People are always asking us for recipes for things we serve in the Tearooms, to the point were we now keep a stock of photocopies behind the counter. If you went back home without a bread recipe, this page is for you...

Nessa's Bread

• 4 cups of organic white self raising flour
• 2 cups of organic bran
• 1 cup of organic oats
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of bread soda
• 3 organic eggs
• milk until wet

Put everything into a mixer. Mix well. Grease the bread tins really well. Fill each tin half full with mixture and use a fork to spread it around a bit. Bake at 180F for about an hour. Check if it's cooked using a knife - if the knife comes out clean they're done.

We use mugs to measure instead of cups. A mug would be about 250ml in volume, and would yield three loaves. You don't have to use organic ingredients if you can't get them.

Julia's Tomato Soup

• 1/2 kg onions
• 1/2 a small head of celery
• 1 bulb of fennel
• 7 cloves of garlic

Sweat these ingredients in oil and butter until really soft but not brown. Add large sprigs of thyme, rosemary, sage, a couple of bay leaves, salt and pepper. Cook for another five minutes. Add 1 kg (1 litre) of passata and cook for 5 - 10 minutes. Add 1 litre of water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for half an hour at least. Remove the bay, thyme, rosemary and sage sprigs. Blend. Add another 700 ml of passata, another half litre of water and the juice of a lemon. Taste and season with sugar, salt and pepper if needed.