Plums

What a plummy year it's been.
So many on two trees I didn't know I actually had.
My old plum tree had babies and I let them grow over the years, without realising they were there.

I just thought they were part of a shrubby area and a hedge. And this year? Well, they have cropped enormously and I am literally plummed out.
Plum jam is bubbling away,plum ketchup and jelly next on the list.
I recently made my plum and pistachio tart for the fire pit evening. We were doing some photography for my book. It went down a storm and my neighbour Robyn has twice made it since.

I've stripped the low branches of the trees and left the rest for the birdies and the insects.
I've got to work on the damsons, blackberries and elderberries next, along with the apples that keep falling from my other four trees. I've nearly been taken out a dozen times recently by low flying apples as I hang the washing out. It's a dangerous chore - who'd have thought I would dice with my life as I hung out my knickers!

I'm about to make some plum vodka. You might think that I spend a lot of time adding various fruits and cordials to vodka. And you might be right.
It's a little hobby - and after the plum vodka? Sloe Gin, Damson Gin and perhaps Blackberry liquer.

Hic.

Plum Vodka

1lb/450g plums to 570ml/1 litre of vodka
4oz/110g caster sugar

Heat the plums and the caster sugar together with 2floz/55ml water. Place over a gentle heat and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the plums are tender.
Cool.
Pour the vodka over the plums and stir. Transfer to a couple of wide mouthed kilner jars and steep in a dark place for 2 months. Strain and then bottle and drink ... it's lovely with tonic and a slice of lime or just neat.

Fancy a bit of Food and Wine...

If so, Marcia Waters www.mw2wines.com and I are (due to popular demand!!) holding our Food and Wine Matching evening again.
I demonstrate the food, Marcia talks about the wine and how we match it - and you drink and eat!

Sounds pretty good!
In fact, it sounds so lovely you should book as soon as you can!

Friday October 23rd at 7.30pm
£50 per person (bit of a bargain)

Please email me lotte@lotteduncan.com to book.

Is that the sun?

I woke up today, pulled the curtains and I do believe I saw an old friend.
There he was - the prodigal sun.
About time too.
No, I won't kill the fatted calf and indulge you Sunny Jim, you should have been here for the last three weeks.

Please stay this time and ripen my tomatoes, sweeten my corn and plump my courgettes. I won't moan about the heat or complain about you ever again. If you'll just stay. Please.

The only good thing about the last few weeks of miserable weather is the fact that I've been less grumpy about all the work I've been doing. Often, just the thought of being office bound when the garden is beckoning is enough to turn a happy Lotte into a sour faced old bag!
I've been run off my feet, it's been great (I love working and being busy) and I've not missed out on the sun.

This is the reason I haven't blogged in ages - all my writing has been going in another direction - my cookery book.
It's being published in Spring 2010 by Absolute Press and I am so excited about it. I'm really enjoying the process and looking forward to the next photograpy day.
This will involve me, food, wine, a fire pit and lots of friends. It's happening next sunday - so I really am doing a sun dance in the hope that it is fine.
Fire pits don't usually stay alight for long in the rain!

I've also been to Dublin for a research trip and an amazing thirteith birthday party - with my wonderful, wonderful friends The Brownes. Always fun and usually messy! The research was for another project I'm working on - bit of a secret at the moment, but all will be revealed soon.

In the last few weeks I've also been writing recipes for Prestige (I do the recipes for their twice yearly customer magazine - Eat Drink Live!), and I did the food photograpy for it last friday.
I've recorded radio interviews with a lovely chap called John Clowes - gardening consultant for Miracle Gro.(see photograph) We spent a day locked in a recording booth together talking about the new website. www.lovethegarden.com
Brilliant for gardening tips.
Have to say, couldn't think of a nicer person to be locked into a booth with!

I also had a fabulous lunch at The Angel Restaurant. www.angelrestaurant.co.uk
The owner, the lovely Trevor Bosch asked me and Marcia Waters, (master of wine www.mw2wines.com) my friend to develop a lunch and wine menu (theme PINK, of course!) for some ladies. He regularly holds these Ladies Lunches and they are a great success.
Guess what - it absolutely poured with rain and crashed with thunder on the day, but it was great fun and the food and wine went down a treat. Pink wines with pink food.
(Apologies for the photo of this day - off my phone - forgot my proper camera - duh! I did have more of them, but managed to delete them - double duh!

In between the work I've dressed up as Doris Day, and attended a party escorted Wonder Woman where I cuddled Captain Scarlett. As you do.

So, rain aside - it's not actually been a bad few weeks. Hope you are enjoying your summer too.

Is that the sun?

Fire Pit 2....The Re-Dig!

They arrived together. Shovels in hand, boots on feet.

Grunting, posturing, swaggering and beating their chests to the rhythm of Neanderthal man.

'Woman, beer!' is all they could say as they stood over the mole-ruined pit and surveyed their potential work.

It was a warm summer's evening. The midges were out. Danger was all around.
Their primeval instincts took over as they re-dug the fire pit and bickered about where to put the stones.

Man has been building fire for thousands of years.

These men were no different.

Well, actually they were.

It all fell apart towards the end when no one could decide where to put the stones. Bits caved in, tempers, although not frayed, were a little taught and when they had left, I had to re-build a small part of it!

However, I would like to point out, that Nick, Simon and Dave are total stars.

They all live in my lane and are married to some of The Husseys.(for definition of Husseys, you need to read my archive) They are fabulous fun, lovely chaps and always there to help.

So thank you gentlemen. The fire pit has recovered from it's mole infestation. It is now ready to cook up a storm.

Here's to all the future, fabulous fire pit nights we'll have over the summer!

Pink and Green Should Always Be Seen...

The Date: Saturday 27th June 2009
The Venue: My Gaff
The Guests: Ten Hens
The Theme: English Country Garden (That's lucky then!)

On Saturday we started early.

Sue (my friend, neighbour and 'Cheeky Gin Friday co-conspirator') and I erected the pergola in searing heat - with only a few choice words exclaimed at various intervals - and started decorating it with the saris I bought from Kolkata and pink and green flowers and candles.

We then moved to the kitchen to finish prepping, where my AGA - the most expensive radiator in the world - was pumping out a molten-lava-temperature that transformed my face from English rose complexion to puce, verging on a stroke, red.

A quick cold shower, a change into grown up I know what I'm doing clothes and the Hen's arrived at 4.30 for their early supper. This was to be followed by a trip into Oxford for a night at The Comedy Club and some slick moves on the dance floor.

My daughter Daisy (in between her shifts at the pub) welcomed the ladies at the door and steered them in the direction of the garden where Sue was there to pour them some extremely chilled and rather delicious English sparkling wine.

This wine was care of Chapel Down in Kent - a place I have filmed at in the past for the series Dial a Mum on ITV. Fabulous vineyard and the wine is quite frankly better than some champagnes, as are a lot of English Sparklers - cue large bolt of lightening from France!

So the Hens roosted themselves under the shade of my apple trees and clucked enormously.
Women are very good at that. We may have only just met each other, but we quickly find a common ground.
This patch of earth generally includes the ability to multi-task, the dissapointment of our husband's DIY (and perhaps 'other') skills, schools, children, sex, food, wine, bit more sex...more wine....sex...a little more wine...and yes, you've guessed it...sex!

Yes gentlemen, when you think we are talking about flowers, children, school grades, recipe swaps and cleaning - what we are really conversing about is sex. Lots of it, lack of it and more of it! Hah!

Right back to the food.

The starter was my English Herb and Flower Salad with Goat's Cheese, Bacon and Beetroot in a rapeseed and Alegar Dressing, spiked with wholegrain mustard and sweetened with a little maple syrup. (Alegar vinegar is made my my friend Alan Coxon..go on google it!) I served this with some home-made bread and butter.

Main was Pork with Green Peas. Originally this dish was Duck with Peas and a favourite dish of Queen Anne, a renowned glutton. I have tweaked it, removed the fatty duck and added tons of mint to freshen the dish. I also have apples and cider in my version. In fact when you look at it, the only resemblance to the original dish is the peas! Tastes delicious though and will be in my forthcoming book, along with all the other recipes.

Sue worked like a trojan, serving and clearing the table, pouring wine and generally being bloody marvellous. Absolutely couldn't have done it without her.

Pudding raised a few sighs and lusty comments. I didn't know a pink meringue covered in glitter and served with local raspberries, strawberries and clouds of whipped elderflower cream could invoke such an emotional reaction.

Actually of course I did, which is exactly why I made them.

Gentlemen, once again I want to open your eyes to girl life.

If you were present at a pink meringue feast, we would hold back, not wanting to look gluttonous or out of control.
But without you there, we turn into she-devils with lustful meringue intentions that would bring tears to your eyes. We bury our faces in the marshmallowy centres, smear the fluffy elderflower cream over our lips and tumble handfuls of berries into our mouths a rapid intervals. We are primeval, rabid and completely gorge-ous!

We won't do this in front of you though, we want you to think we're ladies.

Nicky was chief Hen and organised the whole event for Cat who's getting married in Norway in July. Cat, with her future husband own the 'Little Italy' cafes that are at Bicester North and Haddenham and Thame Parkway railway stations and in the village of Haddenham in Buckinghamshire. If you are lucky enough to arrive or leave from one of these stations, you'll always get fabulous friendly service from truly lovely people.

Nicky really did pull off a fabulous day for Cat and rallied the troops or should I say herded the birds together, after the coffee, into the taxis to finish off the party in Oxford.

Sue and I polished off the unfinished bottle of fizz while we cleared and then some of my other neighbours arrived and we sat under the pergola, whilst it rained and had a barbecue, cooked by Simon and Robyn.

The thunder clapped, fork lightening cracked on the horizon and we were only mildly concerned about the pergola's metal frame surrounding us (wine does that!).

It was such a lovely day and it proves that when the sun shines, the wine flows and you have a gathering of good friends, there really is no where I would rather be than in England.

The pictures above show the Hen party, followed by the BBQ... please click on each photo for a close up

English Herb and Flower Salad; and how to make a boring green salad scrumptious...

Believe it or not, the English have been great fans of the humble salad for hundreds of years.
In the 17th century, there was even a book written entirely on the 'Salat'.

We loved them, we ate them and we titivated them with edible flowers.

I've been cooking with flowers, decorating with flowers and eating them for at least thirty years.
During the summer I grow lots of different flowers especially for consumption.

Soon, edible flowers will be on every table in the land; chefs will say they are the new, trendy decor.
People will exclaim, 'Why have I never thought of this before?'

Others will turn their noses up, but eventually succumb.

And when this happens, (and it will) I shall sit back in a cosy blanket of smugness and say 'Told you'!