Heritage Tomatoes with Mixed Herb Dressing

It's salad time!  Gardens, markets and supermarkets are full of lovely salad vegetables and they all taste so much better with a simple herb dressing.  OXO Good Grips, have a couple of great new kitchen gadgets to help you along.  The new herb mincer in green features stainless steel blades and OXO’s trademark grip to keep hands safe when in use. Ideal for keen cooks who are not confident with their knife skills, the ergonomic handle allows for a smooth rocking action, mincing herbs with ease in all directions without bringing the blade away from your chopping board. The peaked lip cleverly gathers herbs into a neat pile ready to season food. Designed so that it can open partially to wipe the blades free of collected herbs when in use, the mincer also separates completely into two pieces for easy cleaning and is
dishwasher safe.  RRP £12 from John Lewis.

Making a quick dressing is easy with the OXO Good Grips Little Salad Dressing Shaker. The watertight Shaker offers a clean, neat and convenient way to mix, serve and store dressings, sauces and marinades. The top unscrews to reveal a wide opening ideal for adding a range of ingredients like oil, vinegar, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, onions and spices. The Shaker is made of a BPA-free, break-resistant and dishwasher safe material. Once ingredients are added, screw the top on and shake to quickly mix dressings with no spills.  I love how the top lever flips back for pouring and forward to seal. You can use the airtight Shaker to store leftover dressing and sauce right inside the fridge.  RRP £10 from Lakeland 


Mixed Herb Salad Dressing 
50ml Fillipo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
25 ml Fillipo Berio Balsamic Vinegar
1 tbsp  mixed herbs, finely chopped with the Oxo Good Grips Herb Mincer (I used chives, thyme and rosemary)
1/2 tsp sugar
salt & freshly ground pepper

Place all the ingredients into the Oxo Good Grips Salad Shaker and shake until the the mixture emulsifies, then pour over sliced heritage tomatoes, or other salad.

Labels: chives, Herb Mincer, OXO Good Grips, Rosemary, salad dressing, Salad Shaker, thyme

posted by Janice @ 19:53 7 Comments

Slow Cooker Sausage, Tomato and Rosemary Casserole

Operation Dry Rot is finally progressing with construction rather than destruction now the order of the day.  However, I am still cooking without my stove, so Slow Cooker recipes are featuring heavily.  I like them because you can cook everything in one pot and there is less fussing around with the single electric ring and the microwave.

This is a simple casserole using everyday ingredients which make it tasty, thrifty and convenient.

Sausage, Tomato and Rosemary Slow Cooker Casserole
Serves 3-4
 6 pork sausages
1 seasonal root vegetable pack containing 3 carrots, 1 parsnip, 1 small turnip (swede), 1 onion.
2 large potatoes
1 400g can chopped tinned tomatoes
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 stock cube (I used beef)
1 tbsp vegetable oil 
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the oil in a pan and brown the sausages all over (I have a Sear and Stew Slow Cooker so brown mine in the cooking pot on the hob), slice the onion and add to the pan, turn down the heat and cook slowly for about 10 minutes.

2. While the sausage and onion are sauteing in the pan, peel the other vegetables and chop into small even sized pieces. You can cut the potatoes slightly larger as they will soften more quickly than the carrot and swede.






Bloggers Around the World has landed in GB and this sort of sausages are very much a British tradition, so I'm sharing this recipe at Chris's site Cooking Around the World.

Labels: casserole, comfort food, Cooking Around the World, Cooking with Herbs, Credit Crunch Munch, Rosemary, sausages, slow cooker, thrifty

posted by Janice @ 12:07 30 Comments

How did you sleep last night?

Labels: lavender, linen spritz, Rosemary, Silentnight beds, sleep, witch hazel.

posted by Janice @ 19:57 3 Comments

Raw Rhubarb and Rosemary Tabbouleh for the Aero Perfect Pairing Challenge

The good people at Aero HQ set out a challenge to create some wacky and wonderful flavour pairings to celebrate the two-toned bubblicious makeover of Aero with it's delicious flavour combinations of orange or mint with bubbly milk chocolate.

To help me with the challenge I was sent a box full of cooking equipment, a flavour thesaurus and some bubbly Aero chocolate to help inspire me!  In fact, I found my inspiration in the Flavour Thesaurus where I spied an amazing combination of raw rhubarb and rosemary marinated in honey, I thought this would work well in a Tabbouleh providing the acidic element to a classic salad.

Raw Rhubarb and Rosemary Tabbouleh (Serves 4)
2 sticks young rhubarb, very finely sliced
2 tbsp runny honey
2 sprigs of rosemary, bruised
250g bulgar wheat
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped mint
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp celery leaves roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
juice of half a lemon

1. Finely slice the rhubarb, preferably on a mandoline using the finest setting.  I used the OXO Good Grips Mandoline for this.


2.  Place in a non metallic bowl and add the honey and rosemary, leave to marinate for several hours or preferably overnight.


3. Place the bulgar wheat in a bowl and cover with boiling water.


4.  When the wheat has swollen and absorbed all the water, add the rest of the ingredients and mix through. 


5. Finally add the rhubarb and marinade, cover the bowl and leave to sit for at least an hour for the flavours to mingle, season to taste.  You may wish to add a little more finely chopped rosemary if you would like a stronger rosemary taste.

If you didn't know it was rhubarb, you would be hard pushed to recognise it, the honey has softened the sharpness to a pleasant bite and a subtle flavour of rosemary permeates the Tabbouleh.

Many thanks to Sophie for the Perfect Pairing Aero Cookery Kit.

Labels: Aero Perfect Pairing Challenge, celery, chocolate, mint, rhubarb, Rosemary, salad, Tabbouleh

posted by Janice @ 21:35 6 Comments

St Clements Marinade for Olives from Spain

The world is divided into those who love olives and those who don't.  When I was a child, I couldn't understand why my Mum loved these strange green or black fruits, to me they didn't taste good at all.  However, as I reached my twenties somehow I too found a taste for olives.  I was totally converted by olives stuffed with anchovies which I first tasted in Spain.

Olive expert and chef, Omar Allibhoy has created some fantastic marinade recipes for 'Olives from Spain' just in time for the party season.  I've also been included in a group of bloggers who have been challenged to come up with our own festive marinade for Spanish Olives.  Last week, I received a bumper hamper full of lovely Spanish ingredients, olives, olive oil, Manchego cheese, chorizo and a selection of fruits and herbs.


I wanted to create a marinade full of festive colours and flavours so chose to use oranges and lemons, reminding me of the rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St Clements' hence the title for my marinade.

St Clements Marinade for Olives

 150g black olives in brine (drained and rinsed)
1 clementine
1/2 lemon
1 tsp pink peppercorns
10 cloves
1 tbsp honey
6 tbsp Spanish Olive Oil
3 tbsp dry white wine
1 sprig rosemary

1. Cut the clementine and the half lemon into small pieces.
2. Put Spanish Olive Oil, dry white wine and honey into a bowl and mix well.
3. Add the pink peppercorns, cloves, clementine, lemon pieces and rosemary.

 4. Add the Spanish olives.
 5. Leave to stand for at least an hour, but the flavour will be even better if you put them into a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
 I was delighted with the light fresh flavour of the olives and marinade.  I deliberately didn't use vinegar or lemon juice in the marinade because of the citrus fruit that was already included and this meant that he olives have a fresh but mild flavour.  The fruit pieces are also edible and have absorbed some of the oil and wine so are also delicious.  I loved the pretty colours, the contrasts of  the reddish pink peppercorns, green rosemary and orange and yellow fruits against the shiny black olives.

We enjoyed the olives with some Manchego cheese and Medjool dates with a glass of wine before dinner.

Why not visit the Olives from Spain website, the Facebook page 'Taste of Spain' for more information and recipes and follow Taste of Spain on Twitter for all the updates.

I received a hamper from Olives from Spain and have created a marinade recipe using some of the ingredients from the hamper and some ingredients from my own kitchen.

Labels: honey, lemons, olives, olives from Spain, oranges, pink peppercorns, Rosemary, Spain

posted by Janice @ 21:19 2 Comments

Using Herbs: Rosemary Chicken and The Herb Savor Pod

I love herbs and, while it's fine in summer when I can pick them straight from the garden as I need them, out of season I find it difficult to keep herbs in the fridge.  After all, you don't always need the whole pack and they are not cheap. Coriander is probably the  herb I buy most and by the time you return to the pack, it has become a slimy mess  - sound familiar?

This recipe is from Make it Easy by Jane Lovett, Rosemary Chicken with french bean, fennel, sun-blush tomato and feta salad.  The chicken is marinated with rosemary so you get a light delicate flavour, the salad is served warm  and is delicious and filling combining some of my favourite flavours.  I added some fresh tomatoes as well as sunblush tomatoes.It would be great as a lunch dish on it's own and is suitable for vegetarians.

So back to the problem of keeping herbs and not wasting them. What we need is something that will help to keep the herbs fresh until they are needed.  I was delighted when Claire from The Handpicked Collection contacted me and gave me the opportunity to review the Herb Savor Pod


The Herb Savor Pod claims to extend the life of your herbs for up to three weeks, compared to 3-5 days in the fridge.  It can also be used for asparagus.   The pod is fairly simple to use, you take off the clear plastic section, place your herbs inside and fill up the base with water through the little green plug.

I cut some mint to see for myself how well it keeps the herbs.

Here is the mint inside the pod, you only put  a little water in the base of the pod and top this up if needed. It fits perfectly inside your fridge door and there is no leakage of herb smell.

I didn't have three weeks to wait, but after a week, I opened the pod and was hit with a waft of mint, the leaves were still fresh and crisp and seemed as fresh as when I put them in the pod.

I'm really pleased with the Herb Savor Pod, the only fault I have with it, is that the clear plastic was quite difficult to remove, you have to squeeze it in quite hard to release it, so if you have problems with arthritis or other hand weakness, it would not be suitable for you.  Otherwise, I think it's a great little gadget and look forward to using it with other herbs.  The Herb Savor Pod is £14.95, which may seem expensive, but if you think about how many herbs you waste, it is probably worth the money.

The Handpicked Collection has a lot of other lovely gifts for family, friends and for treating yourself,  I will be bookmarking the collection for gift ideas.

Disclaimer: The Handpicked Collection supplied me with the Herb Savor Pod, I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own..

Labels: Chicken, Fennel, feta cheese, french beans, Herb Savor Pod, herbs, Rosemary, sun blush tomatoes, The Handpicked Collection

posted by Janice @ 20:57 3 Comments

Summer Vegetable Soup with Granary Bread

Summer is not really a time I associate with soup, however, it has been rather chilly recently and as I was going away for a few days, I realised I needed to use up the vegetables that I had received in my Farmison Vegetable Box.  Soup is the perfect vehicle for any kind of vegetables and with some beans added it makes a the soup into a meal.


So here are the vegetables: celery; carrots, onion, quarter of a fennel bulb; 2 courgettes, 2 potatoes and about a third of a head of broccoli.  It doesn't matter what you have although onion and carrots are always a good base.  Oh and there was on runner bean that had escaped me when I cooked those the other day, so that went in too.

Summer Vegetable Soup

1 onion, peeled and chopped
4 stalks of celery, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 potatoes, diced
1/4 fennel bulb, chopped
bunch of thyme, rosemary and marjoram tied together
2 courgettes, diced
1/3 head of broccoli, chopped
4 tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped
100g canellini beans, soaked and cooked for 20 minutes until just tender
3 litres vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

 1 tbsp olive oil

1.Heat the olive oil in a pan.   Add the onion and celery and cook for 2 mintues, add the carrots, fennel and potoatoes, cook for another minutes.  Add the stock and herbs, season well and cook until the carrot is soft (20-30 minutes)
2. Add the chopped courgettes, broccoli, tomatoes and canellini beans and cook for a further 10 minutes.
3. Remove the herb bundle, adjust seasoning and serve with a sprinkling of fresh chopped thyme and rosemary and some Granary Bread.

I'm entering this soup for Karen's  'Herbs on Saturday' blog challenge, it was a really good tasty soup and the flavour of the herbs came through stongly without overpowering the flavours of the different vegetables.

 

Granary Bread

500g Granary Bread Flour
1 1/2 tsp easy blend yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
50g butter
275g lukewarm water

I put all of the ingredients into the bread maker on the dough setting, then shaped the dough onto a baking tray, left to rise again and baked for about 30 minutes at 200C.  If you don't have a bread maker, follow the recipe on the Granary Flour packet.

Labels: Broccoli, celery, courgette, Farmison, Fennel, Herbs on Saturday, onion, potatoes, Rosemary, Soup, thyme

posted by Janice @ 16:30 5 Comments

White Bean Soup - Random Recipe #16

It wasn't really soup weather yesterday, but I had planned to make my Random Recipe for the challenge at Belleau Kitchen and I was bloomin' sure I was going to make it!  The theme this month is 'First and Last' with the rules as follows:


 randomly select a book
2. look at the first and last recipes
3. choose one (or both if you're feeling flash..) of the recipes and make it
4. post the recipe on your blog with a link back to my blog and include the random recipes logo
5. deadline is midnight on the 29th May

 The book I picked was the Good Housekeeping Best 30 Minute Recipes which I see is still available to buy, although I must have had mine for over 20 years.  It's a great book which I have used a lot, but never have I made the first recipe for White Bean Soup.


White Bean Soup
Serves 4

1tbsp oil
125g onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 level tsp copped fresh rosemary or 1/2 level tsp dried
425g can haricot beans, drained and rinsed (I soaked dried cannelini beans overnight then boiled for 30 minutes before adding to soup)
1.1 litres vegetable stock
salt and pepper
Toasted wholemeal croutons and sprigs of fresh rosemary to garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion with the garlic and rosemary for 1-2 minutes.  Add the beans, stock and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Puree half the soup mixture in a blender or food processor and return to pan. Bring back to the boil, stirring all the time. Adjust the seasoning.
3. Serve the soup sprinkled with croutons.  Garnish each bowl with a sprig of rosemary.

This was our first meal outside on the patio this year, my son joined us and, on taking a spoonful of soup, pronounced 'That's really good' with a sound of surprise in his voice!  Praise indeed.

Labels: beans, cannellini beans, haricot beans, Random Recipes, Rosemary, Soup, vegetarian

posted by Janice @ 21:24 4 Comments

'Groovy' Focaccia and Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

Labels: Bread, breadmaker, champagne vinegar, digon mustard, Focaccia, Groovy Foods, High Five omega cooking oil, Omega Cool Oil, roasted red peppers, Rosemary, Salmon Vinaigrette, tomato, vinaigrette

posted by Janice @ 20:57 12 Comments

'Frosted Rosemary'

Hope you weren't expecting a recipe!!!  Just thought I show you my Rosemary plant with a dusting of snow on it.

Labels: Rosemary, snow

posted by Janice @ 14:00 3 Comments