Recipe ideas for budget meals, everyday cooking and a little indulgence. Travel inspiration and restaurant reviews too.
It wasn’t quite as smooth as I envisaged, it wasn’t like I could grab the berries as I cycled past; that would have been a bit too suave. Elderberries seem to grow just beyond my reach and there is always a little danger involved when picking; will you fall in the ditch, slip in the mud or even lose a welly. This most recent expedition resulted in me being attacked by some stinging nettles, swearing rather loudly and then just a few moments later kicking my bicycle stand into my own foot.
One of the things I remember about Auntie Jean’s garden was the fruit trees. I think it was back then that I fully appreciated fruit came from trees and not from a packet. Trying to avoid the wasps while picking plums and apples was the aim of the game as far as I remember. Sadly Auntie Jean is no longer with us but her daughter has inherited her fruit trees and was kind enough to let me pick some plums and go back to the garden that I remember from so long ago.
This Plummer Pudding is an unctuous and simple dessert of summer pudding but made from plums.
This is the first guest post I have had on my blog and what a guest it is. When I started blogging I think Toni (from the brilliant blog Boulder Locavore) began around the same time. What started as a few likes and comments here and there grew into a friendship and Toni and I now email regularly. We share a passion for local and seasonal food and infusing fruit and alcohol is something we both indulge in! It’s great to be able to see what’s happening on the other side of the Atlantic. Her photography leaves me green with envy and her recipes are always mouthwatering. Toni lives in Colorado and this is her fantastic recipe for Plum Slump.
I am very fortunate that my local greengrocer shares my passion for the slightly unusual. They can’t go too far into the bizarre for fear of scaring away all their customers but they do try to get quinces, medlars, mulberries and the like. The lady who runs the shop is almost more enthusiastic than me about greengages. She has tried to get the golden but they are rarer than anything. I will happily settle for green if golden isn’t around. And for the perfect summer dessert my Greengage and Almond Ice Cream is just the ticket.
I don’t know about you but I have certainly started the day on a blueberry muffin if I’m out and about and in a rush. Muffins seem to have taken over coffee shops and bakers, I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere where a muffin wasn’t an option. Usually purchased in a cellophane wrapper and inevitably disappointing I wanted to make my own blueberry muffins. Not the cake type muffin though. The unrivalled blueberry flavour was essential but with something crunchy; a breakfast to take your time over. I made an easy blueberry sauce for these however it would also be worth having a go at making some blueberry jam.
I suppose I was what you would call a late flavour bloomer; I think my olfactorary centre and taste buds started to develop with my wisdom teeth. Indeed not only had I grown some physical wisdom I also had some previous culinary knowledge on which to build, and now, more teeth to eat things with. I have always cooked; biscuits with my Granny, cakes and pastry with my Mum and barbeques with my Dad but it wasn’t until 2008 that I really started to experiment.
At University you become extremely good at procrastination. One of my favourite time wasters was trawling the internet looking for cookbooks. For someone who found flavour offensive I had a pretty large collection of cookery books; I found great pleasure in cooking for others things that I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. I came across a particular cookery book that sounded pretty good to me; it was over 500 pages long which is a lot of bedtime reading. I ordered it.
What I didn’t know when I ordered it was that it was a book about vegetables; pages and pages of green, red, orange and purple things which were all alien to me but they were organised alphabetically so I liked that. There was one particular recipe that caught my eye, mostly because it seemed cheap. It was green beans with roasted tomatoes. I made it and the textures and flavours were like nothing I’d ever had; the beans were still slightly crunchy and squeaked when you chewed them, the tomatoes were sweet but also acidic. I probably ate more beans at that moment that I had ever eaten cumulatively in my life before.
It was all going so well until I realised I had no muffin cases. Not to worry though as I had cupcake cases coming out of my ears. I was under the impression that the two weren’t too dissimilar but the sides of the cupcake cases would not come up high enough in the muffin tin. I could have gone out to get some muffin cases but frankly I couldn’t be bothered and I wanted to sink my teeth into freshly baked cake as soon as possible. Fortunately I had some silicone cases I could use.
You will need:
1 punnet redcurrants
50g white chocolate
2 eggs, beaten
75g caster sugar
225ml milk
100g butter, melted
275g self raising flour
(muffin cases)
When you are faced with such a selection of colours and shapes of tomatoes some can be quite astonishing. I was convinced that some fool had put a few large chillies into the crate and I decided to ignore them, until, on closer inspection they turned out indeed to be tomatoes. It was surprisingly nice to rummage through the crate of tomatoes not knowing what you might come across next and there’s only one way to make the most of them.
You will need (for two):
A selection of tomatoes (don’t refrigerate them)
1 ball mozzarella
Small handful basil
4-5tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Perhaps I am odd, ‘quirky’ is probably a little more polite, but I like nothing more than pinching the dead flower and stem off of each and every blackcurrant. Even more so if I can do it outside and sit in the sunshine at the same time. Either way this laborious task needs to be undertaken in order to avoid unwanted textures in the finished fool.
When the blackcurrants are prepared put them into a pan with a sprinkling of water and the caster sugar. Cook the blackcurrants on a medium heat until they burst and release their juices then carry on cooking until most of the moisture has gone. If you leave too much moisture in then your fool will be more like a soup. Leave the blackcurrants to cool. Whip up the cream and icing sugar until you have firm peaks and then gently fold the blackcurrants in. Top the fool with a few pistachios. This would look lovely presented in a big bowl; the billowing contours just waiting to be broken with a spoon.For a pudding that takes around 15 minutes to make (not including the topping and tailing of course) I don’t think it gets much better. The blackcurrants flavour the whole dessert and their acidity is slightly mellowed with the sugar and complemented by the cream. The pistachios add a lovely crunchy texture. I do like to leave my blackcurrants slightly acidic, because I think that’s the point of a fool, but not so acidic that I am left with a face that looks like it’s been chewing lemons all day.
I had to ask my butcher to save me a pork fillet as they sell out like there’s no tomorrow. Possibly because the pigs are fed mostly on apples for the latter part of their life meaning the meat has an unrivalled flavour. So with marvellous meat and flavourful fillings I set about making my pork wellington. If anyone knows why it’s called wellington I’d be pleased to find out; let’s hope it’s not an unflattering term for the shape of the finished meal.
You will need (for four):
500g pork fillet
1 pack puff pastry
250g mushrooms
Knob of butter
A small glass of white wine
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper