Farmersgirl Kitchen

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Poached Apricots with Honeysuckle Syrup and Gluten Free Granola

I was rather disappointed in a punnet of apricots that I bought, they were rather hard and tasteless, so I poached them in a little water and sugar, creating a luscious pan of soft sweet fruit.

I received some Nature's Path, Gluten Free, Nice and Nobbly Granola. It's a really tasty cereal to eat for breakfast or to use, as I did, in this dessert. I used the Pumpkin Seeds, almonds, raisins and cinnamon granola and layered up the poached apricots, granola, and Greek Yogurt, finishing with a sprinkle of granola and some Honeysuckle Syrup (see below)

There are two different kinds of Nature's Path Nice and Nobbly Gluten Free Granola, the Pumpkin Seeds, almonds, raisins and cinnamon type and another with Blueberries, Raspberries Strawberries and Yogurt Chunks.

You may remember that I reviewed The Foragers Kitchen by Fiona Bird, back in May. I was enthusiastic about the book at the time and was eagerly anticipating the different seasons. One of the foraged ingredients that really intrigued me was Honeysuckle. I had not idea you could do anything with Honeysuckle although I've always love the smell of it and it grows in abundance in the hedges up the lanes to our farm. This year with the warm weather, it has been particularly prolific.

Honeysuckle Flowers

Honeysuckle Syrup
Makes 1 small bottle

What to forage and find:
2 large handfuls of honeysuckle (12-15 blossoms)
Scant 1 1/2 cups (350ml) boiling water (50ml will evaporate or soak into the blossom)
1 cup (200g) superfine (caster) sugar

What to do:
1. Allow the honeysuckle blossom to steep in the water for as long as possible (at least 8 hours)
2. Strain the blossom liquid well, and squeeze the blossom to ensue that you have as much liquid as possible.
3. Put the blossom water into a saucepan, and add the sugar.
4. Dissolve the sugar over low heat, then boil rapidly to reduce and thicken the syrup to about 3/4 cup (175ml)

I've been asked what Honeysuckle syrup tastes like, it tastes a little like honey and a bit like the flowers smell, it's a lovely sweet floral flavour. I did wonder if it was just the sugar, but I also made some Elderflower syrup (more of that in a future post) and it tastes completely different.

Fiona suggests that you drizzle this syrup over ice cream. If you keep one or two small plastic bottles of the in the freezer you can glaze your Christmas ham in wild summer blossom.

The Forager's Kitchen is published by CICO Books
RRP £16.99
Popular online book store £10.87

Thanks to Fiona Bird and Mark at Cico Books for allowing me to publish this recipe.
I received the Nature's Path Gluten Free Granola for review, I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own.

Labels: apricots, Cico Books, Fiona Bird, gluten free, Granola, greek yogurt, Honeysuckle, Nature's Path, syrup, The Forager's Kitchen

Saturday, 2 March 2013

Yogurt, Yoghurt or Yoghourt?

Apparently there are even more names than this for the delicious milk culture, take your pick! In fact, we tend to take the wide range of yogurt and yogurt products for granted now, but I can remember when yogurt was an exotic treat. I found this advert for Ski Yogurt from 1967 on YouTube which would be around the time that I remember it first featuring in our fridge.

Yogurt or Yoghurt is now pretty ubiquitous and there are many different yogurt based products available that there should be something for everyone. Sadly, many of them are full of artificial sweeteners and flavours but natural flavours have made a bit of a come back recently. So I was pleased to receive a pack of Good Heavens drinking yogurts to try this week.

Each 250ml bottle contains 25% of an adults RDA and the yogurt drink is probiotic and low fat. They are completely natural, free from additives and packed with real fruit. My husband is a fan of drinking yogurts and has one every day, so his opinion on these is probably more valid than mine, here is what he said about the new Mediterranean-style 'Good Morning' drinking yogurt blended with finely milled oats and blueberry puree:

"It really tasted of blueberries and oats, blueberry porridge in a bottle, a satisfying start to the day."

I tried the Good Heavens luscious strawberry and it reminded me of those first yogurts we used to buy in the 1960s, they had real fruit and real sugar in them and tasted just like this. They were also much runnier than the yogurts we get now, so really very similar to drinking yogurt! Sadly for us, these lovely little bottles of fruity yogurt have only made it to stockists as far north as Stockport! You can see details of stockists on the Good Heavens website

Each bottle costs £1.79

If that is a little too rich for your taste, then do you fancy making your own yogurt? This is a very simple system with no electronics or messing about with starters. The EasiYo makes a litre (1kg) of yogurt overnight using EasiYo sachets of dried lactic cultures. Yogurt Direct can provide you will all you need to make your own yogurt.

I've been making my own yogurt since I was 15 years old. I started making it in a wide necked vacuum flask, moved on to one of those heated yogurt makers with the 6 little pots. We currently have an electric, one litre yogurt maker which we used to make the yogurt for our Bircher Muesli, but found that it was cheaper to buy the basic low fat yogurt in the supermarket and less chance of failure.

I opted for the full fat greek yogurt sachets to trial the EasiYo. The process is very easy, half fill the inner tub (the one with the red top) with cool water, add the sachet of powder, put on the lid and shake then fill to the measure with more water. Fill the the outer tub up to the mark with boiling water and place the inner tub inside. Close the lid and leave for 8-12 hours until the yogurt has set.

Price comparison
One sachet of Greek Yogurt Base costs £1.99 for 1kg (3 sachets for £5.49) from Yogurt Direct
Well-known brand of Greek Yogurt cost £2.39 for 500g
Supermarket own brand Greek Yogurt cost £1.75 for 1kg

I had some of the Greek Yogurt from the EasiYo with my breakfast cereal this morning and topped it with a few berries. The yogurt compares well with shop bought greek yogurt, it has a firm texture and had a tangy flavour. If you want it to be a bit milder you can stop the process at 8 hours rather than leaving it longer, as long as the yogurt has set. Confession time now, I made the yogurt on Thursday night and completely forgot to put it in the fridge on Friday morning, so it was 6pm Friday night before it was refrigerated. It has come to no harm and the instruction booklet does say that it will come to no harm being left for 24 hours.

I think this would be an ideal way to start making your own yogurt particularly if you eat a lot of it. It's easy to do and kids would enjoy seeing the liquid go in and the solid yogurt coming out the next day. In terms of price there isn't much in it, but the yogurt does taste more like the premium brand Greek Yogurt than the very bland supermarket own brand type. There are many different types of starter sachets and even some fruit squirts to add a fruit puree to the finished yogurt.

Labels: 1967, drinking yogurt, EasiYo, Good Heavens, greek yogurt, Ski, yogurt

Sunday, 25 March 2012

Fruity Yogurt Pots

Time to use up some leftovers and fortunately I can also fit this into The No Waste Food Challenge run by Kate over at Turquoise Lemons. The theme for March is to use up left over Yogurt.

The fruit mixture is a pineapple and a punnet of strawberries, mixed with some preserved ginger and a bit of the ginger syrup, I also finished off Sarah's Zesty Honey, the one with the ginger in it to add some extra sweetness as strawberries are not too great at this time of year.

I made this fruit salad on Friday, it was dessert for four on Friday and four on Saturday with some cream, but there was still some left and lots of gingery, fruity juice had collected at the bottom. The fruit was looking a little less pretty but was well macerated.

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

I often use my ramekin dishes for little trifle-like desserts, it keeps them contained and always makes left overs look better!

Fruity Yogurt Pots (serves 1)

1 ramekin dish

2 sponge fingers per person

3 dessertspoons of fruit (fresh fruit, tinned fruit, fruit salad)

2 dessertspoons of natural yogurt (I used low fat Greek yogurt)

Sprinkles (optional)

1. Break up the sponge fingers and put into the ramekin.

2. Pour over some of the juice from the fruit salad (if you don't have any juice you can use some orange juice or if you are feeling naughty, the alcohol of your choice!)

3. Add the fruit.

4. Top with the yogurt and sprinkles if using.

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

Saturday, 17 September 2011

Cheats Chocolate Cherry Trifle

'We should Cocoa' is celebrating a year of chocolate challenges by asking us to create a dish worthy of a 1st birthday party. Find out more over at Chocolate Teapot Now, as far as I am concerned, no party is complete without a luscious trifle.

I really did cheat quite a lot with this trifle, but it is delicious for all that. No recipe - who needs a recipe for trifle? Here are some vague instructions instead - hee hee!

The finished trifle

Cheats Chocolate Cherry Trifle

Sponge Fingers

Tin of cherries in light syrup

Tub of chilled fresh custard

80-100g dark chocolate

Greek Yogurt

Creme Fraiche

1 tsp caster sugar

20g dark choc, grated to decorate

1. Fill the bottom of your trifle bowl with boudoir fingers, trifle sponges or any kind of sponge cake.

2. Open a tin of cherries in light syrup, pour the juice over the cake. Take the stones out of cherries, don't worry if they look a bit of a mess, this is a trifle! Put the cherries on top of the soaked cake. You could add some cherry brandy at this stage if you want.

3. Take a tub of bought fresh custard, warm it gently in a pan. Finely chop about 80-100g of dark chocolate, add to the custard and stir until it is all melted. Take the custard off the heat and let it cool for about 5 mintues, then spoon it over the cake and cherries.

4. Put it in the fridge to cool completely.

5. Mix together about 150g Greek Yogurt and 150g Creme Fraiche with a teaspoon of caster sugar. Spread it evening over the chocolate custard.

6. Decorate with the grated chocolate.

7. Chill until ready to serve.

A single serving

Luscious layers left for tomorrow

Happy Birthday 'We Should Cocoa'

Labels: cherry, chocolate, creme fraiche, greek yogurt, trifle, We should Cocoa

Saturday, 2 July 2011

Low Fat Blackcurrant 'Cheesecake'

The first of my blackcurrants were ready to pick today. Because we have had a month of rain in Scotland, the currants are nice and large and juicy, we have not seen much sun but today it shone all day and I was able to pick enough to make dessert.

After what feels like a very long winter and soggy spring, I need to shed a few pounds so I am lightening my cooking. Blackcurrants present a bit of a problem because they are just too sour to eat without some kind of sweetener and I don't like artificial sweeteners.

I decided to make a sort of faux cheesecake, so I cooked some blackcurrants (about a cupful) with a teaspoon of water and a tablespoon of caster sugar. I only cooked them until they started to burst then pulled them off the heat to cool. Once cool I added a tablespoon of cherry brandy.

In the bottom of the ramekin, is a gingersnap cookie, soaked in a little orange juice to soften it. On top of that is two tablespoons of 0% Greek Yogurt and then the blackcurrant sauce. There was just enough sweetness in the cookie and the sauce to offset the sharpness of the blackcurrants. I'm not saying I wouldn't rather have the full fat version but this was not bad at all.

Labels: Blackcurrant Swirl Cheesecake, blackcurrants, greek yogurt

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Chicken Pot Pie and Plum & Raspberry Jelly

I was inspired by a recipe for a 'Lighter Chicken Pot Pie' on The Bite Me Kitchen Blog. I can't remember the last time I made I made Chicken Pot Pie, but I do remember the first time I had it. My dad worked for a US company and often went to California and Arizona on business. The first time he was able to take my Mum with him was in 1975 when I was 16, it had been arranged for me to go to Belgium to visit friends there for my holiday and my older sister was working during vacation from university. When Mum returned she brought with her an 'American Cookbook' and this was one of the recipes she made from it that we all loved and became a familty favourite.

I decided to make it yesterday, because of a mix up over whether my MIL needed any supper on Friday, I thought she didn't and apparently she did! So I used one of the chicken breasts that I had planned to have on Saturday, this left me with less chicken so I used the idea from The Bite Me Kitchen of bulking it up with lots of veg. I didn't however, go for a pastry topping, but the 'biscuits' as per the original recipe.

I have actually got my own copy of the book Mum brought back from the states (I bought it in 1979 when I first went to California), but it was jammed in behind the new kitchen units, so I just made a basic unsweetened scone recipe. OMG it was good though, the biscuits were soft and deliciously buttery (that would be the butter lol!) and the chicken and veg were sweet and tender in their luscious gravy.

When the kitchen is finished I'll dig out the book and post the recipe but it is really just chicken, onions, carrots and peas thickened with flour and sauced up with chicken stock, then the biscuit/scones on top.

I had some plums left over from last week's plum crumble and they needed used up. I poached them with some sugar and cinnamon then added a raspberry jelly (jello), topped up to 1 pint with orange juice and let it set. Served with Greek Yogurt (sorry Vegboxboy - no cream again!)

Labels: biscuits, Chicken, greek yogurt, jelly, Scones

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