Florence Sandeman,

                             Publisher

May Updates

Food in Film

Click the film to see the next in the series.

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What's in Season in

May

Click here to see what's in season this month and to find a UK Farmers' Market near you. There are Lots of seasonal recipes too

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Weekday Menus

Click the picture to find May's weekday menus to help you plan your meals and shopping weeks ahead.  Each weekday has a main course, suggested vegetable side dishes and accompaniments plus a dessert, which have been planned to supply you with a balanced diet. It's also been designed so that you can interchange one day's menu with another in the same grouping and most of the main courses are ready to serve in less than 40 mins - great for working people.

Focus on . . .

                     Macaroons

31st May is National Macaroon Day but before I go any further, I have to point out that what many people call a macaroon isn't really a macaroon, but a macaron.  So what's the difference?

Macaroons are basically cookies.  They can be made into relatively flat soft centred biscuits or piled a bit deeper on the tray which, when baked,  are a cross between a cookie and a cake. They can be made with coconut or almonds or both, and are sometimes decorated with chocolate, almonds or glace cherries.

Macarons on the other hand,  are small, light, meringue type biscuits which are sandwiched together with a sweet filling.  They can be coloured and flavoured with additional ingredients - particularly when it comes to the fillings. 

Macarons have become the latest craze in many parts of the world, rivalling the ever popular cupcake, so much so, that I've set up a whole page on the site dedicated to the Macaron where you can find lots of information and recipes.

To celebrate National Macaroon Day,  below are 3 easy to make macaroon recipes. To find recipes and information about macarons click here

Almond Macaroons     Veg    40mins    GF

Chocolate Macaroon Fingers     Veg   30mins plus setting    GF

Coconut Macaroons     Veg   35mins     GF

 3 in 1 . . .

Whilst bread and meat (or other ingredients) have been served and eaten together for as long as bread has been made, the name " sandwich"  only came into being in the 18th Century.

The story goes that John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was such an enthusiastic gambler that he didn't like leaving the gaming table whilst playing, so instead of breaking for dinner, he asked that someone bring him some meat between a couple of slices of bread. Later on, others would do the same saying something like "I'll have what Sandwich is having" and eventually, people would just ask for "a Sandwich".

Celebrate these three food days by making a quintessentially British egg and cress bridge roll, traditionally served at teatime with other favourites like scones and cakes.

About Bridge Rolls

I'm not entirely sure how they got their name, although I have read (somewhere) that it might have come about because they were often served  at afternoon bridge (the card game) parties. These  small bullet-shaped rolls are generally white and are small enough to be eaten in 3 or 4 bites... depending on how big your mouth is. The dough is enriched with milk, eggs and butter which helps make them very soft  and light including the crust.

Although you can buy these from supermarkets, it's well worth baking your own. Not only do they taste much better, but both the raw dough and baked rolls can be frozen, so it's worth making double or treble the quantity. Here's a recipe for you to try:   Bridge Rolls Recipe       Veg     50mins plus proving
 

About the Cress

You can use ordinary watercress, however traditionally the smaller leaved mustard and cress mix is used in sandwiches. It adds a wonderful peppery/mustard flavour and the small leaves/stems blend easily into the egg mixture, ensuring an even mix of flavours in every bite. It also saves on chopping. Mustard and Cress is very easy to grow and is a great item to get kids started on growing their own.
 

About the Egg Mayonnaise

As the name implies, this mixture is made up of eggs mixed with mayonnaise and seasoned with salt.  If you don't have any mayonnaise, you can use salad cream which gives a stronger flavour. The eggs should be hard boiled and completely cooled before being mashed or chopped. Bear in mind it is a filling, so if chopping, chop quite finely. Make sure you season well with salt. When using mustard and cress, there's no need to add pepper.

Making  Egg and Cress Rolls

Allow 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, 2 tbsp of cress and 2 bridge rolls per person if serving at teatime with other cakes or pastries. If you prefer sandwiches, the above proportions will make 1 sandwich.

Simply mix everything together in a mixing bowl and keep chilled until ready to serve.  Rather than cutting the roll like a hotdog, cut a vertical line down the top of the roll and pile the filling into the cut so it can be seen. Garnish with extra cress.  Try mixing in  a little lemon zest for added zing, or anchovies for an extra savoury taste.

Shopping Arcade

Below are some items you may need to purchase in order to more easily prepare,  cook or serve recipes featured in this newsletter. They are all available from Amazon : just click the links/pictures and get them delivered direct to your home or office.

Opinion:    Industry-led food days
 

As many of you will already know, I am a believer in eating locally grown produce whenever possible.  I am not a fanatic: indeed, I have been "caught out" many a time when buying fruit or veggies, having not read the the label only to find I have bought things which have been imported from far afield when British equivalents are in season. Shame on me !   Having said that, I do feel the consumer is sometimes being led astray.  A good example of this is British Tomato Week which is  towards the end of May.  Anyone who has grown tomatoes in their gardens in the UK will know it is highly unlikely to have fresh fully ripe tomatoes ready to eat by the end of May.  Yet British grown tomatoes are available in the shops at this time. How is that possible? Because they are grown under glass . . . . with the aid of artificial heating.  It makes me wonder whether the amount of energy used to produce British grown tomatoes in May will make them have the same or possibly higher carbon footprint as outdoor grown imported tomatoes, particularly those grown nearer to home.  It also has to be remembered that even crops grown very far away may sometimes have a lower carbon footprint than expected, as they are transported on passenger aircraft which would be flying anyway.   I'm not sure why the British Tomato Growers Association chose May for British Tomato Week, especially as, according to their website, the glasshouse grown tomato season starts in March, but you can bet your bottom dollar it is probably business driven rather than anything else. Perhaps Britain starts getting lots of imported tomatoes around this time?   So, whilst I try to support British farmers as much as I can, I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep if I inadvertently buy imported tomatoes at this time of year. Hopefully, my home grown tomatoes will do well enough that I don't have to think about it at all for 2 or 3 months later in the year.

Recipe of the month

Veggie Crumble Pie

Courtesy of www.britishcarrots.co.uk.

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 30 mins Serves 4 as a main course Per serving: 669 calories, 32.1g fat, 18g saturates, 1.5g salt Counts as 3 of your 5-a-day and contains over a third of your RDA of vitamin C, calcium and folic acid

The Kitchen Garden

May in the Kitchen Garden   Outdoors By the end of May the temperature and low risk of frosts means you can start sowing the seed of more tender plants such as courgettes, marrows, runner, dwarf and green beans and outdoor cucumbers however if any frosts are expected, be prepared to cover the new seedlings with cloches or fleece.   Continue to sow beetroot, broad beans, cabbage,  turnips, cauliflowers, peas, and parsnips through to mid-may and further small sowings of carrots, lettuce, radish, spinach and spring onions to ensure a continuous harvest.. Continue gradually thinning out seedlings to their final spacing   Indoors Continue to sow tomatoes Aubergines, and Capsicums and sow dwarf and French  beans  3 to a 7.5cm/3-inch pot.   Continue thinning out seeds which were sown in pots or trays last month   Maintenance Plants such as tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, courgettes and capsicums which were sown indoors last month should be potted up individually to 7.5cm/3-inch pots by the time they have reached 10cm/4-inches tall.   Once all danger of frosts have passed, start hardening off indoor sown plants. It's best to leave this until later in May.   For more herb and vegetable growing instructions visit our growing herbs and vegetables section  or for more detailed information on growing fruit as well as herbs and vegetables,  plus lots of in-depth gardening articles,  visit our sister site  www.pots2plots.com

Garden Experiment 2011 Recap: Under normal circumstances, true watercress grows  in shallow running water. The instructions for the variety I've purchased - Watercress: Aqua - suggests it is sown in pots which are stood permanently in trays of water. It also recommends growing in a shady place which suits me down to the ground as parts of my little plot don't get that much sun. The texture of the land cress I've grown previously was a little coarse, so hopefully this "proper" watercress will be more delicate as promised.   On Sunday 10th April I sowed the watercress outdoors.  I didn't use a very large pot as shown above in the marketing blurb, but decided to sow it in 2 x 15cm/6-inch pots. As directed, I stood the pots in trays of water. We had a really good bout of sunny warm weather here which meant I had to keep topping up the water in the tray despite the pots not being in direct sunlight for much of the day. That weather obviously did some good as the seeds started to germinate, albeit a little patchy, within 7 days. I'll have to prick them out/thin them very soon.

Whether you're looking for everyday,  exotic or unusual food and drink,  visit

UKFoodOnline.co.uk  Food shopping has never been easier !

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