Happy Thursday, hope you’re all having a great week. Here are a couple of recipes I have made this week.
I made a fig jam the other week using figs that our neighbour gave us and it got eaten straight away!! Our figs are just about ready we managed to pick enough to make some more jam, but this time I thought I would try something different and make it with Honey to give a slightly different sweetness and Ginger, it worked a treat :-)!!….
Fig & Ginger Jam
Time 25mins
Difficulty: Easy
Makes approx 600g (2 Regular Jam jars…I made 1 normal size and two mini)
Ingredients
540g Figs chopped into chunks
500g Sugar (I used granulated as it was what we had)
50g Runny Honey
20g Ginger grated
1 Lemon
Method
Place the figs into a pan.
Pour in the sugar.
Add in the zest and juice of the lemon and the honey.
Let this simmer on a medium heat for about 20 minutes until all of the figs are soft and the jam is thickened.
With a hand blender blitz this up, I like to leave a few chunks but it’s up to you how smooth you want it.
Now sterilise the jars and add the hot jam into hot jars.
See below link:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-sterilise-jars
You can also do this in a microwave, see the below link:
Tasty…
This is such a good Jam, great on toast but also savoury with cheese ❤
xxx
The land this week is about to produce lots of new yummy things, the Figs as I said above are nearly ready….
The first pickings
The grapes are ready now too, we really need to get on the case at making wine….
I cannot wait for these to be ready, I LOVE them, pomegranates, to eat as a sweet but also in dressings for red meat 🙂
The Boss next to one of the mango trees…
Each mango tree has a slightly different coloured mango growing, this tree is violet, they are beautiful I can’t wait to try these.
I am a little sad our tomatoes are nearly all gone, this is the last little baby plum hanging on for dear life…
We will be planting more soon though so I don’t need to be too upset.
Finally the Bishop Crown Peppers, such a beautiful plant, so pretty, and they taste amazing!!!
Finally, Tuesday night is now card night….crash is our game, we are in a competition for the summer with prizes/forfeits at the end for the winner/loser. So this week we had Pizza’s whilst we played. I had a go at making my own pizza base, using Jamie Oliver’s recipe and an extra few tips from a friend.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/basic-pizza/
I added Olive oil into mine, to make the base a little bit more crisp it worked well.
Pizza Base recipe
Makes 8 Medium Pizza’s
Difficulty: easy
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
800g strong white bread flour
200g fine semolina flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fine sea salt
2 x 7g sachets dried yeast
600ml luke warm water
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
Mix the two flours together with the salt.
mix well.
Add the sugar and yeast to the water a mix well. Let stand for a few minutes.
Make a well in the flour mix and pour in the oil and the water. I used a kitchen aid , but you can follow Jamie’s method.
On medium setting and using the hook let the dough come together, once it does turn up the speed and let it knead for around 8-10 minutes until the mix is away from the sides of the bowl and a smooth dough is created.
Once you have a smooth elastic dough pop into a greased bowl and cover with damp muslin cloth and leave to rise for around 45 minutes.
I was very excited when i looked back at the dough after this time….
Now if you do not need 8 pizza’s then cut the dough in half wrap very well with cling film and pop in the freezer.
broken heart 😉
Cut the other half into four, wrap with cling film and leave for another 15 minutes.
Heat the oven to the highest temperature.
While the dough is rising again get your toppings ready.
I use my tomato paste on these and it tasted great, click on photo to take you to recipe….
I sliced red onion from the garden, a bishop crown chilli and a red chilli, some mushrooms, roasted red peppers and sliced chorizo..
Roll your base out, it does not have to be perfectly round, we like rustic!! Then on a greased baking tray carefully place the pizza base ready to top.
Spread on a good helping of the tomato paste.
Top with the onion, chillies, peppers, chorizo….
then lots of mozzarella cheese…
Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes depending on how you like your pizza cooked.
tasty
What was great about this pizza was the sweetness from the bishop crown chillies, but also heat from the red.
I also made a veggie pizza, by roasting broccoli and courgette first then adding to the pizza with the roasted red pepper, sliced onions and sweetcorn..
I can’t wait to make more pizza’s from the dough in the freezer 🙂
For printable versions of these recipes please click on the recipe index page and find the recipe there.
Right gotta go, tonight I am cooking my South Indian Curry again at the request of my Aunt, but this time we are having it with crab claws in, so we need to get shopping!!
Have a great weekend.
Lulu xxxx
❤ ❤ ❤
