whole tomato and pistachio tart on blue and white table cloth

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We have had an absolute abundance of tomatoes this year! I know this is primarily luck, as when you grow them outside as we do, tomatoes are very dependent on the weather. We’ve made tomato soup, tomato passata, tomato chutney, tomato ketchup – in fact it’s not a meal if we’re not eating tomatoes! They are coming to an end now though. We’ve pulled the plants up and are just ripening off a few green ones on trays.  So now is a great time to make the most of these last Borghese and Merrygold tomatoes to make Tomato and Pistachio tart. This is absolutely deliciousRead More →

game pie

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It’s British Pie Week #britishpieweek so I wanted to make a pie I had never made before, something a bit more challenging than an apple or gooseberry fruit pie (and anyway, it’s too early in the season for those), so I settled on a game pie. I have always liked pork and game pies and once had a really fabulous one that has stayed in my memory, still warm from the oven, from a butchers in Yorkshire. It was the same day that I bumped into Paul Hollywood, who was there to film a feature on the oldest sweetshop in the world. But that isRead More →

butternut squash, quinoa, radish and walnut salad

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This is the next in my series of slightly interesting tasty salads (sits), which started with the Buckwheat, Mozzarella, Tomato and baby Spinach Salad. I know what you are saying “slightly interesting”! but hey I don’t want to oversell it and it is definitely tasty. At the moment, there is a lot growing in the garden, but very little actually ready to eat, in fact pretty much only radishes and chard. The chard I will leave for another day, but the punchy, pink, peppery radishes I wanted to do something with, as they can really perk up a dish. Butternut squash is really sweet andRead More →

Salad

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In: Savoury

I thought it was about time I featured something a bit more healthy, like a salad, and stayed away from the cakes and breads for a while. I know my jeans will thank me for this. I would also like to be a bit more adept at different types of salads and introduce a few new ingredients. I am starting gently and trying buckwheat, which I know is not exactly radical, but isn’t something I normally eat. It is actually really nice, not a strong flavour, but a little bit nutty and super easy to cook. If you haven’t tried it, I would definitely recommendRead More →

savoury chocolate biscuits with poppy seeds and cream cheese

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Just when you thought you had eaten enough chocolate over Easter, here I am suggesting you eat your cheese with chocolate biscuits! Who would have thought that chocolate goes with cheese? Well, I wouldn’t, until I tried these savoury chocolate biscuits. They are really light and crumbly, almost like a chocolate shortbread, and then you get a kick from the paprika. I saved the recipe from the Bakery Bits Newsletter back in October last year and only got around to making them this week. Vanessa Kimbell recommends eating them with cheddar, but I couldn’t resist trying a soft cream cheese that contrasts with the delicate texture of theRead More →

carrot soup

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Apparently it’s Blue Monday today, the most depressing day of the year. Thanks Ashley for pointing it out, I hadn’t realised! Whilst Ashley would no doubt recommend doing some healthy exercise, I think you can’t go wrong with a good wholesome home-made soup and what could be better than that tasty classic, carrot and coriander. Carrots are a really good source of beta-carotene, the antioxidant carotenoid that your body converts into vitamin A. I have read that carrots can help reduce cholesterol, prevent heart attacks, improve vision (although wasn’t that a myth, put about in World War II to get people to eat more carrots?), and reduce the signs of premature ageing. Also, carrotsRead More →

3 photos of hands stretching dough

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I really love making bread, it is the complete transformation that occurs when you mix together such unpromising-looking ingredients as flour, water, yeast and salt. You knead it and it becomes something else completely, malleable and dough-like (couldn’t think of a more appropriate word, sorry). I like the process of stretching and pulling and pushing, it can be quite meditative. And the final loaf, risen, crusty and aromatic, is nothing like the dough that went into the oven, it’s like magic. It’s also nothing like most of the bread that you buy, it’s full of flavour and very satisfying. The only trouble is, it goesRead More →

beetroot bread

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Having lots of beetroot in the garden, and looking for a variation on my normal wholemeal bread, I found the recipe from the Bakery Bits Newsletter and made beetroot bread. It was a vibrant pink dough and still looked pink straight out of the oven. However, by the time we came to eat it, the pinkness had gone and it just looked like normal wholemeal bread with the odd fleck of colour in it. Even so, it was a nice moist loaf and very tasty, which is the point really. The image above left is the dough in the proving basket and to the right is when the bread hasRead More →