The nights are drawing in, the mornings are getting darker and the car windscreen needs clearing before it’s safe to drive. All these things make me think about it being cold outside but cosy inside, and one of my favourite dishes to have for breakfast to get me warmed up in the morning is porridge.
Image courtesy of Black Velvet Styling
This recipe happens to be vegan, not that I am vegan (or even vegetarian) but I’m not a massive fan of milk (love cream, cheese and butter though!). You wouldn’t know it’s dairy-free because to me it tastes like lemon cheesecake, I think it’s the oats thickening as they cook that gives it a creamy consistency. It also uses two of my favourite seasonal ingredients – apple and cinnamon.
I hope you enjoy it, let me know how you get on and what your favourite way of eating porridge is.
Lemon Cheesecake* Porridge
Makes 2 generous bowls
1 cup oats
2 cups water
Juice of 1 lemon
1 apple, cored & grated
1 tbsp maple syrup
Ground cinnamon, to serve
Soak oats, water and lemon juice in saucepan overnight – optional but optimal.
Add the grated apple and maple syrup to the pan.
Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until bubbling, thick and creamy.
Divide between two bowls and serve with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.
*As mentioned above, this recipe is dairy-free, there’s no cheese in it, it just tastes like lemon cheesecake to me.
My first guest blog from my dear friend Barbara Goodall. She’s an aromatherapist, gardener and foodie so I couldn’t think of anyone better to write about growing and eating your own lavender. Head on over to http://www.timeout-for-you.co.uk/ for more about what she does.
Lavenders thrive in full sun and well drained soil… Mine loved the conditions this summer!!
Grow your own…
Two species of lavender are growing in my garden, giving a long flowering period for my pleasure as well as providing nectar for many butterflies, bees and other insects.
True Lavenders such as Lavandula angustifolia ‘’Hidcote’ (height c. 30cm x spread c. 30cm) provide a high quality essential oil. This compact plant has blue/green narrow leaves and intense, dark blue flower spikes from late spring to early summer. I also love the effect and simplicity of the vertical stems before the flowers open!
Hybrids such as Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso’ (Ht 90cm x sp 90cm) are slightly less hardy, have long, loose spikes and flowers a month later..
By cutting back my lavenders after flowering, just above the woody stems, I leave some green tips that will have at least a month’s growth to protect the plant from the frost. In the spring, after the frosts I give them a wee trim back to keep them neat and compact.
Lavender Field in Wiltshire
In Cooking…
Adding fresh lavender to my shortbread and scone recipes is a gentle way to enjoy the therapeutic effects of the essential oil and is a reminder of warm sunny days…
I grind a few chopped lavender flowers (maybe half a teaspoon), in a pestle and mortar for a floral taste and smell, or finely chop the leaves for a more balsamic earthy flavour. See below for the recipe.
So many therapeutic qualities to choose from…
Julia Lawless gives some wonderful descriptions in her book Lavender Oil, Nature’s Soothing Remedy.
An excellent essential oil for skin care, a valuable soothing remedy and a good analgesic, its regulating effect on the nervous system is unique.
Its nature is balancing and harmonising and is neither yin nor yang in the extreme and tends to increase the overall effectiveness of a remedy when used in combination with it.
Lavender is a supreme adaptogen. It can have a restorative effect in cases of listlessness or weakness, yet has a calming effect on those prone to hyperactivity or agitation.
Lavender Shortbread recipe
190C/Gas mark 5/6 for 10 to 15 minutes
Makes c.24
Ingredients:
200g butter
100g icing sugar sieved
200g plain flour
100g cornflour
Pinch of salt
½ to 1 tsp finely chopped lavender flowers
Caster sugar for sprinkling
Method:
Chop butter and soften
Beat in icing sugar
Add flour, salt and lavender little by little kneading well to form a smooth dry paste, initially with a flat bladed knife and then with your lightly floured fingers
Turn onto a floured worktop and roll into a sausage shape, say 5cm in diameter
If you are patient, wrap in greaseproof paper and chill in the fridge for an hour
Slice into discs and place onto baking trays and sprinkle with caster sugar
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so depending how golden brown you like your biscuits.
Leave on your baking tray for 5 minutes before you transfer them to a cooling tray
From 11-4pm today (Sunday 1st July), it’s Belper Open Gardens and if you’re in the Openwoodgate/Bargate area, call into Barbara’s for beautiful borders, a hands-on, have-a-go sculpture, fascinating before and after photos, a fountain to dip your feet in to cool off and last but definitely not least, the most delicious cakes you’ve ever tasted!
I’m always surprised when visiting Cornwall in winter by how many plants are in flower. Daffodils out before Christmas, camellias in full bloom in February and rosemary that seems to flower all year. One plant that definitely wasn’t in flower was the lavender at Eden, on the bank outside the entrance to the biomes. But that just makes me want to go back again in the summer to see, touch and smell it in all it’s full flowering glory.
Winter domed lavender goals
This hedge of beautiful camellias was just starting to flower. Camellia seed oil, camellia sinensis, makes a skin-regenerating base oil that is full of vitamin A. Essential oils are blended into base oils (also known as carrier oils) to massage into the skin during an aromatherapy treatment. I would add camellia base oil to sunflower base oil to make it extra nourishing.
Camellia sinensis seeds make a skin-regenerating base oil
I wish you could smell this jasmine, it was quite intoxicating! It was climbing over one of the buildings in the temperate biome and capturing passers by with it’s sweet, floral, heady scent. Jasmine, jasminum gradiflorum, absolute (it doesn’t yield enough essential oil to make it commercially viable to distill it) is euphoric, helping to uplift you in times of emotional suffering and heartache.
Jasminum gradiflorum is euphoric and uplifting.
These young lemongrass plants (cymbopogan citrata) were outside the Malaysian hut in the rainforest biome. As the zesty, grass-like leaves grow, the stalk will thicken up to become the lemongrass that you see in supermarkets today. The essential oil is distilled from the leaves and stem and is used as a digestive aid. It stimulates the liver and immune system, and is an insect repellent too – use it in a burner to ward off midges.
Young lemongrass plants
This is a black pepper bush (piper nigrum). It’s a climbing plant that is cultivated in India, Madagascar and Indonesia. The peppercorns grow in a grape-like formation, another reason for me to go back to Eden to take a photo of them! Apparently the Romans used black pepper to settle taxes as it was a highly prized commodity, today it’s one of the most widely available spices in the world. As an essential oil, it’s used as a circulatory stimulant, to get the blood flowing to stiff and achy muscles and to invigorate the senses.
The last time I went to the Eden Project in Cornwall was over 10 years ago so I was interested to find out what had changed and what had stayed the same.
If only I could gallop away on one of these magical beauties
I was delighted the horse sculptures by Heather Jansch were still there to greet visitors at the entrance to the visitor centre. They are stunning, I remember being blown away by them when I first saw them, I don’t know how many years ago.
It was a cold, wet and windy day in the middle of February this year when I went, but thankfully warm inside, dry in the temperate biome and humid in the tropical biome. It is fascinating to see the array of plants grown inside the domes, and outside as you wend your way from the car park, through the visitor centre, down the banks of the ‘massive crater’ that houses the domes and across the bridge to their entrance. (I will go into specific plants in part two.)
Veg plot goals
This is the vegetable garden with the tropical biome behind. It’s just before the bridge to the biomes and right next to the canteens, so the kitchen staff can use fresh, home grown produce in their dishes. Delicious, sustainable sustenance!
Roul-rouls
Crested partridge
A new introduction for me was to be met in the tropical biome by roul-rouls, a type of partridge originally from Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. They are colourful, rotund birds that camouflage well on the rainforest floor and help with pest control in the biome.
Must practice my panorama skills
The biomes remain as impressive as the first time I saw them, like giant bubble wrap waiting to be jumped on and popped. From the (new to me) canopy walkway in the tropical biome you can really appreciate the structure, and get a great view of the rainforest below.
Rosemary and terracotta dreams
When life gives you giant lemons…
The temperate biome feels like a garden I’d like to escape into, with it’s fragrant herbs, olive groves and citrus trees. There’s even a friendly goat to rest on when your feet are tired from walking all day.
Peacewellbeing.co.uk 