is pretty hard to beat.

Homemade chocolate truffles

All photographs copyright © Heather Wilkinson 2012

This is the recipe for the chocolate truffles I made for the recent Brighton Food Society ‘Sussex Rocks’ dinner. The only warning I would give is that these chocolates are incredibly moreish and you will get completely covered in chocolate when you’re making them -just go with it! In terms of flavourings, the sky is the limit - and if you like your truffles really bitter, just leave out the sugar.

For the truffles 
300 ml double cream 
50g unsalted butter 
280g good quality dark chocolate (70%) 
2 tsp caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 

For the toppings 
3/4 tsps of rum 
1 orange 
100g crushed amaretti biscuits 
Good quality cocoa 

Optional 
A melon baller 

1.) Break up your chocolate into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. 
2.) Heat the butter, cream, vanilla extract and sugar in a saucepan on a medium heat. When it starts to simmer (don't let it boil) remove from the heat and pour straight over your chocolate pieces. Working swiftly, combine the mixture until you have a smooth mixture with no lumps of chocolate remaining. 
3.) Divide your mixture evenly in separate bowls, one for each flavour you will be making. 
4.) For the rum truffles, add 3/4 tsps of good rum to your chocolate mixture and combine. 
5.) For orange, grate the zest of one orange and add it, along with 4/5 tsps of the orange juice, to your chocolate mixture and combine. 
6.) Leave to cool, then refrigerate for 4 hours. 
7.) Now prepare your workstation: Lay greaseproof paper over a baking trays (you’ll probably need to use two trays). In a large bowl, add a thin dusting of cocoa powder and keep the cocoa power close by to top up your bowl. In another bowl, add your amaretti biscuits and, either blitz for a moment in a food mixer or crush gently using the end of a rolling pin.
8.) Dust your hands with cocoa, scoop out small rounds of your chocolate mixture with your melon baller, form into balls and place in the cocoa. Once you’ve finished one bowl, roll all your truffles in chocolate until evenly covered and place on your baking tray. Follow the same process with the ameretti but don’t dust in cocoa, simply place the truffles straight into your crushed biscuit mixture. 
9.) The recipe makes about 40 truffles and they will keep for about 3 days in the fridge in a airtight container.

The Brighton Food Society 'Rocks' Sussex

A few months ago, a twitter chum of mine, Mel, who runs the fantastic food blog Edible Things, tweeted me a link to a request from Andy Lynes (food writer & journalist) for Sussex food writers & bloggers to get in touch about an exiting initiative. I was intrigued. Shortly after contacting Andy, I received an email inviting me to an informal kick-off meeting in a Hove pub.

The initiative turned out to be the formation of the Brighton Food Society (founded by Andy Lynes and Patrick McGuigan), a new not-for-profit affiliation of Brighton-based food and drink writers and broadcasters getting together to promote the enjoyment of local food and drink. 

Over a few drinks (the drinks may have been a key factor in our enthusiastic planning!), we planned our first event 'Sussex Rocks' for the 5th May: we'd cook a meal for 35 invited guests in celebration of Sussex food and drink. Although I really enjoy cooking, I’m not going to kid myself that I’m confident enough to cook for 35 paying guests, and as several of the group are former chefs, I thought it best if I left the serious cooking to the professionals. I opted instead to prepare the petit fours, help with front of house, and to decorate the room.

We were all bowled over by the generosity of the local food & drink businesses who kindly donated some of their fine produce for our guests to enjoy. Beer, coffee, potatoes, plates, vinegars and the chocolate for my petit fours, which was kindly donated by Sussex Chocolatiers, Cocoa Loco. 

I think we all underestimated quite how much work would be involved in putting on the event, but I hope our guests would agree that the night itself was a triumph and well worth the ticket price each guest paid – canapés, starter, main, cheese, dessert, coffee & petit fours and a goodie bag full of Sussex produce – all for just £15 each! 

My only regret was that in between waiting and clearing tables and helping to assemble dishes, I didn’t manage to get any photos of my petit fours - you’ll just have to take my word for the fact that they were delicious! 

Would I do it all again? You betcha!

You can find out more about the Brighton Food Society, see the full menu from Saturday, and find out about future events here. Scroll down to see pictures from the event.

Andy Lynes preparing lamb shanks from Standean Butchers

Patrick McGuigan chopping up rhubarb for his dessert

Joe shelling a batch of Sussex duck eggs for the starter

Locally-made Medlar vinegar was drizzled over the asparagus and duck egg starter

Samantha Bilton (www.comfortablyhungry.com) preparing the asparagus

Joe, Sam, Andy and Patrick

Left: Patrick (The Cheese Chap) was rather proud of his cheese selection
Right: The goodies our guests received in their 'party bags'

I don't think Joe left the kitchen all day!

Becky did a fab job managing Front of House 

Rhubarb Tart production line