Trio of Beetroot with Honey Caramelized Almonds and Mustard Leaf

 

Easy Sponge Cake - with citrus, rosemary and thyme

this week  is the FWDR Blog Birthday week! it's been an whole entire year since the first post 52 weeks ago, and how far we've come. the year has been a good one, with lots of sun (and rain) and great home grown food. when FWDR first posted the Homegrown Bloody Mary post, it was also THE Julia Child's Birthday, and what a day to begin a food blog! So, in honour of Julia and the big birthday, I've taken from Julia's, Baking with Julia Cookbook, a cake recipe I've used time and time again with great results. I tweaked it a little to give it an FWDR spin, by adding lime zest, rosemary and thyme. its a perfect sponge recipe made even better with freshly whipped cream and homemade jam.

 

I've added a lot of pictures of the sponge making process, as I feel many people are afraid of making sponge cake. it really is easy, though. the one trick is to use a light touch, and not to be scared! the only leavening to this cake is the air you whip into the eggs, so an aggressive hand will knock out vital air and lend to a dense, lifeless cake. this is a traditional French genoise recipe, using the cold technique. don't skimp on whipping time, you need to whip the eggs and sugar until a ribbon sits on top of the mixture for 10 seconds, so beat those eggs for at least 5 minutes.

 

 

Salads Everyday

French breakfast radishes with greens

here in west cork, we are having the best weather in it seems like a century! you don't even want to think about cooking, its that warm. spain is even cooler than here, global warming? maybe. does it matter? not right now! (i'm half joking there) we seriously haven't had rain in weeks.

despite the lack of rain, one of the great things about this time of year is every time i go to the garden, there's something new to pick and chop up into a salad. which is great for a hot afternoon.
there's cauliflower, courgette, cabbage, kale, peas, beetroot, radishes, spinach, lettuce, onions, chard.... you get what i mean? its a great time to have a garden and this post is a celebration of that fact.

there's no recipe today but there's more posts on the way like: a tangy slaw for tacos, elderflower fizz and cocktails (yes, MORE cocktails!) and a recipe that goes great with crispy calamari. enjoy the photos, there's loads more on the FWDR instagram page.

little gems are a great lettuce to grow if the slugs don't get to them first!

smoked mackerel with chard, fennel and flowers

Gooseberry Elderflower Pie

 

Last week was a glorious week of balmy summer weather. the gooseberry bush (that we adopted with the house) was heaving with bright green fruits. screaming: "hey, pick me! don't forget about me like last year!" the big question was: what do you do with all those gooseberries? gooseberry fool pops into everyone's mind but, what else? after browsing my Bookshelf, I came across recipes for savoury uses like, a sauce for pork or mackerel, and sweet ones like: a pie, jam or chutney. the pie recipe jumped out at me, as well as a seasonal pairing of elderflowers. its that time of year too! bring on the elderflower champagne! 

Polytunnel Build

about a month ago I set up shop to build a small polytunnel, to cover the new 'herb only' addition to  the veg patch. I took the idea and design from my neighbour's who own Cambium Garden Centre. last year they grew the most amazing basil plants and lettuces, I was sold on the idea. everything seems to grow better under plastic in Ireland. that said we seem to be experiencing a drought! im afraid to mention it else I jinx the good fortune we've been having. at the moment watering the garden has become a novelty!

 

below are some images of the polytunnel build as it progressed over one week. it's a great design as it can be opened from both sides. with over 2 feet of standing room for plants you can grow just about anything, bar: sweet corn and tall tomatoes. this bed is being held as a herb bed for basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, mint, thyme, lemon thyme, coriander, fennel bulb and lemon balm. just about every herb you can dream of - which should make for some interesting pesto recipes!  the dimensions are 3'x 14' so, 42 square feet.

 

empty bed constructed of pallet wood

6' lengths of 1'' piping doubled up at four points, 2'' would be ideal

2"x1" brace under piping and ends covered in polytunnel plastic, stapled at bottom

 

Radish, Smoked Butter and Flaky Sea Salt

 

 

Green Garlic Dressing

purple sprouting broccoli shoots, kale buds, pea shoots, ruby steaks mustard, baby kale, green garlic and chive

its hard to believe that yesterday was the first day I got a whole salad out of the garden. everything seems a month behind at the moment, the spuds only just got their heads in gear, the over wintered cabbages are yet to form heads (will they?) and my peas just poked through the soil a week ago.

 

the salad bed (from bottom left to top right): easter egg radish (with mixed leaves to follow), ruby streaks mustard, garlic, little gem, garlic, beetroot, snow pea and ruby streaks mustard

this year I took a page out of joy larkom's creative vegetable gardening book and planted my salad bed with contrasting colours and texture, as well as planting the rows on the diagonal for visual interest. as you can see from the above picture its still has a bit more to fill out but the idea is starting to shape out.

 



a small garlic shoot for thining and using as green garlic

I only recently learned about green garlic (a.k.a wet garlic) as an ingredient. before the garlic reaches maturity the whole bulb and stem can be used, I picked mine very early as a thinning measure. its great in soups, dressings and marinades. the flavour is more subtle than mature garlic lacking the strong spicy edge. think: chives but better.

 



green garlic

the great thing about growing garlic yourself is a) its super easy and b) you can have a go with green garlic in the kitchen. (I've only seen it one or twice in the green grocers ) the use of green garlic is starting to pop up more in cookbooks and restaurants lately, so if you don't grow you're own you might see it popping up at a good green grocers soon. 

 

Homemade Chicken Stock

chicken bones, carrots, celery, garlic, cheese rinds, herb stalks, and cauliflower stems

homemade chicken stock is a great thing to make when you've got extra bits left over from dinner. i'm sure many of you have made chicken stock before at home and know the joys and the world of difference it can make to your own home cooking.

throw in some onion and a couple bay leaves and your in business the 'stock market'!

i don't have a specific recipe and really its just scraps thrown into a pot and covered with water. one thing that really makes the stock special is the addition of cheese rinds, the ends of hard cheeses like parmesean are great to throw into stock. the dried out ends seem to and an extra savoury depth, without melting too much and getting all gooey. so, next time you have some hard cheesey bits left over just throw them in the freezer for your next batch of chicken or veg stock.

simmer for two hours, strain out the bits and you're done!

the consensus with stock is to always use the holy trinity of veg: carrots, celery and onions. from there its all up to you! once your chicken stock has finished cooking and cooled down you can store it in the fridge or in the freezer till needed.

Garden Chive Fiesta Muffins

looks like i spoke too soon about the beautiful spring weather! the past two weeks have been sub zero and snowing! again! oh well, i guess we have to wait a bit longer. the snow has slowly evolced into more rain and flooding. my garden looks a bit like a swamp at the moment and the hens are hiding under the hen house. i can't blame them one bit.

to lift some spirits i wanted to pep up easter sunday with these warming Garden Chive Fiesta Muffins. they'll transport you straight to that sunny mexican beach holiday you're dreaming of. i also posted them as chives seem to be the only crop in the garden at the moment, along with the purple sprouting brocolli. but i decided that maybe 3 back-to-back posts on PSB would be too much.

these muffins look impressive, taste impressive and whip up in impressively no time at all. 15 minutes in the oven is all they take to double in size and cook through. i love the kick that the pickled pepperoncinis give to the muffins and married with chives, cheddar, and sour cream makes for one big fiesta of fun. their texture is airy and moist, almost popver-like. they bake perfect everytime.

Charred Purple Sprouting with Hollandaise and Poached Eggs

what a change in weather from last week! we've had some rain but the frosts subsided and its just begining to feel like spring. just in time cause it was starting to get me down! (see last post) for paddy's day this year i spent the afternoon in the garden, a long awaited treat. i planted seed potatoes as many people did for paddy's day, (it seems to be a tradition here in ireland.) i opted for three floury types: coleen's (a first early crop), record (main crop) and golden wonder (a late main crop). i wanted to try and introduce a bit of crop roation to my current garden's second year. so i planted them where i planted roots and onions last spring.

 

 

 

the idea of crop rotation is an old one. the basis is: different plant families take different nutrients from the soil as they grow. in turn they release new nutrients to the soil that benifit other plants. in a lot of vegetable gardens this determines alot of the seasons planting scheme. after some research there turns out to be some debate on what rotations people use. im following a four year rotation plan:

 

LEGUMES > BRASSICAS > ROOTS & ONIONS > POTATOES

 

do you use a different roation in your garden than the above one?

 

 

after planting spuds i was able to clear bolting kale plants, weed the flower beds and sow my first bit of lettuce, radish and beetroots. i popped in some garlic sets for good measure and much needed slug protection. in the lettuce area of the garden i was hoping to create an artistic planting effect by alternating plants with different colours and textures: frilly red mustards next to a row of little gem lettuce heads, followed by red beetroot and a row of pea shoots. its an exciting prospect to add a bit of colour and intrest to the veg plot. we'll see if it turns out as planned! fingers crossed.

Sour Apple Martini

wow! im back after 4 weeks in thailand and im spinning in disbelief! but reinspired for the new year and food and blogging and gardening. it was getting tough to pull it together before i left. the weather had been well... you may already have guessed- rainy. theres been flooding and freezes and wind storms. the garden i have to say is in need of a lot of tlc and a good going over. the hens ransacked the rainbow chard and started on my flower bulb shoots, while i was away. so some chicken defense is in order for this spring.

thailand gave me loads of ideas for the kitchen and garden, i even snuck in a few seed packets!to try in the poly tunnel! while i was in thailand inever had one bad meal, which brings thai food into the top ranking spot for best world cuisine in my book! i mean, really, when were you last on holiday and all the food was perfect? never? most likely, unless you were in thailand.... so of course i'll be doing a few thai styled dishes for the blog, including: thai breakfsat soup, masamam curry, and pad thai.

im also delighted because the hens missed the purple sprouting broccolli, and its nearly ready for the table! i've had my first mini munch on a few tiny sprouts and i can hardly wait! there's one celriac left which ive got eyes on for a winter salad, and really thats it! there are quite a few beetroots left so im going to put my pickler cap on and get busy.

this recipe i started before i left the country last month. for some reason the image upload for blogger wasnt working,  which meant i had to cut it short and jet. but you can imagine me drinking these around new years and testing the recipe with friends and after thorough research (and a few fuzzy heads) we came up with a final mix to my Sour Apple Martini's. If you have been reading along before, I first started my batch of Sour Apple Vodka in November, after 7 weeks of marinating the end result was reached! Its super delicious and syrupy, perfect for this highly drinkable and dangerously potent cocktail. You will be able to downgrade to apple cider once you've enjoyed one or two Appletinis, the recipe only calls for a small amount, so you will have leftovers to finish!

if you are going to make your own sour apple vodka, click here. i recomend doubling the batch! its too good. have fun!!

Lemon Geranium Custard Cream

Lemon Geranium Pelargonium crispum

 this is my new favourite dessert or dessert accompaniment. it brings the unexpected geranium leaf into the kitchen and not just the window sill, the flavour remains lemony familiar but with a hint of the exotic.

my lemon geranium plant was given to me as a cutting from my friends plant, earlier this year. i had seen a recipe for rose geranium cream in the cookbook: Tartine, from the now famous Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. the recipe itself got me thinking, why not lemon geranium as a substite? im not suoer wild about heavy rose flavours in my desserts anyway. the result was an exciting flavour reminiscent of a lemony turkish delight. its great alongside any sponge cake or as a filling for tarts.

hot milk steeping with geranium leaves

Pumpkin Fudge

i've still got one medium sized pumpkin in the kitchen from this fall's harvest. after awhile pondering what i might make with it, i recalled a particular recipe for Parsnip Vanilla Fudge from the book: Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache, by Harry Eastwood. the book specializes in cakes made with vegetables and low fat, usually wheat free recipes. and guess what? the recipes work! which is great for  gluten free cooking enthusiasts, especially when every recipe uses veg in some way. for those of you used to gluten free baking: you may know some recipes have a tendency to be 'bricklike' and dry. but the clever addition of grated vegetables in Harry's recipes yield moist and light baking.

you don't need much pumpkin for this recipe, so count on making a nice pumpkin curry afterwards.



 

 the authour has a whimsical way of writing recipes, refering to cakes and their individual personalities like they are a part of a story book. which can hit hard on the annoying scale, but if you can over look this then, you are well on your way to exciting baking. the book is well worth the shelf space.

Homemade Sour Apple Vodka

im to the point of being obsessed with infused spirits, last year it was foraged blackberries and a spiced quince vodka. this year im trying out my own sour apple vodka for Sour Apple Martini's, click here for the recipe. homemade infused spirits are simple to make, time and aggitation (a good shake) are the key - my quince vodka from last year hasn't stopped improving since it was ready for consumption. 6 weeks seems to be the consensus for good flavour when infusing spirits, but a month is perfectly alright.
this year's theme is 'apples,' our cupboards are filled with a mass of infusing spirits. we've got damsons stewing away alongside, apple and cinnamon, plain apples, apple and clove and of course this Sour Apple Vodka.

 

a few more ideas on my infusing to-do list are: black pepper vodka for bloody mary's, cucumber gin for gin and tonics, pear brandy for well - pear brandy, rosemary vodka for a winter martini, mint whiskey for mint juleps.... its endless: ginger, pineapple, elderflower, horseradish, pumpkin, spices, herbs, fruit, leaves, brownbread (?), cardboard (?) - why not? ok, maybe those last two were a bit adventurous.

the idea is: any spirit can be infused and anything can be used to infuse it. homemade spirits are a great gift too, and are sure to be consumed and disappear. solving that age old dilema, what can i get that person that won't just sit on a shelf collecting dust? infused homemade booze is as good as it gets.