A first for me

Yesterday's chapter was headed "A pot of chutney"

I have never made chutney - put off I suppose by a family member who makes masses of it, distributes it very generously , and its vile!!!!!!

Yesterday I made A dark and sticky fruit chutney. The main ingredient being figs. I found it very difficult not to eat the beautifully fresh ripe figs before adding them to the chutney, I adore figs.

I was a little worried as at first my chutney did not seem to be getting thick and jam like, but eventually it did - taking a good bit longer than Mr Slater said it should. 

The result is wonderful, quite surprised myself, this is a delicious chutney and definitely too good to give away!!!!!

Bit of a collapse

Yesterday (29th August) also saw me making Butter Bean tomatoes which we had for lunch. My photos show them before they went into oven. Once cooked , although tasting good,  they had collapsed a bit so didn't look as good as they tasted!!!!!

If you like butter beans ( I struggled to find people who did) this is a tasty vegetarian lunch, serve with crusty bread to mop up the delicious garlicky tomato juices.

Irresistible

At first I was not happy with yesterday's recipe Chocolate damson cake as yet again we were using a kind of plum. However I adore chocolate so went ahead. 

August 29 th and a chapter headed " The first damsons and a new chocolate cake " finds Mr Slater wondering what to do with the damsons growing in his garden. He ends up reworking his brownie recipe. What a success, this was a " dark, sumptuous , intense " brownie with the added surprise of cooked damsons added to the cake mix as it sits in the baking tin.

Find this recipe on page 338 - it's divine and will have you sneaking back to the cake tin for another bite, heavenly. Dieters beware.

( I think I slightly overcooked mine but it was still moist and delicious)

Pictured here as it comes out of the oven and then cut into squares.

A day late

August 27 th and a chapter headed. " Sugar plums "

I guess all these plum recipes are OK if you have them growing in your garden! This time the plums are baked with sugar and white wine and topped with sugar crusted almonds. The recipe called Baked greengage s, sugar-crusted almonds.

And I am a day late making it. Anyway better late than never. Another quick and easy desert - although I think I over cooked my almonds!!!!!!

Nice but not spectacular.

I love anything on toast

August 26 th Monday and a chapter headed "A new mushrooms on toast"  Mr Slater says this is "...a substantial version of mushrooms on toast"

The recipe is Chicken livers, chestnut mushrooms and toast.

This was real comfort food , thick slices of hot buttered toast with a deliciously rich topping cooked in Marsala, -  heaven. Could I possibly add that we thought a dash of double cream would have made it even better! 

In favour of the garlic press

August 25th and the chapter is headed " Crushing garlic". Mr Slater confesses to owning a garlic press which he says is derided by many cooks and chefs. He disagrees and says ".....pressed garlic works better for me than very finely chopped..." and the plus point of not ending up ".....with garlic scented fingers" Lots of recommendations follow on the type of garlic press to own, how best to use a pestle and mortar or when simply to chop.

Reading this reminded me of how I obtained my favourite garlic press ( one of many I have had over the years but this one works brilliantly) It belonged to my late mother in law and she had bought it in Spain. Very simple and basic in design but works wonderfully well.

Sunday's recipe was Grilled aubergine, roast garlic cream.

As the recipe indicates the garlic was roasted and then the soft paste like cloves squeeze out. Then added to mayonnaise - divine for those garlic lovers amongst us!!!!!

I find aubergines can be a bit tasteless but served with the roast garlic cream - very nice.

Our verdict

A chapter headed " Chickpeas, chard and a new spoon"
Mr Slater's new spoons are wooden. It was not that long ago I had difficulty in buying wooden spoons, I was told by the kitchen store that they were unhygienic and harboured germs!!!!

Saturday 24th August and the recipe today s an impromptu chickpea supper. This included chard, which according to Wikipedia " ...is considered to be one of the healthiest vegetables available..." Excellent.
Mr Slater's verdict on his dish " it won't win supper of the year".
Our verdict, (glad we had it for lunch as we have guests for dinner) Awful. This has to be the worst recipe we have tried. Very disappointing.
Our guests this evening will be having Duck with ginger and citrus  pg134 and to follow A heavenly parfait of orange and lemon pg162. If you have followed this blog you will know these have already been tried and tested and are deliciously divine.

No elderberries to be found

August 23rd and a chapter headed " Elderberries and an early autumn breakfast "

Mr Slater tell us about picking the ripe elderberries and that ".....even the most ardent townie can forage for ....." them. 

The recipe is Elderberries and apples for breakfast.

Sounds and looks lovely but no elderberries here yet, so recipe on hold - as is one of tomorrow' s recipes Elderberry and apple pancakes.

Help!!!!!

August 22nd and a chapter headed " Another quick chicken dinner", but before we get to the recipe Mr Slater tels us what is left growing in his garden. " The elderberries hang heavy....." Oh dear the elderberries I have seen are in flower at the moment but not yet fruiting. Help - I know there are some recipes using the berries coming up very soon, has anyone seen any? I have friends looking out for them in various parts of Yorkshire.
Yesterday's quick chicken dinner was Baked chicken with tomatoes and olives.
It was indeed a quick dinner to make , tasty and went down well with my in- laws who had come for tea.
The photo is the recipe before going into the oven as I forgot to take one after cooking !!!!!

Photos

Here is the cake

How was the cake?

The cake was delicious , dripping with lemon syrup and a slight hint of the thyme.
For some reason can't get the photo to upload on to the blog. Will keep trying, could be a very un exciting blog without pictures if not !!!!!!

Learning about herbs

Yesterday - 19 th August the chapter was headed " To the coast and a bunch of thyme"
Mr Slater talks to us about herbs at the start of this chapter, in particular thyme which "......gets better,stronger and more pungent as the season progresses" .
( I have to agree, mine is thriving at the moment whilst the coriander has just about finished and the dill is struggling.)
I didn't realise that there are so many varieties of thyme. The first recipe was Roast tomatoes, thyme and goats cheese, which we had for lunch. We found it a little too salty but maybe that was down to the variety of goats cheese we used. This would work well with other soft cheeses though.

The second recipe was A thyme and lemon cake.

Couldn't wait to taste this as I have never put herbs in a cake before. A simple to make cake mixture including thyme, lemon and ground almonds and baked in a loaf tin. As soon as it is cooked a sugary lemon and thyme syrup is spooned over and soaks in. Mr Slater says leave to cool and serve with thick yogurt. Just waiting for hubby to arrive home so we can sample it.  Let you know tomorrow, smells heavenly.......can I wait?

This weekend

This weekend 17 th / 18th August  I made a chicken dish and A peach pie with lemon pastry.
The first dish made on Saturday was a hot spicy chicken dish, the marinade/sauce made in seconds and the chicken baked in 40 mins. Good, quick and easy and served with ice cold beer as Mr Slater suggested.


The second dish , made today was the pie. A chapter entitled "Rolling pastry" and lots of advice on rolling a butter rich pastry. This pastry proved to be very difficult to roll out, not so bad for the base were a bit of patching up goes unnoticed but more difficult to do the lid. Still I did end up with a reasonable looking pie.
Pies are never my favourite desert but I love peaches. The pastry was crumbly, buttery soft and almost like shortcake with a hint of lemon. The filling of peaches still firm with a hint of orange zest.
Not sure I like my peaches in pie , definitely prefer them au natural. Gave slices of pie to various members of the family and it had a mixed verdict. Half, including my husband, loved it, and the other half, like me, didn't think peaches should be in a pie. Try it and see what you think.

Cold or hot?

August 15 th - Thursday' s tea was Thyme and garlic chicken wings.
A chapter headed " Sweet and sticky, and as good cold as hot".
And that's exactly what these chicken wings were. Very tasty and juicy, and I could recommend some crusty bread to mop up the sticky juices.
One downside - it takes ages to pick off the thyme leaves, quite a painstaking chore but worth the end result.

Yesterday (16 th August) we had Carrot and cockle soup.
A chapter headed " A new shop and a tub of cockles"   Mr Slater tells us about a new fish shop ( that's fresh fish not fish and chips!) that has opened near where he lives. " I have everything from razor clams to sushi grade tuna on my doorstep....."
How I envy him as I trail from supermarket to supermarket or make the 20 mile or so round trip to source my ingredients . ( My last attempt to buy mussels for the soup which should have been made on 8 th July was another failure , apparently the warm weather results in smaller mussels so -
according to the supermarket - they are not worth buying in!!!!! Hey-Ho.)

Sorry I digress - today's recipe Carrot and cockle soup actually uses cockles in brine so no problems there.
Not sure about cockles , never really eaten them, love mussels though so here goes. Tasting as I season I'm not very keen. However my husband loved it and managed to polish off the whole lot!!!!

Plummed out!!!!!

Today's chapter is headed "More plums"
My heart sinks, never one of my favourite fruits and we're plumed out so to speak. Mr Slater makes a tart with a classic almond filling. No recipe given so I didn't attempt this one.

Today's recipe however was right up my street Mozzarella salad with tomato crumbs.
This was excellent. As Mr Slater says ".....all the elements that make a pizza an everlasting success......but without the weight of a dough base"
I am becoming very popular with girlfriends - this was a  deliciously divine - and less fattening than pizza- girlie lunch

Using up !

No particular recipe given for August 9th, just a way of using up things most of us have in the fridge.
Amazing what can be done with a few left over green vegetables ( mine usually end up on the compost heap!), onions and chilli sauce.
A simple idea on pg 306 produced a scrummy lunch.

August 10 th and a chapter headed " A marinade in minutes" . An interesting insight into marinades and how they work.
Yesterday's recipe was Grilled lamb with lemon harissa.
This marinade was a spicy paste and the lamb steaks were marinated in it overnight. We were away in the caravan so we took this with us for dinner on Saturday night. As such I served them with a basic Greek salad and flatbreads.
The yoghurt mint sauce to accompany the lamb steaks had the addition of ground cumin seeds which gave an interesting twist to the flavour.

When you can't be bothered to cook!

For lunch today I made Smoked salmon and cucumber spread.
This recipe is one Mr Slater makes, when exhausted from a day's cooking and filming , he needs something quick and easy to eat.
It is certainly made in minutes, the longest time being the 20 mins waiting for the water to drain from the cucumber.
I served this on dark rye bread ( my daughter's future mother- in - law brings it over from Germany )
I think you could serve it on almost anything - crispbread, bruschetta , bilinis, toast, fresh floury white baps ( the list is endless) or even on a bed of rocket leaves as a starter for dinner. ( it will definitely go in my husband's lunch box tomorrow!!!!)

Plum Pie

Today's recipe is a traditional plate pie, made with plums and raspberries. The pastry is a simple butter shortcrust which, although not having the richness of a sweetened egg pastry, melts in the mouth. I think the secret is to roll as thinly as possible and not o overwork the pastry. Whilst it might not look restaurant standard it tastes divine!
The filling consists of juice soaked plums and raspberries, sharp and sweet at the same time.
Served hot, with rich Jersey cream - wonderful!!!!