Making Bramble Jelly

Hi again, its the time of the year when I turn my hand to foraging and making Jelly from the local wild brambles.

The season has started early here in the UK so I’ve already produced over 60 jars of bramble jelly this year with more to come. Thankfully I have people who donate old jam jars for reuse during the year which I store for this very time of the year so I have not had any problems with jars for storage.

Tip on peeling Garlic

This isn't a recipie, but I was cooking soup today and as usual wanted to put garlic in it. A few months ago I accidentally wet a bulb of garlic before peeling it and found that as the skin was wet it peeled easier.

I now do this deliberately soaking the cloves of garlic in water for about 30 seconds to a minute before I peel them. After slightly crushing and cutting off the root end of the clove they peel so much easier.

If your reading this dear reader give it a go and let me know if it works for you?

Butternut Squash Risoto

I made this as I was in the local German supermarket and they had Butternut Squash on offer, and this is one of our favourite recopies.

Ingredients

500g Butternut Squash in about 1cm dice

200g Long grain white Rice (I use the 40-50p Kilo supermarket own brand)

2 Sticks of celery

2 medium Onions

1 medium Carrot

2-3 Cloves Garlic

30mls Vegetable Oil

20g Swiss vegetable bouillon powder made up to I Litre of stock with water

Salt and pepper to taste

Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup

I was planning a few days away and wanted to use up the remaining perishables in the fridge and vegetable tray and came up with this recipe.

Ingredients

300g Butternut Squash

200g (2 medium) Carrots

150g (1medium) Onion

200g (2 medium) Potatoes 

100g split red lentils

2-3 cloves garlic 

15g Swiss bouillon powder

30mls (2 Tablespoons) Rapeseed Oil

3 tablespoons of Soy Sauce

Pepper to season

1Ltr hot Water  from the kettle

Barley Risoto

Hi I've not been around for a while but I've been trying some new recopies as I was recently given the news that I am pre diabetic, so I need to review the types of food that I eat.

Everyone might think that as a vegetarian I would automatically have a healthy diet, but it's still possible as a veggie to eat the wrong foods and be unhealthy. One of the key issues is it's not just what your eating but how much! If you eat more calories than you expend you will put on weight, which was one of my issues. So I have been reviewing what I eat and how I eat it.

The following is a healthy Risotto dish made with Barley instead of rice, particularly white rice as barley releases its carbohydrates slowly and gives you a full feeling for longer. So the following is one of my new recipes using Barley.

Stuffed Peppers

Well today I got some cheap red/green peppers and decided to make one of my favourite meals of stuffed pepper.

I make the stuffing out of diced green pepper, onion, grated carrot, finely chopped vegetarian sausage, bread crumbs and sage. I made double quantities of the stuffing and froze 1/2 for another day.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
3 peppers
3 vegetarian sausages
1 large garlic clove
120g of bread crumbs  (you can use a sachet of sage and onion stuffing)
A vegetable stock cube
Dried sage to taste (omit if using bought S&O stuffing)
Table spoon of veg oil
Salt and pepper to season

Potato Cakes (or tatty scones as my better half calls them)

Well its been a while since I posted here but today I made some potato cakes with some leftover mashed potatoes. These are easy and cheap to make and very good as part of a cooked breakfast, warm with butter and a bit of cheese or even with a bit of your favourite jam.

Ingredients

Leftover mashed potatoes approx 250 grams
Self raising flour  approx 125 grams (enough to form a dough and a bit for dusting while rolling out)
1-2 eggs depending on amount of potato
Salt and pepper to season