Mince Pies

I've been making mince pies for many years and have never been too happy with them, so this year I tried something different.  A recipe similar to the one given here was found on the internet which I've tweaked a little:

100g trex or similar
125g butter
200g white flour
125g wholemeal flour
25g cornflour
100g caster sugar
1 egg

Whiz all the ingredients in the food processor, adding a little water.
Pastry doesn't need to rest so can be rolled out immediately.
Roll out pastry and cut out 24 larger circles for the bottom of the tins.
then cut out 24 smaller ones for the lids.  Some I tops were square just for a change, as I couldn't find the Xmas tree or star cutters.
Add some brandy to the mince meat for that extra little something.
Cook in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes, cool on wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.
This made 24 mince pies and four jam tarts.

They were really delicious, and not too sweet

No mincemeat in the house? My mother in law didn't have any mincemeat this year so she half filled a jar with a mix of raisins, currants and sultanas, then added some Baileys, some other liquier (can't remember what) and then some butter.  It was rather nice.

Christmas Cookery

When I was growing up we had all sorts for birds for Christmas: chicken (when chicken was still a luxury), guinea fowl (small), quail (even smaller), duck (yummy, esp the skin), goose (oooh, that wonderful crisp skin!), pheasant (great with fried breadcrumbs and tasty gravy).  

However, for the last few years it's been turkey, as this seems to suit everyone, and I've found that Delia's recipe for turkey has been, like her, dependable and delicious. 

For Delia's way to cook a turkey see: http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/chicken-and-other-poultry/how-to-roast-turkey.html, and these are her recipes for stuffing - which are also scrumptious:

Sausage and Bacon Stuffing
8 oz streaky bacon, chopped
8 oz sausage meat
8 oz breadcrumbs
1  tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp thyme
s&p
Fry bacon until brown, add to rest of ingredients. Either stuff bird or make into balls.
Cook 30 mins in a medium oven.

Lemon Oatmeal Stuffing
8 oz sausage meat
grated zest and juice of a lemon
6 oz breadcrumbs
2 oz chopped nuts
2 oz butter
4 oz oats
2 oz suet
1 tbsp marjoram
s&p
2 eggs
Melt butter, add oatmeal, cook until golden, add sausage meat.
Cool slightly, add rest of ingredients.
Stuff the bird or cook in foil covered dish for about 30 mins.

Another recipe for stuffing (not just for Christmas)

1 onion, diced
1 apple, diced
225g pork sausage meat
100g fresh breadcrumbs
1 sprig thyme leaves
1 pinch grated nutmeg
2 tbsp chopping parsley
juice of half a lemon

1. Heat some butter in a saucepan, add onions and soften over a low heat, stir in apples and continue cooking until they are just beginning to lose their shape.  Remove from heat.
2. Stir in sausage meat, breadcrumbs, thyme, nutmeg and parsley, squeeze in lemon juice.
3. Mix well (best done with the fingers!)
4. Stuff the turkey or bake separately in oven dish. Bake at 180C about 25 minutes.

Red Cabbage: See Delia (font of so much culinary knowledge) at: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/accompaniment/traditional-braised-red-cabbage-with-apples.html

Now I'm on the look-out for a good Chestnut Stuffing recipe, using tinned chestnut puree as I've bought a tin on impulse....

For other ideas for cooking see:
http://foodspeople.com/roast-turkey/
http://mrsipskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/11/mini-christmas-puddings.html




Christmas Pudding Cheesecake from FairTrade:
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/homemade

Nigella's Ideas

Mini Christmas Puds
Crumble 100g Christmas pudding into bowl, add syrup and sherry (or 200g double cream).  Then add 100g melted chocolate, mix and form the mixture into small balls.  Top with some melted white chocolate, with red and green cherry pieces.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?programmes[]=b00g9kvg
also: http://mrsipskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/11/mini-christmas-puddings.html
and what to do with left over Christmas pudding: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search.do?keywords=christmas+pudding&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=

Nigella's version:

• 125g best-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 350g leftover, or freshly cooked and cooled, Christmas pudding
• 60ml sherry
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons golden syrup

Jenny's version:

200g leftover Christmas pudding

125g dark chocolate

50g double cream

25g brandy butter

 

Other ideas:

Chilli Jelly: recipe to follow

Fruit Salad:
Mango, pomegranate seeds, blueberries and lime juice.

Cake to serve with Fruit Salad above:
8 oz butter
350g flour 
300g sugar
6 eggs
vanilla
1/2 tsp bicard
1/2 tub natural yoghurt
Whiz in processor, cook about an hour.

Cheesy Supper:
Slices of bread in a layer in a dish, perhaps French stick.
In processor whiz: mozarella, parmesan, cheddar cheese, sour cream eggs and spring onion. 
Pour over bread in dish, leave overnight and cook about half an hour.

Chutney
Put cooking apples, beetroot, red onion, fresh and crystalised ginger, sugar, allspice, salt, red wine vinegar into a pan, heat up to a rolling boil. Cook about an hour, stirring occasionally.  Pour into steralised jam jars

Potato skins:
Bake potatoes, scoop out potato. (Put into soup? everything goes into the soup!)
Mix together chopper spring onion, strong cheese, sour cream, worcestershire sauce, pepper.
Put mixture into the skins. Cook.
If liked, crumble cooked bacon on top when removed from the oven.

See also: http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/596994

I met Nigella's father once, in a lift with his aides.  This was when he was an MP and Minister under Margaret Thatcher, in the days before he became so slim.  He was quite a gentleman and offered that I could leave the lift first.  This was completely the opposite of how the media portrayed him as stuck up and greedy.

Why are there no turkey eggs in the shops?

According to the site: http://www.britishturkey.co.uk/cooking/faq.shtml - 
'Turkey eggs are not available on a commercial scale simply because there is very little demand. They are also expensive to mass-produce. Turkey hens lay an average of 4.5 eggs per week over 24 weeks. Although the runny yolk is not ideal for frying, turkey eggs are delicious scrambled and particularly lend themselves to baking for an extra fluffy texture! Many farms sell eggs at the farm gate to local shoppers.'

(from: http://harvestmarket.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/turkey-time-again/)

However, in this site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/10/turkey-eggs-uk-supermarket-debut 'Waitrose responds to demand from consumers keen to cook with growing range of speciality eggs'. 


So perhaps next year I'll try some and see what they're like!  Has anyone eaten one before?

Allotment Sites here in Paignton

I have recently taken  over as Secretary of Paignton Home Garden & Allotment Society (PHGAS for short) and realise that we have a very long waiting list for plots.  

So, as a start, today I have been contacting the people who are waiting for a plot who have emails, suggesting that they could perhaps band together and approach the Council to see if more land could be released for allotments.  Immediately I received the following link: http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/Plans-150-new-Bay-allotments/story-11706069-detail/story.html, which shows that more land is to be made available but it doesn't unfortunately give a time scale.  Two people have also offered to contact the Council direct.  So, it does now seem we have started to roll.... Watch This Space ...

Crackling

4.00pm: For years I've rubbed oil and salt into pork fat, hoping to get good crackling and have very rarely succeeded.  So, I've just been having a good look on the internet and found these ideas:


Firstly choose a piece of pork with a thick layer of fat beneath the rind.

Score with stanley knife, scalpel or similar as ordinary knives don't tend to score deeply enough, but make sure the scoring doesn't extend down to the lean meat.  Otherwise, when cooking, the juices will bubble up, making the rind moist.  


Dry the rind with kitchen towel or similar, then massage salt into the rind. Repeat this for maximum 'dryness'.

The secret seems to be to have the rind as dry as possible so the fat can bubble up and constantly baste the rind.

Some people even suggest drying with blow torch or similar. Whilst others suggest pouring boiling water over on the day before (like with crispy duck) as this tightens the skin.  Then leave it hung up to dry.


Advice given by others says liberally apply olive oil or even molten goose fat.


I was instructed by good cooks in the family to put meat in the oven on as high a temperature as possible as the initial blast of heat for about 15 minutes is vital. Then to turn it down to about 180C.  It was much easier in 'the old days' when we had a Aga as it was the hot 'top oven' followed by cooler 'bottom oven'.


Apparently there's no need to baste as there's enough fat to keep it moist.


If, at the end of all that performance it still isn't crisp, someone suggests that the crackling is put under the grill - or in the microwave.


Well, I'm off to try this and will report back later .....


10pm: I dried the rind, twice. Then massaged in the salt, dried and massaged in again.  
Underneath the joint I put some rosemary and pieces of garlic and on top lots of pepper and the crackling was much better than usual but rather hard.  (Still not as good as my mother's)
The best bits of crackling were the ones where there was a thicker layer of fat underneath.  Perhaps next time I'll go to the butcher instead of the supermarket and ask for a piece of pork with more fat underneath the rind - and try again.
... and after all that investigation - we're not having pork for Christmas dinner!  Now I'll need to bone up (ha ha) on how to cook turkey ...

December Allotment Notes

1st December: Well the first thought is 'will there be any December Allotment notes?' as the weather will probably mitigate against it.  We haven't been up there for several days because of rain but are going to make the effort to go today, whether it rains or not, to see how it looks.  We can still clear out the shed, hand-cut some of the grass and plan for next season ...

(thanks to Linda Mellor for this photo)

4 December: dry weather - but I've caught the cold, so don't feel up to digging.


12 December: it keeps being rainy so reluctantly the allotment will have to be left until the weather improves.   At least half of it has been dug over and covered with polythene and about 1/8th has been planted with green manure (vetch and rye grass), leaving some leeks and brassicas fending for themselves.


13 December: still chilly and we had four seasons in one day today: sunshine, wind, hail and mist.

23 December: and my mind is more on Christmas cooking than allotmenteering, especially as it's raining - again.  However, we are looking forward to Christmas dinner with lots of our own veg - and later perhaps some raspberries with clotted cream.

29 December: Chilly and damp, have been up to the allotment to have a look at it and make plans for next season and pick some greens.  The leeks are coming along well, and some brassicas.  The onions and broad beans planted in late autumn have taken root and started growing.  Next year, I'd like to plant some red cabbages in the autumn as well.  We'll be having a new shed soon which will help with storage and for sitting in on damp days

.

Chefs

As well as Nigel Slater, Nigella (Lawson), Delia (Smith) and Jamie Oliver, we enjoy watching Lorraine Pascale cooking on TV.  
Today I've borrowed 'Home Cooking Made Easy' ('100 fabulous easy to make recipes') from the library on a seven-day loan. So hope to put some of her scrummy, easy recipes on here, such as 'Spinach, Rocket & Parmesan Roulade with Sun Dried Tomato and Pine Nut Filling'

http://www.lorrainepascale.com/

Three of Lorraine's ideas for pizza toppings:

1. Harissa, chilli, spring onion, sausages (skinned), fennel seeds.
2. Tomato-ey paste, thyme, goats cheese and salami.
3. Humous, feta, ribbons of courgette, tomato pieces, pepper

Cook for 10 minutes at 240C

The Merits of Seaweed

Why did I get damp and smelly down at the beach this week?
Well, it was all for the good of the allotment as I found out recently that seaweed's invaluable to improve the soil and the crop of vegetables and fruit because:

1. When spread upon the soil and 'rained upon' the salt permeates the soil, thus discouraging slugs and snails; 
2. Once the salt has been leached out the seaweed will be superb as it improves the water-holding quality of the soil (vital here by the seaside); and 
3. It will add many nutrients, although temporarily (about 15 weeks, with dried blood or loam speeding up this process) there'll be less nitrogen so Autumn is a good time to apply seaweed. It feeds the bacteria in the soil.  According to organic farmers it contains lots of nutrients: vitamins, all trace elements (in a form acceptable to plants), growth hormones, also disease- controlling qualities.  
4. It's sustainable and renewable.  

WOW!!

• Some people apply the seaweed at the depth of a spade or two at the rate of a barrow-load per square metre.  
• If putting on the compost heap, mix with woody or fibrous material, or paper such as newspaper, to help it avoid it becoming slimy. 
• Or can use as a mulch but this may become rather smelly (it's certainly been smelly in the car!).

However, there's no public right to collect it, unless you own the beach.  I should have thought we had the right to collect it because:

1. It would save the Council money by them having to clear less from the beaches; and
2. Surely we've paid towards it in our (high) Council Taxes and our (also high) Water Rates, which cover keeping our coastline clean.

Incidentally, at this site: http://www.giapo.com/blog/sea-weed-salad/, there's a recipe for Seaweed Salad Sorbet!  Also: http://www.oceanvegetables.com/seaweed-recipes.html.  Full of nutrients!

Easter Nests

Not very seasonal but just found this recipe on a piece of paper and thought it would be easier to find on the blog.

Easter Nests
4oz dark chocolate
4oz plain chocolate
1 oz margarine
4 oz Cornflakes (or Shredded Wheat)
1 dssp syrup
36 mini eggs

• Melt chocolates, margarine and syrup in microwave
• Stir in cornflakes
• Make 18 nests inside bun cases
• Put two eggs in each nest and try not to eat them all at once

The allotment experience

This is a really handy book* which I've borrowed from the library.  'The Allotment Experience' has been written using the experience of over 40 alotmenteers and contains many useful tips, mostly given in bite-sized portions, so very handy for dipping into.  I started jotting them in a notebook, then thought it would be more useful to write them here, more accessible and less likely to get lost.

The book starts right at the beginning with making the decision whether to have an allotment, how to start, growing vegetables, salads, flowers and fruit, through to harvesting, via plant protection, weeding and feeding: so pretty comprehensive.  


Some really useful advice includes the following for controlling pests:

• Aphids - soapy water or garlic water
• Casterpillars - derris/natural pyrethrins, bacillus thuring...
• Slugs - ferrus phosphate, ground coffee, nematode worms
• Birds - sticks and string
• Mice - fleece, netting
• nasturtums - couch grass
• marigolds - ground elder and bindweed
• fine weeding - knitting needle
• cloche - bring on brassicas - tunnel or drinks bottles

Fertiliser:
general all-purpose: 18N:8P:8K plus trace elements such as Mg.


N = green leaves
P = roots,general health, flowers
K = resistance to pests and diseases, flowers, fruits.
Mg = green
not yet finished ....


* The Allotment Experience by  Ruth Binney (ISBN: 978-1-905862-26-9.

Allotment Update

15 November: We've been busy digging over the new part of the allotment, making four sizeable beds, then covering them to suppress weeds.  It's a long, boring job but will be worth it.

Today I planted some broad beans.  Pushed finger/piece of wood 2" into the ground, dropped in a broad bean. Then raked over the area.  The hope is that planting them in early November will mean much less black fly than when they're planted in the spring.


16 November: Still picking the odd raspberry!
This afternoon it was pretty rainy and miserable but as I'd promised to show some prospective allotmenteers around our site to choose a new plot, needs must.  
Well, they both arrived on time, the first one paid and got his key ready to start digging as soon as it stops raining.  Then there was a long wait, which would have been great had the weather been more clement, would have made me get on with things.  But in the end I decided that, as it's not too cold this November, getting wet didn't really matter as could sit in front of the wood burner this evening.

So, scattered wood ash from the burner over the fruit bushes, planted the rest of the broad beans and clipped lots of the path, amazing to think the grass is still growing when it's only six weeks to Christmas - perhaps I'll be out grass cutting again on Christmas Day!
The second group of people came, suitably prepared with their wellies and raincoats and we trudged up the hill.  They had a good look and are very pleased, so are coming this evening to pay and get their key!  A good day's work!!
Someone said yesterday that the new plotholders are getting younger - I said 'no, we're getting older'!

19 November: Went up to Allotment today. David did some more digging which was heavy work as the soil is quite waterlogged. 
I hoed the leeks, then amalgamated the compost heaps, putting the good stuff onto the fruit bushes and pruning and tidying up their branches. 
Also (surprise, surprise) we picked six raspberries, so it seems we still have yet to experience a frost this autumn. So I haven't picked the parsnips and sprouts as they need a frost to become more tasty, although we brought home some cabbage for dinner tonight.
We're thinking of getting a bigger shed now that we have more land and here are two of our possibles:

(from: http://www.waltons.co.uk/wooden-sheds/ultra-value-range)

The summerhouse here in the garden came from Waltons Sheds and we're very pleased with it: 

It's down at the bottom of the garden and faces Tor Bay, looking towards Torquay and the rocks off Hope's Nose, so not a bad view.

Lancaster Bomber doing a 'fly past' a couple of years ago.

20 November: Finally got round to planting the onions.


22 November: Was lucky enough to procure an old square water tank from Freecycle (http://uk.freecycle.org/) and today went down to the beach and filled it up with seaweed left by the tide.  Rather a damp, smelly job but it will be worth it eventually, see separate item on seaweed.

24 November: It said in the weekly Herald Express that it's time to earth up the leeks, so that's one of today's jobs.
25 November: Collected more seaweed from the beach and spread it onto some of the bare soil to leech out the salt.  Did some more digging and weeding and covered the onions as something is starting to dig them up.  Mice? 
Am still picking the odd raspberry and cutting the grass verges (in November?!).  
This evening it was fun as we made out the seed order for next season.  It's easy to be ambitious at this time of the year ...

It's a bit late, but here's the recipe for Ritzy Rockets, traditionally made every year for Bonfire Night since about 1982. They keep in a tin for about a week.

Ritzy Rockets
Melt 6tbsp Syrup and 3oz Margarine, add 2oz Cherries, 2oz Marshmallows, 3oz Rice Krispies and 2oz Sultanas.
Spoon the contents into 12 ice cream cornets.
Melt 2oz Chocolate and dip cornets into chocolate and then into Sugar Strands or similar. 
Stick a 8" piece of dowelling into each cone to make a Rocket!!


Also: 
Jumping Jack Biscuits
Roll out Puff Pastry, spread with a mixture of Marmite and Butter. Concertina, then put in fridge to cool. Slice, then cook at No 7 for about 10 minutes.


Curried Vegetable Parcels
Use thin sliced loaf, make the day before
1 lb cooked diced vegetables, plus one potato diced.
1 onion, diced and fried
Add 3tbsp mild curry powder.
Cook five minutes, add s&p.
Add cooked vegetables.
Remove crusts from bread, roll bread thinly. 
Put a spoonful of mixture in middle of each slice.
Draw points together into the middle.
Put on baking sheet and cook at No 6 for about 10 minutes.

Loose Gardeners Society, est 1884

In about 2008 Loose Gardeners' Society produced an invaluable little gem: '75 tips from the Plots' - or 'Sage Gardeners who know their onions spill the beans'.  This Society has been running since 1884, so they must 'know their onions'.

As it says on the front page: 'there are no absolute rights or wrongs about gardening'.

Useful tips given in this handy booklet include the following:

• It's not just what you do, it's when you do it.  Regularly walk around your allotment site to see what other plotholders are doing, and how they're doing it.
• To plant parsnips: form a groove for planting and at the bottom place two layers of newspaper and water well. After spacing the parsnip seeds on the newspaper, cover with two more layers of newspaper, water again, and cover with soil - a 'snip tip!
• Dig up parsnips when they have matured and before wintry weather sets in.  Dig a pit, and put the parsnips in it upside down, with a good layer of straw or milch over them.  You will now have a well-stocked parsnip larder, accessible whatever the weather.
• To plant a tiny seed in very dry weather:  after making a shallow drill for the seeds, water drill well, sow seeds and then backfill with dry soil.
• To get brassicas off to a good start, and also deny the flea beetle the chance of ravenging young seedlings if planted on the plot , it is best to raise them in a greenhouse or cold frame at home: sow seeds in pots or trays in John Innes No 1 compost; pot on later, when the first true leaves have developed, in John Innes No 3 compost; by the time the strong young plants are ready to plant out on the plot, they will be in the best condition to overcome whatever might beset them.

• When you pass by your brassicas, do clouds of irritating whitefly rise up?  A way of reducing this pest is to plant french marigolds between the rows of brassicas. Not only will they attract hover flies which will feed on the whiteflies, but they will provide a spot of colour as well.  Growing French marigolds in the greenhouse will also help to protect tomatoes.
• If you've ever planted broad beans or peas and they've been eaten by mice (lots of holes in the soil - has beens). Tip: soak the seeds in paraffin for 24 hours which mice don't like much.
• If your leeks grow too big (never with me!), plant two or three leeks in each dibbed hole.
• Some seeds need help to germinate, try soaking in very hot water before planting, to give them the urge to get going.  Examples include parsley, spinach, beetroot and parsnip.
• Don't throw away worn out gardening gloves or thick rubber gloves without cutting off the fingers first. Give these unwanted digits a second leave of life by using them to protect the end of garden canes of any size.
• Old packets of brassica seeds? No sure if they are past their 'grow by' date.  To check for germination capability, place seeds on some moist kitchen towel on a shallow tray and place in the airing cupboard.  Keep an eye on progress - any survivors can be potted on in John Innes No 1.
• Early sowings of turnips can be prone to flea beetle attack, which late crop will avoid, so defer sowing seed until mid-August and to use quick-growing white variety of turnip.
• Old garden canes: cut into shorter lengths, tie into bundles. These are ideal overwintering accommodation for ladybirds, who'll be keen to rid your plot of aphids come the spring.
• Do you often wonder when will the ground be warm enough to plant seeds?  A good rule of thumb is to be aware that in Spring, the temperature of the air is in fact equalled by the temperature of the soil at ground level - if the air feels far too cold, the ground will be too cold.  
• Lettuce seeds will only succeed in cool conditions - if it gets really hot, don't sow them!
• Rhubarb is a slightly odd plant. For instance: is it a fruit or a vegetable? Whilst it is mainly used for pudding dishes, it is however classed as a vegetable when it comes to showing.  Stalks are edible - leaves definitely are not. So tip is when planting out brassicas, put some rhubarb leaves round their roots. This will them protection against attack by cutworms (fat grey or brown caterpillars, about 3 4 cm long which live near the surface and can sever stems at ground level).
• Pinch the tops of the broad beans when the first pods of have set, to make the plants less vulnerable to black fly attack.
• Gather the leaves of rhubarb, boil them up. Strain the leaves and apply the resulting liquid using a watering can onto the broad beans to combat the spread of blackfly.
• Cardboard tubes from loo rolls and kitchen rolls are great for leeks.  Dib a hole for leek plant, slip in cardboard tube, and at harvest time the leak will be lovely and clean.
• Another use for these cardboard tubes is to fill with compost and plant with broad beans or parsnips (at four seeds per tube) and cover them up. With parsnips, remove three weakest seedlings to allow strongest to carry one.
• With damsons, each year pick the whole crop - or you'll get none at all the following year!
• To ensure you don't mislay your tools, paint the handles in a bright colour, or fix coloured sticky tape to them.
• Roots of convolvulus are a nuisance.  Either pile tangled mass into a loose heap and allow to dry out, then burn. Or put roots into a bucket of water, leave for about two weeks by which time the roots will have turned into a harmless mush.
• 
  
• 
  

• TO BE CONTINUED .....

Beneficial Weeds - an Oxymoron?

Weeds - or Natures Helpers?

• Nettles - add fertility to soil (then compost heap) - good for caterpillars.
• Clover - adds nitrogen to the soil, use as green manure, dig up in spring.
• Comfrey. Medicinal and Horticultural (http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/comfrey/index.php)
• Wild Mustard - can eat?
• Wild Vetch - green manure, over-winter, dig over in spring.  Fixes nitrogen.
• Chickweed - can be added to salads.
• Shepherd's purse - edible, can be sauted.
• Wild grasses - green manure, over-winter, dig over in Spring

.... and many others! 
Nettles and comfrey can both be picked, then steeped in water (terrible smell results). Subsequently they can be diluted and fed to plants.
Also read Richard Mabey's book 'Weeds' to make you think again about these plants.


According to the following website, weeds also hold the soil and act as an indicator to soil type.  See http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1987-07-01/Good-Weeds.aspx.


An interesting site to follow up (very soon); http://www.thegreenmanproject.com/2011/08/

Best-Ever chocolate Layer Cake

Ingredients


175g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp coffee powder (optional)
175g butter (softened)
175g caster sugar
1tsp baking powder
3 eggs
4 tbsp milk
100g 70% dark chocolate (melted)

Mix everything together, add cooled chocolate.
Put in three shallow 7" cake tins and cook at about 180C for 20 mins.
Cool on wire rack.


Icing
300ml double cream
300g chocolate (broken up)


Heat cream add chocolate.
Cool, sandwich between layers of cake and enjoy


(adapted from BBC Good Food website)


Ps  make sure the cake is completely cold before you put the icing on or all the icing will flow off!

Pauline's Chocolate Cake

Chocolate sandwich

Heat oven to 325F, 160C or gas mk 3.

grease and line ( with greaseproof) 2 x 8 inch straight sided sandwich tins.

Ingredients.

6 1/2 ozs Plain flour

5 ozs Castor sugar

2 tbs cocoa

1 level tsp bicarb of soda

1 level tsp baking powder

2 tbs golden syrup

2 beaten eggs

1/4 pint olive oil

1/4 pint milk.

ICING. (optional)

2 oz butter

4 level tbs cocoa

3 tbs milk

5 oz Icing sugar.

sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Make a well in centre and add syrup, eggs, oil & milk.

Beat well and pour into tins.

Bake in oven for 30 -35 mins.(until cake springs back when touched with fingers).

turn out and cool on rack. (without paper)

For icing.

Melt butter in a saucepan, add cocoa, and stir to blend. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in milk and icing sugar, remove from heat and mix well. Leave on side to cool, stirring occasionally. Sandwich cake halves together with half of icing and then spread remainder on top.

If not using icing then sandwich together with jam or butter icing. 

 For a treat I use cherries in kirsch and whipped cream for the filling, YUMMY.

Kidneys Turbigo

Today's recipe is one I used to cook regularly for Jazz Nights at The Old School, Stoke Climsland.  It's very useful if you have some sausages left over from the previous day:

KIDNEYS TURBIGO


3 kidneys 
3 sausages (cook in oven - or under grill - then cut in half)
2 oz onions, chopped finely
oil
2 oz mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tbsp tomato puree
1 - 2 slugs of dry sherry
1/2 stock cube + 1/4 pint water
1 tsp parsley
1/2 bay leaf
1 tsp flour


Cook sausages in oven, pour off excess fat.
Brown kidneys, add to sausages.
Cook onions, add mushrooms. Then add flour, stock, tomato puree, sherry, bay leaf. Simmer about 20 minutes.
Nice served with rice or mashed potatoes and lots of greens.
Serves 2 - 3

Wood Ash

In the Saturday Telegraph Gardening Section today there was a question about wood ash.  
Wood ash is a useful source of potash and also lime.  It is recommended that wood ash be put around fruit for the potash   Also it's good put around many plants and shrubs, whilst being careful to avoid acid-loving plants, such as pieris and azaleas.

a glorious pieris

However, it was suggested that if a great deal of wood ash is produced it might be better to put aside and add to the compost heap.  This would be especially useful in the summer when the ash can help wet compost, such as grass clippings, rot down better.


On GQT this week, Bob Flowerdew was quoted as suggesting that wood ash is good for gooseberries, which bears this out.

From the site: http://bobflowerdew.co.uk/

(I don't know how much he charges these days for his talks but many years ago (well about 15) he was asking £3,000 for an hour!  He must be good!)

Turkey Loaf

I bought some turkey breasts today and couldn't think what to do with them, apart from the usual marinade in oil, soy sauce and herbs, then cook under the grill.  So had a look on the internet and found several recipes for Turkey Loaf and finally invented one which used the ingredients from our kitchen. So here's the recipe, all amounts are very approximate:


Jenny's Turkey Loaf


11 oz turkey meat
8 oz onions
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 stick celery
1/2 green pepper
1 egg
1 chicken stock cube
mixed herbs

• Mix all these ingredients in the food processor, then put into a loaf-type tin.
• Swirl a little olive oil on top and sprinkle some herbs.
• Cook for about an hour at about 180C.
• Serves 4 - 5.

* Perhaps another time I'll try adding some wine, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes, courgettes or other items, perhaps even chorizo sausage or bacon.

Pumpkins

Yesterday, instead of carving a ghoulish face out a pumpkin and standing a candle inside it we decided that for dinner we could try roasted pumpkin.


To some olive oil in the pan I added some parsnips, a courgette, some chopped garlic, a sprig of rosemary and some salt and pepper and a small sliced pumpkin.


This was roasted for about 45 minutes and we really enjoyed it. I forgot to take a photo to put on here, so we will have roasted pumpkin pieces again soon.

Blueberries and Blackcurrants

Growing Blueberries

Apart from being rather tasty (must stop using the word 'yummy' about everything), blueberries are are high in antioxidants and Vitamin C and (like blackcurrants) can be frozen to enjoy throughout the year.  

I've been reading about blueberries recently where it says that they're very rewarding to grow, so long as certain details are borne in mind. 

This came from the interesting site Garden Fresco (http://www.gardenfresco.co.uk/growing-fruit/blueberries):

Apparently they like to grow in acid soil.  As the soil here is on the alkali side, adding pine needles and conifer clippings to the soil around them helps make the soil more acidic. Also put some ericaceous compost around the base of the bush at the end of April and end of June.


In order to help with pollination, and thus produce more fruit, it's recommended that we plant more than one blueberry bush.

Also add potash in spring (potash helps balance nitrates), so we will use ash from any bonfires and from our wood burning stove.


If it's any interest, this diagram came from the potassium development association website: 

Blackcurrants

So far as growing blackcurrants is concerned, here are a few notes from the Saturday Telegraph newspaper 5/4/2014:

Like blueberries, growing blackcurrants is great value as they're so expensive in the shops.  The flavour is incomparable to the shop-bought fruit, so long as we let them mature beyond when they're fully dark.  

The most reliable plants tend to have 'ben' in their name - best for flavour and for hardiness (Ben Conan, Ivory are early, probably July with Big Ben and  Ben Tirran following on later).  

Harvesting is easier if all the fruit ripens at the same time then they can be pruned and the berries picked at the same time.

They like a sunny spot with fertile soil, a metre and a half to spread out, and a good soaking in dry spells.

Their branches become less productive over time so every year remove a third of the oldest wood to allow new branches to grow through.  This can be done in the winter but it's easier to do this when the berries are ready to be harvested, put the stems into a jug of water and use the berries and leaves when needed.

Once picked, they'll keep for a few days in a fridge.  To make into a puree, which can be then frozen and used at your leisure, simply put them into a pan (no need to top and tail them) with a tiny amount of water and cook over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally.   Then sieve and freeze, unsweetened.  It's a fine base for sorbets, cocktails, ice cream.  And don't forget that the leaves make a wonderful herbal tea.