Posts Tagged ‘coffee shops nottingham’

in season: courgette soup

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

soup
Recipe time…FP Club member, Claire, has very kindly donated another recipe for you to try.  This time is courgette soup and I’ve had the pleasure of trying it during the week were taking part in the BBC Radio Derby’s Ed to Head Challenge…which we won!  Claire grows her own veggies and the courgettes are from her own garden, along with many of the other ingredients.

Courgette Soup is a very simple recipe, which makes a pretty, creamy pale green soup:

  • Slice and gently sauté an onion, a stick of celery, 2 cloves of garlic
  • Slice and add 5, or more, courgettes of the 6” or so size
  • When all are softened and starting to brown add a pint or so of chicken or vegetable stock
  • Simmer for 20 minutes until the courgettes squash easily on the side of the pan
  • Take off the heat and blitz up with a hand blender
  • Add a handful or two of freshly grated parmesan and a glug of garlic olive oil
  • Add plenty of salt and pepper to taste and blitz up again

We serve it with crispy pancetta on top and a drizzle of garlic olive oil and some parmesan shavings.

To speed this up even more use a few shallots which are quick to slice and cook, a stock cube instead of fresh stock and a big slice from a fresh green garlic head instead of cloves.  Here’s a link through to the recipe on Claire’s blog, Things We Make.  Here is a link through to the post where Claire shows you how to make the bread bowls.

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Growing your own courgettes is pretty easy and this weekend is ideal to plant seeds.  Here’s a link to the BBC website where there is some useful information about growing courgettes.

Click here to go to fabulousplaces.co.uk.

May Competition!

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

The lovely people from Honeybuns in Dorset have very kindly offered some rather fabulous goodies for you to win!

Win 1 of 10 fabulous hessian hamper bags full to bursting with treats!
For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a review for a fabulous place or producer featured onfabulousplaces.co.uk Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire…simple as that!
Closing date is Friday 14th May 2010.

FaB-Places

I would like to say a huge thank you to Honeybuns for kindly donating such a fab competition prize!  To find out more about Honeybuns click here to visit their website.

Happy reviewing!

Debs

the fete is coming…

Monday, April 12th, 2010

flyer_front

I’m delighted to announce the next fabulousplaces.co.uk event…theSummer Fete will be taking place on Sunday 16th May at Shottle Hall Country House Hotel.

11am-5pm, Sunday 16th May 2010
Shottle Hall Country House Hotel
Shottle, Derbyshire

I’m taking a traditional Summer Fete and adding a fabulous twist to bring you a perfect day in the countryside.  There will be scrumptious local food in the marquee, shops and producers selling their fabulous wares in the House and Polly’s Corner (Supported by Polly’s List) of fun for the little ones.   My aim is to bring you an event celebrating the most fabulous places and producers from fabulousplaces.co.uk and somewhere you can visit with friends and family and spend a few hours in the countryside.

Click here to go to fabulousplaces.co.uk Summer Fete information. The full exhibitor list will be added to the website in the next few days.

Please note:
Not all exhibitors will have the ability to accept card payments.  The nearest cash machines are in Belper…there will be lots of fabulous things to tempt you!
Dogs are welcome, but will not be allowed in the House and marquee.
There is a picnic area on the lawn, but this is only for use with food purchased at the event only.

time to get baking

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

As part of a new series of ‘fabulous living’ blogs, I will be posting about some inspiring topics covering lifestyle, recipes, homestyle, growing your own, fabulous destinations and much more.

The first is about baking and I’m delighted to introduce you to my friend, Claire, who is quite the Domestic Goddess.  Claire has a fab blog called Things We Make which is definitely worth a click!  Claire has kindly offered to donate some of her recipes to the FP blog for you to enjoy.  To get things started, here’s a recipe which will help you use up some left over chocolate!

Kringel
An Estorian celebration bread…I think you’ll agree, it looks delicious!

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Recipe

The Dough
300g Bread Flour
200g Plain Flour
2 packs (14g) of dried yeast
1tbsp sugar
250ml luke warm milk
2 egg yolks
50g butter, melted but not hot

The Filling
100g softened butter
3 handfuls of sultanas
10 tsp sugar (mixed with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon for the cinnamon version)

The Topping
100g good chocolate plus 50g butter
or 4oz of icing sugar and water for the cinnamon version.

  • Mix the yeast, sugar, lukewarm milk, melted butter and egg yolks in a bowl.
  • Mix this into the flour then knead for 10 minutes. Add a little extra water or flour if the dough is not easy to work.
  • Shape the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a plate or cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so.
  • Dust your work surface with flour. Take the dough out of the bowl, knock it back and roll out so that you have a rectangle about 60cm x 40cm.
  • Spread the softened butter evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with sultanas and sugar (or sugar/cinnamon mix)
  • Roll up the dough like a swiss roll (so that you keep the length) and cut it in half down the centre of the length with a sharp knife leaving a little bit uncut at the end.
  • Twist the 2 strands of dough, lifting each half over the other in turn making sure the cut edges stay uppermost as these are what will open up and look pretty.
  • Pull the plait into a ring and squidge the ends together. Transfer to a buttered or ‘non stick foiled’ baking tray.

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  • Leave the loaf to prove and puff up a little more, perhaps 1/2 an hour, then preheat your oven to 200°c/Gas 6.
  • Bake for about 10 minutes at  200°c and then turn down to 190°c and carry on cooking until golden for around another 15 minutes.
  • If you want to top with chocolate: melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over gently boiling water.
  • Allow the the bread cool down a bit, place on a serving plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

For the cinnamon bun version mix 4oz of icing sugar with a little water then drizzle this over the bread.

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To visit Claire’s blog please click here.  This recipe was part of the Fresh From The Oven Group.