Rother Valley Country Park

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth! The weekend after my last blog post was Fathers Day so I went home to visit my dear ol dad and spend some time with the family. The weekend after this I had planned to go to Bradford to explore the Curry Festival that was on, but on the Friday I became unwell and have spent the last week ill in bed with gastroenteritis. Not fun.

I'm still not back to full cooking/baking exuberance - jacket potatoes and rice currently feature a lot in my diet - so instead I thought I would share with you a few photos of a walk I enjoyed a few weeks ago around Rother Valley Country Park.

The park is located in Sheffield, in Rother Valley (bet you'd never have guessed) and comprises of 750 acres of parkland including a large lake with a variety of walks around the perimeter with a few meandering paths further afield. You can also go cycling along the paths or canoeing, sailing or even jet-skiing on the lake itself.

It's a little hard to find and we nearly missed the entrance as you need to follow the road signs rather than use the sites postcode, as apparently, according to their official website, this takes you to a random industrial estate, no where near the entrance to the park. So no Satnav allowed!

When A and I arrived it was an unusually bright and sunny day and being out amongst the greenery, trees and sparkling lake it made for a lovely morning stroll.

I loved the sunny bright yellow field of buttercups.

We ended up back at the start and found a little cafe for a drink. They were serving food too, but it was mostly sausages rolls and sandwiches, so not really gluten friendly, so we settled on a drink and ice cream instead. I don't normally drink fizzy drinks, but I became ridiculously excited about spotting a can of Rio in the chiller cabinet. It's a drink I remember being allowed as a treat in my childhood. I haven't seen it for years and didn't know you could even get it any more. I had to have it!

Rio is a tropical (Orange, Guava, Apricot, Mango & Passion Fruit) exotic fruit juice drink made with lightly sparkling spring water. It's slightly sweet, fruity, a little exotic in flavour thanks to the slightly unusual fruits and it makes for one very refreshing drink. Ah it tasted just as I remember. The perfect end to a lovely walk.

If you are in the area, I'd recommend a visit. You do have to pay for parking, but its £3.50 for the whole day. Next time I think we'll take a book and a picnic and make a day of it.

Next weekend it's the Allergy and Free From Show in London. It's on from 4th - 6th July and is the foodie event I most look forward to each year. For a coeliac, there is something so amazing at being able to walk into a room, a room full of food stands, people giving cookery demos and tasters, and knowing you can eat ALL of it. I get very over excited each year and can't wait to attend this one.

I love discovering new companies and products not available in supermarkets. Freshly cooked pizzas, cheesecakes, brownies, breads and desserts. Go hungry and indulge in the delights! Most things are gluten free and some are also dairy, nut or soy free too. It not only caters to people with food allergies, there is also a health section for people with skin sensitivity or hay fever etc. Click here for some free tickets! Anyone else going?

My First Dosa at East & West Restaurant, Sheffield and a visit to Castleton

My parents came up to visit me over the bank holiday weekend for a belated birthday celebration. We spent the morning wandering round Sheffield city centre before going for lunch at East & West restaurant, followed by a walk in Castleton, afternoon tea and then back to mine for dinner. The sun was shining, the food delicious and the company couldn’t have been better. All in all a fabulous day.

East & West is a South Indian restaurant on Abbeydale road that apparently has been running for 5 years, but it has only just registered on my radar. They are famous for their dosa, which are huge, paper thin crispy pancakes made from rice and urid (lentil) flour. I have been watching Paul Hollywood’s Bread programme on tv and he did an episode on breads from different cultures, one of which was Indian dosa. I had never heard or seen a dosa before but the uniqueness of them and the fact they are naturally gluten free made me instantly long to try one for myself. I did a little googleling and discovered East & West restaurant that specialised in them. Until recently, they were in fact the only restaurant in Sheffield to offer dosa. Upon discovering this I immediately suggested to my parents we go there for lunch when they came to visit. Thankfully they too had been watching the bread programme and so were more than happy to accompany me.

The restaurant itself is tiny, with only 4 tables inside but we managed to get a table when we visited at lunch time. It’s quite a simple set up, but the aromas of food wafting out the kitchen were mouthwatering and it was clear everything was made fresh. The menu is made up of a few choices, with a variety of fillings or flavour varieties for each dish. It all seemed very authentic and included many dishes I have never even heard of before. However, we were on a dosa mission and all decided to order dosa.

While we waited for the food we were served our drinks. My father and I had mango lassi, while my mother chose mango juice. The lassi was delicious. Very thick and creamy from the yoghurt and nicely sweet without being sickly. The mango flavour was good too.

When our dosa’s arrived we were all very excited and impressed at the sheer size of them. They were longer than the trays they were served on! Dosa are cooked on a large flat griddle until crisp, when they are rolled around the filling of your choice and served with a selection of chutneys. I chose Masala Dosa, stuffed with a potato and onion curry mixture, while my parents both went for a Chicken Dosa, chicken and potato curry.

They filling is only in the very centre of the dosa, to ensure the rest of it remains crisp. You eat the dosa by breaking off pieces from an end, scooping up some of the filling and then dipping it into one of three chutneys – two were spicy and the third was like a cottage cheese. I love eating food with my fingers in this rustic fashion, and it made the process of eating really fun and interactive. The filling was only lightly spiced but two of three chutneys had quite a powerful kick that really pepped the dish up. Different flavours and levels of spice with each bite depending on the chutney chosen. It was delicious and surprisingly filling.

I found the dosa themselves quite salty, but the saltiness was calmed down when eaten with the filling and spiced chutneys. I loved how thin and crisp they were. The mango lassi was also great at calming the mouth and preventing anything from getting too hot. It was such a unique dish to me that I could quite happily go back every day for a week to eat another one. It was a very simple yet delicious lunch.

After lunch we drove to Castleton and had a quick wander round the village before trekking up to the ruins of Peveril Castle at the top of Peak Cavern (also affectionately known as The Devil’s Arse!) There is good parking at or nearby the visitors centre.

There are a couple of routes you can go to get up there, but we decided to climb up Cave Dale, which is a meandering rocky trail up an old river way, through the hills. The beginning was quite steep and rocky in parts, but the scenery was stunning. From the top it leveled out and we were treated to a spectacular view over Castleton. We then clambered back down a very steep grassy hill (the hardest part) and back round into Castleton for afternoon tea.

It was a lovely way to celebrate my belated birthday and it was so lovely to spend some time with my family again. The day was perfect, it almost felt like a little holiday and I didn’t want it to end.

Stanage Edge – Peak District

Over last weekends bank holiday my parents came up for a visit and we decided to go and explore a bit of the Peak District. I hadn’t been back to it since leaving uni, but I loved my weekends wandering the countryside so much, that I was eager to return.

We went to Stanage Edge, which to me has some of the scenic and breathtaking rock formations in the peaks. Huge boulders and chunks of rock scattered all the way along a huge stretch of the peaks, overhanging the edge of the cliffs. The photos don’t do it justice.

Once we’d clambered up to the top, the views and surroundings were just as good as I remembered. The dark jagged rocks are just so striking and the sense of openness and space is just wonderful. You can look around and not see anyone else for miles, except of course for the odd obligatory sheep.

It was rather a stormy day and while we were up there we kept hearing thunder rumbling in the distance and when we started seeing the lightening heading towards us we decided it was time to scurry back down to the car. We only just made it to. Looking back we could actually see the rain approaching, which made it all the more thrilling!

I’m hoping to find a group or a willing friend to come fell walking with me, as I can’t resist the lure of going and exploring some more!

Chatsworth House Walk

I am a member of the universities walking club and we go on walks most Sundays, usually around the peak district. However, today we thought we would have a change and do a bit of historical sight seeing and so we are hopped on bus to Baslow and explored the grounds and surroundings of the magnificent Chatsworth House. Click here for the official site. Here’s a picture of some of the club members, strolling through the grounds.

I have visited it once before, again with the walking club, in the depth of a very bleak and cold January the previous year. It was much more enjoyable today with the sun shining and only a cool breeze blowing. You only have to walk a short distance through the village of Baslow and down a little track and then suddenly, wham, the house just appears from behind some trees, looking like its miles away from anywhere. You are free to enjoy the grounds and if you are lucky enough you may even spot the odd deer and obligatory sheep.

We spent the day doing a large circle of the house by wandering through some fields (getting good and muddy) and along some woodland paths. In fact we explored one particular stretch of fields rather too thoroughly, thanks to our 17 year old map!!! We only discovered it was so out of date when we came across a very tall wall blocking our path that wasn’t shown on the map and causing our supposed ‘shortcut’ to turn into a scenic detour. But the views were worth it.

I was amazed to discover that in the more sheltered parts of the woodland there were large patches of Snowdrops. I think they look so pretty nestled among the fallen branches. At one point we left a woodland path and were confronted with a very tall and unusual tower that overlooked the back of Chatsworth House and was surrounded by cannons. It must have been some sort of lookout tower and was most impressive.

We cut back down to the house and walked back through the grounds and back to the bus stop. We had to wait over an hour for our bus to turn up. It wasn’t that we missed the first bus and had to wait for the next one, it just turned up 45 minutes late. Still, it was a great day and lovely to walk with a group of likeminded people, who don’t care if you are all splashed with mud and look like you have just been pulled through a hedge backwards.