September In My Kitchen

Well to be truthful, much of what I am sharing is from August, but there will be some things that will take us into September.  

But before i start sharing, some of you have been asking about my fur friend.  Here is a recent picture of him. 

I made this Apple and Blackberry vegan pie three times in the last couple of months.     

The recipe comes from Post Punk Kitchen vegan chefs Isa Chandra Moscowitz and Terry Hope Romero in their publication Vegan Pie In The Sky. 

The blackberries were foraged.    

The cooking apples from the garden.    

Garden Harvest

These blueberries were mostly eaten for breakfast, either with homemade waffles or stirred into Greek yoghurt.

We thinned out the beetroot and carrot pot. The carrots are not worth mentioning at the moment, but the baby beetroot was excellent. We have begun digging out some potatoes. The green and dwarf yellow beans are beginning to dwindle and we don't have much in the way of runner beans this year. There is also plenty of tomatoes coming from the greenhouse. 

 The courgettes are coming thick and fast.  If i miss one, you can guarantee the next day or two, they tease me having becme overgrown marrows, but i've been fortunate as my mother and sister in law are requesting the marrows to accompany a meat dish they make.  

I'm not being overly inspired with courgettes to be honest, adding them to mostly to pasta dishes. 

This is a tweaked Chilli with courgettes and sweetcorn in place of the usual peppers or carrots.

And this is one I actually made last year, but failed to blog about it. It's a Courgette Casserole.  I sliced 3 medium courgettes, crushed 6 cloves garlic, sliced 4 spring onion, stirred in 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of olive oil along with salt and pepper to taste and a handful of fresh parsley.  Then stirred well. Before pouring over 3 -4 large tomatoes roughly chopped to create a sauce of sorts.  Stirred again, before transferring  to a baking dish.  Transfer to preheated oven gas mark 4/180oc for 45 minutes.  It was served alongside some boiled new potatoes.  

These green beans were used in this recipe called Piccalilli Spiced Rice. It also incudes cauliflower, red onion, carrots and red chillies

The recipe was bookmarked from Meera Sodha's cookbook East.  I must admit, it's perhaps one of my most used cookbook from the past year or so. 

The Piccalilli Spiced Rice dish was really good, we topped the dish off with some mango chutney. 

Lovely homegrown tomatoes. 

I made a few dishes from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's cookbook Jerusalem.

 Mixed Bean Salad with red peppers and Spiced Chickpeas and fresh vegetable salad. 

I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday. 

Ending with these poppies from the garden, they are all gone now burned from the heatwave, but they were lovely to see while they lasted. 

Mid August In My Kitchen

Its been a while since i've joined in with In My Kitchen Series.  There has been cooking in my kitchen, but its much of a muchness. I go back to firm favourites.  But the thing that is always new in my kitchen is homegrown produce.  So let me share some of them with you.  

Windfall apples, some in tact, some bruised, still edible. 

These stunning voluptuous tomatoes.  

Mish mash of vegetables: yellow and green beans, yellow and gree courgettes. Albeit some a little on the large size.

Good diversity of tomatoes including one described as a green sausage tomato by our neighbour. I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday.  

Here are some of the dishes made with the homegrown vegetables.  

Chunky courgette pasta in a mildly  spiced tomato sauce. This one was made by eye-balling ingredients. I used a 500g bag of penne pasta, 6 cloves of garlic crushed sauteed in 6 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon chilli flakes, then added 6 medium courgettes, sliced lengthways then half moons, 1 fat red chilli sliced (optional for more kick) and about 350g tomatoes, chopped in half added to the pot with salt and pepper to taste.

Turn the heat down until tomatoes are breaking down and courgettes are softening, but still have some bite.  Stir in the cooked pasta to coat. Stir in optional chopped coriander or parsley. Taste and adjust seasoning before transferring to a large serving dish for everyone to help themselves. 

I've been cooking quite a bit from 'What Will I do with all those Courgetttes' by Elaine Borish.  Including this Layered Vegetable Salad which made a good alternative to our usual new potato salad.  

And this Spicy African Stew, but i adapted it replacing the uncooked white rice with brown rice. and reducing the peanut butter by half - it was 175g.  It was very rich and the rice seemed to have absorbed much of the liquid that i could hardly call it a stew.  It was more of a Risotto/Jambalaya dish.  It was substantial too, serving at least 8 people. Well I had to take some of it over to my nephew and O, who enjoyed it, but stated it was rich in flavour.  I think its a good dish to serve up at a buffet or potluck lunch.   

I also made this Zucchini Spice Bread - nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and ginger. And don't laugh, i forgot to put in both the raisins and the chopped walnuts.  It turned out dry, but that was my fault.  We've been eating the bread smothered in butter or jam.

Not all the recipes have been adapted or inspired by cookbooks.  Courgette and Bean Curry

From natural food to processed snacks in my kitchen. I was introduced to Takis a few months back, by my niece and i have been loving these tangtastic bites.  

I leaped in excitement, when i saw it make an appearance on the series The Wilds, that was recommended to me by a friend. i thoroughly enjoyed it by the way for some mindless escapism.  But then i introduced the same friend that introduced me to the series to an actual packet of Takis's and she squealed in excitement in the same way i did, but to be honest - she tried a couple, but they were a bit too strong for her palette.    

I am sharing this blog post with Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen series.  Please do go by and check out the other contributions. 

September in my kitchen

Almost a month since i lasted blogged here. 

So much has been happening around me.  Tentative steps being surrounded by people and larger crowds.  One of which was attending a wedding in a marquee. It was beautiful.  I will soon be going on holiday, so my absence blogging will be noted by regular readers. I will share more on my return and promise to catch up with you all and your blogging on my return. 

But let me share what's in my kitchen.

 Mostly home grown vegetables and fruit - a handful of blueberries

Yellow, glossy shiny courgettes.

 Purple, yellow and green beans.

 More courgettes and some that become marrows.

I made this Ukranian recipe called Coyc/Sous - Courgette and Potato Stew.  A little bit of additional work was required in coating the courgettes in flour and pan frying

 before they were added to a rich tomato sauce that was thickened with soured cream. 

It was suggested to serve this with crusty bread, but i went with plain and finished off with a garnish of dill.

This Armenian Roasted Vegetables: cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, red pepper and dill was a recipe from the same cookbook - Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and beyond by Olia Hercules.  This made a change from the Double Potato Halloumi or Feta Bake that we often make; and the bonus was we used homegrown courgettes and tomatoes from the garden plot.  The tomatoes are not as sweet as previous years, regardless we are thankful to have some growing at home as the flavour is still far more superior than anything you will find in the supermarket. 

Finishing off with some baby beetroot that was simply boiled and served as part of an antipasti meal one hot evening.

And some dirty carrots, that I'll share with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday.  

I may not have loads of new things to share in my kitchen, but I am always happy to join in with In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherry's Pickings with my home grown produce and homemade eats. 

In My Kitchen

So this week, I am on annual leave/vacation.  

We are just taking some day trips, here and there.  To be honest, i booked my days off  work at short notice that there was very little time to have booked anywhere for the week or a long weekend holiday away from home with a puppy.  We went to Bristol at the weekend, I do have some graffiti art to share, so do come back later in the week please.

But firstly some deliciousness from my garden plot.

A good looking bowl of strawberries. Enjoyed with vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream. 

First of the courgettes, some peas and broad beans. 

We went to Penarth and picked up this Konge Sourdough bread from a Danish Baker called BROD. It's really good, we will be snacking on it during the Euro 2020 tomorrow, when England play Denmark.  

We went to Pontypridd, where we picked up some cannoli with lemon cream and pistachio filling from a local baker in the high street . 

I also picked up Chamomile Tea which i have been wanting to try for its health benefits. from a little place called Cortile Tea.

We also went to Llantwit Major.  I was tempted by some chocolate at a little shop called Stwff Stff.  I picked them both up with D in mind to share - Salted Caramel and Eton Mess.   As i write the names of these Welsh places, i realise that i have taken photographs of these places before and not shared here.  So i think additional blog posts are due when i am blessed with time to blog. 

Talking about being blessed with time to blog, its the same with baking for pleasure.  But i did find some time to make Johanna's Banana, Prune and Seed Loaf.  Of course I had to adapt a little to what ingredients I had at home, but not that much.  

I replaced the corn flour with additional plain flour and replaced the prunes with raisins.  Also, Johanna generously covered her baking tin with sesame seeds.  I generously scattered them on top of the banana cake. This Banana Loaf was one of the most delicious I've had in a long while; and D agreed too.  

Every other weekend, we have been eating a lot of croissants.  I think deep down we are both hankering for a holiday either in France or Brittany, with family and friends. These croissants cannot compare with a proper French pastry, they were adequate, but not flaky or buttery. 

In my kitchen we had tried another brand of plant based sausages. 

In my kitchen is this wonderful Welsh Artisan Soap.  I was gifted this hand made soap a couple of months back.  It is strongly scented, I am looking forward to washing my gardener hands with it very soon.   

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen Series hosted by Sherry's Pickings.