Farmersgirl Kitchen

Friday, 1 August 2014

July in Review at Farmersgirl Kitchen

I thought I'd have a look back at what I had posted during July and was surprised by just how many posts I found. Some of the events took place earlier but all have been written and posted in July, here is a little reminder of the food and the fun!

Berrytastic Strawberry and Blueberry Cake; Peanut Butter, Oat and Chocolate Chip Cookies, The Slow Cooker Cookbook Giveaway, Crab Cakes by the Ocean at Pictou Lodge.

Hugh's Honey and Peanut Butter Flapjacks; At the Royal Highland Show with Quality Meat Scotland (and Chef Jacqueline O'Donnell); Appleby and Ullswater Staycation: On My Kitchen Table.

Super Simple Chicken Curry from Dhruv Baker's new book Spice; Mexican Chicken in the Slow Cooker and Courgette and Hummus Pizza.

Fruity Iced Tea made 'Cold Brew'

The Slow Cooker Challenge Round Up - Summer Slow Cooker

Labels: chocolate chip cookie, curry, flapjacks, Hotel Chocolat, iced tea, July, Pizza, Round Up, slow cooker, strawberries, Ullswater

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

On my June Kitchen Table: Super Speedy Eats!

A collection of the foodie products that I have been sent for review, or simply want to share with you this month. It turns they all fit into the category of quick and easy meals, enjoy!

Terra Nostra is, at first glance, a typical restaurant in the centre of St Ginesio, however they also make and sell high quality pasta and I was able try their Truffle Tagliatelle and dried tomatoes Papparedelle. Both were excellent quality pasta, the kind that easily retains a bit of bite and the flavourings in the pasta also adds to the dish. Each pack also contains a sachet of flavoured oil, which has an authentic taste of the herbs or truffle oil as appropriate to the pasta type.

I made a simple seasonal dish of tomatoes slowly roasted in a pan with a little olive oil and garlic, then I added some sliced olives and at the last minute threw in some feta cheese cubes, this was mixed through the cooked Papparedelle al pomodori with the basil oil and made a really delicious and simple supper.

You can buy the Terra Nostra pasta through the e-shop the prices are in euros and I have no information about purchasing in the UK. 8/10

I'm not averse to a ready-meal, I always have a pizza in my freezer. However, I'm not inclined to buy pasta dishes as ready meals as they are so easy to prepare. I was intrigued by the blurb from Charlie Bigham's " the posh ready meal brand especially for twosomes. It's perfect for when you and your other half want to spend some quality time together, without having to sacrifice the taste!" We don't have a Sainsbury's or Waitrose near where we live and Ocado don't deliver to our area, but I managed to find a Sainsbury's on one of my frequent work trips.

I was supposed to try out the new range of 'world' meals but there weren't any of those available in this store, so I took the chance to get the Moussaka and the Meatballs al Forno. Each ready meal feeds two (although I did get the Moussaka to stretch to feed three) and costs £7.00. That's relatively expensive, but they are the best ready meals I have tasted, you could easily have thought they were homemade. Himself was very impressed and enjoyed both dishes.

Another bonus is that the packaging is environmentally friendly using paper and wood rather than plastic, all of the packaging can be recycled. Bighams recommend that you bake the dishes in the oven, but on one of the nights I was short of time and microwaved the dish for 6 minutes before finishing it off in the oven to crisp up the top. 9/10

June is the month for Scottish strawberries and they taste so much better than the ones that are imported. I served my strawberries with Yeo Valley Organic Lemon Curd Yogurt, which I saw in the supermarket. I love lemon curd and found the contrast between the strawberries and the sharp lemony yogurt worked really well. A nice change from cream or plain greek yogurt. 450g £1.50 9/10

Finally, let me Smooze you! Summer finally came yesterday and the temperatures reached a high of 24C (this is massive for Scotland) it was time to break out the Smooze Fruit Ices. Smooze is a 100% natural, freeze at home, fruit ice product that is made up of approximately 50% fresh fruit juice and puree and 40% coconut milk. I tried the Smooze Coconut and Pineapple and himself had the Smooze Coconut and Mango. Both were light and fresh and not too sweet, a really pleasant alternative to more traditional ices.
They are really reasonable at RRP £3.99 for a box of 10, they only seem to be available through Ocado or Amazon at the moment. 8/10

I was sent the pasta, ready meals and fruit ices to review, I was not paid for these reviews and all opinions are my own. I bought the yogurt myself, I just wanted to share my find with you.

I'm entering the Pappardelle with cherry tomatoes, olives and feta for Simple and In Season, the blogger challenge run by Renatka (Ren) Behan.

It also works for Pasta Please, this one is run by Jac at Tinned Tomatoes and is being hosted this month by Sarah at Maison Cupcake - the theme is 'Fasta Pasta' and this dish was certainly on the table in under 30 minutes.

This month's #SpeedySuppers is also hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake, this challenge is jointly run by Sarah and Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter. This month it's all about pasta.

Labels: #review, Charlie Bigham's, coconut, feta, fruit ices, lemon curd, Meatballs al Forno, Moussaka, olives, papparedelle, Smooze, strawberries, tagliatelle, tomatoes, yogurt

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.

Labels: blackberries, lemon drizzle cake, Little Book of Treats, Macmillan Cancer Support, Random Recipes, strawberries, Tea Time Treats, Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning

Saturday, 25 August 2012

White Chocolate and Strawberry Cream Cake

I've had a birthday recently, yes another one, they definitely come round quicker every year. Quite often I end up with a bought cake from M&S but as I was on holiday at home, I decided to make my own cake.

I chose this White Chocolate and Strawberry Cream Cake from the Great British Bake Off book from 2011, the recipe is widely available on the web so I've linked to one which is a reliable source.

The cake was relatively easy to make although it did stick to my tins a little bit, so make sure you grease them very well or use cake release spray. I probably slightly overbaked my sponges too as they seemed to still be wobbly in the middle. However, it didn't affect the taste or moistness of the sponge they are just a little darker than I would have liked. Putting the cake together is 'a piece of cake' and the 'value' strawberries I used were ideal, being smaller but packed with flavour rather than water.

As most of you know I like to enter cooking/baking challenges and was rather perplexed because this didn't fit any of them. Then I remembered Bookmarked Recipes run by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes and founded by Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

I'm hoping that I can just sneak in as this is the last Saturday of the month and the round up is due.

Labels: birthday cake, Bookmarked Recipes, cake, cream, Great British Bake Off, strawberries, Tinned Tomatoes, white chocolate

Monday, 25 June 2012

Strawberry Lemon Cake Dessert

This is a dessert idea for Simple and in Season for June which is being hosted this month by Laura at How to Cook Good Food rather than as usual by Ren at Fabulicious Food.

This is my second entry for June and simple is the operative word here. I had some strawberries left over from the strawberry tarts, I also had some creme pattiserie and some of the strawberry jam glaze. Rather than make more tarts, I took some slices of lemon drizzle cake from the freezer, drizzled over a little organge juice, spooned the creme pattisiere round the cake, piled on the strawberries and topped with the glaze. Like many simple ideas, it was excellent!

Labels: creme patissiere, dessert, lemon drizzle cake, Simple and in Season, strawberries

Sunday, 3 July 2011

Strawberry Jelly

Now I know that Delia will be frowning and tutting at me, but I didn't make my own jelly for this, I took my inspiration from Delia's Summer Collection but also from her Cheat cookbook! So I used a Robertson's strawbery jelly and added sliced strawberries which had been quickly mascerated in a teaspoon of caster sugar and a squeeze of lime juice. Set that in a loaf tin lined with clingfilm and you have something quite impressive.

I served it with Mango sorbet, not my own, and it was lovely and refereshing for a warm July day.

Labels: jelly, mango sorbet, strawberries

Monday, 6 June 2011

Chocolate Pavolvas with Strawberries

This is the first time I've actually managed to take part in 'We should Cocoa' challenge run by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Choclate Teapot You can read all about the challenge HERE, but basically you have to make something with chocolate or cocoa and a 'special' ingredient chosen by the host.

I was making pastry today for a quiche and the recipe uses two egg yolks, so I had two egg whites left. I am renowned for leaving egg whites in the bowl in the back of the fridge to use 'later'. Of course, later rarely comes and I end up throwing them out. I had half a punnet of strawberries left from the weekend, so immediately thought I could make meringues, or even better some meringue nests or mini pavlovas. Then I was struck by inspiration.....I have a recipe for chocolate pavlova, I've made it before several times and it is fabulous. I could make that and top it with greek yogurt and strawberries. Can you tell how excited I was?

It's funny how these things work out, when I did my Random Recipe for Belleau Kitchen, I used the book 'Seasonal Cooking' by Claire Macdonald. I haven't cooked anything from it for ages. This recipe is also by Claire Macdonald and it's from 'More Seasonal Cooking' - the sequel!

So how do you do this? Claire makes a huge pavlova but here is what I did:

For the Pavlova

2 large egg whites

100g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks), seived

Line a baking tin with baking paper. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Then, still whisking gradually incorporate the caster, a spoonful at a time, until the meringue mixture is very thick. Measure in the vanilla essence and, with a large metal spoon, quickly and thoroughly fold the sieved cocoa into the meringue - watch out for little pockets of cocoa.

Pour and scrape this mixture onto the lined baking tray either in a single round or individual nests.

Bake in a moderate oven 350F/180C/Gas 4/for 2 minutes then lower the temperature to 200F/110C/Gas 1/2 and cook for a further hour. Take the pavlova out of the oven and leave to cool.

Claire fills her pavlova with whipped double cream mixed with grated dark chocolate - it is divine! But that's not what I made, lets get back to the strawberries.

I read Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall in the Guardian magazine at the weekend, he as mascerating strawberries in lemon juice and caster sugar, so I did that with my strawberries - very good too. I didn't have any cream, but it is rare that I don't have a tub of Greek Yogurt in the fridge, so I dolloped that on the pavlova and topped with strawberries and grated chocolate.

Pretty impressive huh? I even impressed myself and was really pleased to rediscover this recipe, it's so easy and completely delicious, enjoy!

Labels: chocolate, dessert, meringue, pavlova, strawberries, We should Cocoa

Sunday, 15 May 2011

Random Recipe - Just Desserts

The Random Recipe challenge at Belleau Kitchen challenges you to dip into your cookery book collection and randomly pick a recipe on a particular theme. This is what Dom says "the rules are simple... take all your dessert, chocolate, cake, sweet or pudding based cook books, place them in a pile and randomly select one book... from this book, flip it open to a random page and bake that exact recipe.."

I have a lot of cookery books, so I picked out 12 that contain dessert recipes and piled them up, then I did a random number generator and it came out with number 9. Number 9 was Seasonal Cookery by Claire Macdonald of Macdonald.
Claire Macdonald is probably one of the best dessert recipe writers I know, her Chocolate Pavlova is beyond belief and her Bramble Mousse is divine. But this had to be random.

The difficulty with this book is that the desserts are not all at the end of the book as it is organised by month! So it took me a few random openings to find a dessert. It turned out to be in July and was a simple 'Strawberries with Lemon Syllabub'.

It is the start of strawberry season so ideal for this recipe which was absolutely delicious, the sweetened cream with lemon juice and rind as well as a little wine was the perfect complement to the strawberries. I can thoroughly recommend it!

Strawberries with Lemon Syllabub

Serves 6
8ox (250g) fresh strawberries
1/2 pint (300ml) double cream
juice and grated rind of 2 lemons
1 sherry glss of white wine
2oz (50g) caster sugar

Slice the strawberrries and divide between 6 glasses. Whip the cream, gradually adding the lemon juice, rind, white wine and sugar. When the cream mixture is thick, spoon over the sliced strawberries in the glasses, and stir the strawberries up through the lemon syllabub. Chill several hours before serving.

We had this over two evenings and the syllabub was definitely better on the second night when the lemon flavour had really merged with the cream, so I would recommend a long chilling time.
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Labels: cream, lemon, Random Recipes, strawberries

Friday, 23 July 2010

Summer Pudding

There are many recipes for summer pudding on the web, so I'm not going to post one as I didn't actually use one lol! I've make a summer pudding at least once a year, usually about this time when all the soft fruit is available, I suppose I've been making summer pudding for about 25 years and I love that combination of sweetness and sharpness with the soft fruit soaked bread -mmmm!

Labels: blackcurrants, raspberries, strawberries, summer pudding

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