Tag: easy

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Herb of the Month – Horseradish

So it’s been a while since we’ve written a blog (we’re slacking, I know!) and in the meantime winter has crept in properly. In our house that means stews, pies and roasts – as often as possible! There is a certain someone in our household, who shall remain unnamed (Paul), who can’t seem to eat any of these things without an appropriately large selection of condiments. Our herb of the month has been chosen in his honour – horseradish.

The best known, and possibly most delicious, use for horseradish is of course in condiment form as horseradish sauce (we personally like horseradish mustard). It’s a really simple sauce, made from grated horseradish root and vinegar – and it’s really easy to make at home. Not many people make it themselves though; in fact sales of horseradish in a bottle began in 1860 – making it one of the first convenience foods available. It remains popular throughout the world, with several varieties available, including with beetroot – yum…

Horseradish has other uses though, including medicinally. It can be used to treat urinary tract infections, kidney stones, bronchitis, rheumatism, sciatic nerve pain, gout and even colic. Though as always, consult your doctor before use!

Even better, horseradish is amazingly easy to grow at home. It will do best in a nice sunny spot, but this is the UK so it can also make do with some shade! It’s a perennial and best grown from a cutting. They can pretty much be planted and left alone, with possibly a little water if we (miraculously) have a dry spell, to be harvested the next year. When harvesting, you’ll want to make sure you remove the entire root and then replant only what you want – it can easily take over your garden if left to its own devices. It has to be said though, once you’ve got access to the fresh stuff, you won’t want it from a jar again!

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Make your own – Bath Milk Bag

So it seems summer is over (what little we had of it!) and autumn is swiftly taking over. My cure all for those end of summer blues has always been a good long soak in the bath! This fantastic recipe for easy peasy bath milk has been a godsend for me – perfect to help you unwind.

Ingredients:

100g milk powder

5 – 10g dried flowers (I used calendula, the colour seemed fitting for autumn!)

2-4 drops essential oil (orange for me, but you can use anything that will help you relax)

muslin bags or squares of muslin and a length of thin ribbon

bath-milk-step-1

Method:

 

In a bowl, add the essential oil to the milk powder and stir thoroughly. It’s important to make sure that the essential oil is completely mixed in, with no clumpy bits.

bath-milk-step-2

Then add your flowers and once again mix thoroughly.

bath-milk-step-3

That’s really all there is to it! Pop your bath milk into a muslin bag, or if using muslin squares then place a tablespoon of mixture in the middle, bring the four corners together to form a pouch and then seal with the thin ribbon. Leave a loop of ribbon to tie the bag below the tap while you run your bath, so that the water runs through the mixture.

bath-milk-bag

Enjoy your soak in milky, aromatic goodness!

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Recipe – Cherry and Lavender Tea Smoked Chicken

Making the same meals over and over again, no matter how delicious, can quickly turn cooking into a chore. I’m a big fan of keeping it interesting with something a little bit different, and our new tea range gave me the chance to do just that. This recipe is extremely easy and unbelievably delicious – with the added bonus of sounding impressive!

smoked.chicken

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

1tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp black pepper (crushed or ground)

1 tbsp smoked paprika

3 tbsp Demerara sugar (any brown sugar will work just as well)

½ tbsp salt

4 tbsp brown rice

15 tsp cherry and lavender tea

 

Method:

– Start by mixing in a bowl the olive oil, thyme, black pepper, paprika, salt and 1 tbsp of sugar. Stir thoroughly and then coat the chicken breasts in the mixture and leave to one side. This can be done the day before and left in the fridge overnight, but will work just as well done just before cooking.

– Double line a wok or large saucepan with foil. Mix together the brown rice, cherry and lavender tea and the remaining brown sugar and add to the bottom of the foil. Cover with another piece of scrunched up foil.

– Put the wok on a high heat, until the pan starts to visibly smoke. Immediately turn the pan down to the lowest possible heat setting, place the chicken on top of the scrunched foil and tightly cover the top of the wok with a lid or more tin foil.

– Leave the covered chicken cooking on a low setting for 30 mins, then check with a thermometer that it is hot all the way through, If not, leave cooking and check again every 5 minutes until cooked. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

I served this chicken on a bed of green leaves with a cherry salad dressing and potato and chorizo gratin on the side. But be adventurous – it will also make for a great summer salad with cherries, a gourmet sandwich for lunches or even with a Thai noodle salad!

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Recipe – Lavender Drizzle Cake

With summer finally looking like it might be on its way (fingers crossed!), it’s time to move away from the heavy, chocolate-based comfort foods and onto something a bit lighter. I’d like to say healthier but I have too much of a sweet tooth for that! This recipe is a basic Madeira cake base, always a summer favourite, but (as always) with our own special twist. The lavender glaze compliments the subtle lemon of the Madeira for a sweet, summery treat. Anyone who’s been following our recipe blog will have worked out by now that I adore Nigella Lawson, so of course it’s her Madeira cake recipe that I started with! I have adapted the cook times slightly so that I could make individual cakes, but if you want a traditional loaf cake then Nigella’s is the recipe to go with.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

240g butter or margarine

200g sugar (Nigella recommends caster sugar, but if you’re lazy like me then granulated works fine)

grated zest and juice of one lemon

3 eggs

300g flour

2 tsp baking powder

6 small ramekins or 1 loaf tin

For the glaze:

6 heaped tbsp. icing sugar

3 tbsp lavender syrup

cold water

 

Method:

– Line either your ramekins or loaf tin with baking parchment.

– Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170C

– In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add in the lemon zest and mix well.

– Add the eggs one at a time. Adding a tablespoon of the flour with each egg will help it to mix in better without curdling.

– Mix in the rest of the flour, stirring gently so as not to lose the air from the mixture.

– Add the lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

– Put into your preheated oven and bake for roughly 45 minutes if in ramekins or 1 hour if in a loaf tin. I start checking the cakes about 20 minutes before this, to avoid burning. You’ll know they’re done when a cake tester comes out clean.

– Put your cakes to one side to cool whilst you get on with the lavender glaze.

– In a bowl, mix together the icing sugar and lavender syrup. I use a fork for this to avoid any sugary lumps.

– Once the icing has formed a paste, add the cold water a teaspoon at a time. Stop when you have a relatively thin, runny icing.

– Before your cakes have completely cooled, turn them out onto a wire rack. Once they are cold, cover in the lavender glaze and leave to harden.

This really is a super easy recipe (like everything I make) and guaranteed to impress!

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Herb of the Month – Honesty

With such beautiful weather recently, our plants have been flourishing. This month’s stand out has got to be Honesty. Known best for its seed pods, rather than its flowers; Honesty can be a beautiful addition to your garden without being too ostentatious!

From the genus Lunaria, honesty is also sometimes called a ‘silver dollar plant’. There are several variations of Lunaria, including ‘Lunaria annua’, which has a pure white flower and is biennial (meaning a plant grown from seed will take two years to come to fruition and then die). If you’re looking for an Honesy plant that doesn’t take quite so long to flower, there is also the perennial ‘Lunaria rediviva’, This has cross shaped flowers in a pale lavender colour, with heart shaped green leaves. Both these variations have distinctive seed heads, flat and almost papery; the annua Honesty has round, silver dollar shaped seed heads (from which they get their nickname!), whilst the rediviva seed heads are more elliptical.

The seedpods that are so distinctive in Honesty plants are also what make them so easy to plant – and even easier for them to overtake your garden! Carried on the wind, the papery pods will dry out and release the seeds to germinate where they fall. If you want to grow Honesty from seed, all you have to do is collect these pods, let them dry out and collect the seeds. They will flourish planted straight into the garden, though if you’d like to grow them in planters or seed trays you should add a little old compost first. Honesty will develop thick roots, almost like tubers. This is common amongst the brassica family to which Honesty belongs, along with mustard. Due to this, they should not be kept in pots for an extended amount of time, as the roots will not have room to develop properly. They will flourish in almost any garden, though it will do better in less acidic conditions. The perennial rediviva prefers to be kept slightly damp and all variations of Honesty prefer not to be overfed (so stay away from the manure!). Try not to plant in the shade, though semi-shade should be fine.

These are a great plant for us gardeners who don’t want to expend too much effort! They’ll grow fantastically if pretty much left alone. This also makes them great for kids learning to garden – they can watch the whole process from seed to flower and there’s not a lot that can go wrong!

 

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Recipe – Chocolate, Orange and Raspberry Cookies

Everyone loves a biscuit (or 4!) but it can be a bit of a bore always having the same old selection to choose from. That’s why I’ve stopped trawling the shelves in the supermarket, hoping for something a bit different, and just started making my own! This recipe is great because they’re so quick to make and so delicious you won’t regret the effort. It’s an adaptation of a Nigella recipe (you might have read before how much I love her recipes!), retaining all of the rich chocolaty-ness but with our typical St Kitts twist.

biscuit

Ingredients:

125g dark chocolate

150g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

125g butter or margarine

75g Demerara sugar

50g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg (refrigerated)

100g orange chocolate (roughly chopped)

100g raspberry chocolate (roughly chopped)

 

Method:

– Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170C

– Melt the chocolate either in the microwave or in a bain-marie

– In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

– Mix in the chocolate and vanilla extract, then add the egg and beat until well combined.

– Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder and mix thoroughly, until it is the consistency of cake batter.

– Mix in the roughly chopped orange and raspberry chocolates, making sure they are fairly evenly distributed through the mixture.

– Scoop out 12 equal sized mounds and place onto a lined baking sheet. Be sure to leave a good amount of space between each and do not flatten them – they will spread out in the oven.

– Bake for 16 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean (as if you were testing a cake – if you hit a chocolate chip then try again)

– Leave to cool slightly then transfer to a plate or cooling rack.

– Enjoy with a glass of milk or cup of tea!

The best bit is, you can substitute the orange chocolate and raspberry chocolate chips for any flavours you fancy, or even something other than chocolate – I might have a go with cardamom and cranberry next!