Choco-late than never

Food is a blessing and a curse. It comforts, it coaxes but it bites and after the childhood years of eating food for fun we use food as a crutch and it’s payback…or a fat back. Equally depressing. Thing is diets are dumb and there are few things more soul destroying than calorie counting, low fat dairy or ‘portion control’. If you can’t eat for pleasure, what is the point of living?

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Shelly Preston’s fledgling Shelly and Ice Cream blog talks about food and cooking in a way which resonates with my own deep love for all things gastronomical. Her recipes are clear, concise and personable and along with the tempting introductions are sure to get even the novice chef in the mood for cooking. Take, for example, her Peas Louise version of the English classic:

God I love pea soup but it’s a real divider, especially when it’s made with ham hock. It’s a love hate soup for sure. I mostly associate pea soup with summer which is daft because we don’t have to wait until then. Frozen peas are a dream in soups; much better in fact that pod-fresh. Peas contain a high level of complex carbohydrates and bags of fibre. It’s the carbohydrates that make them naturally sweet which is why babies will happily have them introduced to their plate before any other green vegetable. I used to make this for my husband all the time before we got married…I think it sealed the deal and admittedly, it’s lifted directly from my friend Jane’s book. It’s an all-round nutritional and winter winner because it’s made with fresh fennel bulb. The aromatic, anise like flavour of fennel just clicks with peas and not unlike celery it has a warming effect on the body. When I eat this soup I end up with cheeks like belisha beacons as the embers of the fennel glow, rest and digest in my stomach. Packed with vitamin C and phytonutrients, it’s a bumper boost for your immune system too. Glow make it, it’s dead easy.…continue reading.

easy peasy

Along side her savoury selections Shelly is also a master chocolatier. Founder of Boutique Aromatique, her fine fragrant chocolates are now available at Nottingham’s Speciality & Gourmet Food Market. They are delicate and light but with the deep and heady flavours required for any truly good chocolate. Gizzi Erskine says about them:

Boutique Aromatique are masters of artisan chocolates. You can taste the best ingredients and Shelly has her finger on the pulse with inventive and well thought out flavours. The chocolate of the future.

Having previously worked with world class aromatherapists and perfumers, Shelly has transposed many of the same techniques and subtleties into her chocolate making; garnering praise, and orders, from connoisseurs and sweet toothed celebrities alike.

When I left music 8 years ago I went on an exploratory mind/body odyssey, taking all kinds of classes from anatomy & physiology to herbalism, reading everything in sight and became a bit of a yoga and whole foods obsessive. I started a new career as Product Developer in the holistic/wellbeing industry conceptualising/developing/researching and sourcing everything from green tea and incense to vitamins and essential oils. I was concerned for a long time about the provenance, grade and ethics of the ingredients and materials I was using and it was through meeting and collaborating with some of the real authorities in aromatherapy and essential oils, herbs and natural perfumery that I developed my own affinity for top drawer aromatics – it became a case of, only the best will do. Alongside my work I was also becoming aware of the (then) underground fine chocolate movement and ‘real’ chocolate became my all-consuming passion. I researched cocoa like a demon, trained to be a chocolatier, built a lab in my house and three years ago decided to move in to chocolate full-time and founded Boutique Aromatique – fine fragrant chocolate – which fuses my love of aromatics and chocolate. I work only with the finest, ethical chocolate and the most flavoursome and complex, single origin beans and the finest, top drawer aromatics (that are blended to scale as in perfumery) herbs, fruits and spices. The result is an aromatic encapsulation of the two things I love the most and thank goodness people seem to like what I’m doing…so far! – Shelly Preston