Cider Making Beginnings

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

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

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

Lots of Lovely Fruit Juice - Hopefully!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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?

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!

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!