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Pickled Patty Pan

honeyanddough

September 23, 2015

There are a couple of weeks every year that I savour and take full advantage of. It’s not a holiday (per se) or a special family occasion. It’s two weeks when I get to raid my parent’s vegetable garden. When they go on holiday, they ask me to pop in and feed the cats/get the post/flick lights on an off/check the locks etc.

And they always say “feel free to help yourself to anything growing in the garden” and then my dad will list off what will be ready. This year, I’ve gorged on ball courgettes and patty pan squashes.

If you were one of my parents’ neighbours, you would have seen me gleefully skipping down the thin path down the middle of their vegetable patch like this:

The latter are a variety of summer squash with thick frilled edge. The variety my dad grew were violently yellow and had a thin edible skin that makes prep and eating quick and easy. I roasted the big ones whole and stuffed them with wild boar sausage, torn sourdough bread and crispy sage leaves (sage leaves I also purloined from their garden…). The middle size ones were sliced, dusted in flour and fried. The little ones were quartered, and pickled.

I don’t have an exact recipe for this. Bear with me.

I use a quick pickling method for these little champs. I make a hot pickling liquid of 500ml water and 500ml white wine vinegar with 2tbsp salt which I bring up to a boil with half a teaspoon of chilli flakes, coriander seeds and mixed peppercorns. I washed the squash really well in warm water before quartering them and placing them in preserving jars and poured over the hot pickling liquid, making sure the squash is completely covered. Seal the jars whilst still hot and leave out until they cool completely. Store in the fridge and they will be good to go in two to three days.

East Malling Beer Festival

honeyanddough

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September 10, 2015

(It’s good to have a “go team” hands in before a beer festival)

#fdbloggers Get to Know

honeyanddough

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September 7, 2015

Thank you to Emily of Emily’s Recipes & Reviews for tagging me in the #fdbloggers get to know. The food blogging community is ever growing and expanding with new faces, new sites, new ideas and new experiences, and I’m proper looking forward to getting to know more people a bit better.

Name: Hannah

Blog: Honey & Dough

What was your reason for starting a blog?

In 2009, I was turning my house upside down trying to find a recipe that was written on the back of a piece of wrapping paper. I’m not known for my organisational skills when it comes to recipes. I decided to try and get my shit together by posting them on a blog (aka, something easily searchable) I didn’t expect anyone to read it, I didn’t know that I would meet some A-class people along the way, and I didn’t think I’d still be at it years later.

What’s the dish you’re most proud of?

Hands down – Pizza Cake. Pizza Cake is more than just a cake made of pizza; it’s a bona fide lifestlye choice. One that we should all consciously choose to make.

What one kitchen utensil could you not live without?

Whilst I deeply love Rosie, my KitchenAid, it has to be the humble silicone spatula. Good for folding and mixing, scraping, and flipping omelettes.

You’re stranded on a desert island. What three ingredients do you take with you?

Eggs – Rather impractical but eggs are pretty much life. Honey – don’t think I could live without honey. Black pepper – saviour of any savoury dish. (I’d DIY my own sea salt, obvs. I’m one of those people…)

Who do you take inspiration from?

Other bloggers are an ever changing source of inspiration, especially when they use ingredients in a 100% different way to which you would. I love seeing people use a recipe but saying “I added this in” or “I swapped this ingredient in”.

(Also, I don’t start studying again for another month so I have been playing a butt ton of Elder Scrolls online which involves “provisioning” food and drinks, using recipes. Fermented treacle tea and ginger chai = inspiration. If anyone wants to come and hang out with me whilst playing, drop me a tweet and we can meet up to go smack some shit up)

Your favourite social platform?

Instagram. I love the “behind the scenes” nature of it. I post photos and updates about what I’m eating, doing, seeing, thinking and none of that would be featured on my blog, and I really like seeing other people’s lives in the same way. (I’m nosey as fuck and do want to know what you put in your breakfast smoothie, what your new running shoes are like and your new hand cream). Also, nothing can make you feel better like searching the #kittensofinstagram hashtag.

Biggest disaster in the kitchen?

Eesh. I made a big layered lemon cake once. I stacked the three layers of lemon sponge cake with lemon curd and buttercream; but I hadn’t let the cake cool properly. The layers effectively slid off each other, straight off the worktop and onto the floor. Bad cake times. Cool yo cakes.

Favourite spot for coffee?

At weekends: Fortify Cafe. They’ve just gone full vegan (they used to be a vegetarian cafe) and is well worth a punt for a good post gym coffee.

During the week: Knockbox Coffee on Lamb’s Conduit Street. It’s the perfect distance for a lunch time walk for caffeine. Also, their red velvet cake is lush.

Favourite food photo you’ve taken?

It’s actually quite an old macaron photo from my previous blog. Nothing too fancy or flashy. No props. Just the best macarons I’ve ever made.

What would you say was your most successful blog post and why?

In terms of hits, it was my Coconut Rum Marshmallows. Summer in a marshmallow.

Now nominate three food bloggers you’d like to get to know more.

Flick at They Called It The Diamond Blog

Jenna at Raw Rhubarb

Christina at Scaredy Cat Kitchen

Grey & White Shell Stitch Blanket

honeyanddough

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August 25, 2015

I start craft projects and then don’t finish them. I currently have the following on the go: A cross stitch, a giant granny ripple stitch crochet blanket, I have pictures to frame and furniture to paint.

But there is one thing that will motivate me to finish a craft project. And that is the prospect of a new nephew.

And he is here and he is incredibly beautiful.

I used three skeins each of a thick grey and a thick off white Women’s Institute Wool I picked up from Hobbycraft. I used this tutorial. The pattern is really easy once you get going and works up very quickly. It took me about a weekend to finish then a couple more hours to sew in the ends, wash and block.

Banana Rolls

honeyanddough

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August 9, 2015

As soon as I finished my exam and studies this year, I breathed one massive deep breath out and my little heart sang out “Nice one! You got all summer off! Let’s think about all the awesome things we can do”.

Oh. I had plans.

I was going to read all the books. Not feel guilty about playing Animal Crossing on the train (no, YOU’RE a seven year old girl). I was going to get back into running and yoga and all the good things. Go to spin class every weekend and have leisurely weekend breakfasts. I was going to write a thousand blog posts.

I have failed.

Not massively. But let’s just say I 100%-ed Lego Jurassic Park on the Xbox *very* quickly, deepened my relationship with Netflix, and ate a lot of crisps.

I think I thought my “work load” would drop off but instead I’ve been busier than ever during the week and failing even harder at the weekend.

Take these banana rolls for instance. I saw the pack of dried bananas thinking “I know what to do with these and I’ll do that thing at the weekend so I’ll buy them and take the photos and edit them and write a blog post”. Instead, I left them on my desk for two weeks.

Buttery fig-roll esque rolls filled with dried banana paste.

Ingredients

Banana Filling

250gr pack of dried banana, chopped
Small pinch of salt

Water

Biscuit Dough

250gr plain flour

170gr cold butter

70gr caster sugar

2 egg yolks

Tiny pinch of salt

1, First get your banana filling on the go. This needs to be cold when you use it and can take a little while to cook down

2, Put the chopped dried banana into a medium saucepan over a low heat. Add a couple of large splashes of water and put on the lid. You’ll need to simmer these really gently until soft. You might need to add more water but don’t be tempted to drown them. I smooshed mine about with the back of a wooden spoon a bit to break it down.

3, When the banana is soft, blend in a food processor. Return them to the pan, and over a low heat, cook until you have a thick paste consistency. Remove from the heat, transfer to a small bowl and leave to cool completely.

4, To make the biscuit dough, sift the flour into a large bowl, cut up the cold butter and rub together with your fingertips until you have a lumpy bread crumb type consistency.

5, Stir through the sugar and then add in the egg yolks. If the dough is sticky at this point, add bits of flour until it stops being sticky. Bring the dough together using your hands and flatten into a disc before wrapping in clingfilm and sticking in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

6, When you have chilled biscuit dough and cold fillling, dust your worktop with flour and roll the biscuit dough out to a rectangle which is roughly 15 cm by 40cm Cut down the middle of the dough so you have two long strips. Add half the fig mixture to each dough strip by spooning it, just off centre, down the dough strip.

7, Fold the edges of the biscuit dough around the fig mixture. I rolled mine over slightly so the join was on the bottom. You should now have two logs. Flatten these slightly and cut these into 4-5cm sections and place on a lined baking tray.

8, Bake these in a preheated oven at 190o/c for 20-25minutes until gold brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack before eating.