Lime Flower Honey from Hilltop Honey

Does your mind store smell and image associations? For me, the smell of lime blossom is forever etched in my mind as a symbol of my childhood, with our school yard, lime trees, and me climbing up on the tree among all the sweet smelling blossom. Its delicate perfume is perfectly preserved in raw and organic lime flower honey from Hilltop Honey. This is a relative newcomer to the honey market in the UK. According to Scott Davies, Hilltop's founder, the UK is unable to produce certifiable organic honey, hence they started searching further afield for new honey producers. And so it happened that they set to launch a range of four new European organic honeys as part of their expanding line of raw honeys.
As a family, we eat a good amount of honey, I love adding it to tea instead of sugar, or sweetening the hot milk for my little man. Pancakes, all sorts of baking, salad dressing, the possibilities of using honey are endless.

Words "lime flower honey" bring to mind Russian folk tales about bears. My Mum would take me to the farmers' market to buy a jar of lime flower honey. This was considered to be a cure for almost any cold-related ailment. Sniffles and colds were treated with hot drinks like milk and tea liberally sweetened with honey. It is great in a soothing drink for sore throats and colds. Honey has also been used as an ingredient for hair rinse, or treatment for arthritis.

Lime flower honey from Hilltop Honey is a new and organic variety, which contains more fructose than British raw honey, hence its consistency is runnier. It is a light, mildly zesty honey, with a beautiful distinct aroma. It comes in a squeezy bottle. The colour is yellow amber.
The message on the bottle reads: "Not only is our lime flower honey organic, it's also raw! This is important because we don't heat the honey so much that it kills the enzymes that makes honey good for you".
This cold extracted and unpasteurised honey has a lovely taste with a delicate woody scent.
It goes beautifully with fruit salads. And plain pancakes, drizzled with honey, are a true food of gods.

As this honey has a delicate taste, it makes an ideal baking ingredient. I have used it to make chocolate chip madeleines. Honey and chocolate go really well.

It happened so that after I received a bottle of lime flower honey for testing and reviewing, I have seen different varieties of Hilltop Honey in our local Holland & Barrett, and I am going to try them as well.

To find more about Hilltop Honey, find them on FacebHook - Hilltop Honey and Twitter - Hilltop Honey.

Fig and almond crostata

Our weekly fruit and vegetable market is just on my way to school, and if you visit it later in the day, almost at closing time, you can get really good bargains. As I was passing through the market last Thursday, I could hear the fruit vendor shouting at the top of his voice "10 figs for £3!" and couldn't resist such a nice offer. I got my fresh figs, picked up my younger son from school, and we rushed home to wait for the school bus, bringing my older son home. My initial plan was to make some fig chutney, but then I happened to discover a recipe for fig and almond confiture with Vin Santo on Simona's Kitchen blog. It looked delightfully sophisticated and I just had to try it. After I made a big jar, I used the confiture as a filling for a crostata for yesterday's lunch.

Do read Simona's recipe, I followed her advice closely enough, though I had to adapt it to suit the amount of figs, and change some ingredients slightly.

I used a dark variety of figs. When I weighed them, the total weight was 750g. The original recipe suggested that sugar should be roughly half the weight if figs. I didn't have enough of Vin Santo, only leftovers in the bottle, so I mixed it with Muscat wine.
Please read Simona's recipe for the precise list of ingredients.
I soaked the quartered figs in sugar and sweet wine overnight, then cooked for half an hour with the almonds and 4 Rose Extract Spice Drops (added by the end of cooking).

Rose Extract Spice Drops from Holy Lama are a concentrated essence of rose. You literally need just a few drops to add a beautiful aroma and enhance the taste. Rose is a trendy ingredient nowadays, though I have been using it quite a while. I always dry the rose petals from my garden to add to my cooking. Rose Spice Drops have an exquisite smell, I can probably wear it as a perfume.
Going back to my confiture, it was simply luscious, sweet, elegant and very tasty.

As for the crostata, I used a ready-made Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry. I might not get any points from the virtuous cooks and judges at GBBO for using a ready-made pastry (Quelle Horreur! Sacrilege!), but my family loved my dessert. My in-laws are visiting us this week, and they enjoyed my baking very much. I served it with cream, and once I finished my slice and took an empty plate back to the kitchen, I couldn't resist licking my plate. Yes, it was that good.

If you don't have fresh figs, there is a similar recipe for a crostata made with dried figs soaked in marsala, and very tasty it is as well.

Ahmad tea

Are you a fan of Downton Abbey? Have you been counting the days till the most stylish drama in the world is back on Sunday? As my Sunday evening will be too busy to enjoy my guilty pleasure, I am going to record it, and watch in peaceful solitude on Monday morning after the school run. I already plan to plump the cushions on the sofa, snuggle in with a little cozy rug, and have a small pot of freshly brewed tea ready. Maybe a box of chocolate will finish a perfect arrangement. I will brew a pot of Earl Grey (2 teabags for a small pot), switch on the Freeview box and will be in heaven. There will be more convoluted plots, with a new romance story in the pipeline. Splendid hats and fashions, scenery, marvellous china and breath-taking vistas. Sipping my favourite Earl Grey, I plan to enjoy my "me-time" to the full (especially that I don't often have a chance to do it).

There were lots of tea scenes in the past series, and I wonder which tea did they favour? Were I to entertain the imaginary company from Downton Abbey, I believe I would be prepared to cater for any tea preference or variety. Whenever I buy more tea or get for reviewing, my family laughs "Not more tea surely?" Well, there is never enough tea.

Ahmad Tea, renowned for the quality of its teas, is a UK-based family business. It has a lot of fans throughout the world and is available in 68 countries. How impressive is that?! Whenever I visit one of the Oxford stores, frequented by tourists from all over the world, I see just how popular it is as a brand. Incidentally, Ahmad Tea is very popular in Russia, and I do sincerely hope that all the current embargoes and sanctions won't last very long.

I love tea caddies and tins, and have quite a collection. Ahmad Tea tins are varied in style and design. Earl Grey tea caddy is decorated with a painting "Sunday best" by Peter Szumovski. It is a nostalgic vintage image, in the style of the primitivists, very colourful and absolutely charming. Open the tin, and smell the beautiful unmistakable aroma of bergamot. It is a brisk invigorating brew, not overly strong, very smooth and pleasant. I enjoy my Earl Grey with a slice of lemon and a spoon of sugar (or one sweetener tablet). I know many shops serve it with milk, but I truly don't like how milk disguises the taste of bergamot.

Moving even higher in social structure, from Earl Grey to Royal Blend. This black tea (loose) is a combination of finest Darjeeling and Assam teas from Northern India, scented with bergamot flavouring. This is another aromatic tea, energetic and refreshing. Wonderful with a toast and marmalade.

Only a Royal mug would do for Royal Blend

English Breakfast (teabags) is a "classic blend of teas which characterises the traditional English cup of tea". This trio of tins is an absolute delight for any souvenir hunter. Each tin is a hymn to Britishness. The tea itself is smooth, not overly strong, more of a gentle awakening moment than a kick-you-to-wake-up brew. Easy to drink, with a dash of milk or without. I liked it with a spoonful of honey best.

English Afternoon (loose tea) comes in another adorable tea caddy decorated with Peter Szumowski artwork called "Teachers Outing". This is a combination of Darjeeling and Assam, with a bergamot flavouring. The bergamot here is not as pronounced as in Earl Grey. It is a full-flavoured brew, with more emphasis on Assam than bergamot so it is not a substitute for Earl Grey, but a variation. Nicely balanced, and goes well with a slice of cake.

As I was testing the teas, and styling the props to make the photos a bit different, my younger son couldn't resist a tempting slice of cake. I told him: "Don't touch anything with your hands until I take a photo". And genius that he is, he thought the mouth doesn't count.

For a full range of teas, visit Ahmad Tea.

Disclosure: I received a selection of Ahmad Tea for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Russian salad

Do you do traditional roast dinners on Sundays? Are you tired of eating the usual roast beef sandwiches or quiche with ham for a few days in a row? And do I dare even to mention the C-word and the inevitable roast turkey? What do you do with the leftovers?
You might remember me mentioning it already that I was one of a few lucky bloggers who were selected to become ShortcutEggsperts (why do I always read this word as short cute eggsperts?!). This month's challenge was to create a dish with eggs, using leftovers. Many of my American readers will be celebrating Thanksgiving soon, and even Christmas is not that distant. At least some people are eagerly anticipating it, like my little man. The shops have already started selling mince pies, which I am going to resist buying for another month or more. As it often happens, both of these celebrations are accompanied by tables laden with food often including a traditional turkey or ham (that is, if you are not a vegetarian). My recipe for Russian salad is made, using the leftover turkey meat, but you can easily substitute it with the same amount of ham or roast beef.

Russian salad
Ingredients:
2 potatoes, about 350+g, cubed
1 carrot, 100g, diced
200+g turkey, cubed (or ham or beef)
3 eggs, hard-boiled
4 gherkins
2 heaped tbsp green peas
1 apple, diced
5tbsp mayonnaise
olives + gherkins for decoration

Leftovers used in this recipe were turkey and carrot (steamed).
Cook the potatoes in salted water, once cooked, let them cool completely before chopping into small cubes. Dice the cooked carrot and turkey meat. Chop three hard-boiled eggs, gherkins and dice an apple. Mix all the ingredients together with green peas (either tinned or cooked from frozen). Add the mayonnaise and again mix well, so that all the ingredients are covered with mayo. Decorate with the olives, baby tomatoes, gherkins or peas.

This salad will keep for a day in the fridge.
Salads are always a good way of re-using the leftovers, and the best part is that you can play with the ingredients. If you don't have carrots, add the cooked parsnip. Swap gherkins for cornichons or olives. Ham works very well in this salad, and so does cubed roast beef. You can also try it with the chicken.

For more egg facts and information, visit Egginfo.

Disclosure: As part of the ShortcutEggsperts programme launched by BritMums and Lion Eggs, I received vouchers for creating a recipe using the eggs.

Is it Christmas yet? by Jane Chapman

Any parent of a young child knows that urgency and impatience with which our little ones wait for a big occasion like their birthday or Christmas. They cannot wait for the big day to arrive and keep pestering asking their parents "Is it my birthday today? Is it Christmas yet?" Sounds familiar? Then you will smile reading a lovely new book from Little Tiger Press called "Is it Christmas yet?"

This charming story is written and illustrated by Jane Chapman, and features two bears, Big Bear and his little son Ted. Little bear is very excited, rushing around in his Santa hat: "Christmas is coming". Not yet, his Daddy tries to reason with him, we still need a lot to do before Christmas arrives.

So, they wrap the presents together, and the little Ted is helping over-enthusiastically.
Both my younger son Eddie and I giggled, looking at the bear with the scotch tape all over him, as it brought back memories of our last Christmas gifts' wrapping session, when we also ended up unsticking the scotch tape from ourselves.

Then they have to bake a cake. And again, the mess in the kitchen looks very familiar. Whenever Eddie joins in my baking session, our working surface ends up covered with the flour and whatever dried ingredients we are using.

And then they need a Christmas tree... so off they venture in the woods to pick a perfect tree.

And by the time everything is ready, the little bear gets too tired. Aww.

As all the books from Little Tiger Press, this illustrated book would appeal to both children and their parents. It is a wonderful kind story with lovable characters. Parents and children would easily identify themselves in similar situations, and will chuckle together, reading this amusing and entertaining book.

Explore Little Tiger Press for more information.

Disclosure: I am a member of Parent Review Panel and received this book for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Malibu rum cake

I love coconut-flavoured cakes and bakes. There is something immensely satisfying in a big slice of moist sweet cake with a beautiful exotic aroma. I love the chewiness the dessicated coconut adds to baking. Alas, my older son is not very keen on the texture of shredded coconut, so I was looking for alternatives. I had a small bottle of Malibu rum, which I bought spontaneously, when it was on offer, a while ago. It was collecting dust, and I thought I could try to do a variation of our family favourite Advocaat cake. After all, slightly adapted, it worked with Limoncello, why not with Malibu?

Malibu rum cakeIngredients:
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
150ml Malibu rum
200g self-raising flour
60g cornflour
2tsp baking powder
25g dessicated coconut
5 Vanilla Extract Spice Drops
200g butter, melted

Beat the eggs with the sugar, add the rum, flour, cornflour, baking powder, dessicated coconut ad mix well. Melt the butter, add to the mix, and mix well again. I also used 5 drops of Vanilla Extract Spice Drops, but you can substitute it with the vanilla essence (1tsp).
Pour the cake batter in a bundt cake tin, and put the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden (check with the wooden skewer if it's ready).
Dust with the icing sugar, or make an icing with the icing sugar and rum.

I didn't add the rum to icing, because I didn't want it to taste boozy. When baked, the alcohol evaporates, leaving the lovely flavour, so you wouldn't taste any alcohol in the cake.
Well, let me tell you, it was a total success.

The cake is fluffy, moist and aromatic. I'm glad I felt like experimenting today.

In this recipe I used Vanilla Extract Spice Drops from Holy Lama, an innovative way of adding flavour to cooking. You need a few tiny drops of extract to enhance the cake. It gives subtlety and depth to any baking.

Vodka-pickled tomatoes

Stereotypes are hard to eradicate. Just because I am originally from Russia, many people automatically presume that I am partial to a shot of vodka. They couldn't be more wrong though. I don't drink neat vodka, and have a vodka cocktail once a decade only. When we invite people for dinner, like my husband's colleagues, they would often arrive with a bottle of vodka, just because they heard of "the Russian wife". They must be sorely disappointed because I never drink it. The last time we received a bottle of vodka was from a very charming couple, and I didn't want to disabuse their notions, thanked them profusely but offered wine at dinner time. Now I have a bottle which I am going to use in cooking. It is a great ingredient in curing salmon, or adding to the pickling liquid. One of my favourite recipes for roasted tomatoes also includes vodka among its ingredients.
Just the other day, I made several jars of tomatoes pickled with vodka. It doesn't use a huge amount of vodka, just 50ml, and you cannot taste it in the finished result.

The recipe I use is supposed to fill in one big 3L jar and be enough to pickle up to 2kg tomatoes. I don't have a jar this big, so I used 3 Kilner style jars, and had a bit of pickling liquid left over.

Vodka-pickled tomatoes
Ingredients:
700g red tomatoes (baby plum variety)
250g yellow tomatoes, baby vine variety
6tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic
1 red sweet pepper, diced
for the pickling liquid:
30g salt
60g granulated sugar
30g apple cider vinegar
1tbsp pickling spice (for example, Bart)
2 bay leaves
1 litre of water
50ml vodka

Wash the tomatoes. Chop the dill and dice the pepper, discarding the seeds. Put 2tbsp of chopped dill per each sterilised jar, add a couple of cloves of garlic. Pack the tomatoes inside quite tightly.
Prepare the pickling liquid by mixing the salt, sugar, vinegar, pickling spice, bay leaves and water, bring to boil. Once the sugar and salt dissolved, remove from the heat and add vodka. Let it cool completely before adding to the jars with tomatoes. Close the lids.
These tomatoes will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

You can eat them the next day, they will be mildly pickled, or what in Russia is called "malosol'nye" lit. salted-a-little. The longer they stay in the pickling liquid, the stronger the flavour is.

Plan Toys Croquet

"Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other: however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet in all her life: it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themsleves up and to stand upon their hands and feet, to make arches" (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

As a young child, I was fascinated by the description of the mysterious game called croquet in Alice's Adventures. The marvellous Russian edition came with footnotes which explained the intricacies of the English lifestyle and its idiosyncratic features. I learnt what croquet was supposed to be, but much preferred Lewis Carroll's version, and who wouldn't?! Needless to say, I never played this game as a child, it sounded very exotic to me, and quintessentially British. Fast forward 35+ years, and I am teaching my younger son how to play croquet with the help of a beautiful Plan Toys Croquet.

This family game comes in a sturdy box. It includes 4 different animal wooden balls - bird, tiger, monkey and frog, 2 mallets, 4 wickets and a final stand. There is also a bag, handy for carrying the set to and fro.

Eddie was very excited to see a big box, when the game arrived, and was impatient to start playing immediately. As our lawn was quite overgrown, I suggested playing indoors. Then for several days he kept asking when we were going to mow the lawn. Finally we cleared the space for him at the weekend, and Eddie was happy to play outdoors with his new croquet.

Unpacking and testing the ground

This set is well-made of sustainable wood and eco-friendly materials. I have never held a grown-up version of croquet in my life, so it is hard for me to compare, but I liked the fact that the mallets are light enough for little hands, yet heavy enough at the same time so that they are durable and sturdy.
Great fun for playing both indoors and outdoors.
It is useful to learn social interaction skills, like taking turns and patience. And it is good for gross motor skills and coordination.
My son has been very enthusiastic about learning a new game.

This lovely set is available from Great Gizmos online shop which is a veritable Aladdin's cave full of treasures. You can find a big variety of games and toys there, suitable for all ages and tastes. This is a shop to be bookmarked for the coming Christmas shopping, or for any occasion indeed, when you need to buy a gift for a child.

Disclosure: we received Plan Toys Croquet for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Cucumbers pickled with mustard seed and turmeric

When autumn arrives, I usually start craving pickles. I love pickles of all sorts, and each year make a batch of preserves, both sweet and savoury - jams, marmalades, chutneys and pickles. It must be my "homing instinct" thing, as when cooking preserves, I go back to my territory. Though I haven't visited my homeland for 10 years, canning takes me back home, at least in my mind. Canning is a national religion in Russia. Quite understandably. If you have snow for up to six months (as in my parts of the world), you need to be well prepared food-wise. Of course, with supermarkets open 24 hours a day nowadays, you don't actually need to save food this way, but it must be a genetic call: get ready for winter, save your harvest. Oh, and it's also great fun.
I have recently come across a lovely recipe for bread and butter pickles on Pinterest, and wanted to try it. The original recipe for bread and butter pickles appears on Savoury Simple blog. I have slightly adapted it, and also converted some of the cup measurements into something I can understand. I don't quite know why these pickles are called bread and butter pickles, as neither ingredient is used in the recipe. Does anyone know the origins of this name?

Anyway, I managed to buy some lovely small size cucumbers at the local farmers' market. I also used half a standard size cucumber to add to the total weight, so you can use either. It's just smaller size cucumbers look prettier and taste better, I think.

Cucumbers pickled with mustard seed and turmeric
Ingredients:
800g cucumbers, thinly sliced
5-6 small shallots, thinly sliced
75g coarse salt
375ml apple cider vinegar
150g granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 fennel flowerhead (or 1tsp dried fennel seed)

Slice the cucumbers thinly and slightly at an angle if you want oval-shaped slices rather than round (I did a mix of both).Slice the shallots thinly. Put both sliced cucumbers and shallots in a big pan, add the salt, pour the cold water over. Leave the pan to sit for 2 or 3 hours.

Now the original recipe suggested draining the cucumbers and doesn't mention if the salted water should be preserved. Save one mug of salted water. I thought that the pickling liquid might not be enough to cover the cucumbers, and I was right. I have saved a mug of salted water, which I later added to the pickling liquid. Rinse the sliced cucumbers in cold water.
In a medium size bowl or small pan mix the apple cider vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric , and add a fennel flowerhead (or fennel seeds). Pour this mix over the sliced cucumbers and shallots in a big pan. Add the saved mug of salted water.

Bring to boil and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring the cucumbers.
Remove from the heat and ladle into sterilised jars.

I often reuse jam and honey jars for my homemade jams, but for pickles prefer the wider jars, so I buy either Kilner or Tala jars whenever they are on offer (right now, for example, they are 4 for 3 at Robert Dyas). Once you have a good supply, you can reuse these jars for many years.

The pickles will keep well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Though they won't last that long here. These are very tasty pickles, crispy, flavourful, sightly yellow from turmeric. Brilliant with plain boiled potatoes, or in a sandwich with rye bread and corned beef.