Simple Summer Essentials: the round up

As you've probably (hopefully) noticed, my posts recently have all been themed around Simple Summer Essentials. Oddly - and conveniently - coinciding with the only extended period of sunshine we've had this summer, as both that and the series come to an end I thought I'd do a quick round up post for you. With a bit of a difference.

I've mentioned that Asda provided me with the fresh produce for these posts (all additional ingredients were purchased myself) and they're offering one reader of the Pantry a chance to win £50 worth of Asda vouchers. To do this you need to complete the Rafflecopter widget below, telling me which of all these recipes would be your chosen Simple Summer Essential.

Deeply dippy about asparagus

Beetroot and feta salad

Herb oils: two ways to infuse

Tomato and mozzarella salad

How do you solve a problem like overripe fruit?

Patriotic Pavlova

Peach Melba

Frozen Grapes

How to enter:

• Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made by commenting on the blog, tweets or Facebook
• The competition is set to run until 10th September
• Check the Rules below *Guider hat on* I will check to make sure that you've done what I've asked
• The winner will be announced via the Rafflecopter widget

How does Rafflecopter work? (short video link)

 

• Can you not see the Widget? Press F5 to refresh your page
• Complete the form, or I can't see any entries you make

Good Luck and fingers crossed!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules:

• This competition is only open to UK Mainland residents
• You need to be 18 or over to enter
• Read all the instructions above - they are part of these terms and conditions
• I will check all entries, I am a Guider please don't try and pull a fast one. If you cheat I will disqualify all your entries
• This is being hosted on behalf of Asda who are responsible for sending out the prize - to do this you will need to confirm your contact details
• The decision about who wins is final. No discussion will be entered into
• There is no cash alternative to the prize
• As mentioned above, the prize is offered in good faith but equal or similar value substitutions may be made by Asda if items are unavailable.
• Winners are picked by Rafflecopter, who use random.org to generate that information
• If you don't claim your prize within 7 days another winner will be chosen.

Simple Summer Essentials: Patriotic pavlova

So there's been a bit of a hiatus in my Simple Summer Essential series owing to the end of my obsession with the Olympics, good weather (the irony, I know!) and a few days working away from home. However, I'm back on track now, with plans for some simple preserves.

At the end of last week I decided to tackle pavlova. The arrival of the much loved K-mix has meant that meringue is so much more straightforward to make. Discussion on twitter ensued after my photos went up, and it has been decreed that marshmallows will be my next K-mix adventure. Hurrah!

Now, where was I? Oh yes, meringue. So 'everyone' has a recipe for meringue. I knew I didn't want a crispy one - you know the ones you buy from the supermarkets that just seem to be all air and nothingness? I hate them. With a passion. Meringue to me needs to have a chewy middle and a crisp outside.

I toyed with the idea of making blousey overblown meringues a la the one's you see Ottolenghi windows, but as this was my actual first ever attempt at meringue I thought I'd take the easy option and make a pavlova base. With a difference. You see, I love pavlova, the combination of softly whipped, barely sweetened vanilla cream, tart and sweet fruit with the crisp, chewy meringue. It's a cacophony of contradictions, and a summer pudding I just can't get enough of. Truly. It's probably a good thing I've only just tried making it or my diet, well, not so much.

However, courtesy of M's mum (and for her via her Aunt I believe) I discovered a way to twist pavlova - to take the traditional flat base, and make it even better. How do you make it even better? Make it hold more of course! So, when making pavlova:

• Put a large baking tray on your worktop
• centre a cake tin, upside down on the baking tray
• cover that in a dome of baking parchment
• Cut out a big circle and pleated it around so that it made a kind of teepee shape, flattening the top
• Lay this over the cake tin.
• Use a spatula to liberally cover this with your meringue before putting it in the oven

So, now for the pavlova recipe - again courtesy of M's mum. You know, some things don't need a chef or a celebrity to tell you how to make them - a way that's worked wonderfully for years is what you're after.

M's mum's meringue - used as the basis for Patriotic pavlova

4 egg whites
8oz caster sugar (I used regular white granulated as that's what I had)
1 tsp malt vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
Pinch cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C, and move your oven shelves around so that you can get a big meringue in
Beat the egg whites until stiff (this took considerably less time in the K-mix - I'm not boasting, just gleefully announcing!)
Add half of the sugar whilst still beating, then when that's mixed in and the mixture has started to go glossy, add the rest of the ingredients - continue to beat until you have a beautifully shiny, white mixture
Pile onto the dome of baking parchment using a spatula (try not to press it down too much)
Put in the oven and cook for 3 minutes (use a timer) at 190, then without opening the door turn the oven down to 120 degrees and continue to cook for an hour

Take out and leave to cool, then peel off the parchment and fill with softly whipped cream, and berries - I used blueberries, strawberries and raspberries for the red, whites and blues of the Union Flag.

Eat in front of the closing ceremony of the Olympics. Or y'know, just as you like! I used a pint of double cream, and large handfuls of raspberries, blueberries and strawberries and this made buckets - easily enough for a pudding for 4-6 people

 

Frozen Grapes: Probably the simplest summer essential in the world. Ever

 

So much so, I can't believe I'm writing this post. I've coerced M into taking photos so I have to write it really. But even so, I'm blushing, futilely hiding behind my rose hoping that you won't abandon me purely for the fact that I'm writing this up on a food blog.

I'm a hardened dieter/ healthy eater and abandoner of both of those pasttimes, usually in the face of something with vast quantities of butter or sugar. Junk food has never been my thing and I eat pretty healthily most of the time, but there's nothing that's quite the same as crispy roast potatoes. So, I have to think about my snacks - make sure that my innate tendency towards fabulously flavoured badness is balanced out by fresh, clean, healthiness.

This tends to mean that Monday - Friday, fruit is my snack of choice - apples, bananas, satsumas, cherry tomatoes, sharon fruit. I get frustrated when I can't get British apples, but aside from that am fairly easily pleased. I tend to avoid berries as they don't travel well when wedged in between a laptop and 16 copies of handouts and tupperware containers add to unecessary bulk when travelling on trains that no longer give you somewhere to put your luggage when you're 5'4" and can't lift something above your head.

So yes, fruit. for years I've heard about freezing grapes as a dieters sweetie. It must come up at least annually as a suggestion in every women's magazine I've ever read - from Just Seventeen up to Easy Living. It's there in every Weight Watchers and Slimming world material I've ever read. And yet, I've never tried it. I've dismissed it, much like 'swap your regular sausages for Quorn - you'll never tell the difference!' Yes. I. Will. Or, 'try Turkey bacon in place of regular bacon for a Sunday morning fry (or grill) up' No, it has a weird texture - it's squeaky. Having tried those recommedations and been forced to dismiss them on account of the fact that they're RUBBISH, I also dismissed frozen grapes. Oh how stupid I was. Frozen grapes are a cross between grape flavoured sweeties and an ice lolly. Having stupidly sensitive teeth I choose to suck them and love when they start to go squishy.

I'm so embarrased by including this, but also so keen to spread the word - for those of you doing the 5:2 Feast:Fast I'm hoping frozen grapes might prove to be a something yummy you can fit in on your fast days - according to myfitnesspal, 1 grape is 2 calories and the good thing about freezing them is that you don't pop one in your mouth after another, barely tasting them as they go down. It forces you to slow down and to really enjoy each mouthful.

Quite simply, wash your grapes, put them in a tupperware or similar without a lid, and in your freezer - help yourself to them every time you're peckish.

If I weren't so embarrassed I'd submit these to Kavey's Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream this month, the subject of which is Ice lollies, but I'm too embarrassed. By far.

Simple Summer Essentials: Peach melba - musical theatre style

 

 

 

The Simple Summer Essentials series is coming to an end - along with this (all too brief) spell of hot weather. The last recipes I have for you are all sweet - today's peach melba, a patriotic pavlova and a way to use up overripe soft fruits to make a fool.

Peach Melba was originally a pudding created by Auguste Escoffier to honour the soprano Nellie Melba. Vanilla ice cream, peaches and raspberry sauce combined with an ice sculpture of a swan (as a nod to the opera she was singing in) to make an outstanding dessert, recreated time and time over. by the time I became familiar with peach melba it had been diluted into one of those little pots of yoghurt, that along with Angel delight were standard pudding fare in the 1980's. Not quite what escoffier had in mind I'm sure!

Growing up, peach melba seemed impossibly glamourous and fancy. The type of thing one would have at a posh restaurant. Little did I know, that the combination of peach and raspberry I loved so fiercely in my little pots of yoghurt was an easily recreated dessert, one that could easily be done and done diet style as well.

So today's post is Peach Melba - musical theatre style (that is to say less overblown than opera) Consider this the Rent to La Boheme, or Miss Saigon to Madam Butterfly of the pudding world.

Serves 2

100g 0% fat Greek yoghurt (I use Total)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g raspberries pureed
2 peaches
1 tsp dark, soft brown sugar

Split your peaches in half, and remove the stone. Sprinkle the cut side with the soft, dark brown sugar and put under a hot grill until the sugar starts to bubble.
Meanwhile, mix the vanilla extract into the yoghurt and leave to stand. You could sweeten if you wanted, either with a sweetener or sugar. I don't find I need it and avoid artificial sweeteners as a rule, but you should make sure it tastes lovely for you.
This is an ideal way to use up ripe raspberries - either mush them up in a bowl, or (if you're being fancy) push them through a seive.
Then either, stir the puree into the yoghurt and top the grilled peaches with this (as I've done in the pictures). Or top the grilled peaches with plain yoghurt and drizzle with the raspberry puree

It's such a simple pudding, but grilling the peaches makes it slightly different as the peaches take on a fantastic caramelly flavour from the sugar and grill. This method of cooking them would also work on a barbeque if you're planning on one last hurrah with yours this weekend.

Meal Planning Monday: woman cannot live by blackberry vodka alone. That edition.

How on earth did it get to be Sunday evening already? I'm sure I only just finished doing this for last week. Anyway, here we are again, this week M is off having a well earned rest (I say that but his to-do list is getting longer by the hour) and I'm nose to the grindstone. That said we've had a lovely weekend in the sunshine, spending yesterday with a picnic on the heath and today going for a long walk and doing some blackberrying. We've also belatedly celebrated M's birthday with a Mars bar cake - which received the accolade "why haven't you made this for me before now?"

If you follow me on Instagram - I'm penjy on there - you'll have seen the preserving that's been going on in the Pantry - on Friday I took advantage of some bargain soft fruits to start a Currant rum, using the recipe I previously blogged about here. It's maturing in the pantry at the moment, but I should be adding the sugar and bottling it around the 1st September. I also strained and bottled my blackberry vodka, which looks beautiful. The 2lb or so of blackberries we picked today are destined to be split between another batch of blackberry liquor (maybe brandy or gin this time - I'm not sure, what do you think?) and some jam. I'm going to freeze the jam half as I'm waiting on M's Mum's recipe as hers are altogether failsafe and also the return of some of my jam jars. I'm getting ahead on my preserving so that the booze will be bottled and maturing nicely in time for Christmas. Yes, I said it. But if I prepare for it now then I should manage to avoid last year's last minute panic. And I prefer homemade gifts, there's just something so much more personal about giving people something you've spent time and love on, not just money. 

So seeing as man (or woman) cannot survive on blackberry vodka alone I had better get my head around some meal planning: 

Breakfasts: fruit for me with my usual mugs of tea

Lunches: salad all the way, tomorrow I've got leftover tuna pasta salad (which is all free food on Slimming World), then ham salad probably for Tuesday. After that I'll need to locate some protein to go with the veg as I didn't roast a chicken today. It was just too hot. 

Dinners: 

Monday - M is visiting his parents so I'm thinking of picking up some mackerel on my way home and having that with horseradish and a salad.

Tuesday - M is home and there's a portion of leftover courgetti spaghetti to eat. I'm in Kent all day so may well just collapse in a little heap on arriving home. 

Wednesday - we've eaten a lot of pasta lately so I'm going to make a sweet and sour chicken/ turkey. We'll have that with brown basmati rice

Thursday - is it terrible to say I'm banking on having leftovers? Well I don't care, I'm banking on having leftover sweet and sour chicken.

Friday - Meatballs with a tomato sauce and pasta

Meanwhile in my Simple Summer essentials I've got another patriotic pavlova to make (we ate the first one), in all it's red, white and blue glory for the Paralympic opening ceremony. 

And the last installment of that series will be some peaches that I'm going to try grilling and having with 0% fat yoghurt as a pudding. That post will also have a competition to find your Simple Summer Essentials with a prize from Asda for one winner of a £50 voucher to help you create your choice. 

So that's where we are this week - what about you?

Deeply dippy: about asparagus

Asparagus was one of the treats in my pack from Asda, that has been the basis of this series of Simple Summer Essentials. Truthfully I would normally only buy and cook asparagus during the British season (around Aprilish time) but this year the crops were pretty much devastated by the awful, awful weather we've been subjected to, so I think I managed to find some once. For me, I think part of the beauty of asparagus is in the fact that it's season is so limited, and I do look forward to it.

As I'd gone without in the Spring, I thought 'to hell with it' (just this once mind you) and decided to embrace my Asda asparagus with open arms. I had two bunches so decided to do it two ways.

The first was - and probably always will be - my favourite way to eat asparagus is with softly poached eggs. I use the lightly steamed spears as green soldiers, and dip them happily into the golden, runny yolks of my eggs. (I get bored once the yolk has gone but don't tell). The only thing I do differently from the post linked to above is poach the eggs properly now, and omit the toast.

Poached eggs - pantry style (I say that, this is probably the easiest thing to do ever)

Poached eggs work best with fresh eggs - at the supermarket I'm never entirely convinced about how fresh they are, so when I can I get them from either a local farm shop, or our farmers market, where a free range chicken lady sells her eggs. Not 'her' eggs obviously, that would be weird. The eggs her hens lay.

Fill a wide, flat pan with a couple of inches of water that you've just boiled in the kettle, put this on a lowish heat until you get small bubbles.
Break the egg into the water and let the water stay at this gentle simmer for a minute
Take the pan off the heat and leave to sit for 10 minutes. Serve with asparagus

To cook asparagus I either steam it, or cook it this way. Put the stems, tip down in a pyrex jug - fill up to to about two thirds of the way up the stem with boiling water. Leave to stand for 5 minutes. Dunk with gusto into eggs, using the cold ends to hold. Genius!

OK, so now - asparagus another way.

Just lately there's been something I've really taken to about savoury tray bakes. Not adding vegetables to sponge cake, but the whack it all in a roasting tin and leave it in the oven for an hour or so. I've started to buy a whole chicken and ask the butcher to joint it, then just add some potatoes, veg, garlic, salt and pepper and cook for about an hour at 200 degrees C. It's a no fuss supper and ideal for when M's edgy because we've not had meat yet that week.

Roast asparagus

About 5-10 minutes before the end of any savoury traybake - the one pictured was sausages, sweetcorn and potatoes. (I had salad with mine) add the asparagus to the roasting tin, tossing it gently in any oil or seasoning. Then pop back in the oven until you're ready to serve, and on serving - fight over who gets the bigger portion (true story)

Simple summer essentials part 3: The colour purple - Beetroot and feta salad

Baby beetroot and feta salad

What am I up to now? Part three? I think so, if you don't count Meal Planning Monday as part one. Or maybe I should. Which would make this Part four. Oh, who knows. I've got pavlova, poached eggs and steamed asparagus and raspberry cordial or vodka/ gin (still undecided) yet to come.

So far in the Simple Summer Essentials we've had:

Watercress, basil and parsley oil: two ways

Mozarella and tomato salad: (also) two ways

And now Baby beetroot and feta salad. Which I can't take credit for thinking up, because it's everywhere. And when I suddenly though - oooh I know, that's what I'll do, I realised I'd remembered it from Jules' recent post. Dammit. I did think about doing something different, but the baby beetroot with mint and raspberry were so sweet and were calling, calling I tell you(!) out to be made into salad. No, really they were.

It's less of a recipe in my case, and more of (as this week is themed) a Simple Summer essential. Where the recipe lies in this case is in the dressing. Jules' dressing looks lovely, but if we're doing Pantry summer essentials then a simple French dressing has to be included. Mine was once based on a Delia recipe, possibly from How to Cook, but that was a long time ago. Years have passed since I've opened the book, much less looked at the ingredients, but that said, hers was the inspiration.

French dressing (used here on beetroot, feta, tomatoes, pea shoots and some cucumber)

1 garlic clove, crushed (or squished on a bread board using the flat of your knife and some salt)
Pinch salt
Black pepper
Sprinkle mustard powder (maybe half a teaspoon or so? And I often substitute this with made up mustard if I've run out of powder)
Good olive oil, maybe about 4 tablespoons
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I love this more than is probably healthy)
1 tablespoon white wine/ cider vinegar

Add your crushed garlic, salt, pepper and mustard powder to a clean, empty jam jar and haphardly beat it together with a fork
Add the oil and vinegars, put the lid on the jar and shake like billy-oh until everything mixes together
Add to salads and store in the fridge

Herb oils: two ways to infuse

I seem to be all about 'doing the double' this week, unlike our amazing athletes it's all about the food, no medals here. Sad times. Although I am entering this as part of Karen at Lavender and Loveage's Herbs on Saturday linkup

Now I have to confess (despite using the word twice in my last post) I don't really 'do' drizzle. To me it makes me feel like I'm trying too hard, like I'm pretending to be a restaurant chef when we all know I'm a home cook in slippers and a Cath Kidston pinny. Not just that obviously, I'm not some kind of slipper & pinny wearing pervert!

However, flavoured oils to me come under the heading of preserves. And we all know how excited the Pantry gets about the prospect of preserving. Too excited.

The first flavoured oils I made were chilli oils as a Christmas present for my dad. Simply add dried chillies to an unflavoured oil (groundnut works well) Decant into a sterilised bottle, seal and keep in a dark cupboard. The flavour will get stronger and stronger the longer it's kept as the chillies continue to infuse, so that's best kept for lovers of that chilli kick.

However today is all about the herbs. In my bundle of goodies from Asda was a bag of watercress. And as luck would have it I had some parsley and basil in a jug on my worktop.

Pantry tip: store cut herbs as you would cut flowers (but maybe in a jug not your best crystal vase) topping up the water regularly and they'll stay fresh far longer.

I should just note that salad leaves like rocket grow like weeds in the tiniest window box or pot, and even when carelessly neglected will grow beautifully. You can reseed your pot intermittently so that over the course of the summer you have a cheap, quick and instant source of salad.

Pantry tip 2: yesterday I mentioned when to spend your money on mozzarella and when to save it. Olive oil is similar, to cook with use a plain and simple olive oil (or even an unflavoured oil like groundnut) but if you're using it raw as it were go all out with the extra virgin. Don't go mad but you want one that tastes fresh and vibrant as it is. Although you're infusing herbs into it, the flavour of the oil will continue to shine through.

Watercress & herb oil - the quick and easy one

Fill a 1 pint jug with your herbs. I used watercress, parsley and basil. Blitz these in a food processor, until really finely chopped.

Measure half a pint of good quality olive oil and pour that into your food processor with the motor running slowly.

Taste, season if necessary and use over salads, grilled meats or you could add toasted pine nuts and finely grated Parmesan for a quick and easy take on pesto. You probably won't want salt if you're taking this on to pesto as the salt from the cheese will be enough.

If you decant this into a sterilised jar and ensure that you cover it with a layer of extra olive oil it will keep in the fridge for a week or so.

What's nice about this is how the really peppery kick of the watercress comes through, contrasting with the softer flavours of the basil and parsley.

Watercress and herb oil: take two - cold infusion

Now for the preserving. This means that the oil will keep for much longer, and the flavour is intensified. It is strained through muslin as you would for a jelly so the pieces of herbs are discarded.

You start the same way with a pint of herbs, which you bring to yhe boil in a pan of water, straining almost immediately it comes to the boil and refresing under cold water.

Then blitz this, adding half a pint of good olive oil.

Strain this mixture through a seive letting the oil drip through slowly into a bowl. Resist the urge to push the oils through as that will make your end result cloudy.

You can bottle at this stage, using sterilised bottles, or you can strain again, lining your seive with muslin (or a clean, old pillowcase) and then bottle.

This will keep in the fridge a little longer than the easier option and is a wonderful addition to salads (especially yesterday's mozzarella and tomato salad) It also makes a lovely present as the verdant green oil is so beautiful and a fantastic alternative home-made gift for someone who perhaps doesn't like marmalade, jam, sloe gin, or elderberry cordial.

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to: Tomato & mozzarella salad

 

But let's not call the whole thing off.

 

I said this week was going to be dedicated to simple summer essentials, and was keen from the outset to include my favourite summer salad: tomato and mozzarella.

 

But first, some background (or waffle - you decide and feel free to skip this paragraph). Growing up, salad for us, like many working class families, included the ubiquitous iceberg lettuce, watery tomatoes (although cherry were always my favourite) and cucumber. A summer staple, served with leftover roast meat or ham for packed lunches. The amazing thing about being a market shopper is the fact that you had to buy seasonal produce. Now it seems odd that those of us on lower incomes were embracing through necessity something which is now seen as a desirable indicator of one's ethical status and an appropriate choice to make. But enough preaching, you get the picture; salad = boring. And I have to admit it took me a long time to move away from the familiarity of that prescriptive recipe as it were. I remember a flatmate at uni adding dressing and mango to a chicken salad and thinking it wonderfully decadent. Adding croutons and thousand island dressing (yes, I know, kill me now) was my next step, and then - once again spurred on by Mr Oliver - I started to experiment. Watery tomatoes were replaced with home grown (actually that is a lie I distinctly remember my grandma growing tomatoes in her greenhouse and indulgently letting us eat them straight from the plants). Peppers were added and dressings experimented with. Over time I discovered first rocket, and then watercress preferring to grow my own in window boxes and plant pots than use the bagged, extortionate supermarket versions.

Today salad is once again a summer staple, it's largely diet friendly and means I get an extra serving of my five a day.

The produce Asda sent me was calling out to be made into a salad and my tummy was calling out for that to be my favourite. I'm including two ways of making this, not because I'm showing off, but because if you're left with some overripe tomatoes then slow roasting them first works best.

Now just before I get any further I want to address (possibly reiterate) the mozzarella equation:

• If you're eating mozzarella raw, such as in this salad - buy the best you can afford. The taste does make a difference. Please don't remortgage your house though, stay within reason.
• If you're cooking with mozzarella buy economy/ basics branded. In blind taste tests when the cheese has been cooked people categorically can't tell the difference.

 

Mozzarella and tomato salad (fresh tomatoes)
 

 

If you store your tomatoes in the fridge, get them out at least an hour before making this as it means you can taste the flavour of the fruit as opposed to just the cold.

 

Around 1 large or 2 medium (really, use your judgement) tomatoes per person

 

Mozzarella - usually balls are around 250g and I allow half a ball per person
Fresh basil or if you've had a glut of herbs you needed to preserve, a drizzle of basil oil. See tomorrow's post for details.

 

Slice the mozzarella and tomatoes about the thickness of a £1 coin
(I can't believe I just typed that, slice them how you want!) if you've not got a super sharp knife use a serrated one as it makes slicing tomatoes easier.

 

Scatter over fresh basil leaves, salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Or just salt, pepper and your herb oil

 If I'm being fancy I arrange them on a plate, alternating the tomato and cheese. If, on the other hand I'm making lunch for me I whack it all in a bowl and scoff greedily sat in as much sunshine as either the office, training room, front step or balcony can muster!

 Mozarella and tomato salad - take two: using overripe tomatoes

 

 

Halve all your ripe tomatoes and place them on a baking tray cut side up. Sprinkle with salt & pepper (and if you've got some fresh thyme lying around add that)
Drizzle over olive oil
Cook in a preheated oven - 200 degrees C ish for about 45 minutes, until the skins are just starting to blacken and the tops are wrinkly

Serve with your mozzarella, save the olive oil-y juices though and use that as a dressing with some basil

 

 

The roasted tomatoes will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. Bring up to room temperature before using them though

So there you have it, my salad history and mozzarella and tomato salad two ways. What more could you want?