Recipes for Marmalade

I love marmalade. But sometimes marmalade on toast just doesn't cut it. Here are a few recipes to help you finish off those jars!


Warm Marmalade Cake

200g butter

200g caster sugar

200g self-raising flour

4 large eggs, beaten

6 heaped tablespoons of marmalade

½ tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Line and grease a loaf tin.

Cream the butter and the sugar together. When light and fluffy, add half of the marmalade and then the eggs. Whisk together until combined into a smooth consistency. Next, fold in the flour and the baking powder. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Once cooked, allow to cool in the tin. Once cool, prick the cake several times with a skewer. Mix the remaining marmalade with a little water (aim for a honey consistency) and pour this all over the cake. 

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding
This is one of those simple-but-oh-so-amazing recipes, where something so simple as adding marmalade to the bread just changes the whole dessert. For the best. We are huge bread and butter pudding lovers (I'm not sure whether this is a Welsh thing?!); maybe it's the vast amount of cream and butter and fatty goodness that we enjoy. My mother used Oscar's Kitchen Lemon and Lime marmalade in this recipe (it was something SO special), but any flavour marmalade would work. I imagine the Whisky marmalade would be a dream! 

Every family has their own bread and butter pudding recipe; we use Delia Smith's. Whatever recipe you follow, stick to it. If it's anything like ours, there are alterations and amendments pencilled in all over the margins, and little notes of extra additions. 

All you need to do for this little recipe is this; after you've buttered your bread slices, spread on a generous layer of marmalade. Everything else is exactly the same, except the outcome at the end. 

Marmalade and Ginger Salmon Fillets

2 balls of stem ginger
2 tablespoons of thick-cut marmalade
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 fat garlic cloves
4 salmon fillets

Crush the garlic and finely chop. Add to a medium bowl with the soy sauce and give it a good mix. Next, finely dice the stem ginger and add that to the bowl, along with the thick-cut marmalade. Give it all a good stir so all the ingredients are combined. Marinade the salmon in the sauce for a few hours before steaming.
Do not throw away the marinade.
Put this into another pan and bring to the boil. Boil the noodles (according to packet instructions), and once the noodles have cooked, drain them and add the sauce to the noodles. Steam or stir-fry some greens, and enjoy.

This is a huge favourite in our house, although Ben doesn't like salmon so I marinade a chicken breast for him and that's also delicious. I suppose beef would work well, although I've never tried it. Next time!



If you have any recipes that use marmalade that you'd like to share, then post them in the comments section! 


Ruth & Oscar 

DIY Salad Bar

Last year my father built me some growing boxes from old wooden pallets which were going unused. I love a bit of recycling and am increasingly becoming more like my Dad in the way that I can't throw something away until I've at least tried to turn it into something different and more useful. 

These new boxes of mine are brilliant; they're 25 inches long, 16 inches wide and 12 inches deep and can be used to grow herbs, radish, spring onions and garlic. 

This year, however, I'm going to use these boxes to have my very own salad bar outside my french doors.
With summer just around the corner, cut and come again varieties of leaves will be the perfect addition to any kitchen garden. Easily grown in containers, growing your own salad bar couldn't be easier: a few seeds, some water and sunshine and you have your own summer-long supply of delicious salads in as little as 8-weeks! With regular sowings made each fortnight, you can ensure a continuous supply of fresh, crisp salads throughout the summer months.

Here are some suggestions of types of leaves that you can grow.

Leaves
Corn Salad (also known as Lamb's Lettuce): one of my favourite salad leaves to have. Very easily grown, delicious small leaves and is winter hardy so you can enjoy lettuce through the colder months. I'm in Wales, and colder months include the summer. This salad leaf is a winning choice as it can be sown and grown all year round.
Rocket: another fantastic leaf which is a necessity for any salad (I think), rocket adds a peppery, tangy flavour. It's also good on pizzas and in pasta dishes.
When I was in uni, I used to live with a girl called Lottie in my first year. She used to make this pasta dish which was out of this world tasty and I still make it to this day. It was a prawn linguini with lemon zest, mozzarella and rocket in a tomato sauce. It's actually one of the most memorable meals I have from my 3 years in University! That's another brilliant use for rocket. 
Rocket can be sown and grown all year round.
Spinach: spinach will need a little more space than other lettuces or leaves. I am going to allow a whole box just for spinach. As we all know, as soon as spinach starts cooking it reduces down into nothing, so a fair amount of spinach will be needed. If it's solely for salads, a few plants will probably sustain you quite happily. In our house, spinach is eaten in the kilo's, usually on a Sunday evening in the form of Eggs Florentine, and often in curries or just in salads. It can be grown from March onwards, and harvested throughout the summer.
* Spinach Beet, or Perpetual Spinach, is a delicious spinach substitute (and easier to grow). Sow from March onwards.
Mizuna: this is an oriental leaf with a mild, spicy flavour. Baby leaves can be used in salads and larger leaves can be used in stir-fries. Sow from March onwards and pick a few leaves from each plant when approximately 4" high, and for the mature leaves, harvest the whole plant from May onwards.

Lettuce Heads
Lettuce "All Year Round": does what the name says pretty much. Perfect for spring, summer and autumn snowing giving you a year round supply of crisp lettuce heads. As these are whole lettuce heads, more space will be needed for them to be able to grow to a nice size. I would probably be able to fit 2, maybe 3, in one of the wooden boxes I have, they need around 12" of space each.
Lettuce "Little Gem": one of my favourite lettuces, Little Gem in a definite for this year's garden. Again, sow from March onwards and harvest from May. The little seedlings for Little Gem and also the All Year Round lettuce will need to be thinned so as not to cramp the plants: seedlings will need around 12" of space each. Although lettuce heads take up more space than "cut and come again" leaves, continuous sowing each fortnight will guarantee a continuous source. Seedlings can always be grown in cell trays or smaller pots and transplanted to the Salad Box when a lettuce has been harvested and there is space available.

Salad Leaf Mixtures
These are particularly brilliant if you really don't have much space but want an assortment of leaves available on your windowsill or patio. Simply sow the seeds on a fortnightly basis for a continuous supply, and watch a whole variety of delicious salads grow in one container. Ingenious.
Mixed Green Leaves: Mr. Fothergills "Mixed Lettuce Green Leaves" is a brilliant way to get a variation of lettuce leaves from one packet. Sow them from March onwards and have a ready-to-eat salad bowl of 6 different leaves. What could be easier?
Mesclun: this is another mish-mash of small, young salad leaves which originated in Provence, France. The traditional mix includes; chervil, rocket, leafy lettuces and endive in equal proportions. However, modern assortments can contain lettuces, mustard greens, endive, mizuna, lamb's lettuce, radicchio, sorrel and dandelion. I assume that my packet of Mesclun is the modern variety as it came free in my gardening magazine. Sow from March onwards, and enjoy your Provence-inspired salads.
Mustard "Oriental Mix": a spicy blend of oriental mustard leaves such as red giant, red and green frills and pizzo, these quick growing leaves are perfect for fresh salads or in stir-fries. Sow from March onwards, and use when needed.

I can't wait to see my Salad Bar grow this summer and to be able to pick fresh leaves for BBQ salads and sandwiches and lunches and all sorts.

Ruth