Friday 31 August 2012

Tomatillo harvesting begins...

The rain has come at just the right time to help swell my tomatillo harvest. Went outside this morning to gather the first few.

Here they are with their husks:


Now de-husked, washed in soapy water, rinsed and dried:


When they are removed from their husks, they are incredibly sticky – similar to a fly paper. They need a gentle scrub in warm soapy water with a sponge, rinsed and dried with a cloth. They are then ready to be stored in the fridge, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag. 

They should last for around 1 month in the salad drawer but need to be checked every few days for those going off or to get rid of any condensation.

They would normally be a lighter green than this, but when their husks pop open, they are ready. The dark green ones had fallen off the plants last night. I use them as a base sauce in Mexican food but they are just as good as the base for most stew type dishes. They are very juicy when cooked and taste slightly sweet with a sour/tart overtone.

All being well, I hope to get a few pounds off my container plants. They grow far better direct in the soil but take up as much room each as a fully grown courgette plant. They are more like boisterous tomatoes when in a pot!

Thursday 30 August 2012

Decorating and quick meals

We are still busy decorating the lounge. 2/3rds of it is almost complete. The new curtains have been bought and we look forward to putting them up even if I am not looking forward to taking up their hems. Here they are still in their packaging. We bought them from Dunelm.

Although the background material looks lilac, it isn't. It is a creamy colour with undertones of light coffee (ish). The flowers though, do have colours in them that match and blend with the wall colour which is Natural Hessian.



Quick meals are called for in these situations and last night, I made a vegetable curry with added leftover potatoes. I took and diced one bell pepper, 2 courgettes, 1/2 an onion. These were gently fried in 1 tablespoon oil. Then one tin of chopped tomatoes was added along with 1/2 a vegetable stock cube and a tablespoon of curry paste. After simmering for 15 minutes, the leftover potatoes were added plus a few frozen mushrooms. A few minutes later it was served up (with no rice). We were well and truly ready for it and finished it off quickly.


Wednesday 29 August 2012

The odd comment or two...

The comments that certain people leave are very odd don't you think. I allow 'anonymous' commentators to leave comments if they wish but find it strange that they do so without leaving a name of some kind. If you are rude or try to link your comment to an inappropriate web site (or any commercial web site for that matter) you won't be published.
In case anyone out there in blog land doesn't yet realise, ALL comments are moderated.

I guess I am lucky in that if I receive a few comments each day I am doing well. I have no idea how those with huge followers manage, maybe they don't print them either. I quite like the way Froog's deals with hers. I try to be polite as possible in my response if I am going to print them.

Some end up in Spam. Had a corker a few days ago, trying to educate me in the use of the English language - I just deleted it because it was an attempt to link to a commercial web site. Their own use of grammar however, was quite odd, so maybe it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black!

At times, followers comments end up in Spam. Fran, in particular ends up there. Don't know why. I keep telling it that the commentator is not sending spam. Maybe the programme will learn one day. Sorry Fran.

Most of the time, as I am sure you have all found out, some people obviously can't go through the day without the need to have a dig.

I repeat, ALL comments are moderated and if you have a blog that is receiving such sad comments, I suggest you change your comments to moderated only. 


Tuesday 28 August 2012

How lucky are we?

A cool start to the day again but the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

Just after 16:00 hrs yesterday, a distinctive rumbling was heard in the sky. We rushed to the window as it grew louder and closer. Then when we realised what it was, dashed outside and looked directly above us to the north. 
 
There in all her beautiful glory was the Lancaster bomber flying very slow and low, maybe 200 feet or so. About 5 minutes later we heard another plane, and a short way to the West, a little higher and slightly further away was the Spitfire. No sign of the hurricane. Guess they were returning home after an air show somewhere.

Made my day and brought tears to my eyes. Of all the WWII planes, the Lancaster has the power to move me in ways I cannot fathom. The nearest modern plane to do the same is the Avro Vulcan. When she lifts off and you hear her distinctive low rumble followed by her famous howl, that too moves me. 

Strange creatures us humans aren't we?

Monday 27 August 2012

A mish mash

There is definitely a seasonal change in the air. The past couple of mornings have been cool enough for us to put on long dressing gowns. It could be due to the fact we leave a lounge window open overnight (the one that has the conservatory attached for safety). This airs the room (especially when decorating) helping get rid of any stale air. 

This particular window stays closed overnight in winter as we want to retain the warmth from our log burner until morning. However, when needing to finish off washing overnight, it is open to let out excess moisture. What a fine balancing act it all is.

Such a change in weather has seen me thinking about more warming meals. A pudding was called for and with just a few tablespoons of my friends gift left, I decided to steam some more lemon marmalade puddings. It is so easy to forget things when trying to bake, cook dinner and help paint and I did so with these.

Although I remembered to butter and base line my mini pudding bowls, I then forgot to flour them and it took a bit of persuasion to get them out.

This side doesn't look too bad...


This side is a little worse for wear! The scraps from the tins with lovely though with a nice cup of tea.


The puddings tasted good though with some custard. The other 4 have gone into the freezer for another day.

Just nipped out to take a photograph of a couple more plants that are in my garden and have been added to the relevant page.

I also noticed a peacock butterfly sleeping/dead on one of my finished phlox plants. 

 
The mystery plant is still growing and looks to be setting some flower buds. Hopefully the mystery of whether it is a flower/weed/vegetable will soon be solved.


Sunday 26 August 2012

Bread and paint!

Welcome to my new follower Encourage One Another.

Yesterday saw me making some more bread. The loaf on the left is Potato Bread (courtesy of The Iowa Housewife) and on the right is a combined granary/white loaf. When I made the potato bread, I left out the sugar, reduced the salt and added quite a lot more liquid. It is though, a lovely tasting loaf and has become one of our favourites.



Painting in the front room continues. The yellow currently on the wall is so strong we are having to put an undercoat of white on first. It is then followed by 2 coats of Natural Hessian. The ceiling and skirting boards are also being redone to make it all look as bright as possible, being a north facing room. Just cannot get the correct colour to show on a photograph. You have to imagine a pale fawn colour with a hint of lilac. When we are finished, more decisions will be needed on new curtains etc. I have an idea in my head what I would like but finding them might be difficult. We'll see.


Managed to get a few buckets of dead heading and weeding done yesterday. Should be able to do more today hopefully. If we are lucky, most of the things we have dead-headed should bloom again. If not, at least some new leaves will grow to fill in the gaps.

Must remember to gather some more blueberries. They are almost finished now but hope to get one more full box from them. R., my lovely neighbour hinted that we should expect some of his allotment raspberries soon. I feel more cloud cake coming on.

I worked out the pro points on it. If you forsake the base altogether, and make only half the recipe, the top is around 6 points in total. Cut into 6, that is 1 point each. How great is that.

Saturday 25 August 2012

Logs and vegetables

Yesterday, the hardwood logs we ordered arrived around 9:00am. As their usual vehicle was broken they hoped we would wait for a few more days. I asked for them Friday as I knew the weather was to deteriorate. Their spare vehicle doesn't have measured baskets on it so they gave us more than we asked for to be on the safe side.

We had asked for 2 cubic metres but reckon we got between 2 1/2 and 3! About 8 wheelbarrow loads had been removed before I remembered to take a photograph. It took both of us 1 1/2 hours to shift them around the back and stack them. 

 
I also took some photographs of the vegetables that are now growing (some better than others). The first few are a mini cucumber, some dwarf tomatoes then both together with some bell peppers.




Then we have some newly sown lettuce and salad leaves, the bean pole hosting some runner and French climbing beans (the large leaves poking through the bottom are a courgette fighting for its life!) The final one of this group is the bed with my first ever home sown and grown leeks, plus a couple of rows of carrots.




This next group is of 3 containers of tomatillo's, a bed of very sad beetroot, and a newly planted tub of carrots.




Finally, some more bell peppers and mini tomatoes in my mini greenhouse and a close up of one of my mini Conference Pear trees with around 9 little pears on it - ah bless. 



In the conservatory are 2 more tomatoes "Ferline", taken as axil cuttings, and 4 "Hungarian Hot Wax" chilli pepper plants.








So despite earlier predictions and a harvest not as good as normal, at least some things seemed to have survived the dreadful weather.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Pests and painting...


Welcome to my new follower Poppy.

I am the only one of us who likes members of the cabbage family. One thing I like in particular, is purple sprouting broccoli. This spring, I sowed a mere 3 seeds and they all came up. I have nurtured them, fed and potted them on. A few weeks ago, one drooped alarmingly and decided to die. Cabbage root fly I thought. Treated the other two with organic pest control then inspected the dead one. Nothing to see, no maggots but a few holes in the leaves no doubt from leaf beetle.

The other two carried on growing well. I kept them in the fruit cage to keep the cabbage white butterflies off them (annoying to know the baby ones can get through!).

In the hot weather they too drooped, thought at first it was the weather so kept them in the shade and well watered. Now they are dying. Tipped one out of its pot to inspect for root fly maggots, again none, but very little root was to be seen. The other one is the same. So next spring, no broccoli for me. How annoying.

My beetroot are still tiny so I don't think anything will be available from them. Guess I will have to buy some in to make my lovely beetroot soup for winter. 

Has anyone any idea on what this plant could be? It arrived in the cracks of my patio, we initially thought is may be a courgette or pumpkin so potted it up. Could be a weed of course. Not willing to throw it away in case it is a flower of some kind. It has silver striations on its leaves.


Furniture in the lounge has been moved to one side in preparation for decorating – what a pain that is – just how much stuff does one accumulate in life. We have decided to get rid of more things, especially stuff in the china cabinet. The older we get the more we think - what is the point? One or two things hold sentimental value, the rest are things we have been given or have taken a fancy too. In all honesty though, we rarely look at them so time to go methinks.

Off for our walk this morning, just the 3 of us for the foreseeable future.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Blood and roses ...

Yesterday saw us donating blood again. Once more, OH failed the copper sulphur drop test to ensure he had adequate iron levels to donate. A sample was taken from his arm and he was declared fine so this time, he was able to donate. Sometimes the finger blood drop test does fail. One drop of blood has a certain amount of seconds to drop to the bottom of the tube. If it doesn't, they will take a sample from you, test it, then decide.

The men's test is higher than the women's as they have a slightly higher level of stored iron than us. I have only failed once when I tried to donate a couple of weeks after recovering from flu!

Mind you, my donation was a little hit and miss as the machine kept bleeping to indicate my donation was not flowing at the correct rate. Several times they adjusted the needle then after that it was okay.
Most of the time after donating, we feel fine for the rest of the day, occasionally we feel very tired. 

That in itself is not surprising when you realise that iron rich red blood cells carry the oxygen around your body. Therefore reduced iron = reduced oxygen = tiredness. Your body wants you to rest until it can get your oxygen levels back up again - usually within 24 hours although red blood cells/iron levels take many weeks to recover to normal.

Yesterday was just such a day. We hardly had the energy to make tea, then I needed to make a raspberry cloud cake for our 'school' B-B-Q tonight. I'm still tired today which is very unusual but I think perhaps the weather isn't helping.

I don't know if you can remember a few posts back me showing you a candelabra of roses forming in the front garden. Well, it is in full, if smaller than normal bloom.


Monday 20 August 2012

Painting ...

Lovely hubby has painted our hall in a trial colour for the lounge – when I will join in! 


They both have the same carpet (which we are not changing). It is the first time we have struggled to choose a colour as we don't want them the same colour as the carpet (greenish), nor the walls the colour they were (lemon - despite the photograph!).


Our lounge is north facing and the colours of the walls constantly change. The photographs do not show the real colour of our trial paint. We normally use Farrow & Ball and choose a few tester pots, then settled on a colour. Went to buy 2 tins of paint and decided against it as they would have cost £72!!! Blimey, last time we used them they were around £22 each. B & Q have an offer on for any 2 Dulux 2.5 litre pots for £20 for 2. Much dialogue followed trying to choose a colour similar to the F & B one.

Well, Murphy's law came into play and after the first coat, it was obvious that it was nothing like the F & B colour (or even the shop's tester colours above their paint range). We bought Natural Hessian and there really is nothing Natural Hessian about it. We should know, as 'Natural Hessian' is used to front all our log stores!

Anyway, after 2 coats and a couple of days mulling it over, we decided it was okay but not for the lounge. Then we decided to paint the chimney breast with it and see what we thought. Still not sure, although as a colour we quite like it, despite it being more a very light shade of lilac fawn. Anyway, we went on the manufacturer’s web site to look at 'rooms', (like you do?) and decided a couple of tester pots are needed before the final decision. 

We decided to cheer ourselves up a bit and went to pick more Blueberries out of the garden. This container is around 4" square and 2" deep and is our 3rd such pick.


Saturday 18 August 2012

Repairs...

Around 11:30 yesterday morning the roofing man turned up. He wasn't expected until today but another job he should have been doing around the corner, couldn't be done as they were not at home for some reason.

We all went up the ladder onto the scaffolding (and how safe we felt too) to inspect what needed doing. He started to put out loose mortar which started to fall onto the casing of our electric blind. Work was stopped whilst we all tucked protection around it.

He showed us how short the tiles were from the edge of the roof, apparently they were around 1” short and the mortar was leaning backwards rather than slightly forward to allow drainage. He also pointed out how short the batton's were, but more importantly, the entire row was not nailed into place but held there by the rapidly crumbling mortar (and some of our rags to keep the birds out).



We were a little worried that as 2 rows of tiles now needed removing and everything shunted forward to cover the shortage, that it would cost more.

Anyway, after a cup of tea he began work. After an hour or so he asked if we had any more tiles as one had been slightly damaged removing the top curved tiles. We hadn't but hoped our neighbour would. Luckily, he saves everything 'for future use' and had 3 spare ones.

Roofer went home to lunch and mix mortar and returned an hour later. Tiles were slightly shunted forward, replaced, cut to size, drilled ready to be fixed to the batons and replaced. Mortar was then filled in, the 2 curved roof tiles replaced and he was done by about 4:20pm. He asked us to come up and inspect it, were we happy etc. 


We said excellent job and waited for a possible revised amount. He told us the bill would be in the post shortly and it would still be the amount he quoted us. So we were happy with that.

To celebrate, we drove to the sea side, had chips and mushy peas, an ice cream and a lovely walk down the prom. Ah, bliss.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Blog Award

Lovely Scarlet over at Tales Beyond The Nook has nominated me for a blog award, for which I thank you. 


Like her, I feel the need to not give too much away about my personal life and am not too keen in the current phase of my life to “obey” rules.

It is not because I don't want you all to know things about me as such, simply that I consider it all too easy to give too much personal information about yourself away, and you never know who might be reading. Internet personal data safety is very important and I think some people forget this.

Like Scarlet, I am glad people enjoy reading my blog and a few like to leave comments. They are much appreciated and I have no idea how some of you cope with the huge numbers of comments you receive.

There are rules which go with the award - thank the people who nominated you, list 7 things about yourself and pass the award on to 15 others.

Anyway, herewith a few things you may or may not know about me:

1 – Although not of retirement age, I am retired.

2 - I love making things.

3 - Insidious advertising that reels you in without you realising annoys me and I am growing very adept at avoiding it.

4 – Although not a dog owner, I have a lovely Grand-dog who is a joy.

Now to nominate a few blogs – I'm not going to do 15, sorry folks. All the blogs I follow I enjoy. I also take time out to read the blogs of those you follow me but who I may not follow in return. I would do, but life is just too short! 

As I also don't want to pressurize them into doing this award, I shall not let them know I have nominated them. Hopefully they will find out when they read this blog! Pay them a visit if you have time.

Abigail over at Keeping it Simply Thrifty
and finally, Fran over at Bonnie of Clyde

I would also like to welcome Ronniie to my blog. Thanks for joining.

Signing off for now folks for a rest and a cup of tea. Like Scarlet, I too am going to make this an Award Free Blog – sorry.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Repairs...

One of the problems with growing older is the totally baffling arrival of the fear factor. Only a few years ago it seems, DB would have shifted up a ladder to do repairs without a thought. Now both he and I are more cautious.

The rear gable end of our home needs the mortar that seals the last row of tiles to be chipped out and redone. The birds were showing more than a passive interest in the holes! We had thought that he could do it and I would be his builders mate, passing up tools, buckets of mortar etc.

However, even with a ladder of reasonable length, he not only felt uncomfortable but also unsafe. As we have a patio beneath this area, the prospect of falling onto it didn't hold any appeal, nor the thought of ending up in hospital with broken bones, or worse still, killing himself in the process. Sometimes you have to give in gracefully and use savings to do some jobs.

So we called in a local roofer whom we had seen around the village doing very good major and minor repairs to properties. We had a rough idea of what the price would be but hadn't realized, under the new health and safety rules, that scaffolding would be needed so our estimate was doubled. We didn't take long to decide and today the builder part of the team arrived at 7.30am to put up the scaffolding. They were half way through when the rain came but carried on, getting wetter and wetter in their summer clothing. Anyway, 45 minutes later it was up.


The roofer will come on Saturday to do the job, then another day the builder will come back and dismantle the scaffolding.

The previous owner of our property built the extension and although it was inspected as it was built, we don't think the very last row of tiles could have been inspected. A few night ago in bed, I heard tiles slipping. Told DB who thought I had imagined it and looked the next morning but couldn't see anything had shifted. I knew where the sound had come from and could see the bottom 3 tiles near the guttering had moved by 1 or 2 inches. He pushed them back into place but they slipped again so had to be wedged with a piece of tile against the guttering.

All was revealed when the roofer came to give us a quote. He pulled off said offending tiles (only half the width or a normal tile) to find they had not been fixed to the batons (which themselves were too short anyway). He said he will drill through them and attach them where he can – as he carefully put them back. Obviously, previous owner had used the mortar itself to set them in place. Here's hoping the entire row isn't like it although I expect it will be!

Just to make you smile, I thought I would show you what is probably the smallest harvest in the world - a single plum. Actually there were just 2 but we ate the other one a few days ago.

 

Monday 13 August 2012

Blanching vegetables for winter use

I love to eat my home grown produce fresh but even though I only have a small garden, I always grow more beans than needed in order to freeze them. Yes, their texture can be different but the taste of summer in the depths of winter is lovely. If you don't have a garden big enough to grow some of your own food, try buying things as fresh and as cheap as you can then freeze them.

Here is a link on how to blanch your vegetables in order to freeze them. http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipes/storing-the-surplus-freezing

I must admit though, that as I only freeze on average around 1 - 2lb a time, I don't bother turning the freezer onto fast freeze. So far, things have turned out well. I also don't use a huge pan as my few vegetables will blanch quite happily in a decent sized pan, doing a good 2 single handfuls at one time.

First of all I wash, top and tail my French or Runner beans. I always, no matter how string-less they are purported to be, run a vegetable peeler down both sides of Runner beans to remove the string.

I then snap them into the right length for us, around 2” or so and put them into a bowl for the next stage. If a bean doesn't snap easily with a lovely pop, it doesn't get used as we have found they can be a little chewy to eat.


Once ready, I bring my saucepan to the boil and put in two single handfuls of beans at a time.  The picture below might look as though I have put in too many but the layer is only 2 beans deep!


When back up to the boil I wait until I can hear popping sounds (sometimes screaming!), then use a slotted spoon to decant into cold water. This blanching period usually takes around 1-2 minutes. I used to use ice cubes but our water is so cold I don't bother, it is up to you.

Once the blanching water is back up to the boil, I put more beans in. By now, the first bowl of water will be slightly warm, so the beans are decanted into a new one. Once cold, they are strained, placed on a tea towel and patted dry. (Don't do this with broad beans as it stains the tea towel).


When almost dry, they are spread out onto trays that will fit my freezer. I also now use a silicon sheet as they are more easily removed once frozen.

They go into the freezer for a few hours (or overnight if I forget them) to open freeze. 



Then they are knocked off, separated, put into a bag, sealed up and put back into the freezer ready for use.

The advantage of open freezing is that when wanting to use them, you can take out only what you want.

Sunday 12 August 2012

Good morning folks!

It is nearly 10:00 hours here in good old Norfolk. The sky is blue, barely a cloud to be seen, the sun is hot and it is already 23 celsius in the shade. Think we might be in for a hot and humid day. I have done 1/2 an hour of weeding but it is just getting too hot.

The large awning over the back of the bungalow is out to keep not only the bedrooms cool but give us a little shade (top half only) in which to sit and 'chill'.

I have pruned my gooseberries and given them a feed in the hope that they will make a recovery but am not hopeful as there is now barely a leaf to be seen and it is not due to gooseberry sawfly! The strawberries however, still seem to be alive and I am taking a baby from each one as it forms to get some new plants. The blueberries are still producing and looking good despite not being in acidic soil. However, they may not be happy as each year progresses so I am giving them a feed of seaweed and iron extract to try and keep them fit and well. 
 
My little tomatoes Red Robin are at last fruiting, each fruit around 1” in size, quite sweet but with a slight acidic twang. The Ferline ones have one truss of fruit each but I think that will be all they will produce an they too look stressed.

Some golden beetroot have bolted but the red ones have been given a feed to try and swell their marble sized flesh – not going to be a good year for them methinks!

Lettuce not great and even the newly sown ones are now finding it a struggle in the heat.

We have finished our first Raspberry cloud cake but the one I was saving for our B-B-Q will also be eaten. It has been postponed for a couple of weeks and even though the cake will keep for a month, it becomes gradually more dense and marshmallow like (still lovely though) as it ages in the freezer.

We have decided in future not to do the base as it is very hard to eat it straight from the freezer and also, everyone who has tried it has said it isn't particularly nice. I gave B the recipe just for the top part and she has made a strawberry one which is apparently lovely despite it splattering all over her and her walls. (I think she didn't mush the fruit first which you must do when using fresh fruit).

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Pink and Yellow


Welcome to my two new followers, Chuck Mallory and The Frugal Girl next door.

It is a beautiful warm, sunny day here in Norfolk. Should get some gardening done later but have spent the morning in the kitchen baking before it got too hot in there.

Yesterday saw me attempting to make a Raspberry Cloud Cake. Rather than have one big deep one, I decided to make two in victoria sponge cake tins. Thursday evening sees us having a B-B-Q with those from our closed school. I normally bring a salad but wanted to do a dessert this time.

Anyway, if you type the above named cake into a general search engine you will find the recipe. I used a combination of milk and plain chocolate digestives rather than plain and made 1 1/2 times the base mixture so I could get two bases ready.

All went well initially and in the end, it was a very easy cake to make but I did have one rather large problem. As one of the people at the meal on Thursday hates pips, I thought I would whizz up the raspberries in the liquidizer so I could strain the pips out. Unfortunately being frozen, it didn't like it. A loud hiss was emitted followed by clouds of white smoke and a very acrid electrical burning smell. Knocked off the electricity quickly and yelled for DB. He took the offending machine outside (the burnt smell hung about all day in the house) and took it apart. It was possible to save the liquidizer but I didn't want to as I wouldn't trust it not to do the same thing again.

Anyway, the pips went in but personally, I would allow the frozen fruit to thaw and then sieve if you don't want pips! I also froze it overnight so I could remove all the cling film and liner that I had prepared the tin with.

Here it is, one of the two cakes. 

This has slightly less filling in as I concentrated on putting most into the one we will eat tomorrow night. We had a few spoonfuls left over which we ate. It literally melts in the mouth and is best served straight from the freezer. You can apparently use any berries and possibly other fruit as well. It takes very little time to make. The base is meant to be thinner than this so depending on how it cuts (using a knife dipped in hot water) I might make it thinner next time.

I have also made a large quiche and with the leftover pastry, managed to make one lemon marmalade and cranberry pasty. The quiche we will eat over the next 3 or 4 days, so will save me having to cook. 

 

Tuesday 7 August 2012

The overblown, wrinkly and manky!

In the fridge I found three 'mini marrow' sized courgettes, one wrinkly pepper and about six carrots that had turned brown at the ends. The vegetable rack contained a few potatoes going soft and some onions that were beginning to sprout. 
 
Curry popped into my head. In the cupboard was one tin of reduced fat coconut milk, a new jar of thai green curry paste and some stock cubes.

About an hour beforehand, I removed the seeds and roughly diced the courgettes, then sprinkled them with salt to help reduce their water content (only because of their size and large amount of seeds present). Once they were washed, drained and patted dry, I diced 3 smallish onions and prepared the carrots, potatoes and pepper.

The onions were softened in a little oil before adding the drained courgettes and carrots.


Three generous tablespoons of curry paste went in and were cooked for a few minutes.


Then the potatoes, pepper, can of coconut milk and a can of hot water.


This was brought to a simmer, lid put on slightly ajar and cooked until the carrots and potatoes were done - around 45 minutes to an hour. 

1 – 2 vegetable stock cubes need to be added to taste. We don't like coriander leaves so a few chopped sprigs of tarragon and parsley were added.


We had some for tea and there was enough left over for another 2 meals each, which have gone into the freezer. Lovely jubbley!