Seasonal Favourites: Grow your own Pea shoots!

By Victoria Fox

Marrowfat peas make excellent Mushy Peas, but they also make delicious salad greens and are really simple to grow!

What you need:

· A pot, a trough, a pot, anything that will hold soil will do!

· Compost/soil (enough to fill your pot) 

· Marrowfat Pea seeds. 

If you are recycling your plant pot then make sure it’s had a good scrub in soapy water as dirty pots can harbour bacteria and moulds. Fill your pot loosely with compost. Lay your peas on the surface around an inch apart and poke them around half an inch down into the soil. Cover slightly so the peas are under the surface and water well.

Until April they will do better inside, on a sunny windowsill, after that they will do best outside. Place your pot somewhere where mice can’t get to it. Mice love peas! 

When they are around 6 inches high, trim the top few inches to eat. They taste lovely on their own, but are great  in salad!

Christmas Cake recipe

Ingredients: 

225g Plain Flour

225g Butter

225g Soft dark brown sugar

225g Currants

225g Raisins

225g Sultanas

0.5 tsp Cinnamon

0.5 tsp Cloves

0.5 tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg

125g Chopped Almonds

125g Mixed Peel (Optional)

125g Glacé Cherries (Optional)

Rind of one lemon

Rind of one orange

4 Large Eggs, Beaten

1-2 Tablespoons Brandy

Method:

Grease and line an 8 inch spring-form cake tin. 

Sift flour with spices. In another bowl beat butter with sugar till light and fluffy. Add the citrus rinds and gradually add beaten egg. Fold flour and spice mix in alternately to the fruit and nuts. Finally add Brandy. 

Pour mixture into cake tin and make a slight well in the centre. Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 145’C for about 3 and a half hours. After cooking turn off oven and leave tin, in the oven to cool. 

Once fully cooled, prick cake with a skewer and add 2 tablespoons of Brandy/Rum of your choice, wrap in brown paper and tinfoil and a couple of days before Christmas cover with marzipan and Royal Icing. 

You can find Vicki on Instagram: @vixxihibiscus

By Victoria Fox