I.O. Shen

Home grown chillies to homemade chilli powder

27th November 2016 by Rosie

We’ve grown and harvested chillies this year in our garden, for the first time, and had a decent little crop. Not wanting them to go to waste, and not wishing to freeze them, I’ve dried them out slowly in the airing cupboard before blitzing them up into a powder. The result is much hotter and far more tasty than the commercially available stuff, I can tell you!

After picking them on a warm, dry day. I threaded a needle with some fishing line and sewed the chillies together through the stalks, along the line, rotating each one so that they’d keep their distance to allow the air to circulate as they dry.

They then went into the airing cupboard to hang from the bottom shelf for a couple of weeks to dry out slowly and completely. When they were paper dry, it was time to make them into a powder.

Cutting just the green tops off the chilies, but retaining the seeds inside to keep the heat, I put them into the spice grinder attachment for my Kenwood Major Titanium stand mixer.

I then ground them down in to a very fine powder.

Upturning the spice jar, I gave it a gentle tap on the work surface to make sure all that wonderful powder had dropped down from the blades, and allowed the powder to settle for a couple of minutes before removing the blade attachment.

The resulting smell is incredible! So much more rounded and intense than shop bought chilli powder as it’s so much fresher. It also packs a mighty punch; a little of this is going to go a long way!

I can’t wait until next year to grow more than one plant and repeat this process. The plant we bought was from Suttons Seeds and was one of their grafted plants which promise up to 75% more vegetables for a better crop. I’ll certainly be buying this one again!

Elderflower Cordial

21st June 2016 by Rosie

Such a simple drink to make, using only 5 ingredients. Elderflowers are synonymous with the start of the British summer and are in season for such a short spell of time, that it’s a shame to waste those fragrant blossoms when making cordial from them is such a simple thing to do.

You need to pick the elderflowers on a warm, dry day, allowing any dew to evaporate before picking. Make sure that you only pick heads that have just opened and are still the beautiful creamy colour, without any of the flowers starting to turn brown. Find a nice country lane or hedgerow, away from busy traffic routs that could taint and the delicate blossoms with chemicals.

1.5 litres water
2kg granulated sugar
2 Lemons
20 Elderflower heads
85g Citric acid

Pick the heads and very gently shake any bugs free from them.
In a large saucepan, add the water and the sugar. Gently heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Using a potato peeler, pare the lemon zest from the lemons and slice the lemons into ½cm thick rounds.

4. In a large bowl, add some cold, clean water and gently swish the elderflower heads to remove any remaining insects. VERY GENTLY shake the excess water off them.

5. Snip the elderflowers from the stalks (to leave too much stalk on them can leave a bitter taste).

6. Bring the water and sugar syrup to a boil and turn off the heat.

7. To the sugar syrup, add the elderflower heads, lemon zest, lemon rounds and citric acid. Stir well.

8. Place the lid onto the saucepan and leave, covered and undisturbed, for 24 hours.

9. Line a colander with two layers of muslin and drain the cordial through into a clean bowl.

10. Squeeze the muslin to extract all of that delicious cordial. Discard the lemons and elderflowers.

11. Pour the cordial into clean, sterilised Kilner bottles.

This will keep for up to about 6 weeks in the fridge. You can also freeze the cordial in ice cube trays/bags for use later.

To sterilise the bottles, you can either wash them and dry them, upside down in a warm oven, or wash them through your dishwasher cycle.

National Sandwich Week with the Central Co-Operative

2nd May 2016 by Rosie

Having previously managed the payroll for a very large food manufacture of about 100,000 sandwiches a day many years ago, the invitation from the Central England Co-Operative to create a great sandwich combination using tasty ingredients that could be found in your local store to celebrate National Sandwich week was was right up my street!

As the weather has been very changeable recently, including snow, hailstones, ice, wind and sunshine (and all in one day too!) I decided on a combination of a hot, toasted, sandwich and a lovely salad to go with it. I bought a variety of ingredients including a pack of sandwich thins, Mozzarella cheese, tomato pesto, mixed salad leaves, beautifully sweet Piccolo tomatoes, sweet baby peppers and some delicious mixed root vegetable crips to make my lunch.

After preparing a really quick salad using the leaves, peppers and tomatoes, I simply tipped some of the root vegetable crisps into a small bowl and set about preparing my toasted sandwich.

Drain the Mozzarella and slice about 5mm thick.

The Sandwich Thins are pre-sliced so it’s very quick and simple to separate the two halves. Place a couple of generous teaspoons of the tomato pesto on one side of the bread.

Spread the pesto over the bread into a relatively even layer. Repeat with the other sandwiches as required. I made two for lunch today; one each for my husband and myself.

Tear the mozzarella slices into strips and cover the pesto. I’ve left a small gap around the edges to stop the cheese oozing out (and being wasted) on to my sandwich press. Top with the other half of the Sandwich thin.