Silver Spoon Plant Markers

Image from Shrimp Salad Circus

So there I was, enthusing about herbs when I happened across this amazing how-to for character-full plant markers. I love the idea of using old utensils to mark out plants that will eventually end up in the kitchen and then on your plate.

I’m something of a hoarder by nature, which probably drives The Boy crazy. I do my best to keep it under control and I’m much better than I used to be. I think this is something to do with the terror of moving in with someone and realising that they’re going to see how many boxes you bring through the front door. They have to live with your junk (as well as any emotional baggage you’re carting around) and you with theirs. It might also be something to do with the fact that I’ve moved at least four times in the last five years and lived out of a suitcase for around six months of that. It certainly teaches you something about travelling and living light...

Anyway, on seeing this, my hoarder tendencies have been whispering to me; encouraging me to buy up antique spoons from ebay and to make a little trip to our local charity shops in search of unusual cutlery. Surely one or two spoons or a funky spork wouldn’t hurt, says the little voice. But no. I’ll be good (I can hear The Boy breathing a sigh of relief).

Still, if you have the space, time and ability, why not make a few of these beautiful markers? A treat for the eyes and reusable too. And while you’re at it, be a doll and make me some too?

If you don’t have the space, time or ability (or maybe you don’t have the equipment or inclination), you can recycle your old butter or ice cream tubs that aren’t being used for growing herb seedlings. They can easily be turned into simple but effective plant markers that can be cut, labelled and put to good use in less than five minutes flat.

Simply wash out your old tub with warm soapy water and dry. Then cut out as many long strips of plastic as you need – I’d recommend making them at least 1cm wide so that they’re easy to write on but go as creative as you like. The top moulded edge makes an ideal top to the marker as the cut plastic can sometimes be a little sharp. Don’t forget to cut a point into the bottom of the strip for easy insertion into the soil.

One side will have the butter or ice cream branding or packaging colours on but if you turn it over and voila! You’ll have a nice white or cream blank canvas to write on. Use a permanent marker to mark on your plant names then just place in your pot and get growing. You can even reuse your marker when you’ve planted out your seedlings or eaten your herbs by removing the writing with a plastic scouring pad. Super thrifty recycling!

Desert Island Herbs

I was perusing my usual culinary sources today and came across this lovely article by Alys Fowler. In it, she ponders what she would grow if she didn't have a garden - her desert island plants, as it were. This sparked my interest as I've had to come at it from the opposite angle - namely, "I don't have a garden so what can I grow?"

Both of us, it seems, have decided that we can't live without the wonders that are herbs. For Alys, the essentials are mint, coriander and lemon thyme. These are a great resource when it comes to Mediterranean and Eastern cooking; the scent of lemon thyme and mint remind me of Greek holidays while fresh and dried coriander feature in all of my Indian curries and oriental dishes.

My driveway garden lives in pots and includes a motley crew of rosemary, sage and thyme as well as a tub of lemongrass (transplanted from a colleagues garden for tea) and a few sprigs of parsley that have lived on through the winter. My window sills are currently home to basil and oregano seedlings as well as some baby lettuces (another present from a colleague). Next on my list are:

- mint: wonderful in a warm aubergine salad, a perfect pairing with roasted lamb and essential in tzaziki.

- coriander: fantastic on chilli con carne, brilliant blitzed into guacamole and delicious in dhal.

- tarragon: tasty in a sauce for chicken, marvellous when paired with mushrooms and a scrumptious flavour with salmon.

- dill: fabulous with fish, rather lovely in ratatouille and stirred into a herb mayonnaise.

With herbs on my mind, I happened upon an advert in a cookery magazine which hit the mark. The image above is from a Lurpak advert. "Kings of the Kitchen", how apt! Turns out that Lurpak are giving away seeds with packs of Lurpak spreadable. Whether you like their margarine or not, their website gives some great information on growing and cooking herbs. How about keeping your old margarine or yoghurt tubs, popping a few holes in the bottom and filling it with compost to grow your herbs in?

Deconstructed Fish Pie

The Boy and I are currently digging ourselves out of a hole. We have a problem but we’re working our way through it. The truth is... we have a glut of potatoes. This is partly thanks to my dear father who is a talented and enthusiastic home-grower. He doesn’t just grow vegetables; he grows crops. Where a typical gardener might grow three tomato plants, he grows twenty and deals with the consequences of his massive stockpile later (when they ripen). Being the generous man that he is, I will often come away from a visit to see my parents with my tummy full of tea and my arms full of the latest harvest. This week, it was potatoes which were added to our already bulging potato larder.

Funnily enough, the boy and I don’t eat that much potato. I suppose I see it as a winter staple – comfort food which fills and warms you in one hearty mouthful. Truth be told, I lean towards rice and pasta when I think of carbohydrates as they tend to suit my style of cooking more. Plus, the hot weather that we’ve been afforded of late hasn’t exactly had me reaching for my masher. Belated April showers are now returning to the UK so I have no excuse not to tackle our potato mountain. My mind is full of recipes and ideas for soups, bakes and other potato-based creations like gnocchi. You can expect a bit of a theme from my blog for the next week or so!

Last night, I fancied fish for dinner and with my latest obsession, I immediately thought of fish pie. Hunks of delicious fish and seafood in a thick, creamy sauce nestled below fluffy but crispy topped mash. Glorious food but rather time consuming when you take the whole process into account. So instead, I went for a quicker option which includes many of the traditional classic features but can be thrown together in a fraction of the time.

‘Deconstructed’ Quick Fish Pie
or Poached Smoked Haddock with prawns and mustard mash
Serves two

1 large fillet of smoked haddock, skin on
100g shell-on cooked prawns
3 floury potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
5 peppercorns
100ml semi-skimmed milk
50ml dry white vermouth
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp whole-grain mustard

- Boil the potatoes for 20 – 25 minutes or until tender.
- Meanwhile, shell the prawns. Put the prawns on one side and place the shells in a large saucepan with the bay leaf and peppercorns. Cover with the milk and vermouth. Add the haddock fillet skin-side down and top up with a little cold water until it is covered by the liquor.
- When the potatoes are almost tender, put the haddock onto a medium heat and gently simmer for around 5 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes through a colander then place back in the pan and mash until they become a little dry. Add the butter and mash again.
- Check the haddock by removing with a slotted spoon. If it is nicely flakey and hot all the way through, remove from the poaching liquor and put on one side.
- Drain the poaching liquor through a sieve and add 1 tbsp of it to loosen the mash. Stir the mash vigorously and add more liquor if necessary. Add the mustard and stir in with a spoon.
- Carefully peel the skin from the haddock.
- To serve, place a dollop of mash onto the plate and top with the haddock then a few prawns. Pour a little of the poaching liquor over if you wish. Serve with seasonal vegetables.

The portion might look a little small but we had a few scallops each to start. Again, I kept it simple by frying finely chopped chorizo until it oozed spicy oils and then added the scallops to fry for a few minutes on each side. Once they were done, I took them out and added a splash of balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice to make a sauce to serve.

I then used the same plan to flash fry some blanched asparagus that we had with the haddock which infused it with a lovely flavour.

There’s no rest for the wicked - I’m off to make gnocchi and a leek and potato soup with the last of the poaching liquor!

Goodies in the garden

Baby beef tomatoes

I might not have acres of fresh top soil at my disposal but when I tire of the limitations of my potted vegetable garden, I escape to my parent's garden. That, or my parents-in-love's vegetable patch. My own parent's back garden has become home to a feast of veggies including a forest of tomato plants. I forget the exact story but I think they planted lots of seeds, expecting about half to germinate. And then bought some seedlings from the local garden centre. Then, of course, all of their own seed offerings sprouted! Tomatoes are like buses.

They have a copse of towering tomato plants gradually taking over the bottom of the garden with their spindly leaves and their rapidly swelling fruits. But my parents haven't stopped there. The tomatoes are taking over. They've dotted tomato plants around the garden. They've also been growing lettuces in the flower bed nearest the house which, of course, makes complete sense - the closer the produce, the fresher it is in your bowl! Their lettuces have been in salads all summer and the tomatoes should be ripening soon if the sunshine comes back. Fingers crossed!

Fresh home-grown beetroots

While wandering around their other vegetable beds, I found some deliciously ripe beetroots, prime for the picking. As well as fixing my broken blue-screening computer (thanks Dad!), they kindly gave me a small bunch to take home. I can't wait to cook these beauties!

Caught the Grow-bug

My brilliant basil

One good thing leads to another. With my basil coming on strong, my mind has turned to more crops to fill out my windowsill garden. But what to try next? I absolutely adore homegrown tomatoes fresh off the vine but we don't really have the vertical space. Salad leaves, I pondered. Now that might have potential. Always delicious when they are at their freshest and crispist but I've found that homegrown lettuce tends to be quite bitter. Then it occured to me... Rocket! Fab peppery taste with none of the bitterness and ideal for bunging in my commuter lunchbox!

Look at it go!

As before, I sowed a few seeds and settled back, with a cuppa, to await the first promising shoots come forth. A few weeks alter, I have teensy plants that are, I think, recognisable as rocket. They're about 5cm high and really shooting up. I'm already dreaming of the rocket, avocado and bacon salads to come. Meanwhile, my basil is really looking good.

Sweet basil

Herbidacious!

Parsley the Lion from The Herbs

Since I've had my very own kitchen (shared with The Boy and, if they're lucky, a few carefully chosen friends), I have been revelling in the freedom of it. No flat mates, strangers or landlords to poke through my cupboards and peruse my fridge shelf. Once we were well and truly settled, one of the first personal touches I intended to make was to place a few cheerful pots of fresh herbs on the windowsill. Although I have a larder full of dried herbs and spices (with one or two bay leaves snaffled from my parents garden), I have longed to have fresh basil, rosemary and thyme at my disposal. Fresh herbs, to me, brim of promise and inspire me to try new flavour combinations; I day-dreamed of fist-fuls of basil whizzed into homemade pesto and bunches of thyme stuffed into casseroles.

First stop in fulfilling my herbaceous dreams was the fresh produce aisle of the supermarket. Away we scurried holding our first pot aloft. But alas, my revelry was short-lived because it promptly died despite following my Mum's advice to re-pot it immediately (because they are always sold in pots far too small for them). Deflated I did some research. It seems that supermarket herbs are doomed from the start; they're grown in hot houses to force lots of visible growth which means that while they're bushy above ground, their root-balls don't develop so they die very quickly. They're literally all fur coat and no knickers, which is fine if you're planning to use an entire plant in one go but not suitable for my windowsill garden. So, it seemed supermarket herbs weren't the way to go but garden centre plants don't seem to be much better in my experience - I bought a basil plant from my local a few years ago and it perished from aphid attack within days (despite being kept inside!).
One way that I found as a temporary work-around for the fresh-or-dried issue is to buy up discounted packet fresh herbs when they're about to go all wilty and freeze them in their original cellophane. It doesn't solve my basil cravings but is an easy way to add fresh taste to recipes - simply snip off whatever you need and then pop back in the freezer for next time.
I was in Wilkenson's one day and spotted basil seeds. Growing my own hadn't occurred to me before but getting the seeds, compost and pot for a mere 80p (on offer), I thought I'd give it a go. I wasn't sure if the whole thing would be a complete flop but actually, it's been remarkably easy.

My tender seedlings

So far, so good. All you need do is fill a pot with compost, make a little whole with a finger, pop in your seeds (for basil, put in about half a dozen), pat the soil flat and water. Then stretch some clingfilm over the top to create a microclimate that will encourage them to germinate or use a small germination tray. When they start to get a bit big, pot them up into bigger pots. Whatever whenever the soil gets dry but don't over water. The Boy will vouch for how attached I've grown to my little plants. I've read that I should start to pinch out the new growth but I can't bring myself to! Buoyed by the extent of my success, I've planted rocket seeds in the hope of tucking into my very own home-grown salad sometime soon but my mind is running wild with the possibilities - sage and strawberries grown in pots in the sitting room? Carrots in the carport? Blueberries in the bedroom?

My basil plants, growing strong