Broccoli and blue cheese soup

This recipe is from the BBC Good Food Web Page; it's really simple to make, and just delicious.
Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables - am trying to grow some in the garden this year!

INGREDIENTS


One large onion, roughly chopped
A clove of garlic
Some olive oil
One large potato, peeled and cubed
I litre vegetable stock (actually, you can just use water!!)
About 300 gr. broccoli, roughly chopped
About 100 gr. blue cheese, crumbled 
(I used Stilton, but you could also use Roquefort)
Seasoning (salt, pepper - maybe some fresh chives for garnish)


Cook the onion and garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan till  soft...Add the potato and stock (or water) and simmer until the potato is soft (this will probably take about 10 minutes).


Add the broccoli, cook for a few minutes until tender - add half the cheese and mix in blender. 
(It is suggested that you use the rest of the cheese as a  garnish, that's why it says use 'half the cheese'.)

Serve with some lovely fresh bread!!

Pea and Mint Soup

This is a recipe from Skye Gyngell's page in THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY. I will soon be able to make it with fresh peas and fresh mint from my own organic garden. AND I have a choice of which mint I shall use.....probably the APPLE MINT. I have adapted it a bit, as she recommends rather too much salt for my taste,

Ingredients
500g/1lb peas, podded
200ml/7fl oz water
1 medium bunch of mint, leaves only
150ml/5 fl.oz double cream
A few drops of lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place a saucepan of  water on to boil. Once boiling, add the peas and cook for one minute. Drain but do not refresh with cold water. Set aside a third of the peas to add to the soup just before serving. Once cooled, put the rest of the peas into a food processor and blend with the water and mint leaves. When smooth, pour into a bowl and stir in the cream, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge and serve in chilled soup plates, scattering the remaining peas over the top. Serve with fresh, crusty bread and unsalted butter.

Tomato and Apple Chutney

I made this last year with tomatoes and apples from the garden.  I also got the chillies from the garden.The recipe is adapted from the original one in COUNTRY WISDOM, by Rosamond Richardson (Kyle Cathie 1997)

Ingredients

2.7 kg tomatoes (chopped)

450g apples, sliced and cored

450g onions, chopped

50g coriander seeds

2-3 chopped chillies

(if using dried chillies, then use about 12g)

piece of ginger (or a teaspoon of ground ginger)

450g demerara sugar

450g dried fruit

Juice of one lemon

750ml cider vinegar

(actually the recipe specified malt vinegar, but I think cider vinegar is better for this)

Once the tomatoes, apples and onions are sliced, put them into a saucepan or preserving pan, then put the coriander seeds and chillies into a muslin bag, add this to the mixture, sprinkle it with salt and leave it overnight.

Add all the other ingredients the next day, bring everything to the boil - reduce the heat and simmer the mixture until it is thick.....probably about 1-2 hours.

Then put it into jars and seal them.

(N.B.Try not to eat this from the jar with a spoon.....!)

Rose Petal Icecream

(I have taken this recipe from the online GREEN CHRONICLE, changing the measurements from American to British measurements.)

How to make rose petal ice cream:

This is a most unusual recipe which harks back to a time when certain flowers were used quite extensively in cooking. When obtaining rose petals, make absolutely certain that you know how they have been grown and that they have neither been too near a busy highway or sprayed with pesticides. If you buy your roses from a florist's shop make sure that they have not been treated with any chemicals. Also remove any bugs, dirt etc. and wash the petals thoroughly before use.

(N.B. I usually go and collect fallen rose petals from Regent's Park in London).
Ingredients



1/2 pint organic milk
yolks of 6 organic, free range eggs
3 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 pint organic cream
1 cup rose petals
1/2 litre rosé wine








Method

- Beat the egg yolks with the sugar.
- Add the milk and stir over a low heat in a basin standing in a saucepan of hot water.
- Heat carefully until the mixture thickens.
- Remove from heat and leave to become cold.
- Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and fold it into the cold custard mixture which you prepared earlier.
- Remove and discard the white ends from the rose petals then mix them with the wine.
- Fold the rose-petal mixture into the custard and cream mixture and freeze.
- Stir once or twice during freezing or use an ice cream making machine.

Banana Walnut Bread

(This is from the ABC of Banana Cookery, which I think came free from Waitrose)

Ingredients

3 oz. butter
6 oz. caster sugar
2 eggs (obviously free-range, organic!)
10 oz bananas
8 oz plain flour
3 level teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 oz walnuts (roughly chopped)

Cream butter until soft then work in the sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat to a smooth mixture.
Mash bananas well, add to egg mixture and beat until blended.
Sieve together flour, salt, baking powder, stir one tablespoonful into nuts.
Add remaining flour to egg mixture, stir until mixed, then add nuts and stir again.
Turn mixture into a well-greased loaf tom and bake at approx. gas mark 4 (350 degrees) for about an hour.

(N.B, Check after about 40 minutes, as one hour may be too long for some ovens).

Vegan Carrot Cake

(I'm afraid not all my recipes are vegan.....but this is delicious anyway, will appeal to vegans and non-vegans alike!)

3 carrots, grated (approx 8 oz. worth)
Guess what, I am about to make this with organic carrots from my garden!!
6 oz. sultanas or raisins
6 oz. self-raising white flour and 4 oz, SR wholemeal flour
6 oz. sugar ( I didn't ask, but I think it's probably OK to substitute honey here)
1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. ginger
8 fl. oz vegetable oil
7 fl. oz water
pinch of salt and dash of vinegar
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

ICING


2 oz.vegan margarine
4 oz. icing sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence



1. To make the cake, stir all the dry cake ingredients together and then mix the wet ones in.
2. Bake at gas mark 5 (190c) for 45 mins, then reduce oven to gas mark 3 (160c) and cook for another 30 minutes. Cool in tin.
3.. To make the icing, mash the margarine and vanilla essence into the sugar with a fork.
4. Ice the cake. Optional; top with roughly chopped nuts (e.g. cashews or walnuts)

Mayonnaise

I love mayonnaise, and I think it is absolutely ESSENTIAL to make one's own. This recipe is based on various sources, including - er - my own intuition!


2 large egg yolks (use organic if at all possible)
1 teaspoon mustard powder (optional)
clove of garlic, crushed (this is NOT optional!)
290 ml. extra-virgin olive oil (again, organic if possible)
a squeeze of lemon juice
I tblsp. vinegar (white wine vinegar is preferable)
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper


Put the egg yolks into a bowl with a pinch of salt (and the mustard, if using). Beat well with a wooden spoon.
Add the oil, slowly, drop by drop, (so that it doesn't curdle) beating all the time.
Beat in the lemon juice
Continue to pour in the oil - it is safe to do it more quickly now, but alternate the oil with small quantities of vingegar.
Season the mayonnaise with salt, pepper and garlic.