Parkin

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups demerara sugar
• 2 cups oatmeal or porridge oats
• 1/2lb (225g) margarine
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2-4 tsp ginger according to taste (I like it spicy)
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tsp black treacle

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Melt the margarine, treacle, sugar and milk in a dish in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Sieve the flour, ginger, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda.

Stir in the oatmeal, and the margarine mix which was heated up and mix well together.

Bake in a grease lined square tin for 45 mins.  

Best served with a good slice of mature cheddar on top, yes honest, just try it ;)

Steak & Kidney pie

• 750g steak cut into small chunks (I buy whatever is on offer or reduced at ASDA, today was rump and casserole)
• 1 pack lambs kidney, cut into pieces and nasty white bits thrown out
• 8 good sized mushrooms cut into chunks
• 2 large onions, chunked ;)
• 200ml guiness
• 2 Knorr beef stock pot
• 300ml hot water
• 2 oxo cubes, gravy granules
• Few splashes of worcester sauce
• Sheet of puff pastry cut into triangles or circles, brushed with milk
• pinch dried thyme, salt and pepper

Heat oven to 160-170 degrees C.

Put the raw steak, kidney, mushrooms and onions in a casserole dish (that has a lid) and mix together, add 200ml guinness (or about half the pot) and the mix the beef stock and hot water and add to pot as well.

Season with worcester sauce, thyme and salt and pepper.

Put in oven for as long as possible, I try and do it for about 2.5-3hrs.  Half way through I take out and add the two oxo cubes and stir, then 15mins before serving take out of oven and put puff pastry in (turn oven up to 200), put casserole on hob and boil to thicken the gravy and use gravy granules if still not thick enough.

Serve with rustic chips and green veg.

Garden week of 30th August

Tomatoes are all grown but are struggling to ripen in the weather, but the ones which have ripened have been lovely.

Had a multitude of cucumbers, not very impressed with the gherkin variety, they grew very large and were prickly, but the cucino smooth ones were lovely.

Still waiting to see any fruit from the Tomatillo or Aubergine but the Cape Gooseberries are showing signs but very small.

Had some great sucess with the onions grown from sets. Ended up with over 50 of them, they were put out to dry in the garage and then bagged up ready for use.

Have had a glut of courgettes and runner beans, the courgettes I have used in as many different recipes as possible which you can find on the site and the runner beans I pick and then put in water to make them crisp (thanks Mum!), then use the bean slicer and chop them up smaller, put in a zip lock bag and freeze to use whenever.

The carrots are starting to come through and we have had a good harvest of potatoes. I am now starting to plan for the winter months, putting sun tunnels over the back two beds to ensure I can produce over the wintertime. I still have kale producing, broccoli, sprouts and cabbage, had some great cauliflowers this year and got leeks, turnips, swede, parsnips and carrots to come - winter veg is mainly going to be cabbage, salad, beans, beetroot and turnip.

Ravioli fillings

This is an extension on the Spicy Squash Tortelloni I made last year. I bought a ravioli press from Lakeland Limited which helped immensely and then the second time I tried these I had bought the pasta machine attachment for my Kenwood chef which made making the pasta sheets a lot quicker and easier.

First you need to make pasta dough, the second time I made the ravioli, as I was making four different fillings, I added different flavours to the pasta dough to change the colour, add a tablespoon of pesto to make green, a tablespoon of sun dried tomato paste to make it red, tablespoon of olive tapenade to make it black. Once the dough is kneaded and ready leave it in the fridge whilst you make the fillings:

Spicy Squash and Ricotta - I used the spicy squash recipe from above but added 2 tsp cumin seeds to the mix as well and added some courgette to the squash I had peeled. Then I mashed it all up and added a tub of ricotta to it and put it in the fridge.

Goats chesse and sundried tomato - 2 logs of soft goats cheese, 10 pieces of sundried tomato - put into a food processor and mix together adding salt and pepper to taste, put in fridge to cool.

Boursin mushroom - chop one onion finely and one 500g portion of mushrooms (preferably chop in the food processor to get very fine) mix with a 200g French Roule to make a creamy garlic mushroom mix, put in fridge to cool.

Mozerella, courgette and onion - fry onions and courgettes in a pan (probably 3-4 courgettes and 1-2 medium onions) and then chop 2 balls mozerella finely and mix in as well, leave to cool.

Pulled Beef - the day before or in the morning put a joint of beef (a cheap one will do) into a slow cooker or a very low oven with a bottle of red wine, a couple of sticks of celery and an onion chopped into two and leave to stew for 6-8hrs. Once it is cooked remove from the juice but do not discard. Place the beef on a chopping board and pull apart into strings of meat, once it is all pulled apart add it to a pan with some of the cooking juice and reduce down. Add a jar of tomato pasta sauce and again reduce down. Leave to cool.

Take the pasta and roll into sheets, do not take it to the thinnest sheet level, but one just before to leave it a little thicker and more elastic. Each portion of pasta dough made as per the recipe above can be cut into 4 and will make 4 sheets which each make one portion of 12 ravioli so 48 pieces of each.

Once you have the sheet made, flour both sides and flour the press. Place the sheet over the press and gently push the white piece into the pasta to form the cups for the fillings. Add just under a teaspoon of whichever mix into the cups. Take an egg wash (egg mixed with milk) and paste the remaining pasta sheet with it so when you lay it over the top of the pasta with filling and roll over the top of the press it forms a good seal. Tip the pieces out of the press and cut further with a knife if needed. Place the pieces of ravioli on a floured plate and allow to dry for an hour.

To cook place in boiling water for around 6-8 minutes and serve with a flavoured butter.

Garden week of 4th July

Garden has gone crazy with all the sunshine and rain this past couple of weeks! I can barely believe the plants I have now are the same little seedlings that I photographed 1 month ago!

Currently maturing are turnips, fennel, kale, cauliflower,

broccoli, spinach, lettuce, broad beans, mange tout and cucumbers!

Have had to set seed beds up behind the greenhouse to try and grow more plants to fill in the gaps where I am harvesting from!

Fingers crossed there are no signs of the butterflies yet and the c

age seems to be keeping them out!

Beetroot, fennel, turnip and feta salad

• 1 packet feta cheese
• 3-4 small raw (unpickled) beetroot
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 small turnip
• 1 bulb garlic
• assorted salad leaves
• cucumber and spring onion if desired

Peel the garlic bulbs and leave whole. Chop up beetroot into small wedges (about 8 from each root), and chop turnip up into same size wedges, cut fennel longway down centre and then peel each leaf off bit by bit until you get to the heart. Put all in a foil tray and drizzle with oil and balsamic vinegar. Put in an oven about 180C for 1hr until soft or cook on a hot BBQ.

Put assorted leaves into a bowl and pour hot roasted veg and all juices over. Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese and serve.

Lime and ginger cheesecake with a bitter chocolate top

For biscuit base

• 1 packet ginger biscuits
• 1 packet hob nobs
• 4 tablespoons melted butter

For cheesecake

• 900g cream cheese (full fat versions)
• 340g caster sugar (1.5 cups)
• 37g cornflour (1/4 cup)
• 3 limes (zested and squeezed)
• 1 knob ginger grated
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 120ml double cream

For chocolate top

• 100g dark chocolate (70% or above)
• 1 knob of ginger, grated
• 25g unsalted butter
• 120ml double cream

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Put a tray or pan of water in the bottom of the oven.

Get a 9inch springform cake tin and grease bottom and all round sides.

Crush biscuits with a rolling pin or in a food processor and add butter. Pour into cake tin and smooth out and press down by patting to make a solid base.

In a mixing bowl mix cream cheese and sugar together beat for about 3 minutes until smooth, add cornflour and mix again till smooth. Add lime zest, lime juice, grated ginger, eggs and egg whites slowly and keep beating throughout until smooth. Add the cream and beat just enough until smooth and fluffy, do not overbeat at this point. Pour batter into springform pan and bake for 60-70 mins until golden on top.

Remove from oven and leave to cool (it will sink, do not panic!!)

Once cooled, if you want a nice tidy top, use a very sharp knife and cut of the raised edge to make the top flat.

Then make up the chocolate top. Heat the cream and butter gently in a pan (do not boil) and add the chocolate and ginger. Stir until combined. Then spread across top of cheesecake for form a good thick top layer (the butter stops the chocolate from setting solid so can still be cut).