ALRESFORD WATERCRESS FESTIVAL 2015

 

Watercress Festival bowl by Richard Bramble

It’s three years since I last went to the Alresford Watercress Festival in Hampshire and it was just as charming, even if it has doubled in size. As well as the endless supplies of local fresh watercress on sale for charity, there were lots of other delicious foods to sample, which of course I did.

basket of watercress at the Alresford Watercress Festival 2015

A few that caught my fancy were the watercress hummus, the arancini with watercress pesto and mozzarella, and the watercress cupcakes...

Arancini the watercress way

Some of the many delicious cakes at the watercress festival


 

It was lovely to catch up with our friend Richard Bramble who had a stall with all his foodie ceramics; I particularly liked his watercress 2015 bowl. 

www.richardbramble.com

Richard Bramble at Alresford Watercress Festival 2015

Another company who caught my eye were catch, a company who makes fish cakes from the Isle of Wight. Their crab cakes were truly delicious; we had some for supper with local watercress and Isle of Wight tomatoes.

http://www.catchisleofwight.co.uk/aboutus

Catch fishcakes at the Alresford Watercress Festival 2015

No recipe today, I am just too tired. I bought a couple of watercress cookbooks so will search for some tasty uber-healthy new recipes for another day.  

Asparagus

 

tomatoes from the Isle of Wight at the Alresford Watercress Festival.

HAZELNUT BISCUITS

Hazelnut and cranberry biscuits

I am sorry for the long absence; life has been rather complicated for the last few months. Lots of health issues that meant I wasn’t cooking much. Luckily things are progressing well and I am now even more conscious of healthy eating and on the constant look out for immune boosting foods. Do message me of any you would recommend.

We have entered the “Exam Zone” again, the joys of the British Education system that exams our children every summer from the age of 15-18. So we have stressed teens that need healthy after school snacks.

These Hazelnut and Cranberry biscuits were very popular and barely lasted long enough to be photographed so I thought I would share the recipe with you, as it offers a tasty change, is easy to make and is a good healthy..ish option for everyone.

Star and heart biscuits

HAZELNUT AND CRANBERRY BISCUITS

Preparation time 10 minutes

Cooking time 10-12 minutes

Makes 20 -30 biscuits depending on how you cut them

INGREDIENTS:

6 oz -175g plain flour

3 oz -75g soft light brown sugar

4oz- 100g soft butter

The zest of half a lemon

1 oz -25g hazelnuts roughly chopped or bashed

1oz- 25g dried cranberries chopped

WHAT TO DO:

1.      Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C and put baking parchment on two or three baking trays.

2.      Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the sugar and butter and then rub them altogether to form breadcrumb like mixture. 

3.      Add in the hazelnuts, cranberries and lemon zest to the mixture and squeeze into a dough, if it is still crumbly then add a tiny squeeze of lemon juice to help bind it together.

4.      Take half the mixture and squeeze into a flatish shape, then with a rolling pin (or bottle if you don’t have a rolling pin) roll it on a very lightly floured surface, making sure to move the dough after each roll so it doesn’t stick. Using a cutter of your choice, I used hearts and stars as they are cute, cut out as many biscuits and repeat until you have used up all the dough.

5.      Put the baking trays in the pre heated oven and check after 10 minutes. The biscuits should look slightly golden. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.

Healthy tasty snack

Hazelnut and cranberry hearts

ENJOY. I will be back soon with more easy healthy food.

THE BBQ SUMMER

Peppers roasting in the street in Avola, Sicily

This has been the summer of BBQ’s both at home and away. We went back to Sicily and loved it just as much the second time.

Kindly pepper roaster

On every street corner in Sicily there seemed to be someone with a little BBQ roasting peppers or fish. We stopped here in Avola to buy some aubergines and peppers and the man above gave me a bag of cherries as a present when I took his picture.

In Palermo the men in via Butera spent the whole day preparing the charcoal and fish in the street before doing a roaring trade in the evening with crowds sitting at their rough tables on miss matched chairs, eating freshly caught fish.

Roasted aubergines in Sicily

Elsewhere round the island people roasted what they had on homemade BBQ grills in the street. Aubergines, peppers, onions. The smells tempt you as you walk past. Unlike here in the UK no one is quoting health and safety regulations at them, so they grow their veg or buy it from the local van that drives around the street and roast it. Other people buy it. Simple.  

Seafront near Avola,Sicily

We spent a week on the coast outside Noto, the gorgeous baroque town I have posted about before and home to the wonderful Caffe Sicilia- more about that later, and I went to Pescheria FLLI SPUGNETTI fishmongers in Avola, with my friend Ernesto.

Pescheria, near Avola, Sicily

The locals go as much for a chat as to buy their fish. Each visit includes handshakes, pats on the back and lots of banter. 

Fresh swordfish, Sicily

Catch of the day, Sicily

Chatting with the customers, Pescheria Avola

Banter on the shop floor! Sicily

One of the best things we ate was from them was local dentice, which looks a bit like a sea bream but apparently isn’t. It was quite simply delicious.

Fresh Sicilian Dentice, ready to BBQ.

Back at home, keen to prolong the holiday spirit and fight the creeping autumnal chill, we have continued to BBQ. The best thing has been local Hampshire trout, simply seasoned and with wedges of lemon. We might have to wear jumpers and sometimes due to rain, sit indoors but it tasted fantastic. 

Which sort of makes up for the cold!  

Hampshire Trout ready to BBQ

BBQ FISH TIPS
FOR BEGINNERS

1.     Keep it simple.

2.     Buy some fresh fish. Easier said than done here, where there aren’t many fishmongers. But supermarkets are fine.

3.     Heat the BBQ and make sure you have a wire rack that the fish can’t fall through.

4.     Wash the fish in cold water. Some suggestions for serving

Trout – stuff wedges of lemon in the sides two per fish

Dentice- sea bream or snapper stuff with herbs like basil, parsley and bay then drizzle with olive oil and lemon

Prawns- as they are. Serve with a garlic butter or mayonnaise

Sword fish- drizzle with lemon and olive oil

 Cooking time varies but is always quick, about 7 minutes per side for the trout and slightly more for the larger fish.

BBQ prawns in San Vito, Sicily

A TASTE OF SUMMER- Rhubarb and Orange Swiss Roll- Inspired by the Great British Bake Off

GBBO inspired Swiss Roll

As we returned a few days ago into a grey and gloomy Britain after a few weeks away, I could feel our spirits sink, all except one daughter.

“Hey, The Great British Bake Off starts again today, so it’s not all bad!” She said enthusiastically.

However the following day whilst I tackled the washing then the overgrown and somewhat dead plants in the garden, typical we go away when there is a heat wave and so all the tomatoes and most of the beans I have nurtured are totally dried up and shrivelled..the Not Just For Rabbits Teens got creative  inspired by their viewing.

Using left over rhubarb jam made last summer, see post ...for September 2013...and oranges they created a light delicious cake that has all the reminders of warm summer sunshine that you need.

Food from the garden

Using left over rhubarb jam made last summer, see post for September 2013 for the recipe

http://notjustforrabbits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/late-rhubarb-recipes-for-compote-and-jam.html

..and oranges they created a light delicious cake that has all the reminders of warm summer sunshine that you need.

RHUBARB AND ORANGE SWISS ROLL

Serves 4 plus

Preparation time 10 minutes

Cooking time 8 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs

3 oz caster sugar

3 oz plain flour

Zest of an orange and juice of half 

4 TBSP Rhubarb and vanilla jam

WHAT TO DO:

1.      Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees

2.      Whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

3.      Gently fold in the flour and orange zest.

4.      Pour into a lined tin (around 28x18cm) and cook for 8 minutes

5.      Remove from the oven turn out onto a sheet of baking paper dusted with sugar, then peel off the paper and score gently at 1 inch along one shorter side.

6.       Roll gently up as tightly as you can without the cake cracking, then when cooler squeeze over a little orange juice then smoother with rhubarb jam and re-roll

7.      When totally cool dust with icing sugar and eat!!

This is very light and the rhubarb and orange just give it a really different taste 

Rhubarb and orange swiss roll

STINGING NETTLE PESTO..

Stinging nettles

“Stinging Nettles?”

“Are you joking? Why can’t we just have normal basil pesto?”

That was the reaction I received when I produced this rather bright green looking pesto the other day. I must admit it isn’t something I've made before however, this doesn’t usually deter me from trying something new.

Recently there have been lots of articles in the paper and magazines about gathering your own food for free, maybe it’s the recession or just that spring is in the air. Who knows, however when I saw a huge patch of nettles at the back of the house I thought, Why not!

Nettles

The actual making of the pesto was really easy. The hardest part was trying to gather enough nettles to make a substantial quantity of pesto for the four of us.

nettle detail

It sounds stupid but it's amazing how light the leaves are. Fine if you live in the country side with abundant lanes and hedge rows, however in the city, they are harder to come by. It goes without saying you do need to wear thick gloves and have scissors and a tray or bag to put them in as you need bundles of the things.

I’m pleased to say I managed the whole thing without getting stung...but still had to answer the question

"Why eat nettles?" 

After a quick bit of research I found out that they are rich in vitamins A, C, D, K and many other minerals including iron and can often be used as a substitute for spinach. I won't put them in my salad like spinach, but cooked in a pesto, they are great.


 The colour alone is worth making it for, it's such a bright, intense green.

Intense green homemade nettle pesto

It is certainly different and served with homemade tagliatelle it's lovely, AND was a real hit with everyone.... 

 So if you have run out of basil pesto and have a patch of stingers nearby give it a go.

Spring shoots

STINGING NETTLE PESTO

Serves 4-6

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking time 5 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

 3 slugs of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp pistachio nuts

4 Tbsp Walnut oil

60g  stinging nettles

20g Parmesan

 Salt and pepper to taste

Nettle pesto with half a ladle full of the pasta water

WHAT TO DO:

1.     First wash the nettles in boiling water, then place in salted boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

2.     2. Meanwhile chop a clove of garlic put it in a food blender, I used a hand held one, add the pistachio nuts, and when drained, the nettle mush and oils and blend.

3.     If you are serving straight away then add the cheese if not, refrigerate and add the cheese when you need.

Cook your pasta as needed and then add half a ladle of the pasta water to the pesto in a pan and heat gently before adding the cooked pasta into the pesto.

Really simple!! The hardest thing is not getting stung when you pick them!!

Nettle pesto pasta served in a Richard Bramble bowl.