Sprouting salad

Check this out! Only one tiny leaf yesterday and look at what I saw coming home today!

First sight of a leaf!

You won't believe it but I spotted some green coming out of my tiny pots yesterday evening! Yes, the wild rocket salad has started sprouting, and so have the radishes. Let's hope the will become proper salad and radishes so that we can eat them, yum yum!

Off to Munich

I have just posted about a few things I have been cooking lately to catch up a bit, I am off to Munich for the "world biggest trade show" in two days and will be back early May.

We might even have proper Internet access at home when I come back.

I leave Trave with a shed door to fix, a lock to fit on the side gate, a bookshelf to build, a cupboard full of crackers and a fridge full of cheddar, milk and yoghurts. That should keep him busy and fed while I am away.

I am sure he will cook for himself though!

Simply veggie pasta

In our stir fry mood, we had stir-fried veg with pasta yesterday. Just fry any vegetables you fancy, and mix them to your favourite pasta shape! Including fresh tomatoes and mushrooms usually helps to make it nice and juicy. Sprinkle with Parmesan and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper and it is ready!


As an appetiser, we had tomatoes with shavings of Parmesan and a drizzle of the nicest olive oil I have.

Spicy basmati rice with vegetable stir fry

I had not made a stir fry for a while and it tasted so good that we decided to make stir fry more often. Serves 2.

For the rice:
2 glasses of dry basmati rice
1 TBSP turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander
1 lime, cut in quarters, for serving

For the veg:
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 courgette
10 baby sweetcorn cobs
1 red chilli pepper

Cook the rice for 10 minutes until tender. Drain well and add the herbs and spices. Mix well.
Meanwhile, fry all the vegetables in groundnut oil until tender and season to taste.
Serve in a pre-heated plate with the lime.

Fresh raspberries with vanilla ice cream

I love both raspberries and vanilla ice cream (made with Cornish cream, of course!) so this makes a delicious combination. A drop of maple syrup is also a nice addition. Two regrets: I did not grow the raspberries myself nor did I make the ice cream myself :(

Doesn't it look yummy?

Spring time

I have done a bit of gardening at the weekend. Growing things from seeds is completely new to me so I don't know how well the plants will do. We have two borders and a patch in our garden. Border No. 1 will have some lavender (if it grows!) and for border No. 2, I have sowed thyme, coriander, and radishes. I have also sowed basil which I will grow in pots, and French beans, cherry tomatoes and wild rocket.



I am desperate to plant rosemary but I could not find any seed.

Trave is doing courgettes, early purple sprouting broccoli and something else which I forgot about.

I had a lot to carry on the trailer behind my bicycle! Shelves, 25L seed compost, a hose, all the seeds and various tools which we needed...

Here is our apple tree:



I really hope we can reap something. I looked at the mini-pots this morning which we have left on the windowsill: still no leaves coming out! Maybe this gardening thing will teach me to be more patient?

Almond and hazelnut gateau

Recipe to come soon, I just wanted to give you a taste with photos!

Asparagus with orange dressing

This is surprising nice and refreshing, a great summer starter.


Cook the asparagus until tender, then drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Leave to cool down completely.

To make the orange dressing, you will need:

The rind of 2 oranges
5 TBSP freshly squeezed orange juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 TBSP white wine vinegar
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

Mix all the ingredients together and leave to infuse for an hour for the aroma to develop. Pour over the cold asparagus and serve cold.

Sundried tomato bread

To make pesto & Parmesan toasts, I baked a sundried tomato bread. To make one big loaf, you will need:

500g white flour
5g dried yeast
1 TBSP tomato paste
1 handful rehydrated sundried tomatoes, sliced
2 TBSP Mediterranean herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil...)
3 TBSP olive oil
250ml warm water

Knead thoroughly and bake for 25 minutes in an oven pre-heated at 200 degrees.


Great to make cheese sandwiches too!

Cashew nut biscuits

These delicious biscuits are perfect for an aperitif.

Makes ~20 biscuits:

160g cashew nut butter
100g plain flour
2 handfuls of cashew nuts (either salted or unsalted)
a little bit of water



Mix the butter and flour together. Add some water to form a soft dough. Add the cashew nuts whilst kneading. Shape into a sausage and slice.



Cook in a preheated oven (180 degrees) for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave to cool down in the oven completely.

Easter Monday lunch

Trave's parents came to visit yesterday and apart from friends coming for a drink on the way back from the pub on Sunday night, they were our first visitors to our new house! We still have a few boxes piled up, but the house does not look like a battlefield any longer!

This gave me the opportunity to use the table cloth that my mother made for my 20th birthday and to test the new oven. I invested in an oven thermometer, which I discovered is essential with gas ovens if you are not used to them.


Here is the lunch menu:

Appetisers:
Home-made cashew nut biscuits
Toasts made with home-made sundried tomato bread, pesto and Parmesan

Starter:
Asparagus with orange dressing

Main course:
Potato pie
nutmeg & coriander carrot purée
broccoli florets

Cheese and lettuce course:
Manchego (Spanish cheese)
Pié d'Angloys (French cheese)
Ossau Iraty (Basque cheese)
Cheddar (English cheese)
Lettuce with Xeres vinegar & unrefined extra virgin olive oil

Dessert:
Poached pears with ricotta & maple syrup

Coffee

Afternoon tea:
Almond and roasted hazelnut gateau

The wine was a Grand Vin de Bordeaux which Trave received from my parents last Christmas. That bottle was too big to open for just the 2 of us so this occasion was perfect!

Pictures from Rhubarb Rhubarb

We do not quite have Internet access yet, but somebody in the area has not secured his/her wireless network, so... (I feel a tiny little bit guilty about using it)

So here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the place (not our new house, but the restaurant Rhubarb Rhubarb we went to to celebrate our home-owning).




I like the idea of using old sewing machines as tables. Not the first time I see this, but I like it! I also really like the music they play there (world/jazzy).

We did not have any starters because we were hoping to have some room left for a pudding! As a main course, we both had wild mushroom lasagne with a white wine creamy sauce, as well as a rocket salad and Parmesan shavings as a side dish. It was delicious! I had forgotten to take a picture so this is what was left in the plate:


Then as a dessert, Trave had a Tarte Tatin, which looked delicious and (he let me have a spoonful) was yummy! I tried the lemon and thyme creme brulee: I love both ingredients and creme brulee so I thought it sounded like a great combination. The taste was fantastic, but I expected a creme brulee to be warm: surely cremes brulees ought to be warm, right? So a slight disappointment there, but I must admit the caramel crust was just perfect. Altogether still a great meal and a very nice evening.

YES!

Still no Internet at home but on the plus side: WE ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE TWO TICKETS FOR THE GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL!!!

Hurrah! Many thanks to Andy whose GF had a super-fast connection and helped us a little bit! Just on time before they sold a mere 137,000 tickets in less than 2 hours... Crazy world.

I'm testing my new oven at the moment, so things are not quite cooked the way they should. I will report back as soon as we are back online!