The Kitchen Diaries II

Autumn Blackberries 

Sunday morning and it’s my radio day. It’s a packed show with a prerecord of Rose Prince opening The Weston and Lois Weedon Horticultural Society's Annual Produce and Flower Show. It’s a nightmare title and despite saying it out loud as I am driving to the show and yet as I go on air  I get it wrong.  Suddenly I get a jab of nerves.  I am unable to say it properly.  Of course Kevin is amused and picks up on it creating second chance for me to get it wrong again.  I determine to say it correctly.  I can feel the people in Weston and Lois Weedon rolling their eyes. Maybe I’ll get it right next year.  

The horticultural show is in it is 72^nd year and was a fabulous afternoon. The audio with Rose Prince was made all the better by the chatter and noise of people in the background.  There is atmosphere and  I enjoy chatting with a genuinely lovely lady.  We move out of the tent to get a second audio about her pop up bakery and find a quiet spot by a gate.  As we are talking she spots a mop of black glossy elderberries.  I catch a look of intention and smile as she worries that the farmer will mind.  I like her all the more for thinking about the farmer. 

Having a crumble cake for dessert makes a change from just the usual crumble and custard

I tweet during a record to @RealNigelSlater that I am going to chat about his new book, and read a random paragraph out loud.  His words are poetry and I am thrilled as Nigel tweets back that he was listening in.  I am so glad that I didn’t know beforehand.  I think that there is an assumption that bubbly people don’t get nervous.  We do.  We just hide it really well behind a big smile.

Nigel's new book is an absolute treat to read. The style is consistent with the previous diary, but this book is closer in design to the Tender volumes.  It is a work of art, with an exquisite font, textured cover and heavy paper.  It is in every sense beautiful, but I don't want to to just sit on the bookshelf   ...  I want to bring it to life by cooking lunch from it so I head home via Waitrose. 

As the rain pours down we pop buckets about the garden room to catch the drips and the children get under my feet. We can’t repair the roof until some other work is done ..  I won’t bore you .. but a comforting chicken and parsley pie from The Kitchen Diaries II and a favorite Blackberry Hazelnut and Cinnamon crumble cake from Tender II is exactly what’s needed. 

 When I get home I brave the rain and run into the garden to pick some parsley, but the weather and slugs have got the better of my poor plant and the paltry amount I have left is not worth using. It seems unfair to send my husband out in this rain.  Not having parsley is not the end of the world though when it comes to cooking pie and Nigel’s recipes have a structure, a simplicity, if you like of using uncomplicated delicious combinations and so if like me you run out of a key ingredient you can often substitute without loosing the main characteristics of the recipe. I peer into my fridge and am relived to spot some dill.  It’s remarkably fresh considering it is a few days old. 

The eggs my chickens lay have such yellow yolks they make the pastry golden.

With the crumble cake I have to swap two ingredients because William is allergic to apples and oats. I substitute apple for a conference pear and scatter chopped hazelnuts over the crumble to add texture, but the cake is in essence the same. Nigel suggests that the cake is better the next day ..  but despite making this cake a dozen times I’ve yet to find that out.

It's a perfect rainy Sunday afternoon. There is a constant pitter patter on the roof and the kitchen gets steamy. As I roll out the pastry Isobel asks why it is Nigel’s pie.  She insists that the pie is mine.  I show her the book and explain that the recipe was not by me and so with a five year olds logic she decides to mark it with a pastry N for Nigel and I leave her to it as the phone rings.  It is my sister. I ask if she wants to join us for lunch.  There is no hesitation. She heads straight over with a friend arriving as I am serving up.  She ignores my husbands begrudging welcome as he remarks that now there be no leftovers. There is laugher, rain, a bottle of white wine from my brother’s vineyard and pie. Delicious warming chicken pie, with golden pastry, bay leaf infused gravy and soft leeks. 

My husband was right.  There were no leftovers.  Not a scrap.

Chicken, leek and parsley pie - from page 347 The Kitchen Diaries II

A big, informal pie for a family gathering. Use cooked roast chicken if you wish, but this is something worth roasting your chicken pieces for. By all means crimp and primp your pastry, but I prefer the simpler approach of laying a ready-made pastry sheet over the top, brushing it with seasoned egg and milk for a good shine.

chicken pieces: 800g, on the bone

leeks: 4

butter: a thick slice

plain flour: 3 heaped tablespoons

hot stock: 650ml

bay leaves: 3

parsley: a small handful

all-butter puff pastry: a 375g sheet

beaten egg and milk, seasoned,

for brushing

Set the oven at 200°C/Gas 6. Put the chicken pieces in a roasting tin and

bake for thirty minutes, till golden. Remove from the oven, leave to cool a

little, then remove the flesh from the bones in large, bite-sized pieces and

set aside.

Thinly slice the leeks, wash them thoroughly, then cook them with the

butter and about 100ml of water till soft and brightly coloured. It is essential

not to let them colour, so keep a lid on and don’t have the heat too high.

When they are soft, stir in the flour, leave to cook for a few minutes, then

gradually pour in the hot stock, stirring as you go. Continue to cook, letting

the leek mixture simmer for ten minutes or so, till you have a thickish sauce.

Add the cooked chicken, bay leaves, chopped parsley and some salt and

pepper and continue cooking for a good five minutes. Try not to let the

chicken break up too much.

Spoon the chicken and leek filling into a pie dish. Unroll the pastry and

place it over the top of the dish, letting it overhang the sides. Brush the

pastry with the seasoned beaten egg and milk, cut  small slits in the top to

let out the steam and bake for twenty-five minutes or until the pastry is

crisp and golden.

  Enough for 6

*Please note that this recipe was reproduced with kind permission from Nigel Slater and Forth Estate.

Planting Alliums

Allium Big Impact from Thompson and Morgan 

On Wednesday I make the mistake of thinking that I will go for a bike ride later in the day.  It rains later and I am annoyed with myself, so as looked out into the garden yesterday and spotted a box of white papery bulbs on the side I took my trowel and spent ten minutes popping them in the ground.  After a day of cleaning and paperwork it felt good to get my hands in the soil planting splendid summer promises.  

Rose Prince at The Weston & Lois Weedon Horticultural Society's Annual Produce and Flower Show

The fun of the competition 

I took a superb photo of a terrier at the show.  When I got home and sorted through the photos I took a good long look at this one and it confirmed what I have been considering for weeks.  A fourth child is out of the question so I decide that I need a terrier to make my life complete.  Watch this space .. 

listen to ‘Rose prince’ on Audioboo

The Big Fair Bake

Fairtrade Sugar

Today is the Vanilla gift swap  .. we are all taking part in The Big Fair Bake  and I am nervous  .. about 40 bloggers are taking part.   I was on  LBC Radio at 7am this morning to talk about it and a survey from the Fairtrade foundation that came up with some fascinating information about Cookbooks having their place and the start of The Big Fair Bake. There wan't much chance to talk about it in any details so I've added in some of the information here. 

The statistics show that when it comes to baking, mum is still the best teacher. The results are from a survey commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation in partnership with AllRecipes.com, and it says that more than half of us say that we learnt our baking skills from our mothers, with 33% claiming that their favourite tried-and- tested baking recipes were handed down from their mother or grandmother .. so I am wondering today which of the recipe will be family recipes?

The Survey shows that more than half of people stick exactly to their mum’s recipe, especially in the North (67%), and they are generally proud to tell people that it is a family recipe (Scotland 70%) although there are also many adventurous cooks who adapt old recipes and give them a modern twist. People in the South, Midlands and Wales are the happiest to adapt.

It seems that using Fairtrade ingredients when they bake is also really important to many people. Some 62% say they choose Fairtrade products sometimes, and 14% say they choose Fairtrade products whenever they can.  Both men and women are as likely to always try to buy Fairtrade, with people at the younger and older ends of the age scale more likely to choose Fairtrade than those in the middle.

There is such allot of baking ingredients that can be used in baking sugar, cocoa, vanilla, cardamom, raisins, brazil nuts, almonds and many more. I’ve seen first hand how Fairtrade offers farmers a minimum price .. and a sustainable livelihood,  and how that additional Fairtrade Premium for investment in community adds to education, clean water, healthcare and housing .. it’s an amazing thing too see first hand..

So if you want to make a delicious difference join in The Big Fair Bake today click here and maybe cook one of your family favorites.