Saturday 30 July 2011
Sunday 24 July 2011
Hot beetroot salad with goat's cheese
We harvested our first beetroots yesterday and they were so tasty. We pulled three out of the ground and turned them into a mouth-watering salad with honey, mustard and goat's cheese. The recipe is below - it's an adaption of a hot beetroot salad we discovered on the BBC Good Food website.
Ingredients
3 raw beetroots
1 lemon
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp clear honey
1 tsp grainy mustard
Lots of goat's cheese!
Method
1. Boil the beetroot for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size. The larger the beetroot the longer the boiling time.
2. Test the beetroot is cooked by inserting a sharp knife into it, if the beetroot slides off easily then it is cooked.
3. Peel the beetroot and slice into thin circles.
4. Add a little oil into a frying pan and gently fry the beetroot for a couple of minutes.
5. Drizzle the juice of the lemon over the beetroot.
6. Add the honey and mustard and toss so all the slices are well coated.
7. Crumble a very generous helping of goat's cheese on top of the beetroot slices and serve.
Ingredients
3 raw beetroots
1 lemon
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp clear honey
1 tsp grainy mustard
Lots of goat's cheese!
Method
1. Boil the beetroot for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size. The larger the beetroot the longer the boiling time.
2. Test the beetroot is cooked by inserting a sharp knife into it, if the beetroot slides off easily then it is cooked.
3. Peel the beetroot and slice into thin circles.
4. Add a little oil into a frying pan and gently fry the beetroot for a couple of minutes.
5. Drizzle the juice of the lemon over the beetroot.
6. Add the honey and mustard and toss so all the slices are well coated.
7. Crumble a very generous helping of goat's cheese on top of the beetroot slices and serve.
Thursday 21 July 2011
A soggy garden
It is so wet out there! I've just been taking refuge in the greenhouse from the relentless drizzle. The garden has had a good soaking over the last few days but a few little rays of warm sunshine would certainly be much appreciated now.
If the sun does come out this weekend, I will take some photos of the garden as it's looking very very different to how it was a couple of months ago. It's exploded into a sea of green and looks like a real jungle. The neighbour came over the other day and looked at the garden through the kitchen door and exclaimed, "Wow, your garden is a jungle! But in a good way." He was very quick to add the bit at the end. Maybe too quick. ;) Yes, it's true the garden does need a bit of tidying up and a bit of pruning. The banana trees have grown and spread out and their large leaves are providing a canopy of bright green above your head as you walk through the garden. The campsis has spread across the new fence so enthusiastically that you can hardly make out the fence anymore through all the long green stems and the beautiful red explosions of the trumpet-like flowers. The oleander recovered very well from its rigorous pruning over the winter and is now a fireball of green and the periwinkle has spread like wildfire around the phormium and its stems have even made their way over the wall of the path towards the broken paving.
Talking about the broken paving, this coming Monday the paving people arrive! Paving is big business these days it seems. The company whose quote we eventually accepted had over a two-month waiting list and their quote was by no means cheap. I've obviously missed my calling in life. If I had gone into the paving business this recession and economic crisis would have nothing on me!
Anyway, the two months are now up and our turn has come. The old grey slate slabs are finally going to be replaced with some bright Indian modak sandstone which will hopefully complement the brick-red paint on the walls of the borders very well. We're dreading the arrival of these paving people as it's going to be such an upheaval. A lot of the potted plants are going to have to move indoors to the study upstairs. We won't even be able to put them in the lounge or kitchen as these paving men are going to be using our lounge and kitchen as a thoroughfare to the garden. Ah the joys of living in a small London terraced house!
First they have to remove all the slate slabs and any bit of cement that is still currently there, they then have to remove a large amount of soil and dig quite deep, then they build some kind of sink hole for drainage and then they start cementing and cutting and laying the slabs. It's going to be noisy and dirty and messy! Poor Cowick Garden. It's not going to be a pleasant week but hopefully once it's done it will look good. And there will be photos in celebration including a full landscape view of the whole garden.
If the sun does come out this weekend, I will take some photos of the garden as it's looking very very different to how it was a couple of months ago. It's exploded into a sea of green and looks like a real jungle. The neighbour came over the other day and looked at the garden through the kitchen door and exclaimed, "Wow, your garden is a jungle! But in a good way." He was very quick to add the bit at the end. Maybe too quick. ;) Yes, it's true the garden does need a bit of tidying up and a bit of pruning. The banana trees have grown and spread out and their large leaves are providing a canopy of bright green above your head as you walk through the garden. The campsis has spread across the new fence so enthusiastically that you can hardly make out the fence anymore through all the long green stems and the beautiful red explosions of the trumpet-like flowers. The oleander recovered very well from its rigorous pruning over the winter and is now a fireball of green and the periwinkle has spread like wildfire around the phormium and its stems have even made their way over the wall of the path towards the broken paving.
Talking about the broken paving, this coming Monday the paving people arrive! Paving is big business these days it seems. The company whose quote we eventually accepted had over a two-month waiting list and their quote was by no means cheap. I've obviously missed my calling in life. If I had gone into the paving business this recession and economic crisis would have nothing on me!
Anyway, the two months are now up and our turn has come. The old grey slate slabs are finally going to be replaced with some bright Indian modak sandstone which will hopefully complement the brick-red paint on the walls of the borders very well. We're dreading the arrival of these paving people as it's going to be such an upheaval. A lot of the potted plants are going to have to move indoors to the study upstairs. We won't even be able to put them in the lounge or kitchen as these paving men are going to be using our lounge and kitchen as a thoroughfare to the garden. Ah the joys of living in a small London terraced house!
First they have to remove all the slate slabs and any bit of cement that is still currently there, they then have to remove a large amount of soil and dig quite deep, then they build some kind of sink hole for drainage and then they start cementing and cutting and laying the slabs. It's going to be noisy and dirty and messy! Poor Cowick Garden. It's not going to be a pleasant week but hopefully once it's done it will look good. And there will be photos in celebration including a full landscape view of the whole garden.
Saturday 2 July 2011
Celebrating Wimbledon
It's the weekend of the Wimbledon finals and Nadal is playing so what better way to celebrate than with a Pimm's Punch! It's also ten years since I saw my tennis hero, Goran Ivanisevic win Wimbledon for the first time after entering the tournament on a wild card entry. He made history as no wild card entry had ever won the tournament before. What a match! He played the Australian Pat Rafter and the match went to five sets. It was so close the whole way through and I was there on Centre Court watching it. There was no roof on Centre Court back then and because of all the rain delays the men's final was played on a Monday which meant it was open to the public. I managed to get one of the last seats on Centre Court and to watch my longtime tennis hero finally win Wimbledon after being in the finals three times was a dream come true. Time to celebrate!
We used strawberries and mint from Cowick Garden so I think this recipe qualifies for entry onto the blog.;)
Pimm's Punch
Ingredients
Pimm's
Lemonade
Handful of strawberries, cut into quarters
Half an orange, sliced
Handful of mint, shredded
A few cucumber slices
Method
1. Add 600ml of lemonade to 200ml of Pimm's
2. Add in the strawberries, orange slices, mint and cucumber.
3. Stir and allow to stand for a few minutes.
4. Pour into glasses, sit back and enjoy the tennis!
We used strawberries and mint from Cowick Garden so I think this recipe qualifies for entry onto the blog.;)
Pimm's Punch
Ingredients
Pimm's
Lemonade
Handful of strawberries, cut into quarters
Half an orange, sliced
Handful of mint, shredded
A few cucumber slices
Method
1. Add 600ml of lemonade to 200ml of Pimm's
2. Add in the strawberries, orange slices, mint and cucumber.
3. Stir and allow to stand for a few minutes.
4. Pour into glasses, sit back and enjoy the tennis!
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