Brilliant Beetroot

This month we see the start of Beetroot season. There’s much more to this vegetable than the sliced, pickled variety you can get in supermarkets. The flavor is delicate and it’s incredibly easy to cook. We’d like to celebrate the Beetroot this month by showing you some creative ways of cooking with the ingredient. Try:

Annabel Karmel’s Beetroot and Chocolate Cake

Sophie Grigson’s Loud Mash

A jubilee party wouldn’t be complete without bunting.  With only a few weeks to go, it’s time to get creative and start crafting.

How to make Bunting:

• cut out individual flags from your fabric (using pinking shears)
• cut ribbon to desired length (leave 50cms extra to tie at ends)
• Arrange the flags in different sizes to get a good mix of shapes
• Make sure ribbon is overlapping flags so that there is a neat line of ribbon throughout bunting
• place white thread into your sewing machine and start stitching the individual flags to the ribbon in one continuous line

Once you’ve got the bunting – time to start the cooking!

Wild garlic can be found in woodlands in early spring – its strong scent will help you find it. Once home, you can put it into stir fries, gratins or just roast it on its own.

Try Rick Stein’s Steamed Monkfish with Wild Garlic.

Sales of goose fat in Britain have risen sharply in recent years after TV chefs named it as the secret ingredient to making rich and crispy roast potatoes.

The growing supply shortage is slowly pushing prices up, putting the perfect roast potato out of reach of many home cooks. Reduced availability from Eastern Europe has led to a 50 per cent rise in the wholesale price of goose fat to the UK.

But is goose fat really the be all and end all of a good roast spud? We’ve found an excellent recipe by Sophie Grigson that avoids it altogether!

Try Sophie Grigson’s No-Goose-Fat spuds!

Now is the time to start you’re indoor herb gardens  and a little research can go along way. soon you will see the blossoming of basil parsley, chives and the ever popular rosemary and thyme.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• keep your herb garden in a suitable place -  where sunlight is generous ad humidity is low.

• If you are using old cups or mugs, drill a drainage hole into the bottom of the pot.

• Keep a diary of your herb garden -  look out for signs of insects or fungal infection. Dying leaves, wilting or overly wet soil should also be noted.
• prune your herb garden -  to give space for new leaves to grow.

You should then have a array of herbs you can use for every meal!

Try some of these:

• Duck Leg Confit with Flageolet Beans
• Caribbean Cook-up Soup with Dumplings
• Grilled Aubergine Salad

Chocolates are lovely and flowers are guaranteed to raise a smile. But do know what your mum really wants on Mother’s Day? Sleep, apparently. So treat her to a well-deserved lie in followed by a deliciously indulgent breakfast in bed this Mothering Sunday.

Rick Stein’s wonderfully luxurious twist on Eggs Benedict using smoked haddock is a dish guaranteed to get you in your mum’s good books. And if you like the idea of putting a new spin on a classic, you can’t go wrong with Madhur Jaffrey’s spicy Indian-style scrambled eggs – guaranteed to kick-start her day and great on toast, or if you’re feeling slightly more adventurous serve with home-made chapatis.

If your mum has more of a sweet tooth, however, then the breakfast pancake is the way to go. Pancakes are the epitome of the all-American breakfast, and Ainsley Harriott’s fruity Apple Maple Pancakes with Blackberry Compote rise to the challenge and then some. Be generous with the maple syrup for diner-style authenticity. Or try Mary Berry’s Orange Scotch Pancake recipe for more traditional and wonderfully fuss-free pancakes that are given just the right amount of zjush by a deliciously zesty orange syrup garnish.

What are you doing to spoil your mum rotten today?

Everyone’s a little bit Irish come St. Patrick’s Day. This year why not take your celebration of the Emerald Isle beyond the obligatory green jumper and try this delicious Irish Soda Bread recipe from Mary Berry. It’s irresistibly simple to make and extremely versatile – a tasty alternative to your usual white loaf and perfect for dunking into a warming stew (not to mention great for mopping up any seasonal Guinness overindulgence!).

So how will you eat yours?

Lent is traditionally considered as one of moderation among most of the Western Christian communities, but many people also take it as a chance to make your eating style healthier. If you are cutting down on your meat consumption and looking for some vegetarian or fish ideas, our great chefs are here to help you on your way…

• Buddhist Casserole from Ken Hom
• Chickpea and Spinach Curry with Flatbread from Ainsley Harriott
• Fish in a Green Sauce from Madhur Jaffrey
• Grilled Aubergine Salad from Sophie Grigson
• Baked Sea Bass with Roasted Red Peppers, Tomatoes, Anchovies and Potatoes from Rick Stein

Shrove Tuesday is just about to get a whole lot better with these tasty pancake recipes. So ditch the traditional drizzle of lemon and sprinkle of sugar, and prepare your taste buds for these flavour extravaganzas!

If you’re feeling fruity try Ainsley Harriott’s American-style Apple Maple Pancakes with Blackberry Compote, which taste just as gorgeous as they look. Or if you’re a bit more adventurous in the kitchen then have a go at these zesty Orange Scotch Pancakes – a little bit more difficult to make but definitely worth the extra effort.

If you have more of a savoury than a sweet tooth then try Raymond Blanc’s Baked Pancakes with Gruyère which elevate the humble pancake into a seriously satisfying main meal. Or go with these guilt-free Chickpea Flour Pancakes which are a popular breakfast dish in India. Not only are they delicious but they’re also nutritious, which is something of a rarity in the pancake world with the traditional egg/milk/sugar combo.

Whichever you decide, happy flipping!

Although the recipes on My Kitchen Table have been tested by professionals, we’re keen to share our experiences of cooking the recipes and hear about your experiences too! We (the My Kitchen Table book and website editorial team) will be featuring and writing about a new recipe from time to time. If you’re interested in writing about how you got on with a recipe (and getting featured on the site), just get in touch with us telling us what you want to cook and why.

Today’s my last day of work experience at Ebury. Over the past two weeks I’ve learnt a lot and, Cava pick-up incidents aside (it’s a long story, I won’t bore you with it!), had fun doing it. Thus the dilemma: what to get the team as a ‘thank you’?

I’ve eschewed my usual go-to gift of a free bouquet made up by my florist Mother, and decided on cake instead. You see, one of the things I’ve learnt while here is that the Ebury Marketing team is fuelled by sugar (and a passion for their job I’m sure, but mainly sugar). There’s a table in the corner of the office that’s always filled with sweet treats, perfect for quashing 4 o’clock stomach grumbles or as a mid-morning pick-me-up. Or to wash down your breakfast at 9:35AM. Yep, so cake it is then.

In my time of need I decided to turn to Mary Berry – I don’t think there’s anyone more qualified than the Queen of Cakes to provide me with a mouth-watering recipe – and after much deliberation, I settled on her Cappuccino Cake. It was a difficult choice but the fact that it has 3 of my favourite C’s as main ingredients (chocolate, cream and coffee) tipped the balance in its favour!

It’s really easy making the batter for this one. After mixing the cocoa powder with boiling water to make a paste, you simply add all the other ingredients to the bowl and whisk until it’s thick and glossy, then divide between the tins. I was a bit worried that the mixture barely filled half the tins, but needn’t have been because they rose nicely in the oven. The recipe says to bake for 25-30 mins, but I found that after 25 minutes some of the cake had gone ever so slightly hard at the edge, so next time I’ll take it out a couple of minutes earlier – although it varies between ovens of course.

While the cake is cooling you can get on with the fun of making the filling and topping: I think there’s something so strangely satisfying about whipping cream (careful not to overwhip though, I got a tad carried away and it left my cream with a grainy appearance). I also added a bit more dissolved coffee than the recipe called for because… well, I like my coffee strong. Then smooth it on to the cake with a palette knife, dust with cocoa, et voila…

Although it’s difficult to tell from my shoddy camera work, the result was a lovely moist cake that tasted pretty good too. And it seems to have gone down well in the office… well no one’s keeled over after taking a bite yet!