A quick summer starter of tomatoes and black olive paste

We made this as a really quick starter this evening, nice and fresh.  This serves 2.


Tomatoes with olive paste (and goats' cheese)


three ripe, red tomatoes (halved and seeded)
two heaped tablespoons of black olive paste
six or so basil leaves (shredded)
50g fresh, white goats' cheese (optional)
extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to season

Wash the tomatoes and slice in half, scoop out the seeds.  If using the goats' cheese, slice and place a sliver (thickness of a pound coin) in the centre of the tomato half.  Then add a thin layer of the olive paste, and the shredded basil.  Put on a plate and season with a glug of good olive oil over the tomatoes and salt and pepper.

A fantastic banana pudding for a barbecue

The sun is out and in the fields the wheat is being harvested, making the sunsets hazy and amber.  It is August weather at its best and makes me long for a barbecue before the evenings start to draw in and grow cold.

I bought my first rickety red-painted barbecue for £15 when I was around 12 years old, and sure enough it rusted through after only a couple of winters.  Ever since we have improvised with an ancient cast-iron wheelbarrow filled with charcoal, wire over the top.  It works really well, but can stay hot for several days afterwards. While the others cook sausages and burgers, my favourite things for a barbecue are halloumi with chili oil, slices of marinated aubergine cooked until they blacken and large Portabello mushrooms spread with garlic butter and cooked in foil.  All good with plenty of green salad leaves and olive bread.

Barbecues are also great for sweet things.  We usually bake bananas, sometimes in their skins, otherwise times peeled and wrapped in tinfoil with chocolate chips or golden syrup.  Pineapple dipped in icing sugar also caramelises well.  Anyway, while going through A Chef for All Seasons I found a recipe by Gordon Ramsay that may offer a rather upmarket alternative, which I have adapted slightly to work over hot charcoal.

Roasted caramel bananas for the barbecue

4 tablespoons light Muscovado sugar
50g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
2 whole cloves
8 medium bananas (ripe but not too soft)
a little sifted icing sugar to dust
4 stalks of fresh lemon grass (slashed in half almost to the base)
crème fraiche to serve

Earlier in the day (and long before you light the barbecue) make the sauce. Melt the sugar in a pan with a little water. When dissolved and clear raise the heat and cook for 3-5 mins until a light caramel has formed. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Mix in cream and cloves. Set aside to infuse and cool. Once ready, remove the cloves.

(Incidentally, I suspect a good quality toffee sauce may also work well, as a lazy alternative - you could always warm it and add the cloves for a little extra flavour.  My absolute favourite is Cartmel.   They also do a lovely sticky toffee pudding which O and I once ate with toffee sauce and clotted cream along with a dark, viscous pudding wine that tasted of sultanas.)

Anyway, where was I?  When you are ready for pudding, cut the bananas in half lengthwise and dust with icing sugar. Place on the barbecue and allow the sugar to caramelise on each side.  As soon as the bananas are caramelised, place these (4 halves per serving) in the middle of a sheet of tin foil. Place the lemon grass sticks on top of the bananas and then spoon the caramel mixture over the bananas.  Wrap up the foil.  Make sure that there are no gaps where the sauce could leak out, but leave a bit of a gap about the banana.  Place back on the barbecue (but not onto the very hottest part).

Cook until the parcels are puffed up (Gordon Ramsay suggests 7-10 mins, and I expect it would be the same for the barbecue).  When ready, serve each immediately, with some crème fraiche dolloped in the top of the parcel.

The remains of a lunch party: cheese roast potatoes and Eton Mess ice-cream

M had a lunch party today.  As I had turned up on holiday unexpectedly, I was banished to town for the afternoon to photograph the shop fronts and buy random bits and pieces.

Vive La France.  Wine and smoked garlic

When I returned the kitchen was full of the glorious, still-warm remains: new potatoes, half finished bottles of wine, plates of cheese and the scent of a house that had only recently been full of people.

After a walk to the village pub, we had left overs for supper: cheese and butter roasted new potatoes, served with the left over salad.

Butter roasted new potatoes and Stilton

Take two handfuls of cooked new potatoes and slice into 1cm pieces.  Heat 30g of butter in a frying pan on a good heat and fry the potatoes until golden brown on both sides (less than 10 mins).  Remove from heat and crumble on 25-50g of stilton, and season with black pepper.

Roasting the boiled potatoes in butter (and a little cheese)

Even better than chips and cheese

As well as the potatoes, also among the remains was as beautiful plate half filled with meringue, fresh rasberries and whipped cream wilting very slightly at the end of the afternoon.  It was one of those beautiful, fragile dishes that wouldn't last the night, so we decided to experiment and make ice cream with the left overs.  It worked really well, and we ate the (semi-fredo) quenelles after the fried potatoes.

Eton Mess ice-cream


I wish I had taken a photograph of the beautiful finished display, before it was turned into ice-cream, you'll just have to imagine its beautiful Will Cotton landscapes.

This is very much a left over recipe, so used whatever you have and mix to taste.

whipped cream
single cream
meringue
raspberries
caster sugar


Fold the ingredients together.

Beat the mixture lightly until the raspberries begin to give out their juices and turn the mixture pink, but not so long as it forms a homogeneous mush.  Add sugar and/ or single cream as required.

Meringue, raspberries and cream

Freeze (and break up regularly, if not using an ice-cream maker).  Makes a very nice semi-fredo ice-cream, and I think would also be good with fresh summer fruits.  We'll see.

The ice-cream mixture, ready to freeze. 

The finished ice cream with left over apple and blackberry crumble

The pleasures of being on holiday

Being on holiday is a wonderful thing.  Yesterday I spent the afternoon sketching and then C and I span out the evening cooking, finishing with a G&T in the garden, lovely.

We had bought two beautiful, bulbous aubergines, which looked so lovely on the plate I didn't want to eat them when I finished sketching.

To keep me going, midway through the afternoon, I made cardamom coffee with cottage cheese stuffed dates (foraging for what I could find in the fridge).  There were beatiful organic medjool dates in the shops and I couldn't resist eating them for afternoon tea.

Cardamom coffee and cottage cheese stuffed dates


The coffee
2 heaped tablespoons of good quality ground coffee
a heaped tablespoon of muscovado sugar (or to taste)
the seeds from three cardamom pods

The dates
three medjool dates
cottage cheese to fill (cream cheese would work as well)

Cardamom pods with their lovely black seeds

Muscovado sugar

Put the coffee, sugar and cardamon seeds in a cafatiere.  Pour over the just boiled water and leave to brew for 5 mins.   Meanwhile, cut the dates in half, remove the stones and fill each with a teaspoon or so of cottage cheese.

Brewing coffee

For supper we had a very improvised version of two previous recipes: Catherine Masons' Thyme baked baby aubergine and Yotam Ottolenghi's beetroot and avocado salad.

Aubergine with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh thyme


two avocados
a small jar (or half a standard jar) of sun-dried tomato paste
three garlic cloves (crushed)
rind and juice of half a lemon
a tablespoon of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
a teaspoon of dried thyme
several sprigs of fresh lemon thyme

Slice the avocado lengthways into slices the thickness of a pound coin.

Sliced aubergine

Mix the sun-dried tomato paste with the garlic, rind and juice of the lemon, olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and the dried thyme.  Spread over the aubergine (I mix with my hands) and leave to marinate for 1/2 hour.

The aubergine mixture ready to marinade

When ready, put in a hot (200 degrees) oven for 20 mins.  Remove and add the fresh thyme to the aubergine.

Return to the oven for 10 mins, or until the aubergine is just beginning to blacken.  Serve warm with bread and salad.

The finished aubergine with fresh thyme

Avocado, pea and beetroot salad


I didn't have any of the ingredients to make the salad properly by the Ottelengi recipe, so this is my version, but it still worked rather nicely.

The salad
two small avocados, chopped
a bag of both rocket and of watercress (but any mixture of leaves would do)
half a bag of peas in their pods, shelled (we ate the other half while shelling)
four small cooked beetroot (I used bought ones, marinated in juniper and vinegar, from Sainbury's)
50g soft white goats cheese (optional)
a couple of sprigs of fresh lemon thyme

The dressing
rind and juice of an unwaxed lemon (when using lemon rind, the lemons should really always be unwaxed)
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
1 tablespoon of pine honey
four springs of fresh lemon thyme (these were tiny sprigs from the garden)
salt and pepper to taste
four or so tablespoons of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients together and blitz in a blender or shake in a jam jar until thoroughly mixed.  Blanche the peas in boiling water for a minute.  Remove and set aside.  Wash and dry the salad leaves and shake into a bowl.  Meanwhile chop the avocado into cubes and mix with the salad dressing.  Chop the beetroot into thin slices and add to the salad with the goats cheese.   Add the peas and the avocado dressing mixture.  Sprinkle over the fresh thyme leaves.  Toss the salad together and serve.

Pea and beetroot salad

Nadine Abensur's Aubergine stacks with sun-dried tomato

I have a rather strange but interesting cookery book from the 1990’s: Secrets from a Vegetarian Kitchen by Nadine Abensur, a who grew up in Morococo with Jewish and French roots. I was given it, but although I’ve looked through the recipes – very guiltily – I have never cooked anything in it. So I thought I would extract the best of the recipes and post them so I have no excuse but to try them.  The first is with aubergine (and slightly amended to my tastes).


Aubergine stack with sun-dried tomato mousse

2 aubergines, cut into slices ½ cm thick.
salt and pepper
5 tablespoons of olive oil
a few drops of Tabasco
175g of fromage frais
75g sun-dried tomato purée
1 tsp of hot water

Mix the sun-dried tomato paste with the hot water and the fromage frais. Blend until light and smooth.

Fry the aubergine slices until they are dark golden. Place on kitchen paper and add salt and pepper with a few drops of Tabasco and balsamic vinegar.

To assemble, place a large slice a large slice of aubergine on each individual plate and spread a little of the mousse on top. Repeat this layering process until complete. Serve with salad.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's summer recipes with pea shoots

Here are some fantastic recipes from early summer by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, published last May.  The article in the Guardian also has details how to grow them.  There is also, I've dicovered, an entire website dedicated to Pea Shoots, with far more information there if you're interested.

Pea flowers, courtesy of Wiki commons

 

Pea Shoot Ricotta and Lemon Salad

1 small lemon
140g ricotta
A few handfuls fresh pea shoots, about 45g, washed
1-2 tbsp fruity extra-virgin olive oil

First, prepare the lemon. Cut off each end and then stand it on one end on a chopping board, holding it firmly with one hand while you cut away strips of the peel with a small, sharp knife - you need to cut away all of the pith and membrane, until you get down to the fruity flesh. Now lie the lemon on its side and, working your way around it, cut the slim fruit segments away from the membrane.

Combine the lemon segments with dollops of ricotta and some of the pea shoots on four plates, and trickle a little oil over each one. Serve immediately.

Pea shoot pesto

Serve this vibrant pesto stirred into hot pasta or boiled new potatoes. If you have any left over, spoon it into a glass jar, top with a film of rapeseed oil, seal and refrigerate for up to a week. Serves four.

70g pine nuts
3 good handfuls fresh pea shoots, about 60g, washed
½ small garlic clove, peeled and chopped
25g hard goat's cheese or Parmesan, finely grated
Juice of ½ a small lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
120-150ml rapeseed oil

First, toast the pine nuts. Warm them in a frying pan, without oil and shaking frequently, over a medium-low heat until very lightly toasted. Transfer to a plate and set aside to cool completely.

Put the pea shoots and garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped (or roughly chop them, then pound in a pestle and mortar). Add the pine nuts, cheese, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Process briefly and then, with the blade still whirring (or stirring all of the time if you're using a pestle and mortar), slowly pour in the oil in a thin, steady stream until the pesto has reached the texture you like - you may not need all of the oil.

Scrape the pesto into a bowl and taste - adjust the seasoning, adding a little more sea salt, pepper and lemon juice as necessary.

Broad bean and pea top tart

For the shortcrust pastry

125g plain flour
A pinch of salt
75g cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg, separated
About 50ml cold milk

For the filling

1 knob butter
2 onions, or a large bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
350g broad bean tops, or a mixture of pea shoots and bean tops
Salt and freshly ground pepper
150g cheddar, coarsely grated
200ml whole milk
200ml double cream
2 whole eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Start with the pastry. Put the flour, salt and butter in a food processor, and pulse until the mixture has the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, then, with the motor running, pour in the milk in a thin stream. Watch carefully and stop adding milk as soon as the dough comes together. Tip out on to a lightly floured board, knead a couple of times to make a smooth ball of dough, then wrap in clingfilm and chill for half an hour.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the onions. Fry very gently until soft and golden brown - a good 10-15 minutes. Add the broad bean tops (or pea shoots and broad bean tops) and cook for just a couple of minutes, until wilted. Season well.

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. Roll out the pastry thinly, and use it to line a 25cm, loose-bottomed tart tin. Leave the excess pastry hanging over the edge. Prick the base all over with a fork, put the tin on a baking sheet, line with greaseproof paper and baking beans or uncooked rice, and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the paper and beans, and bake for 10 minutes more. Lightly beat the egg white, brush some of it over the hot pastry, return it to the oven and bake for a further five minutes - this will help to seal the pastry and prevent any of the filling from leaking out later on. Trim off the excess pastry with a small knife.

Turn up the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Arrange the bean top and onion mixture over the pastry case. Scatter on the grated cheese. In a bowl, combine the milk, cream, eggs and yolks, season and pour into the tart. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until lightly set and golden brown. Serve warm or cold.

More from Gordon Ramsay: baked white peaches with thyme ice cream

This is another recipe from A Chef from All Season (from which I am currently extracting recipes for the blog).  It is also another addition to the investigations into cooking with thyme, but this time something sweet.

Gordon Ramsay also suggests saffron or cinnamon as alternatives to thyme. I’m not sure what I’d serve with the saffron, but for the cinnamon he suggests serving it sandwiched between dried slices of pear and stood upright on a compote of pears in red wine.  If it didn't fall over when I made it, it could make a really good autumnal or winter pudding.

Thyme ice-cream

250ml of creamy milk
250ml double cream
3 sprigs of fresh thyme (OR two strands of saffron OR two sticks of cinnamon)
6 free range egg yolks
90g caster sugar

Heat the milk and cream in a large saucepan until the liquid starts to creep up the sides of the pan (i.e. boil). Then stir in the thyme sprigs, remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Put the yolks and the sugar in a large bowl and whisk until thick and creamy (ideally with an electric whisk).

Reheat the milk and cream mixture and, when the mixture rises up again, pour into the yolk mixture whilst slowly mixing. Whist until well blended. Strain back into the pan through a sieve (discard the thyme). On the lowest possible heat, stir until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Cool the custard, stirring occasionally to stop a skin forming. Churn in an electric ice-cream maker if you have such things, or otherwise take out of the freezer to stir regularly as it starts to freeze.

Baked white peaches

4 whole white peaches.  Maybe UFO peaches if they are in season.
50g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
25 unsalted butter, melted
1-2 teaspoons Cointreau or Grand Mariner (or indeed Bärenfang, honey liqeuor)
1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves (stripped from stalk)

Mix the icing and caster sugar together and roll fruits in them to coat. Sit peaches in a shallow ovenproof dish.  Mix the vanilla seeds with the melted butter and trickle over the peaches.

Bake the peaches uncovered at 190 degrees for 5 mins. Remove and spoon the caramelised liquid that has formed in the dish back over the peaches. Return to the oven to bake for 10 mins (spooning over the juices a few more times).

About 5 mins before the peaches are ready, spoon over the liqueur and sprinkle over the thyme. Remove when ready and allow to cool until warm. Serve with thyme ice-cream. Yum.

On the subject of baked peaches, there is a more wintry/ autumnal recipe in  Catherine Mason's Vegetable Heaven that also uses marzipan, if I remember i'll add it as well.

Savory and cannellini beans in a sun-dried tomato sauce

Further to the post on Savory below, I finally found some dried savory on sale and decided to experiment with a (very quick) bean stew.  This made not a bad lunch the other day, served piping hot with crusty bread.  I could only find dried savory, but it still gives a lovely warm flavour to the tomatoes and beans.   It was better as a cold salad that evening.

Cannellini beans in a sun-dried tomato sauce with savoury

A tin of cannellini beans
A tin of chopped tomatoes
A few tablespoons of sun-dried tomato paste
Two teaspoons of dried savoury
Two tablespoons of rapeseed oil
25g or so of Double Gloucester

Rinse the beans and place in a pan with the tomatoes and tomato paste. Add Reduce under a high heat for 10 minutes.

Simmer until the sauce has thickened. Pour into a bowl, grate over the cheese and season with salt, pepper and a swirl of rapeseed oil.

Serves one for a hearty lunch with bread, or two as part of a meal.

Citrus cheesecake from Hello!

That bastion of celebrity cheer has a recipe for Creamy Lime Cheesecake this month.  It looked rather nice, so I have amended it slightly to my tastes and thought I'd jot it down to try:

Hello! Lime Cheesecake

50g butter
175g ameretti biscuits (crushed)
225g cream cheese
25g caster sugar
1 medium free range egg (yolk and white separeted)
75ml double cream
grated zest of 1/2 lime
strips of lime peel to decorate

Melt the butter and stir in the crushed biscuits.  Press the mixture into the base of a shallow pie dish.

For the filling beak the cream cheese with the sugar, egg yolk, cream and lime zest until smooth.  Wisk the egg whites until stiff and fold in.

Place the flan ring with biscuit base on a baking sheet and pour over the filling mixture.  Bake in oven at 180 degrees for 40-45 mins until set.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Scatter with strips of lime peel to decorate.

Honey, bear traps and honey liqueur

After finding a recipe for Lavender liqueur (which I suspect may be one of my creations which is left for me along to enjoy) I did some further investigation and came across a rather more delicious sounding German honey liqueur, called Bärenfang ("bear trap"), which offers a further addition to the honey themed investigations of late.

The recipe apparently dates from the 15th century and can still be brought commercially from Schwarze & Schlichte, but is also fairly easy to make.

Barenfang label, courtesy of Manfred E. Fritsche (wiki commons)

I found the following recipe on Drink Focus:

Bärenfang  (Honey Liqueur)
8 cloves
½ vanilla pod
1 liter vodka
350g honey
Rough chop the cloves and split the vanilla pod lengthwise before adding them to the container and filling it with the vodka.

Let this mixture sit for at least 24 hours before straining the vanilla bean and the cloves from the vodka.


Once the vodka is clear of any remaining pieces, stir vigorously, pouring the honey in a thin stream. Do not stop until the honey and the vodka are completely blended together. Store the finished Barenjager honey liqueur in a cool, dark area and enjoy. Easy.

Schwarze & Schlichte Bärenfang

Thyme baked baby aubergines

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) grows well in the dry, dusty parts of our garden, creeping over the bricks and gravel.  I love the sweet, aromatic, Mediterranean scent, and the little light mauve flower.

Thyme is supposed to have spread through Europe with the Romans, who used it to purify rooms and to give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs.  Thymol (an antiseptic and extraction of thyme) is - for aficionados of trivia - the main active ingredient in Lysterine mouthwash.  In the Middle Ages it was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares, and formed part of the bouquet given by damsels to knights to bring courage to the bearer.  The idea of damsels given bunches of herbs to knights reminds me of Act IV, Scene V of Hamlet - when Ophelia finally goes mad:

"There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts ...

there’s fennel for you, and columbines; there’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they wither’d all when my father died. They say he made a good end ..."

Anyway, I digress.  According to the wall chart, thyme is for stews, soups, meat, egg and tomato dishes.  I have used it in all kinds of dishes, but particularly roasted vegetables.  The slightly lemony sweetness also works in cakes, as suggested in Nigel Slater's recipes for thyme.

However, there is also a good recipe using thyme (and rosemary) in Catherine Mason's Vegetable Heaven, which I have set out below.  Most excitingly, and by sheer coincidence, I've just chanced upon a baby aubergine plant called Ophelia (pictured), available from UK seed merchants' DT Brown.

Groovy baby aubergine plant, Ophelia FI

Baby aubergines baked with rosemary and lemon thyme

I have amended the recipe slightly as I like anything roasted to be slightly blackened and delicious round the edges.

a tablespoon of olive oil

3 heaped teaspoons of sun-dried tomato paste; OR a two of sun-dried and one of either Harissa paste (if you prefer spicy) or sweet smoked paprika (for a woodier, more mellow flavour)
juice of half a lemon

a tablespoon of orange blossom honey
250g of baby aubergines, sliced from the base towards the stalk, but no so that they fall apart

2 red onions peeled and cut into generous chunks

leaves from 3 sprigs of rosemary

leaves from a small bunch of lemon thyme

salt and pepper

Mix the olive oil and tomato paste (with or without Harissa/ paprika) then thin to to consistency of single cream with hot water, add honey and lemon juice.  Put the aubergines, onions, rosemary and thyme in a bowl, pour in the tomato-oil mixture and turn over a few times to coat thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.

Place in a single layer in a shallow baking dish and roast for 40-50 mins at 200 degrees and roast until the vegetables are tender and beginning to blacken.  Serve with flat bread such as Afghan bread (which I always see at the Halal grocery) - like a large flat nan with black cumin seeds (Nigella sativa).  

Afghan bakery, courtersy of Robbot, wiki commons

 

Finally, on the subject of aubergines, I also found a tasty looking recipe for Roast Baby Aubergines with Rocket and Peppered Cream Cheese, and a Tahini Dressing on the blog Scrumptions South Africa.

A wonderful beetroot and avocado salad

Ottolenghi is an expensive but amazing chain of delicatessen restaurants.  The first time I visited was to the one in Islington, and was overwhelmed by the piles of delicious salads, breads, cakes ... It's one of those places you struggle to work out what you don't want to eat, rather than the other way round.  There is also one in Motcomb Street (opposite Rococco) and a fantastic Ottolenghi cookery book, from which O once cooked a fennel and pomegranate salad - crispy and sweet with red juice.

Anyway, browsing the Guardian online again I found a recipe by patron chef Yotam Ottolenghi (I don't mean to be partisan, but the Guardian just always seem to have by far the best food section).  I thought I'd post it as something to try next time I make a salad.  It has a lot of ingredients that I don't have in the fridge, so may be a special occasion treat.

Yotam Ottolenghi's beetroot and avocado salad

4 medium raw beetroots (around 350g in total)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsp sherry vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra to finish
½ tsp caster sugar
1-3 tsp savoury chilli sauce or paste (Tabasco or Mexican Cholula hot sauce, for instance)
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 medium avocados, peeled and thinly sliced
10g coriander leaves
10g mint leaves
20g pea shoots (or, failing that, lamb's lettuce)
150g broad beans, blanched, refreshed and skinned (or frozen soya beans, quickly blanched and refreshed)
Roasted, sliced hazelnuts
Sliced goats' cheese

Peel the beetroots and slice them very thinly, around 2-3mm thick – if you have one, use a mandolin. (If your beets are large, halve them after peeling, then cut into slices.) Put the beetroot in a pot with plenty of boiling water and simmer for three to five minutes, until semi-cooked; it should still be crunchy. Drain and put in a large bowl.

Add the red onion, vinegar, oil, sugar, chilli sauce, salt and pepper to the beetroot bowl and toss everything together gently – your hands are the best tool for this. Leave to one side for 10-15 minutes, then taste and see if you want to add more sugar, salt or vinegar – it needs to be sharp and sweetish.
When you're ready to serve, spread half the beetroot mixture on a large platter or in a shallow bowl. Top with half the avocado, coriander, mint, pea shoots and broad beans. Add the rest of the beetroot and arrange the remaining ingredients on top. Drizzle with a little oil and serve.  He also suggests adding hazelnuts and goats' cheese slices to the top - which I would definitely do.

What to have with this?  Lovely on it's own - probably add some nice bread and follow with something substantial like a plum crumble and vanilla ice-cream.

Fennel and mozzarella salad, chocolate to follow

Nigel Slater has a recipe for Mozzarella with grilled fennel salad.  It's in Kitchen Diaries, but also online in an article with lots of other good grilled vegetable recipes.  I made this for O the other evening with olive focaccia bread.

Nigel Slater's Mozzarella with grilled fennel salad (my slightly adapted version)

2 medium-sized heads of fennel
extra virgin olive oil
24 black olives
a small bunch of flat-leafed parsley
1 large ball of very good buffalo mozzarella

Fennel is best peeled slightly as the outside is tough. After cutting the blub (lengthways) in half, cut out the tough core and braise in butter until tender (I sometimes add a little water while it's cooking). 
 

Fennel, from the great 'Juicing Book' website

Pour the olive oil into a bowl then add the olives.  When the fennel is golden brown remove from heat and make cuts down each fennel evenly down each side (leaving the root uncut) and fan out in a shallow sided bowl.  Pour over the dressing and leave the mixture overnight.


When ready to serve divide the fennel and olive salad between two plates, tear the mozzarella into pieces and lay it on top of the salad.  Add a little more olive oil and the torn flat-leafed parsley, salt and pepper.

We had GU melting middle puddings to follow, lovely with some double cream.

Lovely GU puddings

Dill and artichokes

On the ongoing mission to cover all the herbs on the wall chart, I've reached the territory of herbs I don't know so well, the ones I skirt in the supermarket in favour of basil or thyme.   The only thing I knew about Dill is that it looks a bit like fennel. Tsk.

Dill (Anethum graveolens) is a short lived, aromatic perennial, with feathery leaves.   Both the leaves and the seeds are used in cooking as well as having been used as a folk remedy for nausea and stomach ache. 

Dill from Hawthorn Farm Organics

According to The Herb Expert, Dill weed, or leaves (which have a light, grassy taste) go well with cucumber in sandwiches, cold soups and salads.   Freshly cut leaves can be used to enhance the flavour of salads, egg dishes, soups, dips and herb butters, as well as being tossed into a bowl of boiled new potatoes with mayonnaise and capers.

Dill Seeds (which have a more intense, earthy flavour) can be used whole or ground to add flavour to breads, cheeses salad dressings and stews, as well as to a vinegar or pickles (especially cucumber).

The wall chart also suggests pickles, salad dressing, cabbages, potato salad and cauliflower, but the recipe I found on Guardian online (by Silvena Row) is with artichokes and broad-beans.

Warm braised artichokes, broad beans and dill

2 lemons
4 large globe artichokes
800g fresh broad beans (in their pods)
100ml olive oil
4 shallots, peeled
900ml vegetable stock
1 tsp sugar
50g fresh dill, finely chopped
4 tbsp suzme (strained yoghurt; see note below - this is what she suggests, I may use quark when I make it)

Fill a bowl with cold water and add the juice and skin of one lemon. Cut the stalks off the artichokes and remove the outer leaves to reveal the light-green heart. Drop the artichoke hearts into the lemon water (to avoid discoloration).

Remove the beans from their pods and drop into a pan of boiling water. Simmer for three to five minutes, drain and cool. Once cooled, slip off the outer skins.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and sauté the whole shallots over a medium heat for 12–15 minutes. Add the beans, stock and sugar, and season. Squeeze in the juice from the other lemon and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the artichoke hearts, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the artichokes are tender. Leave to cool slightly in the cooking liquid, then strain.

Serve warm, sprinkled with dill and accompanied by a dollop of suzme – put 800g of full-fat yoghurt in the centre of some double-layered muslin or cheesecloth and suspend over a bowl in the fridge for a day.

She also recommends a wine: the mineral charge and vibrant, almost astringent citrus notes of Hatzidakis Assyrtiko 2008 from Santorini, Greece, which might be worth trying.

Prosecco and rose petals

As an update to the post about lavender and edible flowers, I found some fuchsia sugared rose petals in the Yorkshire delicatessen Lewis & Cooper last week and have been experimenting with these. 

Last night we had friends for supper and we tried dropping them into the bottom of glasses of Prosecco.  They sent up thousands of bubbles and gave the drink a very slight aromatic, flowery taste without turning it the colour of an alcopop.  Triumph at last!  Not the most macho of aperitifs, admittedly, but kind of fun.

'Eat-Me!' sugared rose petals

The petals are made by Uncle Roy's Comestible Concoctions and are called 'Eat-Me!'.  They come in lovely little hexagonal jars and you can also get lavender, cornflower, violets and rose petals among others.  I thought they might be nice on cupcakes as well.

Savory: aphrodisiacs and green beans

Savory was one of the strongest and most widely used herbs available in Europe before the spice trade brought pepper and other eastern spices.

There are two types of Savory (Satureja), Summer and Winter.  Winter Savory (Satureja montana) is a semi-evergreen perennial with white flowers (thought to decrease sexual desire in herbal lore).  By contrast, Summer Savory (Satureja hortensis), is most delicate in flavour and produces whorls of tiny white to rose flowers.  It is good for growing indoors, apparently, so if I find it on sale I might buy one for the kitchen.   According to the website The Epicentre, Satureja  is derived from the word for satyr, who's virility for chasing nymphs was apparently sustained by the meadows of savory in which they lived.  

This belief that Summer Savory is an aphrodisiac has persisted to the present and the French herbalist Maurice Mességué apparently uses savory, 'the herb of happiness' as a key ingredient in his love potions.

  

The herb has an aroma of mint and thyme (both of which are also part of the Lamiacae family into which it falls along with basil, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano and lavender).  The herb is called sarriette in French and Bohenkraut in German, meaning 'bean herb' and apparently it has an affinity is for young green beans.  (I'll try it and let you know).  The fresh leaves can also be added fresh to salads or preserved in vinegar at the height of the season.  They are also an integral part of mixtures such as Herbes de Provence.

The Birth of Venus and Nymphs and Satyr by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I'm going to check my recipe book tonight and see what I kind find.  More to come ...

Flammenkuche on delicious:days

Alsace is one of the smallest regions of France, pressed up against both Germany and Switzerland.  I visited the city of Strasbourg there a couple of months ago with work, and somehow managed to eat nothing but bretzles, flammenkuche and creme fraiche for three days. 

Alsace breztles, from Wiki

Bretzles are basically Alsace pretzels.  They were being sold studded with salt, seeds, cheese and even sweet (I think the one on the far left of the picture is sugared like a donut).  Very moorish and tasty.

Flammenkuche are a thin based pizza made with creme fraiche and onion instead of tomatoes and topped with cheese (and sometimes ham etc).   Anyway, there is a recipe on the delicious:days site, I wanted to jot it down before I forget, and I also found another on the Alsace Terrorir website in French - although I'd swap the poitrine fumée (aka bacon) for Gorgonzola or sun-dried tomatoes. 

Strangely, the first time I had flammenkuche was not in Alsace, but in Fontainebleau (a French town hundreds of miles away near Paris) where we were staying.  It was the end of August and most of the restaurants were closed for the French summer holidays, but we found one open called La Petite Alsace.  Initially we were a little disconcerted because of the enthusiastic decor, inspired by a Swiss chalet and because we didn't really know what we were ordering.  But the flammenkuche arrived bubbling hot on flat wooden boards with an implausibly large selection of cheese melting on top ... and was fantastic.  Mmm.  The best.

It's also good with Alsace wine, which in the region is usually served in long green-stemmed glasses.  Many years ago I bought a set of six of these from Oxfam, and only realised last month (after many years of use) that they weren't designed for serving champagne - doh.

British apple season

It is British apple season, hurrah!

There is an article in the Word of Mouth Guardian blog. I'll have a look and see if I can find any on sale.

Royale D'Angleterre, from Prints Old and Rare

Sage - something other than stuffing

According to the wall chart sage is for flavouring cheese dishes.

Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis) grows well in the dustiest, driest parts of our garden and also in the dank corners. I rehabilitated a supermarket plant, which now flourishes with bunches of aromatic purple flowers every July.   It is reputed to have a range of healing and spiritual properties as a herb, and I sometimes dry bunches of it to use as a sage smudge stick when I'm doing the spring cleaning, because I can be a terrible hippie like that, and it fills the house will an illuminating, light fragrance better than Fabreeze.

A home made sage smudge stick

Anyway, I've also been using sage a bit in cooking - in a risotto with fennel, peas and sage,

Risotto with sage

And also with beetroot and goats' cheese. 

Goats' cheese rolled in sage

I'm going to have a look in the recipe books this evening and try and find something else.

Mint and mint choc-chip ice-cream

Mint (Mentha) is one of the more familiar herbs from the wall chart, as it grows semi-wild all over our garden in several different varieties, and we've always used sprigs to flavour new potatoes.   It is a lovely herb, aromatic and delicious.

According to the wall chart, it is a herb for veal and lamb roasts, ice cream, fruit salads and custards.  In Vanilla Black, we had an amazing puff pastry tatin with tomato and mint.  The last thing I made was Apple and Mint jelly (below), so - as the wall chart suggests ice-cream, thought I'd try a proper mint choc-chip ice-cream recipe.  How exciting.

After having a quick look online, I found the fantastic David Lebovitz has a recipe, which I am going to try as soon as I have some time to spare and while the summer lasts.  I've taken this recipe straight from his, just so I have it, but will adapt it accordingly when I make my own.

David Lebovitzs' Mint Chip Ice Cream

250 ml whole milk

150 g sugar

500 ml double cream

80 g fresh mint leaves

5 large free range egg yolks

140 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped

In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, cream and mint.

Once the mixture is hot and steaming, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for an hour to infuse the mint flavour.

Remove the mint with a strainer, then press down with a spatula firmly to extract as much mint flavor and color as possible.  Discard the mint.

Pour the remaining cream into a large bowl and set the strainer over the top.

Rewarm the infused milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then slowly pour some of the warm mint mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

Cook the custard, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.

Immediately strain the mixture into the cream, then stir the mixture over an ice bath until cool.  (I can assure you in advance I will not be organised to do this bit, it usually works anyway if you take it off the heat in time).

Allow to cool and put into the freezer.  Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of simmering water, or in a microwave oven on low power, stirring until smooth. Place a storage container in the freezer.  Take the ice cream out regularly and stir to break up the ice crystals (I still don't have an icre-cream maker, tragically). 

When the ice cream is ready, scribble some of the chocolate into the container, then add a layer of ice cream.  Scribble melted chocolate over the top of the ice cream, then quickly stir it in, breaking up the chocolate into irregular pieces. Continue layering the ice cream, scribbling more chocolate and stirring as you go.  When finished, cover and freeze until firm.