Organic strawberries

Today we picked 4.9 kg of strawberries from the garden which at Tesco organic prices are worth about £40!

All homegrown summer salad

 

 

This salad had shredded lettuce, mange tout peas, broccoli and baby carrots in with an oriental dressing made with soya sauce.

Fresh artichokes

Artichokes are so easy to grow - these were grown from seed, and if you do that they will flower in the second year. They need a sheltered but sunny spot and not too much attention apart from weeding/mulching. As they are perennial they will come back year after year with little or no maintenance - the perfect vegetable.
To cook, just boil for 20 minutes, then pour vinaigrette over them. Pull off the outer leaves and bite off the fleshy bit with your teeth. When you get down to the middle discard the "choke" (the hairy bit) as this will do you no good, and then eat the heart dipped in vinaigrette.

Raspberry Frangipane Tart

Thanks to Katherine for this delicious recipe.  The tart is beautiful and I thought the raspberries looked like love hearts, so it would be a great one to make for your true love (although not on Valentine's Day as raspberries wouldn't be in season!)

 from ‘ The New Vegetarian’ by Heather Thomas

Frangipan filling

115g/ 4oz Butter

115g/ 4 oz Caster Sugar ( I used Demerara though)

2 eggs

115g / 4 oz ground almonds

15g / ½  oz plain flour

About 220 g of raspberries (but could be a pear or strawberries cherries any summer fruit)

Pastry

200g / 7 oz plain flour

Pinch of salt (I didn’t bother with this)

100g/ 3 ½ oz butter cut into dice

1 table spoon vanilla sugar (just used some Demerara )

1 large egg yolk

Cold water / for mixing.

Make the pastry – sift flour and salt into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add the sugar and then bind with the egg yolk and a little cold water if necessary.  Chill for ½ an hour (that’s the pastry!).  Roll out and line a well buttered 25cm, 10inch tart tin. You can chill while you make the filling.

Cream the butter and sugar together beat in the eggs, beat in the ground almonds. Spread over the pastry and then pop in the raspberries in a nice pattern

Bake for 15 mins at 200C 400F gas mark 6 then turn down heat to 170C 325F Gas mark 3 for another 15 or until frangipan is firm and golden. (I think I just turned it down to 180C though. I dusted with icing sugar but you could do like a honey or an apricot glaze. Looks impressive but is quite simple to make.

Pea, lettuce and mint soup

This is a great way to use lettuces that have gone to seed.  I got the peas (fresh ready to be shelled) from Blackwell Produce in Melbourne, and the lettuce and mint were from my garden.

(serves 4)

50g butter
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 baby gem lettuces, core removed and shredded
500g frozen garden peas
750ml good quality vegetable stock (preferably homemade)
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
150ml creme fraiche
a small bunch of mint, chopped fine

In a heavy based saucepan melt the butter over medium heat togther with the olive oil.

Sautee the onion until soft and translucent stirring regularly. You want to sautee them slowly, as they are not supposed to go crispy and brown.

Add the shredded lettuce and saute for a couple of minutes before adding the peas.

Continue to cook for 5 minutes or so.

Add the stock and bring to a simmer.

Remove from the heat and liquidise with a stick blender or by carefully puring it into a liquidiser.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Return to the heat and warm through.

Remove from the heat before finally stirring in the creme fraiche.

Sprinkle with mint and serve with your favourite crusty bread.

Gooseberry ice-cream

Thank you to Helen for making this delicious ice-cream for our summer fruit evening.  I think this is definitely one for people who think they don't like gooseberries!

To serve 6-8
Place 1 kilo of gooseberries in a saucepan with a dribble of water to get them started and 125g caster sugar.  Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for about 10 - 15 minutes, until the gooseberries are completely soft and mostly broken.  Rub the mixture through a sieve into a bowl.
Measure 500ml double cream and combine half of it with 250ml whole milk.  Scald this mixture in a pan until almost boiling.  Mix 4 egg yolks with 125g caster sugar, then pour in the hot milk and cream, whisking all the time.  Return this custard to the pan and stir constantly over a very gentle heat until it starts to thicken.  Remove from the heat and keep stirring as it cools and thickens further. 
Combine the custard with the sievved gooseberry puree, mixing thoroughly.  Lightly whip the remaining double cream and fold it in.  You've pretty much made a rich gooseberry fool and you could chill it and serve it as such at this point - or press on and make your ice-cream. Taste the mixture and add more sugar if you think it needs it.  An ice-cream mixture before freezing should always taste a little too sweet, as sweetness is muted in the freezing process.
Now either pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine and churn until frozen or freeze churn the old-fashioned way, by putting the mixing basin in the freezer and removing it every hour or so to whisk up and emulsify the half-frozen mixture.
Pack into tubs and freeze.  Leave at room temperature for a good half an hour before serving.  Serve with shortbread or other sweet biscuits.

Summer Pudding

This is an absolute must each year and a real indication that the summer fruit is here.  I normally just wing it with the mix of fruit and sugar, depending on what I have and how sweet the fruit is, but here is a Nigel Slater recipe, which is really comprehensive.

850g mixed raspberries and currants, with an emphasis on raspberries
7-8 slices firm, good quality white bread
3 tbsps white sugar
3 tbsps water
cream to serve
Sort through the fruit, tenderly, picking out any that are unripe or mouldy. There's nearly always a few. Pull the currants from their stems then put them, with the raspberries, in a stainless-steel saucepan over a low heat. Taste the fruit for sweetness and add sugar accordingly. For normal, sweet raspberries and slightly tart currants, I add 3 tablespoons or so of sugar. Sometimes you may need slightly less or more. Use your own judgment, bearing in mind that the finished pudding should have a bit of sharpness to it. Pour in a little water, a couple of tablespoons will do, then bring it to the boil.
The currants will start to burst and give out their juice. They need no longer than three or four minutes at a cautious simmer. The fruit should be shiny and there should be much magenta juice in the pan. Turn off the heat.
Slice the bread thickly. Each slice should be about as thick as your little finger. (Thinner if you are making several smaller puddings in individual moulds.) Cut the crusts off the bread. Set one piece aside, then cut the rest into 'soldiers', that is, each slice of bread into three long fingers. Using a glass or cup as a template, cut a disc of bread from the reserved slice and push it into the bottom of the pudding basin.
Line the inside of the basin with the strips of bread, pushing them together snugly so that no fruit can escape, and keeping a few strips for the top. Fill the bread-lined basin with the fruit and its juice - it should come almost to the rim. Lay the remaining bread on top of the fruit, tearing and patching where necessary, so no fruit is showing.
Put the basin in a shallow dish or bowl to catch any juice, then lay a flat plate or small tray on top with a heavy weight to squash the fruit down. Some juice may escape, but most will soak into the bread. Leave overnight in the fridge. (You may have to remove a shelf depending on how deep your fridge shelves are.)

Remove the weights, slide a palette knife around the edge, pushing carefully down between bread and basin so as not to tear the bread. Put a plate on top, and then, holding the plate in place, turn quickly upside down and shake firmly to dislodge the pud. It should slide out and sit proud. Pass a jug of cream around - it is an essential part of the pudding. Serves 6-8.

One-crust gooseberry pie

This is a Delia recipe that Jo and I made for the summer fruit evening.  For the filling

1½ lb (700 g) prepared gooseberries

3 oz (75 g) caster sugar

2 rounded tablespoons semolina

1 small egg yolk

For the glaze

1 small egg white

6 sugar cubes, crushed

For the shortcrust pastry:

6 oz (175 g) plain flour

1½ oz (40 g) lard, at room temperature

1½ oz (40 g) butter or margarine, at room temperature

Equipment
You will also need a solid baking sheet, lightly greased.

This recipe is taken from Delia's Summer Collection.

Method

Make up the pastry by sifting the flour into a large mixing bowl, then rubbing the fats into it lightly with your fingertips, lifting everything up and letting it fall back into the bowl to give it a good airing.

When the mixture reaches the crumb stage, sprinkle in enough cold water to bring it together to a smooth dough that leaves the bowl absolutely clean, with no crumbs left. Give it a little light knead to bring it fully together, then place the pastry in a polythene bag in the fridge for 30 minutes. After that, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 400°F (200°C). Then roll the pastry out on a flat surface to a round of approximately 14 inches (35 cm) – as you roll, give it quarter turns so that it ends up as round as you can make it (don't worry, though, about ragged edges: they're fine).
Now carefully roll the pastry round the rolling pin and transfer it to the centre of the lightly greased baking sheet.To prevent the pastry getting soggy from any excess juice, paint the base with egg yolk (you'll need to cover approximately a 10 inch (25.5 cm) circle in the centre), then sprinkle the semolina lightly over this. The semolina is there to absorb the juices and the egg provides a waterproof coating. Now simply pile the gooseberries in the centre of the pastry, sprinkling them with sugar as you go. Then all you do is turn in the edges of the pastry: if any breaks, just patch it back on again – it's all meant to be ragged and interesting.
Brush the pastry surface all round with the egg white, then crush the sugar cubes with a rolling pin and sprinkle over the pastry (the idea of using crushed cubes is to get a less uniform look than with granulated). Now pop the pie on to the highest shelf of the oven and bake for approximately 35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm with chilled crème fraîche or ice cream.

Blackcurrant ripple

This recipe was in this week's Observer food monthly, courtesy of Nigel Slater, so I thought I'd give it a go for the summer fruit evening as it looked so easy.  I suppose you could do a raspberry or strawberry version too.

An easy ice cream terrine requiring no ice cream machine.

Serves 6

For the fruit

blackcurrants 250g
sugar 2 tbsp
water 2 tbsp

For the ice cream

eggs 3
caster sugar 80g
vanilla extract a few drops
double cream 300ml

Line a loaf tin approximately 22cm x 12cm with cling film.

Remove the blackcurrants from their stalks, drop into a small saucepan and add the sugar and water. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and continue cooking until the fruit has started to burst and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool.

Separate the eggs, put the yolks in the bowl of a food mixer with the sugar and whisk till thick and creamy. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Whisk cream till thick but not stiff. It should still be able to slide a little in the bowl.  Whist the egg whites and fold into cream.   Fold the cream gently into the egg and sugar. Transfer to the tin.

Lightly crush blackcurrants with a fork then, holding back the juice, spoon the currants into the tin and gently swirl them through the mixture. Take care not to overmix. Fold film over the top and freeze for a good 6 hours before turning out and slicing

Blackcurrant and Rhubarb jam

Blackcurrant jam can sometimes have too strong a taste and has too many bits, but this Combination gets over both issues by giving a smoother taste and fewer pips!

(Makes 4-5 jars, 455g - 1 lb) - (Type of Set: high)Like apples, rhubarb makes a good cheap ingredient to allow you to bulk out small batches of berries.
But unlike apples it is low in pectin, so always combine with fruit which is high.

1. Blackcurrants: 1kg / 2 lbs weight stripped from stalks.
2. Rhubarb: 1kg / 2 lbs weight cut into 12mm / ½" lengths
3. Sugar granulated white: 2kg / 4½ lbs
4. Water 1 litre / ½ pint

preparation

Prepare jars. Wash then dry on clean paper towels. Place currants in pan with 600ml / 1 pint of water, cook until soft. Cook rhubarb in 300ml / ½ of water, boil for only one minutes. Combine fruits together. Add sugar then follow the apricot jam instructions, boil to setting point and pot

Fresh fruit smoothies

This strawberry and black currant smoothie was made by my son with strawberries, blackcurrants, a banana, a cup of apple juice and yogurt.

Heavenly summer berry cheesecake