Pickled Rhubarb with Ginger, Orange & Clove

My god it's been a long winter, not that we are even out of it yet, but at least there are some signs. Today I felt the warm sun on me as I walked outside and I began to feel hopeful. Tomorrow it is forecast to rain all day, continuing for the rest of the week; but at least there are glimmers of hope...

We really felt this winter at Cook House. I lost track of how many times they tried to fix the roof, each time it seemed to have stopped leaking there would be another big freeze, a thaw, a shift, and subsequently a new leak. From November to February there was an issue almost every day and I shed some frustrated tears on occasion. Then the snow storms came, and there were no leaks as we were enveloped in a layer of snow and ice inside and out, totally frozen solid.

I can talk about it now that the other side is in sight, now that the daffodils are coming out and the sticks of rhubarb are beginning to appear at the allotment. People often ask me what to do with lots of rhubarb, it is a common allotment affliction, I only have a small plant and it produces more than enough for all my rhubarb requirements. Pickling is one of the answers I think; this pickle is really pretty damn good. It's lovely on it's own, great with cheese, rich liver pate or on top of a salad, and its super easy to make.

Fill a large, sterilised, 2 litre kilner jar with rhubarb cut down into 1- 2cm diagonal batons. I have seen recipes that ask you to put the rhubarb into the hot pickling liquid, but I find this generally makes it fall apart, so prefer to add the hot pickling liquid to it, as it softens, but keeps its shape.

For the pickling liquid combine 750ml water, 500ml white wine vinegar, 350g caster suger, 15g maldon sea salt and heat to dissolve everything. Then you can add your flavours, I used thick slices of fresh ginger, a few large peels of orange zest, a cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, a pinch of chilli flakes and a few black pepper corns. They all bring something to the party, heat and a kick from the ginger, warming chilli, fragrant orange... I don't usually love cloves, but here they really work and the musky flavour is mild but pleasant. Feel free to experiment with other flavours such as juniper, mace, cinnamon, coriander seed, fresh herbs...

Simmer the mix for 5 minutes to bring out all the flavours, then pour the hot liquid over the rhubarb and seal the jar, it will all bob up to the top to begin with and you may need to push it back down a few times over the course of first few days. It is delicious after a couple of days, really delicious after a couple of weeks and will keep well for months if you can manage not to eat it all...

Wild Garlic Damper Bread

If you're quick you can still catch the wild garlic season. They say once the flowers appear it is past it but I picked some in Jesmond Dene on Friday, the flowers were just beginning to bud, and as long as you get the fresh little leaves from the base it is still delicious. The bigger leaves are beginning to get a bit tough. You will know when you've found it as it is pretty pungent, a green leafy garlic smell filling the air...

My latest supperclub was a rustic French affair on Friday in the lovely tasting room at Carruthers and Kent. I served the wild garlic as part of the main course in a Spring Stew, cooked in butter with baby onions, asparagus, peas and courgettes, it was delicious alongside Confit duck and Pomme Anna, and went down a treat, thankfully...

I also made this little loaf last weekend in the Lake District where the wild garlic has only just appeared so you have a little longer over there. It is a very simple loaf that I saw Lorraine Pascal making on one of her programmes ages ago. I made a Red Pepper, Thyme and Anchovy Damper loaf a while ago which was delicious, so thought I'd give it a go with fresh wild garlic.

For this version I just made a little loaf so double the amounts if you want a larger loaf. To start heat your oven to 200°C and mix 225g of self raising flour with quarter of a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. Add 110ml of water and mix everything thoroughly until you are left with a ball of dough. Knead briefly until it is combined and smooth.

Dust your work surface with some flour and flatten out the ball of dough into a circle. I finely chopped a large handful of wild garlic. You could use any combination of fillings you fancy really; chopped green or black olives, roast soft garlic, diced chorizo, roasted tomatoes. Pile your filling into the centre of the dough and start to fold the edges over the top until it is sealed. Turn the dough over and knead it to distribute the wild garlic. The aim is a ball of dough with the filling mixed through evenly inside. Once you have it under control flatten it out a bit and squash the handle of a wooden spoon into it to create triangular segments.

Finally bake in the oven, Lorraine said 35 minutes for her olive version, mine took about 40 minutes, if you use wetter fillings it takes longer again. It should be golden and risen and sound hollow on the bottom when tapped. 

So green bread is a little strange visually, but it was delicious! It was TLI's birthday so we took it on a walk up the valley armed with a picnic basket and some fizzy wine. A thick piece of cold butter went perfectly with the bread, it tastes like garlic bread, funnily enough, but fresh and mild. Give it a go if you come across a patch while it lasts...

Rhubarb and Ginger Compot

Our rhubarb at the allotment has survived and begun to re-emerge, I think it is the only thing growing on our plot aside from weeds at the moment, but I'm full of good intentions again this year and will try hard to have a tidy and productive allotment all season long. This is my second lot of rhubarb, I killed the first by stepping on it... I have never managed to do that well with my gardening, time being the main issue, but I seem to improve ever so slightly year on year; when I don't trample on my plants... I wish I had more time to spend there as I really love it. I'm a big fan of rhubarb, unfortunately ours is a little way off from being able to eat, but the shops are full of it at the moment.

I've been making this tasty little Rhubarb and Ginger compot for a long time now, it has even appeared in The Sunday Times. Fancy that... It was part of an article about Britain's best food bloggers, I was asked to send them a picnic recipe, and even though I have never taken this on a picnic and I'm not sure how you even would transport it, I chose this... I think nerves had something to do with it...

You can just eat this on it's own as a little pudding, it is lovely with clotted cream and meringues and I made it into a crumble at the weekend which was delicious. I added a few apples too and topped it with a thick crumble full of oats, butter and ground almonds. I think the ginger is the star of the show here, it just makes the whole thing so delicious!

These amounts will make 5 or 6 little puddings or a small crumble base. To start chop 400g of rhubarb into inch long chunks, finely dice two balls of stem ginger, then add the rhubarb, ginger, 2 tablespoons of the ginger syrup and 30g sugar to a baking tray. The amount of sugar will depend on the natural sweetness of the rhubarb, so start with 30g and keep checking it as it cooks, you might add up to 70g depending. Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven at 170°C until the rhubarb is soft and stewed, about 20 minutes. Serve it cold with cream, meringues or use as a crumble base. It is sweet and tart with lovely spicy candied ginger.

Wild Garlic Devilled Eggs and lunch on the Farne Islands

I had a pretty beautiful and exciting start to Monday morning this week. It began at the crack of dawn packing my car with so much food and crockery in huge boxes that it felt like I was moving house. Next thing I knew I was on a tiny boat speeding over to the Farnes on a beautiful calm sea in lovely warm sunshine. I even forgot to worry about the task ahead it was so beautiful; puffins diving around us and naughty gulls eyeing the boxes packed with food...

 

I had prepared lunch for 40, luckily I think I only realised how ambitious this was once it was over, it was a huge amount of work... This summer will see some very exciting Supperclubs that I have been planning jointly with the National Trust. This lunch was both a trial run and an introduction to the concept of literally shipping my Supperclubs up the coast...

 

 

The setting matched the weather. A long table ran the length of the 14th Century chapel on Inner Farne. I dressed it with white tablecloths and jars of wild garlic flowers, cowslips and rosemary, the whole place smelt beautiful, and that was before I even got the food out. Wild garlic devilled eggs, pork pies with pickled apple, tiny caramelised garlic tarts, rollmop herring, chicken and pistachio terrine, pickles, beer-cheese, home-made bread and butter, cauliflower and hazelnut salad, radish and mint salad, mint lemonade and tiny meringues and strawberries for a sweet ending.

 

 

The devilled eggs were an amazing new discovery, simply hard boil eggs, scoop out the yolk, mix with mayonnaise and wild garlic and scoop back in... I boiled my eggs for 15 minutes, cooled them, then halved them. I made my own mayonnaise as I had left over egg yolks from the meringues, you don't have to but it's worth it and you can see how here... Mix each yolk with a tablespoon of mayonnaise and as many herbs as you like, I blitzed a big handful of wild garlic with some olive oil, add a tiny dash of cider vinegar and some salt and pepper... They were a delicious fresh herby egg mayonnaise delight..

 

Sunshine streamed through the stained glass windows onto the table as everyone tucked in and perched on the wooden pews that lined the walls of the tiny chapel. It was a little stressful getting it all ready on time, a surprise for all the National Trust benefactors visiting the island, but so worth it, it looked stunning and there were gasps of delight and lots of lovely kind words floating around the pretty chapel as everyone tucked in.

Over almost as soon as it began I sat peacefully on Seahouses harbour in the sunshine and and treated myself to a bag of chips...

 

Asparagus, Pesto and Mozzarella Tart

I don't know why my guests found it so funny that my dining room window sill was full of chitting potatoes the other night. I haven’t planted them for so long that they have just become part of the furniture to me... There was much laughter, they seemed to think that when you come for supper at mine you don't know if this kind of thing is decoration, a project or a starter!

Gaga is a vegetarian so I made a delicious asparagus tart, she loves asparagus, and the others just like a good laugh at my expense, I should have fed them the shrivelled potatoes and sent them on their way! I've had quite a few recipe requests since I tweeted a photo of the tart, so I thought I best share it. It really is very simple and delicious, perfect when you need something quick...

You can make your own rough puff pastry, which is much simpler that making actual puff pastry, but for this I cheated and bought a ready made roll. After being at work all day there was a very short window of time to prepare food before people arrived, so menu planning had to be very strategic.

Unroll the pastry into a baking tray and spread about 5 heaped teaspoons of pesto over the whole sheet so there is an even layer, I used this home-made Wild Garlic Pesto which was delicious. Leave a 2/3 centimetre gap round the edge to allow the pastry to puff up. Then line up spears of uncooked asparagus all the way along (remember to snap the ends off) you will probably need about 20 spears.

Tear up a ball of mozzarella and scatter over the top. I added a little grating of Parmesan too, for saltiness, a little drizzle of olive oil and some black pepper. Then bake in the oven, at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown round the edge.

Lovely buttery pastry with asparagus, melted cheese and aromatic pesto, I'll definitely make it again. I served it with this cold Roasted Ratatouille, a simple green salad and some fresh bread. When the guests had calmed down from the hilarity of the potatoes we all had a lovely and delicious evening...

Baked Eggs with Wilted Spinach, Wild Garlic and Chilli and Sage Butter

There's a little man with an allotment opposite mine who is always there if I go early before work to water. Last year he gave me some rhubarb to plant and loads of spinach to eat. I accidentally stood on the rhubarb and thought I'd killed it, but it seems to be coming back to life this year, thank goodness, I couldn’t look him in the eye for a while in case he asked about it... He handed me huge armfuls of spinach on Friday morning, he seems like a good one to know...

The amount of meat I have been eating, basically moving from one BBQ to the next over the past few days, required a little spinach based brunch this morning. I flicked through Plenty by Ottolenghi looking for inspiration, and came across a lovely little recipe for baked eggs in rocket that I adapted to suit what I had. Wilted spinach and wild garlic, with eggs baked in the oven, then drizzled with hot chilli and sage butter and a dollop of garlicky yoghurt. Sitting in the sunshine in my little yarden this morning was a pretty delightful way to start the day...

Heat a frying pan with a little olive oil, add a few large handfuls of spinach, a handful of rocket, some torn wild garlic and a pinch of salt and wilt until all the water has bubbled away. When it is ready scoop it all into an oven proof bowl and make two little wells, crack a free range eggs into each and bake in the oven at 150°C for 10-15 minutes until the egg whites are cooked.

While the eggs are cooking mix up a few tablespoons of yoghurt with a pinch of salt and half a clove of crushed garlic. Then melt about 20g of butter, add half a teaspoon of chilli flakes and a few shredded sage leaves, cook for a few minutes until it bubbles.

When the eggs are ready dollop on the yoghurt and then pour the spicy sage butter over everything. It made a delicious little brunch sitting in the sun. The eggs were soft and runny with lovely wilted greens, a tangy fresh yoghurt and warm spicy buttery juices mingling into everything.

Wild Garlic Pesto

I'm enjoying this little heat wave we're having in Newcastle, albeit through a window, but enjoying it all the same. I took it as an opportunity to become a forager at the weekend. My foraging career to date has mainly just been for blackberries, actually perhaps that's all. I once ate some wild watercress in the Lake District but that's about it... So I've decided to be a bit more adventurous. I found a lovely recipe for Wild Garlic Pesto, so I set out in search of the wild garlic. You can smell it before you see it, I have caught wafts of it from various gardens and parks around Jesmond, you just need to keep an eye out...

Jesmond Dene is over run with it at the moment, but I found a lovely little patch in Gosforth Park, a quiet spot in the woods, far from the weeing dogs of Jesmond Dene, which does slightly put me off... I probably wasn't that prepared in ballet pumps and a dress so might have to rethink outfits on future trips, I ended up with soil in my shoes and twigs in my hair... but with a carrier bag full of bright green leaves.

You mainly find wild garlic in shaded woodland areas, identified by its wafting garlicky aroma. It has long wide green leaves that look a little like lily of the valley and it grows in Britain from late winter, into spring. The patch I found were young small leaves, perfect for cooking. Unlike normal garlic it is the leaves that you eat, not the bulb, and it has a much milder taste than the strong garlic bulb which some people find over powering, though I love it... The leaves get a bit thicker and woodier when the plant flowers, towards the end of its growing season, so now is probably a good time to go in search of some.

You can wilt it as a green leaf, as you would spinach or stir into a sauce with cream and shallots, chop it into a creamy risotto, blend it into a home made mayonnaise or wilt through a stir fry. I've been looking at lots of recipes for it and will have to get experimenting while the season lasts. For my first attempt I decided on a pesto, it keeps for months, so is a good way to preserve it for use through the summer.

Simply blitz 75g of wild garlic leaves, washed thoroughly, in a food processor with 2 shallots, 50g of walnuts, 150ml of extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar. You can add 50g of parmesan also if you like also, I didn’t this time around.

So far this week I have enjoyed tagliatelle with the wild garlic pesto, and even more delicious, a chicken salad with a pesto dressing loosened with a little more olive oil, manchego, crunchy little gem lettuce, pancetta and pine nuts. It has a lovely mild garlic taste, but is fresh and green at the same time, my favourite pesto I've tried so far for sure...