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Autumn Garden

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I have been researching how to make best use of my raised garden beds on the patio. I want some sort of hardy winter salad leaves, a green veg for stir fry and a vegetable for steaming. I have decided to try potatoes in time for Christmas, also herbs and garlic. I have loved going out onto the patio and harvesting a crop; being outdoors with a purpose is calming as well as grounding.

My great grandfather George was a serious gardener and apparently had an allotment. Somehow I feel very connected with him. He was a man who struggled with depression all his life; this was probably as a result of seeing a bomb fall on his family home, knowing his mother and two sisters were all killed. PTSD wasn’t recognised in those days. The fact that he had a successful family life and business came down to the fact that he was lucky enough to marry my great grandmother Winifred. She was 13 years younger than him, and had a great sense of fun, despite having a physical disability and ill heath most of her life. She had true resilience. This is my tribute to them. Although I never met either of them, my grandmother and great uncle are testimony to the family life they provided and work ethos they promoted. There is a very family-oriented culture with a focus on support to find your niche in life.

My research for my autumn planting took me to a website called VerticalVeg and their excellent free resources. They focus on ‘growing food in small spaces’. I have bought some small vegetable plants to get started: kale, chard, French garlic (2 varieties; Thermidrome and Dario), (Charlotte) seed potatoes, as well as Senshyu variety yellow onion sets.

The VerticalVeg site also gives guidance on growing pea and fava bean shoots which appear to be fairly fast cropping and nutritious. They can be used in stir fries and salads. I’ve bought Hodmedod’s organic dried fava beans and peas. I plan to get all these plants and seeds into the raised beds by this weekend; I’ll then decide on a hardy salad leaf crop. VerticalVeg recommends land cress, lambs lettuce and rocket. I want leaves you can cut. I’m interested in Mooli radish and baby leeks. I am going to be busy this weekend.

Another general advice website to look at is garden organic; which provides helpful fact and advice sheets.

We are planning to buy a walk-in greenhouse in the spring. I will keep you updated on progress over the coming months.

Blueberry Crumb Cake (Keto, low-carb and Gluten-free)

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This is a great moist coffee cake made using fresh blueberries and has a cinnamon streusel crumb topping. The recipe comes from the following keto cooking website.

It uses oat fibre, an ingredient I haven’t come across before, made from grinding the outer husks of oats making it a pure insoluble fibre. It doesn’t dissolve in liquid, and is not broken down in the digestive tract, so it’s low-carb and keto friendly. It adds structure to baked goods; I bought this one on Amazon.

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 1 3/4 cups superfine almond flour
  • 1/4 cup Oat Fibre
  • 2/3 cup blueberries
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sour cream (I used Koko yoghurt)
  • 1/4 cup of heavy cream (I used coconut cream)
  • 1/2 cup powdered Erythritol (or any other sweetener)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • pinch of salt

Streusal Topping:

  • 2/3 cup superfine almond flour
  • 3 tbsp chopped almonds (the recipe suggests walnuts)
  • 3 Tbsp grass-fed butter melted (or any alternative such as coconut oil)
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup of brown sugar alternative
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Method

Pre-heat oven to 325F (160C/150C fan-assisted)

Make the topping: place all the ingredients for the crumb topping in a bowl, except the butter and mix together. Pour in melted butter and mix until combined; set it aside.

Make the cake: add the flour, baking powder, oat fibre and salt to a large mixing bowl, whisk together and set aside.

Add all the remaining cake ingredients (eggs, sour cream, heavy cream, powdered Erythritol, vanilla extract, lemon zest and pinch of salt), except the blueberries to a large bowl; mix the ingredients together for about 30 secs with a hand mixer.

Add in the dry flour mix and continue mixing until incorporated.

Fold in the blueberries gently; the recipe says then pour into a 9″x 5″ non-stick greased and/or lined baking tin. (I would suggest that you use a loose-bottomed baking tin of this sizes as it was hard to cut and remove the cake without the first piece falling apart).

Smooth the top of the cake with a spatular and top with the crumb topping.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick/skewer comes out clean.

Sugar-free BBQ Sauce (Keto and Gluten-free) and TexMex soup using leftovers

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This recipe is taken from Wholesome Yum. The recipes from this site are always clear, logical and successful.

I decided to make this BBQ sauce recipe to spice up pulled chicken for a family lunch one Saturday. This was for 5 adults. We needed something quick and easy for lunch as my 7 year-old sister and 2 female cousins aged 7 and 5 years choose different meals. We served the BBQ pulled chicken with salads, steamed broccoli and sourdough bread for those who wanted it.

This sauce is very easy and quick to make – approximately 5 minutes prep time and 20 minutes cooking time; it is sweet, smoky and spicy. When you first make it is quite thick but can be thinned down with the addition of more water to brush on for BBQ chicken or ribs.

I used it to mix into shredded chicken, thinned down with some of the chicken juices that came out during cooking. The recipe makes approx, 2.5 cups.

Ingredients

2.5 x 6oz cans of tomato paste (I only had tubes of tomato paste so weighed out 15 ounces)

1/3 cup of powdered erythritol or sweetener of choice (preferably powder or liquid)

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (I didn’t have gluten-free so used soy sauce)

1 tbsp liquid hickory smoke (I didn’t have this and it was still good)

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp chili powder (I used mild)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

1.5 cups water approximately (see method)

Method

Whisk all the ingredients together in a largish sauce pan (otherwise it does spit out even on a low simmer) adding the water last.

Start with a cup of water, then whisk in a bit more at a time until you get the consistency you want. I used 1.5 cups water but it varies with how thick your tomato paste is. The one I used was double concentrate.

I was happy to have it thick because it gives me the option of thinning it down when needed to paint it onto chicken thighs or ribs or adding it to other dishes.

Bring to a gentle boil at medium heat. Simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 20 minutes or until slightly thickened. I put the pan lid half-on during this time to prevent the sauce spitting out of the pan.

Taste and adjust the sweetener or cayenne pepper to make the sauce sweeter or spicier. If it’s still thicker than you like, you can stir in additional water, a tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

I added a heaped cup of the BBQ sauce to the pulled chicken plus the chicken stock you can see in the bowl. I had already seasoned the chicken before it was cooked slowly in the oven; once shredded it was moist so the consistency was good.

This left with with 1.25 cups of the BBQ sauce left. I used this in a ‘TexMex soup’ recipe below.

(Please note my sous-chef, Bella, who is trying to hypnotise me into dropping some).

TexMex Soup using leftovers

This was a recipe that I put together the following day to use up a variety of leftovers and vegetables. It is one of the nicest and warming meal soups that I have eaten in a long time. I have started using the chopped up stalks of the broccoli in soups and casseroles,

Ingredients

1 large organic leek – very finely sliced/shredded

2 of the thick stalks from organic broccoli – very finely diced

6 medium sized flat mushrooms

500ml vegetable stock

1 cup of leftover BBQ pulled chicken

1.5 cups of (frozen) BBQ pulled pork with black beans

1 can of butter beans in water

4 heaped tbsp of keto BBQ sauce.

salt and pepper to taste at the end

1 heaped tsp of cumin

Method

Saute the leeks in oil or a mix of oil/butter. Add the chopped mushrooms and gently cook.

Then add the finely diced broccoli stalk and stock; simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the leftover pulled pork/black beans and chicken; stir and add 4 heaped tbsp of the keto BBQ sauce.

Drain and wash the butter beans and add.

Simmer for 20 minutes check the diced broccoli stalk is softened; season with the salt, pepper and cumin. The cumin adds warmth and depth of flavour to the soup.

How does my garden grow?

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I am really pleased with my first attempt at gardening in small raised beds. This photo was taken earlier this week in a break from the torrential rain we have been having. The apples have been made into apple compote flavoured with the few raspberries. The strawberries and tomatoes have such a fresh, vibrant taste. The snack cucumbers are pleasant but take up too much space for the crop; ditto for the yellow courgettes. Those two plants are swamping my herbs. Everything is organic which is my goal in life. The range of organic fruit and vegetables is not consistently good in my area.

The next step in my gardening journey is to clear two of the beds and decide the next planting. I need to do more research and look at rotation of crops. I’m thinking about dark green vegetables and bok choy or similar for stirfrys.

Watch this space!

Leek and Butter Bean Cassoulet

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This is a delicious, comforting and warming recipe from The Doctor’s Kitchen. I have IBS and my stomach felt good after it. I ate it with a side of steamed broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)

1 tin of butter beans, drained and washed (I used 2 tins)

1 onion finely chopped

1 leek cut into 1cm slices (I used 2 leeks)

1 carrot diced

2 sticks of celery sliced

2 cloves garlic thinly sliced (I used 4)

2tsp dried mixed herbs (I used Italian herbs)

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

500ml vegetable stock

season with salt and pepper to taste

handful of fresh chopped parsley

Note:

I added 2 tbsp of tomato puree at the end before I seasoned the cassoulet.

You will notice to the right of the picture, there are 2 yellow courgettes which I found in my raised garden when I went out to cut parsley. It was a shame to waste them. It’s that sort of recipe.

Method

Prepare your ingredients as shown above.

Heat the oil in a large pan or casserole dish

Add the onion, carrot, celery and leek to the pan. Cook for around 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened slightly before adding the garlic, Italian herbs and mustard.

Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, before adding the vegetable stock and butter beans.

Simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender. Taste for seasoning and add a little salt and pepper and more mustard if you want. (Beware of putting too much mustard in as it makes it sharp tasting. At this point I added the tomato paste to taste).

Garnish with chopped fresh parsley or any fresh herbs.

I served this with steamed green vegetables: broccoli, sprouts and some wilted spinach. it was so nice I had the same meal the following day.

The recipe suggests serving with grains or crusty bread.

Variations

Use any bean or spices you want.

Mediterranean: instead of the vegetables in the recipe use onions, skinned chopped tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, aubergine but adjust the cooking time as you want some texture in your finished dish. Add fresh Italian herbs and some chopped sun-dried tomatoes or paste. Adjust sauce to your liking with vegetable stock. To finish it off a few large green olives and some crumbled feta cheese. Drizzle with a little more olive oil. You won’t need the mustard in this variation.