Spicy Peach Chutney

Posted by Rosie

Our lovely neighbour, Bernadette, stopped me on the way back from the school bus-stop a few days ago and asked it I would like some peaches.  She has 2 peach trees growing on south-facing walls in her yard and they have fruited really well for the last couple of years.  The peaches are only the size of apricots and not as sweet as larger ones grown in the warmer south so they really need cooking rather than eating raw.   Once picked they do not keep well, so I needed to come up with something quickly, otherwise the pigs would be eating our bag of peaches!

Last year when she gave us a bag I came up with the idea of making a chutney based on a mango chutney recipe.  We all love mango chutney but we are unable to grow mangoes here (obviously!) and it is very expensive and difficult to buy locally.

 

Spicy Peach Chutney

Ingredients

• 1.5kgs peaches – roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• 5cm piece fresh root ginger, grated or chopped finely
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp black onion seeds
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 large red chilli finely sliced.  Remove the seeds for a less spicy chutney
• 500ml water
• 375ml white wine vinegar
• 400g caster sugar
• 1 tsp salt 

Makes 4-5 x 500g jars

 

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large thick bottomed pan, add the onion and fry for a few minutes until soft.
2. Stir in the ginger and cook, stirring frequently, for about 8-10 mins until the onion is golden.
3. Add all of the spices, except the turmeric, and fry for 1 min.
4. Stir in the turmeric and chilli, lemon juice and chopped peaches.
5. Pour in the water and vinegar, add the sugar and salt, then cover and simmer gently for 30 mins.
6. Take off the lid and leave to simmer uncovered for 30-45 mins until the mixture has thickened. You will need to stir it from time to time to stop it catching the bottom of the pan.
7. It is ready when a wooden spoon drawn across the chutney leaves a trail that only gradually fills back up.
8. Spoon into hot, sterilised jars and add lids whilst hot. 

As with most chutneys, the flavour improves with keeping, so store in a cool, dark place for a month before trying.  I also see no reason why this recipe would not work with nectarines or even plums, although with zero plums on our tree this year I will not be making any plum chutney this year!

Freestones and Clingstones

Did you know that peaches and nectarines have 2 distinct types of stone in them?  Sometimes when you eat one you will see that the stone comes away easily and cleanly from the flesh.  That is a freestone peach/nectarine. Other times the flesh clings firmly onto the stone in which case it is classed as a clingstone!  I learnt that on University Challenge! 

For more food ideas why not have a look at some of these linkies: TastyTuesdays, Recipe of the Week and #NoWasteFoodChallenge

#NoWasteFoodChallenge

#NoWasteFoodChallenge

 

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Posted by Rosie

The Season of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness (To Autumn by Keats) gives us bountiful harvests and whilst we preserve some for use later in the year some does get eaten straight away.  Our apple harvest, as you may have read a couple of weeks ago, was dire and even those apples we did harvest are not storing.  In comparison the blackberry harvest is fantastic this year.  Time therefore, to adapt as apple cake recipe to make use of what we have.  Time for blackberry and apple cake:

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Ingredients

• 75g/3oz butter
• 150g/6oz sugar
• 225/8oz self-raising flour
• 350g/12oz cooking or eating apples - peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp milk
• 125g/5oz blackberries
• 1tbsp extra sugar for dusting

Method

1.  Grease and line a cake tin (22cm x 18cm - 9" x 7")
2.  Cream together the butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy
3.  Mix 1tbsp of flour with the apple cubes (this will help them not to sink in the cake)
4.  Mix together the beaten eggs and milk and add to the creamed mixture (a little of the flour added at the same time will help prevent the mixture curdling)
5. Add the remaining flour and apples cubes and carefully mix together
6. Spread the mixture into the lined cake tin
7.  Dot the blackberries evenly on the surface and gently press into the mixture
8.  Sprinkle with the remaining sugar 
9.  Bake at Gas Mark 4, 180ºC, 350ºF for 40 mins until golden brown

This cake is lovely served cold for a teatime treat or hot as a dessert with a good dollop of cream!

For more blackberry inspiration have a look at this other post I have written - 10 brilliant blackberry recipes. 

#NoWasteFoodChallenge

#NoWasteFoodChallenge

 

Marrow and Ginger Jam

Posted by Rosie

If you grow courgettes or you know some-one who grows courgettes, sooner or later you will find you have either a courgette that got away and turned into a marrow or a marrow or 3 will be given to you by friends who have suffered the same fate.  Worse still you may even grow marrows and soon you may well find yourself drowning in them.

The courgette that grew up to be a marrow

What can you make with an excess of marrow?

Some people apparently like it lightly steamed (not my favourite I have to confess)
Various marrow chutney recipes are possible
Stuffed with mince or spiced vegetables makes a tasty meal.

Or, for something a bit different, I suggest Marrow and Ginger Jam.  It may seem odd to be making jam from a marrow but I can assure when mixed with the sugar and the ginger it makes a really tasty preserve.

Marrow and Ginger Jam

 

Ingredients

• 450g/1lb marrow (weighed after peeling) - cut into small cubes
• 450g/1lb sugar
• 1tsp ground ginger or 1-2oz crystallized ginger, chopped finely
• Juice 1 large lemon 

Method

1. Sprinkle the sugar over the marrow, cover and let it stand overnight in a cool place.
2. The next day put the sugar and marrow in a preserving or large pan and warm gently until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Add the ginger and lemon juice then boil steadily until the cubes look transparent and the syrup has reached setting point.*
4. Pour into hot, sterilised jam jars and cover at once.

* to check if the syrup has set place some thinly on a cold plate.  Allow it to cool and then push it gently with your finger. If a skin has formed on the syrup that crinkles up slightly when you push it then setting point has been reached.  If not continue to boil until you do reach setting point.

Occasionally my syrup won't set.  Don't worry if this happens to you.  If this is the case simply call it marrow and ginger sauce and eat it with ice cream, pancakes etc.

Marrow and Ginger Jam

Do you have any favourite marrow recipes?  I have made jam so I could do with some meal ideas now.  Thank you!

Chilli Courgette Pickle

Posted by Rosie

Being an expat there are always a few things you miss from home.  Take Branston Pickle.  Now we can get Branston Pickle when we go back to the UK and we can buy it from the English section of the local supermarket if we are prepared to pay an exorbitant price but really we needed to find something that we liked as much as Branston and also hopefully used some ingredients we often have an excess of.   Enter my friend J with her hot chilli courgette pickle recipe.  It has a similar texture to Branston and a taste not too unlike it, although quite a bit  hotter which we like, and perhaps most importantly,  it helps use up the annual courgette glut.

Chilli Courgette Pickle

Ingredients

• 2.7kg/6lb Courgette finely- a mixture of yellow and green courgettes give a nice colour to the pickle
• 85g/3oz salt
• 425g/1lb Onions finely diced
• 3 hot chillies very finely diced with seeds (more if you like things really hot)
• 1litre/2 pts cider vinegar
• 500g/1lb 2 oz dark brown sugar 
•  225g/8oz Demerara sugar
• 3tsp Turmeric
• 3tsp dry mustard powder
• 30g/1.5oz cornflour

Diced courgettes

Method

Makes 6 x 425g/1lb jars

1. Steep courgette in the salt for 3hrs

2.  Rinse the courgettes well and drain in a tea towel/muslin in a colander or in  a jelly bag overnight.   

3.  When fully drained boil up the courgettes with the rest of ingredients (except sugar and cornflour) until the vegetables are just soft.

4.  Add the sugar and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

5.  Mix the cornflour with a little cold water, add to the pickle and then boil to thicken, stirring to stop it sticking.

6.  Pour into hot sterilised jars and put the lids on when hot.

Chilli Courgette Pickle ready to pot up

Leave the pickle for a month to allow the favours to develop and then enjoy!

Tom and I particularly love this pickle - it's great with so many things including cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs, curries and salads.

Chilli courgette pickle

Do you have a favourite pickle or courgette recipe?  Please do let us know about it if you do.  We still have a lot of courgettes to get through!

Linking up with lots of food linkies including TastyTuesday, Recipe of the Week and #FoodieTuesday

 

Pavlova

Posted by Rosie

Pavlova is quite possibly my favourite summertime dessert and one that is loved by all of us here at Eco-Gites of Lenault.  It is also the dessert option I offer guests when I make supper for them and it has always gone down very well.  So well in fact that I am often asked for the recipe.  For all those of you therefore who would like to recreate my pavolva at home, here in the recipe.  

(Alternatively you could always come for a holiday here and I will make one for you!!)

 

Ingredients

Serves 6

3 egg whites
175g caster sugar
Crème Fraîche
Fruit - either fresh, tinned, stewed or bottled

Method

1. First ensure that all the bowls and utensils you use to make the meringue are scrupulously clean. Any trace of fat will stop the meringue forming properly.
2. Carefully separate the egg whites ensuring no egg yolk gets in with the white.
3. Use an electric whisk to beat the whites until they form soft peaks and the whisk leaves a trail when run through the mixture.
4. Add half the sugar and fold in, then beat again at full speed until the mixture becomes glossy and soft peaks are again formed.
5. Add the remaining sugar and carefully fold it in.  Do not whisk any more.
6. Place the mixture on a baking tray lined with a silicone sheet or rice paper (not greaseproof paper or the meringue will stick) and form into a nest shape.
7. Bake at 120ºC/Gas Mark ½/250ºF for between 1 and 1½ hours.  For a stickier centre bake for the shorter time.
8. Remove from the oven and cool a little before placing carefully on a wire cooling rack.
9. Just before serving assemble the pavlova:  Add a generous amount of crème fraîche into the nest and then top with the fruit of your choice.

Serve as soon as possible.

Pavlova

I tend to make a bit more meringue mixture and bake some individual meringues at the same time. These will keep well in an airtight tine for several days (so long as no-one finds them!) and can be served as a quick dessert later in the week with fruit and yoghurt.

Do you make pavlova or do you have a favourite cream/fruit combination you really like? 

Linking up with lots of food linkies including TastyTuesday, Recipe of the Week and #FoodieTuesday

Grated Beetroot Salad

Posted by Rosie

This Spring I struggled to get some seeds to germinate including beetroot.  I got there in the end and have plenty of small beetroots now happily growing in the veg patch but it will be a while before they are large enough to harvest.  I did sow some early in the polytunnel and these are large enough pull now but there are just not many of them.  (Note to self - sow more beetroot in the polytunnel next Spring!).

So what could I do with a few beetroots on what was probably the hottest day of the year so far?  Not enough for beetroot relish (my favourite) or pickled beetroot and it was too hot for beetroot soup (Simon's favourite) or roasted beetroot.   In fact I really did not want to cook at all.  No - we needed a salad.  Then I remembered a recipe I had seen in a gardening magazine years ago for grated beetroot salad.  A quick check in my recipe folder showed I had all the ingredients so grated beetroot salad it was.

Ingredients

2 raw beetroot, peeled and grated
1 eating apple, peeled and grated
4oz/100g sultanas or raisins
1tbsp/15ml fresh mint, chopped
2 tbsp/30ml sunflower oil
Juice of 1 lemon or lime

Method

Mix together all the ingredients, stirring well.
Serve!

It really is that simple!

This salad can also be made a day in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. In fact we think it improves with keeping.

Grated beetroot salad

Do you have a favourite beetroot recipe?  Please do share because if my late sown beetroots come good we are going to have A LOT of beetroot to eat!  Linking with Tasty Tuesday, What's The Story, ExtraVeg and #FoodieTuesday