Goose Day (Michaelmas)

"Traditionally, in the British Isles, a well fattened goose, fed on the stubble from the fields after the harvest, is eaten to protect against financial need in the family for the next year; and as the saying goes:

“Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,
Want not for money all the year”.

Sometimes the day was also known as “Goose Day” and goose fairs were held.  Even now, the famous Nottingham Goose Fair is still held on or around the 3rd of October.  Part of the reason goose is eaten is that it was said that when Queen Elizabeth I heard of the defeat of the Armada, she was dining on goose and resolved to eat it on Michaelmas Day.  Others followed suit.  It could also have developed through the role of Michaelmas Day as the debts were due; tenants requiring a delay in payment may have tried to persuade their landlords with gifts of geese!"

(source) 

As we don't have lovely festivals like Thanksgiving here, i like to make the best of what we have, so on Michaelmas always cook a goose.

Last Christmas I boned the goose instead of just roasting it, which left the meat much more moist than it had ever turned out before. Because although its a fatty bird, shes big boned and the meat part always seems the hardest to keep moist.

This Michaelmas I decided to the the same thing again and it turned out just as well. Geese this time of year are smaller than they would be at Christmas but I actually prefer the flavour I think as the birds have spent the summer eating greens.

After trying lots of different sources for geese, I now always order from Judy Goodman at Goodmans Geese. There birds for some reason just come out tasting better and its so easy to order online, just make sure you order early as there is only 1 weekly delivery date.

The recipe I found online here. for Roast Goose with apple brandy.

The only adjustment I made this time was to add some traditional stuffing to the mix to bulk up and fill the gaps.

It turned out really we and of course we will be eating left over goose all week! Happy goose day!!!!!

Blight!! :(

It had to happen at some point with all this wet weather we have done quite well to last till October.

Roasted Black Sea Man tomato soup.

I thought it would be fun to see how the the dark fruit of Black Sea Man with its deep rich flavor worked as a soup and soup always makes you feel better doesn't it? I decided if i was going for real deep intensity i would roast the tomatoes first. I worked really well I've never tasted a tomato soup with such a big tomato tang before.

Ingredients are simple, its all about the tomatoes didn't want to muddle it with too many other things.
1 kg of black sea man tomatoes quartered (an black tomato will do i think)
1 onion sliced,
1 sprig of thyme,
4 cloves of garlic chopped,
2 pints of vegetable stock,
4 sun dried tomatoes,
1 tbsp sugar,
10 basil leafs,

Heat a little oil in a roasting tray in the oven until its very hot.
Put the tomato's, onions garlic and thyme into the roasting pan and make sure its all coated with oil.
Sprinkle over your sugar. 
Put back into the over on a high and cook for 1/2 hour until all the vegetables are roasted.
Occasionally check, turn and pour off excess liquid onto a bowl.
While thats cooling heat your stock in a pan and simmer.
Add excess roasting juices as and when you collect them.
Once the tomatoes begin to caramelize remove from the oven and pour it all into your stock.
Add the sun dried tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes have broken down and are soft.
Add the basil leafs, you don't need to over cook them.
Once cooked its now time to do my usual method of blending it all together.
Strain the liquid into a bowl and add the solids to your blender.
Blend, slowly adding back in your liquid until the soup has thickened.
Pass the soup through a sieve to remove seeds and bits of skin.
You should have a nice smooth soup now, that you can put back on the heat to simmer until ready to eat or bag up and freeze for winter.

Tomato update

Not all has gone to plan this year.. The greenhouse is full of plants but there is no sun so it has been very slow ripening off the fruit. i still have some variety that have not ripened enough to taste yet. All the cherry tomatoes have been a bit insipid again lack of sun hitting  the sugar content i think.
My idea to write tasting notes of some of the many variety's has therefore been thwarted.

I shall do my best to give you some of the few highlights so far.

The dark fruit has been a real success, Black Sea Man and Carbon are very similar stating, with the former fruiting better and having stronger plants.

 

Of the 3 Brandywine verity's i planted the ones marked heirloom Brandywine have far out performed the OVT and Suddeth strain plants. Its had huge amounts of large fruit and we really have had quite a lot of trouble telling taste wise a difference between the 3. Though not very pretty i have had enough from these to make 2 batches of single variety tomato chutney so far.

All the yellow fruit have been rather acidic. and of all the cherrys so far the most prolific are the tiny Matts wild cherry. These are also the sweetest tomato ive tasted this year.

 

Finally for sheer size i must mention the Dutchman hes a bit watery and pappy tasting, but the fruit and truely massive much bigger than anything else this year and great for slicing.

I'll shall have more to report soon i hope its been 2 days of sun!!

But rain again tomorrow.
*fingers crossed the blight keeps way*

Yorkshire Pudding

 

It really is that simple, just one of those things people percieve to be difficult therefore make it too complicated.

Flour, eggs, milk, all in equal volumes not weights.Simple seeee??

Ok little bit more to it, but basically that will work every time.

I water down my milk just a little and i use a mix of 2 parts regular flour and one part corn flour for extra crispyness.

BUT NO raising agent... 

other that that....

Mix the eggs into the flour,  then half the milk, then the other half, dont over mix leave it a bit lumpy then chill.

Remember to heat your tray up really hot, then add a little oil to each compartment and let that just begin to smoke, turn the oven down to medium high, bring the chilled mixture out of the fridge give it another good stir, then pour into the try.. 

About 20 mins later, out of the oven will come perfect yorkshire puddings to have with you Sunday roast.

Will this sickness ever end chicken soup

Will this sickness ever end chicken soup
(dedicated to Serra and her H1N1 )
I make a roast chicken dish called Suffolk cider chicken its so nice i wondered if i could somehow create something similar in soup form for the current lingering malaise before i feel the great need to nap again.

2 chicken breast.
6 chicken thighs.
8 slices of black forest ham.
2 apples.
1 onion.
3 cloves of garlic.
½ pint of cream.
1 pint of medium dry cider (donut worry the alcohol all burns off.)
1 pint of chicken stock.
½ a cup of apple juice.
Butter.

Chop the onion and soften in butter in a large heavy bottomed pot.
Dice the chicken up finely and brown off in the butter (include bones if you have any)
Add the ham, cider and chicken stock, then give a good stir before covering and leaving to cook for a few hours or until the chicken is very soft and braking apart.
While this is cooking peel and chop the apples.
Simmer in some butter with the apple juice  in a pan until mushy, add a table spoon of sugar is too tart.
When the chicken  has cooked down remove the bones and add the cream and apple
bring to the boil and then simmer.
When thickened serve with some crusty bread.
Get well soooon 

Tomatoes = 619

This year when it came around time to plant tomato seed, i decided to do something a bit different for the past few years ive really only grown a few select variety, then last year on a whim a bought a couple of plants in garden centers of other interesting shapes and sizes and loved the different tastes. This time i decided to grow a few of lots of different things, do i big test of anything the caught my interest and seemed be about taste and flavor over anything else.

I found a couple of heirloom ones that looked really interesting. I bought a beautiful book see above (love beautiful books) on heirloom tomatoes and after reading it went back to the seed catalogs and Google and looked for more seeds until i ended up with over 20 packets of some tasty some strange and some inserting seeds plus about eight or nine variety's I ordered as plants. Well i stuck them all in the propergator and this weekend potted up all the seedlings. I have to admit me being me I do seem to have got a bit carried away with it all. Once id finished I listed and counted all the seedling I have.. all 619 of them! what im going to do with this many? im not sure yet. But it will make for a great taste test and trail!

This is the list of all the seeds i planted and there descriptions in the catalogs only one type didnt come up!

Paul Robeson.  I'll be posting some tasting notes later in the summer im sure.

Sungold
Very sweet and tasty, the bite size, rich orange fruits are borne on long, heavy trusses, and stay in good condition for several weeks.
Equally reliable whether grown outdoors or in a greenhouse, Sungold has a growing band of followers who believe its flavour is unbeatable.
Sungella
A new larger fruited Sungold - Very heavy cropper - As uniform as a Hybrid! - Delicious sweet flavour. T&M are delighted to bring you a real breakthrough in tomatoes. A dedicated T&M customer from Norfolk, spent several years in breeding Tomato Sungella which is a cross between Sungold and a larger fruited, orange skinned heirloom favourite. Sungella produces a huge yield of orange skinned, golf ball sized fruits. Each tomato has a sweet juicy taste, with low acidity, as you would expect from its parentage. Long trusses with masses of hybrid quality fruit, ideal for a complete season's picking. Like its parents, Tomato Sungella grows equally well under glass as it does outside. Grow as a Cordon or Indeterminate.
Amish gold
Cross between Amish Paste and Sungold. Our TomatoFest organic tomato seeds produce indeterminate, regular-leaf tomato plants that yield HUGE crops of 1 1/2"-2" long, oblong shaped, gorgeous golden tomatoes with sharply-pointed end. Fruit has the gold color and flavor of the Sungold, the meatiness of the Amish Paste and delicious sweet/tart tomato flavors that will have you want this as a favorite tomato in your garden
German red strawberry
This German heirloom produces large, red, oxheart-shaped tomatoes that are shaped like a much larger strawberry. Plants yield an abundance of meaty, 3-inch wide by 3 1/2-inch long fruit that can grow to 1 pound. Shape of fruits can be inconsistent. Copious amount of delicious, robust, "old-tomato" flavors with a lingering sweetness.
Black cherry
The only truly black cherry tomato. Our TomatoFest organic tomato seeds produce large, sprawling, indeterminate, regular-leaf, vigorous tomato plants that yield abundant crops in huge clusters of 1", round, deep purple, mahogany-brown cherry tomatoes. Fruits are irresistibly delicious with sweet, rich, complex, full tomato flavors that burst in your mouth, characteristic of the best flavorful black tomatoes. Beautiful to mix with other colored cherry tomatoes. Unique tomato variety. Disease resistant. Once you try it...you want MORE.
Matts wild cherry
Genetically linked to wild Mexican tomatoes from the state of Hidago. A TomatoFest "favorite" tomato. Our organic tomato seeds produce a tall, vigorous, rangy, indeterminate, regular-leaf tomato plant with thousands of 1/2 -inch red cherry tomatoes, borne in clusters. Fruits have a very sweet, delicious taste. Like snacking on candy. This tomato variety that should do well in cooler growing regions as it appears to have some frost resistance. Great for sprinkling these "jewels" into a salad

Red pear
Very unusual beef tomato. Pear shaped with vertical ribs  a must try. Really meaty containing few seeds. Indeterminate. Fruits of 220-230g. Sow Feb-May.
Very unusual beef tomato. Pear shaped with vertical ribs - a must try. Really meaty containing few seeds. Indeterminate. Fruits of 220-230g.
Cuor de bue of liguria
T10. Recommended By Raimond Blanc (Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons) on BBC Gardeners World 20/04/07. 'Ox Heart' beef tomato, so called because of its size and shape. A lovely slicing tomato due to its meaty flesh, and few seeds. Unbeatable in salads or with s
"Superb tasting and fleshy" - Joy Larkcom, The Guardian Weekend 15/03/03. 'Ox Heart' beef tomato, so called because of its size and shape. A lovely slicing tomato due to its meaty flesh, and few seeds. Unbeatable in salads or with slices of fresh Mozzarella and basil Genovese. Indeterminate. Fruits typically 150-180g each in weight, but can get much larger.
Bio san Marzano
An organic San Marzano tomato - what a find !! These are the toms we find in tins in the supermarket. Dry, meaty, few seeds and thin skin make this a fabulous cooking tomato.
Carbon
Heirloom Tomato that has won awards across America. The fruits are smooth, large, and beautiful, being one of the darkest and prettiest of the purple types we have ever seen. They also seem to have an extra dose of the complex flavour dark tomatoes are famous for. Indeterminate 80 days.

Black sea man
 heirloom potato leaf variety from Russia. Plants are high yielding with slightly plum shaped delicious distinctive flavoured fruits up to 250g in weight. The fruits are mahogany to brown in colour with green to olive shoulders and lovely inner colour. They are perfect for salads and sandwiches. Determinate variety 75 days.
Sweet baby girl
A major seed company set out to find a cherry tomato that was extra flavorful and sweet on a productive, but more manageable plant. The result is Sweet Baby Girl, and it does indeed have incredible harvests of tomatoes on healthy, compact plants. Dark red fruit has great, sweet flavor and grows in long clusters. Resistant to tobacco mosaic virus. Compact indeterminate. 65 days. 
Chocolate cherry
This new purple tomato, unlike its red cousins, contains high levels of anthocyanins. This naturally occurring chemical found in dark fruit pigments such as blueberries and grapes, acts as an antioxidant. In addition Tomato Chocolate Cherry, like all tomatoes, contains high levels of the antioxidant lycopene.
Tomato Chocolate Cherry makes an ideal salad tomato. It produces extremely flavoursome cherry tomatoes, borne on trusses of 6-8 fruits. Growth habit is indeterminate, otherwise known as a cordon. Chocolate Cherry produces heavy yields some 70 days after planting until the first frosts. Suitable for indoor and outdoors in a sunny frost-free position.
Omars lebanise
80 days. (Indeterminate) [Heirloom from farmers in a Lebanese hill town. The best of Dr. Carolyn Male's extensive 1995 heirloom tomato trials.] A huge pink beefsteak tomato: fruits typically weigh 1 to 1-1/2 pounds, or even larger when well grown. This is a good choice for a gardener's boast or county fair entry. Size not withstanding, it has a multidimensional sweet flavor, that seems to be expressed best in northern areas. In southern areas the quality is more variable. Better than average resistance to foliage disease Brandywine, OTV
A potato-leaf heirloom named and released by Carolyn Male and Craig LeHoullier who state this tomato, "the best strain of Brandywine set apart from others by its smooth, creamy, almost buttery texture, and harmonious sweet flavor." The fruits of this heirloom are rich red with a slight orange undertone and weigh an average of 1 lb. This variety is known to set fruit better than the Pink Brandywine.   
Brandywine, Sudduth's Strain
Around 1880 a Mrs. Sudduth of Tennessee gave seeds said to be in her family for 100 years, to tomato seedsman, Ben Quisenberry of Ohio. Prolific potato leaf plant producing 1-2 lb. large, pink  fruit. This is a strain that craig LeHoullier believes is of the original Brandywine. Excellent flavor!   
Brandywine Herloom
 Brandywine heirloom tomato is Probably the first heirloom to achieve "cult status" within the growing popularity of heirloom tomatoes. A pink, potato-leaf, Amish variety from the 1880’s. Years ago, seed saving was done by individuals who understood that the greatest thing they could pass on to the next generation was some of the treasured food plants that had sustained life and had proven their value. One such pioneer was a man named Ben Quinsenbury, who lived in Vermont. He died at the age of 95, passing on his legacy. The Brandywine was Ben’s favorite tomato. In years of my holding tomato tastings for chefs and tomato lovers, the Brandywine has always placed as one of the top three favorites. It is legendary for it’s exceptionally rich, succulent tomato flavor. Fruits are reddish-pink, with light, creamy flesh that average 12 ounces but can grow to 2 pounds.
Japanese Black Trifele
Russian origin. In Russia the Trifele varieties of tomatoes (of which there are several colors) are highly prized and command hig prices. This short potato leaf plant yields prolific quantities of 6 oz. fruit that looks like a beautiful mahogany-colored Bartlett pear with greenish shoulders. Very tasty flesh with a meaty core that produces luscious fruit all summer long. A work of art sliced out on a plate and a wonderful flavor that possesses an extrordinairy rich and complex flavors. The Black Trifele is one of the blackest varieties available and is resistent to cracking.
 Suncherry Premium F1 Hybrid
The sweetest tasting, shiny, red-skinned, cherry tomato available making the perfect complement to our ever popular orange-skinned Sungold. Tomato Suncherry Premium ripens early and produces a huge crop of bite-sized red fruits throughout the summer.Suncherry Premium is best for greenhouse, but will grow in a sunny spot outdoors.
Suncherry extra sweet
Equal to Sungold at anytime but red in colour. The next generation! Masses of 1-1 1/2inches fruit which hang on the vine without splitting inspite of its thin skin. Cordon. 70-80 days from transplanting.
Wapsipinicon Peach 
From Dennis Schlicht. Named after the Wapsipinicon River in Northeast Iowa. Similar to Peche Jaune. Our TomatoFest organic tomato seeds produce indeterminate, regular-leaf wispy, tomato plants that yield a tremendous amount (thousands) of 1 1/2 to 2-inch, delicate, fuzzy-like-a-peach, pale-yellow (with a tinges of pink), juicy, tomatoes with wonderful, slightly-spicy, very fruity-sweet flavors. Harvest is good all the way to frost. A novelty tomato that is sooo sweet, it begs for eating right off the vine.
Sun dried totamtoes
The real McCoy! Direct from Italy and easily dried if the whole truss is cut and hung in the shade. Cordon. 80-90 days from transplanting.
Golden cherry
The very 'Tops' in Tomato experience. Japanese bred and most definitely outyields, outflavours, outclasses even ' Sungold', once considered to be the gardener's No. 1 for flavour. Add to that its resistance to cracking - its desire to remain on the vine and its superlative flavour and you will then have some idea of what's in store for you. An absolute outright winner, believe us! Cordon. 70-75 days from transplanting.

Burger Bar Macey's San Francisco

I was on a bus lost in San Francisco trying to get back to downtown from the Golden Gate bridge. Some friendly locals who where helping some other poor lost English people and I recommended the Burger Bar at Macey's to me for the amazing milkshakes and burgers. I was a bit unsure, places inside department stores here can be a bit hit and miss. But I wasn't going to argue with a local recommendation so the next day I went here for lunch. This picture is of there chocolate Nuttella milkshake and wow! it was the best milkshake I've ever had, perfect balance not to thick not to watery and not to sweet, plus look at the size of that straw! We don't have straws like that in England. They also have a taster menu where you get 3 smaller milkshakes in various flavors.
The burgers were also especially delicious, because you could choose and specify everything about them, from the breed of meat, or type of bun to the type of cheese, every element had choices. I also had there fantastic buttermilk onion rings.
Its a very bespoke burger place, so reflects that in the $$$ price, but well worth a visit for the milkshakes alone. I went back again just before my flight home instead of needing to eat on the flight and when i got home i even ordered to cookbook.

Pears poached in red wine and bay with cinnamon cream. (flickr re post)

The tree is full of pears and  i was determined this year to pick some and do something with them before they all fall. Every year we end up with only one or 2 from this huge tree because the fruit is so high up.
It might not be quite the time of year for warming puddings like this but looking at the trees Autumn is not far off.

Poached pears in wine

Peel your pears being careful to try and keep the pear shape, cut a sliver of the bottom to make it easier for them to stand upright later.
Put in a large pot don't add more then enough to cover the bottom of the pot. I cooked about 15 small ones.
Add 2 table spoons of fruit sugar, 2 spoons of cinnamon, plus a broken cinnamon stick and about 15 fresh bay leafs broken to release there flavor.
Pour over enough soft red wine to just cover the fruit
Cover the pan and heat on high until it simmers, reduce the heat and  keep simmering for an hour or so or until the pears are soft.
Turn the fruit from time to time if to make sure the deep red colour is absorbed all over.
Once there cooked remove half the liquid and reduce by half in another pan while the pears sit keeping warm on the lowest heat you can.

Mix together some cream and 3 tablespoons on cinnamon schnapps.

To serve pour the cream into the bottom on your bowl then place 3 pears into the cream,
Lastly pour over some of the shiny reduced red wine.

Soup Pixie tomato and red pepper soup (flickr repost)

For the Soup Pixie and her mum/mom/mahm who were both not feeling great this week...
Using some of the glut of tomatoes and peppers we have at the moment see. www.flickr.com/photos/12015049@N00/3849397144/

Pretty simple recipe this but tastes yummy for it.

Ingredients
Tomatoes about 1 lbs of good fleshy ripe ones
red peppers 4
onion 1 chopped fine
garlic 3 cloves crushed
basil a handful of leafs
water 2 pints less if your tomatoes seem watery
bay leaf 2
thyme 4 sprigs
olive oil
creme fresh
salt and pepper as needed

Heat a large heavy bottomed pot and soften the onions in a little olive oil ,then turn off and leave to one side..
Dip the tomatoes in boiling water and peel off the skins, chop roughly and put in the pot.
Flame roast the red peppers roughly peel there skin chop and place these into the pot too.
Add the garlic, thyme, bay leafs and season with some salt and pepper.
Check how watery your pot looks, if it looks ok, add 2 pints of water less if needs be.
Bring the pot to the boil and then simmer for 40 mins or until all the tomatoes are soft.
Remove the bay leafs and add the basil.
Blend the soup up with a hand blender or a regular tabletop blender or food processor in batches if you dont have one.
Pour back into the pot and taste to check the seasoning.
Bring back to the simmer and cook for a further 10 mins longer if your soup feels a little thin.

(If your making a big batch like me when cool pour into bags and freeze for winter warming)

To garnish flame roast some tiny “hundreds and thousands”type tomatoes in some salt, thyme and olive oil.
Stir in a spoonful of creme fresh and drop the tiny tomatoes on top.

Tomatoes 2009

Part of last years tomato glutton, i hope there are ever more this year.

Mint julep icecream (flickr repost)

It was actually sunny for a bit today about feel like the first time in weeks so i thought i'd make ice cream.


75g sugar
500 ml milk
4 egg yokes
500ml whipping cream
bunch of mint (fresh as you can get)
1 vanilla pod
1 slug of bourbon
100g of melted dark chocolate
ice cream maker machine

Start of by making a normal ice cream custard.
Heat the milk, half the sugar and the split vanilla pod in a pan, turn it off and leave to cool before it boils.
Blend most of your mint leafs with some bourbon until you have a green mushy paste.
Whisk the egg yokes and the rest of the sugar together till its pale.
Slowly pour the milk into the egg whisking as you do..
Add 3 springs of mint to the mixture.
Pour into a bowl and heat over a pan of water gently stirring all the time.
When the custard has thickened or reached 84 degrees c remove from heat and cool the bowl down in a bowl of ice water.
Add the mint mush and the cream and mix well (this is where you will find out of your mint is good enough) if it is your mixture should go a nice green colour.
(you should have enough bourbon in your mush a little bit goes a long way when its frozen but if you dont think there's enough now is the time to add a bit more.. not too much!! else it will never freeze)
Let the whole mixture cool sit for half and hour to really infuse the mint flavor.
While this is happening set up your ice cream machine and get in cool.
Strain thee mixture though a sieve and pour into your machine.
I cant tell you how long for, it takes as long as it takes.
It will get really thick but not quite solid due to the alcohol
When it seems to be ready slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate, i like to do this instead of dropping in chunks, so i get fine strands of chocolate running though.. better for you teeth to bite.
Scoop out and if your really desperate eat it all instantly, if you have willpower put into the freezer for a few hours to harden up.

Serve with your last spring of mint and some chocolate dust.

Cranachan (flickr repost)

We went to Parkside farm PYO yesterday for raspberrys
www.parksidefarmpyo.co.uk/
Where so ripe it wasnt so much picked them as them picking us.
You put you hand into the bush and the rasps leap in.
Also picked some tabletop strawberry's, but these raspberry's believe it or not are soo much sweeter!

So in my ongoing effort to torture my soup pixie with food heres my version of Cranachan Enjoy :)

Ingredients:
Raspberrys
Double cream
Whiskey
Agave syrup
Oats
Demerara sugar


Heat the oats and the sugar in a pan until toasted then set aside. Whip the cream and add the whiskey and syrup (you would probably use honey instead of agave) to taste. I like it with quite a whiskey taste but not too sweet. Fold in 2/3 if your raspberry's, save some good ones for the topping. Put the remaining raspberry's in the bottom of your glass with a little more whiskey then fill the glass with the cream mixture. Top with your remaining raspberry's then sprinkle over the toasted sugared oats to finish.

Halloween pumpkin soup served in a roasted pumpkin.

Halloween pumpkin soup served in a roasted pumpkin.

Halloween is only days away,
already im doing pumpkin things.

I made some pumpkin soup and wasn't sure how to serve is, decided to see if you could roast a carved pumpkin and serve it in that.

Ingredients
700 chopped pumpkin (the sort good for eating not for carving)
2 medium size potatoes chopped
1 onion chopped
3 carrots chopped
butter
2 ½ pints of veg stock
½ pink of milk
nutmeg
(brown sugar optional)

Soften the onions in the button on a medium heat in a large heavy bottomed pan.
Add all the vegetables plus the stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 mins
or until all the veg are soft.
Blitz the soup until smooth, pour back into the pan with the milk and lots of nutmeg.
Reheat before tasting and seasoning to your liking, if your pumpkin is a bit insipid it might need sugar or salt and pepper of you prefer.

To serve hollow out a pumpkin, then cut your face design just though the skin.
Cook in a oven on a low heat for 2 hours turn the oven up and cook until the pumpkin is soft inside
cover with foil if you think its beginning to scorch.
Once its cooked, pour your hot soup into the pumpkin and garnish with some roasted pumpkin seeds.

Pop the cherry cupcake

This was to celebrate my new 50 mm f1.4 lens!!
and all the DOF i could then create  in food pictures.
Chocolate cupcakes with cherry frosting.

Yellow ketchup

After last week i thought it would be nice to see what ketchup made just of yellow tomatoes turned out like. Its really great similar but interestingly different to red seems have have a lot less acidity.

There going along the same lines as for my red ketchup just a few tiny changes.

3.5kgs good sweet fleshy tomatoes chopped
2 small yellow peppers chopped
1 onion chopped
500ml cider vinegar
80g of sugar (less if your using super sweet little cherry tomatoes)
4 garlic cloves chopped
3 cardamon pods crushed
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of the following:
white pepper
ground cloves
mace
all spice
cinnamon
(dont use to much! the flavors are supposed to subtly enhance the tomatoes not overpower them)

Put all the ingredients in a large heavy bottomed pot and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Pass the mixture though a food processor or food mill.
If the ketchup still feels a bit thin put it back in the pot and simmer until thickened.
(yellow seems to be a bit more watery than the red so it was simmered for an extra half hour.)
If its already nice and thick bottle or fill jars i find jars are just easier.

Ketchup (flickr re-post)

Home made tomato ketchup.
(yup your right.. im running out of ideas of things to so with all these tomatoes)

3.5kgs good sweet fleshy tomatoes chopped
500ml cider vinegar
80g of sugar (less if your using super sweet little cherry tomatoes)
4 garlic cloves chopped
3 cardamon pods crushed
2 tsps of good quality medium paprika
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of the following:
white pepper
ground cloves
mace
all spice
cinnamon
(dont use to much! the flavors are supposed to subtly enhance the tomatoes not overpower them)

Put all the ingredients in a large heavy bottomed pot and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Pass the mixture though a food processor or food mill.
If the ketchup still feels a bit thin put it back in the pot and simmer until thickened.
If its already nice and thick bottle or fill jars i find jars are just easier.

Choclate Brownies (flickr re-post)

Brownies

People can be very picky about brownies, some like them very sweet and really sticky, some people like a dry cake like brownie. I like mine some place in between, moist and sticky in the middle with a deep richness without being over sweet and a nice cracking top.

Recipe
4 medium Eggs
200g 7oz caster sugar

200g 7oz butter
300g 10 1/2  oz dark chocolate, chopped

30g 1oz Cocoa powder
60g 2 1/8 oz self-raising flour
1 ½ tsp's Baking powder

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c, 350f
Mix together the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl and let cool, mix together the dry ingredients.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, the slowly add the dry ingredients stirring all the time until its a dark smooth colour
Pour into your tray, these rise a bit so choose you tray depending on how big you want your brownies.
Put into the over and cook for 30 mins or until the crust is cracked and theres only a slight wobble when you shake the tray.
Leave to cook and set a bit before cutting and eating.

Honey Bunny Carrot Cupcakes

Inspired by Honey Bunnys wish for a cupcake in the middle of the night.

These are carrot cake with mascarpone frosting with a tiny amount of natural orange colouring and candied carrot on top

It seemed an appropriate thing to bake :)

Canneles (flickr repost)

On one on my regular expeditions to Borough Market yesterday, I found someone selling canneles! i never see these this side of the channel, so i bought a big bag of then. I thought i better take a picture this afternoon before there all gone.. if you have never had a canneles you have no clue what your missing..

Chocolate chip mesquite cookies

I had a dream about helping make cookie,s the dream was so fun i felt compelled to cook some up today. These are my favorite recipe the ones we made in the dream.

This is and adaption of a recipe on 101 cookbooks
www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000398.html
The Mesquite gives the cookies an amazing moorishness.

Boxing day ham

Boxing day means Ham, we always buy ours from Sillfield Farm www.sillfield.co.uk
at Borough market they always taste amazing.

Potato soup with bacon

A quick to make soup perfect when you sick and in need of something to build your strength. (the time i usually make it)

5 large potatoes sliced thin,
a handful of peas,
a small onion chopped,
1 pint of vegetable stock,
1 pint of milk,
2 bay leafs,
4 slices of bacon (optional)
a few pieces of cubed good quality cheese (optional)
salt

This recipe is a bit of a love hate thing even without our house i love it my sister hates it.

The microwave is your friend, you will be pleased to hear.
Put the potatoes, onion, peas, bay leaf and stock into a bowl and zap with the microwave for about 7 minutes or until everything is soft.
Take the bay leafs out of the soup and blitz in a food blender until its smooth.
Stir in the milk then taste as salt you WILL need to but be careful a little bit at a time you really dont want it too salty remember your adding bacon and cheese.
Put it back into the microwave and heat it again for a couple of minutes.

Optional extras
add a few cubes of cheese and mix into the piping hot soup so they begin to melt

While the soup is cooking fry of your bacon (pancetta would be great just didnt have any today) you want the bacon to be nice and crispy. sprinkle on top on the soup.

Serve with a big chunk of bread and butter and feel instantly better.


(soup pixie needs soup)

Flat peaches

Flat peaches have got to be my favorite fruit, i first discovered them when i randomly picked them up at Borough market thinking they looked quirky. Well they are so much more then a cool oddly shaped fruit. The ripe flesh seems softer and juicier and they are a lot sweeter than other peaches. Still quite hard to find i have to look out for the few weeks they seem to be available each season..

Cupcake swarm

I went though a big cupcake phase at one point, before it was huge i said to myself "wow wouldn't it be cool to open a cupcake shop here in London! ive only ever hard of them in the states before." Needless to day i didn't and of course now there's quite a few trendy cupcake shops around. Though they do seem to be cashing in a bit to me, with fairly boring cupcakes lacking in the quirk i saw in the cupcake shop Serra took me to when i was in California. This picture gets an awful lot of hits of flickr for some reason.

Gelf burger

One of my little foodie obsessions are Burgers, this is my favorite recipe the one i use when ever i can. It makes a beautifully soft juicy flavorsome Burger like almost nothing you could ever buy. This is a really old image that's been sitting on my website forever.

Sticky toffee pudding (flickr re-post)

My closest friend... (see carrot cupcakes) came back from Scotland saying "if there is any reason i'll go back there it would be for the sticky toffee pudding" ..
Once some mentions liking something you like tooo dont you find yourself suddenly craving it?
That was a few weeks ago i kept forgetting to buy dates.. but finally using the recipe found here (which is supposed to be the orginal recipie)
www.milescollins.com/wordpress/the-original-sticky-toffee...
The yummiest sticky toffee pudding you will ever taste.

To begin

Im goimg to re-post everything  have on flickr over there.