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Tenner Week: Tuesday

October 25th, 2011 by Penny Golightly

After a slightly inauspicious start to the week, I decided that today was definitely going to be a no-spend day. I was working from home and didn’t really need anything urgently so figured it was reasonably do-able.

My mid-morning coffee on a day like today is usually taken in a a nice nearby cafe where I can also get some work done on my netbook. It’s a good change of scenery and I know the staff so it’s nice and sociable too. This time I had a proper coffee at home made in a cafetiere, and it tasted pretty good. However I did end up feeling kind of cooped up in the office.

I decided to go for a very long walk at lunch time, as the weather was beautiful and because I thought I’d try my hand at foraging. After over an hour of searching around a local park and several nearby streets it was time to admit defeat. I was looking for blackberries but for some reason the local plants had produced microscopic or red mouldering fruit. Probably due to the strange weather we’ve had throughout the summer.

Anyway, I only found about ten edible berries in total, so I was a bit naughty on the way home and scrumped one of the many ripe passion fruits hanging down into the street from a neighbour’s plant. The plant is a Passiflora caerulea, so the fruits are edible and safe – they aren’t nearly as fragrant and delicious as the proper purple-skinned ones but the red caerulea contents were nice enough. In total I think this made up one of my five a day.

Got home and had a quick lunch of a peanut butter sandwich and an apple, with a glass of orange juice. Then it was back to work time, keeping myself busy for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately the neighbours on one side were doing their usual half-term trick of keeping their kids stuck in their living room for the whole day, so there was an awful lot of screaming, fighting and general noise. I put up with it today, but tomorrow I’ll have to go out. This might wreck the budget, but I can’t not work…

Was supposed to go out tonight as I’d been offered free tickets for a show, but I feel a bit like I’m coming down with something buggy so I’m going to have an early night instead. Then, possibly stupidly, I did 200 sit-ups while the evening meal was cooking. Might regret that tomorrow.

Dinner was quick and easy baked potatoes with the last of the black beans from yesterday and some grated cheddar on top. I made a side salad too with tinned sweetcorn, half a chopped red pepper that was lurking in the bottom of the salad crisper, a big handful of parsley from the windowsill and some home made dressing. It was lovely comfort food, and made me wonder why I don’t have this sort of thing more often. Think that’s five a day today as well – in your face, scurvy.

Haven’t done any thrifty chores today, so will have to remedy that tomorrow. Listened to lots of excellent music for John Peel Day though, read bits of two business books, and haven’t watched any rubbish telly. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Total spent today: £0.00

Total spent this week: £1.03

How’s your Tenner Week shaping up?

Tags: bon viveur on a budget, tenner week, Tenner Week October 2011
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British seasonal food in October

October 13th, 2011 by Penny Golightly

I love October’s seasonal foods. It’s the perfect excuse to make a casserole, followed by a blackberry and apple crumble. Or maybe a bouillabaisse, followed by some nice cheese and biscuits. Or maybe some cream of cauliflower soup.

Anyway, here’s what’s waiting for you at the market this month. Get stuck in.

Fruit: new season apples, blackberries, crab apples, damsons, elderberries, figs, hazelnuts, juniper berries, Kentish cobnuts, pears, plums, quinces, raspberries, sloes, sweet chestnuts, walnuts.

Vegetables: asian greens, autumn and red cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and tops, cardoons, cauliflower at its peak, celeriac, celery, chicory, courgettes finishing, fennel, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, last of the lettuce, leeks, peppers, marrow, mushrooms (chanterelles, ceps, hedgehog fungus, horn of plenty), parsnips, pumpkins and squashes, radishes, rocket, salsify and scorzonera, spinach, spring onions, swedes, sweetcorn, turnips, watercress.

Fish and shellfish: brill, brown hen crab, brown shrimp, cod, Dover sole, eels, lobster, mackerel, mussels, native and rock oysters, prawns, scallops, sea bass, sprats, squid, spider crab, squid, turbot, wild salmon.

Meat, poultry and game: Autumn lamb, grouse, wild duck, partridge, pheasant, woodcock.

Cheeses: Caerphilly. Gruyere, Saint-Nectaire and all the other main French hard cheeses.

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So, what are you going to cook?

Tags: British seasonal food, ingredients in season, october seasonal food, seasonal food, seasonal foods for October, UK seasonal food
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Claire Napier’s zingy lemon loaf cake recipe

October 5th, 2011 by Penny Golightly

As you may already know, plenty of us think it’s time for a revival of the great British tea loaf. They taste great, you don’t usually need any fancy equipment or much experience to make one, they don’t need fancy decorations, they’re great to share or give as a gift and they’re the perfect excuse for a tea or coffee break. What’s not to love?

This month we have a refreshingly citrussy lemon loaf cake recipe from the most excellent Claire Napier. You may also know her as the very entertaining @illusClaire on Twitter. While you’re at it, you can also hire her to do some illustrations for you, if you’re in the market for a few of those.

But for now, on with the fabulous cake. Take it away, Claire!

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Ingredients

8oz plain flour

8oz golden unrefined caster sugar

4oz butter

1-2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

2 serving spoonfuls of lemon juice

icing sugar (optional)

1. Your fan oven should be pre-heated to 170. Adjust it slightly hotter if you don’t have a fan oven. Grease your loaf tin with butter (or whatever you like).

2. Mix the sugar, flour, and eggs together smoothly.

3. Chop in the butter, mash it with the fork and beat it into the mixture. Keep beating until you’re satisfied with the consistency.

4. Add the baking powder and lemon juice (your cake will be so clean!). Stir it in slowly, so as not to slop.

5. Pour the mixture into the tin; put into the oven. Bake for one hour (keep an eye on it, don’t let it burn).

6. Allow the loaf to cool in the tin until you can lift it without burning yourself. Tip the loaf to cool away from the tin.

7. Slice, and eat!

If you like drizzle, score the surface and mix up some icing sugar with lemon juice. Pour the mixture into the scores and make sure it goes down quite deep. If you don’t feel like drizzle, it’s delicious eaten alone but also benefits from a spreading of quince or crab apple jelly! Our quince crop failed spectacularly, so this is shop-bought but still so delicious.

The texture you get from adding so much lemon juice is a little different from your average cake or loaf. It’s visually just a little reminiscent of the top of a freshly baked cheesecake – it’s a bit more resistant than usual. I think it makes an interesting change, and the lemon flavour comes through so strongly! It’s very, very refreshing. If you prefer to go more traditionally, you can substitute grated rind for one of the spoonfuls of lemon juice, and cook for a shorter time.

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Are you going to try making October’s Tea Loaf of the Month? We’ll certainly be tucking into one at Golightly Gardens, with extra drizzle. If you have a great tea loaf recipe of your own and would like to be next month’s guest poster then please let me know via the ‘Contact us’ page (the link’s on the right hand side if you scroll down).

Tags: Penny Golightly tea loaf of the month, Tea Loaf of the Month
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Book review: Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton

September 23rd, 2011 by Penny Golightly

We haven’t had a book review for a while, have we? Let’s get straight back into it with this copy of Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton.

He’s the clever clogs behind the dishes at the Michelin-starred Maze. The premise of the book is that you can have fine dining for a fiver per head, by which he means a light-ish two-course meal (starter and main, or main and dessert) without drinks.

Without a doubt this is dinner party food, or a hearty lunch for foodies, and the recipes are all to serve four people. It’s easy enough to scale the portions up or down too. In order for it to truly be a meal for a fiver you have to have quite a few store cupboard staples already otherwise you’ll be buying in extra ingredients that can cost a fair bit for a whole bottle or packet.

It also helps if you live near a decent fishmonger or butcher, as there are many ingredients that work out great value for money and are very tasty indeed, but you’re unlikely to get them from the average supermarket. Likewise, some of the flavourings would be best purchased from an Indian grocery shop, or a Chinese or Thai supermarket.

The book also relies on seasonal foods, things that are at their best and also hopefully cheaper because they’re plentiful. I’d say that you’d need to be a fairly confident cook to tackle some of the dishes, intermediate to advanced level mainly, but you’d be able to make some real show-stoppers.

It’s the chef-y touches that really make this book, including the ‘plating up’ directions. It’s all designed to look beautiful when you serve it up, and each recipe is accompanied by a full page colour photo. The desserts are stunning.

If I’m going to be niggly, some of the chef-yness is also a slight drawback at times as the home cook cannot haggle for trade discounts on ingredients and loses out on economies of scale. One example is the creation of a pudding that’s entirely made from staple ingredients, which then has ’15g of fresh coconut’ shaved over the top of it – fine of you’re making 20 in a restaurant kitchen, not within budget for the average home cook as it’s impossible to buy this amount on its own. This is where experience and ability to improvise comes in handy, as a little grated chocolate or sprinkle of toasted dessicated coconut could be possible substitutes.

In summary: a very beautiful cookbook with fresh, innovative recipes and seasonal ingredients. Not one for beginners, but definitely a book to consider if you’d like to shake up your romantic dinner repertoire or try something new when you’re feeding your foodie friends. Worth it for the desserts alone.

Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton is published by Quadrille Ltd and has an RRP of £14.99. It’s currently available from Amazon priced £7.70 and qualifies for free Super Saver delivery.

Tags: book review, cheaper food, cook book, fine foods, gourmet foods for less, Penny Golightly book review, seasonal food
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