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Juicy home-made burgers

August 2013

Makes 4

Ingredients

500g lean minced beef
1 egg
1 slice of bread, blitzed to breadcrumbs in a food processor
Half an onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely diced
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley

Method

  1. Fry the onion and garlic gently in a pan until tender and translucent. Remove from the heat and add the breadcrumbs, tomato puree and parsley.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the mince, egg and onion and breadcrumb mixture. If you are barbecuing your burgers then at this stage you may want to beat the mixture to create a tighter textured burger that is going to fall apart less easily. However, if you are frying your burgers in a pan I prefer a loser texture which can be created by just scrunching the ingredients together with your hands to combine them.
  3. Form the burger mix into 4 evenly sized patties with your hands dusting with a little flour to stop them sticking. Once shaped, burgers can be stored covered in the fridge for up to two days until ready to be cooked. These burgers when raw also freeze wonderfully.
  4. Lightly oil a very hot pan and fry the burgers on a moderate heat for 10 minutes, turning often to ensure even cooking.
  5. Serve in a bun with your favourite salad and maybe some chunky home-made chips or wedges. 

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Vanilla Shortbread

August 2013

Makes 16 small biscuits

Ingredients

130g Butter, softened
60g Caster sugar
190g plain flour
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Method

  1. Grease and line a baking sheet and preheat your oven to 170 degrees celsius
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar and add the vanilla essence
  3. Add the flour and stir in until you have a uniform dough. Don’t overwork the mixture at this stage or you will exercise the gluten in the flour and make your shortbread tough.
  4. Roll out the dough (around 1cm thick) and use a cutter to cut out your biscuits. Lay them on your baking sheet and bake for 15 to twenty minutes or until pale golden in colour.
  5. Cool on a wire rack and dust with caster sugar before serving. 

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second assessment 13 Aug 2013

John made the second assessment today: number of cells per tray with no germination or very small/abnormal seedlings. 

The average number per tray varied with crop, but this may not be significant:

Lettuce       3.9
Chinese cabbage         8.9
Cabbage         9.2

The differences between the growing media were small, apart from No.3 which was much worse for lettuce and cabbage.  No single medium is a clear winner over all three test crops, so far.

                                best           worst
Lettuce

   4

                  1,2,6 very close second             

 

3

–
Chinese cabbage

                                 8

–

            1 

3 very close second
Cabbage                                  8             3

 Click on the images of the trays to enlarge them and view as a slide show.

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Samples taken for analyses

7 Aug 2013

I’ve taken samples of each growing medium to send off today.  Each sample is about 2 litres, consisting of about 20 sub-samples.

The following tests will be carried out:

Extraction according to BSEN13040 2000 [1:5]
Includes Dry Matter, Bulk Density, Dry Density, pH, Conductivity, Nitrate-N and Ammonium-N with calculated soluble N, Chloride, Sulphate, Potassium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Calcium, Sodium, Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Copper and Boron.

A low conductivity is desirable for good germination.  A modest amount of water-soluble Nitrogen makes it easier to control the growth of brassica plants.

13 Aug 2013

The results came back today – there are large ranges for each nutrient e.g.

pH   6.4 – 8.0
Conductivity μS/cm    215 – 727
Total soluble Nitrogen mg/l      16 – 451
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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Meg’s Spiced Raspberry and Apple crumble

August 2013

This is a delicious recipe from one of my friends from university.  Crumbles are a great way to use up fruits that are a little too squishy or bruised to be eaten whole. Try experimenting with different fruit combinations but make sure you adjust the sugar content accordingly and beware an excess of juicy berries that will make your topping soggy.

Ingredients

For the fruit layer:

1kg apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into small chunks
175g raspberries
75g caster sugar

Half a teaspoon of nutmeg
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon

For the topping:

150g flour
75g caster
sugar 75g
butter
1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
  2. Layer the fruit in a well-greased ovenproof dish sprinkling a little of the sugar between each layer. When all the fruit is arranged, sprinkle over the spices.
  3. For the topping, sift the flour and sugar into a bowl, and rub in the butter until the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add your spices and mix thoroughly.
  4. Spoon the topping evenly over the fruit, then bake for 40 minutes
  5. Serve with ice cream, cream or just by itself. 

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Homemade Lemonade

August 2013

Makes 1.5 litres (2 and a half pints)

Ingredients

6 lemons (try and get unwaxed or organic, trust me it’s worth it)

4ozs of granulated sugar

Method

  1. Zest the lemons with a grater into a large bowl, doing your best to avoid the white pith because that will make the finished product bitter. Zesting the lemons straight into the bowl you intend to make the lemonade in will make sure you don’t lose too many of the delicious natural oils in the lemons.
  2. Pour 1.5 litres (2 and a half pints) of boiling water over the lemon zest and add the sugar.
  3. After the zest mixture has cooled slightly, add the juice of all the lemons.
  4. Cover the mixture and leave to steep in the fridge overnight.
  5. Give it a taste and add more sugar if you deem it necessary. Strain and store in clean bottles. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week.
  6. This lemonade can either be served neat or diluted with still or sparkling water, have a taste and see what you prefer. I like mine in a 50:50 dilution with sparkling water with ice and a sprig of zingy lime basil. Lovely. 

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The Pudding Bar

The easiest way of catering pudding for a large group that brings out the creative side in everybody.

The secret to the success of the pudding bar is keeping in mind texture and the balance of sweetness in the potential desserts your guests could make. Below are some examples of what people came up with:

We all remember the unbridled joy of unlimited ice cream sundaes at chain restaurants: a tiny china bowl and your choice of sprinkles and sauces. Well, I thought, why not scale up the concept? Instead of the stress of cooking 3 or 4 different desserts (with guests’ dietary requirements and foibles in mind of course) why not just make the components? And thus the idea for the pudding bar was formed.

So I thought, what makes up my favourite puddings? In my opinion, the best puddings contain 3 elements: something sweet, something creamy and something fresh. For my sweet selection I made brownies, meringues and shortbread biscuits.  My creamy constituents included cream (pouring and whipped), yoghurt and ice cream (chocolate and vanilla). For freshness I provided summer berries from the garden, blackcurrant coulis with cassis, chopped nuts and a bitter chocolate sauce.

Me and my selection from the Pudding Bar :brownie, berries, vanilla ice cream and nuts in case you were interested. 

This was the easiest pudding-making for 18 people has ever been and I got some of the most glowing compliments I have ever received. So for your next party, why not get people to assemble their own favourite pudding and take some of the pressure off so you can enjoy yours more too?

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Simple Italian tomato salad

August 2013

Ingredients

250g of tomatoes
10 leaves of basil, finely chopped
Half a clove of garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Slice your tomatoes, and place them in a shallow bowl.
  2. Scatter over the basil and garlic and drizzle over the oil and vinegar.
  3. Season just before serving. A brilliant edition to a mezze or BBQ salad selection.

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Classic Spinach, bacon and potato salad with basil and garlic tomatoes

August 2013

Serves 4 as a light main. A speedy simple supper.

Ingredients

400g of new potatoes 
200g spinach
8 rashers of bacon
25g butter
150g of cherry tomatoes
10 leaves of basil, finely chopped
Half a clove of garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Scrub your potatoes and place in a large pan of water. Bring to the boil and simmer until tender, should be around 25 minutes.
  2. While the potatoes are cooking, slice the tomatoes and combine them with the oil, vinegar, garlic, basil and season to taste.
  3. When the potatoes are 15 minutes into their cooking time grill or fry your bacon until crisp.
  4. When the potatoes are tender, drain them and toss them in the butter.

To serve, lay the spinach on your serving plates to form a bed for the potatoes. Sprinkle over the tomatoes and their dressing and top with your slices of crispy bacon. 

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first germination assessment

John made the first germination assessment today. Seed showing any sign of germination was counted, though some may not make the grade at the next assessment.

The average number of seeds per tray not germinated varied with crop, but this may not be significant:

Lettuce         4.86
Chinese cabbage         5.92
Cabbage         7.72

The differences between the growing media were small, apart from No.3 where germination was much worse for lettuce and cabbage.  No single medium is a clear winner over all three test crops, so far.

        best        worst
Lettuce     1,4,9             3
Chinese cabbage           8             1
Cabbage           2             3

 Click on the images of the trays to enlarge them and view as a slide show.