Warm Pigeon Breast with Cracked Wheat Salad

This is a warm salad I remember from way back when I did my Leith's course 10 years ago. It was one of the demonstrations during the course and actually it's a very simple and yet very tasty dish to make. I made a double batch of the bulgar wheat salad and had the second half without the pigeon later in the week and it is a fab salad on it's own.

Warm Pigeon Breast with Cracked Wheat Salad (from Leiths Cookery Bible)
(Serves 4)

2 tbsp Chinese five spice powder
1 tbsp light soy sauce
8 pigeon breasts, skinned
310g bulgar wheat
2 tbsp oil
1/2 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2.5cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
110g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
100g parma ham, sliced
140g plum jam
5 spring onions, sliced
55g sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
salt and pepper
lemon juice
30g pinenuts, toasted
1/2 cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp snipped chives

Mix together the five spice and soy sauce and coat the pigeon breasts on both sides. Put into a shallow dish, cover and leave to marinate for at least 30 mins or overnight in the fridge.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the bulgar wheat according to the packet instructions. Drain thoroughly.

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, add the chilli, ginger, mushrooms and parma ham and stir-fry over a high heat for 2-3 mins. Add the jam, spring onions and sun-dried tomatoes and bring to the boil. Add the bulgar wheat and season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Heat thoroughly and stir in the pine nuts and cucumber. Keep warm.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the pigeon breasts and fry for 3 mins. Turn and cook for a further 2 mins until browned but pink inside.

Divide the bulgar wheat between 4 plates and top with the pigeon breasts. Sprinle with chives.

Jam Tarts

I made these jam tarts with my niece a couple of weeks ago, we were waiting for the bread to rise and were looking for something else to make and in truth I've had a craving for jam tarts for ages! These were fab and she basically did all the work, I was there as back up! We got out all our children's cookery books and went through them to decide what to make.

Jam Tarts (from My Cookery Book by Caroline Green)
(Makes 12)

100g plain flour
25g butter
25g shortening
pinch salt
cold water
jam

Sieve the salt and flour into a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into little cubes and drop them into the flour Mix with a knife.

Rub the flour and fat together with your fingers until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle 2 tbsp of water into the mixture. Stir in quickly with a palette knife. Add more water if necessary. Now, with your hands, form the dough into a ball that leaves the bowl clean. Wrap the pastry in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 mins; this makes it easier to roll out. Turn the oven on to 190C.

Sprinkle flour on to the work surface and the rolling pin. Gently roll out the pastry to 5mm thick. Cut the pastry into circles with the cutter and put into patty tins.

Put 1 tsp of jam into each tart and bake in the oven for about 15 mins until the pastry is golden.

Loganberry Jam

I have had bowl upon bowl of loganberries from my the bush in my garden this year. I have frozen them mostly, or eaten them with a sprinkling of sugar for pudding, and I'm also going to make compote. I also decided after picking over a kilo to make jam! My first attempt at jam a couple of years ago was not a success, I used too much sugar and it was so hard you couldn't actually get it out the pot!

My first try at this was under set, so I put it back in the pan, added the juice of half a lemon and a bit more sugar and resterilised the jars. I'm not sure how it turned out second time round as no-ones tried any yet, but it was definitely set, hopefully so that it can still be eaten!

Loganberry Jam
Makes 3 450g/1lb pots

900g fresh or frozen loganberries
900g white sugar, warmed

Preheat the oven to 100-130CWash, dry and sterilise the jars in the oven for 15 mins. Put the sugar onto a baking tray and put in the same low oven as the jars to warm.

Put the berries into a wide, stainless-steel saucepan. Mash them a little and cook for 3–4 mins over a medium heat until the juice begins to run, then add the warmed sugar and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Increase the heat, bring to the boil and cook steadily for about 5 mins, stirring frequently (frozen berries will take 6 mins).

Test for a set by putting about a tsp of jam on a cold plate and leaving it for a few minutes in a cool place. Press the jam with your finger. If it wrinkles even slightly, it is set. Remove from the heat immediately. Skim and pour into sterilised jam jars. Cover immediately.

Ginger Apple Butter

A couple of weekends ago I had a festival of cooking. I made the Feijoada for my Daring Cooks, I made soup, I made muffins and for the first time I made jam. My Mum gave me tonnes of apples of her tree and I was looking for new and exciting things to do with them rather than making more apple compote. I was also looking for a way to preserve them without freezing as I have very limited freezer space and my Mum gave me a recipe for apple butter.

The original recipe is spiced apple butter and calls for ground all spice, ground cloves and ground cinnamon but I went for the ginger variation and it was lovely. It could do with a little more ginger for me but it does have that nice hint of ginger in the background.

Ginger Apple Butter
(Makes 8 and a bit jars)

2.75kg apples
1.2l water
1.2l sweet cider
3 tsp ground ginger
sugar

Wash the apples thoroughly and remove the stalks and bruised parts. Chop the fruit roughly and put into a pan with the water and cider, bring to the boil. Cover and simmer until the apples are soft and pulpy, stirring frequently.

Rub the apple pulp through a fine nylon sieve then weigh it and return to the pan. Allow 350g sugar for each 450g apple pulp and add to the pan with the ginger.

Bring gently to the boil stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved. Continue boiling stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens and there is no extra liquid in the pan and it looks jam like in consistency. You will probably need to stir and keep more of an eye on the mixture during the last 15 mins or so to stop it from burning.

Put the apple butter into hot clean jars and cover immediately.

Fruit butters will keep for 3-6 months.