Fresh from the Garden

Here in North West England, it's been a pretty miserable Bank Holiday weekend so far in terms of the weather: yesterday it poured with rain pretty much full stop, and today it's so windy it's horrible. Still, no rain today, although I'm constantly checking out of the window because I've got the washing on the line.

Mind you, the rain was desperately needed, and it's made everything grow in the garden so much quicker. The sunshine last weekend had given the spinach and rocket a bit of a growth spurt, and I've just been to check on the other veg. The beans are shooting up, and needed re-tying, as are the sweet peas. Down in the South West, my mum already has flowers on her sweet peas. Most of mine are struggling to get over two feet tall, and some are struggling at one!

We've been eating salads from the garden for about three weeks now. Firstly it was lettuce which I bought as plugs from the garden centre, then home-grown rocket, and pea shoots, and finally the spinach is ready to be harvested. I'm hoping to keep on top of them to save them getting Popeye-like! I'm going to have a go at some successional sowing as well.

There are also some carrot-tops showing, and they look like carrots! These have had the hardest time, as they are purple carrots, which Tim bought the seeds for last year. I planted them, not really sure if they would germinate, in one of our deep planters. The soil in our garden is particularly stony, so I thought the deep bed, which is totally filled with compost, would be a good place for them. But they did germinate, and I obediently thinned them out on a still day, to avoid carrot fly.

Two days later, I noticed that the bed had been disturbed. One of our neighbourhood cats had clearly been for a little dig! The carrots seemed to have been totally submerged under the soil and some had been uprooted. I did what I could to repair the damage, but held little hope.

However, against all the odds, my little carrots are showing through the soil again, their feathery tops wafting in the breeze. I don't know when they'll be ready to harvest, probably not for ages, and I don't actually know if purple carrots are my thing, but they'll be worthy of a blog post.

Fresh from the Oven: Pizza

This was such a good Fresh from the Oven challenge, probably my favourite so far. Tim and I both love pizza, but we don't often have it. In fact, when Tim ran the London Marathon earlier this year, the one thing that motivated him was the thought of a large stuffed crust pizza afterwards!

This was a good pizza. An amazing pizza in fact. At least, that's Tim's opinion.

I followed the instructions carefully, as described below, by Lauren from Coffee Muffins. They were incredibly helpful, and stretching the dough was really tricky. Maybe it's easier if you're making a massive pizza, but for two small individual ones, I found a rolling pin actually worked better!

We added our toppings, carefully selected from tomato sauce, leftover sausage from the barbeque the day before, parma ham, mushrooms, peppers, mozzarella and pineapple. Tim's pizza was placed carefully in the oven for the required time... "It's brilliant!" He raved on tasting it. "You couldn't get this at Pizza Hut."

So my pizza, carefully topped, went into the oven. I checked it and turned it after a couple of minutes, as suggested. And finally, peeping through the glass of the oven, I could see it was perfect - the cheese was turning gently golden.

I opened the oven door, so excited, and so hungry.

Alas! Disaster struck! The pizza tumbled out of the oven and landed, topping side down, on the oven door and floor. Not my finest moment in baking history.

But the base seemed fine. So, I scraped the topping off, reloaded, and baked again. So my pizza base was a little crispy. But I'm going to value Tim's opinion more than ever. And always open the oven door very, very carefully.

The recipe amounts make 6 9-12 inch pizzas, which I think is rather a lot, even if you can keep the dough in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months! I made a third of the recipe, which was enough for two perfectly sized individual pizzas. The amounts for 1/3 quantities are given in brackets.

•4 1/2 cups or 20.25 ounces (6.75 ounces) of unbleached high-gluten bread flour

•1 3/4 teaspoons or 0.44 ounces (0.14 ounces) of salt

•1 teaspoon or 0.11 ounces (1/3 tsp) of instant yeast (if using active dry yeast you will need to increase this by 25%)

•1/4 cup or 2 ounces (0.67 ounces) of olive or vegetable oil, optional

•1 3/4 cups or 14 ounces (4.67 ounces) of ice cold water

While you don't need any special equipment for this recipe (I don't have any of the following) a pizza stone and peel may help with the final outcome. Oh and if you have an electric mixer with dough attachment that would be good - but if you don't you can do it the old fashioned way, just like me!

Stir together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a large bowl. With a large metal spoon (I used a wooden spoon and it didn't seem to make any difference) stir in the oil and water until all the flour is absorbed.

To do by hand, you need to stir with one hand and turn the bowl in the opposite direction with your other hand. You need to do this for 5 to 7 minutes, occasionally changing the direction as to really help develop the gluten. This method of mixing is actually quite a difficult task, sort of like rubbing your tummy while tapping your head, but as long as you are mixing the dough it should work out ok.

To do in a mixer, make sure you are using the dough hook attachment and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes.

Either way you mix you should end up with a smooth dough which is a little sticky. It should clear the sides of the bowl but not the bottom. If it isn't clearing the sides then add a little more flour and mix again. If it clears the bottom then add a couple of drops of water, and mix again.

The finished dough should be springy, elastic and sticky but not tacky. If you use a thermometer it should register somewhere between 50 to 55 oF.

Now prepare a sheet pan with baking parchment and spray oil. Flour your counter and remove the dough on to the counter. Using a metal dough scraper (or your hands) create 6 equals sized pieces of dough. (I only made 2 using my 1/3 ingredients).
Flour your hands and shape each into a ball, if your hands stick add more flour and try again. Place each ball onto your sheet pan, spray each piece of dough with oil. Once all pieces of dough are on the tray, enclose it in a food-grade bag and pop it into the fridge.
Because I was only making a small quantity of dough, I didn't use a tray at all, I just added each ball to a food-grade bag which I had sprayed the insides with oil. Then popped each bag into the fridge.

The next day a couple of hours before you want to cook them remove the dough from the fridge. Dust your counter with flour (and your hands) then spray oil on top. Place each ball on the counter and then gently press each into a flat disc about 1/2 inch thick. Top each with a little flour and oil and cover with another bag. Let rest for 2 hours.
At least 45 minutes before cooking put on your oven on at it's maximum temperature (mine goes up to 250 oC, which worked ok) up to 800oF. If you have a baking stone put it in the oven now. If you don't have a stone then you can use a normal baking sheet, just don't preheat it first.

Now comes the tricky part to stretch out your dough, dust your peel or sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal. Coat your hands in flour including the backs and your knuckles. Gently lay the dough on to the top of your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion. As it starts to spread out you can move to the full toss method (flinging it above your head and hoping it doesn't fall on the floor - good luck!). If it sticks to your hands at any point lay it out flat and redust your hands, continue stretching until it is the desired width.
With my dough I found it really hard to stretch my dough this way (as it kept tearing) so I stretched it gently on a well floured work surface. You can also roll it out using a rolling pin, but this isn't quite such a good method for working with the dough.
Once you have reached the desired width place the stretched dough on the peel or baking sheet.

Now you can top it as you wish.

Now that your oven should have preheated, transfer the pizza to your oven. It should only take between 8 and 10 minutes to cook. You might want to turn it 180 degrees after 2 minutes, if you think it might over cook on one side.

Banana Bread

This is the cake that I probably make more often than any other. Not because I am particularly obsessed with it, but because I am fussy about how I eat my bananas. I will only eat them when they are yellow with a slightly green tinge at the ends. I know that's technically unripe, but that's the way I like them.

So when the bananas have passed that point, even if they have only one brown spot on them, I don't like them. Hence, this recipe. Its the perfect way of using up bananas, and it's really easy to eat. It's great at any time of the day because it's not ridiculously sweet or gooey, but just nice.

Ingredients

100g sultanas

175g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar
2 large eggs
Up to 4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and floured or with a paper insert

Serving Size : Makes 8–10 slices
 
Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.
 
In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas.
 
Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1–11/4 hours.
 
When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out clean. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.
 
I have adapted this from a Nigella recipe, she soaks the sultanas in rum and adds walnuts. I prefer a simpler cake from time to time (plus I don't like walnuts).
 

Lemon Marscapone Cake

Its not often that I bake a cake of my own choosing. More often, I am baking for someone else, or to use up what we have in the house. But this week I am leaving my workplace of 5 years, and someone suggested I make a cake to follow the special lunch some of my colleagues are putting on for me. So this was my choice.

It is, as are most of my cakes, adapted from a Nigella recipe. I haven't tasted it yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Lemon Marscapone Cake

225g butter

225g golden caster sugar

225g plain flour

4 eggs

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp baking powder

200g marscapone cheese

100g good quality lemon curd

Blitz all the ingredients in a food processor, and divide between 2 20cm cake tins. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes, until the cakes are coming away from the sides of the tin.

Stand the cakes on a wire rack to cool.

When the cakes are cool, place one cake on a plate. Beat the marscapone cheese in a bowl so that it is smooth, and spread over the cake. Top with the lemon curd, and place the second cake on top. Sprinkle with golden caster sugar.

By the way, Tim completed the London Marathon in 4 hours, 28 minutes. I'm very proud of him!

Carb Loading

Tim is running the London Marathon on Sunday, so this week he (and therefore I) am carb loading.

Carb loading is a way of boosting endurance when exercising for longer than two hours. As Tim will be running for at least 4 hours, he thought it would be useful.

There are conflicting views about carb loading. This article gives the science behind it: basically, the body can only store a limited amount of carbohydrate, so carbohydrate loading trains the body to store the carbohydrate in the muscles and liver.

In the first part of the week, carbs are limited, and protein is high. As the week progresses, more and more of the meals are made up of carbohydrates, up to 75% in the final three days before the race. This is supposed to give optimum performance.

So far, we've had steak, chicken and tonight its salmon. I've got to say I'm not disappointed. I think the best part of it is that the foods that are recommended are really healthy, and the psychological effects are huge - even though the actual science behind carb loading is debated, Tim knows he is giving his body the best possible chance to do well.

Garden Plans

I know this is a cooking blog, but gardening and food are going so much more hand in hand in our society, and I have caught the gardening bug.

This being the first year I have had a proper garden of my own (I did grow courgettes last year in a pot on my front doorstep), and I've been sowing seeds like they are going out of fashion. Few have germinated so far, but I keep checking!

So far,  my garden contains:

• Mixed salad leaves
• Rocket
• Broad Beans
• Spring Onions
• Spinach
• Purple carrots

I'd like to grow things that you can't get easily in the supermarket, or that are really expensive in the supermarket - fresh peas, swiss chard, sugar snap peas and so on.

I've had some success with flowers this year - I grew some sweet peas from seed that came free with Gardener's World magazine, and they all germinated. This week, I've hardened them off and planted them outside - I hope they survive. A rose I bought a couple of weeks ago is flourishing.

This marks a real change for me - I've always been interested in food, and always had a sense of pride in what I cook. But this year, I've started planning trips to the garden centre, reading gardening books and even watching Gardener's World. I just hope some of my seeds grow.

Easter Biscuits

I have to credit this recipe to my mum. She used to make these biscuits every single year, and they were legendary. Then, when I moved out, I took the recipe with me. When I first met Tim, he couldn't believe they had to be restricted to Easter time, but they are now starting to become legendary in our home.

Oil of Cassia is a traditional ingredient in Easter Biscuits, which apparantly come from the West Country, where I'm from. It's really difficult to get hold of, mine is from The County Stores in Taunton, but apparantly you can also try chemists or the internet.

So, with all credit going to my mum, here is the recipe. Apologies for the metric measurements!

6oz Butter
6oz Castor Sugar
10 drops of Oil of Cassia
1 Egg
10oz Self Raising Flour
2 oz Custard Powder
4oz Currants

Preheat oven to 180C and line at least two baking trays with baking parchment.

Cream together the butter and sugar with the Oil of Cassia. Work in the egg, then fold in the sieved flour and custard powder. The mixture will become very stiff and you may need to bring it together with your hands.

Add the currants and knead together.

Roll out to 5mm thick. Using a round cutter, cut out 8cm rounds.

Bake in oven for about 8-10 minutes - you barely want them to colour, so keep an eye on them!

Sprinkle with more caster sugar when you take them out of the oven. Leave for 3-5 minutes for them to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack.

You will probably get about 25 biscuits from this mixture.