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3rd July 2019 - Courgette and Apricot Chutney

Here is a recipe pinched and adapted from an Asda magazine back in 2013. It is almost like a mango chutney crossed with a traditional pickle - absolutely delicious. 

Sorry to keep banging on about preserving stuff, but it makes sense for us to try to extend our enjoyment of the allotment goodies throughout as much of the year as possible. Unfortunately though,this particular preserve breaks all the rules about thrift and using up the less-than-perfect specimens from the plot. In fact it’s relatively expensive, probably extravagant and takes a lot of time and effort for a smallish return. But as Doc Brown from ‘Back to the Future’ says when asked about  interfering with the laws of time, 'I figured … what the hell!’

So the subject of today’s blog is a rather luxuriant chutney. If you can use some of the produce from the allotment you can reduce the cost but it is still quite pricey.That’s the bad part; the good part is that it is well worth forking out a few quid if you can afford it, and this chutney is so good and so unusual that come Christmas it is classy enough to gift wrap for the more discerning of your relatives.

You will need jam jars with lids and a BIG saucepan or similar. A jam funnel is useful too. Start to finish is at least a couple of hours so make sure you have plenty of time.

The ingredients are:

Courgettes 500g, Onions 400g, apples 500g, tomatoes 250g, stoned dried apricots 500g (these are the most expensive ingredient). By the way, the best place to look for them is in the cake making aisle. You will also need white balsamic vinegar 500ml, allspice (or if you don’t have this, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg etc). sugar 250g, salt: one heaped teaspoon, 4 fat garlic cloves, fresh ginger if you aren’t using powdered and a tiny sprinkling of chilli flakes or a little powder.

Core and peel the apples, top and tail the courgettes. Cut these ingredients and the tomatoes and apricots into 1cm to 1.5cm chunks. Peel and chop the onions and garlic and, if you have it, finely chop the ginger, then throw these and all the other ingredients into the biggest pan you can find. You may even need to do it in two batches. Make sure the sugar dissolves by applying a fairly gentle heat and stirring. Bring the pan to the boil stirring occasionally, then take it back down to a simmer for ….wait for it…….. at least an hour! The whole thing needs to reduce down by about two thirds and must thicken to the consistency of a good rich chutney you might buy in the shops. While you’re waiting get some old jam jars into a bowl of boiling water to sterilize them (or if you have one put them through the dishwasher on a hot setting). If they’re already clean you could just sterilize them in a hot oven.

When you have reached the thickness you prefer, ladle the chutney into these warmed jars and screw on the washed lids tightly. As the chutney cools, the dimple on the top of the lid should pop in.

That’s it, just try to hang on to the chutney for a few weeks for the flavours to really intensify (as if they need it!) before scoffing it down with cheese or ham or cold leftovers. And those poor old relatives will just have to get socks this Christmas, after all.

I just wish I could convey to you the gorgeous aroma that wafts through the kitchen as you are preparing this concoction and the flavour and texture are in no way shy and retiring - you know when you’ve had a mouthful of this particular treat.

Here are a few photos - I managed to get five jars out of these quantities. Incidentally, I still had some left over but not enough for a full jar, so I just popped it into a bowl in the fridge for consuming over the next few days.

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28th May 2019 - Failures And Successes

What is doing well on the plot this year and what is proving to be a challenge? 

If you are fortunate enough to have suffered no set backs this year then this blog may not apply. Otherwise, sit back and commiserate or celebrate the failures and successes that your fellow allotment holders have undergone so far.

To begin with, what’s doing well on the plots? 

The squashes appear to be thriving at the moment. They seem to appreciate the warm humid weather and they don’t seem to be too bothered by the occasional cool or windy night. Also onions look like they appreciate this level of temperature and dampness, although it has to be said that some plot holders are having successes with spring onions and shallots while others are not faring so well.

Potatoes don’t seem to be having any problems this year; judging by the top growth some plot holders are going to get a bumper harvest in record time. 

Broad beans look to be a rip roaring success this year. some allotmenteers took a risk and planted late last autumn and because we had a mild winter it has really paid off. Others planted early spring and again it looks like a reasonable crop is on the cards.

But there have been some disappointments.

Quite a few people have had a problem with sweetcorn dying back, these plants obviously don’t appreciate the cool nights we’ve had and the wind damage that April and early May brought us, though those who planted out a bit later have had more success. Bear in mind that sweetcorn are fast growing and there is still (just about) time to sow again and still expect your plants to catch up.

Climbing beans have not thrived in the early part of this growing season. If your climbing bean plants are doing well count yourself lucky, many have been heart-broken to see their efforts thwarted whether or not they planted direct in the ground or grew their plants at home. I for one have started again in the greenhouse because my early, direct-planted offerings do not seem to want  to grow at all, they have been stationary for weeks. Looking around the other plots, those beans transplanted from pots at home are almost universally wind battered and affected by the cool night time temperatures. Again there is still time to start again if you’re quick.

Brassicas, After foolishly telling someone that broccoli seem to do better than other brassicas for slug damage, mine have been nibbled to death. I have slug pelleted them and even tried to hand pick the little blighters but to no avail. Strangely the cabbages have been largely unaffected this year, despite being in the same bed - inexplicable.

Beetroot - where to begin? They just do not want to co-operate this year. Some grown at home and kindly donated to me by a fellow grower have been on the brink of demise for three weeks now, despite my best efforts. Those that I planted straight in the ground have germinated sporadically which is a major disappointment. Interestingly, that old die-hard variety, Bolthardy has not performed at all well; one row only produced two plants! However two varieties, Subeto and Sanguina, have done better. Subeto has produced 12 plants in an eight foot row and Sanguina at least 15. The obvious conclusion is that if these varieties prove to be tasty, they are the go-to choice for next year.

So there we are. The season is still young but the year marches on so quickly. If you have had a disaster, consider starting again, the warm weather often helps later plantings to catch up. But don’t hesitate - time is against us!  

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17th May 2019 - Slugs Revisited.

After a brief conversation on the way to the plot, here is a (not too serious) blog resurrected from 6 years ago.

09.08.2013 What To Do With Slugs?

The gardener’s nemesis, the slug, a creature which we ought to admire because it is remarkably successful and incredibly prolific despite the fact that it shouldn’t really live on land. Land slugs,originally were once, almost certainly, water-dwelling animals because their bodies are very prone to drying out and we must all have seen a dessicated slug lying in a half moon position, usually on concrete, when it has been caught out by the early morning sun.

It was whilst observing the slug in the picture the thought occurred to me that, as slugs are such a menace on the plot, and as we gardener’s hate waste, the best thing to do would be to collect them up and get them ready for the pot - they are, after all, organically fed. Unfortunately a little research on the internet reveals that slugs, unlike their snail counterparts, really are not good creatures to eat, no matter how hard you work to prepare and flavour them.

One brave man on YouTube has posted two most informative videos about his efforts to prepare and cook slugs but the outcome was, unhappily, not ideal. Here is a quite telling transcript of some of his video post. The first of his comments were made whilst eating boiled slug:

‘Tastes almost exactly like you’d expect them to - sort of rubbery, and not very pleasant - slightly fishy (flavour ?) to them. That’s horrible, that really is horrible, no it’s not revolting……it’s terribly…….it’s just exactly what you’d expect a slug to taste like… only perhaps slightly less pooey’.

In an attempt to improve the experience, he then fried some of them in olive oil and mixed herbs:

'Tastes like…..slugs….fried slugs.  Doesn’t taste too bad, (not) too offensive, nothing splendiferous, really’.

Hardly a glowing testimony so, sadly, it looks as though we won’t be able to rid our plots of slugs by consuming the little blighters. Instead we will have to rely on hand-picking, beer traps, diatomaceous earth, copper strips, slug pellets, eggshells, natural predators such as hedgehogs, frogs and blackbirds, nematodes, and any other method you can think of. 

But it doesn’t seem that any TV chef will be putting them on the menu just yet, and judging by the evidence of those courageous enough to try them, I doubt very much if we allotmenteers will be venturing down that road ourselves in the near future.

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19th April 2019 - Jenny’s Healthy Chicken in Bread Crumbs

I asked members of Walton Allotment Association to contribute any growing or food related subjects to the blog. I duly received, from one of our plot holders,  the following alternative  to fast food. It is her own recipe and is delicious without being saturated with oil. Her seasoning for the breadcrumbs is mouth watering and some of the ingredients were either foraged or grown, but tailor it to your own tastes if you so wish. I already have plans to try this recipe out later in the season when I pull my first new potatoes and have a little salad for a side dish.

You will need a blitzer or food processor.

Ingredients 

Chicken breast, fairly small or cut into strips

Beaten egg

Flour

A little oil

Seasoned breadcrumbs - take some nice grainy bread - the staler the better, some wild garlic leaves, last year’s dried chillies (or else chilli flakes) and parmesan. Season well with salt and pepper.

Alternatively use herbs of your choice - in the picture it is rosemary and garlic granules. Whatever your preference, blitz all the ingredients to make a fine crumb.

Method:

Dip the chicken strips in the egg, then the flour, then egg once more, and finally, the breadcrumbs - make sure the chicken is well coated all over. Add a little oil to a frying pan and cook the coated chicken on a medium heat until golden. Don’t cook so quickly that the breadcrumbs burn before the chicken is cooked through.

I know what I said earlier, but somehow I don’t think I can wait for those new potatoes to grow before I try this after all!

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12th April 2019 - My Mistakes

In June I will be celebrating my 10th year on the plot - and I’m a slow learner - it’s taken all this time to realise that there are certain Do’s and Dont’s that make allotment life so much easier - or harder. The problem is that, at planting time, certain mundane tasks get shoved to the back and eventually forgotten, especially if, like me, you tend to be a little disorganised and not very methodical. It sometimes takes a monumental effort to overcome this lethargy but, it definitely pays dividends to try.

1) Read the packet - plan to plant during the window of time that it states and if necessary leave yourself a reminder. Even if you don’t space the seeds as far apart as stated, only cover with as much earth as it tells you to. Usually, the smaller the seed, the lighter the covering. 

2) Consider the hardiness of each type of plant. Some are from much warmer countries and can’t cope with temperatures of 5 degrees or lower, even under cover. Keep a close eye on the weather forecast daily. If a cold snap is expected, and  you have tender plants in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse, then bring them in overnight. This means allowing for a certain amount of portability in the early stages of growth; it also means that you have to be doubly vigilant that plant pots and trays don’t dry out too quickly in a central heated house. Similarly, don’t be in too much of a rush (as I’ve found too often to my cost) to plant out seedlings without allowing them to become robust and certainly without gradually hardening them off against the cooler weather for at least a week.

3) At all costs label seeds immediately you have planted them. Try to include the variety and the date of sowing. I can’t tell you the number of times I have forgotten the name of a certain cultivar or the actual day that I planted that particular seed. Forgetting the variety means that if you find you really like it, you are virtually guaranteed to never find the same one again; also if you forget the date of planting, how do you know if germination has failed and whether or not you should consider re-sowing before it is too late?

4) Keep a journal or diary - something I have hardly ever done until this year. You should do this because, even plant labels written in indelible ink succumb to weathering and can become faded and illegible in an incredibly short time. After you’ve written on it, covering the plant label with sellotape helps a little, but it doesn’t prevent the writing from fading significantly, nor does it stop the label  being lost or blown away. At least if you keep a diary of when, what, and where you planted, the information is safely stashed away in case you should need it, and if you later record which plants did well, did badly or failed completely, it gives you a good guide for next year.

Well that’s not a comprehensive list of my mistakes - there are plenty more where they came from - but if you do follow those four suggestions as religiously as you can, I know from bitter experience of past calamities that at least some of the disasters awaiting us on the plot can be minimised or diverted altogether.

[waltonallotment]

7th April 2019 - Paper Potter Experiment.

At Christmas I was given a gardening tool which was a little different to the usual rakes, spades and forks - a paper potter, or newspaper pot-maker. With the planting season upon us, I decided to give it a go for a selection of different seeds, and to monitor which worked best. So far I have planted tomatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans and climbing french beans.

The advantages of using paper pots are:

1) They are free!

2) They are eco-friendly so no plastic to dispose of and you are recycling old newspapers.

3) You usually have newspaper to hand so, however, many pots you need, they are almost always available - no need to wait  for the shops to open.

4) They are biodegradable and can be planted straight into the ground with no disturbance to the young plants.

There are also disadvantages:

1) Time - it takes effort to sit and make these things. If you need pots quickly it is not ideal. You don’t want to end up sacrificing precious planting time for pot manufacturing time. Personally though, I made mine in advance while sitting in front of the telly, it’s quite therapeutic and takes little concentration.

2) I am a touch concerned that slower growing plants may not be ready to plant out before the pot begins to break down - I will keep you posted.

3) Certain seeds just might not enjoy being planted in such a thing. After all the newspaper and print essentially become a constituent of the plant’s food.There has been some debate about the possible toxic effects of printing ink - especially in forums about composting - however, the consensus seems to be that most modern inks have low or non-existent toxicity and if they did, this would break down as the paper decomposed.

So, to the practicalities! I used two layers of paper for each pot, but if you are braver than I, you can use only one as suggested. Below is a pictorial comic-strip of each stage of the manufacturing process. Incidentally there are tutorials on the internet how to manufacture paper pots using tin cans and similar household cylindrical objects. But I have to say I like the look and tactile quality of my wooden one.

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23rd March 2019 - How I Planted Me Spuds.

If it is of any help to new would-be potato growers, here’s a short guide to how I planted my spuds this year. I’m not saying that this is the definitive way or how  everyone does it. It is probable that some will be horrified at my methodology, but it’s one way to get your potatoes in the ground and - not including the time taken to dig over and weed the soil - it took just over 1 hour.

Firstly I forked over the soil and broke it up a little where the rain had compacted it. Where I came across any remaining weeds or roots, I fished them out and put them for composting. In this case I wanted two rows so I dug a couple of trenches and piled the soil up in the middle. I sprinkled potato fertiliser along the rows and placed each of the spuds chitted side up (sprouted side up). Finally I gently pulled some of the earth from the central mound over the potatoes and carefully firmed it down. Hopefully enough of the remaining earth will stay piled up until the spuds have grown and I can use it to mound up around the plant stems a little. This is  to stop sunlight reaching the potatoes near the surface and spoiling them (turning them green). These particular spuds are second earlies so will be in the ground for 13 weeks which takes them up to mid June-ish for harvesting. I have probaby planted these too close together but as I usually aim for baby potatoes, I’m not too concerned.

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23rd March 2019 - Garden Poetry

Great little poem by a local lady to get us all in the mood for the fast approaching growing season.

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16th February 2019 - Grow Your Own Bhuna!

If you are a curry fan and you like the idea of using some of your produce for an authentic tasting bhuna, here’s the recipe for you. As we approach the planting period, consider sowing onions, garlic and maybe start off a few chilli peppers and sweet peppers on your windowsill. I even managed to grow some root ginger once in a large pot in the greenhouse and very nice it was too. It’s not essential to use allotment veggies, but the fact you made a bhuna from scratch, particularly if you use your own home-grown produce, should keep you feeling smug for weeks. As is customary with bhuna, you can use chicken or lamb.

Ingredients (serves 4 - sauce can be halved before cooking and frozen for later use)

100ml/3½fl oz olive oil

1 tsp salt

5 garlic cloves, peeled

25g/1oz fresh root ginger, sliced

2 small onions, roughly chopped

1 large green pepper, seeds removed, roughly chopped

1 large red chilli, roughly chopped (2 if you like it hotter)

1 tin chopped tomatoes

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground fenugreek

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp curry powder

800g/1lb 12oz boneless diced lamb leg or skinned, boneless diced chicken thigh

15g/½oz fresh coriander, chopped.

Method

Blitz all the ingredients except the meat and coriander in a food processor. Make sure it is as smooth as possible.

Heat a large pan and pour in the sauce, reduce to a medium heat and simmer quite rapidly for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 10 minutes stir in the meat and coat thoroughly with the sauce.Cook uncovered for a further 10 minutes.

Partially cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Try to resist thinning the sauce but if it reduces too much just add a little water.

If you are cooking rice and naan bread, don’t forget to time it so that they coincide with the curry being ready.

Just before serving, check the bhuna for seasoning and add salt to taste. Garnish with a little chopped coriander.

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27th January 2019 - Food For Thought

Does an allotment change our outlook on life? Well for starters, it gives us something extra to worry about! We treat our seedlings and growing plants like babies, we try to feed them right, to keep them warm and even encourage them with words of praise and reassurance. Allotment holders become acutely aware of the weather, we remember seasons gone and attempt to predict the season to come; we are always wondering if we’ve planted too late, or more disastrously, too soon. A frost or prolonged wet weather is a big deal to us; later on in the season a drought is even more of a concern.

Inevitably the phenomenon of global warming creeps in to our consciousness and into our conversations. Similarly the socially sensitive topic of organically produced crops, grown without artificial fertilisers, weed killers and insecticides introduces itself into our minds. And the subjects of recycling and composting surely come to the forefront? So just by the simple undertaking of renting a plot, do we become more produce-aware and more socially and politically aware than we were before?

If that is the case, as part of this awakening, I suspect that the majority of us also review how we consume shop bought produce when we are forced to resort to it; it’s likely that the subject of seasonal and British grown veggies enters our thoughts more often, once we have taken on a plot, and maybe we reflect more than we did, upon the number of air miles (and preservative efforts) that have gone into out-of-season veggies from far flung countries? I’m sure that, as allotmenteers, many of us are more willing, than we were, to consider buying items that have dirt on them or that are slightly more misshapen; after all that’s the sort of thing we grow ourselves. In addition, do we take into account the need for packaging when we buy loose items? We are certainly used to carrying our bounty home in a cardboard box or an old plant pot (or whatever comes to hand).

When vegetables at home start to turn, or are a little past their best, do we chuck them away without a thought, or do we spend a little more time removing the outside leaves or sprouty bits? It’s probable that we appreciate the need to primp and prepare our produce, even if it’s gone over a little, because we understand better the time and effort that has gone into the making of them.

So yes, just by the one simple act of signing for a plot, our outlook on life does change to some degree; we may not go down the path of political activism, but we do perhaps give more consideration to the way food is produced, the effect we might be having on the climate and how we, as consumers and producers, interact with the world.

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6th January 2019 - Beetroot Wine.

Up on the plot today I was chatting about this and that, including the noble beetroot. Opinion differs as to where it originated in its present form. Certainly before the time of Christ, the leaves of this Mediterranean coastal plant were cultivated as food and for medicinal use.It was only later that the plant was bred for it’s root, both as human and as cattle food. It appears that Greece and Italy was where it all began.

During the course of the allotment conversation, I realised that I’ve never blogged about beetroot wine, which in my experience is well worthwhile to make, relatively easy, ferments well and is very quaffable.

A few years back, I read everything I could about how to make this wine and then devised my own recipe! It works reliably, it tastes like a fruit wine and it DEFINITELY has no cloves, ginger, marjoram or any other herbs and spices unlike many internet recipes. What's more, you should use up old woody beetroot despite all the advice to the contrary, because it doesn't hurt the flavour and why use all your lovely young crop when pickling, boiling and roasting them are by far the better options?

Beetroot Wine. 6 bottles. 

Take 4lb (2 kilos) beetroot, wash and roughly chop, don't peel, then boil until soft, spoon out the beetroot and discard. Sieve the juices into a fermenting bucket through a cloth. Add 2lb sugar, 1/2lb chopped sultanas, juice of a lemon, 1/2 pint of very strong tea, top up with water to 1 gallon. At this stage be brave and taste the syrup. It will be very sweet but chances are, if you like the flavour now you will love it when it's wine. When at blood temperature, throw in some yeast nutrient and pectolase (if you have it) and wine yeast. Should be bubbling away after a day or two at room temp. Seven days after fermentation starts, pass the must (wine) through a cloth into a glass demijohn. Top up with water if needed, but only if it's not so lively that bubbles are likely to pass out the top of the airlock, if so leave it a few days before you do. Wrap the demijohn in newspaper to keep out the light or you will lose the red colour. When fermentation slows add a little sugar (two teaspoons) and swirl well, or pour off a little wine into a glass, dissolve the sugar and return to the demijohn. Keep doing this every time fermentation slows until it shows signs that it doesn't want to take off again. Taste when fermentation finally stops and make sure it isn't really dry if so, sweeten with sugar just a little - be careful- don't overdo it or you'll spoil the flavour. Make sure all fermentation has stopped and allow wine to clear - could be weeks. Use finings if you wish. When clear, syphon the wine off the sediment and into bottles. It will keep for years or you can drink it within a few months - any earlier and you might pick up that dreaded earth taste, but after 10-12 weeks, I would be surprised if you taste anything other than fruitiness.

Yeast, pectolase, yeast nutrient and muslin cloths are all available at Wilko or homebrew shops.

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10th December 2018 - Christmas Whole Braised Cabbage and Bacon

Braising (from the French word braiser) is a combination-cooking method that uses both wet and dry heats: typically, the food is first sautéed or seared at a high temperature in a pan, then finished in a covered pot at a lower temperature while sitting in some (variable) amount of liquid (which may also add flavour).

This recipe is stolen from a BBC Christmas food cookery programme, then shamelessly altered to suit my family’s taste. Originally there were chestnuts and also a dijon mustard, cider vinegar and olive oil dressing, instead of gravy - go there if you wish! 

This dish is easy and ready in under an hour - and there were clean plates all round.

You will need:

1 savoy cabbage

1 large pack of smoked or unsmoked streaky bacon - your preference.

1 garlic clove.

3 baby potatoes per person.

Bayleaf, thyme, rosemary, cumin and black pepper.

50g butter (unsalted).

Extra virgin olive oil.

Chicken stock (stock cube in 200 ml water).

Gravy powder.

DO NOT ADD SALT!

Method.

Pull off and discard the outside cabbage leaves until you have a tight ball.Cut the bacon into 2-3 cm pieces (1 inch). Boil the potatoes until they are becoming tender but not falling apart.

Brush the cabbage all over with olive oil then sprinkle all over with cumin and black pepper.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a deep casserole dish on the stove then melt in the butter. When the butter starts to foam, roll the cabbage in the casserole pan until it is coated all over. Add in the rosemary, thyme and bay leaf, allow to cook for a few seconds then baste the cabbage with the herby butter. Add the crushed garlic, and chicken stock to the pan, heat until simmering then put on the lid.

Transfer the casserole dish to an oven on the middle shelf, gas mark 3, 140 deg in a fan oven, 160 deg non-fan, for 1 hour. Transfer the potatoes to an oiled baking tray and place on the bottom shelf for the last 35 minutes of cooking time.

Ten minutes before cooking time is up, dry fry the bacon in a pan until starting to crisp up a little. Make up a reasonably thick gravy and at the end of cooking scoop out (and sieve) a few of the juices from the casserole to flavour it - not too much or it may be too oily. Slice the cabbage into portions, sprinkle with bacon and gravy, bung on the potatoes and serve.

The cabbage cuts through like butter and is beautifully flavoured, the bacon is salty and seasons the rest of the dish, hence the reason for no salt.

Surprisingly delicious.

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7th November 2018 - Retro Beef and Mushroom in Beer

If you try no recipe from the blog other than this one, and you like the two key food ingredients above, I would be hugely surprised if you weren’t delighted by the restaurant quality result. My only disappointment with this dish was that there was none left over for seconds!

During a tidy up my wife found an old Hamlyn cook book from 1989, so I suppose the recipe she extracted and adapted from it wasn’t exactly retro at the time of publication. 30 years on though it’s a reminder that British cuisine has been on the rise for much longer than people usually admit. This one is wholesome, comforting, rich and incredibly flavoursome and really not that difficult to prepare. It’s not the most expensive meal (approx £1.50 to £2.00 per head) and it’s a slow cooker or casserole recipe so, after the initial prep, it pretty much takes care of itself.

Feeds 4

Ingredients:

2 roughly sliced onions

2 large sliced carrots

2 chopped celery sticks

1 green, red, or yellow pepper (sliced)

150g thickly sliced mushrooms (any will do but we used portobello)

Frylight or oil

400g low priced diced beef (not too fatty)

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tsp mustard powder

salt and pepper

1/2 pint of beer (preferably stout)

1/2 pint beef stock

1 large or 3 small  bay leaves

Gravy granules or cornflour for thickening (if in a slow cooker)

Method:

Cook all the veg except the mushrooms in oil in a pan for 5 minutes. Reserve the oil / any juices. Transfer the veggies to a casserole dish and layer them on the bottom of it.

Coat the meat in a mix of the flour, mustard and seasoning. Fry in batches of ten until they change colour on each side then transfer to a casserole dish or slow cooker. Layer on top of the veg.

Lightly fry the mushrooms in the same pan then transfer and layer on top of the meat. Add the beer and stock to the pan, bring to the boil and pour into the casserole dish / slow cooker. Layer with the bayleaf(s). Put on the lid and oven cook  for 1 hour 45 minutes minimum at 160 degrees / gas mark 4 - check that the meat is tender, if not cook for longer - or for 5 hours minimum on high in a slow cooker.

Before serving remove the bay leaves, if in a slow cooker, pour off most of the liquid, reserve 1/2 pint of it and thicken with gravy granules or cornflour. If cooked in an oven, the sauce will probably have thickened sufficiently on its own.

Serve with mashed potato and garlic bread.

[waltonallotment]

22nd October 2018 - (Elephant) Garlic Bread

If you have grown elephant garlic you may prefer it to regular, stronger tasting garlic in your cookery. If by any chance you prefer not to use it in stews and minced beef dishes, it does make exceptionally tasty garlic bread. 

Bake your own baguette if you are so inclined, but my preference is to spend £1 or less on a supermarket crusty stick and prep it myself.

Requirements:

Baguette

Salted butter 50g

Fresh parsley, a generous handful finely chopped.

One large or two small elephant garlic cloves.

One sheet of baking foil - enough to loosely wrap the whole baguette.

Preparation time 10 minutes, cooking time 15 to 20 minutes.

Crush, mash or finely chop the peeled garlic.

Finely chop the butter.

Finely chop a generous handful of fresh parsley.

Mash and mix all the ingredients together in a bowl using a fork or tablespoon.

Slice a baguette diagonally into 12 sections, almost (but not quite) all the way through. Smear a teaspoon of the garlic butter mix against each one of the cut slices (one side only).

Wrap  the whole thing in foil and bake in the oven at 180 deg / gas mark 4 for 20 minutes.

Resistance is futile!

[waltonallotment]

29th September 2018 - Our Allotment Year

Today’s blog is aimed mostly at the members of Walton Allotment Association, Halesowen, but some of the pictures may be of interest to other readers.

As we begin to harvest the last of our produce it’s interesting to look back on 2018. After a really wet start, when it seemed all we could grow would be rice, finally Spring gave way to a glorious Summer. True,some plants suffered in the heat, no matter how much we watered, but many fruit, veg and flowers loved the high temperatures and glorious sunshine. 

I thought it would be interesting to just lift photos from our Facebook group and review just a few of our Summer and Autumn achievements and successes.These pics aren’t comprehensive, I grabbed a few which just give a flavour of 2018. Don’t be put out if I’ve missed off your courgettes or cauliflowers, pickles or potatoes - it wasn’t intentional, but you all know what you’ve achieved anyway.

Happy gardening for 2019. 

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16th September 2018 - Slow Cooked Beef and Cauliflower

As the nights draw in, our slow cooker gets brought into service more and more. The temperatures haven’t dipped too far yet, so it’s not absolutely essential to start banging out hearty stews to warm us as we arrive home, but it has to be said that home cooked, comfort food is always welcome whatever the season and  there’s no denying the value of these slow cooker recipes. They are quick to prepare, convenient - as they more or less take care of themselves, they transform even the cheapest cuts of meat to something delicious and tender, and they are undeniably tasty. This particular pairing might seem like an unusual combination but if you like those two ingredients of beef and cauliflower separately, you will love them together. Adapted from a Slimming World recipe by my wife, Sue, it has proved to be a winner every time.

This serves four.

Ingredients:

Low calorie cooking spray.

400g beef, diced with visible fat removed. The chunks of diced beef from the supermarket are quite large and can often be halved with scissors to make them bite size.

2 onions or 4 or 5 shallots finely sliced.

2 to 3 garlic cloves finely sliced.

2 tsp dried basil or mixed herbs.

1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes (plus up to a dozen cherry tomatoes, sliced in half - optional)

200ml of beef stock.

1 large cauliflower broken into florets.

Salt and pepper to taste..

Method:

Spray a non-stick frying pan with cooking spray, fry the beef on a high heat for a few minutes each side until brown. Place to one side.

Add the onions (or shallots) and the garlic into the same pan as the beef was browned in, and season with salt and pepper. Stir fry on medium for a few minutes.

Add the herbs, tomatoes, cauliflower florets (plus a little of the green if it takes your fancy). Add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes.

Take the cauliflower out of the pan and place to one side. Put all the other ingredients in the slow cooker and place the cauliflower on top. This ensures that it cooks but stays firm. 

Slow cook for 3-4 hours.

Towards the end of cooking you may want to pour off some of the juices and thicken with gravy granules or corn flour in a pan, then return to the slow cooker.

Serve with a small side helping of veggies of your choice (beans, carrots etc.) and with a few boiled potatoes or mashed potato or a little rice.

This serves four but any leftovers can be labelled and frozen for another day.

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14th September 2018  - Raspberry Wine Update, and Apple Wine How-To

Back in July I blogged about making raspberry wine and ended with a picture of the rapidly fermenting ‘must’ (as they call it) of mine, Since then it has been sieved into demijohns, allowed to continue fermenting and siphoned off the sediment into more demijohns. Fermentation has now stopped. wine stabiliser has been added and we are not far away from bottling.

When the wine had been fermenting for a few days.

Towards the end of the process now that the fermentation has stopped and the wine is almost clear. Next step - bottling.

Now for apple wine

I never had much luck making wine from apples. Many recipes that I tried seemed never to clear properly. The one I am about to give you has been tried and tested for three years now, it uses up all manner of windfalls and grubby apples which are unfit for eating, In my experience it is one of the easiest wines both to prepare and to make - and it clears beautifully. If you ask around at this time of year and offer a bottle of wine for each six you make folks will gladly donate, People like the idea of a wine made from the apples off their own tree, especially if it’s ready for Christmas. This is probably one of the few wines you can drink almost straight away if it’s not too sharp, though six months of conditioning in the bottle does make it a far better beverage. Last year I asked on Facebook and ended up with enough apples to start my own cider farm. This year I asked at work and instantly received ten kilos of windfalls. But ALWAYS make the proviso that wine-making is sometimes a hit and miss affair and there’s a bit of a gamble that it might not work out. At least then you’re not left with egg on your face if it decides to go horribly wrong. Total cost (if you already have the equipment) about £1 per  bottle.

Here’s the recipe;

Take one large cooking apple. Chop skin-on but no cores or stalks. Make the weight up to 3kg with eating apples (windfall will do) as many varieties as are available. Put the lot in a fermenting bucket and add 8 litres of boiling water and 500g of washed chopped (food processor) sultanas.If you add a little water it helps with the chopping/mincing process. Stir 900g sugar into the mix. Put in two spoonfuls of citric acid powder or four tablespoons of lemon juice allow to cool and add one teaspoon of pectolase (available from home brew shops and Wilkos) and general purpose wine yeast. Hold down the fruit with a plate and leave for four days or longer if fermentation is still vigorous. Siphon into a demijohn, put in an air lock and allow to continue fermenting. My last batch was made in Sept and bottled in November. I did use wine finings to help it clear.

Here are the pictures of the first stages.

This is only about 1.5Kg of apples, weigh them after the cores have been removed.

These apple corers/slicers speed up the process but they aren’t essential - a knife will do the job.

500g of chopped sultanas.

Apples, sultanas, citric acid, sugar and water all held down with a flan dish (or any available plate).

Next stage coming soon.