Cashew Nutters

I found this recipe for these savoury biscuits tucked away on a scrap of paper at the back of a cookery book. I haven't made them in years. I had forgotten how good they were.

125g butter, softened

60g semolina

100g self-raising flour

90g  cheddar cheese, grated

salt and pepper

½ level teaspoon dry mustard

cashew nuts for topping

 Oven to 160 fan

Put all the ingredients, except the nuts into a  food processor  and mix until it comes together.

Roll into 40 small balls, place them on a baking sheet, flatten them slightly and top with cashew nuts.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until pale golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy

The Allotment & Garden ......At Last.

With the longer gaps between the showers I have managed to get out to do some work. I got to the allotment over the weekend and finally got the broad beans  and onions into the ground. The broad beans were getting too big to store for much longer and to be honest I was sick to death of looking out my kitchen window at the boxes of onions I planted up in cells on the table.

My poor allotment is in a sorry state, any of the preparation work that was done earlier has gone to waste. The back of the plot where I planned to pit the potatoes and the cabbages etc is way too we to dig and the weeds are going mad. Looking around me I am not the only plot in this mess in fact there is worse. So the plan is just to get on with it and do the best I can.. I have a couple of  slot together raised beds I bought in Aldi so I am thinking of putting them together and using them as giant containers for the potatoes.

If only I could eat weeds and grass.

Grit : My slug control.

Asparagus : This is it's second year.

Onions.

My little helper. The Bull Finch  He was spending a lot of time looking at himself in the wing mirror

The Garden.

I have finally got all the pots moved back. I gathered them up in October so if it weather got bad they could all be covered with fleece. My Son is finished collage for the Summer and is studying for exams (last one Friday) So between breaks he did the donkey work.

Back at last.  Sweet pea in pots this year.

The big blue pot at the back will be home to tomatoes later.

New Herb patch.

the bright patch is the palegreen and white Euphorbia that had out grown it's spot.

Grass got cut.

Looking tidy

Home to lots more

Surprise pot. Can't remember what is in there.

I also managed to get more seeds sown. I am trying borlotti beans for the last time. I have failed the last 2 years. That is my gardening policy I will give any plant 3 years if I'm not happy it goes.

Vanilla Ice-cream and Raspberry Roll

We were talking about summers long ago and Artic Roll came up. They are something I have not seen since Ice Land left Ireland. So last week been a bank holiday I had a go.  It was not hard to work out but you will have to do it in bits.

You need a tube off crisp, someone has to eat them first ( sorry about that )

Cut it to fit the width of a Swiss roll tin. I cut it top and bottom, save the lid to stand the tube in.

Now you will need a tub of vanilla ice-cream and a punnet of raspberries

Allow the ice-cream to soften and mix in the raspberries.

Now for the messy bit, Fill the tube with the ice-cream.

I found it helped to wrap the tube in tin foil.
Stand the ice-cream in the freezer until solid. I left it over night.


Swiss Roll.

This is a fat less sponge

Line a Swiss roll tin.
Oven 160 fan.

3 large eggs,
75g caster sugar,
55g plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour.

Break in eggs into a mixer bowl and add the sugar.
whisk until thick and pale, and has tripled in volume.

Gently sift the flour and cornflour into the mixture and fold in. Be very gentle you want to keep as much air in the mix as possible..

Pour into the tin and bake for 10-15 minutes.

While the sponge is in the oven. Put a tea towel on a flat surface and cover with a sheet of baking parchment. sprinkle with 1 tbsp of caster sugar.

When the sponge is baked, remove from the oven .

And turn upside down onto the baking parchment.

Leave to go cold.

Now you need some raspberry jam and your tube of ice-cream.

Remove the paper from the sponge and very lightly trim the edge, top and bottom.
Spread with the jam.

Getting the ice-cream out of the tube.
If you cut a bit of the tube you can peel it off.

Put the ice-cream onto the sponge.

Now roll the sponge around the ice-cream. Hold the top edge of the paper and pull it towards you.

You can wrap it in the parchment and put it into the freezer until need.
Take it out  about 20 minutes before you are ready for desert to allow the ice-cream to soften

Enjoy.

Blue sky and other colours

The Sun has come out, I know it is just a break before the next weather system kicks in so I decided to make the most of it. I got out into the garden for awhile and tidied.

Those tiny green dots are sweet pea.

And rhubarb crumble muffins for after tea.

Summertime.

On this the 1st day of Summer it rained, then it rained a bit more and then it really rained.

So back to comfort food we went.

 A big pot of  spiced root vegetable and lentil stew from Shaheen over at A2K
http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/11/spiced-root-vegetable-and-lentil-stew.html


Add some seeded scones.

 Fan oven 180

500g self-raising flour
1tsp salt.
and enough milk to make a soft dough.

Cut out the scones, dip in a little milk and then dip in seeds of your choice.
Bake for 15-20 minutes

Enjoy.