How do you make a vegan, gluten-free cookie that actually tastes like a cookie?  Don’t ask us…but Doves Farm know how.

We’d been ogling the Doves Farm Cookies range for a while, wondering whether we should dip into them? Would these crunchy looking cookies hit the sweet spot or not?  Well we can officially report they’re light,crispy and lemon (and chocolate)  fans will love them….so delicious, we had to have them on The Food Shortlist’s “Best of British”.

Here’s the Doves Farm gluten-free cookie line-up: Lemon Zest, Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate, Ginger and Brazil Nut and Hazlenut.  They also do a big 2kg box of Mini Crunch cookies – great for gluten-free catering.

These  Lemon Zest gluten free cookies are made with real lemon – you can taste it – and amazingly they contain NO gluten, wheat, milk, salt, buckwheat, soya, nuts, eggs or hydrogenated fat. Great for school box or picnic lunch treats, they also come in handy “double cookie” packs, so you get two cookied for 59p.

Doves Farm Lemon Zest Cookies 150g box/£1.59 For more Doves Farm treats, see what else they do at their Hungerford farm in Berkshire: www.dovesfarm.co.uk

This is the last of “Best of British” – but cookbook reviews and recipes kick off in July, and mid-July sees the start of our Mediterranean Mezze special – our favourite olives, olive oil, pesto, dips and Med-style treats for a summer supper, al fresco.  

…OK strictly speaking, they’re Fever Tree’s Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer and Naturally Light Ginger Beer (made with natural fruit sugars, 42% fewer calories).

We downed a few Ginger Beers while glued to the Djokovic-Baghdatis match yesterday (best match so far?) and with the today predicted to be the hottest in the UK so far this year, it’s safe to say the summer drinking season has officially begun.  So, how about some”mixer” doubles at Wimbledon this week?

Charles and Tim, who founded Fever Tree, named their range of premium natural mixers after the Cinchona tree, aka the Fever tree, and we think their pioneering spirit makes them “Best of British”.  They’ve given cheap lemon aromatics, artificial sweeteners and sodium benzoate the elbow and substituted good, natural stuff, instead.

The range, on sale almost everywhere (including major supermarkets) includes: Tonic Water (made with botanical oils and spring water), Lemon Tonic (real lemon extracts here) and Lemonade (with Sfumatrice extracts of Sicilian lemons).

There’s also the intriguing-sounding new Mediterranean Tonic (which we haven’t tasted yet) which sounds like it should be sipped at sunset on a yacht in St. Tropez.  With hints of thyme, fresh citrus and rosemary it does sound very “Provencale” – and it’s highly carbonated meaning it’s big on tiny champagne-style bubbles so your G&T stays fizzy longer.

But back to our three Ginger “Beers”.  First, the Ginger Ale is light and very drinkable, without that sometimes too-sharp ginger hit that grabs you by the throat. There’s also the award-winning Ginger Beer, a blend of three gingers from Nigeria, Cochin and the Ivory Coast, and last but not least a very calorie-friendly Naturally Light Ginger Beer; this one’s the lighter, “slimmer” version of its cousin and goes down perfectly with rum or vodka or is happy on its own.

Glastonbury, Strawberries, Wimbledon and G&Ts.  Here comes summer…

To read the Fever Tree stories and how they source their natural ingredients, visit: www.fever-tree.com

At The Food Shortlist we’re huge fans of olive oil; it’s liquid gold and reminds us of those Mediterranean olive groves.

So we were curious about Northants-based food company Redwood Foods, who produce a range of oils (flax, hemp and a lovely mixed seed oil).

Meet their Seed Oil which has been making its way onto food shelves lately.  It’s a veritable omega 3-6-9 fest in a bottle, jam-packed with good stuff, including Pomegranate Oil – and:

• Flaxseed –  a rich source of Omega-3 fatty acids typically between 50-60%.  Omega-3 fatty acids have been extensively studied for their beneficial effects.
• Sesame oil – nutritious, rich in vitamins A, B and E as well as the minerals iron, calcium, magnesium, copper, silicic acid and phosphorus. It contains linoleic acid and alpha linoleic acid as well as lecithin.
• Pumpkin seed oil is full of natural essential fatty acids and antioxidants. It is high in Vitamins A, B2, & B3 and Beta Carotene, Potassium, Magnesium and Zinc.
• Borage 22% GLA is rich in the Omega 6 fatty acid Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA).
• Wheat germ is rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is an antioxidant.
• Pomegranate oil is an antioxidant.
• The Oil of the Sea Buckthorn berry is rich in carotanoids, vitamin C, and contains Omega’s 3, 6 & 9.

It’s June and we’re more than halfway through “Best of British” already.

So what’s “Worst of British”?  The weather.  In Rome, tourists are dropping coins into fountains in between lemon and strawberry gelatos, soaking up the Italian sun, strolling across pretty piazzas…in Greece, the islands are warming up for another summer…and further away Fez is already half-sizzling.  But here?  Here it’s hovering between April and October.

Good luck Wimbledon, where those canopies double as sunshades/umbrellas! So let’s forget about the weather, here’s a fabulous flourless chocolate cake from our Best of British Domestic Goddess.

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/flourless-chocolate-lime-cake-with-margerita-cream-5146 (Good with the Margarita cream and just as nice with a dollop of double cream)

Better weather on its way soon.

What’s for breakfast, honey?  We’re having a double cappuccino with fresh bread drizzled with honey…but not just any honey, honey, it’s from Nook Farm in Cumbria.

This summer, Borage fields everywhere will be buzzing with honeybees.  (What’s Borage? Also called Starflower, this pretty star-shaped blue flower is one of nature’s wonders – it’s fabulous for skin, either taken as capsules or topically.)

Well known in the Mediterranean, Borage or Starflower was first cultivated in Syria and Turkey, and it must be quite hardy as it grows happily in Yorkshire which is where Nook Farm source this Borage Flower Honey from.  Also, if you’re not a huge honey fan, this is a clear “light” runny version that can be used almost like sugar in tea, for example, so it’s a honey that may win over fans.

Nook Farm also produce their own honeys on the farm which include a Cumbrian Flower Honey from Willow Herb, Blackberry, Clover, Thistles, Meadowsweet, and Heather.  It varies in taste slightly from year to year, and it’s complex and quite delicious.

Thank you, Bees!

www.nookfarmhoney.co.uk

http://www.bbka.org.uk -  Bee a friend to our Bees

OK so we’ve veered off the track into Italy here…but Debbie and Andrew are probably best-known for their Harrogate sausages – you can buy the range at most UK supermarkets.

But back to Sicily…these mozarella, sun-dried tomato, basil and garlic sausages are juicy and succulent – the flavour is a blend of all the ingredients with a nice garlicky hit to them.

Debbie and Andrew (who are a real couple, not a brand name) source their pork from small farms in the UK with good animal welfare and direct traceability, and with over 20 years of pig farming they know what they’re doing.

But don’t just take our word for it – as soon as the sun comes out again, pick up one of the sausage varieties at Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose, and other UK supermarkets and get those juicy bangers onto the BBQ!

www.debbieandandrews.co.uk

Our favourite Aussie chef comes to one of the UK’s most picturesque beauty spots, the Cotswolds, and rustles up a rustic lunch – his Gloucestershire Cheese and Tomato Tart. Enjoy!

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/640247 - recipe

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/640247/displayVideo/hi - watch the video here

We love The Pickled Village’s marmalades, there are so many varieties you can pick one to suit your personality (!)

First, there’s their Wedding Breakfast Marmalade,  a tribute to William and Kate…it’s a thin-cut lemon marmalade with champagne and a splash of crème de cassis, complete with the date of the wedding of the decade on the label.

Of course we had to go for the Boozy Dark Breakfast – rich, dark and with just a hint of spice and whisky and made from oranges, lemons, treacle, spices and whisky. It’s a grown-up marmalade, dense and delicious.

Very different is their Morning After Breakfast.  For a healthy start to the day, the stars in the jar are lemons, stem ginger and Siberian Ginseng.

Or how about an Amorous Breakfast?  If it sounds like a cocktail on toast, it is – sort of – as it’s based on the Seabreeze cocktail:  pink grapefruit and cranberries with a nice nip of Russian Vodka.

To see the whole line up including their cheese-friendly chutneys, visit: www.thepickledvillage.co.uk/thetastingnotes.html

Buy online, or find them in the London area at Food Inc., Whiteleys, Bayswater; Bentalls,  Kingston upon Thames; Northfield Farm, Borough Market and Brookes Counter &Table, Shepherds Bush

Oh oh…just when you should be diving into summer salads, something sweet comes along.  In our case it was Scarlet Bakes’ White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookie Mix.

This is a brilliant gift idea for children, as all you add to the cookie mix is butter and an egg (the instructions are on the label).  The rest of the ingredients are already in the jar, arranged in almost impossibly perfect layers.  In fact they’re so pretty that Scarlet Bakes cookie mixes have already made their way over to Paris.

One you’ve done your mixing magic and are ready to retrieve these from the oven, you’ll be rewarded with generous-sized cookies bulging with bits of white Belgian chocolate and ruby red cranberries (get a good look at them as they won’t be hanging around for long.)

One glass Kilner jar (500ml/11cm across) makes 18-20 cookies and of course the beautiful thing is you also end up with a pretty jar to store sugar, flour or maybe some white Belgian chocolate drops in it…!

If you’re off wheat flour, Scarlet Bakes also do a gluten-free flour option (contains buckwheat, maize and other ingredients).

£12.50 from www.notonthehighstreet.com, Scarlet Bakes, Selfridges and selected food outlets nationwide.

www.scarletbakes.co.uk 

Ingredients:  Wheat Flour (Raising Agents: sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), Light Brown Sugar, Demerara Sugar, White Chocolate Chips 15% (sugar, cocoa butter,  whole milk powder,  soya lecithin added as emulsifier, natural vanilla flavour), Cranberries 15%(sugar, cranberries 43.5%, sunflower oil), vanilla sugar, salt.

Where has the sun gone?

If it’s too wet for the BBQ, blow a raspberry at Britain’s weather and celebrate the weekend with this Raspberry Layer Cake instead.

It’s four layers (two Victoria sponge bases, each split in half), plumped up with fresh raspberries, mascarpone and cream  and a splash of Amaretto almond liqueur.

Goes down a treat with a nice cup of tea even if the weather is misbehaving.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2419/raspberry-layer-cake

What do you do when you have too much rhubarb?  Make Organic Rhubarb Vodka Liqueur, of course!  At least that’s what Andrew Lyle did, when he concocted his wonderful pink vodka liqueur with its hint of fresh rhubarb taste.

Available at Scotland’s “online liquid deli” Demijohn, it mixes well (with champagne or sparkling wine for a different summer kir) or drink it long, with tonic, ice and a slice of lemon.

Demijohn also do an equally summery-sounding Organic Cucumber Vodka (which we haven’t tried yet). The rest of the range is here:

www.demijohn.co.uk/pr-DEMIJOHN-LAUNCH-TASTE-OF-SUMMER-IN-A-BOTTLE-WITH-NEW-ORGANIC-VODKA-LIQUEURS-1013

And how about this for an easy weekend dessert? Waitrose’s super-quick, ultra-easy Rhubarb Fool recipe – naughty but very, very nice.  

We LOVE these Alphabet Truffles!

Thorntons started their chocolate journey in Sheffield many years ago, in fact this year they’re celebrating a century.  The first shop was opened there by Joseph William Thornton, who, the story goes, handed the keys to his teenage sons Norman and Stanley and said:  “Make this the best sweet shop in town!” (And now they’re based in Derbyshire).

There always seems to be a box of Thorntons around –  whether it’s a “small thank you” box, a “Happy Birthday” selection or way too many naughty chocs at Christmas, but we think these Alphabet Truffles really top the lot.

There are 22 chocolates in each box (which can be giftwrapped with a card) and all you have to do is choose the letters, creating your own personal message with the website’s “truffle typewriter”.

Have a go here – you won’t be able to resist it…

http://www.thorntons.co.uk/pages/servery/AlphabetTruffles.asp

Thorntons Alphabet Truffles: 22 chocs in a box/ £15.00

PS: And they do chocolate for diabetics, including a chocolate Turkish delight bar.

Here’s a clever idea.  Meet Kent’s Kitchen’s new meal kits.We’ll be keeping a couple of these on larder stand-by – we tried the Madras Curry and loved it.

You add the fresh ingredients and these authentic mixes will (almost) do the rest.  You can rustle up a great curry in a hurry and there’s a whole range to tempt the tastebuds:  firecracker sweet and sour, chow mein stir-fry, green and red Thai curries, spicy Korma and a Moroccan tagine…(and more). Delve into the range here:

http://www.kentskitchen.co.uk/index.asp?page=category&category=meal+kits

The Madras Curry kit contains:

Madras paste, curry spices, infused garlic oil.

You’ll need these fresh ingredients…

• tin of chopped tomatoes 400ml,  diced chicken approx 230g, sliced onion approx 100g, fresh coriander to garnish

Kent’s Kitchen Meal Kits  £2.50 each, from www.kentskitchen.co.uk   (Larder life approx. 12 months).

If you ever wondered what “summer in a cheese” tastes like,  Katy’s Lavender by Shepherds Purse is probably it.  It’s a snow white ewes milk cheese rolled in dried Yorkshire lavender flowers, matured over a number of weeks, sure to steal the show on any cheeseboard!  (A bit like Marmite, you’ll either love it…or not) and you can read about it here…http://www.shepherdspurse.co.uk/cheeses/katys-white-lavender.html

After tasting some of the sheep and cow’s milk varieties from the Shepherds Purse range, we had to choose Yorkshire Blue as our “Best of British”  - it’s a winner.  Smooth, creamy, slightly buttery and sweet, there’s none of the “blue” blue cheese taste – that again, you either love or hate – so if you are looking for a blue cheese to win over new fans, Yorkshire Blue fits the bill.  (We’ve nicknamed it the blue cheese ambassador).  Better still, this blue-veined wonder is available at Waitrose and Morrison’s so you can pick some up during your supermarket shop.

Shepherds Purse do some really good sheep’s cheeses if you’re allergic to dairy, by the way, and to read more about their story and why they win so many awards, visit: www.shepherdspurse.co.uk  You can order direct from the website, too.

Yorkshire Blue £3.00/180g

I made my first Speltotto last weekend and it turned out to be quite spelt-acular.   Spelt is an ancient grain that contains gluten but it’s a different type, which means many people who happen to be wheat intolerant find they can tolerate spelt instead.

But back to my Speltotto… just add boiling water and butter.  There are three pearled spelt varieties (pearled spelt is used quite a bit in Italy, and as those Two Lovely Greedy Italians would tell you, they call it farro):

• Sundried Tomato and Chilli – delicious, with a bit of a chilli kick – I added a little greenery in the form of  julienned spinach sauteed in  garlic
• Pumpkin and Shallot
• Courgette and Garlic