Harvest Festival!

August has been a very busy month in the allotment and September seems to continue that way. So far I've made loads of curries and curry sauces (shocking bastardisation!), desserts, savouries and pasta dishes, pickles and jams. We've also been regular gifting family and friends with veg boxes to share the love. I'll slowly try and post some photos but I find a few minutes in between the manic cooking and the equally manic day job. My husband looks suitably neglected too and I think he does come before the blog. Oh and did I mention that I've picked up my guitar again? I've found a great tutor who will hopefully get to play the guitar a bit and I need to find the time for that somewhere in between all this.  Anyway, now that I've given you many excuses, here are some photos to look at! Tata!

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

I would have never thought of making ketchup had it not been for a visit to the popular Huffkins restaurant at Stow on the Wold. They did a fantastic Full English brekkie, the best I've had so far. They also served some of their own tomato ketchup made with a 'secret' recipe. To that I thought-thank you very much, I'll make my own non-secret version and I'll make it just as good. Ha! Anyway, August has provided us with a plentiful tomato harvest and so I decided to give the ketchup a go. As usual I scoured the Internet for ideas and then created my own version of tomato ketchup. 

I fried 5 shallots along with two tablespoons olive oil, a teaspoon of chili powder, a spoonful each of ginger and garlic pastes, a tablespoon of cumin and coriander and a pinch of salt. To this I added 500g fresh cherry tomatoes and 1 tin of canned tomatoes. I brought this mixture to a boil for about 10-15 mins stirring often and mashing the tomatoes. I let this mixture cool, pureed it in the blender and then sieved it to release a thick 'bit-free sauce'. I brought this sauce back to boil, added 100 ml balsamic vinegar and 100g brown sugar , reduce the heat to simmer and stirred continuously until the sauce had thickened to ketchup consistence. I let the ketchup cool completely and then poured it into a sterilised bottle. I think this sauce will keep at least for a month in a fridge although I can't be sure. I'll keep you posted on how long mine lasts.

Summer Allotment Snapshot

Borage Flower Ice Cubes

I found some borage growing in our allotment and was scrounging around for ideas on what to do with them. I found this fab idea on the net that meant the flowers could be used for a long time and in pretty cocktails. All you do is wash the flowers put them into ice cube trays, fill the tray and freeze. I improvised and used sweet lime juice instead of water to make it a bit more interesting. Easy peasy! Ann x

P.S. Apparently borage is good for the spirits so if you are having one of those down times, trying munching on some flowers ( unless you are pregnant!)

Courgette and Lemon Jelly Sorbet

Like most allotmenteers, we've been having a courgette glut this year. I've used these babies in pretty much any recipe I could think of and slowly getting bored. Yesterday I happened to see a recipe in the Times for a courgette sorbet and I instantly loved the idea. As we were planning a picnic with friends I wasnt sure the frozen sorbet would really work so I improvised a bit and added a couple of my own ingredients- gelatine and rum. The result was tasty. Different but tasty. Here is what I did.

I chopped a couple of small courgettes and pureed them in a blender with 1/4 cup of lime juice. I then added caster sugar, rum and a few mint leaves and blended the mixture again. In a small saucepan I added 1/4 cup of water and added two gelatine leaves. I simmered this so as to melt the gelatine leaves completely. I then added the gelatine mixture to the green mix in the blender, blended a couple of more times before pouring them into jelly moulds and freezing them. To serve, garnish with a mint leaf and a top with a teaspoon of rum!

Cornwall Camping Highlights

Polkeris Beach

St. Michael's Mount

Fowey Harbour

The beautiful St.Ives

St. Ives Beach. Gorgeous light and white sand

Camping grub from our allotment

Who said camping can't be civilised?

Dinner cooking

Bird of Paradise at Eden Project

One tiny bit of the magnificent Eden Project

Fishmongers at Padstow

Rick Stein Oyster take-way

Rick Stein's Fish & Chips

Newquay-surfers paradise

Ferns at the Lost Gardens of Heligan

Lizard. UK's most southerly point

The stunning Kynance Cove beach. Check for the tide table

Shakespeare in the moonlight at Minack theater

Lavender and Honey Panacotta

 

I don't know if you do this but I sometimes daydream myself into what I think is a brilliant idea. Edible flowers have fascinated me of late and as I sat staring at my garden one day I thought of making panacotta using lavender flowers. I've made panacotta a few times before and its so lovely yet simple to make. I thought lavender would add a touch of exotic to this creamy dessert. 

The recipe is very simple. I simmered 300ml of milk in a saucepan and after it reached boiling point, I added a few fresh lavender flowers. These mask the milky smell (which I detest) and bring out a lovely flavour. I soaked 3 gelatine leaves in water so as to soften them and then added them to the mix. I then added a couple of tablespoons of sugar and some honey to taste. Then in goes 300ml of double cream, stir, stir stir and leave it to cool. I poured the mixture into ramekins, covered them with clingfilm and left them to set in the fridge. The next day, I used a small knife to tease them out of the ramekins.

To serve, I poured a spoon of organic honey and garnished the panacotta with fresh lavender flowers. This was an experiment that went well. I'm thinking lavender ice-cream next! Ann x