We polished last week off with a lunch trip out and chomped our way through a main course & desert. All such lovely, properly cooked food at a localish restaurant, Y Polyn. It’s so difficult to find places that cook everything themselves.

Thumbs up for Y Polyn and a fantastic chance to sit back and let someone else do the hard work.

Now it’s back to reality, the bathroom scales & expanding waist bands. Christmas is over & another year has begun.

Soup seems to be the thing to get us back on track. A classic lentil & bacon soup today. I checked around and the recipe can be found on many web sites

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/282053/Lentil-and-bacon-soup

This one seems good. I just add a bit of garlic and chop up couple of storks of celery to throw into the pot. I’ve also added a teaspoon of sweet paprika and I haven’t got any parsley available so that’s been left out. The main thing is to watch the salt you add as the bacon usually gives up enough to flavour the entire dish.

As there is only 2 of us living in Glanbrydan Towers the soup will last for 2 days or we usually freeze half.

Happy new year everyone

A good way to get a bit of 1 of your 5 a day and a fun way to get children to try out courgettes.

I picked the courgettes from the tubs I have growing by the kitchen door. I was going to make a pasta source or put them in quiches but thought no why not do something a little bit different.

60g raisins
250g courgettes skin on

2 eggs
125ml / 4fl oz sun flower oil
150g caster sugar
225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
half a lemon
100 g butter at room temperature

200g icing sugar

Makes 12
Preheat oven to gas mark 4 (180C)

1. Put the raisins in a bowl & cover with boiling water – leave to plump up.
2. Grate the courgettes (use a grater not a food processer) and leave in a colander to drain.
3. Put the flour, bicarb & baking powder in a bowl. Stir well
4. Beat the eggs, oil and sugar in a bowl until slightly lighter.
5. Fold in the flour, then the courgettes to the batter. Drain the raisins & fold them in.
6. Divide the batter between 12 cupcake cases or muffin wrappers placed in a muffin tin
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes until firm and slightly golden
8. Leave to cool on a wire tray
9. Whisk the butter until light and soft.
10. Thoroughly mix in the icing sugar.
11. Grate the lemon zest into the icing & add half the juice of a lemon
12. Whisk again until you have a slightly softer icing.
13. Either spoon on the icing to the cooled muffins and level with a palette knife or pipe on.

Swarming Bees in Spring.

This week we’ve had some real excitement at the cottage. The bee hive that’s been here since last summer has swarmed. Wilf noticed a cloud of bees moving so we phoned our bee keeping expert, Martin Collins of Manordeilo, who’s the owner of the hive and he confirmed it was the right time of year for it.

I tracked the bee cloud into the adjoining field keeping watch from a safe distance through binoculars, although the noise was a bit of a giveaway.

When Martin, accompanied by Aura (his wife) arrived he declared it an enormous swarm. Ok, quite a large swarm really, but I’ve become quite attached to (my) the bees and feel like boasting on their behalf

After examining the resting swarm which had settled around a hedge on the side of the field Martin suited up for a closer look taking an empty hive with him. Setting the hive on level ground he decided he would shake the bees gently into it but soon discovered they were all over the place. He needed to identify where the queen was and somehow coax her indoors.

The centre of the cloud had managed to work itself around some low grass so he placed a bucket above  them and the bees obligingly crawled up inside. Martin gently tipped the bees on to a flat piece of wood in front of the hive entrance and almost immediately they started to crawl inside. Queeny must have decided to try out her new home as bees started making their way into the hive to join her.

Some hours later Martin recovered the very full hive to a new home in the garden and now we are a 2 hive family. Martin however was so pleased with their progress that he has brought up a third hive.

It was a real treat to watch something so amazing and Martin was very patient fielding Auras & my useful/useless suggestions. That’s multiple choices for Martin to cross out later when he reads this.

Some of the wonderful honey Martin collects we use to make Carmarthenshire Honey and Butter Flapjacks. So far it has been from other hives in the area but we are very hopeful of being rewarded with some of our own this year.

A few bee facts:

Most of the bees are girls.

When they swarm they fill their bellies with honey to sustain them until they find a new home.

The swarm is normally about a third of the bees and the old queen who is forced to leave knowing a new queen will take her place.

Bees fly anything up to 3 miles away from home.

It takes between 45,000 to70,000 bee journeys to make one pound of honey.

Life of the female worker bee once it starts to gather nectar is about 6 weeks

And now for the Yummy honey flapjack recipe……

Melt 150grams of butter very gently in a pan with 75 grams of any brown sugar and 75ml of your favourite runny honey. Make sure they are thoroughly melted together giving it a good stir.

Pour this over 250 grams of porridge oats. You can if you like also add 75 grams of dried fruit such as sultanas or cranberries, or 75 grams of choc chips. Give it all a really good stir

You will need a 20cm square baking tin with a loose bottom, lined with baking paper.

Spread out your sticky mixture, pressing it down to fill the corners ensuring it has a flat top.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 160 degrees centigrade in fan oven, 180 electric. Gas mark 4.

Allow to cool slightly and then divide into 8 portions with a sharp knife while still in the tin. Allow to cool completely and then break into pieces.

Stores well for up to a week wrapped in foil or plastic.

Prepare to bake your cake – It is really worth it.

200g soft butter – I leave mine out for a few hours or soften in the microwave  for between 10 & 20 seconds- but be careful as you don’t want melted butter

200g light soft brown sugar.

Put these into your mixing bowl or the bowl of your electric mixer

250g plain flour

2 level tsp baking powder

1 level tsp ground mixed spice

Pinch salt

Sift these together into another bowl

Grate the rind from 1 lemon & 1 orange

Then squeeze out the juice from them both

3 eggs

200g currants

200g sultanas

200g raisins

100g mixed peel

1 kg readymade marzipan

A couple of table spoons of apricot jam or marmilade

Turn the oven onto 150 degrees C to heat up

You need to line a deep, loose bottom 20cm/8 inch baking tin with baking parchment

Cream together the butter & sugar until much paler – use a mixer if possible as this can be hard work if beating with a wooden spoon

Add the dried flour mixture to the bowl along with the eggs and beat for about 2 minutes with the electric mixer or about 5 minutes hard work by hand.

Add the dried fruits,  juice & rind. Mix it all together to make sure the fruit is thoroughly spread around the mix.

Tip half the cake mix into the prepared baking tin, then gently flatten it out with a spoon. Take about 300g of marzipan, roll into a  circle using your baking tin as a guide. Lay this over the cake mixture in the tin and then add the remaining mixture. Gentle flatten the top with the back of a spoon

Bake for about 2 hours 15 minutes.

Check after about an hour and a half. If the top is browning too quickly then pop a circle of baking parchment over the top of the cake.

It’s done when you can skewer it – as far as the marzipan middle  – and the skewer comes clean.

Let the cake cool a bit in the tine and then remove. Gently pull off the baking parchment and leave to go cold.

Keep the cake wrapped in grease proof paper or a cake tin until you want to decorate it.

Using about 400g of the marzipan and your cake tine to guide your cutting roll about the marzipan in a circle a bit bigger than your cake top. Use the baking tin to cut round. Your marzipan may stick a bit so try rolling it gently.

Heat the jam in a pan until melted and brush on the top of the cake.

Carefully lay over your circle of marzipan on the top of the cake.

Now roll out 11 balls about 20g each and use them to decorate the cake.

To get the marzipan browned heat your grill and put the cake under the heat being careful to watch it. It only takes a couple of minutes.

I then coloured a bit of the remaining marzipan with some egg yellow, rolled it out and cut a few simple flowers.

Rocky road cupcake

lemon loveliness

sticky toffee pudding cake

The dog is barking and the cat meowing so it must be dinner time. Must go, the natives are restless……

Just a bit of news before I go.

Welsh Country magazine have published an article including our quiche recipe. Must get a photo along to them

http://welshcountry.co.uk/welsh-food/welsh-food-news/638-news/9277-glanbrydan-share-some-of-their-baking-secrets-

The last of the snowy pictures I promise. It hasn’t snowed here since Christmas and Vicky dog loved to leap through it. Look at the snow balls she has collected whilst on a walk.

This is homemade fast food: tasty & filling, a complete meal in about 20 minutes.

Some days cooking seems like too much of a stretch. We do sometimes have a Chinese takeaway but these days we try to keep it a bit healthier. This recipe is probably cooked in the time it takes us to decide what we want and actually get somewhere near to a place that sells fast food.

The important thing here is that this dish can be cooked with any seafood you fancy.

Ingredients

10g butter or a corner off the end of the pack

1 Onion peeled and diced

1 or 2 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed

2 eggs

A small tub half fat crème fraiche

Two handfuls of strong grated cheddar

100g smoked salmon

A bag of fresh pasta fresh pasta

Baby asparagus spears (about 100g)

Some broccoli florets – just the little flower heads so they cook quickly.

Nutmeg and a grater

Salt and pepper

To make:

Start by melting the butter in a smallish pan until it starts to sizzle.

Add the onion and garlic cooking gently for about 5 minutes. Stir in a little salt and a good pinch of black pepper.

Stir in the crème fraiche and heat for about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat.

When that has cooked start to prepare your pasta as per the pack instructions. When you have about 2 to 3 minutes of boiling time left (which was the entire cooking time for my pasta) add the asparagus spears and broccoli.

Then while they are cooking chop your smoked salmon into bite sized chunks.

Beat the eggs in bowl until they are combined and add the cooled crème fraiche mixture along with the grated cheese.

Drain the pasta, turn off the heat and return to the pan along with the salmon and crème fraiche mixture. The idea is to very gently cook the egg so you don’t get scrambled egg with your pasta

Give it all a good stir and divide between 2 bowls. Grate on some nutmeg and season to taste. Remember the smoked salmon is salty but hasn’t been cooked with the other ingredients so keeps it saltiness to itself.

It has been quite a while since I last put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to update the blog.

We like so much of the country found ourselves covered in snow for much of December. It must be the most snow we have seen since we moved here over 5 years ago. Whilst I cannot deny the beauty of a blanket of white and the wonderful quiet that descends when the roads are bereft of traffic. It did little for our business at what should have been one of the busiest times of the year.

I do feel for all small businesses, where a bad month can crucify what may have otherwise been a reasonable year. I have spoken with local shop owners and fellow food producers who have had to pull their belt in another notch.

Talking of pulling belts in I managed to lose 2 stone in weight last year only to regain about ¾ of a stone through Christmas and our late week away in Scotland where we found some wonderful places to eat. I am swallowing the bitter pill and attempting to get back to some healthier meals.

We are starting with a pot roast chicken this evening.

I purchased a new deep casseroler with lid at a very good price in the sales and have been looking for an opportunity to make a pot roast of some sort. So when we found a reduced price chicken I jumped at the chance. The chicken is not free range but is not battery either. It is a middle of the road option where the birds are given space to act as they should with real light to live in. I believe that once the battery hens ban comes into effect next year this will be the norm.

Based on Delias Frugal food ‘chicken pot roast’ the bird will be partly roasted and then cooked on the hob. If T.W.O does not feed the rest of it to the animals as a ‘treat’ we should at least get one evening meal, tomorrows left over’s cold cuts lunch and then a soup from it.

You will need a casserole pot or pan with lid that is suitable for cooking on the hob and is big enough to get your chicken in.

I chicken (giblets removed)

5 shallots or an onion

A few cloves of garlic, skin off, chopped or crushed

A few carrots, scrapped and chopped

A skinned diced onion

A handful of swede , skinned and chopped

My chicken is 1.9 kg so I will be cooking it for 25 minutes per half kilo plus 25 minutes. In this case I will just round it up and say 4 x 25 minutes plus 25 minutes, the first 30 minutes of this will be spent in the oven and the rest cooking on the hob. So 2 hours and 5 minutes in total. However the chicken was falling off the bones so it could have been cooked for a bit less.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or gas mark 4

Remove the skins from the shallots or the whole onion and stud with a few cloves. Put these into the belly cavity of your chicken and roast – lid off for 30 minutes

Remove the chicken from the oven and put on the hob on a medium heat. Tip in all the veg, put the lid on and cook these for a few minutes while you boil a kettle of water. Put in some salt and pepper. I used quarter teaspoon of black pepper and a half teaspoon of salt.

Pour the water round the chicken until it is two thirds covered. Turn the chicken over and cook lid on at a gentle to medium simmer for half an hour.

Turn the chicken up the right way and complete the cooking time.

You should have a nice juicy chicken and a bowl of stock. Strain the stock of the vegetables and either eat with the chicken or discard. Keep the stock in the fridge once cooled where the fat should separate out and can be scrapped off the top leaving a bowl of jelly like stock ready to make a nice soup. I’m thinking leek and potato……….

Exciting news is we have a web site – so far though not much content

http://www.glanbrydan.co.uk

Courgettes roasted

 Aura has been cooking this for weeks so here’s my version

Oven to 180 degrees C or gas mark 4 Slice up a courgette or two depending on Size and how many you need to feed. We use one enormous courgette for the 2 of us.

Slice up an onion

Crush and chop a couple of cloves of garlic

 Slice up a sweet red, green or orange pepper into thin strips

Place these in a roasting dish and pour over a few table spoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix it about to distribute the oil and then cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Keep an eye on it though as you want the courgettes softened but not charred.

Courgettes griddled

Aura served this cold to us but you can have it warm. Take a few courgettes and slice longwise so you have thin but long slices. Either grill these for a few minutes, use a griddle pan on the cooker top or put them on a BBQ. They 5 to minutes, turning once to get some nice charred lines down them. When they are just softening take them off and drizzle in olive oil.

Courgettes and tomatoes

Slice up 1 big or a few small courgettes thinly Slice one onion Crush and chop a couple of garlic cloves Tin of chopped tomatoes A sweet pepper (green or red) Small tin of tomato puree Dried Oregano seasoning

Using a large frying pan gently fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Then gradually add pieces of the courgette allowing them to sit on the base of the pan for a few minutes before moving them to the side of the pan to allow more pieces of courgette to be cooked. Once all the courgette has been cooked put the pepper in and give all a good mix up letting the pepper cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the can of chopped tomatoes puree tomatoes, a good teaspoon of the oregano, a good pinch of salt and pepper. Allow to bubble gently for at least half an hour stirring every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t stick. Serve with any meat, fish or veg dish.