Rhubarb And Ginger Ice Cream

Easting With The Seasons

I love eating with the seasons – it just feels so right. As some things go out of season, others arrive and we get a natural variation in our diets. Eating with the seasons makes the most of local, low cost fruit and vegetables – and you experience them at their best.

Making the most of seasonal produce can get you trying new and delicious recipes. Rhubarb is available in the Spring and there are many ways to use it

When buying seasonal produce, where possible use local shops, Farmers markets and farm shops to get the locally grown produce – and often lowest cost, produce. Supermarkets are often not the cheapest, so do have a check around.

Rhubarb

When rhubarb is in season I enjoy making the best of it. It is easy to find, good for you and very easy to cook. Just plain stewed rhubarb couldn’t be easier to make with requiring just a bit of sugar and a small amount of water – and it’s ready in 15 minutes.

Rhubarb is best cooked within a couple of days of buying it as it does go limp and floppy quite quickly! I am on a bit of a mission to find different and easy ways to cook rhubarb. It is an ancient plant and has been used in British recipes for centuries.

Rhubarb has been a staple of the British diet since the 1700s but fell out of favour a little during the rationing and the second world war as rhubarb does need sugar to be palatable and of course sugar was in limited supply. rhubarb is too tart, at least to most people’s tastes to eat unsweetened.

Homemade Ice cream

I have an ice cream maker as I love ice cream. Commercial ice cream always so full of additives and the premium ice creams is expensive, that I do prefer to make my own. You don’t have to have an ice cream maker to make your own but it does make the process quicker and easier. If you want to make it regularly, I would invest in one, but don’t get one if it is just going to take up space in your cupboard! In fact if you use it regularly you need to keep it in the freezer so it is ready to use at anytime. So do make sure you will have room to accommodate it.

Here is the one that I use:-

This ice cream recipe is a very simple on with just cream, yoghurt, sugar and rhubarb. You can use double cream if you want a much richer ice cream but for me the tangyness of the yoghurt complements the tangyness of the rhubarb. I added stem ginger into this mix too as I love rhubarb and ginger – but this is optional.

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  Easy Rhubarb Tart

Spring Rhubarb Tart

In the Spring, rhubarb appears in the shops and supermarkets and people think of Rhubarb Crumble – well I do anyway! And rhubarb crumble is indeed delicious! But if you want to use a seasonal product, you do need lots of ways to cook it. So here is a really easy way to cook up a delicious dessert with only a few minutes preparation time and at low cost. In fact it costs about £2.00 for four people – depending on where you buy your rhubarb….

Nutritious Rhubarb

Supermarkets are often the most expensive places to buy rhubarb at often around £5.00 a kilo whereas if you look in your local food stores and green grocers you may well find it for less – and it may be locally grown.

In the past I have often had a rhubarb plant in the garden. They are quite attractive with the large leaves and it is wonderfully satisfying harvesting the rhubarb for a wonderful pudding

Rhubarb is high in vitamin C, calcium and fibre. It also contains vitamin K. Low in calories and fat it is good to have it as part of your diet.

Rhubarb And Custard

Of course people often think of rhubarb and custard when they think of rhubarb – and not only as a dessert – there are the iconic sweets and that wonderful cartoon utilising that old rivalry between cat and dog and narrated by the late, great Richard Briars. If you are over a certain age, the theme tune probably reminds you of getting home from school!!

Here is a taster if you have a spare 5 minutes of fun and joy….

Rhubarb And Ginger

Rhubarb and ginger goes very well together and I have used that wonderful partnership in this recipe. I buy jars of stem ginger for the Gingerbread recipe, ginger scones and ginger cookies so I usually have some in the cupboard. You can make this without the ginger but I do think it adds a really goo dflavour

The idea for this easy rhubarb tart is really from the savoury Brie and Tomato Tart and squash and goats cheese tart made with bought puff pastry as a base. Rhubarb cooks so easily that it is ideal for this sweet dessert dish, too.

You will need a baking dish something like this Master Class Baking Tray / Oven Tray, Non-Stick, 24cm x 18cm

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  Sweet Potato Fajita Pie

Pre-Prepared Sauces And Packs

Most of the time I like to cook from scratch with generic ingredients. However there are some products that are worth a second look. These are mostly those products that are specific sauces with many special ingredients for a recipe originating in another country – such as a curry or a sweet and sour sauce. These are particularly useful for a beginner cook or a cook that is not confident enough to just have a go and trust their own instincts

I have certainly discovered that some things I have bought in the past are incredibly easy to make – such as mincemeat or lemon curd but this is not true of all sauces.

I still, of course, use bought tomato sauce, brown sauce and I buy mayonnaise. So when I was asked to try some of the Discovery product, namely their sour cream, garlic and herb sauce and the fajita sauce I knew I would be happy to review them.

Garlic and Herb Soured Cream

The key to anything with garlic and herb in, is that it should be possible to get the delightful flavour of garlic without it being overwhelming and the herb need to enhance it without smothering it. And of course in a sour cream sauce, the good natural taste of the sour cream needs to shine through.

I have to say that fresh sour cream will always win out, but to have a handy bottle of it available to enhance your chillies and Mexican dishes is a great bonus. More economical than fresh sour cream too. The garlic and herb is there and tasty – but not overpowering and would be really good on chilli con carne and on salads as well as traditional fajitas.

Using a Commercial Sauce

So when I had the opportunity out some Discovery Fajita sauce I thought it might be good opportunity to see if it would be useful to use in my cooking, generally.

Something like a Fajita sauce is relatively expensive to make from scratch since it tends to combine small amounts of many ingredients. This is fine if you already have the ingredients in the cupboard, but if you went out and bought them, the combined price would be considerably more than a fajita sauce. So unless you intend to cook fajitas every week it probably isn’t worth it.

The team at Discovery did ask me to come up with a recipe too. Well I could hardly come up with recipe that was on the pack – so here is something a little different – and in keeping with the easy and low cost ethos of my website

Fajita Style Cottage Pie

I decided to use the Fajita sauce with some beef mince as a handy way to make a chilli style cottage pie. I suspect the sauce could be used in a chicken casserole or beef stew either and it would all taste good – It’s good to try out different things and not use it just a fajita

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Making The Packed Lunch

We all know that making your lunch instead of buying it when you are out is a great way to kepp spending under control – and you know exactly what you are eating! However, knowing what to give your kids, or indeed yourself, for lunch can sometime be a bit of a challenge. Sandwiches every day can get a little dull and you don’t want to spend lots of time preparing your lunch the night before.

Have a look at my lunchtime ideas. Some lunches that can be from the leftovers of a cooked dinner. Or make up a big salad that can stay in the fridge for a few days to help yourself for lunch or a home time snack.

Bought Lunchtime Snacks

When it comes to prepared lunch time snacks on the market, if you are looking for a little extra something along side some fruit and the main part of the lunch the choice is vast and not always healthy.

  Hoops And Crosses Snack

Walkers have recently brought out a snack called Hoops and Crosses. It is made from wholegrain corn meal and is baked, not fried. When compared to an average bag of crisps, is relatively low in fat and salt. It is quite low calories too – which is good if it is for someone watching their calorie intake. Makes a good snack for adults then too – and no artificial colours or preservatives! Weight for weight it is higher in fibre than crisps too.

There are three flavours – Beef, Prawn Cocktail and Salt and Vinegar and all are suitable for vegetarians. Would a vegetarian eat a beef flavoured snack I wonder? Please comment below if you are a beef flavoured crisp eating vegetarian!!

The bag is quite small – at 18g compared a bag of crisps which is 30g to 40g, but because the snack is small and light there are plenty in there to provide a decent size snack. The Hoops and Crosses are baked and are very crunchy, which makes it really pleasant to eat. It is similar to Monster Munchies – only a bit crisper and drier (in a good way!)

  A Playful Snack
The shape of the snack will be appealing to children and I could see them wanting to eat all the hoops or all the crosses first or even playing noughts and crosses – where perhaps the winner eats all!!

If I was looking for a snack for lunchtime or after school and I had run out of home baked treats, I would consider these as a reasonably healthy snack. Good for both children and adults too! In fact the packaging is probably grown up enough as not to be too embarrassing for an adult to be seen at work with!

Make your lunch rather than buy where you can – and try these tasty snacks as a treat or accompaniment if you want that something extra. Great for children – but great for adults too!!

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  Delicious Lemon Pudding - A little Bit Magic

Magic Lemon Pudding

This is one of those magic puddings that you are not sure quite how it works! Well it is to me anyway. You make up a liquid batter and then bake it in the oven and it comes out with a spongy top, and a lemon sauce underneath. It is really delicious, lemony and light – and really easy to make as you really just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then it goes in the oven.

This lemon pudding is ideal for a dinner party or for a family pudding. It’s good after Sunday dinner – or any meal really!

Cooking With A Water Bath

It is cooked in a baking dish that is then put into a bowl of hot water – or a water bath. This helps the pudding to cook more evenly and provides a steady source of gentle heat. It also provides more moisture in the oven. You just need to be careful when putting the dish in and out of the oven that you don’t spill the water.

Lemons

I used unwaxed lemons. Lemons often have a wax on the surface to help preserve them – and possibly to make them look better. This means you need to wash and scrub them well when you are going to use the zest – or better still, buy unwaxed lemons. Be careful just to use the zest of the lemon and avoid going through to the pith.

When juicing the lemons remove any pips. The juice of 2 lemons should be around 100ml.

Separating Eggs

It uses egg whites and egg yolks in an even number so there are no leftovers. The same with the lemons using al the juice nad zest of two lemons.

Ensure your bowl fro the egg white si very clean and especially that it is free from any grease.Separate the eggs by cracking the egg and tipping the yolk into one side and letting the white running to a bowl. Tip the yolk from side to side until most of the white has run away. Do this foer each yolk being very careful not to get any of the yolk into the white. The whites will not whisk properly of there is any yolk or grease of any kind in the mix

This lemon pudding can be served by itself or with cream or ice cream. It has a lightness about it which make it good to serve after a roast dinner. It can also be eaten cold.

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  Delicious Peanut Butter Cookies

Baking With Children

When my children were little, I used to do a lot of baking with them using simple recipe sthat they could get involved in – an producing things that they would enjoy eating! I had a wonderful children’s cookery book with big pictures and simple instructions (the sort that I still like now!) It was My First Baking Book

These delicious peanut cookies are great for baking with children – but you don’t have to have children to try them – adults like them too!

Recipe To Evoke Memories

It is a long time since I have used it but when my (now grown up) son was home recently I was wondering what to bake and as he was tucking into a peanut butter sandwich it reminded me of the peanut butter cookies we used to make – really quite a long time ago. We use dto bake them regulary and then we must have stopped at some point and really forgotten about them I wonder why?

Anyway I was excited at the thought of making them again but I really hadn’t bargained for how making them would bring back those early years of motherhood to me. The smell and texture of the dough reminded me of the whole atmosphere and the sights and sounds of thos eyears – toddlerhood to first school days. Amazing what food can evoke! I think it is the effect food has that keeps famlies reuniting around a table and eating dishes that were traditional in the family

My Mother’s Yorkshire puddings and her sherry trifle send me back to my childhood days as well as pickled eggs! What foods take you on a trip down memory lane?

Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

This recipe is really simple and makes really delicious cookies – for adults and children. It is easy enough for children to have a go – and most children like peanut butter. I guess these would not be allowed in the lunch box at school due to potential of people with peanut allergies, but they are great for an after school snack.

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  Colourful And Delicious Supper

Sausage Suppers

I love sausages but I will only eat good quality butcher sausages or the premium sausages from the supermarkets. Good quality sausages are delicious but of course they are more expensive than the cheaper ones.I would rather have one good quality sausage than 2 or 3 cheap ones. The meat content may well be the same – it’s just that the cheaper one will have much more fat and other fillers.

Good Quality Sausages – Without Expense

One answer is to use a small amount of sausage and combine it with other delicious ingredients so you get all the flavour and nutrition of a quality sausage without the added expense. By chopping it into bite sized pieces for a stew, you will feel you are getting a lot of sausage. Chipolata sausages are quite good for this as they will make more individual bite sized pieces

You can also go to the supermarket towards the end of the day and you may find reduced quality sausages on their sell-by date. Use them straight away or freeze them.

Many Ways To Cook A Sausage

I love straight sausage and mash it has to be said, with fried onions and some good gravy. But I also love a sausage casserole. It is warming and full of flavour and you can have fun adding herbs and spices and other vegetables or beans

This stew has leeks and sweet potato and is also flavoured with sage – a herb that goes so well with pork.Sausage and leek go together very well. Sweet potato adds sweetness and colour to the dish. The stew is quick and easy to make as most of the cooking happens in the oven when you can do something else. It is also ideal if members of the family are eating at different times, as it can be kept warm in the oven. It could also be placed in the slow cooker for a few hours.

Recipe For Vegetarians Or Meat Eaters

This is also a recipe that can be adapted for vegetarians, since you can make it with either vegetarian or meat based sausages. If you are cooking for both, it is straightforward since the basic vegetables and sauce are the same for both. Just put the vegetable mix in two different casseroles and then add the sausage.

I served this dish with mashed potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli. Serve with mash and your favourite green vegetable

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  Looking After The Pounds

Keep It Simple And Cook From Scratch

My approach is to cook meals from scratch and to go for low cost but healthy ingredients. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the odd cake or pudding – but again keep it easy and low cost! Just cook simple tasty recipes with ingredients you enjoy. We don’t all have to be Masterchefs! It isn’t always necessary to compromise on quality or even quantity but just to make choices that mean lower cost food.

If you are feeling the recession bite, these tips on eating well on a budget may help you save a few pennies and have some really tasty meals

Shop locally and you may find some wonderful quality food at reasonable prices at your local butchers, green grocers, farmer’s market and wholefood stores – ask for their recommendations as they will know their products well.

Sticking to a budget doesn’t have to mean no treats – you can plan a part of your budget to be for eating out or a special food treat that you love.

Ten Tips For Eating Well On A Budget

1. Eat more meals based around lentils, chickpeas or other pulses – they are low cost, tasty and nutritious.

2. Shop towards the end of the day at your local supermarket and look out for reduced items, especially meat, bread and fruit. But only buy if you will use immediately or have room in your freezer

3. A couple of times a week cook twice as much as you need for the meal and freeze some in portions so you have a home cooked ready meal for days when you have no time, or are too tired to cook. ensures you are not tempted into an impromtu takeaway or ready meal that could blow your budget

4. Try making your own bread at least a couple of times a week – tasty, healthy and lower cost than the supermarket

5. Plan your meals for the week and work out the cost. If it it comes to too much revise your plan

6. Each week take out, in cash, the amount you intend to spend on food. You are less likely to go off budget when you can see what you are spending and you will know just exactly what you have left. Using a debit card makes the spending less visible.

7. Buy in bulk items that you use a lot of and will keep well such as rice, pasta and lentils – but do check the price per kilo or 100g to check they are good value

8. Buy herbs and spices that you commonly use in larger quantities from wholefood shops and decant into smaller jars. The supermarkets are relatively expensive for these items

9. Know the prices of items you buy often so you know what is a bargain and what is not.

10. Use the Weekly Meal Plans to help you to plan budget meals

What are your best tips for keeping your food bill down? Your tips will be included in the next posting on eating well on a budget.

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  Delicious White Bread Rolls

Freshly Baked Bread

There are few things so good as the smell of freshly baked bread! And when you make bread at home, you get the whole kitchen smelling of that sweet aroma! In my opinion, home baked bread tastes so much better than the commercially cooked bread.

In fact someone commented to me recently that the expression the best thing since sliced bread is a complete misnomer! It should may be the worst thing since sliced bread!

Isn’t the aroma of fresh bread baking everyone’s favourite? These delicious white rolls are simple to make, low cost and make your kitchen smell as good as they taste!

Making Your Own Bread

I started baking my own bread a few years ago, initially using a bread making machine but tI then became tempted to get my hands in the flour and knead some dough myself! Once I started doing this I realised how therapeutic a bit of kneading is and I was converted for life to make my own bread. OK of course I sometimes buy it when life gets in the way of breadmaking, but I do usually make my own bread.

I make Spelt Bread, Wholemeal and basic Farmhouse style white bread – and these bread rolls. You can make bread rolls with exactly the same recipe as the white loaf but in this recipe I have added milk with the water to give a sweeter, softer flavour

Takes Time – But Not Your Time

People can be put off making bread because of the time it takes. And although the process does take about 3 hours from start to finish the amount of time demanded from you is 20-25 minutes and most of that is kneading which could be regarded as time out listening to the radio or meditating while you hands and arms get some gentle exercise! Not only that, the results are delicious!

How To Make White Bread Rolls

I make 8 medium rolls with this recipe but you could make more or less depending on the size you like them to be. You can influence their shape too by putting them close together on the baking tray so that as they cook, they touch and rise upwards more. When you pull them apart, the sides are soft too. Experiment with shapes and sizes, just adjust the cooking time as smaller rolls will take less time to cook, and larger ones, more time.

Bread Making Hints

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  Yellow Split Pea Soup

Easy And Low Cost Recipes

If you are a regular reader of Penny’s Recipes, you will know that I love simple, tasty and low cost recipes and that I love to receive guest posts. Well here is a guest recipe that is fabulously simple and really delicious! It is a soup made from yellow split peas.

This is a soup that somehow feels right for warmer, sunnier days. It is very easy to make with few ingredients and lots of flavour.

This flavoursome soup made with yellow split peas is very easy to make and really low cost too – under a £1 to serve four people!

Low Cost Soup

Soup can make a light supper or a lovely lunch. Full of nutrients and filling, it can also be used as an effective way to lose weight, since surveys have shown that it fills you up for longer than the equivalent food if you had it on a plate. The liquid means that you feel full for longer.

Soup makes a great alternative to a sandwich especially in the winter months when its warming properties is good for the body – and the soul! In the Spring and Summer, soups made from seasonal vegetables are colourful, flavourful and very nutritious.

Many soups are easy to make, often being a case of chopping the vegetables, cooking in stock and flavouring with herbs and then whizzing in a liquidiser or pushing through a sieve. You don’t even have to do that if you like your soups more lumpy. Because the yellow split peas break up in this soup, you can choose whether to have it as it is or make i smooth

Yellow Split Peas

Yellow split peas are high in protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals and a re low in fat. They are a fabulous addition to a vegetarian diet – or indeed for anyone. They are very low cost – 500g are about 70p and you generally will use half that in a recipe for for four people – so its great for anyone on a budget! Yellow split peas can be used in many recipes and can be a substitute for lentils in any lentil recipes.

To Soak Or Not To Soak

Soaking yellow split peas overnight does reduce their cooking time and I did soak them for this recipe, even though the recipe said there was no need. It just meant they cooked a little quicker. I think it depends on the peas and possibly how old they are. The pack I bought advised soaking them but if you don’t soak them, you may need to simmer the soup for a little longer.

I would be interested to hear from people if you pre-soak your yellow peas or not. Do comment below.

Dill And Fennel

This recipe is flavoured with dill and fennel seeds making it have a delightful soft aniseed flavour – really lovely!
The fennel seeds are the seeds of the fennel plant. They have been considered to have special properties and can be beneficial to your health. Dill too has flavours of anise but is slightly sharper and stronger. The two flavours of fennel and dill complement each other in this delicious soup.

Lesley Says:-
There are many versions of this soup, some with onion, or celery added. This is my version, and it is delicious. Keeps you satisfied for hours.

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