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We finally repaid the dinner invitation from August 2007, and had Steven and Anthony round on Saturday evening. Busy in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon, we were pleased with our three-course efforts. We produced a veritable pre-poker and sloe gin feast, serving up the roasted pepper and tomato soup I made a few weeks back for mum and Bart, quiches lorraine and broccoli and cheese (with tomato salad), and chocolate mousse.

Now that we have room in the outhouse to use it, I wanted a bread machine recipe for bread to eat with the soup, but I couldn’t find either the instruction manual or the recipe book that came with it. A few minutes online turned one up, though, and although it wasn’t specifically for our Bifinett KH1171, it was for automatic bread machines, which was good enough.

Making enough for a 750g loaf, the ingredients list below needs fine tuning, as our dough only rose to half the height it should have been (a common error if internet forums are anything to go by). It was tasty nonetheless, and was very dense; fine for soup, but I don’t think it would make a good sandwich.

Ingredients
1 and-a-quarter cups of water
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
3 cups of bread flour (white, granary, or wholemeal)
2 tablespoons of instant dry milk powder
2 teaspoons of bread machine yeast

Method
This will be different for each automatic bread making machine, but our model required the water, salt, sugar, and flour to go in first (in that order), followed by the instant dry milk powder and then finally the yeast. With the browning level set to medium, we left it for just under three hours until the machine had finished its process.

You may find you can tip out the loaf from the tin while still warm, but our paddles wouldn’t release until the dough had cooled, when the job was much easier. So, when cooled, tip out of the loaf tin, and serve immediately. Just as with shop-bought bread, the loaf can be stored in a clipped or tied food bag for three to four days.

The roasted peppers and tomatoes in this hearty soup make you think of butternut squash, but the orange vegetable is not included. Ideal as a starter, the ingredients below make four small servings, so increase the quantities to make larger and more filling bowlfuls.

Ingredients
4 peppers (green, red, or yellow)
525g of tomatoes
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 onion
2 carrots
568ml (1 pint) of vegetable stock
3 tablespoons of half-fat crème fraîche
12 basil leaves
Pepper to taste

Method
Core, de-seed, and halve the peppers. Halve the tomatoes, and arrange the peppers and tomatoes on a baking/grill tray (peppers skin side up, and tomatoes skin side down) and cook under a preheated high grill for around 10 minutes, until the pepper skins are charred. Remove the roasted vegetables from the grill, and put the peppers into a clipped plastic bag and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Leave the tomatoes to cool for the same amount of time.

Peel off the pepper skins by rubbing until all removed, and chop up the flesh. Peel the skins off the tomatoes (which should be easier than the peppers which can take a while, but persevere – it is worth it). Now chop up the onion and carrots.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and soften the onion and carrot for five minutes. Make the stock as per the instructions on the tub, and add to the pan, along with the roasted peppers and tomatoes. Now reduce the heat and simmer for a further 40 minutes.

If you are making the soup ahead of serving the following day, leave to stand in a covered saucepan. When needed, add all the mixture into a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer back into a large saucepan, and reheat on the hob. Add the crème fraîche and stir through. Season with a little pepper to taste and serve into bowls, adding three leaves of basil for decoration. Serve with crusty French bread, or Italian focaccia.

This soup can also be bagged and frozen to eat later if you have a glut of homegrown ripe tomatoes that you would like to use.

It was a holiday, but not in the strictest sense. Not a week of sunning ourselves or going for long walks in the countryside (the inclement and changeable weather put paid to that), but an enjoyable five days out of the office none the less. And we got lots of jobs that we’ve meaning to do, done.

My spare bedroom got not so much emptied, but sorted, so at least now things are in organised piles. And we liberated some floor space but taking a car full of things to the charity shops. Mum even painted the loo (the same Light French Grey as the bedroom), before we came back to Essex on the Tuesday. I’m very pleased with how it looks.

The second half of the break was spent darting on and out of shops on a rainy Wednesday (lunching in IKEA, and not spending anything anywhere else), doing computer jobs when it was still wet outside, and getting out and about on the bikes when the sun decided to make an appearance, which it turned out, was more frequent than we thought. When we were indoors I learnt a new skill. Audacity music editing software turns anyone into a mixing desk pro.

Pleasingly though, when we were on the bikes, I managed to get my cyclometer working. Delighting in the fact that it actually recorded anything, we ended up cycling over 20 miles in three days (and up to 20mph), so although we didn’t go exploring the flat landscapes of East Anglia on foot, we more than made up for it.

Digital cyclometer records all sorts of pedal power-related things

We also started off some more elderflower champagne, after the last batch beat us. With corks still popping through their bottle neck sleeves, we decided to start again, and use plastic bottles this time, a tip picked up from the internet. The gas can be released by loosening the screw caps this way every few days, so there’s no constant build up as the glass bottles have now.

It’s a shame we’ve just missed the prime elderflower season, though, as a much smaller volume of flower heads mean that we can make a much smaller volume of fizzy stuff. With most of the hedgerow plants now turning to berries, and the council having cut the hedge near home which was overridden with flowers, the heads were much harder to find this time around.

The first bean harvest of 2008: runner, French, and broad varieties

Add rice, an onion, cheese, stock, and wine for a three-bean risotto

Even though we were off, the garden was still working, and we had the first harvest of the beans on Saturday evening. We made the runners, French and broad varieties into a three-bean risotto, and got great satisfaction out of eating meaningful produce from the garden once more. A spot of garden tidying and the planting of Italian basil, mint, and marigolds (to keep the bugs away from the tomatoes) rounded off the week nicely. And that was before we’d had the neighbours around for afternoon tea.

Marigolds around tomato plants deter tomato-plant eating bugs

Of course, we also made the new Omlet Eglu Cube chicken house, and spent time with family on both weekends and as the train zizzed me home tonight, past the lavender fields with pink skies and clouds of petrol blue, I reflected on the last few days. We actually packed quite a lot in, and almost need another holiday to get over this one.

Homebrewed elderflower champagne: a popular but volatile summer drink

They’re popping all over the place. The corks that is. After the success of the homebrewed beer, we were inspired by River Cottage Spring, and last weekend thought we’d have a go at making fizzy stuff derived from the heads of flowers which, at this time of year, abundantly fill the hedgerows.

Elderflower heads naturally contain yeast, and are abundant in summer

Cutting off the flower heads and using this recipe, we added the quartered lemons, sugar, and water, and left it for a couple of days to do its stuff. Only it didn’t. Not straight away anyway. The elderflower heads are naturally yeasty, so should react with the other ingredients to add bubbles, and turn the mixture into alcohol.

All you need is elderflowers, lemons, sugar, and water (and possibly yeast)

When they didn’t, we simply added yeast and hot water, and that soon added the frothiness and bubbles we were looking for. In fact, it added too much, and it had to be bottled last night, as the whole fermenting bucket was in danger of creating a very loud bang, not only scaring the cat, but also covering the kitchen in a very sticky mess.

The bottling process was quite literally that, a process in itself, entailing jugs, and muslin, and mixing bowls, and lots and lots of sticky liquid all over the flat. This paragraph really doesn’t convey just how messy it was, but a few clean-ups later, the job was done, and we had 15 bottles of almost-ready to drink elderflower champagne. It wasn’t all bad news; the plunging corker worked a treat.

But, it’s proving a real job to keep the bungs in the bottles. After 13 had popped their corks (they go with a real pop-gun sound), and flung their liquid into the outhouse corridor, covering the floor, they were stood in a cold, metal dustbin in cold water. We thought this would calm them down a bit, as we’re away for the weekend, but at least one more popped this morning. Emergency action was called for then, and it arrived in the shape of heat-shrunk sleeves. Just like ‘proper’ wine bottles!

Whether these solve the popping problem remains to be seen, but hopefully after a couple of weeks left to prove and ferment further, we should have a few bottles tasting of summer. We already plan to gather more flowers while they’re in season and make another batch. But maybe we’ll hold off on the yeast next time…

 
Super-hot Pizza delivered very quickly anyone?

On a Sunday morning in early summer, there’s a good chance I can be found in a field full of Volkswagens. That was certainly the case yesterday, when we scooted down the A130 to the Battlesbridge VW Show, 10 miles south east of Chelmsford. Only there until just gone lunch, we’d never been before, and there was surprisingly much to see.

Reflecting on older and newer models, the even had something for everyone

Old air-cooled Volkswagens rubbed shoulders with shiny new water-cooled ones, while a large scattering of vendors and parts kept the autojumblers happy. It was a real family affair too, as five of us grown-ups made the journey, making sure baby Will recognises the crest from Wolfsburg and that unmistakable VW logo early in his life.

Sunny and warm when sheltered from the wind, we arrived home and set up the new barbecue for some alfresco cooking and eating in the garden. The super briquettes (faster-acting than normal ones) weren’t that super at all, and after what seemed like a long two hours of warmth, we were able to enjoy our freshly-grilled meat and vegetarian fayre. Salads of rice, tomatoes, and potatoes accompanied the barbecued food well – it all tasted delicious.

While there was no homegrown crops with the BBQ, it will soon be in our salads

We even opened the first of the home-brewed beer. And very nice it was too. Getting through seven bottles between four of us, it tasted like proper real ale, and as good as anything you would buy in a pub.

 
The sun sets by the horses and on a fun but busy weekend

The sun was still shining after we’d packed up, and although tired, we decided to go for an early evening walk. We’re glad we did, enjoying the sunset as the giant yellow-orange orb descended behind the trees in the nature reserve, reflecting the grazing horses on the river. Getting in just after half-eight, we sat down to relax, after a busy, but fun Sunday in the sun.