Peaches, mulberries, honey and thyme

I got into using herbs with fruit when I was WWOOFing in NZ. We had a big pile of figs grabbed from a tree belonging to a friend of the smallholders I was staying with, and I couldn't get the idea of baking them with rosemary and a drizzle of honey out of my head. That place was also where I first used a dehydrator, and the only place I have ever eaten feijoa straight from the tree (mm mm mm).

Anyway, we bought some peaches from the Egleston farmers' market at the weekend and I had high hopes for them. But they turned out disappointing - the kind that go brown in patches instead of ripening juicily. So I thought I'd stew them. With thyme, because I still love aromatic herbs with summer fruit. And mulberries, because peaches and mulberries sounded incredibly enticing and seasonal, and I am still desperately trying to use up all these little odds and ends (such as a tub of mulberries) from my freezer.

2 peaches, washed, destoned and chunkily sliced
handful of frozen mulberries (and/or blueberries)
~1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp honey

Put all in a small pan, cover and stew for ~10 min, until the peaches are tender and sweet. Good with coconut kefir or something similarly yoghurty, or custard, or as a pseudo crumble.

Lemon, lime and elderflower marmalade

I cannot bring myself to throw away the fruit and flowers left after making elderflower cordial, so I save them to make marmalade. This time I stored them in the freezer for a week or two, as it was super hot when I made the cordial and not good conditions for preserve making. I defrosted yesterday and made this marmalade. It is an adaptation of my usual marmalade recipe.

1 lb mixed elderflowers, sliced lemons and limes left from making cordial
900 ml water*
100 ml elderflower cordial* 
2 lb sugar

Cut around the edges of the lemon and lime slices to remove the peel and turn it into strips. Put the peel pieces in a pan and put the rest of the fruit and flowers in a muslin bag before adding to the pan as well. Add the water and bring to the boil. Simmer for ~2 hours, until the peel is soft (add the cordial about halfway through if using). Then remove the bag and squeeze it into the pan. Add the sugar and bring to a rollicking boil until setting point is reached. Turn off the heat and let sit for 10-20 min before putting in sterilised jars and sealing.

*I had some cordial in the fridge that needed using up, so I used it. If you don't have cordial that needs using up, just use 1 litre of water instead of 900ml water and 100ml cordial.


Perfectly good marmalade. Mostly tastes like lemon. There's subtle floweriness if you search for it, but subtle is the word.

Tzatziki

This was something I had been meaning to try when I got around to stocking up on coconut milk for kefir. But, in the end, S beat me to it. This was his recipe, and I think it tasted great. The coconut kefir is thinner than the thickened yoghurt usually used for tzatziki, so it is not thick but tastes delicious.

1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and grated
mint and chives, chopped
~3/4 cup coconut kefir
salt

Put the prepared herbs and vegetables in a bowl and then pour the kefir in - add as much as you think it needs. Add salt to taste. Good with bread.


I wouldn't have added as much garlic as S did, but it was good.

Roasted potato and herb focaccia

Since we love potato bread (and S loves dill and salt), this bread immediately looked like it would be a hit. Definitely a weekend bread, as the protocol is a bit long... We had most of the ingredients, including 00 flour and salad potatoes. But I didn't have dill, so used some herbs I did have from our garden instead - thyme and chives. Think next year I will try and grow dill and coriander (I did plant coriander seeds but they didn't sprout) - they are the two we use most besides the ones I'm already growing (mint, chives, thyme, basil, parsley).

450g salad potatoes, washed (used red-skinned ones)
olive oil and sea salt flakes
1 tsp yeast
100ml low-fat yoghurt (used coconut kefir)
50g honey
175g pitted green olives (used 1 tin of black olives in brine, drained)
1 small bunch dill, chopped (used chives and thyme)
625g Italian 00 flour
2 tsp fine sea salt

Chop the potatoes into cubes, toss them with oil and a little salt, roast for 30 minutes (@ 400F) until barely cooked, then leave to cool (did this a day in advance).

In a large bowl, mix 375ml water with the yeast, kefir / yoghurt, honey, olives, herbs and cold potatoes, then mix in the flour and salt to make a sticky dough. Leave for 45 min, then knead the dough gently for 10 sec. Repeat this three more times at 45-min intervals, then line a baking tray (used roasting tin) with paper and press the dough out so it half covers it. Leave another 45 min, then stretch the dough to cover the rest of the tray. Sprinkle with salt flakes and leave for about 30 min while you heat the oven to 200C / 390F. Bake for 35-40 min, until a deep golden brown on top. Let sit for 10 min when you take it out of the oven, then lift out of the tray and off the paper and leave to cool on a rack.


I think this was a real focaccia-type dough: it was very wet. Interesting to work with - hard to knead properly - was glad it was a minimal-knead protocol. Came out lovely and soft as a result, with a nice loose, moist crumb. The kefir was definitely a good yoghurt substitute - I love the taste of it (you can't taste the coconut in the finished bread). Glad to find a good use for the last of my 00 flour - had almost exactly the right quantity. The protocol was really, really long (~5 hours not including the potato-roasting time!) - it was fairly simple but I don't think this will become a regular bread for us just because of the time. Even though it was quite delicious and I am intrigued to try it with dill / other additions instead of potatoes...

Sweetcorn, chicken of the woods, lime

Rolling home, around 8pm. A frilly, orange mushroom I hadn't noticed before catches my eye. On a tree, a little above eye level, right by my way. I ride on a little, approaching the next green light, my brain processing what my eyes had seen. Could it have been a chicken of the woods? I pull over and turn around. I'm sure it is. It is beautiful, with a soft-but-firm texture and a mushroomy, slightly fruity (and very tempting) smell. It's about the diameter of my spread-out hand, and very clean and fresh-looking. I debate picking: it looks so perfect and tasty; but is right beside the road; and is so pretty as well - it seems a shame to take it so others can't see it. Then again, I am amazed that no-one else seems to have seen it / nabbed it - so many people tramp this way, towards the T, all the time. I decide to take just a bit - that way I can taste it while leaving the rest to be beautiful. I break off a couple of lobes and secrete them in my backpack.

I excitedly doublecheck my ID when I get home; the mushroom book only confirms what I am sure of already. I can't wait to eat it! It hardly needs washing but I do anyway. It's just a little bit, but I decide it would go well with freshly-cut sweetcorn, a little bit of chilli, salt and lime, chives for colour, and garlic because I seem incapable of cooking a mushroom without garlic.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2-3 cobs of sweetcorn (make sure it is good, sweet corn)
about 50g of chicken of the woods
little pinch of salt
good pinch of paprika
2 tsp chopped chives
good squeeze of lime

Prepare the corn by removing the husk then carefully cutting off the kernels by working a sharp knife down the sides of the cob. Set aside in a bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic and cook for a minute until starting to soften. Add the chilli flakes and cook for 30 sec. Add the chicken of the woods, torn into small (1 inch long / 1/2 inch across) pieces, and saute until it starts to look lightly browned: 2-3 minutes. Add the corn, and continue cooking for 4-5 min. It will get deeper yellow and start to brown a little. If it sticks a little bit that's ok: the burny bits are weirdly good. When the corn is done, add salt and paprika and taste for seasoning. Finally, turn off the heat and stir through chives and lime juice. Yum!


Chicken of the woods has to be one of my all time favourite mushrooms - it has great taste and texture (really substantial and not at all wet; quite unique) and beautiful colour. The reddish-orange mushroom in combination with the yellow corn and the flecks of green chives and red-brown chilli and paprika is super pretty. And tastes awesome: the sweetness of the corn offsets the vibrant, rich mushroom taste really well, and the lime and chilli cut through nicely. We ate it with wheatberries, and that was good too. I was planning to observe the rest of the mushroom in situ and see how it changed over time, but the following evening on the way home from work someone had taken the whole thing!


Note: I've found out a few things about CotW since I wrote this - first that specimens can be variable in taste (I haven't had a bad one yet but apparently they exist) and texture (older ones can be dry); second that it has a tendency to soak up a lot of oil and dry out in the pan - have been dealing with this by keeping covered and adding liquid. Looking forward to trying out a CotW risotto. I froze some of my last one (just as was, in cleaned pieces), so there's potential risotto right there in my freezer.

Green beans with walnut sauce

Was pondering doing something slightly different with green beans, came across this idea in my New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook, decided to try it. Interesting.

1 lb green beans, washed and trimmed
handful of chocolate cherry tomatoes, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 oz walnuts
1 oz breadcrumbs
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic
salt+pepper
3-4 tbsp olive oil

Put the beans in a steamer basket and steam for 5-10 min, until just done. Transfer to cold water immediately to stop cooking, then drain.

Put the walnuts, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, garlic and seasoning in a blender. Add olive oil a tbsp at a time and blend until fairly smooth. Taste for seasoning.

Put beans and tomatoes in a bowl, add the walnut sauce and toss until all well combined.

White gazpacho

With all the recent hot weather I made some kind of semi-logical jump and got to thinking about the food we'd eaten in Catalonia years ago. I want to try making aioli, the proper way, with just garlic, salt and olive oil. I also thought about gazpacho - we were buying it in tetra paks and drinking it in the car, out of the carton, while driving our rented Smart car around the Pyrenees. Both the red kind and the white kind - it was the first time I'd come across the white kind, and we were wowed: fresh, almondy, vegetal, liquid goodness. I don't think I have had it since: it is not available out of supermarket fridges round here, last time I checked. But what better way to work on our excess of cucumbers?

Note: this is my version of a white gazpacho, adapted to what I remembered / what I had in the fridge. I think it is fairly adaptable, but I also think this is not exactly authentic.

1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup water
2 large cucumbers, peeled and chopped into big chunks
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped into big chunks
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
big pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup of slivered, blanched almonds

Put the breadcrumbs in a cup measure, fill up with the water and let soak while you prep the other ingredients. Put the peeled, chopped cucumbers and apple in a blender. Add the other ingredients to the blender, adding the breadcrumb-water mix last. Blend until smooth. Chill thoroughly before eating - and you can add an ice cube per cup or bowl of soup when serving to make sure it is properly cold.


This turned out waaayyy better than I hoped. It is delicious. Perfect combination of sweet, sharp, salty, savoury, tangy, refreshing... Nice and white as well - minor brown flecks from the breadcrumbs but other than that everything was ~white (peeled cucumber and apple, garlic, almonds etc).

Pickled nasturtium seeds

I grew nasturtiums this year, because I love them. I love them because they are blowsy and beautiful, also because you can eat the leaves, flowers and seeds. And they taste awesome: peppery and distinctive. I remember playing with them in the garden as a child: my sisters and I would feed the seeds to each other (blindfolded so we didn't know if it would be a sweet raspberry or what) for the spicy thrill - they have an almost wasabi-like intensity.

But actually, one of the main reasons I wanted to grow them was because I wanted to try pickling the seeds. I've heard them described as 'poor man's capers', and I couldn't resist that description. As well as tasting amazing, the seeds look incredible: they are light green and striated with curved ridges, so each one is covered with an exaggerated fingerprint pattern.

Sadly, my harvest was rather small, but I decided to go ahead and pickle them anyway. I threw a few buds in as well to see what would happen - seems like they could be closer to a true caper.

Nasturtium seeds (and unopened or just-opening flower buds)
Brine (2 tsp salt in 100 ml water)
Spiced vinegar (1 peppercorn, small bayleaf, pinch of salt in 100 ml cider vinegar)

I collected the seeds over a week or two and stored them in a plastic tub in the fridge.

When ready to start making them pickled, mix up the brine and soak the seeds in it for 12-24 hours at room temperature.

Next, warm the vinegar with the peppercorn, salt and bay, and let cool. Put the seeds in a sterilised jar. Cover them with the spiced vinegar, seal and refrigerate. They should keep pretty much indefinitely in the fridge (think they'd also be fine outside of the fridge but to be on the safe side I'm keeping them in the fridge).

The seeds ended up a bit disappointing - pale, and they have lost their spiciness. However, the plants have had a second coming and I have loads more seeds (mid-end August), so there is a chance for a second attempt - I think I will try using my faux-Grillo's brine, and perhaps add some nasturtium seeds to other pickles if I happen to get my grubby paws on more cukes or courgettes.

Following a few experiments with picking and salting I have decided it is mostly best to just keep nasturtium seeds in a loosely-covered pot in the fridge - they keep quite long (several months) and retain their crunch and pepperiness this way.

Pistachio pesto rice salad

We had a lot of basil as part of our double-farmshare fest, so pesto seemed like an obvious choice. I really like pistachios right now, so I wanted to try making pesto with pistachios, and then realised how long it had been since I last ate pesto rice salad (a Delia classic, and one of my stepmother's signature recipes that I wrote down when I left home at 17), even though I love it. So here we are.

For the pesto:
~2 large bunches of basil
1 small clove garlic, peeled
2-3 tbsp shelled, unsalted pistachios
3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
~1/2 tsp salt

Additional ingredients for the salad:
risotto (Arborio) rice, measured to 8 fl oz / 225 ml in a glass measuring jug
16 fl oz / 450 ml boiling veg stock
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
whole basil leaves
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp shelled, unsalted pistachios
salt+pepper

First, make the pesto. Wash the basil leaves and put them in a blender cup. Add the garlic, pistachios, olive oil and salt. Blend until pretty much smooth. Taste to check salt and oil, add more if needed.

To make the salad, add ~2 tbsp pesto to the rice in a measuring jug and mix well. Transfer to a lidded frying pan. Measure the stock in the same jug, swirling around to wash in any pesto that is sticking to it, then add the stock to the frying pan. Add ~1/2 tsp salt, then stir and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for exactly 20 min. When ready, transfer the rice to a serving bowl. Add 4-6 more tbsp of pesto, the lemon juice and olive oil and mix well. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with torn basil leaves, chopped spring onions, and pistachios, and serve (if serving cold, do this step immediately before serving). Equally good warm or cold, or as leftovers in the following days.


I still love this salad. I find it hard to stop eating it. I also thought this was a really good pesto - the basil was fresh and good, which was helpful, but I also think the pistachios work very well. Possible I even like this vegan version more than the original - at least as much.

Courgette and banana muffins / cake

This recipe demanded making immediately for several reasons: (1) yesterday was the first day in about two weeks cool enough to even countenance turning on the oven; (2) I had a hugely overripe banana looking quizzically at me; (3) I also had masses of courgettes (about eight: see double-CSA week). Oh and, I do really enjoy courgette cake.

(made 12 smallish muffins)

1 large very ripe banana
1/4 cup apple puree
1/4 cup veg oil
3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup grated courgette (about 1/3 of a quite big one)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare muffin or bread tin. In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Add the apple puree, oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix more with the fork. Mix in the grated courgette. Add 1 cup flour, cinnamon, allspice, bicarb and salt, and mix until just combined. Toss walnuts, raisins and remaining 1/2 cup flour together, then add to the wet batter and mix until just combined. Put into the prepared bread or muffin tin and bake for ~25 min (muffins) or 50-55 min (loaf cake). Ready when golden and a skewer comes out clean (cook 10-15 min longer at 325F if it needs more time). Let cool in the tin for 10 min, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.


These were delicious - so many good things in there! And they rose really nicely and coloured up beautifully. I had a couple of cups of apple puree frozen (that I defrosted by sitting the tub in warm water until I could scrape off 1/4 cup's worth), so this was a pretty fortuitous combination of stuff I just happened to have around the kitchen.

Sweet, salty pickled cucumber slices

We had sooo many cucumbers: some still from last week's CSA, some from this week's, and even more because we picked up another CSA for a friend who is out of town. In total about 12 medium-large cucumbers. So many! I decided to pickle some of them. I have promised S I will try and make Grillo's-style picked cucumbers, but we had no grape leaves or dill, so that is sidelined. I wasn't feeling very creative, and liked the use of celery seed in this recipe (and had all the ingredients), so I just followed it.

(Made one large and one medium jar)

2 lb cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (use smaller ones if you have them)
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup large-crystal sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seed (used 1 tbsp brown mustard seed and 1 tbsp yellow)
2 tbsp coriander seed
1/2 tsp celery seed

Put the cucumber, onion and salt in a large bowl and mix. Cover with ice* and let stand at room temperature for two hours, mixing at least once along the way. Put sugar, vinegar and seeds in a large pan and bring to the boil. Rinse the cucumbers and onions and drain well. Add the cucumber mixture to the vinegar mixture and bring almost back to a boil. Remove from heat, let cool a little, then transfer to clean jars with non-metallic lids. Store in the fridge for up to a month: they will be ready to eat after ~24 hours.

*I didn't really have any ice (just 3 cubes), and I wasn't quite sure what it was for anyway, so I just set this up without ice (well, with 3 cubes), and made sure to rinse the veg well when their salting time was up. The pickle did come out quite salty - wonder if this was why?


I wasn't sure about these at first - thought they were a bit too salty, and that perhaps there was a few too many seeds. But despite these considerations, S has been enjoying them from the start, and I think they have matured a little after several days. Still, the next batch will contain less / different seeds and I will wash out the salt even more thoroughly (and/or use less) - think my next batch will contain turmeric, garlic, mustard seed, celery seed, chilli flakes, perhaps anise or fennel seed, or peppercorns...

2 lb cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (use smaller ones if you have them)
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup large-crystal sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp chilli flakes

More mulberries: dried

Another mulberry harvest, this time I led it. We went to 4 places on Sunday afternoon. It was hot. The first two were not very productive, but the last two were good. Ended up with about 10lb, but didn't feel like doing anything involving standing over a bubbling cauldron (I was a little off colour). I took maybe a third of them and dried them in the dehydrator (135F for ~48 hours). Ended up with about 450ml of dried berries. They became quite dry and almost crispy, but the flavour is sweet and intense when it hits, after the initial textural surprise.

Overnight couscous

This recipe (5th one down) seemed made for these hot hot days/nights: loads of fresh veg and herbs and absolutely no cooking. I was excited about the process as well: the idea of using the juices from the veg to hydrate the couscous is simple but super smart. S doesn't always like couscous, but since his main complaints are that it can be wet and tasteless I thought this method could be a solution.

100g couscous
3 large, juicy tomatoes, roughly chopped
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
50g parsley, chopped
25g mint, chopped
2 tbsp chives, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped (used 2 spring onions)
50g raisins
25g shelled pistachios
1-2 tbsp capers (or nasturtium seeds, or dry, salty black olives)
Juice of ½-1 lemon
Dash of hot sauce
Salt and black pepper

Put the couscous into a large bowl and add the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint, chives, red onion, raisins, pistachios, capers and lemon juice. Mix well. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a few shakes of hot sauce. Cover, and leave in the refrigerator for at least 4-8 hours. Let it come to room temperature before serving.


All the herbs (chives, mint, parsley) came from my pots, which makes me proud. My herbs have done fairly well this year.

This was a huge success! It formed the basis of a fancy (but easy!) picnic (this, some bread, elderflower cordial and fizzy water / water, and a few fresh apricots) that we took to Shakespeare on the Common (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vegas / Ratpack-style) and it worked brilliantly in several ways...

1) I could make it the night before and store it in the fridge so all I had to do before rushing out to the show was chuck it in a plastic box on the back of my bike, and it was perfect when we got there.
2) It simultaneously, preemptively solves the potential problems of couscous getting over-cooked or claggy, and of all the excess liquid that juicy veg like tomatoes and cucumber produce - the couscous is texturally perfect, and extra tasty because instead of just water it has soaked up all the juices; while the salad has a great overall texture with none of the messy liquid or wateriness that can plague this kind of thing, which also meant that the herbs and veg were in great shape after a day in the fridge.

...and S loved it (it was probably a good move mixing couscous with so much parsley - parsley is one of his all-time faves), so perhaps couscous can be on the menu sometimes after all. I am pretty enthused about this overnight method: feel like there is a lot of potential for experimentation.


Note: I tried a quicker version of this: add a little boiling water to the dry couscous, cover, leave for a bit, then toss. Then prep and add the other ingredients, juiciest first, tossing after each addition. Finally, taste for seasoning and acidity. By the time everything was prepped and added, the couscous was perfectly softened. The exact amount of water to add is guesswork, based on how juicy you think the other ingredients will be and how soon you want to eat it. This is a wonderfully summery dish, and happily adaptable - this time I had no parsley so used coriander, which obv tasted different but similar overall effect. Also subbed lime for lemon, spring onions for chives+red onions, currants for raisins...

Elderflower cordial

My mother used to make elderflower champagne, and I remember helping her with it as a child: first we went out flower picking (ones away from the road), then we mixed them with sliced citrus and sugar to make the most beautiful mixture in a big earthenware bowl. Then it was strained and bottled and left to ferment. There is a story about once finding holes in a corrugated iron roof after the lids burst off bottles of elderflower champagne left in a shed.

I've made elderflower champagne myself several times, but ultimately decided that cordial is easier and more efficient: it is ready to drink sooner, it is more concentrated so less voluminous and easier to store, and there is less chance of lids blowing off bottles (although it doesn't keep as long without freezing).

I have rarely found elder in New England. But we came across a bush while biking around in Belmont at the weekend. The heads were huge: wider across than my own head. So I think it was perhaps a different species from the wild, British one, but it smelled good, so I thought it was worth turning into cordial anyway.

~20 heads of elderflower
1 lb sugar
1 1/2 litres of water (500ml boiling, 1000ml cold)
2 lemons (one large, one small), thinly sliced
1 lime, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tbsp citric acid

Wash the elderflowers gently and remove any bugs. Put the sugar in a large, heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the cold water. Test the temperature with your finger (it should feel colder than body temperature), and if it feels OK add the lemons, lime and citric acid. Stir to dissolve the citric acid, then add the elderflowers and stir again. Cover with a clean cloth and leave for 24-48 hours, stirring occasionally. When ready, strain through a fine sieve or a piece of muslin, then bottle (using a funnel or a jug). It will keep for approx a couple of weeks in the fridge. To keep for longer, put in plastic bottles (or a tub, or ice cube trays) and freeze. With a tub, you can scoop enough for a glassful out at a time: it doesn't freeze very hard as it has so much sugar in it.


Yes!!! Last time I made elderflower cordial in the US it didn't really work - the elderflower taste didn't come through and I wondered if there might be something in the environment that was different and scuppered the taste. But this one is good. I left it for 48 hours instead of the 24 I usually do, although with it being so hot I wondered if I should have left it in the fridge. Anyways, we had some last night, at our picnic, diluted with fizzy water, and it was good.

Notes: I saved the lemons, limes and elderflowers left after straining the cordial and used them to make this marmalade. I also dried out the flowers that fell off the flowerheads and didn't make it into the cordial mix and used them to make biscuits.

Baking with jam: chocolate-mulberry buns and mulberry-thyme (GF) biscuits

After the mulberry harvest I did a couple of weeks ago, I ended up with more mulberry jam than I could possibly use (some that I made myself, and some that came to me as my share from the larger quantity the others jammed). I decided this was an opportunity for baking with jam: jam tarts were a childhood favourite, and I used to make a jammy gingerbread to use up odds and ends of abandoned jam when clearing out the fridge in shared houses. I was thinking of making jam tarts, but then I remembered a recipe for thumbprint cookies I saw recently, and decided they might be a less faffy equivalent (++I have some beautiful thyme growing on my roof that I am not using enough). Also, they were gluten-free, so I could share them with A. I came across Nigella's choc-cherry cupcake recipe while thinking about jam baking, so decided to test-veganise that as well.

Mulberry, rose and thyme biscuits
(makes ~12)

100g olive oil
1/4 cup / 50g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp chopped, fresh thyme leaves
1 cup TJs GF flour mix
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup almond meal
approx 1/4 cup (60ml) mulberry jam, mixed with rosewater (1/2-1 tsp) and honey to taste*

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Grease 1 large baking tray. Mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder and almond meal in a medium bowl with a fork. Beat oil, sugar, vanilla and thyme in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry, and mix / knead until well combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough between your hands to make flattened balls, then make an indentation in each with your thumb and place on the prepared baking tray. Fill each with some of the jam mixture and bake for 10-12 min, or until slightly golden. Leave to cool on the tray.

*Added sweetness will depend on the jam used: traditionally-made jam like the stuff I make is plenty sweet already and needs no extra sweetening. But if the jam has been made with less reduction of the fruit and less sugar / more added pectin it may be less sweet (like the one made by the LUrC crew) and, in my opinion, need a little more sugar.

Chocolate-mulberry muffins
(makes 12)

6 tbsp / 90 ml refined coconut oil (liquid state)
4 oz dark chocolate (broken into pieces)
1 ¼ cups mulberry jam
1/2 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin. Heat the coconut oil in a medium pan. When hot, turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Leave for a moment, then stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and melted. Add the jam, sugar, salt, linseed mixture and vinegar. Mix, then stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Fill the muffin cups and bake for 25 min. Cool in the tin for 10 min before removing and leaving to cool on a rack.


These were both experiments. I thought the choc-jam muffins were the successes at first: they rose surprisingly well, with a good consistency. While I thought the biscuits were disasters: many of them split while baking, and the dough was very crumbly (might need to add more oil or some milk?). But people seemed to love the taste of the biscuits despite their appearance (I fed some to S, and took some to a brunch - where en route they got even more bashed up riding around on the potholes aka streets of Greater Boston on the back of my bike), while the muffins were fine but not as well-received.

Raw sweetcorn

Sweetcorn is really good at the moment - it's fresh and in season so it doesn't travel far before it gets to our kitchen, and is still sweet and juicy when it arrives. When corn is like this, it doesn't need cooking. I had been meaning to make a raw corn salad - something simple that lets the corn stand out. This is it. I had to keep resisting adding more stuff (avocado, sesame, sweet peppers, tomato... might be good variations in future). I think corn, lime, chilli and these herbs really complement each other.

3 cobs of fresh, sweet corn
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tbsp chopped chives (I like to snip chives with scissors rather than chop them)
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Strip the husks from the corn and trim off any imperfect-looking bits. Cut off the kernels (carefully) and put them in a bowl. Squeeze the lime juice over the corn, then add the remaining ingredients and toss. You can eat it straight away but it will also be fine, perhaps even better, if you let it sit for an hour or for a day or more in the fridge.

Carrot greens are weirdly good: limey, spicy carrot green paste

I seem to be on a strange kick of eating things I never realised could be eaten - radish greens, banana skins, now carrot greens. We had our first bunch of fresh, new-season carrots today, with resplendent, fern-like greens. As soon as I saw the greens waving at me over the side of the CSA box I wanted to do something with them. Some kind of pesto was my first thought, following the radish green pesto's success. But with it being so hot and intense I kind of fancied something fresher, with more of a kick. Then I met this recipe and it seemed to be exactly what I was thinking of, especially since we had a bunch of coriander and some nice garlic scapes in that CSA box too.

Greens from 1 bunch of carrots
small bunch of coriander
2 good-sized garlic scapes, roughly chopped*
juice of 1 lime
1 green chilli, trimmed, deseeded and chopped in two
2-3 tbsp walnut oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp sea salt

Wash the carrot greens and pluck all the little frondy bits, discarding the stems as they are too fibrous for this. Pack the fronds into a blender cup, along with the coriander leaves, garlic scapes, lime juice, chilli, walnut oil and soy sauce. Blend until fairly smooth. Do your best to blend quite thoroughly, as the fibrous greens take a bit of breaking down. Add salt to taste.


This, like the brown pasta, was weirdly good. Seriously. Although there was a bit of a fibrous clout coming from the carrot greens, the taste was spot on: the greens had an interesting carroty taste while also coming through as green and herby, and with the lime and slight chilli kick it was really fresh and tasty. And beautifully green to look at. Could imagine eating it on just about anything. We started by mixing some into the brown pasta with peas and tempeh we made at the same time, and that was excellent.

*use a smaller quantity of regular garlic if scapes aren't around.

Brown pasta with tempeh, garlic, sugarsnap peas and mint

S's go-to is pasta with some kind of veg-based sauce. He bought some brown pasta as a special concession to me: I prefer it, he doesn't. Somehow, though, today we both managed to agree that this one is weirdly good. Realised after making it that this combo is also very much inspired by N+G's picnic special pasta salad recipe: tempeh, pasta, peas and mint. The garlic scapes and sugarsnap peas came out of the CSA, and the mint is from the yard. It's the best thing about this time of year: being able to eat superfresh food.

Sufficient brown pasta for two people
water
salt
olive oil
3-4 garlic scapes, chopped
1 small punnet of sugarsnap peas, washed and trimmed
1/2 a block of tempeh, diced
1 tbsp mint, chopped
black pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the pasta and simmer until done (10-20 min depending on variety). Drain.

Meanwhile, heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and fry until softened and starting to colour. Add peas and tempeh and fry until the peas are just tender and the tempeh is lightly golden. Add the mint, and salt+pepper to taste.

Eat the pasta mixed with the pea-tempeh-garlic mixture, and be happy about Summer despite the oppressive heat.

We mixed in some carrot green-lime stuff with some of it, and that was also good, if the above combo isn't exciting enough for you... Also good with finely grated lemon zest, avocado chunks, or grated parmesan, depending on your proclivities.


Open to variations: made some last night as a salad using brown pasta left over from this, pea shoots (from CSA), regular garlic fried with the tempeh, chickpeas, and lemon juice. And coriander instead of mint, although I think mint is better here.

Banana skin cake

I came across this recipe a while ago and was intrigued. We recently had rather a lot of bananas (S+I both bought some at the same time), and I remembered about it, and decided to keep some out of the worm box and rather soak them for cake.

~4 banana skins, ends removed
water
ground linseed + boiling water (1 quantity = 1 tbsp linseed plus 2.5 tbsp boiling water)
sugar
veg oil
salt
self raising flour
yeast
cinnamon
lemon juice

Soak the banana skins in water for several days, changing the water every day, until they are soft and the water is clear (I soaked mine for 3-4 days).

Transfer the banana skins to a blender (with enough water to let it blend properly). Blend until smooth. It will be dark brown and murky. Strain, reserving both the thick puree and the thinner run-through liquid. Measure the puree (the ~4 banana skins I started with gave me 3/4 cup of puree).

Heat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, per 1 cup of puree, add 1 quantity linseed mixture, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup oil and 1 tsp salt. Beat until well incorporated. Add 1 cup of flour and 1 tbsp yeast (per 1 cup banana skin puree), and mix until just combined. Transfer the batter to prepared cake (or muffin) tin (I made muffin size, as it makes it easier to freeze and defrost portions). Bake for 30-40 min (baking time will depend on size of cake(s)), until a skewer comes out clean and it looks done.

To make a glaze from the reserved liquid, measure the volume in cups. For every cup, add 1 cup sugar. Put sugar and liquid into a saucepan. Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and a few drops of lemon juice. Simmer for 10-20 min, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced by about half and thickened. It will be quite thick, but smooth, and dark brown.


I didn't really think this would be any good - made it more out of curiosity and as an exercise in using stuff up - but it is good. It's like a sticky toffee pudding, with the sauce and everything. The cakes are dense and taste rich and toffee-y (note: I used plain flour instead of SR - perhaps they would have been fluffier if I'd remembered to add baking powder). Ugly though: dark brown cake and dark brown sauce. Additions of crystallised ginger or raisins or spices might be good. I might also try using the puree similarly to pumpkin puree in other recipes.

Sour cherries: dried, juice, syrup

Another LUrC harvest: this time sour cherries, on a sweltering 4th July afternoon. No equipment (other than plastic bags) this time, and fewer people. Harvesting at one point involved balancing on top of a ~5ft tall  / 6 inch wide gatepost. We split the haul between the four of us. I decided to dry mine - and to test with / without sweetening.

~8 cups of sour cherries, after removing stones and splitting in half
2 cups sugar
2 cups water

Wash the sour cherries and put them in a colander over a bowl. Remove the stone and split each cherry in half (I found it easiest to do this with my fingers). Any juice that comes out will be caught in the bowl and saved: make sure to collect all the cherry juice in this way throughout as it is delicious and must be drunk!

Measure the volume of halved cherries. To sweeten, per four cups of cherry halves, put two cups of sugar and two cups of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the cherries and simmer gently for ~20 min. Drain (reserve the syrup), and let the cherries cool.

For the unsweetened cherries, pour boiling water over them, let sit for a minute and then drain.

Arrange the cherry halves on dehydrator racks (line with finer mesh if the cherries are on the small side). 8 cups of cherry halves filled 4/5 racks. Dehydrate at 135F. The sweetened ones took approx. 12 hours; the unsweetened ones took a bit longer.

For cherry syrup, boil the reserved sugar syrup until reduced by about half. It will be a rich cherry red, and very sweet, although with some cherry taste.

I ended up with about 400ml of cherry juice (one glassful).

2014 cherry season: This time I dried without boiling water or sweetening. Just took the stones out of the cherries and laid them out in the dehydrator. They came out just fine, whether laid face down or face up. Took a bit longer - maybe 16 hours.

The dried cherries came out great. They are little: look like dried cranberries, and with a similar texture. Both sweetened and unsweetened are delicious. The sweetened ones are more easily munchable, and taste just like the bought kind (except more intense). The unsweetened ones have more of a sharpness, but not uncomfortably so: perhaps this is more exciting. Not sure why unsweetened took longer to dry, but they did.

Mulberry harvest: mulberry and orange jam

I kind of thought I had taken more berries: was thinking of trying dehydrating too. After looking at so many all day my sense of scale was completely screwed. Anyway, I ended up with about 3 lb that needed using quickly - I strapped them to the back of my bike and they dripped a trail of black juice that looked like engine oil through three plastic bags and a (broken) plastic tub. Mulberries seem to be low pectin, so I decided to include orange in the hope of improving the set (and because I thought it might taste interesting). I was a little nervous about getting good results as I knew I needed to return some jam to LUrC.

(makes ~ 3 medium jars)

3 lb mulberries
1 orange
2.6 lb sugar

Wash mulberries (don't bother removing the little stems) and put them in a large pan. Try and include some of the somewhat underripe ones (red / white / greenish) as these will help with set (mulberries are low in pectin). Add the juice and grated zest of the orange. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-60 min, until the berries are quite well broken down and the volume is reduced. Add the sugar and boil fast until setting point is reached (30-60 min). Let cool for ~10 min, then transfer to sterilised jars and leave to cool.


Hmm, I slightly overboiled it because of my nerves and it ended up crystallising slightly. Bums. This has only happened to me once before. I am embarrassed.

Mulberry harvest: pickled mulberries

Second experiment with my mulberry bounty was pickled mulberries: I fancied making something savoury, this idea came into my head, and I liked it. I used this recipe.

Pickled Mulberries
(quantities below would make 3 smallish jars (the official canning style of jars) - I did only one cup of mulberries' worth though)

2 cups mulberries
3/8 cup white vinegar
3/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 small bay leaf

Put the berries in dumpy, sterilised jars. Put the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour over the berries, so that the vinegar reaches to 1/8 in below the top. Put the lids on and screw on (but not too tight). Bring a large pan of water with a rack in it to the boil. Put the jars in, bring back to the boil and keep at a simmer for 10 min. Remove the jars carefully and allow to cool.


Mulberry Salad Dressing

1 tbsp pickled mulberries - make sure to include some berries and some vinegar
1 tbsp azuki bean miso
1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp honey
1/2 tbsp mirin

Mix all the ingredients together in the bottom of a salad bowl to make the dressing. Add washed lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes and a sprinkling of sesame seeds, toss and eat.


These are interesting. I opened one jar immediately out of curiosity, and they are bright pink and lovely. Quite vinegary (perhaps they will mellow over time?) and a little sweet, and unavoidably reminiscent of pickled beetroot. Thought they worked really well in the salad dressing: the azuki bean miso is also pinkish (-red-brown), so the dressing comes out really pink as well as really tasty.

Mulberry harvest: mulberry shrub / mulberry and mint fizz

I went on my first harvest with the Somerville League of Urban Canners on Saturday. We collected mulberries. Mulberries are beautiful fruit - they look like little, slim blackberries but grow on trees and have a taste all of their own (and come in red, white or black) - and the North American ones are, in my opinion, the best. A group of eight went out on bikes with tarps and hooks on long poles, and came back with 67 lb of mulberries from three trees. Seriously awesome: a wonderful day.

Everyone was talking about shrub, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I used this simple recipe. Most of the berries I brought home (about 3 lb total) went to jam (to return to LUrC), but I took out a couple of cups for experiments - this and pickled berries.

Mulberry shrub
(Made a quarter of this recipe - ended up with ~ 1 1/2 cups of shrub)

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 cups mulberries
2 cups red wine vinegar

Put sugar and water in a saucepan and heat, while stirring, until the sugar has all dissolved. Add mulberries and bring to the boil. Boil, while mashing the berries with a fork, for about 10 min. Add vinegar, bring to the boil and boil for about 2 min. Remove from the heat, drain, allow to cool, and then decant into a glass jar or bottle and store in the fridge.


Mulberry and mint fizz

~2 tbsp mulberry shrub
leaves from 1 sprig of mint
2 cups fizzy water


Interesting. I find the vinegary taste a bit too distracting. Less so when fizzy and minty.