Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

A real unusual customer here. This vegetable isn't anything to do with Jerusalem or an artichoke for that matter. I like their other name of 'sunchoke' better which perhaps belies some of their other traits of growing tall and having pleasing yellow flowers.

If you are a gardener you are probably familiar with this vegetable and indeed have tried these odd tubers.... and in doing so you have come across the unpleasant aspect of them. I remember listening to an episode of gardeners question time on Radio 4 with the late John Cushnie who suggested that a listener should grow jerusalme artichokes to grow as a fast growing hedge; 'when they grow they let wind in and when you eat them you let wind out'. Enough said.

Well apart from their wind producing properties sunchokes are great to cook with.... they are knobbly (so a little difficult to peel) but have an extremely pleasing nutty taste and make a fantastic soup.


750 g sunchokes
1 chopped onion
3 chopped garlic cloves
1 litre of vegetable stock

1. Par-boil the sunchokes for about 15 minutes and set aside to cool.
2. Peel the sunchokes.
3. Gently cook the onion and galic in a little oil and then the chopped sunchokes.
4. Pour in 1 litre of vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
5. Reduce to a simme and cook covered for 2o minutes.
6. Puree in a blender and serve.
   

Pasta e Fagioli

This was one of those rather excellent 'stick your hand in the cupboard and see what you come out with' recipes. Happily my hand rested on a tin of Borlotti beans and pasta; just glad it wasn't custard and hemp seeds (don't ask!). It is great to have some standby tins at times just so you can rustle up some great wholesome meals. Match the beans with some great local produce from our local 'Country Market' and you have a great supper dish.

Serves 3 to 4

Tin of borlotti beans
Good handful of swiss chard leaves, roughly sliced
Courgette, cut in chunks
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
Onion, halved and sliced thinly
Pasta (I used penne but any shape like this would be good)
Roughly shredded basil

1. Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil gently over a low heat.
2. Add the swiss chard and about 5 minutes later the courgette. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. Drain the borlotti beans and add to the pan. Cook for about 5/10 minutes.
4. Cook the pasta as to the instructions.
5. Drain the pasta and add the basil to the vegetable and borlotti bean mixture.
6. Serve the pasta and vegetable mixture with a sprig of basil and/ or a scraping of parmesan.

Plum Cheese

I wasn't really sure what I had here..... some said they were damsons... others said they were unripe plums.... but it did lead to a quandary as to what to do with them. Having recently been interested in preserving I thought some sort of jelly or jam. After a little investigation I came across a recipe for damson cheese; a rather odd named preserve for a denser, more fruity jelly. Find the recipe on The Cottage Smallholder.




A satisfying accompaniment to cheese (in this case with some rather pungent Stinking Bishop - phewww!)

Worcester Pearmain

Now that the apple season is well under way I thought I would sing the praises of this wonderful variety of apple: Worcester Pearmain. Worcester Pearmain is an early season English apple, originating from Worcester in the 1870s. Apparently it is renowned for it's strawberry flavour. I could not really vouch for that quality - these apples were sweet but not cloying and were wonderfully perfumed but strawberry tasting?. They made the best juice - blushing and quite unlike the poor imitations of apple juice you get in the supermarkets.

Apparently it is coming back into favour and is being stocked by the supermarkets. Quite rightly so but really if you are honest there is nothing better than some apples from your own garden or of a generous provider. This along with a russet would be my apple of choice.

Highly recommended!

Risotto Con Piselli e Zucchini

That is pea and courgette risotto..... well a little tainted by some beetroot which I made as a starter but it is risotto none the less. Now, as you might be able to tell I love Italian food and particularly risotto. Italian food is so rich with vegetables that for an almost vegetarian like myself it is a must. Risotto rice just about goes with any vegetable or even fruit (see my entry on strawberry risotto) and always, always is satisfying. This is an excellent dish when you have that summer glut of courgettes and peas.

Basically follow the recipe for asparagus risotto but add the peas right at the end. If they are fresh and sweet they hardly need any cooking. Variations on this: you can add french beans or broad beans and maybe a touch of saffron.

Aphrodite

Talking of food with a friend recently I remembered reading Isabel Allende's book about food : 'Aphrodite'. A sublime book full of insights into food and love. Mixing personal stories with fragments from history explaining the amorous nature of food. Did you know that when tomatoes were first introduced to Europe they were called the love apples for their apparent aphrodisiac qualities?

It is an extremely sensual book full of frank memories and tidbits of information all invaluable to the interested cook. I particularly liked her recipe for reconciliation soup.

A sensual delight.

Summer Roasted Vegetables

Glorious summer veg from the local farmers' market

This is such a great time of year for vegetables. At the height of summer we can get courgettes, peppers, fennel and some fantastic summer squash. This is a family favourite; just cut up all the vegetables and bung in the oven for an hour. Simple! This is a rough estimate of the quantities and of course you can always add another vegetable or leave out another dependent on what you can get. Try adding aubergine (if you can get it locally!), or different types of squash - it is great with all these combinations. If you do have any left over boil up some pasta the next day and use as a pasta sauce.

Serves 4-6

1-2 leeks
1 fennel bulb sliced
2-3 courgettes cut into chunks
1-2 peppers cut into chunks
1 white custard squash peeled and cut into chunks
4-5 mini patty pan topped and tailed
Handful thyme

1-2 peaches peeled and sliced
1/2 leek finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
6-8 tomatoes de-seeded and chopped
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 tbsp olive oil

1. Cut all the vegetables to be roasted into bite size chunks; the peppers, leeks, squash, patty pan, courgettes (whatever you are using).
2. Place in a roasting dish and drizzle over some olive oil and mix some fresh thyme.
   

3. Cover the dish with aluminium foil or cover and roast in the oven for about 1 hour.
   
4. In the meantime prepare your tomato sauce. Take the finely chopped leek and garlic and mix with a good glug of olive oil and the chopped tomatoes. Mix in the balsamic vinegar. Tear up a good handful of basil leaves and mix.
5. Peel and slice the peach.
6. Check on your roasting vegetables and and scatter the peach amongst the vegetables. You can return the dish to roast a little more - say 10-15 minutes to bring out that rich peach taste or just remove from the oven straightaway.
   
7. Pour the sauce over roasted vegetables and serve. This goes well with most dishes or just serve with some crusty bread for a light dinner/supper.
   

Yoghurt and Whortleberry Compote

This is just the thing to have with leftover compote.... taking some mighty fine yoghurt mixed with my whortleberry compote for a delicious summer breakfast. You can of course add some cereal but who would want to with this great combination.

Summer Beetroot Soup

I first tried a summer beetroot soup some years ago at the garden of Margery Fish - the great cottage gardener based in East Lambrook, Somerset. It was that combination of fresh beetroot and tomatoes that made this soup so divine. It truly goes down in memory as one of the best soups I have ever had. Riffing on that theme of beetroot and tomatoes I created my own version with the addition of a little chilli. A great friend of mine calls this the ticklish beetroot soup on account of the chilli content.

Now, the key to a great soup is the thickness. What marks out a great homemade soup is the thickness. Can I emphasize the fact anymore? This is the joy of plenty in the summer months; you can have the thickest, most luscious soup with no extra cost. You try the tin soup and really they do not compare (can you buy beetroot soup anyway?)

But I digress....

Serves 4/5

4 medium beetroot, peeled and chopped
4 large tomatoes
1 chilli
1 onion chopped
1 stock cube
Some tap water
seasoning
Olive oil

1. Gently fry the onion in the olive oil for 10 minutes to gently brown.
2. Add some chopped chilli (you can add some dried chilli if you wish).
3. Add the chopped beetroot and tomatoes and cook for 30 to 45 minutes with enough water to just about cover the mixture.
4. Add a crumbled stock cube.
   
5. Whizz up in a food blender or liquidizer.
6. Serve with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.
   

Honey Cake and Whortleberry Compote

After a recent visit to Hugh Fernly-Whittingstall's River Cottage Canteen in Axminster where we had the most devine honey cake with blackcurrant compote I thought I would make a local version with whortleberries (see my post on whortleberry jam). I make no claim to the honey cake - find the recipe on-line at the Guardian. It's a great recipe and well worth trying. It is moist and syrupy.... and the ground almonds add the right amount of granuality. I found some great local honey in order to try this dish.

To make the compote: Take your left over whortleberries and tip into a saucepan. Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of sugar and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately or just place in a jar and keep for those unexpected breakfasts.

White Currant Soup

I could not turn down a bag of white currents that was offered at my local transition town meeting. The question was what exactly to do with them. Sorbet - hmmm perhaps, some sort of tart sauce for some fish - possibly, or maybe, just maybe a soup. I had recently heard about summer soups on the great podcast KCRW Good Food and decided to go for the unusual and make myself a cold soup out of these white currants. Apparently fruit soups are quite popular in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.... I couldn't resist. Armed with a recipe for a Polish blueberry soup I set about making this odd soup.


Serves 2 to 3

400g/500g white currants
1 ltr of water (pretty rough estimate)
1/2 ltr of milk (I used goats milk which seemed to work quite well)
1 vegetable stock cube (this was my addition and perhaps not necessary)
2 tbsp of cornflour
1 tbsp of sugar (or to taste)

1. Bring to a boil the white currents and water. I put in enough water to just about cover the white currants.
2. Simmer for about 10/15 minutes or so to allow some of the fruit to burst.
3. Sieve the liquid to get rid of the pips. I used some butter muslin and made a terrible mess so my advice is to use a metal sieve.
4. Return the liquid to the cooking pan.
5. Combine the cornflour and milk to make a paste and add to the soup to thicken.
6. Cook for about 5/10 minutes to eliminate the floury taste.
7. Add sugar to taste. I added about a tablespoon to get a very tart soup but add as much or as little sugar as you wish.
8. Chill the soup. I really do not recommend eating this warm.
9. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.

My verdict. Well, it is very refreshing soup and I am sure on a hot day it will be very welcome. But the British summer has not been up to much of late and eating this soup on a rainy and chilly day did not tick all my food boxes. This is one of the oddest soups I have ever made, and it sure is a talking point. Make it on a very hot day to refresh and revive.

Whortleberry Jam

More wild food and one of my favourites. I have very happy memories of climbing on the local Quantock hills and picking these whortleberries as a child; scrabbling amongst the heather, gorse and bracken for this very subtle and tart berry. The whortleberry is generically known as the bilberry... an unassuming berry smaller than the blueberry but perhaps a little more charming.

It grows on moorland in little shrubby clumps. The season is quite short; dependent on the year's weather and location the season is from July to August. The berry has many great qualities; apparently it is high in vitamins C and D and according to the Whortleberry Tea Room second world war pilots would eat whortleberry jam to improve their night vision. Big claims indeed. So after some marathon 'berrying' sessions I decided to put all that great fruit to use in a jam so we could eat it all winter. (This hasn't happened as we have now given much away in a fit of good neighbourliness - have to go out again to pick more!). So after consulting many recipes for whortleberry jam I decided to go with a very ancient recipe from an old jam and preserve book with a little addition of a lemon. This is where I resort to imperial measurement just for convenience.

Makes about 3 * 225 g jars of jam

1 lb whortleberries (picked over for stalks and leaves, washed and dried)
1 lb preserving sugar (choose the one recommended for strawberry jam which is high in pectin)
1 juiced lemon

1. Firstly, gather your implements: one large saucepan or preserving pan (should be made of stainless steel and not aluminium), 2-3 saucers placed in the freezer, a wooden spoon, a heatproof jug, a plentiful supply of sterilised jars (you can wash the jars and place in a hot oven to dry off), some wax paper discs (you can buy these or cut them out yourself - but believe me it is easier just to buy them), and washed lids.
2. Ensure that the size of the pan is adequate to contain all the ingredients safely (jam does splutter a bit so only fill the pan halfway)..... I could only do a pound of fruit to a pound of sugar at a time but if you can manage it try and double the recipe. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes giving it a stir to ensure all the sugar is distributed in the jam. Whortleberries like strawberries are low in pectin which allows jam to set. To compensate for this it is important to use preserving sugar that is high in pectin. I also added the juice of a lemon (citrus fruit and apples are high in pectin) to ensure it set well.
   
3. Now comes the difficult part of assessing whether your jam will set or not. Retrieve a saucer from the freezer spoon a dollop of jam onto the saucer. Allow to cool and them gentle with a finger push the jam. If it wrinkles the jam should be ready.
4. Get a few jars ready with the wax paper discs and lids at hand.
5. Pour your jam into the jug to transfer to your jars easily.
6. Pour into the jars. Try to leave only about a 2 mm gap at the top.
   
7. Place a wax disc wax side down into the jar.
8. Seal with a lid and allow to cool. You can reuse your old jam jars but ensure that you have the right lid for your jar. When you put the jam in the jars and screw on the lid after it cools it should now be sealed. On most jam jars there is a little 'button' on the top. Once your jam has cooled you should not be able to push the button. If you can then use that jam straight-away and put in the fridge.
9. Produce some labels with the date of production and enjoy!

Broad Bean and Feta Cheese Salad

Simple, quick - what more could you want. A great way of serving the first crop of broad beans is this broad bean and feta cheese salad. This does work best with the smallest broad beans you can grow or find.... don't try them later in the season... you need them young and sweet. This is a great accompaniment to a Greek style meal of hummus and pitta or just on it's own.

Serves 2
Couple handfuls of podded broad beans
About 50g feta cheese cut into small cubes
Small bunch of fresh mint
Olive oil
Seasoning

1. Chop finely the mint leaving a sprig for decoration.
   
2. Toss the broad beans, feta cheese and the chopped mint with a glug of olive oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
   

Elderflower Fritters

With the elderflower season well under way in UK I was desperate to try the following recipe from Gastronomy Domine, a blogger based in Cambridge, UK.... I thought it might be a good accompaniment to strawberry granita but thought better of it.... instead it makes for a great appetizer... a great start to a party or barbeque.

Follow Gastronomy Domine's recipe and you shouldn't go far wrong. The only changes I made was to leave the stalks on the elderflowers. This enables you to cook and serve the fritters easily - just remember to tell your guests to not eat the stalks.

Dipping the elderflowers in the batter

Looking a little bedraggled coming out of the batter

Frying the fritters

Frying the fritters to golden brown

Hummus

You don't know how much I love chickpeas.

I love them so much!

If I could have them everyday I would be in heaven. I am already known to my friend's mother as the chickpea queen. Don't ask me why to me they are the bees knees. It could be their filling nature, or the slightly nutty, beany taste, or just that you can do so much with them. They are a snack, a meal, an aphrodisiac (but only for males apparently); they are so versatile.

I was a bit shocked that I hadn't put on many recipes for chickpeas on the blog..... WHAT WAS I THINKING! So, to quickly remedy this remiss here is my super quick hummus recipe. There are probably lots of better recipes and really it is all up to your personal taste as to the exact quantities... this is a rough recipe. Please experiment to get it just the way you like it.

And you cannot go wrong if you visit the marvellous site The Hummus Blog. Some great insights into why homemade hummus is best.

Serves ??? (alot of servings)

3 cloves of garlic chopped
400g of cooked chickpeas
2 tsp tahini (heaped)
100 ml olive oil (this is a rough estimate)
Seasoning
Cumin (2 tsp of ground)

1. Place the garlic, chickpeas, tahini and olive oil in a food processor or blender. Keep some chickpeas back to use later.
   
2. Whizz up until all the ingredients have been reduce to a paste. Add more olive oil and/or cooking liquid if the mixture is too thick.
3. Fry the ground cumin in a little olive oil and add the reserved chickpeas. Cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Place the hummus into a suitable bowl or tub.... it won't stay there long.
5. Top with the fried chickpeas.
6. Serve with pitta bread and a green salad for a perfect supper dish.
   

Strawberry and Elderflower Granita

Strawberry and elderflower granita

The strawberry season is with us at last! And with the English strawberries we have unseasonally good weather. The sun is glorious and we can have loads of glorious barbeques in the back garden. So to cool us all off I researched this wonderful dish. Now there are loads of strawberry granita recipes out there but I think my addition of elderflower really knocks this dessert into the realms of the heavens. Delicate wild elderflowers and the local Somerset strawberries make for a winning combination; plus I got the elderflower cordial from my local farmers market. This is a real celebration of local produce.

Serves around 6-8

1 kg strawberries, hulled and halved
90 g sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
1/2 lemon juiced
1 lime juiced
dash of elderflower cordial

1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil (fill the pan about a quarter full of water).
   
2. Place a bowl over the pan to place your ingredients in.
3. Plonk the strawberries in the bowl keeping some aside for decoration later.



Heating the strawberry and elderflower cordial mixture



4. Add the sugar and the juice.
   
5. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about an hour. You want all those strawberries to smoosh up and almost melt.
6. Strain into another bowl using a nylon sieve or tammis and leave to cool.
7. Pour the solution into a shallow dish or if you are like me a number of shallow dishes. The important aspect is that the solution is 0.5 to 1 cm in depth.
8. Leave to freeze.... about 30 minutes or so. The outsides and top of the solution should be frozen.
9. Fork over the frozen granita. It should form little crystals. Spoon these into the middle and place back in the fridge for another 30 minutes (or whenever you remember).
   
   
   
   Forking over the granita
   
   
   
10. Repeat to fork over the solution until it all is reduced to these wonderful red crystals.
11. If you are making this in advance then before serving you should bring the granita out and allow to defrost a little.
12. Serve with a sprinkling of elderflowers and a strawberry.
    

Strawberry and elderflower granita

Spinach and Black Beluga Lentils Soup

Black beluga lentils

A quick and easy recipe for a wholesome, satisfying meal. You could use puy lentils instead but these beluga lentils just look so wonderful in the pan and add a real robust flavour.

A mug of black beluga beans
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
Packet of spinach (roughly chopped)
500ml vegetable stock
Olive oil
Seasoning

1. Fry the garlic in a little olive oil on a low heat. Just enough to get those lovely garlicky flavours out.
   
2. Add the dried black beluga lentils and give a quick stir around with the garlic.

Black beluga lentils and garlic


3. Add the vegetable stock and cook for about 20 minutes or until the lentils get soft.
4. Add the roughly chopped spinach and cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes.
   


Adding the spinach



5. Season well with pepper and serve.
   

Spinach and Black Beluga Lentil Soup

Steamed Brioche With Apple Puree and Rose Water Foam : TGRWT #17 Apple and Rose

Well this is combination of a flavour pairing suggestion of the TGRWT #17: apple and rose and a recipe from my 'A Day At Bulli' with other recipes thrown in when I had to work around issues. I must admit that I got rather excited by this idea.... great a chance to use my Lecithin to create a foam! And if you ever have a chance do look up the El Bulli recipe that I riffed on - Steamed Brioche with Rose Scented Mozzarella do so... the dish looks amazing and I just hope that someday I will be able to create something that looks that fabulous. What did I create? A humble peasant version as you can see from the above photo. Still, I learnt lots, like I cannot make brioche (hot hands I think) and try not to stray too far from the recipe.

The result of my culinary experiment - a fabulous combination of apple and rose but my straying from the recipe ruined the brioche. I think I could have upped the ante on the rose taste... should have used rose essence and not rose water and if i had some edible rose petals around the dish could have been presented a whole lot better. This is definitely something that I will try and perfect - just think it would be a great show-stopping dessert. Just need to work at that brioche recipe.

Brioche

225g flour
15g yeast
2 eggs
90g butter
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp milk (I ended up just putting a dash of milk in because of the consistency of the dough)

The brioche recipe came from Celtnet.co.uk; I abandoned the El Bulli recipe early on when it required a sourdough starter which I couldn't be bothered to wait for (first mistake). Essentially I followed the celtnet recipe until the time it came to cook the brioche then I reverted to the El Bulli recipe. I used a stoneground 5 seed flour (second mistake) thinking that it might add some different tastes to the dish (it did but they were the wrong tastes and the dough was just too dense). Plus to top it all I used dried yeast (third mistake) and even though the dough did rise I think using fresh yeast would have produced better results.

producing the brioche dough

Apple Puree

5 apples peeled, cored and chopped
32.5g sugar
187ml wine
1/2 vanilla pod

I used the recipe for apple puree from the hydrocolloid recipe collection of Martin Lersch available on his blog Khymos. I just found the recipe for apple gel and took the apple puree recipe from that. A note on the choice of apples. I chose to use Pink Lady apples because of their wonderful aroma.... perhaps they were too delicate - yes it was appley but the sugar content was too high. Some sort of cooking apple would have worked better.

The apple puree cooking with the vanilla pod

Rose Water Foam

250 g milk
2 tbsp rose water
1.75g Lecithin

Rose water foam ingredients

I just used the recipe from my El Bulli book (page 305) and exchanged rose essence for rose water. I just added the rose water to the milk until it started to smell like roses (I know pretty haphazard but this was one of the successes). Essentially I just whizzed up all the ingredients with my immersion blender and them skimmed the top of the surface of the liquid to create the foam.

Now to putting it all together....

I rolled out the dough and broke of pieces of dough about the size of a hen's egg. See below. I rolled each of the pieces into spheres that I squashed a little to make this little rounds of dough.

Next I steamed the dough balls over a water with some rose water added... the aromas were fantastic.

The brioche were steamed for 16 minutes then lifted out and laid on parchment paper to cool a little. I hollowed out the brioche (see below for my first attempt).

I filled the hollowed out brioche with the apple puree which I had previously warmed. Stuck them under the grill for 30 seconds and plated up scooping the rose water foam over the brioche.

I know it looks like a baked potato that is erupting but the apple puree and rose water foam was a great combination