Sweet, Spicy Watermelon Pickle

This is what I made with the watermelon rinds I had leftover from making the Watermelon Agua Fresca in my last post.

It’s a sweet spicy pickle perfect to serve as a relish on burgers, at barbeques or as part of a picnic lunch. It’s great with mature sharp cheeses like goat’s cheese, Manchego, Cheddar or Feta or with salty cured hams like Serrano and Parma, you could even serve it with a whole roast ham or gammon steak. It would also be a very welcome addition to any Indian meal.

It’s really simple to make but you do it over three days. Don’t let that put you off, you’re not working on it for three whole days or anything silly. You leave it covered in its syrup overnight in the fridge then take it out in the morning, drain it into a saucepan, bring the syrup to a boil and then pour it back over the watermelon. Then put it back in the fridge until the next morning and repeat the process once more.

The original recipe didn’t have any chilli in it but my chilli pepper plant has just started to produce some little green babies so I added a few whole ones to the pot with the whole spices. You’ve got to have a little heat in a pickle or what’s the point?

Watermelon Pickle Recipe

Makes 1 big jar, vegan, gluten-free. Adapted from Epicurious

• 2kg (4 pound) watermelon, quartered & sliced into 1 inch thick wedges/triangles
• 1.75 litres (8 cups) water
• 2 tbsp sea salt plus 2 tsp
• 450 g (2 cups) sugar
• 275 ml (1+1/4 cups) apple cider vinegar
• 8 cloves
• 8 black peppercorns
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
• 1 tsp grated/minced ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 8 allspice berries
• 3 whole green (or red) chillies

Cut the watermelon flesh from the rind leaving a thin layer of pink on the rind. Use the flesh to make agua fresca or watermelon feta & mint salad.  Cut off the dark green part of the rind and discard it. Then cut the rind into 1 inch pieces.

Bring the water and 2 tbsp salt to a boil in a large saucepan then add the rind pieces and boil until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and transfer them to a metal bowl with the whole chillies.

Add the 2 tsp salt, sugar and the rest of the ingredients to a large saucepan, bring to the boil, stirring continuously until the sugar dissolves. Pour this over the watermelon rinds and chillies in the bowl then place a plate on top to keep the rinds under the syrup. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.

The next day strain the syrup from the rinds into a saucepan, bring the syrup to the boil and pour it back over the rinds in the bowl. Cover with the plate again and the cling film and leave again overnight.

Repeat straining, boiling and pouring over rinds one more time and leave again, covered in fridge overnight. Then spoon the rinds and spices into a sterilised jar, pour over the syrup so it covers the top of the rinds and seal. Store in the fridge.

I really enjoyed making something so delicious out of something that would normally just get thrown away. Means more money to spend on shoes…..!

Watermelon Agua Fresca

Just a little something to quench your thirst if you are suffering like me in this unbearable heat. Sorry if you are in the rain somewhere but you can pretend it’s sunny and cheer yourself up with this refreshingly tropical drink if you like.

When it is this hot all I seem to do all day is drink water. Water is good but I do get a bit bored of it after a while. Agua Frescas are fruit based non alcoholic punches popular in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is basically just pureed fruit with water, lime juice and honey to sweeten. This is a non alcoholic version because I wanted something refreshing to drink during the day but I’m sure a little vodka or rum would make it into a lovely cocktail.

I kept the watermelon rinds to make watermelon pickle. The recipe will follow in my next post.

Watermelon Agua Fresca

Makes 1 big pitcher/jug. Vegan, gluten-free

Prep time: 20 mins

• 2 kg (4 pound) watermelon (1 small/med)
• 250-300 ml (1+1/2 cups) cold water
• 1 +1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
• 1 +1/2 tsp honey
• ice cubes, lime slices & mint sprigs to serve

Cut the watermelon into quarters then slice into inch wide triangles/wedges. Cut the flesh from the rind leaving a little pink on (if you would like to make watermelon pickle with them). Blend the flesh in four batches with about 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) of water each time until smooth.

Carefully pour the blended watermelon through a sieve into your pitcher/jug and press out any extra juice from the pulp collected in the sieve with a spatula. Continue with the rest. You may want to add a little more water to the finished juice.

Add the lime juice and honey, mix well and taste. Add more lime/honey as required. Store covered in the fridge. Serve over lots of ice with lime slices and sprigs of mint as garnish.

Keep the rinds for the watermelon pickle recipe that follows in my next post.

Salud!!

Savoury Cherry Tomato Clafoutis with Basil, Goat’s Cheese and Courgette Blossom

I have been wanting to make a clafoutis for a while now. The traditionally sweet French dessert is made with fruit, usually cherries, cooked in a batter made with eggs, ground almonds, sugar and flour. Cherries are in season here now and are very cheap but it is impossible to find a cherry pitter/pipper/stoner or whatever it’s called, in this town. Apparently you can make it with the stones left in the cherries but I live with the most accident prone man in Andalucia and can’t be doing with the Heimlich manoeuver in this heat.

Thankfully our cherry tomato plant has just decided to produce a large amount of ripe fruit at the same time that the basil plants (purple and green) are growing like weeds. I say thankfully because I found a recipe for a savoury clafoutis in  The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo that my friend Rhian bought me for my birthday. There are lots of lovely things in the book but the savoury clafoutis was top of my list of things to try especially with our little baby tomatoes.

I saw these courgette blossoms still with the little courgettes attached at the market and bought a load of them. I used some as a topping with some portobello mushrooms on a pizza but still had a few left so I sliced the mini courgettes into the clafoutis filling and topped them with a flower.

I made two individual clafoutis in mini loaf tins with this recipe but you can double it and make a big one in a baking dish or tin that should serve 4-6 as part of a lunch or picnic. Or use little ramekins.

You could change the cheese to a Manchego, Cheddar or Gruyère, switch up the herbs and use leftover roasted vegetables as an alternative filling. I served it with this French Potato Salad.

Cherry Tomato Clafoutis with Goat’s Cheese, Basil & Courgette Blossom

Serves 2-3 (easily doubled), Vegetarian. Adapted from The Little Paris Kitchen

Prep time: 10 mins Cooking time: 15-20 mins (small) 30-40 mins (large)

• 50g goat’s cheese/feta
• 50g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• 2 or 3 courgette blossoms (stamens removed) baby courgettes finely sliced (optional)
• a handful of fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
• a few sprigs of fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped
• 2 eggs
• salt & black pepper
• 25g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp flour
• 50g goat’s yoghurt (or greek yoghurt)
• 50 ml milk (I used oat milk)

Preheat oven to 180C and lightly oil and flour your dishes. Scatter the tomatoes, crumbled/torn goat’s cheese and sliced baby courgettes, if using, evenly over the base(s).

Whisk the eggs well with the salt & pepper then gently fold in the ground almonds and flour until just combined. Stir in the yoghurt, milk and fresh herbs.

Pour the batter over the filling and top each one with a courgette flower. Bake until golden brown and set. 15-20 minutes for small, 30 -40 minutes for larger. Tip them out of the moulds or serve from the large dish, warm or at room temperature.

Things That Made Me Smile Today………

Our new lavender plant, a beautiful magenta colour.

Huge, bright and blousy squash and pumpkin flowers, the first sign that autumn will arrive and along with it relief from the unbearable heat.

Enjoy your weekend..

Rustic Plum and Lavender Galette

This post is dedicated to my Auntie Pat who left us unexpectedly on Monday night.  She was an amazing woman who lived life to the full and was always there for everyone no matter what. She has left a huge void in all our lives and no one really knows what to do next.

A Shining Star

She was like the sun

And we were all little planets floating around in her orbit

Some  near, some far away

But all held together by the magnetism of her warmth and love

They say the sun is just a huge star

And that the stars died millions of years ago

But we can still see them at night

So as long as there are stars up in the sky

She, the sun, will never die

I used the same wholemeal olive oil pastry recipe that I used for my Fresh Fig & Goat’s Cheese Quiche but added a few tablespoons of sugar, reduced the salt and added some dried lavender instead of the rosemary and oregano.

I’ve been wanting to make a galette for a while now but when I saw this recipe with stunning pictures on Cafe Fernando I knew I had to copy it. Arranging the plums like this is not as difficult as it looks but slicing them is a little fiddly, you need quite firm plums if you pardon the expression.

This amount of pastry made enough for one large galette and two mini individual ones. I cut around a large dinner plate for the large and two bread plates or saucers for the mini ones. I made a mini fig galette a mini plum. You could use nectarines, peaches, apples, pears or apricots too. Just try to keep them in one layer so the fruit doesn’t get too wet and make the pastry soggy.

Rustic Plum & Lavender Galette

Makes 1 large plus two mini individual galettes. Vegan.

Pastry recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini. Filling from Cafe Fernando

Prep time: 35 mins Cooking time 45 mins

• 250 g wholemeal or spelt flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chopped dried lavender (optional)
• 2 tbsp raw or soft brown sugar
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) cold water

Mix the flour, salt, sugar & lavender (if using) in a large bowl then slowly add the oil mixing/mashing it in with a fork until crumbly. Add an ice-cube to the water and slowly pour it (not the ice-cube) into the flour and mix it in with the fork until just absorbed then bring it together with one hand kneading a little just until it forms a cohesive ball. Do not over work or it will be tough.

Roll it out on a lightly floured surface, turning it quarter turns as you go to stop it sticking, to the correct size about 2-3 mm thick. Flour your largest dinner plate, turn it onto the pastry and cut around it so you have a large circle. Carefully remove the circle to a piece of baking parchment and put in the fridge for 30 minutes while you prep the filling. Make mini ones with the leftover pastry using small bread plates or saucers.

• plums (I used about 8 or 9 small ones and a couple of figs for the mini galette)
• 2 tbsp or more raw or brown sugar (depending how sweet, or not the plums are)
• 1 or 2 tbsp ground almonds (optional) I used this with the figs to soak up their juices
• olive oil
• apricot or plum jam
• water

Prepare your fruit by halving, removing the stones and slicing them into 3- 5 mm thick pieces. They don’t have to be perfect, it’s easier if the fruit is underripe.

Preheat the oven to 190 C. Place the pastry circle on the baking paper on a baking tray. Leaving a border around the edge of about 1+ 1/2 inches clear, sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar (plus the tablespoon of ground almonds for juicier fruit) evenly over the base of the pastry circle.

Overlap the fruit in a circle all around the outside edge inside the border. Then make another circle of overlapping fruit, going in the opposite direction, just inside the first one. Finish off with a mini circle going the same direction as the first one in the middle of the circle. (see pictures above).

Start to carefully roll up the edge of the pastry towards the fruit turning the tart (or paper) as you go around until it’s all done. Brush the edges of the pastry with olive oil and sprinkle the sugar all over the fruit. Use more if you think the fruit is very tart.

Bake for 40 -45 minutes (25-30 for the minis) until the pastry is golden and the fruit cooked. Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Make the glaze by melting a few tablespoons of seedless jam in a pan with a few tablespoons of water until it forms a smooth syrup. Paint this all over the fruit and serve the galette warm. Some vanilla ice cream or  creme fraiche would be nice to go with it but it is good on its own too.

I just wish she could be here to enjoy it.

For you Auntie Pat

With Lots of Love

Fig, Goat’s Cheese and Caramelised Red Onion Quiche with Easy Olive Oil Pastry

I was clambering up slopes trying to get some good pictures of the early season figs, brevas, yesterday morning while walking the dog. On the way back we went to the Sunday morning organic market and found a box of gorgeous looking specimens that I couldn’t resist. Brevas are larger and darker than the small green figs that ripen later in the year and have a very short season. If you see any you have to buy them, well I do anyway.

I love the combination of figs and goat’s cheese, it works so well. The contrast of the sweetness of the figs with the sharp salty goat’s cheese is heaven. You can just chop them up and put them both in a salad with an olive oil and sherry vinegar syrup dressing if you like but it’s been a while since I posted a quiche recipe and this one is special.

I’ve found a foolproof (yes even for you dad) olive oil pastry recipe. It’s quick and easy. You make it, roll it out straight away (no hour-long resting) put it in your tart/quiche tin and leave it in the fridge for half an hour while you prep the filling. Love it.

I blind baked it for about 10 minutes before putting the filling in because I was worried about getting a soggy bottom. Nothing worse than a soggy bottom. With a drier filling I wouldn’t bother. This amount of pastry made enough for my 9 inch/23 cm quiche dish with some left over for a little individual 4 or 5 inch/12 cm tart tin. It is the right amount for a large 11-12 inch/28-30cm tart tin.

Fig, Goat’s Cheese & Red Onion Quiche with Olive Oil Pastry Recipe

Makes a 28-30 cm quiche. Vegetarian. Pastry recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini

Prep time 35 mins  Cooking Time: 35 mins

• 250 g spelt or wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried herbs (I used 1/2 thyme 1/2 oregano)
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) cold water

Lightly oil & flour your tart tin. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and herbs, drizzle in the olive oil mixing/mashing it in with a fork until well combined (a bit like crumble mix). Measure out the water then add an ice-cube to it. Slowly pour the cold water (not the ice-cube) into the flour and mix it in with the fork until just absorbed then bring it together with one hand kneading a little just until it forms a cohesive ball. Do not over work or it will be tough.

Roll it out on a lightly floured surface, turning it quarter turns as you go to stop it sticking, to the correct size about 2-3 mm thick. Flour your rolling-pin and roll the pastry onto it lifting it gently over to the tart tin and unroll the pastry onto the tin. Push the pastry into the tin (do not stretch it) and trim off the excess. Keep it to make a little one if you have enough. Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes while you make the filling.

• 1 or 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium red onions, finely sliced
• salt
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary & oregano mixed
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 or 3 fresh figs, sliced or chunked
• 100-150 gr goat’s cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1 pot (125 gr) goat’s yoghurt (or greek yoghurt)
• milk (goat’s milk preferably, I used oat milk)
• salt & black pepper

Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium high heat and cook the onions and herbs with a pinch of salt for about 5 minutes until starting to brown. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile heat the oven to 200 C. Prick the base of the tart all over with a fork. Blind bake the tart case (with baking paper & beans) for about 8 minutes for the large quiche (5 minutes for individual). Remove the paper & beans and put back in the oven for 3 minutes (2 minutes for small) to set the pastry.

Spread the red onions evenly over the base, crumble/break the goat’s cheese and scatter all over then fill in the gaps with the chopped/sliced figs.

In a measuring jug, beat together the eggs then beat in the yoghurt until combined. Add enough milk to take it up to about 450 ml beating again and season well with salt & black pepper.

Open the oven, put the tart on the middle oven shelf, pull it out and then pour the egg mixture into the tart, gently push the shelf in and close the door. This stops the mixture slopping everywhere hopefully.

Bake until the quiche is just set and slightly browned about 20-30 minutes, less for a small one. Leave to cool slightly and serve warm (not hot) or at room temperature.

This is perfect picnic food, best served at room temperature it really is delicious. Goat’s cheese, figs and caramelised red onions how could that be anything other than lovely. Just serve it with a peppery, crunchy green salad. and a glass of chilled rose maybe. Summer is here. Well it is here anyway!

I am really pleased with this pastry recipe, definitely going to try a sweet version next. I’m thinking a rustic fruit galette, can’t wait. This time of year it all about fruit and there is a lot of it. Plums, peaches, nectarines, figs the list goes on. Dessert for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sound good to me!

Buen Provecho!