The frost got the Butternut squash, so we need to eat it soon.

For the last few weeks the large pots in the garden was filled with a combination of butternut squashes Uchiki Kuri pumpkins, and a variety of ornamental gourds. It looked so colourful and cheerful. And then, the frost arrived. I totally forgot to take them inside so lost most of them.
I rescued the lovely deep orange Uchiki Kuri pumpkins, composted all but the butternut squash.
With only a small patch affected, I decided to turn it into a Thai Butternut squash soup.


We made some faken bacon which went down very well.













We made some oven roasted Spicy Brussels Sprouts with Thai Peanut butter sauce.
First we made the peanut butter, and then added the lime, chili flakes, sesame oil, soya sauce, coconut milk, garlic and ginger. We all agreed it was a winner of a sauce.



After a damp and chilli start of the session, the sun came out, so we took this opportunity to have a walk in the garden. Rurie spotted the last handful of apples on the stepover trees. We all had a mouthful each (very small apples) but they were sweet and juicy. Next year I will thin them out more so we get a few more mouthfuls each!.

As the brussels sprouts and the cranberries reminded June of Christmas, we talked about Christmas traditions and in my case Sinterklaas, how we celebrate it and what food we eat.
We enjoyed our meal very much and look forward to the next meal together.

Pumpkin Soup, falafels, sweet chilli jam and beetroot wraps

Melendra brought the pumpkin flesh from Halloween which we turned into 5-spice pumpkin Soup
We felt the soup came out a little watery, but after adding a whole can of coconut milk, it became a deliciously creamy soup.

We then made falafels followed by sweet chilli jam  we used 3 chillies in this recipe and even after taking out the seeds, it still had a kick. So depending on hot you want it to be, adjust the chillies to taste.

We served some beetroot wraps (vegan and gluten free) the stuffing we changed a little and added freshly pick spinach, kidney beans, sweetcorn, some of last week's smoked' salmon and a pumpkin puree.  Personally I thought it was rather dry and would have been great with some cream cheese to stick it all together.

We went to the allotment for some fresh air and a few handfuls of spinach

The group liked it though, so that is the most important issue.

Ingredients  for the falafel: 

1  can chickpeas  

2 tablespoon minced garlic   

1 medium finely chopped onion   

2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon coriander 

¾ teaspoon cumin 

½ teaspoon salt

Pepper (to taste)

2 tablespoons flour

Oil for frying

Method

1. Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, parsley, coriander, cumin, salt, and pepper (to taste) and  flour and combine in a blender. You want the result to be a thick paste.
2. Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Slightly flatten.
3. Fry in until golden brown (2 to 5 minutes).
4. Serve falafel with couscous, in a wrap  and is delicious with a sweet chilli sauce.

A recipe for glue to put on labels:

Thick Glue

Pour 5 cups of water into a saucepan. Bring the water to a full boil.

Place 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of cold water in a bowl. Stir the ingredients until smooth.

Pour the flour mixture into the boiling water. Reduce the heat and gently boil the solution for 2 to 3 minutes until it thickens.

Remove the glue from the stovetop. Allow the glue to cool before you use it. Store the glue in a covered jar or bowl for 2 to 3 days.

Setting up the vertical garden

The weather was lovely, chilly but sunny, so we took the opportunity to fill the plastic 2 litre water bottles with the strawberry runners. Hopefully they will give us some deliciously sweet and juice strawberries in June.

Afterwards we made rice and  a mung bean curry with flat bread.
          

We brushed the flatbead with butter, garlic and parsley (fresh from the garden)

and another lovely afternoon with some great friends.

Planting up vertical Garden and mung bean dahl

The weather was lovely, chilly but sunny, so we took the opportunity to fill the plastic 2 litre water bottles with the strawberry runners. Hopefully they will give us some deliciously sweet and juice strawberries in June.

Afterwards we made rice and  a mung bean curry with flat bread.
          

We brushed the flatbead with butter, garlic and parsley (fresh from the garden)

and another lovely afternoon with some great friends.

Bigger Bolder Baking: Crazy Dough

I have been following Gemma from Bigger Bolder Baking for a while now and her videos and recipes are amazing.

Yesterday I came across her crazy dough. FANTASTIC! I made one batch and made, naan bread, cinnamon rolls, baggles and soft breadrolls with it. The outcome was amazing.

We made bagels today to go with the 'vegan smoked salmon'. The recipe we used today was the one in our cookery book, here is an alternative one made with tomato and the other carrot.
To make it easier to cut the strips thinly, top and tail a carrot, with a vegetable slicer slice thinly, then steam until soft. At this point you can then put in a dish and pour over the marinade.

We made a soup with fennel, spinach a couple of potatoes (to thicken) and an onion. Simple but very tasty. To finish we added a little cream, some fennel fronts, a fennel flower and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Crazy Dough is one master dough recipe — that's as easy as it gets — that can be turned into endless variations of breads, rolls, pretzels, pizza, and more!Crazy Dough is one master dough recipe — that's as easy as it gets — that can be turned into endless variations of breads, rolls, pretzels, pizza, and more!

Course: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: American 

Author: adapted from kitchennostalgia.com

Ingredients

·       1/2 cup ( 4floz/120ml) milk

·       1 teaspoon sugar

·       2 teaspoons dry yeast

·       3 1/3 cup (16 1/2 oz/500g) all-purpose flour

·       1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·       1 1/2 teaspoon salt

·       3/4 cup (6oz/180g) plain yogurt

·       1 whole egg*

Instructions

1.     In a small jug stir together the lukewarm milk, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 15 minutes until yeast activates. It will become foamy and start expanding.

2.     In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.     In a separate bowl combine the yogurt and the egg.

4.     Once the yeast has activated add the yeast mixture and yogurt-egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Using a fork stir everything together until it forms a loose, sticky dough.

5.     If the dough is too dry, add a little bit of milk or water. If it is too soft, add just a little bit of flour.

6.     Once all the ingredients are combined gently knead/ fold the dough together until it forms a rough ball.

7.     Cover the dough tightly with cling wrap and a tea towel and place in a warm spot to proof for 2 hours.

8.     Once the dough has risen it should be about double in size. From here you can take this crazy all-purpose dough and make it into any of the following things!

9.     Cheesy loaf, pizza, naan bread, savory stuffed roll, classic cinnamon rolls, pretzels, jalapeno & cheese stuffed dinner rolls, and braided Nutella loaf.

10.  Keep it in your fridge for up to 4 days. You can freeze it, too.

So today, we made a batch to make bagels to go with the Vegan 'smoked' Salmon out of my first recipe book.

We have these to go with the soup..

We made a little conveyer belt so that the freshly made bagels were put together swiftly.

 We agreed it was a very tasty meal.

Rurie, Kim, June, Mary and Hiroe waiting to be able to start their meal

Message from Meghan in the US

Meghan was a loyal member of from Spade to Plate whilst they were visiting Cambridge last year. I say 'was' but it looks like she still is from afar.  She follows the blog and feels she is temporarily back in the UK. Today she sent me a simple message and a lovely picture;


"You’ve inspired us today 🥰"

Half term, a small group but lots of variety

Today we had a couple of cancellations due to coughs and colds, and some of the regular friends could not make it due to half term.

This did mean however that we could try out some more dishes.

Carmen,  Alice and Karina S came. We started preparing the mushrooms for both the Creamy Mushroom Soup 

and the mushroom mini pies. Both recipes came from our 2nd cookery book.

A couple of weeks ago we made a pear custard pie, this time we used the same recipe but added apples rather than pears. Lovely too.

As we had some puff pastry and apple left we made some apple flappen (also in book 2, demonstrated by Mark)