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What was in Jan's Pan?
April
With the promise of longer, brighter days and celebrations galore in this household, kitchen chaos reaches unknown heights here in April.
As Easter fell later in the month it coincided with both boys birthdays for a full on weekend of Hot Cross Buns, epic cake making, pizza parties, chocolate egg hunts (never too old), big Easter dinners and celebration meals.
We had pork on Easter Sunday, courtesy of Cheffy Son (I know - what 21 year old cooks their own birthday meal? Only in this house). But with lamb being the traditional Easter meat, I've shared details some of the lamb dishes I’ve enjoyed recently, including my go to slow roast lamb recipe and a leftover lamb version of shepherd’s pie.
We squeezed in an Easter holiday trip to the Devon branch of the family, so read on for reviews of a few of our favourite restaurants in the Regency coastal town of Sidmouth, should you happen to be heading that way - good food's certainly not limited to London.
I’ve also included a round up of the epic trip we enjoyed to Malaysian Borneo at the end of March - it's official, Malaysian food is my new favourite.
With a melting pot of Asian cuisines, from coconut-laced curries and rice, laksa and noodles, sensational seafood to exotic fruits and colourful desserts featuring the flavours of coconut, palm sugar and pandan, I was in foodie heaven.
Pass me a karipap, it's time for a Kopi Susu and a Kuih Ketayap - I'm hooked!
This month the kitchen has churned out lamb dishes, porcetta, pizzas, celebration cakes and hot cross buns, with everyone creating their own corner of chaos and coming together to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Elaine Boddy’s sourdough Pizza dough recipeFoodbod sourdough did the trick for Student Son’s pizza party. This sits happily in the fridge ready to roll and finish with the toppings of choice. It was the first time firing for the pizza oven this year so it was a little damp and steamy which meant the pizzas took a little longer to puff to perfection (minutes rather than the usual seconds), but with the promise of better weather that’ll soon be remedied.
The newly turned nineteen year old certainly had no complaints (but the birthday booze may have sharpened his appetite somewhat..)
Gone are the days when I made two elaborate novelty birthday cakes in short succession, such are the benefits of having a patisserie expert in the family. The 21st birthday masterpiece was a triple layered caramel cake topped with chocolate confectionary.
My go to chocolate cake is Angela Nilsen’s Ultimate chocolate cake which is squidgy, rich and very indulgent. Maltesers and a few gold stars elevated it to birthday cake status (hiding a couple of baking and coating boobs along the way, but don't tell).
Hot Cross Buns must always be homemade for Good Friday. I have my favourites, but I do like to try a different one each year in search of the perfect bun. This year it was Nicola Lamb's recipe from her inspirational book "Sift: the Elements of Great Baking" and her recipe is definitely up there. Made with the tangzhong method, which sounds suitably exotic and complicated, but is in fact just a cooked roux of flour and water to help to prolong the shelf life, which does seem to help, should they ever happen to last that long…. My only suggestion for a slight improvement would be to add some olive oil to the cross mixture, as it stops the cooked cross becoming quite so hard.
Suffice it to say that we are now suitably sugar-fuelled and cake is largely off the menu for May.....
It's official - Malaysian is my new favourite cuisine.
We returned from an epic adventure in Malaysia at the beginning of April, our first long-haul flight since sometime B.C (before children).
Borneo did not disappoint, with orangutan sightings (and lurking leeches) in the rainforest, and so many delicious dishes to try.
I've put together pictures of just a few of the incredible foods we sampled in the hotel restaurant and the local food market, with plenty of fresh coconut to wash it all down.
I learnt to make onde-onde, a sweet treat made from a ball of glutanous rice flavoured with pandan and coloured green. Filled with palm sugar, they are cooked rather like gnocchi until the balls rise to the surface, and then rolled in coconut. Much of the sweet dishes are made with these ingredients, all brightly coloured.
Fish and seafood is wonderful, along with fruits such as pomelo, pineapple, melon and dragon fruit, the street markets are vibrant and buzzing and with lots of satay and grilled chicken. Corn seems to feature too, with the kernals flavoured with all manner of things, including biscoff flavoured and oreo of all things (random!).
The hotels we stayed at catered for all tastes so we had the opportunity to try Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisines. I was interested to try the congee for breakfast, a rice porridge served across Asia, though I confess I drew the line at the black century eggs that come as part of the savoury condiments to add on top.
Western breakfasts were available too, but we soon noticed the lack of pork, and found that bacon was made from beef or chicken, as a large proportion of Malaysians are Muslim. we discovered too that Malaysia continues to ban the import of pork and pork products from certain countries following the outbreak of African Swine Fever in 2018.
The hotel made mean French toast too, all washed down with Kopi Susu, the Indonesian favourite coffee, mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
Back home, we had our fix with a Malaysian themed takeaway for our anniversary meal from StrEats Hertford. Chef Tig travels extensively to research his street food, which he sells from his home in Hertford (order it direct then pop by to pick it up), so he really knows his Rendang from his Nyonya curries.
He can also be found at the weekly Street Food Heroes which is now based at All Saints Church in Hertford for takeaway food and music
I also found my new favourite Malaysian sweet treat on my latest visit to Borough market. Kaya is a coconut curd (think lemon curd made with eggs but flavoured with coconut and Pandan leaf). I found Madam Chang’s Kaya on the Asian market stall, and was thrilled to see it has a Great Taste 3 star award which guarantees that it will be tip-top quality. That’s my weekend pancake topping sorted, can’t wait to tuck in!
I'll be going along to Norman Musa's Malaysian supper club at Divertimenti in Knightsbridge in June to carry on my new obsession, and recreate some of the amazing dishes we had out there, so will report back.
Easter generally calls for lamb, and I've enjoyed some great lamb dishes over the last month.
The Doper lamb in Kota Kinabalu in Borneo was amazing. We were there during Ramadan and so every night was a feasting night. This lamb was cooked in a covered pit of stones throughout the day, meaning it was tender and smoky once everyone sat down to eat after the amazing sunsets signalled it was time to eat.
I always buy my lamb from the 'lamb man' on Hertford market. Peter Gear, of Highbury Farm, has owned the family farm in Wood End, near Ardeley for 30 years, so I always like to support him (he bemoans that stocks of lamb are down from 20 million to 13 million across the country). Quality is key.
We tend to eat less meat but buy the best possible when we do. I slow cook a leg or shoulder so that it falls off of the bone and ensures every morsel of meat can be enjoyed.
Slow Cooked Lamb
Heat your oven to 170C/Fan 150C/Gas 3.
Put a 2kg shoulder or leg of lamb into a roasting tin on top of fresh rosemary, mint and garlic. Drizzle with oil and season well, add 250ml of stock or wine to the pan, and cover tightly. Leave to work its magic for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender and falls away from the bone - you should just need forks to pull it apart.
It's worth cooking more than you need for the sole purpose of providing plenty of leftovers. I love it wrapped and served with hummus and salad in flatbreads.
I heated the remainder of my last lamb through the rich tomato sauce of Georgina Hayden's Imam Biyaldi recipe from her latest book Greekish, delicious with the hassleback aubergine, simply scooped up with sweet gem lettuce leaves.
Cooked lamb gives simple shepherd's pie a whole new texture and takes it to another level. Here's my version, with mint sauce and an optional feta cheese potato topping.
Lost and Found Lamb Pie
Heat a drizzle of oil in a large deep pan and fry a chopped onion with a couple of diced carrots for 5-6 minutes until softened. Add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and soften for another minute.
Stir in 300ml of your preferred stock (I like to use a red wine stock paste), and any gravy you may have leftover from your roast with a splash of Worcestershire sauce to taste
Add around 450g of the shredded leftover lamb, season and allow to simmer to soften the lamb and veg and reduce and thicken the sauce (add more liquid if it's too dry). Meanwhile prepare the potato topping.
Cook 900g peeled and diced potates in salted water for 15-20 mins until tender, then drain in a colander and allow to steam. Return to the pan and mash with 50g butter and enough milk to give a soft consistency, around 3-4 tbsp. Crumble in 150g feta if you fancy, to give a salty cheesy tang to the topping and some fresh chopped mint.
Stir 100g frozen peas with 2 tbsp mint sauce or mint jelly into the lamb mixture and pour it into a 1½ – 2 litre ovenproof dish. Dollop the potato on top an spread to cover the lamb. Fluff it with a fork to allow for crispy bits on top.
Cook in a preheated oven 200C/180C Fan / Gas 6 for 25-30 minutes until piping hot throughout. Tuck in and be pleased you saved that lamb. Bo Peep would be proud.
There were high tides in Sidmouth this April during the Easter visit to the family Down West. There are some great eateries in the West country, so to prove that it’s not all about London (see my recommendation for Fallow restaurant in the Haymarket below), here's a round up of some of my favourites around Sidmouth.
Our early start to miss the pile up of traffic around Stonehenge (it's the pull of the stones) always demands a slap up breakfast at the end and we usually head for the breakfast at the Otter valley dairy and field kitchen just as you come into Monkton on the way to Sidmouth or the Donkey Sanctuary's cafe The Kitchen for what we affectionally call a big donkey breakfast (no donkeys were harmed in the making of this).
We tested out new Italian restaurant Roma, whose sister restaurant Myca's seafood and grill is just up the high street. Roma boasts a view of the sea through its huge picture windows and whilst not a particularly intimate or cosy restaurant, it was perfect for a family meal out. Whilst by the sea, eat the seafood I say, so I had the seafood risotto topped with salmon, scallops and prawns. The dish was creamy and the rice was perfectly al dente as risotto should be. Definitely a great addition to the town. You can't beat a beachfront restaurant, and the Mitch Tonks restaurant, Rockfish is due to open at the end of the esplanade in October. A great location, but it has been delayed yet again due to planning problems in the old Drill hall.
We visited Exmouth and discovered that another beachfront restaurant, Micky's, set up by Michael Caines of nearby Lympstone Manor has been taken over by Swim Cafe Bar which has a branch in LymeRegis. For those that follow chefs in the restauarant world I was interested to learn that Michael is now also consultant chef at the Stafford Hotel (where Cheffy Son first worked), taking over from Lisa Goodwin-Allen who has recently announced that she is staying at the Northcote in Stafford, under new management.
Back in the Big Smoke, the birthday and anniversary celebrations included a visit to Fallow Restaurant, Cheffy son's favourite breakfast haunt in the Haymarket. Having tasted their breakfast menu I can see why. My wild mushroom, asparagus and basil pesto on toast had the most perfectly cooked poached egg wobbling precariously on top which oozed exactly as it should once cut. I love their concept of ‘conscious gastronomy’ ensuring minimum waste, and the Cheffy pair love the signature croissant puck served with savoury fillings - the sweet and savoury combo works surprisingly well. I’ll definitely be back to try the set lunch menu sometime. The Fallow tallow is a must!
Happy dining!
April & May have blurred into one this year, as we set off to the other side of the world to visit Student Son, studying in Wellington, New Zealand, followed by a long overdue visit to family in Victoria. All in the name of anniversary celebrations (silver medal for us this year).
So we set off mid April, just as the sun came out in the UK and the days got longer, for cooler autumnal weather and dark nights in Windy Wellington, with a stopover in humid Kuala Lumpur on the way there (and daily torrential rain) and a trip to Lake’s Entrance, a 4 hour train ride from Melbourne, on the way back.
So less ‘what’s in Jan’s Pan’ and more ‘what’s on Jan’s plate’ this time. Read on for some of the many highlights and food discoveries we made along the way.
The city sits on the southern-most tip of the North Island and is reputedly the world’s windiest city, due to its location on the Cook Strait which runs between the two Islands. I’ll vouch for that - I was glad of the layers I’d packed and my trusty blue shawl.
It’s also a nod to the fact that Peter Jackson turned the city into ‘Wellywood’ as it became the centre of all things ‘Lord of the Rings’, and this was part of the appeal for Student Son to study there. So yes, he may well have a degree in LOTR by the end of his 3 years - he’s been to the Weta Workshop to see the special effects, he’s visited Hobbiton to channel his inner Hobbit, and he’s even climbed ‘Mount Doom’ in search of fire-breathing dragons.
During his time here he has toured all of these places, done the mega-hikes in both North and South Islands, and sent pictures of the views from each peak. This saved us a lot of legwork (I’ve no shame living life through my offspring), so we happily settled for a much more relaxed stay in Windy Welly to explore all it has to offer. Just a boat trip to the South island is 3 hours, so staying put suited me for once.
We stayed in different locations to really appreciate the contrasts to be found in the area - bustling city, the coffee culture of cosmopolitan Cuba Street, sleepy seaside towns, magnificent views from Mount Victoria, the tram ride to the botanical gardens and Zealandia eco-sanctuary, and Miami beach-style esplanades and wide walkways for lively harbour-side living leading to the Te Pepe Tongarewa museum.
First stay was in the Te Aro area of the city, in the Movenpick Hotel, convenient for his student digs (tables were turned - how often do parents take their washing to their student children?!).
Now, while I’ve got your attention, let me tell you why I’d recommend a stay at a Movenpick on your travels. It appears that a standard feature of the hotel offering is a complementary chocolate buffet with chocolate fountain every afternoon between 4 and 5pm. Yes, free chocolate, and yes, daily, you read that correctly. We didn’t know that at the time of booking, but Student Son was round like a shot when we told him.
It’s also close to arty and inclusive Cuba street, Wellington’s bohemian pedestrianised quarter. Filled with cafes and restaurants catering for every cultural cuisine, we had Mexican, Italian, Thai, Malaysian, Japanese, even Ethiopian (where we sampled sour injera bread to scoop up dishes of spiced lentils and chickpeas), and we frequented the Willis Street street food market and many pop-up vans for easy and affordable dinner options (we were of course S-S’s free meal ticket for the duration. We got used to his daily text ‘so what’s the idea for dinner??’).
Top recommendation was Ombra, where we dined on Venetian-inspired small plates for our intimate anniversary celebration. Well, it would have been, if our over-enthusiastic waiter hadn’t have been so chatty, but that’s Welly for you - friendly and welcoming, and full of NZ and Aussies who have lived in UK at some point (invariably Ealing or Luton it seems) as a right of passage and want to share their travel tales.
In fact it was hard to identify traditional New Zealand cuisine, but it seems meat pies are quite a feature and we were sent to sample these from Puku pies in Lyle Bay one day. Steak and cheese was a winner, or cheesy cauliflower for a veggie option. I was also intrigued to see palusami - a Fijian dish of taro leaves and meat, which coincidentally I adapted for the English table as one of my first batch of recipes written for the Tesco Magazine back in the day. My younger self would never believe I’d get the chance to experience it first hand.
I expected to see much more seafood on menus, and our stay in the seaside town of Seatoun (sounds like a place for cartoon characters) delivered the goods. On the crossroads between Dundas Street and Falkirk Avenue, just back from the gravelly beach with its mountain vistas, there is Little Sprig, a small wine bar with craft beers, serving delightful plates of freshly made food (middle right); Huckle & Co, a fish and chip shop; Arcimbaldi, a popular breakfast cafe selling a myriad of mouthwatering muffins; the Cameron & Harrison butchery and delicatessen; a small Four Square supermarket, and the ubiquitous Dairy store - a kind of newsagent/sweet shop/ice cream corner shop common in New Zealand. So for a tiny sleepy seaside town it is a food lover’s delight.
Standout breakfast dish at Arcimbaldi was busecca matta (pic top right) which literally translates as fake tripe. Fear not, no offal was involved, instead delicate omelette strips with tomato sauce, basil and bacon - definitely one to replicate at home. At the end of the day their muffins were reduced to half price, so we enjoyed half each of Persimmon & Blueberry Crumble and Fig & Pecan on our way back to our cosy self-contained Airbnb.
This town was the perfect place to unwind, quiet but with the city just a 30 min bus trip away (invest in a Snapper card for Wellington’s cheap, fuss-free and efficient bus service), with stunning coastal walks to Breaker Bay and beyond, and I’d thoroughly recommend the Happy Seagull B&B should you ever choose to visit.
I was a little surprised at the general lack of bakeries round and about, serving pastries and sourdough. It’s clearly not so much of a ‘thing’ - muffins seem to be the go to. But I was happy to discover the Shelly Bay Baker at our next point of call, Oriental Parade, where we stayed in an apartment with a picture window looking out on the harbour, enjoying prime position to watch the effort of the runners, cyclists, swimmers and rowers as we sat and ate our bakery goodies. We discovered alfajore biscuits, a chocolate coated cookie sandwich filled with Dulce de Leche, to go with our daily caffeine fix, as we sat beach-side, watching dog walkers and keen cold water dippers (we only managed to paddle, the sun and blue skies are deceptive - that wind chill certainly brings the temperature down).
Chocolate (bottom right), cheese, and vineyards (bottom middle) also featured (of course), plus a trip to Jalan Alor street food market in Kuala Lumpur finally (bottom left) so read on for more fabulous food discoveries.
A highlight of the stay was a drive over the Ramutaka ranges north of the city for a voyage of food discoveries. Hiring a car proved to be a cheaper, more efficient way to do an expensive online organised food tour, and it was hassle free as we found each of the venues on the itinerary, even parking directly outside to sample their wares.
First stop Featherston for cheese and deli goods and a cafe stop to recover after the winding mountain roads.
C’est Cheese has a small dairy on site which makes a speciality Featherston Truffle cheese with organic, pasteurised milk sourced directly from local cows, which naturally we took home to sample.
Then Martinborough for vineyards and tastings at the Margrain vineyard, one of the last remaining independently owned establishments (set up after a life of hard graft by a £10 Pom originally from Essex, who emigrated when he was 14!). We sampled his range of wines plus pizza topped with grapes (of course) - Chef’s special (but don’t tell him that ;-) )
Next Student Son was happy to sample the range of Craft beer at the Martinborough brewery
We drove back via Greystone for dessert - to sample Schoc chocolates. Belgian chocolate combined with New Zealand flavours such as Ghost pepper chilli and Smokey almond.
Chocolate had to feature, didn’t it. It’s reassuring to know that there are just as many craft chocolate makers in the Southern hemisphere, and we certainly found them. The Wellington chocolate factory back in town didn't disappoint. We enjoyed peppermint cacao husk tea in the cafe, and took home packs of single origin chocolate and chocolate coated hazelnuts. S-Son later did the Chocolatier experience, amazing value at $65NZD (about £30) to learn about craft chocolate and custom make 3 bars, enjoy a hot chocolate drink and enjoy 20% off in the shop.
Even in Lakes Entrance the chocolate theme continued, at The Chocolate Candy shop which serves the best hot chocolate in Victoria and creates gluten free chocolate in the Wonkadoos workshop, with chocolate dolphins, koalas and even emu droppings for holiday makers to take home.
And I won’t forget that bonus chocolate fountain for a long time to come, what more could a couple of chocoholics ask for?
Have you ever come across Feijoa? I had my first taste of this fruit, also known as pineapple guava (main pic), a New Zealand favourite with a distinct fragrant perfume all of its own and a flavour reminiscent of a number of exotic fruits. Some say strawberries, kiwi or pineapple but I also got lychee, perhaps because of its perfume and jelly like interior. The green skin is edible but bitter, but it works well cooked in a muffin.
We bought red-skinned pears, crisp and particularly delicate, perfect with Camembert in a cooling salad.
Also Golden Kiwi fruit and lemonade apples from the weekly Sunday fruit market on Wellington Harbour. The golden kiwi lack the hairy skin and are bigger, sweeter and juicier than the standard green kiwi we are used to, so eat the whole thing for a jam packed blast of vitamin C.
Tarakihi Fish is one of New Zealand’s most common wild-caught coastal fish with its firm white flesh with medium-low oil content, similar to sea bass in taste and texture.
I tried grilled fillet at Little Sprig in Seatoun with roast butternut squash, grilled courgette, red pepper, radicchio, shallot and caper evo sauce. Light and low carb with the perfect combo of bitter and sweet.
Also good battered and fried with chips wrapped in paper to eat on the seafront, no cod & chips here - tarakihi and chips sounds much more exotic.
In Lakes Entrance we sampled Orange Roughy in at Off the Wharf Seafood Cafe. I’m told they use a lot of healthy rice bran oil to cook in Australia, no hydrogenated over-processed oils here.
New World supermarket fruit displays (top right) were impressive - I've never seen a more perfect display, with assistants on hand to keep it perfect….
And of course I finally got to KL, and visited all the places Malaysian chef Norman Musa recommended that I missed out on last year (see March 2025 archive) such as Central Market and the Jalan Alor street food market. It was well worth the year’s wait. Octopus doughballs anyone??
April in our household is full of birthday and anniversary celebrations. The benefits of having a chef in the family means the opportunity for a discounted dinner bed & breakfast at their current workplace. With Easter at the beginning of the month and his birthday half way through, Cheffy Son booked us a long awaited Christmas, Easter, birthday and anniversary treat rolled into one.
This meant a stay at art-deco style The Beaumont, Mayfair’s top award-winning hotel - famous for its Anthony Gormley sculpture 'Room' - with dinner at recently refurbished Rosi restaurant for ‘elevated British comfort food’, overseen by Lisa Goodwin-Allen. A chance for him to enjoy the food he cooks from the customer’s point of view, and for us to sit back and reap the rewards of his hard toil in the kitchen.
Easter weekend was surprisingly quiet and he was finally able to book in. The hotel sits on one side of Brown Hart Gardens, a raised garden built on top of an electricity substation dating back to 1902. It’s hidden south of Oxford St and yet just a stone’s throw from Selfridges. The hotel plans to open a new restaurant, Pearl, specialising in relaxed Mediterranean dining in October 2026, so one to look out for.
We enjoyed a hot cross bun and cup of tea in the room whilst watching Murder on the Orient Express, the perfect film for our art deco room.
We started with an aperitif and bar snacks in the Bar, Le Magritte. At dinner I sampled the corn-fed chicken wellington and a perfectly formed chocolate millionaire's tart, and there were plenty of extras sent from the kitchen for us to try - chef’s perks. The finale involved the flamed pineapple sponge with rum, caramel and coconut sorbet, prepared at our table.
Nothing beats the satisfaction of being able to crawl upstairs to bed after a big meal rather than racing for the last train home, and I was never going to be able to run after that feast, that’s for sure.
After a leisurely breakfast, we finished the weekend with a Mystery Adventure and tour of London. These self guided treasure hunts are a great to discover parts of London you’ve never seen (in fact that’s how I first came across Brown Hart Gardens on a previous HiddenCity mystery), learning about the history and discovering watering holes you’ve never come across before - highly recommended.
We ended up at Ye Old Cheshire cheese on this occasion, an ancient inn reputed to have been frequented by Dickens, and the pinnacle of our hunt for the 'holy grail' (ok, so it was a cup behind the bar).
And so ended the perfect family weekend to celebrate Son #No1's birthday before we disappeared off to celebrate Son #No2's birthday (goodbye teen years). A mother's got to treat her children equally, don't you know - even when they are 11,684 miles apart......