The Kitchen in June

A jug of flowers for the kitchen.

Yellow St John's Wort, so called because it  flowers around the feast of St John the baptist which is 24th June, complemented by the purple flowers of sage and lavender.

I feel I haven't shown you much food this month. I have taken quite a few pictures of it though.

Lamb sausage stew with chickpeas and apricots

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Above is a sausage stew I made on one of the many cold, wet June days we have had.

These are delicious lamb chipolatas with chickpeas and dried apricots plus a generous seasoning of Bart's baharat spice blend.

Giant meatballs

These meatballs are an adaptation of  Nigella Lawson's mini meatloaves in Nigella Express.

I make them about the size of a satsuma.

They are great hot or cold. I sliced the leftovers and the kids put them in their sandwiches.

Giant Meatballs

Mix together with your hands until well blended

2 lbs (900g) minced beef

2lbs (900g) sausage meat (or sausages with their skins removed)

6 oz (170g) oats (breadcrumbs will work too)

2 eggs

3 tbsp tomato ketchup (gravy or brown sauce would also work)

1 large onion, finely chopped (I used a tub of veg hash)

1-2 tsp salt

black pepper

thyme or other herbs, or whatever spices you fancy

Shape into satsuma sized balls and place on a greased baking sheet (I use a reusable liner on my baking sheets)

Bake at 200°c (180°c fan oven) for 30 mins

Sliced meatball

Spinach and pea soup

When I gave this soup to my family I called it 'pea soup' but it also contained a bag of baby spinach leaves which needed using up. The addition of crisp bacon always helps sell a dish to my kids.

Viennese potatoes with pickled cucumber and sour cream

This was a recipe from Diana Henry's Food From Plenty. Boiled potatoes are fried with paprika (I overdid the paprika a bit) and caraway. They are served with a sauce made by mixing pickled cucumber with sour cream. I had no sour cream so I mixed yogurt with double cream. I used my home made pickles.

Delicious.

My raspberries have begun to ripen.

I'm loving them simply mashed and stirred into yogurt with some sugar.

Home made raspberry yogurt

This year my gooseberry bush has done quite well. I picked them a couple of weeks ago and stewed them gently with sugar and elderflowers. I discarded the elderflowers after cooking. I put the cooked gooseberries in the freezer and today I defrosted them and made these individual crumbles using some of my frozen crumble topping.