Lamb – a surprisingly healthy choice!

Seemingly lamb has a bit of a reputation for being fatty and therefore may not be a first choice for healthy eating – what a shame and a misconception. The truth of the matter is that lamb provides high quality zinc, iron and protein which is especially important when losing weight as it not only curbs hunger but also speeds recovery after exercise and reduces muscle loss. This is certainly good news after the recent binge we’ve all been on!

I am the happy recipient of some lovely boneless leg of organic Welsh lamb from Rhug Estate Organic Farm  and am going to make some delicious dishes with it. Big headed or what!

I decided to cook my lamb four different ways and eat it all myself because as luck would have it my Real Man is not one for adventurous eating and in any case it’s my lamb!

Roast Lamb with Black Garlic

Firstly an idea I have been pondering for some while – how lamb would taste with black garlic.

4 lovely pieces of lean lamb meat – about 200g each
6 black garlic cloves
1 teaspoon (or more!) freshly and coarsely ground black pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil
salt

~   Grind together the black garlic (which is very soft) and the black pepper using a pestle and mortar or a bowl and teaspoon.
~   Stir in the olive oil and slather this over the meat.
~   Cover and set aside in the fridge for several hours.
~   Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/170ºC fan/gas 5 and put an ovenproof dish in it.
~   Get the lamb out of the fridge.
~   When the oven is hot season the meat with a little salt and brown on all sides in a hot pan then transfer to the dish in the oven.
~   Roast for 15-20 minutes till to your liking.

The meat was superb; tender, tasty and juicy. I’m afraid I then did something a little fattening with the meat juices but you don’t have to – I set the lamb aside in a warm place to rest (all cooked meats benefit from a rest, as do I) and added a splash of port to the pan, simmered a minute then added a knob of butter. It all tasted wonderful but the sauce didn’t look so good in the photo!  Sorry about that!

Black garlic maybe an unfamiliar ingredient but is well worth investigating – it is sweet and rich and reminiscent of molasses and balsamic vinegar.

My second dish was …

Souvlaki – for 4

You need metal or wooden skewers for this Greek dish.

750g lovely lean lamb leg meat – cut into 2½ cm/1” ish dice

5 tablespoons olive oil
the juice of one lemon
1 red onion – finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tablespoon fresh, finely chopped, if you have it)

freshly ground black pepper

~   Basically mix together all the ingredients except the lamb and then stir in the lamb.

~   Cover and leave to marinate for at least 5 hours but considerably longer, eg overnight, if you can.
~   If you are using wooden skewers soak them in water as they are much less likely to char or catch fire that way.
~   Preheat the grill or pan.
~   Thread the lamb chunks on the skewers and season with salt.
~   Cook for 10-12 minutes, turning occasionally till just how you like them. A bit of char on the meat can be pleasant!

Serve with flatbread plus Tzatziki and Horiatiki or in other words minty cucumber and yogurt dip and Greek salad.

Thirdly out of respect to the Welshness of the meat …

Lamb & Leek Hotpot – serves 4

400g fresh leeks
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 crushed garlic clove
750g boneless leg of lamb – diced
another 2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of flour
600ml hot vegetable or lamb stock
800g potatoes
salt and pepper
a little butter – optional

~   Cut off the root end of the leeks, remove the outer layer, cut in half lengthways and then slice. Wash leeks according to the useful instructions here. 

~   Cook the leeks in the 3 tablespoons of oil in accordance with the instructions for cooking leeks are on the same page. 

~   Season the lamb and in a separate pot brown them, a few pieces at a time, in the other two tablespoons of olive oil.  Getting a good colour on the meat is important for the flavour of the finished dish.
~   When the leeks are buttery tender stir in the garlic and the flour over low heat a few seconds.

~   Stir in the stock, bring to the boil stirring, turn off the heat and add the lamb to the pot.
~   Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325°F/140ºC fan/gas 3.
~   Peel and thinly slice the potatoes.
~   Arrange half the potato slices to cover the base of an ovenproof dish and season with a little salt and pepper.
~   Pour the lamb and its gravy over the potatoes.
~   Top with the rest of the potato slices and season.
~   Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 2 hours although check after an hour and a half to see how it is going and add a little more stock if it is drying out.
~   When all is tender remove the foil (dot with a little butter if you are not being too abstemious) and return the dish to the oven to brown the potatoes.

 On second thoughts I think my real man would like this if I left out the garlic! Perfect for the sort of weather we are having.

And finally another warming winter dish and one of my favourites …

Lamb Braised in Red Wine – serves 4

2-3 tablespoons olive oil
750g lean lamb leg meat – diced
1 large onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves – finely chopped
½ tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon flour
600ml red wine
a little stock

~   Heat the oil in a large saucepan and carefully brown the meat, a few pieces at a time so as not to overcrowd the pan, in it.  Set aside.
~   Add the onions and cook, stirring often, till softening and just starting to take colour.
~   Stir in the garlic and cook a minute.
~   Stir in the tomato paste and cook another minute.
~   Stir in the flour and, yes, cook another minute.
~   Add the red wine and bring to the boil.
~   Return the meat to the pan and if necessary add a little stock or water to bring the liquid just to the level of the top of the meat.
~   Cover with foil and then the lid, turn the heat to low and simmer for a couple of hours or so till very, very, very tender and wonderful.
~   If the sauce is a little runny for your taste remove the lamb and set aside whilst you boil the gravy down a little.

The meat cooked this way is rich, silky, tender, sticky and utterly delicious!

I usually do this with lamb shanks, the long slow cooks means that any fat melts and as it cools rises to the surface of the gravy. One chilled the fat can be lifted off before reheating which, as these sort of dishes always taste better the day after making, is the best thing to do.  Using the leg of lamb there was no fat on the gravy!

A Note on Welsh Lamb

Lamb is a lovely meat and Welsh Lamb is extra special; it has PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status certifying the integrity of the meat, that it has been traditionally reared and butchered to a very high standard or to put it another way, is some of the best lamb in the world. This was certainly true of what I have been eating this last week.

So if you love lamb but would like to eat healthily and maybe lose weight then no worries – just buy some of the leaner lamb cuts and cook mindfully.  

27 Ways to Use Black Garlic ~ "The latest ‘it’ ingredient in chefs’ kitchens"

Look what I’ve got …

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bugger for the black garlic, which makes me cool because I recently read that black garlic is 

“the latest ‘it’ ingredient in chef’s kitchens.” 

Why not pin this to refer to later!

I love the stuff and now here it is in a seriously handy new form – paste. Yippee!

I have already experimented with black garlic in loads of dishes and often had to mash the cloves to get the desired result but no need for that any more – this smooth unctuous paste (which smells divine when you open the jar) is so flippin’ useful.

Black garlic hardly tastes of garlic at all, maybe vaguely reminiscent, that’s all. It has a deep, rich, sweet molasses/balsamic flavour which goes well with both sweet and savoury ingredients, in fact I feel the possibilities are almost endless so watch this space!

Here are my ideas – so far …

Black Garlic Oil

Whisk a little of the paste into olive oil, it won’t emulsify but it still works, and use thus …

~   brush around the naked edge of pizza before baking.
~   or onto hot fresh out the oven focaccia.
~   toss with bits of bread to make croutons. (Please, please do make you own croutons – it’s ridiculously easy and absolutely pointless buying them!) 
~   roast potatoes.

~   drizzle on salads, soups, meat, fish, cheese or whatever you fancy.

Black Garlic Butter

Cream together soft butter and black garlic paste to taste (crumbled blue cheese and/or coarsely ground black pepper are both good additions to this) and you might as well make plenty and store it, here’s a good way …

~   Spread a square of clingfilm or baking parchment onto the counter.
~   Scrape the soft and tasty butter into sausage about 30mm from and parallel to one edge.
~   Lift that edge and use the film or parchment to roll and shape the butter into a cylinder.
~   When satisfied roll the butter in the rest of the clingfilm and twist the ends to secure.
~   Chill or freeze until needed.
~   Use a hot knife to slice cold or frozen butters.

Use Black Garlic Butter to …

~   make fabulous garlic bread.
~   add to mashed potatoes – particularly good with steak
~   swirl a little on top of a bowl of mushroom (or other) soup
~   dollop into baked potato
~   sauté mushrooms
~   top a steak with a slice or two of the chilled butter, or, even better …
~   after pan frying steak set the meat aside somewhere warm to relax, add a splash of red wine, beef stock or even water to the pan and boil, scraping the pan to dissolve any meaty juices, and when there is just a tablespoon of sauce left quickly stir in a knob of the butter till emulsified and pour it over the steak.
~   enrich scrambled eggs. You know when you are scrambling eggs and they are just about perfect? Immediately they reach this point stir in some cold butter (in this case black garlic butter) which will not only enrich the eggs but will stop them cooking any further and keep them perfect.
~   the taste of black garlic goes surprisingly well with eggs so try spreading it on toast for poached eggs or perhaps onto your soldiers!
~   etc.

Other Ideas for Black Garlic …

~  Stir into mayonnaise – makes for a great potato salad.
~  Mix with mixture of cheese scraps for an interesting potted cheese.
~  Shake into vinaigrette – this is a good marinade for beef or duck.
~  Add to hummus and other bean dips.
~ Toss into freshly cooked tagliatelle or similar not too substantial pasta, together with crumbled blue cheese, lots of freshly ground black pepper and just a splash of the pasta cooking water to make it saucy.

Another one for Pinterest!

Add to Alfredo Sauce – lovely easy Alfredo recipe here. 

Just stir a little black garlic paste, to taste, through the sauce. Mushrooms (sautéed in black garlic butter if you have some) are a good addition to this and it is equally delicious on pasta or as a sauce for chicken, for instance, or just with bread or toast for a gorgeous lunch.

~  Stir a little Black Garlic Alfredo through mushroom risotto.

Black Garlic Ice Cream

Black garlic is sweet and molasses-ish so a while ago I experimented with Black Garlic Ice Cream and it was excellent. At the time I had to purée the garlic cloves with the cream but now this won’t be necessary.

Good News about Black Garlic!

Pinterest?

Delicious Homemade Savoury, Interesting & Peculiar Ice Creams

With the weather being so fabulous one’s thoughts, of course, turn to ice cream and having recently made Hot Cross Bun Ice Cream(which incidentally was really good) I was in the mood so decided to make something I have been wondering about since I discovered wonderful black garlic … 

Black Garlic Ice Cream!

I based this, of course, on my “genius” ice cream recipe (see Genius Recipes tab above) which is so very flexible but other than that I made it up as I went along. I only made a modicum in case it was yuk but it was lovely!

250ml double cream
100g condensed milk
4 of the softest black garlic cloves you can muster
30ml rum

~   Purée the black garlic with 50ml of the cream.
~   Stir in the rest of the cream and the rum and whisk till thick.
~   Fold in the condensed milk.
~   Freeze.

As you will know if you have read Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine the addition of alcohol or a syrup or other sugary addition is very important as makes for good ice cream consistency (although you must use the correct amount, too much will stop it freezing) and it seemed to me that as black garlic has such a wonderful molasses-ish taste rum would be the correct addition.

Well I have to say “yippee”, a lovely flavour and just zoom in to have a look at the texture too!

As I’d just made a small portion I thought I’d have another experiment too …

Roasted Sweet Potato, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Ice Cream

I love sweet potatoes and was pleased to read in Gym Berry (which, to declare the possibility of nepotism, is a blog written by my niece Holly who I am so very proud of; she has lost loads of weight and become strong and fit and gorgeous all thanks to her very own self!) that they are very healthy too, so using my trusty recipe …

250g sweet potato
drizzle of light oil
45g soft light brown sugar
45g butter
250ml double cream
30ml cinnamon syrup
100g condensed milk

~   Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/170ºC fan/gas 5 
~   Peel and thickly slice the sweet potato, toss with a very little oil just to stop it sticking and put in one layer in a spacious ovenproof dish, so that the pieces aren’t crowded.
~   Roast till tender which takes about 20 minutes.
~   Stir in the soft brown sugar and the butter and return to the oven for 5 minutes to melt and merge together.
~   Allow to cool a little and then purée in the food processor or mash like crazy till smooth.
~   Cool completely.
~   Whisk together the cream and syrup till thick.
~   Fold in the condensed milk.
~   Freeze.

This was good too – next time I might add some nuts, I think, probably pecans. As you can see in this case I added a syrup to enhance not only the flavour but the texture of the ice cream. The flavoured syrups that are sold to augment coffee work well although they are very cheap and easy to make and I give lots of guidance and syrup recipes in my aforementioned ice cream book, Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine.

Other Unusual Ice Cream Flavours

The title of this post is the same as one of the chapters in my book and it’s no coincidence. I love playing with food and a while back made Bacon Jam Ice Cream which worked very well, a great breakfast dish! In the eponymous chapter in my book are recipes for …

Strawberry Balsamic Ripple

Cracked Black Pepper Ice Cream

Werther’s Original Crunch – and beyond!

Popping Candy

Smoky Bacon & Maple Syrup

Salty Liquorice

Goats Cheese & Hazelnut Ice Creams

Butternut Squash & Maple Syrup

Roasted Beetroot & Chocolate
Blue Cheese Ice Cream with several variations

You know, at one time Salted Caramel was considered both interesting and peculiar but is so utterly gorgeous it is now considered Just Perfect. I do, of course, give a recipe for Salted Caramel Ice Cream in Luscious Ice Creams together with detailed instructions on making caramel AND the recipe for the tuile! 

Should I be more “Out There”?

I first published my ice cream ebook a few years ago now and at that time another ice cream book was also being published. It was called “Tits and Ice Cream” with a synopsis as follows …

”The book that can’t get any better is here and it combines two of God’s finest inventions, tits and ice-cream! Firstly, everyone loves tits – women, men, young and old, whether voluptuous or perky, everyone appreciates the wonders of the female form. Then, there is ice-cream – a creamy sweet substance which is impossible not to love. Put these two brilliant things together and hey presto! An exponentially fabulous book. Titty Two-Scoops has combined pictures of tits with recipes for delicious ice cream desserts. Eye-candy has never been so much fun.”

Oddly enough this book is “currently unavailable”.

In a few days’ time another interestingly titled book, “Big Gay Ice Cream” is to be published, at quite a hefty price; £15.76 for the kindle version (mine is £1.99!). The title of this book is not in itself to draw attention as it is written by the owners of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop in New York who, to be fair are gay, I think!

Unusually for me I couldn’t think of anything appropriate yet suggestive to call my book, any ideas?

Fresh, Wild, Roasted, Smoked or Black Garlic ~ delicious ways to use all of them!

Today is another one of those strange “national days” – this time the nation is the USA and the food item is garlic so, even though I am  Brit, I thought I’d write appropriately.

As one would expect I often cook with garlic, although not for my real man of course! This wonderful stuff, however, not only adds an important nuance to so many dishes, it is also a fantastic flavour (or, in fact several different fantastic flavours) in its own right which deserve to be showcased in our cooking.

Garlic Bonus!

Garlic is considered to be a strong vampire repellent so, depending where you live, this could be useful.

The 5 forms of garlic I shall be writing about today and referred to in the title of this post are – fresh, roasted, smoked, wild and black. They are all wonderful but in different ways so here are some ideas, tips and links to help you make the most of them. 

Firstly, in most cases, all these garlics are interchangeable; they all work well in …

~   Mayonnaise – homemade or bought in.
~   Salad dressings –vinaigrette recipe here and replace the fresh garlic with other forms of garlic depending what you are serving it with. These vinaigrettes also make good marinades and dipping sauces.

~   Mashed potato – with the possible exception of black garlic which is bit too sweet, I think.

~   Add to hummus and similar bean dips – basic hummus recipe and suggestions here.
~   Risotto – see here for Black Garlic Risotto recipe.
~   Pesto
~   Garlic butters and, thereafter, various forms of garlic bread, all gorgeous!
~   Rich, creamy and very easy Alfredo Sauce to use on pasta and other things too.
~   Soup – lots of recipes in my Soup Recipe Cookbook plus all the info you need to create your own recipes.
~   Garlic oils (IMPORTANT – either use immediately or freeze as they can cause botulism otherwise) – and hence croutons, drizzles on soup, dipping oils etc.

So I’m starting with wild garlic as the season is upon us and it’s time to get gathering!

Wild Garlic

Here’s a strange and irritating thing – for 14 years my sister and I ran a restaurant in Cornwall and for 14 springs we drove past, frequently, a large and rampant patch of wild garlic, remarked on the fragrance and never, ever thought of picking and using the stuff!

I have written a lot about this already – my most useful wild garlic post, I think, is this one with instructions and lots of ideas here. 

Fresh Garlic

There are, of course a myriad (and then some) things to do with fresh garlic, here are a few very simple ideas …

~   If you have a lot of garlic freeze some separated into cloves or, even better, purée peeled garlic with twice its volume of oil and then freeze. The wonder of this is that once frozen it is still soft enough to scrape off a little when needed. Do not store garlic in oil in the fridge for any longer that a few days or you might get botulism, best to freeze it asap.
~   Put peeled garlic cloves into a bottle of Vodka (I’m afraid you will probably have to drink a little Vodka fist to make room) and keep it in the freezer. Use the resulting Garlic Vodka in sauces, Bloody Marys or peculiar Martinis.
~   Slice peeled garlic cloves very, very thinly and uniformly, separate the slices and fry in a couple of centimetres of hot oil (160ºC/325°F) to light golden. This should take about 5 minutes, adjust the heat if they are going too fast. Drain well, cool well and then store for up to a week (and probably  lot longer!) in an airtight container. These are a traditional garnish in Thailand but are good sprinkled on all sorts of dishes.

Roasted Garlic

Roasting garlic makes it soft, buttery, sweet, mellow and also makes the house smell gorgeous. In fact it’s one of those smells, like baking bread or good coffee that tends to beguile people. Read here for how to roast garlic and make a nice smell together with lots of ideas for using the lovely stuff.

  

Smoked Garlic

I have actually smoked garlic myself and it’s not difficult if you are into smoking but it is easier still to buy it from your nearest interesting food shop.

Use smoked garlic wherever you would use un-smoked garlic but it is particularly good with potatoes, cheddar and strong beefy dishes.

Black Garlic

This is the best food “discovery” I have made in … years and years! It is wonderful stuff and I never expected a whole new ingredient at my age!

It is somewhat difficult to get hold of, for a while Tesco stocked it but usually I have it delivered from Amazon. Recently I learned that Sainsbury’s stock it but I don’t know if it is every store. I urge you, however, to get yourself some even if it’s not an easy thing to do, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I have written a lot about this too, see …

~  Black Garlic
~  How to Use Black Garlic
~  “The latest ‘it’ ingredient in chefs’ kitchens”

Enjoy!

Black Garlic ~ please help!

Pin to enlighten the World!

I don’t know if you remember but a couple of years ago black garlic entered my life and I was enchanted. After all these years playing with food an exciting new ingredient to experiment with and, not only that, it’s a wonderful one!  

So I happily skipped about in the sunshine buying this nectar from Tesco and various other places, whenever I saw it, which was reasonably often.  Often enough to always have some in my interesting store cupboard to enhance my sudden lunches. Just look at it, beautiful or what!

I ran out a while back but wasn’t too perturbed as I was going away for a couple of months, I’d re-stock when I got home.  Imagine my horror on my return when however hard I searched I couldn’t find any black garlic anywhere.  Apparently people have stopped stocking it which is just plain daft, so far as I can see. This stuff needs to be out there, people need to know.

Luckily I found some on Amazon so I’ve ordered 6 packets and shall be boring the knickers off you with all my ideas as soon as it arrives.

I very seriously recommend this wonderful ingredient to anyone who loves good food, it has a sweet almost balsamic-ish, molassesy taste and a soft squidgy texture, like a dried fruit version of garlic.  And, as they say themselves …

Black garlic also has a long shelf life, 6-8 months, so is perfect for spontaneous cooking and making leftovers even more delicious.

So, perhaps you could help this situation by asking for black garlic when you go shopping.  Don’t worry, it probably won’t cost you anything as nobody seems to stock it. but if enough people ask perhaps Tesco and others will start buying it again.

Read more about black garlic here.

and

Ideas for using black garlic here.

Back Home in Cornwall and eating "Normally"

~  Menu  ~

Poached Eggs

Black Garlic Bread

Coffee and Vanilla Yogurt

Its good to be home and have all our stuff about us.  We went Up North for 3 weeks but stayed 3 months and I hadn’t packed for such an eventuality.  I should have taken my roasted garlic, my black garlic, smoked black pepper, Caribbean seasoning, Tortolian vanilla extract, balsamic glaze, chilli pickle and so on and so forth.  Not being of a spendy nature I didn’t want to waste money replacing these items so had eat in a plainer manner whilst away.  Today I got back to “normal”.

Our friend Carol gave us half a dozen eggs freshly laid by her “girls” so poaching was the obvious way to go.  Leaving flavour aside eggs poach so much better when really fresh – for how to poach them see here.  I served them with a piece of bread smothered with black garlic butter and toasted till crisp.  I sprinkled the whole lot with smoked black pepper and weyhey!

Not burnt ~ black garlic bread!

My dessert occurred as a by-product of my aging process, I believe.  

Preparing my breakfast I accidentally added the spoonful of instant coffee to my vanilla yogurt instead of my coffee mug.  Well you know how I abhor wasting anything; I stirred it in and put it in the fridge for lunch pudding.  It worked fine!

In Other News …

Well nothing much other than I am working hard to promote my book of easy no-churn ice cream recipes.  Here’s a picture of one I made earlier to tempt you to look into the matter!

Homemade coffee ice cream (just look at the texture on that!) with sugared walnuts. 

Re:  My earlier Best Before Date Rant

Remember my rant-ette a few days ago?  Well, my darling brought home a Christmas wreath yesterday, reduced in price by a considerable amount and much as we appreciate the bargain there is absolutely nothing wrong with the it; no dryness, no sign of wilting, just fine and dandy!

The big question for me, though, is what kind of nutter makes a Christmas wreath that is out of date by 4^th December?! 

Save the Children Lunch at St. Petroc’s Bistro

~  Menu ~

“Pizza Bianca” with Mushrooms & Black Garlic

Secret Red

In the fridge today was a small dish of leftover Alfredo Sauce, 2 mushrooms and half a pizza base.  Lunch was immediately obvious …

See here for Alfredo Sauce recipe (used in a similar way!) – I just spread the cold sauce on the base and topped with the mushrooms, coarsely chopped black garlic, grated Gran Padano and coarsely ground black pepper.  Talk about Lunch!

Speaking of which yesterday my friend Carol and I partook of lunch at St. Petroc’s Bistro – one of Rick Stein’s many eateries in Padstow.  It was a special menu to raise money for Save the Children.  

 I had …

Seafood Soup

Baked Cod with Garlic

Orange Tart with Crème Fraîche

Carol had …

Smoked Trout with Horseradish Cream

Seafood Thermidore

Panna Cotta with Poached Rhubarb and a (perfect) Shortbread

It was both good value and delicious with excellent friendly service but I do have a small demur – it was a very, very, very, very garlicky meal.  Not only was the cod topped with whole garlic cloves but the dish of perfectly cooked cabbage served with the meal was at least 25% al dente slices of garlic.  Now I don’t mind a bit of garlic, me, but my real man was appalled when he got home and had to feed me humbugs throughout the evening to try and clear the air!

Periodic Tables – oddly enough!

I have seen a few unusual periodic tables on the net recently; 

• The Periodic Table of Desserts – “A Scientific and Rigorous approach to patisserie”!,
• The Table of Condiments that Periodically Go Bad 
• The useful Periodic Table of Produce – showing storage info 
• … and lots here 

But the very best one I have seen is this  …

… simple yet effective.

Autumn Foraging (and Scrounging)

~  Menu  ~

Wild Mushrooms on Toast with Black Garlic Alfredo

Glass of Secret Red

Fresh Plums

Hasn’t the weather been amazing?  Last Thursday was the best day I personally have experienced since, um … early June or so.  My darling and I had a few hours holiday; we went to Porthcothan beach where he went kayaking and I laid about reading (an excellent book – Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”, I’ve read it before, what a writer!) then picnic lunch (of no particular foodie interest although I enjoyed it), then blackberrying and sloeing and we finished it all off with a drink at the pub, of course.

In the picture above – wild sloes, my real man off to the sea (just in case you were wondering what he looks like!), wild mushrooms and two wasps shagging *** on my darling’s foot – it was a romantic sort of a day!

In addition to the blackberries and sloes we also picked a few wild mushrooms (these, of course, add a wonderful frisson of danger to any meal) and have been given apples, plums, tomatoes and sweet, hot, long pepper things from people’s gardens and allotments.   

So these are the things I have done so far …

I cooked and froze half the apples and all the blackberries in usable portions – to brighten our winter although hopefully the weather will stay like this!  We picked so many blackberries the ones in the bottom of the box were crushed so I puréed them with a handful of brandy (approx 1 tbsp) and some caster sugar.  I now have a lush sauce for ice cream. 

I made Apple Chutney which I have never done before – it’s OK, very appley and goes well with cheddar, especially Cornish Crackler, but next time I shall be a lot more adventurous.

Sloe Gin 

This is a sort of autumn rumpot (see here for rumtopf/ rumpot recipe) now I come to think of it.  I really don’t like gin but my Daddy always made sloe gin and it was yummy.  This is my first go at it.  It’s dead easy; take 500g of fresh sloes and pierce each one a few times with a darning needle or, alternatively, freeze the sloes and then give them a good bashing – the idea is to open the skins up a bit.  Divide the fruits between 2 x 70cl or so clean, sterilised bottles.  Add 125g of sugar to each bottle and top up with gin.  Seal the bottles, give them a good shake and store in a cool dark place, next to your rumtopf.  Give them a shake every week or so.

With the tomatoes and some of the peppers I made my normal roasted tomato soup and I have done something yummy with a few more of the hot chillies but I will tell all about soon.

Now then – the mushrooms.  As you may know I am obsessed with black garlic so I made up a seriously yummy lunch based on a meal I had at The Basement in Padstow a little while ago. 

Mushrooms on Toast with Black Garlic Alfredo

I love this dish and will probably make it often.

Per person …

15g butter

1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

80ml double cream

2 cloves of black garlic – coarsely chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

a handful of mushrooms – quartered

1 tbsp olive oil

A thick slice of great bread

~   First make the Alfredo Sauce – in a small pan simply heat together the first four ingredients till the butter has melted and a thickish sauce has formed.  Set aside for a few minutes for the garlic flavour to infuse into the sauce whilst cooking the mushrooms.

~   In a separate pan sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil till golden – sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

~   Toast the bread.

~   Top the toast with the mushrooms and pour over the sauce.

*** I do apologise for being so crude but I think “making love” would have been a bit too anthropomorphic! 

Ever tried Black Garlic? Here’s some good ideas to get you started!

If you have been concentrating you will remember that I was recently delighted; the reason being that I had discovered black garlic. Well I have just been delighted again by trying a blue cheese, Saint Agur, that for some inexplicable reason I have never tasted before.  Yummeeeeee!  And so to a recent lunch for which I first made myself some …

Black Garlic Oil

6 cloves of black garlic

60 ml olive oil

~    Process the two together!

That’s pretty well it.  So far I have tried black garlic in two slightly different forms; a whole black garlic bulb and also as separated cloves in a little tub.  I don’t know why but the separated cloves are firmer than those still attached to the bulb, this being the case the former are better for making this oil.

Tagliatelle with Black Garlic & Blue Cheese – serves 1

A slice of great bread, coarsely crumbled

1 tbsp of black garlic oil

4 nests of tagliatelle

75g Saint Agur cheese (or any other leftover blue cheese)

another tbsp of black garlic oil

a clove or two of black garlic coarsely chopped

~   Drizzle the first tbsp of oil over the breadcrumbs and toss together.  Either dry fry till crisp and golden or bake for a few minutes in a hot oven to achieve the same end. These crisp crumbs are known as Pangrattato, read more here.

~   Chop or crumble the cheese and mix together with the chopped garlic and the second tbsp of oil.

~   Cook the tagliatelle according to instructions on the packet.

~   Set aside about 60 ml of the cooking water then drain the pasta.

~   Stir together the pasta, the blue cheese mixture and the reserved cooking water.

~   Taste and season – freshly ground black pepper is great with this – stir in some of the crisp crumbs and top the pasta with the rest.

Having made the Black Garlic Oil I was on a roll and made some other things with it …

Black Garlic Croutons 

See here for lots of useful information on croutons.

~   As a dipping oil.

~   To brush over freshly baked Focaccia.

~   Mix with a modicum of balsamic vinegar as a great salad dressing.

A few more black garlic ideas …

~  Mix a little soft butter in to the black garlic oil and make delicious garlic bread.

~   Purée together a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise and 2 cloves of black garlic.

~   Mix black garlic together with some of the aforementioned Saint Agur and eat with hot nubbly toast and a glass of red wine.  Just typing about it makes me drool!
~   More ideas here on Pinterest ~ click on the board as if it was full sized to be taken to individual pins or the whole board.

The good black garlic people have sent me some information on their wonderful product and so here is a bit of background.   Apparently it originates from South Korea but is now made using a method, recently developed in America, which takes several weeks.  During this time the sugars and amino acids react together causing the mellow flavour and the black colour. 

Benefits of Black Garlic

In addition to its wonderful flavour black garlic offers several other benefits …

~   Despite having no additives it has a surprisingly long shelf life, the packet I have is best before sometime in 2013.

~   It doesn’t cause bad breath.

~   It is full of antioxidants which, as we all know, kill free radicals – the gits.

~   It is low fat and high in natural sugars.

~   It is easily digested, more easily than fresh garlic.

I urge you to give this stuff a try, I’m sure you won’t regret it.  

Click here for lots more Black Garlic Ideas and news about handy black garlic paste.

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Black Garlic, an Invitation and a Show Off!

~  Menu  ~

Black Garlic Risotto with Chestnut Mushrooms

Secret Red Wine

A few Strawberries from the Garden

Recently I have been seeing black garlic mentioned all over the place so when I spotted some in Tesco I bought it, obviously.

At first it seemed a bit scary – garlic that has been kept/aged/fermented for a year and, consequently has gone black, see here for details and when they say “black garlic” they mean seriously black, not blackish.

The garlic is soft and squidgy and a bit daunting but a tentative nibble revealed that there is nothing to be scared of, it is utterly delicious!!  The garlic flavour is mellowed, sweet and caramelised and I am sure it would go really well with blue cheese and black pepper.  However, curses, no blue cheese – so I made a bit of risotto and it was fab.

Black Garlic Risotto – one serving

1 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots finely chopped

2 (or 3 or 4) black garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

small knob (excuse me!) of butter

100g risotto rice

40 ml red wine

about 300 ml simmering vegetable stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Parmesan cheese

Why not pin this for future reference?

~   Cook the shallots gently in the olive oil till they are translucent.

~   Stir in the garlic and the butter.

~   When the butter has melted add the rice and stir till thoroughly coated with buttery goo.

~   Add the wine and cook, stirring, over medium heat till it has all disappeared (not really – it’s in the rice!).

~   Gradually add the hot stock a little at a time and cook, stirring continuously, till there is very little left then add some more.  Continue doing this till the rice is tender but with a little bite and is coated with an unctuous sauce. 

~   Grate in plenty of parmesan then taste and season.  I added my lovely smoked black pepper from Nature Kitchen but just freshly ground black pepper would be good too.

~  For even more luxuriousness stir in a little more butter.

Having some leftover chestnut mushrooms languishing in the fridge I sautéed a few and added them to the finished dish.

The risotto was gently infused with a sweet garlickiness, I only used 2 cloves of the black stuff but next time I think I shall use more and in bigger lumps so as to occasionally I get a solid hit of it. 

I’m sure you are going to read a lot more about this fantastic ingredient if you follow my blog!

In Other News …

Here’s the show off – lovely Vegetarian Living magazine have published another one of my articles.  This is about Mrs. Beeton – I have an old copy of my grandmother’s and got reading the vegetarian section – lots of weird stuff but also some surprisingly good ideas.         

You’ll have to read the magazine for details, I made some really gorgeous “porridge scones” based on an original idea by Mrs. B.