Allotment delights and cooking.....

Allotment delights and cooking.....

So between the wonderful August downpours I managed to get to the plot, with the aim of watering my greenhouse tomatoes - however as quite often happens at this time of year, I ended up harvesting a huge hall!

Runner beans - I just can't get enough of these, unfortunately I think mine are coming to an end, but this last batch will go wonderfully with a big family favourite, sausage and mash.  And of course the potatoes were also dug up this afternoon, 'Desire' grown in a potato bag - a little disappointed at how many there were, but its enough for a family of fours sausage and mash.

I also picked a wonderful assortment of tomatoes - flavorita, floridity, red pear, tigerella and some big crinkly looking ones that I can't remember the name of, but they were all delicious (obviously the nicest ones were the little yummies that I ate straight off the plant).  The rest I had plans for.... I made a yummy tomato salsa to go with last nights tea - thankyou to +Jamie Oliver for the recipe, even the children ate it :o)

Tomato salsa recipe

Today I've made a delicious courgette and ginger jam, first time I've made it, it should have been made with marrow but I think large courgettes will do just the same, can't wait to try some on some toast.

We're off camping this week so have also made a tomato and onion relish to go with our first nights BBQ, another first for making this and its delicious, recipe from here, but I also added 1/2 a diced red onion and used 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika with some hot chilli powder as I like it hot!

Finally, I've started off a fizzy pink champagne fermenting - yet another first so fingers crossed it turns out well... it was very easy to make, heres the recipe if you want to try it for yourself : Pink Fizzy Rhubarb Champagne

More makes!

I've been a busy bee in the kitchen over the last few weeks, the chillies, tomatoes and apples have been keeping me chained to my stove!

So first up i made sweet chilli jam, there are hundreds upon hundreds of recipes out there but I finally went with this one from the BBC good food website, and I particularly like their description of it looking like 'thick, bubbling lava'.  I'm planning on enjoying this with some cheese, pate and crackers, mmmmm....

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8257/sweet-chilli-jam 

Here are two jars I made, others have been dished out to the family to try. 

So even after the chilli jam I still had chillies to use... now in our house we use lots of dried chilli sprinkles - we sprinkle them on pizzas, cheese on toast, add to stir fries and other recipes. Again I turned to the World Wide Web in search of instructions, I found a really helpful site by the chilli king, here I found really helpful instructions on all sorts of things chilli related!

I fired up my oven to 80 degrees, washed dried and cut all my chillies in half length ways, and put them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, some fried quicker than others, but some took up to 3 hours, you can tell when their done as they crunch up when squeezed.  

Here are mine after a blitz in the food processor - 

2 baking trays of chillies really do shrink after dehydrating!

For more info on anything chilli, visit -

http://www.thechilliking.com  

The third recipe I'd like to share is for a Dorito style salsa dip, my family love this sort of dip with some tortillas - and certainly a favourite on a movie night. 

For this recipe I've been planning since the beginning of the year - growing everything I needed from seeds - my peppers didn't go to plan so ended up buying these. 

All ingredients were chipped added to a pan, simmered for 10 minutes and popped into sterile jars. 

I followed this recipe as s guide but my ingredients varied slightly in that I used small tomatoes, and slightly less chillies but left some seeds in as we like it HOT!

http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/zesty-salsa

Lastly I seemed to have a glut of tomatoes, and soup always goes down really well with my little ones, so I made roasted tomatoe and basil soup. 

Pop your freshly picked tomatoes into a baking tray along with 4 cloves of garlic, 2 quartered red onions, and drizzle over a tablespoon of olive oil and another of balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper to season, then roast on 180 for 20 minutes. 

Next add your roasted goodies to a pan along with 750mls chicken or vegetable stock, 4 tablespoons tomato purée, 1.5 tablespoon brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of chopped basil. 

Simmer for 15 minutes. 

Cool and liquidise until smooth. 

That's all from me for today, but I am planning on apple pie tomorrow so keep an eye out for my next blog.