Beet burger

 As my own beetroot is not ready (failed first sowing) Raymond gave me a bunch of his beetroot and thought of making some beetburgers (new recipe) and tomorrow when it is oven day I will make the beetroot and goat's cheese tart

strawberries galore

 A grey but productive day. I went to the allotment to harvest 4 kg of strawberries from the raised beds. The first few weeks have been disappointing as there was so much slug damage.

Todays harvest was turned into 15 bottles of strawberry cordial, 500ml of strawberry vinegar, and strawberry compote.  In our zoom session we made drop scones which we topped with the compote and vanilla ice cream (which we made with the Monday group.

As usual, it was fun to see Meghan and June and make these tasty recipes.

Mushroom and Pea Risotto with Orange, Halloumi and spinach Salad

Over the last years we made risotto with leeks, peas, kale and broadbeans. They all turned out well, but took a little time to make as we needed to 'feed' the rice little by little with stock.

This easy Mushroom and Pea risotto  recipe has some short cuts, which made it super simple to make and VERY tasty.

In future I will use this technique again and add the vegetables that are available in the allotment at the time of cooking.

I suppose we could easily have had a simple salad to go with this,  but as I had some oranges and some spinach that needed eating, we made some Halloumi, orang and Spinach Salad to go with it.

Halloumi, orange and spinach salad

Mushroom and Pea Risotto

Bella's ready steady cook creation

Wednesday 20th January Zoom session - Festive warm brussels sprouts salad with 'mushroom bacon'

      For tonight's dinner:we made this  Warm brussels sprouts salad  and mushroom bacon

It was extremely easy to make, I did not use the oven and fried the brussels sprouts and mushrooms instead.

We had plenty of  time to have a chat, and have found out that Brussels sprouts were available in the USA, Finland and the UK!

It was lovely to see Meghan and Ying and look forward to seeing them again next week.

We had this 'salad' with quinoa and liked it so much that tomorrow I will be making it again.

Mushroom Bourguignonne with Mash potatoes and a chocolate raspberry Roll

 Unfortunately I did not manage the time as well as I should have as about 1 minute before the end of the cooking time, our Zoom call was cut short.

However, it was lovely to see Melendra, Meghan and Bella who joined me in the cooking session. 

It was a little ambitious to make 3 dishes in a 60cm x 50cm space (plus hob space). By the time we were finished, the area behind the camera was like a bombshell had hit it. The food however tasted very moorish. 

 The Mushroom Bourguignon went well with the mash potatoes.

 The chocolate roll came out well. I added a layer of raspberry jam on top of  the sweetened cream cheese. Due to being slightly rushed, the roll had not cooled down enough to put in the filling, so the cream cheese started to melt. Next time, make sure the cake is totally cooled down before you add the filling.

Other than that.  Great recipe for winter nights and the chocolate roll went well with a cup of coffee.

This one will end up in the next Zoom Cookery book!

 

 

Spinach, Sweet potato and coconut stew on a bed of rice and roti.

 We have just finished today From Spade to Plate Zoom meeting. The link is the same every Wednesday from 5.15pm until 5.55pm  Join Zoom Meeting

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/84302118713?pwd=YUtLWHZyekZmbGVJdnVqaUgvb2V2dz09

Meeting ID: 843 0211 8713
Passcode: Plate

 

Today we made spinach, sweet potato and coconut stew on a bed of rice and we also made some roti.

Lovely to see Meghan straight from the US, a new member Viola joined us from Berlin and always great to see our Cambridge Friends, Melendra, Bella, Naheed, Thomas, Mireia, Haruna,  too.