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My chum and Kiting / photgraphy / Xtracycle hippy guru is moving , so for regular readers update you links.

Coffee Waffle is Closed For Business … Murray’s awesome photography can now be found here

That’s all

Looking through my organic fridges and stored crops , I’m trying to use before I go walkabout I happened across some carrots.

What to do with them , I don’t know .

I fancied something to eat , although I make shed loads I very rarely eat what I make , I’m weird like that.

So invented another way to get good veggies into you.

Carrot & Cardamon Soup

1oz Butter
1 Large Onion [ Finely Chopped ]
3 Garlic Cloves
450g / 1 lb Fresh [ Still squealing from the ground Carrots ] cut into equal sized chunks
1 level tablespoon Flour
850ml / 1 i/2 pints of veggie stock
15g / 1/2 oz Creamed coconut
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice [ I like lime gives it a thai flavour ]
Seeds of 8 Cardamon pods crushed with pestle and mortar
Black Pepper

This blog entry would be quicker except GKB aka Giggling Gertie keeps sending me txt messages.

Anyway

Melt butter

Cook off onion garlic and carrot gently. for about 5 minutes without colouring.

Add Flour and cook off gently 2 minutes stirring throughout.

Stir in Stock , coconut and lemon/lime juice.

bring to boil simmer gently 15 minutes until carrots are tender.

Cool and then blend until smooth.

Add Cardamon seeds , season to taste whilst adding a twist of black pepper to serve if you are going to serve this hot.

Or now here’s a shocker chill , overnight and serve with some toasted coconut shavings.

Scrummy

500g mixed nuts
15g unsalted butter
3 tsp clear wildflower honey
2 tsp Cornish sea salt
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C. Spread nuts on baking sheet. Toast until just golden, 10-15 minutes. Melt butter, honey and sea salt. Fold in rosemary and cayenne. Tip into honey butter to coat. Cool before decanting into jars or wrapping in parchment.

After an article was published , some of my chums , decided to fashion up some sledges over the snowy period.

One of the team having lived abroad [ AUS ] for most of here childhood had never sledged before , her first two runs ended up destroying the first two of three sledges OOOps.

So , after some hasty rebuilds in a cottage kitchen, where the kitchen table quickly became the Black & Decker Workbench , it was a case of sledging in the dark by headlamps.

Matron even Sam Spee , the rescue dog liked dancing in the snow.

Then a late supper , supported by Zebra production , home made Kiwi Miner Stout , and a long hard cycle home up hills covered in snow and ice , in bed by 0230 hrs .

knackered.

Return trip day two , this time loaded up with some more ale , some strawberry cider , some ginger beer , some apple and black berry vodka , and some home made flap jack super food bar.

The perfect energy food , all gooey and sticky , ideal to kick start the day.

Just For Ms. Mole et al who consumed and requested the recipe.

Zebra Style High Energy Gooey Flapjacks

These honey-sweetened flapjacks are great for breakfasts on the go. If you’re having them at home, serve them warm with a dollop or Greek or natural yogurt and some fresh fruit. Makes 12 big or 16 smaller flapjacks

200g unsalted butter
200g demerara sugar
200g honey, agave syrup or brown rice syrup
450g muesli or a fruity porridge oat mix.

Lightly butter or oil a 20cm x 30cm (8in x 12in) cake tin, or line it with parchment paper. Put the butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Add the muesli and mix well.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared cake tin and spread to about 2cm (¾in) thick. Smooth the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes, until it’s lightly golden around the edges but still slightly soft in the middle. Let cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into squares. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

A second day of pain and a little bit of snow kiting thrown in for good measure by headlamp.

Followed by good home cooked sausage beans and mash , and yet another cycle ride home , I’m feeling the pain today.

Ingredients

500g mix of blackberries, redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries
250g caster sugar
juice of ½ a small lemon
splash of water
method

Place all the ingredients in a thick bottomed pan.

Bring to simmer, blend and sieve.

Allow to cool then churn in an ice cream maker

I add 1/4 tsp freshly crushed black pepper at the end of the freezing process.

The combination of the sharp fresh fruit and the subtle hot pepper , works wonderfully.

Juice many pounds of windfall apples and your left some pulp , save the pulp and look at your lovely foaming juice

Then for something else juices some lush pears

Add you pear pulp to you apple pulp

Bag it up well in a mash bag.

Add to you fermenter, along with sugar and some yeast and some pectolase [ helps settle the pectin in the mix and takes it to the bottom ] and some citric acid , cover and leave for 5 days.

The blend tastes lush already.

Named after a chum.

Either 9oz ( 250g ) dried Haricot beans or 2 tins of Haricot beans
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion , diced
1 Clove Of Garlic
1 Tablespoon Black Treacle Or Molasses
Pinch Of Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 x 400g tin of Chopped Tomatoes or : equivalent in fresh toms
1 Tablespoon Tomato Puree
1 teaspoon English Mustard Powder
Pinch Cayenne or Paprika
3/4 pint water { Omit if beans are pre cooked }
salt N pepper to season.

Cook garlic and onion in pan until sweated off
add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil n simmer until you have a rich tomato style sauce.

If you’re using pre-cooked beans chuck them in and bring to boil.

serve

if however like me you cook from the dried beans , soak the beans over night , drain rinse and then add them to the sauce along with 3/4 pint of water , bring to boil and them simmer for about and hour until cooked.