Hmm.  For a start the Cornish Pasty has been recently PDO’d so I’m going to quickly point out we made Pasties in the style of a West Country lass, which, seeing as I’m from Dorset, isn’t far from the truth.  Plus they were smaller.  Much smaller, almost canapé sized not unlike an Empanada.  Sadly, I don’t have a photo of these as they consumed the lot before I could focus….. 

However I do have the following:- 

Chinese chop suey in little carton style pots

and falafel with tahini dressed salad on miniature pitas with garlic sauce (for the kebab type element). 

Chicken ‘Ruby Murray’ on tiny little roti; they’re espresso sized plates…

Couldn’t leave out good old fish and chips in little seaside buckets

 and miniature ‘Beville’ type cheese and onion toasties for added ‘naff but nice cafe’ authenticity

The only thing I forgot was mini pizza and it would have made a superb students breakfast this morning, had there been so much of a scrap left over….

I was armed with three types of our home-grown sour-dough yeast bread, including onion and potato plus a couple of ‘normal’ yeast loaves flavoured with cherry tomato or red onion and cheddar.  Chocolate fridge cake, coffee and walnut  cake and Abernathy biscuits also featured heavily!

Oh, and of course there were Kentish apple and pork sausage rolls, from scratch almond croissants, not forgetting pineapple upside down and muesli biscuits for the semi sort of health conscious.

Bet you wished you’d gone now. 

The Village Market, held the last Friday in every month at St Margaret’s Village Hall from 9 am.  In aid of St Margaret’s Nursery and After School Club.  See you there next on Friday 24th February.  Come early or you’ll miss the pork pie.

For those of you that missed our one tweet (Twitter – the source of all secrets..) and my hasty scribble on the welcome blackboard on Saturday morning (well, you don’t want to advertise these things too much just in case anyone actually turns up!),  below is our current breakfast/brunch menu…..

 Brunch at The Coastguard

From 9.15am – 11.45am

Gypsy Eggs – Heuvos a la Flamenca – £5.00

Local free range eggs baked in a nest of spicy salami, ham, tomatoes and paprika studded with jewel-like peas and potatoes to soak up the juices – a delicious if not exactly classic combination for breakie BUT boy is this cure or cure if you’ve indulged just a tad too much the night before……

Kedgeree – £5.00

You’re by the sea.  What better excuse for the old Anglo Indian favourite of Smoked haddock, butter, curry spices, rice, eggs and did I mention butter. Eat with copious amounts of sea air and a mug of char.

Celtic Breakfast – £6.50

Well, we’re as far south as we can be so it’s your very last chance to indulge in homemade Lorne sausage, tattie scones, black pudding, bacon and free-range eggs with not a single pony nod to healthiness in sight so NO it doesn’t come with mushrooms, tomatoes, beans or anything green…….

Eggs ‘Casino’ Royale – £6.00

A covert salute to our old next door neighbour Mr Bond (well at least, his creator Mr Flemming…) we’ve taken the classic free-range eggs smothered with hollandaise and spinach on a freshly baked muffin and topped it off with Scottish smoked salmon  giving that added edge of luxury….. 

Seaside Spa Sundae – £2.50

Breathe in the sea air and feel virtuous as you tuck into a breakfast ‘Sundae’ of our own fruit and nut muesli mix, Greek yoghurt and runny honey

Vive St Margaret’s Bay – £3.50

A platter of pastries and bread made from scratch with our own fair hands – yes even the croissants….. Unequalled until you get a good few miles the other side of the Channel! 

The Butties – £3.00

Rashers of crispy streaky bacon in doorstops of white bloomer bread

Vine roast tomatoes, garlic mushrooms and herbs on toasted homemade ‘wild’ sourdough bread

For those of you that weren’t paying attention and missed out, never fear.  You can always pop in next Sunday, or the one after, or the one after that….  as whilst it might take me a while to put something into action, once it’s running,  it takes forever to stop doing it!  Super tankers and turning manoeuvres come to mind – fairly apt considering our location.  

 Breakfast and Brunch at The Coastguard, every Sunday from 9.15 until 11.45.  Wake up and smell the coffee sea air!

No 3 child

When No 3 was born last August I vowed I wasn’t having anymore children.  That was until we decided to start making bread from scratch.  Sourdough to be precise, made from a wild yeast starter that once established you have to feed and nurture.

Nicknamed ‘the kids’ I’ve suddenly found I’ve four additional mouths to feed and, quite frankly, they are almost as demanding as our brood.  At least with the children I can put them to bed before evening service and more often than not I’m not disturbed until ohh, at least 5.30 in the morning.

No3 Yeast

The ‘kids’ on the other hand need attention from the moment we enter the kitchen. Firstly, there’s the weighing out of the first batch of yeast to make bread. Then there the 1st feed and a small drink after which it does little other than mooch about in a bowl in the cosiest part of the kitchen for 8 hours whilst it contemplates rising a bit for the 1st prove. Feeding time again, a light massage (otherwise known as kneading) and then another little lounge whilst it proves a second time at which point it suns itself in the oven. Out again, it needs to cool for a couple of hours before the baker might actually get to eat something – well after you’ve feed the starter it’s evening snackette that is….

Taking on board that the bread is now flying out the door with a fair amount of repeat custom – seems quite a lot of people like it – we’re having to go through this process twice daily with all 4 of our starters.

Admittedly, we’ve kind of got into the swing of it now and the next step is to try and make bread from some beer.  I’m trying to find a brew that’s made from a wild rather than processed yeast which is proving hard to come by so we may well have to make our own (Ok, ok chaps I can here your groans from the office!)  In the meantime, Pete over at the Hopdaemon brewery is helpfully giving it a go for us with some wort  so we’re waiting with baited bread for the results…..

The finished product

Now I realise that there probably isn’t anyone left in the world I haven’t bored rigid about our bread project but just in case here is the précis…  We’re making bread from a wild yeast culture we have grown from scratch.  Well, in researching the whole sour dough starter thing I came up with a comment about a bread and beer connection I hadn’t thought of.

We’re currently growing yeast from grapes (which, apparently, is how our warmer European cousins would have done it) along with a simple flour and water version that just relies on being exposed to oxygen.  However, the Gauls and Iberians apparently made a jolly nice bread from using the froth for the top of their beer.

This makes absolute sense because it would have sped up the bread making process immensely as well as making a lighter loaf than the usual brick type affair.  Anyway, it got me thinking and, digging further, I came across notes that the Babylonians in 6000BC wrote the first known beer recipe which used under baked bread to serve as the live yeast culture added to make beer.

Which brings me to my question…. Does anyone out there know either how to speak ancient Babylonian OR, possibly more helpfully, could advise me how to make a beer using our simple sour-dough starter (eg the one without the grapes)?

Nigel is muttering darkly about duty so I guess I need so say I only want to brew a few pints so I can use the froth to make bread – we’ll probably have to throw the actually alcohol away (never thought I’d ever write that…) in any case,  I think I’ll leave the drinkable beer brewing to the experts!!!

Answers on a postcard please or to thecoastguard@talk21.com