Tag: gardening

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Blog Snacks

The Lost Gardens

Ssshh, tread quietly so you don’t wake her..

The Lost Gardens of Heligan, the latest stop on our travels around Cornwall, is full of surprises – just look who we stumbled upon having an afternoon nap in the woodland.

This 200 acre family-owned estate was founded in the 16th Century. For many decades, Heligan hosted a thriving and self-sufficient community, living off the produce of the land, including the substantial kitchen garden here.

Then it all changed after World War 1. A number of the gardening team went to fight in the war and, sadly, never returned. The estate fell into neglect, abandoned and overrun.

Until 1990 that was, when the efforts of an enthusiastic band of volunteers helped restore the Gardens to the horticultural wonder they are today. The old walled gardens and greenhouses are a centre for cultivation of heritage vegetables. Traditional livestock breeds are farmed and horticultural skills from a century ago are being practised once again.

Such is the interest in this heritage time capsule that Heligan is now one of modern Cornwall’s top visitor attractions.

Many come to enjoy the blaze of colour from the flower displays.

Seasonal produce grown here can be enjoyed through the dishes in Heligan’s cafe. The old buildings are well cared for, and beautifully presented, decorated with freshly cut flowers. I took this photo in the old potting shed.

I liked this image of the whitewashed wall inside a greenhouse, with the sun streaming through.

Those wishing to venture deeper into the estate can seek out the Lost Valley, stretching down towards the coast at Mevagissey. What had become a largely overgrown and impenetrable jungle can now be crossed by boardwalk and rope bridge, enabling the Gardens’ many rare and veteran plant species to be enjoyed once more.

There are also one or two newer, enchanting surprises to be found along the way, such as the Mud Maid in my main photo at the top of the post.

Foodwise, another pleasant surprise on my travels has been my latest variety of Cornish Pasty! The name of this one is Veggie Power, which struck me as just a brilliant name for a dish.

The steak in the traditional filling has been replaced with mushroom and butternut squash, alongside the usual potato, onion and swede. The pastry looks and tastes like it has a higher content of wholemeal flour than the traditional version. Take a bow, Rowe’s Bakery in Falmouth for this tasty and innovative twist on the traditional Cornish Pasty.

The next track on the ADK Playlist is one that the sleeping Mud Maid might appreciate. This is The Cure with Lullaby.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

It’s Blackberry Time!

Late August is the time when lots of free, fresh fruit starts ripening up on our local hedgerows – the joys of blackberry picking are here!

For me, this usually involves stowing a large sealed plastic box in the pannier of my bike, and heading off into our nearby country park. It is relatively easy there to find a quiet spot where the berries are glinting high up in the late summer sun, turning all those solar rays into vitamin C.

This week I brought home just over 300g from a half hour session. I like to bake with them when they’re still fresh, so aim to complete the transition from hedgerow to cake in under 3 – 4 hours. Solar powered baking, if you like.

I decided to make the Blackberry and Coconut Crumble Squares that I’ve featured previously on A Different Kitchen. You can see this week’s batch in my photo at the top of the post, and again below.

It’s a favourite in our household, and there is really only a short window of a few weeks every year in which this traybake can be made fresh – so why not? Just follow the above link to find the recipe.

I kept a few berries back as I like to have them topped over oats, nuts and seeds as a breakfast dish, with some milk and honey. Grating or chopping in some apple, fresh from our trees in the garden, is the perfect complement.

There may well be more blackberry recipes over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Choice of music today can really only be from one band – the long-awaited Oasis reunion tour has finally been announced. Along with probably the other 65 million people who live in the UK, I shall be on the Ticketmaster site this weekend trying to get a ticket before they all sell out – wish me luck!

Then it’s a case of waiting until next summer to see the concerts. That’s presuming Noel and Liam haven’t fallen out again by then, of course…

Here they are at their Beatles-influenced best, with Whatever.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Courgette & Feta Fritters with Mint Raita

Here’s a dish that really does make the best of all the seasonal summer produce around at the moment. It’s a great way to use up some of the Jenga-like pile of organic courgettes that builds up on the ADK Kitchen table around this time of year – 3 medium-sized ones went into this batch of fritters, and the taste works really well with the chunks of creamy feta.

The scallions are also fresh from the garden, as are the cucumber and mint leaves in the cooling raita served alongside.

An excellent choice for a summer evening meal on the patio – maybe to celebrate the second birthday of A Different Kitchen! More of that in a moment…

Servings

This will make 4 fritters.

Timings

15 mins to make and about 10 mins to fry.

You Will Need

  • 350g courgettes (around 3 medium-sized ones)
  • 100g feta cheese
  • 3 – 4 scallions (spring onions)
  • 50g plain flour
  • 1 egg
  • oil for frying

For the raita:

  • 4 – 5 dessert spoonfuls of natural yoghurt
  • 3 – 4 slices of cucumber, finely chopped
  • 4 – 5 leaves of fresh garden mint, finely chopped

Method

  1. Wash the courgettes and trim off the ends. Grate coarsely, either by hand or (as I did) using the speed grating tool on the food processor. Tip into a large mixing bowl.
  2. Chop the feta into cubes and add to the grated courgette. Chop the scallions into little rounds and add also.
  3. Sieve in the plain flour and crack in the egg. Now the fun begins – having washed and dried your hands, plunge them into the bowl and squish all the ingredients together between your fingers to make a well-mixed courgette batter.
  4. Next, make the raita by combining the yoghurt, cucumber and mint in a small bowl. Stir and place in the fridge until it is time to serve (for the avoidance of doubt, no plunging of fingers is required for this bit 🙂 )
  5. Warm a drizzle of oil in a frying pan. When sizzling, lift in a handful of the courgette batter. Put in another alongside and let them cook.
  6. After a minute or so, give them a gentle push around the pan with a spatula, to make sure they are not sticking. After 3 – 4 minutes, lift each fritter carefully with the spatula and flip them over, to cook on the other side.
  7. After another 3 – 4 mins, remove each fritter to a plate and keep warm. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter, to make another 2 fritters.
  8. Plate up the fritters and serve with the bowl of raita as a side.

Customise it!

Some recipes for courgette fritters advise to squeeze the water from the veg at the outset. I didn’t do this and it didn’t cause any problems, however – just sayin’.

If you wish, you could add some lemon zest, crushed garlic and ground black pepper to the batter, before cooking. Additional salt shouldn’t be necessary as there is some already in the feta.

The height of summer brings a second birthday for A Different Kitchen: that’s 2 years, 222 posts, and 3.5k followers from all around the world, now over 3 online platforms. Sadly, WordPress stats can’t tell me how much self-raising flour, caster sugar, extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves etc have been consumed in that time, but I reckon it’s enough to fill a small branch of Tesco Express.

Maybe that’s something the WordPress engineers could get on to before next year’s anniversary? Cool – always happy to give feedback 🙂 .

Here’s Depeche Mode with World in My Eyes.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Summer Greens over Chorizo Hash

It’s the time of year when freshly picked, green summer veg is coming into the ADK Kitchen on a daily basis. French beans, mange tout, cavalo nero, cabbage leaves – they’re all tasty and nutritious, needing just the lightest touch in cooking, usually no more than a few minutes in the steamer basket.

In a continuous challenge to find new, tasty ways to serve up this delightful produce, this dish sees it generously topped over sweet potato and chorizo hash. The spicy, saltiness of the hash complements the natural simplicity of the veg, while the scent, and the bright orange and red underneath that summer garden green, ensures this is a feast for all the senses.

Servings

A main meal for 2.

Timings

20 mins to prepare/cook.

You Will Need

  • 1 medium to large sweet potato
  • around 20 French beans, ends trimmed, and cut into 3cm pieces
  • 4- 5 cabbage leaves, cut into shreds
  • a knob of butter
  • 225g spanish chorizo ring, sliced
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • a few splashes of tomato passata

Method

  1. Peel the sweet potato and cut into 1 – 2cm chunks. Place in a saucepan of water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer.
  2. After 5 mins, place the beans and cabbage in a steamer basket and put it on top of the saucepan. Bring the water back to the boil then reduce to a simmer again. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 10 more mins.
  3. Meanwhile, put the chorizo, onion and pepper in a frying pan and stir over a medium heat. There is no need to add oil, garlic or spices as the chorizo already contains everything required!
  4. When the sweet potato has boiled, drain it and mash with the butter. Tip into the frying pan with the passata. Turn up the heat and stir in – you want the liquid to begin to evaporate and get some of the underside pieces crispy and charred.
  5. When cooked to your desired texture, mound the hash up on 2 plates. Take the greens from the steamer and plonk them on top. It should all look as in my photo at the top of the post.

Customise it!

Basically, anything green and seasonal goes here – broad beans, runner beans, garden peas, mange tout, cavalo nero etc will all look and taste great.

Staying on theme for the next track on the ADK Playlist, I did toy momentarily with the New Order track Everything’s Gone Green (it being an apt description of the ADK Kitchen table these past few days). However, I’ve plumped in the end for one of many tracks I love by Scritti Politti (the lead singer being the very talented Green Gartside 🙂 ). Here they are with Boom! There She Was.

Categories
Blog Snacks

Autumn at Stourhead

Time for a relaxing break from your busy day? Grab yourself a chamomile tea and settle down for a mindful 5 minutes, taking in this latest post.

Stourhead in Wiltshire is no ordinary landscape garden. We greatly enjoyed a visit there recently, while motorhoming in the west of England.

First opened in the 1740s, it was originally the brainchild of landowner Henry Hoare, who travelled widely and developed a taste for classical architecture. He commissioned the finest artists and designers of the day to create a series of temples, follies and curios that are scattered around the edges of a vast lake.

My main photo above shows the Palladian Bridge, with the Pantheon (modelled on the original in Rome) in the distance. My photo below shows the Temple of Apollo.

Stourhead has been impressing visitors for nearly 300 years, and the massive estate is managed nowadays by the National Trust. There is an accessible walk that goes right around the lake, and visitors can enter the idiosyncratic buildings along the way to discover the art and statues they hold. Here is the Temple of Flora looking particularly fine in the afternoon sun.

The mature trees and plants change colours with the seasons, meaning there are always new elements to experience and explore, whatever time of year you come. Autumn is special here, when the buildings nestle alongside shades of red, amber and gold.

The Gothic Cottage looked splendid with this blazing carpet of autumn leaf fall.

In my next shot, the Pantheon is seen from across the lake. Considerable thought has gone into the planning of the site, to create beautiful, ever-changing views from different perspectives.

This photo below shows the view across the lake from the window of the Grotto – a little cave built into the lake’s shore. The stillness of the lake made for superb reflections.

The sensory overload even continues into lunchtime…

A real highlight of visiting a National Trust property is a visit to the tea room. I opted for a cream tea, pictured below – a freshly baked fruit scone spread with clotted cream from Cornwall and strawberry jam, served of course with a pot of tea. It is a classic combo that is very difficult to beat, and was delicious.

Incidentally, I was reading about a lady who has visited all the National Trust properties in the UK that have a tea room – there are 244 of them – and eaten a scone at each. She has written a blog about them, rating each scone, and produced an overall Top 5. Her top prize went to the one tasted at the Treasurer’s House in York.

244 is a lot of scones, by anyone’s standards. I can only assume she accompanied this pursuit with 244 brisk walks around the grounds of said properties, to burn off all those calories.

My visit to Stourhead really was a feast for all the senses – an 18th Century theme park devoted to mindfulness, if you like. I can’t wait to go back again in Spring, when the trees are in blossom and there will be a totally new colour palate to enjoy.

And another cream tea.

Musically, places like this always make me think of Kate Bush for some reason – probably something to do with classical, romantic England at its finest. So here’s a track by her that is suitably mellow and contemplative: Mrs. Bartolozzi.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Spiced Apple & Oat Muffins

I still have lots of apples from the garden around for baking with at the moment – you’d almost think they grow on trees…..

Even after making my Dorset Apple Cake, there were still plenty more to combine with oats and spices in these tasty muffins, shown in my main photo above. Great with a cup of tea, for dessert or breakfast, and lovely with a few spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt on the side.

Servings

12 muffins.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, 25 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 190g plain flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 1 and a half tsp mixed spice
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 170g finely chopped apple
  • 60g sultanas
  • 1 egg
  • 60g oats
  • 150 ml milk
  • 90 ml vegetable oil

Method

  1. Warm the oven to 180C and grease a muffin tin or mould.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice into a bowl. Add the sugar, chopped apple and sultanas, and mix so that the fruit is coated in flour.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix the egg, oats, milk and veg oil.
  4. When the oven is up to temperature, combine wet ingredients with dry, and stir to mix. Spoon into the muffin tin or mould and bake for 25 mins. Cool on wire rack before serving.

Customise It!

Cinnamon or nutmeg will go just as well as the mixed spice if you wish. A handful of toasted chopped nuts would be a good addition.

With a number of posts recently featuring spice, it’s amazing that I have thus far managed to avoid adding a track by the Spice Girls to the ADK Playlist. This probably has something to do with the fact that I am not a massive fan. This song, which I do like, comes fairly close, however. Bryan Adams and Mel C (aka the Sporty one) with When You’re Gone.

Categories
Breakfast Desserts Recipes

Spiced Plum Compote

A plentiful supply of fresh plums has been arriving off the trees and into the ADK kitchen recently – I guess it’s that time of year. Here’s a very quick and easy way of cooking them up for use either as a breakfast topper, on oats or muesli, or as a dessert, with milk or natural yoghurt (see above). There are only 4 ingredients and the whole exercise will take about 10 mins.

And it’s delicious.

Servings

At least 6 servings.

Timings

10 mins.

You Will Need

  • 9 – 10 fresh plums
  • 1 tbsp demerara sugar
  • 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
  • juice of 1 lemon

Method

  1. Chop the plums and discard the stones. Place in a saucepan with the other ingredients.
  2. Bring to a boil and stir, then reduce to a simmer for 5 – 10 mins. Switch off.
  3. Allow to cool, and serve over oats, nuts and seeds or muesli, with milk or natural yoghurt, as a breakfast or dessert dish.

Customise It!

If you don’t have 5 spice, then mixed spice, cinnamon or nutmeg will be fine. Another idea is to chuck a cinnamon stick into the saucepan as the compote is cooking, if you wish.

Today’s addition to the Playlist is a track that came on a few days ago while I was driving. I’d forgotten how great it was, especially with the unmistakable jangling sound of Johnny Marr on guitar. Add in Bernard Sumner from New Order on vocals and you have one mighty Mancunian supergroup. This is Electronic with Get the Message.

Categories
Recipes Sides

Tahini Dressing

The garden is now chock-full of sun-warmed tomatoes on the vine and cucumbers that seem to grow bigger by the day – see my photos below.

There’s enough to provide sides to meals for a little while to come, so I’ve been looking out ideas for tasty dressings to vary things up a little.

I’m a big fan of tahini – the spread that is made from ground roasted sesame seeds. In fact, tahini on a slice of wholemeal toast is one of my favourite snacks. Its taste is reminiscent of peanut butter, but without the sugar. It is said to have a number of health benefits in a diet, being a good source of fibre, protein and healthy fats.

I’ve used it in a stir fry sauce before, and wanted to incorporate it in a salad dressing. Following some research, I settled on a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A tablespoon of tahini is added to core ingredients of olive oil, runny honey and cider vinegar. Shake it up in a jar till it’s rich and creamy, then drizzle over your salad, with a sprinkling of sesame seeds to top it off.

Servings

This should be enough to go with a couple of week night meals for 2 – keep the screw top jar in the fridge and use as you wish.

Timings

10 mins to prepare.

You Will Need

  • a clean screw top jar or container
  • 1 tbsp tahini
  • 4 tsp cider (or white wine) vinegar
  • 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp runny honey
  • a couple of twists of sea salt and ground black pepper
  • half a clove of garlic, crushed (optional)
  • sesame seeds to sprinkle

Method

  1. Put all the ingredients (other than the sesame seeds) in the screw top jar and shake well to combine. Pour over your choice of salad and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.
  2. Er, that’s it.

Customise it!

Add more black pepper if you wish. A squidge of lemon juice might be nice. If the consistency is too thick, just add a few more drops of olive oil. Why stop at salad – drizzle it on a baked potato, or use as a dip for fries.

Here’s a song I heard on the radio this week, which I hadn’t heard in a long time. The band who recorded it are now in their 45th year, no less, with a hectic tour schedule this summer. I very much liked UB40 in their early years, and went to see them live in their home town of Birmingham. I remember the thudding bass and drums of their reggae beat, and that they did extended dub versions of some of their tracks. I do feel they lost their edge a little when they started doing cover versions of older songs, though it clearly brought them commercial success.

This is one track from those early years – One in Ten.

Categories
Blog

Fresh Strawberries

This time of year, paying a visit to a Pick Your Own (PYO) Strawberry Farm can be a lot of fun for all the family. Just look at this character greeting us on arrival this week at our local PYO – how could one resist?

The previous occasion when I visited a PYO Farm was Christmas Eve. We were in Victoria State, Australia, and had decided to make fresh strawberries the pudding course in the dinner for 9 that we were hosting on Christmas Day. Strawberries for Christmas? It sounds a bit weird to we northern hemisphere types. Even more so when the PYO Farm’s festive musical accompaniment to the strawberry picking includes Shakin’ Stevens belting out Snow is falling, All around us… (What? There was a bright blue sky and it was 30C).

Just to put any concerns at rest, let me make clear that this post will not conclude with me adding Shaky to the ADK Playlist. Phew!

This week’s trip was to Pickwell Farm in Southampton. The coastal area stretching east from the city’s outskirts towards the village of Hamble has been a soft fruit growing area for decades.

As my photos below show, the strawberry plants are plentiful, and the fruit ripe and rich in colour.

Here is the haul from our visit – a kilo and a half of fresh strawberries.

The kilo has been made into jam, by boiling the fruit in water with preserving sugar. The half has been made into fresh ice cream – I used the recipe I posted last summer which you can check out here. Alternatively, you could make Eton Rifles Mess!

Do you have a Pick Your Own Farm near you? If so, why not check it out. With the fruit still on the stalks, you can be assured of optimum freshness, and be your own boss of quality control. You will be doing your bit to support local businesses and reducing food miles. What’s more, the prices should be much less than you’ll pay in the supermarket (hey, there must be some trade-off for providing all that manual labour!) Best of all, it is a really fun activity.

I toyed with adding Strawberry Fields Forever to the ADK Playlist with this post. However, good though the Beatles are, they aren’t really my era, so I’m going instead for a fave Scottish band, Franz Ferdinand. This is Fresh Strawberries.

Categories
Mains

Spicy Parsnip Soup

Time for another guest post on A Different Kitchen! Over to my wife, Lesley to show us how to make this tasty, hearty and warming soup.

I belong to a community allotment and we plan to have lovely fresh things to eat. Recently we have had a glut of winter parsnips. Everyone should eat more parsnips!  

I took home 6 of them all large and gnarly, grown organically and fattened up over our winter. With vegetables that have imperfections like this, soup is a great option as it doesn’t matter what bits you might have to cut out.

I love the scent of the crushed spices that are used in this recipe. I used a pestle and mortar but you can crush them on a cutting board with a bottle or rolling pin.

You Will Need

  • 6 parsnips, peeled and roughly chunked
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • a knob of butter
  • 1 litre of stock (after roasting a chicken we always boil up the carcass with some water for half an hour, then put the stock in tubs in the freezer until needed).  
  • A spice mix, here’s what I used, but any spices you like will do:
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • a few cardamon pods

Method

  1. Melt butter in a pan and add the crushed spices.
  2. Add the parsnip  and onion, and heat until all the chunks are warm and coated – this will take about 10 mins. 
  3. Pour in the stock, and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Blitz to a smooth consistency, then serve.

Customise It!

This soup is great served with crusty bread, as shown in the main photo above. However, you could also make croutons by cutting bread into cubes and baking them on a tray in the oven. Keep your eye on them as they brown very quickly. Chuck the crispy croutons on to the top of your bowl of soup.

You could also swirl in a few table spoonfuls of double cream for an ultra-posh version.

The contributor of a guest post gets to choose the next track for the ADK Spotify Playlist. Lesley has chosen Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, who we have just seen on his farewell tour in London. More on this in my weekend post!