august - The Bridge Cottage

Raspberry Vinegar. Season: July and August.

July 14, 2022/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Have you ever made your own raspberry vinegar? What a wonderful year for raspberries 2022 is! We’re picking around a kilo every day here in the Bridge Cottage Garden. Do you grow raspberries? They are very easy to grow and here in the northeast of England they are very well suited to our climate.

Growing Raspberries

Raspberries in the Bridge Cottage Garden in July

Raspberry picking takes me back to a summer job I once had, travelling by train from Worthing to Inverness as a seventeen-year-old to work on a fruit farm in Inverness picking raspberries. It was hard graft, with a double bucketed punnet tied around our necks. The boss would rattle out tents, and we’d emerge, hungover from a night at the local pub, The Bogroy, and traipse into the raspberry fields. We were a mixed bag, and I’d joined the party element – we shocked the straighter students by holding a naked raspberry picking day, wearing nothing but our wellies!

Raspberry vinegar

But enough of naked raspberry picking. What to do with all these raspberries? Jam making and ice cream spring immediately to mind, and I’ve already written pieces on that, which you’ll find along with lots of other seasonal recipes in the Bridge Cottage Kitchen.

Summer fruit ice cream

Raspberry Jam

Health Benefits of Raspberry Vinegar

However, that’s quite enough of naked raspberry picking. Time to get back on track. Today’s writing concerns the making of raspberry vinegar. Not only is it delicious, but it’s healthy too. Raspberry vinegar is an age-old remedy for sore throats, coughs and colds, did you know? It contains ellagic acid, a known cancer fighter and has antioxidants by the bucketload. Pam Corbin, in the River Cottage Series No. 2. Preserves, ( a kitchen bible in this house) writes: ‘During the nineteenth century, raspberry vinegar, in particular, was recommended as a refreshing tonic to overcome weariness.’

Culinary Uses

Nigel Slater advises us to pour it over ice cream and use it to deglaze the roasting tins of lamb or liver, giving a ‘fruity depth to the caramelised juices in the pan’. My husband, Tim, drinks it with fizzy water/soda and it goes equally well with tonic – very healthy. I love to make a fruity salad dressing mixing equal parts with olive oil. It is the perfect accompaniment to cheese, and delicious drizzled over a goat’s cheese and beetroot salad. (Thought Tim says beetroot is the food of the devil).

Method.

Raspberry vinegar

So here’s how, and it’s really easy!

Makes 1.5 litres

1kg raspberries

600ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

Granulated sugar

Put the raspberries in a bowl and crush them with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the vinegar. Cover and leave to steep for 4-5 days, stirring occasionally.

Pour the fruit and vinegar into a jelly bag, or piece of muslin suspended over a bowl. We use a piece of cheesecloth, tied at all four corners and hung off a kitchen cupboard door, with a large bowl underneath to catch the drips. Leave to drain overnight.

Measure the liquid then pour it into a saucepan.

It’s important you use a stainless-steel saucepan for this next bit and not aluminium as that would react with the vinegar. For every 600ml fruit vinegar, add 450g of sugar. Boil for 8-10 minutes, removing any scum as it gathers. Take off the heat and allow it to cool.

Bottle in sterilised glass bottles (we save these all year round for such times) Will keep for 12 months until it’s summer again and time to make some more.

Variations

We’ve made fruit vinegar with elderberries in autumn, gooseberries and blackcurrants and blackberries. All delicious!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list below. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Sign up to quarterly Substack newsletter

The Great Courgette Glut. Season: July and August

August 15, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Next year, when I’m sowing courgette seeds, will someone please remind me that eight courgette plants are far too many?

The great courgette glut

Someone over on The Bridge Cottage Way Facebook page suggested this week that courgette seeds be sold strictly in packets of three to avoid overplanting. I think they have a point.

We’ve had a few takers for homegrown courgettes and cucumbers from the table outside Bridge Cottage. We are dripping in them and it’s courgettes with everything at the moment.

August Harvest Minestone

We’re making minestrone and ratatouille for the freezer and adding courgettes to risotto and ragu. This week I make a courgette and chocolate traybake cake, which has gone down a treat. Our youngest son usually shuns courgettes but has gone back to his own house today with a box of courgette and chocolate cake tucked under his arm. Another hit was the courgette and cheddar soda loaf from BBC Good Food.

Courgettes are being added to risottos and curries – I love a prawn and courgette curry, and soups are being made to go in the freezer for the winter months. I’ve just shared a photo of courgette, tomato and basil soup bubbling away in the pan over on Twitter (@suereedwrites) and had a request for the recipe, so here it is:

Courgette, Lentil, Tomato and Basil Soup.

Courgette, Tomato, Lentil & Basil Soup

I onion, finely chopped.

1.5 pints veg stock

100 g red lentils

2 courgettes

400g tin chopped tomatoes

handful fresh basil

Gently fry the chopped onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add veg stock, tomatoes and lentils, bring to a boil and cook for ten minutes. Add courgettes and chopped basil and cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper then blitz to a smooth soup.

Easy peasy! My friend Ann has been making potato, courgette, cheddar and fennel seed soup, so I must give that a whirl! Don’t be afraid to experiment with your soups, and do share your successes on our social media channels. I’ve shared the minestrone recipe in a separate post.

From the goddess of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson’s easy courgette pasta sauce is a family hit, and today I’ve made sweet potato and courgette bhajis for lunch. I thought I’d share the recipe for those with you here. It’s really very simple. I’ve added sweet potato, but you could add grated carrot or any other veg, or keep it simple and just use courgette.

Courgette Bhajis

Courgette Bhajis

serves 4

2 medium courgettes (or 1 courgette and half a sweet potato or small carrot)

1 medium onion

2 tsp each cumin, coriander, turmeric

half tsp chilli powder or half finely chopped chilli (optional)

3 tbsp gram flour

sparkling water to mix

4 tbsp vegetable oil

Courgette Bhajis

Grate the veg and chop the onion. Mix well with the spices and season with salt and pepper. mix in the flour and enough sparkling water to bind it all together – about 4 tbsp.

Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy-based frying pan and fry on each side til golden brown. Drain and serve with seasonal salad.

Harvest Time Minestrone.

August 1, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

August Harvest Minestone

Minestrone making is one of the joys of late summer’s harvest time. A seasonal recipe that freezes well, is a meal in a bowl and brings a welcome reminder of summer in the depths of winter. I first wrote this piece on the first of August and Lammas, the pagan celebration of the harvest. This bountiful collection of vegetables was gathered from the Bridge Cottage garden yesterday.

We’re just back from a trip away and we’ve come home to some courgettes of marrow proportion. Courgettes are still in their ‘glut’ season, and I’ve written a separate post giving some seasonal recipes for courgettes. Here, in minestrone, they can be added in chunks along with seasonal tomatoes. Both of these are covered in separate posts to give more inspiration for seasonal eating.

Our broad beans are past their best now, leathery in texture, so are shelled. It’s a bit of a phaff, but well worth it. Simply blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water, then plunge into a bowl of cold water with ice. The skins will then be easy to squeeze and the tender insides squashed out.

I also like to skin the tomatoes – it’s up to you if you want to make a passata or keep them in chunks.

Here is our minestrone recipe, though feel free to adapt according to what you have ripe and ready, and vary the amounts if you don’t have as much veg ready and ripe. We like to cook in bulk and freeze, so this will make around ten generous portions:

August Harvest Minestrone

Bridge Cottage Minestrone

(Makes ten portions – enough to keep some in the fridge and freeze the rest for winter)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

3 red peppers

Handful each of French, Runner, Borlotti beans, chopped.

Broad beans

1 kg ripe tomatoes

4 courgettes

Chopped fresh herbs eg oregano, parsley, basil.

2 litres stock (chicken or vegetable)

100g small pasta – we like little star-shaped Stellete but Orzo works well too.

Salt and pepper

Method

Shell the broad beans and remove skins by blanching for two minutes in boiling water, then plunging into a bowl of iced water. Squeeze to remove outer shells.

Prepare the tomatoes: Simply score with a sharp knife then put in a heatproof bowl, and cover with boiling water. Leave for a couple of minutes, then drain. Peel off the skins once cold enough to handle, and whizz them up in a blender to give a beautiful tomato sauce. If you don’t like the pips, then pass through a sieve. Alternately, skin then chop into rough chunks for a chunkier soup.

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and gently cook the onion, adding the tomatoes, peppers, beans, chopped herbs and stock. Bring everything to the boil and cook for five minutes before adding the chopped courgettes, crushed garlic and pasta. Cook for a further ten minutes or until the pasta is done. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy warm, then cool the rest for the freezer, putting in recycled plastic bags or tubs, and labelling with the date. You’ll be glad you went to the bother in darkest January!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tag Archive for: august