Stoke Place - Easter Sunday Lunch

I've wanted to go to Stoke Place http://www.stokeplace.co.uk/ for a long time and with Easter i finally had a good excuse :-) Together with friends and their children we made our way to Stoke Place for a pre-booked "Easter egg hunt" followed by lunch. We were very lucky and "our" kids were the only kids booked in for the hunt... so we ended up with a LOT of chocolate. The hotel grounds are beautiful with a large lake that you can walk around. The restaurant had a special Easter menu for £35 pp. You had a choice of starters, mains and desserts followed by coffee and petit fours.

I through the food was beautiful and very well presented. I started off with a starter of Mackerell with aubergine puree and a sort of star anise powder that just melted in the mouth. Very interesting! My main was a beautiful sole with a fennel puree and vegetables.. very light and tasty.

The dessert was a vanilla and rhubard creme brulee with a raspberry sorbet.. gorgeous!

I would definately like to go back again in the summer!

Ladies who lunch..

I had 5 girlfriends over for a long lunch on Easter Friday, no boys allowed. We had a great time with lots of champers, food and a couple of facemasks ..as you do!

I had composed an easy menu where i could prepare a lot so we started off with an asparagus soup with a hint of truffle oil and lightly blanched asparagus tips and a swirl of cream. My friend Karin had kindly baked and brought along some of her famous foccacia - still warm from the oven! We followed that with some simple oven roasted salmon and an "easter salad" the salad consisted of mini mozzarella, mango, rocket, tomatoes, fennel, avocado and red onion topped with a honey vinaigrette and pumpkin seads. I also made a little youghurt/creme fraice sauce with lots of chopped herbs.

My dessert was not as successful. i had made it a day in advance and it was a rich chocolate cake with a chocolat ganache on top that was infused with cardamom and cinnamon, decorated with macadamia nuts. It was a little bit too rich and heavy. Oh well, 2 out of 3 is not too bad! ;-)