A safari dinner and a hangover!

Not quite what we did!

Have to admit today I am not feeling great…. a tad hungover still at midday, even though my wonderful husband made me scrambled eggs for breakfast and I slept until 11. I tend to do this once a year and this must be this year’s event! Somehow convinced myself and those around me that I would be attending Zumba this morning – loud music and shaking my booty would not have been ‘just what the doctor ordered’ this morning!

Anyway the reason for my poor appearance today was a ‘Safari Dinner’ – what a fantastic concept! Organised by my Headmaster’s wife, we ventured around the school and town, visiting classrooms and kitchens to eat each course with a different group of people. At the end of each course everyone received envelopes which told them where they were off to next – ingenious and exciting! We started in a classroom at school where Parma Ham and Melon & Chips/Dip were provided with copious amounts of wine. Then onto one of the boys’ houses down the road where we were treated to Roast Beef and all the trimmings main course by a very talented Housemaster, served with copious amounts of wine. We hotfooted it back to school to serve our course, pudding, in my lab! It was quite a challenge to give that space the right ambience – but SummerPudding Trifle triumphed again (see previous post ‘How to impress your mother-in-law #2 – July). We also served kir royale made with my homemade creme de cassis or madiera. Lastly, we all converged upon the library, where we were treated to a massive selection of cheeses with copious amounts of port.

Have to say that the best moments were passing other groups in town and discussing what we’d had and where we were going….. and the copious amounts of wine obviously! I truly deserve this hangover!

Look at what we found on our walk up the road…….

I couldn’t believe my eyes…. blackberries in July??? Albeit the 31st of July, but still that’s remarkably early. Whenever we go on walks or cycles in late August and early September, I am always armed with a reused soup container, for any berries that we may find…. but I was taken by surprise today so we picked 3 cupped handfuls and brought them home carefully.

Not quite enough blackberries to make a pudding on their own – I ventured into our garden to see if one of our apples was ripe. They are huge apples this year, much bigger than in previous years, so I thought it might be alright. It also felt quite light, which is usually a good sign. Upon cutting, however, the pips were still white, so I may leave the rest for another few weeks.

So, blackberries soaked for a little while to remove maggots, I went onto making some individual puddings – I use those little metal pudding bowls and bake them in the oven, but you could use plastic and cook them for a couple of minutes in the microwave to get a steamed pudding.

Quite a rough recipe (sorry)… I must learn to weigh what I am using!

Mini blackberry and apple puddings – makes 4

3 cupped handfuls of wild blackberries (soaked in water and then drained/dried)
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tblspn sugar, 1 tsp Lurpak butter spread

80g plain flour
25g sugar
40g butter (I used Lurpak spread as I had no butter in and it worked well)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 large egg
75ml milk

• Soften the fruit by first cooking the apple with the butter and sugar for 5-6 mins – add the blackberries for a further minute
• Cut rounds of baking parchment to fit the bottom of your dishes and grease these well
• Put 1/4 of the fruit mixture into each dish
• Mix the remaining ingredients (use a mixer to make it even easier)
• Spoon 1/4 of this on top of the fruit
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 12 minutes – check to make sure they are cooked by inserting a skewer – it should come out clean
• Cool for a 5-10 mins and serve with ice cream

A quick Sunday morning loganberry ‘cheesecake’

Went out to the garden this morning to give it some much needed love. Reports, field trips and end of term events have all dominated my existance for the last week and although I’m not quite on the final leg of term yet…. some garden respite was needed! I was rewarded with amazing produce – no doubt following the wet week that we’ve had. Turnips, potatoes, peas, broad beans, strawberries all came in and I was delighted to see some wonderfully ripe loganberries poking through the leaves in the fruit cage! I decided that we would have them for Sunday lunch, but this was at 9.30…. and time was running out!

Loads of amazing berries to come!

Some of today's bounty - loganberries, strawberries, peas and broad beans

I decided to make up a sort of cheecakey dessert with what I had in the fridge and the biscuit crumbs left over from Jon’s birthday cupcakes (these will be in a later post!). So this is my…..

Quick loganberry ‘cheesecake’ cups – makes 3 – this would work equally well with raspberries

25g butter, melted
1 cup digestive biscuit crumbs and 2 tsp sugar
100g cream cheese (like Philli)
6 tblspns natural yoghurt
3 tsp sugar
3 tsp loganberry jam
16-20 loganberries (or more if you have them)

• Combine the biscuit crumbs, 2 tsp sugar and butter – press most of it into bottom of 3 cups, glasses or small bowls – reserve a little for later
• Mix the cream cheese with the yoghurt and 3 tsp sugar until smooth – split between bowls
• Place a tsp jam on top and gently swirl
• Top with loganberries and a sprinkling of biscuit crumbs
• Pop it in the fridge for as long as you have – I left them for about 2 hours and this was enough…

The finished dessert - pop in the fridge for a few hours (or as long as you've got)

Don’t be a gooseberry – bake a cake and then everyone will be your friend!!

On Sunday, my friend Vic hosted a wonderful 4th birthday party for her daughter, Mia. Vic, being Vic, had totally gone to town, in addition to catering for over 40 hugely excited children. There was fairy crown making, fairy wand making, bee/ladybird/dragonfly making; I was helping children to ice and decorate their own cupcakes and the long-suffering husband named himself the ‘bouncy castle fascist’ – monitoring how many children were on at one time and counting down their bouncing time!

How do you cater for that many children and their parents?? Vic made all children a sausage in a roll, served up veggies with houmous and crisps; finishing up with birthday cake! Parents were treated to a range of homemade cakes made by Vic, family and friends and the cake below was my offering – a gooseberry cake made with the gooseberries Abbie and I found at Groveland farm shop last Wednesday.

My gooseberry cake… – makes a large loaf tin shaped cake – easy for party slicing
280g/10oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g/3oz caster sugar
100g/4oz demerera – you’ll need an extra bit at the end for sprinkling to make the top crunchy (always do this on my loaf cakes)
100g/4oz soft soya marg
2 eggs
tiny splash of vanilla extract (or use vanilla sugar in place of caster)
1 large punnet gooseberries (sorry I didn’t weigh them) – top and tail

• Preheat oven to 180C. Line your loaf tin with parchment and grease the sides
• Stew the gooseberries by bringing to boil and then simmer for 5 mins until soft and popping out of their skins
• Beat the dry ingredients to combine
• Add marg, eggs, vanilla  – beat lightly until it looks like cake mixture
• Add all but 1 cup of the stewed gooseberries (if you want some for a pudding) – fold in
• Pour in to loaf tin and sprinkle demerera sugar on top
• Bake for 45 mins and check that it is cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle – it should come out clean – if not bake for 5 mins and try again!
• Cool in tin for a little while and then remove to a cooling rack (or take it to the party in the tin as I did and turn it out there!
• Slice and enjoy!

Gooseberry cake, stewed gooseberries and Nigel Slater's amzing mascarpone cream

Abbie was dying to try gooseberries; I think she has had them before, but couldn’t remember – so that was an interesting experiment while we made the cake. Luckily she LOVED them! So I snaffled a few leftover pieces of cake from the party and served it up for our pudding.

I served it up warm with some stewed gooseberries and made Nigel Slater’s Mascarpone cream to go alongside – trust me when I say this is AMAZING!  A no-cook custard which can be whipped up in a few mins.

Beat 2 egg yolks with 2 tblspns caster sugar; add few drops vanilla and 250g mascarpone, beat until smooth and custard-like! If it weren’t for the calories, I’d make it everyday!

Unfortunately I think we will have to rely on Grovelands for our gooseberries – have counted and we have 7 berries on our bush (still in trauma from last year’s frost obviously). I may be back this week!!

What do you do when you have no energy, but your daughter is bouncing off the walls??

Answer – to the kitchen! I was able to sit, with the occasional move whilst we weighed, mixed, poured and baked Nigel Slater’s ‘Lemon Frosted Pistachio cake’; surely guaranteed to lift my spirits and put a smile on my face. Abbie is becoming suddenly more independent in the baking arena and now insists on trying to do everything herself…. cracking eggs has definitely improved – I only had to retrieve 3 pieces of shell (a definite improvement on previous attempts!)

Weighing and measuring...

If you could hear this photo it would say...'Ta da!'

Juicing the orange - luckily I only need 2/3 of its juice

This was a great recipe for trying new things – ‘green nuts’ went down very well, although she came a cropper later when sneaking a naughty one as my back was turned…. tried to eat the whole thing, shell and all!! That’ll teach her! Abbie also enjoyed pinches of ground almonds (so different to how whole ones taste) and smelling the rosewater which she said smelled ‘flowery’.

Thank goodness also for Jonts, who probably wished he hadn’t called to say he was coming home, as he was greeted with a ‘please could you just……’ (this happens quite a lot). Anyway, he was the cake’s hero as without him and the bottled lemon juice, there would have been no icing!

GORGEOUS!

This cake is GORGEOUS!… we ate it with berries and creme fraiche. I made 2/3 of the recipe and we were only supposed to eat a third of the cake. Confession: there is only half left and I am not sure that it will make it through the evening – I am in bed and I can almost hear Jon sliding a plate from the cupboard…. opening the fridge door….. Hero or not, there had better be a piece for Abbie and I tomorrow or he’s in big trouble!

Abbie has seconds and then asked to share my second piece! Cheeky monkey! Of course I let her - weak!

Have to say, I am a Slater convert at the moment as I have not had any kitchen disasters with any of his recipes and they have all been simply delicious. In fact I am at present thinking up a name for all Slater followers…. maybe I am a ‘Slaterite’, ‘Slatertater’ or a ‘Slaterplater’? All lame I know! I’m sure you can do better……

LEMON-FROSTED PISTACHIO CAKE (from Nigel Slater’s ‘The Kitchen Diaries’)
serves 10-12

250g of butter
250g of caster sugar
3 large eggs
100g of shelled pistachio nuts
100g of ground almonds
An orange
1 tsp of rosewater
60g of plain flour

Icing:
100g of icing sugar
2 tbsp of lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 160° C. Line the bottom of a non-stick 22cm cake tin with baking parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between adding each egg. Blitz the pistachios in a food processor to turn them into fine crumbs and then add them, along with the almonds, to the butter, sugar and eggs. Add the zest and the juice of the orange and then stir in the orange blossom water and, finally, fold in the flour.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 minutes, covering the top lightly with foil for the final ten minutes. Check that the cake is done by inserting a skewer, it should come out quite clean with no wet mixture stuck to it. Leave it to cool in the tin before turning out.

Make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice together until smooth and then pour it over the cake. If you have any leftover pistachios use a few to decorate the top of the cake. Leave the icing to set and then serve and enjoy.

Mmmm Sunday lunch and a lemoniscious trifle from Nigel Slater ….

Roast chicken, new potatoes, kale, carrots and yummy homemade gravy today. Did my chicken the Jamie way – boiling a lemon for 5 mins, stabbing it and shoving it in the chicken with some salt, pepper, garlic and herbs before roasting – keeps it really moist.

Abbie and I got up early this morning and made the lemon trifle – another wonderful dish from Nigel Slater’s ‘Kitchen Diaries’. It was a really easy trifle, couldn’t believe I could make something that resembled a custard from just double cream, sugar and lemon juice – no egg and therefore no curdling!!

After our main meal, which Abbie polished off in record time…. she asked to get down… I was surprised as Abbie usually loves her puddings! The following conversation then took place…
Me: Don’t you want pudding?
Abbie: Mmmm…. no I don’t think so…………… what’s for pudding?
Me: Lemon trifle…. it’s in the fridge….
Abbie: Maybe I’ll just go and have a look……. (goes to the fridge) …… Hmmmm…. Mummy…. I think I will just have a bit of pudding!

As you can see from the photos, Abbie was very reluctant to lose possession of said trifle! I adapted Nigel Slater’s recipe only slightly, replacing crystallized violets with white chocolate chips as I had them in the cupboard. It was enjoyed so much that we will be making it again when my mother-in-law comes for lunch next Sunday!

Link to the recipe: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/533841

very protective of the trifle!

can you see Abbie's hand creeping in to get her portion??

a happy girl....

Good Friday, good morning, great pancakes – white choc and cranberry……

Abbie wanted pancakes for breakfast this morning and as they are also my favourite, who was I to resist….. I had made white chocolate and cranberry cookies on Christmas morning – a huge success with all of our families, so I wondered whether I could repeat the triumph in pancake form!!

served up with raspberries on the side

 

White chocolate and cranberry pancakes – makes about 15
 (I freeze the leftovers and reheat in the microwave when needed)

150g plain flour
1 desertspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tablspn vanilla caster sugar (or caster sugar and a drop of vanilla extract)
1 egg
250ml milk
1/2 tblspn oil at most

White choc chips and dried cranberries

• Mix flour, baking powder, bicarb, sugar, egg and milk together – I do this in a mini-food processor
• Heat the oil in a frying pan or flat skillet – I brush the oil around my skillet
• Pour pancake sized blobs into the pan – beware they will spread – these are the American style of pancakes so about 10cm diameter at most
• Sprinkle the pancakes with white choc chips and cranberries as the first side cooks, when it looks bubbly on top, flip it for a short while on the other side (not too long or the chocolate will burn)
• Serve hot (you could also make this for a pudding and serve with vanilla ice cream…)

Malt loaf made new…. ML and butter pudding with a ‘nice cup of tea’ custard

I came home to find many items beyond their ‘best before’s and although I hate it when I throw away half a tub of creme fraiche or some wilted veg, I was determined to find a use for my stale malt loaf, still wrapped and a bit squidgy. I took inspiration from how I like to eat my malt loaf treat (spread with butter and accompanied by a cup of tea) and decided to make a variation on ‘bread and butter pudding’.

It came out fantastically well and we have all enjoyed eating this comforting pudding….. it takes it sweetness mostly from the malt loaf and so isn’t overly sweet. If you have a sweet tooth feel free to add a bit more sugar to the custard – I would rather have a scoop of vanilla ice cream to accompany it!

So.. to what I did!

1 stale malt loaf

Butter for spreading

100ml strong black tea (1 tea bag, squeeze it to make the tea strong)

Just under a pint of milk

2 eggs

Vanilla sugar for sprinkling (to taste)

• Thinly slice the malt loaf and butter it on one side, place into a buttered dish, overlapping the slices
• Make the tea and then top up with milk to make 1 pint, add the 2 eggs and whisk to combine
• Strain the egg/tea mixture over the slices of malt loaf
• Sprinkle with vanilla sugar and leave to soak for 30 minutes (preheat the oven to 180C during this time)
• Bake for 30 minutes and cool for 5-10 mins before serving

Crunchy and malty on top, gooey smooth custard underneath - yum!

A bowl of velvety comfort