Blackcurrant Jam

 It's been a great year so far for fruit and veg ( not the potatoes so much ) and Sam has a little blackcurrant bush in his garden that has consistently refused to fruit.... this was his year ... HURRAH, now, there weren't loads of them, but enough to get me thinking to make some jam.

In my hurry to make said jam I unfortunately forgot to take any photos of the before and after but suffice to say , this is the easiest jam recipe ever, naturally high in pectin they don't really need specialist sugar. 

I used jam sugar as I had loads but it meant that the jam was ready in half the time. 

Ingredients

380g Washed Blackcurrants

380ml Water

480g Sugar ( I used Jam Sugar )

These measurements made me one large and one smaller jar of jam.

In a large sturdy pan, slowly simmer the fruit and water until slightly syrupy - around five minutes should do it. 

Add the sugar and stir until all dissolved, once the sugar is dissolved turn the heat up to a rolling boil ( not too fierce ) stirring occasionally until jam is set.

Now, usually I put a couple of saucers in the freezer to test the setting point but I could see after ten minutes that the jam was setting on the back of my wooden spoon, at this point I ladled it into sterilized jars and popped on the lid.

I don't use waxed papers as I try to fill my pots right up to the very top and place the lids on straight away - watching not to burn my fingers. It's always worked for me and as the jam is so hot it creates the perfect vacuum seal. 

I store any jam in a dark cupboard and it will last for at the very least a couple of years......if Mr Deb didn't snaffle so much on his toast!

Tuna Pasta Salad

 

It's hot here in Wales - and I mean ... hot !! Unusual for us as we get a lot of rain here and pretty inclement weather. I'm not sure what I had planned for dinner this evening but any idea went out of the window when I settled on a nice crunchy salad.

Honestly you can put whatever you like in this salad but here are the bones of a decent tuna pasta salad.

Ingredients

300g Dry Weight Pasta

2 Large Spring Onions Finely Sliced

1 Cup Tinned Sweetcorn

1 Finely Diced Red Pepper

1 Cup Fresh Peas

1 100g Tin No Drain Tuna

1 Cup Greek Yogurt

1/2 Cup Mayonnaise

1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard

Salt and Pepper

Cook pasta as per instructions and once just cooked stop cooking by draining and plunging into very cold water, drain very thoroughly and add to vegetables in large bowl.Add flaked tuna and stir to mix.

Mix mayonnaise, mustard, yogurt, salt and pepper to make a nice creamy dressing and coat all the pasta and vegetables. 

Chill and serve - simple but delicious.

So many things that you can add to this, chopped red onion, chopped cucumber, gherkins, olives, tomatoes, celery, radishes ... really anything that you have available in the fridge, it makes a great fridge last minute dinner.

Allotment Swede.....

 As promised the lovely swede from the allotment, cleaned and chopped, blanched and frozen - ready for the winter !

Huge swede that honestly thrived on neglect as I popped them into the ground and didn't do much else other than water occasionally .

French Green Lentils With Sausages

 

I remember so well on our first family holiday to France way back in the early 1990's, shopping in the ( always ) fabulous supermarkets, drooling at the lovely fresh produce and buying my first tin of sausages and lentils. I didn't quite know what to expect as this was something that we certainly didn't experience in the UK. What I didn't expect was for it to be so tasty.... as a home cook to a large family, I didn't really use a lot of pre prepared food - way too expensive - but on a camping holiday in parts unknown anything goes right? May be worth mentioning the lovely family from Essex camping behind us that - too late - made 'beefburgers ' from horse mince ... pet mince at that ....

I had a go at making my own version of this classic French recipe many years later - I think it may have been a James Martin recipe but it was time to revisit this lovely dish and give it another go.

Now there are lots of recipes out there but I knew roughly the flavour that I wanted so I settled for this recipe with a couple of little tweaks of course. 

Ingredients

Soak these a good half an hour before cooking the dish

2 Cups Puy Lentils

2 Cups Water

For the Dish 

2 Onions Finely Chopped

4 Fat Cloves Garlic Finely Chopped

2 Carrots Roughly Chopped

1 Leek Sliced Thinly

25g Good Butter

4 Fat Sausages ( I used nice firm Butchers Sausages but whatever you like )

2 Cups Vegetable of Chicken Stock

2 Cups Water

2 Bayleaves

2 Teaspoons Dried Thyme

2 Large sprigs Fresh Rosemary or 1 Teaspoon Dried

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

Salt and Pepper

Handful Flat Leaf Parsley chopped to finish

Soak lentils in the water for approx 30 minutes and then rinse and drain.

In a large flameproof pot, heat the butter and gently fry the onions and garlic until softened.

Add the carrot and leek and cook for a couple of minutes.

I cooked my sausages for about 20 minutes in the oven until cooked through at this stage and then sliced but you can pop these in whole - I just like them cooked through first.

Add everything else to the pot apart from the parsley, salt and pepper and bring the temperature up to a boil, turn right down cover and cook for approx 40 minutes or until the lentils are soft and buttery.

Add any further stock or water to give you the desired consistency, add salt and pepper to taste and serve with crusty bread

Celery ........Onions.....Swede....

 It's that time on the allotment that I start to actually harvest the long awaited veg..... I have to wonder why I always plant a whole row of things that I then forget that I have to store somehow. Celery is something that I use a lot (onions and garlic are always needed ) but I have a whole row of mahoosive swede that I now have to blanch and freeze .... and we eat it once in a blue moon ..... photo to follow.....

Only another ten of these to pull up.

And a hundred more of these...

Lemon Drizzle Cake

 I've been making this cake for a good few years now and it's really reliable, so quick to make and it's always deliciously lemmony. It really is a - throw it all in a bowl and bake- type recipe, it couldn't be easier.

Ingredients 

• 175g caster sugar
• 175g self-raising flour
• 175g softened butter
• 3 eggs, beaten
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• ¾ level tsp baking powder
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  

For the lemon drizzle 

• 100g granulated sugar
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 
  
  
  

Pre heat the oven to 180C / 160 Fan Gas Mark 4

Butter your cake tin, I always use a square tin as it makes it easier to portion when baked.

Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk until creamy and smooth

Pour into buttered tin and bake in the centre of the oven for approx 40 minutes until still springy and cooked through.

While the cake is cooking prepare the drizzle, simply add all the lemon juice to the sugar and give it a good stir.

Take cake out from the oven and ( I use a bamboo skewer ) poke lots of little holes into the cake, gently spoon over the drizzle and let it soak into the cake. 

Leave to cool and then cut into chunks.

This is lovely served slightly warmed and although it will last a few days , it's mostly eaten in 2 or 3. 

Can be frozen if well wrapped. 

Shepherds ( Cottage ) Pie

 Growing up we always called this shepherds pie - I don't ever recall it being made with lamb although my grandmother always used minced up left over roast meat ( lamb or beef ) from the Sunday roast rather than minced meat from the butchers. Nowadays it's shepherds pie ( lamb  ) or cottage pie ( beef ) but as I say it will always be shepherds pie to me.

Probably favoured by older generations as it's quite an old fashioned meal, this is still very well received each time I make it. It's a winter type dish as it's pretty heavy and warming - delicious...

Serves 4 ( maybe 6 )

Ingredients

500g Lean Minced Beef Steak

1 1/2 k Good Red Potatoes

2 Large Onions roughly chopped

4 Cloves Garlic finely chopped

3 Large Carrots chopped into large rounds

3 Sticks Celery medium chopped

1 Red Chilli finely chopped

Cup Frozen Peas

Good Shake Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 Cup Mushroom Ketchup

2 Beef stock pots

2 Bayleaves

1 Dessertspoon dried mixed herbs

1 Tablespoon Tomato paste

Thickening cornflour or granules, whatever you use

Olive oil

Butter and milk for mash

Salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large flameproof pot ( with lid if possible ) and gently fry onion and garlic until slightly golden but not brown ... about 10 minutes...add chilli and beef and keep stirring until beef is no longer pink.

This takes about 10 minutes, once the beef is no longer pink everything else apart from the peas can just go in, no need to be precious here as its all going to cook for another 2 hours anyway, cover with water, bring up to the boil, take the temperature right down to a slow bubble and pop the lid on. Give it a nice stir every half an hour and add any water if it gets too dry, you want it to have plenty of gravy to serve with the finished dish so don't skimp on the stock here.

After a couple of hours bubbling gently away, add the peas and thicken , adjust seasoning to taste and then leave to cool a little.

Once it is a little cooler, using a slotted spoon, spoon all the meat and a little of the gravy into a nice big pie dish saving the gravy for heating up to serve with the pie.

Top with mashed potato and bake in a hot oven for about half an hour or until the top is nice and golden anywhere between half and hour and 45 minutes should do it depending on your oven.

Serve with veg of choice, I always like green veg in season and a good splosh of gravy.