A Year in the Garden - How to grow your own - February

In our new program we are giving tips and advice on how to grow your own fruit and veg at home by showing you what we are doing in our garden. Timing is quite important in gardening and we hope that our epsiodes give you a feel for when you need to sow, plant and harvest in your garden. Our episodes are especially relevant to people who live in the UK and Ireland, because we live in Northern Ireland and the climate here is quite cool and not always that easy for gardening.

The February episode looks at indoor sowings, either because it's still too cold outside or because you want to give your plants an early start. Also, some crops like tomatoes, peppers and aubergines really need to be sown indoors, especially in cooler climates. February and March are great times to sow these crops and keeping them indoors until May ensures that you will have a healthy and early crop.

Preparing your ground is also important and February is a great time for this. The soil is warming up but everything's still slow, so digging a bit of compost or manure into your growing soil is perfect at this time of the year and guarantees a fertile soil for the following season.

Then we're also looking at strawberries and garlic. Normally we would have liked to plant them earlier, but planting them now is still very good and should give us a good enough crop. Strawberries and garlic are a great example of companion planting too, the garlic repels aphids and other pests and apparently gives the strawberries a better taste. We'll have to see! And it saves lots of space and both plants like the same soil conditions, deep and light fertile soil. We urge you to try it!

And finally we are showing you how to make a kiwi compte using unripened local kiwis from the walled garden in Helen's Bay. In the UK and Ireland it's really best to grow kiwis undercover, so in a polytunnel or greenhouse. The plants will be fine outside but the kiwis won't ripen properly, and taking them inside to ripen doesn't make them as sweet as their shop-bought cousins. So the answer is to cook them with sugar, and a compote is great for this. It keeps the kiwis tangy flavour but sweetens the fruit, it's absolutely delicious! And it makes for a great pie filling! But it works well with anything, scones, pancakes, yoghurt, whatever! You really need to try this recipe!

Valentine's Day means Chocolate Day

Love is in the air, or rather chocolate is! And lots of it! Whether you're single or in a relationship it doesn't matter, as long as you like chocolate! This year we have two great chocolate recipes for you that are not only good for Valentine's Day but throughout the year as they lend themselves well to seasonal ingredients and adaptations. 

Our first recipe is Chocolate Truffles with chilli and orange. They are absolutely delicious, rich and creamy and incredibly intense with the orange and chilli. Making chocolate truffles from scratch ensures that you get exactly the flavour that you like: you can choose the quality and intensity of the chocolate, you can add more or less salt, some extra sugar if need be and additional flavourings which make these chocolate truffles unique. They're very easy to make and take no time at all, so please watch our recipe and have a go yourself!

Our second recipe has proved exceptionally popular with guests. Everybody loves chocolate brownies, but what makes ours so special is the twist of adding beetroot and blackcurrant. Adding special ingredients like these to classic recipes surprises people and their tastebuds. It's that 'wow' factor because it is unexpected and simply delicious. Beetroot and blackcurrant are just our suggestions but you could also add carrot, banana, rasperries, blueberries, orange zest, lemon zest...the culinary possiblities are endless. You have to think of chocolate as a vehicle for flavour, it holds and even intensifies flavours really well and makes for great flavour combinations. Of course you could also just make plain chocolate brownies, just increase the amount of chocolate to 300g and leave out the beetroot and blackcurrant. But we really urge you to try our recipe. Not a single person so far has not loved these brownies. They are that good! 

Chocolate is just an amazing ingredient and by itself quite healthy, and just delicious and addictive! We hope that you have a great day of making and baking this Valentine's Day! Thanks for watching!

A Year in the Garden - How to grow your own - January

We're really excited about our latest project. A-C and I are keen gardeners, but really only when it comes to edible plants :) We do love beautiful gardens and really believe that edible gardens, i.e. gardens where most plants produce something edible, are not only delicious but also beautiful. Indeed veg and fruit plants come in all shapes and sizes, and colours. The colours are just amazing and the flowers and smells you get from many plants are just divine. But of course growing fruit and veg at home  isn't only about beauty; it's also about productivity. You would be surprised how much food can be grown in a bit of soil. Apart from the quantity, the quality and diversity you get from growing your own is astounding.

Honestly, once you've got the bug and experienced some true growing successes and what real food tastes like you're never going back. Fresh sun-ripened strawberries off the plant, still warm from the sun, are so incredibly different to anything you can buy, except if you're at a pick-your-own farm on a nice sunny day. The experience of the freshness and the quality and the sheer delight of flavour and aromas is simply so different because you can get hold of something that simply isn't available in the shops. It only makes sense for supermarkets and most shops to stock a limited variety of fruit and veg, so you as a grower have the chance to discover new types of fruit and veg varieties that you've never tasted before. Even when you take different varieties of the same plant makes a huge difference. This year I grew a quick-growing variety of Italian bulbed fennel. and wow, was that stuff good, so refreshing and juicy and that amazing flavour of anis seed. I've never grown such good fennel before.

I know I'm rambling a bit here, but then again that shows how fascinating it is, even after years now of growing, I still get so excited about this stuff. If you're really into food, then I believe growing your own and really experimenting with what you're growing is the next level. You learn to appreciate fruit and veg for the incredible diversity of flavours and tastes that they produce, and also how they make you feel. Even though I'm somebody who tries to steer away from the typical mantra of 'eat healthy, be healthy', I really do find that eating your own homegrown food makes you feel a lot better. And if that's just because it makes you happy and proud because you've achieved something like growing deliciously sweet peas, well then that's great.

There really are so many reasons for growing your own, especially for foodies, and in our new program we'll touch upon those reasons and show you what we are growing at home and at the community garden in Helen's Bay. Each month we'll be showing you what we're doing in the garden, what projects there are, what we're sowing and harvesting and cooking as well. Hopefully our videos will either give you the inspiration and knowledge you need to start growing your own or if you already grow fruit and veg we hope that you may pick up some helpful hints and ideas :)

Thanks for watching!

Juicing, glorious juicing...

 A-C and I have recently discovered juicing; of course we knew about it before and we have tried those juices that you get in juice bars and healthy places. But nowhere does homemade juice taste so good as when freshly made with quality ingredients and with your own juicer at home. It's unbelievable, especially in the morning before you have your breakfast. It gives you such an incredible boost, it's like the non-alcoholic version of getting tipsy. And I'm not just saying this because I am one of those people advocating healthy eating. Of course I know what a difference it makes to me to eat healthy foods and lots of fruit and veg, but the experience of your own homemade juice is quite different alltogether. It's that good. The only experience that comes close is when you have your own homegrown fruit, especially berries, and you pick them off the plant on a sunny day and you get so many vitamins and antioxidants into your body you literally feel your face is glowing. Yup, fruit can do that. 

Our favourite juice mix normally consists of 1-2 carrots, 1-2 beetroot, and then whatever acidic fruit we have, like apples or oranges. Using the beetroot and the carrots gives the juice a real earthy flavour, but in a good way. It makes it very sweet and has an amazing depth to it. The beetroot especially is essential for that boost you're looking for. If we would only use fruit, especially acidic fruit, there just wouldn't be that balance of sweet and sour and it would lack that creaminess that comes from the veg. 

Once you've got that balance in mind, you can really go crazy and just experiment with whatever you want to. We've tried variations with green tomatoes, pears, bananas, kiwis (very nice), kale (not so nice), ginger, etc. Anything goes, as long as it suits your taste buds and it is so much fun to try out all kinds of combinations. Maybe for kids this would be a very cool idea to get them to eat/drink fruit and veg. The only downside to this experimentation is the cleaning. It does take a few minutes to clean your machine after its use and to get rid of all the fruit pulp.

Hang on a minute? Getting rid of the fruit pulp? It does seem like a bit of a waste when you're using all this top-quality produce and you're throwing out so much of it. Of course, if you have a compost bin, then at least throwing it onto the compost heap means that it will make for lovely and fast working compost. It really is great stuff. But still it seems like a shame, especially because fruit and veg pulp is actually quite handy to use in the kitchen. Depending on what you're using  your juice for, you can make loads of stuff with your pulp. It is very good in pasta sauces and especially in curries to give it body and sweetness. It can also be used for cakes, muffins and brownies, as you do in carrot cake. And finally, the pulp can be used for a very quick and unusual vegetable stock for any soups you're making. Here's a variation on our Japanese Ramen Noodle Soup with a stock made with pulp from our juicer. It was incredibly tasty! And very funky looking too! 

So whenever you're using your juicer, do try to make something with your fruit and veg pulp. Don't just throw it in the bin, at least put it into a compost bin, and if you want to have a bit of culinary fun then try experimenting with it. 

I hope this wee blog post has shown you how great juicers are and how endless the possibilities are, even with the waste pulp. Sure they're not cheap but they are a great investment, for your happiness and your well-being. 

My Food Guide to Northern Ireland

This year I am starting a new independent project which looks at the food scene in Northern Ireland. I really believe that Northern Ireland is an incredibly underrated food destination. In my years of living here, eating out, shopping for food and actually meeting farmers and small-scale producers, I have really enjoyed local quality produce which is available at very affordable prices. And because I feel so passionate about local food and about the great deals on offer I want to share my experiences, where I eat, where I shop and what farmers and producers I meet as I travel around the country this year. It's a personal journey really, of me discovering Northern Ireland's food culture, which I hope you will follow.

I have already started out with some reviews of where to eat in Belfast. Belfast has a varied selection of high quality yet affordable restaurants, and here are a few of them. In future I will also be looking at certain shops, markets or schemes where you can get your food from, so stay tuned. And finally, I'm arranging with boxa box scheme in County Antrim to make a short programme on their scheme and some of the farmers that supply them. So thanks for reading and there will be more interesting stuff to come!

Reviews below:

Afternoon Tea at the Merchant Hotel:
http://myfoodguidetonorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/afternoon-tea-at-merchant-hotel-belfast.html

Lee Garden for Dim Sum:
http://myfoodguidetonorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/lee-garden-dim-sum-belfast.html

Lunch at the MAC:
http://myfoodguidetonorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/lunch-at-mac-belfast.html

Fried Chicken at Birdcage:
http://myfoodguidetonorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/fried-chicken-at-birdcage-belfast.html

How to make Sourdough: From Starter to Bread

Sourdough Bread is bread made with homemade yeast, also called natural or wild yeast sometimes, and it's very unique in flavour. As the name suggests, it does have a slightly sour hint to it, but this really depends on what kind of starter you use and what flour you use to make your bread. As a rule of thumb, the more wholemeal is in your starter and in your bread, the more sour it will get and using mostly white flour doesn't really make it that sour. What sourdough also does which is unique really, is to give bread that mellow depth of flavour. It's quite hard to describe, but when you're eating sourdough it just tastes so natural you could say, or the way bread is supposed to taste. 

Sourdough is really comforting and I think it's the perfect 'home bread' because of how non-fussy it is. This may sound strange because most people say it's complicated and it needs more time to make, but it's really such a forgiving bread. You can forget it for a few hours while it rises and just make it whenever it suits you, there's no time presure. And doing most of your work during the morning and evening means that even with a busy lifestyle you can afford to make homemade bread. The starter itself is also pretty flexible and forgiving. If it doesn't ferment that much anymore you can add more flour and water, maybe a bit of sugar or honey, put in a mixer or whisk by hand and after letting it rest for a while it should work as usual again. That's also why I consider my two videos to be a guide on sourdough making and not a recipe. Conditions for sourdough bread are always different and everybody has their own way of making it, which shouldn't discourage you at all, but encourage you to put your own personal twist on it. This bread is made to suit your needs!

Thanks for watching and we're sure your bread will be a success!!!

Nasturtium Capers, A Great Local Alternative

The title says alternative, but I should really call nasturtium capers a replacement to the otherwise boring capers you get in supermarkets. Nasturtium capers are the business and I just love them, and I don't understand why I've just discovered them now. For any of you who don't know what nasturtiums are, they are that ever-present creeping garden flower that some people might call a weed. Now it's true that its growing habit is very much weed-like, because if you start growing a few nasturtium plants somewhere in your garden, they'll come back year after year. While some people loathe this vigorous behaviour, some people are truly excited about the sheer promise that this yearly cycle entails. Every part of the nasturtium plant is edible, and it might not be very consistent food, but it's absolutely beautiful and so peppery. 

At the start of the growing season, one of my all-time favourite things to do is to go to the community garden during a nice sunny day, bring a nice loaf of homemade bread, a nice dressing and a cool drink; all the other ingredients for our impromptu lunch I gather from the garden. Nice crunchy fresh lettuces, pungent pink chive flowers and beautiful red and yellow nasturtium flowers. Toss it in a bowl, put a light dressing over it and you've got summer and sunshine in a bowl. A gorgeous and so satisfying meal, and yet so simple. For that reason alone I would grow nasturtiums and because they attract beneficial insects to your plot and harmful insects away from your actual crops. But it gets better.

In late summer and early autumn the beautiful nasturtium flowers turn into wrinkly seed pods. They're bright to dark green and already look surprisingly like capers. And there's plenty of them! A few plants will probably produce hundreds of pods...ok maybe that's a bit exaggerated but that's what it feels like, and that's the reason why some people call nasturtiums a weed. If you don't pick all those pods, which you won't, then they will get into the ground somehow and sprout again next year. So yes, if you want to grow them in your garden be mindful of where you will put them. 

Harvesting nasturtium pods is a real treat, they come off the plant very easily and remind me a bit of harvesting small berries. Once you've got a few handfuls take them into the kitchen and you can pickle them according to your taste. Now we chose the simplest way, cider vinegar and a bay leaf, put into a pickling jar along with the washed capers and then you just have to wait for a few weeks and they're ready. It's honestly the easiest thing you can pickle. But there are recipes where you add other spices, a bit of sugar and warm the whole mixture before adding it to the capers. You can experiment a bit with the variations which are good fun, but honestly the simple recipe makes for a great result as well. 

The simple version is quite crunchy, has a really nice peppery taste to it and a great lingering aroma from the bay leaf. The acidity of the cider vinegar rounds it off nicely making it a perfect condiment. They are truly amazing I think, because they are so simple and cost nothing at all and I prefer their flavour and texture to the shop bought alternative, which is more expensive and almost more complicated to get. And because they are that bit different and more interesting they really transform your food or a simple dish. The other day I made tartar sauce with these capers and with homemade mayo, parsley from the garden and some nice lemon zest. Again simple, but so different that it makes for a food experience even just by spreading it on a slice of homemade sourdough bread, which in itself is an experience. 

Nasturtium capers, homemade tartar sauce and sourdough bread are such simple things, yet when they're homemade with homegrown ingredients and then combined make for a delicious bite. These are the moments I love the most about food, when something simple inspires you and surprises you. 

Why nobody in the UK or Ireland is selling Nasturtium capers baffles me, they're plentiful and can't be more expensive to produce than normal capers, and they're local and thus more sustainable. Maybe I found myself a business idea...