My father-in-law would have been proud of me. When his children were young he would drive home from their holiday cottage to raid the garden for sweetcorn, runner beans, tomatoes, potatoes …
Admittedly he didn’t have far to go but I think he’d have been tickled that we took our home-grown asparagus and our hens’ eggs all the way to Spain last week. Continue reading
New season English asparagus is naturally sweet and grassy and is just as good raw as cooked. Try it this way with fresh, raw broad beans and peas in a lemony, creamy vinaigrette and sprinkle over a handful of quickly sizzled smoked pancetta as I did, or dollops of soft goats’ cheese. Continue reading
I’m a pushover for any cake that contains ground almonds and if fruit is involved too, I’m a goner. Friands are best eaten on the day they’re made but I think you’ll find that isn’t a problem. They vanish faster than you can say rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. (Yes, yes, I know rhubarb isn’t technically a fruit.)
I made these for a dessert but they’re equally good for elevenses, or threeses or fourses if you’re having an afternoon cuppa. Continue reading
This is English jelly, the wibbly sort, not American jam/jelly. I was at a lunch recently where an apple jelly was part of the dessert and it was delicious, tart like a Granny Smith and with just the right amount of tremulous wobbliness.
It occurred to me that if you made it with rhubarb instead, you’d get a double return because after straining off the juice for the jelly, you could use the rhubarb to make a fool. If you’re feeling particularly profligate you could even serve the two together. Continue reading
I’ve been meaning to write a post about books for gluts, the best cookery books to have on hand if you have a lot of garden produce and are running out of creative ways to use it up. But I never get any further than these two essential volumes. Continue reading
One of the most anticipated harvests in our garden, right up there with the first asparagus crop, is the quince. These fuzzy yellow fruits have a fabulously perfumed aroma and taste, once cooked, as good as they smell. Small wonder that they were once sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. And if you fall out with your beloved you can always use them as missiles, because when they’re raw they are rock hard. Continue reading
Ripening pears picked from the tree is a tricky business and one I’m still trying to master. Often they go wrinkly without ripening into slippery, honeyed perfection, so as I can’t bear waste I often end up poaching them instead. The advantage of this is that they soften and sweeten in the syrup of your choice and if you have too many you can bottle them to eat over the winter. Continue reading
This one of those do-as-I-say-don’t-do-what-I-did posts. We’ve been picking a lot of fruit from the orchard and as I have a particular fondness for greengages I wanted to star them in a galette, the ones the wasps didn’t get, anyway.
It all went a bit pear-shaped (or plum-shaped) but the end result was so tasty I’m sharing the recipe with you anyway Continue reading
We’re fortunate enough, thanks to Him Outdoors, to have lots of home-grown tomatoes, aubergines and basil at the moment and this Italian recipe makes the most of them.
An excellent summer lunch, it’s quick and easy and got polished off in record time when we had friends staying at the weekend. Continue reading
Sarah and the Valencian apartment where she worked as an au pair
Sarah, my sister-in-law, once worked as an au pair for a wealthy family in Valencia in Spain. She had her hands full looking after a gaggle of children, the eldest of whom sounded like a proper little madam, and found herself awkwardly placed between Upstairs and Downstairs. Continue reading