Brussels Sprouts

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera

Brussels Sprouts are one of the cruciferous vegetables, part of the brassica family of vegetables (the largest vegetable family known – including cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, collards/ spring greens, kale, kohlrabi, turnips, and swede). Cruciferous (“cross-bearing”) from the shape of their flowers, whose four petals resemble a cross. They are unique in that they are a rich source of sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates (β-thioglucoside N-hydroxysulfates) that impart a pungent aroma and bitter taste and considerable health benefits. All cruciferous vegetables are packed full of antioxidants and other phytochemicals. Brussels sprouts are one of the stars – now known to top the list of commonly eaten cruciferous vegetables for glucosinolate content.

The Brussels sprout is grown for its edible buds which are typically 1.5–4.0 cm in diameter. They’re at their best from November – January. They are thought to have originated in Rome, where they were developed from a form of kale-like wild cabbage. However they was brought to Europe in the 5^th Century and had become very popular by the 16th century in Belgium, after it was cultivated in the 1200’s near its namesake city of Brussels.

But their popularity in Europe today is highest in the UK. Even though British farmers produce nowhere near the number of sprouts they do in Holland, the “Great British Public” actually consume the most Brussels sprouts in the whole of Europe. It is definitely a festive choice, however, as an impressive two thirds of the overall number of sprouts eaten in the UK are consumed during the Christmas period!

And apparently there is actually a possible genetic reason why you and your family may love sprouts whilst your partner and in-laws hate the little green gaseous bombs? Apparently, according to this article, there’s a gene which controls whether we taste the chemical PTC – a chemical very similar to chemicals found in sprouts… The Brussels Sprouts Gene – TAS2R38

Until a few years ago, I absolutely loathed Brussels sprouts. They made my stomach churn at the thought of them – disgusting. Then one day I was eating lunch in a little cafe in North Yorkshire when I asked what was in the completely delicious orange and nutty coleslaw I had just devoured. WHAT!! WHAT!!!! I was told that I had just eaten raw Brussels sprouts – and I had to acknowledge the fact that I had really enjoyed them!

As a consequence I have given the Brussels sprout a second chance and have discovered that there are many wonderful ways to prepare them. I agree with the writer who says: “Brussel sprouts suffer from a truly undeserved poor reputation” … he says ” When prepared properly by gently steaming, Brussels sprouts have a sweet, nutty flavor and a crisp texture. If overcooked, Brussels sprouts produce a strong foul odor and become mushy in texture. An overcooked Brussels sprout is truly vile, while a steamed Brussels sprout topped with garlic butter or Hollandaise sauce is a gourmet delight”. Personally I prefer them in a coleslaw, or roasted – perhaps with chestnuts or they’re amazing flash fried with garlic alongside a piece of smoked Mackrell. As a legacy of former experiences, I’m not sure I am ready to try them steamed in a Hollandaise sauce. Perhaps I’ll overcome that historical and of so, will report back here one day …

I have attempted to grow Brussels sprouts this year in the garden, although I’ve not had a great crop. I suspect they needed more compost and were outcompeted by the strawberries which are over-running our garden. But here’s the photo before I picked them for today’s recipe (supplemented by my Riverford veg box supplies in the fridge).

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Goes well with

Acidic flavours (Lemon, Vinegar)
Anchovies
Cured pork
Dairy
Cheese (hard or blue)
Herbs
Nuts
Mustard
Onion
Spices (Pepper, Carraway, Chilli, Nutmeg, Mustard seeds)

So, on the Eleventh Day of Christmas, I bring you for brunch:

BRUSSELS SPROUTS, EGGS AND BACON with Cacik.

Recipe – with my modifications

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil – good glug
• 1 cloves garlic, diced
• 400g brussels sprouts, halved/ quarted large (I only had 200g due to wastage – keeping then too long in the fridge. So I supplemented with mushrooms and sliced ramiro peppers (totalling 200g)
• 4 slices streaky bacon, diced
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 220 °C
2. In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic; salt and pepper, to taste. Add Brussel sprouts, any supplementary vegetables, the bacon and coat well .
3. Place Brussels sprouts and bacon mixture on a single layer on a baking sheet (with a lip)
4. Place into oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until tender. Turning regularly.
5. Remove from oven and create 4 wells, gently cracking the eggs into them – keeping the yolk intact.
6. Sprinkle eggs pul biber; season further, to taste.
7. Place into oven and bake until the egg whites have set, an additional 8-10 minutes.
8. Serve immediately, garnished with herbs if desired, (I used dill).

Cacik with dill

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1/2 cucumber, quartered lengthways and coarsely chopped or grated
• 1/2 garlic clove minced
• 250g tub Greek yogurt
• 1/2 x 25g pack dill, fronds chopped
• 1-2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
• sea salt (flakes give some crunch)
• a pinch of pul biber (my new favourite spice – mind heat, sweet yet savoury)

Mix minced garlic with yoghurt and olive oil. Stir in must of dill dill and all the cucumber. Drizzle with a little more oil, pinch of pul biber, the salt and the reserved dill.

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Other sources of information:

• https://www.riverford.co.uk/a-to-z-of-veg/brussels-sprouts
• https://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/02/19/11-things-you-probably-did-not-know-about-brussels-sprouts/

Tally for the month

Main Vegetables:  broccoli (calabrese), Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, celeriac, radicchio

Subsidiary Vegetables: onion, shallots, garlic, leek, celery, potato, rosemary, carlin peas, chick peas, kale, chilli, dill, cucumber, mushroom, ramiro pepper.

Subsidiary Fruit and Nuts: lemon, fig, walnuts

Radicchio

RADICCHIO

Cichorium intybus var. foliosum

A vibrant winter leaf that features a colorful red and white head with green outer leaves. Italians are crazy about its bold, bitter flavour: raw in salads, or stir fried, griddled or roasted until mellow. The trick is to balance it’s unique tang with sharp, salty and sweet flavours. In season during late winter, early spring.

Sabine Eiche writes in her column Raving about radicchio: “Radicchio’s birthplace is Treviso, a city about 42 kilometres north of Venice. Some historians believe the plant came from the Orient, arriving in Venetian territory in the late 15^th century. By the 16^th century, it was being cultivated in Treviso. Nonetheless, already the ancients were familiar with a kind of wild chicory (radicchi is the Italian name for the weeds that grow wild around the Mediterranean) with medicinal qualities similar to those of the cultivated radicchio. In the first century AD, the Roman naturalist (author, philosopher, naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire) Pliny the Elder mentioned the plant’s ability to purify the blood and fight insomnia. Today, radicchio is praised because it’s rich in polyphenols including anthocyanins, which have antioxidant effects, and because of its relatively high fibre content (inulin is a pre-biotic, in the root of the plant), which aids digestion. The same compounds that account for its healthful properties also give radicchio a slightly bitter taste”.

Radicchio is a bit of a “super veg”. In a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, Italian researchers tested 40 vegetables for phenolic content – and radicchio was the fourth highest for total phenols.

I grow radicchio in the garden, although it’s not been very well tended recently (much is self-seeded), so I have to say not that successfully and most plants are tiny. But if you leave it to “go to seed” it then has very pretty dainty blue flowers that are edible and can be added to salads.

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I personally love “bitter” flavours. I don’t know when I acquired the enjoyment, certainly not until my late 20s. I very much enjoy gin and the tonic, Campari, Seville orange marmalade, grapefruit, coffee, horseradish, rocket, celery, hop shoots, chichory root – as a drink of choice (tradionally loved in New Orleans too as a coffee/chichory mix called “Cafe du mond” ) and I adore the bitterness of 85% cocoa chocolate…

I fell in love with the vivid red of radicchio a few years ago with the best I have ever eaten. A Treviso radicchio from a market in Venice. So wonderful to look at – and so delicious served with an Italian creamy cheese and pasta.

“Our ability to taste is an essential trait that can determine whether we live or die. Should we swallow the food or spit it out? We have about ten thousand taste buds in our mouth … which communicate with our brain and our organs, sending them vital information about the food we are consuming. These cells are replaced about every ten days… but they also decline with age, and the older we get the faster they decline… Our sensitivity to taste varies. Some people are “super tasters” and can find certain foods unbearably bitter… others are “non-tasters”…Genetics play a part, but on average the population breaks down into 25% super-tasters, 25% non-tasters, whilst “normal-tasters” (most chefs) make up the middle 50%.” Says Jennifer McLagan.

“Bitter is a nuanced taste, and each of our taste buds has around 25 bitter taste receptors. Some respond to only one bitter taste while others react to more than 50 different bitter chemicals. So grapefruit triggers one receptor and coffee another.”

“Culture, experience, peer pressure and our environment create our food preferences … food is botany over-laid with history, family and identity. These all interact, giving us a distinct sense of taste, and it begins even before we are born… if bitter is not part of our food culture, or has negative cultural connotations, we are more likely to avoid it…(however) our palate is malleable and exposure to new food can help us overcome old prejudices. Simply seeing other people eating and enjoying food will encourage us to try it”.

Radicchio goes well with:

Anchovies
Cheese (Blue, Parmesan, Goat’s)
Cream
Crème fraîche Eggs
Lemon
Mustard
Nuts (Hazelnuts, Walnuts)
Pork (Bacon, Ham)
Sweet fruits (Apple, Fig, Pear, Persimmon, Poached quince)
Vinegar (Especially sweet ones – balsamic, sherry)

Sources include: Riverford a-z veg

Recipe

I’m rather pleased to have “invented” my own recipe today, with a nod of inspiration from Anna Jones  https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/nov/30/anna-jones-recipe-for-pasta-with-radicchio-fennel-and-rosemary and Eleanor Steafel https://www.telegraph.co.uk/recipe0/tonights-dinner-pasta-radicchio-balsamic-feta/

Pasta with radicchio and kale – feta, fig, walnut and lemon with a balsamic dressing.

Ingredients (served 2)

• 180g medium sized pasta – I’m using Orecchiette (ear pasta – I love the texture!)
• 2 small/ 1 large head of radicchio/ red chicory sliced across head into 2cm ribbons
• Handful of kale (if you have some in the house – I used Cavalo Nero) sliced 2cm thick
• 25g walnuts
• 1 large clove of garlic, diced.
• Olive oil
• 2 Tbsp thick balsamic vinegar (or thin with spoon of honey)
• 1 red chilli finely chopped or a pinch chill flakes
• Zest of a lemon
• 100g feta cheese – crumbled
• 2 + roasted figs – chopped into small chunks (optional – I had some in the fridge – and they were a great addition)
• 2-4 pieces of fried pancetta / streaky bacon crumbled (optional)
• Rosemary – a little, finely chopped (optional)
• Parmesan to serve (optional)

Method

1. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan, shaking regularly. Crumble into smallish chunks.

2. Wash and cut the radicchio (and kale if using) into stips. Use as much kale as you would enjoy eating, I think the colours and flavours work well together, but you could just as well use all radicchio.

3. Put the pasta onto cook according to the instructions for al dente.

4. Five minutes before the pasta will be ready, fry the diced garlic clove on a medium heat with a glug of olive oil, for a minute, with a pinch chill flakes/ fresh chilli, making sure it doesn’t brown. Add the thicker radicchio first and then after a minute or so add the thinner red leaves and the kale (if using) and the rosemary. Turn regularly until the radicchio is gently browned and the kale is a more vivid green (couple of minutes or so) – for the last few moments stir in the fig, bacon, zest of lemon, balsamic vinegar, the crumbled feta (reserving small amount for garnish) and the walnuts – with a grind or 2 of black pepper.

5. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and return to the hot pan with a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water. Toss into the pasta the radicchio, feta, walnut – adding a dash of olive oil if necessary.

6. Serve in warmed bowls, scattering reserved feta and add parmesan to taste.

Oh my word – so delicious. I could eat this again and again and again …

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Nutrition Facts

One serving of radicchio (about one cup or 40 grams) contains about:

• 9.2 calories
• 1.8 grams carbohydrates
• 0.6 gram protein
• 0.1 gram fat
• 0.4 gram fibre
• 102 micrograms vitamin K (128 percent DV)
• 0.1 milligram copper  (7 percent DV)
• 24 micrograms folate (6 percent DV)
• 3.2 milligrams vitamin C (5 percent DV)
• 0.9 milligram vitamin E (5 percent DV)
• 121 milligrams potassium (3 percent DV)
• 0.1 milligram manganese (3 percent DV)

Tally for the month

Main Vegetables:  broccoli (calabrese), butternut squash, celeriac, radicchio

Subsidiary Vegetables: onion, shallots, garlic, leek, celery, potato, rosemary, carlin peas, chick peas, kale, chilli.

Subsidiary Fruit and Nuts: lemon, fig, walnuts

Winter squash

SQUASH

Cucurbita

Winter squash and pumpkin originate in the Americas, where their ancestors grew wild as climbers, but are now grown around the globe and flourish in the UK.  There are many varieties of squash and pumpkin, some taste better than others.  Although they are botanically a fruit, they function more like a vegetable. All of the fruits in the Cucurbita family tend to be high in essential nutrients.

“Squash” comes from the Narragansett Native American word “askutasquash”, which means “eaten raw or uncooked”. 

Squash can be eaten raw. You could perhaps shave it into thin ribbons and marinate it in a zesty dressing. Or add it to a veg juice. However, pumpkins, like carrots, are rich in antioxidants like beta-carotene, which are apparently much easier to absorb once they have been heated. (I suspect as with most raw vs. cooked veg, that there’s a play off with different nutrients; some damaged by heating, some released from the cell wall or made bio-available by cooking). Warning – don’t cook any type of squash whole in the oven, as they will probably explode. But cutting in half (with a scary knife) will avoid that and it’s much easier to scoop the flesh off a baked squash than to cut the rind from a raw squash.

Today I’m cooking with one of the most popular and hardy variety of squash: butternut squash – which also happens to be the easiest to peel (some other squash require a cleaver!). It was developed in the 1940s Charles A. Leggett (an insurance agent from Mass, USA, who “fell into” farming squash when his doctor insisted he spend more time outdoors). He combined the Gooseneck squash and Hubbard squash to make a more conveniently shaped and sized squash. When asked what he wanted to call it, Leggett said it was “smooth as butter and sweet as a nut,” leading to its new title as the butternut squash.

Goes well with:

Asian flavourings
Cheese
Dairy
Garlic
Onion
Nuts
Pork
Spices (Chilli, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Coriander, Cumin, Star anise)
Strong herbs

Sources include: https://www.riverford.co.uk/a-to-z-of-veg

Cooking with Butternut squash

It’s possible to oven roast a butternut squash in advance, if the oven is on for something else and then just use part of it or  put it all in the fridge for later in the week. I don’t know how long it is sensible to leave it in the fridge, once cooked, before eating, but my personal threshold is around 3-4 days (Andrew would probably go as long as 6-7!). 

I roasted 3/4 of a butternut squash chopped into 3 x 1/4 pieces a few days ago, and then cubed and roasted the last 1/4 of the squash with rosemary and garlic to accompany our very delicious meal on NYE of Greek Lamb Stew with orzo and feta.  The remaing squash has been refrigerated and today I am making a variation on a recipe from: “River Cottage – Veg everyday” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. p.365

Roasted squash and shallots with merguez chickpeas (and carlin peas two ways).

My variation –  recipe above but using just less than 500g pre-roasted butternut squash. Also used a 400g tin of chickpeas and a 400g tin of of “Hodmedod’s British Carlin Peas” (also known as ‘Black Badger’s / maple peas). They are grown in the UK and traditionally eaten in the North East of England and Lancashire on “Carlin Sunday” which is Passion Sunday.

The story is that the custom of eating them is linked to the civil war of 1644 where the Royalist Newcastle was under siege from the Scots.  The lack of food meant that the people on both sides of the Tyne were dying of starvation. Legend has it that a French ship managed to dock at Newcastle with a cargo of maple peas.  Other tales, tell of  a ship, laden with peas, which became stranded at South Shields a fortnight before Easter Day. The peas were washed ashore and salvaged by the locals.

Carlin peas are a great alternative to chickpeas, in fact I prefer them as whole peas (but I’ve not tried them in hummus). Hodmedod’s sell a lot of UK alternative pulses –  many very delicious.

I roasted the shallots (cut in half) with the garlic and a little olive oil, salt and pepper, for 20 mins and then added the pre-roasted butternut squash with some rosemary for the another ten (I can’t believe that I forgot to photograph the squash!!!).

I split the chickpeas/ carlin peas into two dishes – one half I roasted with the flavoured oil (20 mins at 180 degrees – shaking regularly. I love crunch in a meal and I was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough texture in this dish).  The carlin peas toasted brilliantly. I will do that again – definitely.  I love cold toasted pulses as a snack or on top of soup and they keep well for a few days.) and the other half I steamed gently for 10 mins to warm and then stirred in the rest of the flavoured oil.

It was served with a mixed leaf rocket salad and a piece of walnut bread.

I liked it – and will definitely make again. But I’m a fan of stronger flavours, so I drizzled chill, garlic and ginger oil over mine. Next time I would add extra cayenne and smoked paprika. I thought the fennel seeds were perfect (which is just as well, as Andrew went to the shops for them this morning!!)

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Other recipes that have caught my eye:

Squash soup with double lime

Mark Diacono in the fabulous book: “Sour/ the magical element that will transform your cooking” (He’s full of great ideas with really interesting and unusual flavours much UK grown or foraged from your garden. He runs Otter Farm, food school and plant nursery in Devon. I follow him on FB).

Squash, Kale and Stilton pie

A Riverford recipe. Serve with a crisp green salad topped with toasted walnuts. Other squash and pumpkin will work just as well as butternut or you could use a dieter type of cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 small (750g-800g) butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1-2cm dice
• 1 large red onion, finely diced
• 2 tbsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
• 200g curly kale, washed, leaves stripped from their stalks
• 4 tbsp double cream
• 200g blue cheese, crumbled
• 2 ready-rolled puff pastry sheets
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• salt and pepper

Method

Prep time: 15 min  Cooking time: 1h 15 min

• Step 1 – Preheat oven to 220°C/Gas 7. Toss the squash in just enough oil to coat and season. Roast in a baking dish for about 30 minutes, or until just tender.
• Step 2 – Fry the onion and rosemary in 3 tablespoons of oil on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until softened. If it looks like catching at any point, add a splash of water.
• Step 3 – Cook the kale in the pan of boiling water for 4 minutes, until softened. Drain, refresh in cold water, then drain again and squeeze out any excess moisture. Finely chop.
• Step 4 – Mix the squash, onion, kale and double cream. Season and cool for 15 minutes. Mix in the blue cheese.
• Step 5 – Unroll the pastry sheets and cut into quarters. Lay 4 pieces on a lightly greased baking tray, score a 2cm border inside the edge of each and pile the veg within it. Dampen the pastry border with some water. Lay the other 4 pastry pieces over the top. Gently stretch to cover, pressing the edges down well to seal. Pull the edges up and over slightly to confirm the seal. Brush the top with beaten egg and bake for 25-30 minutes, until crisp, puffed and golden.

Pumpkin and raisin tea loaf

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/09/pumpkin-squash-recipes-fearley-whittingstall

Nutritional composition

Tally for the month

Main Vegetables:  broccoli (calabrese), butternut squash, celeriac.

Subsidiary Vegetables: onion, shallots, garlic, leek, celery, potato, rosemary, carlin peas, chick peas.

Subsidiary Fruit and Nuts: lemon

Celariac

CELERIAC (Celery root)

Apium graveolens var. rapaceum

Celeriac (celery root, knob celery or turnip-rooted celery) is a root vegetable that belongs to the same plant family as celery. It is knobbly, much overlooked and rather alien looking. It’s covered in strange appendages, mud-filled crevices and warty protrusions and considered by some to look like a mandrake from Harry Potter’s herbology class. But celery root won’t kill you! It’s delicious and good value.

“Under the craggy skin lies a smoky, earthy fragrance that can be the starting point for hundreds of recipes”. Raw: celeriac has fantastic crunch and a super nutty, celery-like flavour that makes it perfect for salads and slaws, such as French classic crunchy rémoulade. Cooked: it takes on a slight sweetness, perfect for a velvety mash, a warming gratin or a silky soup.

Celeriac is in season in the UK from October through to February.

http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/how-to-cook-celeriac and https://www.riverford.co.uk/a-to-z-of-veg/celeriac

Goes well with:
Apple and pear
Caraway
Cheese (Blue, Parmesan)
Cream
Fish and seafood (White fish, Mackerel, Scallops)
Herbs
Horseradish
Lemon
Mustard
Nuts
Pork (Roast pork, Bacon, Ham)

Nutrition Facts

Celeriac root is very nutritious. It packs a good amount of vitamin K, vitamin C and phosphorus into each serving. It’s also relatively low in carbs, whilst high in fibre (an excellent prebiotic).

One cup (about 156 grams) of raw celeriac contains approximately:

• 65.5 calories
• 14.4 grams carbohydrates
• 2.3 grams protein
• 0.5 gram fat
• 2.8 grams dietary fibre
• 64 micrograms vitamin K (80 percent DV)
• 12.5 milligrams vitamin C (21 percent DV)
• 179 milligrams phosphorus  (18 percent DV)
• 468 milligrams potassium (13 percent DV)
• 0.3 milligram vitamin B6 (13 percent DV)
• 0.2 milligram manganese (12 percent DV)
• 31.2 milligrams magnesium (8 percent DV)
• 67.1 milligrams calcium (7 percent DV)
• 1.1 milligrams iron (6 percent DV)
• 0.1 milligram riboflavin (6 percent DV)
• 0.1 milligram copper (5 percent DV)
• 0.5 milligram pantothenic acid (5 percent DV)
• 0.1 milligram thiamine (5 percent DV)

In addition to the nutrients listed above, this root vegetable also contains a small amount of folate, vitamin E, zinc and selenium.

https://draxe.com/nutrition/celeriac/#What_Is_Celeriac

Prep & Cooking tips:

“Give it a good scrub then set to it with a knife to carve away the knobbly skin and roots. A sharp knife is more practical than a peeler as the root end can be a little gnarled and tangled. A little wastage is inevitable. Either chop the celeriac into chunks for roasting, soup or mash, or slice thinly for a gratin. Slice/grate into matchsticks for using raw in salads and rémoulade. And clean offcuts or skin work wonders in a stock pot”.

I love celeriac. I had never even heard of it until one appeared in my Riverford weekly veg box a few years ago. Now I look for it eagerly. It is a bit of a pain to prepare and cutting flesh away with the skin can feel wasteful – but it’s so worth the effort.

Cheesy celeriac, leek & rosemary gratin

Ingredients

25g butter
2 leeks, outer layer removed, washed of any grit and sliced into rings
small handful rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
300ml double cream
300ml milk
1 celeriac (about 500g), peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
100g cheddar or gruyère, coarsely grated

Method

STEP 1
Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the leeks, rosemary and bay leaf, then cover and cook very gently over a medium-low heat for 15-20 mins until the leeks are soft. Pour over the milk and almost all of the cream, then season and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to cool a little, then scoop out the bay leaf.

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STEP 2
Pour a little of the leek mixture into an ovenproof gratin dish. Arrange a layer of celeriac in the dish, then season. Spoon over some more of the leek mixture and scatter with a little cheese. Repeat the process, alternating between layers of the leek mixture, cheese and celeriac slices, then finish with a drizzle of cream and the last of the cheese. Can be prepared up to a day ahead and kept in the fridge. 

*I also added a tiny bit of grated nutmeg and lemon zest on the top of the dish, before cooking

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STEP 3
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Bake the gratin for 1 hr-1 hr 15 mins until the top is golden and the celeriac is tender when poked with a knife. If the gratin is browning a little too much, cover the dish in foil. Can be chilled, then reheated in a microwave or oven on a low heat with a drizzle more cream.

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Two other recipes, to make another day:

The sausage, barley and cereriac recipe sounds a very interesting combination of flavours and texture. I might well make that with the sprouts in of fridge, later in the week. The third celeriac recipe reminds me of a dear friend Yasmin. When my son was very young, a few mothers would meet regularly at her house with our toddlers, to share the childcare and to share a meal.  Her husband Andy cooked this for us all one day – it was such a special treat. It’s been one of my favourite meals ever since.  

SAUSAGE, CELERIAC AND BARLEY with sprouts and blue cheese

Ingredients

oil for frying and roasting
4 pork and apple sausages
2 large or 3 smaller onions
⅔ celeriac
175g pearl barley
500ml chicken stock
1 tsp mixed herbs
200g Brussels sprouts
75g perl las blue cheese
1 lemon
Salt and pepper

Method

Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: 40 min

Step 1

Preheat oven to 210°C/Gas Mark 5. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan. Add the sausages and fry, turning them now and then, until browned. Remove from the heat. Peel and cut the onions in half, then each half into 5-6 wedges, through the root to hold them together. Transfer the wedges to a roasting tin.

Step 2

Peel and chop two thirds of the celeriac into approx 2cm chunks. Add to the onion. Toss them in just enough oil to coat and season with a little salt and pepper. Add the sausages. Roast the veg and sausages for 30 minutes or so, until the celeriac and onions are tender and starting to colour a little, and the sausages are cooked through. Toss the veg and turn the sausages halfway through, so they roast evenly.

Step 3

Meanwhile, heat the stock in a large pan. Rinse the barley in a sieve or colander and add to the stock with the dried mixed herbs. Cook on a low to medium boil for 25-30 minutes. Stir often and add a splash of water to top up the liquid if needed (this will vary depending on your pan); by the end of cooking you want a sloppy, risotto like consistency.

Step 4

Meanwhile, wash and peel the outer leaves of the sprouts. Cut them in half lengthways, through the stalk, then thinly shred each half, discarding the little stalk bases. Roughly crumble up the blue cheese. When the barley is ready, mix with the roasted celeriac, onion, sausages and blue cheese.

Step 5

Season to taste with salt and pepper (you won’t need much salt as the cheese is quite salty). Add a little squeeze of lemon juice to sharpen the dish. Wash out the frying pan. Add and heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the sprouts and briskly stir-fry for 2-3 minutes to wilt them. Stir some into the barley and save some for garnishing. Wash out the frying pan. Add and heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the sprouts and briskly stir-fry for 2-3 minutes to wilt them.

Step 6

Stir some into the barley and save some for garnishing. Divide the barley and sausages between 2 serving bowls or plates and top with the remaining fried sprouts.

VEGETARIAN SHEPHERD’S PIE WITH GOATS’ CHEESE MASH

INGREDIENTS

4 oz (110 g) dried black-eyed beans, pre-soaked and drained
8 oz (225 g) tomatoes
1 heaped tablespoon chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as sage, rosemary, thyme and parsley
¼ level teaspoon ground mace
¼ level teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
salt and freshly milled black pepper
3 oz (75 g) green split peas (no need to soak), rinsed
3 oz (75 g) green lentils (no need to soak), rinsed
2 oz (50 g) peeled carrots
2 oz (50 g) peeled swede
2 oz (50 g) peeled celeriac
1 large onion, peeled
1 small green pepper, deseeded
2 oz (50 g) butter, plus a little extra for greasing

For the topping:

4 oz (110 g) soft goats’ cheese
1 lb 8 oz (700 g) potatoes, peeled
2 oz (50 g) butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 oz (25 g) Pecorino cheese, grated
salt and freshly milled black pepper

METHOD

You will need to soak and drain the black-eyed beans.

To do this, wash them under cold, running water and discard any broken ones. If it is convenient, soak them overnight in 2 pints (1.2 litres) cold water. If you need them today and haven’t got time to do this, simply bring them up to the boil (using the same quantity of water), boil for 10 minutes and leave them to soak for two hours before draining. Now put the drained beans into a saucepan with the split peas and lentils.

Add 1¼ pints (725 ml) boiling water and some salt, cover and simmer gently for 50-60 minutes, or until the pulses have absorbed the water and are soft. Then remove them from the heat and mash them just a little with a large fork.

Now pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C), and put the potatoes on to steam.

Next, roughly chop all the vegetables, pile the whole lot into a food processor and process until chopped small. Next, melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the vegetables and cook gently for 10-15 minutes, stirring now and then until they’re softened and tinged gold at the edges.

Meanwhile, skin the tomatoes. Place them in a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water on to them. After exactly a minute (or 15-30 seconds, if they are small), remove them (protecting your hands with a cloth if the tomatoes are hot), slip off their skins and slice them or click on our Cookery School Video on the right to watch.  After that, add the vegetables to the pulses mixture, along with the herbs, spices and salt and freshly milled black pepper to taste. Then spoon the mixture into the baking dish and arrange the tomatoes in overlapping slices on the top. As soon as the potatoes are cooked, place them in a bowl, add the butter, milk and goats’ cheese, whisk to a smooth purée, season with salt and freshly milled black pepper and spread the potato over the rest of the ingredients in the dish.

Finally, sprinkle over the Pecorino and bake the pie on the top shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned.

Tally for the month

Main Vegetables: calabrese broccoli, celeriac

Subsidiary Vegetables: onion, garlic, leek, celery, potato, rosemary

Subsidiary Fruit and Nuts: lemon

Calabrese Broccoli

Calabrese Broccoli

Broccoli is a green vegetable that vaguely resembles a miniature tree. It is an Italian word, derived from the Latin brachial (meaning arm or branch). It belongs to the plant species known as Brassica oleracea.

It’s closely related to cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale and cauliflower — all edible plants collectively referred to as cruciferous vegetables.

There are three main varieties of broccoli:

Calabrese broccoli, introduced from Calabria in Southern Italy in the eighteen century.
Purple sprouting broccoli, traditionally grown in the UK and in season Jan – May.
Purple cauliflower — despite its name a type of broccoli.

Early forms of broccoli are said to have been highly esteemed by the Romans and described by Pliny in the first century AD.

Broccoli is a nutritional powerhouse full of vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants.

Nutritional profile – one cup of cooked broccoli (Dr Axe):

• 55 calories
• 11 grams carbohydrates
• 4 grams protein
• 5 grams fiber
• 100 micrograms vitamin K (276 percent DV)
• 101 milligrams vitamin C (168 percent DV)
• 120 milligrams vitamin A (48 percent DV)
• 168 micrograms folate (42 percent DV)
• 0.4 milligrams vitamin B6 (16 percent)
• 0.4 milligrams manganese (16 percent)
• 457 milligrams potassium (14 percent DV)
• 105 milligrams phosphorus (10 percent DV)
• 33 milligrams magnesium (8 percent DV)
• 62 milligrams calcium (6 percent DV)

Dr Axe: This veggie is very nutrient-dense and an excellent source of phytochemicals called isothiocyanates, sulforaphanes and indoles. It also provides vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, vitamin K, magnesium and potassium.Benefits of eating it include help with cancer prevention, heart health, weight management, eye and skin health, gut and digestive support, healthy bones and teeth, and slowed effects of aging.

Goes well with (Riverford):

Anchovies
Asian flavourings (Sesame, Soy sauce, Ginger)
Blue cheese
Eggs
Mediterranean flavours (Garlic, Olives, Lemon, Orange, Chilli)
Mustard
Nuts (Almonds, Hazelnuts, Pine nuts, Parmesan)
Pork (Bacon, Pancetta, Lardons, Dried or cured ham)

AND we had three weeks worth of calabrese broccoli in the fridge, from our veg box delivery.  Sometimes it’s hard to get excited about broccoli, hence the glut …

So I found 2 recipes to use all three heads. Both were completely delicious. The roasted broccoli even surprised Andrew, who’d had that facial expression akin to overcoming mild disgust before he tucked in; “Actually this is really delicious. I’m really surprised”.

https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/roasted-broccoli-lemon-chilli-garlic

Ingredients
250g head of calabrese broccoli
zest and juice of ½ lemon
1 thumb-sized red chilli, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

ROASTED BROCCOLI with lemon, chilli and garlic.

Method

Prep time: 15 minCooking time: 8 min

• Step 1 – Heat the oven to 220°C/Gas 8. Split the broccoli down into manageable, bite-sized florets. Make sure each floret has a long piece of stalk attached, cut pencil-thick.
• Step 2 – Put the broccoli onto a shallow oven tray, toss in some light olive oil and season with salt. Roast for 4 minutes. Add the chilli, garlic and lemon zest, mix well, then pop back in the oven to continue roasting for a further 3-4 minutes or until the broccoli is done.
• Step 3 – Finish with a dash of lemon juice and more salt if needed.

Comment: delicious flavour, slightly charred. I used a whole lemon, zest and juice, because I love lemons. We ate a big pile for a NYD lunch, on its own was great with just a piece of buttered sourdough toast. Perhaps would work well with an omelette, bacon or cheese or a bowl of pasta with a drizzle of oil and a few toasted nuts, for a more substantial meal.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/broccoli-stilton-soup

Ingredients
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, sliced
1 leek, sliced
1 medium potato, diced
1 knob butter
1l low salt chicken or vegetable stock
1 head broccoli, roughly chopped
140g stilton, or other blue cheese, crumbled

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Method

• STEP 1 – Heat 2 tbsp rapeseed oil in a large saucepan and then add 1 finely chopped onion. Cook on a medium heat until soft. Add a splash of water if the onion starts to catch.
• STEP 2 – Add 1 sliced celery stick, 1 sliced leek, 1 diced medium potato and a knob of butter. Stir until melted, then cover with a lid. Allow to sweat for 5 minutes then remove the lid.
• STEP 3 – Pour in 1l of chicken or vegetable stock and add any chunky bits of stalk from 1 head of broccoli. Cook for 10-15 minutes until all the vegetables are soft.
• STEP 4 – Add the rest of the roughly chopped broccoli and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• STEP 5 – Carefully blitz until smooth.
• STEP 6 – Stir in 140g crumbled stilton, allowing a few lumps to remain. Season with black pepper and serve.

Comments: It was really creamy with the blue cheese. I’m not the biggest fan of Stilton, but this is the way to use up left overs from a Christmas cheese board. I could have eaten the whole litre had I not just finished half a head of roasted broccoli!! I drizzled a little chilli and ginger oil on mine and sprinkled a few of the roasted florrets. That’s because I can’t get enough chilli. I also love my Bamix blender stick. It is over 12 years old and still brilliant. Swiss made you see – we have this thing about Swiss made in our house, it just must be good!!

Tally for the month

Main Vegetables: calabrese broccoli

Subsidiary Vegetables: onion, garlic, leek, celery, potato

Subsidiary Fruit and Nuts: lemon

31 Vegetable Challenge

Firstly, I thought I had better find out what actually defines a vegetable!

“Vegetables are the parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. The alternate definition of the term is applied somewhat arbitrarily, often by culinary and cultural tradition. It may exclude foods derived from some plants that are fruits, flowers, nuts, and cereal grains, but include savoury fruits such as tomatoes and courgettes, flowers such as broccoli, and seeds such as pulses” (wikipedia)

So defining vegetables, herbs, fruit and nuts can actually be quite a contentious issue!

BBC reporter Henry Nichols asked Wolfgang Stuppy (Seed Morphologist, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) whether vegetables really exist: “No, the term vegetable doesn’t exist in botanical terminology.” So according to a botanist then there is no such thing as vegetables there are just plants. Radishes and carrots on sale at the greengrocers are not vegetables they are merely the roots of radishes and carrots. Botanically speaking, onions and garlic are bulbs. Potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes are tubers. Asparagus are stems. Lettuces are leaves. Cauliflower and broccoli are inflorescences. Apple and pears are fruit.

So vegetable as a culinary term: “Vegetable took on its current sense just a few centuries ago and essentially means a plant material that is neither fruit nor seed,” (On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee) “The tomato is technically a fruit because it contains seeds. It’s a vegetable because it’s part of a plant and used as a savoury ‘vegetable’ in cooking”.

But ask a lawyer to define a vegetable, they might say it depends where you live… There was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that, under U.S. customs regulations, the tomato should be classified as a vegetable rather than a fruit. (Nix versus Hedden, 1893).

Vegetables, herbs, fruit and nuts have always been essential to humanity. They are the basis of the food chain – even for meat eaters – and provide a range of colour, texture, flavour and aroma when creating meals. All plant based foods are an abundant source of beneficial nutrients including vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, protein and polyphenols (which are biologically active molecules that feed our gut bacteria (microbiome).

Feeding our microflora will benefit our health in many other ways. Some microbes provide vitamins that are then available for the human host to use, as a byproduct of microbial cell function. Some microbes mediate transport of nutrient across the gut wall into our blood stream. The relationship between the beneficial microbes within our gut and us, their human host, is highly complex and truly symbiotic. This secret world that we have only recently began to comprehend very likely holds the key to much of our future understanding of physical and mental health and disease. Truely amazing. And this knowledge carries with it a level of personal responsibility and accountability, if we let it.

The more diverse the diet someone has the more diverse the microbiome, as each microbial type feeds from specific components of the food-stuff released during the digestive process. People (omnivores and solely plant-based eaters) who eat around 30 different plants every week have been shown in a huge international epidemiological study to have a much greater microbial diversity than those who eat just 10. The theory is, the more diverse the range of microbes, the more capable, resilient and adaptable the gut will be to alterations in its biology during life (disease, infection, environmental influences etc). This means that you don’t have to be vegetarian/vegan to get the benefits of a plant based diet for your gut.

However, to cut to the chase…

For the purpose of this challenge my definition of vegetable is:

"Part of a plant that is, on the whole, considered to be savoury".

So that defines it clearly.
Or not!

Whatever your opinion on my choices, I’m looking forward to the challenge of 31 of them!
Watch this space!

(Resources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150917-do-vegetables-really-exist and Tim Spector’s https://joinzoe.com/blog and Giuseppe Arcimboldo (who painted his royal patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in 1590).

For the month of January, I challenge myself to eat 31 different vegetables; each one a significant component of a meal.

My challenge is to aim to photograph and describe the vegetable and meal every day for the month of January – but no penalties. Just 31 vegetables by the 31st!

Good morning, on the very last day of December 2020. I haven’t written a blog post for a very long time; this year has been an extreme challenge for so many of us. But I’m hoping that 2021 will bring fresh opportunities for me to write and fresh opportunities for me to challenge my eating.

The month of January was named after the Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings. He was the Roman god of doors, gates, and transitions. The god with two faces, for his ability to turn one face to reflect upon the past and a yet another face freshly pointed upon the future. The god who held a key in his left hand, to the metaphorical doors or gateways between what was and what is to come—the liminal space of transitioning out of one period of time and into something new.

For the ancient Romans, the association between Janus and the calendar was cemented by the construction of 12 altars in Roman, one for each month of the year.

Janus’s temple was in the Forum Holitorium (Italian: Foro Olitorio; English: Vegetable-sellers’ Market) – which was the site of a commercial marketplace where fresh goods of vegetables, herbs and oil were delivered via the Tiber River and placed on sale.

So, I’ve discovered on writing this that my challenge has gone full circle. I started 2020 in January with a challenge to photograph 31 gates, doorways or entrances in memory of the Roman god Janus and to post on Facebook. I now plan to start 2021 photographing 31 vegetables I have eaten.

One relating to the other, looking forward and looking backwards. I raise my glass of wine in memory of the dual faced roman god Janus.

Wishing you a Happy New Year early, in case you’d like to join me in my challenge.

And if you’d like ideas of vegetables or to record which vegetables you’ve eaten, there’s a chart on my resources page.

Sources of information: https://www.andersonlock.com/blog/god-doors/ and https://theconversation.com/who-was-janus-the-roman-god-of-beginnings-and-endings-86853

Foraging in the garden (and beyond) for edible flowers and leaves, Foraging and gardening resources, Recipes: Wild garlic pesto, Dandelion cordial, Nettle bread.

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Sally Next writes: “I used to be a bit sceptical about all this new-fangled fashion for eating flowers. Well. Then I ate a rosemary flower. And found out about the flavour, and why people who eat flowers tend to eat rather a lot of them. I’m left with the feeling that for the last 20 years or so of my veg-growing life I’ve missed out on the best bit of my crop.”

Other flowers in the garden that you can eat in the spring

Rose petals are well-known in Middle Eastern cuisine, but the rose was used for centuries in English cooking until it felt out of favour. There are many roses that grow well in Britain that are highly scented and suitable to use in cooking and baking, or flavouring alcohol or distilling to make rosewater. I had never eaten apple blossom until this project – and loved it (not too much because of cyanide, which is also in the pips – but you’d have to eat an awful lot and they are high in antioxidants and minerals). Lilac is considered a love it/hate it flavour. I adore the scent of lilac and to me it was as tasty as it smelt in a couple of the blossoms that I snaffled from my local streets on my “COVID-19 daily walk” and foul from another couple – you’d need to know your bush! A friend suggested that she might make a flavoured vodka – which sounds a great idea. As does a Peony vodka, which I was sure that I’d read about in Mark Diacono’s blog (he tries all kinds of things and I really enjoy his Otter Farm Facebook posts. You can search for his vodka infusions in the search bar). But I did find this recipe for a Peony syrup – but I haven’t tried it myself. My four plants haven’t flowered yet this year, so they don’t make the hall of fame in this blog, but as I am home ‘so much’ at the moment, I am going to make the syrup when they do. You can find out more about edible flowers in the Edible Flower Guide from the seed company Thompson and Morgan or from one of the books listed in the resources section. Lia Leendertz’s book Petal, Leaf, Seed. Cooking with treasures of the garden is packed full of ideas, as incidentally are her almanacs.

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A foraged garden salad

And so we feasted on the fruits of our labours… our combined favourites were: beech leaf, blackcurrant leaf, apple blossom, landcress flower, hop growing tip and dead nettle. Almost everything!!

Plants for a future (PFAF) a database of edible plants

If you try this yourself please don’t rely on my information; use a reputable idenfication guide and perhaps double check edibility on the PFAF database (see resources page for further information about PFAF and their suggestions of top edible plants).

Books: foraging and unusual gardening

These are some of my favourite books, and others including The Forager’s Calendar by John Wright, as well as a number of blogs and websites – will be listed soon in the Download section.

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Foraging beyond our garden

A few days ago, during “lockdown”, I was fortunate to be told about a free online zoom session being run by Woodland Classroom. It was a fabulous inspiring hour. The couple shared information about: identification, location, photographs, food uses, tinctures, teas, alcoholic drinks and claimed medicinal benefits. I look forward to attending one of their courses near Wrexham in North Wales (when the limitations due to COVID 19 are lifted). There are so many plants that are easy to find and sound very tempting to eat. They highlighted that the taste for ‘wild food’ can sometimes take a little while to aquire; so many of us are used to the taste of the supermarket breed for cultivation vegetables, which are often relatively bland and flavour may be lost in cold-storage. I have owned a number of foraging books for a while, but I have never been very confident going out to pick from the countryside – aside from elderflowers, blackberries and sloes. My son and I went for a short walk to our local nature reserve and came home with: nettles (to make a second loaf), garlic mustard, hawthorn leaves and flowers and an elderflower.

Picking wild flowers and the law

Advice from the organisation Plant Life, which is a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi .

“Contrary to widespread belief, it is not illegal to pick most wildflowers for personal, non-commercial use. In a similar vein, it’s not illegal to forage most leaves and berries for food in the countryside for non-commercial use. Legislation under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) makes it illegal “to uproot any wild plant without permission from the landowner or occupier” in Britain. The term ‘uproot’ is defined as “to dig up or otherwise remove the plant from the land on which it is growing”. Picking parts of a plant (leaves, flower stems, fruit and seed) is therefore OK, as long as you don’t remove or uproot the whole plant.

However, you should not pick any plant on a site designated for its conservation interest, such as National Nature Reserves (NNRs) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s) in Britain and Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI’s) in Northern Ireland. Permission for picking from these sites requires prior consent from the appropriate statutory conservation agencies (English Nature, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage or the Environment and Heritage Service, Northern Ireland). It is illegal to pick, uproot or remove plants if by-laws are in operation which forbid these activities, for example on Nature Reserves, Ministry of Defence property or National Trust land.

In addition, both the Wildlife and Countryside Act and the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order include a list of highly threatened plants that are especially vulnerable to picking, including plants like Deptford pink, alpine sow-thisle, wild gladiolus and several orchids and ferns (as well as fungi, lichens and bryophytes). No part of these Schedule 8 species can be intentionally picked or uprooted without a licence from the appropriate statutory conservation agency. These plants are also protected against sale.

Finally, picking of wildflowers is also specifically covered under the 1968 Theft Act (England and Wales): “A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward, or for sale or other commercial purpose”. However, the same restrictions apply to picking on land designated for its conservation interest as described above.”

Snowbell or Three-cornered leek, Allium triqetrum

I spotted a clump of these by the side of my friend Jane’s driveway. I recognised it as I had taken the first photograph on the SW coastal footpath in Cornwall one May, as I thought it so beautiful – but also suspected it was edible as it smelt like wild garlic! I haven’t yet tried one, but I intend to plant some in my garden for next year.

Jack-by-the-hedge, Hedge garlic, Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata

Jack-by-the-hedge smells mildly of garlic and tastes of mustard. Culpepper recommends the use of young leaves in salads. The leaves can be finely chopped and added to a butter, or put in a cheese sandwich. They would make a good pesto.

Cowslip, Primula veris

Cowslips are synonymous with spring and Easter. The botanical name means “the first little one in spring”. At one time cowslips were found in vast numbers along verges and in meadows, but they have declined in the wild, so it is best to grow them yourself. I have one plant in my garden, and it is still flowering today after many weeks.

The flowers and leaves are edible and rich in Vitamin C.  The leaves are often used in Spanish cooking; they have a slightly citrusy flavour. Here in the UK the plant has traditionally been used to make jam, wine, tea and ointment. Cowslip wine was said to steady the nerves due to its analgesic properties. The plant contains an oil known as ‘primula camphor”, containing many flavonoids (phytonutrients, often found to have health benefits). Nowadays the flower is more often used as a salad decoration or floating in a drink. 

William Shakespeare refers to the cowslip on a number of occasions in his plays, one of them being “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when Puck first meets the fairy (Act 2 Scene 1), the fairy replies:

Over hill, over dale
Thorough bush, thorough briar
Over park, over pale
Thorough flood, thorough fire
I do wander everywhere
Swifter than the moon’s sphere
And I serve the Fairy Queen
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslip tall her pensioners be

In their gold coats, spots you see,

Those be rubies, fairy’s favours
In those freckles live their saviours
I must go seek dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.

Old British myths claimed that fairies sought refuge inside cowslips in times of danger. Cowslips were dedicated to the goddess Frigga/Freya in Norse mythology and they played a part in the remedies of Celtic druids. The flowers resemble a bunch of keys and are sometimes called Herb Peter – St Peter’s emblem is the keys of heaven. 

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Recipes

Dandelion cordial

Blanching Nettles

We cut the tips and the top 4-6 leaves of all the nettle plants I could find in our garden, washed them briefly and then dropped them into boiling water for 30 seconds. We removed with tongs, and dropped into very cold water, to prevent them cooking further and so retain their vivid green colour.

This quick heat denatures the sting. Incidentally you can still use the blanching water for cooking, the nettle water is not contaminated. After blanching, you grit your teeth and pick them up to chop them, discovering it is OK and now feels as if you are handling any herb.

Nettle Bread

I mixed a large bunch of chopped blanched nettle tops into the risen bread dough that I had prepared and left to prove. Baked as usual. I can’t wait to forage some more.

Comments and Guest posts

I would be delighted if anyone would like to comment, or start a conversation about anything they have read. Or if anyone would like to send me a recipes, photographs or any other information that I could include in a future post.

My “active choice” eating plan, Michael Pollan’s 7 words on eating, Developing fruit in the garden, Mindful eating, Nurturing a sourdough (day 2-4) and recipe for Spiced rosemary roasted nuts.

Fermenting foods

Update on the wholewheat sourdough starter from the last blog entry (Days 2-4):

Spiced rosemary roasted nuts

Add a few to a salad for flavour (protein or fat), or eat with an omelette.

• 1 heaped cup (approx 150g) of unsalted raw nuts – whatever mix you like. (I used my own mix of almond, pistachio, macadamia, walnut and cashew)
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp (heaped) fresh chopped rosemary (plus few sprigs for the tray)
• 1-2 tsp soft brown sugar or maple syrup
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp nigella seeds (optional)
• 1/2 tsp garlic granules
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Variations: you could use whatever spices you like, more or less of them (to personal taste) or add seeds to the mix

Preheat oven to 180oC

And finally… our beautiful friend can happily have their cake and eat it now.

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Rhubarb (Rheum hybridum)

Rhubarb is a versatile vegetable.  In my opinion it is also handsome, delicious and eagerly anticipated. Technically it is a vegetable, although in 1947 New York it was legally declared to be a fruit. There is a wealth of recipes for ways to prepare it, way beyond rhubarb crumble; sweet, savoury and alcoholic.  I have very much enjoyed rhubarb with mackerel and I bet it’s delcious with duck instead of plum sauce. This lamb recipe just looks beautiful: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/russian-shashlik-rhubarb-sauce. Can’t wait for my second helping of rhubarb and ginger compote for my breakfast this morning.

Mary Prior (historian) describes in her book Rhubarbaria: Recipes for Rhubarb:  “From its home in the northern climes of Asia – Mongolia, Siberia and the foothills of the Himalayas – rhubarb came first to Europe in classical times as a dried root with medicinal qualities. Thus was it was initially proposed to a British public. ‘It purifieth the bloud and makes yong wenches look faire and cherry-like, ‘ says Gerard in his Herbal in 1597. It wasn’t until the 18th century that the fruit or vegetable was introduced to English tables” from whence it became a quintessentially British flavour.

Rhubarb is a perennial plant.  It is very easy to grow, just needs a decent slot in the garden somewhere – it may spread up to a metre. It’s rather ornamental, so it could go almost anywhere in the garden. I’ve seen photos of it inter-planted with pulmonaria, which was pretty. It prefers full sun – but will thrive in semi-shade. Once planted, it is best to leave picking for a year, so that the plant’s roots can build strength. My rhubarb plant is a ‘Timperley Early’ variety and these stalks can be pulled from March until June.  Apparently, it is best to harvest the stalks by pull and twist, rather than cutting, as it invigorates the root to produce more stems. There are other varieties that will begin growing later and keep going until August. I tried to force mine last year, by covering the plant as it re-emerged in February.  ‘Forcing’ blanches the stems, making them sweeter and more tender.  However, the plant then benefits from a year’s recovery.  It is probably part of the reason why mine is sadly rather spindly this year, but it may be that it has become increasingly shaded by the tree under which it is growing … and I suspect it also needs a really good feed with some compost (and coffee grounds) and a quality manure. Rhubarb is very nitrogen hungry.

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The leaf stalks and flowers are the only edible parts of the plant. The leaves are poisonous, containing high levels of oxalic acid, which can affect calcium metabolism if eaten in huge quantities. The almost open flowers are considered a delicacy in the Far East and are lightly fried (apparently easily overcooked). I didn’t know that until this week, so my son and I tried our small flower stir-fried. It was pleasant; not overly sour with a slightly lemony tang. However, if you let the plant flower it will use its energy to create seeds and the plant will produce less stems. So, it’s best to pick them off when you see them. The tiny individual flowers that make up the rhubarb flower head do not contain any oxalic acid, the substance that makes rhubarb so sour, but the flower stem does. The stem is a branching structure that goes right inside the head so it’s impossible to get it all out, but if you just cut off the most accessible bits, the small leaves and the papery bract which surrounds the flower head, you’ll have got rid of most of it.

https://scottishforestgarden.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/eating-rhubarb-flowers/

Nutritional Information (USDA data)

Rhubarb (raw)

100g contains:

• 21 calories
• 4.5 g carbohydrates
• 0.9 g protein
• 0.2 g fat
• 1.8 g fibre
• 35.7 micrograms vitamin K (24%) – much needed healthy bones
• 8 mg vitamin C 
• 0.2 mg manganese 
• 86 mg calcium (although not very bioavailable)
• 288 mg potassium 
• 12 mg magnesium

Rhubarb also has high antioxidant properties. It is very rich in many compounds that have a pro-health effect on the human body. Polyphenols are natural plant substances that can be an important component in the prevention of various diseases.   Research seems to show that polyphenol levels do vary between varieties and the point in the season when the stalks are picked. Interestingly, research has also shown that polyphenol content is generally greater in cooked rhubarb than raw rhubarb. In this study the highest polyphenol levels were found in slow-cooked and baked rhubarb.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2009.07.030

Recipes:

(A hybrid recipe – which I guess makes it one of mine!)

I washed and chopped 6 sticks of rhubarb into chunks. Added 3 balls of stem ginger, the zest and juice of an orange and 4 cardamom pods lightly split open, 3 small scoops of butter and a Tbsp of dark brown muscovado sugar. Covered the dish.

Baked in oven 190°C for 15 mins.

I added one sliced orange with all peel, outer pith and seeds removed.

Baked uncovered for another 10 mins, until the rhubarb was soft (will depend on the thickness of your stems – mine were rather thin).

Oat and almond crunch topping

“Approximately” 2 Tbsp rolled oats and 1 Tbsp ground almonds. Mixed with 2-3 Tbsp of the cooked juice from the rhubarb mix. You could add a little coconut oil (dessert spoon) if you wanted, I didn’t. I added 1tsp ground cardamom and a decent shake (what was left!) in the packet of flaked almonds. But you could equally well add a different nut or spice, or neither. Cardamom is thought to complement rhubarb, and I happen to love cardamom.

Roasted for about 10 mins at 180°C until nicely browned; I added the flaked almonds after 5 mins and a stir.

To serve: creme fraiche or plain yoghurt and perhaps some zest of an orange.

The Zester

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The zester is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen.

Lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit – zest is a fabulous lift to many a meal or garnish a zing for a salad or breakfast yoghurt.

Fermenting foods

I plan to explain why fermented foods are so good for you in later blog posts.  Fermented foods need time to develop themselves and their flavours, by harnessing the creative powers of friendly microbes all around. When things are bubbling, the photographs will be much more interesting.

So before I go into any more details, I thought I’d start off a Wholewheat Sourdough Starter with the friendly microbes present in flour.

Wholewheat Sourdough Starter – Day 1
30g wholewheat flour,
30g water,
Stir.
Cover.
Put in airing cupboard.

I like to use a stoneground organic wholewheat flour, which is thought to have a high amounts of yeasts and to start the sourdough I use a bottle of mineral water, to avoid the added chlorine which might affect the natural yeasts before they have multiplied. But it will very likely work with conventional flour and tap water – there are as many opinions of how to start a starter as there are microbes available to create it!

Resources

I have added a list of books that I have enjoyed to the Resources page on the blog – see menu.