A splendiferous snack …

… and seasonal

Another childhood memory. We didn't have a huge garden but Mum would usually set peas. We would go and pick them – which was when my addiction to fresh peas began. I was banned from harvesting the crop because I never brought any indoors – I podded and ate as I went. There is truly nothing more delicious.

As a grown up and visiting Mum she'd forget my “passion for peas” - we'd sit at the kitchen table and she'd watch as I took the pod from the colander split it open and eat the contents, placing the empty pod on newspaper ready for the compost – perpetual motion – it took a few minutes before she realised she wasn't likely to finish up with any peas at all!

Moving on to present day I don't try and pretend any more. Thankfully, if you see what I mean, the season isn't a long one so to hell with it, I'll pod and eat peas to my heart's content and I don't care who knows it.

So much so that I purchased my first “hit” last week.

Think about the process – you pod, you release probably about six baby peas by however many pods in a consignment – it's hardly what you'd call over indulgence – how virtuous can you get – you could even stretch a point and call it a work-out!

Ahem – you want the health benefits – don't say I didn't warn you - how healthy can a person be – a shortened list – vitamin K, manganese, dietary fibre, vitamin B1, copper, vitamin C. I could go on but it's a long list.

Here's an idea – if you've children or grandchildren who are anti veggies or anti green buy a bag of peas, wash them and put them in an attractive bowl in the centre of your table, say nothing. As you pass the table, plunder a pod – demolish the contents and leave the empty pod by the bowl – repeat!

Just a little experiment.

A seasonal thought for the day …

… roast your rhubarb

If you're lucky enough to grow rhubarb in your garden then you'll know that this year's crop is beyond good.

I don't grow it but I have a friend who does and last week he gave me over a kilo picked from his garden that morning.

Such a present deserves with respect and because I knew I'd never use that quantity freezing sounded like a plan – I needed to consider how best to treat my present.

Some of you out there may remember the traditional “stewed rhubarb” when it's thrown into a saucepan with sugar and water and cooked within an inch of its life. “Stewed” is such an unpleasant word and evokes for me, nightmare visions like sprouts cooked in October for eating on Christmas Day – I know that's extreme but hey, if you are of a certain age you'll know exactly what I'm saying.

Roast Rhubarb

550g rhubarb

85g demerara sugar

Pre-heat oven 200c/180fan/Gas 6

Top and tail the rhubarb and wash, wipe with kitchen roll. You can cut the rhubarb how you like either lengthways, as a guide if you have slim stalks you can cut to the length of your index finger - approximately 5-6 cms. If you have thicker stalks then chop into pieces of 3cms – try to make sure they are of a similar size so they cook evenly.

Cover with foil and roast for 15 minutes. Remove the foil shake and roast for another 5 minutes – you should finish up with tender fruit and syrupy juices. Test with a sharp knife – it should be tender and keep its shape. Cool.

Freeze in the “pour and store” bags – with the usual proviso - always freeze in small portions – you won't waste any precious treasure.

Serve with or without a crumble topping and the home-made no-churn vanilla ice cream mentioned on the blog.

You're ready to rumble – or should I say crumble. I'm so sorry.

Beautiful bread

In an ideal world where I had nothing else to do I'd make bread every day, except that if I did make bread every day I'd eat it!

I've never been able to walk past a bakery without this magical force dragging me in so I can (as my friend once put it) rescue a roll.

Hey, I can think of worse things.

Here's a question – how many of you out there possess a bread maker – how many of you use it – how many of you have used it once and then committed it to the darkest depths of the garage or shed where it will gather dust, never to see the light of day again.

I did have one years ago that was a gift. I did use it from time to time but, as with most gadgets and gizmos its not the end product that's the problem it's all the faffing and messing around with humungous pieces of kit. I liken it to ironing – it's not the ironing I hate it's getting out the board and assembling all the kit to do the job and then to add insult to injury you have to clear up afterwards!

Anyway, bread making generally speaking is time consuming too so, here's my antidote – make soda bread – in 30 minutes.

Soda bread – rapido

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk – you may need

an extra drop and so purchase in a 300ml pot

is convenient.

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

Just to confuse the issue I've found buttermilk in different weights. A low fat version weighing 284ml and a full fat version weighing 300ml.

Stress ye not – either weight will do the job but if pushed I think I'd prefer the full fat version.

Here's the result :

Happy baking.

Serious stuff… be safe

I suppose most of us have suffered with food poisoning at some time or another. It is caused by eating contaminated food – most of us have heard of salmonella or Escherichia coli (E.coli) to name but two.

Food poisoning occurs not just from restaurants and fast food places – in fact you are just as likely to catch it from badly prepared food in the home.

I've already mentioned hand hygiene and washing down workshops and dishcloths too. Cross contamination is the transfer of bacteria from contaminated foods, for example, raw chicken to direct contact with food already cooked. By storing raw foods incorrectly for example storing raw chicken breasts in your fridge not in an appropriate container and allowing it to drip onto cooked food. You can also transfer – cross contaminate – by not washing your hands or via a dirty dishcloth.

Do I have your attention? When “fridging” raw meat and poultry ensure it is contained properly. Store the raw meat and poultry on the lowest shelf of your fridge. Store cooked foods away from raw.

I know this will sound ridiculous but I always think of raw meat and poultry as dirty – in fact it is since until you've cooked raw foods you've not destroyed the bacteria.

Whilst we're on the subject of poultry – under no circumstances ever wash meat and in particular poultry before cooking. Think of CSI – you've seen the investigators use Luminol which highlights blood, invisible to the naked eye at a crime scene – your kitchen will look just the same – except it won't be blood it'll be bacteria you've spread all over your kitchen!

Ensure that cooked foods are cooled and “fridged” as soon as possible.

Follow cooking instructions properly particularly where meat and poultry products are concerned.

Make sure your fridge is at the correct temperature – i.e. below 5c. By keeping your food cold you prevent the food poisoning bacteria from growing – fridge thermometers are not expensive.

Use by and best before dates – what is the difference?

A “Use by” date is on foods that go off quickly, smoked fish, meat products, ready prepared salads with dressings – always follow instructions with such products and keep them in the fridge. You can “suspend” use by dates by freezing and therefore extend the life of a product – provided of course that you check that it can be frozen. It can also avoid wasting food. Make sure though, that if you do freeze any such product that you pay attention to how it should be defrosted (or not) and cooked.

A “Best before” date usually applies to a much larger range of foods – i.e. tinned, dried or frozen and is more about quality than safety issues. Having said that I wouldn't purchase tinned foods where the tin is bumped or damaged in any way – just my personal foible!

Chopping boards. It's difficult to understand that there might a “chopping board fashion” - it's a bit like saying that red wine is good for you for a time and suddenly it's not – the same applies to chocolate (albeit dark chocolate). Wooden boards were considered to be taboo and you should use plastic and so it goes on. What you can get nowadays are boards that are dishwasher safe – take care when choosing sizes. Ideally you should have six different boards of different colours for raw meat, raw fish, cooked meat, salad & fruit, vegetables and finally bakery & dairy.

There are deals out there!

Serious stuff… food hygiene in the kitchen

Soooo boring – I can hear you groaning from here!

Tough – it's the time of year when you do all sorts of crazy things, like eat outside – that is if we ever get any summer weather.

I know before I begin that you'll already be aware and observe what follows, anyway, humour me and who knows, there might be something on the list that you hadn't thought of.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, just a few basic bits and pieces :

You don't have to use fancy expensive antibacterial sprays. You can't beat hot, soapy water for your work surfaces. If you want to use a spray and I do from time to time I use Milton – if it's good enough for babies it's good enough for me – check out the baby aisle.

I hate and detest (you get my drift) dishcloths, that is to say the type that has to be washed. If you use your washing machine daily then fair enough. If you don't then it makes no sense on any level that a cloth sits and breeds all kinds of yuk. I know that you'll call me names when I say I use disposable dishcloths. I know that it might be considered wasteful and expensive but in this day and age of competitive “supermarkets” and “pound shops”, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Tea towels – yep I get that they have a place but the best way of “drying pots” is to air dry. If you have a “magic box” (aka dishwasher) you'll know that when your cycle is complete and you open the door if you wear specs they completely steam up and the contents is too hot to handle. You'll not get any more hygienic since the washing cycle is at such a temperature the contents is squeaky clean.

Did you know … that the kitchen sink contains more germs than in a bathroom? Bacteria are on our hands, on raw food and on our pets too. It's imperative that you begin with hand hygiene i.e. washing after touching pets, waste bins, before and after touching raw food and obviously before cooking.

Recently I mentioned in A bit of red wine about the lack of kitchen hygiene shown by celebrity chefs – I do appreciate that it doesn't look trendy to talk about boring stuff like education of the food/kitchen sort – may be the celebrity chefs could consider giving something back and include a nugget of knowledge – after all they reach massive audiences.

Vanilla Black - The Book

I know you'd be disappointed if I didn't invest in a Vanilla Black cookery book and so this is what it looks like – complete with tabs to date!

This book – unusually – contains “Vanilla Black recipes adapted for the home kitchen.” Put another way “...from the people behind Vanilla Black, but the food is not from the restaurant. Well, not entirely, anyway.” “...this is a book for home cooks”.

I can see both sides of this coin – i.e. adapting recipes that may be technically challenging – yep, got it. On the other hand I'd expected and looked forward to giving the breads a shot and the butter too.

I must confess to being a smidge disappointed.

However, Andrew Dargue and Donna Conroy got my attention with “Apologies in advance, no pasta bake or vegetable curry”. Hurray and thank you!

There's nothing wrong with the book at all, in fact there are some points made in the introduction that made me giggle and cheer. For example, “...we have a couple of guys washing up constantly. We are guessing that...you do not have...in your kitchen”. At last – somebody out there with some savvy!

The best comment though, is “you don't have to be vegetarian. Just try this food … if you want to serve it with a piece of grilled chicken, be our guest.”

Check out the number of tabs – looks like I'm going to be busy.

A Birthday Treat - Pudding

I'm not a dessert fan but, in the interests of my readers – I hope you realise what a great sacrifice I make in the interests of balanced food feedback for your good selves.

Here are the options :

I have to be honest, I didn't like the long winded and, what I also thought, unappetising vision in my head of option 1. To be fair we did the decent thing and we took one of the desserts each and tasted.

Here's a photograph of the winner and …. how utterly wrong can you be.

I still need to think about the title, it messes with my head and unless I'm getting this entirely wrong it seems to say it can't make its mind up whether it's sweet or savoury. More importantly I don't think it does itself justice.

I suppose what I'm saying is that if I'd have been lunching on my own I would not have ordered it and would have missed an absolute smash. Truthfully, not blown away by the alternative but it just goes to show.

How about the candle and the birthday message – in chocolate of course. It was only mentioned briefly in conversation – nice touch.

Excellent value : £21.50 for 2 Courses and £26.50 for 3.