Jamming

Finally made it up to the allotment last weekend. With help from the gorgeous T, I've almost tamed the pesky weeds, staked the tomatoes, strimmed and generally tided up.

Getting to spend even just a couple of hours up on the allotment was a real treat. I really miss this space when I'm away.

We rewarded ourselves with some wine and by harvesting our first decent crop of raspberries.

Needless to say many of the raspberries didn't make the short walk home, ending up in our mouths instead, but I had enough to rustle up a few jars of raspberry jam.

I didn't even have to label the jars I'd recycled. Bonus!

Coffee cake

I promised to post the recipe so here goes. Please note, this recipe isn't mine - it's from my well-used and dogeared copy of Regional & Traditional Cakes by Julie Duff.

Apologies, but here in the UK we don't really use cup measurements for baking. This conversion site might help?

For the cake
225 g butter
225 g caster sugar
225 g self-raising flour
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
50 ml dissolved coffee granules/water

For the butter cream filling and topping
225 g icing sugar
115 g butter
2 teaspoons dissolved coffee granules/water

Decoration
Walnuts!

To make...

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in flour and eggs a little at a time. Finally add the coffee and mix well.
• Divide the mixture between two greased/lined 18cm/7 inch sandwich cake tins. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 25-30 mins. The top should feel firm when pressed, but I always use the skewer test.
• Carefully remove from the tins and cool on a wire rack.
• For the topping/filling, cream the icing sugar, butter, and coffee together until light and creamy. When the cakes are cold, sandwich them together with the butter cream and spread what is left on the top of the cake.
• Decorate with walnuts. Then leave to set.
• Eat!

Scilian Night...

... at Rosemarino last Wednesday with my very good friend Cat.

The menu...

 

The evening was all about Scilian food and wine... There were some nibbles to start with - Stuzzichini - but I was too busy sampling to remember to take a photo! Swordfish Carpaccio & Shaved Fennel, Mortandela & Red Onion, Mozzarella & Sun-blushed Tomato were there for the trying. (The mortandela was my favourite.)

Next up was the Antipasto course of Arancini... why fried saffron risotto balls filled with beef ragu of course! Filling, but lush. A more restrained person would have just had one, perhaps two. Those of us with greedy bellys scoffed all three, even though...

... they were followed with the Primo course: Bucatini con Sarde. The bucatini pasta with fresh anchovy, saffron & fennel seeds was a tasty beast of a dish full of strong heady flavours.

Secondo was Bistecca di Tonno con Couscous... Seared tuna steak with pequillo pepper & lemon thyme couscous salad with a minted salsa rossa. Ummm! Although by this point I was almost full to busting, but...

 

... everyone has a pudding space. Don't they? The meal was finished off with a trio of traditional Scilian sweets: Tris di Dolci: Cannoli, Cassata, Pasta di Mandorla. After polishing off that last plate of food I was beyond replete!

There was a different wine for each course, but while it was lush it didn't really hang around in the glass for very long. I'm hoping that Mr T will interject and tell you all about the vino selection

Sunday treat

A lush Coffee & Walnut Cake to finish off the weekend... Mr T got through his stock take at work in double-time to get home to this baby!

I'll update later in the week with the recipe, but it's from Julie Duff's Regional & Traditional Cakes (from the UK). Love it! Love the cakes!

Mine's looking a tad rustic. I normally would tidy up the edges of the edge to hide the fact the two tins I used are slightly different sizes, but today I wasn't in the mood for perfect so the rough edges stay.

Anyway I hear a slice of slice of cake beckoning! Hope you had a good weekend...

Petrol strimmers make light work...

... of knee high grass on the allotment.







My hard work was rewarded with a veggie bonanza. Courgettes, artichokes, beans, salad, sorrel, onions, blueberries and raspberries.

Discovering Hendrick's gin and other things

Sunday brought glorious sunshine and high temperatures. Light relief after the typically British weather we've been having. T and I spent the morning boxing off odd jobs in the garden.

At the moment we are mostly tackling the garage cum potting shed at the end of the garden. It has potential to be a cute little hide-away (although I'm maybe leaning more towards a cheeky shisha den for double apple delights), but right now it's a bona fide dumping ground for junk, scavenged furniture and tools. That's all for another post though.

Bristol was hosting Foodies Festival.

Was this ripe foraging grounds for two DIYers in need of good food and refreshments? Alas no, not really. But we did discover some gems that are worth talking about.

First up were swordfish patties care of this amazing lady. No, sorry no photos. We were too hungry by far and wolfed those patties down!

I followed this with bay leaf ice cream. Dangerous... I'm seriously thinking about getting an ice cream maker so that I can try this again.

Post-prandial drinks were our next prey... and we snagged some fine ones care of the "Hendrink's Kiosk of Curious Concoctions". A little oasis of civilised drinking in amongst the mediocrity.

Gin infused with cucumber and rose petals was music to our tastebuds.

Here's to some bloody fine tipple!

A bottle may have somehow found its way home. Really not sure how! I found it nestled between some vinho verde, white port and game pies. A happy coincidence as I read this homage to Hendrick's over at "Not without Salt" later in the evening. I now have an urge to try a Bee's Knees. Honey, lemon and gin? Sounds like a winner to me!

Choke

When faced with trying to work out whether the tall stately spikey plant on your allotment is a cardoon or an artichoke there's only one thing to do. Eat it!

On the menu this evening was: boiled artichoke, mayonnaise (made with rape seed oil), with a salad of rocket, beetroot leaf, sorrel, tomatoes (care of the grocer), baby courgette. I made a walnut oil and sherry vinegar dressing just to push the boat out.

Turns out we have a bona fide artichoke. To think we let them all go to waste last year!

[PS. Crappy quality photos via my phone]

Garlic scapes... and other tasty treats

After a full-on week or two at work I've been seriously neglecting the allotment. Turn your back on it for a moment and when you next look those pesky weeds have seized their chance and amassed, ready for plot domination. I also found some sad looking plants in the conservatory desperate for a chance to move out into the big wide world.

So I spent the day blitzing the plot. The grass is cut, the weeds are gone (well at least the bits you can see), and I've planted out some marigolds, clary sage, dwarf purple beans, borlotti firetongue beans, and butternut squash. Things are looking good.

In return for my efforts I got to rustle up a supper comprised almost entirely of treats from the plot. On the menu was: gnocci  with olive oil, black pepper and parmesan (care of the supermarket) accompanied by pan-fried baby turnip (Milan Purple Top), grilled garlic scapes and baby courgette, and a salad of sorrel, beetroot leaves, red spring onion and sugar snap peas. D-bloody-icious!

Friday night at the Star & Dove

I love this pub! It is our local and since the previous owners went onto pastures new back in January, T and I have been bereft. It's now being run by three talented chefs who reopened in April and the pub has reclaimed its place in our social lives.

Holy shit can those guys cook. Crab on toast... and this is just the bar food!

Feast at Rosemarino

T and I met up with some friends and spent the evening enjoying charcuterie at Rosemarino.

On the menu...

Canapés: Rillettes, Brawn Remoulade, Chorizo Persillade served on crostini

Appetiser: Delice de St Antoine with boudin noir & caramelised apple

Charcuterie platter: Pate de Campagne, Coppa, Fennel & Garlic Salami, Pate en Croute, Cured Ham

Main course: slow roasted neck of pork braised with pineapple & chilli served with pilaff rice

Dessert: rhubarb panna cotta with poached rhubarb & shortbread




Obviously there were the usual accompaniments.

I could come out with a host of superlatives to describe the food, but I'm hoping the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice to say the food was lush and a good evening was had by all.

Easter treats

A parcel from Betty's arrived in the post today with a promise of tasty treats inside.

We weren't disappointed... if there's one thing that Betty's does better than Yorkshire Fat Rascals it's Easter Eggs!






Thank you! xxx (I know we're meant to wait until Easter, but we've already scoffed some of the truffles. No willpower you see.)

[Update: all the truffles are gone!]

Sods law...

Says that when you have time off from work so does the sun! We spent a chilly morning in the garden sowing seeds and building a table for the allotment out of scrap wood, so T and I consoled ourselves with a late lunch at the Souk Kitchen.

Lamb kofta tagine.

Rosewater flavoured cous-cous, caramelised onions and pomegranate syrup.

Chicken, green olive and fennel tagine.

The lush food we found there put a smile back on our face, but I'm hoping the sun comes back and puts some hours in soon.

Fat Rascals

Finally got round to making some Fat Rascals last night. They are a throw-back to when I used to live in York and visit Betty's café tea rooms. You can get them delivered, but it's a pricey way to feed my habit on a regular basis. So I've decided to try making them.

So the hunt for a recipe revealed that not all rascals are equal, but I ended up following this recipe by James Martin on the BBC site. Well, sort of! I had no currants, sultanas or citrus rind so I substituted with lots of fat raisins. I also switched the cream for buttermilk.


For some reason Betty's always embellish their rascals with cheeky glacé cherries and almonds so it seemed wrong not to do the same...


Despite the shortage of dry ingredients the end result was delicious. No more mail order needed to feed my illicit rascal habit. Don't think they will last long!

Got one of these...

Weekend to do list:

• Sell sofa on Gumtree
• Make some oat & raisin cookies for T
• Make fat rascals
  
• Finish sowing seeds that need to be started off in March - indoor/outdoor [update: almost!]
• Tidy up back garden - made a start...
  
• Finish raking/prepping the beds on the allotment
• Feed the blackcurrants & raspberries with chicken poo pellets
  
• Buy a tonneau cover for the car on eBay (Tonneau? No idea why! Funny name for the bit of material that is used to cover the soft-top when it's down and stops it getting sun-bleached.) [Update: got it! Should arrive this week.]
• Paint wood preserver on garden trellis
• Order cycle helmet
• Fill in 2011 census
• Fix laptop
  
• Do laundry

It's been a gorgeous day. I was going to check out a new second-hand shop I'd been told about and poke around the reclamation yards, but with sunshine and blue skies it's a day for being outside.




Got to the allotment to find this bad ass standing loud and proud in the middle of the plot.


Somehow T is creating the mother of all compost heaps from this pile of crap. I'm feeling it deserves a special post when he's done.


Elsewhere on the plot:

Garlic.


More garlic!


Raspberry canes.


Broadleaf sorrel.


Itsy bitsy beetroot.

Ruby came to supervise, but got distracted... the slow worm was relocated to the safety of the rhubarb.


PS. Look what arrived on Thursday.