Recipe: Cherokee blueberry honey cake

I always played the Indian in Cowboys and Indians; in movies, I wanted those underdogs to win. I learnt the names of the tribes: Cherokee, Apache, Comanche, Navajo, Cheyenne, are just a few. They represented romance, rebellion, resistance, dignity, tradition, purity of culture. I used to see a Western every week at Saturday Morning Pictures. Do kids still play Cowboys and Indians?

One summer I backpacked around New Mexico, hitching a ride to visit the Acoma pueblo 'mesa', a 365 foot flat-topped mountain arising from the dessert. A few Native Indians live there all year round but thousands of tourists visit each year. We looked around the traditional buildings, the people and the craft shops. In one shop a large friendly red-faced American tourist naively asked a tiny shrivelled Native Indian lady how old she was. Her reply was scathing "How dare you ask me how old I am. How dare you come here and insult me like this. You are talking down to me, this is typical of the white man, patronising us". The hapless tourist gabbled apologies. It was embarrassing and awkward. Her anger punctured our cheerful curiosity about their mesa village. We suddenly became aware that we were interlopers, that they didn't like us, that we were there on sufferance, so that they could make money to survive.
I'm still fascinated by Native Indian life; I'd love to spend some time in a teepee, naff though that might be nowadays. The architecture of the teepee is particularly feminine; many Native Indian tribes are matrilineal. The teepee field at Glastonbury always inspires me and I often go there during the festival to have some chai, listen to guitar by the fireside as dawn breaks.
For this Secret Garden Club I researched Native Indian food, starting with the planting trio 'Three sisters': corn, beans and squash. Foods they ate were mainly corn-based but also included tomatillos (husk tomatoes), berries (Sumac made 'Indian lemonade'), acorn flour and oil, game and fish, wild potato, Yucca, Squash and zuccini, watermelon, turkeys, maple syrup and pinon nuts.

Menu:

Corn whisky (Jim Beam with coke)

Cornmeal tacos with marinated salmon, fresh and smoked

Cornbread in a skillet

Tomato and spring onion salsa

Succotash using @zia_mays home-grown borlotti beans

Roast squash with maple syrup and sumac

Cherokee blueberry honey cake

Here is the recipe for the Cherokee Blueberry and Honey cake, it worked very well. The original recipe was with 'huckleberries' but those being thin on the ground in North-West London, I replaced them with blueberries. I was told by a guest that huckleberries* aren't actually very nice! 

120g butter, room temperature
120g caster sugar
200g honey
3 eggs, beaten
125ml whole milk

140g white flour

70g wholewheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
380g. fresh blueberries 


Preheat your oven to 175c or bake in the Aga baking oven, bottom shelf.
Cream the butter, sugar and honey together.
Beat in the eggs and milk.
Once well combined, sift in the white flour, wholewheat flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
Dust the fresh blueberries with a tablespoon of flour then fold them in gently with the batter. I reserved a cupful and sprinkled them on top.
I tipped the mixture into a lined loaf tin and baked for 45 minutes. In a conventional oven it may take an hour. 
Keep an eye to make sure the top isn't burning, if it is, cover it with foil. 
It's done when you test with a metal skewer and it comes out clean.
This cake was beautifully moist and not too sweet. 
Dust with icing sugar (I use a tea strainer as a mini sieve).


*Don't make the mistake I once did in an American cafe and order a 'dingleberry' pie. 


The next Secret Garden Club (workshop, supper and bouquet) is on the subject on edible flowers: how to grow them and which ones can you eat. Book here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/157921 £45

Recipe: picnic: salad in a jar

I love picnics and salads and jars. Combine all three with this portable layered salad idea. I was trying to make a Jubilee salad (red white and blue) but frustratingly discovered that are there are no genuinely blue foods. Blue foods are purple. So I gave up and used whatever goodies I could find in my fridge.

The layers from the bottom:

Pickled plums recipe from Nigella Lawson

Mini mozzarella 'pearls' (available at Tesco)

Tiny cherry tomatoes from Riverford Organics.

Curley parsley from my garden.

Shaved purple carrots

Shaved orange carrots

Sunflower sprouts from Riverford Organics.

Dressing of your choice

Tip: put the dressing in the bottom then turn the jar upside down once you've set up your picnic.

Recipe: hot smoked mackerel salad with cornflower petals

First smoke your mackerel. Only kidding! But smoking is easier than you think, especially hot smoking. Just buy a little kit or come to one of the Secret Garden Club's smoking courses. (By the way, this Sunday we are running a Cherokee themed gardening workshop and dinner, 'cooking the three sisters', still some tickets left).
This recipe works equally well with smoked mackerel bought from your local fishmonger or supermarket. It's a good starter for this weather and full of flavour, especially with the fresh horseradish vinaigrette. I keep a horseradish root in the freezer and just grate some with a microplane whenever I need it.
I love to use edible flowers including cornflowers. It adds just the right touch of originality and prettiness. Right now I'm using the perennial cornflower which grows wild in my garden, although from June you can use the annual cornflower. I'm cooking an edible flower banquet at the gorgeous Clifton Nurseries in Maida Vale on Midsummer night's eve. Book here:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/169867

Serves four.

100ml good olive oil

2 large heaped tablespoons of Dijon mustard

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Fresh horseradish, grated 

Salt

Black pepper

200g mixed lettuce leaves, washed and dried carefully
Cornflower petals
1 pack or 2 fillets of smoked mackerel, skinless, sliced thickly
More black pepper

Make your dressing:
Put the Dijon mustard into the olive oil and whisk.
Add the lemon juice, continue to whisk until it is emulsified.
Grate fresh horseradish straight into the dressing, as much or as little as you like.
Season with salt and black pepper.
Divide the mixed leaves between the plates.
Pluck the petals from the cornflowers and distribute artfully around the leaves.
Then place three or four thick slices of the smoked mackerel fillets on top of the salad, overlapping slightly.
Dot the horseradishy dressing over the salad.
Grind on more black pepper and rub a pinchful of Malden salt between your fingers on top of the salad for a little bit of texture.
Serve with cold white wine and sourdough bread. 

Recipe: pesto alla genovese with new potatoes and green beans

In my house we joke about 'red dinner' and 'green dinner', the words my daughter used when growing up, to describe our most regular meals. 'Green dinner' is, of course, pasta with basil sauce. Pesto sauce in jars (mostly from Sacla) grew in popularity during the late 1980s and became a convenient 15 minute 'just got in from work' supper. It is probably one of the few ways kids can be persuaded to eat anything green. But there exists a lesser known Genovese (from the Northern Italian town of Genoa, the pesto capital) version of the dish which transforms it into a more complete meal with the addition of new potatoes and green beans.
Serves 2 greedy people or 4 light eaters.

Pesto:
50g of fresh basil leaves
100ml of extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
45g of parmesan or pecorino, grated. I prefer pecorino and actually, it's more authentic for pesto from Liguria.
1/2 to 1 tablespoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon of pine nuts. Don't toast them, it ruins the flavour. You want them soft and buttery.
New potatoes 50-60g per person, boiled in salt water until tender and sliced. I used Jersey Royals.
20g green beans, topped, tailed, blanched (boiled briefly) in salted water
100-150g uncooked pasta per person: good quality spaghetti*, although trofie or trenette shapes are more traditional

Method: in a food mixer or pestle, grind the basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, parmesan and sea salt together until it forms a paste. Then add the pine nuts.
In the meantime, cook the potatoes by putting them in boiling salted water.
Five minutes later start to cook the pasta by pushing it into some salted boiling water. To save energy, you could steam the green beans in a colander on top of the pasta or potatoes.
Drain the potatoes, the pasta and the beans. All of these will, with careful planning, be ready at the same instant!
Mix the potatoes and beans with some of the pesto sauce, mix the rest of the pesto with the pasta.
Serve the potatoes and beans on top of the hot cooked pasta.
Add black pepper and more parmesan to taste.

Note: if you are pushed for time, use bottled pesto, some brands are pretty good. It's also a great way of using up left-over boiled new potatoes.

*Please spend money on good pasta, not 'quick cook'. Seriously, it doesn't cost much more but tastes and cooks so much better. The cheap stuff goes fudgy and won't cook 'al dente', retaining its bite. I buy De Cecco, Barilla or organic pasta which takes at least 11 minutes to cook.

Supper Club: Jersey Royals

Buttered Jersey Royal potatoes

After my visit to Jersey a few weeks ago I was excited to try out the produce for a supper club dinner at The Underground Restaurant: kidney-shaped firm nutty potatoes, sunshine yellow butter and cream, caramel crumbly fudge, dark gooey liquorice 'black butter' and cabbage loaves. Here is my menu:

Jersey Cider with spiced rum cocktail
Mini Jersey Royal baked potatoes with chilli roe

Spaghetti pesto alla genovese (recipe in next post)
Lemon sole en papillote with seaweed butter
Buttered Jersey Royal potatoes with mint
Cheeses from Jersey (Brie, Camembert, Blue) with Jersey Black Butter and cabbage loaves.
Jersey fudge icecream with Jersey butter shortbread
Tiny baked Jersey Royal potatoes, filled with creme fraiche and chilli flavoured roe.

To cook fish 'en papillote' (in parchment)

Cut out a large circle using a plate as a template

Brush the greaseproof paper with butter or oil

Lay out the fish on one half of the paper

Season: I used thin slices of lemon and butter mixed with a seaweed spice from @seaspicegirls

Then close by overlapping and folding the edge tightly

Bake in a hot oven for ten minutes or until fish reaches 70 degrees centigrade.

Again, please buy a digital thermometer. You can stab it through the paper.

This technique makes your fish look pretty, prevents you from overcooking it. It remains moist.Cabbage loaves: I used this slightly dodgy recipe in ounces from a BBC website.

Welcoming in the guests... using a secret password.

Smiley pretty waitresses

The difference in colour between Jersey cream and the norm. The cream went into making delicious Jersey fudge icecream.

Shortbread: these were a pain in the butt to cut out, but worth it eventually.
Jersey fudge ice cream with black fudge, chocolate sauce, shortbread spoon.
Cor, don't you just want to bury your face in that?