Holly Grove Kitchen

The Ubiquitous Onion

2012-02-01T14:13:00.000Z

Sometimes it seems that every savoury dish I cook includes onions; I must go through pounds and pounds of onions in a year but they are almost always the supporting act and seldom the star. I recently found a recipe where the humble onion is truly in the spotlight.

A savoury tart made with lots of onions, puff pastry and leftover cheese. Easily made, deliciously tasty, a lovely supper with a crispy salad or cut into small squares and served as a canape. However you choose to eat it you'll not be disappointed.

Caramelised Onion Tart with Stilton and Parmesan
Serves 4 as a main course or 12 canapes
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 large onion, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced (optional)
1-2 tbsp onion marmalade (optional)
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

8 ozs ready made puff pastry
2-3 ozs Stilton, diced
2 ozs Parmesan, grated
half tsp fennel seeds, crushed

Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and garlic and cook over a medium heat until softened and starting to brown. Add the sugar, vinegar, onion marmalade (if using) and salt and pepper.

Reduce heat and cook gently, uncovered, for about 25 minutes until caramelised. If the onion mix looks like it is drying out add a little water. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, roll out the pastry into rectangle about 10 by 14 inches and place on a baking tray covered with baking parchment. Prick the pastry all over with a fork. Now spread the onion mixture over the pastry, sprinkle over the cubes of Stilton and then the grated Parmesan and finally sprinkle over the crushed fennel seeds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 20 minutes until the cheese has melted and the pastry risen. Serve with a simple crisp salad for a light supper or cut into small squares and serve as canapes.

Note: the original recipe called for gorgonzola and brie as the cheeses. Any two cheeses that combine well could be used. I also added garlic and onion marmalade to the original recipe, so these could be left out.

Scottish Oats

2012-01-26T11:06:00.001Z

Perhaps it was my fix of haggis last night that did it; this morning I woke up with thoughts of a healthy, hearty breakfast and what better than another Scottish dish...porridge!

from this...

to this...in just 3 minutes

To my basic bowl of this satisfying grain (made with half cup of oats and one cup of semi-skimmed milk) I added a sliced banana and some lovely runny honey...delicious and from jar to bowl in only 3 minutes!

Scots Wha Hae!

2012-01-25T08:30:00.000Z

It's January, it's the 25th, it must be Burns' Night; the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scottish poet and lyricist. I'm not so patriotic but I do love a good Burns' supper and the Handyman and I look forward to our annual haggis fest.

If you've never tasted haggis please give it a try, it's a spicy concoction, not too pretty to look at but very, very tasty; and available from most supermarkets here in England and at butchers and supermarkets in Scotland.

Served with the traditional neeps (swede - if you're English/turnip - if you're Scots, mashed with butter and black pepper) and tatties (creamed potatoes) and, a not so traditional, onion gravy it makes for sturdy January comfort food.

So no bagpipes or Scots poetry for us, but a generous helping of haggis, neeps and tatties with a wee dram to toast the Bard's 253rd birthday - happy birthday Rabbie!

Salmon by Request

2012-01-24T08:55:00.000Z

Over the Christmas period we were joined at Holly Grove by the Handyman's children, T and S. T is a burgeoning cook and was keen to help me out in the kitchen on Christmas Eve. The joy of cooking with an enthusiastic young cook is about sharing all you've learnt over the years and learning from their experiences and thoughts on food and cooking.

During our epicurean chatter T was keen to find out a bit more about cooking fish. He's lucky enough to have a daily market close to his student flat and had seen the variety of fish on offer but was wary of buying any until he has mastered a few simple recipes. So I promised a simple and tasty fish recipe for him to try, and here it is:

Baked Salmon with Thread Noodles and Broccoli
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 salmon fillets
2 small knobs butter or 1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
quarter tsp ground coriander
couple of glugs dry white wine or fresh orange juice
couple of twists of black pepper

Method
Cut 1 piece of cooking foil, large enough to create a parcel for 1 piece of salmon. Lightly butter or oil the foil. Place the salmon skin side down on the foil and fold up the edges of the foil. Add a knob of butter, half of the garlic, half of the coriander and a glug of wine or orange juice to the salmon and close up the parcel. Repeat with second salmon fillet.

Place parcels on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile cook the noodles and broccoli and serve the salmon on top of the noodles with the juices from the parcel drizzled over the top and the broccoli on the side.

A quick, simple, healthy and tasty meal for two. Go on T give it a try!

Lemon Zest

2012-01-23T17:10:00.001Z

A few lemons in the fridge and a hankering after cake...hmm, must be lemon drizzle cake. My favourite citrus sponge, there are many recipes for this cake but the one that I've found tastiest, reliable and, best of all, simple is the one below.

Lemon Drizzle Cake
Ingredients
225g soft unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
200g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
grated zest of 3 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
icing sugar

Method
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. You can do this by hand, with a handheld electric mixer or in a food processor. Add three quarters of the lemon zest and the eggs and beat well to combine, don't worry if the mixture curdles this will be resolved when the flour and almonds are added.

Sieve together the flour and the baking powder and fold this into the egg mixture, then fold in the ground almonds then add three quarters of the lemon juice. Put the mixture into a 20cm round cake tin which has been greased and lined and bake in the oven at 180C for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Meanwhile mix the remaining lemon juice with enough icing sugar to make a thin icing. Using a chopstick make about 10 holes in the top of the cake and spread the thin icing over the top of the cake. Leave in the tin until the cake is cool but not cold and then remove from the tin and sprinkle over the reserved lemon zest. Zingy!

Flavours of Cyprus

2012-01-22T11:30:00.000Z

I often find at this time of year that I struggle to get passionate about food and cooking; I think it must after the cooking and baking fest that ensues on the approach to Christmas and through the festive season...I think I just feel all cooked out.

But yesterday as I was doing the weekly shop I was inspired to make a dish that I haven't attempted for several years. In fact as I began to think about when I'd last tasted it I was taken back over 5 years to a fantastic holiday in Cyprus. The Handyman and I have a preference for isolated, self catering accommodation. This enables him to completely relax and me to search out local markets and local produce and spend time slowly assembling our meals - we both have our kind of fun.

idyllic isolation

Anyway, back to Cyprus...I found a local shop for fresh vegetables, this was the easy bit as I just selected what I wanted and paid the amount requested. The butcher on the other hand was a different matter; just try acquiring about a pound of minced lamb when you don't speak any Greek and the butcher has no English. After some fun with hand signs and mime and some pointing and laughing I managed to leave the shop with the requisite minced lamb, though with about twice as much as I needed. This was either due to our communication challenge or the butcher saw an opportunity to increase his sales that day; either way the lamb was delicious and made for several meals over a few days of our holiday.

sunset from the balcony

So can you guess what the recipe was? Lamb kofta, meatballs with feta, stuffed pitta breads, kebabs? None of the above but rather the most traditional moussaka...here's a recipe from the BBC Food website; there are a number of versions on the site just search for moussaka.

piping hot

served with salad

Although I made a very traditional version in Cyprus I substituted potatoes for the aubergines this time around. Served with a simple green salad this really hit the spot with my January taste buds and took me back to sunshine and summer holidays on this grey and wet Shropshire day.

Back on Track

2012-01-13T17:26:00.000Z

It's been a while since my last post due to a couple of life changing decisions including one to change my career direction. You may think this has kept me out of the kitchen but on the contrary that's where I've been spending most of my time over the past weeks, I just haven't been inspired to blog about my efforts; my thoughts have been elsewhere...so decisions made I'm back on track and feeling very relaxed and positive as I launch into 2012.

During the Christmas period I tried out a new (to me) soup on family and friends and it met with resounding success, so that, combined with the fact they all requested the recipe, has led me back to Holly Grove Kitchen, and it's good to be back.

The soup in question is a spicy parsnip soup, if you're quick you'll catch the end of the parsnip season and with the weather turning a mite chilly it's just what the doctor ordered.

parsnip and carrot version

Spicy Parsnip Soup
Ingredients
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 tbsp sunflower oil
675g parsnips, peeled and diced
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1.2 litres vegetable stock
150ml creme fraiche

Method
Gently cook the onion in the oil for a few minutes until softened. Add the parsnips and cook for a futher 3 minutes. Add the spices, stir well and cook for 1 minute. Add the stock, bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes until parsnips are soft.

Remove from heat and liquidise the soup until smooth. Add the creme fraiche and stir well to combine with the soup. Heat through and then serve with good crusty bread.

Note: I've also tried this recipe with a half and half mix of carrots and parsnips - equally yummy! You could replace the creme fraiche with either cream or yoghurt or a combination of these dairy ingredients.

Where Did That Year Go?

2011-10-16T08:40:00.000+01:00

A very special family occasion occurred last week - the first birthday of my lovely grand-daughter! I can't believe that a year can have passed so quickly, but there we are.

So time for a birthday cake - just a victoria sponge covered in a thin layer of marzipan and then fondant icing - still it seemed to go down well at her official birthday party yesterday.

My other contributions to the buffet feast were: vegetarian 'sausage' rolls, tomato and mushroom quiche, scones and jam, and mini double chocolate cakes.

We had a lovely afternoon and little M really enjoyed being centre stage. Happy birthday my darling and thank you to Nanny and Grandad W for hosting the event!

Dash for Damsons

2011-09-09T06:00:00.007+01:00

I allowed myself to be so distracted with the courgette glut that I almost missed the damson harvest. Our two damson trees, like all plums this year, have produced loads of fruits and they are at their peak now with a few just a little too ripe.

Anyway, i gathered as much as I thought I could process only to find that I had run out of jam jars, disaster! So what to do with all the fruit gathered, well there's always damson gin and I did have a couple of large jars available and the required sugar and gin, so that solved the problem for about 1kg of the crop...

ready for shaking

Now what to do with the remaining 4kg? Fortunately I have recently purchased a second freezer so I bagged up the damsons in 500g lots and into the freezer they went.

ready for freezing

I'm now sending begging emails to friends for jam jars and on receipt of these I'll be retrieving the damsons from their arctic conditions and turning them into jams and cheeses...and perhaps another batch of damson gin?

Easy, Peasy Damson Gin
Take 450g of damsons, prick with cocktail stick, and pop into a clean sterilised jar. Cover with 225g sugar and then pour in 600ml of gin. Seal the jar and shake vigorously. Store in a cool dark place and shake every day for about 8 weeks. Taste a couple of times during this period and add more sugar if required. After about 10 weeks strain and bottle.

Note: Try to keep the gin as long as you can; it will definately improve with age, so make some this year for Christmas 2012.

Something from the Garden

2011-09-08T08:29:00.002+01:00

I haven't been posting much on my kitchen blog recently spending most of my free time in Holly Grove's garden; then I saw that the No Croutons Required challenge for September hosted by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen would allow me to combine both garden and kitchen.

Like most people who have the luxury of a kitchen garden or vegetable plot I've been growing a couple of courgette (zucchini) plants and have had the usual mammoth crop. I've used much of the crop in ratatouille, vegetable curries, homemade preserved vegetable stock, and even muffins and chocolate cake. I've also given some away to friends who don't grow their own veg and I've still got some left over!

So with the weather turning autumnal and the french and runner beans in full production too my thoughts turned to creating a soup with courgette as the main component.

runner beans and Purple Queen french beans

The result has been interesting and tasty, though not a very attractive colour I'll admit. However it has used up more courgettes, giving us a few healthy lunches with some for the freezer for those evenings when I'm back at work and don't have the energy or enthusiasm to cook much and best of all, all of the ingredients (with the exception of the dried pulses) came from our garden. It's been difficult to give absolute quantities of ingredients as it was more of a try it and see recipe, but here goes...

Courgette and Runner Bean Soup
Ingredients
1 large onion (peeled and diced)
2 garlic cloves (peeled and crushed)
4 large courgettes (washed and cut into chunks)
a good handful of french and runner beans (topped and tailed and cut into short lengths)
1 tsp ground cumin
75g broth mix (dried pulses including peas, pearl barley, lentils)
1.5 litres vegetable stock (made with either good quality stock cubes or 2 tsp homemade preserved stock)
2 or 3 tsp curry paste (I used Goan paste; similar to a Thai green curry paste but a little less spicy)

Method
Add about 1 tablespoon of oil to a large stock pot then add the onion and garlic and cook gently until softened but not browned. Now add the courgette, beans and cumin and mix thoroughly with the onion and garlic. Cook gently for a couple of minutes.

Add the broth mix and the vegetable stock and curry paste. Stir well and bring the soup to a gentle simmer. Cook for between 1 and 2 hours to allow the dried pulses to cook through.

Remove from heat and blend with a stick blender.
Serve the soup in bowls or large cups with some garlic ciabatta.

Note: If your runner beans are a it stringy I'd suggest passing the blended soup through a sieve to remove the stringy bit of the beans. Our beans were lovely and young so no need to sieve.

A Jar Full of Vegetable Stock

2011-09-07T09:37:00.000+01:00

I'm frequently saying to myself that I really ought to make my own vegetable stock but I never seem to have the time and so reach for the stock cube jar; so how exciting to find a recipe for a homemade version of the stock cube.

I can heartily recommend River Cottage Handbook No 2 Preserves as a mine of interesting preserving ideas amongst which can be found a recipe for a preserved vegetable stock mix. I amended the recipe to suit the vegetables I had available and basically it goes like this:

Ingredients
Makes about 3 jars
about 900g washed, peeled and chopped vegetables (I used leek, onion, courgette, peppers, runner beans, carrots)
3 cloves garlic
200g fresh herbs (I used thyme, sage, rosemary and parsley)
250g salt (don't reduce the amount of salt as this is the preservative)

Method
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until blended to a granular paste. Then simply put into sterilised jars and seal. The 'stock cube' paste will keep for six months unopened. Once opened keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

Note: The recipe recommends adding 2 tsp to 500ml of water to make the stock. I found this a bit salty for my taste so added 2 tsp to 1lt of water.

Tasty Tatties

2011-08-30T11:21:00.000+01:00

As usual I made far too much creamed potato for our meal last night, so rather than waste what was left I popped it in the fridge and waited to be inspired. This morning as I pondered what to have for my breakfast I remembered the mash. What about some good, old traditional Scottish tattie scones (or potato scones to the uninitiated).

unadorned scrambled egg with potato scones

These flatbreads are savoury and go very well with sausage, bacon and eggs in a traditional Scottish breakfast or just with a scrambled or poached egg. They also freeze very well, just allow them to defrost and then reheat in the frying pan or under the grill.

A quick and simple recipe to use up leftover potato and tasty enough to encourage you to make more mash than you need.

with a dash of HP sauce

Tattie Scones
Ingredients
leftover creamed potatoes (potatoes boiled and mashed with milk and butter)
plain flour
pinch of baking powder

Method
Mix the potatoes with enough flour (about 50g per 200g potato) and pinch of baking powder to make a soft dough.

Roll out the dough quite thinly and cut into about 6-8 scones and prick over with a fork. Traditionally they should be triangular though mine were cut into rounds.

Heat a heavy based frying pan until hot then turn the heat to medium. Cook the scones for 3 minutes each side, then remove from pan and cover with a cloth. Eat warm with topping of your choice or cool and freeze for later.

A Set At Last!

2011-08-27T09:10:00.000+01:00

Having had two recent attempts at jam making with neither providing a decent set I was beginning to think that I'd lost the knack. Two batches of Opal plum jam have failed to set properly, though we are using it poured over icecream and added to plain yoghurt; which has proven a real hit.

sampling!

But I was longing for some proper jam...then whilst doing the weekly shop yesterday I bought a couple of punnets of British strawberries reduced in price for a quick sale. My initial intention was just to eat these, they were beautifully ripe and smelt delicious. Then whilst wandering down the baking aisle I saw some jam sugar with added pectin and, thinking of my recent failures and my need for jam, I bought a kilo and headed home to defeat the setting gremlins.

I didn't have quite enough strawberries for the recipe so I added a small box of Holly Grove raspberries that I had in the freezer. I have to say that I was exceedingly nervous, however...we have jam! Can't wait to try it on my toast this morning, I may even make some scones later today...ooo, with a dollop of double cream...yummee!

all set and jarred up

Strawberry Jam with a Touch of Rasberry
Ingredients
Makes about 3.5lbs
800g strawberries
100g raspberries
1kg jam sugar
knob unsalted butter

Method
Hull the strawberries then put in a preserving pan with the raspberries and mash the fruit to extract juices. Add the jam sugar and place the pan on a medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved - do not allow the fruit/sugar mixture to boil at this point. When the sugar has dissolved add a knob of butter and stir until the butter has melted.

Gradually bring the mixture to a rolling boil stirring all the time. When a rolling boil is achieved stop stirring and boil rapidly for 4 minutes - by this time the jam should be at setting point, I used a sugar thermometer to check.

Immediately remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jars and seal.
Et voila! strawberry jam with a touch of raspberry.

Summer Pudding?

2011-08-19T09:07:00.000+01:00

I've been so disappointed in the weather this summer and have felt like I've been fighting nature making summer desserts; sorbets, cheesecakes, icecream etc. So last night I decided to give in to my instincts and make a good, oldfashioned, comforting, pudding.

out of the oven...

The pudding in question was a lovely, creamy rice pudding. This has been at the back of my mind since seeing Simon Hopkinson make one on his latest television series, The Good Cook, a couple of weeks ago, though the recipe I used wasn't this one.

I can't remember where my recipe came from and I've also had to amend it. I didn't have enough milk in the fridge or any double cream but it turned out just as I recall from those Sunday afternoons when my boys were younger and they would always vote for creamy rice pudding, baked exceedingly slowly in the oven - lovely memories, lovely pudding...

...and onto our plates

Yummy Rice Pudding
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
4ozs pudding rice (I didn't have any so I used risotto rice)
1.5ozs demerara sugar (or caster sugar)
1 litre whole milk (I used organic soya milk and 0.5oz of skimmed milk powder)
2-3 tbsp double cream (I used creme fraiche)
half a whole nutmeg, finely grated
1oz butter, finely diced

Method
Mix the pudding rice (milk powder, if using) and sugar in a large pie dish or casserole dish. Pour in the milk and cream (or creme fraiche) and stir together.

Grate the nutmeg over the top of the mixture and dot with the butter. Place the dish in an oven preheated to 150C. After 30 minutes remove the dish from the oven and stir well. Return to the oven and stir again after another 30 minutes. Return to the oven and leave to bake gently for a further 60 minutes.

You should now have a lovely creamy rice pudding sitting under the milk skin. Simply serve on its own or as we did with some homemade (slightly underset) plum jam - yummy!

Rediscovering Passione

2011-07-01T08:46:00.000+01:00

Recently I've been reviewing my cookbook collection and have rediscovered an Italian cookbook that's been languishing at the back of the larder. I keep a few books close to hand in the kitchen; my most frequently used ones - Delia's Complete Cookery Course, Hugh's Everyday, Mary Norwak's baking book etc and in amongst these I found Passione from Gennaro Contaldo. From the condition of the book I 've obviously leafed through it many times but I don't recall using any of the recipes until recently...

It's become one of my favourite books in less time than it takes to whizz up a torta alle pere - recipe to follow in another post.

So far I've been tempted by the chocolate and red wine cake (sounds so much better in Italian - torta al cioccolato e vino rosso); a lovely dense and rich, but not too rich, cake. It makes an ideal dessert served with summer fruit compote and icecream.

with a sauce made from Holly Grove's first raspberries of the season, yum, yum!

On the savoury front we've tested the peperoni ripieni - stuffed baby peppers. I'll definitely make this one again with a couple of tweaks to the recipe - simple and delicious with a green salad.

Very soon I'm going to attempt the fagottini di zucchini when my courgette plants start to mass produce, any time now, and then there are the delicious sounding Italian salads: insalata di zucchine con menta fresca, insalata di arancie e finocchio.

So a book to keep us well fed through the summer months and dreaming of the Amalfi coast!

Torta al Cioccolato e Vino Rosso
Ingredients
200g unsalted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
25g cocoa powder
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I didn't include this)
100ml red wine
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain chocolate drops (I mixed plain, milk and white chocolate drops as I didn't have enough of the plain ones)

Method
Heat the oven to 180C and grease and line an 20cm cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar together then gradually beat in the eggs. Sift in the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder (and cinnamon, if using) and fold in gently. Mix in the red wine and vanilla extract and then fold in the chocolate drops.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour until the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. Cut into wedges and serve with a summer fruit compote and good vanilla icecream.

Despite the Weather

2011-06-12T07:46:00.000+01:00

After an incredibly dry Spring, the weather here is unseasonably cold and wet for June, we even had a hail storm on Saturday - poor garden! Anyway I decided to ignore the weather and my cravings for winter-type baking (steamed puddings, custard etc) and adapted an easy all-in-one sponge recipe using some zingy citrus flavours. I've also used a mascarpone icing; it's becoming a favourite icing as it is so soft and creamy and really adds a bit of luxury to an otherwise simple sponge.

The cake was light, fresh and very summery; I'll try it again with a few of our homegrown raspberries and a dollop of fresh cream on the side when we get our crop sometime in July - can't wait!

Lemon and Lime Sponge
Ingredients
for the cake
6ozs softened butter (if you don't have softened butter you can use a soft margarine such as Stork)
6ozs castor sugar
6ozs self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
3 free range farm eggs
juice of half a lime
zest of half a lime and half a lemon

for the icing
250g tub mascarpone
10ozs icing sugar
about 1 tbsp lemon juice
zest of half a lime and half a lemon

Method
Set the oven to 180C and grease and line two 7" sandwich tins. Place all the ingredients for the cake in a food mixer and mix together for 2-3 minutes until all ingredients are well combined and you have a smooth, light sponge mixture. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and smooth out. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The cakes will be golden in colour and the tops will spring back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and turn out and cool on a wire rack.

Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the icing by sifting the icing sugar into a clean bowl. In a second bowl beat the mascarpone until it is smooth then gradually add the icing sugar beating in well after each addition. When all the icing sugar has been combined, add the zest and juice of the citrus fruits and mix well. Place the icing in the fridge until the cakes are completely cooled.

Finally sandwich the cakes together with just over half of the icing and then spread the remaining icing on the top of the cake – et voila! This cake is delicious with a cup of tea or coffee or served as a dessert after dinner with any orange liqueur.

Fishy Friend

2011-05-30T07:59:00.000+01:00

On Friday with the prospect of a few days off from work I decided to treat myself with a visit to a local rose garden - more of that at Holly Grove Garden - on the way back home I took a detour via the Handyman's brother's house and stopped for a coffee and a gardening chat - C has just built a fruit cage; the subject of much conversation and another reason for my impromptu visit.

Unexpectedly we moved on to the topic of fishing, coarse or game? Now I know little or nothing about the sport but have spent a few sunny afternoons with a good book on a riverbank in a previous life whilst my then in-laws did a spot of coarse fishing - lovely memories!

ready for the oven

C, on the other hand prefers game fishing, as he says you can eat what you catch! And lucky us, he produced from his freezer two beautiful freshwater trout that he had caught a couple of days before from a fishing trip to Wales and gave them to me. C prepares the fish, gutted and scaled, before freezing so all I had to do on Friday was pop one back into our freezer and let the other defrost whilst I found a suitable way of cooking it.

Jamie to the rescue...an unbelievably simple, quick and tasty way to prepare such a thoughtful gift for the table. The Handyman and I shared the trout, more than enough for two, and are looking forward to the one left in the freezer!

Trout Roasted with Thyme and Lemon
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 large (or 2 small) whole trout
1 handful of lemon thyme (ours came from HG kitchen garden)
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, cut into halves
2 bay leaves

Method
Heat the oven to 230C. Line a roasting tin with foil. Then wash the fish inside and out and dry with kitchen paper. Put the thyme with the olive oil in a pestle and grind together. Spread the thyme mixture on the inside and top of the fish and place in the prepared roastng tin. Cut a small slit in the lemon halves and insert the bay leaves. Add to the roasting tin. Place the fish in the oven and roast for about 15 minutes (10 minutes if using 2 smaller fish). And that's it! The fish will lift easily off the bone and has a lovely delicate flavour; for those who don't like salmon, just try trout...much more subtle.

ready to eat

I made saute potatoes with garlic and red onion and a plain green salad to go with the fish, de..lic..ious!!!

Freshest of Fruit

2011-05-28T11:51:00.000+01:00

Not enough to cook with, but so delicious...find out what I've been eating straight from the garden here...

Where Have We Been?

2011-05-15T08:48:00.000+01:00

Busy in the garden at the moment! See what we've been up to in Holly Grove garden preparing things for (hopefully, fingers crossed) bumper crops to use in the kitchen over the coming months...

Presto Pasta Nights Event

2011-05-10T06:52:00.002+01:00

I'm going to try my hand at another blogging event - Presto Pasts Nights. This is a weekly event hosted by Ruth at 4everykitchen.com and guest hosts. This week's guest host is Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes, so how could I resist.

I've resurrected a pasta dish from my archive way back in August 2009 - Pasta Bake with Pepperoni, Tomatoes and Garden Herbs. As you can see from the title this recipe contains pancetta and pepperoni but for vegetarians this could be left out and mushrooms and courgette added instead.

It really is a quick, simple and tasty supper - so wish me luck!

No Crouton Required - April

2011-05-02T17:23:00.000+01:00

Well, I can barely believe it but I've won a second No Croutons Required badge: success with my Walnut and Rosemary soda bread recipe - hurrah!

Coffee and Cake

2011-04-03T17:38:00.000+01:00

Just had the last piece of the most delicious coffee cake! I made it a week ago and, apart from the miracle that there was still a slice left in the tin, I was amazed at how moist and fresh it had remained...definately worth the making and a post on the blog.

Another interesting thing about this cake is that there is no butter or margarine, corn oil is the magic ingredient. The recipe calls for the cakes to be baked in two 20 cm sandwich tins, just make sure that they are at least 4cm deep as my cakes spilled over the sides when baking. I managed to disguise the damage with the mascarpone topping - phew! Next time I think I'll make on large cake and slice it through the middle when baked.

The recipe came from 'baking with passion' by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington.

Coffee Cake with Mascarpone Cream
Ingredients
for the cake
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
225g caster sugar
225ml corn oil
2 eggs, separated
2 heaped tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 tsp boiling water
75ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)

for the icing
250g mascarpone
quarter tsp grated lemon zest
350g icing sugar, sifted
2 heaped tsp instant coffee granules dissoled in 2 tbsp boiling water

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. grease and line two 20 cm sandwich tins (at least 4cm deep).

Sift the flour, baking powder and caster sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat in the oil, egg yolks, coffee and milk. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites to soft peaks.

Stir in a spoonful of the egg whites to the cake mixture and then gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for about 45 minutes or until the sponge springs back when gently pressed int he centre. Remove from the oven and cool oin a wire rack.

To make the icing, put the mascarpone and lemon zest in a bowl and mix together. Slowly add the icing sugar, mixing in well, until you have a thick paste. Finally beat in the coffee.

Sandwich the cooled cakes together with half the icing, then smooth the remaining icing on the top of the cake - delicious!

Back with a Challenge

2011-04-02T09:32:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a while but I'm back and the encouragement I needed was to be found in this month's No Croutons Required challenge. Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes has been very generous this month allowing a choice of challenges and, as a July baby, I've gone back through my archives to find a delicious bread to enter the fray.

A reminder of July - beautiful sweet peas

Rosemary and Walnut Soda Bread - Yum!

The recipe of choice from my archive is Rosemary and Walnut soda bread, easy to make and bake and delicious with almost any soup - here's the link to the recipe.

Spring is in the Air!

2011-03-26T08:01:00.000Z

Primroses, daffodils, seed sowing, sunshine and thoughts of light, crisp, fresh al fresco meals - with this in mind I've brightened up the blog with summer colour.

I'll be back from the winter gloom with some more recipes very soon.

HFW's Fish Fight

2011-01-15T09:49:00.001Z

Having watched Hugh's Fish Fight programme on television the other evening I was so saddened by the damage and waste that I've signed up to the fish fight; as fellow food bloggers why not have a look at the issues and sign up to put pressure on the EU to stop these wasteful practices...

Cook Book Clearance

2011-01-07T18:15:00.001Z

It's the new year and a tradition time for clearing cupboards and cleaning at Holly Grove. During this process I came to the conclusion that I just don't have enough space for my ever expanding cook book collection; but what to do about it?

Well, I could sort through and take the less well used books to the local charity shop or I could pass them on to family and friends. So with my mind set on reducing the library I spent a few hours going through the titles and the result was...I can't bear to part with any of them! But as a salve to my conscience I'm going to give one book away to a reader of my blog.

To be in with a chance to receive my copy of Second Helpings of Roast Chicken by Simon Hopkinson (in very good condition) all you have to do is add a comment to this post and/or become a follower of Holly Grove Kitchen blog, please provide your email address in the comment and I'll contact the lucky recipient for their address details.

I'll select the winner at random on 31st January - unfortunately I have to restrict this giveaway to UK readers (postage costs and all that!).

First Post of 2011

2011-01-03T15:40:00.003Z

I was wondering what my first post of 2011 might be: sweet or savoury? Perhaps it's the winter weather making me long for summer days or just that I had some Holly Grove raspberries from our July harvest lingering in the freezer and some mascarpone cheese in the fridge, a remnant of Christmas plans, that made me consider a cheesecake. The cheesecake recipe I usually follow is a no-bake version but this one is baked in the oven for an hour - which is where it is as I write this post.

It took about an hour to prepare for the oven and I've had to substitute a few ingredients, so I'm a bit nervous of the outcome - which I'll add to this post later. In the meantime here's the recipe annotated with my substitutions in italics...

ready for the oven

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the base
50g unsalted butter
225g ginger nut biscuits (225g digestives with 1tsp ground ginger)
50g chopped walnuts

For the filling
275g mascarpone cheese
175g fromage frais (140g creme fraiche with 35g Greek yoghurt)
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp caster sugar
250g white chocolate, broken into squares
225g raspberries (frozen from July's harvest)

For the topping
115g mascarpone cheese
75g fromage frais (75g Greek yoghurt)
white chocolate curls and raspberries to decorate (white chocolate drops and raspberries)

Method
Heat the oven to 150C. Melt the butter in a large saucepan then mix in the crushed biscuits and nuts. Press into the base of a 9" spring form cake tin.

To make the filling beat the mascarpone and fromage frais (or substitutes) together in a bowl. Then beat in the eggs and the caster sugar. Meanwhile melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Stir the melted chocolate and the raspberries into the cheese mixture. Pour on top of the biscuits base and place the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour or until just set. Switch off the oven but leave the cheesecake in the oven until cold and completely set.

Release the cheesecake from the tin and place on a serving plate. Make the topping by mixing the mascarpone and fromage frais in a bowl, then spread over the cheesecake and decorate with chocolate curls and raspberries.

Here's the update on the finished item...

Above is the cheesecake as it came out of the cold oven. I decided to forego the topping (this time) and just add a few raspberries - the very last of the HG harvest until July - and a dusting of icing sugar.

The base of this cheesecake was lovely and crumbly, but needs a bit more ginger next time. It is a soft set cheesecake, probably due to changing the fromage frais for the creme fraiche and yoghurt, and quite sweet, I think I'll reduce the caster sugar to 2tbsp when I next make it. It turned out to be a lovely light dessert, less rich than I anticipated (a good thing) and very delicious.

Another Hogmanay

2010-12-31T10:03:00.001Z

New Year's Eve again...how quickly the months go by! And an eventful year for us at Holly Grove: a new roof on the Goat House destined to become a garden studio...

New windows for the house to keep out the winter chill...

Then all the garden produce through the summer and autumn...

Memories of sunny days and meals with friends...

And two little people very special to me...

Farewell 2010 and forward on to 2011...wishing you health, wealth and happiness (and lots more cooking) in the coming 12 months!

Ooh, Another Sweet Treat

2010-12-29T15:25:00.001Z

'Tis the season of cakes and sweet things...well, it is here at Holly Grove and today's treat makes use of some raspberries frozen from our summer harvest. This makes a lovely fresh, zesty and moist cake..delicious and possibly one of your 5-a-day!

Raspberry and Blueberry Lime Drizzle Cake

Ingredients

For the cake

225g softened butter

225g caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 limes, zest and juice

250g SR flour

25g ground almonds

100g each raspberries and blueberries

For the drizzle

1.5 tbsp lime juice

70g caster sugar

Method

Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in square cake tin (not loose-based) with greaseproof paper. Set oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light. Gradually beat in the eggs. Beat in the lime zest, then fold in the flour and almonds. Fold in enough lime juice - about 3 tablespoons - to give you a good dropping consistency (the mixture should drop easily from the spoon when tapped).

Fold in three quarters of the blueberries and raspberries and turn into the prepared tin. Smooth the surface, then scatter the remaining fruit on top - it will sink as the cake rises.

Bake for about 1 hour, a skewer pushed into the centre should be clean when removed.

To make the syrup: put the lime juice, zest and sugar in a small saucepan. Put over a gentle heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer then spoon the syrup over it. To store, cool before wrapping in paper and/or foil.

December Freeze and Christmas Fare

2010-12-24T23:59:00.015Z

The weather outside remains frozen and white but it's cosy and warm in HG's kitchen and the thought of spending Christmas with loved ones makes it warmer still - so safe journey to those travelling and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!

Holly Grove at Christmas time doesn't mean a traditional Christmas lunch; what it does mean is a Christmas table of home baked and cooked delights - all being well. I moved away from the traditional raost turkey and all the trimmings some years ago when my boys and the Handyman's children were teenagers and we couldn't guarantee who would turn up when. Add to that mix my sister and her vegetarian brood and the result is my, now much anticipated, Christmas buffet.

The core of the feast remains the same most years - people seem to like a bit of predictability - so a capon and a gammon joint, mince pies and Christmas cake, the remainder of the food varies each year. This year I'm adding two new dips - a white bean dip and an avocado and cumin dip - and some homemade parmesan biscuits.

The rest of the menu looks like this:

roasted potato wedges
vegetarian Christmas tart
mushroom pate
ginger and mustard cocktail sausages
vegetarian 'sausage' rolls
cheese straws
assorted cheeses
roasted pitta breads
assorted nuts
shortbread
raspberry and blueberry lime drizzle cake (for those who don't like Christmas cake and even for those that do!)
and, of course, Christmas pudding with brandy sauce

Avocado and Cumin Dip

Ingredients

1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and then ground

2 cloves garlic, pressed and ground with 1/2tsp salt

2 avocados

3tbs tahini paste

juice of 2 lemons

2 tbs olive oil

Method

Scoop out the flesh from the avocados, clean out the skins and rinse and dry them - reserve for later. Place the avocado flesh and all the remaining ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve the dip in the avocado skins garnished with strips of red pepper - very fast and very festive!

Festive Frost

2010-12-07T14:00:00.002Z

At first I wasn't sure that this month's NCR challenge from Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes belonged on my kitchen blog - a festive photo challenge - it seemed more suitable for Holly Grove Garden. Anyway after wrapping up like an eskimo and venturing out into the garden to take some winter wonderland photos I came back to a white onion soup and suddenly the challenge seemed most appropriate. There's nothing like an onion soup to warm the cockles of your heart and beat a nasty cold...except perhaps a delicious mug of hot chocolate!

Anyway the temperature here in the Shropshire countryside remains around minus 7 degrees and the hoar frost on the shrubs and trees makes a lovely picture...I hope you'll agree?

Winter Blue

And now here's the recipe for the white onion soup to warm us up after venturing out with the camera, yum!

Winter White

White Onion Soup
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 oz butter
4 large onions, thinly sliced
1 small leek, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
250ml white wine
500ml vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
small bunch parsley, chopped

Method
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the leek, onion and garlic and cook slowly with the lid on for about 10 minutes until softened but not browned.

Add the wine and bring to a fast boil. Boil until the wine has reduced by about a third. Add the stock, bay leaves and parsley and bring back to the boil, then turn the heat down. Simmer for about 2 hours and then blend using a hand blender. Seve with good brown bread.

Mushroom Magic

2010-12-01T06:26:00.006Z

It's the season for mushrooms and I've bought another mountain of them, so having made soups and put them in almost all of my cooking I thought I'd try a mushroom pate...a trial run for an addition to our Christmas table. The result was delicious, which is just as well as the recipe makes mountains of the stuff, fine for Christmas with lots of vegetarian visitors though!

Yummy Mushroom Pate
Serves 8
Ingredients
500g mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp butter,
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
250g cream cheese
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tsp brandy (optional)
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp mushroom ketchup

Method
Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the mushrooms and onions and cook gently with the lid off for about 10 minutes until soft. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile put the cheese and parsley in a food processor and combine. Add the mushroom mixture and all the remaining ingredients and pulse until the texture is fine but not completely smooth. Put the mixture into serving dishes and chill for at least 2 hours. Serve with toast or crackers or add to a baked potato for a tasty supper.

Slice of Delight

2010-11-25T07:02:00.002Z

The Handyman and I love tray baked cakes, they are easy to pick up with a cup of coffee (for me) and tea (for him) without it being too obvious that slices are disappearing. So we can keep our greedy secret at least for a while until the cake tin is empty.

I don't know why we feel guilty for eating lovely home baked cakes that contain no unnatural additives and we certainly work hard enough in the garden and around the house to use up the calories; probably just our culture that seems to say that if you enjoy something it must be naughty!

Recently I've discovered a couple of new tray bakes that have disappeared from the tin with alarming swiftness. One was a chocolate bake from Jacqueline over at Tinned Tomatoes, Chocolate Tiffin, a no bake slice, very easy to make and to eat. I used 70% cocoa chocolate for mine, a very adult taste; if I was making for children I'd probably use a milk chocolate...a good excuse to make another batch to try out the milk choc version, oh, and what about a white chocolate version with apricots instead of the raisins!

The second bake that we've had recently is an apricot and macaroon slice. I made a half quantity in a 7" square shallow cake tin and it came out beautifully after a few anxious moments when the first layer of sponge was baked - it looked too thin but actually turned out really well in the finished cake. Sweet,coconutty and generally yummy!

Apricot and Macaroon Slice
Makes about16 pieces
Ingredients

Base
100g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
1 egg
185g plain flour
half tsp baking powder

Filling
250g dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 tbsp Amaretto
2 tbsp caster sugar

Topping
100g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
270g dessicated coconut
40g plain flour
half tsp baking powder

Method

Heat the oven to 180C and lightly grease and line an 8"x12" shallow baking tin.

To make the base put all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric beater until smooth. Press into the baking tin and bake for about 25 minutes until golden.

Meanwhile make the filling by combining the apricots, Amaretto and sugar in a bowl with 4 fl ozs boiling water. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes then puree in a food processor. When the base has cooled slightly cover it with the apricot mixture.

Make the topping by creaming together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and baking powder followed by the coconut. Spoon on top of the apricot mixture then return to the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden.

Note: Next time I make this I'm going to replace the apricot mixture with some Holly Grove jam in a thick layer.

Slàinte Mhath!

2010-11-20T18:54:00.001Z

Unless you speak Gaelic or have a Scot in the family you may be confused by the title of this post...it's an old Scottish toast: 'slainte mhath' (pronounced slanj uh va) meaning good health. And the reason for toasting you all is that I've been busy making drinks, soft and otherwise, in the Holly Grove kitchen recently.

First off the bench is an update on the cider front; the first demijohn is now bottled. It has retained its deep pink colour and, if I can work out how the hydrometer works, I'll let you know the alcohol level. I bottled the cider in 2 litre plastic bottles that had previously held sparkling spring water. They were sterilised with Milton sterilising fluid and then rinsed out with cooled previously boiled water. So approximately 5 litres of pink cider awaiting next summer.

The water bottles came in useful again for my first attempt at ginger beer. I love this spicy, refreshing drink and was tempted to try and make my own when I read of all the ingredients in the commercial brands compared to the simple ingredients in a homemade version, and it's made in a bottle, so no special equipment required! The result is a lightly sparkling, gingery, not too sweet, moreish drink; perfect for hot summer days and cosy winter evenings by the fire. I'll definitely be making lots more of this one and will slightly increase the ginger content next time.

Clockwise from the top - cider, ginger beer, apple liqueur, lemonade

Now on the shelf and ready for Christmas is my apple liqueur; two versions: one made with the rosy red dessert apples from one of the old apple trees and one made with Cox's from one of the newer fruit trees in the garden. Some of this liqueur went into our Christmas puddings this year. Both are a lovely amber colour, though more colour in the old apple tree version, and both taste divine. To be drunk in small quantities as they contain lots of alcohol, lovely with a festive mince pie or slice of Christmas cake. Can't wait!

And lastly for this roundup, lemonade. This has proven very successful and like the ginger beer really easy to make. I made about 500ml of this and keep it in the fridge. We drink it diluted with sparkling water, about 50:50, so refreshing and tasty. I'm going to reduce the sugar content and increase the lemon next time as we like a sharper more lemony flavour.

Looking at this line-up I don't think I'll be buying much in the way of drinks from now on, if only I could make a decent Chablis and/or Merlot! In the meantime here are the recipes for the ginger beer and lemonade - cheers!

Ginger Beer
Ingredients
2-litre plastic bottle
quarter tsp champagne yeast
225g caster sugar
2 tbsp finely grated fresh root ginger
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp honey

Method
Add the yeast to the bottle then pour in the sugar. In a jug, mix the grated ginger, lemon juice and honey together. Pour this mixture into the bottle and fill to three quarters full with cold water. Put the top on the bottle and shake until the sugar is dissolved. Top up the bottle with water, leaving a 2.5cm gap at the top.

Cap the bottle tightly, then put it somewhere warm. Leave it for about 2-3 days. Once the bottle feels very hard place the bottle in the fridge for several hours to stop the yeast working. Pass the ginger beer through a fine sieve and re bottle.Your ginger beer is now ready to enjoy.

Lemony Lemonade
Makes about 500ml
Ingredients
half a cup caster sugar
1 tbsp honey
half a cup water
1 lemon, zest and juice
450ml cold water

Method
Put the caster sugar, honey and cup of water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes, until sugar has dissolved. Put the lemon zest and juice in a large jug and pour over the syrup. Allow to cool slightly then put the lemon mixture into a bottle. Add enough of the 450ml of cold water to fill the bottle.. Cap and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. To serve, dilute the lemonade about 50:50 with chilled sparkling water.

Bags of Pears

2010-11-18T22:27:00.001Z

To my mind there is nothing sweeter than a really ripe pear, just the thought of all those natural sugars and soft melting flesh makes me dream of cake. So when I saw a large bag of slightly under ripe pears in the supermarket I was tempted to buy...and then the price confirmed it...only £1!

On my way home in the car I dreamt of what I might make with my bargain pears...cake, pudding, jam - all three? So once the shopping was unpacked and stored; not a chore that I enjoy having just loaded it into the trolley, loaded it into bags and then loaded it into the car; I made myself a coffee and sat down with a couple of cookbooks.

One of my favourites at the moment is Hugh FW's Everyday, and I wasn't disappointed as in there I found a recipe for an Apple and Almond Pudding cake which looked delicious. As it says in the title Hugh uses apples and adds cinnamon as his spice.

I changed the recipe to use my lovely pears with ginger as the spice and where Hugh uses almond essence for extra flavouring I added Amaretto liqueur. Served with custard this cake proved a real hit. I'm looking forward to trying a slice with my morning coffee and/or afternoon tea!

Pear, Ginger and Amaretto Cake

Ingredients

4 firm pears, peeled, cored and thickly sliced

25g unsalted butter

1 tbsp unrefined granulated sugar (I might try honey next time)

150g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
75g self raising flour
75g ground almonds
half a tsp ground ginger
1 tsp (or a bit more) Amaretto

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and line an 8" round cake tin. Melt 25g butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the granulated sugar and stir gently until it has dissolved. Add the pears and cook gently, turning once or twice, until they have softened and are starting to colour, this takes about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

In a mixing bowl, beat the softened butter with the caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Slowly beat in the eggs, adding a spoonful of the flour if required to stop the mix curdling. Fold in the remaining flour, ground almonds and ginger. Gently stir in the Amaretto and then put the mixture into the prepared tin. Arrange the pears on top and pour over any juices from the frying pan.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool slightly in the tin before taking out. Serve the cake warm with luscious custard.

Note: Look out for more pear recipes in the next day or so. I've a pear and lemon jam recipe to try...

Ingredient Challenge

2010-11-15T07:37:00.003Z

Following my early success in the No Croutons Required monthly challenge last month I thought I'd risk it again and make a dish for the November challenge. This one is more tricky as it's using an ingredient selected by Lisa that I've never cooked with before - quinoa.

From the reading that I've done on this grain, I understand that it can be used in place of couscous or rice in most recipes. With this in mind, and given that I submitted a soup recipe for the October challenge, I've decided to try a salad this time. The resulting dish was lighter than a couscous version and less grainy than a rice version; I'll be trying quinoa again perhaps in a soup next time.

Quinoa, Courgette and Dolcelatte Salad

Ingredients

75g quinoa

1 small courgette, sliced into ribbons using a vegetable peeler

quarter of a red onion, finely diced

75g cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small red chilli, finely diced

75g dolcelatte, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Cook the quinoa following the packet instructions. Drain and refresh under cold running water. Leave to drain and cool.

When cool, add the courgette ribbons, chopped onion, chilli, cherry tomatoes and dolcelatte cubes and toss together well. Whisk the olive oil and red wine vinegar together and pour over the salad. Toss together and there you have it!

Note: I didn't add any salt to this salad as the salty flavour of the cheese added enough flavour for me.

Two for One

2010-11-07T08:37:00.002Z

Last week we had some rosemary and walnut bread from the market and it was delicious, I wasn't able to get there this week but we craved the delicious sweet nuttiness, so I thought I'd try to make some. Bread making takes rather a long time and with the kitchen in some disarray I needed a quicker solution. Soda bread is at the forefront of my mind as there seem to have been a number of TV cooks making it recently: Hugh FW and Nigella to name a couple.

I thought I'd try a rosemary and walnut version. I was so pleased with the result, the walnut pieces were nicely distributed through the bread and the rosemary flavour was strong enough without being overpowering.

A good bread needs a good soup so two recipes for the price of one today!

Rosemary and Walnut Soda Bread
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
450g plain white flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp salt
1 oz finely chopped walnuts
1 oz coarsely chopped walnuts
2 good sprigs rosemary, finely chopped plus a few rosemary needles for decoration
350ml plain yoghurt

Method
Heat the oven to 220C and lightly flour a large baking tray.

Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and the finely chopped walnuts and rosemary, mix together well. Now add the coarsely chopped walnuts and mix again. Finally add the yoghurt and mix together to form a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and bring together into a ball. Flatten the ball to about 4cm deep then place on the floured baking tray. Cut a cross into the top of the loaf, use a floured knife to do this to stop it sticking in the dough, then sprinkle a few rosemary needles over the top.

Place in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes. The bread is ready when you tap it on the bottom and it sounds hollow. Place on a wire rack to cool slightly, then serve warm with the soup.

With the current range and availability of mushrooms in the greengrocers and the supermarket I had to make a creamy mushroom soup. Mushroom soup doesn't end up a very pretty colour but the flavour is immense, if you don't believe me give it a try and I'm sure you'll be addicted.

Creamy Mushrooms Soup
Serves 6
Ingredients
1kg mushrooms, any mix you like, I used chestnut and portobellini
2tsps butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
small bunch of thyme
1ltr vegetable or chicken stock
500ml milk
100ml double cream

Method
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and sweat until the onion is soft but not coloured. Add the sliced mushrooms and the thyme and cook for a couple of minutes then add the stock and milk and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Remove the bunch of thyme and blend the soup. Pour the blended soup through a sieve and return to a clean saucepan. Add the cream, season with salt and pepper and stir well, gently reheat the soup, but do not allow it to boil.

Serve in warmed bowls with the rosemary and walnut soda bread. Bread and soup heaven!

Kitchen Improvements

2010-11-02T07:00:00.019Z

Having finished creating and tiling the roof on the Goat House the Handyman has turned his attention and skills to the changes required inside our house. The first and most major changes will be to the kitchen. This will have a huge impact on the way we live at HG and once we get through the disruption it will be fantastic to have the kitchen that we've always wanted. At the moment the work has meant that cooking activities are being kept to a minimum whilst the dust settles - literally!

Handyman and Apprentice

Going...going...

Gone!

The next stage, replacing the windows, is underway with time being spent on selection of installer, colour, shape, materials etc. Then it will be on to changing the boiler so that we can remove the Aga Rayburn which currently provides our heating and hot water. Yes, I did say remove the Aga!

Romantic Notion

When we first moved here one of the attractions was the Aga, but I've found it to be a romantic notion. It takes up a lot of space and, certainly for me working full time, takes a long time to heat up for cooking. I have used it on about 5 occasions, Christmas and winter family gatherings and it does make fantastic pastry cases and provide a warm and welcoming spot to gather, but I'd prefer to use the space for a cooker that I can use every day. So the plan is to replace it with a large electric range cooker - we don't have gas here only oil and electricity. I've found one with a mix of 6 induction and ceramic heat zones and 3 ovens and I think I'm in love! My sister cooks on induction and has found it as controllable as gas, can't wait to try it myself.

Dream Cooker

So once the heating boiler is replaced and all the plumbing completed we can move the Aga, raise the chimney breast where it currently resides, alter the positions of the cupboards and supplement with some new ones, get the electrics done - new lighting, more sockets and my dream cooker - have all the plastering done and finally...decorate, phew!

Quite a time consuming piece of home improvement and the reason for telling you all of this is that my recipe posts may be fewer and further between whilst the kitchen is decommissioned - unless I can sneak in between the Handyman and the various tradesmen to rustle up a little something...hmm!

Breakfast or Brunch

2010-11-01T07:00:00.002Z

It's been ages since the Handymand and I have made time for a proper cooked breakfast, but by gaining an extra hour yesterday we decided the time was ripe.

It coincided with the last of the Holly Grove tomatoes and a recent trip to our local butcher resulting in bacon, sausage and free range eggs. Though the kitchen is in upheaval (more of that to follow in a future post) we made a space to sit down and enjoy our brunch.

Not the healthiest of breakfasts but once in a while a real treat!

Loaves and Fishes

2010-10-31T09:08:00.006Z

A second order from fishinabox has landed me some lovely hake fillets. I've wanted to try hake after seeing Hugh FW cook with it as an alternative to cod. Seemingly hake is much more sustainable than cod so worth a try.

My impression on looking at the fillets was how 'meaty' they looked and a lovely colour, more creamy coloured than cod. I had an urge to make a fish pie, lovely comfort food to mark the changing of the clocks.

Earlier in the day I'd bought a delicious rosemary and walnut granary loaf from the baker at our local market, so a simple supper of fish pie and rosemary and walnut bread for a late autumn evening. The sweetness and crunch of the walnuts went beautifully with the delicate fish flavour and soft texture of the pie.

Simple Fish Pie
Serves 4
Ingredients
400g hake fillets or other white fish
300ml milk
half an onion, peeled and sliced
5 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
50g butter
3 tbsp plain flour
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 small leek, washed and sliced
half an onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
half a glass of dry white wine
potatoes mashed with butter and yoghurt to cover the pie
grated parmesan

Method
Dry the fish with kitchen paper and place in a frying pan. Pour over the milk and add the peppercorns, onion slices and bay leaf. Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 8-10 minutes until the fish flakes. Remove the fish and place on a plate. Strain the cooking juices through a sieve and reserve, discard the peppercorns, onion slices and bay leaf.

Whilst the fish is cooking add the chopped carrot, onion, leek and garlic to a saucepan with a glug of oil and gently heat to soften the onion. Add the wine and the parsley and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.

Using the reserved cooking juices from the fish make a white sauce as follows. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and stir well to remove any lumps and cook gently for a minute or two. Gradually add the cooking juices, stirring constantly. Bring to the boil and then simmer for a few minutes.

Now make up the pie by adding the flaked fish and the winey vegetable mixture to the white sauce. Put the combined ingredients into a pie dish. Cover with the creamy mashed potatoes and sprinkle over the parmesan.

Put the pie dish on a tray and bake in the oven at 200C for about 30 minutes. Then serve in wide bowls (pasta bowls are good) with a couple of chunky slices of buttered rosemary and walnut bread...yummee!

Thinking of Apples and Christmas Cheer

2010-10-27T06:00:00.000+01:00

Two months ago, 11th of September to be exact, I found a recipe for an Apple Liqueur and thought I'd give it a go. I didn't blog about it at the time as I wanted to get someway towards the finished product before I mentioned it here.

So here's the story so far...I had a small number of very large apples from our Cox's Orange Pippin - they weighed between 6-8 ounces each. With some brandy left over from last year's Wedding Cake and some vodka from my Dad's visit to Holly Grove also last year, all I needed to add was some sugar.

Giant Cox's Apples

Starting the liqueur was fairly simple. About 1.25 pounds of apples are washed and then sliced in a food processor, or by hand with a good sharp knife - no need to peel just core and remove any damaged parts.

Pack the sliced apple into ajar and cover with 1 cup of brandy and 1 cup of vodka. I also added a cinnamon stick. Put the lid on the jar, label with the start date and put in a cool dark place - mine went in the pantry. Then leave for a month for the fruit to absorb the alcohol.

Ready to store for one month

When a month has gone by drain the liquor through a sieve and squeeze the fruit pulp to extract as much liquid as possible. Then strain the liquid through very fine muslin or through a coffee filter, as I did. Combine 3/8 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of water, bring to a boil and then cool. Add this syrup to the liquor and stir well. Return this liquid to the clean jar, seal and relabel with the second stage date and place in a cool, dark place for another month.

Twice filtered juice

When another month has passed, repeat the straining and filtering process and bottle your liqueur.

Here's one I made earlier

Leave for another month and then enjoy! I made 500ml of apple liqueur with these quantities and am looking forward to tasting the results at Christmas time - cheers!

Hubble, Bubble

2010-10-26T06:00:00.004+01:00

Hurrah! The cider fermentation started in the bucket evidenced by bubbles and foam. Yesterday evening I took the next step in the process...into the demi-john with the brew.

This stage is known as racking off. I started by sterilising the demi-john, syphon tube and airlock in a solution of Milton sterilising fluid. Whist that was underway I went out into the garden for a few hours of general autumn border and kitchen garden tidying. I've cut out this season's fruiting canes from the raspberries and tied in the canes in neat rows for next summer's fruit year. It all looks very neat and orderly. Then I addressed the annual bedding which was looking very sorry for itself after our first real frost of the season on Sunday night. The raised beds in the kitchen garden were next on the list for a sowing of green manure; but I ran out of daylight, so back to the kitchen and back to the cider...

The sterilised dj was placed on a small step stool on the floor and the bucket of fermenting juice on the island unit worktop. Then the syphon tube was placed into the juice and then suck on the tube to start the juice down the tube and into the dj, without getting a mouthful of yeasty apple juice, unfortunately NOT! But it didn't taste as bad as I expected, but then why should it? it's going to be tasty cider after all, isn't it?

Lovely Pink Juice

What struck me most was the lovely pale raspberry colour, this must be from the deep red apple skins and, thinking about it, even when I make apple pies and crumbles with this variety the flesh of the apple has a pinkish tinge. I wonder if it will hold this colour in the finished cider...now I am getting ahead of myself.

I successfully racked off the fermenting juice with a little help from the Handyman; though no photos of this process as there was no-one free to hold the camera! The airlock with some sterilised water in it was inserted into the neck of the dj and then we watched and waited anxiously for the first air bubble to make its way through the airlock...YES!

Fermentation Continues!

How exciting is this - one of the highlights of life in a country cottage - some may say 'get a life' well I think I have a very good one! So where to keep the fermenting juice, somewhere away from curious cats, in the pantry will do and I can peep in on it from time to time. More cider news in the next couple of weeks when it will be time to rack off again into a clean dj and allow fermentation to complete.

Juicing the Fruits

2010-10-24T09:15:00.002+01:00

Part 2 of the Holly Grove cider making experiment began with washing the apples. We are lucky enough to have a large butler's sink in our utility room which makes the job of washing all the apples a little bit quicker and easier. They were quite dirty as most of them were windfalls with only a handful picked straight from the tree, so this was quite a water-intensive process. I would put the used water in our water butts, if they weren't already full to overflowing with the recent rain!

With the apples cleaned I began to cut them into quarters. A useful tip that I picked up whilst researching cider making is to cut the apple horizontally through the middle creating a star-shaped core. This will show up any little creatures burrowing their way to the centre of the apple and allow you to discard/cut out the damage. Once quartered and any damaged flesh removed, it's on to the pomace (pulp) making stage.

It is at this point that I digress from official cider-making wisdom as I'm going to make my pomace in my little food processor; a gift from my Mum about 13 years ago and still going strong; and extract the juice from my apples using my new fruit steamer...and how long will that take you? I hear cider makers around the country cry...well...

Little Mouli Processor

My Shiny New Steamer

After filling the reservoir of the steamer with boiling water I began to add the chopped apples in batches as they were processed. After about 45 minutes I had filled the fruit steamer to the brim with pomace and then it was just a case of keeping an eye on the water level to ensure the steamer didn't boil dry and running off the resulting juice into the fermentation bucket as it filled its allotted space in the steamer.

Pomace from the Processor

Whilst the juice was being generated I made our evening meal and set about a bit (huge pile) of ironing, then after about 3 hours I had my gallon of pasteurised apple juice. As the juice is extracted using steam it pasteurises as it goes. This means that any yeasts on the apples are destroyed, removing the need to use Camden tablets in the cider production. Cider can be made using the naturally occurring yeasts but, by all accounts, this is a bit hit and miss, so I'm using a champagne yeast in my brew.

One Gallon of Apple Juice

Mash after Juice Extraction

So a gallon doesn't look much but my idea is to experiment this season and learn from the process. Once this gallon is in a demi-john, hopefully within the next 2 to 3 days, then I'll go through the steps again to make a second gallon next weekend. When the Handyman and I saw the mash that remained after the juice had been extracted it made us wish for a pig to polish it off, we settled for adding it to the compost heap. So now our heap smells deliciously of apple!

Beginning of Fermentation?

The final step for this part of the process was to allow the lovely deep pink juice to cool down, it comes out of the steamer boiling hot. The yeast, about 1 teaspoon, was mixed with warm water and added to the cooled juice in the fermentation bucket and the lid popped on. Now all I can do is wait to see if the juice begins to ferment.

I know that my process won't do for more than a gallon of juice but it works for me as I love to be in the kitchen and can easily occupy myself with cooking and baking whilst the juice is generated. I suppose that if we wanted to use more of our apples in cider production then we'll have to consider a cider press, but for this season and this experiment the little Mouli and the shiny fruit steamer will do.

I should also credit one of the most useful websites for simple cider making that I found whilst searching for information, refreshingly named - How to make cider.

I'll post more in the next week to update on the fermentation or not of the brew.

Cider Making Beginnings

2010-10-17T07:00:00.010+01:00

The Handyman and I have been talking about attempting cider making with some of the Holly Grove apples since we moved here just over 3 years ago. With everything else we've been doing this has slipped down the priority list, but this year I'm going to have a stab at the process.

I've been reading a lot on-line and in books and, though an absolute novice, I'm going to try a more simple approach that doesn't require a cider press and a still room to store the huge quantities of pomace (technical jargon for pulp), demi-johns etc. I may live to regret this approach, but at least I'll have tried.

I've purchased a fermentation bucket, a couple of demi-johns with airlocks, a hydrometer, a syphon tube and suitable yeast. I tried to get hold of cider yeast to no avail, it seems to be sold out, probably as it's apple harvest time. One of the sites recommended using champagne yeast as a substitute, so that's what I've got. I'm using Milton sterilising fluid to prepare the bucket etc.

My plan is to make 2 gallons of cider which, by most accounts, requires about 48 pounds of apples! I'm going to mix our unnamed variety of cooking apple and the lovely red eating apple on our old apple trees together with a small proportion of crab apples from our Red Sentinel tree. So let the gathering of apples begin...

...and 45 minutes later, here's what 48 pounds of apples looks like...almost all are windfalls with little or no bruising with only about 2 pounds of crab apples - well it's a very young tree.

Time to sterilise the fermentation bucket and then on to the juicing of the fruit...more updates to follow at each stage of the process, successful or not!

Chicken(less) Noodle Soup

2010-10-16T10:03:00.006+01:00

First Time Lucky!

Amongst the blogs I follow is Tinned Tomatoes where Jacqueline co-hosts a monthly challenge, No Croutons Required, so this month I decided to try my luck. The ingredient selected for the October challenge is noodles.

I have a great recipe from my Dad for chicken noodle soup, but then I noticed that the challenge is to create a vegetarian soup or salad; so what about chicken noodle soup without the chicken? Worth a try? And how to make it as tasty as the original? And what seasonal produce can I incorporate? Well, let's see what transpired...

Mushroom and Noodle Soup

Ingredients

1tbsp rapeseed oil or vegetable oil

1 onion, peeled and diced
1 leek, cleaned and sliced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 small swede, peeled and diced
250g mixed portabellini and chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced

half tsp chilli flakes
2.5 pts vegetable stock
2 tbsp mushroom ketchup

1 portion fine egg noodles

salt and pepper
fresh parsley, chopped

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and leek and cook gently until transluscent. Add the carrot and swede and continue to sweat gently with the lid on for about 5 minutes. Now add the mushrooms, put the lid back on and cook until the mushrooms have reduced in volume. Add the chilli flakes and stir well.

Pour the vegetable stock and mushroom ketchup into the vegetables and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Break up and add the egg noodles and simmer for a further 5-10 minutes until the noodles are soft. Add the parsley and stir. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper and serve with vegetable spring rolls.

Note: I made my own vegetable stock, though you can use vegetable stock cubes, just be careful when
seasoning the soup as the stock cubes can be salty.

Tinned Tomatoes: No Croutons Required - Noodles

2010-10-16T10:00:00.000+01:00

My entry for October's challenge - Mushroom and Noodle Soup

Lots of Lovely Fruit Juice - Hopefully!

2010-10-15T12:31:00.000+01:00

I've been looking for a reliable and easy way to preserve fruit juice and last year bought a Samson 6 in 1 juicer. It has worked well and extract lots of juice but the juice then needs to be pasteurised in order to be stored for more than a day or so. I could freeze the juice but freezer space is at a premium at Holly Grove. The other drawback to this juicer is that it is messy to use and awkward to clean. On the plus side it does have other uses such as mincing etc.

It was interesting to read a review of steaming for juice extraction on The Cottage Smallholder that encouraged me to search for further recommendations which I found here.

As a result of these posts and a bit more research on line I've just ordered a Beka Fruit Steamer from Amazon - Amazon have a 20% off offer on this steamer until 20th October. It should arrive tomorrow and I can't wait to juice some of our apple harvest - I'll post a review once I've tried it out.

Family Event

2010-10-13T16:45:00.022+01:00

I had the most lovely news yesterday afternoon - my first granddaughter was born! My overnight bag has been in the car for about 10 days awaiting this event, so off I went to Yorkshire to meet Maya Susan for the first time.

So what has this got to do with a cooking blog, not a lot other than, as you can see, she's a real sweetie and I want to share my joy...oh, and whilst staying at my son's house I baked a large chocolate cake to serve to all the inevitable and welcome visitors.

My First Veg Box

2010-10-10T14:32:00.011+01:00

On Thursday my first organic veg box from a local farm arrived. The variety of veg was not bad given the time of year - there were a few potatoes (glad there were not too many as we still have a lot of our own potatoes), four large leeks, some carrots and onions, a handful of runner beans, a cauliflower, a cabbage, a very large swede and some curly kale.

We like our vegetables but this is quite a lot to get through before the veg starts to deteriorate and our freezer is already full to bursting with Holly Grove produce, so I had to make things that would use the maximum amount of veg in the shortest time.

First on the list was something to accompany fillets of trout that I had bought for our supper on Thursday. The runner beans were an obvious choice and something using some of the lovely leeks, but what? Then I remembered a dish that my Mum used to make when I was a child - stovies! Any Scots reading this may need no further explanation, though from my experience family recipes vary. The stovies my Mum made used potatoes, onions, butter and milk and it was cooked in a saucepan on top of the stove; this delicious concoction would be served in bowls with crusty, well buttered bread - real comfort food.

My interpretation is really a variation of dauphinois and uses leeks instead of onions - posh stovies. The dish was perfect with the simply cooked trout and runner beans, the richness of the stovies went so well with the lightness of the fish - lovely!

A vegetable curry was next on the list and delicious it was too - that was Friday night's meal served with naan and vegetable pakoras.

Then using some beef from the local butcher and leeks, carrots, onions and swede I made a large slow cooked casserole - some eaten last night and the rest for a pie filling for tonight's supper. The pie I'll serve with creamed potato and swede and some of the dark curly kale.

After all of this there is still enough veg left to make a warming soup and some vegetable stock that I may just be able to squeeze into the freezer - phew! To be honest I'm not sure veg boxes are for me, I think I'd rather select my veg myself and probably buy smaller quantities more often, but it has been an interesting experience and reminded me of a childhood dish long forgotten - oh, and here's my recipe...

Posh Stovies

Serves 2-3
Ingredients

125ml double cream

125ml milk

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 bay leaf

good grating of nutmeg

salt and pepper

2 good sized potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

1 large leek, cleaned and thickly sliced

leaves stripped from a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method

Put the first five ingredients in a saucepan and simmer together for 5 minutes to infuse the milk/cream mixture. Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

Take an earthenware ovenproof dish and grease generously with softened butter. Lay a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the dish and sprinkle with some of the thyme, add the leek slices in a layer over the potatoes and then cover the leek with another layer of potatoes, sprinkle the remaining thyme over the potatoes.

Pour the milk/cream mixture over the layered potato and leek. Oil the inside of a piece of tinfoil and then use this to cover the dish, oilside down. Put the dish on a baking sheet in the oven 200C for about 40 minutes or until the potato is soft. Remove the foil and press down the potatoes with the back of a serving spoon then sprinkle over the parmesan and return to the oven for about 10 minutes until the top is golden.

Autumn's Harvest

2010-10-06T18:53:00.001+01:00

I can't resist the 2 for 1 offers on late season English plums in the local supermarket; plums being one of my most favourite seasonal fruits; but even I can't eat 2kgs of plums in the few days before they become overripe.

Variety - Sunset

Three seasons ago we planted a young apple tree, the variety Sunset, and this year we had a very reasonable crop from such an immature tree. They are lovely eating apples but I have been pleased to see how well they hold up when used in pies and crumbles. With a few remaining I thought I'd try to combine them with the supermarket plums in jam making.

Gleaming jars of lovely jam

The result is a beautifully rich coloured and fine tasting jam - so why not make the most of the supermarket offers or your own harvest or, like me, a combination of shop bought and homegrown - cost effective and delicious!

Plum and Apple Jam
Makes just over 2lbs
Ingredients
1lb plums, halved and stoned
1lb apples, peeled, cored and sliced
18 fl ozs water
juice of half a lemon
1.5 lbs granulated sugar

Method
Put the plums, apples, lemon juice and water in apreserving pan and bring slowly to a boil. reduce heat to obtain a fast simmer and leave for about one hour, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is very soft and the mixture reduced by about half.

Take the pan off the heat and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved, then stir in a knob of butter. Return to the heat and bring back to a fast boil, after about 10-15 minutes the jam should have reached setting point, if using a sugar thermometer this will be temperature of 105C.

Remove the pan from the heat and using a slotted spoon lift off any scum. Now pour the jam into warm sterilsed jars and seal immediately. Allow to cool, then label and store in a cool, dark cupboard.

Beetroot Bonanza!

2010-09-27T17:00:00.023+01:00

I spent a lovely day with my best friend, C, at the Malvern Autumn show on Saturday in the lovely setting of the Malvern hills. The sun shone on us as we wandered around the craft stalls, flower show and animals - a real day out.

Anyway, after a relaxing day out I managed to find the time and enthusiasm yesterday to pull up about half of my beetroot crop and spent the day in the kitchen converting the raw, red vegetable into a variety of produce for the kitchen cupboard and the cake tin!

First on the agenda was the ubiquitous pickled beetroot; actually one of my favourite pickles and so easy to make; just cook the beetroot, then peel and slice or cube and pack into sterile jars. Pour over cold spiced vinegar then seal and label the jars. Delicious with a selection of cold meats at Christmas time.

I then made a small quantity of beetroot chutney - a new recipe for me; I'll post the recipe for this once I've had a chance to taste it, which won't be for about 2 months whilst it matures.

Beetroot Bounty

Another recipe to be posted later is for the beetroot soup that I made yesterday, another new one for my kitchen, though whenever I take any beetroot to my sister she always mkes soup with some of it. I've frozen most my soup as I already had some dreamy, creamy tomato soup in the fridge for us to eat.

So something pickled, something savoury, and finally something sweet. A Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe from his River Cottage everyday book: Chocolate and Beetroot Brownies. These didn't make it to the freezer, they were delicious, chocolatey and moist with a little 'je ne sais quoi' provided by the beetroot...do, do try these...

Choco-Root Brownies

Ingredients

Makes about 20

250g dark chocolate broken into pieces

250g unsalted butter, cut into cubes

250g caster sugar
3 free-range eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g beetroot, boiled until tender, then peeled and grated

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease a baking tin of approximately 20 x 30 x 3cm and line the bottom with baking parchment.

Break up the chocolate into pieces, cut the butter into cubes then melt together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl until combined, then beat in the melted chocolate and butter until smooth. Gently fold in the flour then the beetroot – be careful not to overmix or it will make the brownies tough.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth over the top with a spatula. Bake for about 20 minutes. A knife or skewer pushed into the middle should come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Remove the tin from the oven and leave on wire rack to cool before cutting into squares Lovely on their own or even better warm from the oven with some good vanilla ice cream!

I've still got the other half of the beetroot crop to deal with - any suggestions?

Egg Whites

2010-09-12T07:06:00.021+01:00

Yesterday I made some biscuits which required two egg yolks, I don't like to waste food so I used the egg whites to make meringues. I've not made these before and was intrigued to understand the process.

The egg whites were beaten in a clean bowl with an electric whisk until they formed soft peaks, 100g of caster sugar was added a spoonful at a time whilst continuing to beat the egg whites. Continue whisking until the egg whites form stiff peaks and the mix looks glossy.

Put spoonfuls of the meringue mix onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment and place in the oven at 140C. I baked mine at this temperature for about 60 minutes though the recipe said one and a half hours. At the end of this time the meringues should lift easily off the baking parchment and sound hollow. Leaving the meringues in the oven, turn off the heat and open the oven door and leave the meringues for a further 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before storing in an airtight tin.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the meringues...an autumnal Eton mess perhaps?

Back to Baking

2010-09-11T16:51:00.000+01:00

I've really enjoyed the focus on fish in my recent posts and still have the sardines from my delivery to eat - they're in the freezer at the moment. My thoughts now turn to some more home baking.

Last night I made a Victoria sponge using Holly Grove bramble jam instead of the more traditional raspberry or strawberry jam. The bramble jam was made from hedgerow blackberries growing in the lanes around Holly Grove - very satisfying to make something so delicious from free fruit!

The cake makes a lovely light, sweet offering with a cup of tea or coffee as an afternoon treat or served with cream or ice cream as a light pudding. Good use of the larder full of homemade jam!

Today I've adapted a recipe for shortbread biscuits to incorporate some essence of orange flower water that I bought on impulse a few days ago. These, like the sponge, make a lovely accompaniment to afternoon tea or morning coffee or with some stewed fruit and ice cream make a quick dessert.

Orangish Shortbread Biscuits
Makes about 35
Ingredients
325g plain flour
200g chilled unsalted butter, diced
125g caster sugar
2 tsp essence of orange flower water
2 egg yolks
icing sugar, for dusting

Method
Set the oven to 180C. Put the flour and butter into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, orange flower water and the eggs and mix to a smooth dough.

Roll the dough into a long sausage shape, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Cut the dough into 5mm thick slices and arrange them on the baking sheets spacing them slightly apart. bake for about 20 minutes until pale golden in colour. Place biscuits onto a wire to cool and then dust with icing sugar.

Note: The 'orangish' in the recipe title is because the biscuits didn't taste very orangey, perhaps next time I'll add some grated orange zest? Despite that the biscuits were crisp and lovely with my latte.

Delicious Halibut

2010-09-10T10:59:00.004+01:00

As promised here's my review of our first taste of the produce from fishinabox. On opening the box I was impressed by the lack of fishy smells - a good sign of really fresh fish - and the way the fish was filleted and packed, so a good start.

Lovely fresh fillets

The halibut fillets were large, meaty, a lovely creamy colour and smelt of the sea - gorgeous! This fish was one of the best tasting and, I think, best value for money products that I've had in my kitchen...425g for just over £8. Well done fishinabox, I'll be back for more...I've just got to finish the Craster kippers and Cornish sardines...yum!


Roasted halibut on a spring onion rosti with tarragon buerre blanc served with Holly Grove french beans

The recipe I had chosen was a little time-consuming to prepare but worth every minute when we tasted the results. The halibut tasted divinely of the sea and the flesh remained moist, creamy and meaty, gently flaking off with a fork. The recipe can be found on BBC Food - I replaced the sorrel in the recipe with dried tarragon (about 1 tsp) as the sorrel in my kitchen garden wasn't up to scratch.

A Box Full of Fishes

2010-09-09T18:17:00.002+01:00

My first 'fishinabox' order has arrived! It was delivered in a polystyrene box filled with crushed ice and came complete with a recipe suggestion for the kippers. There was more fish in my box than I had visualised when I ordered it, I must get a handle on metric weights!

How exciting!

So halibut, kippers and sardines - the fish looks and smells lovely and fresh and I can't wait to cook and eat it. We'll start with the halibut fillets...

I've spent the last hour on the web looking for a suitable recipe. The one chosen came from the BBC Food site (not to be confused with the BBC Good Food site): roasted halibut on a spring onion rosti with sorrel beurre blanc.

The joy of this recipe is that the early stages can be carried out in advance and then the finishing stage takes only 15 minutes. This means that I can have everything prepared and then finish off the dish when the Handyman comes in from the garden (which is pretty late in the evening whilst he's engrossed in his latest project)...so I'm off to start cooking. I'll post the recipe and some photos of the finished dish tomorrow...wish me luck!

Fresh Fish

2010-09-06T15:43:00.010+01:00

I've just found a local supplier of fresh fish and have placed my first order to be delivered on Thursday. I've yet to test the quality of the service and, of course, the products but the good news is that delivery is free in Shropshire and surrounding counties (check out their website for details).

I'll update with a fishy recipe and comments regarding the fish sometime over the weekend when we've received the order and had time to prepare the fish dish.

I've ordered kipper, halibut and sardine fillets - so if anyone has any good fishy recipes please let me know.

Bright Bite

2010-09-03T13:29:00.004+01:00

Just taken enough time to come in from the garden to make myself a bite of lunch.

A local pastie from our local butcher (well, half a pastie as a whole one is too big for lunch), with some homemade tomato salsa and a few tortilla chips. Not a lot of home cooking here but a quick, colourful and tasty lunch...now back into the garden for some more autumnal sunshine!

Light and Lemony

2010-08-31T09:00:00.004+01:00

The weather here yesterday was glorious, a beautiful day for the garden but we'd run out of cake. So I wondered what I might make that was quick yet a little more unusual than a plain sponge cake. I decided to leaf through my baking books whilst enjoying my morning coffee sitting in the sunshine.

My search revealed an old favourite that I haven't made for many years and this brought memories flooding back of when my boys were boys - so feeling warm from the sunshine on the outside and the memories on the inside I went dreamily back into the kitchen to make...

Lemon Crunch Squares
Makes 12 squares
Ingredients
For the cake
4ozs soft margarine or butter
4ozs castor sugar
4ozs self raising flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice

For the topping
2ozs castor sugar
1 generous tbsp lemon juice

Method
Grease and line a square baking tin 7"x7" and preheat the oven to 180C. Put all the ingredients for the cake in a large bowl and whisk together until light and creamy. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes until the top of the cake is golden and springs back when lightly pressed.

Whilst the cake is baking, mix the topping ingredients together. As soon as the cake is out of the oven lightly prick over the top and then cover with the topping. The lemon juice will sink into the cake and the sugar will create a lightly crisp topping. Leave the cake to cool in the baking tin then when the cake is quite cold remove from the tin and cut into 12 squares. Delicious eaten with a nice cup of tea or coffee or serve as a dessert with blackberry coulis and vanilla icecream.

Tomato Fest Soup

2010-08-29T11:00:00.004+01:00

The tomato harvest is coming in thick and fast now, even with the lack of sunshine they seem to be ripening well. This year I've grown several varieties; some old, reliable friends and others new and untried, by me anyway. The range of colours, sizes and shapes has provided a very interesting harvest.

This season I've grown cherry tomatoes in the following varieties: Tumbler, Yellow Tumbling Tom and Sun Belle - supposedly a yellow plum tomato but looking far more like an orange cherry variety. I've also grown the ever reliable Shirley and Money Maker varieties of 'standard' tomatoes and Totem, a bush variety. All of these have cropped and ripened well despite the cool, cloudy days of July and August.

The final variety in the greenhouse is Principe Borghese, a plum tomato, grown from seed. This is also cropping well but is slower to ripen, the first fruits are only just beginning to redden whilst the other varieties have been producing fruits for the table and pot for about 3 weeks.

All in all a pretty good year for tomatoes. So having made batches of tomato sauce and passata for the freezer, what to do with this latest colourful bowl? With the weather turning a little chilly how about a creamy tomato soup? Light and fresh in flavour but warm and comforting too...and so pretty to look at...

Dreamy, Creamy Tomato Soup
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 celery stick, chopped
7 ozs carrots, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 large sprig fresh thyme, tied in a bundle
1.5 lbs mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped
0.5 tsp sugar
salt and black pepper
7 fl ozs passata
17 fl ozs vegetable stock
3 fl ozs Greek yoghurt mixed with 2 tbsp milk
splash of dry sherry, optional

Method
Heat the oil in a large pan and gently cook the onion until soft but not brown.

Add the garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaf and thyme and continue to cook gently for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chopped tomatoes and sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes and then add the passata and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer then cover and cook for 35-40 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Remove the bay leaf and thyme and blend the soup. Pour the blended soup through a sieve into a clean saucepan then stir in the yoghurt/milk mix and sherry, if using. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.

Pour into bowls and, if desired, top with a teaspoon of tomato salsa and serve with bread rolls.

Note: I'm pleased to say that the onion, garlic, celery, carrots, tomatoes and thyme used in this recipe were grown at Holly Grove and the passata was homemade from Holly Grove produce.

Tomato Salsa

2010-08-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

This summer I've used this salsa as a starter with pitta bread sliced and dribbled with olive oil and then crisped in the oven for 5 minutes, an accompaniment to barbequed chicken and sausages and added as a topping for soup...and occasionally, because I just love the fresh taste of this, on its own by the teaspoonful! It's also incredibly easy to create and requires absolutely no cooking, so here goes...

Tomato, Cucumber and Red Onion Salsa
Ingredients
10 cherry tomatoes, diced
half a small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and diced
half a red onion, peeled and diced
half a green chilli, deseeded and very finely diced
juice of half a lime

Method
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together well. Cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least half an hour and no more than 2 hours. Remove from fridge about half an hour before serving then put into a small serving bowl and enjoy!

Someone's Two!

2010-08-21T08:01:00.017+01:00

Another cake decorating challenge, though not on the scale of the Wedding Cake, my grandson JM's second birthday approaches and I've a birthday cake to make. My cake decorating skills are limited so I needed something simple yet effective and using ingredients and cake tins in my cupboards.

Bright colours and simple shapes seem to be the thing for 2 year olds, so out come the fondant icing, natural food colourings and shape cutters. I thought I'd make the decorations before the cake just in case I had to change plans should the decorations prove a disaster...the results can be seen below...not too bad, so then on with the cake baking...

I wanted to use an 8" cake tin and make a single sponge that I could cut into 2 sandwich sponges but all my recipes for a Victoria sponge used 7" tins and having made the mistake before of using the wrong sized tin for a recipe I wasn't keen on guessing whether this would work or not. Then my Mum's edition of Good Housekeeping Cookery Book came to the rescue again with the answer...

Fill the cake tin with water to the depth that you want your sponge and then measure the quantity of water used and for each pint of water make a multiple of the quantities below:

2ozs castor sugar
2ozs softened butter or margarine
2ozs self-raising flour
1 egg

I wanted 3 pints in my baking tin, so I used 6ozs sugar, butter and flour with 3 eggs and combined as for any Victoria sponge recipe, set the oven to 180C, the timing had to be judged (35 minutes for my 8" cake)...et voila...

Now for the most important part of the challenge, would young JM enjoy his cake? Well the blowing out of candles was a great success. I think he had at least three goes before we got to the cake cutting and finally the tasting...

And the verdict...in JM's own words...'more pease Daddy!'

Blackberries and Tomatoes?

2010-08-15T12:18:00.011+01:00

This time of the year I'm running to try and keep up with all the produce from the garden and hedgerows around our plot, and trying to find recipes to use up the various gluts that we benefit from, tomatoes being the current crop of the moment.

Yesterday I spent just a few minutes in the garden and came back to the kitchen with a strange concoction in my trug...huge blackberries from our thornless plant (a real boon as I can gather the fruits without getting by arms scratched to bits), lots of lovely tomatoes and a solitary courgette...now how to use these offerings...

The blackberries were easy, I'd make an apple and blackberry crumble, just needed to get a few apples from the tree in the garden, a little underripe but sharp flavoured and delicious in a crumble. Now for the tomatoes; I had already taken some chicken thighs from the freezer earlier in the day and I had a paprika sausage in the fridge crying out to be used, so Spanish Chicken it had to be...

Spanish Chicken with Tomato
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
1/4 tsp pimenton or smoked paprika
100g Mangalika Hungarian paprika sausage, thickly sliced
(you could use any chorizo type sausage)
4 large chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
200g cherry tomatoes or larger tomatoes halved or quartered

Method
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Gently cook for 3 minutes until the onion begins to soften. Add the paprika sausage and the pimenton to the onion and cook together for another 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion and sausage mixture from the pan and set aside. Add the chicken pieces to the oil in the pan and fry until browned; this should only take a few minutes.

Place the chicken in a shallow ovenproof dish, cover with the onion and sausage mix and then place the tomatoes on top. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and bake at 180C for about 25-30 minutes ensuring that the chicken pieces are cooked. The tomatoes should be soft but not mushy. Serve with plain boiled rice and a green salad.

Note: I don't have a photo of the finished dish as it smelt so lovely we couldn't wait to taste it.

Sweet Tooth Heaven!

2010-08-08T10:05:00.003+01:00

I'm sitting here with a guilty secret - latte and vanilla fudge for breakfast!

Decadent and delicious, this is the second batch of this fudge I've made in just over a week. The recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage everyday'; fast becoming one of my favourite cookbooks.

We love this fudge as a sweet treat and it tastes even better when eaten alongside my lemon gingerbread and ginger mascarpone cream dessert - recipe to follow in future blog.

A sugar thermometer is essential for this recipe and the use of double cream instead of the usual condensed milk of most fudge recipes makes, I think, for a lighter creamier texture and a more delicious fudge.

Vanilla Fudge
Makes 30ish squares
Ingredients
300g caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
100g unsalted butter, diced
100ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (not vanilla essence)

Method
Put the sugar, syrup, butter and cream into a large saucepan, you need plenty of room for the mixture to bubble as it boils. Melt and combine over a low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat, stop stirring and bring to the boil with the sugar thermometer in the pan. Boil until the mixture reaches soft ball stage - 116C. Remove the pan from the heat, remove the sugar thermometer and leave to stand for 10 mins.

Meanwhile lightly oil a 15cm x 22cm baking dish and get out your electric whisk. After resting the mixture for 10 mins, add the vanilla extract and beat until the mixture thickens and starts to come away from the base of the pan. (This will be obvious when you see it. The whisking took me 10 mins for my first batch and 7 mins for my second.)

Put the fudge mixture into the baking dish, smooth the top and leave to cool. When quite cold mark it into squares and leave for about 4 hours to firm up, then take out of the dish and store in an airtight tin.

Note: I don't know how long the fudge will store for; our first batch was only around for four days and there are only two of us - look out waistline!

Yet Another Savoury Tart

2010-08-07T08:30:00.008+01:00

I think I'm addicted to savoury tart/quiche recipes at the moment. I love the crisp pastry case against the soft filling of the tarts and they are making good use of the increasing flow of ripe tomatoes, the diminishing peas and the stored red onions, amongst other veggies, from the Holly Grove kitchen garden.

Last night I tried out a recipe I had picked up on a shopping trip to Waitrose earlier in the week, modifying it to use HG produce but retaining all the main ingredients. I made a tomato, red onion and cucumber salsa and some chunks of deep fried new potatoes to go with the tart which we ate served warm from the oven - delish!

Into then out of the oven

More Cherry Tomatoes, Pea and Ricotta Tart
Serves 4 (or 2 very hungry gardeners with a little left for next day's lunch)
Ingredients
7"-8" savoury pastry case
(make your own or do as I do and buy readymade)
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 courgette, diced
glug of light olive oil
3-4 ozs freshly podded peas
(you can use frozen peas if you can't get fresh)
2 medium eggs
2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
250g tub of ricotta cheese
3 tbsp finely grated parmesan
250g ricotta cheese
8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half horizontally

Method
Gently heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and courgette. Cook for about 5 mins until softening and beginning to colour. Meanwhile put the peas in a saucepan of boiling water and simmer for 2 mins, then drain. Add the peas to the onion mix and stir to combine. Put the mixture to one side.

Beat the eggs with the milk in a large bowl, then add the ricotta and beat together. Add the pea and onion mixture and stir to combine, then pour the mixture into the pastry base.

Place the tomatoes cut side up around the tart and push gently into the cheese mixture. Sprinkle with the parmesan and place the tart on a baking tray in the oven at 200C for 30-35 mins.

Like almost all savoury tarts this can be eaten warm or cold.

Herbs by the Jar Full

2010-08-06T07:04:00.003+01:00

The kitchen garden at Holly Grove has a now very established herb bed producing all the herbs we need in the kitchen and more! I'm going to try making herb infused oils using a variety of herbs on a range of oils, if they are successful they may find their way into Christmas stockings later in the year.

The process appears to be very simple and so I'm starting my experiment with two versions - an extra virgin olive oil flavoured with rosemary, a strongly flavoured oil with a strongly flavoured herb, and groundnut oil with fennel, I'm thinking of using this oil in fish dishes.

The process is the same regardless of the oil or herb...

Herb Infused Oil
Take a clean jar and pack it loosely with the herb of your choice. Fill the jar with the oil of your choice. Mix the herb and oil together and cover the jar with two layers of muslin secured with a rubber band.

Place the jar on a sunny windowsill (a bit tricky given the weather at the moment) for two weeks, stirring daily. After two weeks strain the oil through muslin and taste. If the flavour is to your liking then decant into clean, sterile bottles, seal and label. If you want a stronger flavour refill the jar loosely with fresh herbs and cover with the oil and repeat the process.

The oils can be used for cooking or salad dressings or simply for dipping.

Windfall Apples

2010-08-05T07:12:00.006+01:00

Our two old apple trees continue to fruit heavily despite the vagueries of the British weather. However every year since we've been at Holly Grove we've consigned heaps of apples to the compost bins as the unripe fruit falls from the trees.

An attempt at cider is on the cards for later in the season when more fruit has matured and we have gathered together the basic equipment. In the meantime, what to do with these under-ripe windfall apples? Whilst browsing on the web I came across a recipe for an apple jelly with ginger - I love ginger and so the scene was set to try the recipe...

Windfalls and Ginger Jelly
Ingredients
a bag of windfall apples, washed and cut into chunks
(remove any damaged parts of the apple but do not core or skin)
cold water
white granulated sugar
stem ginger, finely diced

Method
Place the chopped apples in a large saucepan or preserving pan with enough cold water to just cover the apples. Cover and bring to the boil, then simmer until the apples are soft and mushy.

Put the apple pulp into a jelly bag suspended over a large bowl and leave overnight for the juice to drip through. Do not squeeze the bag or the jelly will be cloudy.

The following day measure the juice and add to a pan with 1lb of sugar for each pint of juice. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a fast boil and check for setting point (105C) using a sugar thermometer. When setting point is reached remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes, remove any scum with a slotted spoon. Add the chopped ginger and stir through the jelly. Put into small sterilised jam jars and cover and seal when the jelly is cold.

The result a lovely pinkish amber jelly infused with the warmth of ginger and a few less apples on the compost heap.

Note: I had a few 'challenges' getting the ginger evenly distributed through the jelly. In the end I filled the jars and then waited until the jelly was just warm and beginning to set and then stirred each jar of jelly to distribute the ginger and...phew...it seemed to work! Be careful not to introduce any air bubbles into the jelly when redistributing the ginger or your jelly won't keep well.

The 2nd Annual Cherry Berry Day

2010-08-04T12:23:00.009+01:00

My niece, V, instigated Cherry Berry Day last July after being inspired by Hugh F-W's Strawberry Day. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the inaugural day last year but did manage to get along to this year's celebration.

There were sweet treats galore including V's Strawberry Chocolate fudge - interesting! The winning entry on the day, voted for unananimously, was a very delicious Summer Fruit Pavlova - to die for, to coin a phrase! Other contributions to the event can be found on A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit - the host for this year.

I thought I'd stretch the cherry theme a little and make a savoury tart with cherry tomatoes, all grown at Holly Grove and in various shades of yellow, orange and red. To accompany the tart I made a warm cherry tomato chutney. Both were taken cooked and cold to the Cherry Berry Day venue and warmed in the oven for 15 minutes before serving.

On the sweet side my contribution was a jar of Holly Grove Raspberry and Blackcurrant jam, a pot of very thick double cream and some homemade bite-sized scones, traditional yet surprisingly popular.

It was a lovely afternoon spent sampling fine cooking and baking and the odd glass of Elderflower Champagne courtesy of the host, S and my sister, J - sparkling!

Cherry Tomato and Four Cheese Tart with Warm Cherry Tomato Chutney
Sufficient to make 2 x 6" tarts
For the Tarts
Ingredients
2 x 6" savoury tart cases
(Make your own or do as I did and buy readymade)
a few stalks of broccoli, broken into small pieces
10 cherry tomatoes
(mine were quite large so I cut them in half horizontally. If yours are small then you'll need about 20)
300ml double cream
3 large eggs
1 tsp whole grain mustard
25g soft blue cheese, cubed
(I used Dolcelatte)
25g feta cheese, cubed
25g parmesan, grated
25g strong English Cheddar, grated
salt and pepper

Method
Arrange the broccoli, cherry tomatoes and the cubes of cheese in the pastry cases. Sprinkle the pamesan and cheddar over the tarts. Whisk together the cream, eggs and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Divide the egg mixture between the tarts and then sprinkle over a little more parmesan.

Place in a hot oven, 200C for 25-30 minutes. The tarts should be well risen and golden on top. Remove from the oven and cool. Serve warm or cold with the cherry tomato chutney and perhaps a few new potatoes.

For the Chutney
Keeps for up to 2 days and can be reheated if required
Ingredients
a gulg of light olive oil
a handful of cherry tomatoes (about 6-8 tomatoes), sliced
a small courgette, cut into matchsticks
a large red onion, very finely sliced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sugar

Method
Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and heat. Add the onion and courgette and cook gently with a lid on for about 10 minutes until the onion is beginning to soften. Add the tomatoes and continue cooking gently with the lid on for another 10 minutes, until the onions and tomatoes are very soft.

Remove the lid and turn the heat up slightly. Then add the balsamic vinegar and sugar and stir. Cook for another couple of minutes and then remove from the heat. Place in a serving bowl and leave to cool until warm and then serve with the Cherry Tomato and Four Cheese Tart.

Note: This warm chutney is also good with rustic fried saugages or even BBQ burgers.

More Raspberry and Blackcurrant Fare

2010-07-14T07:37:00.001+01:00

The soft fruit harvest continues; so much this year that I foresee lots of jam making, freezing and possibly an attempt at bottling looming.

So far I have gathered ten pounds of raspberries and just over four pounds of blackcurrants. The redcurrants should be ready around the end of July; sadly the whitecurrants have been taken by the birds, but I can't really complain as they seem to have left the raspberries and other currants alone (for the moment!).

So more baking and preserving; this time a raspberry and blackcurrant jam. I used the same method as the Almost Seedless Raspberry jam with two pounds of raspberries and one and a quarter pounds of blackcurrants. This produced a slightly tart jam, just the way we like it.

I found a recipe on another blog for a cake using raspberry and blackcurrant jams with chocolate, so using Holly Grove R&B jam I got out the baking tin and tried out the recipe for Chocolate, Raspberry and Blackcurrant Cake. The result is a rich and dense cake, not too pretty to look at, to accompany the cake I made a raspberry couli and the Handyman added a little cream drizzled over the coulis. The resulting dessert tasted delicious - not sure the photo does it justice.

Raspberry Couli
Makes about quarter of a pint
Ingredients
8ozs raspberries, rinsed
1.5ozs castor sugar

Method
Place the raspberries in a bowl and sprinkle over the sugar. Cover and leave for 30 minutes. Then place the contents of the bowl in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and add more sugar if required and blend again for a few seconds. Strain the liquid through a fine nylon sieve to remove the seeds. Put into a container, cover and store in the fridge until needed.

The coulis can be stored for several days and used over cakes, icecream, pancakes etc.

Note: if you don't want to get the blender out you could just press the fruit and sugar mix through a sieve, a bit more work but the same result.

Scones and Jam

2010-07-10T06:59:00.011+01:00

Holly Grove kitchen garden has been swinging into full production; amongst the produce have been raspberries and blackcurrants...lots of the little blighters! Yesterday, though the garden was tempting me out, I remained resolute and stayed in the kitchen for a bit of baking and preserving.

Starting with the raspberries, I made a very simple fruit yoghurt - basically greek yoghurt layered with raspberries. I used the ripest berries for this, leaving it overnight for the juices to run into the yoghurt and ready for my breakfast this morning. One and a half pounds of raspberries I used to make raspberry jam, only a small quantity, but full of fruit. The remainder of the raspberries together with some of the blackcurrants were used to make another Berry Crumble cake.

Then on to the blackberries; aside from the small quantity in the cake, one pound of fruit was used to make Blackberry jam and the rest, about two pounds, was juiced.

With the jam gleaming at me through the glass jars I felt that I really ought to make some scones - you can't spend time making jam and not have scones to eat it on.

So a productive day in the kitchen and here are the recipes for scones and jam...

Almost Seedless Raspberry Jam
Makes about 1lb
Ingredients
1.5lbs raspberries
1tsp lemon juice
12ozs granulated sugar

Method
Put the raspberries in a heavy-based pan and bring slowly to the boil, mashing the fruit with a wooden spoon to release the juices. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the fruit is very soft and lots of juices have been released.

Press the fruit pulp and juice through a fine sieve into a bowl, this may take a while and you may end up with a few pips in the pulp if, like me, you press too hard to release the pulp for jam. Discard the raspberry pips left in the sieve and measure the pulp in a measuring jug - I had about three quarters of a pint.

Return the pulp to the clean pan and add the lemon juice together with the sugar - 1lb of sugar for every pint of pulp and juice. Bring slowly to the boil stirring to ensure that the sugar has dissolved. Boil rapidly until a set is achieved. Remove from the heat and stir in a knob of butter, this will help to clear the jam. The pour into prepared jam jars and seal and label.

Plain Scones
Makes about 8
Ingredients
8ozs self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2ozs butter
1oz castor sugar
a little milk

Method
Sieve the flour and baking powder into a food processor. Add the butter and blitz to fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and pulse to mix through the crumb mixture. With the processor running, slowly add a small amount of milk until the mix comes together forming a soft dough. Be careful not to over process or you'll end up with dry scones.

Turn out the dough onto a floured board and bring together into a ball. Gently press the dough out into a round about two inches deep and cut out scones with a two inch cutter. Place the scones close together (but not touching) on a baking sheet and brush the tops with a little milk.

Place in the preheated oven at 230C for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the baking sheet and place on a clean cloth on a cooling rack and cover with the cloth. This will ensure that your scones stay soft, that's if you can resist eating them almost immediately with that delicious raspberry jam that you've just jarred up!

Note: You can, of course, make the scones without a food processor. Simply create the crumb mix by rubbing in the butter with your fingers to make the fine breadcrumbs. Then add the sugar and stir in. Finally bring the dough together by hand using a little milk.

Travellers from the North

2010-07-04T10:00:00.003+01:00

My cousin, E, and her husband, S, live way up in the north east of Scotland so we don't see them very often; in fact only about 3 or 4 times in the last 20 years! So when they stopped over with us on their way to Spain it was reason enough to search out a dessert recipe for a celebration.

After much searching through my cookery books and favourite websites and perusing what might be available from Holly Grove's kitchen garden, I found Rachel Allen's Cherry Crumble Cake and modified it to use the berries available from the garden supplemented with some market produce.

The cake was served warm with softly whipped double cream. I'm already thinking about a rhubarb and/or apple version of this cake or what about plums?

Berry Crumble Cake
(Serves 6)
Ingredients
350g (12oz) ripe fresh berries (I used HG blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries)
150g (5oz) self-raising flour
pinch of ground cinnamon
50g (2oz) caster sugar
1 egg
30ml (1fl oz) milk
100g (4oz) butter, melted
Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

For the crumble topping
25g (1oz) plain flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
25g (1oz) caster sugar
25g (1oz) butter, cubed
20cm (8in) diameter spring-form/loose bottomed tin

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Butter the sides of the cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Prepare the fruit removing the stalks etc. Keep the fruit whole unless the strawberries are particularly large then half or quarter them. Set the fruit aside.

Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl, add the sugar, mix together and make a well in the centre. Then whisk the egg, milk and melted butter together in another bowl. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together to make a thick, smooth mixture, then spoon into the prepared tin and spread evenly. Scatter the berries over the mixture and gently press them in.

To make the crumble, put all the ingredients into a bowl. Rub in the butter to make a crumb-like mixture and scatter the topping over the berries.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave in the tin for about 10 minutes until cool enough to handle, then run a knife around the edge and remove the cake from the tin. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Lightly dust with icing sugar and serve with softly whipped double cream or creme fraiche.

After a Day in the Garden...

2010-06-12T08:46:00.006+01:00

As we spend more and more time in the garden through the spring and summer the challenge to produce tasty but quickly-made food ensues. A favourite standby is any variety of tortilla, this is the Spanish version of omelette, but much easier to produce.

Basically anything available in the fridge or kitchen garden can be used to create Spanish tortilla. Last night we used some bacon, mushrooms, herbs and cheese; and the whole process, including a green salad, took just 20 minutes.

Fridge and Plot Tortilla
Serves 2
Ingredients
a glug of light olive oil
1 thick (or 2 thin) rasher of bacon, diced
5 large chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
4 eggs, beaten with a little cream or milk and salt and pepper
2 ozs strong Cheddar, grated
a few chives, chopped

Method
Heat a small, heavy bottomed frying pan (about 6"-8" diameter) add the oil and the bacon. After a few minutes add the mushrooms and continue frying until the bacon is cooked. Meanwhile make the green salad and heat the grill to maximum temperature.

When the bacon and mushroom mix is cooked, add the eggs and mix gently. Leave to cook until the eggs are set around the edges, this should take only a few minutes as the pan is hot.

Spinkle the chives and grated cheese over the tortilla and then place under the hot grill. The tortilla will rise like a souffle and when the eggs are set and the cheese is golden remove from the grill and serve with the green salad and a good bottle of wine.

Note: The filling for the tortilla can be varied according to what you have available and vegetarian versions are simple. Other fillings we've tried include combinations of: spinach, red and green peppers, onion, chunks of cooked ham, leftover chicken; topped with almost any cheese you can think of!

Food with Family

2010-06-08T10:32:00.007+01:00

Two of my nieces, G&V, came to stay for a few days last week. They are city girls so a few days in the countryside proved a novel experience. The weather was very kind to us and we made the most of it with garden games, a BBQ, a picnic and a trip to our county town for some retail therapy.

Then on Sunday we were joined by their Mum and Dad - J&J - and their sister, O. This called for some lunch for the family. My sister and her family are vegetarian so I decided to try a new tart recipe - Kale, Olive and Gruyere tart. However I had no kale and no gruyere, so a variation was concocted - Spinach, Olive and Mozzarella Tart. The spinach, chard, sage and garlic used in the recipe came from HG kitchen garden and the tart was served with a green salad of lettuce, rocket, chives and sorrel from the HG herb beds.

Dessert was a classic Eton Mess (with a few raspberries added to the usual strawberries) from Delia's Puddings cookbook.

It must have been okay as we had no leftovers!

Before Baking

Spinach, Olive and Mozzarella Tart
Serves 4
Ingredients
8" tart case made with shortcrust pastry (I cheated and bought mine from Morrisons for 87p)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
200g spinach and chard, washed and coarsely chopped
2 or 3 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 egg, beaten
half a dozen olives, quartered
150g grated mozzarella (or 100g mozzarella and 50g soft blue cheese cut into small cubes)
grated parmesan to finish

Method
Put the onion in a large,deep frying pan with a good knob of butter and cook gently until softened. Add the garlic, sage and spinach and cook for a few minutes until the spinach is wilted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Add the cheeses (not the parmesan), olives and the egg and mix well. Put the mixture into the pastry case and sprinkle over the parmesan. Put on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven at 190C for 20-25 minutes.

Out of the Oven

Serve warm or cold with a green salad and some simply boiled new potatoes.

Another Cold and More Soup

2010-03-14T11:27:00.004Z

My second cold of this winter and I'm feeling bleary eyed and in need of comforting. In the vegetable rack is a small cauliflower and some broccoli, the ubiquitous onion and potatoes - thinking of a cauliflower soup...

Cauliflower (and Broccoli) Soup
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
I medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
! medium potato, peeled and diced
450g cauliflower and broccoli florets
900 ml vegetable stock
3 tbsp double cream (or yoghurt)

Method
Heat the oil in a soup pot and add the onion, gently cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the potato and cumin seeds and cook gently for a further 6-8 minutes. Add the cauliflower and broccoli and vegetable stock. Simmer until cauliflower is softened. Remove from heat and blend using a hand-blender. Stir in the cream and serve in warmed bowls.

Delicious!

Traditional Pud with a Twist

2010-02-21T16:09:00.004Z

Conscious of the amount of food wasted in this country I try wherever possible to use up all of our leftovers and mostly do this quite successfully. However the one area where I struggle to avoid waste is with the common loaf.

A standard loaf of bread proves to much for the two of us and, more often than not, is stale before we're half way through it. Freeze it in two halves I hear you cry, but I have a small freezer and to fill it with bread would be wasteful. So with my conscience pricking me I have made a bread and butter pudding for our meal tonight...a pudding with a twist...

Boozy Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 4
Ingredients
butter, for greasing
castor sugar
4 thick slices of stale bread, cubed
3 tbsp apricot preserve, heated to make a glaze
a good handful of sultanas, soaked in 3 tbsp Port for at least 2 hours

Creme Anglaise
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp castor sugar
16 fl ozs milk
1 tbsp Port

Method
Butter the inside of the dish you will be using to bake the pudding and then dust with castor sugar. I used my favourite 6" pie dish.

Make the creme anglaise by beating the egg yolks and sugar together in a large measuring jug. Heat the milk until almost boiling and then add to the egg mixture beating all the time. Return the egg mixture to the pan and heat gently until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Note: the custard will be quite liquid at this point, do not allow the custard to boil or the eggs will scramble. Leave to cool and when cool stir in the tbsp of Port. Set aside.

Spoon the apricot preserve into the bottom of the dish. Then add the cubed bread, sultanas and custard in layers until you have used up all the ingredients. Leave the mixture to settle.

Heat the oven to 180C. Put the dish in a roasting tin and fill the tin 3/4 full with boiling water (a bain marie). Sprinkle a little demerara sugar over the pudding and bake in the oven for 10 mins then turn the heat down to 160C and continue to bake for another 15-20 mins. Remove from the oven, the pudding will continue to cook in the bain marie. Wait 5 mins and then serve with single cream or creme fraiche.

More Chocolate Consolation

2010-02-20T08:58:00.006Z

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything..so much to do, so little time.

Anyway whilst sorting through my emails I came upon this recipe from my elder son G - he's turning into quite a baker! I haven't managed to try it out yet but am planning on making it for a weekend away with my special girlfriends in March - probably should have a test run before then...

In the meantime here's G's recipe and his photo of the result...

Chocolate Goo Cake
Ingredients
oil for greasing
300g dark chocolate, broken in pieces
150g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
6 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Grease the base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin and line with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
3. Whisk the yolks with two tablespoons of the sugar until pale and light. Stir in cooled melted chocolate.
4. Whip the whites until they resemble soft peaks and gradually whisk in the remaining sugar.
5. Gently stir one-third of the whites into the chocolate mixture followed by the remainder. Transfer the cake mixture into the tin.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in the middle of the oven, until just firm to the touch. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out and transferring to a wire rack.
(It states 20 minutes but I ended up cooking mine for around 30 minutes until firm to touch)
7. Leave to cool.

I found leaving it over night allowed it to set properly, although you can eat it once cooled that day it tends to crumble quite a bit.

For the chocolate coating
200ml double cream
200g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
25g butter

Method
To make the chocolate coating, bring the double cream to the boil in a pan. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until melted then pour in the heated double cream, mixing together well.

You then have a couple of choices to choose from to serve the cake.
1. Serve cake with the warm chocolate sauce to be poured over the cake with a little double cream.
2. Spread the chocolate coating over the cooled cake using a palette knife or spoon. Allow to cool and set, then serve.

Offline for a Time

2010-02-12T08:56:00.003Z

Just to let you know that I've been off-line for a while now...will be returning soon...

Baking Day

2010-01-10T17:20:00.007Z

Aah, the appeal of a warm kitchen, Rayburn running and the prospect of homemade biscuits and cakes - a real tonic on a Winter Sunday!

I don't often use the oil-fired Rayburn in our kitchen but with snow outside and time to spend a day in the kitchen I thought the prospect of baking in a warm kitchen was irresistable, so I fired up the Rayburn, put a pot of soup on the hotplate and a gammon joint in the oven and headed for the baking tins.

Ginger Choc-Chip Cookies
Ingredients
8 ozs butter, softened
3 ozs light soft brown sugar
9 ozs SR flour
2 tbsps golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ozs dark chocolate drops
2 ozs preserved ginger, roughtly chopped

Method
Butter 2 large baking sheets and cover with baking parchment. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Stir in the remaining ingredients to make a soft dough. Roll the dough into walnut-sized pieces and space out generously on the baking sheets. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. Bake the cookies for 12-15 mins, until light gold in colour -they will still feel quite soft in the middle. Leave on the baking tray for about 5 mins then transfer with a palette knife to a wire rack to cool completely.

January Cottage Pie

2010-01-09T12:30:00.007Z

Yesterday recovering from my cold I ventured out to do some much needed fresh food shopping. The crisp snow on the ground and the sub-zero temperatures called once again for some heart-warming fayre, so how about a traditional cottage pie? I have most of the ingredients in the store cupboard, so just some good fresh beef mince and vegetables to accompany the pie were required.

I used the remainder of the celeriac mash from another meal mixed with additional potatoes to cover the pie. A very rustic and tasty meal if not quite fine dining!

Holly Grove Cottage Pie
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the filling
1 lb steak mince
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped finely
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stick celery, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tin chopped tomatoes
8 fl ozs beef stock
2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsps tomato puree
salt and pepper to taste

For the topping
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
4-6 ozs strong Cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup creme fraiche

Method
Brown the mince in a large pan. Remove the mince with a slotted spoon and place in a dish. Drain off the fat from the pan and add the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently until the onion is softened. Add the carrots and celery and heat through. Return the mince to the pan and add the tomatoes, stock and Worcestershire sauce. Bring gently to a simmer. Cover and simmer for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally. About 15 minutes before the sauce is ready add 2 tablespoons of tomato puree to thicken the sauce. Season to taste.

Meanwhile put the potatoes in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them. Bring to the boil then simmer for 15-20 minutes until tender. Drain the potatoes and push them through a potato ricer into a bowl. Add the creme fraiche and beat until smooth. Add about 2-3 ozs of the cheese and mix through the potatoes.

Take a pie dish and 2/3rds fill with the minced beef mixture. Top this with the creamed potato and then cover with the remaining cheese. place the dish on an oven tray and bake at 190C for 25-30 minutes until the topping is bubbling and golden.

Serve with green vegetables.

Bangers and Mash

2010-01-07T19:00:00.004Z

Comfort food comes in no better form than a well cooked sausage, or so it seems to me as I gaze out on a snow covered garden and watch the sheep snuggled in their woolly coats in the adjoining field. But what to add to the deep and succulent flavour of our butcher's best sausages - how about celeriac that the Handyman has pulled from the kitchen garden?

Sausages with Celeriac and Peppercorn Mash
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 large onions peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
8-12 butcher's best sausages
1 HG celeriac, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 lb HG potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 tbsp green peppercorns in brine
100 ml creme fraiche

Method
Preheat the oven to 190C, gas mark 5. Cut the onions into wedges and place in a roasting tin. Drizzle with the oil and cook until beginning to colour (about 15 mins). Add the sausages to the tin and cook for a further 30 mins until golden and cooked through and the onions are beginning to caramelise.

Meanwhile place the celeriac and potatoes in a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15-20 mins, or until tender. Drain well, return to the pan and mash until smooth.

Lightly crush the peppercorns using a pestle and mortar and add to the mash along with the creme fraiche. Stir lightly to combine and season to taste. Spoon the mash onto warmed plates and top with sausages and onion.

Variation

I added a couple of handfuls of frozen peas to the sausages and onions for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking in the oven;
other vegetables could be added to be roasted alongside the onions.

I didn't have any green peppercorns so I substituted with a few chopped capers.

Winter Chills

2010-01-03T15:23:00.001Z

I'm sitting in front of the fire wrapped in blankets with a nasty cold feeling very sorry for myself. The fields outside the window are covered in a heavy frost and a smattering of snow, perfect weather for a mug of hot chocolate, some Christmas biscuits and a favourite film on the DVD - I'm beginning to feel a bit better already.

More recipes to follow when I've stopped sneezing and sniffling!

Hogmanay Pie

2010-01-01T12:00:00.004Z

Wishing you all health, contentment and happiness in 2010!

The Handyman and I had a lovely New Year's Eve (known to all Scots as Hogmanay), just the two of us in our cottage home. Traditionally we have a beef and ale pie for our evening meal on Hogmanay and this year was no exception. The filling for the pie was slowly cooked for around 5 hours in a very low oven and then placed in a pie dish covered with puff pastry and returned to the oven. Served with mixed winter vegetables (carrots, parsnips and brussel sprouts) and creamed HG potatoes - delicious when complimented by a glass or two of St Emilion! A lovely meal to end the old year.

Hogmanay Pie
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 packet ready made puff pastry
1 lb stewing steak
6-10 shallots, peeled and left whole
2 parsnips, peeled and thickly sliced
3 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
chestnut mushrooms
3/4 pt beef stock
1/2 pt Guinness
pl flour mixed with 1 tsp mustard powder to coat the beef
1 tsp dried sage

Method
Heat some oil in a heavy based frying pan. Add the shallots, carrots and parsnips and fry gently until the onions have browned slightly. Remove from pan and place in a large casserole dish.

Heat some more oil and add the beef coated in flour in small batches, browing all over, then remove and place in the casserole dish. Repeat until all the beef has been browned.

Pour off the excess oil and add the stock and Guiness to the pan. Bring to the boil and then add the dried sage. Pour enough of the liquid over the beef and vegetables to cover and stir to combine. Cover the beef mixture with a circle of greaseproof paper and place the casserole lid on top. Put the casserole in the oven at 120C - 140C for at least 4 hours. Check the liquid level from time to time adding more if required. After about 3 hours add the mushrooms, stir to combine and return to the oven.

When the beef is cooked spoon the mixture into a pie dish and cover with the puff pastry. Place the pie dish in the oven at 200C for aproximately 25 minutes until the pastry has risen and is golden. Serve with creamed potatoes and vegetables of your choice.

The Great Day Dawns!

2009-12-28T14:00:00.003Z

By the time you read this, dear readers, the wedding cake will have arrived at its destination and the wedding celebrations will have begun.

It's been a real challenge to produce a cake good enough for my son's wedding, I hope that I've managed to make the best cake that my skills will allow. The hardest part of all, of course, is the icing as its on show, and this was also the most traumatic part of the preparations. All the cake lacks in these photos is the Bride and Groom topper that my niece, O has made and will be bringing along on the great day - more photos to follow.

So raise a glass of your favourite tipple (mine's champagne) and wish G & K a joyful and fulfilling life together - good health and happiness!

Christmas Cheer!

2009-12-27T09:52:00.010Z

The Handyman and I have had a lovely Christmas with our family - we hope that each and everyone of you has had an equally enjoyable festive season. So lovely to spend time together, chatting, feasting and playing. Here's to a successful and joyful 2010!

No recipes today, just a few Christmas images...

Twinkling Christmas cake!

Deck the halls and the tree of course!

A family feast...

Wedding Cake Trimmings

2009-12-14T06:26:00.011Z

When marzipaning the wedding cake I had to level the tops of each tier and consequently ended up with a box of rich trimmings.

This was my first chance to taste the cake and the Handyman hastily volunteered to become taster-in-chief, and the result...

a delicious, rich, moist, fruity, boozy...10/10!

I managed to stop him eating his way through the boxful in time to make a very festive version of a bread and butter pudding...any rich fruit cake will provide the base for this most delicious pudding, so Christmas cake leftovers, even slices of Christmas pudding would fit the bill.

Festive Cake Pudding
Serves 4
Ingredients
Enough wedding cake pieces to two thirds fill a deep 7" pie dish
6 fl ozs doouble cream
6 fl ozs milk
2 large eggs
1 tblsp golden castor sugar
few drops vanilla essence
1 dessertspoon golden granulated sugar

Method
Put the wedding cake pieces into the pie dish. Then put the milk and cream into a small saucepan and heat gently.

Meanwhile using a fork gently beat the eggs, castor sugar and vanilla essence together in a bowl. When the milk is hot, but not boiling, remove it from the heat and add to the egg mixture stirring to combine.

Place the pie dish on a baking tray and pour the milk and egg mixture (the custard) over the cake - the mixture will be very liquid and will fill the pie dish. Leave to stand for 10 mins to allow the cake to absorb some of the custard mixture.

Sprinkle the golden granulated sugar over the top of the pudding and carefully place in the preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes. The pudding should be golden on top and just set. Serve whilst still warm with double cream poured over the top - yummee!