Golden Rod - harvest when in bloom

 Here is a great video how to use Golden Rod 

How to make 'chocolate' from Lime trees

 Have not tried it yet as I found this video too late in the season but will try these lime seeds next year to make chocolate with.

Fig preserving

 Figs can be preserved like this

 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1915002185300016&ref=sharing

A Quinoa salad

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK4LibynqSk

fruit and seed oat cakes

 

4.5 from 2 votes

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Fruit & Seed Oatcakes

A lightly sweet version of classic Scottish oatcakes with mixed seeds for a toasty, nutty flavour plus currants. A nutritious snack with the slow-release energy of oats. Great with a cuppa or in lunchboxes.

 Course Snack, Biscuit

 Cuisine British, Vegetarian, Vegan, plant-based, Scottish

 Keyword crackers, biscuits, oats

 Prep Time 20 minutes

 Cook Time 25 minutes

 Total Time 45 minutes

 Servings 24 oatcakes (approx)

 Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• boiling water from a kettle
• 75 g currants
• 140 g rolled oats or porridge oats
• 140 g fine oatmeal see Recipe Note 1 to make your own
• 75 g mixed seeds e.g. flax, chia, sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, hemp hearts. See Recipe Note 2
• 50 g caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 75 ml oil (OR 75g of butter, melted) e.g. hemp, pumpkin seed, olive, or sunflower oil
• wholemeal flour (for rolling out) see Recipe Note 3

Instructions

1. Put the currants in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak and plump up.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.

   Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment or greaseproof paper.

3. Drain the currants.

   In a mixing bowl, stir together the oats, oatmeal, seeds, currants, sugar, and salt.

   Make a well in the centre then pour in the oil (or melted butter) plus 100ml of boiling water.

   Stir quickly to bring the mixture together into a soft, wettish dough, adding more boiling water as needed.

4. Dust a silicone mat or your worksurface with wholemeal flour or oatmeal and transfer the dough onto it.

   Sprinkle the dough and a rolling pin with a little more wholemeal flour or oatmeal and roll out the dough 3-5 mm thick.

   If the dough starts to come apart at the edges, just push it back together with your hands. If it seems too dry then sprinkle over more water, if too wet, sprinkle with more flour or oatmeal.

5. Cut out oatcakes using a 7cm cutter then carefully (they will be quite soft) transfer to the baking trays.

   Bring together the scraps and re-roll to make more oatcakes until all the dough is used up. Depending on how much flour or oatmeal you've used to roll out, and how 'thirsty' your oats are, you may or may not need to add a splash more water to bring together the scraps.

6. Put the trays in the preheated oven and bake until the oatcakes are golden brown and cooked all the way through. Unless you've rolled the dough very thickly or thinly, they should take approximately 20 - 25 minutes.

   Tip 1: After 10 minutes, check that they're not browning too quickly and turn the oven temperature down if necessary.

   Tip 2: For even browning, turn the oatcakes over for the final few minutes.

7. Transfer the oatcakes to a wire rack to cool.

   When completely cold, store in an airtight container. Should keep for a month.

Recipe Notes

Note 1 To make your own fine oatmeal, whizz rolled oats or porridge oats in a food processor, blender, or coffee mill until finely textured.

Note 2 Roughly chop any larger seeds such as pumpkin. You can also replace some of the whole seeds with ground: this is thought to increase the nutritional value of some seeds e.g. flax, chia.

Note 3 I prefer to roll oatcake dough on wholemeal flour as it's less sticky than oatmeal. However, you can use more oatmeal if you prefer.

Grape leaves how to preserve

 A great video how to preserve grape leaves.

I will try 2 methods, 

1, to dry them

2. to can them

Strawberries what a joy

 Although I have eaten strawberries for as long as I know, I did not know that the leaves are edible too.

You can make tea with the leaves

Jam and juices with the fruit

Red Dragon pie

 

Red Dragon Pie

Serves 4

Ingredients

110g aduki beans, steeped in boiling water for an hour then cooked until soft. (Or a 400g can aduki beans, drained)

50g cooked rice

1 tbsp oil

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

225g carrots, diced

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp mixed herbs

Half a pint of vegetable stock or the reserved liquid from the cooked aduki beans

Salt and pepper

450g potatoes, peeled and chopped

25g butter/vegan spread

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked beans and rice. Mix the soy sauce, tomato puree and herbs with the stock, then pour over the beans and vegetables. Season to taste, adding a little more liquid if necessary. Transfer to a greased 1.5 litre casserole dish.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until cooked and mash with the butter. Season well and top your bean mixture. Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes until the top has browned.

Artichoke how to prepare

 Here is a good way to prepare the artichoke

version 1

Artichoke dip

Preheat oven to 190C

Combine 400 g artichoke hearts and stalks, boiled and chopped

1 cup Mayonnaise

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese and mix well

3 Put in oven dish and bake for 15 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

Strawberry Ice cream

 Today we made Strawberry Ice cream topped with fresh strawberries (in balsamic vinegar)

As I could not find a tin of condensed milk, we made some ourselves  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCRYQHprz5I

Aubergine, baba ganoush

 https://www.thespruceeats.com/zucchini-baba-ganoush-4126885

Elderflower crunch cake

 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/elderflower-crunch-cake

cheese cake

cheese cake

Lemon curd, lemon puffs and Cheese, 'bacon' and leek tarts

 I bought a box of puff pastry and looked for recipes to use the whole sheet up. No waste and only use the oven once.

First we made the 'mushroom bacon' to go onto the savoury tart. Cheese, Pesto and 'Bacon’ tart

I then made the puff pastry cases and filled them with the lemon curd that I had made yesterday as it was properly cooled and set.   lemon curd, Lemon Curd Tarts, 

The lemon curd was made at the end, so I can use it to go into yoghurt or go onto my toast.

 A surprise visit from Holland where Gwen and Emma took this picture of me explaining how to make my mother's favourite Lemon Curd

Dandelion Tart

 Dandelion Tart

Dandelion Bread and Butter pudding

Dandelion Honey/Syrup  another recipe for dandelion syrup

Bank holiday Monday: From Spade to plate :Chickweed pesto with asparagus and sundried tomato couscous

This post was first written 3 years ago on 6/5/2018. What a difference in weather.  This year's bank holiday was wet and windy. Normally not the best way to spend a bank holiday, but after more than a month without rain, many of us welcomed it with open arms.

3 years ago I wrote: Sun sun glorious sunshine.
Today we had a large group of visiting scholars: Yumi, Takashi and Yuki from Japan, Melendra from the US, Simone from Italy,  Sarolta from Hungary, Felicia from China and June and I.
All of them seem to have Dandelion in their countries, so a good excuse to come up with a few tasty recipes.

We went to the allotment to pick the dandelions for the Dandelion Marmalade.



We all went home with a jar, still warm and not quite set, so hopefully by tomorrow we can enjoy home made marmalade!

We also helped Ted, by weeding his soon to be bean trench, the Chickweed was nice and juicy, just right for the Chickweed pesto we used for the couscous dish.

The asparagus were popping out of the ground as we watched, so they too were picked to go into our lovely fresh lunch.



As it was so hot, we made a Couscous salad with Chickweed pesto, sundried tomatoes, feta cheese and asparagus.



On the way home we found some lambs lettuce,lovage, sorrel, rocket and flowers of rosemary, calendula and few few forget-me-nots. Which made the salad not only taste lovely but a joy for the eye.


When we had a little break we tasted some of the dandelion bread and jelly that was made last week.








It went down rather fast!

Some nutritional facts about Dandelions
Some nutritional facts about Chickweed

Nettle Soup with oat and Yoghurt bread and Dandelion Waffles

Today we will be making oat milk for the waffles we are making, using the left over oats to go into the oat and yoghurt bread.
A great foraging day today.
Although there was a fresh chill in the air, the sun was out and so were the dandelions that we picked in the garage area behind our house.

When we peeped around the corner we were greeted by a see of yellow dandelions. We all pick a few handfuls to be prepared for Dandelion Oat Waffles we followed this recipe to the letter other than adding some poppy seeds which were harvested last autumn.

The Ladies are separating the yellow petals from the flower head

     

These were then added to the batter  and turned into some delicious waffles, which we ate with icing sugar but also a dollop of banana and blueberry ice cream (left over from Monday's from Spade to Plate session)
     


We made some Swedish Nettle soup which we had with the oat bread. We baked the bread on the stove in a pan. Delicious!

    

pickled grape vines

 

pickled Grape Leaves

We leave ten grape leaves on top of the grape clusters on the vines to provide protection against sunburn and then remove the side shoots. These are the most tender leaves, not as big but delicious. We pickle them in twenty four packs. Twelve stuffed grape leaves make a meal for one.

Origin: Greece

 Soak 1 hour, ferment 3 days, store one year

Ingredients

 2 people, 12 leaves per person

1. 2 wide mouth canning jars, pint size

2. 2 packs 24 grape leaves
3. 2 pints boiled cooled water
4. 2 Tbs canning salt
5. 8 Tbs soy bean whey, or cheese wey, or 2 Tbs extra salt

6. Cost
Grape leaves are free

Steps

1. Pick leaves after the sun sets. Wash, rinse, soak fresh leaves, one hour.
2. Boil water, rinse jars, cool while leaves are soaking. Add salt, whey, to boiled water. Wrap 24 leaves in bundle, stuff in wide mouth jar. Immerse leaves. Store upside down. Let ferment three days in dark closet. Let pressure escape daily, then close, store cool, good for a year.

 

 

'A sort of Thai curry'

Coming back from the garden with all this lovely organic produce I needed to think what to do with it. I also had a can of coconut milk and some yellow curry paste so decided to combine a few recipes I had used before. The result was lovely.

We cut up a medium sized butternut squash into small cubes, some green beans, carrots, red peppers  and broccoli  florets into similar sizes.

This post was first published on 15/10/2018

In a non stick pan we heated oil and added a chopped onion and a clove of garlic once translucent we added a good table spoon of yellow curry paste and cooked for a minute to develop the flavour.

When fragrant we added a quarter of a tin of coconut milk and mixed it all through.

Once done, we added the rest of the coconut milk, rinsed out the tin with 2 tbsp of water and added to the pan.

Then we added the butternut squash chunks, the rest of the vegetables and a little salt to taste.

We simmered it for another 15 or so minutes.

Meanwhile we dry roasted a handful of peanuts nuts. When toasted, we put most into the coconut mixture, keeping behind a little as topping when we dish up.

We served the curry with noodles and topped with cashew nuts and coriander leaves. MMM!

Cooking with flowers

 One of my favourite websites The Spruce  Eats gives some good tips for Cooking with edible flowers

27 other lovely recipes to use flowers 

1 Fried courgette flowers

2 Dandelion Bread and Butter pudding

3 Zucchini blossom fritters

4 Violet Macaroons

5. Violet and Asparagus risotto

6. Poppy seed spagetti

7. Vegetables spring rolls

8. Smoked Salmon Salad

9. Lavender cupcakes with primrose

10. Honey Lavender ice cream

In my garden I grow:

Flowers

Borage

Calendula

Gladioli

Nasturtiums

Pinks Poppies

Primroses

Rose

Sweet peas

Tulips

Violets

Herbs

Basil

Chives

Dill

Garlic chives

Lavender

rosemary

Wild garlic

Rocket

Trees

Lilac

Some interesting recipes

Vegan 'smoked Salmon' and Saurekraut

 Today we will make 'smoked salmon' and Saurekraut

Minimal ingredients for the smoked salmon

Saurekraut

uses of saurkraut juice

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey

 Deep-fried courgette flowers are a treat at the best of times, but cooked this way they’re a real luxury

Yotam Ottolenghi’s fried courgette flowers with lavender honey: Go on, treat yourself.

Yotam Ottolenghi

@ottolenghi

Fri 1 Jun 2012 22.59 BST

3

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey (V)

I am more than happy just dipping courgette flowers in egg, shallow frying them and serving with lemon, but on special occasions I make this luxurious variation. Serves four.

125g soft goat's cheese
30g parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), finely grated
2 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp chopped thyme
Salt and black pepper
8 female courgette flowers with the baby courgette attached
100g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten
120g panko breadcrumbs
350ml sunflower oil, for frying
About 1 tbsp lavender honey

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Make the filling by stirring together the cheeses, chives, thyme, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Put a tablespoon in the base of each flower and gently twist the tips of the petals to secure the filling inside.

Prepare three shallow bowls: one with the flour and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, one with the beaten eggs and one with the breadcrumbs and a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Toss each stuffed flower and attached courgette first in the flour, shaking off any excess, then in the egg. Finally coat with breadcrumbs and set aside.

Pour around 350ml oil into a medium, nonstick frying pan (enough to come 1cm up the sides of the pan) and place on a high heat. After two minutes, turn down the heat to medium and, when bubbles start to surface, put the courgettes in the hot oil, a few at a time, adjusting the temperature so they take about a minute on each side to go a nice golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt. Place the hot flowers on a serving plate, drizzle over a little honey and serve at once.