Friday 13 April 2012

Tantalising Tulips and a Tasty Supper Accompanied By Some Delightful Musical Snippets From The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain...



Today has been a mixture of highs and lows...

It was the day my litter of Burmese kittens went to their new homes. Their new owners came very excitedly to collect their new family members and gradually the house became quieter and quieter...

Needing a little cheering up, I listened to a little of my favourite Uke combo groups, the wonderfully quirky, Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain. Now this may not please all of my blog readers...but it pleases me and was what I needed today...

For their first offering may I present this,


 
In-between the new owners arriving and collecting their kittens, I did manage to get out briefly into the garden.

Yesterday, we had some stunning thunder and lightning and incessant rain for a good six hours on and off. As much as we needed the rain, some of the younger plants outside suffered some damage, not helped by an icy frost at dawn today...

But in spite of that, the garden continues to flourish...

The tulips in particular raised their heads in the brief sunshine today,


 
Whilst it was relatively warm in the sunshine, it still remained a little chilly with temperatures around 11C together with a breezy wind.



 
Ducking back inside, I made a quick bread-this time, a Tarragon and Walnut Soda bread with Tarragon fresh from the garden.


Welsh Walnut And Tarragon Soda Bread


 
500g Welsh Oak Smoked Flour
80g of Chopped Walnuts
3 TBSP of finely chopped fresh French Tarragon leaves
400ml plain pouring yogurt
1 tsp Maldon Sea Salt
3 tsp of Cream of Tartar
1 & half tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Preheat the oven to 210C.

In a large bowl add the flour, Bicarb of Soda, Cream of Tartar, salt, chopped walnuts and tarragon leaves and mix well with a large spoon. 

Add the yogurt.

 The mixture is very sticky and I turned it out onto a well floured surface and simply shaped it into a round, flipped it over to shape it again but didn’t knead it at all. Due to its sticky nature I placed it on some baking parchment paper on a tray, dusted it with flour and made the obligatory slashes with a knife and popped it in the oven for 35 minutes. After said time, I had a nice hollow sound upon tapping its bottom and duly let it cool.



 Now a quirky musical break featuring a ‘Traditional English Rock Song’...


 
Hope you all sang along...

Back into the garden and some more tantalising tulips...




 
Even the insects benefited from this brief interlude of sunshine...



 
Yep...feel more music required...

This time another melange from the Ukes...


 
Back inside to prepare the Baked Somerset Camembert...

Baked Somerset Cheese Infused With Rosemary, Thyme, Vermouth And New Season Green Garlic.


 

I’m going to focus on a rather nice local Camembert -like cheese from Somerset rather cleverly called Somerset Camembert.

A mini round of that sublime and perfectly bloomy local Somerset Camembert is first garnished with a small spoonful of finely chopped new season Spring Green Garlic from my garden, then impregnated with sprigs of fresh Rosemary and Thyme also from my garden, and lastly gently bathed with a dash of Vermouth...not from my garden...

The method of cooking is simplicity itself...




 
Place the whole cheese in its wooden box if it came in it or in a small dish and cover with some foil.

Place in a preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and gently remove the foil and the crusty ‘lid’ of the baked cheese...



 
Slice your bread and slather generously with the unctuous melted cheese...



 
The flavour of the herbs, garlic and vermouth will have diffused into the cheese and the aroma and taste is truly, truly magnificent!

Now...

No more flowers now for you all...regretfully...

 
See you all soon...

31 comments:

  1. You need a "Brie-baker" to stop the cheese running all over the place! (Like the one I cook my Tunworth in...)

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    1. Yep Mark you are absolutely right-normally I put the cheese in a small dish but didn’t have one available at the time so put it on a tray...lesson learnt though the oozing cheese was still rather delicious!!

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  2. I can see you have managed the problem with uploading YouTube big time. The cheese thingy looks delicious and your tulips divine - not quite sure about the ukeleles though.

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    1. Hi Elaine,

      Yes thank you again for helping me out with that. Needed a little cheering up yesterday and the Ukes fitted the bill for me though I do know they are an acquired taste...

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  3. Admiring your gorgeous tulips. I cannot grow tulips due to the numerous deer that come to visit. Daffodil is the only spring bulb they leave alone.

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    1. Hi Norma,

      Sorry to hear you can’t grow tulips-at least with all the pests I get, I don’t get troubled by deer-yet!!

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  4. The tulips are beautiful, the food is exactly my kind of food and looks very tempting - but oh my word - The Ukulele Orchestra are brilliant. I have had so much fun listening to them and watching the videos (despite our tediously slow connection it was worth the effort) they are amazing. I can't wait to show them to George. They have two new fans. Thank you!
    Thinking of you and mama cat.

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    1. Hi Elaine-fantastic-two new fans!! I am so pleased one reader has liked them!! I would love, myself, one day to see them live...

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    2. ...and so would we! I genuinely enjoyed those videos.

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  5. You make the best sounding bread - how delicious does that loaf look? I have to admit not launching the uke interludes, I'm listening to the footy while I type and I suspect they may not complement each other. I will come back and have a listen...honest...

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    1. Hi Liz,

      Wow what a compliment about my bread-many, many thanks indeed. I actually regard myself as a rather lazy bread maker-hence all the soda breads which are so quick and easy to make. My saving grace is that I do make umpteen variations-currently working on a roasted parsnip version...

      Hope you like the Ukes!!

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  6. I thought the tulips alone would make this post special --- then I saw the cheese. Oh, the cheese! Especially love that picture of the cheesy goodness oozing out of it's box and onto the baking sheet. Poor tulips never did stand a chance.

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    1. Hi John,

      Lovely to hear from you-I do so much enjoy reading your blog with all that history and fantastic recipes...

      Now I know how excited you get over good cheese! Adding all those flavours really did make the cheese extra special and who could not love the smell and taste of piping hot oozing cheese...

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  7. can't believe the little ones have gone, bless sorry i didn't get to say goodbye must be very calm without them big hugs

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    1. The girls and I are finding it so quiet now...on the plus side the house is a little more tidy now without the hurly burly tribe...

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  8. p.s. Tulips and cheese look brilliant :)

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    1. Thanks-those tulips were darned difficult to take decent photos of in that breeze!!

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  9. Your tulips are beautiful. Your cheese sounds terrific...I must give it a try.

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    1. Hi Karen,

      Thank you so much for stopping by. I am really pleased with the tulips this year-so much seem to depend on the weather for them to bloom successfully so when they do it is wonderful!

      Do give the cheese a go-really simple and you can vary the herbs-just make sure you pierce the ‘lid’ of the cheese and add some liquid i.e. wine/vermouth etc to allow the flavours to steam and then seep into the baking cheese.

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  10. my roommate is learning the ukelele, so there'sa ctually one lying around in my flat now. she hasn't touched it for months though, I think she's kind of given up. will shwo her the video, it's beautiful! so is that gorgeous loaf. where on earth do you get oak smoked flour?!

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    1. Hi Shu Han,

      Great to hear from you. Glad to hear another person liked my musical offerings!!
      The Oak smoked flour is lovely-it give a subtle, not too overpowering smoked taste and is from a Welsh mill
      www.bacheldremill.co.uk
      You can, however, now purchase it from Waitrose.

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  11. I love tulips! Bought two bunches on Saturday for our living room... I feel happy every time I see them :) My favourites are "black" ones, though as I'm sure you know they're not really black but more a very deep purple. They're my father's favourite too and I felt so bad once because I was playing football in my parents' garden and kicked the ball right into my mother's one, lone black tulip and all the petals fell off :(

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    1. Hi Charles,

      Yes I love the dark purple ones-Queen Of The Night-your poor mum’s tulip-hope it recovered to flower again the following year- safe from your football!!

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  12. Oh that cheese looks so so good... The way its oozing out of your container makes it that much more mouth watering... I would have dunked a piece of bread in it right away and without caring about getting a burnt mouth I would have digged into it.. The garlic and rosemary... Yum yum!

    Thanks GD

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    1. Hi Sri,

      That cheese was good and it was so hard to not dive straight in myself with the bread as I was trying to take the photos!! Melted cheese is so good...

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  13. Warm cheese and fresh bread! Really, you had me at ukuleles!

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    1. I was going for appealing to all the senses!! Smell, sight and hearing and then of course texture and taste! So glad you liked the post!

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  14. Oh yummity yum - simple suppers are the best. I've sometimes done camembert just as you say, but never put in vermouth before - great idea, it's pretty much an instant fondue. Bread sounds delicious too.

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    1. Hi Choclette,

      The Vermouth really adds to the flavour. Just be sure you pierce the top of the cheese with the herbs then the vermouth will seep into the cheese taking with it the taste of the herbs-and yes, there you have it- instant fondue without all the usual hassle!!

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  15. Well, I was going to comment how lovely the tulips looked (which they do)...and then I saw the soda bread and was going to comment on how delicious that looked...but then I saw the cheese and it was all over! I love cheese, and that just looks awesome! I am going to have to try that one day! Thanks for sharing :)

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    1. Hi Ali,

      Many thanks for stopping by and I do hope you will stop by again!
      Thank you so much for your kind comments-very much appreciated! Do hope you enjoy the cheese supper!

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