Cucumber Sorbet

Here's a nice way to use a glut of cucumbers - I found several when finally clearing away the summer detritus in the veg patch yesterday.  They will have got tastier with every passing near-frost.

I had the equivalent of about 4 normal-sized cucumbers, but the rest of the quantities below you will have to judge by taste, as I can only give rough guidelines.  Obviously don't overdo the salt or gin,as the mixture will never freeze if you do!

Ingredients

- Creme fraiche:  about 100 ml (and you don't need it if you don't have it)
- Gin :  a tablespoon or so (omit if teetotal) or similar colourless alcohol
- Mint:  about 8 fresh leaves
- Salt: several grinds

Method

-  Peel all but one half of one of cucumbers (the mixture will be too green otherwise)
-  Blitz as you go along, adding the mint in batches
-  Combine with the other ingredients
-  Either freeze using your ice-cream maker, or in the freezer, stirring with a fork periodically to break up the flakes

This is very much a small starter or "intercourse" sorbet - a few small spoonfuls is all you need. If the former, maybe serve it with some hot-smoked salmon and decorated with some thin rings of spring onion (including green bits), more mint, or flat parsley; and a sprinkle of paprika perhaps.  Serve in an egg-cup, rounding the top and re-freezing till you are ready to decorate and serve??

Sea Bass with Ginger, Tomatoes and Prawns

Just been on holiday with my brother's family in Suffolk. There's a terrific fish hut by the Orford sailing club where we mess around in boats. Here's a recipe for sea bass that was based on what I had left by way of other ingredients on the last evening. A very colourful and tasty result.

Ingredients

- One fillet of sea bass per person: the following quantities based on 6 fillets
- For the rub: 1 medium onion, 2 large cloves of garlic, 2 cubic cm ginger, a good handful of chopped parsley, a splash of white vinegar (wine or cider), salt and pepper. If you had one, a small chilli would be good too
- A pint of small prawns with the shell on
- One medium tomato per person, quartered

Method

- Score the skin side of the fillets lightly with a sharp knife - 3 to 4 scores per fillet, depending on the size of the fish
- Whizz up the rub ingredients, peeled as necessary and rub some into the scores. Turn the fillets over and rub the remainder onto the flesh side. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 mins or so
- Put the prawns and tomatoes into a grill pan and salt and pepper them. Then grill under a high heat until the tomatoes start to burn a bit. Leave to rest for 10 minutes or so, so that juices from both ingredients run together
- While the prawns rest, heat butter and olive oil to a high-ish heat in a frying pan and fry the fish for a couple of minutes either side (maybe three if thick fillets). Keep warm in a low oven if you need to while other things come together
- Serve with the juices from the pan, with some prawns and tomatoes cast
on top with their juices too

As you eat the fish, shell and eat the prawns as you go. Provide your guests with kitchen paper to clean up.

We ate with freshly made chips - the subject of another recipe ...

Copyright Ian Callaghan 2010

Copyright Ian Callaghan 2010

Runner Bean Stir Fry with Togarashi Seasoning

I just came across Togarashi recently - a Japanese seasoning that's a blend of chili, sesame seeds, orange peel, szechuan pepper, ginger and seaweed and which apparently is usually used in fish dishes.

Runner beans are one of those lovely but over-plentiful crops that you need to find different things to do with, and this bit of improvisation turned out to be a nice stir fry recipe with a bit of heat and plenty of nutty background that seemed to complement the flavour of the beans well.

Ingredients:

• Runner beans, cut diagonally into 2cm strips
• Peppers - either red or yellow if you have them, to provide some colour contrast - about half the quantity of the beans, cut into pieces of similar size
• Onions, sliced, about 1/4 the quantity of beans - or use spring onions
• A good sprinkling of togarashi (it's quite hot)
• A splash of sesame oil

Method:

- Get the wok good and hot with a fair amount of olive or sunflower oil, or whatever you generally use
- Add all the vegetables, the seasoning and the sesame oil and stir over a high heat till the vegetables are getting soft but still have some bite - the onions should be coloured
- Season with salt if you like

Grilled Courgette and Halloumi Salad

• Whatever quantity of courgettes you have to hand, ideally of different colours and no more than 15cm long (i.e. young ones not semi-marrows!)
• About 1/3 to 1/4  that amount of halloumi cheese

- Slice the courgettes lengthways, about half a cm thick.  Salt them and leave to drain for at least half an hour
- Slice the halloumi to the same thickness
- Brush both with oil lightly and grill for a few minutes on each side, either on a barbecue or a griddle, so that you get nice black lines.  The courgettes should be a bit al dente still
- Combine in a bowl and dress lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
- At the last minute, toss in a small handful of basil leaves

Ideally serve still slightly warm

The Dandelion Cycle

I bottled 5 out of my 8 demijohns of fruit wine from last year over the weekend - 30 bottles in all.  Another 18 to go when I acquire some more bottles able to take corks. 

Varieties were Elderberry, Elderberry and Sloe, Blackberry and Sloe, Damson and Dandelion. Easily the most ready was the Damson, already a pleasant rosé when chilled.  The elderberry could be several years before it's drinkable.  All had identifiable fruit flavours, especially the blackberry.

 

Sadly the dandelion had lost much of the vibrant yellow it had when first brewed, now being a pale straw colour rather like a sauvignon blanc.

Meanwhile, the new dandelion heads are suddenly ablaze in the fields, so this weekend's wine task will be to pick the flowers for next year's brew ...

Swiss and Blue

Try this if you like blue cheeses (the family are heavily divided on this:  it's only me that does).

The swiss chard I left in the ground last autumn has overwintered wonderfully and is now glistening with health and vigour.  The sorrel has also taken off in the warm weather of the past few weeks.  Meantime, there is a piece of leftover Somerset Brie in the fridge ...

Assuming you have a whole chard, that should do as a vegetable for four.  Don't worry about sorrel if you can't get it, though it adds a wonderfully bitter note to anything you cook it with.
Slice the chard thinly at the stalk end and more broadly for the leaves. Separate the sorrel leaves from the stems; discard the latter and slice the former roughly.

Cook both the vegetables in butter over a medium low heat for a few minutes - so far, so conventional (see Jane Grigson for example).  Now add some blue cheese - to taste, but it can't just be a few flakes.  I think I probably added about 2-3 oz for the quantities above.  Chop it up so it melts quickly.  Cook down until the cheese has melted and covers everything in a glaze.

Unpopular Poplars

The fine line of poplars along the bridle path to the Church has been felled.  All that's left are 30 or so stumps.

 It's sad to see these 100-foot trees, straight as totems, reduced to their component parts.  The trunks are apparently only useable for crates and pallets ...

the branches as firewood ...

 
In the past, poplar was the main wood used for matches:  I guess no one really uses those any more, at least in the developed world.  And it's a perfectly good woodworking material - I know because I made a set of cupboards from it for our utility room. It has a beautiful straight grain and cuts easily and cleanly. But it doesn't sand well, so you could never use it for anything really fine. 

All over the world, especially in Southeast Asia, the thin young trees are used for scaffolding and other construction purposes.  Everywhere in Pakistan, for example, you'll see these trees dividing the small-holdings of the peasant farmers, a mini-package of subsistence materials for food and shelter.

 

Here our neighbours, the farming family who planted the trees 25 years ago will get nothing for them at all. But for other things they have planted we are eternally grateful:  the woods are filled with daffodils in memory of their parents.   

A new summer on the way!

Potatoes chitting; broad beans that I planted back in November have survived the deep frosts and are springing forth; peas are in, lots of them this year; plus another bed of onions and garlic. These are the little jobs that always seem to signal the reality of another summer approaching. A whole summer of spuds, peas, beans and onions, all bought for less than 15 quid, plus a few hours of time planting and weeding. The spuds are mostly varieties that you'll never see in shops, including the marvellous salad variety "Pink Fir Apple". Best return on investment of all is probably the garlic - about 40 bulbs cost £3 - half a year's worth of the wondrously flavoured Isle of Wight beauties.

By the way, keep your eggshells for the veg patch, as they make a great addition to the compost as a soil conditioner and provider of minerals. I keep them (in halves) in the boxes until I have 4 boxes; then they they go under the wheels of the car, reverse over them and back again and you have (a) nice finely crushed shells and (b) the boxes well schrunched up and easy to tear into the compost heap. Or just chuck the ripped up boxes on the garden as well and the worms will pull them in.

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