Minestrone soup at Wimbledon?

June 25, 2013

That time of year is upon us yet again… “Wimbledon”!! 

  I love this time of year as for all foodies and vegetable growers in the UK, this week brings such joy.  It is as if everything starts to come alive when Wimbledon starts.  My first thought whilst I was watching Wimbledon for its first day was of course about the great British strawberry.  I could’nt get it out of my head…Still can’t! 
 Yesterday and today has been a real inspiration and I have fantastic ideas to conquer, which I will dissclose at a later date.

  As I look outside I can see my little peas growing fast, Salads and herbs galore! Even my Courgettes have had a burst of growth (at about 5-6 inches now) I cannot wait to eat the flowers aswell.
 So…What did I make for lunch yesterday…MINESTRONE SOUP!…** Screeching of a record player sounds** …
 MINESTRONE SOUP? I asked myself where on earth that came from?, thus having all these other ideas floating around my Foodie brain? Well at about 2.30pm it came. It was  after watching Keith Floyd again yesterday morning, I apparantly couldn’t get that out of my brain either! That man does it yet again for me. I didn’t do entirly his recipe as I like to have a few differences.  But it was a lovely, fresh, hearty but yet light, late Lunch.
So there we have it… Minestrone soup at Wimbledon!














Minestrone soup

Recipe: (Serves 2-3 ish)

Olive oil.
1 onion finely diced.
1 large Carrot diced small.
1 large stick of celery chopped finely also.
2 cloves of Garlic or 1 large clove chopped very fine.
level tsp of  dried oregano.
Fresh Chopped tomatoes (The better quality the better) really red and juicy.Approx 250g
Roughly 700ml of water.
I used 1/4 cube of veg stock and 1/4 of chicken stock. You can use veg or chicken or both in my case.
1 tbsp of tomato puree
A bouquet garni of fresh thyme and rosemary. (tied together).
Spaghetti broken to 1 inch in length or very small shaped pasta.
100g of Butter beans or cannellini beans rinsed off with water (Tinned)
A handfull of fresh baby Spinach. Ripped roughly.
Cracked black pepper and salt if needed.
Chopped Basil and grated parmesan to serve.

Fry off in the olive oil the onion, carrot and celery for a few minutes. Then add the garlic, oregano, tomatoes and tomato puree. You may need to add a little more olive oil at this stage. Then top up with the water and stock.  Add the Bouquet garni and cook for about 20 minutes.
  In that 20 minutes is a perfect time to have a glass of wine in the sun 🙂

 After the 20 minutes, You may need to add a little more water to this as you are adding the spaghetti and beans next. If you do add water, taste to see if you need more stock or tomato puree or even seasoning etc…
 Cook the spaghetti and beans for no more than 10 minutes. Should be done after 8 minutes. After 8 minutes add the spinach.

 Scatter the chopped basil and grated parmesan (don’t be shy now) and serve with crusty ciabatta and of course your second large glass of Red wine, preferably a Chianti. 










British Tomatoes… You learn something new every day!

June 14, 2013

I have recently been in contact, quite often to a lovely woman named Julie Woolley who is the Secretary of The British Tomato Growers Association. 
 We were sending emails over about certain topics surrounding believe it or not, tomatoes!  When Julie then Suggested to myself about a certain type of tomato that I had never heard of.  You readers out there may have, but I hadn’t and so suddenly I was excited about this little tomato that was compared to the piccolo that I had certainly heard of and tried.  This little Gem is called “The Sophie Jane”.
  Julie then began to tell me that this juicy little tomato was grown in Sussex and by a man named Chris Wall AND was sold in Sainsbury’s! Even better! I was thinking to myself, could I get hold of this? , thus being in Leicester? So that weekend the first task was to find these little gems!

 As My Partner and I scanned the Fruit and Vegetable aisles of Sainsburys, I hear from my Partner in the distance, “its here! and its the last one!” (A smile appeared on my face like a child in a sweet shop!)  Now you do pay a little more for these but every so often we have to have treats like this, especially being British produce! And trust me, If you are a tomato fan of eating, growing or both? such as me, you will experience the burst of lovely sweet pips spraying out of your mouth as you try this little lovely, as My parnter and I did, tasting them on their own.  Corny as it sounds we then did that “look” (with the eyes) Hmmmm Lush!  And then suddenly as with most “Foodies”, Chefs, Cooks, you get this burst of Brain energy that ultimately wonders what you can come up with?…

  I Had done the first part of trying it on its own. I then thought of slightly roasting the tomato as that will give an intense flavour of what it’s about. 
 It was a warm Sunday afternoon and I decided to make a tart, potato salad and have the roasted tomatoes with it. keeping it simple first.  The Tart I have to admit wasn’t my best of Tarts but the “Sophie Janes” went very well with it.  I felt like I was on a picnic 🙂



 The second time I used these tomatoes, I again tried to keep things simple as I didn’t want to spoil this sweet delicate but yet amazing flavour… So I love creating pasta dishes and I LOVE seafood. So I thought I’d combine the two for a quick meal for myself that evening. Unfortunatley I had no white wine, Damn! But I plodded on with the recipe and used lemon juice instead and turned out great! Really fresh and vibrant.  These are always the best recipes, when you least expect its going to be great when it’s so simple! 

Spaghetti with King prawns and “Sophie Jane” Tomatoes.

Just to mention, I won’t be too specific on amounts as it was just for one. But any questions, please contact me 🙂



Recipe:

                                                                         Spaghetti                                                          
                                                                         King Prawns (cooked) However many you want! 
                                                                         Chopped Garlic (as fine as you can) a small clove
                                                                         2 Chopped Spring Onions 
                                                                         Red chilli (Half a cm’s worth) fine diced
                                                                         Fish stock or veg stock or even chicken stock just 
                                                                         go easy on it. (for one person if a cube, use no 
                                                                          more than 1/4 of it.(about 200ml water with it.           
                                                                         Cracked Black pepper
                                                                         Basil, Parsley , Lemon juice and Garlic micro
                                                                         chives to serve also with some lemon.

This is a simple recipe but with a very tasty outcome 🙂

Fry off the onion, garlic and chilli, add some lemon juice, then add the stock ( about 250 ml of it ) reduce down, then add the tomatoes, cooked spaghetti, king prawns, and when almost cooked add the herbs and serve with grated parmesan, garlic chives and a squirt of lemon! If you feel you want to add salt then you can when you try at the end.
                                   
                                                                         

British Tomato week 20th May-26th May 2013

May 23, 2013

To Kick start British Tomato week this week May 20th-26th 2013

 ( Even though it is Thursday!), 
 I have decided that I just had to show you how MY Little ones are getting along! 


I am Very proud of them, as, when We moved to a new house last year, I had to leave my Greenhouse thus being so old.   It would have just crumbled away.  However,  I have to say, My porch in this house is doing a remarkable job so far!  Some are almost ready to go into Growbags as you can see.  The Problem is our lovely Spring weather at the moment! Its hailing here currently.  Snowing in some parts of the UK I hear today!

Now even though I am writing this piece towards the end of the British Tomato week, it is in fact the very beginning of the great British tomato.  The vast abundance of harvesting tends to come throughout the summer months.  Mine I am guessing around August? But I maybe wrong there.  We shall see?! 🙂
Lets just enjoy this beautiful Fruit… (or Vegetable as some would argue over) and enjoy from now on, up until October.  I cannot wait to use mine for recipes (excited)! 
I must add aswell, my laptop is doing CRAZY things today…so I am sorry If it is a bit mish mashed in areas?! 



A Great affordable meal from leftovers :-) !

May 9, 2013

Ok so I was “umming and Arring” , (debating), on wether to put this recipe on.  But in actual fact I realised it was a great little number to write about.  
  Now this recipe isn’t one to “wow really” at first glance (please excuse the poor photo!),       and there are so many versions of this recipe,  just purely because I suppose it is very versatile.  However, one Vital point I have to make about this recipe, is that it is cost effective or even so, thus can be created from the brilliant leftovers from the day before! 
 One thing all of My readers out there will probably agree with, is that we all like to save a few pennies. To buy maybe the finer foods we enjoy to eat?  Or Fine wine?  Or even for that break away to maybe have them all ha ha! Here it is…

 Beef Keema Matar Curry:











Recipe: For 2-3 people (approx)

If you dont like dishes too spicy, just go easy on the chillies ok!

300g Minced Beef Or Lamb Mince (or if you had left over lamb or beef from a roast you could use)
1/2 tsp of Ginger
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped or minced
1 Onion Diced finely
salt and pepper
1 chopped green chilli (add more if you like it hot but we are adding hot chilli powder aswell)
1 tsp of hot chilli powder
1 tbsp of Mild curry powder
1/2 tbsp of Garam masala – Normally bost of these spices wouldn’t work quite well together and you could just use Tumeric powder, but I took the chance and it worked.
1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes or fresh
1/2 tbsp of Tomato puree
about 4 medium sized potatoes 
Frozen Petit pois or garden peas
A little beef stock with water just to keep a nice sauce and to enhance the Beef. Use Chicken stock or lamb if it is Lamb meat.
Chopped Coriander to serve.

Chop your potatoes into small chunks or quarters and blanch them off. Do not boil totally as you want them to still have a crunch as they are going into the curry.  Then defrost your peas.

Fry off the Onion, Garlic, Ginger, chillies and dry spices for a few minutes. Add the meat and the seasoning until the meat has browned and cooked through.  Add the Stock, Tomatoes, puree, and cook on the stove for about 10 minutes, checking that it wont go too dry or stick etc. Add the potatoes and cook for a further 5-10 mins and a few minutes before it is done, add the defrosted peas.
Serve with the chopped Coriander on top.  I served this with Basmati rice but you could just have this with lovely Chapatis…your choice!




teapigs Matcha tea Review for Matchamay

May 3, 2013


teapigs matcha tea review for matchamay 🙂 



My oh My, wasn’t I suprised when I tried this “bad boy in a cup”! Or rather should a say “Good in a cup”?!  I am still grinning and very intrigued about this tea…

 When the lovely teapigs asked me to be involved with doing a review for matcha tea, for matchamay, straight away I was excited.  I feel the reason why? is because of its colour. It has such a vibrant green colour that any Chef, Cook, Foodie or tea lover would be interested on seeing what comes from this Bright green powder coming all the way from Nishio, Japan. 
 Most people as I am aware including myself was wondering what is this going to taste like?! The powder was exciting to look at and when I added the hot water…the darker it got.  Hmm? Just do it woman!?! I thought…plow in there.  I was pleasantly suprised. It was nice, some green teas are too strong for me but this one, had a lovely fragrance to it.  Ultimately my mind started to boggle with recipes I could do with this lovely green powder…
  I do suggest that you try this tea as it has many properties about it such as a 1 g serving of teapigs matcha is equivalent to 15 cups of normal green tea!  And the graph for the antioxidants in matcha tea is just phenomenal.  Matcha has 1573 antioxidants per 1 gram! When I had the tea I noticed I didn’t have the need for a “sit down” in the afternoon.  I am going to continue to take teapigs matcha tea as it is proven to help with stress, energy levels and helps the condition of hair, skin and nails ( which is even better too!) 

 I really recommend that you guys go onto http://www.teapigs.co.uk to find out more about this lovely tea. Show the love on Twitter @teapigs and facebook is http://www.facebook.com/drinkrealtea 

Now if you lovely readers of mine out there want to try some of matcha the lovely teapigs are giving you 15% off if you visit http://www.teapigs.co.uk and use the code BLOGGERS12 ( enter the code at the checkout but the discount does not apply to gifts or cheeky deals as they are already discounted!

 Keep watching on here as I have got alot of ideas for matcha in the future 🙂