Strawberries, cream, and all things nice..

Thankyou everyone for all your lovely support, button placements, facebook fanning, and general loveliness. I've had a really fantabulous response to my website, so fingers crossed that some things start to happen soon on the ordering front!!

In the meantime, care to join me with some Strawberry Ice? Here's what you need:

A punnet of strawberries, chopped and boiled down with sugar to taste, a twist of black pepper, and half a tsp balsamic. Make a nice syrup from that.

A custard made from half a pint of boiled milk into which you beat 100g caster sugar, 150 ml double cream, 1 tsp vanilla essence, and 4 egg yolks.

Stir the two together and either freeze the long way (in a dish, in the freezer, stir every 4 hours) or put it into an icecream maker to churn.

Slurp!!

Strawberry Bliss

1 punnet British strawberries
2 tbs caster sugar
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 twists black pepper

Slice strawberries into a bowl. Toss with sugar, vinegar, pepper. Leave for a couple of hours or overnight.

Serve with cream anyway you like it.

And a meringue if you wish.

Apologies for the lack of pictorial evidence ... it was just toooooooo delish to wait.

ps: keeps in fridge for a few days.

Dangerously Delicious!

Back in August, Mr Marmalade made some Beetroot Wine. After tasting at the prescribed time and deciding it was decidedly "thin", we left it to mature. And forgot about it. Until today's clearout.

Now having a glass while cooking dinner, I am happy to report that we will certainly be making some more for next year!

Quick Fix

picture from Technobillies

Do you sometimes wish you had a slice of cake to go with your much needed cup of tea in the afternoon, then find your cupboards bare and wish you'd made a cake that morning? And then have to console yourself with the enforced calorie save?

Well fear not! For those desperate moments of craving, look no further than HERE. BillieJane has posted a recipie for Five Minute Cake in a Mug.

A Taste of Summer

One of the advantages of being married to a fireman is that we tend to get severe weather warnings in advance - sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't but though I can hardly beleive it, judging by the bright blue sky today, there is another one for Thursday-Friday this week. Apparently, this one - if it happens - will be worse than Monday's. So I hope you haven't got a flight from Heathrow with British Airways planned!!

It is very cold here with a bitingly frosty wind, but although the weather still dictates winter warming foods, I'm starting to hanker for something lighter. Not yet though, it's too cold! So in an attempt at least to be able to taste the warmer weather in advance, I made some Lemon Curd. If you have never made lemon curd before, make this. If you taste home made lemon curd, you will never buy Robinsons' version ever again:

☃ ☃ ☃

4 oz butter
8 oz granulated sugar
3 eggs plus 1 yolk beaten
grated rind and juice of 3 lemons

Melt butter in a pan, gently. Add sugar, eggs and extra yolk, lemon juice and rind. You might have to do a quick whisk at this stage, particularly if you have your own hens and the eggs are fresh from the coop. Cook gently without boiling until the curd thickens sufficiently to coat the back of a spoon - do not overheat otherwise the mixture may curdle. Pour into clean dry jars - this recipe makes about 2 x 1lb jars. Store in a cool place and eat within 2 weeks.

☃ ☃ ☃

(I also made 2 lemon drizzle cakes, but you can't see them, because they're in my tummy!)

Today MissT gave me a homegrown lemon from her conservatory ... OH! the smell! of real, fresh lemon!! A lemon tree is next on my garden shopping list (luckily I have unspent garden-centre vouchers for xmas.) I might substitute it's juice for vinegar next time I make mayonnaise. (Note to Italian Connection - plant some lemon trees!!).

And just to make sure that i'm ready at a moments notice, I bought this book. I already have most of the recipies in it, here and there in various other books, but this book puts them all in one place and is worth getting just for the inspirational and beautiful (not to mention summery) pictures.

Strength and Fortitude

Fried egg sandwich ...


Bananna and chocolate cookies:


Ingredients:

175g unsalted butter cut into chunks
175g demerara sugar
175g plain flour
100g jumbo oats
150g chocolate broken
2 past their prime bananas
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

Put all ingredients except chocolate and oats into a food processor and blitz till nearly blended. Add oats and chocolate chunks, blitz a little more - you don't want either the oats or the choccy to be too small!

Dollop small heaps of mixture onto your prepared baking tray and bake in an oven of 180 C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on a cooling sheet for as long as you can resist.

15 Minutes of Fame (or more)..

I thought I had lots of "crafty" pictures on my camera ready to download, upload and display .. but when I plugged in my firewire, it seems that all I had was 11 pictures of ... bread. Which I have become obsessed with making by hand. If I had known how easy and satisfying it is to make bread by hand, I would never have bought a breadmaker. It was only cooking with Jimmy, wanting to teach him how to make the most basic of our staples from scratch and without a machine, in order to understand the process fully, that I myself learned how to do it properly! On previous attempts (before said machines were invented) my results have always been rather disappointing which lead me to give up. I'm not sure what has changed, but my second own loaf was twice as big as the first!

Perhaps, as my facebook friends will have noticed, I have been kneading with purpose. And talking of Facebook .. did you know you can make a Facebook page which everyone can see and become a fan of? It means that your work could be networked very widely which is good for anyone with their own online shop and it doesn't link to your own profile!

If you are on Facebook, and wish to make a page for your work, all you do is this. From your Facebook profile click the little link on the right which says "advertise".

This will take you to this screen.

Click on "create facebook page" and follow instructions. From there, you will be able to make a "profile" for your creativity. You can then invite all your friends to become a "fan". They become fans, it shows up on their feeds, and their friends - who may not be your friends - then can see your page (not your personal profile), and become fans and so on! You can add pictures, messages and your blog feed too by "importing a note". And you can see who's looking at you with the "page manager" which will show a link from your own profile.


You can have a look at my page here to see how it works. If you have a page, put the link in comments, and I will fan you!

Solitary Confinement

You know how sometimes a woman can feel quite murderous. You find yourself saying things you wouldn't normally say and whilst in speech the rational mind is thinking "I shouldn't be saying this" or "i mustn't be so vile", but still the voice trills on without care for conscience and ignoring all mental interventions however earnest. Family members are used to these infrequent interruptions to service, and for the most part smile and pass knowing looks to eachother, then find something else to do. Quickly.

Which is when you might find yourself alone in the house. Everyone has run for cover .. to the shed, or garden, or pub, or generally anywhere you aren't.

You feel pleased to be alone (finally!) and yet at the same time, resentful. And you know you are feeling this and why, but you can't help it.

And so it was in the MarmaladeKiss household yesterday.

I had quite alot to deal with on my own ...


It was hard work!


But in the end, I had enough Borscht for the entire Russian Army!


And pickles for us ... and friends, family, friends of family ... etc.,

There is more to pickle, poach and pot:

Apples

Piri Piri

Quince

I haven't dealt with those yet.

This is... My Favourite Kitchen Tool

It's a Mandoline. An absolute must for anyone who likes to eat raw food because it slices things very very thinly. It also has attachments for making matchstick shapes and very very thin gratings. Here is a list food which with the help of a mandoline tastes better raw than cooked:

beetroot
butternut squash
sweet potato
courgette
cabbage
carrot
parsnip

kohl rabi

turnip
mange touts
french beans
celery
celeriac
brocolli
cauliflour
fennel

With thanks to Handmaiden for this weeks theme and Three Buttons for hosting.

Hello? Is There Anyone There?

Non-UK residents will no doubt be aware, but pleased to be joyously informed once more, that this weekend in England it has mostly been SUNNY AND WARM. Perfectly autumnal in my opinion and I have already seen a profusion of happy gardening reports as that is where most of us have been these last two days.

The Marmalade household is no exception.

There was a lorralorra pruning to do

There were a lorralorra snails

and more snails - beautiful but savage

fading beauty everywhere

and a lorralorraLORRA Spiders !

Lunch was Allotment soup with gluten free bread. I was inspired by Florence's recipe for marrow soup. I had never thought to put Cumin with Courgettes. I did. Plus some dried coriander powder. Yum Yum. It was deeeelish.

I don't have a wheat problem, but I do like gluten free bread made with Doves Farm g/f bread flour. Here's my recipe, it's easy peasy:

450g g/f bread flour
12 fl oz milk (i use soy milk)
1 tbsp sugar or honey (if you use sweetened soy milk don't bother with the sugar)
1 tsp salt
60g sunflower oil
1tsp vinegar
1 sachet of easybake yeast (7g) or 2 tsp yeast
2 large eggs

Method: Warm your milk (and sugar if using) to tepid in a large jug, and add the yeast. Leave to one side in order for yeast to disolve and foam. Meanwhile, measure flour into a large bowl and add salt. When yeast has frothed in the jug, and mix in the oil, eggs, and the vinegar with an electric whisk. Pour this mixture into the flour/salt, stir well with a spoon - it will be a bit like a muffin mix, and empty into a lined 2lb loaf tin. Smooth out with the back of a wet spoon or a wet palette knife and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 or so mins. When it looks risen enough, bake in an oven at 220 (electric) for about 40 mins. Remove from tin, put back in oven for a further 10 mins to crisp the sides. Serve hot with fresh soup and butter.

Alien Nation ...

Last year was our 10th wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend at a posh hotel in Bath. And for dinner we went to a vegetarian restaurant. DeMuth's. OH! what a fantastic treat it was to be able to choose ANYTHING at all on the menu. I was almost delirious with joy!

What an absolute thrill it was to consider properly every single dish described and be stuck for choice at all the deliciousness leaping up into my mind at the thought of each and every dish presented for consideration.

There was no searching for the little green "v" signs. No disappointment at the lack of said "v's". No frustration at the banality of the "v's".

Once, upon finding no "v's" at all on one menu, we were offered "parsnip bake" and another time, on expressing disappointment at yet another goats cheese salad on yet another menu, we were offered lamb or chicken as a suitable "v" option.

When will caterer's realise that Stuffed Aubergine and Mediterranean Vegetable Tart is BORING???

Why why oh WHY, when there is so much delicious food and so much choice available to us (for good or for bad), can carnivores never reach past their meaty imaginations into veggie wonder? Why do people think that "Sunday roast without the pork" is a suitable option when frankly, it's just lazy and unkind.

Surely delicious food is delicious food whether or not it contains flesh? My grandfather was a top chef, my parents were hoteliers. My mother - after her father - is the best cook I know, but give her the challenge of cooking "vegetarian" food and what does she come up with? Frozen pizza!

It's all to do with labels.

So many every day dishes are meat free, but give them the "v" label, and they become "difficult".

Gordon Ramsay says that "vegetarians have no palate". Curses to that man! Especially as many of his "delicious recipes using the freshest, most vibrant ingredients" do not include meat!!

So tonight I am sharing with you, a recipe inspired by that wonderful restaurant in Bath.

It's a Quinoa and Halloumi Salad with Raw Vegetables and Pea Shoots:

Ingredients

1 cup Quinoa (or cous cous if you prefer but I find Quinoa more tasty and it's better for you)
1 red pepper sliced finely
50g sunblush tomatoes
chives
raw salad: finely shredded cabbage, carrot, beetroot and (raw) sweetcorn kernals
2 or 3 little gem hearts
bag Pea Shoots (from waitrose - or grow your own)
1 pack halloumi cheese
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

How to:

1) Cook the quinoa in twice it's volume of water and add a stock cube or a tsp marigold bouillion to taste. Fluff up when it's done (when all the water is absorbed) and leave to cool. Add chopped chives and black pepper to taste.

2) Chop red pepper and tomatoes very finely and add to warm quinoa. Dress with 1-2 tbsp olive oil and 1sp Balsamic vinegar. Set aside


3) Wash your little Gems and chop into 1 inch slices. Set aside

4) Slice your halloumi thickly (about 1cm), brush with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and griddle until the cheese is soft. Set aside to cool a little.

5) Assemble the salad: pile pea shoots, raw salad and little gem onto a plate, with some quinoa salad on top, and the halloumi on top of that.


6) Dress with a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of tamari.

Et Voila! Deliciousness on a plate ...


Additional ideas:

1) Add sprouts (sunflower or lentil for me) for extra crunch.
2) Leftovers can be stuffed into a mini pita with garlic mayo for the most delicious taste sensation ever!

Jammin'

There is nothing to say about this picture, but to pass on this recipe for the most stupendous strawberry jam ever known to mankind (in my opinion):

Ingredients:
675g Strawberries
500-600g granulated sugar (to taste)
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

3-4 medium sized jars
2 saucers

Method:

First and most importantly, the strawberries must be DRY DRY DRY - soggy strawberries will affect the quality of your jam. Boiling will get rid of any nasties, but if you must wash them first, then ensure that you dry them properly before you start.

Second and nearly as important, the fruit must be fresh fresh fresh, and erring on the side of under-ripe not over-ripe. Over-ripe fruit may taste sweeter, but it's not as good for jam-making because pectin levels are higher in less ripe fruit, and we need pectin for a good set.

Start the night before you intend to make the jam, by preparing the strawberries: hull them all and cut if they are large, leave some (small ones) whole. This is up to you. I did a mixture, leaving the smaller fruit whole and cutting larger fruit into halves or quarters.

Put the strawberries in your jam pan, toss them in the balsamic vinegar, add all of the sugar - no need to stir, cover, and leave overnight. The purpose of this is to a) toughen up the strawberries so they retain their shape better and b) dissolve the sugar before you boil it which will improve the quality of your jam.

The next day, the sugar in your pot will have mostly melted aided by the juice of the strawberries. Put your saucers in the freezer ready for testing later, and heat the jam gently until it reaches boiling point. Stir often. Boil vigorously, still stirring frequently, for 5-8 minutes. Start testing for a set at about 6 mins.

To test for a set, remove the jam from heat and put a teaspoon of it onto your "frozen" saucer. When the jam has cooled, push it with your finger. If there is a wrinkle effect, the jam is ready. If not, keep boiling and testing each couple of minutes until a set is reached.

When you have wrinkles, let the jam cool a little, remove any scum, and decant into your sterilized jars.

Then eat and take yourself to heaven...

Domestic Dirvish

Sometimes the Call of the Oven is louder than the Call of the Sewing Machine, and so it was today in the Marmaladekiss household. Mr MK was quite bemused on returning home late from work, thanks to more flooding in Oxford, to find me cleaning kitchen cupboards after I had already not only done the shopping (thereby saving his daily trip to the shop) but also made:

A batch of scones ....


A coffee cake ...


And a quiche with asparagus and blue cheese filling ...


Which we had for dinner, with the first of our garden salad leaves - freshly picked and washed by the rain of which we have had plenty today!

Gardening is a many Splendourous Thing

The Holiday weekend in the UK has been very wet indeed. And windy . And not that warm either ... But the rain didn't arrive until Sunday which meant that on Saturday, when it was very sunny, we got as much done outside as possible. First thing, seed planting in the greenhouse. I was greeted outside by this splendour!

Next, a trip to the allotment - more splendour!


Everything doing quite well, beetroots and kohl rabbi (later decimated by a pigeon):



Broad Beans:

Our first BEAN!!


Potatoes

Onions


Further along on a neighbouring allotment were these glorious beauties


Some neigbours are more friendly than others

And after all that gardening, what better to end the day with than a nice bowl of Parsley Soup from the Cranks Bible. All you do is fry 11oz potatoes in butter, add 7oz parsley (destalked weight), top up with stock made from the parsley stalks, a carrot, an onion and 2 cloves of garlic, add some bouillion powder (or a stock cube) to that, salt and pepper to taste. When the pototatoes are cooked through, whizz the soup in a blender, adjust consistency and seasoning, and serve with either extra virgin olive oil, or creme fraiche and some warm crusty bread. Heavenly.