M is for Marrow

And this isn't just any old marrow, this is a whopper of vegetable that was gifted to me by my Mother who got it from who knows where. Unfortunately "Olivia and the Giant Marrow" doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "James and the Giant Peach" but there is still a story to tell none-the-less

My problem was, I hadn't a clue what to do with it. Now I don't mean in terms of I didn't know how to cook a marrow as I have vague memories of having baked marrow stuffed with spicy rice as a child and could probably replicate that to one degree or another. But at the same time the same memories also tell me that stuffed marrow gave me really bad gas and that is not at all attractive so that option was quickly crossed off the list.

So whilst I could have cooked it, it was more the sheer size and quantity of said vegetable that put me at a complete loss as to what to do, in fact, I found it quite intimidating having this cucurbita (fancy new word I found) sitting on my worktop glaring at me to use it each time I went in the kitchen.

So I reached out to friends on twitter for some help and the responses ranged from turning it into rum -not helpful, a cake - intriguing but not convincing, or jam - bingo!

So jam it was and after a quick search via Google I came across this simple recipe on the River Cottage website which matched up to the quantities of marrow I had. I wish I could say that I leaped into action there an then, after scribbling a quick shopping list (lemons, preserving sugar and root ginger) but it took another few days before I made it to the supermarket with The Two Monkeys in tow feeling über productive and positive because after a week of having this behemoth of a vegetable glaring at me I was finally going to use it.

On returning home, I got the boys settled The Two Monkeys down to eat their lunch (which I like to think gives me about 15 minutes to do something but in reality its about 5) and returned to the kitchen. Having donned my apron, grabbed my biggest pan and cleared some space I laid out my ingredients to do a "before" shot.

Looks good doesn't it. Very country kitchen. But that was when production came to a screaming halt...and why? Because I had no jam jars. None. Zilch. Because in my infinite wisdom I had the previous evening made tangy plum jam with some of the first fruit off the tree in our garden and used up all the empty jars I had. Talk about school girl error!

So I put my ingredients in the pan which sat on the stove not getting cooked Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I was reluctant to buy brand new jars so had scoured some of the charity shops on Monday but to no avail. Wednesday arrived and so did my Mother along with a hoard of empty jars, this is it, I thought...but no, I ran out of time during the day and I was not going to sacrifice watching Great British Bake Off for an overgrown courgette.

It was Thursday (yesterday) that I finally got to cut into the giant légume. I cut it into slices, scooped out the insides and (leaving the skin on) cooked with a little water but mostly letting it steam in its own juices in the pan.

 Now my thinking behind leaving the skin on was that it would be easier to separate the flesh from the harder skin and on that count at least I was right. The recipe that I referred to above also suggested squeezing the excess water from the marrow which I dutifully did as I removed the skin.

 This however, is where it started to go wrong.

Once I had plonked what remained of the marrow back into the pan it looked rather pitiful, I mean I had expected some reduction but not that much. I added the sugar, lemon zest and juice and the ginger as directed but chose to use fresh ginger over ground or crystallised ginger. I chopped and bruised it to release the oils and then added it to cook with everything else.

But it just didn't look right. Not only did the it just become really pulpy without the natural fluid from the marrow that I had squeezed out, there seemed to be nothing for the sugar to bind with in. It looked lumpy and not at all appetising for spreading on toast or having on a cracker with a really stinky cheese. So either I was meant to end up with more marrow in my pan than the recipe suggested or, and this is my thought, I should have ignored the squeezing instruction.

But what to do now? I am not a chemist and felt, not for the first time with this whole marrow debacle, at a loss.

I did what any normal, sane individual would do.

I added yellow plums.

Now you may be thinking "What?" but my logic went as follows; its similar in colour and these also had a fairly dryish flesh. I had lots of them. As some were still a little under ripe they may add a nice tang to pot which to be quite frank tasted like a zesty ginger stew, the marrow adding bulk but little flavour. And did I mention that I had lots of them?

Yup... please excuse me while I go off topic but I have to tell you about the plums. One of the joys of having a garden is that we now have a plum tree and whilst they are not the sweetest or most flavoursome, I am all about the free fruit and also my Little Giant loves them and will do everything he can to get at the windfalls. So far I had made a crumble, a first pick tangy jam, plum tarts, as well as de-stoning and freezing approximately 4kg and have given various neighbours 500g punnets of them. And there are still more to be picked.

So, back to the jam, why not add them? It couldn't hurt to try right?

Right! After 5 minutes boiling with the plums in the mix I could already see the difference in volume and the consistency looked a lot better too. I continued to cook it at a simmer for another 20 minutes stirring occasionally so the sugar wouldn't catch, but it still did a bit but that's OK because it added a nice bit of colour. I was so pleased to have rescued the jam as I hate waste and I was loath to throw it away.

But now all is said and done I have learnt my lesson, if I am ever offered a marrow in the future I will politely decline and change the subject :)

K is for Kitchen

I love being in the kitchen, it is a place that I associate with fun, friends and (of course) food.

I was incredibly lucky that the kitchen we had in our flat in Wimbledon was not only large but full of light. I had a window to look out of whilst doing the washing up and a second aspect towards the common which not only provided us with a great through draft if I had burnt something but the boys and I could keep a look out for when Daddy would come sweeping round the corner on his bicycle after a day a work. In additon to the two windowns it was, as far as London flats go, palatial. There was a table that seated four comfortably or seven at a push, a slim line dishwasher (which I miss terribly), and a fan oven that was just great at being the right temperature and producing amazing cakes.

When  we first looked at the house we moved to in March one of my concerns wad that the kitchen was TINY. The rest of the house was totally huge in comparison and was going to suit us perfectly so I thought that it was something that I would just have to put to the back of my mind and deal with.

Or so I thought.

Come moving day and the subsequent week spent unpacking boxes my new kitchen just absorbed everything into seemingly endless cupboards. In fact, I would go as far as to say I have more storage space now than I had previously. So what had happened?

I had been deceived by the smaller floorspace and hadn't taken into account that the cupboards went back into the corners. The room is also darker due to the single window which also visually shrinks the space, but the view is lovely and I have been able to watch my roses grow and the yellow plum tree bare fruit.  In fact, despite the lack of dishwasher (something that I am still coming to terms with) there were many other good points to this kitchen, for example, above the oven is a nifty concealed space in which the microwave can hide. The itself oven was higher up which had two really good pluses to it, it was now out of reach of the Two Monkeys (the combined name for our boys) as well as having a very deep drawer underneath to stash all my various baking tins and stoneware. 

And yes, my kitchen may not have the little ikea pine table in it any longer, but instead we have a whopper of a walnut table in the dining/family room which is right next to the kitchen and actually means it gets used as a table for arts and crafts rather than the dumping ground it ended up in the flat.

So all in all, it all came right in the end. The kitchen hasn't been a disappointment at all, if anything it has become more of my own "space" and I even have a bit more freedom in this kitchen as there are no child locks on the doors - instead we put a gate across the doorway which allows us to be in the kitchen and also have the back door open without either of the Two Monkeys escaping into the garden unsupervised or invading the cupboards.

What's more my dear husband has been doing some excellent DIY and put up a floating shelf for all my cookbooks as well as making  me the most beautiful handmade spice rack too.

And who knows...with a bit of shuffling of the cupboards I may even get a dishwasher!

J is for Joy

Everyone needs joy, that little something in our day that fills us up with a warm fuzzy feeling that reaches all the way to your toes.

Joy can be found in the smiles of your children, watching a loved one win a race, for some people it may be an afternoon in the garden and whilst all those things are perfectly wonderful and true...there is nothing that brings me so much joy as to see my dear husbands face when he realises I have made something sweet to eat, particularly if that something is chocolate based.  What is even better is that the Two Monkeys also want in on some of the cooking action and The Bug loves to put on his apron and become my assistant chef. His words "I have a taste...purrrleeease" melt my heart and I cannot help but indulge him.

Chocolate & Hazelnut Fudge

Now I know that I already covered off how to make fudge in this post, my chocolate fudge is from a slightly different recipe (found here), with dark chocolate and nuts stirred in as the mixure cooled. Today I wanted to share with you a recipe that has given me little bits of joy since I was a child which should be perfect for this overcast July afternoon.

The recipe is called Biscuit Crunch and is taken from the Winnie the Pooh Cookbook as originally printed in 1979.  It is essentially a type of fridge cake which is great for making with little people as there is plenty of opportunity for spoon licking and was always affectionately known in our house as "Pooh Crunch"

Ingredients:

• 1/2lb rich tea biscuits
• 4 oz unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 4 oz chocolate - plain or milk or a mixture of both (depending on taste)

Instructions

• Grease a 20cm (8') dish or tin, it can be round or square
• Measure butter or margarine, cocoa powder, sugar, syrup into large saucepan. Place on low heat and using wooden spoon stir until ingredients have melted. Take pan off heat.
• Crush biscuits up coarsely in a bowl (this bit is great to do as a little person) and pour over melted ingredients. Use a fork to blend ingredients and coat biscuits. Spoon mixture into cake tin, spread level and press mixture firmly into tin
• Break chocolate into bowl and melt over saucepan of warm water . Pour melted chocolate over biscuit base and spread evenly. Place in fridge until set

Extras : Should you wish to make your dish a little bit more exciting you can add in dried fruit such as cranberries, or nuts, or chocolate chunks into the mix once you have added the melted ingredients.

'C' is for...

....lots of yummy things such as carrots and courgettes and chocolate and cake or even chocolate cake.

But for today, 'C' is for creativity.

And no, being creative does not mean you have to be good at arts and crafts...I am talking about being creative in the kitchen.

Research carried out a few years ago showed that whilst we have a great interest in food and umpteen cookery shows on telly...the majority of us stick to making nine different dishes with 1 in 4 families cooking the same meal on the same day of the week!

I could not believe it.

But then I sat down and worked out what I had cooked over the past two weeks and realised that they were right! Shock!  Horror!

So I made a vow to try out a new dish each month (I thought each week could be pushing it) and to really do my best to not fall into a routine of cooking the same dishes week in and week out. 

But where to start?

Other research also showed that most families have about seven cookbooks stashed somewhere in their house - most of which are christmas presents. Taking this one step further, if the average cookbook has about 100 recipes (many have more) thats at least 700 different dishes that are just waiting to be tasted.

Yet many of these books sit in a corner or on a shelf and are barely ever opened.

I know I can sometimes be guilty of doing exactly that. I have at least six general recipe books with a further three dedicated to cakes.  Despite this I tend to stick to the same recipes that I have always done but no more...my new method to try and cook new things is to give the book to my dear husband and ask him to pick something for me to cook - the first one he picked was a Grasshopper cake which turned out alright but certainly nothing like the picture!

I have actually just been giving a belated birthday present of  the Hairy Bikers book "Perfect Pies" as my family know that I enjoy making pastry yet it is something I am still fairly new too and it has really given me the courage to try some very new things.

And this leads me on to one final point...cookbooks have three 'i's, two of which are great and one which must be ignored

• information - I love my Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook as it has step by step photo-guides on how to prepare different cuts of meat which I find REALLY helpful when trying new things
• inspiration - whilst recipes are great they may not result in a dish that is perfectly to your liking...so add your own twist and make it yours.
• intimidation - the pictures of the immaculately presented finished dish can be very daunting, especially if you are using a new cut of meat or fish. Best thing is to use them as a guideline but don't panic if your dish is not an exact match....it's more important that it tastes good!

EDIT: Two years on from originally writing this in 2012, and I have to confess that I am very guilty of doing this. And I have had at least 3 more cookbooks given to me since this was posted (all Christmas gifts) and I think I have maybe used one recipe from each of them. Admittedly when I do find the time to trial a new recipe it may make it into my repertoire for a few weeks before being replaced by something else as I don't want to make it or have gotten bored with eating it. That said, I am trying to introduce a wider range of foods into our diet and therefore that is forcing me to try out new recipes. I have also decided to edit and repost my original posts D to J and put them into the context of my life as it now stands.