Siamese stinkhorn!

The stinkhorn 'Phallus impudicus' normally grows a single stype/stem, this one's a bit of an odditty.

Fly agaric gallery

Amanita muscaria-fly agaric, like to grow in groups and are a good (almost always) indicator of the presence of ceps nearby, if there is peppery boletes growing it's game on!

Artichokes

Great plant as a border and of course the globes. There's a little preparation needed,and you will need a lemon quarter and a sharp knife.
Break of the stalk peel of the outer leaves until the soft centre ones and the choke seed heads are left. Quickly scoop these out with a spoon and discard, squeez some lemon juice over the heart and rub it in to stop it discolouring.
Now trim the heart paring any of the dark green leave ends remaining.
Rub with lemon again.
Place in boiling salted water to blanch for 4-5mins depending on the size of the hearts.
Eat as they are with some olive oil and salt, or use chopped and added to a creamy sauce with pasta.
In the picture on this page I served it with Hollandaise sauce, smoked bacon and sun-dried tomatoes.

Cold-Filtered Coffee, it's Hot!

A Simple Method.
Put 28g/ 1oz of ground coffee in your coffee plunger/ cafetiere add 840ml/ a pint and a half of fresh cold water or still bottled, cover and leave in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Then simply add the add the plunger and press down slowly.

This method produces a less astringent coffee with a round taste and more natural caramel notes, no need for all the technical data but put simply, in a normal brew proceedure if the waters too hot it burns your beans and burnt beans of any type never taste good.

Enjoy cold as it is or slightly sweetened with condensed milk.
Warm it in a pot if you wish to have a regular 'Americano'.

You don't have to drink it all at once this will keep for up to a week in the fridge, for drinking chilled or warmed as you desire.

Peaches

My favourite canned/ bottled fruit.
At the moment they are in season and apart from just eating them as they are enjoying their dribbly mess or wrapped with some salty bacon we like to serve them dried crisp, semi dried, poached and jellied, with Vanilla Meringue Champagne sorbet and Fresh Cream. Light and refreshing for summer.

Wild Garlic in Flower

Wild Garlic in perfect bloom. The flower heads are good for adding into a dish like Risotto, sprinkled onto a Salad or crushed with New Season Potatoes and lots of butter.
There's still time to get some!

Dandelion Lemonade; HERE COMES THE SUMMER

Dandelion Lemonade; HERE COMES THE SUMMER
‘Time to discover what fun is about’, 1.42 mins of perfect pop by the Undertones, there’s no guarantee of long legs lying in the sun in this quest but dandelion heads always appear, their florets clocking and disappearing in a breeze, they’re out now, grab some! Have a bit of fun making  pure ‘pop’ that’s good for you.

Dandelion Lemonade
Recipe.
30-40 dandelion flower heads
1.5 l / 3 pts water
1 Lemon, cut into quarters
50g Sugar
1tbspn Spoon of Honey
Method
Place the heads in a suitable sized bowl or bucket, first squeeze  the juice of lemon quarters into it then just chuck the skins and all in, add the sugar honey and stir in the water, leave to stand in a warm place uncovered/ or covered with muslin for 24hrs. Strain, taste adjust the sweetness with a little more honey if you like. Chill the ‘pop’ before drinking!

Here's a link to The Undertones, Here Comes the Summer, enjoy and for aural treats have a forage and listen to some of their other stuff while your there.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Dza1L8daA