Foodie Friday with “Real Food Fast “ by Mary Berry

The relentless rain yesterday didn't stop and the heavy dark clouds overhead weren't exactly cheery. It was one of those days that the lights are on all day and you stay resolutely indoors if you can.

The sort of day when you feel the urge to bake. The thing was, I didn't really know what I fancied to make or eat. Time to sit down then with a hot drink, and rifle through my cookbooks for something to tempt and inspire. I didn't want to make a huge cake or something too fiddly, and I'd already made homemade biscuits and shortbread earlier in the week.

Luckily, Mary Berry came to the rescue.

This is a signed copy of her book which was published back in 2005, and given to me for my birthday that year by my lovely neighbour Sharon. Such a useful present, I've been cooking from it ever since.

There are lots of recipes that are speedy to make, or can be prepared well in advance if you have got friends or family coming around for drinks or a meal. Some are fancier than others, (quails eggs, prawn bloody marys anyone?) Some take longer but really, these are uncomplocated dishes which pass the taste test whatever the occasion.

There's other recipes though that are tried and trusted by me - for example the wonderful parmesan and pistachio nutters. Such easy,  delicious biscuits, and then a very moreish mango spiced dip and everyone always wants these recipes.

Starters, fish dishes,  vegetarian,and meat main courses and puddings are featured and there's some chicken dishes I've relied on in past years, and really fancy trying again. Being reminded of Five spice mango chicken again makes me vow I will make it again soon, as well as the mini suasages with mango chutney and sesame seeds which we all love. 

There's a chapter though, which has proved its worth time and time again, and that's Chapter 6, Tea for a crowd.

Mary Berry has opened up her garden for years in the summer in aid of the National Gardens Scheme charity, and so there's a wealth of teatime treats to make in large quantities. A variety of prepare ahead sandwiches, easy but tasty traybakes, cakes and what are called modestly(!) 

"The Very Best Scones"

Actually Mary is right. They are. Light, fluffy and fail-proof. Just the sort of thing when you catering for a crowd, or a school fete or a charity event 

And that's what I decided to make yesterday. Not for any of those reasons. Hot scones with cream and jam, to satisfy my urge to bake on such a dismal, dreary day but also something with the promise and taste of summer gardens and strawberry jam.

They really are a doddle to make - prep time is 10 minutes, cooking time is 10 minutes and makes 40.

The Very Best Scones

Ingredients

900g  2lbs self-raising flour

8 teaspoons baking powder

175 gm 6oz butter 

100g 40z caster sugar

4 eggs

500ml 18 floz milk

Method

Preheat oven to 220 deg C, Fan 200 deg C, Gas mk 7 and lightly grease 2 baking trays

1.Measure the flour and baking powder into a food processor( I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer) Stir in the sugar.

2.Beat the eggs until blended and make up to agenerous 600ml (1 pint) with the milk. Put aside about  4tblspoons of the egg and milk in a cup for glazing the scones later. Pour the rest of the mixture to the dry ingredients until you have a soft dough, It’s far better to have it on the wet side ,sticking to your fingers as the scones will rise more.

3.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and flatten it out to a thickness of about 1-2 cm . Use a 5cm (2in) . Gently push the remaining dough together, knead very lightly then gently push the remaining dough together, knead very lightly then re-roll and  cut out more scones as before.

4. Arrange the scones on the prepared baking trays and brush the tops with the reserved egg/milk . Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 to 15 minutes until the scones are well risen and golden. Coolon a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel to keep them moist.

5.Serve as fresh as possible , cut in half and spread both halves with jam. Top with a good spoonful of thick cream. 

NB I made 20 scones (halved the recipe) and I used 284 ml of buttermilk instead of milk.

If you are cooking for a huge gang, Mary Berry recommends you will need about 1.3kg (3lbs) of jam and about 900ml (1 and half pints) of cream for 40 scones.

Menwhile, I have bookmarked a couple of recipes which I need to make again soon. 

That's the thing about Mary, her years  of experience mean that all her recipes work, I've never had a duff one which has gone wrong. Everything you need to know is carefully explained  and her huge repertoire of flavours and shortcuts in this book make it a winner.

Fast Real Food was published in 2005 by Headline Publishing.

 

Book Review: "Rekha's Kitchen Garden" by Rekha Mistry

March is usually the month when I'm attacked in earnest by the annual bouts of feverishness, hope and joy of sowing seeds and growing food again for my family.

With recent snow, rain, and very high winds, I'm holding off being too carried away for now though. Instead, I've been spending a couple or so cosy afternoons and evenings on the sofa reading Rekha Mistry's first book  "Rekha's Kitchen Garden" published by DK Books.

I've followed Rekha's gardening journey for quite a while now on social media. I've read some of her articles in garden magazines, watched her on BBC Gardeners World too, so know from experience what good gardening advice she can give after 30 years of growing food for her own family.

So what else can her book offer? Quite a lot as it turns out, whether you are a novice gardener or more experienced, and it has ticked so many boxes for me.

Rekha grows organically (hurrah!) and has plenty of tips for how to plan your plot or patch of garden for bumper crops. She's a great believer in growing what you like to eat, and grows 40 different types of fruit and vegetables on her own allotment.

Some kitchen garden guides merely tell you when to sow seeds, when to plant out and roughly when to harvest. Rekha goes quite a few steps further, holding your hand as the season goes along, so you know exactly when to do what and why you should. 

Having said that,  nothing is set in stone, this advice from one gardener to another is very engaging, readable and practical. For example, when growing purple sprouting broccoli (such a favourite of mine) Rekha writes 

"Purple sprouting broccoli is a laid back plant , and so I take a leaf out of its book (pardon the pun) and ignore the recommended times of March and April. There's no point in rushing to get these seeds sown when there are so many seed trays taking up space in my greenhouse and cold frame. I much prefer to wait until early May, when most of my seedlings have moved on. I'll sow a tiny pinch (not more than 7or 8) of these in a 7 cm pot, sieve over a light covering of compost. After watering, I place the pot in the cold frame because the greenhouse is too warm and small containers can run dry within days."

Such good advice, which I'd not thought of before but which I'll certainly be following this year. There's so many more tips to encourage any gardener to go ahead and grow anything from fennel to french beans, spinach to strawberries, and to save your own seed and get plants for free.

This is very much a personal guide from Rekha, of what works and why for her, but deserves a much wider audience to benefit from all her experience. I only wish this book had been published when I started my own seasonal growing journey. 

I was sent this book for review.

"Rekha's Kitchen Garden " by Rekha Mistry is published by DK Books and costs 18.99

Book review of ‘Death at the auction’ by E.C. Bateman

As an avid cosy crime fan, I was on full alert when I first heard about this first in a new crime series  called the Stamford Mysteries.

The fact that it's set in the beautiful Lincolnshire town of Stamford and involves the world of antiques and auctions, is an added bonus.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

As the book opens, it's safe to say that Felicia Grant is having a hell of a day.  She and her twelve year old son Algernon have to hurry back to her home town of Stamford where her father has had an accident. What's more, there's no one to run the Saturday auction at the family firm apart from her, and there's also the small matter of someone who is found dead in the wardrobe she is auctioning.

So, an intriguing start to a mystery, where everyone could be a suspect including feisty Felicia and her ex husband Dexter, who has also surprisingly turned up in Stamford. With a detective sergeant who is trying his best to solve the murder despite the best efforts of a new, belligerent boss, a  likeable but chaotic Mayor who also wants to get involved, and a rather large list of characters, you can't help become engaged with what's happening 

Aspiring authors are often told to write about what they know. EC Bateman writes knowledgeably and entertainingly about auctions and antiques, - she's married to an auctioneer(who happens to run the family auction house in Stamford)  and is an expert on antique jewelry. 

Her descriptions of Stamford itself are like love letters to the town . Vivid scenes of the water meadows, the George Inn, the stunning Georgian architecture and mediaeval churches as well as the real atmosphere of the town are beautifully captured. 

She also knows how to rack up the tension too, between the characters themselves as the body count rises and the mystery widens...who can trust who? Her plotting skills and twists also ensure an enjoyable read as Felicia and Detective Sergeant Pettifer find themselves forming an unlikely alliance to unmask the murderer.

There's humour in the novel too,  with amusing digs at the telly tarts of the antiques business. I also enjoyed them the ascerbic dialogue between Felicia and her ex-husband with a hint of will they or won't they get back together. This made me smile and the all-seeing eye of their rather solemn son is deftly drawn. 

No, I didn't guess who the murderer was but I wasn't disappointed, and E.C Bateman has really set the scene for more mysteries in Stamford which I'm really looking forward to reading . The next novel will be published next year, but in the meantime, guess where I'm going to as soon as possible? My next visit to Stamford is quite overdue and who knows, I may attend an auction too...

Death at the Auction is published by One More Chapter and costs £8.99

Stamford  2016

.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

The Gardener's Almanac by Alan Titchmarsh - a book review

There's something about an almanac that I find quite comforting. In an uncertain world, especially at the beginning of a new year, there are certain constants in an almanac. There is advanced information on what time sunrise and sunset will occur, the times of the tides, should you be going to, or living by the sea. Anniversaries, planetary activities, and all sorts of other snippets and facts in a variety of subjects are there in bite-size pieces to inform and entertain.

That's why I was pleased to receive a copy of The Gardener's Alamanac by Alan Titchmarsh in the post to review, and for the past week or so, I've been going to bed with Alan's book and rationing myself to a chapter or so per night. 

This is comfort reading, to be savoured, even if you may be au fait with some of the topics featured.

Yes, each month features weather information, lists of flowers and vegetables to eat or store, as well as observations on a flower, a tree, a bird of the month, plus feast days. If you are a Scot though, you might take umbrage at the rather unfortunate typo in the first chapter which declares that Burns Night is celebrated on the 5th January rather than the 25th.. 

That one niggle aside, and moving swiftly on, Alan's choice of the tree of the month for February is Witch hazel - just one example of why I find his writing so engaging.

"The witch hazel hamamelis x intermedia has aspirations to be a tree, but in most gardens, it's a large shuttlecocked-shaped shrub. The fact that it flowers on bare branches makes it an exciting plant to grow. The flowers are large spiders consisting of a cluster of narrow, strap-shaped petals which may be rich crimson-"Livia", or yellow in what I think is the best variety - Pallida", quite simply because on a dingy, grey day when the darker varieties merge into the mist, it is more readily visible.

The flowers are scented of citrus and if the weather is too cold to detect fragrance, exhale on the blooms through your mouth and then inhale through your nose. Unless you have been heavy on the garlic the night before, the warmth of your breath will relieve the fragrance."

A lovely description, which makes me giggle too. Not only do I now want a couple of witch hazels in my garden, I also have visions of a rather hungover and garlic breathing Mr Titchmarsh propped up against a witch hazel and trying to inhale with gusto.

A list of appropriate advice on gardening do's and don'ts is accompanied by Alan's personal suggestions of music and books to enjoy each month. Some pieces I know, but in June, he recommends  "The Banks of Green Willow" composed by George Butterworth who died during the First World War. It really is a beautiful piece of music that I've not heard before, so am rather thrilled to make its acquaintance and am following other recommendations which are featured in each chapter.

Alan also highlights a famous gardener for each month and during his long and varied career, he's met and has been friends with so many. So, I like his personal anecdotes about them and personally am so pleased he included David Austin, the rosarian, who I managed to meet just before he died.

There is a quote at the beginning of each chapter of the book, and so aptly Alan quotes his friend Christopher Lloyd who was talking one day about November,

"The great thing about the garden in November is that no one expects anything of it."

How very true!

I also like Alan's suggestions for a garden to visit each month when it is at its best...and he has even illustrated the book. How on earth does he find the time?

After all, he’s written novels, countless gardening books, and even three memoirs in addition to the TV programmes he presents so well.

Throughout the book, Alan's chatty style distills his years of gardening experience and know how in a very accessible way to both those at the beginning of their gardening journeys, and to others along the way who fancy some inspiration.  

This almanac is perfect for bedtime and fireside reading during the long winter nights and an ideal Christmas present which will make you long for the gardening year ahead. 

The Gardener"s Almanac. A Treasury of Wisdom and Inspiration throughout the Year" by Alan Titchmarsh is published by Hodder and Stoughton and costs 14.99.

"A plant for every day of the year" by Philip Clayton - a book review

 

A filthy, soggy morning and rain has stopped me from getting some gardening done.

Instead, I am holed up in my greenhouse listening to the spitting of rain on the window panes, with my nose in Philip Clayton’s new book “A plant for every day of the year".

I’ve been dipping in and re-reading this book for the last week, and it's so much more than a dry, extended list of 365 plants divided into seasonal sections with the odd photograph thrown in for good measure.

Philip, a writer and former Deputy Editor of The Garden magazine from the RHS has grown and photographed every one of the plants featured in his own 130 x 25 ft garden. He really knows how each performs throughout the year, and advises on how to get the best out of them as well as mentioning their individual foibles and providing a fact file on each of them.

Unlike most books, I didn't start at the very beginning. I went straight into the chapter covering plants right now at their peak in mid Autumn and found a Decaisnea fargesii .Philip says it is perfect for Halloween and describes as having

“bizarre looking fruit which gives the plant its more grisly common name “dead mans fingers”. Each fruit is about the shape, size, and bruised blue colour of a detached human finger. It gets worse: if you touch them, they are cold with a soft flesh-like texture. Best to put such thoughts out of your mind and enjoy them as blue seed pods hanging amid the butter-yellow tints the leaves acquire."

Now, this is the sort of engaging description I like when reading about a plant, and there are plenty of them throughout the book.

On the same page, I'm seduced by a photograph of a beautiful Euonymus Alactus "Compactus" in all its glory, and once again I love the accompanying vivid description.

There's also a ClematisTerniflora" I rather like the look of with frothy white flowers and a sweet almond scent, which I haven't come across before, but apparently, it may need restraint. Don't we all at times?

Mind you, after finding so many specimens in the book which would be wonderful in my garden, I will need restraining too. I “may” be tempted to buy quite a few of them ( and yes, I’m being deliberately vague about the exact number)

The plant selection here covers some more unusual ones which you won't find everywhere and may have to be hunted down. There are also plenty of more well-known ones, that remind you of some you’ve seen on garden visits. There’s no plant snobbery here, just a knowledgable, love of plants which he hopes gardeners of all levels will enjoy.

According to Philip Clayton " Thoughtfully planted, a garden will add new delights every day, regardless of the season." 

With this book, there's an absolute feast of 365 delicious planting possibilities for both all-year-round colour and interest in any garden, whatever its size. I just wish there were a few photographs of Philip’s garden which show how he has curated this collection of plants, and so admire the overall effect

One word of warning about lending this book to friends…. You just might not get it back.

"A plant for every day of the year" by Philip Clayton, is published by DK Books and costs £20.

I was sent a copy to review.

National Apple Day

National Apple Day has been celebrated here in the UK since 1990, and I'm only too happy to join in the celebrations for such a wonderful fruit.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't manage without apples in my diet. They're not only scientifically proven to be good for you (yes there's truth in the old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away), but growing them is good for all of us too .

According to Common Ground, the organisation which created this day in our calendar, it's important to recognize the importance of orchards to our landscape in the sheer diversity of our local varieties of apples and in our culture.

 As a child, my mother and father had a mini orchard of apple and pear trees in their suburban garden and I have vivid memories of all the apple puddings we polished off over the years.

These days I have only one apple tree in my garden, which is rather lax about when it is going to fruit. I don't know what variety it is, but it's just sweet enough to pick off the tree and crunch away, but is also delicious when baked in cakes and puddings.

Our village apple tree fruited before mine, so at the beginning of September my two year old  grandaughter and I went to collect our first locally grown apples of the season. 

Apple picking 

For the last month though we've been picking and eating our own apples

I've prepared pounds of apples in the freezer ready for pie, tarts, and crumbles through the winter, but today, on a rainy Apple Day, I've collected the last lot off the tree and some windfalls. They will be needed.

 

Earlier this week,  Angie came around for supper. She's new to the village and is staying with our next-door neighbour until she can go home to Ukraine. We thoroughly enjoyed her company and she absolutely loved the apple crumble I made for pudding. I can't ever remember a time in my life without a crumble, but I suspect she won't forget her first one. One helping was followed by two more and she loved the tartness of the apples combined with the sweetness of the topping. 

 So do we, so I suspect it will be apple crumble ago go for Angie and us from now on, until the apples run out that is.....

Happy Apple Day to you all.

A day at Garden Organic and preserving seeds for the future

My ideas about gardening and the food we were eating changed when we had small children. One of my neighbours' garage held everything to kill things - weeds, ants, rodents, you name it, there was some toxic product to keep the garden pristine and repel all invaders. 

That wasn't going to happen under my watch in our small garden, and I began reading about growing organically, which I've done ever since. 

So, a few weeks ago, I was delighted to be at Garden Organic, near Coventry for a Garden Media Guild visit.

This is the home of the UK charity formerly known as the HenryDoubleday Research Association,  which encourages organic gardening and growing food in a healthy and sustainable way, carries out scientific research into the best ways of doing so, and preserves heirloom seeds for posterity.

The organic show gardens that we see now were only created over two years ago, designed around a beautiful glasshouse and framed prettily by cosmos and verbena bonariensis. Our guide is the wonderfully enthusiastic Head Gardener Emma O'Neill.

Inside, tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, melons and other heat-loving vegetables are grown in pots.  

Outside, the glasshouse is surrounded by four beds, one a perennial vegetable bed which includes skirret. This is new to me, but apparently, it dates back to Tudor times and its flavour is somewhere between a potato and a parsnip.

One bed is trialling the no dig method, and another features legumes, with heavy cropping beans climbing over archways.

 Beans are one of my favourite things to grow, so I made a beeline for them and was intrigued by one variety of runner bean "Slovenian White" Such delicate white flowers, so vigorous too, and when I saw some of the actual beans, they're large, bright white, and used primarily as a dried bean for soups and stews.

As we walk around, Emma is a mine of information and is very honest too, telling us how she's been having problems with the brassicas due to the heat, what plants have irritated her and why. This is the way to learn about growing plants, to hear of the failures as well as the successes,because it can be all too easy to be despondent at home when something goes wrong,   As Emma says, you can always try again, using a different approach, or use the advice pages on the Garden Organic website. 

Emma is proud of the ponds which have been established in the last two years, attracting all sorts of pollinators and the bug hotels around have attracted both bugs and children who are fascinated by them. After all, you are never too young to learn about organic gardening.

As you enter the polytunnel, there's the addictive scent of strawberries, so intense I want to snatch handfuls of the juicy fruits to eat, but I resist the urge and just admire them, as well as the very well-behaved tomatoes.

Organic gardening isn't just about growing food to eat of course and Emma O Neill loves her ornamentals too. 

After a quick lunch, (we all brought our own) we were off to learn more about the work of the Heritage Seed Library, which I found absolutely fascinating. Catrina Fenton is Head of the Library, and she's passionate about her work and why it is so important.

Apparently, we've lost thousands of varieties of traditional varieties of vegetables in the last fifty years or so. Catrina explains the introduction of intensive farming and EU rules introduced in the 1970s, meant the trade of seeds that had not been through an expensive registration process was restricted, which led to the extinction of heritage varieties.

That's where Lawrence Hills, the Founder of the Library stepped in. He realised that these old varieties needed to be protected, and since then, seeds of all sorts have been collected, sent or donated by growers who treasure the diverse range of varieties.

Each year, new ones arrive, and they are all trialled in  the grounds at Garden Organic, in open ground,  polytunnels and glasshouses.

Firstly we went into the polytunnels, one of which was bursting at the seams with what looked like tall  triffids, they were so lush and energetic, but they were Shropshire blackpods, an heirloom variety of runner bean grown by the same famiy for at least 100 years, plus Mr Wong's Shark Fin melon.

In one of the glasshouses, plants were drying out ...such as this Rousham Park Hero variety of onion, which was bred in the 19th century in Oxfordshire.

Meanwhile in the seed cleaning room indoors, Lucy the Seed Officer, oversees all the thousands of  harvested seeds  that arrive in here, including 3 to 4,000 tomatoes which come through the door. There's a winnowing machine, tomato seeds 

The results are kept in cold storage, in a room which houses thousands and thousands of treasures - heritage seeds of tomatoes, beans, peas, cauliflowers, carrots, squashes, you name it, filled with seeds which need to be protected.

Many have weird and wonderful names which delight, and every packet of seed tells a story of gardening  history, the people who grew them and a sense of place. These seeds can come a local grower, or from Europe and further afield, or from people who have come to live here but brought a taste of home with them. For example a seed search was conducted by Garden Organic back in 2012 across allotments in the the Midlands, to find seed originated from India. Again, these are an important genetic resource maintaining heirloom varieties. 

Before the end of out visit, we sat undercover in the Demonstration Garden, and over a  chat, we made ourselves useful. Some of us, were podding dried beans with Fiona Taylor, the charismatic Chief Executive of Garden Organic...

and the rest of us, were packing broad beans into packets, ready to be sent out to members of the Heritage Seed library early next year. Members of Garden Organic can join the Heritage Seed Library for an extra £18 and select six packets of seed from over 150 different types  of vegetables in a catalogue which plops throught the door in early December.

I drove home from the visit with my mind buzzing with visions of upping my own seed saving game, what to grow next year and planting methods and ideas which are so  relatable not just to my garden but so many others. 

There was also the sense of just how valuable Garden Organic is, in a world of unprecedented global, environmental change and challenges. 

The garden and Heritage Seed Library is open regularly to the public and pre- booked tours and workshops. Visitors are offered a guided tour and expert advice on organic gardening. Scheduled tour days are free for members and  cost £7.50 for non members.

Groups can also book a private tour  ...call 024 7630 3517 

More information can be found here  https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/events