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Tuesday, 29 September 2015

The Slow Cooked Challenge September Round Up

 September turned out to be full of sunshine and, in Scotland, we had better weather than we had had all summer!  In saying all that, it has been chilly in the mornings and evenings so coming home to a slow cooked warming supper is definitely the order of the day.

We have a range of dishes to choose from in this month's Slow Cooked Challenge starting with Blackberry Pulled Pork with Blackberry BBQ Sauce.

This unusual and creative dish comes to us from the heart of rural France, from the blog of De Tout Coeur Limousin, that sauce looks so good!

Next up a hearty plate of Slow Cooker Chipotle Chilli Beans provided by Sarah at Tales from the Kitchen Shed.  I'm a sucker for chipotle chillies, so will be filling my slow cooker with these beans very soon.

Another vegetarian dish and one I think I may be making this week, as I have some portobello mushrooms that I didn't use at the weekend. This dish of Slow Cooked Portobello Mushroom Stew with Herb Dumplings comes from the lovely Dominic who cooks up all kinds of treat at Belleau Kitchen.

Back to Tales from the Kitchen Shed for some more tasty treats.  This time Sarah is serving up Spicy Courgette Chutney made in her Slow Cooker with a glut of courgettes.

This is real comfort food, a Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole from Lucy at Baking Queen 74 and my co-host for the Slow Cooked Challenge.  I hope you will join Lucy for the October Slow Cooked Challenge when it goes live on 1st October.  


Go to the Slow Cooked Challenge page for full details of the challenge and to find the current challenge. 

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Saturday, 15 August 2015

Bramble and Vanilla Cordial


The blackberries have only just flowered here in Scotland, little berries are starting to form but I certainly haven't seen any fully ripened berries in the hedgerow yet.  However, I always freeze some berries and my freezer harvest is perfect for making this delicious fruity cordial which is delicious served with water, sparkling water or including in alcoholic cocktails.  It's also really easy to make and much less expensive than the high end fruit cordials that I often buy.

Bramble and Vanilla Cordial
makes just over a litre

1kg blackberries
1.5l cold water
500g sugar
1 vanilla pod


  1. Rinse the blackberries in a colander, then place in a large pan (I use my pressure cooker, without the lid) with the water.  
  2. Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes.
  3. Use a jelly bag, muslin or a clean tea towel and strain the fruit over a clean bowl.  Do not squeeze the bag as it will make the cordial cloudy.
  4. While the juice is straining, sterilise your bottles.  Either rinse thoroughly in cold water then place in a low oven for 30 minutes, or use a proprietary sterilising solution and follow the instructions.
  5. Return the juice to the cleaned pan and add the sugar and the vanilla pod, unopened as you don't want the seeds in the cordial, heat gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil. Skim off any froth on the top and simmer vigorously for 10 minutes. 
  6. Remove the vanilla pod, rinse and dry for future use, and pour the cordial into sterilised bottles.
  7. The cordial will keep for up to three months.

What I really like about this cordial, is that there is still a little sharpness from the blackberries and the vanilla just tempers it, without the cordial needing to be further sweetened.




If you are looking for more blackberry recipes or would like to share your own recipes, then join me and Karen from Lavender and Lovage for:

The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round Up

You don't have to be British to join in and you can use fresh, frozen, canned or any other kind of blackberries that you can get your hands on. It's very simple, here is what to do:


  • Post your recipe on your blog with a link to Farmersgirl Kitchen and Lavender and Lovage and attach the Great British Blackberry Recipe Round-Up logo as shown above.
  • If you put your post on twitter please mention @FarmersgirlCook  @KarenBurnsBooth and #GBBR in your message and we will retweet all those we see.
  • By entering you are agreeing to let us use an image from your entry on this site, and to pin to Pinterest.
  • Please be respectful of  other people's copyright and give credit where it is due. 
  • Add your recipe link to the live Linky posted at the bottom of this page.
  • Closing date 18th September 2015

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Monday, 10 August 2015

The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round Up


After the success of the Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round Up in the spring, Karen at Lavender and Lovage and I are launching a new Linky Party to celebrate the blackberry harvest.  As Karen is in  SW France and I am in SW Scotland, the blackberry season starts and finishes at different times for us, so the Linky will remain open until the 18th of September so everyone has plenty of time to forage in the hedgerows and make delicious recipes with the blackberries you pick.

The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round Up 
You don't have to be British to join in and you can use fresh, frozen, canned or any other kind of blackberries that you can get your hands on. It's very simple, here is what to do:


Post your recipe on your blog with a link to Farmersgirl Kitchen and Lavender and Lovage and attach the Great British Blackberry Recipe Round-Up logo as shown below


  • If you put your post on twitter please mention @FarmersgirlCook  @KarenBurnsBooth and #GBBR in your message and we will retweet all those we see.
  • By entering you are agreeing to let us use an image from your entry on this site, and to pin to Pinterest.
  • Please be respectful of  other people's copyright and give credit where it is due. 
  • Add your recipe link to the live Linky posted at the bottom of this page.
  • Closing date 18th September 2015



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Saturday, 30 August 2014

Wisdom for Home Preservers and Spiced Blackberry Jam


When autumn (fall) starts to creep in, it's definitely time to start preserving the harvest from your garden or the hedgerows.  People have been preserving food since ancient times—evidence shows that Middle Eastern cultures were using the heat of the sun to dry their foods as early as 12,000 BC—for reasons of survival or culture or both. Fast forward to the present day, and preserving our food—perhaps home-grown, seasonal, local, organic, or free-range—is an essential and enjoyable part of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

Wisdom for Home Preservers by Robin Ripley is a comprehensive guide to preserving in all sorts of different ways including bottling, freezing, drying, fermenting, salt curing and smoking and cold storage/root cellaring. This isn't a cook book, there are no recipes, but it is full of really helpful tips which will help you get the most from your produce and answer any questions you might have.  Here are a few of the useful tips:

Tip 158: Pick the right bowls and pots for pickling
Avoid containers and utensils made of unlined copper, iron, zinc or brass when pickling.  These materials may react with acid and salt and can cloud or discolour your pickles.  For pots, pick such materials as stainless steel, heatproof glass or hard-anodised aluminium.

Tip 254: Set your freezer temperature to -18
Freezer temperatures settings should be set to -18 C (0 F) or lower.  Not all freezer settings are accurate, though, so get a freezer thermometer, available at supermarkets and kitchenware retailers, and regularly monitor the temperate and adjust the setting if needed.

Tip 279: Create your own herb meat rubs
With herbs rolling in from the garden by the basketful, don't forget you can mix the match them to make unique and delicious rubs for meat and poultry.  For poultry, try combining dried lemon thyme, sage, rosemary, salt and pepper. For beef, try a combination of dried thyme, sage, marjoram, garlic and onion powders, pepper and salt. 

Garden and food writer ROBIN RIPLEY has been growing, cooking and preserving fresh food from her garden since moving to a small farm in rural Maryland 15 years ago. She is an enthusiastic experimenter of all things related to food, including bread and pastry baking, wine and cheese making, canning and preserving. She is co-author of Grocery Gardening and blogs about her gardening, preserving and made-from-scratch cooking projects at http://bumblebeeblog.com. She also raises pet chickens, which she blogs about at http://eggsandchickens.com. Robin writes and talks regularly with groups about gardening, potager design and the importance and joy of supporting locally-grown and fresh foods. 

Wisdom for Home Preservers
Author: Robin Ripley
Publisher: Apple Press
Published: 4th September
RRP: £12.99

I have one copy of Wisdom for Home Preservers to give away (scroll down to the Rafflecopter widget to enter)

As a bonus I thought I'd share this recipe for Spiced Blackberry Jam with you.  The blackberries in our lane have been particularly good this year and it's been so easy to collect  enough to make a few pots of jam. If you would like to make this jam, I found the recipe at 'Putting up with the Turnbulls' you can find it here: Spiced Blackberry Jam  it's absolutely delicious, the spices are very subtle but enhance the flavour of the fruit.




I'm adding this recipe to the The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round Up, a Linky party which Karen at Lavender and Lovage and I are running throughout Blackberry season 2015.  Click through to the GBBR post for full details.  You will see that I used the photo from this post for the Linky badge!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thursday, 31 October 2013

Foragers Fancy - A Gin Cocktail

Gin was probably my first 'grown up' drink, it seemed very sophisticated to ask for a gin and tonic rather than the Cinzano and lemonade that started my foray into alcoholic drinks.  Good grief, that dates me squarely in the 1970s!  However time moves on and I was seduced away from drinking spirits by the increasing quality, and reducing price, of wine.  However, recently in an attempt to drink less (lets face it, once the bottle is open....) we have turned our attention back to the hard stuff.

It started with the bottle of vodka which had been given to my husband as a gift, but vodka has never been my spirit of choice,  so when Martin Miller's offered me a bottle of their Arctic Quality Gin I was more than pleased to accept.

The bottle is really very beautiful and shows the UK and Iceland, as the gin is distilled in England and blended with Icelandic water.  I also received a glossy 'coffee table' book with more information than you could possibly want to know about Martin Miller's Gin and a cocktail recipe book.  In the book there are some nice little quotes from Martin Miller e.g " I want my gin to have the scent of Oriental flowers at dusk and to have the fragrance of orange groves on a warm night in Seville" probably my favourite chapter is the one called 'Gin, Janes and Jazz' which tells you about the birth of the 'Cocktail Hour' which replaced afternoon tea in the Grand American Hotels at the start of the twentieth century, shortly followed by prohibition in the 1920s which gave gin attitude!

The flavour of the gin is very clean. It doesn't have the harsh 'scented' quality that some other brands seem to  have.  It felt as if you could taste each of the individual botanicals that go to make up the flavourings for this gin: Juniper, Coriander, Angelica, Lime Peel, Liquorice Root, Cassia Bark and Florentine Iris and it was very smooth, no harsh spirity kick probably down to the way it is distilled with only the 'heart' of the spirit being kept.  Or maybe it has something to do with the pollution free Icelandic water.  All I can say is that it is a very good gin indeed!
 
Having tried the Martin Miller's Gin with tonic, I thought I would make a cocktail.  But rather than use one of the recipes provided by Martin Miller's  I decided to create my own cocktail:


Forager's Fancy

Per glass
35ml Martin Miller's Gin
25ml Bramble Cordial
8 mint leaves
crushed ice
soda water
1 sprig of mint to garnish

1. Bruise the mint leaves in a mortar and pestle or with the end of a rolling pin to release the oils.  
2. Place the crushed mint and crushed ice in the glass.
3. Add the Martin Miller's Gin and the Bramble Cordial in the glass and stir to mix. Top up with soda water.
4. Garnish with the sprig of mint.

For the Bramble Cordial
1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries (brambles)
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 cups water

1. Place the ingredients in a saucepan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved, simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the berries are soft and the liquid has reduced by about half.  
2. Strain through a sieve and leave to cool.  
3. Keep in a sterilised bottle or jar in the fridge until needed.

Chin Chin!

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Friday, 27 September 2013

Summer Falls into Autumn Pudding

Summer Pudding is probably my favourite British pudding. There is something about the sharpness of the fruits and the tender bread shell soaked with juice that really appeals to me, especially when doused with a liberal pouring of cream.
For some reason I didn't make a summer pudding this summer so I thought I'd bridge the seasons with a summer into autumn version. I had two ripe pears in the fruit bowl, a punnet of raspberries, brambles (blackberries) from my hedgerow and some blackcurrants from the freezer, any combination of soft fruits will do, you want ones that will produce lots of fruity juice.


Summer Falls into Autumn Pudding
Serves 6
1 1/4 kg mixed berries and currants
175g caster sugar
1tbsp Framboise (optional)
1-2 tsp Galloway Chillies, Chilli and Raspberry Jam
Half a loaf of white bread.

 1. Slice the bread and cut off the crusts.  Line a 1.25ltr pudding basin with cling film making sure you have plenty over the side, this helps you to remove the pudding more easily when it is ready. Line the cling filmed bowl with bread, filling in all the gaps.

2. Put the blackberries and blackcurrants into a pan with the sugar and just enough water to cover the berries and no more.  Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and the berries have started to release their juices, about 5 minutes.  Add the peeled and chopped pears and the raspberries and simmer gently for another 2 minutes. 

3.  Add 1-2 tsp of Chilli jam,  I used Galloway Chillies 'Special Edition' Chilli Raspberry Jam.  I found that 1 tsp wasn't really enough to give a kick, so I would recommend at least two, but it will depend on the type of Chilli Jam you use.  This is of course, optional!

 This is what the berries should look like, still whole and not cooked out.


4.  Fill the bread lined bowl with the berries and lay more slices of bread across the top.  Fold in the cling film.

5. Place a saucer on top of the pudding and weigh it down with something heavy like a tin.  Place it in the fridge overnight.
6.  Place the remaining juice and berries in a sieve and press through to get all the juice and pulp.

7. Add a tablespoon of Framboise (Raspberry Liqueur), Cassis (Blackcurrant Liqueur) or Creme de Mur (Blackberry Liqueur) - not all of them just one tablespoon!  This is optional, it will still taste gorgeous without the alcohol.

8. Unwrap the cling film from the top and turn the bowl onto a plate lift off the  bowl and remove the cling film.  I used a pastry brush to paint the bread with some of the sauce or you can spoon it on to cover any patches where the juice hasn't seeped through the bread.  

9. Cut into slices and serve with the remaining sauce and some pouring cream.  I was really pleased with the way the pudding cut and held together, it may have been the pear which helped to hold it all together.



I am entering this for Four Seasons Food   a  blog event featuring seasonal ingredients like the blackberries and pears that I have used here. This month the theme is 'Sliding into Autumn'. Four Seasons Food is run by Delicieux and Eat your Veg




I'm also adding my Summer Falls into Autumn Pudding for  Shop Local a new blogging challenge from Elizabeth's Kitchen as it features Chilli Raspberry Jam from local producer Galloway Chillies.
Galloway Chillies produce a range of delicious chilli jams and the Hot Chilli lemon Citrus has recently been awarded a gold star by the Guild of Fine Food at the Great Taste Awards.

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Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Mixed Berry Jam

It was time to clean out the freezer, it was getting beyond a joke, the drawers were difficult to open and I spotted some frozen green goo in the bottom of one of them,  I thought my ice cream maker had burst and leaked but it hadn't so I'm not sure quite what that was, but it's gone now!  As part of my 'storecupboard empty' campaign I had been trying to use up things in the freezer and not fill it full again until I had cleaned it out.

Down near the bottom of the freezer were several boxes of berries.  Blackcurrants from the garden, blackberries from the hedgerow, a few redcurrants (that had been there for about three years!) and half a pack of cranberries from I bought and froze in December. I decided it was time to clear them out and make a mixed berry jam.



Blackcurrants are really easy to make into jam, they are full of pectin and give a good set, I made double the amount in the recipe, it's an easy one to adapt to the quantity of berries you have at your disposal.

Mixed Berry Jam
Makes 1kg (just over 2lb) jam
450g (1lb) mixed berries including blackcurrants
450ml (3/4 pt) water
550g (1 1/4 lb) sugar

Remove the stalks (hmm, you will see that I didn't get them all removed, but you can fish them out when the berries are softened) then wash the fruit.  Simmer gently with the water until the skins are really soft.  Add the sugar; stir until dissolved; then boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

If you have never made jam before, read this excellent article, published in the Guardian Lifestyle, by Darina Allen which should answer any questions you have.  But really, it's not that difficult, you don't need sugar thermometers or liquid pectin, my mother and grandmother never used them. A cold saucer in the fridge, a teaspoonful of jam, let it cool, then push with your finger and if there is a 'skin' then it is set, if not boil for another 5 minutes and try again.

 I'm entering this freezer cleaning jam for the No Waste Food Challenge at Turquoise Lemons as the theme is 'preserves'.



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Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Pear and Blackberry Frangipane Tart


It was a rather wet start on Sunday, but when it dried up after lunch, I went out and noticed that there were a lot of 'brambles' which were ripe.  I started to pick them, but once my hands were full, had to come back to the house for a bowl!

I put most of the blackberries in the freezer but decided to keep some back to make a dessert.

Pear and Blackberry Frangipane Tart


1 traybake tin  approx 30 x 23 x 4cm (12" x 9" x 1 ½")
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
3 tbsp raspberry jam
1 or 2 poached pears, quartered
100g blackberries (or a couple of handfuls)

for the Frangipane
55g butter
55g caster sugar
40g ground almonds
1 large egg
15g plain flour

1. Heat the oven to 180C/170C fan oven
2. Line the tin with the pastry and trim to fit
3. Spread the raspberry jam on the base of the pastry
4. Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat together the frangipane ingredients
5. Add peached pears and sprinkle over the blackberries, push them down into the frangipane mix.
6. Bake at 170C for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

I served the tart warm with icecream, but you can also eat it cold.  If I was going to make this again I would make shortcrust pastry for the base as the puff pastry wasn't so good underneath especially when cold.


I had some company when I was out picking brambles, the horses in the next door field were very interested in what I was doing!

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Saturday, 22 September 2012

Lemon Drizzle Cake with Berry Compote


Today was a beautiful sunny day.  The day started very cold with a hint of ground frost, but as the sun gathered strength it felt warmer than many of the days we have had this summer.  I was beginning to despair of picking any blackberries as we don't seem to have had two dry days together, but  this afternoon I managed to gather a reasonable quantity and I can see that there are many more to come, if the weather is kind to us.

I wanted to serve the berries with some kind of cake and decided that this was  a good opportunity to find a recipe for the combined challenge from Dom (Belleau Kitchen):  Random Recipes and  Karen (Lavender and Lovage) and Kate (What Kate Baked): Tea Time Treats, the result is  Tea Time Random Recipes


For my Random Recipe I decided to pick the two 'Little Book of Treats' that Susan, from A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate ,sent to me.  Both Susan and Karen have fabulous recipes featured in the 2012 edition of the book, which is sold at M&S Cafes in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.


  With the World's Biggest Coffee Morning only a few days away, this seemed like a great chance to use one of these books.  In the end I chose the 2011 book, mainly because I didn't want to publish a recipe from this year's book.  So much for a Random choice of book!  I did randomly pick the recipe though, the book fell open at the stapes in the centre to reveal....




I was delighted to see that the recipe I'd chosen was for Lemon Drizzle Cake, both because it would work perfectly with the Berry Compote and also because I could try out the George Wilkinson Great British Bakeware, 1lb loaf tin.  I've never had a 1lb loaf tin, always used a 2 or 3lb tin.  The recipe was for a 2lb loaf tin, so I halved the quantities in the recipe, and it worked perfectly.



My Favourite Lemon Drizzle Cake by Michael Mann (Little Book of Treats 2011)


110g/4oz butter or margarine (I used Pure, Sunflower spread)
110g/4oz caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
Finely grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
110g/4oz self-raising flour

Drizzle
Juice of 1 lemon
40g/1 1/2oz caster sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 10C/fan 160C/gas mark 4.  Grease and line a 450g/1lb loaf tin (I decided not to line and grease to test the Glidex non-stick on the George Wilkinson tin)
2. Beat the butter or margarine and sugar together until pale and fluffy.  Slowly add the eggs.  Sift the flour, add the lemon zest and fold gently until mixed.
3. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a thin skewer comes out clean after being inserted into the cake's centre.
4. Leave the cake to cool a little in it's tin. Mix the lemon juice and sugar together.  Prick the warm cake all over with a fork or skewer, then pour over the drizzle.  Leave in tin until completely cool.


The cake baked perfectly with a nice little crack on the top.  Once it had sucked up all the lemon and sugar drizzle and cooled down, I removed it from the tin.  I was a bit worried that the sticky lemon drizzle would cause problems getting it out of the tin, but it came out pretty easily.  I only had to ease it round the edges with a palette knife and out it came.

It also sliced very well, even when still slightly warm.  

Berry Compote

1 punnet strawberries (I used 'value' strawberries from the supermarket, they were ideal for this type of compote)
Approximately half the quantity of blackberries to strawberries
2 dessert spoons of sugar
A splash of water

1.  Gently heat the blackberries with the sugar and water until the juices start to run but the berries still hold their shape and colour.  Remove from heat and leave to cool a little.
2. Hull the strawberries and half or quarter depending on size, place in a serving bowl.
3. Pour the blackberry compote onto the strawberries while still warm as this will draw the juices from the strawberries.
4. Cover with clingfilm and leave to cool completely.  

Serve the Lemon Drizzle Cake with the Berry Compote and either Greek yogurt, cream or ice cream according to your preference.

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Saturday, 29 October 2011

Blackberry and Apple Cobbler

or rather...Blackberry and Apple Cobble!  I think I should have chosen a shallower dish for this as the cobber pieces all joined together into one big cobble!  It did taste delicious though!


It's the last day of Bookmarked Recipes, run by Jac at Tinned Tomatoes from an idea by Ruth at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments, and I thought I wasn't going to get an entry in in time.  But for tonight's dessert I chose a recipe I had bookmarked in Woman and Home - Dinner Tonight for October.



Blackberry and Apple Cobbler
500g (1lb 2oz) Apples
400g (4oz) blackberries
200g (7oz) golden caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1tbsp cornflour
150g (5oz) self-raising flour
50g (2oz) chilled butter, cubed
100ml (4fl oz) buttermilk
1tbsp demerara sugar

1.2litre (2 pint) greased ovenproof dish

1. Heat the oven to 200C, 180C Fan, 400F, gas 6.  Fill a bowl with water, peel the apples and put into the water to stop them browning. Quarter, core and slice the apples and place in the ovenproof dish.

2. Add the blackberries to the apples and sprinle over 50g (2oz) of the sugar, as well as the cinnamon and cornflour.  Gently stir everything together to mix the apples and blacberries with the dry ingredients.

3. Put the flour in a bowl or food processor, add the butter and the remaining 150g (5oz) sugar, and cut with a knife or whizz until it forms crumbs.  Add the buttermilk and blend until a squidgy dough forms.

4. Scatter clumps of the dough over the fruit - don't cover completely.  Spinkle with the demerara sugar and bake for 40 minues, or unitl the fruit is tender and the cobbler golden.

I didn't have any buttermilk, normally I would use a bit of yogurt in the milk to sour it or some lemon juice, but instead I used an egg and topped up to 100ml with semi-skimmed milk, it rose beautifully as you can see. 

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