Gardening

The House, submerged in Jasmine,
as viewed from across the Agrumi Lawn

Tonight's Dinner:

Poached Egg on Ratatouille

Roast Lamb Shanks, with roast celeriac

Peach timbales

The Roses, this year...

Princess Alexandra, beneath the bearded Iris,
and beyond the gap MaryRose (both of them David Austin)

Cassandra (deep red, at bottom right),and above Paul's Lemon Pillar,
with a flush of Pierre de Ronsard, leading into a mass of Cecile Brunner

La Marque, on the entrance pergola

Mrs Honey Dyson, leading into Rosa Laevigata (now almost finished for the year)
and City of York in the distance

Botticelli (Mailland)

Pink Perpetue

Guinee (bottom left) and Alec's Red,with, above, Kriton and
more Bloomfields Courage in the distance

Pierre de Ronsard (of which Mr Bolton, in tones of incredulity,
said upon seeing it "a lot of people seem to like this rose...")

Palais Royal (and Amadeus,in front of the spire)

La Sevillana

Bloomfield's Courage, and Kriton (to the right)

Tonight's Dinner:

Gnocchi alla Romana, with Gorgonzola Cream

Bass, baked in Red wine; buttered spinach

Vanilla Apple Tarts

Life under Lockdown (II): The Changing Season...

The garden takes no notice of the lockdown, and work continues apace. Having had it in mind for years already, I finally planted new box hedges around all of the North Lawn (and in quite a few other places as well - 550 box plants goes quite a long way....and can get fairly boring by day four of wielding the planting spade), while the TD has encased all of the pop-up sprinklers which deal with the edges of the North Garden in rather handsome copper piping, which hides their unattractive  plastic casing, and has a distinctly Sissinghurst look to it. He has also nearly finished re-making ( I would say 'restoring' but it wouldn't be true; the old wood was too far gone to be capable of saving, and so it's been a matter of building again from new...) the wooden walkway on the West side of the North Garden, while I've been ( and the job is ongoing) taking apart ten years of compost heap, and using it to mulch every plant, pretty much in the entire garden. It's wonderful stuff - rich and dark, to the extent that it looks almost edible - but the supply is endless, and I need to get it done, so that I can then re-construct the compost heap once more, in small, with what remains from the old heap which is not yet usable. 
We've made a major decision to re-work the Wooodland garden, under the pine trees, where until now there's merely been a straight path which goes through from one end to the other, and with only a passing nod to what is planted there (many camellias, with the occasional aspera, and pieris,  and some distinctly blowsy hydrangeas arborescens) and the path has now been re-cast into a very long and windy serpentine form, which allows a much closer inspection of the shrubs. I have on order some acers and a rhododendron (which is optimistic, I know, but it's a matter of getting the humidity level right) and a viburnum, and some more Serratas, and a Baggesen's Gold (lonicera)...all of them to help to define and emphasise the new layout, and already I've moved a philadelphus, and a spirea, and two hydrangeas and a rather large camellia, all to the same purpose. It keeps us busy.
The Paoli came for 'distant' coffee, on Saturday - which was the first time we'd actually seen anybody at all in nearly seven weeks - and we had garden chairs at the end of the North Lawn, and dutifully all sat two metres apart from each other. At least that seems set to change, soon!

Tonight's Dinner:

Leeks (cold), with Tomato and Basil coulis. 

Pork Chops, with sage and wine sauce; braised celery.

Bergamot souffles.

Life under lock-down...

Tonight's dinner: 

Asparagus with white-wine zabaglione

Tenderloin 'ongroise' with scorza amaro

Kulfi

Christmas 2019

...is, as of today, finally over. The last slice of the Christmas Cake was consumed, this afternoon, and so that's Christmas done, for another eleven and a half months. It was the first time I'd ever made a Christmas Cake, and the sizing was...generous. That's a 36 cm cake board in the picture, and the beast itself would probably happily have fed an entire battalion. So, no great surprise that it's made it through until today, on the basis of a daily slice each for two people (not to mention a four-footed, who takes an interest in these things) pretty much since Boxing Day. On Christmas Day itself we were up in Brancoli, and then in Belforte for a few days over New Year. All was quite splendid. Although, we did conclude by twelfth night that it had gone too quickly, and that next year we'll dig in at home for the entire period, and that the World can come to us.

Which probably means that a Cake of industrial proportions will be perfectly in order, all over again!

Tonight's Dinner:

White Crab Salad

Fegato alla Venezia

Chocolate & Raspberry Cake, with Mascarpone 'Chantilly'

Wednesday morning...

Finally we have a day's respite from the rain - so, I shall spend the afternoon planting the tulip and daffodil bulbs for next Spring: 400, in all.

Tonight's dinner:

Crispy won ton (prawn & pork stuffing) with sweet & sour sauce

Boudins blancs, with broccoli puree

Brioche Bread & Butter Pudding

Seed Cake

I've never warmed to the name: Seed Cake. It conjures up images of something dry and tasteless, served at uncomfortable victorian tea-parties. This reality couldn't be more different. The cake is light and moist, and entirely delicious.

It's the time of year when I'm starting on the heavy-duty garden tasks - planting and transplanting and pruning and hacking back - and at 4.30 (ish) the char wallah approaches across the lawn with a tray bearing tea and a slice of cake. Often, Seed Cake. Of which the four-footed always begs a piece.

In general, it's perfection. 

And the four-footed agrees.

Ingredients:

For 1 x 20 cm circular cake.

225g butter; 170g sugar; 3 medium eggs; 225g flour; 2.5 tsp baking powder; half tsp turmeric; half tsp nutmeg; 2 tsp caraway seeds; 2 tbs brandy.

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Grease the cake tin, and line the base with greaseproof paper.

3. In the food-processor, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one by one. Combine the flour, baking powder, turmeric, caraway seeds and nutmeg in a bowl and add them altogether to the processor bowl and mix infor a couple of seconds. Finally, add the brandy while the machine is running.

4. Transfer the mixture to the cake tin, spreading to meet the edge of the tin.

5. Bake for 45 minutes. Let it cool in the tin for ten minutes or so, and then turn out onto a rack.