Poached Chicken, Leek, Courgette and Broad Bean Risotto

Enjoy this supper al fresco with friends and a bottle of something good.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1 large leek
Olive oil
1 courgette
Small handful of broad beans
300g risotto rice
Small wine glass of white wine
1 litre good quality vegetable stock
Small handful of fresh tarragon
1 lemon
Parmesan
Butter
Salt and pepper
2 chicken breast fillets

Method:


Put a large frying pan on a high heat and add a good glug of olive oil. 
Once the oil is really hot, add the crushed garlic and onion and immediately reduce the heat slightly. 

Sweat the onions and garlic until tender and then add the leeks. Continue to cook on a medium heat until the leeks have wilted and the onion has begun to take on a little colour. 

Add a little more olive oil and turn the heat back up. Throw in the risotto rice and stir for about 1-2 minutes until the rice begins to fry. Add the white wine and reduce in order to boil off the alcohol. 

Turn the heat back down to a simmer and add your first big ladle of vegetable stock. 

Continue to add a ladleful of stock at a time, stirring in between until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice.

In the meantime, chop the chicken breasts into fairly large pieces and fry on a high heat in a separate frying pan with a little olive oil until just browned on both sides. Remove from the heat. 

After the rice has been simmering for about 20 minutes, and the chicken and continue to add more stock. The chicken should now begin to poach in the vegetable stock.

At this point, check the rice- if it's done it should be plump but still with a little bite. A few minutes before the rice is down, add in the diced courgette and broad beans along with some freshly chopped tarragon and the juice of 1 lemon. 

Season the risotto well with salt and pepper. 

Once cooked, remove from the heat and immediately stir in a large knob of butter and a small handful of grated parmesan. 
Serve immediately with extra parmesan if desired. 

Frozen Banana and Strawberry Milkshake

On a hot summery day like this, what better way to spend the afternoon than going strawberry picking for some fresh ripe strawberries to make your own ice cream milkshake?

This milkshake recipe uses frozen bananas that I put in the refrigerator last night- I was silly and put them in the freezer with their skins on and then wrestled to remove the skins when I took them out without snapping the bananas in half! Before you freeze the bananas, peel off the skins, chop into pieces and seal in a freezer bag.

  

To make the milkshakes, blend 1 frozen banana in a blender with a large handful of strawberries, 1tsp vanilla extract, 2 heaped tbsp vanilla ice cream and 200ml unsweetened almond milk. 

Blitz for about 2 minutes until smooth and then serve immediately in chilled glasses. 

The retro straws I use in my photos are from a really good little shop in Cambridge, Ark. 

Courgette and Lime Cake

At the minute I feel like I'm living out of a suitcase- rushing from one thing to the next and trying to keep track of what's going on! This last week I've been travelling around Devon and Cornwall with a few good friends. 
I'd never really been further south than London before.
As a family, we used to holiday in a small cottage in West Runton, Norfolk, and had never done the whole "cornwall thing."
After my long trip to Sri Lanka, I was quite looking forward to holidaying in the same country without having to worry about flights or luggage allowance!

Cornwall is beautiful. 
I wish I'd spent more time there before- some of the most beautiful beaches and national trust countryside I've ever seen. 
And we were so lucky with the weather- a whole week's worth of clear blue sky and sunshine in England - a rare occurance!
In the few hours before we started our road trip I rustled up this quick and fresh courgette and lime cake to take with us for the journey. 
It's a really easy recipe and is deliciously moist and tangy. 
If you're a fan of vegetable cakes then why not check out my carrot cake recipe too- I feel a chocolate and beetroot cake post coming up soon with the amount of fresh beetroot we have growing in the veg patch!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

3 eggs

200g caster sugar

150ml sunflower oil

50g melted butter

1tsp vanilla extract 

Zest of 2 limes

Juice of 1 lime

1 large courgette approx 350g 

200g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder 

For the lime frosting:

250g Philadelphia cream cheese 

25g butter

100g icing sugar 

Juice of 1 lime 

Fresh mint to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, sugar, melted butter and vanilla extract. 

2. Add in the lime zest and juice. Chop the ends off the courgette and then grate into the bowl. Add in the flour and baking powder and then mix well with a wooden spoon until combined. (I used Dove's farm gluten free self-raising flour).
You could also add in a handful of raisins if you fancy. 

3. Pour the cake mixture into a greased and lined loaf tray and bake in the preheated oven for around 35-40 minutes until golden brown and springy. Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. 

4. Cool the cake on a wire cooling rack whilst you make your frosting. For the frosting, whisk together the cream cheese, soft butter, icing sugar and lime juice. 

5. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cake and garnish with a few mint leaves. 

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Falmouth harbour

Kynance Cove- Cornwall

St Ives

Treyarnon Bay, Padstow

Home-grown Beetroot and Spinach Salad with Grilled Nectarines, Feta Cheese and a Mint Dressing

After a very long and tiring journey I'm finally back home from Sri Lanka. 

I really enjoyed my time out there- meeting some lovely people, working in a really challenging environment and travelling round some of the beautiful Sri Lankan landscape - photos from my adventures will follow soon including a recipe inspired by a tour round a Sri Lankan tea plantation!

I returned home to a vegetable patch that with a bit of British sun and a lot of rain had gone wild and rather overgrown! - so today's lunch was a combination of all the freshly grown veg that's sprung up over the last few weeks. 
It's a really good feeling eating lunch that's been grown in your very own garden- the veg tastes so much fresher and earthier and I'm also a fan of veg that's bobbly and out of shape and obviously home grown!
This recipe is a simple and delicious salad made with our fresh spinach, beetroot and red spring onion along with some toasted pine nuts, crumbly feta cheese, grilled tangy nectarines and a fresh and summery mint dressing. 
It's the perfect light summer's lunch- I added a bit of cooked pearl barley as well to keep away hunger pangs till supper time.

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

2tbsp red wine vinegar

1tbsp lemon juice

2tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Small handful of chopped mint

50g pine nuts

Feta cheese

Spinach

Beetroot tops

Beetroot

75g pearl barley

3 red spring onions

2 nectarines

To make the dressing, whisk together all the ingredients with a fork in a small bowl. Season to taste.

To construct your salad: 

Put the pearl barley in a saucepan and cover with fresh cold water, bring to the boil and then simmer for another 45 minutes until tender. Drain and rinse under the cold tap.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan on hight heat for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. (Watch them carefully!) 

Slice the nectarines, drizzle with a little olive oil, season with pepper and grill under a hot grill for about 5 minutes. 

Finely slice the raw beetroot and the spring onions. 

Toss the spinach leaves with the beetroot tops, roughly chopped. Top the salad leaves with the sliced beetroot, spring onions, cooked pearl barley, grilled nectarines and crumble over the feta cheese.

Top with the pine nuts and drizzle with the mint dressing.