~What to do with courgettes!~

It's that time of the year when the courgettes are coming thick and fast...

This year I was given 4 plants (free - yay!) and put them in 2 growbags in a sunny spot.
Turn your back for a minute and there's one of these...

I'm lucky I love courgettes and have now amassed loads of recipes to deal with the glut.  I've just made these little courgette and potato rosti, and added fennel leaves and feta.

Grate 1 courgette and about 3 small potatoes and squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can with a teatowel. Add some crumbled feta and chopped herbs of your choice (I used fennel as I'm having them with salmon), along with a beaten egg to hold it all together. I added plenty of black pepper, but no salt as the feta's salty enough. Squeeze out the excess egg and shape with your hands into flat cakes and dust with flour before frying.

They are yummy!

~Chocolate Cake~

My (not so) Small Boy is 11 today.  What a year for change 2013 will be...High School for J, and hopefully off to University for L.
This is his birthday cake.  The loveliest chocolate fudge cake (recipe from Carnation found by my best friend Jo). It's now become the cake of choice in this house.  The chocolate fingers were an inspired addition to ramp up the chocolatey calories!

If you're looking for the perfect chocolate cake,  the recipe for the chocolate fudge cake can be found on Carnation's website here
P.S I substitute the corn oil with sunflower oil.
Also a thrifty tip to make it cheaper - Carnation Caramel is approx £1.75 for a 397g tin.
Morrisons sell a copycat version Farmlea Caramel for £1.15 for the same size tin.

~Fruit foraging at Towton~

L and I are home alone today as OH and J are away at Cub Camp, so we took Small Dog for a nice long walk.  Despite only living 4 miles from the site of the Battle of  Towton, the renowned bloodiest battle on English soil which took place on Palm Sunday in 1461, I've never walked the fields or stopped to explore.  It's especially interesting as one of L's A Levels is Early Modern History, so it's a bit like having your own tour guide on the Wars of the Roses and the monarchy.  It was a beautiful sunny morning to take the time to walk the route; there are fantastic information boards all the way round. Visit the Towton Battlefield Society website here http://www.towton.org.uk There's an evocative video (only 3 minutes long)  narrated by Robert Hardy, who is the patron of the society, which gives you a real idea of the landscape that snowy day and the brutal realities of the battle.
I couldn't resist a bit of foraging as there were some sloes and blackberries (albeit small).  Many of the blackberries are still not ripe.  The eldeberries were nice and black so I picked a few, due to the teenager rolling her eyes and losing patience with me as I scrambled into the hedge (getting nettled) with my carrier bag...    This was the result...

I do get enthusuastic about nature and the landscape and use the word * amazing...*  a lot, which exasperates L as well!
I actually prefer Damson Gin to Sloe Gin, damsons are a great fruit for preserves and liqueurs, although my little tree, Damson 'Merryweather' only yielded about 1lb of decent fruit, the rest of it suffered rotting and disease. I wrote a post about making Damson Cheese last year see here.
So today, I've made a blackberry and apple crumble and also set some Hedgerow Vodka going....

I got some great advice on making fruit liqueurs here...
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/superb-sloe-vodka-recipe-518/

~Lemon Curd recipe~

As promised to my lovely colleague J - here is my lemon curd recipe for her son C to have a go at making!  It's a tangy little number - I've tried a few different permutations and quantities and find this one is more lemony and less eggy than some recipes! It's especially delicious on toast, in the middle of blueberry muffins, or used to sandwich a sponge cake together. It makes 2 small jars and lasts about 2 weeks (or it would if you didn't snaffle it all v. quickly!)

RECIPE
Grate 3 unwaxed lemons finely (just the yellow zest layer) then cut them in half and squeeze out the juice. Add the zest and the sieved juice to a bowl over a pan of hot water on the hob.

Weigh 8oz (200g) caster sugar and 4oz (100g) butter...

Add it to the juice/zest in the bowl, turn on the heat and cook slowly, stirring with a balloon whisk until the sugar is melted and doesn't feel 'gritty' any more...(about 5-10 minutes)

Then add 2 beaten eggs to the mixture, whisking and mixing all the time (you do not want lemony scrambled eggs - so do not leave the kitchen at this stage!) I whisk it all the time at first, and then every minute or so...it takes about 20-30 minutes until it thickens up. (Don't overcook it as it thickens when it cools, too).
Pour into jars (sterilised in dishwasher or oven @ 160 degrees for 10 minutes.) Store in the fridge.

~Last Post of 2011 and Last of The Turkey~

We're just finishing picking over the last of the turkey tonight, and for the second time this week we're having a curry.  This recipe is adapted from Gary Rhodes' quick chicken curry in his 1997 book Short Cut Rhodes, it's a quick and easy way to use up any leftover meat (even chicken or pheasant too.)
Ingredients
Chopped leftover cooked turkey
3 tbsp cold-pressed Rapeseed Oil
2 onions chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
Medium curry powder/ garam masala to taste
I can Carnation evaporated milk
Handful of sultanas
Dash of milk
Salt & Pepper
Method
Soften onions in the oil until transluscent, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the curry powder and cook for a couple more minutes.  Season the chopped meat and add to the onions.  Keep stirring to prevent burning.  Add a dash of water to deglaze the pan, then add the can of evaporated milk and the sultanas (optional).  Simmer for about 10-15 mins, add a drop of milk to prevent sticking, if needed.

~Winding down for Christmas~

Catching up with reading lovely blogs and their beautiful seasonal photos just now makes me feel very cosy, smiley and festive - and a little guilty that I haven't done much in the way of festive posting.  To be honest, I haven't had much time spare due to work and home/family day-to-day stuff, but I finish work on Thursday for the Christmas break! Hurrah!
 I'm admiring nostalgic decorations on other blogs (especially at Beyond the Nook today).  My kitsch mini-kitchen tree is home to my thifted vintage baubles...

 ... unfortunately they're not family heirlooms; I only wish I had kept my Nana's Christmas stuff.

(Excuse the overflowing drinks trolley, by the way!)

My mantlepiece has been jollied up with a garland I've made by stringing together handmade vintage wooden decorations on garden twine.  My Mum gave me them this week to take care of...

I just need to do some hedgerow greenery-snipping this week and add the holly and ivy.
Fairy lights are everywhere, on mirrors, pictures, even in the downstairs loo!
I get them from Lights4Fun, a Yorkshire company based in Harrogate.
And I bought 2 tins of this gorgeous stuff...

Peppermint Bark...yum! Half price in M&S at £4.   Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits blogged about this last December and has a recipe for the homemade version here .  Yes, I really should have made it myself, but coveted the lovely reusable red tin it came in, which will be used to store my ribbons and buttons.

Have a lovely week everyone - I'm looking forward to Thursday evening when J will be singing at the Primary School carol service in the beautiful village church.

~A *Pear* of Recipes~

A quick post to share some recipes for the welcome Autumn glut of pears. The recipe for the Italian Pear Cake I baked for Leeds Clandestine Cake Club can be found on this coffee website and is attributed to Anne Willan's Perfect Italian Country Cooking.  I thought it had coffee in the recipe until I realised it was a cake to eat with coffee...
The only addition was some amaretto when caramelising the pears.

Tomatoes optional! Lovely served warm with craime fraiche.
I tweeted last night about Pear Vodka too...I tripled the quantities of the recipe below as it only makes 1 kilner jar's worth and I wanted more!
Pear Vodka Recipe - Peel and dice some pears and measure quantity in a jug to about the 500ml mark. Mix 30ml brandy and 250ml vodka, add to clear kilner jar with 125g sugar. Add the pears - they should be submerged. Keep in a cool pantry/garage for a good few weeks, then strain into sterilised bottle through muslin. 

I use Ikea vases, like this Snartig at 59p

and buy wine corks to seal them.

I'm saving my Pear Vodka to have as an aperitif for Christmas Day.

~Weekend ramblings, pictures & lots of links!~

Greeted on Friday night by a lovely parcel from Seasalt - a mini jute bag as a prize for enering their photo competition!  (I added the padded fish as a seaside touch!) Thankyou lovely Cornish Seasalt!

Nice quiet Friday evening watching telly and knitting...finished another tea cosy!

This morning I got up really to go to York Car Boot sale with my friend and fellow thrifter Donna. (Donna has a lovely Yorkshire based business called Sugar Pie Lemon Drop selling clothes, jewellery, gifts and accessories.)
Thankfully we were alerted by my friend Jo that the races were ON so the car boot was OFF. Thankyou Jo!
(Jo is another creative and clever lady and has a fab York-based business, called Hello Lola, selling handbags and accessories.)
So back to bed for me with crumpets and lemon curd and a big mug of tea!
I decided to go have a mooch around the St. Gemma's Hospice Autumn Fair in Leeds which started at 10am. Fantastic event again, with some quality stalls with great Christmas present ideas and craft supplies.

I bought these corsages from Butterfly Garden who sells on Folksy...
                .....and these glass jars from the Hospice shop, which are now the home for my 2011 Sloe Gin!

1 pint of (Aldi) Gin, 8oz caster sugar and plenty of sloes (I freeze mine, then they are nicely macerated and pop when they defrost).
At the Autumn Fair I chatted to Margaret who I met at Clandestine Cake Club (@MaggyAnne on Twitter) who is a gardener and florist and had a really pretty stall with her plants, flowers and handpainted signs - check out her fab blog here.
Leeds Clandestine Cake Club is on Monday so these sugar-paste tomatoes (no they are not strawberries) are a sneak preview of my Italian-themed cake...

I had lots of (real) free veggies in the garage too, home-grown and given to me - so spent a couple of hours soup-making...parsnip with mango chutney, and winter vegetable with fresh herbs.

 I can feel winter coming and need to fill the freezer!
Have a lovely weekend x

~Elderberry Syrup~

First post of the weekend is the recipe for Elderberry Syrup...as usual I use my Marguerite Patten book as guidance, with a bit of internet savvy thrown in.   I'm sure we all know where to gather some elderberries, either out in the hedgerows or in a garden. Pick ripe berries - you need about a pound weight. Apparently the stalks and the green berries can give you a stomach ache, so strip and sort your fruit with care.
Recipe
Strip berries with a fork, and remove stalks and green berries. Wash 1lb fruit, then cook in a large saucepan slowly for 1 hour with half a pint of water. Give them a good mash.

Strain through a muslin cloth or jelly bag...

Measure the liquid, then add 1lb granulated sugar per 1 pint of liquid and four cloves. I ended up with about 3/4 pint of liquid. Heat slowly until sugar dissolved, then simmer for about 10 minutes until it starts to look 'syrupy' round the edges of the pan. Pour the hot syrup through a sieve into a sterilised bottle. Either serve with sparkling water or I am going to try mine with Prosecco or sparkling apple juice. Some books then advise sterilising the filled bottles, as you do in canning and bottling, but I didn't as I will use mine quickly and not store it for any length of time.

Store the bottle in the fridge

Gorgeous ruby-coloured syrup...other uses include as an ice cream topping or a base for a fruit milkshake.

~Damson Cheese~

I started making fruit cheeses last year; after reading lots of books on preserves and learning more about chutneys, jams, jellies and conserves. Fruit cheese is not cheese at all; it's just the name given to a firm preserve where you cook the fruit first, sieve it, then boil it with sugar.  It sets firmly and you can turn it out to serve it if you wish, and slice or cube it to serve with cheese and biscuits on a cheeseboard. There's nothing better than a pantry shelf lined with jars with jewel-coloured preserves for the depths of winter.

First of all you need your fruit, and for me it's a matter of frugal principle not to buy it. So, if like me, you've only got a limited space to grow fruit and veg and aren't self-sufficient...

1. get out into the country lanes for elderflowers, blackberries, sloes, rosehips, crab apples etc.
2. ask friends, family and colleagues if they have any surplus homegrown produce.  Promise them some of your jam or chutney! This year I've had gooseberries, damsons, apples and plums given to me...and I've got tomatoes and sloes coming later.

I've been making damson cheese, which is good with cheese and meat, and also plum cheese with juniper berries, which is good apparently with Brie, and I love it with duck and game too.  It's the same method for any fruit, so experiment. My favourite book is an old Marguerite Patten one from the 1960's.

Rinse the damsons, then place in a large pan with a slug of water (about 100ml) Look at the lovely colour!

...simmer away for about 20 minutes, occasionally stir to prevent burning. They turn into a mushy soup like this....

Careful because it's now very, very hot and you're going to sieve it. I use a wooden spoon to press it firmly through the sieve. The good thing is that all the stones are removed without having to fiddle about. Throw the stones and skins away. Weigh the resulting fruit pulp - for every pound of pulp you add the same weight in granulated sugar. Cook on a low heat until the sugar is dissolved, then a higher heat for approximately 30 mins until setting point is reached. Trust me, you can tell when it's done - it starts to turn gelatinous on the spoon and sides of the pan. Pour into sterilised jam jars. 1lb of pulp makes about 2 jars.

Let me know if you've any ideas on recipe combinations...maybe the addition of port for a Christmas version?

~Jamtastic 2~

My daughter, L, is watering a family's allotment in the village whilst they're away on holiday - with the bonus of picking any fruit and veg that are ready. She came home with some blackberries and raspberries, which I supplemented with some English cherries from the greengrocers and made Summer Fruit Jam. If I'm just making a couple of jars I tend to use a book I bought years ago called Luxurious Jam by Sonia Allison which gives recipes for small quantity jam making in the microwave.

Reasons to make microwave jam;

• Safe control, no boiling over
• No need to stand over it like a jam slave
• Fruit colour stays bright
• No scum on your jam
• Less mess
• Less energy use

I don't always follow the recipes slavishly, just use the quantities and timings and tweak them a bit. So easy.

Summer Fruit Jam
1lb fruit (blackberries, raspberries and cherries)
1lb granulated sugar
Destone and chop cherries, mash the berries and then put the fruit and sugar in a large glass/ceramic bowl and leave for 1 hour. Based on a 750-800Watt microwave, heat on high for 5 minutes. Stir. Heat on medium for 27 mins, stirring 3 times during cooking. Check for setting point (put a bit on a cold plate, if it wrinkles when pushed with a finger, it's set) And that's it!  It makes 2-3 jars.  

~Lemon, mint & ginger cordial ~

I have been decorating and moving 9 year old J's bedroom up to the 2nd floor, no expense involved - just hard graft tidying, cleaning and running up and down stairs 50 times. The PC and internet then wouldn't work, and I don't think Ikea beds are meant to be dismantled and rebuilt, but we got there in the end! It works better for us as a family, so my sewing room has now been relocated. The move meant I have sorted loads of stuff to put on eBay, but I admit I did spend too much time folding and admiring my fabric pile...

I also made this blind for the landing window - in nice stripy ticking fabric called 'Berit Beige/Pink' from Ikea...

...and I've been making jam (more next time), beetroot soup, and this gorgeous cordial...

Recipe for Lemon, mint & ginger cordial
Put 160g sugar and a good handful of torn mint leaves in a pan with 160ml water. Bring to the boil. Turn temp down and cook for 5 mins. Then add about 1 inch of grated fresh root ginger - (I keep mine in the freezer and used about 1 inch of it - no need to peel it - add more if you like). Carry on cooking it for 5 mins, then turn off the heat.  When cooled, add the juice of 6 lemons and store in a sterilised glass bottle in the fridge. (Ooops, forgot to say pour it through a sieve). Dilute with still .water/sparkling water approx 1:5
I also made crystallised lemon peel with the leftover peel by cooking it in water, then sugar syrup until sticky, then tossing it in sugar a couple of hours later.

Have a lovely weekend, hope the sun's shining!

~I put Basil in the Ratatouille~

Whenever I make Ratatouille, I think of Manuel's stricken face that his adored pet rat (Basil) was in the ratatouille - in fact I've just had to watch it on YouTube - glorious 1979 Fawlty Towers!! We've had a lot of heavy rain here in North Yorkshire today and the garden certainly needs it. The Jack be Little pumpkins are coming along nicely; they are snaking along a truss of string in front of the warm conservatory wall...

...the tomatoes are in wall troughs, again on a sunny wall - 'Tumbling Tom Red' (bush/hanging basket type tomato) which is always reliable and even more importantly tastes fab, and 'Ildi' a last minute sowing of some seeds I bought a couple of years ago at a show. They produce masses of tiny yellow, pear-shaped fruit - I've probably crammed too many in the troughs, but it works for me.  I keep them well fed (twice weekly) and watered (daily)so they do just fine.

 More courgettes too - hence the ratatouille - made with homegrown basil (poor Basil) , parsley and garlic. It tastes absolutely gorgeous, we had it with plain couscous made with butter and a glug of good quality extra virgin olive oil.
Recipe: Chop 3 onions and cook slowly in olive oil and a bit of butter for 5-10 mins, then add 4 chopped cloves of garlic, careful not to burn it.  Add 3 large courgettes (chopped), one red pepper (chopped) and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5-10 mins. Add approx 100ml of vegetable stock (I use Marigold Swiss Bouillon). Then add a handful of chopped parsley and basil, a spoonful of homemade chutney/red onion marmalade and 2 tins of supermarket Value chopped tomatoes. Simmer with the lid on for about 1 hour.
That's it! - cheap as anything and enough for the freezer too.

~Courgette Chocolate Cake~

3 courgette plants and I've already got a steady supply. I have many recipes to deal with a courgette glut gleaned from various friends, books and websites. I just have to remind myself to pick them when they're reasonably sized and tasty because if you ignore them they can turn into marrows overnight! So, Sunday afternoon has been spent turning these

into this

The recipe actually made 2 loaves, one for the freezer and one for now. The recipe is from The Allotment Seaonal Planner & Cookbook by Andi Clevely. The kids sometimes complain about the tell-tale green bits visible in the sponge, 'but it does taste really nice', I say...
Here's the recipe;
Beat 125g butter and 115g brown sugar together. Add 2 eggs with a little of the flour(310g). Mix in 1 tsp vanilla and 110ml plain yogurt.. Sieve remaining dry ingredients ( 2 tsp bicarb of soda, 30g cocoa,1/2 tsp mixed spice,1 tsp cinnamon,1/2 tsp salt) and fold in. Then mix in the courgettes. Grease and line the tins. ( I use greaseproof loaf tin liners from the Pound Shop). Makes 1 square cake or 2 loaves. 45 mins at 170 degrees C.
 Gorgeous. Does it count as one of my 5-a-day?

~Food for free (well almost)~

Today I bottled my elderflower cordial, which tastes stronger, more hedgerow-ey and better than anything I've bought. Even 9 year old son likes it declaring I could sell it and make a fortune! I've always been curious about how easy and cheap this was to make; and it is... FREE elderflowers, courtesy of the hedgerows yesterday morning, 3 pints of boiling water, 1kg of sugar, 2 sliced lemons, 50g citric acid (local chemist/pharmacy). Apparently citric acid makes it clearer and less prone to cloudiness. Sum total approx £2 for 3 pints of the lovely stuff.  I used this recipe here but omitted the oranges.

Though I have come to a conclusion that the reason elderflower cordial is sold in green bottles is it's a deadringer for (ahem) urine. Sorry, do forgive me, but I couldn't help musing about that one...

~Lovely weekend~

The village has looked great with the Royal Wedding Union Jacks blowing in the wind, most of the shops and houses on the main street have joined in, and lovely that the flags are still there to celebrate the village Gala this weekend.

A great time was had by all on Saturday afternoon and better still it stayed fine and sunny.  It's not so nice today so, what better to do on this wild and windy Sunday, than to get baking; radio on, pinny on, oven on...I made gorgeous lemon curd earlier in the week with eggs from my friend's hens and thought I'd use the duck eggs today to make the blueberry muffins, each containing a hidden blob of lemon curd in the centre.  The lemon curd is made from an old Marguerite Patten recipe and always tastes gorgeous, but this batch was a lovely custard yellow, thanks to the happy eggs...

The muffin concoction is a tried and tested one, which like many others is handwritten in my polka dot book of favourite recipes that sits atop the other favourite cookbooks in the kitchen.

My copy of 'What to Eat Now' is always kept on the left as Valentine Warner's face makes me smile. Sad but true. Time to get ready for the working week now; but at least my lovely colleagues and I can have a blueberry and lemon curd muffin as a Monday morning treat; if there's any left by then...