In the Bag: Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?

I hope everyone enjoyed the Summer. You were away last week? Oh. What a shame! You missed it.

I knew I shouldn't have dusted off the barbecue. No sooner had I donned my summer dress and unearthed the flip-flops than the sun disappears behind a dull and damp-looking cloud. Today, I even considered popping the heating back on for a moment but I thought better of it and just donned another layer.

I'm cheering myself up with the very best of British Spring produce: asparagus, Jersey Royals, watercress, peas and salad leaves fresh from the garden. Deliciously fresh flavours to brighten up the dullest of days.

Asparagus is perhaps the vegetable I look forward to most. It has such a short season and tastes so disappointingly bland when imported from warmer climes at other times of the year. It really is a treat worth waiting for and savouring. I find that many people are quite precious and particular about the way they like to prepare these flavoursome green spears. Perhaps because the season is so short, they want every asparagus moment to be a perfect one.

Essentially, I like mine pretty plain. Steamed (or occasionally roasted) and served with melted butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. Please note that when I say melted butter, I do not mean a slice of butter popped atop the warm asparagus. Oh no. I mean a blob of butter that has been purposefully melted in a pan and is then served from a warmed jug. The plate must then be propped up with a fork, or knife so that it is on a tilt and all the butter runs to one end. The asparagus can then (and only then) be savoured, dipped in that lovely butter... Did I mention that I am particular about how I like my asparagus?

Occasionally I divert from this course of action, substituting butter for really good extra virgin olive oil and some shavings of Parmesan. If I'm offered it, I won't say no to a splodge of hollandaise sauce either. It would be churlish to refuse, after all.

How do you like to eat yours?



When Scott from Real Epicurean announced the ingredients for this month's 'In the Bag...' event, I was ahead of the game! Just that day, I had enjoyed a divine lunch of asparagus with quail's eggs and Parmesan (see above photo). As the ingredients were asparagus, Parmesan and eggs, I thought I had the event 'in the bag' so to speak (-sorry, couldn't help myself).

After a bit more thought though, I decided that I should be a little more imaginative. I decided to incorporate asparagus into one of my favourite speedy lunchtime dishes: frittata. With Jersey Royals, spring onions, asparagus and peas, this certainly put a 'spring' in my step. (Don't know what's with the puns today. I can only apologise).

Springtime Frittata
Serves 2 hungry people



Ingredients

4 large free-range eggs (preferably organic)
bunch of asparagus (around 10 stems)
5 spring onions
5 baby Jersey Royal potatoes (or other potatoes)
ramekin full of peas (fresh or frozen)
Small handful of fresh herbs (I used parsley and chives)
Parmesan

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Drizzle olive oil into a roasting tin and pop in oven to heat up. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until just soft (you need to slice them up so don't let them get too soft).

2. Bend asparagus stems until they snap so that you are left with the tender part and not the woody stem. Pop them into the oven to roast. This could take from 5-15 minutes, depending on whether you have the fat stuff or the thin stuff. I had the medium stuff and it took about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, chop the spring onions and herbs. Heat some olive oil in a small non-stick pan and add the onions. Soften on a gentle heat.

4. Once the potatoes are ready, drain them and then slice roughly. Add to pan with onions and throw over the peas. Up the heat a touch.

5. Remove asparagus from oven. Take three stems and chop them into small disks - add them to the pan. Sit the other spears on top in a pretty pattern, with the tips meeting in the middle.


6. Pre-heat the grill to high. Crack the eggs and beat slightly with a fork. Add the chopped herbs and salt and pepper. Pour eggs over the ingredients in the pan and cook gently until most of the egg is set. At this point, remove from heat and grate Parmesan all over the top.

7. Pop the pan under the grill to cook the top and brown the cheese. Keep an eye on it - I left mine a touch too long.



8. Cut into slices and enjoy with some salad on the side, perhaps.



Notes: Other things that might be fun to add are courgettes, broad beans and (unless, like me you think it is the devils' work) mint.

Do take a look at Scott's blog for the details of the 'In the Bay' food blogging event and have a think about entering your own favourite asparagus dish!

Rhubarb fool with orange poppyseed biscuits

This month's 'In the Bag' event features one of my favourite seasonal ingredients: rhubarb. Earlier in the month, I made a delicious rhubarb and ginger crumble with the first of the forced rhubarb but to qualify for this seasonal event hosted by Julia at 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' I needed to incorporate oranges too.

Whilst a crumble is my favourite rhubarb dish, a simple fool is my second favourite. Partly due to the nostalgia aspect of this luxuriously creamy dish - both my grandmother and then my mother made this quite a bit when I was little. Sometimes, it would be rhubarb fool and sometimes it would be gooseberry fool. I'd never made it before and called my mother for the recipe. This is when I discovered that there is not in fact a recipe - it has just four ingredients and you can combine them in pretty much any ratio you wish! You can make a fool just using cream, but I like to make it with a mixture of custard and cream as I prefer the end result.

To go with a fool, I think you always need some kind of biscuit. As I child, our fools were usually accompanied by sponge fingers and there is nothing whatsoever wrong with that. But I decided to make these gorgeous, melt-in-the-mouth orange poppyseed biscuits. A perfect addition!

The basic recipe for these biscuits came from my latest favourite recipe book: Gorgeous Desserts by Annie Bell. I LOVE this book. It is packed full of... you guessed it... gorgeous desserts, including lots of nostalgic items that she has fully revitalised. Think thoroughly modern trifles, stunning and witty jellies, rice pudding made with risotto rice alongside classic sticky toffee pudding and spiced apple pie. She serves these biscuits without the orange and with her version of rhubarb fool.

Rhubarb fool with orange poppyseed biscuits

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the fool:

400g rhubarb

1 heaped tablespoon golden caster sugar

3 tablespoons water

135ml fresh custard (homemade is best, but if you are pushed for time, you can get some reasonably good fresh custard in the chiller isles and my grandmother's version used Birds custard and, you know what, there was nothing wrong with that at all)

125ml double cream

For the orange poppyseed biscuits:

75g plain flour

25g golden caster sugar

60g unsalted butter, diced

pinch of sea salt

1/2 tablespon poppyseeds

grated rind one orange

1 medium egg yolk

a squirt of orange juice (if needed)

1. Start by making the biscuit dough. Put all the ingredients except the egg yolk and orange juice into the food processor and whizz until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

2. Add egg yolk to bind mixture together. If it does not start to bind, add a little fresh orange juice until the mixture just begins to hold together (I probably needed around 1 tablespoon).

3. Make a ball of the mixture, wrap in cling film and place in fridge for an hour.

4. Meanwhile, make the the fool. Chop the rhubarb into 1cm pieces and place in a large saucepan along with the sugar and water. Heat gently for 10-15 minutes until soft and pulpy.

5. Turn off the heat and pour into a clean mixing bowl to cool down (if you leave it in the pan, it will take longer to cool down. Taste and adjust sugar if necessary (remember that the custard will also be sweet).

6. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Remove biscuit dough from fridge, knead until pliable and then roll out thinly on a floured surface - about 2mm thick (or thin).

7. Oil a baking tray. Cut the biscuits out with a 5cm cutter (remember to dip into flour between cutting each one, to prevent sticking). I also made some star-shaped biscuits as I couldn't resist! Place them on the oiled baking tray.

8. Bake biscuits in oven for 9-12 minutes, until golden. Cool on the baking tray.

9. Combine the fool ingredients. Beat the cream until soft peaks form and then mix together with the custard. Fold in the now-cooled rhubarb, keeping a tablespoonful to one side to decorate. You can either combine fully for an even flavour, or fold lightly for a pretty, marbled effect.

10. Spoon into glasses and serve with the biscuits.

Notes - Adjust the ratio of rhubarb/cream/custard/sugar to your taste. You make like it sharper. Or sweeter. More creamy. More custardy. Entirely up to you.

The biscuits are quite delicate, so handle them carefully!

Damsons in Distress

Last week I was called to the rescue of a huge bag full of damsons, plucked from my Aunt's garden in Berkshire. With a bumper crop and enough damson gin to last a lifetime, it was suggested by my cousin that I might find a use for the surplus lovely little purple beauties.



Indeed, readers, I did find a use for these small fruits. By happy co-incidence, I had recently received an ice-cream maker for my birthday and felt that this would be an excellent opportunity to flex my new-found ice-cream-making skills.



The night before I was due to take delivery of said damsons I was partaking in a spot of food blog browsing and discovered that my damson ice cream would be a good entry for this month's 'In the Bag' food blogging event which is hosted this months by Scott at Real Epicurean. This great event focuses on seasonal produce and was founded by Scott, Cherry at Cherry's English Kitchen and Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie. This month the theme is seasonal fruits. Autumn is my favourite season for fruit - apples, pears, blackberries all lend themselves so beautifully to the comforting puddings I crave as the nights draw in. But as we are enjoying the sunshine we should have had in August, I thought I'd clutch onto the last piece of summer and make ice-cream. For good measure I also whipped up some damson gin and a batch of blackberry ice cream. Both such gorgeous colours.



For a novice with the ice-cream maker, I was pretty chuffed with the results. I have to confess that I'm not overly keen on damsons (I have a strange, inexplicable dislike of all stone fruits), but it ice-cream form they are rather delicious with a flavour half way between cherries and plums. As for the gin, I'll have to wait until Christmas to report back. But gin is fairly high on my list so I can't see that I'll have any problems there!

Damson Ice-Cream

I decided to make this with a custard base. I've always thought plums and custard went well together so it seemed like the right choice. I made the custard base from the Magimix guide to my machine. It was rather sweet - less time I'd go easy on the sugar.

Ingredients (makes around 1 1/2 pints)

1lb damsons

4 egg yolks

4 oz caster sugar (plus extra for damsons to taste)

1/2 pint milk

1/2 pint double cream

1 lemon

1. Wash the damsons and remove any that are split or mouldy. Place into a large pan whilst still slightly wet (add a touch more water if they are very dry). Sprinkle over a little sugar to taste, cover and heat gently until soft and pulpy.

(I would start with - say - 2oz of sugar. You can always add more if not sweet enough, but it is hard to get rid of the sweetness once it is there).

2. Push the pulpy mixture through a sieve. Once cool, place in the fridge.

3. Make the custard. Pour milk into saucepan and slowly heat until just boiling.

4. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and then gradually beat in the hot milk, whisking all the time.

5. Pour mixture back into pan and place over a low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is slightly thickened and creates a film over the back of a wooden spoon. Do not let it boil as it will separate.

6. Remove pan from heat and leave to cool. Once cool, add cream, straight from fridge.

7. Add the damson purée and mix until you have a beautifully coloured mixture. Taste and add lemon juice to taste.

8. Churn the well-chilled mixture in an ice-cream maker according to the maker's instructions.

Notes - My mixture was far too sweet so I added the juice of 2 lemons to balance. Next time, I will add less sugar to the damsons.

Damson Gin

If I'm honest, I didn't really have enough damsons left to make gin. But I almost had enough. So I decided to give it a shot anyhow. I've not made it before but have made sloe gin in the past and felt it couldn't be much different in terms of method.

I simply pricked the damsons, placed them in a Kilner jar and topped up the jar with gin and around 150g sugar. I'll give it a quick shake each day for a few weeks and then leave it to steep for around 3 months. Should be ready just in time for Christmas!

I've gone easy-ish on the sugar as I can always add more. I'll definitely need to have a wee taste after a month or so - I can adjust accordingly!

For far better instructions and lots of brilliant tips, do take a look at this post from The Cottage Smallholder.

As you can see, when I woke up this morning the gin was already taking on a fabulous damson colour. Mmmm.

Blackberry Ice-Cream


This was the first ice-cream I attempted in the new machine. The best ice-cream I ever sampled was in Italy (no surprises there) and was blackberry flavour. It was black as the night and so wonderful I can almost taste it now just thinking about it. I was unable to re-create the magic 100%, but I came pretty close. Let's just say that this was the second best ice-cream I've ever eaten. I think this would be great served on top of a traditional apple crumble.

Ingredients

1lb blackberries

1/2 pint double cream

40z caster sugar

Juice of a lemon

1. Push the blackberries through a sieve. You could always whizz them in a food processor, but I'm always keen to get rid of the seeds - it is a bore, but the seeds can impart a bitter flavour.

2. Mix the sugar, cream and lemon juice into the purée. Chill and then churn in the ice-cream maker according to instructions.

Notes - this couldn't be simpler. And it tastes heavenly!

In the Bag - July

This is my first ever attempt at a food blogging 'event'. Each month, a selection of seasonal ingredients are chosen and food bloggers have to create a dish using said ingredients. This month's event is organised by Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie and the ingredients in question are:

Aubergines

Peppers

Basil

My slight concern here is that a) I only found the event today, and strictly speaking the entries are due in today and b) being such a novice at all this, I am not sure that I will 'tag' my entry properly and may therefore not be able to enter. Oh well - it is still a good culinary experiment!

Having just returned from a holiday in Provence, I was in just the mood for these ingredients. One night I cooked up an oven-roasted ratatouille from Delia's Summer Cook Book.

It was superb - I particularly enjoyed the way the vegetables kept their shape better than in the usual method. As Delia says, 'once you've tried it roasted like this, you'll never want to go back to the original method'. And I wouldn't want to argue with Delia. Anyway, I had also been wanting to try a recipe from BBC Good Food for stuffed baked courgettes - I LOVE courgettes. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine the two. I also made some basil oil just a few days ago which came in very handy.

The results were very good - all the flavours of the Mediterranean in a different-to-usual form. I was transported back to my holiday and after one bite, decided to take supper outside (a first for this summer, what with the awful weather we have been experiencing). Sadly, all hopes of an alfresco evening were dashed when, within moments of my sitting down, the rain started to fall. Oh well, if I can't have summer outside, at least I can enjoy a ray of sunshine inside with this dish...

Courgettes stuffed with aubergine and red pepper ratatouille

Ingredients (serves four as a side dish, or 2 as a main course)

2 courgettes (I used one green and one yellow)

1 medium aubergine

1 red pepper

1 medium onion

2 medium tomatoes

1 clove garlic

Half a red chilli (optional)

Handful of basil leaves

Olive oil

4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs mixed with 6 tablespoons of grated Parmesan

1. If possible, a few days prior to making the recipe, tear up the basil leaves and place in a jar with olive oil. Leave to infuse.

2. Pre-heat oven to 200C. Peel half of the aubergine (see notes) and chop into 1cm cubes. Place in sieve over a large bowl (to catch the juices). Sprinkle over 1 dessert spoon of salt, place a plate on top and weigh down for an hour. The salt helps to draw out the bitterness.

3. Meanwhile, half the courgettes and scoop out the middles with a teaspoon -

4. De-seed the pepper and chop into 1cm cubes, along with the chilli, if using. Do the same with the onion. Finely chop the garlic clove.

5. Make a small cross in the base of each tomato and pour over boiling water. Leave for one minute. Drain. Peel tomatoes and chop into 1cm cubes (no need to de-seed).

6. Squeeze any remaining liquid from the aubergine and dry thoroughly with a piece of kitchen roll. Place in a bowl with the pepper, tomato, chilli and garlic. Pour over a couple of tablespoonfuls of the basil oil, adding a little freshly torn basil too. Mix thoroughly with your hands so all is well-coated.

7. Stuff the aubergine and pepper ratatouille into the hollowed out courgettes. Place carefully in a baking dish and cover with foil.

8. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 200C.

9. Remove from oven and remove foil. Sprinkle over the breadcrumb and Parmesan mixture and return to oven for 20 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Notes -

I chose to peel half the aubergine as I find the skin to be quite bitter. Peeling half gives just enough flavour from the skin, without the bitterness. The salting and weighting down also helps.

I ate this as a side dish with a herby, chargrilled lamb steak. A delicious combination. But it would also be good as a light lunchtime meal.

Wine Notes -

I enjoyed this as a side dish with chargrilled lamb. It was perfect with a full-bodied rosé from the South of France.