The Wall

The Beginning.
I was asked to paint a mural for a primary school so here's the progress so far!

Oriental Rhubarb Chutney

With a present of some home grown stalks of rhubarb and not a lot else in the house I set to work making some jam. It turned out a little spicier than I intended and is probably more aptly named Oriental Rhubarb Chutney than jam!

Ingredients:
1 lb rhubarb
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
Juice of 2 limes
A few pieces of sushi ginger
2 handfuls of raisins
1 cup water
1 cup caster sugar

Put all the ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil. Then simmer away until everything is nice and squishy and the liquid has reduced down to a syrup.

Pour into sterilised jars, leave to cool and then cover. I put mine into small jars to give to people as presents! It makes about 3 small jars, or one regular jam jar, so you might need to double up the mixture if you want to make a big batch.

Good with crackers and cheese or maybe as a dip on the side of some spicy food!

Sushi and Onigiri

Last summer I went to Japan with two friends and a year later we were still talking about these things we dubbed "yellow chickens" so we decided to recreate them! What we were actually talking about were Onigiri: balls/triangles of sushi rice with different fillings. Our favourite were a kind of chicken curry which we often ate for breakfast in the absence of cereal. Odd, delicious, and probably more lunch-appropriate.

To make them, simply shred some cooked chicken and add curry powder or spices and mix with sushi rice (prepared as instructed on the box). Then shape them and wrap some nori (seaweed) around them if you like. Best served with soy sauce, wasabi and sushi ginger.

We also made some maki sushi with peppers and some miso soup to make a meal out of this.

Green tea afterwards of course!

Summer Berry Muffins

So it's been a strange few weeks and making and doing ended up bottom of the list. But when someone special brought over some blueberries I decided baking needed to be on the agenda. I consulted my favourite books by Lilly Higgins and Nigella and decided on muffins. These are mostly Lilly's lovely blueberry muffins if I'm honest but with the addition of some strawberries (raspberries would be nice too) and I replaced the milk with semi-skimmed.

Ingredients:
8oz plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2.5 oz light brown sugar
1 large egg
150 ml semi-skimmed milk
40 ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 oz blueberries
3 oz strawberries

Set oven to heat at 170 Celsius. (my oven is extra hot though so you might need to turn it up a little).

Instructions:

1. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the sugar.

2. Whisk the wet ingredients together and add to the mixture.

3. Chop strawberries; fold in the fruit.

4. Divide the mixture into twelve cupcake cases (I use silicone ones so I don't need a cupcake tray) and bake for 15-20 mins. It might be nice to sprinkle either a few seeds or a little sugar on the top for a bit of a glaze as well, depending on whether you're going for a "healthy" muffin or not...

5. Leave on a wire rack to cool a little and enjoy with a cuppa!