Runner Beans With Toasted Almonds and Lemon Thyme...

Back at the end of April my husband and I took a trip to West Malling Kent to walk around Manor Country Park and visit the local farmers market. While strolling through the lovely little streets we spotted a plant sale. We were on the look out for tomato plants but it was the runner bean seedlings that caught our eye. There were only 4 left so we bought the lot! They cost us a whopping £2.40. Not a bad considering we are already on our 4th crop of runner beans.

As it was our wedding anniversary a few weeks ago I wanted to make a really special meal. I sautéed the runner beans in butter and added some minced garlic and lemon thyme from our garden. I added toasted flaked almonds toward the end of cooking and sprinkled a few on top just before serving. We had this as a side to dish to grilled fillet steak and a jacket potato.

Luna Raye’s Runner Beans With Toasted Almonds and Lemon Thyme
(serves 2 as a side dish)

Ingredients

Handful of fresh runner beans (ideally from your own garden!)

1 Tbsp salted butter

1 clove garlic minced

1Tbsp chopped lemon thyme

2-3 Tbsp toasted flaked almonds

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a small pan add the flaked almonds and gently toast them over a low heat (this should take 2-4 minutes)

When the almonds are toasted set them to one side

Wash and trim the ends off runner beans (My beans didn’t need to be de-stringed but if you need to de-string your beans use a sharp knife and carefully go down each side of the bean)
Slice the beans diagonally into thirds (or bite sized pieces)

Melt butter over moderate heat in a frying pan or wok and add the beans

Toss the beans around in the butter so they are coated

Add the minced garlic and chopped lemon thyme

Toss everything around again and stir occasionally for 6-8 minutes

Add ¾ of the toasted almonds and stir again

When everything is mixed together, add to a serving dish and top with the remaining toasted almonds

Enjoy!

Runner Beans With Toasted Almonds and Lemon Thyme

NOTE: I learned something very important about runner beans (and all beans in general) I had no idea that they should NEVER BE EATEN RAW. Thanks to this very informative post I have put an end to my practice of nibbling the beans straight from the vine. Always always cook your beans! They contain a poisonous lectin called Phytohaemagglutinin which can cause nausea, vomiting, severe diarrhea and in some cases even affect blood pressure and breathing.

The Sunday Roast: Not Just for Sundays...

There is nothing quite like a home made roast dinner, especially when the nights are drawing in and the weather has turned damp and cold. They remind me of cosy Sundays spent with my family watching All Creatures Great And Small while delicious smells wafted from the kitchen into the front room. Of course traditionally the Sunday roast is served on Sunday but this week we threw caution to the wind and decided to have a midweek roast.

It did take a little bit more preparation then usual as this time I was determined to make Yorkshire Puddings from scratch. I do feel guilty that I never attempted this before – relying instead on a ready mix where all you need to add is some water and an egg.

Thinking about it, it all seemed a bit ambitious for a midweek meal but I was willing to give it a try. When I started researching recipes I went immediately to one of my favourite chefs; James Martin. If anyone was going to have a delicious and easy to follow Yorkshire Pudding recipe it would be him, and I was right! The recipe I found is for Yorkshire Pudding With Onion Gravy (hurrah an additional treat!). However I was wondering what I was getting myself into! I tried making onion gravy once before which ended badly. Not only was it time consuming but after all that effort it ended up being horribly bitter (I am still not sure what I did wrong).

The main issue with the Yorkshire batter is that it needs to rest – preferably overnight. We had only decided on this meal the night before so after my husband went to work the next day I set about making the batter so it would have at least 10 hours to rest. As I went to get the ingredients I realized that I didn’t have the plain flour, whole milk or beef dripping that the recipe called for. It was a really wet blustery day and the thought of a one hour round trip walk to the shops did not appeal to me. So I did what any kitchen witch would do – I went with what I had, which was self raising flour, olive oil and semi skimmed milk.

Once the batter was in the fridge, I really didn’t have that much to prepare until later on. I took the organic beef joint out the fridge about an hour before we were going to start cooking it so that it could come up to room temperature. I peeled some potatoes and got them ready for parboiling and sliced 2 red onions in preparation for the gravy. I opened a bottle of red wine and had a glass – just to make sure it was ok to use in the gravy (it was).

When we were ready to start cooking my husband rubbed a mixture of olive oil, sea salt and English mustard over the joint. He then seared it on all sides in a hot pan. We added it to our roasting dish with a few cloves of garlic and some fresh lemon thyme. While that was cooking we poured some olive oil in some muffin tins and when it began to smoke we added the Yorkshire batter. After the beef had cooked for 15 minutes we added the parboiled potatoes and a knob of butter to coat them (this is NOT fat free cooking!).

We like our beef medium rare and as the joint was small it didn’t take too long to cook. We took it out to let it rest, placed the roast potatoes in a warmed dish in the oven and used the roasting pan to prepare the onion gravy. I added butter (told you this isn’t fat free!) and then red onions and some minced garlic. While allowing them to soften I had another glass of wine just to make sure it was still ok (it was) and then added a good glug of it to the pan. It helped me scrape up all the lovely browned bits from the beef and potatoes that were still on the pan. Once I added the beef stock to the gravy, my husband began to serve up.

The Yorkshires were golden, fluffy and thanks to the self raising flour, some of the biggest I have ever seen. The beef was done perfectly and the roast potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I spooned the onion gravy liberally over the plate; after tasting it first of course! It wasn’t bitter at all. It was rich, tangy and complimented everything beautifully. As for the Yorkshires – WOW – from this day forward I will always make them from scratch. They were exactly like the ones I remember my Mum making. Light, fluffy and unmistakeably made with love and care! You really can taste the difference between home made and pre-prepared.

The midweek roast dinner was a huge success and something we will do again. If you have never tried making your own Yorkshire puddings then do give it a try – it is absolutely worth it. As for the onion gravy, this is a great recipe for lovely deep rich gravy that will have you mopping up your plate!

Enjoy!

To see this wonderful James Martin’s recipe on the BBC Food website please click here.

Roast Beef, Homemade Yorkshire Puddings and Onion Gravy

A Perfect Summer Meal: Luna Raye’s Light and Ea...

Summer has well and truly arrived. For the past few weeks the sun has been shining everyday and it has been hot, hot, hot! This lovely weather has worked wonders on my garden and everything seems to be thriving (which makes a change from last years disappointing efforts.)

There is an abundance of herbs and I have been incorporating them into as many of my meals as I can. Last night I had a craving for pasta. Sometimes you just can’t beat a bowl of spaghetti served with a nice chilled white wine.

Although I am growing tomatoes, they haven’t started to bear fruit yet so I bought some plum tomatoes from a greengrocer that specializes in local Kent produce. I also bought a few chestnut mushrooms. Once I had assembled those ingredients I went out into the garden to collect some herbs. I decided on Parsley, Coriander, Sage and Lemon Thyme.

It was a very light and refreshing meal and the flavour of the herbs came through beautifully. I really love being able to use ingredients from the garden and I can’t wait until we can use our own tomatoes!

So here is my recipe for a perfect summer meal:

Luna Raye’s Recipe For Light and Easy Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Herbs from the Garden.

Ingredients

Spaghetti (I used enough for 2 people approx 160 – 200 grams).

9 Plum Tomatoes cut roughly into chunks (Cherry Tomatoes also work well. What’s important is that they are fresh).

9 Chestnut Mushrooms sliced ( I like mine a bit chunky but they can be sliced thinner if you prefer).

A selection of Fresh Herbs preferably from your garden! I used Curly Parsley, Coriander, Sage and Lemon Thyme. I used approximately about 4 Tablespoons of the chopped mixed herbs.

Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese.

Directions

Cook the pasta in lightly salted water according to the package directions.

While the pasta is cooking roughly chop the tomatoes and slice the mushrooms. Set them aside.
Roughly chop the herbs and also set aside.

When the spaghetti is al dente drain it and do not rinse. The idea is to keep a small amount of the cooking water in the pot.

Put the spaghetti back in the pot and add the tomatoes, mushrooms, herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.
Mix well and transfer to serving bowls.

Add some freshly ground pepper and parmesan cheese to taste.

Enjoy it out in the garden with some chilled white wine!

NOTES:

For ages whenever I cooked pasta I would add a wee bit of olive oil to the water which I thought would prevent the pasta from sticking together. This was not only rather costly it can actually impair the flavour of the dish. The pasta becomes oily and is unable to absorb any sauce.

I also remember being told that it was important to rinse cooked pasta after it’s been drained. This isn’t a good idea either. Rinsing pasta cools it down which means it stops the pasta from absorbing sauces. This can also impair the over all flavour of the dish.

Rinsing also washes away any starch that is left on the pasta. This starch is important for thickening sauces, so it’s beneficial to always reserve some of the cooking water from your pasta.

I first tried this technique when I made Nigella Lawson’s Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms and it was wonderful.

Here is a great article by Shirley Corriher on How To Cook Pasta Properly.

Light And Easy Pasta With Fresh Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Herbs

The Abundant Garden.

Father’s Day: Treat Your Father To A Special Mea...

Today is Father’s Day. It also happens to be my sister’s birthday (Happy Birthday Lisa!) and I thought it was the perfect day to try a recipe I saw on one of my favourite cooking shows, Saturday Morning Kitchen. It aired on June 5th and featured the wonderful chef Michel Roux, who prepared Pork Sausages with a Pineapple Salsa and Rocket Salad.

What struck me right away about this dish was serving sausages with something other then the usual potatoes, gravy and Yorkshire pudding. Instead the pineapple salsa and rocket salad are a light and zesty alternative, absolutely perfect for a warm summer evening.

This is a very simple and elegant meal to prepare. The most labour intensive part of the dish is the salsa and that was much easier to make then I expected. I have never had pineapple salsa before but it was incredible. The pineapple combined with the fresh chilli, chill sauce and lime juice (and a bit of brown sugar) was sweet and tangy with a lovely bit of heat that came through wonderfully. It wasn’t overpowering at all. This is something I plan on making again and I think it would also go nicely alongside tuna or swordfish steaks.

The only adjustments I had to make to the recipe were with the herbs and the sambal oelek (Indonesian chilli sauce). Our coriander isn’t doing very well and I used the last few sad looking leaves which didn’t even come close to making up the 2 tablespoons needed for the salsa. So I used a combination of coriander, apple mint and a wee bit of lemon thyme. I also didn’t have the Indonesian chilli sauce but fortunately there was some Tiger chilli sauce lurking in the back of the fridge which I used instead. I’m not sure how much of a difference this made to the dish, but the salsa tasted pretty good in spite of these changes.

It was a fun and satisfying meal to make and what was so great was the way chef Michel Roux made it seem so effortless. It really showed me that you can create simple, wonderful meals that taste like they come from a 5 star restaurant, in your own home. Sadly my parents and sister live many thousands of miles away, so we weren’t able to share this special meal together. I do plan on making it for them when we meet up later this summer. So you guys have fair warning – get some white wine chilling in the fridge! On the show they suggested a Riesling which happens to be one of my favourite white wines.

For dessert we used up the left over pineapple and apple mint to make a fruit salad. We added some blueberries, strawberries and a chopped up banana along with a tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice. We served it with a generous dollop of vanilla yoghurt. It was a lovely way to finish the meal.

Here is chef Michel’s recipe again. Try it for yourself and why not share it with your loved ones, especially with dad (and any sisters who may be celebrating their birthdays).

Caramelizing the Pineapple For The Salsa

Pork Sausages with Pineapple Salsa and Rocket Salad.

Fruit Salad with fresh apple mint and a dollop of vanilla yoghurt.

Beltane Celebration: Get Out In Nature And Don’t...

Despite the dark gloomy clouds and bouts of torrential rain we had in most parts of the UK we still managed to have a wonderful Beltane weekend. Beltane is the Celtic festival of fire and light and it is celebrated on April 30th – May 1st.

It’s a wonderful time of year. The days are lengthening, flowers and plants are starting to blossom and bloom, butterflies and bees are making an appearance in the garden and everyone has a slight spring in their step.

One of the best ways to celebrate this time of year is to get outside in nature. Whether it’s a walk around the block, a 10 mile hike, a visit to your local park or even just pottering around in your garden, make the effort to get out doors. This weekend I stayed away from my computer and spent as much time as I could (rain permitting) in the garden.

We sowed some seeds, Rocket (Arugula) which is a wonderful peppery salad leaf and some Genovese Basil. My mouth is already watering in anticipation of a Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil Salad. The pots are all lined up in our little greenhouse and we hope to see some spouting soon.

Last year we bought some herbs from our local farmers market and they have really taken off. I have really enjoyed being able to cook with fresh Sage, Rosemary, Lemon Thyme and Tarragon. This year we decided to add a few more herbs to our garden; Coriander, Curly Parsley and Apple Mint. Although we had problems previously growing tomatoes and chillies we thought we’d have a go at some sugar snap peas. Our not so very green fingers are crossed!

Beltane is also a very special time for working with Fairies. There are many things you can do to honour them and show your commitment to nature:

• Look into recycling schemes.
• Support animal and environmental charities.
• Buy more organic produce.
• If you’re in a park or on a hike and you see some litter then (if it isn’t too disgusting) pick it up and dispose of it properly.
• Give away unwanted clothing and goods to charity.
• Use gentler more natural cleaners in the home instead of harsh scary chemicals.

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to honour the Fairies and to celebrate this wonderful time of year is to get off the couch, get away from the computer or television and go outside! You may also want to leave a little treat for Nature’s Angels as a thank you for all their hard work.

For the Garden Fairies I like to put out seeds (sunflower and pumpkin are good) as well as chopped fruit (apples, pears, plums, blackberries and blueberries). For my House Fairy I like to leave out some milk and honey or mead as well as something sweet like organic chocolate, cookies or cake. If you have an animal companion please make sure they can’t get at any Fairy Treats you leave out, chocolate is toxic to many animals but especially to dogs.

The leaving of a gift is a lovely way to acknowledge the Fairies and thank them for their continual help in watching over your garden and plants, protecting your home and animal companions, and to celebrate the beauty and abundance of nature. Breathe some fresh air, listen to the birds and don’t forget the Fairies!

Fairy and Violets

Sage, Lemon Thyme, Rosemary and Tarragon