Claire's Culinary Adventures

Roast Veg Leftovers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:20:00 +0000

I think some of our most amazing meals come from giving leftovers a second lease of life.

When we had loads of leftover roast veg, stuffing and crispy bacon from our Christmas meal, I made these...

I put the leftovers (roast potatoes, stuffing, bacon, etc) through the blender, but just a bit so it still has texture. I didn't bother blending the brussels and leaks as they were already the correct consistency. Put all the soft veg into a bowl, added an egg, fresh chopped shallots and garlic. Combine together with hands and form into round balls.

Roast in the oven (about 180 degrees or gas mark 6) for about 20 mins and hey presto, some great picnic food or a great veg accompaniment to a meal.

This works with almost any roast veg and works with fresh veg in summer months when you have a glut in the garden.

You can turn left overs into something really delicious.

Ingredients

Leftover veg
Egg
Shallots
Garlic

Winter comfort in a bowl of pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:17:00 +0000

Its cold today, really brrrr cold. The type of cold you need a hot bath when you get home to warm your toes after the 10 minute walk home from the bus stop. The ground thought it was cold too. The pavement sparkled like it had little tiny diamonds.

I had my bath, had a quick browse through my twitter feed and I fell upon Nigella Lawson's picture of what she is eating tonight. Truffle risotto. It looked so comforting that it inspired me to cook something really comforting and warming.

I needed to boil some pasta to beef up another dish for my work lunch box (I love taking in home cooking that can quickly be microwaved at work - a bit of comfort in the office that usually starts conversations as my colleagues smell my food!)

In a frying pan I put in some chopped bacon to start and then added some peppers and mushrooms that needed using up. Chopped an onion, garlic, added a generous handful of chopped kale and lightly fried together.

To finish I added some soft goats cheese to make a sauce and added the pasta to the frying pan. I like the pasta to really mingle with the other flavours for the last five minutes. I also love the pasta to just get a little browned.

All the ingredients for this meal (apart from the pasta) were left overs from the weekend. Kale, well we always have some kale on hand at this time of year. One of those excellent, hardy, winter veg.

What I got was a really comforting, curl up by the fire kind of a meal. Exactly what I wanted and I didn't even need to season it.

Ingredients
Bacon (chopped, 3 slices)
Onion (one onion chopped)
Garlic
Kale (4 medium pieces of kale, roughly chopped)
Capsicum Peppers
Mushrooms
Goats cheese (with added chives, soft cheese)
Pasta

End of season nasturtium pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:17:00 +0000

There's a big frost coming tonight, hopefully it will warm a little during the day tomorrow, but I fear its the last chance saloon for those yummy nasturtium leaves.

I finished work at 4.15pm today so I thought if I hurry home I may be able to harvest those leaves in the light. Sadly it was dark by 4.45pm so it was a job to be done with my trusty head torch!

I managed to harvest 30g of leaves. Pretty good for some last of the season pesto.

I didn't have all the usual ingredients for the pesto and threw it together with what I had in the kitchen but it made some mighty fine pesto.

Here's tonight's ingredients:

30g pesto leaves
Rapeseed oil/balsamic vinegar (left over from a used jar of slow roasted tomatoes)
2 garlic cloves
A generous scoop of pickled nasturtium seeds

I whizzed it together in the food processor and it's something like a vinaigrette pesto combination. When I tasted it for seasoning it was perfect - no seasoning required. Very peppery!

Blackberries for Breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 10:24:00 +0000

It's Saturday morning, had my lie in and then started to feel a little peckish.

Wandered downstairs and fancied something a little different and decadent. There was no crumble left :( which is my usual decadent (if a little naughty) breakfast with minimum effort!

On weekdays I usually do some porridge. It's perfect, fills me up and all I have to do is throw a couple of table spoons of oats and a little milk - straight in the microwave and job done. A little bit of my rosehip and apple jelly to sweeten. Quicky breakfast.

But this morning was a weekend morning, I couldn't just have porridge. That would be boring. You need a little decadence on a weekend - we work hard all week, we need a little bit of something special on the weekends. Not much in the fridge for inspiration. My utility room has about 4kg of apples storing nicely, they wouldn't do... but fruit ... hmmm... I like sweet things and the freezer's full of freshly foraged goodies. The only ones that would really do as fast food are blackberries.

Today's method:

Bashed the frozen bag a little to loosen up a few blackberries and tossed them into the bowl with a few spoonfuls of porridge oats and some milk.

Microwaved for 3 mins (the blackberries need a few minutes to thaw)

Poured a little honey for extra weekend decadence...

And enjoyed the most wonderful, filling, fruity, weekend breakfast. One of the highlights is that it turns the porridge purple!

Garam Masala Cauliflower Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 09:40:00 +0000

These have been in quite an abundance recently, especially with our wet summer.

Brassicas are one crop that should be happy with our wet summer and these have been making regular appearances in the kitchen but what to do with the beauties? So I hit the cookery books for some inspiration and added a twist to this old favourite.

It's truly delicious and has become a firm favourite in our home.

Garam Masala Cauliflower Cheese

(your kitchen will smell amazing!)

Ingredients:
Block of cheese (about 200g)
1 cauliflower
Few rashes of bacon (optional)
Full fat milk/single cream (cream makes the sauce thicker)
Butter
Flour
Onion
Garam Masala
Turmeric
Bit of chilli powder (optional - if you like it spicy)
Breadcrumbs (optional)

1. Chop your cauliflower and grill two or three pieces of bacon.
2. In a medium saucepan start the sauce by adding a little butter (or marg for lactose intollerance). Once the butter starts to melt whisk it in to the flour so it is all mixed together. Start by adding the milk or cream little by little and whisking in really well. When the bottom of your pan is about covered you can add bigger splashes of milk or cream mixing in well. Simmer for half an hour or so until the sauce looks thick and creamy.
3. Once the sauce is thick season it with your chosen spices and add half of your block of cheese (grated) into the sauce mixing in slowly until combined. Once all the milk and cheese has combined and is becoming a nice thick sauce it is ready. When you think its nearly ready check the spices are exactly to your liking and if you want more of a bite add a little bit (or a lot) of chilli powder to taste.
4. Put everything into an oven dish and grate lots of cheese over the top so that it will brown nicely. (or if you want a crunchy, cheesy top mix some breadcrumbs with the cheese before putting the cheese on your dish).
5. Place in an oven - about gas mark 5 / 180 degrees until nicely browned.

Garlic Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:58:00 +0000

When I left my last garden, I wasn't sure whether to take my garlic with me or do something culinary with it.

For the sake of easing our muscles in a very long distance move I opted for the culinary. (It also looked like one bulb had been taken by white rot).

And what a good idea it was... I came up with garlic pesto to use up my juvenile garlic shoots. Its incredibly strong but an amazing garnish for roasting asparagus in - it just tastes devine!!

Recipe

50g garlic shoots, bulbs - anything that looks fresh on the garlic plants
50 ml Lemon/Lime juice
150 ml Rapeseed Oil
Salt to taste

Method

1. Chuck everything into a blender until everything's well mixed and looks like pesto
2. Pour into a bottle. If the pesto is not liquid enough, add a bit more oil and shake it in the bottle until well mixed.

We called our bottle of garlic pesto "Brathway Garlic" to remind us of our last home which was on Brathway Road, Wandsworth.

Sourdough Starter Update

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:31:00 +0000

From day to day my sourdough starter went through various changes. As in the instructions I followed these were only described as lively and not so lively, I thought I would document them for any one else who wants to make their own starter and wants an indication of what to expect.

Day 1 Activity

Air bubbles formed. A few of these were a couple of mm diameter but most of these were minute bubbles. But air bubbles nevertheless which is a good sign of activity. Towards the end of the 24 hours and the main sign that the sourdough starter needed feeding was the large bubbles had shrunk in size.

Day 2 Activity

There were similar air bubbles to day 1, but this time there was also white circular shaped patches (similar to what appears on bread dough when you leave it to prove). When these died down I saw that it was time to feed the starter again.

Day 3 Activity

The starter was really starting get very active by this time with masses of large bubbles a bit like the size of bubbles babies blow in the mouths. The bubbles were using most of the space available at the top of the container so about 2 - 3 inches of this mass of bubbles created above the top level of the starter mixture.

Day 4 Activity

There were more uniform bubbles this time. Lots of tiny bubbles. I added mainly spelt flour for the feed this time so I think this may have had an impact.

Day 5 Activity

Again, uniform bubbles across the surface of the mixture. They were larger this time and I used the multigrain flour. I am finding I have more reaction from the multigrain than the spelt.

The starter is now smelling sweet and the same everyday now and the reaction is at the same rate and more predicable now so I think it's ready to use.

The starter when it has lots of activity

I continued to feed it daily for another two days and then started to make my sponge for my first sourdough loaves. Here's a picture of the sponge bubbling away.

It made some wonderful tasting spelt sourdough bread with rather a sweet taste. I kept the dough too moist though which made it difficult to form into rounds and flopped a bit when baked so I think I need to fine tune the recipe before I publish it. Naturally I will use 50ml less water next time and more salt. However, it was wonderful to see some lovely large bubbles in the loaves which were all made with my sourdough starter instead of with bought yeast.

My first sourdough starter

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:58:00 +0000

I've decided that now is the time to start my very own sour dough starter. Hopefully this will be a start of a very long relationship!

I've started it with 100g of flour (mixture of spelt and mixed grain flour) and roughly the same amount of luke warm water.

I whisked the mixture until it looked the same consistency as pancake batter and put cling film over the top of the bowl.

Already I can see three bubbles forming...

I have left it in a warm place for the fermentation to begin.

Tomorrow I will check it again. At that stage if it's looking lively with bubbles and the cling film is a little risen then it will be time to feed it again with 30g flour and 30ml water.

The instructions on Real Bread say to continue this process for 5 more days (about 7 days in total). After about 7 days it should start smelling yeasty, sweet, fruity and it is at this point that it will be ready to use to bake with.

Since starting to write this blog my starter has one more bubble...

Asparagus - How do you eat yours?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:34:00 +0000

I love this season. You know the one... when asparagus starts gracing local farmers markets with its lovely presence. Our very own delicacy which grows so easily over here. A real treat in the eating seasonal food calendar.

These were the first sprigs I bought so I really wanted to do them justice.

I smeared home made spring garlic pesto all over them and roasted them with some slow roasted tomatoes that I harvested from my garden last autumn.

The garlic pesto was made with garlic I started growing last autumn but in the spring, before we were about to move to Birmingham, I noticed what looked like white rot on one bulb. Not wanting to risk transporting infected garlic to my new garden in Birmingham, I made a very powerful pesto with all the parts of the garlic that had grown so far. The result is probably the most potent garlic pesto I have ever tasted and it really complements roasting vegetables - and it tastes devine with asparagus!

Preserving Foraged Fruits

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:40:00 +0000

It might seem like a funny time of the year to be writing about this. Autumn and winter would be slightly more appropriate but I'm moving house in a few weeks and have been sorting out my freezer trying to use up those frozen foods before the big move to Birmingham.

Out of the various things stuffed into our really tiny freezer compartment I found a few gems I'd collected last summer and autumn... a bag of 250g blackberries, 500g hawthorn berries and 500g elderberries. Laziness was the only excuse for not doing something with them in the autumn. Maybe it was the distraction of my boyfriend returning from a tour of duty but these are only excuses at the end of the day. At the time I had just learned to make chutney and my very own tomato ketchup which has to be one of the most delicious things I've ever made.

I had plans for these bags of fruit, the haw berries were destined to be made into haw berry ketchup and the elderberries' destiny was a pontack sauce. Both these recipes were in my Preserves Handbook (River Cottage) which is currently my preserving bible.

So yesterday I spent the day in my kitchen with these bubbling concoctions made from last autumn's foraged foods.

There's something so special about cooking foraged foods. They are like gifts from nature. The majority of people walk past them, none the wiser that they could be made into delicious foods. I remember when I was picking them, riding around on my bike, intently inspecting every bush in all the public parks within a 2 mile radius of my London flat armed with freezer bags. I especially remember picking the elderberries from the back of a bush and passers by looking at me in an almost alarmed way - What's she doing?! When I was picking the blackberries some teenagers spotted me and one said to the other "I told you they were edible!!"

I made a delicious rosehip and apple jelly last autumn but then lost the momentum.

But right now, I've got it back. The haw berry ketchup is complete and tastes delicious. I got my boyfriend's approval with that one. He had some with his sausages this morning!

I am still working on the pontack sauce. It is currently simmering on the oven and I am sure it will make another delicious sauce.

There is something so grounding about making preserves out of foraged foods, I'm now hooked again!

Haw Berry Sauce (makes 300ml sauce)

Ingredients: 500g hawthorn berries, 300ml white wine vinegar, 300ml water, 150g sugar, pepper and salt to taste

How: Simmer the haw berries in 300ml water and 300ml vinegar for half an hour or so. What you are looking for is the haw berries getting soft and the sauce looking red-brown in colour. Take off the heat and rub through a sieve pushing as much as you possibly can through the sieve leaving the large stones behind. You will get a nice pureed type paste of haw berries in the pan below the sieve. Simmer this liquid adding in the sugar. Simmer for about 5 minutes and add salt and pepper to taste. When it is completely to your liking, pour into your sauce bottle.

Pontack Sauce (makes 350ml sauce)

Ingredients: 500g elderberries, 500ml cider vinegar, 200g chopped shallots, 6 cloves, 4 allspice berries, handful of peppercorns, nugget of ginger or teaspoon of ginger paste.

How: Put the elderberries mixed with the cider vinegar in a dish and put them in the oven on a low heat (about 120 degrees C) for about 6 hours. Next, put the mixture into a saucepan and add the chopped shallots and all the spices. Simmer for about half an hour. Next, pour the mixture through a sieve. Next, bring the mixture to the boil for 5 minutes and pour into your sauce bottle.

Roasted Roots for supper

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:13:00 +0000

Today I harvested root veg. From crops of carrots, parsnips and beetroots I steamed the beetroot tops and roasted all the roots.

As my crops of root veg are rather modest in size! they didn't take long to roast. I only put the heat of the oven to about 140 degrees C and they took about half an hour to roast. I roasted them with a chopped shallot and some garlic.

When they were ready I mixed in some goats cheese and a little chilli and mixed it in well. I steamed the beetroot tops and made a light vinaigrette to flavour the tops (rapeseed oil, whole grain mustard, a touch of balsamic vinegar)

I was really surprised but this meal was really filling and satisfying in the knowledge that all my ingredients were grown organically in my garden. Yum :)

Stuffed Gem Squash

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:37:00 +0000

Do you remember the gem squash I grew in the garden last summer? Gem Squash - the intrepid explorer Yesterday, I thought it was time to do my home grown gem squash justice and what a delicious dish it made. I just have to share it with you!

As my boyfriend is lactose intolerant I stuffed his gem squash with my home grown Slow Roasted Tomatoes, a finely chopped shallot, a mix of herbs ground with a pestle and mortar (oregano, chilli flakes, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaf, salt and pepper), poured some of the oil the slow roasted tomatoes were in and mixed the herbs with the stuffing by stirring around with a tea spoon and put the lid on.

I, on the other hand am not lactose intolerant and have a serious addiction to cheese - particularly nice, soft goats cheese! So I started off stuffing my gem squash with a good scoop of goats cheese, slow roasted tomatoes, a drizzle of the oil the slow roasted tomatoes were stored in and the mix of herbs I used in Matt's gem squash.

I accompanied these with some lamb cutlets with a good spread of my home made (and home grown) Nasturtium Pesto

Then I roasted them all in the oven for an hour at 180 degrees centigrade.

Here's how they looked straight out of the oven after an hour. When they came out the oven they smelt absolutely devine and tasted absolutely scrumptious.

Recipes used in the making of this meal:
Nasturtium Pesto
Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Nasturtium Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:22:00 +0000

If you have been reading my blogs through the summer, you will know I am a big fan of eating nasturtiums.

They are really a wonderful thing to have growing in your kitchen garden and so versatile as flowers, leaves and seeds all have an intense peppery flavour. In the summer months I was eating salads with nasturtium leaves and inspired to pickle the seeds Pickled Nasturtium Seeds - a supply of which I still have in my cupboard for adding to my winter salads and adding to sauces.

They grow so easily in the UK, so why strive to find enough basil leaves to make pesto when its easier to get your hands of 50g of nasturtium leaves?

In the recipe below, I've tried to use ingredients that are available in the UK and as many of them from my garden to keep those food miles down. Who needs pine nuts that are usually produced in China when a kitchen garden sunflower can provide us with enough seeds for a few jars?

It really compliments fish but is great on toast, with pasta, even flavouring potatoes and I'm sure with some imagination there are many more uses.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

50g Nasturtium Leaves
4 Garlic Gloves
Teaspoon Nasturtium Seeds or Pickled Nasturtium Seeds
50g Sunflower seeds (preferably home grown)
75g Hard local goat's cheese
50 ml Lemon/Lime juice
150 ml Rapeseed Oil
Salt to taste

Method

This is the easiest method I have ever described and there are two schools of thought for producing pesto.
1. Chuck everything into a blender until everything's well mixed and looks like pesto
2. With a good sized pestle and mortar pummel all your ingredients together.

Which method do you prefer?

When the mixture has been placed into jars, I like to keep one in the fridge for regular use and the other jars in the freezer until I need them.

I used to buy artisan pesto from my local farmer's market, but now I know how easy it is to make my own there's no turning back to bought pesto again!

Apples with Garam Masala

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:50:00 +0000

Chopped apples with Garam Masala, chopped onions and chopped black pudding (from local butcher)

A few days ago I was making a curry and one of the spices the recipe asked for was Garam Masala. Before using all the new herbs and spices, I smelt each jar just to see if I had any more ideas for the new spices in my cupboard. One of which being ground Garam Masala and as soon as I took a whiff of this one I thought this might be good with apples.

My mum gave me a bag of apples from her orchard so I've been trying to think up new ideas with the apples so last night as I was lightly frying some apples in a savoury dish I tossed in a teaspoon of Garam Masala.

I have to tell you apples and Garam Masala make amazing bed fellows - it was delicious!

It makes for a wonderfully smell in the kitchen too - great for winter evenings.

Happy experimenting :)

Mashed Potatoes & Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:53:00 +0000

Tonight as I was making some mashed potatoes with some fried onions and bacon bits, I thought I'd add some sweet peppers I've got growing on some plants in my flat. I lightly fried the peppers, onions and bacon bits and as I was mashing up the potatoes at the end thought I'd add a generous portion of chilli flakes. As this was a real winner in my home I thought I'd share it with you.

Ingredients:

Potatoes (for mashing)
Margarine/Butter (for the potato mash)
2 chopped onions
5 chopped garlic
2 sweet chillies
3 slices of bacon
Chilli flakes (I leave the quantity up to you)

Method:

1. Peel, chop and boil the potatoes until soft.
2. Chop the onions, garlic and sweet peppers.
3. Fry the onions, garlic and sweet peppers on a low heat. When they are done remove them from the heat.
4. Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry.
5. Drain and mash the potatoes with a good dollop of margarine or butter.
6. Add the bacon, onions, garlic and sweet peppers to the mix and mix well in.
7. Sprinkle some chilli flakes into the mix. Mix in and taste. Add more chilli flakes if you need more heat.
8. Enjoy!! Great for a cool autumn evening.

Beetroot Brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:28:00 +0000

I recently received a bag of beetroot from a community garden so have been trying to find something to make that uses beetroot.

I could roast them with garlic which is delicious, but I'd made that before and wanted to try something new and a friend suggested beetroot brownies.

The first time I tried these they were with dark cooking chocolate but this time I decided to go all out and make it with Green & Black's dark chocolate with cherries which has 70% cocoa. It was definitely worth it if a little expensive!!

These made really sumptuous, moist, crumbly, delicious brownies and here's the recipe:

Ingredients

200g Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa)
250g Margarine / butter
250g Sugar
3 medium free range eggs
75g self raising flour
250g beetroot (boiled until you can slide a fork into them easily)

Method

1   Melt the margarine/butter and chocolate.
2   Beat the eggs with the sugar while the chocolate and margarine/butter are melting and then once they are fully melted combine with the beaten eggs and sugar.
3   Start to preheat your oven at 180 degrees C
4   Mix in the flour with a large spoon
5   Chop the beetroot until its in very small pieces then add these to the mix. Once all nicely combined your mixture is ready.
6   Grease your baking tin and pour in the mixture
7   Put your brownies in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes and enjoy the smell in your kitchen while they bake
8   Enjoy!!

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:39:00 +0000

This is my all time favourite way to preserve tomatoes. I do it every year without fail. I love the way the slow roasting intensifies the sweet flavour of the fresh out of the garden tomatoes and then you've trapped that sweetness in a jar ready to brighten up the speediest of meals through the winter months. They are always such a treat.

Before I started to eat seasonally I adored the flavour of sun dried and sun blushed tomatoes. We don't have enough sun to do it here so this is the closest we can get to doing this locally and seasonally. It works best with the freshest tomatoes and straight out of the garden is best. It is also the most wonderful way to extend the tomato eating season well into winter when the main things growing outside are brassicas. Actually slow roasted tomatoes compliment food like cabbage, kohl rabi, turnip greens absolutely perfectly.

Ingredients

12 tomatoes / 500g will fill a standard jam jar
Balsamic Vinegar
White Wine Vinegar
Rapeseed Oil

Method

1. Cut your tomatoes in half (about 12 tomatoes or 500g will be sufficient for a typical jam jar)
2. Lay them on the grill tray cut side up and put the oven on the lowest temp the oven has (my oven's lowest temp is 80 degrees C).
3. Then leave them in the oven checking progress about once an hour. They take about 6 - 8 hours to fully dry. When they are ready they are still a little plump and firm to the touch (not completely dried out and hard or soft and squashy)
4. Allow the tomatoes to cool
5. Then put them in a dish with a little vinegar (about 50% white vinegar / 50% balsamic). This should be enough vinegar to just cover the tomatoes
6. After about 15 mintues they are ready to be packed into their jar. Pour in the tomatoes with the vinegar and pour enough oil to completely cover the tomatoes.
7. Seal the jars - I do this by placing the jars in a bath of simmering water for 20 minutes. There are other methods and a good preserving cook book will offer a variety of methods.
8. Label your jars. Store in your food cupboard for up to 4 months and once you open a jar, store in the fridge and consume within a month.

Roasted Tomato Ketchup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:16:00 +0000

As I've had so many green tomatoes to use lately, I made this ketchup with a mixture of green, red and yellow tomatoes. It really is delicious, I don't think I'm ever going to buy ketchup again and I will certainly make it every autumn forever more. I now cannot eat sausages without it and if I can keep some for the barbecue season next year I will be in heaven. Maybe an autumn barbecue will be in order.

Ingredients:

1kg tomatoes (Halved)
200g shallots (peeled and chopped)
4 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped)
Some rosemary
Teaspoon salt
Teaspoon ground black pepper
Teaspoon sugar
50ml rapeseed oil
100ml balsamic vinegar
50ml lemon juice
100g Teaspoon of mustard seeds

Method:

1. Put the halved tomatoes cut side up into a large oven proof dish and sprinkle the chopped shallots, garlic cloves, rosemary, teaspoon salt, teaspoon ground black pepper, tea spoon sugar and the oil over the tomatoes.
2. Roast for an hour at 180 degrees centigrade.
3. After an hour take them out of the oven and push the tomatoes through a sieve.
4. Put the tomato puree into a large pan and add the vinegar, lemon juice and the mustard seeds
5. Simmer until the ketchup is at your preferred consistancy (I simmer for about 30 minutes)

Green Tomato Chutney

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:54:00 +0000

I've been inundated with green tomatoes lately, with people begging me to take them from recent tomato blight attacks.

So what better time to dig out the cook books and cook up some tomato preserves.

Wanting to do something with the generously given free food I had to do something with them quick before they spoiled, so tomato chutney it is.

Ingredients:

3kg green tomatoes (peeled and chopped in small pieces)
500g apples (peeled and chopped in small pieces)
500g onions (peeled and chopped in small pieces)
500g sugar
600ml white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons chilli powder
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons ground bay leaf

Method:

1. Chop the tomatoes, apples and onions. The smaller the pieces the better. When you've finished chopping add all the ingredients to a large pan. (Use a wooden spoon for stirring)
2. Bring to the boil, stirring gently and then simmer the mixture.
3. Simmer for 3 - 4 hours, checking on it occasionally to make sure it is not sticking to the base of the pan.
4. The chutney is ready when it looks rich and thick but you can still see the shape of the vegetable/fruit pieces. The true test is when you can drag the wooden spoon across the base and you can see the bottom of the pan momentarily.

Baked Chard Orbs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:33:00 +0000

I was given 800g of rainbow chard. A kind gift for some volunteer work at a city centre community garden, but what to do with it?

I was just about to go to visit my family in a couple of days so felt I had to do something with the free chard or they may be wasted, but what to cook?

I recently came upon a courgette polpette recipe and thought I would tweak it slightly and use the chard in a similar way.

This dish just uses the stalks.

1. Dice the stalks and chop some onions or shallots. Lightly fry for 10 minutes.

2. Chop a couple of chillies and several garlic cloves (for the flavouring)

3. Crack open a couple of eggs and whisk

4. Put the chopped chillies, garlic cloves and eggs in a mixing bowl.

5. Add 100g bread crumbs and 100g goats cheese to the mixing bowl.

6. The stalks and chopped onions should be ready to add to the mixture now.

7. Get a tin tray ready and grease it. Then turn on the oven to preheat at 200 degrees centigrade.

8. Next make sure the mixture in the bowl is well mixed and evenly distributed. Then make the orb shapes out of the mixture with your hands.

9. Place the orbs on the tin tray and then place in the oven for about 10 - 20 minutes. (Check them after 10 minutes). Remove them from the oven when they are golden brown.

Ingredients I used for this recipe

500g chard stalks (or a good crop of chard stalks, I'm sure 200g would work perfectly well)
5 shallots
Garlic bulb
100g bread crumbs (best from home made fresh bread)
100g crumbly goats cheese
2 eggs

Have you got any great ideas for excess chard?

Scone Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:08:00 +0000

Got lots of new summer preserves? Well there's nothing better for them to go with than some gorgeous straight out of the oven fresh scones.

I've been baking scones since I was about 7 years old. My mother must have taught me as I loved eating mum's straight out of the oven, butter melting, jam warming scones. It was something we cooked when the oven was hot.

We had an old Rayburn which was coal powered so we would have to heat up the oven to over 400 degrees fahrenheit. As soon as the dial reached 400 degrees, we'd whip out the big bowl and start making our mixture.

By the age of 10 I was displaying my scones at our local village fair. I didn't win a prize for my scones, but when we came to collect them, they'd gone! Mum told me, that it must be because they were just too tasty that they'd disappeared!!

So here's how I make my scones...

1. Pour 300g self raising flour into your mixing bowl.

(For my friends in Hong Kong self raising flour may be difficult to find. Baking powder and white flour will do the same job...300g white flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder)

2. Pour in 100g sugar into the bowl

3. And add 75g margarine (I use margarine because my boyfriend's lactose intolerant but use butter if you prefer)

4. Mix all the ingredients together with your finger tips and keep mixing until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs

5. Pour 120 ml full fat milk (raw milk from you local dairy or farmers market is best or lacto free milk for lactose intolerant sufferers). Break an egg into the jug too and whisk together.

6. If you would like raisins in your scones, mix them into the breadcrumb like mixture now.

7. Make a well in the middle of the mixture in the bowl with a wooden spoon and pour about half the liquid mixture in the middle. Work the mixture together with your wooden spoon. When done, repeat the process for the rest of the liquid mixture. Again work it through with the wooden spoon and when its worked through its time to get your hands in a knead the mixture together with your hands. If the dough feels a little wet add a little flour, or if too dry add a little more milk. If you are happy, it's time to get your dough on the table and switch on the oven at a temp of 200 degrees centigrade.

8. Get a metal tray out of the cupboard and flour the tray. Flatten the scone dough (I do this with the palms of my hands but you can use a rolling pin if you like). With a pastry cutter cut your scones out of the dough and place on the tray. Next you are ready to put the scones in the oven. They should be ready within 10 - 20 minutes (depending how fierce your oven is). Keep an eye on them and as soon as they are golden brown, get them out of the oven and allow to cool.

Or if you are brave or prepared to risk burnt fingers, pick a hot scones, break it open and melt some butter and jam and let them melt in your mouth. Yum!

Ingredients List:

300g Self raising organic flour
100g Sugar
75g Butter or margarine
1 Medium free range egg
120ml Full fat milk
100g Sultanas

Pickled Nasturtium Seeds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:06:00 +0000

Nasturtiums have really brightened up my summer salads this year with their peppery leaves. I think I'm hooked!

If you haven't tried these flavourful leaves I highly recommend you try them. Nasturtiums are in the same family as water cress.

And in my garden and my community gardens right now, the nasturtiums are growing thick and strong in great clumps with their cheerful yellow and red flowers in all their different varieties.

This summer I found out you could eat the seeds too! The seeds pack a really good punch too and can be used in the place of capers to spice up salads. You can even pickle them to ensure that this summer season delight can brighten up autumn, winter and spring meals too.

The first step is to put the seeds into a jar with a tablespoon of salt and fill the jar with water. Leave for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, rinse the seeds in water

Dry the seeds on kitchen towel and pat dry.

Next step is to prepare the vinegar and flavourings.

Chop your favourite chilli. Ideally the chilli should be fresh from your garden, greenhouse or windowsill.

And add them to a saucepan.

Then add 12 peppercorns (or a small handful).

And a tablespoon of salt.

Finally add 400 ml of white wine vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes.

While the vinegar is simmering, start to put the nasturtium seeds in a sterilised jar. Put a single layer of seeds down.

Then a layer of finely chopped onion. Then continue with an alternating layer of each seeds, onions, seeds, onions etc.

When you have finished filling the jar, the vinegar mixture should have simmered long enough. Allow to cool, then pour the mixture into the jar.

After a week you will be able to add your pickled nasturtium seeds to salads, pasta, meat dishes - anything which you would like to add a peppery flavour.

Ingredients

Nasturtium seeds       About 100g (or a good handful)
Salt                            Tablespoon
White Wine Vinegar 400ml
Peppercorns              12 (or a small handful)
Chilli                         1
Onion                         1

Ornamental Edible Garden

Courgette Hummus

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:30:00 +0000

My boyfriend's due home in a few days. I've been willing my whole garden to grow lots of food for him with plant food in the form of worm tea, wishful thinking and lots of watering. The tomatoes are refusing to ripen but I do have a lot of squash growing out there.

On the courgette plant (as I was only successful at getting one seed to germinate) I pollinated one courgette and was letting it grow big as I wanted to save some seeds. This plant is such a good cropper I do want to save some seed from it. Unfortunately, it looks like the whole plant is putting all its energies into this one courgette and stalling on ripening more. I decided it was time to remove this courgette to give the other fruit a chance. It was approximately 25cm long. I should have plenty of time to let courgettes grow later in the season when I grow tired of the glut. Right now I need good crops available to cook for Matt in about 3 days time!

So what to do with a 300g courgette? I hit my favourite seasonal cookbook "Grown in Britain Cook Book" which lists its recipes by crop group. I stumbled on a recipe for pumpkin hummus and this gave me the inspiration for courgette hummus.

I'd never made hummus before. I love eating hummus but as chickpeas are imported to the UK I have avoided making it in the past. But I thought, just this once I would make some at home and bought a bag of dried chickpeas on my last trip to the shops. So I had already rehydrated the chickpeas when I was trying to think what to do with the big courgette - now I could give it a local twist.

I started by chopping 3 garlic cloves in the food mixer.

Then chopped courgette went into the mixer.

I had no idea how much water courgettes contain! Still it made wonderful courgette puree!

Courgette puree and chopped garlic

Next, I put 200g chickpeas in the food mixer

Pureed chickpeas

Next step, I combined the garlic, courgette and chickpeas together.

Mixing the courgette, chickpeas and garlic

And finally the best bit.. it was time for the seasoning: Tahini, lemon juice and paprika to taste. Followed by a few good blobs of olive oil.

And here's what the finished result looked like...

Courgette Hummus

Not bad for my first go!

Great with some soldiers of home baked bread or even slice up spare raw squash - perfect for a bit of crunch.

Ingredients:
200g chickpeas
300g courgette (or a medium sized squash - I wouldn't worry about the weight being too exact)
3 cloves of garlic
Table spoon Tahini (adjust quantity to personal taste)
2 Table spoons Lemon juice (adjust quantity to personal taste)
3 Table spoons Olive Oil/Rapeseed Oil
A few pinches of Paprika (adjust quantity to personal taste)

A good summer roast

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:17:00 +0000

With all the squash

Crookneck Summer Squash - Seeds from Real Seeds

and courgettes ripening in our gardens, its time to get the squash recipes out...

Striata di Napoli - Seeds from Real Seeds

One of the first things I did when I had my very first courgettes grew in my garden was to lightly fry them with tomatoes and garlic. I thought this tasted absolutely amazing. It was the first time I was eating food I'd grown myself. It was like nectar from the gods!!

Since then, I've discovered roasting vegetables is a wonderful thing to do with vegetables as it brings out the sugars in them.

Zapallito de Toscana - Seeds from Heritage Seed Library

One of my favourite veggie roasts is to roast squash with a good slice of mild goats cheese and a sprinkle of chilli powder on top if you like it a bit spicy. Also, I like to roast them in the midst of lots of chopped onion and garlic. Onion has a wonderfully sweet flavour when roasted which compliments squash perfectly. If you are a carnivore, pork and apple sausages from your local butchers or farmers market will compliment the roasted squash and onions perfectly. You could even experiment with a little roasted apple in there too...depends how sweet you like your savoury. Crank the oven up to 40 degrees and in 30-45 minutes (when it all looks nicely browned to your liking) enjoy the fruits of your labours of growing your own!

Chard and Calendula Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:28:00 +0000

It must be the sunny weather inspiring me to make sunny looking salads. Here's the second salad of the day to accompany my evening meal:

Baby rainbow chard leaves and calendula petals (also known as pot marigold or english marigold)

All the ingredients fresh from the garden and packed full of vitamins and minerals.

Something else to distract impatience while waiting for those tomatoes to ripen!