Focaccia Bread

 I discovered the recipe I use for Focaccia Bread had never been added to the separate recipe page  when someone mentioned needing a recipe several weeks ago. Then I forgot to do anything about it.

But I'd almost run out and made it again last week, so now it's been added the recipe page for future reference.

This is the recipe I used which turns out well. I do the mixing in the Kenwood with a dough hook.. 

500g Strong Bread Flour

30mls Rapeseed Oil

10g Salt

10g Yeast

Approx 325ml Tepid Water

Sea salt, olive oil and rosemary to finish

Mix salt, yeast and flour

Mix oil and water and add to flour and mix really well

When smooth knead for 10 mins.

Don't use flour when kneading but a little oil on hands instead.

Place on a well oiled  11 inch by 7 inch brownie tin, flatten to a rectangle, cover with cling film and rest for 30 minutes.

Uncover, fold into thirds. Turn and fold into thirds again. Turn over and flatten to rectangle again.

Cover and rest for another 30 mins.

Push dough to  11 x 7 inches.

Rest for 30 mins, then dimple top with thumb, sprinkle with salt, olive oil and chopped rosemary.

180℃ for fan oven or 200℃ for 20 - 25 mins.

I cut it into chunks before freezing and  eat it with anything tomato-y  that has juices that need mopping up.

It's soft, bouncy and very delicious.

Back Soon

Biscuits

 I used to buy these sometimes many years ago, when the children were small as they were really cheap - harking back to the days when Woolworths sold bags of broken biscuits for pennies. (Before my time obviously!)

 Dunkables - An assortment of whole biscuit, biscuit mis-shapes and part biscuits. Ideal for dunking in your favourite beverage.

They used to have large pieces, often chocolate Foxes brand or McVities which were quite a treat back then.

I hadn't thought about or seen them for many years, so when I noticed them in QD recently I bought a pack out of curiosity but they were a disappointment as there were more crumbs than biscuit pieces and what biscuits there were tasted a bit dusty. I ate the bigger bits and bashed the rest into crumbs and tipped them into a saucepan with some melted butter. Then used the mix to line a large flan case, wrapped it well and popped it in the freezer. It will make a banoffee base or something similar for Christmas

Then I gratefully went back to normal and baked a big batch of peanut biscuits

 BASIC BISCUIT RECIPE
8oz Plain flour         }
1tsp baking powder }     sieved together
Pinch salt

4oz butter

4oz caster sugar

1 egg

(I always add 2oz plain unsalted peanuts but variations could be coconut, currants, chocolate chips, lemon zest or coconut)

Rub fat into flour, add rest of dry ingredients then add beaten egg, mix to bind.
Roll out as thin as possible, cut into rounds, put onto greased trays and bake at a medium heat for 10 - 12 minutes, until just changing colour. Put straight onto wire trays to cool and crisp up.

My children and the children I child-minded after school when they were 8 and 9 years old loved these when they came in "starving!"

Back Tomorrow

Sue

99 Ways With Courgettes?

Can't manage 99 but  here are a few to be getting on with, proving that there is no need to complain about a glut of courgettes - they make almost free food!

The first is from a cutting from a magazine that the Somerfield supermarket used to give away. Somerfield was in Saxmundham and after they closed it turned into a Waitrose.

 COURGETTE CRUMBLE

 Notes -  I use a bit of garlic puree from a tube rather than fresh as I don't eat enough of it to make it worthwhile buying or growing. It doesn't need the salt. Any fresh breadcrumbs will do. I save the crusts to use. Pine nuts are very expensive so I don't bother and I usually add some grated strong cheddar as well as a smaller sprinkling of grated Parmesan.

COURGETTE FRITTERS

For one person I used 1 courgette, grated and squeezed as dry as possible, handful of frozen peas - defrosted. Mixed with a a tablespoon of flour, half teaspoon baking powder (not sure that's necessary) a small egg, small pinch salt and good amount of black pepper and half a teaspoon whichever seasoning you fancy - the recipe says cumin, but I used curry powder.

Drop spoons full into hot oil in frying pan and press down, turn over when browned. For a different version of most fritter type recipes some grated cheese can be added but I didn't and served up mine with a couple of rashers of bacon and some tomato ketchup.

COURGETTE and PESTO PASTA SAUCE

Start cooking pasta then heat a little oil in a pan on low heat then add grated courgette, cook until soft. Stir in a spoonful of pesto and then the cooked drained pasta and serve up with a sprinkling of Parmesan and grated cheddar.

Mine was eaten this time with a piece of home made Focaccia  bread which I had cut into pieces before freezing.

And when the courgettes turn into a Marrow

MARROW, APRICOT and (optional)GINGER JAM

2lb Marrow, peeled, seeded and cut into squares (prepared weight)

8oz Dried Apricots, soaked overnight and drained

Grated rind and Juice 2 lemons

3lb Sugar 

(Plus optional grated ginger root/ground ginger)

Steam the marrow for about 15minutes ( I cook in very little water and drain really well) then mash.

Put Apricots in pan with 1½ pints water and cook for 30 minutes until soft.

Add marrow pulp to apricots and the water they were cooked in, with lemon rind, juice and sugar.

Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, stirring then boil for 15-20 minutes until setting point is reached.

Makes about 5lb and is a good colour and delicious.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

At Least 1,000 Recipes.

This is my shelf of recipe books.........

And this is my very old huge tatty folder of recipe cuttings and photo copies dating back to to 1975, when I first married and started cooking.

but I only make about 14 different meals............... and don't need a recipe for most of them!

These are the main meals that I rustle up for myself because they don't take much time or much thinking.

Warm pasta salad with either feta, tuna or a tin of sardines, plus tomatoes, cucumber and olives and mayo

Pasta with home made aubergine and tomato sauce (batch made and frozen)

Pasta, tuna and broccoli bake (batch made and frozen)

Veggie Burger in a bread bap with tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce

Home made vegetable curry with rice and mini samosas and bhajis (batch made curry, frozen)

Home made quiche using bacon, onion and cheese - or just a vegetable mix.

Co-op Goats Cheese and Vegetable lattice bake

Stir-fry chicken and veg - usually peppers, onion and carrot. With noodles and chilli sauce.

Chicken, onions, peppers and tomatoes with Fajita seasoning in a tortilla wrap

A two egg omelette with tomatoes

Home made Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne (batch made and frozen)

Mini Pizza with added home made topping (batch made topping, frozen)and salad

Fritters (courgette, sweetcorn or leek) with bacon.

Cauliflower cheese 

And shop bought fish and chips once a month.

What I can see from this is 

• that I eat very little meat, 
• probably too many carbs and 
• after nearly 40 years of thinking and cooking for up to five people - I'm a very lazy cook.
• And the only things from my Vegetarian Taste Tests  that have become regular purchases are the Co-op Lattice bakes and the Linda McCartney burgers

( I do add  vegetables or salad stuff to most of these meals and usually eat 3 portions of fruit a day so it's not all bad!)

My folder is also full of all my cake recipes, preserve recipes and dozens of other things I used to make, but many of the recipe books haven't been opened for years, and ought to be passed on to a charity shop although some are so old and rough they are only fit for the recycling bin and I just know that if any of them leave the house they are sure to be the ones I need for some reason  a week later.

Back Soon

Sue

Courgette Recipes

Whoop Whoop Hip Hip and Hooray!! Cam Norrie is through to the Semi-finals at Wimbledon - unfortunately he has to play Djokovic..............

 

 When I wrote about the tip for getting  Basil cuttings to root in water, I mentioned making pesto to use in a recipe called Courgette Crumble and Ang asked for more details.

So I'll start with the Crumble Recipe (you can see I've had this a while as it was cut from the Somerfield Magazine, and Somerfield disappeared years ago). When the children were at home I would serve this up with chips to persuade them to eat it! 

I don't use Parmesan either in the home made Pesto or in the crumble topping but just some grated cheddar instead and I use a bit of garlic from a tube rather than fresh as I don't eat enough of it to make it worthwhile buying or growing.It doesn't need the salt. Pine nuts are very expensive but I use them when I make the spinach and ricotta lasagne so buy a small bag for that, wrap up the remainder tight and peg closed and store in a tub in the fridge. I think years ago I just went without.

42p  per portion back then.....How much now?

Hadn't actually made Courgette Crumble for a while but with the basil growing so I could make a tablespoon of pesto and with an overload of courgettes I made a small crumble at the weekend and just like years ago I served it up with chips but mine were a handful of  Mixed Vegetable Fries which I discovered in Morrisons freezers a while back.

 And then other idea is Courgette Fritters

For one person I used 1 courgette, grated and squeezed as dry as possible, handful of frozen peas - defrosted. Mixed with a a tablespoon of flour, half teaspoon baking powder (not sure that's necessary) a small egg, small pinch salt and good amount of black pepper and half a teaspoon whichever seasoning you fancy - the recipe says cumin, but I used curry powder.

Drop spoons full into hot oil in frying pan and press down, turn over when browned. For a different version of most fritter type recipes some grated cheese can be added but I didn't this time  but I served up mine with a couple of rashers of bacon and some tomato ketchup.

That's a few less courgettes to give  away or compost!

I've added the recipes to the Recipe Page

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The (Usually) Failsafe Scone Recipe

I discovered some more recent comments on the "Where have you lived? " post and found  a Jane who had lived in Knodishall and Saxmundham at the same time as  we were at the smallholding on the edge of Knodishall and just two miles from Saxmundham - now that's a small world for sure! I wonder if she ever bought her eggs and vegetables from our stall out the front?

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Do you know the thing I'm most fed up with in this 3rd lockdown? It's constantly being told how other people are behaving! I really don't want to know. There's only one person I can be responsible for and that's me.

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Didn't realise that my scone recipe wasn't on the Recipe page until I mentioned squirty cream and Carruthers mentioned buying scones and I said home made were better!

 This is the recipe that I made regularly to sell at the country market. I used to do 1½ times this which made 7 large scones. Packed in 2's to sell and 1 left over for the cook!

Apologies I don't do metric unless I have to!

 PLAIN SCONES

Pre-Heat the oven to Gas 7 (425F 220C 200C fan oven). They need to go in a really well heated oven or they'll flop.

Grease a flat oven tray.

Tips - use  cold butter in a cold bowl with cold milk

8oz SR Flour

1tsp Baking Powder

2 oz  cold butter, cut into chunks

2 oz caster sugar

¼ pint milk.

Beaten egg 

 

By hand or in a mixer rub butter into flour, stir in sugar. Add the milk a little at a time until it all comes together - you might not need all the milk, don't make it too wet. Handle the mix as little as possible. Roll out without pressing too hard to about half an inch or a wee bit more. Use a small or medium cutter, this will make about 7 small or 4 bigger scones.

Put them on the greased tray then brush carefully with the egg, try not to get the egg running over the edge of the scone as that stops them rising evenly.

In my oven Gas Mk 7 I set the timer for 8 minutes, then turn the tray round and give them another 3 minutes then check again - maybe a minute or two  more. ( Back to electric oven when I move so will have to re-learn all the temperatures)

Scones, homemade strawberry jam and clotted cream - what a treat! (these are small sized cutter)

 

 

I always use the rest of the beaten egg to make a scrambled egg sandwich for lunch, so it doesn't get wasted. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

1st Saturday of November - Week 34 of Strange Times

Sheep grazing ....................A very unusual sight for this part of Suffolk. Farming here is all arable, wheat, barley, oil seed rape and sugar-beet. Occasionally there might be field beans, maize or linseed but never sheep.....but here they are just up the road. Fenced in with electrified wire strands and grazing on a field of  I don't know what.

They look like the Suffolk breed and obviously less prone to escaping than some of the sheep we kept in the past.

  

 

I went back on my bike for a closer look at what was growing and still couldn't work it out. There is grass but something else has been sown , very annoying that I don't know what it is!

 

After two days of lock-down I've settled into it,  although more or less run out of library books already. To get the ones I'd read and those I didn't want to finish out of the way I shoved them through the return letter box at Eye library on my way back from swimming. So it will be back to reading from my shelves for 7 weeks until the mobile is round again.

Obviously the way to get through the next 3 and a half weeks is to write 'A List of Things To Do While Locked Down..........'

• Cross stitch something Christmassy
• Watch the two DVDs I picked up from a charity shop last month (didn't write about them at the time as I was going to do a review when I'd watched them to fill a blog post)
• Write a letter to my penfriend who I should have written to about 3 months ago (Sorry W)
  
• Knit some dishcloths until I've used all the dishcloth cotton
• Ask for ideas for Christmas presents for two youngest grandchildren and oldest granddaughter (Oldest Grandson already sorted) and get things ordered.
• Actually get round to sorting out the soil in the Camellia pot and the old strawberry plants
• Sort out more craft stuff and put aside for charity shop reopening
• Chop Kindling wood as and when I need some more
• See what else there is to sort in the workshop.
  

 

 No spend November

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

And finally GOOD NEWS. I went and had another go at the compressor which lives out in the workshop, switched on at the mains and it made it's usual charging up noise (which it didn't do on Wednesday)......just for a few seconds and then switched off. Oh! thought I......... must be something there after all. So I fiddled with the plug connection and by keeping my foot on the compressor plug where it's plugged into the extension lead - hooray - it charged itself up. So I haven't got to buy a bike pump/car pump after all.

As requested............... here is the recipe for the CHOCOLATE CAPPUCCINO SQUARES from yesterdays post.

Grease and line a square 8 inch cake tin. Preheat oven to Gas 4/180C/160C fan oven.

1 tablespoon coffee  concentrate (I use instant coffee dissolved in a teeny bit of boiling water)

2 tsp cocoa powder

5oz butter at room temperature  softened by beating a little

5oz caster sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

5oz SR Flour plus 1tsp baking powder.

1. Beat everything together until well blended but don't over-beat.
2. Spoon the mixture into the tin, smooth the top. 
3. Bake for 35-40 minutes until firm to touch on top.
4. Cool for 10 mins then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely
   

For the topping melt 2 oz chocolate in a bowl over pan of simmering water with 1oz butter and 1 tablespoon milk. Remove from heat . Sieve in 3oz icing sugar and spread over the cake. Cut into 8 bars or 16 squares.

This week I'm Grateful for

• Getting through a bad patch
• Strictly Come Dancing able to carry on
• Books on my shelves
• Some sunny days this week 

 

Have a good weekend. I'll be back Monday

Sue

How One Thing Leads to Another and Mango Chutney

What gorgeous weather we've had here in Mid-Suffolk over the last few days. Absolutely perfect for Autumn outdoor work, although my list of outdoor jobs to do seems to be getting longer as I start doing one bit of clearing which then turns into finding somewhere else that needs tidying.................the straight forward job of cutting back the Lavender ended up in pulling out a lot of  the Phlomis - Turkish Sage that was spreading everywhere - it might look good in early summer but it's a bit of a bully.

 Brother-in-Law using the topper to clear on the meadow gave me access to the small heap of  road planings that were delivered not long before Colin died. They were meant for patching up pot-holes down the track and most were used. Now I've cut away the brambles that were trailing over the heap I can use some of what's left for doing the edge of the track and just inside my gateway............ it turns muddy in winter because I squeeze through one gate to save me opening both! Another job for the list.

Sometimes I have to switch to indoor jobs to use the things that are growing, so here's another chutney to make use of the big red peppers, hadn't made this one for ages. Possibly another  concocted from a couple of other recipes to make something sweet and fruity to go with curry. One recipe  tried years ago before making this one, turned out even hotter than the curry - not what I wanted at all.

MANGO CHUTNEY

3lb Mangoes ( 3 Very large or 5 small)

½ tsp salt

1 Large Red pepper

12oz cooking apples

15 fl oz distilled vinegar

1 large onion chopped

7oz  gran. sugar

1tsp ground ginger

Slice the mango flesh, place in a non metallic bowl, sprinkle with salt and set aside.

Put vinegar and sugar in a preserving  pan and heat gently until sugar is dissolved.

Add the peeled, cored and chopped apples, mangoes,onion and ginger to pan, bring to boil slowly stirring regularly.

Reduce heat and simmer gently for about an hour, stirring more frequently until chutney is thick with no excess liquid.

Pour chutney into sterilised jars and seal with new sterilised lid.

Leave to mature for 2 weeks and use within a year.

 

Chopped in the pan and ready to cook

 

 

This is what I want it to look like when cooked...... after about an hour or so. I gave it a bit of a mash with a potato masher just to squash a few bits of the mango which didn't cook down so well.

 

Just a tad under 4 jars full, 2 will go in the Christmas hampers.

 

 I've eaten several, given some away, put loads in the freezer, made two lots of chutney and there are still 4 huge peppers - gradually turning to red -  on the plants in the greenhouse!

 Back Tomorrow

Sue

Don't Try This at Home.......Yet

I wanted a chutney recipe to use and celebrate the  giant red peppers but without using tomatoes (which have nearly finished). Searched my recipe books and found this in my oldest, much splattered preserves book.

But I didn't want a brown chutney so didn't want to use brown vinegar or brown sugar or black treacle and I'm not overly keen on currants,raisins or sultanas in chutney.

So.............

I chopped some onions, cooking apples and 4 giant red peppers and added up the weights. Which came to more or less half the weight of the fruit in the original recipe. I added white sugar and red wine vinegar - using a bit more than half the recipe as it looked too dry - and a little salt .

Cooked it all together until it thickened up and popped into hot sterilised jars. ( I didn't add spices to the jar as per the recipe) Screwed down tight while still hot.

It made 5 jars

and a little left over to taste. Very sweet and sour.

  Because this is a sort-of made up idea for a chutney I have no idea how well it will keep - which is why I say don't try it yet. I'll let you know in a month or three.

There are still some big peppers ripening in the greenhouse and I've already put lots in the freezer, but among my recipes is one for mango and pepper chutney - another one for the Christmas hampers maybe.

 

(See the old metric measurement for vinegar............. 6dl? This book was written way before we went metric and dl's were never used when eventually metric became more common - not even sure what it means.........deci-litres I guess ...........600ml we would say now I think)

Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) part 7

Many thanks for comments about butterflies yesterday. It's so easy to photograph them on the Buddleia as they feed on them for ages. Not so easy to take photos of the smaller butterflies down the meadow - they are always in a hurry and very shy!

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 Another way of eating aubergines found on the BBC Good Food website. This was a bit of a faff for one person and as usual I didn't follow it exactly because of not having half the ingredients and using local! The ingredients below are for 4 people for a main course or 6 if served as a side dish to meat.

 Olive oil   (I used the Norfolk rape-seed oil)
3 aubergines,, sliced thinly lengthways (I used 1 medium sized home grown)

2 medium red onions, very thinly sliced (I used half a white onion home grown)

2 garlic cloves, crushed ( I used a squirt of garlic puree - not local)

5 large plum tomatoes, thinly sliced ( I used one of my large plum tomatoes)

4 lemon thyme sprigs, leaves picked ( I used common thyme as that's what I have growing)
zest ½ unwaxed lemon (Missed this out as I didn't have one)

175g soft goat's cheese, crumbled ( nope! just grated some local cheese on top after it had cooked a bit)
100g good-quality black olives, pitted and chopped ( No didn't have these either)
500g waxy potatoes ( I used one large  home grown Charlotte potato)

The full recipe is HERE but basically it's a layered gratin thing, even using a small amount made too much for one person.

Had a busy morning in the kitchen while I was doing this recipe as I also made a huge batch of the simple Aubergine/Tomato pasta sauce ( 6 portions into the freezer) and some Herby bread rolls.

I didn't photograph it after cooking as it wasn't very good looking but it tasted delicious although a tad oily even though I drained the aubergine slices on kitchen roll paper, so I was glad of a bread roll to mop up the juices. 

 The recipes are on the separate recipe page if you need them.

This Week

This week................

Thank you for comments about the chutney/pickle/relish........whichever it's called in your country!

At 11am on Wednesday  morning the seasons suddenly changed from summer to autumn. I was in the greenhouse having a bit of a tidy when the wind suddenly started blowing, dark clouds rushed overhead and the temperature dropped by several degrees. There had been a lot of rain overnight and it looked as if it was about to pour again so I quickly got a bowl to pick the raspberries and hurried indoors.
Half an hour later the sun came out again, although it stayed windy for the rest of the day and overnight then so much colder on Thursday................ I LOVE the changeability of our weather!

I survived the dentist.............just. Although my bank balance took a big hit.

Bit tired this week, even too tired to go for a swim. Lots of going in and out and driving and also broken nights when the cat brings a mouse in for me, it's that time of year. Sometimes dead, sometimes alive, either way I have to get up and do something about it. Dear Polly-puss!

Here's a recipe from the car-boot bargain book "What Vegans Eat".
 Onion Bhaji Burgers - very delicious.
 I used half the amount  and didn't have any sparkling water but I did have some tonic water left from last Christmas so used that - have no idea if it made any difference, or if using just plain water would have been OK. I didn't have any coriander.

This made two good sized burgers, I had one in a bun with mayo, tomato, cucumber and chutney and the other next day re-heated with salad stuff for my lunch.


Wish I could share with you the taste of these little plum tomatoes from the greenhouse. I've been eating them by the handful everyday and

offering them to all visitors to try. These are Ildi, sweet but sharp with soft skins. More yellow than they appear in the photo and very prolific.

And finally I must say thank you to a lady from Worcester, sorry to hear your husband has the same cancer as Colin, it's a nasty one that's for sure. I'm glad you have found the blog helpful, writing it helps me so much too and yes my collection has grown - Thank you for your kindness.......... a huge surprise.



 This week I'm also grateful for

• Lunch out at Son and DiL's house
• A visit from my sister for a coffee
• A visit from Youngest and Florence 
• Lots of comments and visitors to  the blog, which I never seem to get round to replying to properly.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, bit of a poignant one for me. Tomorrow, the 8th, would have been our 40th wedding anniversary. We didn't really celebrate wedding anniversaries but had talked about a party for the Ruby one. I'll be OK and keep busy as it's the only way to get through.


Back Monday
Sue

In a Pickle

On a whim I decided I wanted to make a homemade version of the famous Branston Pickle. No idea why..........just fancied an experimental challenge and  I quite like making chutney (except when I was cooking up big batches all the time to sell, it got a bit tedious then!)

Many of the recipes I tracked down online used some ingredients that I didn't think were in Branston in this country and as I continued looking it seemed that this is made in many countries but using different recipes. Some said that Crosse and Blackwell, the company who first made the famous pickle had been sold out to other companies who no longer use the original recipe. I haven't bought any chutneys or pickle for years so I can't even remember what it tasted like.

I looked through my recipe books in the kitchen and then remembered I had this book upstairs and sure enough it had a recipe, but I was a bit dubious about using it word for word.

The bloke who wrote this was at one time editor of Home Farm magazine and he and his wife turned out more than two dozen books on gardening, animal keeping etc and plugged them furiously through the magazine. I could never fathom how they had time to try all the things they wrote about  and judging by how poor the books were I don't think they did. Unfortunately I got this book early on before I knew all that. (Main criticism of this book is the number of things that you have to buy in order to make the things that you would otherwise buy ready-made! if that makes sense?)

I watched two "professional" English youtubers making a variety of Branston (or Ploughmans Pickle) in their kitchens. One was weird - he poured in some demerara sugar and then said "That would have been better if it had been dark brown sugar". I thought "well why the heck did you use demerara then?". He then said he would cook the swede and carrot a bit first to soften them...........but he didn't!

The ingredients in some on-line "pretend Branston" recipes included a small amount of celery and quarter of a cauliflower, but I didn't want to buy too many things specially, so in the end I decided just to use the cheapest bought things.......carrots and swede (which is called turnip in Scotland and rutabaga if you are in the U.S) and swapped gherkins for cucumber - from the greenhouse and then bunged in some green tomatoes also from the greenhouse. I reckoned one of the most important ingredients was dates - for the colour as well as the sweetness and I'd planned to buy some anyway to make the Gooseberry and Date chutney. Dates turned out to be the most expensive ingredient.

This is my recipe concoction

Sue's Version of the FAMOUS BRANSTON PICKLE

1 swede, peeled and chopped into very small pieces
2 large carrots ""          ""          ""                "".
1 large onion   ""         ""            ""                ""
1 pint brown malt vinegar

I started by gently cooking the swede, carrots and onion in the vinegar for 20 minutes.

Then I added

1 tablespoon of garlic from a tube
1 tablespoon ginger from a tube
2 teaspoons of Allspice
Tablespoon of Mustard Seed
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
250g Dates chopped small
2 green tomatoes chopped small
1 cucumber peeled and chopped
1 courgette chopped small
2 large apples peeled and chopped ( I used the good bits from  2  cooking apples and one desert apple that were windfalls).

I brought all this back to the boil and then simmered it gently for an hour, stirring regularly and adding a bit more malt vinegar now and again.

Then I added 250g of soft  Dark Brown Sugar and cooked it for another half an hour, stirring and adding a little more vinegar. I used a potato masher to mash the mix a little to change the texture of some of the chutney.

It still didn't look dark enough so I added a Tablespoon of Black treacle, I didn't want to add too much treacle because on my searches I'd found some mentions of it adding a burnt flavour.

When it looked about right and there wasn't too much loose liquid I potted up into 5¾ x 12oz  sterilised jars.

Still not as dark as I remember, maybe they use a caramel colouring?

 As yet it's difficult to tell how true the taste is to the real thing because it needs keeping for a month for the vinegar sharpness to tone down a bit.

The only things bought especially for this were the carrots, swede and dates, everything else was stuff I keep in anyway and things from the garden and greenhouse. Plenty of dates left for another chutney later.

The real test will be when I take a jar to Col's Brother as I know he still buys the proper stuff.

An interesting experiment to undertake, kept me out of mischief for several hours! and another thing done for the Christmas Hampers.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

What's Happening in the Garden and Greenhouse

Everything in the garden is looking...............rosy? .......... well maybe not!

  The seed I bought especially to give me mini sweet-corn cobs for stir-frying produced plants that look really healthy, in fact over 6 feet tall but I was hoping for more than a half-a-dozen cobs from all the plants! maybe they are just a bit slow.

 The wind on Saturday caught the runner bean tripods, blew them over and broke some canes so I had to lean them against the French bean tripods, when I next looked they had gone over again and pulled the plants right out of the ground - so that's the end of the runner beans - Bother! This tripod is on top of what's left of the potatoes still to dig up, I cut the tops off a while ago.

(The strange heaps you can see are the soil that was in the aubergine pots. I cut off the plants and add to the compost bin and then empty  all the soil and roots out onto a bed and over winter they break down so that in the spring all I have to do is rake it over the bed.)

The Potatoes have been damaged so much by ants, I dug up 5 roots and only a handful were OK and nearly a bucket full were useless which is even worse than last year. I'm not sure about bothering with growing them next year.

My beetroot are Extremely Small. I was hoping for enough to use some to make the beetroot chutney which I made last year for the hampers as sister-in-law said she loved it . I think Col's brother might have a few spare if I ask him nicely, he is able to do lots of watering with a hose as he's not on a meter and has good water pressure..........unlike here.

The row of onions from the sets my sister gave me are all up and drying. They will last me a while. Leeks look OK, courgettes still going strong and the butternut squash are very late and slow growing, I might get half a dozen if I'm lucky.

In the greenhouse tomatoes and peppers are still doing well, but the cucumbers and aubergines are almost finished. Just one aubergine plant left. The cucumber plants all got the "whatever it is" that makes the leaves go yellow and dry, mosaic virus or a critter? so are gradually dying, one more cucumber probably.

Failures never put me off growing - I just have another go next year!

 I've now used some of the red peppers and lots of my Big Mama tomatoes to make the Red Relish, some will be for the Christmas Hampers.

This is the recipe that is on the separate Recipe page tab

RED HOT AND SWEET RELISH

4lb Large plum (Big Mama or Andine) tomatoes, skinned and rough chopped.
2 or 3   Large red peppers, finely chopped
1lb Red onions chopped small
1 - 5 red chillies (depending how hot you want it. I used two this year.) de-seeded and finely chopped ( Wear rubber gloves!)
2lb Gran sugar
1 tsp each salt,ground ginger, allspice.
1 pint Red Wine or White vinegar.
( For the best colour this really does need the red onions and red wine/white vinegar, and it doesn't work very well with normal tomatoes which have too many seeds and are more watery)

Put everything except the vinegar into a pan.

Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved

Bring to boil and cook gently for approx 1 hour until thick

Add the vinegar and cook for 30- 50 minutes until thick again.

 Put into hot sterilised jars, cover, seal and label

Back Tomorrow
Sue

It Must be the Smoked Paprika..................

........that gives this recipe some flavour.

I like to look at a different cookery book now and again, vegan, vegetarian or whatever. (Only library books - I don't buy them).

This recipe sounded easy and then I found yellow-sticker-reduced chestnut mushrooms at the Co-op so had to give it a go. The only thing I didn't have was smoked paprika so I used ordinary paprika and  a fresh onion instead of onion powder and ordinary long-life single cream instead of soy-cream.

It looked right, just like the photo in the book

But not a lot of ooommph................. Need to try again with the smoked paprika.

Cooking for one is sometimes a faff but this is simple enough to do, there's lot's of recipes that I just can't be bothered with anymore.

I brought home this book below from the library van, it's got some nice things in it - if someone would cook them for me! Each recipe had about 20+ ingredients, often using part of a tin or packet or fresh item.....not much good for one person.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Best Ever Cheese Straws

I may have mentioned these before as the recipe was already on the recipe page, but I'm a bit short of ideas for blog posts so thought they were due a re-print.

I made a big batch of these when the family were all here in early March. The box which was full on the Friday was nearly empty by the Sunday night.

Over the last few days I've made them twice more and put both lots in the freezer, one box full for Willows birthday party and another for Easter Sunday tea ( saving just a few to eat now of course)

CHEESE STRAWS
8oz cold butter
12oz plain flour
Ground black pepper
Teaspoon mustard powder
1 egg
8oz Cheddar cheese - preferably nice and strong
Beaten egg to brush over

Rub butter into flour and salt, stir in 2oz of the cheese add egg and maybe a tsp ice cold water to make a stiff dough.
Wrap in cling film and chill for half an hour (I don't bother to do this and they are fine)
Then form dough into an oblong, roll out very thinly and sprinkle half the remaining cheese over half the rolled out dough. Fold over the plain bit and repeat....roll, sprinkle, fold.
Roll out again - just less 1cm thick trim the edges and cut into fingers, as neatly as possible
Brush with beaten egg.
(You could sprinkle some finely grated Parmesan or paprika over. I don't.)
  Lift with a spatula onto a greased baking sheet then hot oven 220C/gas 7 for 10 to 12 minutes.
Lift off tray with a spatula to cool on a wire rack.

Health Warning!
High calories and very more-ish

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Mmmmmm More Cake!

As before, my excuse is............ I won the loaf pan liners and now I need to use them!

This one is from The WI cook book....Best Kept Secrets of the W.I. Cakes and Biscuits

Chocolate Brownie Loaf Cake

150g butter
50g plain chocolate
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
vanilla essence
50g plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder
150g milk chocolate chopped (optional)

Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering hot water.
Put the sugar, eggs and a few drops of vanilla essence in a bowl and whisk them really well together until foamy. Fold in the flour and baking powder carefully. Then stir in the melted butter and chocolate mixture (optional stir in the chopped chocolate).
Pour mixture into lined 2lb loaf tin.
Bake at Gas 4/180C/160C fan oven for 40 - 55 minutes until the cake is firm and skewer comes out clean (cover with foil for the last 15 minutes if it starts to burn).
Remove from oven and leave in tin for 10 minutes before cooling on wire rack.

This is very delicious and is firm enough to be cut into very thin slices......but why would you!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Mmmmmmmm Cake

Found a recipe to use up some of the jars of home made marmalade that have been stored since 2017. I don't eat it often because of eating less bread.
Also need to make use of the loaf tin liners that I won at the Bacton Produce show last year.

Sticky Marmalade Tealoaf

140g or approx third of a jar of marmalade
175g softened butter
175g light muscovado (brown) sugar
3 eggs, beaten
225g SR Flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger ( I just used one as I was using orange and ginger marmalade)
1tsp mixed spice
100g chopped pecan nuts (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 180C/Gas4/Fanoven160C
Set aside 1 tablespoon of the marmalade in a cup or saucepan
Mix everything else together and  tip into prepared 2lb/1kg loaf tin and smooth the top.
Bake for  1 - 1¼ hours until a skewer comes out clean......... cover the top with foil for the last 15 minutes.
Warm the remaining marmalade in a microwave or on the hob until its soft then brush over the cake while it's still hot.

I'll add the recipe to the separate recipe page

This might be a good cake to make when I have to take cakes to WI.


Many thanks for comments about Thornham Parva church. It's not far from home yet on a road that I would never have used so wouldn't have found it except for this blog. It was such a welcoming little church and the movement sensor lights are an easy idea that other churches could copy.

Welcome to another person clicking the follower button, I'm hoping for 500 by the end of the year!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Cold Cures

I finished all the Elderberry syrup I'd made before the worst of the cold arrived so have researched some more homemade cures

First there was the one I tried from Jack Monroe's 2018 blog

Hot Nurse
 30g fresh ginger,
6 fat cloves of garlic,
2 x 400g canned chopped tomatoes,
1 tbsp medium curry powder,
1tsp turmeric
Salt and pepper
1 can water

 I didn't have fresh ginger and put in too much dried (and less garlic).....made it brain-blowing HOT!

Then I found this, also from Jack but from 2013, sounds more interesting with onion - anti bacterial and parsley - full of Vitamins. Haven't tried it yet but probably wouldn't use the vegetable stock cube just salt and pepper and maybe two tins of tomatoes rather than one.

Feisty Soup
 1 onion
1 fat clove of garlic
a thick slice of ginger
1 red chilli
a splash of oil
1 x 400g carton or tin of chopped tomatoes
1 vegetable stock cube, dissolved in 200ml boiling water
juice of 1⁄2 a lemon or 2 teaspoons bottled lemon juice
a handful of parsley



Next this one  in Susan Hills  book 'Through the Kitchen Window'...blimey ....2 heads of garlic!
Although it says boiling the un-peeled cloves first makes it more friendly.

But this one below sounds much more appealing as well as easier

Cider and Rosemary Cure
Boil a large sprig of rosemary in some cider for 5 minutes. Strain into a glass and carry up to bed, get under the covers and drink. This cure is said to induce sweating which will kill the cold.

From the book 'From Mother to Daughter" by Vivienne Bolton.

Have to buy cider for wassailing on old twelfth night on the 17th so will get stocked up!

Thank you everyone for comments yesterday

Back Soon
Sue

 

December 18th and The Red Cabbage + plus something funny?

One of the things that yells Christmas to me is a red cabbage! We used to grow a few to sell when we were at the smallholding and they always sold well just before Christmas but not so popular afterwards, although they keep for ages.

The recipe I use to make this colourful part of Christmas dinner comes from Delia Smith's Christmas.
A BBC book dating from 1990 (One of the few Christmas presents that Colin bought without me knowing!)

Braised Red Cabbage with Apples
2lb Red Cabbage
1lb onions chopped small
1lb cooking apples, peeled cored and chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon each ground cinnamon and ground cloves
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
½ oz butter
Ground black pepper and a little salt.

Pre-heat oven to gas 2, 150℃
Discard any tough outer leaves of cabbage, cut into quarters and remove hard stalk. Then shred the rest finely..
In a large casserole arrange a layer of cabbage seasoned with salt and pepper, then a layer of apples and onions with a sprinkling of garlic and spices and sugar. Continue with layers until it's all used. Pour over the vinegar and add some dots of butter. Cover with a tight lid and cook slowly for 2 - 2½ hours, stirring everything around once or twice during cooking.
Once cooked this will keep warm without spoiling or can be refridgerated and reheated or frozen.

I "sort of" followed the recipe but didn't actually weigh  the cabbage, used my home made cider vinegar and eating apples rather than cookers as that's what I had and less onions than the recipe because they were making my eyes water too much!

It tastes good and has gone in the freezer but not sure if its really made enough for 10 people........ may have to repeat.

 

A very British sense of humour? So many bits of this radio programme made me smile, snigger and  laugh when I listened on Sunday that I thought I would share it with anyone interested, just to find out how many people find it funny or is it just me? ( and the people at the recording?) Is it funny in other parts of the world?...................... If the link to the radio programme actually works its here.............I'm Sorry I haven't a clue series 70 episode 5

Many Thanks for comments yesterday
Back Tomorrow
Sue

Beetroot Chutney

Deciding not to make things for Christmas Hampers and then changing my mind in late October has left me with less time than usual for getting things done.
But I came up with an idea for using something that's still plentiful in the garden.....Beetroot.
Not sure if I've ever made Beetroot Chutney before but it's certainly not a regular so I searched through recipe books to find one that sounded good and didn't involve many extra ingredients.
The Best Kept Secrets of the WI Jams, Pickles and Chutneys book had this...................


BEETROOT AND GINGER CHUTNEY
Their recipe used 3lb of beetroot and quite a lot of raisins and  made 6lb+ of chutney, I didn't want that much so altered it a bit. I used red onions and red and white vinegar to keep the colour.

2lb Beetroot, cooked
1¼ lb  onions chopped small
1lb cooking apples, peeled cored and chopped
6oz Sultanas
Just under 1½ pints vinegar 568ml + 284ml =  852 ( I used a bottle of red wine vinegar and then made up the amount with white vinegar)
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
20 oz granulated sugar

Peel and cut the cooked beetroot into chunks.
Put the onion and a little of the vinegar into a large preserving pan and cook to soften.
Add the sultanas and the prepared apple and a little more vinegar and cook again until apple is soft.
Add the beetroot, ginger, salt and half the remaining vinegar, simmer gently until starting to thicken.
Add the sugar and remaining vinegar stirring until the sugar has dissolved and continue cooking until thick again. (Total cooking time about two hours).

It turned out looking like this and tastes good already so should be even better by Christmas.

When I used to make chutney to sell someone once asked me how it was that my  chutney was all different colours? I must have looked puzzled because they said that whatever ingredients they used their chutney always came out brown like Branston pickle.
But I use different types of vinegar and white or red onions depending what the other ingredients are. Simple really but a bit more expensive, but if most of the ingredients are home grown or free then it isn't so bad.

The cost to make this was
Beetroot - free
Apples    - free
Sultanas - about 38p
Onions about 40p
Red wine vinegar 80p
White vinegar  about 35p
Ginger and salt - pennies
Sugar about 36p

Total of £2.29 if I've added correctly

This made 6 various sized jars enough for hampers and some for me.

Thank you for all the comments yesterday and hello to a new follower or maybe two, I've lost count but I hope you enjoy reading

Back Tomorrow
Sue