Yummy corn soup!

I’ve been doing some privet Pop up restaurants for people who want all the fun of a party but with out the hassle of shopping, cooking and presenting loads of food. I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with different foods and as a result I stumbled upon this recipe in the moosewood cook book. I’m not a great fan of sweet corn, I ate far too much of it in the 80’s (The green giant did wonders for it’s image) too much of a good thing! I did this recipe a few months ago when I came in from work to discover the only real thing I had in the freezer was sweet corn. The other wonderful thing about this recipe is it is totally fat free!

 

If your interested in hosting a pop up restaurant event at your home, or want a privet underground restaurant event for your work party, hen doo or birthday celebrations do give me a ring on 07514 625697 or email me  info@nottsunderground.co.uk.

 

Sunday Underground Bakery

Looking forward to seeing you at 247 Noel street For some damn right yummy bread and cakes! Well my lovelies hear is my menu:

Seedy yoghurt soda bread

Yummy fruit Green’s Mill organic spelt loaf

Scrumptious Focaccia with oven dried toms and cheese or Aceite de Ajo y Perejil (Spanish Parsley oil) Made with Green’s Mill Organic flour.

Wheat free dairy free spinach muffins

Savory Spinach muffins

Oven baked Falafel

Beetroot and herb dip

Parsley Pesto

Sticky prune and chocolate loaf

Moreish oatmeal biscuits

This poster says 10 till 4 but I beleave it's 11 till 3. See you then.

My dreams of eating mushrooms and doing naked Yoga shattered!

It was my first time going to Glastonbury! I was under the impression that Glasto was a field full of hippies (eating mushrooms and doing naked Yoga), music geeks (scribing down notes on the next big thing), boho poets, crazy artists and comedians; with possibly the odd supermodel in a nice pare of wellys! How wrong was I!

I can’t collate my thoughts very well on this matter, but really what I want to say is Glastonbury festival was really really not what I expected. If some one had said to me “Beth.. Imagine Skegness, in a field, on bank holiday Monday” I would have had a truer picture of what Glastonbury really was like!  

Any way enough of my moaning about broken dreams; I found the whole experience challenging … especially when I slipped down a slurry bank on the way to see DJ Shadow! However in this festering septic tank of a field there were some gleaming gems, and here they are.

Top 7 gleaming gems of glasto!

Number 1: Joules welly boots

My amazing Joules welly boots are a stylish yet practical companion at the allotment, trendy field weddings and no less than 4 festivals! I bought them 3 years ago and the little blighters out lasted the evil, 4 day, extreme Glasto mud and still look wonderful!

Number 2: Ghostpoet

After 2 pints of hot cider and a trudge through fields of insanely deep mud, I managed to catch the tail end of Ghost poet’s set. Defiantly one to follow and I would strongly recommend seeing them live. Great lyrics, a beautifully urban looking band, with really great stage presence and a beat you can dance to (even in thigh high mud!); who could ask for more?

Number 3: Josie Long

Sunday was hot! Wellys in the heat are really not good, so we retreated into the leftfield tent for shade and a bit of calm! On walked Josie Long to practice her new set and vent about the coalition government. Which was a joy and made me feel inspired to be all political and stuff!

Number 4: Kate Tempest

I love Kate’s form of spoken word or is it hip hop? I’m not sure, but I loved what she did. Her lyrics provoked reflection, they were refreshingly different and from a female perspective. If I were you I would go and see her or go on her MySpace page soon.

Number 5: TheEels

You got to love a man with a massive beard! However this is a man who has perfected the art of performance. I’ve never really followed the Eels but this gig made me realise what a mistake I had made! Brilliant. Go and see them live in Leeds I command you to.

Number 6: The Special Guests: Pulp and Radiohead

Although lodged in the mud (suction making it hard to dance) it was amazing to see the 2 bands that shaped my formative years. This gig was made even better when I was informed that Miss Kate Moss got turned away at the gates of the Radiohead concert because it was so rammed! Ha Ha Kate I was there!

Number 7:  Billy Brag.

After trudging in slow motion through the post apocalyptic mud of Friday night, I just caught the tail end of Billy Brags set and heard him sing “New England” it made me smile ( some thing that by this time I had forgotten how to do!) the trudging was worth it!

After listing my gems it has made me realise that ok there were some really good things going on at Glasto and It was not that bad! However I did see far too many Katie Price look a likes and some of the worst festival toilets ever!

Tzatziki photo journal

Inspired by Montmarte blog  I decided to do a recipe photo journal I hope you like it.

Grate half a cucumber

Sprinkle with salt and leave to drain

In another bowl place 250mls of yogurt

Grind loads of pepper into the yogurt

Finely chop at least 3T of dill and mint combined I usually add more as i love both of the herbs.

Add 1 T of extra virgin olive oil

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon

Squeeze out the remaining water in the cucumber 

 

Add the remaining cucumber with a pinch of salt (remember you have allready salted the cucumber so be careful not to over salt)to the yogurt, some times I add a bit of feta cheese hear for a change.

 

Mix and then you’re done! Enjoy with pita and olives, or drizzled over a lamb burger

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A New Age Weekend.

What a wonderful weekend! The boy was off on a stag do, so I thought I’d catch up on some sleep, and develop some new menus for some of the events I’m doing over the next few weeks. But before all this I went to eco works in Saint Ann’s allotments to do a course in western herbal medicine which was fab. I learnt loads and now know what stuff you can eat for what. Walking to work across the forest takes considerably longer, now I have to stop every five steps to pick some thing I can eat. I have also got some inspiration for an interesting cheese course at the next pop up. The eco works allotment is an amazing place to have your lessons. The allotment is a warren of path ways and considered plots. The class room space is a wonderful straw bail house check out the photos I was enchanted, (I want to build one in my yard in forest fields!). I’m going on loads of the eco works course I highly recommend them especially as they are so cheep. Check out the link to find out more.

Some of the stuff we made Onion cough medicine sound rank but tastes really nice! and comfry massage balm.

Lime flower and lavinder tea this was really nice and I'v noticed forest fields is full of lime flowers!

Cook book of the week is Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favourites by the Moosewood Collective. My Brothers Girlfriend Kez bought this my mum for Christmas; She explained that this is book was developed by a collective who set up a healthy veggie restaurant in New York, which she loved to go to.  I’m not a great fan of low fat cooking but as I read it this Sunday I can see this book is inspired and healthy and none of the recipes I have tried seem to lack flavour. I also really like the way the book is laid out : rather than chapters for courses it has them for dishes for example my favourite  is the stew section. The one criticism I would have is I need photos or images of what the food looks like especially if it’s some thing I have not cooked before.

 

At our allotment we have a plot called the 3 sisters this is a Native American technique where they grew corn, beans and squash together. Each crop supports and protects the other: the beans grow up the corn stem, the squash protect the base of the plants with there shady big leaves. So when I spied this recipe for 3 sister’s stew I was very happy. I’m going to make it and then I’ll post it up. Three cheers for Moosewood!

Off to Glasto next weekend so looking forward to posting soaking dining experiences! which reminds me if you can't aford Glasto, the next pop up experiance will be at Deerstock festival in East Bridgeford tickets are cheep £25! (all profit goes to unisef ) and it should be good.

Floods,Plumbing and Plum Compote

This weekend was the vintage tea party, it totally amazes me that I could have horded so many vintage tea sets and embroidered doilies!

A friend lent me the shop space which was newly refurbished. A kitchen had just been plumbed in! little did we know … the water had been switched off, so we tried to turn it on when we did we found a leek! So for the first hour we were mopping up water and serving customers. Thank god for Emily my friend, (who had done all her own plumbing at home) who with her intellect managed to stem the flow! After that the day went swimmingly! (with a little help from Emily, Mollyqueen and Si! Thanks guys).

I would say that my favourite part of this weekend’s menu would be the plum muffins. Like the tea sets, I had horded some damsons and plums from the allotment in my freezer for later use; and they really did add some thing to those muffins. I based them on an Ottolenghi recipe. I will be using the plum compote recipe again its so yummy and adaptable, I had some left over this morning in yogurt and I can see application in crumble. As I fell in love with this sticky compote I thought you may like to have a bash at it so here is the recipe (it is soooo easy!)   

Secret Vintage Tea Party