I was writing next month's recipe for www.whyorganic.org which is an alternative to Christmas Pud and then I thought I ought to give you several other options, so here they are (we'll be having the "Light" Pud - it's very fruity and will be served with a good rum butter with a nod to my Caribbean ancestry)
♪♫♪ “Now bring us some Figgy Pudding…” ♪♫♪
225g / 8oz dried figs
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
100g / 4oz breadcrumbs
100g / 4oz suet
100g / 4oz plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking powder
75g / 3oz dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbs milk
Chop the figs and place in a bowl with the lemon rind and juice. Mix together all the dry ingredients. Add the figs, eggs and milk and beat well. Well grease a pudding basin. Fill. Cover with a pleated sheet of greaseproof and foil. Tie with string and boil for 3 hours. Freeze this pudding to keep till Christmas.
Christmas Pudding
100g/ 4oz suet
100g / 4oz self raising flour
100g / 4oz breadcrumbs
100g / 4oz currants
150g / 6oz sultanas
150g / 6oz raisins
100g / 4oz dark brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten in a cup
grated rind & juice 1 orange
grated rind & juice 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tbs rum
50g / 2oz mixed peel
50g / 2oz glace cherries
1 grated carrot
1 grated apple
Mix everything together very well. Fill a well greased pudding basin. Cover with pleated greaseproof paper and foil and tie down with string. Boil for 6 hours. Cool. Recover and store in a cold place until Christmas. Reboil 2 hours.
Light Christmas Pudding
100g / 4 oz dried apricots, chopped
100g / 4oz dried papaya, chopped
100g / 4oz dried tropical mix
50g / 2oz crystallised stem ginger
50g / 2oz mixed peel
75g / 3oz walnuts
100g / 4oz golden sultanas
1 grated apple
1 grated carrot
2 eggs
100g / 4oz sugar
50g / 2oz melted margarine
100g / 4oz breadcrumbs
50g / 2oz self raising flour
2 tbs rum
rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground mace
Mix everything together and pile into a well greased pudding basin. Cover with pleated greaseproof and foil. Tie down with string. Boil 3 hours. Cool, recover and store in a cold place. Reboil 2 hours on Christmas Day.
Nearly three months since my last posting - that's terrible! I have been busy: extra shifts at the Community Office; Green Day at the Walled Garden in Helmsley; trips to Georgia and Wigtown and getting the house ready to sell (huge quantities of paint to be applied to all surfaces and attendant chaos).
So just to recap (to steal DB's line) here are the recipes from the 1st September at the Walled Garden when I gave a "Cooking with Herbs" Demo. More soon I hope on the US, Scotland and jamming.
The butternut squash soup is a milder, creamier cousin to my current October recipe - shown below - on www.whyorganic.org
Recipes:
Celery, Apple & Dill Soup
25g / 1oz butter or margarine
4 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large head of celery
2 large cooking apples
salt, pepper, sugar
700ml / 1 ½ pt water or stock
1 small bunch dill
In a large pan, melt the fat and slowly fry the onion and garlic. Chop the celery, including the leaves and add to the pan. Core but do not peel apples. Chop then add to the pan. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Cook 5 minutes then add the stock and half the dill and simmer for 25 minutes. Strain. Add the rest of the chopped dill and check seasonings. Reheat as required.
Cream of Butternut Squash with Sage Soup
25g / 1oz butter or margarine
3 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1 bunch of sage
500ml / 3 / 4 pt vegetable stock
400g / 14oz tub crème fraiche
salt, pepper, nutmeg
Melt the fat in a large pan and slowly cook the onions and garlic until soft and golden. Add the butternut squash and turn about. Cook 2 minutes. Add half the sage, chopped. Cook another 2 minutes. Pour over the stock and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer until all is very soft.
Liquidise. When the soup is smooth and a little cooler, blend in the crème fraiche. Season to taste. Reheat gently and do not boil. Serve garnished with a sage leaf or two.
Marinated Feta Salad
200g / 7oz feta, diced
small bunch thyme
a few sprigs mint
some flat parsley
a few pink, white and black peppercorns
pinch salt, sugar
1 lemon
3 tbs olive oil
6 slices bread
1 egg white, lightly whisked
2 tsp sesame seeds
a little oil
Lettuce
Place the feta in a bowl. Chop the herbs finely. Grind the peppercorns with the salt and sugar. Grate the lemon rind. Combine the herbs, rind, peppercorns and seasoning together then scatter over the feta. Squeeze over the lemon juice, then drizzle with the olive oil. Carefully toss to ensure all is coated then leave in a cool place for at least an hour.
Dip the bread in the egg white then into the sesame seeds. Cut into squares. Fry in a little oil until nicely browned. Drain and cool. Line a salad bowl with washed lettuce, scatter over the sesame croutons then top with the feta. Serve.
Lavender Poached Pears
150ml / 5fl oz white wine
150ml / 5fl oz water
100g / 3 oz sugar
a piece of lemon rind
a small bunch of lavender
6 pears, slightly under ripe
Combine everything except the pears in a flameproof casserole over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Pare the pears thinly, keeping them whole and retaining the stalks. Stand upright in the hot syrup, cover and poach over a low heat until tender. Eat hot, warm or chilled.
Up at an ungodly hour this morning to go to Manchester to talk about lavender in cooking. It was great to finally meet the delightful, self-effacing Jekka MacVicar http://www.jekkasherbfarm.com/ who has done so much to encourage the British to use more herbs. Pleased to see the seemingly indefatigable Jenni Murray looking so well. If you want to hear the item, here's the link but I guess it won't be there for long: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/02/2007_30_thu.shtml
The recipes were:
Lavender Poached Pears
150ml / 5fl oz white wine
150ml / 5fl oz water
100g / 3 oz sugar
a piece of lemon rind
a small bunch of lavender
6 pears, slightly under ripe
Combine everything except the pears in a flameproof casserole over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Pare the pears thinly, keeping them whole and retaining the stalks. Stand upright in the hot syrup, cover and poach over a low heat until tender. Eat hot, warm or chilled.
Lavender Langues de Chat
50g / 2oz golden granulated sugar
1 tsp dried lavender
25g / 1oz plain flour
25g / 1oz unsalted butter, melted
1 egg white
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6/ 400ºF /200º C. Whizz the sugar and lavender in a liquidiser, clean coffee grinder or food processor until well blended. Sieve into a bowl with the flour. Using a whisk, mix in the cooled melted butter and egg white, beating well to make a smooth batter.
Place teaspoonfuls, well-spaced, on the baking sheets. Spread each teaspoonful out to 5 cm / 2in long. Bake 5 minutes, until browning around the edges. Carefully transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.
Lavender Salad with Grilled Goats’ Cheese
serves 4
2 tbs raspberry vinegar
4 tbs light olive oil
1 tsp dried lavender
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp caster sugar
2 ripe avocados
100g / 3 ½ oz small strawberries, hulled and diced
150g / 5oz rocket leaves
4 x 1cm / ½” slices of chevre (goats’ cheese in a log shape)
4 x 1cm / ½” slices brioche, toasted
Mix together the vinegar and oil. In a pestle and mortar, grind the lavender, salt and sugar. Mix into the oil and vinegar. Peel and dice the avocados. Mix together with the strawberries and dressing. Line 4 small plates with rocket leaves.
Place the goats’ cheese on top of the brioche and place under a hot grill. Toast until the cheese is browned and bubbling.
Put a piece of cheese-topped brioche in the centre of each plate. Surround with the avocado and strawberries. Serve immediately.
Cucumber & Lavender Agrodolce
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
1 tbs runny honey – eg Acacia
2 tbs white balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp salt
1 very small red chilli, finely chopped
½ tsp dried lavender
a generous grinding of black pepper
Put the cucumber in a bowl. Warm all the other ingredient together in a small pan, stirring well until just simmering. Turn off the heat and pour over the cucumber, mixing well. Cool and then chill.
Lavender & Blueberry Cheesecake
This is the simplest form of cheesecake – just a crushed biscuit crust, cream cheese and a blueberry compote – but the lavender lifts it to something special.
25g / 1oz butter
1 tbs light muscovado sugar
125g / 4oz wholewheat “digestive” biscuits, crushed
250g / 8oz “light” cream cheese
1 tbs lavender sugar – see langues de chat
100g / 3 ½ oz blueberries
1 tsp lavender flowers
1 tbs castor sugar
Melt the butter and muscovado sugar together. Stir in the biscuit crumbs and mix well. Press evenly into the base of a 15cm / 6in loose bottomed cake tin. Chill.
Beat together the cream cheese and lavender sugar. Pile onto the biscuit base and level. Chill.
Wash and drain the blueberries. Put in a small covered pan with the lavender flowers and castor sugar. Cook over a low heat until the berries pop. Take off the lid and turn up the heat to reduce until thick. Cool then spread over the cream cheese. Chill well.
To unmold, round a warm dry knife around the edge of the tin. Stand on a can and slip off the sides.
© Sarah Beattie 2007
I seem to be going through a purple patch. I will be appearing on Woman's Hour on the 26th cooking with lavender and my In Season piece on www.whyorganic.org for August will be a beetroot tart. A fabulous soup enjoyed at Bristol's Bordeaux Quay has had me experimenting at home to try to recapture the North African flavours that married so well with the sweet muskiness of the beets. Although this is work in progress, here is the recipe so far:
Beetroot & Cumin Soup
2 tbs olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
a few celery leaves, chopped
2 large beetroots, scrubbed and diced
1 - 2 tsp ras el hanout
568ml / 1pt stock or water
1 - 2 tsp cumin
salt, pepper
Heat the oil in a large pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until just begining to colour. Add the celery leaves and beetroot and mix well. Fry for five minutes then add the ras el hanout and cook for another two minutes before adding the stock or water.
Cover and simmer until the beet is tender. Meanwhile dry fry the cumin and then grind it. Liquidise the soup and mix in the cumin. Taste and season well. Serve hot or well chilled with a spoon of fromage frais.
Just heard that the Lavender Festival I was due to appear at over the weekend is to be called off, due to the weather. The car park is waterlogged. Such a change from last year and the year before when the sun shone and we basked in the warmth as the bees droned over the lavender.
I love lavender in cooking - it seems to have a particular affinity with strawberries. I use it in both sweet and savoury dishes. I make a lovely salad of strawberries and avocados dressed with lavender and served with grilled goats cheese.
Grind 1 tsp dried lavender with good pinches of sea salt and sugar. Mix into 1 tbs balsamic vinegar and 2 tbs olive oil. Add several twists of freshly ground black or white pepper. Whisk until emulsified then pour over cubed strawberries and avocados mixed with freshly chopped chives.
Toast some sourdough bread, top it with goats cheese and stick it back under the grill until browned and bubbling. Serve with sweet romaine and the lavender, strawberry and avocado salad.
Yesterday was launch day for Michael's new book, "Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes - In Search of Blind Willie McTell" and we threw a party to celebrate with people wandering up to the house after the talk at the bookshop in Kirkby. I haven't added any new recipes because I was so busy cooking - strange how it takes so much longer to clear up. No wonder there were so many baskets to be gathered up after the Loaves and Fishes miracle!
I used the Vindamen / Meneloo recipe with hardboiled eggs in chapati cones (a halved chapati, twisted around and secured with a toothpick then baked briefly one inside the other). These disappeared VERY fast. The Satay skewers and Aubergine Involtini were similarly very popular.
Both are dishes I make frequently that change and evolve slightly over time and both are good, hot or cold.
The satay was made with cubes of beancurd, fried until golden and threaded onto skewers alternating with chestnut mushrooms. The sauce / marinade is a mixture of peanut butter, red onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, soy, palm sugar, chilli and boiling water pureed together. The skewers are thickly coated and then grilled - if the weather ever improves you can barbecue - until browned and bubbling.
For the Involtini (which I think I first read about in a Sophie Grigson book but have been making so long I am not sure) you need a large aubergine. I cut it lengthwise in very thin slices. I use a serrated knife and it is as close as I ever get to carving! A reasonable size aubergine can yield 20 slices about 1/8 in thick. Dust either side of the slices in seasoned flour - sometimes but not yesterday I add cayenne or dry English mustard or wasabi but mostly it's salt and pepper in fine wholemeal flour. Fry in a little olive oil until golden. Roll each slice around a stuffing of breadcrumbs, egg, parsley or coriander, feta, onion and garlic. Place in a baking dish and spoon over chopped tomatoes. Bake for about 30 minutes in a relatively hot oven. Serve hot or cold. I make variants with olives, basil, mozzarella, goats cheese etc.
Fed up and hungry after a long day in the office full of frustrations I came home to not much in the cupboard. The following recipe - an hybrid cross between Undey Vindaloo and Turkish Menemen - was a big success and cheered up a miserable day no end. Best results when cooked in a lidded skillet.
Vindamen or Meneloo
2 small onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 - 4 egg sized new potatoes, scraped and diced
50g / 2oz chestnut mushrooms, cut into chunks
1 tbs Pataks Korma paste
1 tbs olive oil
200ml / 7fl oz stock or water
3 - 4 free range eggs
1 tbs fresh chopped coriander
Put the onions, garlic, potatoes, mushrooms, curry paste, and oil into a skillet or deep frying pan over a low heat and mix well to combine. Cover and cook, shaking from time to time, for 10 minutes. Add the stock or water and stir well making sure nothing is sticking to the base of the pan. When the potato is just soft and the mixture is thickening, carefully crack the eggs over the dish. Cover and continue to cook over a low heat until the eggs are just set. Serve scattered with the fresh coriander and (naan) bread or chapatis.
(c) Sarah Beattie 2007
More vile weather - rain, rain and more rain. Yesterday I had my mother- and sister-in-law for lunch and gave them lovely Maris Bard potatoes (creamy and earthy - a wonderful not waxy new potato), roasted butternut squash with thyme and olive oil, scattered with the first picking of our Aquadulce broad beans (tiny, sweet and green) and this tart.
I didn't let on there was roasted garlic in it - but it went down well. Also good cold with salad (if it ever stops raining.....)
Pea & Goats Cheese Tart
200g / 6oz flour
100g / 3oz butter or margarine
a little water
1 bulb garlic
450g / 1lb peas in pods
150g / 5oz Goats cheese (soft rinded in a log)
3 eggs
1 tbs freshly chopped mint
salt, pepper
Rub the fat into the flour and add enough water to bind into a soft dough. Wrap and chill.
Wrap the garlic in foil or greaseproof and put into a hot oven - 200C / 400F / Gas Mk 7 for 20 - 30 minutes until soft.
Pod the peas and cook in a little water for 5 minutes. Drain. Puree with the cheese, eggs, mint and the softened peeled garlic. Season well.
Roll out the chilled pastry and line a 20cm / 8in baking dish. Trim, saving scraps for a lattice. Scrape in the pea filling. Level and cover with the lattice. Bake at 200C / 400F / Gas Mk 7 until golden.
(c) Sarah Beattie 2007
I've been meaning to start a blog for a very long time now so here goes......
I thought I would post occasional / additional recipes so people who have enjoyed my books or my monthly recipe for the Soil Association www.whyorganic.org could find more of the same.
Today it's Baked Empanadas - in this less than perfect summer weather they make a great supper with some new potatoes and green salad (carry the Mexican theme through with Avocado, Lime and Coriander on Cos or Romaine lettuce):
Empanadas are turnovers, quite similar to Indian samosas, which are normally deep fried however in this recipe they are baked.
Filling:
1 tbs oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped (can use half a tin)
250g / 8oz spinach, washed, dried and chopped
ground allspice
salt, pepper
Dough:
350g / 12 oz flour
½ tsp salt
200ml / 7fl oz very hot water
50g / 2oz margarine, cut into small dice
Fry the onion, garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato and spinach. Cook, stirring, until reduced. Season with allspice, salt and pepper.
Place the flour and salt in a bowl. Pour on the hot water and margarine. Mix to a soft dough, first with a fork then when cooled enough with your hands. Knead well. Keep covered. Divide into 12 balls. Roll each out thinly to tea plate size. Place a good spoon of filling on one half and fold over to make a half moon shape. Pinch the edges together well. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
Heat a little oil in a roasting tin in a hot oven (gas mk 7 / 400F / 200C) . Place the empanadas in the hot oil and bake for 10 minutes, turning once, until crisp and browned.
(c) Sarah Beattie 2007
