Simple Pleasures. - Three Cornered Leek and Wild Fennel

There is something very pleasing about picking food from the wild (or foraging as it now seems to have become trendy to call it) and making it into something delicious. Recently I was visiting my parents and on a walk came across not one, but two wild treats. the first was some beautiful three cornered leek and the second some wild fennel. I've spoken before about this before after picking blackberries and wild apples. Sometimes the simple pleasures really are the best...

Wild fennel tends to have less of a bulb than cultivated fennel but the stalks and the lovely fronds were delicious paired with lemon, Parmesan and chicken in this simple recipe.

Three cornered leek really is a beautiful vegetable, from the triangular stem it gets its name from to the pretty little white flowers. It has a very delicate flavour, similar to wild garlic but milder, so be careful not to over cook it and destroy the flavour. Here is the recipe.

Now to find some wild garlic before the season is over...

Blackberry Vodka and Homemade Secret Santas

Every year we all get together with mum dad's side of the family for a day of festive fun between Christmas and New Year. Maybe 5 years ago we stopped all buying presents for each other and instead started a secret santa, which all worked very well but wasn't quite as exciting as it could be. Last year my auntie had the fab idea of making our secret santas. We all have to make a gift for one person, the materials have to cost less than £5 and it has to be fabulous! Even the children have to make something (with a little help from their parents). The results were amazing, a seriously creative family!

So this year the stakes are high. I can't post about my Secret Santa yet in case the recipient is reading so in the meantime I thought I'd write about my dad's recipe for his secret santa (this is a dad whose only job in the kitchen is normally washing up!). I have been assured though that he did plenty of research to find a recipe for blackberry vodka.

Back in the autumn we had picked lots of blackberries which I posted about here and so both of our freezers have a good stock of blackberries.

To make blackberry vodka you need to start by weighing the blackberries. You then weigh out the same amount of sugar out and put them in a bottle or kilner jar covered with your vodka. Seal it up, give it a good shake and leave it somewhere dark and cool to mature. Ideally you need to leave it for at least 3 months, giving it a shake every week or so. You can then sieve out the fruit and pop in a bottle with a beautiful label. The jury is out on whether the fruit is tasty or not once it's out. Some have suggested serving it on ice cream and others say most of the flavour has gone so bin it. I say give it a taste and if it tastes good then eat it!

Here is the vodka maturing. You can see the blackberries have already started doing their magic as the vodka has changed colour.






Here are the finished product decanted into a bottle with labels added.






Incidentally at uni I used to regularly flavour vodka with sweets and chocolates. It sounds a bit odd but I tell you Mars bar vodka is amazing! Think baileys with a caramel flavour and a bit of a kick. Fab for making cocktails. Lots of sweets work, polo mints, skittles, pear drops. Pick your favourite and experiment. Just pop the sweets/chunks of chocolate in the vodka and give it a shake. I never used to leave it anywhere near 3 months. Maybe a week or so. Shaking every day. I haven't done it for a while though but give it a go and it's done when it tastes good! The sweets/chocolates virtually disappear so there shouldn't be a need to filter it, maybe just sieve and lumps out.

#letsmakechristmas

Apple and Blackberry Jam

This morning before work I decided to make some jam. Some of the blackberries and apples I picked at the weekend hadn't made their way into my freezer yet and I wanted to use them before they went off. It's so simple to make jam and much tastier than jam from the supermarket. I tend to add apple to any jam I make as if you ate buying the fruit it is cheaper and it's also higher in pectin so helps the jam to set. This jam has 2 cups of blackberries to 1 cup of peeled diced apple and 1 cup of jam sugar (you could also use granulated sugar and some pectin) plus a squeeze of lemon juice.










I make my jam in my bread maker as its so easy. You just chuck it all in and leave it for about 90 mins, but it is equally possible to do it in a pan. Once completed put the jam into sterilised jars.

Here is the finished article. Perfect with homemade bread.

Autumn treats and Random Bakes of Kindness

I've spent the weekend at my parents so decided to go blackberry picking. Luckily the spot I picked had been well designed by mother nature and had wild apples growing next to the blackberries. My neighbour had also given me some walnuts from a tree in his garden.












I decided I'd make some blackberry and apple muffins with a streusel topping. I just made a basic sponge but used soft light brown sugar and added some cinnamon (4oz self raising cake flour, 4oz light soft brown sugar, 4oz butter or margarine, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp baking powder and a scant teaspoon of cinnamon). I lined the tin with baking parchment rather than using muffin cases for a more rustic finish and once I'd put the mixture into the tins I popped a few blackberries and some diced apple on the top of each, picture below.






I then sprinkled with some streusel topping (equal amounts of butter and flour rubbed together until they resemble breadcrumbs, stir in the same amount of dark soft brown sugar, a few oats and chopped walnuts and another teaspoon of cinnamon). Here they are ready to go into the oven.





Then baked at 180 degrees for about 15-20 mins. Next time I think I'd add the streusel topping half way through the cooking time to get a better rise. They still tasted yummy though!

I had some leftover streusel topping so used it to make a blackberry and apple crumble by putting blackberries and diced apple in an oven proof dish and then sprinkled to streusel topping all over and baked for about 20 mins until golden.

I packed up some of the muffins and gave them to my 90 year old nan who doesn't bake for herself anymore and tends to buy rubbish cakes from the supermarket. She always appreciates homemade treats so
perfect for my first Random Bake of Kindness for the month :)

I also picked some rosehips and rowan berries so will blog about them once I've turned them into something edible!

Plum Jam

Miniature plums grow wild in the lanes around my parents. They sent me a huge bag so I decided to turn some into jam.








Some were yellow plums and some red so I decided to spilt them and make a couple of jars of each colour and gave one of each to my nan as she loves jam.

They have a wonderful flavour without being too sweet.