Gingered Figs - Slow Cooker Challenge, September 2014

'Tis the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'.  Hopefully we won't have too many mists just yet, as summer seems to have returned for a few more days, however I am looking for some fruitfulness as September's Slow Cooker Challenge is cook with FRUIT in your slow cooker.

Your dish can be sweet or savoury as long as it contains some fruit.  My recipe is a simple one,  I love baked figs and thought it would be easy to pop them in the slow cooker and it worked really well.

Slow Cooker Gingered Figs
4 ripe figs
50ml orange juice
4 dessert spoons Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve (or chopped preserved ginger)

1. Cut the hard part of the stem from the top of the figs, then slice a cross into the top of each one, be careful not to cut all the way to the bottom or your figs will fall apart.
2. Place the figs in the basin of the slow cooker, open out the sections of the fig a little and fill the space with a dessert spoon of Ginger Preserve.
3. Pour the orange juice around the figs and cover with the lid.
4. Bake on low for 2-3 hours.
5. Remove the figs from the slow cooker to a serving dish, pour the juices into a pan and bring to a rapid boil, reducing the syrup by half, then pour this over the figs and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
6. Serve with greek yogurt, drizzling the syrup over the figs and yogurt.



If you would like to take part in the Slow Cooker Challenge, then please: 

• Make your recipe in your Slow Cooker and post a photograph and the recipe, or a link to a recipe, on your blog
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen
• Use the Slow Cooker Challenge logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook and #SlowCookerChallenge and I will re-tweet it to my followers AND post your picture on the dedicated Pinterest Board. 

Rules: 

• Please do not publish recipes from cookbooks on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from another website, please link to the recipe on the website rather than publishing the recipe.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

The phrase 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' comes from John Keats' poem 'To Autumn'

Labels: figs, fresh figs, Fruit, Ginger, September, Slow Cooker Challenge, spiced ginger Mackays

posted by Janice @ 06:30 14 Comments

April Slow Cooker Challenge: 7-a-day!

How many portions of fruit and veg do you manage to eat in a day?  The latest research is showing that we should be upping our target of 5-a-day to 7-a-day or more.  Read more about this on the BBC News website 7-a-day Fruit and Veg Saves Lives

As I care deeply about all my readers and want them to live for a very long time, the theme for the April Slow Cooker Challenge is 7-a-day  make a dish in your slow cooker that contains 7 portions of fruit and/or veg, follow the rules and link it up to the Linky below:

06/04/14 I've had some feedback that it seems unreasonable to include 7 portions of fruit/veg in one meal and that's probably true.  That wasn't really my intention but I can see that I did actually say that!  In the dish I made (coming soon) I included 7 different vegetables so use that as your guide - just pack as many fruits and veggies in there as possible. Janice

• Make your recipe in your Slow Cooker and post a photograph and the recipe, or a link to a recipe, on your blog
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen
• Use the Slow Cooker Challenge logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook and #SlowCookerChallenge and I will re-tweet it to my followers AND post your post your pictures on a decicated Pinterest board.

Rules:

• Please do not publish recipes from cookbooks on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from another website, please link to the recipe on the website rather than publishing the recipe. 
• You can repost previous recipes on your blog, but please add the Slow Cooker Challenge Logo and link.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

Labels: Fruit, Linky, slow cooker, Slow Cooker Challenge, veg, Vegetables

posted by Janice @ 20:27 5 Comments

Cherry Frangipane Ramekins - Dish of the Month

Nigel Slater might not recognise this recipe as one of his, but it is an adaptation of the Plum (or greengage) and almond tart from the July chapter of The Kitchen Diaries II.

I was planning to have some homemade icecream for dessert (more of that in a later post) but my ice cream machine bowl appears to have a leak and is not working properly, so it needed longer to freeze.  I had about half an hour before I needed a dessert, so had a quick look through The Kitchen Diaires for inspiration and found this recipe.

I didn't have time to make pastry and had no plums or greengages, but I thought I could bake the frangipane in a ramekin and had a punnet of lovely ripe cherries that would do in place of the plums.

Frangipane is a mixture of butter, sugar, eggs, ground almonds and a little flour.  I've posted other recipes that include frangipane before such as Rhubarb Bakewell Tart,  Pear and Blackberry Frangipane Tart and most recently the Belleau Kitchen Rhubarb Frangipane Tart.


I can certainly recommend this recipe, it was quick, easy and very satisfying, especially served warm with a big scoop of Madagascar Vanilla Icecream.

As well as being my Dish of the Month, I am also entering this for Tea Time Treats as this month's theme is Fresh Fruit.   Tea Time Treats is a monthly blogging event that showcases treats from our favourite meal of the day: teatime! Hosted alternate months by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. 
Karen is hosting this month and you can read all about in her blog post Fresh Fruit Treats.


Frangipane also begins with F so fits with the Alphabakes Challenge run by Ros at The more than occasional baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes.

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
•  Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers. 

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

Labels: cherries, Cherry Frangipane Ramekins, Dish of the Month, Fruit, ice cream, Nigel Slater, Tea Time Treats, The kitchen diaries II

posted by Janice @ 20:34 11 Comments

Rhubarb, Rose and Elderflower Jellies and a Giveaway

I did warn you that rhubarb was going to feature quite frequently on the blog as 'tis the season! These jellies were inspired by the fabulous natural cordials and presses produced by Belvoir Fruit Farms a family run company based in Lincolnshire.

Most of us have had a little glimpse of summer, at the weekend, when I took this photograph, although there was a cool breeze blowing, the sky was blue and it wasn't raining!  I know that further south it has been much warmer and summer drinks are definitely on the menu.  I've tried all four of these drinks and must declare them totally delicious.  They are not too sweet, very fruity and the presse is not too fizzy and very refreshing.  The Cranberry and Raspberry (lurking at the back) was probably my favourite, but they are all very good.

I was inspired by the Elderflower and Rose Presse to make the jellies as I know that elderflower goes well with rhubarb and the pale pink rose colour complements the colour of the young poached rhubarb.

Rhubarb, Elderflower and Rose Jellies (makes 6)

6 stems of young rhubarb cut into even pieces
2 tbsp granulated sugar
500ml Belvoir Fruit Farms Elderflower and Rose Presse
4 sheets Gelatine (Supercook)

1. Heat the oven to 170C
2. Place the rhubarb into an ovenproof dish, add 50ml Elderflower and Rose Presse and 2 tbsp sugar.
3. Cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the rhubarb is just tender (check regularly)
4. Soak the sheets of gelatine in cold water as per the packet instructions.
5. Remove the rhubarb from the oven and drain the juices into a measuring jug, squeeze the water from the gelatine sheets and add to the hot liquid, the gelatine should melt into the liquid immediately.
6. Top up the liquid to 500ml with the Elderflower and Rose Presse.
7. Place a few pieces of rhubarb in each of the glasses and fill with the jelly mixture.
8. Chill in the fridge until set, this quantity of gelatine gives a fairly soft set, you can use more if you like a firmer jelly.

Printable Recipe


Belvoir have recently launched a range of five new products all with an English garden theme and I have five gift sets to give away comprising a Sophie Conran gardener’s journal and matching enamel mug plus 4 bottles of Belvoir products.

Gardeners Journal

Sophie Conran

Enamel Mug

To enter the giveaway, follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter Widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Labels: Belvoir, Blueberry and Blackcurrant, cherry, cordial, drinks, Elderflower and Rose, Fruit, jelly, presse Cranberry and Raspberry, rhubarb, Sophie Conran

posted by Janice @ 20:25 31 Comments

Fruity Yogurt Pots

Raking about at the back of the cupboard, I found my sealed bag of leftover sponge fingers and, of course, some leftover yogurt.

Labels: Fruit, greek yogurt, No Waste Food Challenge, sponge fingers, sprinkles, trifle

posted by Janice @ 19:32 5 Comments