Vegetable Savoury Rice

Recipe:

• 1 Medium Onion, Chopped
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 Green Pepper, diced
• 8 Mushrooms, quartered (I quarter mine so the kids can pick them out easily)
• A couple of handfuls of frozen peas
• A small tin of Sweetcorn
• 1 red chilli finely sliced, no seeds included
• enough long grain rice to serve 4
• Light and Dark Soy Sauce
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Method :

1. Cook the rice as per the instructions on the packet
2. Put all the vegetables into a large non stick frying pan and saute until soft
3. Once the vegetables are soft and the rice is cooked, add the rice to the same pan as the vegetables and stir in enough soy sauce to coat the rice and heat through until piping hot… and serve.

My OH loves this rice with Scampi piled on the top

Ginger Crunch

 

Makes 16-24

For the Base:

• 225g (8oz) Plain Flour
• 100g (3 1/2 oz) Caster Sugar
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Tsp Ground Ginger
• 150g (5 1/2 oz) Butter, cut into cubes

For the Icing:

• 150g (5 1/2 oz) Butter
• 60ml (2fl oz) Golden Syrup
• 300g (10 1/2 oz) Icing Sugar, Sifted
• 2 Tbsp Ground Ginger

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 350 degrees F / Gas Mark 4
2. Line a deep-sided 18 x 27 cm (7 x 10.5″) shallow baking tin with baking parchment
3. To make the base, put the flour, sugar, baking powder and ginger into a food processor.   Pulse several times to combine then add the butter.   Process for about 30 seconds, or until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.   This can also be done by hand.   Press the mixture evenly into the tin and level off, using the back of a spoon.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly golden.   Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
5. To make the icing, put the butter and golden syrup in a medium saucepan and heat until just melted.   Add the sifted icing sugar and ginger and cook for a further 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly until smooth.   Remove from the heat and pour over the base.   Leave to set.   Remove from the tin and cut into squares or triangles to serve.

Recipes extracted from the book “Cookies” – ISBN 978-184537-681-9

How the Veggies are progressing…

A bit of a mixed reaction with the growing season so far… it started out great, lovely and warm, then it kinda went downhill after that.. its not been that sunny and it has rained a fair bit, and I think this has had an impact on the veggies growing both in the greenhouse and in the garden.

Here is an up to date report on some of the veggies growing in my garden..

First of all the peas… I have some planted straight into the garden and also some growing in a trough on the high wall..

Both were sown inside the greenhouse then planted out about 2 weeks apart, the result for both is that they have grown about 10 – 12 inches tall (not really that big), they have produced pea pods, but not that many of them, I’d be lucky if there was enough to serve up onto one plate let along freeze a bag of them so we could enjoy them in winter.. so verdict on the peas 1/10 really disappointed.

Now on to the tomatoes in the greenhouse… I have around 10 plants all seemingly doing well but not a lot of fruits, in fact I had to take 2 off the plant this morning as they had blossom end rot, I always remember my dad moaning about it when I lived at home, cursing the blossom end rot lol, now i’ve got it!

The micro tom tomatoes… I dont think I will be growing these again, for me, its a bit of a messy looking plant and the fruits are too close to the soil.

 

The Potatoes are doing really well (I think)!   Grown in big spud bags, they should be ready to harvest quite soon.

Next… the onions, I’m not sure if they are doing well or not to be honest, I would have expected them to be bigger than they are, but we shall wait and see what happens..

The Carrots seem to be doing ok, must get some weeding done this weekend before the weeds take over..

Courgettes… well they seem to be doing just grand, in full blom at the moment, here’s hoping I get fruit this year, last year they rotted away just after forming because it was soooo wet.

I have some flowers growing in the garden too, which are adding a lovely splash of colour….