Burts Crisps - Firecracker Crisp Sandwich - yummy

Burts Crisps are really good - they are made in Devon and I like them a little bit too much.  They always seem to feature somewhere in my lunch.  I really like the sea salt and vinegar ones, and if I am in a meaty mood, I like the Spicy Chorizo and Devon Roast Beef flavours.  The Sea Salt ones are good too, but I prefer the flavours.

Burts want to encourage us this summer to have crisp sandwiches - I do not need any encouragement as I enjoy then anyway.  This is my favourite one using the Firecracker Lobster flavour:

You need the following, this is their 'recipe' but of course I tweaked it a little:

2 bags of Burts Lobster Firecracker crisps

150g cooked prawns

50g chopped sundried tomatoes

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon tomato ketchup

small squeeze lemon juice

2 handfuls of rocket leaves

10g butter

4 slices soft white bread

I do not like mayo, so I omitted the mayo and ketchup.  I'm guessing that if they were used - they could be utilised as 'butter' on both sides of the bread.

I also had plenty of salad left over from the previous evening (Romaine, cress, cucumber, beansprouts, grated carrot) and used that rather than rocket.

Also I used 1 packet rather than 2 packets of crisps.  But the bread was on the smaller side of things.  I think I would use 2 packets if I was using regular bread.

Here's the bread (only buttered on one side) plus salad and sundried tomatoes:

 Then prawns and some crisps...

....and more crisps....

It was scrumptious and easy to put together and made me and my daughter a very good lunch - I can imagine having this on a beach for a picnic lunch - but we ate them in my back garden

It tasted so good and I had a look at the ingredients and it says that actual 'lobster powder' is used (no unnatural flavours there) and the colourings were just paprika and South Devon Chilli Farm chilli.  The South Devon Chilli Jam is a firm favourite with me and I always keep a pot in my fridge.

  OK so crisps aren't the healthiest of foods, but if they're part of a meal, contain natural ingredients, taste delicious, and come from Devon - fair enough!

Langage Farm Clotted Cream - Devon's Best

These pictures don't really need any additional description!  

One of my favourite things to eat: chocolate brownies made by my daughter (she is 13 and already a great cook) using the River Cottage recipe, no nuts for us, and then glammed up with some local raspberries and a mountain of Devon Langage Farm Clotted Cream and served in a vintage glass sundae dish from Antiques Ad Hoc in Ashburton. Perfectly delicious.  And a great treat to serve some visiting members of the family at the weekend.

Quickjars Jam Jars - Handy at this time of year!

I used these great jars from Quickjars.  I have to say they were well packaged and so spanking new - it was lovely to pot up some compote into brand new jars rather than some hastily washed ones that I have been keeping.  So far, they have served me well and I still have masses to use.

Autumn is approaching and my veggie patch is telling me that it is now time to make jams and chutneys.  I made my first JAM of the year with some amazing plums that some visitors brought from their garden in Cheshunt. Thanks to C and S!  They were delicious just to eat but they brought me kilograms so I had to make JAM.

 Only........it didn't set.  I used the Pam Corbin recipe from the River Cottage Preserves book - I know my daughter used it last year and the jam did not set.  You need to boil it for longer than it says I think as this is not at all set.  Not even remotely, so it has now been renamed Plum Compote.  It is delicious on ice cream and last night we had roast apricots, mascarpone and a splash of the compote.  It was amazing and I wouldn't have ever thought of using runny jam.

There were still some plums left over so I made three plum cakes from a random web recipe that I can no longer find.  It contained ground almonds (but only 50g) and plenty of plums.  The large cake needed at least ten minutes longer to bake and it was still a bit gooey inside - but we really don't mind this!

I was given the jars free of charge from Quickjars but I was free to write anything I liked and use them as I wished

Hugh Recipe Booklets Free this Weekend..7-8 July 2012

I am a big fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his commitment to ethical, simple, local food (plus he's based in Devon, just about).  This is a bit of a heads up as there are going to be two free booklets this Sat and Sun (7 and 8 July 2012) with The Telegraph containing 40 recipes from his River Cottage Veg Every Day book.

I have bought the book for my veggie sister but I haven't committed to it myself, possibly due to the fact that my two huge shelves of cookbooks are groaning and it's now a matter of 'one in one out'.  Two small booklets should fit in nicely.

Find out more and preview recipes at telegraph.co.uk/vegeveryday

Last of the Blackberries - A Simple Jamie Oliver Recipe for Blackberry Tart

I reckon the blackberries are almost over in Devon.  There were still plenty on the bushes in Lustleigh today, but plenty of them were turning to mush in our purple-stained fingers.  There were a shameful amount of unpicked mouldy ones too.   Why doesn't everyone go brambling?  Maybe the walkers and residents in Lustleigh have had their fill.

In folklore, it is deemed unlucky to pick blackberries after September 29th, otherwise the devil has spat on them, so I guess we made a lucky escape today.

I made this:

 It's from Jamie Oliver's Italy and its Italian name is Torta di More and the full recipe is on his website here.

I cheated and used a pre-made all butter pastry case from Sainsbury's.  I'm totally useless with 'neat and tidy' pastry, so these cases are a godsend and magically keep for ages in your larder without any preservatives. Must be huge quantities of salt and sugar in them, or just Sainsbury pixie dust.

Then basically, you just whisk together in one go:

500g mascarpone,
3-4 tablespoonfuls of caster sugar,
the inside seeds of a vanilla pod,
100ml cream (supposed to be single, I used double)
a couple of tbsp of vino santo, grappa or other sweet liqueur.

Place that creamy mixture in the pastry case, sprinkle on some blackberries and then dob a few droplets of melted blackberry jam onto the fruit to make them sweet and sparkly.



My son said that there was far too much cream and he picked off all the berries (not much of a success for him then) but the rest of the family tucked in.  Delicious, and seasonal (just).

By the way, if you're ever near Lustleigh, try the Primrose Tea Rooms, a wonderful friendly place run by a mother and daughter team where I had a slice of fresh, light lemon drizzle cake for 80p.

This blog post has been entered in the Simple and in Season Blogging Event: http://www.renbehan.com/2011/09/simple-and-in-season-september-blogging-event.html

Two 11 Year Olds Play with the Hummingbird Cafe Cookbook

My 11 year old daughter and her friend wanted to make something from the Hummingbird Cafe Cookbook.  We had all the ingredients for the raspberry cheesecake brownies.  Including wonderful local, Devon raspberries from our local farm, Shute Fruit.  I was getting our house ready for some guests who were coming to stay, so just let them get on with it in the kitchen.  I was rather impressed when two hours later (including a bit of refrigeration time), they presented me with the finished product:

The recipe is fairly simple, but does involve three layers so I was impressed.  The chocolate brownie and vanilla cheesecake layers are baked together in the oven and then when cool, smothered with pink creamy muck muck.

I made it again today as a treat for my daughter as she started Secondary School today.  It's simple and very fattening, but delicious.  I recommend halving the quantities if you just want to feed 4-6 people.  The original version is enormous and serves 12.  Also, where the recipe says to beat the cream, sugar and raspberries together for the wonderful pink shaving foam topping, it's best to whip the cream lightly, then add the sugar and raspberries, otherwise the mixture won't thicken.

I've never been lucky enough to visit the actual Hummingbird Cafe in London, but we've made a couple of things from the cookbook - other notable favourites are: the vanilla cupcakes, and the double chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate, Rosemary and Olive Oil Cake - The Jury's Out

I cribbed this recipe from this lovely blog:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/rosemary-olive-oil-cake-recipe.html

The full recipe is on her site, and I won't repeat it here.  It's adapted from a recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce.

This cake has no butter (or marg), just olive oil and has plenty of chopped nuggets of dark chocolate and a good smattering of finely chopped rosemary.  The top is crisp, crunchy and sugared like a muffin.  I cooked it for a friend who came for lunch and we both loved it, it's unusual but good.  There is a savoury note to the cake (rather like focaccia) but in a good way.

Then I sliced some for my family.  My son refused point blank to have anything to do with a herby cake.  My daughter tried a few tastes and left the rest (it had chocolate in it, for goodness sake, she must have hated it) and my husband's comment was classic.  "It's an anti-cake.  You take a bite of it and it makes you never want to eat any more cake again.  Ever.  It puts you off cake."  Charming!

So, I saved a few slices for myself and gave the rest to my friend and her family - all three of them love it (or are being very polite!).  The jury's out 4 people love it, 3 people loathe it.  What do you think?