Dahlia Tarté Tartin

Dahlia & Fig Tarté Tartin

Back in the day, when I was just a wee slip of a girl & between what my dad would describe as ‘proper’ jobs I worked for few months cooking in a small bistro behind Harrods and one of the staples of the menu was a Tarté Tartin and I’ve been rather partial to it ever since.

Usually made with apple I decided to adapt the recipe to use up some figs and given the fact that I rarely pass up an opportunity to shoe horn edible flowers into every dish I added some dahlia petals to this.  

Dahlias have a robust chicory like flavour which works exceptionally well with the sweet caramel figs.

Ingredients

I packed all butter puff pastry (you can make your own but if you have that much spare time then it would be much better spent giving me a hand with some weeding!).

5 large ripe figs

85 grms of flower sugar (or caster if you haven’t got any)

80 grms of unsalted butter

1 large organic dahlia head

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºF/160ºC/Gas 6

Roll out the puff pastry to approximately 3mm thick and prick with a fork all over to ensure it rises evenly.

Put a large skillet on the stove (or a pan which has an oven proof handle and a thick bottom) and melt the butter. Pour off a tablespoon or so of melted butter into a cup and put to one side.

Add the sugar to the pan and over a medium heat cook the sugar and butter until it caramelises to a sticky brown consistency. It should be custard sort of consistency. Too runny and you will have a soggy bottom. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

Cut the figs in half and arrange them with the dahlia petals in an attractive manner face down into the caramel. Remember that the tart will be served upside down so the bottom needs to be attractive rather than the top. Use the remaining tablespoon of melted butter to brush the tops of the figs.

Cut out a pastry circle to the same size as the skillet and tuck the edges of the pastry firmly down the sides of the dish. Use a knife to make a couple of slits to let the steam escape.

Cook in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the puff pastry is risen and a lovely golden colour.

Take it out of the oven and allow to sit for about 25 minutes and then carefully invert onto a plate and serve warm perhaps with a good quality vanilla ice cream.

Dahlia Tarté Tartin

Rose Petal Honey

Rose Petal Honey

The simplest of recipes for the most delicious product. This honey encapsulates the fragrances of summer and preserves them in a jar long into winter.

Well certainly for as long as you can keep your sticky fingers off it!

Ingredients

4 Roses

1 jar of the best honey you can buy*.

 

First take 4 roses.

They must be organic and unsprayed. By all means use those from your garden as long as they’ve not been treated with anything for blackspot or given a generic rose fertiliser. Do not use roses from supermarkets, garden centres or florists as they contain a cocktail of herbicides, insecticides and fertilisers none of which are approved for human consumption and could make you ill. It stands to reason but the more perfumed the roses then the more fragrant the honey will be. You can buy organic roses from us here.

Break the rose down into petals and make sure that any pollen beetles or other wildlife have scurried off to find themselves a new home – although they will struggle to find a more beautiful one.

Tip your jar of honey into a small mixing bowl and add the rose petals. Gentle stir to ensure that all surfaces of the petals are covered.

 

The sticky rose mixture can then be returned to a larger jar and sealed or the bowl can be covered in cling film.  Pop out of harms way. There is no need to refrigerate.

Keep an eye on it for the next couple of weeks and poke any rose petals that look as thought they are emerging back down into the honey.    (This is best done with a clean finger for quality control purposes).  

After two weeks strain the petals out of the honey using a sieve and give a final press with the back of a spoon to ensure the last remnants of honey are removed. (This sticky rosy mess is particular lovely in a hot toddy if you are feeling a little under the weather or even on toast- waste not want not!).

Now the big question is what to do with your rose flavoured honey? The possibilities are endless so I would suggest that whilst you are waiting for your honey to infuse you might like to invest in Hattie Ellis’ new book called Spoonfuls of Honey which has over 80 fabulous honey based recipes in it.

 

 

 

*A lot of commercial cheap honey that you buy in the supermarkets nowadays is actually not honey at all but a synthesised syrup product so it is worth buying a decent honey. Manuka is expensive but in terms of health benefits is the Rolls Royce of honey. Alternatively buy honey from a local producer if you can. If this honey is produced within a very few miles of you then it is believed to be greatly beneficial in helping again hay fever and other respiratory ailments. Local bee keepers can be found via the British Beekeepers Association.

2% of any profits generated at www.maddocksfarmorganics.co.uk are invested into Bee Conservation.

Rose Petal Honey

Rose Petal Syrup.

How to make Rose Petal Syrup

Rose Petal Syrup is incredibly easy to make and tastes simply wonderful.

I generally use white sugar for making my floral syrups but my lovely friend Margie from MadebyMargie gave me the following recipe which is far superior.

Recipe directly from Margie’s blog

I’ve used Agave instead of white sugar because it’s much better for you…and as an extra bonus, it’s even easier than using sugar!

To make the syrup:
equal quantities of Agave and water, 1 cup of each

3 roses, make sure they are organic and free from insecticides…order yours from Maddocks Farm Organics to get the most beautiful ones around.

Give your roses a little rinse and then add all three ingredients to a saucepan.  

Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, by which time it will look like this:

Turn off the heat and allow to cool. The longer you leave the rose petals in, the more intense the flavour of your syrup will be. After a couple of hours (or even overnight), strain the petals out and pop your syrup in a container where it will live happily in the fridge for a month or so.

This syrup is marvellous for drizzling over cakes and even more delicious splashed into a whole range of summer cocktails. How about with champagne?

Rose Petal Syrup.

Nasturtium Cordial

 

Nasturtium cordial is a stunning and refreshing summer drink when diluted with sparkling water and can also be used as a syrup for flavouring cocktails etc.

200grms of organic caster sugar

225ml of water

50 nasturtium flowers

large sprig of lemon thyme or lemon verbena (a small piece of finely chopped ginger is also a great addition)

squeeze of lemon juice

Pop all the ingredients (except the lemon juice) into a pan and gently bring to the boil stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Cover, take off the heat and allow to sit for until completely cold and then strain out the flowers and herbs.

Decanted into a clean sterile bottle and the cordial will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.

 

Nasturtium Cordial

Petal and Prosecco Jelly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edible Petal and Proscecco Jelly

This recipe can be adapted a million different ways using a host of different edible flowers. You can use Pimms or Champagne, white wine or whatever your favourite tipple is.  I’ve made a Gin & Tonic Jelly with lemon flavoured oxalis flowers in it. We also make a wonderful Rose and Prosecco Jelly using homemade rose petal syrup. Alternatively you could make a non alchoholic flower jelly using clear soft drinks such as grape juice, apple juice etc or ready made soft drinks such as Elderflower Cordial.  The only thing to remember when making floral jellies is that the more alcohol in the recipe then the more gelatine will be needed to set it.

Recipe

10 leaves of gelatin

750 ml bottle of Prosecco

150ml of Elderflower Cordial

A large handful of organic edible flower petals*.

Optional soft fruit if you wish.

Put the individual jelly moulds or large mould in the fridge along with the Prosecco and chill for at least an hour. This is particularly important if you are using a fizzy drink such as Proscecco. The colder the ingredients going into the jelly then the faster the jelly will set. If it sets quickly then it will trap the bubbles within the jelly and these will burst as you eat the jelly releasing flavour and ‘fizz’.

Place the gelatin in a bowl of cold water to soften for a couple of minutes.

Put the elderflower cordial into a small pan and add the squeezed out sheets of gelatin. Gentle heat until the sheets are completely dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

This next stage is a bit of faff but it does make the end result far more attractive. Put one third of the gelatine mix into a jug with 1/3 of the Proscecco and give a quick but thorough stir. Pour into the mould and add 1/3 of the fresh flowers giving them a gentle nudge to make sure they are trapped within the jelly. Put the jelly in the fridge and either re-cork or wrap a bit of clingfilm around the top of the Prosecco and return to the fridge as well. Chill for at least 45 minutes or possibly a little longer until the jelly is just firm to the touch. Repeat this process two more times although you might need to very slightly warm the gelatin mixture again in the pan if it has set in the meantime. This method ensures an even distribution of flowers throughout the jelly (likewise if you are adding fruit or even mint leaves). Otherwise there is a danger of them floating to the top and you will loose the visual effect when you turn out the jelly. This does also give you the opportunity to mix things up a little and do different coloured layers if you wished as well.

Return the jelly to the fridge to finally set where it will happily sit for 36 hours or so.

When you want to serve, dip the mould briefly into hot water to loosen the jelly and then turn out onto a plate. Lovely serve the traditional way with icecream or a dollop of crème fraiche and a garnish of fresh edible flowers. If you don’t have a traditional jelly mould it is nice to use a ring mould or bundt tin which offered the opportunity to fill the central cavity with fresh flowers, fruit or both. Or serve directly into wine glasses so that you can see the layers and petals through the glass and you don’t have the drama of having to turn it out and hoping that it has set.

 

* Make sure that the petals used are both organic and edible. Do not use petals from supermarket or garden centre flowers or bought from florists as they are sprayed with a cocktail of preservatives, herbicides and insecticides which are not fit for human consumption.

Petal and Prosecco Jelly.

Rosemary Cake

This cake recipe is based on Nigella's Rosemary Rememberance Cake. Nigella made it in honour of her maternal grandmother who was called Rosemary. The sentiment behind this struck a real chord with me as my paternal grandmother cooked extensively with flowers when I was a growing up and she unwittingly became a real influence in my later career even though sadly she was no alive to see it.

The cake mix is made in two set parts and two optional extras. It does have a strong rosemary flavour as this is what I like but it can always be tamed by using less.

Oven gas mark 3/ 170º/325º

For the filling:
1 eating apple
2 spring rosemary
1 teaspoon of caster sugar
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon of butter

For the cake batter:
225 grams butter
150grams of caster sugar
3 large eggs
300 grams plain sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder.

My optional twist for the rosemary syrup:
2 sprigs of rosemary
50mls of golden caster sugar
50mls of water
grated zest of half a lemon

Cream Cheese Frosting should you want it:
100 grms of butter (at room temperature)
250 grms of cream cheese
100grms of icing sugar (sifted)


Method.

1) Peel, core and roughly chop the apple and put in a sauce pan with the other 'filling' ingredients. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for 4-8 minutes until the apple is soft.

2) Leave to cool and then pull out the rosemary sprig when it is cold.

3) Put the filling in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Then add the cake batter ingredients and process to a smooth batter.

This recipe will make a cake perfect for a 1lb cake tin which has been buttered and lined. For the cake here, I doubled the ingredients and split them amongst three round cake tins. If cooking in a 1lb loaf tin then cook for approximately 50 minutes. If using round cake tins then it will take less time depending upon the diameter of your tins. The cake is cooked when it comes away a little from the edge of the tins and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

When Nigella makes her cake in a 1lb loaf tin she lays a long sprig of rosemary lengthways along the top of the cake for the oil to infuse as the cake cooks. For this more celebratory cake, I made a light rosemary/lemon sugar syrup  by gently heating 50mls of water with the sugar, lemon zest and rosemary sprigs until the sugar has disolved. I left this to cool and then fished out the rosemary. When the cakes were cold I pierced the sponges with a skewer and poured over the syrup to make a lovely moist fragrant sponge.

To make this celebratory cake, layer and cover with the cream cheese frosting as detailed above,   garnished with sprigs of rosemary and scattered with rosemary flowers.

Tulip Icecream Bowls

Whilst there are many complicated ice-cream recipes which require expensive machines or much whipping and churning you will be pleased to know that this is not one of them. 

It involved three simple ingredients and takes about fifteen minutes to make (excluding freezing time). 

The first ingredient is Tulips. 

These must be from your garden (if unsprayed) or bought organically. For eating do not buy from a supermarket, florist, garage or garden centre. This is not me trying to drum up business but a proven fact that the vast majority of cut flowers are fed or sprayed with a cocktail of pesticides and fungicides in order to prolong their shelf life. These chemical do the plants no visible harm but are most definitely not designed for human consumption and could make you very ill indeed. 

Ingredients

8 tulips

500 grammes of frozen summer fruits (I used 400 grms of raspberries & 100 grammes of blackcurrants which I froze in the summer). 

A 397grm tin of condensed milk (Just an aside - is there a reason they don't round it up to 400grms?)

Allow the fruit to defrost ever so slightly and then blitz with a hand blender to break up into a frozen slushy consistency. If you worry about these things (or are including fruit with a lot of big pips) then push through a coarse sieve at this stage to remove the worst. I generally do, as my own frozen fruit from the garden seems to usually include the odd leaf and stick as well for some reason! 

Pour in the condensed milk and mix quickly. Pop in a covered freezer proof dish and freeze for approximately one hour. After this time, do give it a quick stir but given that the fruit was already partially frozen at the start of the process and the mixture doesn't use fresh cream then there isn't the issue of big ice crystals forming at the sides of the dish to worry about and you end up with a smooth ice-cream. 

You should only need to remove this from the freezer for about 10 minutes before serving. Use a sharp knife to remove the stamens and carpel of the tulip (i.e. the inside bits which aren't petals) and cut the outer stem level with the base of the petals. What you should be left with is a ring of petals 'just' held together at the base with a slither of green stem. Tulip petals are quite stiff and in an ideal world you'd like to be able to pull on a petal and have it detach from the base so you can use it to scoop up ice-cream.  

Hold the petals open and fill the 'bowl' with the ice-cream mixture. Serve at once with a delicious floral dessert wine. You will be amazed at how sweet tulip petals taste. 

A note of caution…..

Whilst the general opinion is that all parts of tulips are edible, there is controversy about eating the tulip bulbs and care and research should be taken if you want to eat more than just the petals. (More information can be found at http://www.eattheweeds.com/tulips-famine-food-appetizer-assistant-2/. )

I should also add that in rare cases (and like with other foods) some people are allergic to tulips. So if in doubt, nibble a little bit of the petals, spit it out and wait for 30 minutes or so to see you develop any symptoms such as flushing, dizziness, rashes or feeling sick in which case avoid.

Bling or Spring? Primrose Panatonne Pudding

Primrose Panatonne Pudding

I invented this pudding for three reasons. Firstly because today heralds the start of Spring and we should not let that go without a bit of a celebration. Secondly and on a practical note, I was given a large panatonne at Christmas and need to use it up and lastly and most importantly because I am a big, big fan of alliterations!

This is a huge pudding and will easily feed 14 +. It is hard to describe other than being the very best bits of the following - danish pastry; bread and butter pud; trifle; and a truly great gateaux. It needs a very sharp knife to cut and a spoon to eat.

Best bit of all is that (except for making the primrose curd) there is no cooking involved at all so it might be one for the kiddies to have a crack at for Mothers' Day! Although perhaps leave out the booze if you are going to let the children have a slice. 

Ingredients

1 kg panettone

6 tablespoons of summer dessert wine

3 tablespoons of elderflower cordial

Primrose curd (see recipe here )

(alternatively use lemon curd or double cream or both!)

Primrose or primula flowers

Decide at this stage if you are going to make the primrose curd or use regular lemon and prepare accordingly. 

Unwrap and place the panattone on it's side and depending upon how many you are feeding, or how greedy they are, or then slice four slices of about two inch in thickness.  

Place each of these on a layer of cling film. Mix the wine and cordial together and drizzle evenly over the slices. This combination is lovely and summerly and sets off the cake beautifully but if you could also use limoncello or sherry if you prefer – or just cordial if you’d rather avoid the booze. For the ‘lid’ or top of the pudding just turn the slice upside down (ie cut side up!) and then sprinkle with the last of the liquid. You don’t want to add so much that the outer crust gets soggy so use you judgement and add any surplus to the other layers or your glass.

Place your bottom layer of cake onto your serving dish and spread a generous dollop of primrose curd onto the surface and cover with the next layer of cake. You can add seasonal berries as you go if you wish but you might well loose the subtle floral flavour if you do so. You can also swirl layers of curd with double cream. (We are nothing if not flexible in our imaginations!). Alternately layer the curd and slices until you have reconstructed the panatonne.

From here it can go one of two ways.

Spring

Simple and spring like. At this point pop in the fridge until just before you plan to eat it when you should sprinkle with icing sugar and garnish with fresh edible primroses. It goes very nicely with a good dollop of icecream as well.

Alternatively…

Bling

Go mad and create an tribute fit for Flora the goddess of Spring. This cake is so bright you will definitely need the shades. 

Cream Cheese Icing.

200 grms of butter (room temperature)

500 grms of cream cheese

200 grms of icing sugar (sifted)

2 tsp vanilla extract.

Make the cream cheese icing by beating the butter until it is smooth and pale. Then whisk in the other ingredients until they are all incorporated. Don’t over work or it can split. Completely cover the outside of the panatonne either in a rustic fashion similar to rendering a wall or  by carefully piping it. No prizes for guessing which method I  adopted. Normally I would not suggest adding your flowers too early to a cake (the very last minute is best) but primulas are fairly robust (look at the early Spring weather they sometimes have to deal with) so in fact I added these whilst the icing was still soft and bunged the whole lot in the fridge. They looked just as good two days later when Mandy who works for me snuck the remainder of the pud in her handbag and rustled it home.

Which do you prefer? Spring or bling!

Primrose curd muffins

These wee muffins are lovely and so simple to make that I, or anybody's small child, could manage without trauma or too much supervision. Having said that, they are not conventionally beautiful. The apple based primrose curd bubbles from their core like molten lava and oozes stickily and unevenly down theirs sides. Yum!

Makes 6 large muffins or 10 small so would seriously suggest doubling up the mixture as they are very moreish.

Pre heat the oven to 190c/375F/Gas mark5

Ingredients
200 grams of self raising flour
100 grams of cater sugar
1 large free range egg
5 fluid ounces of milk
3 fluid ounces of sunflower oil
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
Primrose curd  (http://maddocksfarmorganics.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/primrose-curd.html)
or failing that a really good lemon curd

For the topping
More primrose curd.
1 tablespoon of golden granulated sugar

Sieve the dried ingredients into a large bowl. Beat the 'wet' ingredients together until thoroughly mixed and add to the other ingredients. Fold together until incorporated.

Line a muffin tin with cases and spoon in the mixture to about 1/3 full. Carefully spoon a small dollop (technical term there for about 1/3 to 1/2 a teaspoon!) of curd onto the centre of this mixture. Top up the cases evenly with the remainder of the mixture.

Cook for approximately 20 minutes in the centre of the pre heated oven (just check them after 15 if you've a stinkingly good oven). Once they're golden on the top, firm to the touch and starting to ooze a little then they are done.

Remove from the oven and whilst hot brush the tops with a little extra curd and then sprinkle with a little golden granulated sugar for a bit of crunch. Best served warm which is a good thing as they rarely last long enough to get cold.

Poached Pears - puds and salads

At this time of year, if we are lucky, our ancient and wonky pear tree comes up trumps and provides us with a couple of handfuls of pears. I've no idea of the variety but they have a lovely flavour however they are inclined to be a little hard so we tend to poach them. This is a good use of the bullet pears that you can buy from the supermarket as well.

I use two different recipes for poaching pears - spiced red wine or cider. The quantities in each recipe will poach about 4 pears in a small but deep pan but the liquor doesn't reduce that much so you could always do a second batch or double it up. I use very little sugar in my poaching liquid relying on the natural sweetness of the pears and this means that the end results can be used for both sweet and savoury dishes. They can be made up to 2 days in advance if kept in the fridge.

Spiced red wine recipe:

1/2 bottle of reasonable red wine

1 star anise

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon of sugar

Cider recipe:

1 can of cider or perry

1 cinnamon stick

1 large orange cut into quarters

A vanilla pod cut lengthways in half

1 tablespoon sugar.

Peel your pears and cut off the bottom level so that they sit flat. Use a small knife to dig out the small core in the bottom. Doing this helps the pears to cook evenly. Ideally you need the pears to sit in the poaching liquid up to their stalks but you can always use a flatter pan and just keep turning them so that they cook evenly and get an even colour. You want the pears to be only 'just cooked' i.e. still firm so test them with a cocktail stick or sharp knife. I then pack my pears into a measuring jug so that they are completely covered with the poaching liquid and allow them to cool overnight in the liquid. This gives them a great flavour and colour. 

If you are planning on using the pears as part of a dessert then drain them from the poaching liquid, add another tablespoon of sugar to the liquid and cook on until you have reduced the liquid by half so that it is thick and syrupy. If you are using them in a savoury dish them freeze the liquid as it has a wonderful flavour and can be added to your mulled wine or cider at Christmas. 

The sweet pears can be served warm or cold with the syrup, here decorated with spices and mallow petals and are they also great with a wonderful dollop of good quality vanilla ice-cream. 

Pears also have a wonderful affinity with blue cheese and make a wonderful addition to a salad. Here we've used the classic combination of our lovely Maddocks Farm Treviso chicory (which balances the sweetness of the pears and richness of the cheese) spicy mustard and watercress; blue cheese; walnuts and olives. We've decorated it with pansy petals and radish flowers. 

Both recipes  take full advantage of lovely seasonal produce so enjoy!