The poor sprout. I don’t know of another vegetable that has to put up with as much ridicule. People turning their noses up at even the slightest mention of this poor brassica must be hard to deal with if you’re a sprout. Chances are those that turn up their noses have only tried them boiled to within an inch of their life. There’s much more to a sprout than as a soggy green mess at the side of the plate. There is a rumour that sprouts can cause side effects of the flatulent sort. This rumour is also rife for baked beans but it doesn’t seem to put people off.
Sloe and Hedgerow Gin: The Taste Test
Some of you may know that I made my own sloe gin and hedgerow gin this year. It all started on a warm September afternoon with a kilo of sloes, some hedgerow berries, a sprinkling of sugar and a litre of fine gin. It’s something I’ve never even attempted before but I thought how hard can it be?
Turns out it’s extremely simple. Put it all together and leave the flavours and juices to mingle and infuse for as long as you can wait. The longer you can wait the better as the flavour gets more intense and the colour gets darker.
Onion Squash and Blue Cheese Risotto
What is it about a squash that makes you warm from the inside out as you enjoy its beautiful sweet flesh. It could be the bright orange colour, a welcome sight amidst all the greens and browns of autumn. It could be the way it goes with pretty much everything: it can be soup, stew, curry, pudding; the list is endless, although I’ve not heard of anyone making squash gin or squash vodka. I had heard that the onion squash was the nicest of all the squashes as it has the most flavour. For me I think it is the sweetest and brightest of the lot.
Delicate Carrot Soup
Sometimes carrots can be taken for granted. The base of a soup or stew, added to stock or shoved on the side of the plate. What a shame. They are such glorious things in their own right and there is no carrot sweeter than a home grown carrot. I planted these little beauties a few months back expecting them to be riddled with carrot fly and a complete disaster. The results have been quite the opposite. I am now inundated.
Before you ask, the one second from right is not a parsnip, it is a white carrot. The two on each end are orange and the other is a yellow carrot. I didn’t know what a rainbow I had underground until I pulled them up.
Whether you’re using home grown or bought carrots, a lovely subtle carrot soup has to be the way to go. Carrot soup is one of my favourite soups but the carrots can sometimes be overshadowed with what they are paired with. Sometimes coriander can be a little too much or the orange overwhelms the humble sweet carrot flavours. Not this time though.
Making Sloe and Hedgerow Gin
Top Tips
I very much advise you wash your sloes before freezing otherwise you might end up with a few (used to be) living hedgerow beings in your finished gin. I’m not sure anybody would appreciate you pouring them a spider.
When you go out to pick your sloes I must warn you that 1kg of sloes is a good couple of hours of work, scratched wrists, attack of the stinging nettles and excellent fun if you take a friend. I’m not making it sound very appealing but what you get at the end of all the work makes it so worthwhile. You can take a look at this handy guide if you’re new to foraging to help you identify the sloes. I also have a few golden nuggets of foraging advice too.
Caramelised Apples
Apples are everywhere at the moment. They are falling out of trays at the market, falling off the trees along the road and falling onto my plate at any given opportunity. As much as I enjoy an apple on its own, it has to be a good one mind, sometimes you can have too many to know what to do with. Apple cakes, crumbles, pies and flapjacks are all lovely but I wanted to enjoy some apples at their very best and not shrouded by too many other flavours.
These caramelised apples are so quick and simple. They are wonderful to have for breakfast, a light, filling snack for the afternoon and an unctuous end to a meal. Get yourself four apples, any will do but I prefer sharp, juicy apples. Core the apples and cut into slices or chunks.
Vegetable Patch Recipes
Recently it has become apparent that most of the meals I eat are vegetable orientated. There are two reasons for this; firstly I have a cornucopia of vegetables in my garden at present and each one needs celebrating in its own way and secondly meat is so expensive.
I can go into Sainsbury’s and pick up four chicken breasts for £6. Not the extra special ones, not the organic ones, just the standard ones. My alternative is to go to the farmer’s market and pick up two whole chickens for £10. These are free range chickens and I would still get four chicken breasts but I would also get four drumsticks, four wings, four thighs and two carcasses for making beautiful stock with. It’s a no brainer really.
Quince and Apple Pie and a Pastry Lesson
Pastry has to be, without doubt, the best cradle, blanket or hat for any rich, sumptuous bed of fruit, meat or vegetables. It is that crunch, that warmth and that way it crumbles which makes it just so. I thought of pastry as my nemesis. Stupid stuff that was invariably delicious when prepared by anyone but myself. All this was to change when I met Jane.
Jane makes an awful lot of pastry. She is Jane of Jane’s Kitchen and prepares a marvellous amount of amazing pastry each week for different farmers’ markets around the area. There are trout and caper parcels, Moroccan mountains, seasonal fruit tarts and some classic pies. Best of all Jane uses as many ingredients as possible from the farmers’ market.
Damson and Apple Crumble
Top Tips
Just like the crumbliness of your crumble is rather personal, so is what you choose to serve the crumble with. Cream, custard or ice cream? If you go for cream is it single, double, Gold Top or clotted? If custard, ready made or home made? If ice cream should it be vanilla with or without vanilla seeds or should it be clotted cream ice cream? It’s all very complicated and someone will always be upset no matter which you choose. I always opt for cream because I can stir it all together in the bowl and pretend I’m 8 years old again.
Purple Cauliflower Cheese
When you have a cauliflower and you add a little cheese you can’t fail to make something unfathomably gorgeous. There is no other place I know of that you can get a purple cauliflower apart from my local farmers’ market. If you saw it at a glance you may have to do a double take to reassure yourself that it is real.
I think the cauliflower is a very lucky vegetable. It’s no looker but I’m yet to meet someone who doesn’t think the union of cauliflower and cheese is glorious. Being purple as opposed to its equally delicious, much paler, white cousin adds something extra to what might otherwise have been a beige overload on the side of the plate.
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