Tag: Summer

Categories
Bakes Desserts

Summer Berry Burst Muffins

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

  1. Heat the oven to 180C. Prepare a muffin tin or mould for baking.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a bowl. Stir in the berries and ensure all are covered in the floury mix.
  3. Break the egg into a second bowl and add the milk, veg oil and oats. Give it a good stir.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

Categories
Bakes Mains

Leek, Bacon & Stilton Flan

It’s the time of year for quiche, eaten warm or cold while sitting on the patio in the summer sun. Perhaps enjoying a glass of fresh Elderflower over ice, or maybe even something stronger.

For me, leek, bacon and Stilton cheese is always a winning blend in a dish. The deep oniony taste of the silky, buttery leeks complements the saltiness of the bacon and the creaminess of the cheese. As my photo above (taken in the back garden sun) shows, the greeny blue hues of the toasted topped flan just make you want to tuck into a slice.

Serve this as a main accompanied by some side salads. If you need some ideas, check out Beetroot, Feta and Walnut Salad with Bulgar and Quinoa, Crunchy Fruit and Nut Pilaff, or Royal Blood Orange Salad.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

The whole process takes around an hour: 10 mins to make the pastry, 10 mins to chill, another 10 mins to blind bake the pastry base, and then 25 mins to bake the flan.

You Will Need

  • 225g plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 100g spread or margarine
  • 2 – 3 tbsp cold water
  • 2 leeks
  • a knob of butter
  • 3 slices of bacon
  • 100g Stilton cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 50g milk
  • a few twists of black pepper

Method

  1. Turn the oven to 180C. Grease and line a flan dish – the one I used (in the photo) is 22cm diameter.
  2. Sieve the flour and salt into a food processor with blade fitted, and add in the spread. Blitz until it resembles the texture of breadcrumbs. Add a few drops of the water until it binds into a lump of soft pastry.
  3. Tip out and wrap in cling film. Place in the fridge to chill for 10 mins.
  4. Meanwhile, wash the leeks and chop into a saucepan with the butter. Place over a gentle heat so that they soften in the melted butter.
  5. Chop the bacon into pieces and fry till browned and crispy.
  6. Take the pastry from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface to a size that fits your flan dish. Fit it into the dish and trim off any overhanging excess. Place a crumpled piece of baking paper inside and fill with ceramic baking beans. Place in the oven for 10 mins.
  7. Remove from the oven and discard the paper/ beans, taking care as they will be hot. Spread the softened leeks and bacon over the base, then crumble over the Stilton cheese.
  8. Mix the beaten eggs, milk and pepper in a jug, and pour carefully into the flan. Place in the oven for 25mins until cooked.
  9. Remove and serve hot, if you wish, or let it go cold. Serve it al fresco, with salads and cold drinks.

Customise it!

As I’ve said, I regard leek, bacon and Stilton as a classic taste combo, so wouldn’t change it. However, you could add other green veg for the leeks if you wish – broccoli would go well. You could also add grated cheddar or another favourite cheese, in place of the Stilton.

Music time. Here’s a song I really like from a new artist for the Playlist – Ladyhawke, with Black White and Blue. Maybe not quite the colours of my Leek, Bacon and Stilton Flan, but still a great track nonetheless!

Categories
Bakes Desserts Recipes

Plum & Almond Slices

This week I received a harvest of the first plums of the summer. They are plump, juicy and a magnificent purplish colour (see below). Isn’t nature wonderful – Artificial Intelligence (AI) can do more and more things nowadays, but it can’t produce these (yet).

I will return to the subject of AI in a few moments.

I decided to combine the plums with ground and flaked almonds in a traybake, cut into slices to have with a cup of tea or coffee, as shown in my main photo at the top of this post.

The slightly tart taste of these early plums complements the rich, velvety, amaretto-ish, marzipanny taste of the egg and almonds. Delish!

Servings

16 slices.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 30 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 125g self-raising flour
  • half tsp salt
  • 80g ground almonds
  • 170g baking spread or margarine
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp almond essence
  • 300g plums, de-stoned and chopped into rough pieces
  • a few handfuls of flaked almonds

Method

  1. Grease a baking tray and line it with baking paper. The one I used is 22cm square. Turn the oven on to warm up to 180C.
  2. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, and stir in the ground almonds.
  3. Combine the spread and sugar in a second bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add in the eggs and whisk, one at a time, and then the almond essence.
  4. Combine the contents of the two bowls and fold in.
  5. Spread a few spoonfuls of the cake mixture over the bottom of the baking dish and spread out so it is flat.
  6. Pour the plum pieces into the rest of the cake mixture in the bowl, and fold in. Add the plummy cake mix to the baking tray. Level it out with a spatula, then sprinkle the flaked almonds over. Press the flaked almonds down gently with the back of a fork, so that they adhere to the mixture.
  7. Bake for 30 mins at 180C. Then remove and allow to cool a little in the tin, before transferring to a wire rack.
  8. When completely cooled, cut into slices.

Customise It!

If you don’t have plums to hand, try other soft fruit, like cherries or berries.

Like me, you may have noticed that we are hearing more and more these days about the growth of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, and that it will be taking over more and more jobs and tasks that are carried out by humans.

Mmmm. I’ve been wondering whether AI could come up with a recipe such as Plum & Almond Slices, and then bake it? Would it seriously be bothered carefully trimming around the stones in a pile of plums with a sharp knife? And if so, would it lick the batter left on the spatula and in the bowl once its put the traybake in the oven? If not, it would be missing out on a special treat, and that certainly isn’t my definition of progress.

Turning to the ADK Playlist, I was intrigued to find out recently that I have a new, AI personalised DJ on Spotify. His name is Xavier and he presents a continuous stream of music curated from my listening over previous years, with new tracks that he thinks I may also like. If I want to skip a track, I just ask him and he moves on to introduce the next song.

He hasn’t completely mastered my tastes so far, but I am sure it is only a matter of time. Interestingly, I didn’t ask for him to start doing this – he just appeared one day on my app.

It reminded me of this track by Leftfield, called Machines Like Me, which contains the line Machines, they’re taking over. Maybe I’ll ask Xavier if he knows it.

Categories
Sides

Royal Blood Orange Salad

Now here’s a vibrantly coloured salad to liven up your patio table and get your summer lunch guests talking.

Slices of fresh orange are combined with wafer thin slivers of raw beetroot, in a sweet and sour dressing, topped with roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds infused with the taste of fennel.

The inspiration came from a chef I admire a lot, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. That deep shade of purpley-red that the fruit takes on from the beetroot juices (see my photo above) reminded me of blood oranges. As the music of Brighton duo, Royal Blood, was playing a lot in the ADK Kitchen when I was making this, I decided to call it my Royal Blood Orange Salad.

Still with me? Here’s how it’s made.

Servings

This is a side salad, rather than a main. Along with other salads as part of a summer lunch table, it will serve 4 people.

Timings

10 mins to chop and prepare, before leaving to marinate for 2 hours before serving. 15 mins to make the roasted seed topping, which is added just before serving.

You Will Need

  • 2 small beetroot, raw
  • 2 medium sized fresh oranges
  • 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp soft brown sugar
  • seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

For the roasted seed topping:

  • 2 tbsp fennel seeds
  • half tsp seasalt
  • 1 and a half tsp caster sugar
  • 40g pumpkin seeds
  • 40g sunflower seeds
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

Method

  1. Peel the outer skin from the beetroot. Using a vegetable peeler, cut the beetroot into wafer thin slivers.
  2. Trim the top and bottom off each orange. Then, standing each orange on a chopping board, trim off the skin and pith, leaving a fleshy orange ball. Cut horizontally into slices about 1cm thick.
  3. Put the beetroot and orange in a bowl and add the white wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss to combine, and place in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.
  4. Meanwhile, prepare the seed topping. Begin by pre-heating the oven to 180C.
  5. Using a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds, salt and sugar to a fine powder. Then place the powder in a bowl with the pumpkin and sunflower seeds, oil and 1 tbsp water, and stir to combine.
  6. Line an oven tray with baking paper, and spread the seed mix out upon it. Place in the oven for about 8 mins.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  8. Remove the marinated orange and beetroot from the fridge, giving it a gentle stir. Sprinkle the cooled seed mix over and serve.

Customise It!

Mmm, an interesting one! There’s quite a delicate mix of flavours and colours in here, so I’m wary of messing too much with it. There is something faintly oriental about the sweet and sour dressing, so the next time I make this I think I will try Chinese 5 spice in place of the fennel seeds and see how that goes.

The roasted seed mix I really liked, so much so that I kept some for snacking on (see my photo below). It was also great as a topping sprinkled over muesli at breakfast time.

I was experimenting with this salad in the days before seeing Muse at Milton Keynes Bowl (see Hysteria for more). Royal Blood were supporting Muse at the concert, and I was playing their music in the ADK Kitchen in preparation for seeing them live.

They were great to see, and went down very well with the 65,000 crowd. I was particularly interested to see if and how Mike Kerr could reproduce that distinctive sound when playing live. If you haven’t heard them, he manages to draw a very expansive range from one bass guitar, making it sound like he is playing two or more guitars. I noticed he was making a lot of use of foot pedals to achieve distortion. Incredibly, he could produce chords by simply banging the frame of the guitar with his fist, without touching any of the strings.

Royal Blood are popular, well regarded and critically acclaimed. It is very much deserved. Here they are with Boilermaker.

Categories
Desserts Recipes

Eton Rifles Mess

“Sup up your beer and collect your fags,
There’s a pick your own farm down near Slough….“

Ok, well maybe those aren’t quite the opening lyrics of the classic song written by Paul Weller, The Eton Rifles. However, this time of year means strawberries in the fields, summer days spent picking the juiciest and ripest to fill your punnet, and making them into that seasonal classic dessert, Eton Mess.

This dish originated at Eton College in the 1930s, and consists of broken meringue pieces, chopped strawberries and whipped cream. However you combine them, in my experience, they always end up looking a bit of a mess, hence the name (my main photo above is a case in point, though please note the sprig of fresh mint strategically positioned for artistic effect).

“Get out your mat and pray to the west,
I’ll be in the kitchen making Eton Mess…

That also may not be a totally accurate quote from the song. However, for me, this dish always brings to mind The Jam’s classic track about class hierarchy perpetuated by old public schools.

Ready to tear down the House of Commons in your brand new shoes? No? Settle for making some nice meringues?

Here’s how to make Eton Mess.

Servings

This should give you dessert for 4 people.

Timings

The meringues take 1 hr 30 mins to bake, during which time you can prepare the cream and strawberries. Once the meringues cool, it will then take seconds to combine.

You Will Need

  • 3 egg whites
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 100ml double cream
  • a 250g punnet of fresh strawberries

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 150C.
  2. In a clean bowl, whisk up the egg whites with an electric mixer till they form silky, white peaks.
  3. Add the sugar in spoonfuls at a time, whisking again after each one until all the sugar has been combined.
  4. Line a baking tray with baking paper, and drop the meringue mix on to it in dollops. You should get around 10 meringues.
  5. Place in the warmed oven for around 1 hr 30 mins, till golden. Leave to cool. They will be crispy on the outside, and slightly chewy at the centre.
  6. In a separate bowl, whisk the double cream until thick.
  7. Chop the strawberries.
  8. Crush the meringues into pieces, and mix with the strawberries and cream to make a right old mess.
  9. Place in the fridge until serving.

Customise it!

It is possible to add other summer berries, like blueberries, if you wish. You could also try mixing mascarpone in place of the double cream.

No surprises as to choice of track for the ADK Playlist. This is The Jam with The Eton Rifles.

Categories
Blog

Here Comes the Summer!

We’ve been enjoying a sustained period of warm and sunny weather in the UK recently, and my normal routine has adapted accordingly.

Foodwise, the gas barbecue has been in action in the back garden. I jointed up a chicken and prepared it in a couple of different ways.

The breast meat I diced and marinaded in the Qatari spices I bought at the Souq Waqif in Doha, on my trip there a few months back. After several hours in the fridge, I threaded the pieces on to skewers with slices of red pepper and courgette – see my main photo above.

The Qatari spices have been a reliably good blend that hasn’t disappointed – the meat is turned a golden yellow (which I guess must be the turmeric), and it delivers a spicy yet subtle kick.

It was also great cold the next day, sliced in a sesame bagel with mayo and salad from the garden.

I slashed the thighs and drumsticks with a sharp knife and coated them in a Mississippi Spice Rub I was given as a present. These I am allowing to cool, before taking off the bone for use in a salad.

Musicwise, I have some outdoor concerts coming up that I am really excited about, as they feature some of my favourite bands. First up next week is the Arctic Monkeys, and then Muse at the end of the month. More about these in upcoming posts.

My daytime exercise regime has moved primarily from indoor gym and yoga to outdoor swimming. The Club I belong to has a heated open air pool, with terrace and cafe bar, that is a great resource this time of year. On weeknight evenings I play bowls in the local leagues. Now it’s June, there is sufficient light for us to play until around 9pm, before both teams adjourn to the pavilion for drinks and chit chat.

Whatever you get up to, make the most of summer! Enjoy this feelgood track from The Undertones – Here Comes the Summer.

Categories
Blog Drinks

Prickly Moses

As a foodblogger travelling around Australia, I have made it my mission to seek out and sample a range of local craft beers along the way. I know – an onerous responsibility, but you’re welcome. Don’t mention it.

In recent years, craft beer has really taken off in the UK, and one of the pleasures of travelling around the British regions is tasting the different brews being produced by local independents. It appears that the craft beer market is, at the very least, equally as buoyant in Australia.

On my first (post-jet lag) day in Melbourne, I stumbled upon Dan Murphy’s bottleshop (as they call it here) in Prahan, and went in to ask if they stocked any local craft beers. I was escorted to one entire wall of the store, lined with refrigerators all stocking local craft brews – see my photo below.

From then on it has been a similar story everywhere. Each town and region has its own incredible range.

A good example is the Great Ocean Road Brewhouse – a vast warehouse devoted to regional craft beer. It is in Apollo Bay, a golden-beached seaside resort on the Victoria state coast. Here’s a photo below.

Some friends had invited us for drinks and pasta at their beach house, and I wanted to find some good local beers to take along. The choice was bewildering, but with the aid of some recommendations from the staff, I settled on the Prickly Moses beers shown in my main photo, at the top of this post.

Prickly Moses is a generic name that covers a number of hardy, cactus-like shrubs that grow in Australia’s hot climate. The name has been adopted by a craft brewery in Barongarook , Victoria. In keeping with the prickly theme, their logo is an Echidna, a mammal native to Australia akin to a kind of cute hedgehog (and which, incidentally, we have already seen at least a couple of times in the wild).

As the photo shows, my selection included a good variety, from golden summer ale, red ale, IPA, organic pilsner and low alcohol. Every one tasted crisp and fresh, and went down well with the punters on the sun deck, overlooking the bay. These are probably my favourites tasted so far, based on consistency of quality across a variety of beer types.

A close second is this IPA from Port Phillip on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, which had just the right combo of colour, depth, strength and hoppy taste (see below).

This one probably tasted special as it became a regular accompaniment to barbecuing in the garden, in the evening sun!

It would be impossible to review every beer from the 740-odd craft breweries in Australia, but I hope this will at least give you, um, a taste.

The next track for the ADK Playlist, from an Australian band, was suggested to me at the drinks and pasta party. These are The Veronicas, originally from Brisbane, with Untouched.

Categories
Blog Desserts Snacks

Take Me to the Beach

We spent the long bank holiday weekend by the beach at Branksome. The weather is still great here, and it was easy to swim in the sea each day. On the final day the breaking surf was a little too choppy for my liking, so I settled for going in knee high, and a barefoot run along the shore, stepping and splashing through the lapping waves.

One of the many pleasures in a trip to the beach is an ice cream from the kiosk. On this occasion, I noticed that they were stocking the new Vegan Magnum, and decided to give it a try. It’s a dairy-free version of the legendary ice cream on a stick. I’m not vegan, but I am always open to trying new foods and have enjoyed a number of vegan desserts in the past.

I wasn’t sure what to expect – the Magnum I consider to be no less than a modern design classic, and I did wonder if messing around with its ingredients may turn out to be a disaster. I was thinking of what happened when Coca Cola decided to update a famous soft drink that everyone had grown up loving, only to have to yield to popular opinion and go back to making it by the original recipe.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, it is quite difficult to point out the differences in a blind taste. The Vegan version still has a delicate chocolate couverture, made from coconut oil and cocoa butter, that fragments indulgently as you bite into it. The underlying ice cream, made from pea protein with vanilla, is sweet and velvety, and not at all (as I had feared) unduly coconut tasting. The only real difference I could pinpoint is slightly less richness to the creamy taste, but not in any way that would put me off buying another.

Dairy-free alternatives to foods have been growing in popularity for some time. A relevant factor in this is concern about the contribution made by the livestock industry to climate warming, and consumption of water at a time of increasing drought. Many believe a vegan diet brings health benefits and is kinder to animals.

What is clear is that anyone who is vegan can now enjoy a Magnum when they visit the beach, a theme park or go on any other great day out: a wonderful contribution to the cause of equality of opportunity.

I’m hoping there will yet be a few more trips to the beach before the summer is through. That will probably mean a few more Vegan Magnums to come, as I make the most of our Pure Shores.

Take Me to the Beach!

Categories
Desserts Recipes

Heatwave

There seems to be no sign of our UK summer heatwave relenting: new record temperatures, and forecast to stay very hot again this weekend. On top of that, we are now (in my region) officially in drought, so alongside all the good advice we’re getting to plan ahead, stay out of the sun, drink water etc, we are now instructed not to use hosepipes for watering gardens and washing cars, to protect our river levels. All very sensible, of course.

Now I have some good advice of my own to impart: make strawberry ice cream.

There you go – some practical, free public health guidance that I am pretty certain you will not be receiving from any official government agency. Don’t mention it – you’re welcome.

To enjoy the cooling effects, just follow the steps below.

Servings

This will make around 1kg, so usually enough for 9-10 servings.

Timings

15 mins prep and 35 mins churning.

You Will Need

  • an electric ice cream maker
  • 400g fresh strawberries
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 220g granulated sugar
  • 220ml full fat milk
  • 400ml double cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

  1. Ensure the drum of the ice cream maker is completely frozen. I leave mine in the freezer for 24 hours before making.
  2. Chop the strawberries and combine in a bowl with the lemon juice and 70g of the sugar. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
  3. Remove from the fridge and strain through a sieve, saving the pink liquid. Mash half the strawberries and mix with the liquid, keeping the other half aside.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and the rest of the sugar. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved, and then stir in the mashed strawberries and vanilla extract. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
  5. Remove from the fridge and pour into the drum of the ice cream maker. Proceed to churn for 35 mins. Add the remaining chopped strawbs during the last 5 mins of churning.
  6. Switch off, and scrape into a plastic container. Seal and place in the freezer to set for at least 2 hours.
  7. Place 2-3 scoops in a bowl, serve with a piece of shortbread if you like.

    Find a shady spot and enjoy – ideally with this seasonal track from The Jam on your headphones.
Categories
Mains Recipes

Light My Fire

It’s the season of outdoor cooking, so why not crack open a beer or soft drink and get some skewers roasting on the barbecue?

Mine shown in the photo are made from 5 marinaded chicken breasts cut into chunks, one red pepper and one courgette sliced. The marinade ingredients were a crushed clove of garlic, a finely sliced chilli, some chopped root ginger, a handful of fresh coriander leaves, juice of a lemon, a grind of seasalt, a twist of black pepper, a dollop of olive oil and a squidge of tomato puree to give it some colour. I left the marinading meat in the fridge for about 18 hours in a tight lidded casserole dish. Be warned that an impatient lifting of the lid will release an incredible aroma that will have you salivating and invoke an instant craving for hot food!

I threaded the meat and veg on to 8 wooden skewers about an hour before cooking. The skewers had been soaked in water for about an hour to stop the exposed ends from burning up in the heat. Use a basting brush to coat the slices of veg with the residue of the marinade so that they cook nicely rather than burn.

About 15 – 20 mins on the barbecue should do it, turning the skewers every so often so they cook evenly all over. Serve up with salads plus aforementioned soft drink or beer.

After exploring a few options for a track to add to the ADK Playlist with this post, I’ve settled on this classic from the Doors. To any fans of the Prodigy who may be following, all I’ll say is it was a close-run thing, and I guarantee there will be at least one more bbq-related post for you before the summer is out!