It’s September and the harvesting season has been in full swing for a few weeks now, but there is one crop which has to be my overall favourite. And thats the Munchkin Pumpkins. I first saw this plant in the Sarah Raven catalogue, in the photograph she had it growing up a frame and I instantly thought it would look perfect growing over my hazel archway. I was also drawn in by the cuteness of the size and the shape! I sowed 6 seeds overall, they all germinated but sadly only 1 died (I acidentally snapped the stem!). Therefore I put 2 plants on one side of my archway and 3 on the other side, and it didn’t take long for them to take over the frame. I originally had the pumpkins, sweet peas and borlotto beans growing up the archway but the poor sweet peas hardly produced, whereas the beans and pumpkins thrived. I now have a huge bag of borlotto beans hanging and drying in the shed and theres a glut of pumpkins, not that I’m complaining!
I am totally and utterly in love with these tiny pumpkins, just look how cute they are! Plus they taste absolutely delicious and they are so easy to grow. All I had to do was help them grow up the archway by securing the stems to the hazel, apart from that I didn’t do anything else to them and they have produced so many pumpkins. Definately a winner and one I will be growing next year!
Stayed tuned for tomorrow’s blog post, there’s going to be another giveaway and it’s a beautiful one!
Before I go I thought I would share the recipe on how I like to cook these little beauties, it’s rather simple but so delicious.
Munchkin Pumpkin stuffed with Kale, Chorizo and Cream
1 Munchkin Pumpkin
1 Teaspoon of Kale
1 Teaspoon of chopped Chorizo
Extra Thick Cream (any cream will do but I prefer extra thick, it melts down lovely!)
Cut the top of the pumpkin off, trying to keep it as straight as possible. Remove the seeds inside with a spoon and hollow it out. Fill with the kale, chorizo and then add two teaspoons of extra thick cream (or fill nearly to the brim with cream). Replace the pumpkin lid and then roast in the oven for 45 minutes.
Around a month ago in one in my previous videos I mentioned an idea to make a cooking program where I share recipes and cook produce grown in my allotment. So this video is my little experiment, obviously the cooking series will be a little better filmed. I will set my little oven up outside and have a better script too
But in the mean time I just wanted to share some cordial recipes using foraged sloe berries and cherry plums.
It’s recipe time and until my new website is up and running I’m afraid I’m having to write my recipes as blog posts. So here it is:
When my Dad found those little juicy plums whilst walking the dog I instantly turned to the ever so brilliant book by Alys Fowler called ‘the thrifty forager’. She confirmed that they were indeed cherry plums and was so kind as to share a tarte recipe on the opposite page. How could I ignore that, especially when it looked so delicious?! The recipe included a homemade pastry tart case, however I cheated and brought a sweet pastry case from the supermarket to save a bit of time. So here’s the recipe for the most delicious tarte in the whole world!
Ingredients:
50g cornflour
100g caster sugar
500ml milk
2 egg yolks
1 sweet pastry case (7-9 inches)
Approximately 500g of plums
Heat the Milk in a saucepan, do not let it boil. In a bowl mix together the sugar with the 2 yolks until it becomes smooth and shiny. Add the cornflower and stir well. Lower the heat on the milk and add the sugary egg mixture, stirring constantly. It usually takes around 15 minutes for the creme to cook. It should become stiff and come away from the sides of the pan. Let it cool in the saucepan off the heat. Cover the pan with cling film to stop the creme drying up.
Wash the plums, half them and remove the stones. Spread the creme over the pastry and cover neatly with plums. Bake the tart at 180C for 15-20 minutes - the plums will become soft and slightly caramelised.
This was the first year I went foraging for elderflower and I had such a great time, as a matter of fact I went foraging for it on two separate occasions and came home with baskets full of the pretty white flower heads. I did go a little overboard with making the cordial and champagne, in the end I think I made about 50 bottles (not that I’m complaining!) I especially love the cordial mixed with lemonade, however I found out that there are a lot of other recipes that use cordial as an ingrediant including the strawberry and elderflower jam recipe I featured in a previous post. I also happened to chance upon this jelly recipe and I just couldn’t wait to try it, I am a huge lover of jelly and elderflower so it was a match made in heaven! I had never made jelly before and didn’t realise it was this easy. It was the most delcious jelly I have ever tasted, my new favourite dessert and I will definately be making it again!
Recipe:
300 ml elderflower cordial
400 ml cold water
6 leaves gelatine
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
10 or more fresh strawberries, you can add how many you feel like!
Mix the cordial with the cold water in a jug. Soak the gelatine for 5 minutes in just enough cold water to cover. Meanwhile, warm 100 ml (3 fl oz) of the cordial mix in a medium pan until hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat.
Squeeze out any excess water from the gelatine. Stir the gelatine into the warm cordial until fully dissolved. Add the remaining cordial mix and the lemon juice, and stir well. You must add the remaining cordial to the dissolved gelatine and not vice versa, or it can cause the gelatine to go stringy.
Add the chopped strawberries to a bowl, pour on the jelly mixture and leave to chill overnight (tip: If you want the strawberries to be floating in the centre of the jelly then pour on half the mixture, let it chill for an hour and then pour on the rest of the jelly mixture and allow to set overnight)
It seems that the strawberry season is slowly coming to an end here on plot 15c and I am a little relieved. Don’t get me wrong, I love strawberries but there was a massive glut of them and after making lots of jam already I was a little bemused about what I could make with the rest. I came across a recipe for some strawberry cordial and it sounded delicious! I had already made lots of elderflower cordial and amongst it being really yummy I found that you can use it as an ingredient in so many things such as jelly (there will be another post all about my elderflower jelly very soon!) I used half of my strawberry harvest to make some more strawberry and elderflower jam because I love it so much, and then I used the other half to make the cordial.
Recipe: (to make roughly 2 litres or cordial)
1kg crushed strawberries
2 unwaxed lemon, thinly sliced
1.8kg caster sugar
1litre of water
Place the strawberries and lemon in a large glass bowl with the sugar and citric acid.
Bring the water to the boil and once boiled, pour it into the bowl and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.
Leave to cool, cover and place in a fridge for 4 days.
Strain through a muslin and decant into sterilised bottles. Keeps in the fridge for up to 6 months.
It tastes delicious with water, lemonade and it can be mixed with wine for that perfect summer drink (adults only!). If I don’t drink it all over the next week then I might try and make some jelly with it, or maybe even some ice lollies if the sun keeps shining
The weekends usually consist of one whole day being spent up the allotment, I just love being there, It’s my favourite place and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather being doing! After a full week at work it’s nice to cycle up to Plot 15C in the morning with a long list of jobs to complete to spend the day in the sun shine weeding and harvesting crops (and remembering to put on suncream and a hat!) This weekend it just so happened to be a glorious day on Sunday (and poured with rain on Saturday!) so I headed to the allotment to do some much needed weeding. As a little treat I stopped at the local shop on the way to buy some supplies for lunch, both me and my Dad were spending the day on our plots so I decided to make us some lunch up the allotment.
I absolutely love my Ghillie Kettle, it makes the most delicious cups of tea and it’s so easy to use (once you get the hang of it!) You can also cook on it using the top of the kettle whilst it’s boiling and then you can finish cooking using the embers in the fire pit once the kettle has boiled. I have only ever cooked a pancake on the Ghillie so today for lunch I decided to cook some bacon and make some good old fashioned bacon sarnies! After spending the morning weeding it was nice to sit back and enjoy the sunshine eating a delicious lunch, something I would love to do more often on the plot.
Now here is an idea which has been swimming around in my head for the past week. I was thinking how nice it would be to cook lunch up the allotment every weekend and how even nicer it would be to cook the food I was growing. Then I thought how great would it be to film a sort of spin off series to my allotment videos but focus entirely on cooking little snacks and lunches like omelettes etc on the allotment. This is just an idea really but it would be great to hear any feedback on the matter? Would it interest people at all?
This weekend I am planning on cooking my fresh broad beans on the stove and adding them to a salad freshly picked from my Dads allotment, I just can’t wait!
The strawberry patch is going crazy! There are so many strawberries growing and an endless amount of big red juicy ones, if I’m being honest I’m getting a tad fed up with eating strawberries. So I came to conclusion that it was about time to dig out the jam making equipment and get making some preserves. I managed to collect a whopping 5.5 lbs of strawberries from both my raised beds, that would be more then enough for the two types of jams that I wanted to make; plain old strawberry jam and a new recipe; strawberry AND elderflower jam (two of my favourite things combined!)
Now I’ve made jam a few times and along the way I have collected some equipment like a large enamel jam pan, a thermometer, various funnels and lots of jam jars. The only problem I have is getting the right setting point, I’ve found that if I don’t rush and take my time to do the wrinkle test at different times during the making process then I can’t miss it!
I managed to make 3 large jars of plain strawberry jam as well as 2 small jars of the strawberry and elderflower jam. I just love strawberries and I love elderflower so I knew the recipe wouldn’t disappoint, unless I mucked it up of course. But I was very careful and stopped the process at the right setting point so the jam turned out perfect, and it tasted delicious too! I think what makes it extra special is the fact that I used homegrown strawberries freshly picked from my allotment and elderflower cordial which I had previously made from foraged elderflower. I will definitely be making some more of this jam once more strawberries turn red in my little patch, that’s for sure
Here’s the recipe for my strawberry and elderflower jam, you can simply double the ingredients if you want more jam (which I recommend as it’s so tasty!)
Recipe:
500g of strawberries (hulled and chopped)
1/2 of a granny smith apple (peeled and chopped)
400g of granulated sugar
6 tablespoons of elderflower cordial
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Prep and cooking time; 45 minutes.
Put the strawberries and apple in a saucepan or jam pan, add the sugar and stir it up. Heat the pan on low until the fruits start to get juicy and the sugar becomes wet. Add the elderflower cordial. Now turn up the heat to medium until it becomes a rolling boil, do not stir from this point on. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat after 15 minutes and test a teaspoon on a cold saucer for the wrinkle test (Let the jam cool and then move your finger through the centre of the jam, if it wrinkles and leaves a track then the jam has set and it is ready) Let the jam cool down and then stir in the lemon juice. Transfer to a jam jar and allow to cool in a dark place. Once opened keep refrigerated.
