Slow baked belly of pork with green tomatoes, coriander and lime recipe
We have never had so many green tomatoes knocking about the house. Some will turn red eventually but I decided to try cooking with some green ones. Their flavour improves with long slow cooking so combining them with a small joint of belly of pork would make a sumptuous meal for two. The result was unbelievably good, stunning fruity tangy flavours offsetting the melt in the mouth pork. Tears over not having many toms to bottle were wiped away with the first mouthful. I’m going to freeze and dry some batches of green tomatoes as this...
read moreWhat is the setting point for jam and jelly?
Earlier this summer I decided to use my jam thermometer to help me find the setting point of jam. To my delight I noticed that it was marked ‘JAM’ at 105°c/220°f. “This is going to be so easy.” I thought. “No more trailing back and forth to the fridge waiting for a tardy batch to set.” Danny had bought me a 9 litre Maslin pan and this was the day it was christened. Up until then I had been using a very large non stick saucepan. So I clipped the thermometer to the side of the pan and feeling like a pro started to boil...
read moreSimple nasturtium seed tartar sauce recipe. Seasonal food.
I had a hankering for scampi yesterday and mid meal decided to run up a quick tartar sauce. We made quite a few small jars of pickled nasturtium seeds last Autumn. Fiddly to gather but well worth the effort as they pickle well and they taste like hot capers but with more of a satisfying crunch. Towards the end of the season the nasturtium seeds get much larger and hotter! Danny doesn’t like capers but he loves nasturtium seeds – pickled and raw. As speed was of the essence I just doled out a tablespoon of mayonnaise and added the...
read moreGreen tomato chutney recipe
A couple of days ago I discovered that our Red Brandywine tomato plants in the front garden were showing all the early signs of blight. They were ripped out immediately before the blight could spread to the other plants and I was left with 3 kilos (over 6 1/2 pounds) of giant green tomatoes. I’ve been meaning to develop a recipe for green tomato chutney for ages and this was the final kick up the butt to actually do something about it. I repaired to bed with the trusty Min Pins and submerged myself in a green tomato chutney recipe shaped...
read moreApricot and peach jam recipe
“Would you like wild plum, greengage, Victoria plum or apricot and peach?” “Greengage I think. Well actually I’d like to try the peachy one. Can I have both?” For years Danny and I weren’t jam sort of people. Until we started foraging, found wild cherry plums and decided to make our own. I can still remember the shock of the taste of the jam, the intense flavour with a slightly bitter sweet twist. This year we have been making jam in earnest. It’s easy to make jam and a good jam is real comfort food of the first order. For...
read moreHow to cook puffballs recipe
“I want Mrs Boss to have a memorial. She deserves it.” Danny was warming his hands over the wood burning stove. He had just finished burying her in the garden. It was March 2009. “They have some nice Willowstone chickens at the garden centre. I’ll get one. I know that they are well under £20.” But when I visited the garden centre there were no chickens on display. In fact it has taken me all this time to discover that the stone garden ornaments had been moved to a different area. Last week I chose the chicken that looked most...
read moreGreen bullace jam recipe
If you missed the greengages a few weeks ago don’t panic. The wild greengages (green bullaces) are ready to pick now. These are not green cherry plums, which will now be yellow through to deep red when ripe. Green bullaces are green, fall into your hands when you touch them and taste just like a a mini version of our modern greengage. They are the tiny ancient ancestors of our cultivated greengages. I like to imagine cave families going out to forage for them. Now, as way back then, they are free. For years I’ve visited a small stretch...
read moreDelicious fried leftover potatoes recipe
The potato King always cooks too many spuds. He loves to see a decent sized pan of home grown potatoes – he can have some for supper and then graze – overnight and if he has cooked lots, a pre breakfast snack. I don’t eat loads of spuds so his ears switch into Spud Protective Mode if I want some more – he knows how to cook seriously good spuds so this does happen quite a lot these days. There’s always a little jump of surprise, followed by, “Help yourself to as much as you want.” I always leave second helpings for D. Years...
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