I've Moved....

This is just a quick post to say that I've moved my blog to my own domain. Please come and check it out at:

www.withknifeandfork.com

All the posts that are here on blogger are there too but all new posts will be on the new domain.

The most recent post is on the #BPRSummit on Monday 10 August where UK food bloggers and PR's met to discuss how they might forge better relationships. Read it here

Hope you stop by the new site soon.

Thanks :)

PS I'm still building my blogroll of favourite blogs so please bear with me whilst I add you to the new site.

Feeling flowery in veggie heaven

Last week I took part in Dan of Food Urchin’s dinner blogging challenge (called ‘Where’s my pork chop?’). Basically I cooked him some dinner and in return I got, well these:

There loads of potatoes, beans and courgettes hiding under the kale

I’m going to be blogging what I cooked for Dan in a separate post so check back for that in the next few days. Here I want to tell you some of what I’ve done with the veg so far.

Dan had been down to his allotment bright and early on the day of the swap and picked me a selection of goodies in their prime. In the bag were charlotte potatoes, curly kale, green (French) beans, courgettes and COURGETTE FLOWERS ☺. I’d been hoping for some of the latter as I’ve only tried them once before and they aren’t that easy to buy. We’ve tried to grow our own courgettes this year but we aren’t having much success so far (the first lot of seeds didn’t germinate) so I was particularly delighted with the flowers.

Of course as everything had been picked only a few hours before I took the picture above the veg were absolutely bouncing with freshness. I was pretty pleased with my haul and it really demonstrated how lovely and fresh veg can be when their distance from the ground to the kitchen is short. I now have allotment envy.

So what I have I done with the veg so far?

Well as recommended by Dan I did some of the kale with oil and chilli. I actually steamed it first then gave it a quick sauté in rapeseed oil and chilli flakes. It was really good, the kale still had a little bit of crunch to it and the chilli complemented the slight bitterness that is inherent in brassicas like kale. I’ll definitely try it like this again and venture out into varying the spice choice as well.

The potatoes are just brilliant. One of my gripes about potatoes is that its not that easy to get ones that taste of anything much but when you do WOW instead of thinking potatoes taste kind of bland and nothingy you realise they have an earthy sweetness all of their own. Dan’s potatoes hit the mark on this – I assume its because they were straight from the ground. So far we’ve had them simply boiled and also crushed and cooked with some onion. Yum.

The beans and the courgettes we’ve steamed and tossed in a little oil or butter – again when things are this fresh they can shine on their own.

And the flowers?

Well searching in cookbooks, on the internet and tweeting all seemed to point to stuffing the flowers, dipping in a tempura batter and deep-frying. Hmmmmm. I’ve never deep-fried anything; I don’t own a deep fat fryer, I too vividly recall close calls with chips pans in the 1970s (and that safety advert they used to run) to suddenly think that deep-frying them is the way to go. I also don’t want to experiment with a new technique on my precious courgette flowers – imagine if it goes wrong…..after a bit more thinking and searching I decide to just have them fresh and perky as they are in a salad but I do go with the flavours that many of the deep fried recipes suggest i.e. fresh soft cheese and herbs.

I simply tore the flowers and tossed them with the rest of the salad (rocket, basil, lollo rosso, tomato, cucumber) before adding some of my favourite Buxlow Wonmil cheese and drizzling with a little oil. The flowers aren’t particularly strong in flavour but they add a both a different colour and texture to the salad. They are curiously soft yet slightly crunchy at the same time and a good addition.

I guess if I get more flowers I might dare to experiment with deep-frying but for now I’m happy I stuck to adding my flowers to a salad. (Dan – more flowers please….)

I’ve been adopted!

By Karen, and she’s in Harve, Montana! Go on, go check the map like I had to.

Now lets get a few things straight here I don’t mean I’ve been orphaned all this time and finally found someone to adopt me at the fine old age of, well lets just leave my age out of this shall we….

I mean that as a relative ‘newbie’ to the world of food blogging I’m taking part in Kirsten’s (over at Dine and Dish) Adopt-a-Blogger initiative. I found Kirsten when I first started swirling round the foodie blogosphere and landed at Tinned Tomatoes where I spotted the ‘I’ve adopted’ badge. Now ‘Blogging for Dummies’ tells you to get to know your fellow bloggers and to take part in blogging events and the Adopt-a-Blogger seemed like the ticket. I get to have someone older and wiser (in blogging terms) to call upon for three months with my questions etc, probably get new traffic and the adoptor gets the joy of guiding someone through some of the maze of the blogsphere. Great.

After Kirsten has matched us all up we get to meet online and start to chat, it’s kind of like a latter day version of pen pals. To take part we’ve promised to introduce each other to our respective worlds and at the end of three months to blog about what we’ve each learned. I’ve already been badgering Karen with lots of questions and tweaking my blog to incorporate some of her tips.

Anyway without further ado here is Karen (of Karen Cooks), as cross examined by me, in her own words:

GSD: Tell me a little bit about yourself, where you live and what you do when not food blogging?

K: I live in the U.S.  I lived in the Southern California and Arizona deserts for 42 years prior to moving to Havre, Montana last summer.  When I'm not food blogging, I'm cooking!  I like to garden and also do mosaics.

GSD: Why did you want to join ‘Adopt-a-blogger’ and what do you think being an adoptor will be like?

K: I thought I might have something to offer a new food blogger... there are so many things to figure out and hints and suggestions that one might not know about.

GSD:  How long have you been food blogging, what made you want to start and do you have any other blogs?

K: I started my food blog in August 2008.  I was reading another food blog and thought "I can do that!"  So, I did!

GSD:  Tell me about the Eagle webcam.

K:  I found the Eagle webcam during my many travels around the internet.  The webcam is in West Virginia and poised on a nest built by Bald Eagles.  Here we can get a glimpse of a three eaglets, now almost 2 months old and their daily routine. It's been fascinating to watch them grow!  I think they are beautiful birds. 

GSD:  How would you describe your style of cooking and who do you normally cook for?

K:  Most of the time I cook just for me and my gardener, aka husband, although I love to cook for company.  I love to read cookbooks for inspiration on making my own dishes.  I guess my style of cooking would be 'see it and make it with changes to suit our tastes'.

GSD: I can see some interesting items on your freezer list in the ‘Roasted Grape Tomato, Spinach and Asiago Pasta’ post, tell me about the regional dishes, specialities of ingredients you enjoy?

K: We are hunters and fishers, so we eat a lot of game.  Cooking wild game at times can be challenging as the meat may tend to be tough.  I'm always on the lookout for different wild game recipes.  

GSD: What are your Top 5 dishes/foods and what, if anything, makes you go ‘urgggh, no thanks’?

K: I'm definitely not a picky eater, but there are a few things that I'll pass on.  One of them is menudo, a Mexican soup-type dish made with tripe and hominy.  I've tried tofu  several different ways, but just don't care for it.  Other than that I guess I'll pretty much eat anything!  LOL

GSD:  Who are your favourite cook book authors/cook books?

K: I really don't have a favorite.  I love to read cookbooks but have stopped buying them.  There are just so many good recipes on the internet.

GSD:  What’s your couldn’t live without kitchen gadget?

K:  This is a hard question.  After thinking about it, I couldn't live without my silicone spatulas.  I use them for everything!  And of course my Kitchen Aid stand mixer!

So please go check out Karen's blog yourself for lots of good stuff including the latest Montana snow (on 13 May!).