In the veg patch - Part 2

It's all happening in the veg patch and the greenhouse this week as things suddenly start to flower and fruit. This weekend, I think we'll be ready for homegrown potatoes and I ought to do something with the gooseberries but I've been putting it off as I'm really not a fan. The gooseberry bush is prolific, despite a very shady spot, and is something we inherited from the previous owner of our house. Every year I gaze at those plump little green fruits and usually end up giving them away to one gooseberry fan or another. This year it will be different - to mask all that gooseberriness, I have an idea to boil them, to within an inch of their lives, with the aim of making some kind of chutney to accompany hard cheese. I'm still working on the recipe and will report back when it's finally perfected. Apologies to all you gooseberry lovers out there - please let me know if you have any great recipes that might encourage a gooseberry sceptic.

Another inherited plant (or tree, judging by the size of it hanging over our garden) is the elderflower. It wasn't there when we moved in seven years ago and now it's a beast! Last weekend, my husband was adamant that he was going to go round and remonstrate with the neighbour about it and have it chopped down. "Not before I've made elderflower cordial", I barked, and so I did, for the first time ever. So successful was the experiment that it is likely to become a regular annual feature chez nous - it's deliciously fresh and just shouts 'Summer' at me.

This week has been a long one so I think I might try the cordial with a slug of gin tonight and, thanks to the weather, make the most of being saved from the most herculean of tasks - watering the garden.

Somerset Cheese Tasting

Last night we tried the Somerset cheeses that I bought from the local farmshop on Friday and tried to match them with some different wines. Here's what we tried:

Pennard Ridge Goat's Cheese - a very salty, hard, white cheese
Green's Cheddar from Pennard - a pretty strong cheddar
Smoke Acre from Galhampton - a very tasty, smoked cheddar

We tried them all with a 2007 white Hautes Côtes de Beaune, a 2007 red Côtes du Rhône Cairanne and a 15-year-old Verdelho Madeira.

The goat worked well with both the red and the white wines, particularly the white. The Madeira didn't like it at all. The Green's Cheddar was too much for all the wines - the white became flat and the red lost its fruit. The Madeira was the only wine to put up a fight but it wasn't an ideal match for this very strong cheese. It came into its own, however, with the Smoke Acre, the slight sweetness and smokiness of the wine balancing well with the saltiness of the cheese. The white was also tolerable with the Smoke Acre but the red became pretty bland.

We all agreed that the cheese of the tasting was the Pennard Ridge goat's cheese and that it also provided the best match - with the white Hautes Côtes de Beaune. I'll definitely be enjoying this pairing again.

A Supper of Farmhouse Sausages

Our local farmshop, at Stourhead Gardens (a National Trust property), is a favourite stopping point for excellent local meat and cheeses. Yesterday I called in for some hard cheeses for a cheese tasting but, as usual, I came out with a bag full of extras having been unable to resist their plump and succulent Cumberland sausages and a few other goodies.

An idea had immediately sprung to mind for the sausages and, later in the evening, I got started on preparing a puy lentil accompaniment for them. It's very simple - fry some chopped red onions and garlic in a little olive oil and add chopped sundried tomatoes, capers, seasoning and then a slug of red wine. I also threw in a few chopped fresh tomatoes to bind the sauce. To this, add some cooked puy lentils (I use the Merchant Gourmet pre-cooked lentils for speed) and let the whole thing simmer gently for a few minutes while grilling the sausages. Chop some fresh oregano and add it to the lentil mixture, leaving a little for garnishing. We enjoyed this with a watercress salad and a bottle of Perrin & Fils Côtes du Rhône Cairanne 2007 (red). 2007 was an excellent vintage in the Southern Rhône and this juicy Cairanne went perfectly with the rustic simplicity of the dish.

Summer Vegetable Pilaf (in the rain)

It was looking fairly summery outside this morning when I planned tonight's supper but, now I'm cooking, the rain is coming down. Still, this old favourite should brighten up the evening - a light pilaff, using basmati rice, with asparagus, freshly-podded peas, lots of lemon (juice and zest), spring onions and fresh basil and oregano. My husband can't resist some grated pecorino cheese on the finished dish but take care as they can mask the flavours of the other ingredients. I'm chilling a bottle of white Saint Pourçain from the Auvergne - a blend of Chardonnay, Aligoté, Trésallier and Sauvignon - a fine, fresh match for the pilaf.

To follow, there's some Saint Marcellin cheese and crusty bread which should also work with the Saint Pourçain.

Meatfest

After yesterday's meatfest on the barbecue (homemade lamb and mint burgers with pork ribs marinated in maple syrup, garlic, paprika and tomato puree), I find myself, of a Monday evening, with yet more lamb mince to do something with. We also had aubergines, broad beans, feta cheese, mint and olives. So here's what I concocted:

I fried an onion with some garlic (5 big cloves - I do like a lot of garlic) and then added the lamb mince. Once browned, I threw in some cinnamon, cumin and dried thyme, chopped black olives and some aubergine that I had sliced, brushed with olive oil and grilled. The aubergine was chopped into smaller pieces before being added to the lamb. I simmered the whole lot for 20 minutes or so in some fresh vegetable stock and seasoned it well.

At the same time, I boiled some broad beans, took them out of their thick, outer shells and added crumbled feta, chopped mint, lemon juice and a drop of extra virgin olive oil.

We scooped up the lamb and broad bean salad into toasted pitta bread - messy but delicious. To drink, we had a young Spanish red from Tempranillo which worked fairly well although I think, given the richness and oiliness of the lamb, a crisp Loire Chenin or even a Jurançon Sec might have been more interesting and a bit different.

I would try this again with pieces of shoulder or neck of lamb, slow cooked and served with couscous but I would stick to a red wine for this heavier style of lamb.

A fish barbecue

The minute the sun comes out everyone is barbecuing and we are no exception although we are fairly traditional in our practices here - no gas barbecues or easy-to-light coals in our garden! The weather looked fairly promising this morning and, having acquired some whole rainbow trout, we decided to barbecue them, stuffed with thyme, sage and lemon juice, with some Jersey Royals (par-boiled first and then finished on the barbecue on wooden skewers) and English asparagus. All this was accompanied by homemade lemon mayonnaise and a green salad of Lollo Rosso straight from the greenhouse. My wine choice was Gavi, a fairly aromatic white wine from the Piedmont region of North-West Italy. It's made from the Cortese grape and today's bottle is a 2007 - very fresh and lemony.

NB I have been asked to mention, by my husband, that the trout was excellently cooked and filleted to perfection. I find myself compelled to agree. Like most men, the caveman tendency reveals itself whenever a fire is lit.

Summer Fête Season

Today I've been helping at my children's school summer fête where my job was to look after the cake stall. I also was tasked with making two dozen scones for refreshments. Some friends tell me that homemade cakes are banned at their school fêtes for reasons of hygiene. I find this unbelievable and completely over the top and, considering that the only worthwhile cake on a cake stall is a homemade one, the act of presenting me with a shop-bought cake (as many parents did) is an outrage.

Anyway, I shall get off my high horse now and go and make paella. With it, I'm going to have one of my favourite wines - a full-bodied rosé from Irouléguy, a gorgeous village in the foothills of the Pyrenees in French Basque country.