Category Archive

We had a bit of a do last night, a Halloween party with fancy dress, dodgy cocktails and lots of nice food and it’s the food I want to talk about today. Oh yes, I cooked a lot of food, all surprisingly good, although I failed to take many photos, probably due to the dodgy cocktails.

First up was the pumpkin soup. It’s really easy and quick to make. Simply get a couple of onions and celery, chop roughly and sweat off in a pan with a bit of butter along with pieces of pumpkin. Cover with water and cook until all the veg is soft. Blitz and add salt, pepper, a grating of nutmeg and a dash of double cream.

Pork was next. Dice some shoulder of pork and brown off in a pan with some chopped onion and leeks. Add a bit of flour then cider and water and cook for about half an hour before adding thick slices of brambly apple. It’s a really lovely dish this. Leave it cooking for a few hours so the pork gets really soft. It’s proper autumnal comfort food, this, absolutely perfect for eating in a bowl and standing outside the flat watching other people’s fireworks go off. I can’t help thinking that it it would be lovely to have some dumplings in there too.

Also on the menu was black pasta with red pesto, red peppers and button mushrooms. Also known as giant spider legs with spider poo, blood and devil’s tears if you want the proper Halloween name. Here’s a photo!

It looks pretty horrific I know, but it’s actually quite tasty, honest.

Also, for a quick snack are these lovely edible eyeballs:

These are just tinned lychees with pitted black cherries inserted in them, but they look real, especially in candlelight.

Anyway, the party was a success more or less. Dave did his best impression of Grandad from the Munsters and the various pumpkin carvings Julia did were awesome. There are some photos here if you fancy looking at blurry pictures of my living room. I will show you this shot of Dave though because it’s fricking awesome.

(also, also I’ve finally got my visa and travel insurance for Australia. Less than six weeks to go!  I’m so excited I may actually literally explode)

• Those swanky Virgin pendolinos trains from Euston to Carlisle are very nice, but have the ability to make me feel very travel sick.
• staying in a old castle in the middle of nowhere is awesome and must be done on a regular basis.
• Cooking a six course meal for 20 people is very hard.
• Having people playing ghosts and having makeup on them to make it look like they’ve had their eyeballs stolen isn’t as wierd as it sounds.
• Dressing up as a RAF captain and running round all guns blazing, shooting down some occultists then running away like girls from the Big Bad is the best fun ever. Really.

There are times, I hope you’ll agree, when your fridge seems full of vegetables that you’re not actually going to use for your dinner. They may have got a little floppy, maybe a bit mushy, perhaps have a few black bits on them. They’re a little too old to use as fresh vegetables. There is a way to avoid wastage or composting my friends. The answer is soup. Pure, lovely, warming soup. I made some last Friday and am still eating it now. Normally my soup is rubbish - it’s bland and tends to turn a funny brown colour. But not this time. I’ve made a nice soup and I’m going to share you my top secret soup recipe (and keep it for posterity so I don’t make another crappy soup again.) I name my soup…

These vegetables aren’t mouldy yet, but they’re getting there soup

To make this soup, you need vegetables. I used:

Chop your vegetables into largish chunks. Heat a nice big pan up with some butter and add the onions, celery, carrots and peppers. Cook for about ten minutes with some arrabbiata spices. Add the rest of the vegetables and give a quick stir and cook for another few minutes. Then cover the veg in water. But don’t use too much water. I used enough water to cover most of the veg, but there was still the odd florette poking out into the air. Simmer until all the veg has been cooked nicely. Add lots of salt and pepper. Blitz until it’s almost smooth. Stir in a bit of single cream. Eat with warm bread and butter, preferably sitting in a comfy sofa with a good book, a cup of tea (I recommend Roobios tea) and watch the rain fall outside.

So it turns out that I’ve buggered up my shoulder. Too much of a bad posture and too much playing of Half Life 2 on the laptop and arsing around on the PSP. It means I’m off work sick today, enjoying the ‘delights’ of daytime TV and sitting around in Dave’s pajamas.

So while I’m waiting for the rain to stop so I can go up to the chemists and buy more Deep Heat patches, I thought I’d give you the recipes of the Christmas food mentioned in the last post.

First up, marrow chutney.

I have yet to try any yet, but it looks rather nice. You need:

3 lb marrow

1lb red onions

1lb ripe tomatoes with skins and seeds removed

1pt white wine vinegar

4oz dates

2tsp allspice

a nice big bit of fresh ginger

2tsp salt

2tsp freshly ground black pepper

1andahalf lb brown sugar

Peel the marrow and cut into small chunks. Peel and chop the onions. Slice the tomatoes.

Put all these ingredients into a pan with half the vinegar. Chop the dates and add to the pan. Simmer gently until soft and pulpy. Add spices, pepper and salt and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Stir in sugar and remaining vinegar. Continue cooking until thick (no liquid should ooze into the path made by a wooden spoon as it is drawn across the pan). Pour into warm jars when finished.

Next we have the mincemeat. It’s a good recipe, there’s no cooking involved, just bung everything in a bowl, mix, cover with a tea towel and leave overnight and the next day add the alcohol.

50g melted butter

100g dried apricots, roughly chopped

100g raisins

100g sultanas

175g currants

100g candied peel

50g whole blanched almonds chopped

140g light muscovado sugar

1tbsp orange marmalade

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp ground cinnamon

finely grated zest and juice of one lemon

4 generous tbsp brandy

4 generous tbsp sherry

I’ve yet to use any of this in cooking as I’m letting it mature, but it smells delicious and I think it could be rather tasty indeed. It keeps for two months.

By the last couple of posts it looks like that all I’ve been doing recently is watch TV.  As true as that is (I’m watching The Avengers as I write this. God bless Steed), I have been up to quite a bit of other stuff too. Quick round up as I’m sure there will be more to write about at the end of the weekend.

• I have a decent chunk of the allotment now nicely dug and vaguely weed free. Garlic and onion sets have been planted, which is nice - it’s good to have new stuff growing.
• My sister, Carrot Fly has moved in. She’s got her first proper job in London (she’s a consultant ecologist) and seems to be settling in well. It’s fun to have her here although she seems to have a habit of disappearing on the weekends so she’s yet to help on the plot. But that’s about to change as she’s here these next two days. If the forecasted gales and torrential rain don’t stop us first.
• I’ve been a victim of crime again. Some pooey-bum stole the crappy little lean-to greenhouse I had outside the flat. I’ve bought a bigger, better one to replace it and this time it will be bolted to the wall.
• We have been to the cinema a lot. I can highly recommend The Prestige and The Host. I have also completely fallen in love with Daniel Craig. *sigh*
• I’ve started to cook food in preparation for Christmas. I’m halfway through making mincemeat for pies - sherry and brandy will be added to the mixture tomorrow and i’ve just finished off a batch of marrow chutney. They both seem to be quite decent, so I’ll post the recipes on here soon.

Oooh, that’s a big weapon you have there Mr. Craig.

I’ve finally sorted out my glut of courgettes: chopped them up and froze them. Probably to remain in the freezer for many forgotten months. This is my glut:

I’m guessing a courgette glut for most people is probably five times that amount, but I’m the only one who eats them around here, everyone I know hates and fears them.

So this is what I made for my dinner tonight:

I realise that this photo is blurry, but for some reason this camera doesn’t like taking photos of certain things. Silly thing. Before your eyes is a courgette and mushroom risotto and very tasty it was too and here’s the recipe for it if you feel so inclined to make it.

Saute some onions and garlic together in a thick pan until soft. Add risotto rice and white wine. Add some of your courgette glut, mushrooms and green beans (I used some of my runner beans from the lottie). Once everything’s cooked, add a good few chunks of dolcelatte cheese. Eat and enjoy.

The garnish on the top is fat-hen weed and it’s a very, very nice thing to eat indeed. I had leaves, flowers and all which gave a lovely texture to it and the taste reminded me very much of spinach if a little more peppery (although that could have been me - I can be quite liberal with the grinder). I picked quite a bit this evening so it’s deffo going to be used again for my dinner tomorrow. I have just read this from my sister Carrot Fly who first spotted this marvelous weed growing in my plot though:

In theory it flowers July to October so you may be able to try the seeds! Oh
no, I just hope it was Fat hen now and I wasn’t confused at the time!

Don’t kill me if you get food poisoning!

I’ll keep you posted.

It’s nice getting up on a Saturday morning. Usually I’m a late riser on the weekends but what with living in my awesome new flat and everything, I’d thought I’d actually make the most of the day and do something. Naturally, I’m knackered now and it’s only five in the afternoon.  But what a lovely morning! Actually went down to the allotment and did some work. A bit of weeding around the leeks, re-stabilising the runner bean pole and I painfully discovered nettles growing around the herbs by weeding with bare hands. I also managed to harvest some veg too. Some runner beans (the first of the season) and four courgettes, three of them huge. The biggest was over sixteen inches long! Now, being the only vegetable eater in this household, there is no way that this is all going to be eaten fresh, so I’m considering making some into jam or relish. But my question is this: are these marrow jam recipes I keep reading actually any good? Are they tasty? Or am I going to make ten jars of the stuff and just keep it in the back of the food cupboard for a couple of years until I throw it out? Parents, if I made any, would you have some?

I will be making other things too, don’t you worry about that. Courgette quiche will be made as will lots of ratatouille, which freezes ever so well.

A few weeks ago I was back down south with the folks to celebrate Aphid and Carrot Fly’s birthday. Photos, if you’re so inclined to see me dressed up as Robin Hood, are on my Flickr account. The picture of our Mum and Dad are on a couple of posts below. While down there Sloe season was well on it’s way and having a liking for a nice cool sloe gin and tonic after work, Carrot Fly and I walked down to the footpath that leads to the sea and picked lots and lots of those little purple berries.

Now all I have to do is buy some gin and I’m away.

I’ve been to the allotment two nights in a row. And they’re both school nights! And I’ve done some proper work on them! Sort of. Something’s up. It must be the heat.

I even attemped some weeding around the leeks.

The main reason was to pick up some supplies for dinner. Supplies! For dinner! A whole meal! For two! Dinner last night consisted of roast haddock with fennel served with desiree potatoes and sauteed red onions, mushrooms, some of the enormous marrow and peas. Everything apart from the mushrooms and fish (obv., although farming fish in a allotment could be interesting.. Hang on. Remember goldfish.) has come from the allotment. (although I have to admit the onions were from my friends’ allotment two plots down) How awesome is that? I don’t think I have made a meal so satisfying before, and that includes cooking for the Queen. (I say cook, it was more make canapes)

I’ve never dug up potatoes before last night. I was suddenly a little girl again pretending to be some explorer who finds some rare red jewels in the ground. I never realised that something I assumed would be almost an allotment chore would bring so much pleasure.

May is not the time to neglet my allotment I know, but it being my birthday and all last week I did. It was a good week though. Drinking champers on the terrace of the House of Commons, visiting tapas restaurants, playing bar billiards, and becoming the Hoffmiester for a Myths and Legends fancy dress party. Dave was a very good King Arthur so I thought I put him up here.

I finially arrived back at the plot to find two things faintly distressing. Firstly, bindweed had come up from nowhere and had practicially choked my garlic, climbed up the tipee where my sweetpea should have grown, covered my broad beans and tried to climb up my arch. Bah. I’ve picked it all out, but it’ll be back I’m sure.

What was even worse though was that I discovered that my shed had been broken into. One of my side windows had been smashed (no mean feat when it was that glass with wire running through it) and there’s glass everywhere now. What really makes me livid about this is that it’s just an act of vandalisim. Nothing was taken, nothing apart from my little radio a hammer and my Thermos (!) and it does seem that it was done for fun. It wasn’t just mine that was hit. Every shed in the site either had a lock broken or windows smashed. Bastards. I should set bindweed onto them. That’ll learn ‘em. A very quick message to Dave’s dad, who has said he’ll reapair my window for me. Many, many thanks, I owe you a beer or three.

On the plus side, there are a number of things that are growing and doing well. It looks like I’ll be having a courgette soon as long as the slugs don’t get it first mind you. Two of my runner beans have been completly stripped of their leaves by snails, the other four are looking healthy and are growing well. Borlotti beans have also been stripped of leaves but new leaves are forming so I’ll get some more traps out tonight and hopefully prevent any more damage. Potatoes, dispite having a whole load of weeds suddenly appearing (I’d love to know what they are if anybody has any ideas, they’re quite nice leaves, picture on the bottom of this post) are showing signs of life, which is nice as I had a nasty feeling they were dug in far too deep and not planted in very well at all. Some Sort of Cabbage is doing well but the purple sprouting not so, but that’s because I’ve yet to cover it in netting. Another job to do tonight.

Can I just go back to my courgette? I have some food growing! How exciting! I know I’ve got other things growing, like the garlic, but this is the first thing I can see that I’ll be actually picking in a couple of weeks time. It’s awesome. Now what shall I do with it once it’s harvested? I’m thinking stir fry, or possibly roasted.

The man whose plots are either side of mine gave me a whole load of rhubarb last night. What shall I do with it? Rhubarb and ginger jam? I’m not that keen on crumble and fool it has to be said, although the man did say these are really sweet stems.  I think I may have a quick look on the interweb, of course your suggestions are always welcome.

This is Ma’s Lemon Meringue pie recipe she’s just emailed me, I promised Ash I’d put up here. It’s the best: 

Hi Char. Well, here’s the recipe. This is the basic recipe - I usually add more meringue. If you’re using a bigger dish, say 9 inch, I’d double the amounts but be careful with the lemon juice. Right, here we go: 

 LEMON MERINGUE PIE    

7 inch flan case  4 oz shortcrust pastry 

 1 oz cornflour 

1/4 pint water 

Juice and grated rind of 2 lemons 

4 oz caster sugar 

2 large eggs, separated 

Heat oven to 220 C or gas mark 7 

Thinly roll out pastry and line dish, bake blind i.e. cover pastry with greaseproof paper and haricot beans or crusts and put in hot oven for 15 minutes. Remove beans and paper, reduce heat to 180C then return flan for a further 5 to 10 minutes to dry out the bottom. Allow flan to cool. Blend cornflour with the water, lemon juice and rind in a saucepan and SLOWLY bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Cook until the mixture thickens, then stir in 2 oz of the sugar. Cool slightly, add egg yolks and pour into pastry case. Whisk egg whites VERY stiffly then whisk in half the remaining sugar and fold in the rest. Pile on top of lemon filling making peaks with a fork. Bake in centre of a warm oven (160C or mark 3) for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the meringue is crisp and lightly tanned. (This may take a little longer if making a bigger pie.) 

Serve with runny cream, single or double. Mmmmmmmmm!!!!!!! 

The 7 inch flan will serve 4. 

Dave nibbled on one of my baps last night. That’s right, I was baking again, some lovely soft baps that are perfect warm with lots of proper butter on them. It’s best to freeze them once they’re cool because they can get stale quite quickly. This recipe makes six. Last night I wanted a big batch as I’m making sandwiches  for Joe and Dave on Sunday as they’re helping me out on the allotment then, and I doubled the amount and that gave me about 14 rolls worth. It takes quite a lot of time, what with waiting for the yeast to do it’s stuff and all, but the prep is easy and the final product is lovely. Oh and a large airing cupboard is pretty essential for this. Dave’s lucky, he has a walk-in one, but I have a tiny space and making berad involves a huge balancing act! 

Baps. 

7g dry yeast 

1tsp sugar 

125ml warm water 

125ml warm milk 

335g plain flour (for wholemeal baps, use half plain four, alf wholemeal) 

1 teaspoon salt 

40g butter 

1. Combine yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover bowl and stand in a warm place for about 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy. 
2. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, rub in butter. Stir in yeast mixture and warm milk. Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place dough in a large greased bowl, cover, stand in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size. 
3. Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead until smooth, divide dough into six equal portions, knead into six balls. Place balls about 5cm apart on floured oven tray. Dust lightly with a little extra sifted flour, cover with a cloth. Stand in a warm place for about ten minutes or until dough is well risen. 
4. Now you’re ready to bake! Dust balls again and bake for about 15 minutes in a hot oven (gas mark 6, 220-230ºC)

Ma’s panicking about a dinner party she has to host on Saturday. She’s a very good cook, no one can make a better lemon meringue pie like she can (if you’re reading dear Mama, you couldn’t send me the recipe could you?) and her stir-fries are the best. However, one of the guests coming along this weekend was a semi-finalist in Masterchef so you can imagine she’s a little nervous. Anyway she’s making a soup for starters that I have the recipe to and I’ve just emailed it to her and I thought to myself, it sounds so nice why don’t I put it on the blog? It’s not one of mine, it’s from a now out of print book called The Pocket Soup Cookbook published by Penguin. It’s well worth seeking it out, it’s rather good. No photo of it as I’ve never made it so here’s a [not very good] artists impression of the hot steaming bowl of goodness that’s perfect for these rather miserable winter days.. 

Red pepper soup with coriander pesto 

2 large red peppers 

1 tablespoon olive oil 

1 small onion, finely chopped 

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

400g tinned plum tomatoes 

4 cups veg stock 

1 teaspoon lemon zest 

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice 

2 teaspoons sugar 

Salt and pepper 

Coriander pesto 

1 bunch fresh coriander, leaves trimmed and stems discarded

1 bunch parsley, leaves trimmed and stems discarded 

2 cloves garlic 

60g roasted cashew nuts 

60g freshly grated parmesan cheese 

3-4 tablespoons olive oil 

To make coriander pesto, blend first five ingredients in a food processor, then gradually add oil until a smooth, creamy sauce forms 

Cut peppers in half and remove pith and seeds. Grill until skins are blistered and black. Remove to a bowl, cover with cling film and cool for five minutes. When cool, remove skins and finely chop flesh 

In a saucepan heat oil and add onion and garlic. Cook over a gentle heat for 3-4 minutes. Add pepper, tomato and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool a little. Add Lemon zest and juice, sugar and salt and pepper. 

Place in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Check seasoning and return to the saucepan. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with coriander pesto.

Hope you all had a lovely Valentines day yesterday. Dave very kindly gave me a vase of purple tulips, a hip flask (mmm… brandy. Things could get interesting down on the plot now) and he has pledged a days work down on the allotment! Many thanks lover. I’ll go easy on you. In return I cooked dinner. It wasn’t as nice as Wild Burro’s Val dinner, but it was tasty. Fillet steak with dauphinoise potatoes.

To make: 

• Slice and par boil potatoes 
• Layer them in a oven proof dish adding chopped onion, garlic, grated parmesan cheese, chopped thyme and plenty of salt and pepper. 
• Pour over single cream. 
• Bung in the oven till the potatoes are cooked. 
• Eat. 

I was so pleased with the pots I took a photo.

I also created a brand new cocktail. (chances are it exists somewhere, but it’s mine now) I call it The Mildew. You make it thus: 

• 1 part vodka 
• 1 part gin 
• 2 parts cranberry juice 
• fresh lime juice to taste 
• Shake with ice, pour into a martini glass and top up with tonic water. It’s quite nice. 

On a Thursday, my flatmate works late so I have the flat to myself. It gives me plenty of time to watch Horizon, have a go on the Playstation and arse around in the kitchen. Last night I made soda bread. At least I tried to, it got a little too crispy on the top and it was a little too heavy (and not cooked enough), but I work by trial and error (as I’ve just wonderfully displayed here at work trying to patch a tape machine. Call myself a technician? Jeeze..) so I shall have a perfectly decent loaf of bread soon. I hope.

I’m planning not to do too much in the allotment this weekend, apart from finally getting rid of all the compost stuff that’s been in the fridge for the past two weeks, it’s Dave’s birthday party on Saturday, so no digging that day unless I want to fall asleep on the sofa at about nine in the evening (although that’ll probably happen anyway as I’ll invariably end up having too many vodka jellies) and Sunday I would expect will be spent recovering from too many vodka jellies.  But you never know, it might be a beautiful day and digging may be the perfect excuse to not help with clearing the post party flat…

I now have all my seeds for the year. My order from Dobies has just arrived on my desk at work. My Pink Fir Apple potatoes have yet to be delivered  (and that’s going to be interesting when it does, it has to be x-rayed by security and go through the House of Commons. You don’t think they’re going to put them through a controlled explosion do you?) and I need to get some early crop pots, probably Charlotte. Anyway, here’s what’s sitting next to me at the moment and is currently of huge interest to everyone in my office. (Yes it’s a list, but I do need to compile what I have in one place. There will be a list of everything I’ve bought from Wilco’s soon)
Beet – Boltardy
Broccoli – Early purple sprouting
Cape Gooseberry
Carrot – Chantenay Red Cored
Lettuce – Iceburg Dickinson
Sweetcorn – F1 Earlibird
Tomato – F1 Gemini
Pumpkin - F1 Orbit
And here is a picture I’ve just taken of them from my phone:

Last night, inspired by Allotment Lady, I made some butter. It’s really quite easy really as long as you have a blender. Tasty too.