Father's Day Pickles

Father's Day on the food blogging expanse annoys me. That double chocolate Guinness caramel truffle cake can just go away.

Whilst, I would love a slice of that double chocolate Guinness caramel truffle cake, my dad (well, his diabetes) wouldn't. Which can leave you in a mix when it comes to gifts. Cake and whiskey are pretty much blacklisted.

Pickles aren't. Dads love pickles. I've bookmarked that double chocolate Guinness caramel truffle cake for my birthday anyway

Makes 1 x 500ml jar

Ingredients

Vegetables
2 medium sized carrots, peeled, trimmed, and cut into long strips.
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1/2 small onion, finely sliced
5 thin asparagus spears, trimmed and cut in half
Small handful of fresh cauliflower florets, separated
Couple of sprigs of parsley and dill (optional)

Pickling Liquid
250ml white wine vinegar
200ml water
3tbsp sugar (I used a sugar replacement)
1/2tsp salt
Small pinch of coriander seeds, caraway seeds, fennel seeds and a few peppercorns.
1/2 bay leaf

Method

1, Sterilise a 500ml preserving jar and set to one side.
2, Prepare all your vegetables fully and rinse well.
3, Simmer the pickling liquid ingredients together for a few minutes and then add in all the prepared vegetables except the fresh herbs. Simmer these gently for a couple of minutes.
4, Strain the ingredients, retaking the pickling liquid and blanch in ice cold wage to retain greenness and crunchiness.
5, Return the pickling liquid back to heat and bring up to the boil.
6, Pack the blanched vegetables into the jar as tightly as you can. Snuggle the fresh herbs down in there too.
7, Pour the hot pickling liquid into the jar and full to the brim. Attach the lid.

These will be ready to eat in a couple of hours but best if kept overnight.

Banana Split Jars

It's that time of year again. Shake out that tartan blanket. Check your stock of Tupperware. Up to the loft to find the picnic hamper. Get ready to wiggle your toes in the sand and brush grass off your sandals.

It's picnic season.

This year I'm on a mission to banish soggy sandwiches and flabby quiche, to make picnic food glamourous. And I had a little help with these Banana Split Jars from Fruitdrop.

Like the ever popular veg box schemes, Fruitdrop want to make our workplaces healthier. My office has just moved a bit deeper into the city and it annoys me that its easier to grabs bags of crisps, chocolate and sweets than it is to find fruit. I'm hugely guilty of snaffing Malteasers at my desk but for the past week and a bit, I've had a stash of delicious fruit that make me feel like a snack saint with a Fruitdrop office fruit box

These banana split jars are the perfect way of using up just ripe bananas and strawberries. Here's how I did it...

Ingredients

Makes four servings

200ml of double cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
1tbsp icing sugar

150gr Madeira cake (or another firm sponge)

2 firm bananas
125gr strawberries
Splash for orange juice


Chocolate covered cocoa nibs or grated chocolate
Glacé cherries

Method

1, Whip the cream, vanilla and icing sugar together to medium soft peaks. Transfer this into a piping bag.
2, Cut up the Madeira cake and slice the strawberries and bananas. If your not going to eat the jars straight away, toss the banana slices in a little orange juice to stop them browning.
3, In freshly washed jars, layer up your bananas, strawberries, cake and whipped cream.
4, Top with the chocolate covered cocoa nibs and a glacé cherry.
5, Firmly affix the lid and you're ready to picnic.

Storage
Fresh cream. We don't want that laying in the sun for too long. I refrigerated mine before packing in a cool bag with an ice pack for transportation.

Disclosure
I received a Fruitdrop box of fruit and compensation for my time and ingredients. My photos, recipe and views expressed are my own.

Seven on Sunday: 09.06.13

Goodbye Temple

Strawberry Jelly Bowls

Jelly and ice cream.

You hurtle me back to floral dresses, plastic barrette hair clips, lace ankle socks with sandals, pass the parcel, and plastic party bags filled with flat lollies and squashed slices of cake wrapped in napkins. Multicoloured fondant monoliths to match the multicoloured balloons pinned on the door. Plastic bowls filled with crisps. Top lip staining cherryade. Cotton Eyed Joe and the Macarena.

Jelly and ice cream; the staple of any party of my childhood.

It had to be strawberry jelly. Occasionally, tinned fruit salad imprisoned in its wobbly, glossy walls. It had to be vanilla ice cream. Further toppings are eyed with suspicion although sprinkles were just about permitted.

I'm entering these into Kavey Eats Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream Edible Containers challenge. You can read all about BSFIC and how to enter here.

Makes six jelly bowls

Ingredients
500gr hulled strawberries plus six slices of strawberry (cut horizontally through the fruit, approximately half a centimetre thick. Place these onto some kitchen towel to absorb some of their juice.)
300ml cold prepared fruit cordial or flat fruit cider (possibly plus extra, see below)
Caster sugar
2 sachets Dr Oetker powdered gelatine (around 23gr)

Vanilla ice cream to serve.

You will also need
A six hole muffin tin
Six small silicone dariole moulds

Method
1, Place the hulled strawberries and a little splash of water in a medium saucepan and set over a medium heat. You need to gently simmer them until they breakdown completely. They will release a lot of liquid.
2, Push the cooked strawberries through a sieve into a large measuring jug. You need to top this up to full pint with the fruit cordial or cider. Taste and add sugar if necessary.
3, Measure out 240ml and put back into the saucepan. Bring up to a gentle simmer and remove from the heat. Whisking constantly, sprinkle the gelatine over this warmed liquid.
4, Carry on whisking until the gelatine has dissolved completely. Mix this with the rest of the fruity liquid.

5, Place a slice of strawberry into each hole of a six hole muffin tin. Divide the liquid jelly between each of the holes.
6, Take six silicone dariole moulds and fill half way with water. You need to place one of the filled dariole moulds into the centre of the muffin tin. It needs to rest on the slice of strawberry so it doesn't touch the bottom. Try and get it as dead centre as possible. If they slope off to the side, when you unmould them, they won't hold their shape and will split apart.
7, Place in the fridge until set.
8, When the jelly has set completely, empty the water out of each of the dariole moulds and one by one fill with a little hot water and gently twist and remove the mould.
9, Next, sprinkle a little water onto a large flat tray or pastry board and invert the muffin tin onto it. Using a mini blowtorch, gently heat the muffin holes one by one, until you can work the jelly out. By dampening the board, it makes them easier to manoeuvre around.
10, Handling them carefully, turn them up the right way. Fill with ice cream and serve immediately.

We Should Cocoa: Mango Rice Crispy Cakes

This month's We Should Cocoa mango challenge is hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. Last month's honey round up can be found here. Don't forget to check out Choclette and Chele's blogs.

I bought the most photogenic mango in the world. It was perfect. Green skin, flushed with pink, red and amber hues.

It was the ridiculously photogenic guy of the mango world.

It was also perfectly ripe, sweet, juicy, and had that floral perfume reserved purely for mangoes.

I dreamed of chocolate whoopie pies with sweet, tangy mango curd. I made curd. It was awful. Truly terrible. Genuine bleurgh. Shudder.

It was kind of a kick. A trusted website, the perfect mango, icky curd.

So, like the adult I am, I sulked. Pulled marshmallows, rice crisps, dried mango and chocolate out the cupboard and made the ultimate no bake comfort food.

Basic recipe adapted from here

Ingredients
40gr unsalted butter
325gr white marshmallows
Small pinch of salt
180gr rice crispies
75gr dried mango, chopped into small pieces or strips
30gr dark chocolate

Method
1, In a large saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat and add in the marshmallows.
2, Continue to stir over the low heat until marshmallows have fully melted.
3, Remove from the heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the dark chocolate.
4, When everything is fully combined press firmly into a 30cm by 19cm tin that has been lined with cling film and greased with a flavourless oil.
5, Leave to cool and set.
6, Melt the chocolate and drizzle over the top. Chill until the chocolate has set and cut into squares.