Recipes – The Rose of Mercia

Jack O’ Lantern Soup

Every year, millions of pumpkins are thrown away after being carved for Halloween. Pumpkins are delicious and often over looked, so here’s a simple recipe for your Jack O Lantern.

Ingredients:

Half a small pumpkin, peeled
One small butternut squash, peeled
Two vegetable stock cubes
Two chicken stock cubes
100g of butter
Two bell peppers
Four small onions; three white and one red
Five cloves of garlic
Two teaspoons of cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

This will make six good sized portions, if you wanted to use all of the pumpkin then just double the ingredients. This will take around an hour and a half to prepare and cook.

Roughly chop your onions and garlic and place in the pan with the butter for around ten minutes, or until soft. Mix the four stock cubes into 800ml of boiling water and pour into the pan.

Dice the peppers and add into the mix. Peel and cut your pumpkin and butternut squash into chunks, adding them into the pan as you go. Once all of the ingredients are in the pan, leave on a medium heat for around 20-30 minutes, stirring intermittently.

Once the cubes of pumpkin and butternut are soft, pour the mixture into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour the soup back into the pan, adding the cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Autumnal Uchiki Kuri & Patty Pan Soup

This year, we have grown some more unusual types of squash. Naturally, as it is autumn, we decided to make a tasty soup with a couple of them.

Ingredients:

One large Uchiki Kuri, around 450g when peeled
One large Patty Pan, around 550g when peeled
80g Courgette, peeled [optional]
Three white onions
One red onion
Four cloves of garlic
100g Butter
One vegetable stock cube
Salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkle of nutmeg
Sprinkle of cayenne pepper
Half a teaspoon of cinnamon

This will make enough for four generous portions and takes approximately 45 minutes to prepare and cook.

Left to right; green patty pan, courgette and uckiki kuri

Slice and dice the onions and crushed garlic and place them in a pan with a splash of oil to caramelise. Whilst the onion and garlic are cooking, roughly cut your squashes into cubes [2cm across].

Crumble the stock cube into 500ml of water, or you can use homemade vegetable stock if you would prefer. Put the squash and the water into the pan and simmer on a medium heat for 20 minutes or until the squash is soft.

Add the onion into the mixture and pour into a blender or food processer and blend until smooth. Once smooth, pour back into the pan and bring back up to heat. Once the soup is warm through, stir in the butter and add the seasoning.

No cream is needed for this recipe, but you could add it at this stage if you prefer. If you do not have a blender, you can use a masher (metal is the best for the task) but the soup will be of a chunky consistency.

Elderflower Champagne

After much trial and error, I have finally created a recipe for a lightly carbonated, delicately floral elderflower champagne. This should make six 750ml bottles.

Ingredients:
– Twelve to fourteen elderflower heads
– Two medium sized lemons
– 600g sugar
– 1 heaped teaspoon of citric acid (optional)
– 4.5 litres of water plus an additional 100ml overage for any lost during the heating process.

Equipment:
– A large cooking pan
– Wooden spoon
– Tea towel
– Muslin cloth
– Funnel
– Ladle
– Scales
– Empty glass bottles, sterilised

When foraging, try not to take all of the heads from one bush.

Firstly, do not wash the elderflower heads. Give them a good shake over the sink to make sure there are no creepy crawlies remaining on your heads. Cut off as much of the green stalk as you can, as it is poisonous in large quantities.

Heat the water on the stove top. Once the water has begun to boil, pour in the sugar bit by bit and stir until it has dissolved. Once dissolved, turn down the heat to keep it hot but not boiling. Prepare and add in your sliced lemons and elderflower.

You can add the citric acid, but it is not essential. It adds a little extra sweetness and helps with preservation. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring in intervals. Place the tea towel over the pan and let it cool. Over the next three days, make sure you stir your mixture 2-3 times a day to activate the natural yeast in the elderflower.

You will know that the mixture has become carbonated once the elderflower has risen to the top of the mixture. It is now ready to be bottled!

You can see the yeast has been activated

The bottles will need to be sterilised. If you need advice on how to sterilise bottles, please see here. Pour the champagne into the bottles using a ladle and a funnel. Place the muslin over the funnel to ensure that no bits make it into your final brew.

Make sure that you burp the bottles twice a day for the first week. Leave the bottles to settle for another week before drinking so that the yeast settles at the bottom. Whilst this drink is called champagne, it is actually very low in alcohol due to the natural yeast.

If stored correctly it can last up to a year, but it is best drank within six months. Once opened, keep refrigerated an drink within three days.

Hearty Pumpkin Soup

Here’s a simple recipe to use up some of your pumpkin glut. This will make enough for four large portions.

Ingredients:
– 900g of roughly chopped and peeled pumpkin
– one large red onion
– one parsnip
– one carrot
– one large potato
– three cloves of garlic
– 150ml of double cream
– Two vegetable or chicken stock cubes
– 1tsp cinnamon
– 1tsp nutmeg
– 1tsp paprika
– salt and pepper to taste

Place the chopped carrot, onion, garlic, parsnip and potato in a pan with some water to cover, let the vegetables soften for around 10-15 minutes. Add the pumpkin and let it simmer for another 5-10 minutes and remove from the heat. Drain the water from the pan and then add the stock mixture. For extra flavour, we added one vegetable stock cube and one chicken stock cube. Allow this to simmer for around 20-30 minutes.

Put the softened vegetables and stock mix into a blender. Blend until smooth. Follow up with the double cream and blend until you are satisfied with the consistency. Put the soup back in the pan and gently heat.

If you do not have a blender, you can use a masher. Remove the pan from the heat and mash the mixture until you are satisfied. Stir in the double cream and place back on the hob to warm through.

If you want, you can roast the pumpkin seeds for an extra crunch. Rinse the seeds in cold water and then place the seeds on a clean tea towel to take off the excess moisture. Put them in a bowl with the seasoning of your choice; we used 1tsp of cinnamon and 1tsp of paprika. Add 1tsp of olive oil and mix the seasoning and pumpkin seeds until they are coated. Put them on a baking tray at 180°c, checking every 5 minutes until they are crispy. Ours took around 15-20 minutes.

And enjoy!

I love this recipe with a chunky slice of homemade bread.

Strawberry & Raspberry Mix Jam Recipe

Here is a simple recipe for a small batch of mixed jam. This should make two jars or about 700g-750g of jam.

Ingredients:
– 200g of strawberries
– 200g of raspberries
– 200g of granulated sugar
– 180g of pectin sugar
– 50ml of lemon juice

Equipment:
– Two metal pans, one for the jam and one for sterilising the jars
– Two jars
– A wooden spoon
– A slotted spoon
– Tongs
– A saucer (to test your setting point)
– A wooden cutting board
– Cellophane
– Wax discs

Firstly, put your saucer in the fridge, you will need this later. Wash the berries thoroughly and trim off any stems. Cut the strawberries in half, the raspberries can be left whole.

Place the strawberries in the pan with the granulated sugar, once the strawberries begin to break down add in the pectin sugar and raspberries. You can mash the strawberries if you wish to speed up the process and have a smoother jam. Raspberries also break down a lot quicker, thus needing less time in the pan. Remember to stir your mixture as it breaks down. Once the sugars have dissolved, add in the lemon juice and raise the temperature of your stove to eventually bring to a boiling point. Skim off any scum with the slotted spoon that may be on the surface. It is okay if you cannot remove it all, a little won’t hurt. Boil for around 8-10 minutes.

Take the saucer out of the fridge and dab about a teaspoons worth of jam onto it. Place it back into the fridge and leave for a minute or two. If it crinkles on the saucer when it is touched, it has reached setting point. If not, place your mixture back on the boil for another 2-3 minutes. Add a little more pectin sugar if you feel that your mixture needs it.

Once you have reached setting point, take the mixture off the boil and allow to rest. You can now begin to sterilise your jars. You will need to bring your jars to the boil, making sure they are fully submersed in water. Allow them to boil for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and use the tongs to pick the jars out of the pan and drain the water, place them on side. It would be best to place them on a wooden board to protect your counter from the heat. Do not let the jars cool too much when potting your jam, it is best done when the jars have just come off the boil but do be careful not to burn yourself. This limits the amount of time the jars can come into contact with bacteria.

Pour in your mixture and then place a wax disc on top of it, then cover the top of the jar with cellophane. Screw the lid on and label your jars.

There you have it! I hope you enjoy this recipe.