Ice cream challenge....

I'm still getting to grips with ordering for the guest house. We're really strict about limiting food waste so when I mess up an order I have to think about what I can do with it. This week I've ended up with too much clotted cream (the best leftovers ever.)

It coincided with Callestick Farm Ice Cream asking me to spread the word about it's Ice Cream Challenge this year. Callestick wants chefs to use its yummy ice cream to create a new dish in its own right. They have thirty flavours to choose from so chefs can be as original and creative as they like.

There will be a live cook off at the Cornwall Food and Drink Festival in September. (For more info go to twitter @callestickfarm or facebook.com/CallestickFarm.

I'm going to have to get my hands on some of their ice cream and do some experimenting! However, that's not so easy on a remote island... and with my glut of clotted cream I decided to make my own. My mum (from @scillyfudge) also had loads of fudge crumbs and so my ice cream was born....

Veronica Farm Fudge and clotted cream ice cream....(serves 6)

1 tub double cream (284ml)
8oz/225g Troytown clotted cream
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
4oz/125g caster sugar
200ml semi skimmed milk
100g chopped up Veronica Farm fudge

Using a hand whisk beat the eggs and sugar. Add the creams and milk.

Once it becomes thick fold in the fudge.

Put in your ice cream maker for 30 minutes.

Put in a plastic tub or loaf tin and freeze for a further 2 hours.

Cereal killer...

I've always been a cooked breakfast kind of girl. Eggs benedict, sausages and pancakes, waffles and bacon. But when we started the guesthouse we wanted to make sure that we provided as varied cold options as we did hot. One of my friends gave me a granola recipe and I can't believe how popular it has been. The other cereals are barely touched.

Samson Hill Granola with Cornish honey....(makes about 20 bowls worth)

8oz/225g oats

100g nuts ( I use almonds)

50g sesame seeds

2 tbsp spoons of leftover apple sauce

2tbsp Cornish honey

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp dark brown soft sugar

2tbsp Cornish rapeseed oil

1 big pinch Cornish sea salt

1 handful dried fruit

1 flat tsp cinnamon

1 flat tsp ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 180'c. Put all the ingredients in a bowl. No batch is ever the same as I use whatever I have. I have lots of brazil nuts at the moment so the next batch will probably have those in. The batch I took photos of had lots of tropical fruits, dried pineapple, strawberries, figs etc as I had several Graze boxes to use up.

Lay out on a non stick tray (or two if they are small). Bake in the oven for half an hour turning every now and again.

Then turn off the oven and leave there for 4-5 hours (or overnight). Keep in an airtight tin for up to 3 weeks.

If I have some leftover I make a sauce of melted syrup, butter and sugar and bake in a 180'c oven for 25 minutes to make granola bars.

A load of pollocks.....

Yesterday I saw a swallow fly over Samson Hill. Swooping over the garden, gliding in the sunshine. It flew off towards Tresco like it was doing a rekke of the islands before the mass migration from Africa begins and you see hundreds on a daily basis. After a day of showers, this week's been beautiful. You can find a sheltered spot, put your face up to the sun and imagine summer barbecues.

Gareth decided to go fishing yesterday with some of our guests and took a boat to the south coast of St Mary's. They caught a bag full of pollock and a tiny mackerel. Maybe it's the sunshine, maybe it's the swallow, Scilly seems firmly in springtime.

Pan fried pollock with lemon butter sauce....(serves 2)

2 pollock fillets

a tbsp flour

salt and pepper

Cornish rapeseed oil

1oz/25g St Agnes butter

a squeeze of lemon juice

On a plate, season the flour and place the fillets skin side down. Heat up a heavy frying pan on a medium heat and add a tbsp or two of oil. Add the pollock skin side down. In another pan put the butter and lemon and put on a gentle heat until melted. Whisk together and put aside.

Once the pollock is cooked halfway up the fillet (about 4 minutes), flip over and cook for another couple of minutes.

Serve with the hot lemon butter sauce and a little fennel.

Scilly Farmer's Market....

We haven't had guests in for the last ten days so Gareth's been doing some painting on Bryher. My sister had her baby (a lovely little girl) and my mum was on the mainland with her so I did all the fudge for the first Farmer's Market of the season. I'd never been before and had a brilliant time. We came home with four jars of delicious jams and chutneys made by Maggie on St Mary's. We also ate our weight in cake...We loved these cookies and cream cupcakes...

Here's our fudge stall with lots of Easter decorations...

I added a new flavoured. Salted fudge is made with Cornish sea salt and is delicious. It was our most popular flavour. I've just got to convince mum to make it again...

Our picnic today in pictures....

Dairy free rhubarb crumble...

This has become my favourite moment of the day. Drawing back the curtains in the living room and trying to catch the sunrise. Sometimes there's an early morning runner making their way around Samson Hill or the odd bird on the patio which flies away in a panic once the curtains are suddenly pulled back.

We tiptoe around the kitchen trying to be as quiet as possible. I thought a fry up would be the most popular but at the moment the homemade granola and fruit seems to be a winner.

After breakfast it's a room tidy and hoover. My other half has managed to go out kitesurfing five times since Saturday and is definitely enjoying island life and it's great to be able to watch him from the living room rather than from a car park.

The guests staying this week don't eat dairy. Saturday I served elderflower jelly which was a great spring pudding I will do again and was easy. Tonight it's dairy free rhubarb crumble....

Dairy free rhubarb crumble....(serves 4-5)

6 rhubarb stalks

caster sugar

water

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

125g plain flour

1 handful porridge oats

100g dairy free spread

1 handful caster sugar

Top and tail the rhubarb and slice into chunks. Put in a pan with the vanilla, a splash of water and 2 tbsps or so of sugar. Put on a high heat. As it starts to boil add more water a splash at a time until the rhubarb is softened. Taste and add more sugar if you need it. Leave to cool.

In a food mixer put the flour, oats, sugar and spread and blitz.

Put the rhubarb in a heatproof tray and sprinkle the crumble on top. Put in a pre heated 200'c oven and bake for 20 minutes or so or until the crumble is browned.

Notes from a small island....

Last week I phoned to book my flight home. 'Would you like a return ticket?' I was asked. 'No,' I said, a huge wave on relief washing over me. No return. I flew back to Bryher knowing I wouldn't be heading back to the mainland until the autumn and it felt fantastic. We've been blessed with a week of beautiful March sunshine. My face is glowing from the hours spent digging in the garden but my body isn't coping as well. My thighs are black and blue with bruises, my legs covered in cuts from gorse attacks and I can't stand up or sit down without a ten minute warm up. But it is paying off as the garden is starting to take shape.....

The first lot of turf arrived from West Cornwall....

And it transformed the garden....

My mum and dad have been up here every moment they can. Look at the end of the garden...that's the sea!

Now it all feels a bit more under control I'm back in the kitchen and will be blogging about more than just making tea...