Home made Pici pasta with salmon and fennel soffritto

 If it had been dry I would have been out in the garden messing around, and as I did not wish to sit and read, it was in the kitchen that I did some of my playing around.  After the short apres lunch rest, I flicked round the copy of Waitrose Food I picked up when I popped into the store on Saturday, when for no reason except I didn't have any, picked up a bag of their Super Fine 00 Pasta flour. 

Chris Leach's recipe for Pici with clams & fennel soffritto sounded interesting.  The pasta is made with flour, water and olive oil.  I had thought hand made pasta needed egg, not that I am avoiding eggs, but it was intriguing. It is ages since I made fresh pasta , and not long after this, the pasta machine went to a charity shop.  It was the washing of the intricate machine that got to me.  Gnocchi has always been made from time to time too. 

I made just 100g worth of flour, but used some of the mashed up pumpkin which I had roasted yesterday plus a little warm water.  Next time I would warm up the pumpkin and puree it and use that to mix in with the flour and olive oil.

Since I already had a fennel bulb, and wine open, I made up the Soffritto as per the recipe but with no Pernod used dry Marsala, and with no clams used up large flakes of cooked fresh salmon, again a left over having been a way of cooking the 'trimmings' after I had portioned up two sides of Salmon fillets bought on Morrisons' 20% off Fish Friday. 

And added two small courgettes ready in the garden and some French Tarragon.  I've since watched how to make the pasta which seems easier than the technique shown in the magazine. since this was meant to be a Pumpkin Pici I topped the dish with roasted pumpkin seeds. I read an interesting article in Grape Tree Magazine about the benefits of Pumpkin seeds, and that roasting improves the antioxidant levels.  

It was very tasty...a nice supper on a damp evening.

Since what was to be my glass of wine left over from our weekend bottle went into the soffritto, I had a little glass of dry Marsala to make it a delicious dinner.

Two pretty moths found in the garden this week

 This month we have had many butterflies and other flying insects in the garden, some I have already shown on my Six on Saturday posts. 

Small Purple & Gold Moth, Pyrausta aurata

Small Purple & Gold Moth, Pyrausta aurata

I have quite a few Marjorams and mints including Apple Mint  growing which are some of the larval food  plant for this species.

 White Plume Moth (Pterophorus pentadactyla)

White Plume Moth (Pterophorus pentadactyla)

Mr S rescued a Hummingbird Hawk Moth from the conservatory during the week. I am going to post these two moths photographed on the Somerset Moth website.

In a Vase on Monday - 31 July 2023

 Its been a rainy and dull week weather wise, but plants still keep growing, and inevitably from time to time some plants benefit from a severe cut back as there is still time for another good flush of flowers in the season.  One plant that works particularly well given this treatment is Potentilla nepalensis 'Miss Willmott'.

This first came to the garden as a small seedling from Alison who now has a flower farm, and recently when she came round my garden, she realised that hers had 'disappeared' and she was able to take a few back to her garden.  I love the way its strong but wiry stems weave their way through the border, and is particularly useful around the base of rose shrubs.

The Blue Vase is a Cloisonné Vase which brought back by my mother from China many years ago, it is a pair and my sister gave me one, so this vase is dedicated to her.  By its side is one of the Chinese figurines that Mr S and I picked up on our trip to China over twenty five years ago.

This week I have looked up all the elements included in the vase, for which two in particular has a scent that I find really pleasing: the Chamaemelum which also came from Alison and the Achillea.

Potentilla nepalensis 'Miss Willmott'

Chamaemelum nobile ‘Flore Pleno’

Achillea ageratum also called English Mace 

Sedum spectabile Autumn Joy

Pittosporum Garnettii

In a Vase on Monday is a weekly affair devised by Cathy and I link this post to hers as do several other people who like to arrange their garden flowers and greenery. 

Six on Saturday - End of July 2023

 It has been a strange sort of a week weather wise with very low light.  We have had some rain but as in the case with the weather yesterday it never did, though threatened several times with a shed load up somewhere on the Mendips, which explains why the reservoirs locally are 85% full.  Washing was dried outside, dead heading of roses and pruning back of rosemary, lavender and phlomis shrubs this week means the front garden resembles one of those men's hairstyles in vogue similar to the old fashioned short back and sides but with a few 'artistic' gouges, fauxhawks or side partings.  In a couple of weeks and for the next year it will look far better than if it had been left in the grunge rewilded format!

Six specifics now to remind myself of what caught my eye or rather the camera this week.  I join as many others do, under Jim's post:  Six on Saturday.

Here we go:

1: Diascia Personata is continuing to flower, with taller stems than I would like, needing to be helped to an upright position, maybe it is lacking in light.

2. As well as the above which was bought at a garden open day, this little Persicaria was bought at a road side stall of a garden, that was going to be open the following week.  It is called Persicaria Virginia 'Bat Wings', I have no idea of what it will be like, for now it is planted in the so called shady border.

3. In another part of the garden the rain and low light have suited Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Golden Arrow'. A small piece came as a present from my friend Maggie who does garden up on the Mendips and yes she does get a 'shed lot more rain' than we do on the windward of the hills. I'm looking forward to the elongation and seeing the bright flowers which will no doubt make an appearance on my 'In a Vase on Monday' Posts.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Golden Arrow'.

4. Close by the Golden Arrow is the fourth of the new rose collection.  Rose Home Florist Timeless Purple.

5. In the same area The Fuchsia 'Delta's Sara' had the nipping the growing tips action imposed on her starting when the shoots were just 15cm heigh, and this has given me a better sized shrub for the spot as compared with last year. As with the other Fuchsias in the garden the flowering season has begun.

Low down the first blooms are nicely offset by the dark leaves of Oxalis Triangularis.

6. Bumblebees: if I am sitting in the conservatory or peering out of the kitchen window I can tell straight away if it has stopped raining or the morning temperatures have risen from the activity of the bumblebees.  I am not a voyeur, but on seeing a couple of bumblebees on the ground, I was fascinated as to what they were doing.  Below a smaller bumble bee with yellow was a much larger one with no yellow markings but with the same red-tailed markings. Thanks to the Bumblebee Conservation Group I was able to identify these as the Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)

I feel jittery, as we are waiting for arboriculturalists to arrive some time this coming week to tackle the vast overhanging branches or the ever green oak. When will they come? Communication is not that great, will the plants in the garden get damaged?  Protection is being considered, but in a few months time all this anticipation and anxiousness will be in the past.  We have another couple of projects in the pipeline which will involve a temporary removal/protection of plants.  How we gardeners 'suffer' if our little domaine undergoes such upheavals.  Do we feel too much for our gardens and plants?   

 

Pistachio and Preserved Ginger Biscotti - Perfect for Knitters

 Tomorrow the WI Monday Knit and Natters are coming over.  To go with coffee I tried out this recipe for Pistachio and preserved ginger biscotti and yes it is as the recipe said not hard, and they are just perfect.

I followed the recipe except that I made two logs from the same quantity of mixture to give smaller biscuits just the right size for me! I've printed off the recipe and this will be one for the file.

Lots of other Ottolenghi recipes with this link.

Six on Saturday - 22 July 2023

Yesterday I pulled out all stops and got the rest of my bulk order of mulch spread around the garden, the bulk bag folded up to contain bark chippings when we get some branches on the holm oak cut back, and the drive hosed down.  I certainly deserved a well done from Mr S when that was done. In between I got on with a few activities in the garden including taking some pictures for today's Six on Saturday

1. A few weeks ago I fancied a few more yellows in the gravel garden and added this Delosperma 'Suntropics Cream' I sense this was named cream as some people wouldn't want yellow, the yellow centre is what attracted me. 

2. The daisy type flowers as well as the Oreganums and Eryngiums  have been magnets for a large number of bees and butterflies.  During this week a variety of different white tailed bumblebees, and so many butterflies including Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Blue, and many other flying insects have been visiting the garden.  At one time when we were sat outside having our lunch we witnessed many ants flying off in a cloud, form various spots around the garden. Mr S has had 'fun' saving butterflies and bees from the conservatory with the butterfly net.

3. The biennial Eryngium Giganteum Silver Ghost has probably the maximum number of plants I would want on the edge of the gravel area. It lights up that part of the garden and looks wonderful in the late evening.

As far as the bumble bees are concerned the more of these flowers the better.

4. On the small veggie area the Dwarf French Bean Purple Queen really looks as if she want to climb. After taking this picture I decided to add a few sticks with black mesh suspended on Mr S's arrows that served a similar purpose around the Mangetout crop which has now been cleared. I hadn't wanted to use long bean sticks and phase them out, but I have a few in reserve just in case.

5. The beetroot have continued to provide some lovely roots, and I have planted the last of the Courgette 'Sure Thing' plants, just two plants!  I bought two plants of indeterminate varieties of courgette earlier , one has started to fruit, and the second plant looked more like some other sort of very trialing cucurbit, but I removed that and started some of my own courgette seed. More about the courgette Sure Thing when they have grown a little and are starting to fruit.

6.  Often I am impatient and impulsive in the garden I can also be patient and intolerant when it comes to plants in the garden.  I can wait two years for a seed to germinate, or suddenly decide to remove a reasonably good plant from the garden, or I can see some interesting plant do all the research, but still buy on impulse from a nursery.  We were on our way back from Taunton and called into Greenshutters Nursery.  They didn't have the type of Ginko I was looking for and instead bought Echinacea purpurea Magnus. It is already planted up in the space vacated by a 'removed' plant.

Maybe because this little plant just looks wonderful when it is in flower, this unknown sedum may have arrived in the garden with something else, or maybe was just lurking in the garden when we arrived, it has somehow escaped the 'delete' 'remove' 'dig up' action that I am often prone to, so I am a mixed up gardener tolerant as well!

 Not all of us strictly keep to the six rule, and sometimes can stretch into six, whatever we do we are mildly treated by our chief gardener Jim who is the current leader of this weekly get together.  No doubt there will many nuggets of interesting knowledge, beautiful plants or other things in gardens scattered mainly around the UK but also further afield. 

In Vases this Monday - Mid July

At the moment Mr S feels overwhelmed with scent and pollen so for now, most flowers have been banished from the house. I think he has the lastest Covid strain which I believe I had a few weeks ago.  Now I am fully fit and back to exercising each day.

During the week I made up two posies in jam jars which hopefully were enjoyed by friends, but first they sat on tables in a friend's garden.  It was our WI President's 60th birthday and she had invited us all to tea at another friend.  Having tea with friends was one her 60 things to do in her 60th of year, and what made this special that it was actually on her birthday.  We had a fabulous tea in the bottom of a peaceful and green valley out of sight and sound of any road with the Mendips rising around us. Unbeknown to her we had a seperate whatsapp group where all the arrangements were made.  Although no presents were requested, we had a joint collection with 'secret contributions' to a joint gift.  Anne had transformed and held together over 70 members over the covid years, and enabled a myriad of interest groups to burgeon.  Anne is very much an enabler and with so many talented people in our group, it was a surprise to all how much was raised.  With a joint buying power and access to prime goods I think Anne will have had a birthday party tea to remember.

 After those vases,  more were quickly arranged for different sections at our gardening group summer party on Friday.

The brief was an arrangement of six different flowers from the garden.  At first I thought I would struggle but since I had cut twelve different flowers I thought I would made two arrangements.  I am by training very much a law, guidance or rule writer and reader and interpreter, but some rules if not tightly written can be widely interpreted and really next time I ought to consult the writer.  All the other contributors had made arrangements, yes with six different flowers but with far more than just one stem of each.  Even the invited judge was baffled by the larger arrangements, but the club said that is fine!  Hence none of these had a look in.  

For today on this IAVOM,  the prize could go to whoever may choose to spend their time identifying all the different flowers from these rather poor pictures. The prize would consist of a 'well done' from several of us.

Completely new flowers and making an appearance today on my blog are a new rose to the garden: Rose Timeless Purple and Chrysanthemum White Gem a Korean White Hardy Chrysanthemum with spoon petals, seen here 

At present both these arrangements have been plonked together with a bit of the greenery which was cut several weeks ago and is today sitting on the utility windowsill.  I can't bring myself to throw them into the recycling bin and they are a little too far gone to give them away now. 

I have very loosely adhered to the underlying rules and regulations but hopefully not the spirit of joining in with Cathy to show flowers from the garden for In a Vase on Monday.  Next week my usual one vase with named flowers will hopefully form the basis of my offering.  

Getting a flat top on my cake

 Probably most bakers know what to do, but it has taken me till I am past my prime to realise that out there on the internet there could be an answer.  Yes my large cakes have always had a bulge which through the oven window you can see start to peak after the edges have set and also perhaps even a crack on the top through which softer unbaked cakes emerges as if the cake is having internal problems which can only resolve itself in some herniation.  

I understand all the reasons now, and before maybe buying a purpose made item decided to see whether this would be a 'cure'.  Well a cure to the problem, is taking a slice off the cake, but I wanted to get at the root causes and avoid the problem altogether.

It has worked with a old tea towel cut to size and soaked in water, and lots of fiddling with needles and thread and some wet string tied around to hold it in place. Hurrah! I may well get a nice purpose make external collar which will mean loads of my favourite cakes baked once more.  

Thinking over what Mandy added below, I went and looked at this interesting article with opinions of some top bakers, and I shall try plain flour with added raising agent rather than carrying self raising versions. 

Six on Saturday - Mid July 2023

This Saturday there is no moan about the lack of rain, we have had a good quantity. I think I may even try making a simple rain guage for the garden.  Any suggestions or advice regarding this?  Can a post start with a question?  Well those are two questions so far, often I end up with answers but also other interesting insights as I join the 'community' of people who love their gardens and plants, that is Six on Saturday currently hosted by Jim. You need not post there so don't be shy, do have a read of some of posts, you'll be inspired or even be able to sympathise as you read about triumphs or regrets or just tribulations in the garden.

1. Rhodohypoxis 'Pintado' is enjoying the rain and has come forth with another flush of pretty pink flowers. 

Even the ones planted out in the gravel garden are looking much much happier now they have had some of the summer rain they thrive on.

2. Out in the gravel garden is this lovely blue/purple flowered Eryngium bourgatii.  I am even happier with this one as I grew it from seed received from the HPS.  When I lost my previous one and saw it listed, I decided to give it a try, and now my patience has paid off. Even without its flower the leaves do look quite handsome against the gravel.

3. A few years ago when visiting Westbrook House Gardens, I happen to notice a most magnificent pelargonium in their glass house. I also visited again earlier this year with our WI gardening group and met with  Garden designer Keith Anderson,  Keith kindly permitted me to take a few cuttings, and here they are already flowering.

But just look at this:  I happened to have taken a cutting in 2021 from another plant I very much admired again it was Frank Headley, and with several overwintered cuttings, I now have two further bowls full of salmony pink blooms. They are all Pelargonium Frank Headley!

4. Last Saturday Mr S was persuaded to drive me out to visit one of my favourite Wells market plant stall holder: Glenholme Herbs who were opening their nursery and gardens. For once Alison was not at the market with her wide variety of herbs, but playing host at the establishment which is family run. Just by chance we bumped into Keith Anderson and David Mendel,from Westbrook House and had a nice chat with them.  Did I come away with anything..just a few plants but now potted up and centred on the table is a pretty scented Pelargonium Lemon Fancy. It has the lemoniest of leaves and a pretty pink bicoloured flower. I shall be layering a few leaves in caster sugar and trying it out of some simple Madeleine cakes.

5. Mulch is what I have been doing when it has not been raining, I love getting down low amongst the plants and spreading the stuff, imagining the worms doing their job over the next few months.  The plants are already feeling the benefit what with all the rain as well.

To stop the goodness leaching onto the drive and getting washed into the nearby stream Mr S covered the bag then just before the high winds lassoed rope around the edges to stop the sheet being blown away , a sort of pool of rainwater is collecting on the top,but was quickly emptied to avoid compaction of the lovely mulch. I must leave an upturned bucket under the cover to stop the water from collecting.

6. One job leads to another maybe, and a completely unforeseen one arose during the week.  I needed to move some pots off the gravel to give me room to mulch along the edge of the conservatory border.  I moved the Japanese Umbrella Pine Sciadopitys Verticillata, which is not a pine, but it is a coniferous evergreen and sometimes referred to as a living fossil. I held it by the stem as well as the pot and decided to check on the root growth. The plant was light and there amongst the roots there were myriads of holes and three quarters down the pot were hundreds of ants with a large number of pupae.  I know the garden is full of ants but here they were doing the lovely tree no good at all.  It was of course repotted, but Mr S from the kitchen noticed it was a bit wonky.  

I believe it needs a bit of a prune perhaps to give it an even more quirky shape  or should I suggest that it follows the Japanese esthetic, but Mr S rather likes this one, and I haven't yet perked up the courage to do it. When it is back in its position I rather think it will right itself.

Yesterday my little module received in the spring won a prize, but more about that next week. 

In a Vase on Monday-A Fortunate Woman

Cathy is our host for this weekly get together, even though I may sometimes absent myself, it is a regular place I link my little arrangements from garden flowers and enjoy looking at what other people are sharing.

The roses are having a little rest, and I have busy moving a large amount of mulch delivered on a palette in one of those big square bags.  Moving buckets and gently spreading them on the ground gets me right down to soil level and appreciating plants that maybe don't get that much attention. What a fortunate woman I am having the leisure and space to garden, to relax, to listen to the birds, and feel clean air and view clear skies.

The long purple spikes of Teucrium hircancicum seem to be longer and more splendid this year.  I grew these from seed in a packet which came with one of those gardening magazines which flop onto my mat about three times a month, ie three different magazines! I had grown it elsewhere in the garden but these plants have longer flowering stems.  In the middle a stem of Eryngium Planum Tetre Petra and below Achillea ageratum also called English Mace and today I found out also Sweet Nancy.  that is the paler flower.  The more yellow one is probably Achillea 'Terracotta', but much bleached by the sun.

For our reading group I am one book ahead and have just finished A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland.  It just made me envious wanting that sort of medical practitioner. Years ago when my son was born I had a wonderful doctor Dr McDiarmid, he had that personal touch a true physician.

I am looking forward to the discussions in a month or so.

Tasty Supper with a Salsify Salad and for Pudding Roasted Pineapple with French Coconut Macaroons

 This sounds like an elaborate supper, but it was mainly drawing from things I had in the fridge.  

At the same time as I bought the pineapple I also picked up another bargain: four long roots of Salsify.  I  used to love this when I was little, and as if by magic my father used to produce a few roots which he and I would savour together as a starter with a little oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.  I couldn't quite remember how to cook it, and went to my trusted source Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. My copy dates back to 1979 when I started my vegetable garden.  She writes well about each vegetable in turn and gives background on their history, how to prepare the vegetables and several recipes for each one. I went with her method of washing off them thoroughly then cooking them in as long pieces as possible.  I cut each root into two to fit into the pan, and then when tender whilst still hot, but putting them under the tap so as not to burn myself, found the skins slipped off easily. As they cooled the skin became more difficult to remove.  They were immediately dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.  We had some warm the first day, but last night, for the quick supper, it was simply a cold breast of chicken with some garnish of garden lettuce and salsify. 

I went on to add a few black olives, and use up a little brown rice left in the fridge by sauteing first a red onions and adding in the rice, using walnut oil that gave a nice flavour.  A little pomegranate molasses was added to give a fruity finish over the salify.

To follow with goat's yogurt for Monsieur, and Sheep's yogurt pour moi, which we have every evening, we used up the last of the roasted pineapple.

With the last of bargain pineapples I looked for a new 'roasted pineapple' recipe on line and came across Jill Colonna's blog called Mad about Macarons.  By coincidence I did have her book but had passed it to a neighbour so that she and her grand daughter could have some 'bake together time'. I've printed off her recipe and really did follow it exactly this time including the cayenne powder. 

I chose not to remove the core, as it is that part that contains the highest concentration of bromelain, and we are used to it.  As it was a large pineapple the roasted slices yielded eight portions, which made this a very economical desert, especially as I picked up the eight perfect pineapples for £2 the lot.  This size costs £2 each in Waitrose!  

I also made from the one egg white hanging around in the fridge a half batch of Jill's Coconut Macaroons.  Even on day three having been stored in a sealed container, they were delicious and complement the roasted pineapples perfectly.

Six on Saturday The first of July

Last week Jim. who is the anchor point for this weekly meme about six things in the garden, raised the topic of plants that are resilient to our  warmer and drier summers. Most of this week's post is devoted to this topic.

1.Tanacetum densum subs amani whose everyday name is 'Partridge Feathers'. so apt with its finely shaped leaves. 

Tanacetum densum subs amani 

It comes from hot dry rocky areas in southeastern Turkey and had been planted in the front garden.  As I wanted to see this a little more often and as it is on the edge of the road close to the area being driven over by cars and delivery vans as they clumsily reverse around the corner.  I moved it to the gravel garden in around April, and as the stems were raggedy also cut it right down.  As if a Turkish mountain goat had had a good meal, and thankfully it is right back, and apart for the water in when transplanted it hasn't any watering and very little rain until just a couple of days ago.

2. Also in the gravel garden just sneaking into the picture above is a little plant that I saw and bought as a 'souvenir' from Beth Chatto's garden.  It is Phyla nodiflora commonly called Turkey tangle frogfruit, a creeping vervain. The turkey and the partridge are be side by side. It dies back for the winter and seems to disappear for that season.

3. Another plant in the gravel garden that is resilient to the dry weather we have been having is the often featured Erodium Frans Delight. It has a very long period of flowering, and here is due to a session, where I sit down on my kneeling cushion and remove all the spent flower stems.

Erodium Frans Delight

A small plant taken as a cutting is growing quite happily without any watering over in a hard baked batch of clay to which I had mixed in some horticultural grit.

4. Over in the front 'Mediterranean Garden' is a plant that has the most wonderful shape.  Again a silver leaved plant: Ballota pseudodictamnus is a favourite on many levels. In front are some Sedum 'Purple Emperor', with Artemesia Powis Castle towards the back left hand side, and various low growing resilient plants such as the silver leaved Euphorbia myrsinites.  I have left it to hopefully self seed to increase the number of plants along the front garden, but this week the old flowering stems need to be cut back.

Ballota pseudodictamnus

During the week I and fellow gardening club members went to visit a member's garden, in Wells established only a few years ago.  Anthony and Maggie's garden facing south on a hill with wonderful views had again been planted with mainly mediterranean plants.  Their Ballota seemed to have a different shape to its stems, so a few cuttings were 'begged' and are now planted directly into the soil in the back garden.  Of course it may have been just different conditions that led to the variation in growth.  It will take a couple of years to tell.

5. Curving round the outside of the house out of sight of any of my windows the Mediterranean garden has other plants that have to survive without watering and this  Teucrium Hircanicum works well the adjacent silver leaved Centaurea 'Silver Feather'.

The exchange with Jim last week about which plants require less watering or non at all, enabled  me to look at the garden and consider the planting from an interesting angle. A few plants have been earmarked to increase, which some I am already starting to remove as they require watering just at the time when the waterbutt is empty.  Until this week we have had very little rain missing that which fell over on the top and to the north of the Mendips.  It is ironic that the pictures taken yesterday evening have rain drops on them, and maybe even on the camera lense. It was mainly very light rain and I am sure with just a day of sunshine it will be back to dry again, but we have a few showers and cooler temperatures forecasted. 

6. This week Jim is showing us his allotment, I have a small postage sized vegetable are, but I have also been a bit lackadaisical about my small veggie area this year. After seperate weeks of being away I hope to make the autumn more production, and have got on with a little sowing in my new tiny modules, one of which I raised a set of pansies which are already in the ground.  I am taking some tips from Charles Dowding who only lives a few miles away. 

Amongst these are lettuce, which I think will need resowing now the temps are a little cooler, as on the first day of their sowing it got a bit hot in there under their dome, as I had not yet put on the white fleece to reduce the sunlight and heat, but this morning I can just see evidence of the coriander seed.  The first lot is now in flower, over the next few days, I pick the green seeds and freeze these to add to the various spicy dishes and preserves I make.  This way they retain the fresh coriander leaf flavour. 

Coriander in flower

This morning and this evening will be slug and snail hunting season...taken on The Amelanchier tree in the front garden.

That is all this week, hopefully with less watering, more time can be spent on other garden activities.