Winter is here, Barley Broth to comfort and sustain!

The start of December and snow lies all around, not deep and crisp and even but sparse and slushy and slippy!  We have had two snow falls in the last fortnight here in west Aberdeenshire but so far the temperature has still been warm and to my delight the garden and polytunnel are still yielding produce for us.  I spent a few minutes rooting around the other day and picked enough to make a big pot of broth, one of our family favourites at this time of year.

I used everything apart from the cavalo nero, which I saved for the next evening's supper.

Ali's Winter Barley Broth

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 onions 

a Handful of carrots (probably around 3 medium sized ones)

2 sticks of celery

3 leeks

Big handful of parsley

1 cup of barley, soaked overnight in plenty of water

Approximately 1.5 lt/3 pints of chicken or veggie stock (I use homemade)

Some leftover chicken (from the bird used to make the stock, I buy local free range chickens so always use every bit of them)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop the onions, and start by gently softening them in the oil in a large soup pan or casserole.

2. Once the onions have started to become translucent, add the chopped carrots, celery and leeks.  Give this all a good stir and cook away until the pot starts to sizzle.

3.  Add your stock and barley at this stage, followed by as much chopped parsley as you fancy.  Bring everything to a gentle boil.

4.  At this point I pop a lid on the pot and put it in the bottom oven of my Aga for a good hour to gently simmer away.  I don't season at this stage as I always wait until the barley has become soft and toothsome before I do.  On a regular cooker just reduce the heat until you have a low simmer and cook for about the same time, stirring regularly.

5.  The broth is cooked when the Barley has plumped up but still has a bit of bite to it.  This is when I season and then add the pre-cooked left over chicken and bring it all back up to a rolling simmer for about 10 minutes before serving.  We eat this with oatcakes, it will stick to your ribs as my Mum used to say!

I make many variations of this soup, sometimes with lentils, split peas too and depending on what we have in the garden, but I have to say that this version with barley in is my favourite.  Just the thing for the dark and short days we have at this time of year.

I got this lovely shot of Brooke our Shetland pony coming in for some hay last weekend.  I am trying to keep the horses out this year, as we now only have one 'big' horse, Brea, and two little ones, Brooke (above) and the even smaller MissyBell who is an American Miniature Horse.  As the herd are all getting on a bit I'd rather they keep moving, eating ad lib hay whenever they want than stay in stables at night, however, the condition of our fields and quantity of mud is always the deciding factor.  I much prefer cold, sunny and frosty weather and I think the horses do too!

Wondering if this will be my last post for 2015?  Perhaps it is, but I hope to return more regularly in the New Year.

Wishing you and yours all the very best for the festive season and a happy and healthy 2016 to us all!

Ali
x

November musings and giving thanks

View across the road

A few days after Halloween and we are still enjoying the stunning weather we have had this Autumn. Sadly a cold and wet summer meant the garden suffered in terms of peas and beans, and I had one small bunch of sweetpeas to cut for indoors.  However, the dry conditions over the last month have meant that the autumn tree colours are stunning.   

Not really sure what to blog about nowadays, I have to admit it is easier these days just to Instagram (@ali4horses!)  I think I'll go easy on myself and start gently.  Family life has changed as we now only have one of our children at home, still at school, with the other two away at University now.  And sadly last week we said goodbye to our darling old labrador Rosie, who at 13 years old had grown up with our children and seen all the work we have done at the cottage.

Traditionally this time of year is a time to give thanks for the harvest and to store and prepare for the dark winter nights ahead, for me this year it feels as if I may need to do that for myself too.  Life is changing (in good ways) but with transition also comes a sense of loss and also that feeling of what is next.  

But as I said I need to take things easy.  Perhaps this blog will evolve, take on new ideas and challenges and take me along with it.  I have no end of ideas for things and projects to do, just not the energy or motivation right now!

There is a loaf of bread baking in my bread machine as I type, and the shelves of my larder are stacked with jars of jams, chutneys and jellies all made from the wonderful produce we did grow this year.  There is a great deal of comfort in knowing that these small things go on however life changes and for that and for a great many other things, I count my blessing and give thanks.

Spring almost springing

It's the time of year for hunkering down and getting through the last of the winter weather, all the time waiting for signs of new growth and lighter evenings.

January and February 2014 were one of the wettest on record, Aberdeenshire didn't suffer as much as some parts of the country but I think I can say that the start of drier weather in March has come as a welcome relief.  I got my last 100 square bales of hay delivered, just in time as I was down to my last half dozen.  The 'girls' (my new name for the horses are we have all mares now) have all settled into our mini herd well, Brooke, our new addition starting to really relax with the others and me now, in fact a new, wee cheeky side to her appearing which is lovely.

One of my friends drew a pencil sketch of Brooke for my birthday at the end of January and it captures her beautifully.  Thank you Mel, I adore this wee portrait of her :)

In the garden we are awaiting warm earth and the first of the narcissi and daffodils.  Broad beans and sweet peas grown from seed in our conservatory are now hardening off in the greenhouse, still protected by fleece at night.  The new seeds that are now gracing our windowsills inside are beetroot, we are trying 2 new varieties Golden Detroit and Detroit White, along with salad leaves.  (I have a lovely recipe for a beetroot tarte tatin, next time I make it I'll take some photos and post it on here.)

Although it feels as if spring is almost here, the trees are still bare and winter is still keeping a bit of a hold on us!

Paul and I headed off to Leith Hall a few weeks ago, I wanted to take some photos of the carpets of snowdrops they have there.  Unfortunately I hadn't checked the battery on my camera before we got there and I didn't manage to take any photos.  Never mind, the snowdrops in the garden are lovely too.

Some very exciting news for me is that our daughter has started blogging too, I feel I may be doing more reading of her blog and less posting of this one as she is an aspiring writer!  Have a look at her blog and see what you think, here is the link;

http://lindsaymmm.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-blog-about-brunch.html?spref=fb

Can't wait for spring now, something very hopeful about this time of year and that makes an eternal optimist like me very happy!

January 2014, Happy New Year of the Horse and happy new pony!

Now I think it's probably too far into January to say Happy New Year, but it certainly still feels like a time of transition, of taking store and planning ahead.  The days are starting to stretch slightly but on a grey day in Aberdeenshire it can still feel as if they are too short, once we get to the end of the month I really notice the difference in daylight.
Our mild winter weather and no snow (so far!) has meant we have turned our thoughts to spring and our yearly tradition of ordering seeds is under well way.  Paul has cleared most of the well rotted muck heap and top dressed the rhododendrons and other shrubs in the front garden.
This year I am planning a cut flower bed inside our polytunnel, so far I've got freesias, anemones, gladioli and dahlias.  As this is a 'experiment' I'm just going to plant the flowers that I love and then see what our success rate is, fingers crossed I'll have beautiful bright vases of flowers for the whole summer.
2014 is the Chinese Year of the Horse and my Chinese horoscope sign is the Horse, so I am feeling that this year will be full of love, joyfulness and galloping forwards.

I believe that people and animals come into my life for a reason and last week we had a new member of our equine family join us.  A series of coincidences led us to offer a home to the lovely Brooke, she had sadly lost her elderly equine companion before Christmas and my friend who is her hoof trimmer had taken her to her yard so that Brooke wouldn't be left alone and the family that owned her could start to find a new home for her.  We had lost our darling old horse Zac last year and I had always thought of rehoming or rescuing a pony to come and join Brea and Poppy our other horses.  We brought Brooke home on Saturday and after a few days of either ignoring each other or chasing each other, the 'girls' have now settled happily into their routine and my tiny 'herd' is complete.  Of course Brooke, won't ever replace Zac but she is filling our stables and my heart with her own personality.
Quite fitting that we have a new pony almost at the start of a new year of the Horse!  I hope to find the time to blog more this year, my only excuse for lack of posts last year was the fabulous weather and being outside too much to think about it :)

Midsummer (what summer?) ramblings

Alliums, the cheerleaders in my border! 

Summer solstice tonight, that means the days will start getting shorter as from tomorrow.  Hmmm, wondering if we actually will catch up in the garden ever!

The big success we've had this year is our perinneal borders, finally things have established and right now the garden is a big, blowsy, colourful show.  These long evenings are perfect for pottering outside.

Euphorbia

my potager with ransomes, lemon balm, chives, thyme 

Last of the purple sprouting broccoli (Spooky helping himself)

Today it is raining, we need the rain as it has been a very dry June (after a very cold May) which has made things bloom later but now we need some moisture to get everything growing.  The big bonus about things being later is getting to have bluebells still blooming in the garden, I love them.

bluebells under my kitchen window

Here's hoping we get some fair weather in July to extend whats left of what seems to be a very short summer so far.

Growing and eating wishlist for 2013

Happy New Year!

It's been mild, dry and windy so far.  A brief respite from the mud and rain for our animals and a chance to get out in the garden for us.  Yesterday Paul started clearing the old chicken run area out, we moved the chickens to their free range area a couple of years ago and the old run has been left vacant for a while.  The plan this year is to move our existing fruit bushes into it.  At the moment our raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries are in the same part of the garden as the chickens and last year became overgrown and neglected, however, they did provide a lovely space for Fiona, our Cream Legbar, to lay all her eggs, it meant I was crawling about under scratchy plants trying to find them, not much fun.  By moving the plants we will be able to give them all more space and light, resulting in more fruit (and less lost eggs!)this summer.

Getting in the garden on the first weekend in January has also made us keen to plant and eat as much as possible this year.  Last night we feasted on a stew made from the last of our Cavalo Nero (loosely adapted from a Nigel Slater recipe), I cooked pancetta, onion, chorizo, tomatoes and some chunks of potato in red wine and stock for about 30 minutes, then added a couple of tins of butter beans, and some huge handfuls of roughly chopped Cavalo Nero - cooked for another 10 minutes to let the kale wilt and then seasoned with smoked paprika, a splash of red wine vinegar and topped with some parsley (we still have some growing in the polytunnel).  I have to say it was the best dinner this year (;-)).  So with the thought of making the most of our garden I have decided to list things that I would most like to grow in the garden (sadly trying to remember that we don't live in the south of the UK and are very much restricted by what we can grown up here in the far north).

Vegetable Garden Essentials 
(things we already grow, and eat and can't live without)

Cavalo Nero (of course)
Kale (the bigger type than Cavalo nero, can't remember it's name)
Onions and Shallots
Broad Beans
Garden Peas
Tomatoes
Courgettes (especially Gold rush, beautiful yellow sunny ones)
Spinach (the perpetual one works best in our garden)
Lettuce - Romaine, Cos, and Rocket (although not sure if Rocket is a lettuce?)
Beetroot
Rhubarb
Horseradish
Swiss (rainbow?) chard
Chili Peppers (inside the house, bit of a cheat but I love them)
Flat and curly parsley

Nice to have 
(have grown them before and want to grow again)

Purple Sprouting Brocoli - for some reason it hasn't done very well last few years
Pink Fir Apple Potatoes - had a potato free couple of years, but these are my faves
Strawberries - I grow the alpine ones in the herb garden but grown the 'big' ones for a while
Runner beans - taste great, hard to grow up here
Sweetcorn - grew in the garden once (a hot summer) then in the polytunnel but not very succesfully
Brussel sprouts (grew them in our last garden but they take up a lot of space)

Dream on...
(if only we didn't live in Aberdeenshire)

Aubergines
Squash - any kind, especially wee patty pan ones
Bell Peppers (especially those light green ones you get in Spain)

last year in the hen's free range garden (old raspberry canes behind their shelter)

As ever living up here, I think the worst of our winter weather has still to arrive (usually after my first snowdrops have appeared), but I love spending the long nights planning what to do when spring does arrive.

Whisky & Ginger (Marmalade) Fruit Loaf

This is a wonderful recipe, perfect for all times of year and especially around Christmas.  The joy of this Whisky Ginger loaf is that you make two at a time, I usually freeze one and then the other can be eaten.  Alternatively you could freeze both as they keep beautifully, but only if the rest of your family haven't realised you have baked them! (the smell as they come out of the oven is too good to miss).

The recipe is adapted from the orignal recipe taken from 'The Three Chimney's' cookbook by Shirley Spear.  Still on my wishlist of places to visit and eat, I enjoy cooking from this book which feels like part journal/part travel guide, with truly stunning photos.  *I will include the orginal options in the recipe for information.

INGREDIENTS

You will need;

170g raisins
170g sultanas
140g currants
250 ml water
115g butter
140g soft dark brown sugar
3 eggs beaten
280g self raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
2 heaped tbsp Ginger preserve (*original uses marmalade)
30g roughly chopped almonds
75g chopped mixed peel
75g chopped crystallized ginger
75g chopped glace cherries* (original just uses 115g of peel and 115g of cherries)
3 tablespoons of whisky

2 x 2lb loaf tins, greased with a bit of butter and lined.  Preheat oven to 180oC (I use my Aga, grid shelf on the bottom of the top oven, cold plain shelf on second set of runners).

METHOD

Weigh out the raisins, sultanas and currants.  Place in a large saucepan along with the water, sugar and butter.

Heat gently until the butter and sugar have melted together and the whole kitchen smells of delicious sweet, warm fruit.  Don't let the mixture boil.

Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool slightly.  Now assemble the rest of your ingredients, and when the fruit mix has cooled, mix through everything else (sieve the flour and mixed spice).

I add the Ginger preserve and whisky last, giving it all a quick stir together to make sure everything is mixed through.

Split the mixture between two greased and lined 2lb loaf tins (I don't have two the same size but it doesn't seem to matter).  Bake for about 1 hour, the finished cake should be lovely and brown.

Out of the Aga!  Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for about 30 minutes before putting on a wire rack to cool.  My Aga was quite hot when I baked these, so they only took 50 minutes and the one in the silicon 'tin' is slightly over (well lets say a bit more caramelised!!).  But it still tastes delicious.  Keep in an airtight tin until ready to use or wrap well and freeze (defrost thoroughly before using).

The finished Whisky Ginger loaves