The Romsey Show



the Romsey Show 2011

I don't know about you, but I love a good fair.  I love the old-fashioned community atmosphere with farmers showing off their livestock, home-baked goodies, little rides for the kids, and entertainment.  The Romsey Show takes place every year near us, and it's a lot of fun for the whole family.

the Romsey Show 2011
(picture taken by my husband)

 There were so many things to look at and enjoy, and I think we all had our own favorites.  Miriam loved getting to make a clay horse (it will be on display soon); Anya loved seeing live bats at the bat hospital and then making a bat puppet; Preston liked napping in the stroller as we walked around, and Jared says he liked all of it.  My favorite was seeing all of the traditional crafts.  It made me want to learn how to do things like spin and weave, make ceramics, and work with felt.  I'm adding a whole list of these things to my list of things to try one day.  Until then, I really enjoyed seeing other people's beautiful creations and the way that these traditional skills and art forms are being passed on and used.

Romsey Show 2011

The Romsey Show



Some of our goodies from the Romsey Show.



 



































Our family enjoyed a fantastic day out at the Romsey Show held at the Broadlands Estate.   It's kind of like a county fair.  There were animals to see.  The girls loved seeing the cows, especially since many of them had their little calves with them.  We also enjoyed seeing horses, sheep, goats, peacocks, quail, rabbits, and more.  There were plenty of children's activities, and the girls were very excited to go on some of the rides like the spinning teacups.  I particularly enjoyed the large food area with countless stalls of local food.  It would have been easy to spend a fortune, and we did buy a few things. 

Although we stopped and got some delicious treats during the day (including goodies from a local bakery and fresh strawberries), we were all starving when we got home in the evening.  So we used some of the things that we had boughten to make a delicious watercress, leek, and potato soup.  It was easy to do and based on the recipe that the farmer gave us when we bought the fresh local bunches of watercress.


Romsey Show Soup:

Ingredients:
big bunch of watercress
knob butter
1 leek
2 potatoes
vegetable stock
salt & pepper
creme fraiche
good cheese

Instructions:

1. Chop all of the vegetables and put them  in a pan with the butter and a splash of olive oil.  Just put it on a medium or low heat.  When the butter is melted and coating the veggies evenly, put the lid on the pan and let it cook until the vegetables are soft.  Stir every few minutes so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

2. Add the vegetable stock.  Leaving the pan uncovered, bring it up to the boil and let it cook for several minutes. 

3. Puree the soup.  (I use my hand-held mixture for this, but if you don't have one you could pour it into a blender or food processer and then return to the pan.)

4. Add a few spoonfuls of the creme fraiche and season to taste.

5. Serve with grated cheese on top (we used a delicious local mature cheddar).  Enjoy.

(This recipe is just a foundation to work from.  You could always add slightly different vegetables depending on what you have on hand, for example, or substitute cream cheese for creme fraiche--or just leave it out entirely.  To make it vegan, just leave out the butter and cook with slightly more oil and a little stock, and then use vegan cheese or omit cheese at the end.)

It was a simple and delicious meal made with all local ingredients.  A delicious end to a fantastic family day.

The vegetables cooking in butter.

A delicious bowl of watercress soup.

Gooseberry Jam

Who doesn't love summertime?  I love long warm evenings sitting on the patio, all of the vibrant colours and flowers, the more relaxed feeling, and especially all of the fantastic fresh produce.  There are so many fantastic fruits and vegetables that are in season during the summer.

I don't remember ever eating gooseberries before moving to Britain.  They're certainly a very British fruit, but I've grown to love them.  It's a bit late for gooseberries really now, but you may still be able to find fresh ones.  I have a gooseberry bush, but unfortunately didn't get any fruit off of it this year. (My gooseberry bush died from the extreme cold this winter and then my toddler repeatedly digging it up during the spring, so we recently bought a small new bush to replace it.  Hopefully we'll have home-grown gooseberries again next summer.)

My family went to a nearby farm to pick our gooseberries.  I love pick-your-own farms, and even if you don't garden yourself, it's really satisfying to pick your own fruit and veg.  I promise it makes it taste better.  I particularly love Ganger Farm.  My husband and I started going there as newlyweds, and we've kept going over the years.  Now our kids love picking (well, mostly eating) fruit there.

Gooseberries are funny little fruits.  The bushes have big, hard thorns, and are--I think--always a bit scrubby looking.  Most people will recommend wearing leather gloves when you pick gooseberries to protect yourself from prickles.  I prefer doing it without the gloves and just being careful.  It makes it easier to maneuver through the bush after the best fruit and to handle the fruit gently.  The fruit itself is green and kind of hairy looking.  Gooseberries taste quite tart on their own, and when ripe have an almost grape-like crunchiness to them.

My favourite way to eat gooseberries is to make gooseberry jam.  These tart little berries make a fantastic jam than you can save to enjoy all year long.  This is my daughter Miriam's favourite jam.

How To Make Gooseberry Jam

Before I begin making the jam, I get the jars ready.  You can buy jam jars, or just reuse any glass jar with a metal screw-on lid (preferably the type with the pop down seal).  You can also use Kilner style glass jars.  It just needs to have a good air-tight seal.  Always sterilize jars before using.

When you have your jam jars ready, prepare your fruit.  Wash it well and remove any extra leaves, stems, etc.  If desired, you can top and tail them.  I usually just pinch off the stem. 

Weigh the fruit, then add to a big pan.  Always use a bigger pan then you think you'll need because it will bubble and splash.  (If I followed my own advice on this, I'd save myself a lot of burnt fingers.)  Because gooseberries are quite firm, part cook them first.  Cook on high heat, stirring constantly.  They will start to release juice and break down.  You can use a potato masher to help break them down if you want to speed things along.  Cook just the gooseberries for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, stick a couple of small plates into the freezer to cool.  They'll later help you to test if the jam is set.

There's a simple truth that you have to accept about jam.  It uses a lot of sugar.  I've tried cutting down on the sugar content, and the results just weren't worth it.  For gooseberry jam, use equal parts fruit and sugar by weight.  This holds true no matter how many gooseberries you have.  So if, for example, you have 1 kg of gooseberries, add 1 kg of sugar.  You can buy fancy jamming sugars, but I just use plain white sugar.

Add the sugar to the fruit and continue to cook on high heat.  Stir constantly.  The sugar should melt and mix in with the fruit.  You can adjust the heat as needed, but it should stay at a rolling boil.  You'll notice a fantastic kind of alchemy as you make gooseberry jam.  You started off with prickly green fruits.  As they cook, though, the gooseberries turn a lovely pink and get a velvety texture.  It becomes really lovely and appetizing.  Cook until it starts to reduce.  How long this takes will depend on how big of a batch of jam you're cooking at once and the heat of your hob.

You can test the jam by putting a spoonful on one of the cold plates.  Run your finger through it.  If it immediately rushes in to fill the gap, it's not ready yet.  If it makes a puckery kind of line through the jam, it's ready.  Don't wait until it's already perfectly set because it will set further after you turn off the heat and jar it.

When it's ready, you can jar it.  I really recommend using a jam funnel.  It will help to keep the edges of the jar clean so that you get a better seal, and just makes the whole process easier.  You want to put the jam into the jars and then put on the lids as quickly as possible.  If it cools too much, the jars won't seal.  You can do it by yourself, but it's definitely easier if you have two people working on this stage.  Your jam will look absolutely beautiful in the jar.

Then you're finished.  Leave the jars to cool and just check that the jars have taken, or sealed, later in the day.  You can make labels to add, and then stick in the cupboard for whenever you want some lovely jam.  This will liven up any piece of toast.

And there you have it: gooseberry jam.  This really is one of my favourite parts of the summer.  It may seem crazy to make your own jam, but it really doesn't take as long as it seems, and the jam is so much better than anything store bought.  It was a really lovely process picking the gooseberries together as a family, and then my husband and I made the jam together after the girls went to bed that evening.

Harvest Ratatouille

As I was doing my grocery shopping at ASDA, I noticed something tucked away in the kitchenware aisle. White ceramic casserole dishes, with lids, for only £1. They're oven, dishwasher, microwave, and freezer safe. Obviously I bought one.

Later that afternoon, I went into the garden and was able pick lots of fresh vegetables. Inspired by the desire to use my new casserole dish, I made a ratatouille inspired dish (this is my version using what I had available from my garden--if you want an authentic French ratatouille, click here). I wanted something that was simple, fresh, seasonal, and flavoursome.

I chopped up one red onion, several small shallots, two cloves of garlic, one aubergine (eggplant), one yellow courgette (zuchinni), one green courgette, and a green bell pepper. I also sliced up a selection of runner and green beans from my garden. I like cooking with green tomatoes, so I added small green tomatoes (and left a group of then to roast on top of the dish). I added a tin of chopped tomatoes, and stirred everything up with a selection of fresh chopped herbs. Then I added a sprig of rosemary to the top. I cooked it with the lid on for about forty-five minutes, until everything seemed well cooked, and then I left it in the oven for a few minutes longer with the lid off.

To try it yourself, feel free to alter it slightly to include whatever you grow in your garden, or have in your fridge that needs using.

Serve with whatever type of carbohydrate takes your fancy. It tastes good served with brown rice, French bread (and a creamy cheese like Camembert), or can be served with pasta or even couscous or quinoa.

This meal is extremely healthy and full of flavour, so enjoy!

Field Trip to Mottisfont Abbey

Normally this blog is all about the domesticsy things I do at home, but I wanted to include a field trip.

Yesterday we went to the nearby National Trust site Mottisfont Abbey. Thanks to Henry VIII, not much of the abbey still remains, but it was converted into a massive country home, parts of which you can tour. To be honest, though, what I enjoyed most were the grounds.

Set on a huge plot on the River Test in rural Hampshire, the Mottisfont property is breath-takingly beautiful. The shallow river ambles through the gardens, and is full of ducks and fish. The grounds include both more overgrown, natural woodland, and carefully manicured gardens, and Mottisfont is home to the famous rose garden that preserves old and endangered varieties of roses. I loved how throughout the gardens, a lot of aromatic and edible plants were used. You could find sage used as a border plant, rosemary in amongst flowers, and figs hiding behind the roses. There were also a variety of fruit trees on the grounds (including mulberries, which I got to pick and taste for the first time). It was a peaceful, inviting place to be.

We also ate at the restaurant there. They serve dishes including trout (caught fresh from the river), and use produce from their own gardens and local farms. They also use locally milled flour (from Winchester) and cheese produced at local farms. The food was delicious, and really inspired me to keep using as many local products as possible.

I definitely plan on going back.

To see more pictures of Mottisfont Abbey, click here.