Being inventive with vegetables

We have courgettes coming out of our ears at the moments, and I'd love to hear any of your creative ideas for using them. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share one of my favourite courgette recipes with you

Courgette souffle quiche

shortcrust pastry to line a deep 10 inch pie case

I use 400g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
300g butter

Mix these ingredients together to make crumbs, and then add 1 egg to bring it into a dough

Roll out thinly and line the pie dish base and sides. Bake it blind at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, and then take it out and let it cool down a little. Meanwhile prepare the filling.

3 medium sized courgettes (zucchini)
1 small onion
3 fat cloves of garlic
handful of grated cheddar cheese
6 sprigs of thyme ( I like lemon thyme)
8 mint leaves
2 eggs

Slice the courgette and onion and saute until softened and just beginning to colour. Add the finely chopped garlic, and saute for another couple of minutes.
Remove from the heat, and puree all these cooked ingredients.
Finely chop the herbs, and add these with the cheese to the courgette mixture. Stir, and season to taste. Once mixture has cooled slightly, beat in the two eggs, and fill the pastry case. Put back in the oven for another 25 minutes until the filling is risen and just set.

It's delicious, and 2 out of 3 of my courgette - hating children loved it!

I have been busy making a padded saddlecloth for Rosie, as she has a very prominent spine, and the saddle she came with sits so low the gullet touches her spine. Before we did any work with her I wanted to make sure she was absolutely comfortable. My brilliant saddler showed me how to do this once when I balked at spending £100 on a specially made numnah with extra 'shims' to pad it out. I stitched fleece pockets onto a lightweight numnah ( fleece is great because it has a bit of stretch in it, which you need when trying to stuff the shims in), and then cut the shim/pads out of pure wool felt (these are offcuts from a local felt maker, but otherwise they could be cut from sheets of foam gamgee). It is important to build them up in layers, and actually fit them to the contours of the pony's back.

Once they are in place, it is crucial to make sure they lie flat and unwrinkled - you don't want to create any pressure points.

It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but it works a treat, and Rosie's saddle fits much better now. Of course, in an ideal world she would have a new saddle fitted, but realistically, we have only borrowed her for the summer, and so I am not going to buy her a new saddle.

And here she is, quite happy to be going for a ride!

I am putting these three originals on Etsy soon, but thought I would offer them here at a slightly better price first in case anyone wants to grab one!

"Dancing Hare"
original acrylic painting
painting measures 13cm x 16cm and comes with a beautiful old re-used wooden frame, which measures 24cm x 29cm.

£55 + shipping /insurance

"Of Moon and Magic"
original pencil and watercolour
measures approx 20cm x 29cm, mounted with a thin gold border, and in a wooden frame
Frame measures 34cm x 44cm

for sale framed £80
or mounted, but NOT framed £60

+ shipping and insurance

"Between Times"

original pencil and watercolour
measures 29cm x 20cm
mounted with a thin gold border and in a wooden frame
Frame measures 34cm x 44cm

Framed £80
mounted but NOT framed £60
+ shipping and insurance

please email me if you are interested in any of these

nature's medicines in our back gardens

I apologise if you are all heartily sick of hearing about nettles, but I continue to be amazed by their many uses! These are truly an under-rated plant. Not only are the ponies having nettle tea to detox, and protect their laminae, but we are eating large amounts of it as a vegetable. There is a link to my nettle recipes from last year HERE. In addition to that, here is our current favourite soup recipe. All my kids have second helpings of this -- it's a real hit.

Nettle and Pea Soup

1 0nion
2 fat cloves of garlic
1/2 a carrier bag full of nettle tops ( I didn't have enough when we suddenly had an unexpected visitor, and bulked mine out with some hop shoots and goosegrass from the garden)
vegetable stock
1 mugfull of peas ( frozen is fine)
6 mint leaves and a couple of sprigs of marjoram
salt and black pepper
Greek yoghurt

sweat the onion in a small bit of olive oil. When it is done, add the finely chopped garlic and cook for another minute or so.
Add all your greens to the pan, and add enough vegetable stock to cover them all.
Cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes until all tender.
Remove from the heat, add the herbs, and liquidise.
Season with salt and lots of black pepper.
Serve with a large spoon of greek yoghurt on top.

Best with homemade flatbread, or cheese scones!

Another all-time favourite in our household is Nettle and Cauliflower cheese. You can't beat nettles served in a cheese sauce!

My sister and I debating our variations on nettle recipes!

It felt like we had hit rock bottom with Bethan last week. On top of everything else that was an issue for her, the weather warmed up and she started to show all the classic signs of sweetitch :( She rubbed the top of her tail raw almost overnight, and she had the typical pustules all down her crest and in her mane. I could have cried when I saw it - poor little pony. If I had been expecting it, I would have been prepared earlier in the season, but as it was a bolt from the blue, I had no treatments to hand. I had to wait for Monday before I could go out and buy her a fly rug. I don't want to treat her with DEET, as it's such toxic stuff, and I am allergic to Benzyl Benzoate so can't use that, even if I wanted to. So I did my research, and interestingly, two herbs came up in my search. Guess what.... Dandelions and nettles! Dandelions are high in B vitamins and potassium, and there is research shown in humans that Thiamine ( a B vitamin) is a strong deterrent to biting midges. Dandelions she is choosing anyway, and I also added Brewers yeast and garlic to her feed. Nettles, it turns out, have soothing properties for allergic itching when the tea is used as a wash for the affected area. Aren't they marvellous? So I washed her with nettle tea, applied some Cream to the sores, and covered her with a new fly rug. The cream I am using on her is Itch Cream, from Global herbs. I have not used it before, but I regard their products very highly. I have had some near miraculous results in the past from their Laminitis products.
So now I just have to cross my fingers, and wait and see. It's difficult to judge at the moment, as the weather has actually got a bit colder again.
Here she is, sporting her new rug. Despite Piper's brief strop about not being the centre of attention for the photo, the three girls are quite a little gang now.

They dined on Mince, and slices of Quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.

Quince is probably my most favourite fruit, and considering how delicious it is , it is surprisingly unknown in the UK. I planted a quince tree (Cydonia Oblonga 'Vranja') in my garden 10 years ago. It matured quickly into a beautifully gnarly tree that produces a heavy crop of beautiful golden fruit every year without fail. These are late maturing - not at their best until the beginning of November, but it is well worth the wait! The hard, aromatic fruit has to be cooked, with lots of sugar as it is very sharp, but then it has an amazing flavour, slightly reminiscent of eastern spices, and the jam, which turns pinkish orange has a taste somewhere between mango and apricot - divine! It is entirely frost hardy, fast growing and very ornamental to look at - I can't understand why it is not more popular. So, to anyone who has some room, I highly recommend planting one.


The fruits don't store well once picked so it is best to use them within a few days. I puree some down and freeze it, but the most delicious thing to do is make Quince marmalade.

* VERY CAREFULLY peel and core the fruit. ( most books suggest you pass the cooked fruit through a sieve half way through the marmalade process, but I find this really laborious, and fairly wasteful - time is better spent in making sure all the peel and core is removed at this stage, so you can puree the mixture and not discard any later on)

* Put in a large pan and BARELY cover fruit with water.

* Cook on a low heat until quince begins to soften. If at this stage you feel there is excess water in the pan, strain some off now, as it greatly reduces the 'jamming' time. Quince is funny stuff, it doesn't mix well with water, so it is quite easy to separate off the water at this early stage.

* When the quince is entirely softened, puree with a hand held blender, or mash well. The mixture should be fairly thick at this stage. If it seems too runny, you need to cook for longer and reduce more.
*Once the mixture has reached a 'porridgy' consistency turn off the heat and measure the mixture. For every pint of quince puree you should add 3/4 of sugar. Mix well and heat on a low heat to melt the sugar.

* From this point on you need to stir continuously, as the marmalade burns easily on the bottom of the pan. It doesn't come up to a rolling boil like jam, but instead needs to simmer slowly. It takes about half an hour from this point, and again doesn't reach setting point quite like jam does. Instead it starts to form a thick gloopy skin on the wooden spoon or around the edges of the pan when it is ready. At this point pour into clean sterilised glass jars.

* Put away and enjoy! I keep opened jars in the fridge, and we use this marmalade in a really yummy version of bread and butter pudding. ( see below )

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STARRY PUDDING

This is a recipe that I have adapted over time from an old English favourite, bread and butter pudding. I use quince marmalade because I make it myself, and it’s sharp smoky taste is divine, and perfectly cuts through the sweet richness of the pudding. If you cant use that, then other marmalade would work well too, though I would recommend one without peel chunks.

This is a huge pudding that I make when we have all the family round, but you could halve the ingredients and make a smaller one!

Serves 10 –14 depending on how large their appetites!

INGREDIENTS

1 Pandoro cake (Italian sponge cake made in a tall ‘star’ shape, so when sliced across horizontally you get star slices)

½ Jar quince marmalade

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 eggs

3 egg yolks

400 ml double cream

350 ml milk

sprinkling Demerara sugar

Turn oven on to 170 degrees c

Butter your largest ovenproof dish!

Slice the whole cake horizontally into slices about ½ inch thick.

Make these slices into sandwiches with the marmalade, and cut in half, reserving 2 best star shapes for the top of the pudding.

Fill the dish with the sandwiches, arranging and stacking them so they all fit in. It depends on the size and shape of your dish, but I find that putting them upright, hedgehog fashion, works best.

Spread marmalade on one side of each of the reserved slices, and place them on top, marmalade side down.

Whisk together the milk, cream, all eggs, and caster sugar, and carefully pour over the pudding, making sure all is covered, and leave to soak in for ten minutes.

Sprinkle with Demerara sugar and bake for about 45 minutes.

And so that is it for a week. I am off away to Cornwall today for a much needed holiday with my extended family ( where we always bake starry pudding!). See you when I get back !

Danielle x

berries, berries, berries!

My father came to visit, so I dragged him out in the rain to help me pick berries! We picked rowan berries and sloes, both destined for a couple of nights in the freezer to simulate a frost, before being made into jellies. The crab apples will go in with the berries too, while the haws are cooking at this moment on the stove, in an attempt to make Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's 'Haw-sin sauce'. I'll let you know how it goes!

## UPDATE## I made the Haw - sin sauce and tasted it when it was newly made. I then added a lot more ground black pepper than the recipe said, and thought it would have been improved by adding a whole chilli while cooking ( and fishing it out before bottling) to give the whole thing a bit of a kick. At this stage, I was not entirely sure about it - it tasted rather bitter, and a bit harsh. Nevertheless we bottled it up and put it away. Three weeks later I opened it to try, and WOW! It has matured beautifully, and there is no trace of the bitterness - it actually tastes very fruity and almost floral. The children LOVE it, and think it tastes of raspberries. So, a definite success!

The Nettle Recipes!

Hops are a new vegetable for me. I read that you could eat them ,and as I have a rampant hop plant in my garden, I thought I would give them a try. The parts to use are the shoots, the young tender green tops, cut off before they turn brown and tougher. After steaming them , I tasted them and was pleasantly surprised by the flavour. They actually tasted rather nutty. When I was a

child, we used to eat beech nuts in the Autumn, gathering them on the way home from school, and peeling the little shiny cases, to eat the raw nut inside. It was these that hop shoots reminded me of.

Nettle and Hop Top Pesto

Basil is the obvious herb choice for this, but my seedlings are only just germinating. I used golden marjoram and thyme. My smallest son, who is suspicious of anything green, ate two helpings of this!

1 colanderful of nettle tops

½ colanderful hop tops

olive oil

1 handful fresh seasonal herbs

1 colve of garlic, crushed

salt

pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

Cook the nettles and hop tops in a drop of boiling water for a minute or two. They should be just tender, but still bright green. Drain, but don’t squeeze, and leave to cool a little.

In a separate pan, lightly cook the garlic in olive oil. Again leave to cool.

When both cooked ingredients are warm, rather than hot, put them in a blender, with the fresh herbs and lemon. Whizz round until pureed. If your machine needs more liquid to make it work, you can add some olive oil. Taste, and season with salt and pepper.

Mix with pasta, top with grated cheese, and sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds!

Nettle, Squash and Blue Cheese Lasagne

½ a carrier bag full of nettle tops

1 Butternut squash

3 red onions

lasagne sheets

olive oil

tablespoon of butter

white sauce:

25gms butter

2 heaped tablespoons plain flour

¾ - 1 pint of milk ( depending on how thick you like your sauce!)

3 cloves of garlic

100g blue cheese ( I used gorgonzola,)

pepper and salt

First, peel, and dice the butternut squash, peel and quarter the red onions, and put them in a roasting pan. Season well with salt and pepper and a good slug of olive oil. And put it in a hot oven to roast for half an hour.

Meanwhile prepare your lasagne sheets if they need it . I lay mine flat in a dish and pour boiling water over them, and leave them to soak for 10 minutes before using. This dish only has two layers of lasagne, so calculate how many you need.

Thoroughly wash your nettles in cold water. Strip larger leaves from stems, and discard stems. Large leaves should be sliced. ( you WILL need gloves on for this!) Put all the nettles in a large pan, with about a centimetre of boiling water at the bottom. Stir around until well wilted – usually takes 1 to 2 minutes, no more. Drain ( squeeze excess water out) , return to pan ( heat turned off) and add tablespoon of butter and generous twist of black pepper..

Make your white / béchamel sauce as normal, then turn heat off and crumble blue cheese in. Stir until it has melted, and then taste and adjust seasoning. THEN crush the garlic into the sauce and stir well.

Now you can assemble it!

On the bottom, put the roasted vegetables, then a layer of lasagne. Then your nettle layer, and another layer of lasagne on top, and finally pour your sauce over the top. Sprinkle a pinch of nutmeg over the top.

Put in an oven ( 180 degrees) for about 30 / 40 minutes ( until lasagne is cooked, and it’s brown and bubbly on top)

If you don’t like blue cheese, I reckon this would also be delicious with a block of Feta cheese crumbled in with the nettles when you layer then, and a generous seasoning of oregano, and no cheese in the white sauce!

Chana Masala with nettles

Serves about 6

This is a dish which needs planning in advance. It REALLY, REALLY, does taste better if made 24 hours in advance and left to sit and soak up flavours!

250g dried chickpeas, soaked and pre-cooked, or 2 tins of chickpeas

1/2 carrier bag of nettle tops or shredded leaves, washed

1 onion thinly sliced

1 red and 1green pepper sliced

4 tomatoes chopped

2 cloves of garlic crushed

Juice of 1 lime

Bunch of fresh coriander

2 tablespoons of Chana masala spice ( available from Ethnic grocers)

OR

1 tsp ground coriander

1tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground chilli

2 cloves

½ tsp cinnamon

4 cardamons, split open

1 Bay leaf

Black pepper

Salt to taste

Vegetable oil

Fry the onions in a large heavy bottomed pan, until they are soft, but not brown. Add all the spices, and fry for another minute. Add tomatoes, and peppers, and garlic and sauté for another couple of minutes. Add chickpeas and two cups of water, and leave to simmer with lid on for 20 minutes. Add the nettles, stirring constantly to make sure they are all cooked. After 5 minutes, add the lime juice, and then taste to check the seasoning. Add salt if necessary. Add coriander, stir in, and LEAVE until next day! You can of course eat it straight away, but it tastes much harsher, whereas if you leave it a day it tastes rich and the chickpeas are succulent and full of flavour.

Can be eaten hot or cold, best with naan breads ( or homemade puris if you are feeling really indulgent!)