Hello!!!
Half term is finished and our life is back to normal – almost anyway. To cut a long story short – we have our first guests of 2017 in the house – an absolutely fantastic couple, Claire and Al. Their booking was made last year and we thought that by now the renovation work would be finished but as you know we are not! So the house on the day of their arrival looked like the set of 60 minute makeover!!! But in the end we made it just in time thanks to our awesome team! And it looked better than I was expecting, I cannot wait for everything to be finished and I can share the pictures with you!
After 4 months break from having guests in our house I was a bit nervous about the welcome, room reaction and breakfast but I think running a guest house is in my blood – I’m just loving it! And when you have such lovely people as your first guests of the year you know that the season will be good!
So whilst getting everything ready and writhing this blog I had just enough time to put into the oven some plums with spices to make spiced plum compote. In just a few minutes the kitchen was full of delicious aromas and it made me want to share this absolutely delicious recipe with you! If you fancy a heavenly mouth-watering breakfast this is it! Just put some granola & natural yogurt in your bowl and top it us with plum compote…. Delicious!!! Keep it in the fridge and it will last you for about a month but it will probably be gone in a week!
The Old Parsonage spiced plum compote
Ingredients
2 rounded TSP Chinese five-spice powder
4 whole star anise
500 g caster sugar
1 kg firm plums (about 16)
Roasting try, lined with parchment paper
2-3 Kilner jars, sterilised
Method
Set the oven to 180 degrees.
Mix the spices, sugar and 200 ml water in large bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Add the plums, scored to the stone into quarters and coat them well.
Spoon the fruit and syrup into the lined try. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through. Plums should still be quite firm.
When finish roasting let them cool a bit and then pack the plums into jars and spoon the sugar juices over to cover the fruit.
You can use ground cinnamon and 1-2 cinnamon sticks rather than the five-spice powder and star anise. If the plums are ripe enough, halve, stone and quarter them and roast for the 25 – 30 minutes.
Easy!! Enjoy
Big Love!
Izzi, Tim & “the Monsters”
