Fathers Day at Fi's took us on a improtu paddle down the River Stiffkey. The river is just a 2 minute stroll up from Fi's house.
I got the giggles because I couldn't steer and then a herd of huge cows descended upon us - well almost. I finally got the hang of the steering which was a relief to Stu as he's been eagerly ebaying Canadian canoes and Kayaks. Sadly this red canoe was just borrowed.
I made these savory rice balls in May when the lovage leaves were young and tender. The Arancini recipe is taken from Hugh FW's weekly column in the Guardian, but I swapped a few ingredients around, adding the lovage and lemon and pancetta.
Lovage, used as both odour eaters in the Middle Ages and as an aphrodisiac in the 16th Century, has an intense celery like aroma and flavour. It's fabulous stuffed inside a chicken prior to roasting and also great when a small amount of leaves are added to pea and ham soup.
We've just eaten the first broad beans of the year freshly picked from the our back veggie patch. Damn tasty but the yield seems even lower than usual. Next year I'm taking a leaf out of David Barker's (Wolterton Hall's organic) growing methods and planting the plants close together. My method of generous spacing just makes the low yield even more frustrating as I could have been growing something else in it's place.
I recently bumped into a friend in one of the Asian food stores on Magdalen street. She was stuffing two boxes of Alphonso mangoes into the back of her son's buggy. With each box containing approx 12 fruit I wish I had asked her what she was going to do with them. I also bought a box of the delicious fragrant, deep orange coloured juicy mangoes and have eaten them just as they then sucking the stone ending up with a orange mustache no one told me about. Thanks kids.
Alphonso's are so different from the all year round mangoes, like the ones that never ripen which I buy in bulk from Lidls when they are 35p. They are great for mango chutney but truly disappointing eaten on their own when compared to an Alphonso.
The last time I bought a box (a grate) of mangoes was when I lived on Hamilton Island, Great Barrier Reef - the fruit is grown nearby on the mainland. They were so tasty, so perfectly ripe that I couldn't manage to eat all the fruit and that's the only trouble with buying in bulk, you have to eat a lot of fruit or make something out of them. There I had no cooking facilities but Skye Gyngell has included a few recipes in her recent column for The Independent.
The Alphoso season is short, perhaps only available for the next week if that. I'm going to try and buy another box today and make a sorbet or ice-cream using the clever Play and Freeze which I was given last summer although Skye's jam recipes sounds just up my street.
These biscuits taste just like ones my Mum use to make when we were younger. They are light and crunchy with a buttery taste.
Chocolate + Nut Biscuits
Cream together the above ingredients in a bowl.
Add to the creamed ingredients -
Mix in -
Either roll into sausage, wrap in cling film and fridge or place teaspoons of mixture on to baking tray.
Bake at 170ºc for 10 - 12 mins.
I have a glitch in my router. I have discovered that Typepad doesn't like me blogging unless I reset the router. Weird and irritating, but at least I have now worked out the ferocious blogging deterrent that is just an irritating bit of router weirdness. Yesterday I was all ready to set up on Blogger, in fact I did, only I never got round to writing anything. Somethings never change.
As you can see from the egg and flour set up above, I tried to post a blog on pancake day. I had been hyping myself all day for the mess and fighting that would occur once the jug, whisk, egg and flour would be visible. My girls love to argue and cause a bit of competitive rumpus shoving and even more so when cooking is involved. Where as I like nothing more than to hear them get on and be kind to each other.
I seem to remember my Mum feeling a little beaten by Pancake Day, they were more a bi-anual tradition than an annual one. If Pancake Day could be Shrove Sunday, not Shove Tuesday it would be a lot more fun for me.
I started writing this on Monday and it's now Saturday. Some people blog effortlessly but my attempts are always thwarted by something or other. I have images stacked up in iPhoto, of subjects I want to eulogize about... one day I'll write about them.
We drove to London on Sunday to visit Simon & Angie at the very successful, 'St Judes in the City' exhibition held at the Bankside Gallery over the past 10 days. Before we hit the river bank, we took a trip to Spitalfields to visit the girls Auntie Miranda at her clothes stall in the market. Just next to Miranda's stall is one of the Leon Restaurants, a chain of eaterys set up by Allegra McEvedy, Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent in 2004. The food is simple, seasonal, inexpensive, wholesome and tasty and perfect for family outings.
I've been cooking from the Leon book since Christmas when I received it as I gift. The Moroccan Meatballs have been eaten a few times, they're good and dead simple to make.
Here's a quick recipe how to make Meat Balls similar to Leon's:
500g minced lamb
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
lots for freshly ground pepper and sea salt
1 handful of both chopped mint and parsley
1 pitta torn up and soaked in milk
1 good pinch of dried oregano
1. Squeeze the excess milk from the pitta bread and add to a bowl with all of the other ingredients.
2. Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together until well combined.
3. Roll into balls and either char grill as they do at Leon's, fry or bake on silicone sheet in hot oven for 15 minutes.
We eat ours with either a homemade spicy tomato sauce made from: two tins of whole plum tomatoes added to a pan which contains browned sliced garlic cooked in olive oil. Add a cinnamon stick, a pinch of chili flakes, a pinch of sugar, oregano, salt and black pepper. Reduce until thick.
Alternatively, serve with rocket leaves, tzakiki, houmous, pitta bread and baked sliced aubergine.
I can see I'm going to be spending some time converting some of my snaps into Polodroids - a free download that turns your photos into images that look like Polaroids. Polaroid is a recent discovery which I blogged about on the St Jude's weblog, All Things Considered earlier this week.
The above photos were taken on Boxing Day in the woods next to Wells beach, carrying a poorly Matilda on an hour long walk. I guess we shouldn't have taken her, but we thought the fresh air would wake her not send her to sleep in Stu's arms.
Below is the original of the above. Can you see why I love Poladroid - it even crops my head.
My six month blog diet is now over. I'm celebrating by eating warm mince pies and dropping dollops of suet goo on the key board. The blog diet seemed quite strict, usually I do have weak moments with diets, but I really stuck to this regime.
The blog diet allowed to sleep at night (late night postings for me, had the same effect as eating slabs of plain chocolate or drinking espresso before bed). Blog abstention also meant I wasn't obsessing about what to cook and photo all the time. With the blog diet, we eat less cake, I talk to Stu in the evenings and I watch dreadful but alluring TV like Survivors.
Why I have decided to start writing now is because I'm avoiding doing all the other things I have on my to-do list in preparation for Christmas. Today is to be card making and writing day ... That's my cue to get on with it.
Jelly Festival
This time last week we were serving food to a steady stream of happy cider drunk punters at Jelly Festival, South Creake, Norfolk. The lead up to the festival was a little stressful. I guess the most stressful thing was not knowing what quantities of food to per-order in anticipation of the hopefully hungry festival goers or, how little to order in case the event was a wet wash out. It was both.
The week prior to the event, Stu with the aid of a workshop full of tools and an eye for typography, started to design a sign for our stall. We were selling BBQ sweetcorn with various flavoured butters, garlic bread, BBQ mushrooms drenched in garlic butter served in a toasted baguette and for pudding, chocolate brownies.
sign making in progress
Days before the Saturday event, I foolishly decided to order 14 cases of sweetcorn. That's 420 cobs. Yikes. I also ordered 40 baguettes and I made 144 servings of Ottolenghi's brownies. What an over ambitious fool I am. Why didn't I believe the weather forecast and why didn't I realise that we could never have manage to sell 420 cobs on the 2 large BBQs even if we were busy from the 12pm start? Still, it was the first time Stu and I had sold food at a stall and also the first time we have ever cooked in the same kitchen/gazebo/field together. We managed to co-ordinate mechanically, and with the help of our dearest friend Rosie who was serving the customers, we did managed to make a slight profit. All thanks to the sunshine though, if the rain hadn't cleared like it did at 3pm, we would have been in miserable, damp and in gloomy debt but instead, we're thinking where and when is the next festival? If we do ever repeat this formula, I don't think I really want to spend Monday morning selling (almost giving away) boxes of sweetcorn to Norwich market stall holders in 'Apprentice' style cut your losses sales-girl mode.
our stall
My Lidls bargain of the day - a box of Israeli green figs, perfectly ripe and very cheap. For 20 figs, the box cost less that a fiver - not bad. I hadn't dropped in for fruit and veg so to wasn't paying attention to the goods on offer, but a lovely elderly man proudly showed me his about-to-be-purchased box of figs, saying that this will tide him over until he starts to climb a fig tree for perfectly ripe figs on Elm Hill. He then shared his favourite way of eating them, he said that they are delicious fried with butter.
I've just tried his suggestion, adding to the butter; honey, a cinnamon stick and a squeeze of lemon. I then dolloped on a heap of Greek yogurt and drizzle of honey. I liked them a lot.
Make ice-cream with no mess, no electricity but possibly a broken toe....
Apart from the almost injuries, Play and Freeze is brilliant and a must have for anyone with a team of energetic helpers and ice-cream lovers. Fi, clever ol' Fi, turned up to the campsite with an early birthday gift of ice, rock salt, cream, vanilla sugar and chocolate chips and a large cube wrapped in paper - the Play and Freeze.
We've tried a few flavours, so far raspberries, cream and Greek yogurt is really good. I've been making a banana cake lately which requires the bananas to be cooked in a butterscotch sauce. I can't stop thinking about how tasty caramelised bananas would be when added with cream and Greek yogurt to the ice-cream ball. For now, here's how we made raspberry ripple.
Firstly, add ice-cubes and rock salt to one end.
To the end end, add cream...raspberries, Greek yogurt, vanilla sugar and milk
Then roll it, kick it (gently) drag it, fight over it for ten whole minutes, stirring it a few times.
then eat it.
Our impromptu camping trip to Stiffkey last week was, as always fabulous and mostly very relaxing. We even managed to dodge the rain and lap up some sunshine - not an easy thing to do over the past few summers. The lack of sunny days is depressing, Stu noted that we've haven't had the sail up (our makeshift shade from the sun on the decking) yet this summer. Last year we had it up so much more, and we thought last year's climate was bad. I'm sure the indifferent weather is affecting us all, perhaps not the girls so much but it definitely is me. Being inside, hiding from the rain when I know we shouldn't be, isn't fun and I guess that's why camping is good. You're outside pretty much what ever the weather, windy, cold, wet and sunny. The girls never seem to mind the cooler days but then they are not aware of what seasons mean and what we expect from them.
At Stiffkey, we pitched at our usual spot, ate bbq'd meat and fish, made ice-cream and walked out across the five bridges to the beautiful and quiet sandy beach at Stiffkey. The best bit, was the marsh tide. Watching the beautiful sunset reflect on the pools of water across the marsh is wonderful. Stu and Evie even managed to swim in the creeks in the following high morning tide. I had the excuse of staying out of the biting wind and staying in the warm tent drinking tea and reading the A tale of 12 Kitchens while Matilda dozed.
Something I'm not so happy about is that I've finally managed to kill my sourdough starter. I tried to revive it by feeding it chunks of a peeled apple (I was desperate) but it refused to bubble and regain life. In some ways I'm quite pleased I'm not having to make loaves every week but on the other hand, I loved the process and the addiction I had with trying to create the perfect sourdough. I also loved the fact you can prepare a really quick meal with stale toasted sourdough, lightly rubbed with garlic, olive oil and topped with roasted tomatoes. I think I have just 3 remaining loaves left in the freezer before I know I will be very tempted to start another batch of starter.
I failed to capture the view on Saturday evening from this outdoor lavatory, complete with and old pine wash stand and enamel basin, but believe me, this has got to be one of the best lidded loo stops I've been too (since last year). The bright sunlight in the photo leads out to Morston marsh and looks like like this.... only it's so much better when you're there.
The reason for being in this beautiful spot, was to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. It was camping gathering with a 60's party on the Sunday night in a beautiful handcrafted geodesic dome tent. I'd not seen a geodesic tent before, this one is made from lengths of hazel fitted together in a series of triangles to form a sphere and then covered in large sheets of canvas.
I decided to have another go making paneer (Indian Cheese). My previous attempt a few years back resulted in a soggy mass of curdy curds which did nothing to impress Stu with my asian culinary skills. My recent batch being was much more succesful, I realised what I should have done before, was to pressed the cheese and leave it in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours before cooking. I did. Bingo. Tasty, cuttable and fryable cheese especially if it's coated in a flavourful chilli sauce (recipe below).
For those of you you familiar with baby sick, you will feel quite at home making this. I made it with Evie by my side who thought it was the most disgusting thing ever. I didn't remind her of the time she projectile vomited down Stu's back and no, she didn't try the fried cubes either. However, good friend Imogen was chief taste sampler and enjoyed the chilli cheese, but I doubt she would have tried it either if she had expereincd the baby sick stage - but don't let that put you off making it!
Here's how to make Paneer.
I used a litre of full fat milk and it yielded enough for two greedy eaters. You'll be surprised at how much whey you yield and how few curds, so if you want to make a larger batch, be generous with the amount of milk you use.
Chilli Sauce for Paneer adapted from 'India with Passion'
