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
Chop the plums and discard the stones. Place in a saucepan with the other ingredients.
Bring to a boil and stir, then reduce to a simmer for 5 – 10 mins. Switch off.
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.
It’s arrived! This weekend of the 26th and 27th August sees The Great Bloggers’ Bake-Off 2023 taking place.
It is being hosted by Mel, Jeanne and Gary over on Caramel. The theme this year is Express Yourself, so expect to see lots of culinary creativity and innovation on display.
Please go take a look at some of the amazing bakes emerging from the ovens of the WordPress baking and foodblogging community. There’s an emphasis on fun and celebration – all participants deserve praise for their efforts, so feel free to leave some likes and appreciative comments, please.
I’m pleased to say that one of my creations from A Different Kitchen is included in the many entries, so do keep a special eye out for this.
Being a food blog with the strapline Good Food, Great Music, I have given some thought to what an appropriate playlist might be for the Bake-Off. Martha & the Muffins, perhaps? Sweet? Bread, Sugababes or the Spice Girls?
And then there is that famous TV show to acknowledge. Maybe The Proclaimers with Sunshine on (Prue) Leith? Frankie Goes to (Paul) Hollywood, anyone?
The Stones have a few contenders – Brown Sugar obvs, but also, perhaps, It’s Only Swiss Roll (But I Like It) (erm, one of their lesser-known hits).
Well done to all our Bake-Off entrants – you are all stars. May your meringues be majestic, and your Battenburgs beautiful. And to all you Victoria Sponge makers, here’s a musical reminder not to forget the baking powder: Gabrielle with Rise.
Here’s a medium curry that is both vegetarian and vegan. While the base comprises a number of fresh vegetables and spices, the undoubted stars of the show are two particularly healthy ingredients.
Kale grows in our garden and seems to keep on producing new crops as the seasons progress. It is a source of fibre, calcium, vitamins and antioxidants, which help us stay well by removing toxins from the body.
Lentils are a good source of protein for anyone following a meat- or dairy-free diet. Puy Lentils are the variety that pack the most protein per calorie.
Servings
A meal for 4.
Timings
25 mins to prepare and cook.
You Will Need
a little oil
1 onion
1 garlic clove, crushed
half a red chilli
2 cm piece of root ginger
2 – 3 mushrooms
2 tbsp curry powder (I’m still using my Qatari Spices)
8 – 10 tomatoes (I used fresh as we have lots growing in the garden)
1 400g can of coconut milk
8 leaves of kale
60g Puy lentils
a handful of nigella seeds
6 – 7 cardamom pods
1 tbsp garam masala
basmati rice
Method
Heat the oil in a wok, and add the crushed garlic. Chop the onions, chilli, ginger and mushrooms and add to the wok. Chuck in the curry powder and give it all a stir.
Let it sizzle for a few minutes, then quarter the tomatoes and add in. Let them squash down in the heat, then add the coconut milk.
Fill the empty coconut milk can with water and pour in to the wok. Chop the kale leaves into 3 or 4 strips, and add in with the lentils. Check the liquid level at this stage, and top up with more water if necessary – there should be just enough liquid to cover the veg. It will reduce down to a creamy consistency as the kale and lentils cook.
After about 10 mins, add in the nigella seeds, cardamom pods and garam masala, giving it all another stir.
After another 10 mins, spoon out a lentil to check it is cooked. You should just be able to bite through without it becoming too soft or mushy.
Switch off and serve with steamed or boiled basmati rice.
Customise It!
It’s a vegetable curry, so add in whatever veg you have to hand or like to use. Peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots – all will go well.
I’m going to be off on my travels again soon, this time exploring Scotland. More of this in upcoming posts, but for now I’ve been getting in the mood and listening to some great tracks from Scottish bands. Here’s one of the best, Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand with Do You Want To.
This time of year finds apples growing on the trees – fresh, crisp and a joy to bite into. Below is a photo of some I picked this week from the trees in our garden.
Having recently returned from a stay in the county of Dorset (see Dorset Calling) I had the idea of incorporating some of our apples in a classic British bake – the Dorset Apple Cake. You can see it in my main photo at the top of this post. It went down well with the family – there were already a few slices cut from it before I could take the photo!
Serve it on its own with a cup of tea, or with a few spoonfuls of Greek Yoghurt.
Servings
Around 16 slices.
Timings
15 mins to prepare, 1h 25 mins to bake.
You Will Need
225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp mixed spice
140g light brown sugar
150g spread or margarine
2 eggs
3 medium sized crisp eating apples
demerara sugar to sprinkle over
flaked almonds to sprinkle
Method
Switch the oven on to 160C and grease/line a 20 cm diameter baking tin.
Put the flour, baking powder, salt, and mixed spice in a bowl and stir with a spoon. Add the apple, chopped, and stir again so that all the apple pieces are coated in the floury mix. Add in the sugar, spread and eggs, and use an electric mixer to combine.
Tip into the prepared tin and level with a spatula so it reaches the sides. Sprinkle the demerara over.
Place in the oven for 1 hour.
Remove and sprinkle the flaked almonds over. Put back in the oven, still at 160C, for 20 mins.
Remove and leave to cool off in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices (see photo below) to serve.
Customise It!
If you wish to cut down on the sugar content, feel free to omit the demerara topping. I left the peel on the apple so that the cake included a little more fibre, but you can remove it with a peeler if you prefer.
Many countries and cultures have their own recipes for apple bakes, including this one for Austrian Apple Cake posted previously on ADK.
Time to add another track to the ADK Playlist. I saw this band a few weeks back when they were supporting the Arctic Monkeys, and they were great. I did say I would feature them, so here they are: this is The Hives with Hate to Say I Told You So.
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
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.
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.
What to do on a summer’s day by the beach when the sun doesn’t shine? Why, bake cookies, of course!
Regular readers will know that I do like being by the beach (searching ‘beach’ via my site search bar throws up no less than 10 different posts).
This week I am staying by the beach on the English south coast, and have already been for a dip in the sea. However, today it’s rather overcast and a little drizzly – hey, it is the British summer after all! Sun is forecast for the rest of the week so, for this one grey day, I decided to pursue other activities.
Which naturally involves some baking. Not wanting to stock up unnecessarily on ingredients, I had the brainwave of shopping at the local refillery – Almond & Co in Westbourne. They have a terrific range of staple foods and will sell as much or as little of each as needed, to take away in your own refillable container.
I decided to make a batch of cookie dough, using their organic dried cranberries and organic shelled pistachios. Here is the haul from my visit, all items individually weighed, priced and bar-coded.
I bought just the right amount of organic plain flour, and to make things a little different, added organic buckwheat flour at a ratio of 1:3 to the plain. My dough also contains the zest of one of their organic, unwaxed lemons.
Notice any trend here? Yes, everything sold is organic. As a refillery, they are also free of plastic packaging. I think it’s good to support a shop that is trying to help us all live and eat more sustainably.
I’m pleased with the results – see my main photo at the top of the post. It just shows that being away from home does not have to mean missing out on home baking, as long as there is a good refillery nearby.
Servings
Makes about 18 cookies.
Timings
15 mins to prepare, 15 – 20 mins to bake (shorter if you like your cookies soft and chewy, longer for crisper and more biscuity).
You Will Need
175g spread or margarine
85g caster sugar
170g plain flour
55g buckwheat flour
zest of 1 lemon
75g dried cranberries
75g shelled pistachio nuts
Method
Heat the oven to 180C.
Put the spread and sugar in a bowl and beat together, using a wooden spoon or electric mixer if you have one.
Sieve in the flours, add the lemon zest and mix again.
Chop the pistachios in 2 and add to the bowl with the cranberries.
At this point you need to get your hands in there and squidge all the ingredients together into a ball of dough. Remove the dough from the bowl, wrap in cling film, and leave in the fridge till the oven is up to temperature.
Line a baking tray with some kitchen parchment. Tear chunks off the dough and shape into a ball between the palms of your hands. Flatten to a disc the width of about 1cm and place on the tray. Place in the oven for 15 – 20 mins until done.
It isn’t necessary to cook all the dough at once. I used half and made 9 cookies, leaving the other half in the fridge to make up another batch later.
Customise It!
This baking idea involves using the resources available while away from your usual kitchen. It is easily adaptable to include other kinds of dried fruit or chopped nuts that you may be able to get your hands on. I swapped in buckwheat flour for a quarter of the plain flour, because the refillery I was shopping in had an excellent range of flours that I wanted to take advantage of. However, you can stick with all plain flour if you wish. I found the buckwheat gives the cookie a slightly darker colour and makes it crisper.
All being well, by this weekend’s post I will be able to report the return of the sun. Maybe I’ll take some cookies to enjoy at the beach. The next track added to the ADK Playlist needs no explanation – Kate Bush with Cloudbusting!
If you venture down to our local woods at the moment, you may get something of a surprise. No, not those pesky bears picnicking again – the hedgerows are laden with blackberries, and most of them are ripe for picking.
Why is that a surprise? Well, around here, picking blackberries is usually an end of August/early September activity. However, many of these plump beauties have been ripe and ready since mid-July, with plenty more yet to ripen – see my photo below. I should be harvesting these for a few weeks to come.
I mentioned in my recent Plum & Almond Slices post that our plums are also ready much earlier than usual. We hear a lot these days about how our climate is changing, so I guess this is just one more example.
Ever the opportunist, I sprang down to the woods with my bowl and came back with a good 300g, see below.
Within a matter of hours they had been incorporated in a traybake with desiccated coconut, the berries bursting as they bake to release all that lovely jammy juice into the cake. It is topped with a crumble mix and sprinkled with nuts and seeds (see my main photo at the top of this post).
I based this substantially on a recipe I found in BBC Good Food, although it’s been adapted to my tastes in the usual ADK way.
Servings
This makes 20 squares.
Timings
25 mins to pick the berries, 15 mins to prepare and 30 mins to bake at 180C.
You Will Need
300g fresh blackberries
250g self-raising flour
25g oats
140g soft brown sugar
200g baking spread or margarine
75g desiccated coconut
2 eggs
a few handfuls of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and chopped nuts
Method
Wash the blackberries in a sieve under running water, and drain.
Turn the oven on to 180C. Grease and line a baking tray. Mine is 22cm square.
Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the oats, sugar and spread. Mix it all up with the fingers of both hands till it forms little clumps of crumble mixture. Remove about enough to fill a mug or small cup, and set aside.
Add the coconut to the bowl and stir in to mix, then add in the eggs. Stir to combine.
Scrape the mixture into the tray and spread out with a spatula so it meets all four sides. Spread the berries in a layer on top.
Next pick up the pieces of crumble that you set aside and dot them over the berries. Finally, sprinkle over a few handfuls of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and chopped nuts. Aim for an even and consistent spread of crumble and sprinkles across the whole of the traybake.
Bake for 30 mins or until done i.e. when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean with no wet mixture attached. Remove and allow to cool substantially in the warm tray, before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
When cool, cut into squares. Eat while fresh – they will all be gone within a day or two!
Customise It!
A large part of the fun of this dish is picking the blackberries, and then baking and eating them while they are so fresh. If you don’t have blackberry bushes to hand, however, you could still use other soft fruit, like raspberries or blueberries.
You can also vary the sprinkled topping to incorporate any particular faves. Next time I make this (and there will be more blackberries to come) I am tempted to add some broken up squares of white chocolate.
What music has been playing in the ADK Kitchen this week? Fear of Music, the great album by Talking Heads has been having a few plays, as I hadn’t heard it for a while. It really is a classic and I could choose many tracks to add to the Playlist. I’ll settle on this one, which I especially like for Tina Weymouth’s bassline – Cities by Talking Heads.
Summertime patty pan squashes are now starting to arrive in our farm shops and market stalls. They rarely feature on supermarket shelves, however, and consequently many of us are unsure how to prepare and cook with them.
My favourite method is to chop them into a roasting pan drizzled with olive oil, and place in the oven at 180C for about 20 mins. The chopped squash pieces sweeten and caramelise, and can then be used in a variety of dishes.
In this recipe, I have blended them with mashed kidney beans, tomatoes, onions and chilli in a stuffing for roasted peppers. The squash adds texture and sweetness. With the stuffed peppers emerging lightly charred from the oven, it all makes for a splendid looking vegetarian, and vegan, main, served with side veg of your choice.
Servings
4 adult servings.
Timings
20 mins to roast the squash before adding it to the rest of the stuffing mix. Then a further 25 mins to roast the filled peppers.
You Will Need
1 patty pan squash
2 peppers, red, orange or yellow
1 garlic clove
half an onion
1 medium red chilli
1 tsp ground cumin
half of 1 onion
1 400g can of kidney beans, drained and washed
1 440g can of chopped tomatoes
oil
seasalt and black pepper
a few handfuls of pumpkin seeds
Method
Peel the patty pan squash and chop roughly into pieces. Place on a roasting tray and drizzle with oil, then roast for 20 mins at 180C.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan, and add the garlic clove, crushed. Chop the chilli and onion and, as the oil begins to sizzle, add it to the pan with the ground cumin. Give it a stir and let it cook for a few minutes.
Roughly blitz the kidney beans in a food processor with blade fitted. Add to the pan with the chopped tomatoes. Give it all a few good twists of seasalt and ground black pepper. Stir to mix, and let it cook for 4 – 5 mins to reduce.
Chop the peppers down the middle to give four halves, and carefully trim out the seeds and white membrane from each, using a sharp knife. Brush the inside and outside of each half with a little oil.
When the patty pan squash is roasted and nicely caramelised, scrape the pieces in to the food processor and lightly blitz. Add to the kidney bean mixture and stir in.
Spoon the mixture into each half pepper, and press down with the back of the spoon to make sure the cavity is filled. Sprinkle a few pumpkin seeds on the top, and place back in the oven, still at 180C, for 25 mins.
Remove and serve with accompaniment of your choice.
Customise It!
As shown in the photo, mine are served with seasonal baby potatoes and sprouting broccoli, but feel free to serve up with other favourite veg or whatever veg you have to hand. Couscous or rice would also make a good side.
I must admit to having a bit of a laugh when I saw the photo I’d taken, at the top of the post. Due to a combination of the background and the lighting, it looks like the stuffed peppers are about to travel off into deep space. However, that isn’t the milky way behind them – it is a roasting tray, and the only place they are about to travel to is a hot oven in the ADK KItchen.
It has given me an idea for the next track for the Playlist, however. It’s a song from the great R.E.M., whose music I have enjoyed for many years, including seeing them play live twice. Here they are with Man on the Moon.
Slaws are very useful dishes this time of year. They’re quick to throw together, and can be made well in advance of mealtime. They can be left to rest in the fridge, their flavours infusing while you take it easy enjoying the sun with an aperitif. Using fresh ingredients means minimal processing and little, if any, cooking.
I like experimenting with different combinations of raw ingredients. This is one I made recently, that delivers a good tasty crunch with sticks of celeriac, chopped scallions (or spring onions, from the garden) and roasted wholemeal croutons. The mayo and white wine vinegar dressing is spiced up with a little Dijon mustard and fresh dill. This is complemented with fine silky slivers of cucumber that bring some cool respite on the tongue.
Fancy giving it a go?
Servings
Served as a side salad alongside a main (such as a quiche) and other side salads, this will be enough for 4 adults.
Timings
10 – 15 mins to prepare.
You Will Need
half a cucumber
1tbsp white wine vinegar
3 scallions
200g celeriac
100g slices of wholemeal bread
a handful of fresh dill
some olive or rapeseed oil
2 good tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
seasalt and ground black pepper
Method
Cut the cucumber lengthwise into cylinder shapes about 10 – 12 cm long, and then cut each into quarters lengthwise. Scrape out and discard the soft, squishy middle. Then, using a veg peeler, shave each piece of cucumber into long, thin ribbons. Place into a serving bowl.
Next, cut the rough, outer edges from the celeriac and discard. Cut the remaining flesh into matchstick size pieces about 3cm long. Add to the cucumber.
Cut the scallions into pieces the same length as the celeriac sticks, and add to the bowl.
Add the wine vinegar and chopped dill, giving it all a good stir to coat the salad ingredients.
Mix the mayo and mustard and add to the bowl. Add a few twists of salt and pepper. Give it another good stir to combine, and then place in the fridge till mealtime.
Finally, cut the slices of bread into cubes, drizzle with oil and roast, spread out on a tray for 5 mins at 180C. Allow to cool.
Just before serving, take the salad from the fridge and arrange the wholemeal croutons on top. Then serve.
Customise it!
Try to keep to the 3 core ingredients but, beyond this, feel free to experiment e.g. cider vinegar if you prefer, or different fresh herbs to replace the dill. Melt parmesan over the croutons while roasting, or add garlic to the dressing. The possibilities are nearly endless!
Next track for the ADK Playlist is a very catchy tune that’s been playing this week in the ADK Kitchen. It will get your toes tapping as you chop those scallions and celeriac sticks. This is The Wiseguys with Ooh La La.
This post sees seasonal summer berries, such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, generously packed into a cake muffin. The berries burst with joy as they bake, giving each muffin a unique, jammy appearance (as shown in my photo above) and a delicious, juicy, fruity taste.
It truly is food to put a smile on your face!
Servings
12 muffins.
Timings
15 mins to prepare, 25 mins to bake at 180C.
You Will Need
220g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
half tsp salt
110g caster sugar
1 egg
240ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
60g oats
150g fresh berries (such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or blackberries)
Method
Heat the oven to 180C. Prepare a muffin tin or mould for baking.
Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a bowl. Stir in the berries and ensure all are covered in the floury mix.
Break the egg into a second bowl and add the milk, veg oil and oats. Give it a good stir.
Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir till combined, with no dry ingredients showing. Spoon the batter into your mould or tin, and bake for 25 mins at 180C.
Allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Customise it!
Other berries or soft fruit can be substituted – but please keep it fresh and local, going with what is in season in your area.
I did say this was food to put a smile on your face, so let’s keep that theme going with our latest musical choice. A Rush of Blood to the Head is still my favourite album by Coldplay. They have done some terrific stuff since, but in my view they have never bettered it. Here’s one of the many great tracks from the album – God Put A Smile Upon Your Face.
A Different Kitchen 