Fruit & veg

I've been really enjoying late summer seasonal fruit and vegetables recently. I went a bit wild in the local organic shop a week or two ago and came back with local plums, cucumbers, 4 different types of English apple, fennel, more peppers and sweetcorn, as well as lots of salad leaves. I love being able to buy things that say LOCAL on them. I haven't had time to do much cooking recently, as I have been a little busy, but I did make one of my favourites the other day.

Carrot and Coriander soup
Chop up a pile of carrots and chuck in a pan with plenty of stock and a mug full of red lentils. Boil until both are cooked, then whizz through the blender. Season with lots of black pepper then add a whole bunch of chopped coriander. Always put the coriander in last, not before the blending, or you get khaki-coloured soup, which isn't terribly appealing!

Other that this, I've been eating a lot of salad, using a fine mixture of ingredients. I tried some (local) white radishes, which were really nice, not as fiery as their pink relatives. Another thing I often use is pickled walnuts which are just wonderful in salads, especially when there is something sweet to counterbalance them, like a few raisins. I like pickles a lot and often use sliced gherkins in salads.
One of the tips I have picked up from Nadine Abensur is preserved lemons. These are more like concentrated lemon than pickles, and I have been trying them out in all sorts of things. I put some finely sliced ones in a salad dressing, which was fabulous. I also made this last night

Cabbage and lemon
Steam a quarter or so of cabbage. Put in a pan when cooked and stir in a big dollop of pesto, and half a chopped preserved lemon.
Delicious! I had this with another onion omlette, which this time had some peas in it and was delicous cold for lunch today.
All this food thinking is making me hungry, so I am off to worship at the temple of food that is Waitrose. I very rarely shop in any supermarket, but when I do, it is only ever Waitrose, which is a partnership and therefore a lot more ethical than the multi-national giants. Plus the food is fantastic and they sell organic wine.

Peppers

I've been enjoying local organic produce the last few weeks. I love these real-looking peppers - nothing like the uniform bland ones you get in supermarkets.
I had these roasted and skinned with new potatoes yesterday.

The redcurrants came in my organic produce box and I cooked them with a little maple syrup and a good scrape of vanilla seeds and served them with natural yoghurt.
I have a load of cooked apples and some rhubarb (both from friends' gardens) in the freezer, again all cooked with vanilla - current obsession!

My own produce-growing is rather limited - I have the world's tiniest garden, a window box! I've only had it a few months, and stocked it up with two tiny tomato plants I bought for a few pence in a car boot sale in May. They have flourished and are spreading all down the front of the house (I'm on the top floor!) and I have to lean out a long way to pick them!
This picture is of them a few weeks ago. They are now climbing in the windows. But wow! they are delicious and sweet.

Low GI cheesecake

Is such a thing possible? Indeed it is, and very delicious it is too. I made this up last year for my brother's birthday. He isn't bothered by low GI, but I was going to the party and wanted to partake of cake! So I invented this, and repeated it for Christmas dinner for my also sugar-free mum and partner. And reprised it again for Sam's birthday this year.

It all varies according to what I have, what I find and what I fancy at the moment.

Base: basically a flapjack recipe with unsalted organic butter and either oats or muesli, sweetened with maple syrup. Lots of butter is essential to make it stick together. This is baked in the oven til crisp - in a round, loose bottomed cake tin.
Cheese: This time I used half mascarpone and half greek yoghurt. Sometimes I use cream. I tend to stick with the sweeter and less cheesy things, then less sweetening is needed. Again, a large dollop of maple syrup and some vanilla pod. I scraped out the seeds from about an inch of pod. More wouldn't hurt.
Topping: traditionally I use blueberries as Sam loves them, but it's equally nice with raspberries or whatever soft fruit is in season (not a lot most of the year). I wouldn't normally buy fruit with massive air miles like blueberries, but it was a birthday treat. I always look out for fruit that is packaged in cardboard and not plastic. I often pay more just to avoid plastic packaging, and try not to buy too much out of season fruit. Though I lapse in winter of course and buy apples and oranges.