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Home cooking and organic gardeningCarrot and Lentil Soup
This was thought up on the spur of the moment and the result was really good, its a thick and warming soup, packed full of flavour that you could exchange the lentils for something like bulgur wheat. The lovage is my newest herb in the garden and is really worth growing, it smells something like celery but when cooked gives real body and depth. I love it and would not be without now. Many thanks to my friend Pam who gave me the plants.
You will need the following
1 lb Carrots diced
8 oz Onions diced
3 sticks Celery chopped
1 oz of butter
4oz Red lentils
1oz of Fresh Lovage chopped
2 teaspoons of Verdurette or 2 vegetable stock cubes
2 pints of water
Pepper
To make the soup
Add the carrots, onions, celery and butter and saute until soft
Add the lentils, lovage, verdurette or stock cubes and the water
Simmer until the lentils are cooked and season with pepper to taste.
Serve it as it is or mash it or whizz it as I did .
Ginger Beer using Brewers Yeast
If you don’t have the time or don’t want to make a ‘fresh ginger plant’ (see post) then I believe this is the next best option. Have a go and let me know what you think.
You will need the following to make the Ginger Beer.
1 sachet of brewers yeast
2lbs of sugar
1 jar of ground dried ginger
1 to 2 fresh lemons
1 sterilised jar the hold the ‘plant’
3 sterilised recycled ‘pop’ bottles
Milton sterilizing tablets or liquid to sterilise the jar and recycled plastic ‘pop’ bottles
Muslin cloth to strain the ‘plant’
Ginger Beer Plant
1 sachet of brewers yeast
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of dried ginger
1 clean sterilised jar with cover
cooled boiled water
Add all the ingredients into the jar and stir.
For six days add
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of ginger
To make the Ginger Beer
Now strain the liquid through some muslin. Reserve half the contents of the plant to start a new one and pass the other half onto a friend.
Make a sugar syrup using 1 1/2 lbs sugar and 1 pint of water
When the sugar is dissolved add 5 pints of water
Add the juice of one lemon
Add the strained liquid from the ginger beer plant in the jar
Add to the recycled ‘pop’ bottles and leave until the bottles became hard to the touch (this will vary according to the temperature the bottles are stored in), now place in the fridge or somewhere cool.
Ready to drink now.
Seedlings progress
The seedlings that were set in March are all growing on strongly, and have all been potted on to give them a little more room to grow, although the house is now looking something like a greenhouse as every window ledge seems to have some seedlings growing on it.
The first photo’ show my Lemon grass, this was grown from a piece bought at the local supermarket and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see it grow.
The second shows some of the squashes in their recycled coffee cups, I just wash them and snip a few holes in the bottom and hey presto they are ready to use to pot up!
The third show various tomatoes, some more lemon grass that’s not quite taken off yet, and some lovage, my new favourite herb.
Sunny Spring Sunday
Sunday we spent the day in the garden, it was a beautiful warm and sunny day. I have taken some photographs to keep you up to date on what we have been doing. The ‘veggie’ patch has now been extended into the garden having taken over what were two rose beds some long while back. One now contains the Jerusalem Artichokes and the other dug over on Sunday, now has early potatoes in it.
The plan is now to use another side flower bed as a further bed for the runner or pole beans. It already has some rhubarb in so it is half way there. The flowers are going have some vegetables for company, I sure it will work out fine in the end.
In the Autumn or Fall I will deep mulch all these new beds using the method in Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, which I’m sure will sort out the weeds and also improve the soil. This style of mulching is sometimes known as ‘lasange’ mulching because of the layers. When it’s completed the beds shouldn’t need to be dug and that has to be the biggest bonus.
There were so many butterflies in the garden, and it is so good to see them. Managed to capture an image on a photo’ but it doesn’t really do it justice, they are so beautiful.
Making Ginger Beer
Ginger Beer, ahh the best fizzy drink going. Well that’s how I feel, and now I want to share the recipe that I think is the very best.
This has been an experiment for me and I hope that if you try it you will agree that has been successful.
I will give alternatives which may give quicker results which I will go over in a later post.
I love the idea of using just four ingredients. Its so simple and is so natural too.
The ‘plant’ is a simple natural yeast culture grow in a glass jar from the ginger.
You will need the following to make the Ginger Beer.
2lbs of sugar
1 piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb
1 to 2 fresh lemon
1 sterilised jar the hold the ‘plant’
3 sterilised recycled 2litre ‘pop’ bottles
Milton sterilizing tablets or liquid to sterilise the jar and recycled plastic ‘pop’ bottles
Muslin cloth to strain the ‘plant’
So to start the Ginger Beer ‘plant’ you will need the following.
A piece of fresh ginger (a couple of inches in size)
2 teaspoons sugar
cooled boiled water (warm rather than cold)
1 sterilised glass jar and cover
Stage 1
Grate the fresh ginger and add to the sterilised jar
Add the sugar
Add the cooled water
Keep in a warm place but if possible out of direct sunlight.
Stage 2
Stir a teaspoon of sugar into the jar everyday for a week
It should start to fizz after a couple of days and will smell lovely, if it does not then it is a case of starting again, none of mine failed but it can happen.
Stage 3
At the end of the week the ginger should be strained through some muslin, collect the corners of the muslin and squeeze out the residue, put back into a sterilised jar and repeat the previous stage again for one more week.
Stage 4
Heat one pint of water and 1lb 8oz sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
Add five more pints of cold water
Strain the ginger as before, then add to the water and sugar mixture.
Add the juice of 1 or 2 Lemons
Grate another piece of ginger and strain through muslin and add to the water and sugar.
Taste the mixture at this point you can add more ginger if you want it a bit more fiery.
Bottle in sterilised plastic ‘pop’ bottles.
When the bottles have gone hard put in the fridge.
Its now ready to drink!
If you want to make another batch, save the half ginger in the muslin mix with another grated piece of ginger and put in a sterilised jar and add 2 teaspoons of sugar and cooled boiled water and the whole process begins again.
Jerusalem Artichoke, Potato and Fennel Soup
As they are dug up and washed ready for peeling
We have now dug up all the Jerusalem artichokes that were left in the ground as they are about to start growing again and as I had some fennel thought the two would make a lovely combination. I added some potato so as it doesn’t taste to ‘earthy’. The artichokes give the soup a beautiful silky feel and are really delicious. They are a wonderful vegetable to grow, firstly they are perennial so come back each year on their own and secondly they are extremely versatile and can be used much the same as potatoes.
I used the following:
- 1 teaspoon of Vinegar
- 8 oz Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and diced
- 8 oz Potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 oz Butter
- 1 medium Onion peeled and diced
- 2 cloves Garlic chopped finely
- 2 sticks of Celery chopped
- 1 medium Fennel bulb chopped
- 2 pints Vegetable stock
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Nutmeg
- 4 tablespoons of cream are an optional extra
To make the soup
Add the vinegar to a bowl of cold water large enough to put the artichokes in when peeled.
(This helps to stop the artichokes from becomming discoloured after peeling.)
Add the butter to a large pan and melt
Add the onion, garlic, celery and fennel and saute until the onion is transparent.
Add the artichoke and potato and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Add the vegetable stock and simmer until the vegetable are soft.
Season to taste and add some grated nutmeg.
Whizz until complete smooth and if you are adding cream do so now.
Update on the Ginger Beer Plants
Hooray! Today bottled the first of many, I hope.
I used the yeast, ginger and sugar plant which I drained and added to some sugar syrup and fresh lemon juice. Time will tell whether it worked or not.
My kitchen appears to be a working laboratory for ginger beer plants all at one stage or another, and now I have four jars at various stages and with various ingredients.
They are as follows:
- Fresh ginger and sugar – bubbling away happily having added more fresh ginger and sugar and water. It smells divine.
- Fresh ginger and sugar now drained of the fresh ginger and have added ground ginger and sugar, this is the second stage and the next will be to make the ginger beer.
- New plant started with brewers yeast, ground ginger, sugar and water. I am told this will not taste so yeasty.
- Halved plant used to make the first batch of ginger beer, which I have added ground ginger, sugar and water to make another plant.
I had to go to the local brewing shop to buy the brewers yeast, and met the owner, who is such a very nice guy, he was so helpful. I have promised to give him a fresh ginger plant when I half it. He has not made ginger beer before so I would like his opinion as an expert home brewer of wine.
Should you need any home brewing produce or equipment or just advice he can be found here http://burghley-homebrew.com
The ginger beer that I have bottled today will be ready in a week or so and I can hardly wait.
Cornish Fairings (Spiced biscuits)
Today I made some biscuits, the biscuits I chose are a spiced, crunchy and are fab with a cup of coffee. There are none of my homegrown ingredients in these moreish biscuits but there are always ‘exceptions’ to the rule.
They are really simple to make and very quick to cook.
The ingredients are as follows:
1 lb Plain Flour
4 teaspoons Baking powder
2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons Ground ginger
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 tablespoon Ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon Salt
8 oz Butter
8 on Dark brown sugar
8 tablespoons Golden syrup
Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt together
Chop the butter in small cubes and rub into the flour mix until it resembles bread crumbs
Add the sugar and stir through
Heat the syrup in a pan until watery and add to the dry ingredients
Mix to a dough
Flour your hands and roll pieces the size of a pecan nut ball and place on a greased or non stick baking tray
Bake in a pre heated oven 200c/400f or gas mark 6 for 10 minutes.
When cooked take out the oven leave on the baking sheet to firm up for a couple of minutes then place on a wire rack and let cool.
Store in an air tight tin.
Happy St Patrick’s Day 2009
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all those who are celebrating. I hope its been fun and enjoyable.
Homemade ginger beer plants update
So far, so good, the fresh ginger and sugar is fermenting and still smells like ginger and sugar which I believe is a sign that it has not gone off. It would smell awful and be no good at all.
The yeast plant is still going strong and bubbling away with the sugar and ginger added each day. This one will be ready to use to make the ginger beer in two more days. I can’t hardly wait so see how it will turn out.
It will also be really interesting to see how differently they taste.
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