Posts

Fennel Chutney

Image
    The mild, aniseed, aroma of fennel seems almost to good to waste on a mere vegetable.  Combined with onion and apples (home grown, naturally) it makes a splendid amber coloured chutney - the only drawback, is that it is necessary to wait a while until it settles won (a Champion chutney-maker or, "Champ-chutter," as they are known in the trade, who has a plot near ours tells us that she never tries a new summer flavour until after Christmas).  For those who want to give it a go, here's the recipe: Ingredients around: 1/2 kg fennel bulb, chopped small 1/2 kg white onion, chopped small 1 kg cooking apple, chopped small 1 tbsp fennel seed 500ml cider vinegar 600g soft brown sugar Method slowly stir sugar into the vinegar  then add fennel (bulb and seed), onion and apple, and increase temperature to boil, before reducing to simmer.  Once surplus liquid has mostly evaporated  the bottom of our preserving pan should be visible for a few moments when you r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green tomato chutney

Image
 Green tomato chutney. Even the name is tempting.  Hard to buy, easy to make, but it does take some time.  As for all recipes, there are a huge variety to be found, and the best are, inevitably, mutually inconsistent.  Do you extract the water content, or don't ?  Do you use brown sugar, or white ?  Or golden ?  To some extent it is up to you. but here is a basic version which seems to work reasonably well. Ingredients 1kg green tomatoes, chopped 200g onions, chopped small (red, white, or what you will) 1 or 2 tsp salt 500ml pickling vinegar 200g sugar (I find soft brown/muscavado works well 250g cooking apples 250g sultanas (or raisins)   Method Sprinkle the chopped tomatoes and onions with salt and leave to stand overnight. The next day drain off water Put vinegar and sugar in a stainless steel pan, heat slowly and stir until the sugar is dissolved Add apples, sultanas and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.  Then add the tomato and onion and simm...
2 comments
Read more

Tomato Chilli Jam

Image
    The other day I made 6 pots of Tomato Chilli Jam.  To call it "jam" is actually something of an over-statement.  It is sticky enough, but has such a soft "set," that it is more like a stiff tomato sauce. But there you go. So, how to make it ?You can find a huge variety of recipes using all sorts of herbs and spices, but my preference is to keep it simple.  The following recipe has a very pleasant tang, which goes especially well with cheese scones.  Ingredients: 1 kg tomatoes 200ml red wine vinegar 500g golden caster sugar couple of cloves of garlic 6 red chillies (more or less, depending how hot you want it) 2 inches of ginger 50 ml fish sauce   First, roughly chop the garlic, ginger and chillies, and whizz them up in a blender with the fish sauce. Then put the sugar and vinegar into a saucepan and heat slowly until the sugar is dissolved. Add the sauce you have made. Then peel the tomatoes, by nicking their bottom, and plunging them in a bowl of ...
1 comment
Read more

Beetroot as veg

Image
  No doubt about it, one of the most versatile and delicious plants we have grown on our allotment is Beetroot ("Bolthardy" seems to be a reliable, tasty, variety).  It can be eaten raw, or cooked: pickled, roasted or soup. The beetroot shown in the picture above, was first roasted until tender (this takes about an hour for a cricket ball sized root), and then peeled, once cool, enough to handle.  The 2nd step is to chop and fry a shallot (or, preferably, small red onion) in olive oil, until soft. Then, add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon or a bit more of crême fraiche, and finally toss in the diced root, and fry until piping hot. It makes a delicious, sweet, vegetable which goes well with roast meat, especially pork.
Post a Comment
Read more

Courgette and lime cake

Image
  We made this cake following a recipe from the BBC ( Courgette and lime cake ) - the cooking time was around an hour, rather than the 40 minutes I had hoped, but that might have something to do with the fact that I added all the juice of 2 limes to the mixture rather than one as the recipe specifies.  Anyway, it make a very pleasant moist cake, with almost no trace of courgette about it.  As for lasting 3 days... not in our house it won't
Post a Comment
Read more

Courgettes with pasta

Image
    We thought we would begin with an easy one: Courgettes and pasta.  First, place the pasta (we like conchigiele, but others shapes work equally well) and simmer until soft, which should take around 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a frying pan, and add chunks of courgette and mushrooms, with salt and pepper to season.  Once soft, add the courgettes and mushrooms to the conchigiele, together with some marscapone (about 125g for a couple of platefuls) and the zest and juice of half a lemon. Stir for a couple of minutes, and serve.
Post a Comment
Read more