Allotment diary part 2: progress

It may not look like it but we have already made progress on the allotment. We bought new/old shears at Homestuff with History (one of my favourite shops), we dug over the back bed again fine combing for roots and pesky weeds and I planted the first seeds. Planting seeds got me very excited mainly because I got to use these lovely coloured markers. 

As is my sad, significantly-over-30 way I was watching Gardener's World on Friday night. Monty told me I should put a bucket over my rhubarb to force it to produce beautiful pink shoots. So of course, I put a bucket over my rhubarb. I adore Monty. He is just so deliciously soothing after a week of work. Oh and I also planted sweet peas. Monty told me it was time. I was powerless to resist.

Allotment diary part 1: spring clean

I have a drawer full of perfectly swirled socks, leggings and tights. It's all the fault of a brilliant if slightly mad book I read last week. I threw out half my wardrobe and made sure my clothes were feeling "happy" in their drawers (you really have to read it).  The joy of the contented socks and the early spring sunshine went to my head and I skipped down to the allotment to continue the digging we started last week. 

We were neglectful of the allotment last year. We grew a few things, potatoes of course, but we never seemed to get to grips with our little patch. This year, inspired by my sock success, is going to be different. I'm going to document our progress here. At the moment it's a lot of bare earth:

Looking from the front (out of control sage bush) to the back (by the fence and compost bin) sides marked out by the freshly dug boundaries.

The allotment from the back fence. This is the first time we have dug the back bed. The new annexe.

 

 

 

 

Memorial to a broken spade. You served us well.

Cambridge favourites: FoodCycle

I had been meaning to volunteer with FoodCycle for ages before I finally got around to it. But I was busy, always terribly busy. Towards the end of last summer, I had the startling realisation I was unlikely to get any less busy and that I should just get on with it. I am so glad I pulled myself together.

FoodCycle runs volunteer led community projects across the UK, working to reduce food poverty and social isolation by serving tasty, nutritious meals to vulnerable people. All the meals served are made using surplus food.

Everyone loves croutons....

When you tell people you spend a couple of Saturday's a month cooking or cleaning up after a meal made this way they tend to tell you you are wonderful. This makes me feel like a very big fraud. I get so much more out of it than I have to put in. For one, it's often the best meal I have all week (come along to our Saturday lunch at 12.30 in St Paul's if you don't believe me). I get great recipe ideas from the other volunteers. It's always good fun whether cooking or clearing up and I've met so many fabulous people, other volunteers and guests.

Cambridge FoodCycle is launching a second meal on the 18th March. We'll be cooking at Barnwell Baptist Church on Howard Road on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. If you'd like to get involved just sign up here.

A fabulous menu from January

Main course ready to serve

Soup always goes down well

Minor adventures in Cambridge, part one

It's taken me eight years to get off the train and walk down this path. Eight years I've been staring at it from the train window. In winter, bare fields like today. In summer, full of luxuriant green stems waving in the breeze. In the Autumn, a golden vista. This field, this path, this view has helped me watch the changing seasons. Today, on the last day of my annual season ticket, the last opportunity for a free trip to this station, I decided to finally go on a minor adventure and reach the church I've seen for so long in the distance.

The path was muddy but it wasn't too long.

And the sky was beautiful.

At the other end it was really rather nice. Lots of houses that I would like to live in but can't afford to buy.

We wandered around the graveyard of the church I had admired from afar for so long. I do like a good graveyard. One headstone said "Here lies an honest man".

So that was the path through the field to Foxton. A very minor adventure perhaps but it felt good to set foot on a long admired path. I came home happy with numb toes and muddy boots.

Cocktail of the month: Christmas cocktails

I'm not going to lie to you. There is some effort involved this month. But once you've put in a bit of work making a versatile syrup, it's all easy. I have three (yes three!) cocktails for you based on the same syrup. You will be flouncing around looking fabulous and drinking cocktails in no time.

The syrup that ties this cocktails together is made from pomegranate and fresh orange juice. I decided it was a step too far to juice pomegranates myself so I bought pomegranate juice with no added sugar from the health food shop. The exact instructions are in the recipe below. Once reduced, the pomegranate syrup is the most fantastic deep purple colour and has an intriguing sweet but bitter, slightly spiced fragrance.

The first cocktail is based on my classic sour recipe. I hope you've memorized the formula by now. 4 parts alcohol: 2 parts sour: 1 part sweet. I spiced up the gin I'm using here by adding a cinnamon stick, a vanilla pod, a star anise and a cardamom pod to the gin bottle and leaving it to infuse for a week or two. The spices are still in there, infusing away until Christmas. The recipe below serves one but simply multiply the proportions and make in a jug if you have lots of cocktail drinking guests.

The second is a fizz based cocktail, extremely simple and perfect for when visitors call in. It's not too alcoholic either so you could have a good few of these without getting too messy.

The last cocktail is non-alcoholic. Perfect for children or anyone who has to drive. In fact it is also excellent when recovering from a Christmas hangover. It is extremely refreshing due to that slightly bitter tang from the pomegranate combined with the sweetness and the fresh citrus. It is actually quite addictive. This could also be made in a large jug ready to pour out.

In addition to the recipes given below you can find other Christmas cocktail recipes on my older blog: a Christmas pudding vodka cocktail, a Christmas apple punch and a spicy rosehip, rhubarb combination.

pomegranate and orange simple syrup

pomegranate juice (no added sugar) 500mL

freshly squeezed orange juice 500mL

sugar 500g

zest of one orange 

Combine all of the ingredients in a large saucepan. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and then simmer until reduced by approximately half the volume. Allow to cool and then strain through a muslin (or clean J-cloth) lined sieve into a jug. Decant into a sterilized bottle and store in the fridge if not using immediately. I put mine in a conical flask for show because I have one and I'm a big chemistry nerd.

spiced pomegranate sour (serves one)

 

spiced Christmas gin (see above) 60mL

freshly squeezed lime juice 30mL

pomegranate and orange simple syrup  15mL

3-4 drops cranberry bitters (if you have them)

Combine all of the ingredients in a large glass or cocktail shaker. Add plenty of ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into a prepared cocktail glass. Garnish with lime zest.

pomegranate fizz (serves one)

pomegranate and orange simple syrup  20mL

cava/prosseco/champagne 

pomegranate seeds and orange twist to garnish

Add the syrup to a champagne flute. Carefully top up with your choice of sparkling wine. Add pomegranate seeds and a piece of orange zest to garnish.

pomegranate refresher (serves one)

pomegranate and orange simple syrup  40mL

juice of 1/2 a lime

sparkling water

pomegranate seeds and orange slices to garnish

Add the syrup and the fresh lime juice to a large glass. Fill the glass 3/4 full with ice. Add the pomegranate seeds and orange slices before filling with sparkling water. 

You can hear me talking about these Christmas cocktail on the Flavour programme (Cambridge 105) at 12 noon today (Saturday 13th December).

Christmas presents: eat, drink, read

Advent calendars containing chocolate, non-charity Christmas cards, fake Christmas trees. I have a long list of "Things I Don't Approve Of" and many of these are Christmas related. Top of the list are useless and unwanted presents. It can be next to impossible to know what your loved ones would like without asking them outright. A present that can be read, eaten or drunk is the most likely to be useful.

 

Read

I'm a book obsessive and I believe a present involving books is somehow more morally upright than any other (I have very funny notions, see non-approval list above). Books can and do change lives.

 

A subscription to Books Ireland is a must for book lovers in Ireland (and abroad). Buy it for yourself or as a gift subscription. Published every two months, every time it arrives on the mat during the year it will remind the lucky recipient what a wonderfully thoughtful person you are. Bonus! I'm a subscriber and occasional contributor (don't let that put you off) and I still get very excited when it arrives. It's great for keeping up to date with all the books being published in Ireland including children's books and reading it informs my book buying every time. 

 

I wrote a piece for Books Ireland on Irish food and drink books and can recommend the following new books that have come out this year:

Sláinte by Kristin Jensen and Caroline Hennessy

A Simply Delicious Christmas by Darina Allen (new edition)

The Ballymaloe Cookbook by Myrtle Allen (new edition)

Gubeen by Giana Ferguson

Eat

We are still working our way through the blackcurrant jam mountain of 2013 (not to mention the green tomato chutney lake of 2011) so several people this year will be receiving homemade goodies. Whether it's Christmas puddings, biscuits, jams or chutneys they always go down very well.

Drink

I think you all know that I am a big fan of drinking. More importantly I'm very keen on drinking nice things out of nice glasses. It's easy to go and buy a bottle of champagne or a bottle of a spirit as a present but much better is the drink related present that keeps on giving: bitters! They add so much to a cocktail and last forever. While Angostura Bitters are a classic and widely available consider giving a bottle of a less well known bitters. I would highly recommend the following:

Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters

Any of the range from Dr Adam Elmegirab

Cambridge Wine Merchants on Cherry Hinton Road often have Rhubarb Bitters. In Dublin the Celtic Whiskey Shop on Dawson St have a great range and I LOVE the website masterofmalt.com for all alcohol related purchases.

  

If you have time, consider looking through charity shops and antique shops for cocktail glasses. This is where I get most of my stash. If you don't have the time for the search (and it is getting a bit late now) John Lewis have a delightful and affordable own brand range including these bad boys.

Cocktail of the month: sloe warmer

I was struggling with the loss of summer last month. A few Autumn acclimatisation cocktails later and I am back with the seasonal programme. I am out a lot enjoying the scarf and gloves weather (I'm really going for walks so I can listen to the Serial podcast).

When I get back after a late afternoon ramble a warming cocktail seems like just the ticket. This weekend I hope to get organised enough to make it in advance and bring it out with me in a flask.

This is a really easy cocktail. A light sugar syrup infused with spices forms the base and is topped up with sloe gin. You can make a little or a lot of the base depending on how many people are coming out to enjoy the Autumn weather with you.

sloe warmer

2 parts water (I used 2 cups)

1 part sugar (I used 1 cup)

1 part apple juice (I used 1 cup)

spices: cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamom pods, juniper berries

squeeze of lemon

sloe gin or vodka

Heat the water, the sugar and the apple juice with the spices in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for at least an hour. Your house is going to smell fantastic at this stage. Strain out the spices, return to the pan and add a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Ensure the mixture is nice and hot. Warm a cup or heat proof glass with boiling water. Half fill the glass with the light syrup and then top up with sloe gin. Garnish with lemon slices and spices.

You can hear me talking about this Autumnal cocktail on the Flavour programme (Cambridge 105) at 12 noon today.