Saturday 4 july 2009 - strawberries and picnic

Elder daughter has been pestering me to make her 'favourite' semolina halwa during the week. But after the wonderful sunny days this week, slaving in the kitchen was out. Courgette and spring onion muffins with a hint of chilli had also been hinted at over the week. This happens to be one of my mum's favourites - it's salty! And suitable for diabetics.

So this morning, a wonderful sunny one with some dark clouds hovering around, I decided to fill the house with the aroma of roast spices to wake up the girls. Did they rush downstairs to find out what their mother was concocting? No! They were oblivious to the aroma emanating from the kitchen and had to be woken up at half past ten.

Opened the fridge and found eight pints of milk. Needed to use the milk up so with four bottles (four pints), made some paneer - in the microwave!! Poured the milk into a large pyrex bowl, and in it went for thirty minutes. Then to my next dish. Roasted a handful of cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamon pods and a few gratings of a nutmeg. In went the spices with a few strands of saffron into two cups of hot water and three quarters of a cup of granulated sugar with the peel of two lemons whose juice would be used for the paneer. Should I write this up as a recipe? Hmmm. This does look rather cluttered up. And so the recipe for semolina halwa will follow soon.

As the milk was in the microwave, the 'syrup' for the halwa simmering away, got ingredients ready for the courgette muffins. And no fresh chillies - apart from a rather dried-up half of a red chilli. No matter. Do I always follow exact measurements from a recipe? No. I adapt. The inspiration for courgette and Wensleydale cheese muffins with a hint of chilli? - a recipe I found in a Waitrose magazine which specified Cheddar. I am an adopted Yorkshire lass, so Wensleydale it had to be. Well, it was lying around in the fridge and needed using.



And another brunch weekend for the family - muffins, semolina halwa followed by fresh pineapple with blueberries. I know, strange combination. But life is short. Girls and husband 'remarked' that the muffins would have been tastier with a few sweetcorn to add crunch as well as a few more bits of spring onions and a little bit more chilli.

Courgette and spring onion muffins

Makes 12

Prep time : about 15 minutes
Cooking time : about 20 mins, depending on oven

Equipment

Mixing bowl
grater

Measuring spoons
Measuring jug
Scales

12 standard silicone muffin cases or 12 cup muffin tin or baking parchment cut into squares

Ingredients

• melted butter to grease paper muffin cases
• 150 g self raising flour
• 150 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 150 g Wensleydale cheese, broken into chunks - not grated!
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp (or more!) cracked black pepper
• 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
• 200 ml whole milk
• about 150g courgette (zucchini) (two small ones are quite acceptable), grated and some water squeezed out
• about 8 stems of spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped or 2 tsp dried chilli flakes

1. Heat the oven to 180ºC / Gas 4.


2. Paint the silicone muffin cases / muffin tins with some melted butter or use baking parchment cut into squares to fit the muffin tin.


3. Sieve the two flours together with the baking powder into a large bowl.


4. Add the cheese and the seasonings together with the finely chopped chillies.


5. Beat the eggs and the milk together until smooth.


6. Add this liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and stir gently until well combined. Lightly stir in the courgettes and spring onions.


7. Spoon the mixture into the lined muffin tin and cook for about 20 minutes until the muffins are risen and golden, and are firm but springy to the touch. Leave to cool.

If you unpeel the muffins while they are still warm, some of the batter might appear to be slightly uncooked where the courgettes have ‘leaked’ – that’s why I recommend that the courgettes are gently squeezed and the water discarded before adding to the batter.

Serve warm with some chutney.

Store in an airtight container for up to three days or freeze them for up to two months.


Checked the raspberry bush - about eight raspberries to harvest in a day or two. Checked the pair of redcurrant bushes. Just a few green ones. None for a meal!



At mid-day the sun appeared. Elder daughter decided that we should go for a picnic. While she baked some vanilla cupcakes studded with chocolate bits, younger daughter and I went to pick some strawberries. English strawberries warmed by the sun are the best. We have been picking strawberries in Kellington for the last seventeen summers. Record? I think so. As a baby, younger daughter use to be carted around the fields in her car seat and then in a pushchair. Last week we were informed that the fields would be closed from next year. Insurance and Health and Safety issues. Today, we were informed that the fields would probably remain but only in a smaller field where it is difficult to get the big machines in to plough the fields. Hooray!!! Since all the other strawberry farms in Norton and in Beal have closed down, Kellington have been a bastion of British PYO culture. By the way, you can also get sacks of potatoes and carrots with the strawberries there.




Went to Lotherton Hall for the picnic. The wallabies have disappeared. And the talking mynah birds. The condors and the deer are still around and the roses looked beautiful in the formal gardens. Played cards. Won!!

flowers in the hanging baskets in lotherton hall, leeds, uk

roses in front of lotherton hall, leeds - perfumed air!!

picnic of freshly picked strawberries from kellington and vanilla cupcakes

Husband cooked moussaka for dinner. Adapted from a recipe of Rena Salaman's Greek Food. Of course it is pepped up with some chilli. Dried chilli flakes from Sardinia. A present from Helen, our hairdresser. Daughters loved it.



Was on the phone when dinner was being served and others could not wait for me to begin dinner. Hence the half served bowl of moussaka when I finally got around to the dinner table and managed to grab a photograph.


What happened to the paneer? Made. in a slab. will be appetiser for tomorrow I guess as there is not a lot of it. Simply did not fit into today's food. How will it be done? Simply cut into cubes and deep fried with a sprinkling of garam masala and 'bogori guri' - a sour berry from Assam that has been dried and ground - hence 'guri' - the taste not dissimilar to 'sumac' from the middle east. That's the best way, apparently, according to elder daughter.