Raspberry Ice Cream!

The beautiful English Raspberries are in season right now and not everyone wants to turn them into pots of jam so this really simple ice cream recipe is perfect and every spoonful tastes like summer.

600 ml 1 pint double cream
200g evaporated milk (small tin)
1/2 vanilla pod
450g fresh raspberries
250g caster sugar

warm the sugar, double cream and vanilla pod in a pan over a low to medium heat, just until the sugar melts, do not boil.

Remove the pan from the heat then add the evaporated milk and raspberries.

Add the mixture to a blender and blitz until smooth, if you don't have a blender mash the raspberries with a potato masher until they give ooze the fuchsia coloured juice into the cream.

Pass the whole mixture though a wide netted sieve then pour into an icecream maker and churn for 45 mins, then pour into a tub and freeze until required.

If you don't have an ice cream maker pour into a plastic tub and remove every hour and stir until set to break up any ice particles.

This is also lovely on meringue nests.

One Lemon Curd!

Me and the microwave don't normally get along but this recipe is lovely, you can see the magic working before your eyes.

The rind and juice of 1 lemon (preferably unwaxed because the rind is in the recipe)
25g/1 oz butter
100g/4 oz caster sugar
1 egg beaten

Makes 1 small jar

In a small microwave proof bowl, add the lemon juice, rind, butter and caster sugar, beat well and microwave for 1 min on full power or until the butter has melted.

Remove from the microwave and beat the egg into the mixture.

Return to the microwave and cook for 3 mins, stopping and beating every thirty seconds, this will stop the egg scrambling.

Once the curd has thickened it is ready, remove from the microwave and whisk once more.

Add to a clean glass jar, allow to cool before adding the lid.

this will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Chocolate Orange Muffins!

As with most muffins recipes these are simple to follow, you need two bowls one for dry ingredients and one for wet.


Apologies for the measurements as they are in ounces as I weighed everything on my balance and weigh scales.

Makes 12 large muffins

11 oz plain flour
2 oz cocoa powder
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
4 oz butter (melted)
4 oz chocolate chips
1 tub buttermilk or 284 ml
120ml milk
1 large egg
zest of 1 orange

For topping:
8oz icing sugar (sieved)
60 ml orange juice

12 muffin cases
1 muffin tin

Pre heat the oven to 180/gas mark 4/ 350 f



Add all the dry ingredients to one bowl and mix well.

In the other bowl add the orange zest, egg, milk, butter milk and melted butter and mix together.




Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the wet mixture into the centre, stir with a metal spoon until the mixture is just about coming together, do not over mix little lumps are fine where muffins are concerned.

Add a heaped dessert spoon to each muffin case until all the mixture has been used.

Bake on the middle shelf for 20 mins or until the tops have gone lovely and crunchy.



Add the icing sugar to a small bowl along with the orange juice, stir well until you have a smooth thick paste.

Spread the topping over the muffins as soon as they leave the oven so it melts and sets over the top.

If you have any extra orange zest you can scatter some over the top of the icing for a final flourish.

Serve immediately with tea or coffee Mmmmm.

Rachel Allen's Date Bars!

I have a few recipes for similar oat based bars, but these are so simple to make and and keep that lovely moist centre whilst cooking, I cannot recommend them enough, they will keep in an air tight container for a good few days, but even if you live alone I doubt they will last that long unless you have the willpower of rhino.

20 x 20 cm/8x 8 inch square cake tin

200g/7oz chopped dates (stones removed)
350ml/9 fl oz water

175g/6oz plain flour
175g/6oz soft brown sugar
175/60z butter, (at room temp and chopped)
100g/3 1/2 oz porridge oats
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 350f/gas mark 4/ 180°

The recipe tells you to butter the sides of the cake tin but I never do this anymore as I am in love with those lovely re-usable baking sheets, you can buy them almost anywhere and cut them to fit your tins, they happily go through the dish washer time and time again and saves a whole heap of time fiddling around with greasing the tin and then scrubbing any stubborn bits of it after.

Add the water and the dates to a saucepan and bring to the boil, turn down to a low heat and leave for 10 mins, or until the dates have absorbed the water and turned into a lovely sticky mixture, then leave to cool.

In a bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix well, add the butter and rub into the dry ingredients with your fingers (the same way you would with a crumble).

Add half the mixture to the bottom of your prepared cake tin, then spread on the date mixture (the back of a dessert spoon works well) over the base, finally add the rest of the mixture and press over the top of the dates with your fingers.

Bake on the middle shelf of your oven and cook for 40 mins, until golden brown.

leave to cool inside the tin. Once cooled cut into slices, I manage to get 15.

St George and The Rabbit!

I know the idea of eating rabbit may not appeal to lots of people but not only is it cheap and available all year round, it's very low in fat too.

What better way to celebrate St George's Day than with a Great British Feast! Everything in this recipe is local and in season.

If you are wondering where to obtain a rabbit then the best place is a local butcher who has a licence to sell game, most of them will skin and portion it out for you.

One rabbit will serve two people generously.

Here is the recipe:

Serves 2 (this can easily be doubled up for 4 people)

1 rabbit skinned, gutted and cut into portions
1 pot buttermilk
2 large cooking onions (chopped into slices)
1 stick celery (roughly chopped)
1 clove garlic (minced)
Rapeseed oil
2 bay leaves
4 juniper berries
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley
handful wild garlic leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce
1 teaspoon tomato purée
2 pints chicken stock
1 tablespoon cornflour (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the rabbit 24 hours before you plan to cook it, for which you will need a big dish that will fit inside your fridge, add the rabbit and coat in the whole pot of buttermilk, give it a stir to make sure all the rabbit is coated in the buttermilk, wrap the dish in clingfilm and leave to marinade overnight.

Add about a tablespoon of rapeseed oil to a big pot and allow to warm on a medium heat, Throw in the onions and stir well, leave to cook until the onions are just starting to brown then throw in the celery and minced garlic and stir again allowing another five minutes for the garlic to cook before adding the rabbit into the pot.

Finally add the bay leaves, pepper, juniper berries, dried herbs, tomato purée and chicken stock and a generous shake of Worcester sauce, bring to the boil over a high heat and once it starts to firmly bubble away, clamp a secure lid on the pot and turn down to a low heat so that the liquid simmers away gently for two hours or until the rabbit falls off the bone. Do not add the salt until the rabbit is cooked otherwise it tends to make the rabbit a bit tough.

Once cooked sieve the stock into a new pan (a fine mesh sieve is best for this as it will catch everything) then pick the rabbit from its bones. Add the wild garlic to the stock and reduce over a high heat until it has thickened slightly, if the sauce does not thicken enough add a little cornflour mixed with cold water to form a paste and add this to the stock, stir well and allow to boil. Add the rabbit back to the thickened sauce before serving.

The rabbit was served with local potatoes, mashed with a about 100g of Shropshire blue cheese running through them, along with the potatoes were local asparagus and carrots, finally as a perfect compliment to any game was a generous serving of redcurrant sauce.

Cost per portion is around: £3.00

On Tonights Menu is...

My Husband came up with this idea, it's for times when you just don't know what to cook for dinner even though you own half a library's worth of cookbooks and nothing jumps of the page at you.




So here is a visual menu:


Sweet and sour chicken with egg fried rice.
Faggots in gravy with mashed potato and two kinds of peas.
Puff pastry tart with crushed potatoes
kebab with salad and potato wedges
Steak and ale pie
Roe on mushy peas with sweet, blue and white potatoes.
Mushroom risotto.
Camembert baked in its box with fresh crusty bread.
Cheese and fresh herb pie with salad and garlic bread.
Chicken cooked in coca cola
Steak with lovely Shropshire blue cheese.
Grey peas and bacon.
purple sprouting broccoli, crispy potato slices and roast chicken.
Cheesy leak topped cottage pie.
Chicken pie with crispy puff pastry.
baked new potatoes with chicken and salad.
Oat coated sea bream, with vegetable and parsley sauce.(seasonal)
Shredded chicken with crushed potatoes and roasted tomatoes.
Quiche and salad.
Chilli con carne with sour cream, rice and flat bread.
Grilled lamb with new potatoes, vegetables and homemade mint sauce. (Seasonal)
Spicy Prawn salad.
chicken Piri Piri with chips and salad.
Locally produced fillet steak with sauce bernaise and vegetables. (seasonal vegetables)
Chicken Maharajah, the original recipe was taken from Feast but I switched the lamb for chicken as I found the lamb to rich for the sauce.
Tuna fish pie.
cheese, onion and potato pie.
Beef stew and mashed potato.
Beef Stroganoff.
Chicken Tikka curry with crispy onion rice.
Mince and tatties.
Roast chicken risotto.
Mirin glazed salmon with rice and vegetables.
Flemish beef in beer, which is cooked in beer and mustard.
Crispy belly pork with cucumber and hoisin sauce.
Roast pork sandwich.
Locally caught pheasant wrapped in smoked streaky bacon with vegetables and mashed potato and drizzled with hedgeberry sauce. (seasonal)
Lamb curry with pomegranate and rice.
Jacket potato with a vintage chedder, onion relish and lots of salad.
Chicken chat, which consits of shredded chicken in a spicy tomato sauce and salad.
Broad beans with crispy smoked bacon, peas and croutons.(seasonal)
Roast lamb with mint jelly and seasonal vegetables.
Italian sausages with puy lentils, these are the lentil haters lentil, they are simply wonderful.
Ham cooked in coca cola and roasted in the oven with mustard and sugar.
salami pizza

Treats of a different kind!

The title is actually referring to these little treats that I created for my three Labrador's, as anyone who has ever owned a lab will know that they will eat practically anything, including the contents of a bin given half a chance, so these create a little distraction between feeding times.

They take no time at all to prepare and everything can be mixed in one bowl so minimum effort I promise.

You need:

24 oz/3 cups/680 g Gram/Besan flour
1 grated carrot
1 chicken stock cube
150ml/1 cup warm water

Add the flour to a bowl and crumble in the stock cube and grated carrot and stir well. Add the water and stir until you have formed a dough type mixture.

The one problem I had while making this recipe up was to figure out how to shape them, so as I sifted through my gadget draw I found a little tool called a falafel maker that Francesca sent me all the way from Israel, it happens to be the perfect size and shape for dog treats but don't worry if you don't own one of these, a teaspoon will produce the same size you need, just wet the spoon the same as you would with the falafel maker and scrape up the side of the bowl and then blob onto an oiled baking sheet.

Bake on the middle shelf at 180°/350f/gas mark 4 for 10 mins, cool on a rack.

NB Make sure you cool them in a high place so that your dogs don't dive on them before they are cooled as mine tried this.

Its Arrived!!!!!!!!!!

I can't contain my excitement as the first English Asparagus has arrived.

Asparagus is food of the Gods and goes so well with a lovely well aged fillet steak.


The asparagus that is grown locally is cut early in the morning and is in the local shops by 10am, it also takes two whole years for one crop to grow but its more than worth the wait.

Easter nest fairy cakes!

These cakes are not exactly culinary masterpieces, they are the type of cakes you make with children, but they do taste delicious and are perfect for Easter as each one is a little chocolate delight.

The recipe is just a basic sponge which consists of:

30z/75g butter/margarine
30z/75g caster sugar
3oz/75g self raising flour
2 eggs
1oz/25g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:
6oz/150g icing sugar
3oz/75g butter
1oz/25g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 fairy cake cases
fairy cakes tin which holds 12 cakes

tiny sugar coated chocolate eggs, grated chocolate to decorate (about 100g)

Pre-heat the oven to 170°/gas mark 3/325f

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg one by one beating each time, then add the vanilla extract and mix again. Finally sift together the flour and cocoa powder, mix until you have a smooth batter.

Bake on the middle of the oven for 15 mins.

Turn on a cooling rack and leave to cool.

Beat together the butter, vanilla extract, icing sugar and cocoa powder until you have a smooth mixture.

Dig a hole in the middle of each cake and fill with buttercream and then smooth around the edges of the cake.

Roll the edges in grated chocolate and then place three of four tiny eggs in the buttercream filled hole.

Same but different!

I know I already have a recipe for wild garlic soup but I wanted to do another version, this time without cream so its more or less a sin free food.

Everything in the recipe has been grown in Shropshire, the potatoes are a variety called Red Robin and are only grown locally according to the farm, they have a creamy colour and texture. I have also started using cold pressed rapeseed oil instead of olive oil as this again is grown and pressed in Shropshire and has a lovely colour and flavour.

You need:

1 large red onion (roughly chopped)
450g/1 lb potatoes (peeled and sliced)
2 large handful's of wild garlic leaves (ransoms) (these need to be thoroughly washed first)
1 tablespoon cold pressed rapeseed oil
2 pints of vegetable stock
salt and pepper

Add the oil to a large pot and over a medium heat fry the onion until tender and slightly golden, add the potatoes, stock, and a pinch of salt and pepper, bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer and plonk a lid over the pot and cook until the potatoes are tender enough to stick a knife through the centre, add the garlic and turn the heat back up for about two mins so that the liquid starts to bubble fiercely.

Remove from the heat and blend to a fine liquid, by using either a stick blender or a jug blender (if you do use a jug blender allow the soup to cool a little first otherwise you may end up with a green coloured kitchen or worse still burns).

Finally put the soup through a sieve to remove any stalky bits that the blender doesn't catch.

Serve with crusty bread or croutons.