Glazed Turnips

When I see turnips, I think of working at Chez Panisse. For the first month, I was on the veg section and it was my job to cook to order each and every glazed spring vegetables which accompanied the main course. The selection of baby spring vegetables was a thing for beauty. We did not ever get to see vegetables that came anywhere close to these ones in California. Baby beetroot in a rainbow of colours, tiny fresh peas and beans, purple and yellow baby carrots, deep red spring onions and these pretty pink topped turnips. It was my job to prep all these vegetables with utmost care and cook them to perfection. Each vegetable was added at a different time to the pan, to allow for different cooking times. It did all seem a bit of a fuss, but I have to admit, they were absolutely delicious. So, I was a little apprehensive about cooking the beautiful purple tinged turnips that turned up in my veg box this week. Did I still have the touch – 25 years later, to cook a perfect turnip?

Glazed Turnips

Bunch of smallish turnips

Large pinch of salt

Large pinch of sugar

Large knob of butter.

To prep the turnips, trim the stalks short but leave attached. With a small paring knife, scrape around the leaves to remove any dirt or grit. Rinse. Peel the turnip downwards to the bottom, from where the purple tinging ends and gives way to white. Cut into even sized pieces through the stalk – either halves, quarters, sixths or eights depending on size. Place in a heavy bottomed saucepan which allows them to roughly just cover the bottom of the pan. Nearly cover with water and add the salt and sugar. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat so that they boil away gently for about 5-10 minutes, depending on their size. A sharp knife should just insert easily. By this time to water should have nearly boiled away. Add the butter and reduce to a glaze. This should take about a minute. Taste and check for seasoning. Eat straight away. 

Swiss chard and herb tart with young cheese

We all get a bit stuck in our comfort zone and when scanning through new recipes, I must admit I have a tendency to stick to the familiar, so I nearly bypassed this Ottolenghi recipe I found when looking for a new way of using up chard. For a start it was called Swiss Chard and Herb Tart with Young Cheese, and I knew for sure that I did not have any “young cheese” lying around in my fridge, nor was I very likely to be able to get hold of any very easily in the culinary void of Wimbledon. 

Secondly, I wasn’t sure about the mint. I am always a little wary of cooking mint. A little too much and it can e
nd up tasting like toothpaste. I wasn’t sure about the quantities of the ingredients (follow the net weights not the descriptions). 8 large chard leaves turned out to be a whole bag of chard from Riverford. And finally I didn’t have any courgette flowers – too early in the year for my allotment. But I decided to make it anyway and I am really pleased that I did. It is absolutely delicious, even without the courgette flowers. For the young cheese, I used a Abergavenny goat’s cheese that I found in Sainsbury’s.

Swiss chard and herb tart with young cheese
Adapted from Yotem Ottolenghi. Serves four as a main course.
½ small red onion, thinly sliced (85g net)
3 celery stalks and leaves, thinly sliced (220g net)
8 large chard leaves, roughly chopped, white stalks discarded (175g net)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tbsp torn mint leaves
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tsp chopped sage
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
75g feta, crumbled
50g pecorino, finely grated
15g pine nuts, lightly toasted
Grated zest of 1 lemon
350g all-butter puff pastry, I used ready rolled
100g brocciu cheese (fresh cheese) or ricotta or fresh goat’s cheese
6 Courgette flowers, cut in half length-ways (optional)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and black pepper

Place a large frying pan on medium-high heat and sauté the onion, celery, chard, garlic, mint, parsley and sage in the olive oil. Cook, stirring continuously, for 15 minutes or until the greens are wilted and the celery has softened completely. Remove from the heat and stir through the feta, pecorino, pine nuts, lemon zest, ¼ teaspoon of salt and a hearty grind of black pepper. Leave aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Roll the pastry, if necessary to a 3mm thick sheet and cut it into a circle, approximately 30cm in diameter. Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Spread the filling out on the pastry leaving a 3 centimetre edge all the way around. Dot the filling with large chunks of brocciu, ricotta or fresh goat's cheese.  Top with courgette flowers, if using. Bring the pastry up around the sides of the filling and pinch the edges together firmly to form a secure, decorative lip over the edge of the tart. Alternatively press with the end of a fork. Brush the pastry with egg and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Bake the tart in the oven for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and cooked on the base. Remove from the oven and brush with a little olive oil. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Waffle, Charcoal and Carrot Tops

I know I have been super slack in writing my blog and to make matters worse I have just taken on the task of writing a new weekly blog for Riverford. The idea is to help customers get exciting and easy ideas and recipes each week, to help them use up their veg boxes. Then I thought, since my blog is primarily about growing and cooking vegetables, I might as well share with you a few posts from my Riverford Blog.

I would love to be sharing with you more "Recipes from the Allotment" but so far this year all I have managed to grow is a ridiculous abundance of rhubarb. I have exhausted all rhubarb recipes I can think of in the last month but luckily I have just come up with a new use, which I think I shall never tire off. It is Rhubarb Margarita and I am currently working on the recipe which I will share with you as soon as it is perfected.

In the meantime, here are some exerts from my Riverford blog.

This week I started with a Medium Veg Box (less roots). It is an exciting time of year with so many new veg and fruit coming available every day now. Gorgeous bunched carrots and onions, tender baby spinach, new season’s UK asparagus and crisp little gem lettuces to name but some.

I couldn’t wait to get started with a Grilled Asparagus & Baby Gem Salad with Feta & Mint.  Grilling your veg keeps them lovely and crisp whilst adding a delicious hint of smoke. This is a great salad to make if you are having a BBQ at the weekend, as it is so quick and easy, especially if you already have the BBQ lit. Mint is everywhere at the moment. One of the first signs of summer in my garden is when the mint reappears from nowhere, green and lush. If you don’t have any in your garden, be sure to add some to your Riverford order. Like all my recipes you can easily adapt the ingredients and this super salad would have worked just as well with grilled courgettes or even whole spring onions. It occurred to me that a few delicious broad beans would have been lovely scatted on top as well. If you are looking for a good olive oil for this recipe, I would like to recommend Riverford’s Italian Extra Virgin at £5.95 for 500ml. I like the one from Giancarlo in Puglia best – it has a lovely peppery taste.

Grilled Asparagus & Baby Gem Salad with Feta & Mint

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side
Bunch of Asparagus
One or two Baby Gem Lettuces (depending on size)
100g Feta
½ a Lemon
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Few Sprigs of Fresh Mint

Snap any woody ends off your asparagus and drizzle with good olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Trim the very end off the baby gem lettuce and then cut in half lengthways through the root, taking car to keep it in tack. Cut each half into three wedges. Again drizzle with good olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Heat your griddle or BBQ until smoking. Lay the flat sides of the lettuces on the grill, turning as soon as they have a clear char mark. Do the same with the asparagus making sure they are just cooked through. (It is imperative that your asparagus is very fresh.) Make a dressing with the juice of half a lemon, whisked up with a good pinch of salt and some extra virgin olive oil. Arrange the baby gem and asparagus on a plate and crumble over some feta. Roll up your mint leaves and finely slice to create a chiffonade. Sprinkle over the top and drizzle on your lemon dressing.

Mushrooms and Spinach just go together for some reason, whether it be in a stir-fry, an omelette or a tart but this week I tried out a Mushroom and Spinach Lasagne with a bit of Goat’s Cheese thrown in as well. Serve alongside some of Riverford’s delicious salad leave and you have a meal in no time.

Riverford don’t do a Goat’s Cheese. Maybe they haven’t managed to find a good organic one. I used Helen’s Farm, which although not organic, does a lovely range of Goat’s milk products and they even come in a variety of strengths so there is something to suit to everyone. I chose the mild hard cheese and even managed to sneak it past the kids without a fuss.

Mushroom, Spinach & Goat’s Cheese Lasagne

Serves 2

One Punnet of Mushrooms
One Bag of Baby Spinach
One large clove of garlic
25g Butter
25g Flour
350mls Milk
50g Parmesan
120g Goat’s Cheese
½ box of lasagne sheets
Olive Oil
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finely slice your mushrooms. Heat a glug of olive oil in a large frying pan and add your mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Fry on a medium heat until golden brown. Meanwhile heat a large saucepan with a lid. Add a very thin layer of oil to the bottom to stop the spinach sticking. Add the bag of spinach and add a good pinch of salt. Cover and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Remove the lid carefully. The spinach should be just wilted. Tip the spinach into a colander and wipe out the saucepan. Very finely slice the garlic. Add a glug of olive oil to the pan and add the garlic. Fry until just golden brown. Add the spinach carefully as it may spit. Stir well and turn off the heat.

Heat the butter in a small non-stick saucepan. Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the flour. Return to a low heat and stir until sandy. Carefully add the milk and whisk over a medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens. Remove from the heat and add the grated parmesan. Season well to taste with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 180⁰C
Heat the butter in a small non-stick saucepan. Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the flour. Return to a low heat and stir until sandy. Carefully add the milk and whisk over a medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens. Remove from the heat and add the grated parmesan. Season well to taste with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 180⁰C. Cut the goat’s cheese into small chunks.

Take a gratin dish about 20cms x 15cms and put a very thin layer of béchamel on the bottom. Top with a layer of lasagne sheets. Break up the sheets if necessary. Top with the spinach and 1/3 of the remaining béchamel and 1/2 the goat’s cheese. Next do another layer of lasagne. Then top with the spinach the rest of the goat’s cheese and the next 1/3 of bechamel. Next the final layer of lasagne and finally the rest of the béchamel. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or so until golden brown on top and a blunt knife inserts easily all the way through.

 

Roast Sweet Potato Wedges with Sweet Chilli Sauce & Crème Fraiche

I never used to know what to do with Sweet Potatoes and I was always concocting

elaborate curries and chillies to use them up but I had forgotten how delicious simple roast Sweet Potato Wedges were until my son asked me to make them for him instead of potatoes. 

What always amazes me is how good sweet potatoes are for you. You cannot believe that something that tastes so, well .... sweet, could do you any good but they pack a powerful nutritional punch. They have got over 400% of your daily needs for vitamin A in one medium sized sweet potato as well as loads of antioxidents vitamin C and E, beta-carotene, fibre & potassium. They have got more grams of natural sugars than regular potato but more overall nutrients with fewer calories.They are low on the glycemic index scale, and recent research suggests they may reduce episodes of low blood sugar and insulin resistance in people with diabetes. 

I lightly sprinkled them with a little salt and some smoked paprika, drizzled them with a little olive oil and roast them in the oven at 190⁰C for about half an hour until soft in the middle but crispy and golden on the outside. I then served them with a couple of dips - Crème Fraiche (Riverford’s is very good) and the other was some Sweet Chilli Sauce (once again, Riverford do make their own) and it soon became a firm, family favourite.

So that is it for this week. I promise lots more recipes next week. Please feel free to comment and let us know what challenges you are facing you this week. I know I never got round to those lovely bunched onions and carrots but I promise to next week and at least I finally found something to do with tops of the carrots which I always hated throwing away. I discovered that Waffle and Charcoal just love them!

Slack but back!

O.K. I realise I have been slack with my blog because this is the first time I have ever written a post on my iMac and I have had it for at least six months, so it is time to address this situation. I don't know where the winter has gone but I do know that spring is here and I am back on my allotment in force. Potatoes in, bean poles up, first strawberries flowering, last years fennel, chard and perpetual spinach still going, thanks to an exceptionally mild winter.

Anyway, I quickly wanted to get in my favourite Purple Sprouting Broccoli recipe in, just before it bolts and goes to flower. I was particularly proud of my crop this year, especially the fact that I had actually managed to grow something that looked like it did on the packet. 

I learnt this recipe at the River Cafe. Don't be afraid of the anchovy. Only use a little and it does not taste fishy. It is more like a seasoning and along with the parmesan provides the "umami" which makes this dish so special. As with all simple recipes, it is only as good as it's ingredients so buy the best you can afford.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Pasta, Anchovy, Chilli and Garlic
Serves 4
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 dried chillies, stalks removed and deseeded if preferred, chopped
2 tbsp Really good extra virgin olive oil, plus more to serve
6 good quality anchovy fillets. (The best ones are in salt and need rinsing before using.)
400 g purple sprouting broccoli
350 g pasta, such as orecchiette
Lots of freshly grated parmesan

Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Put on a large pan of salted water to boil. Cook the garlic and chillies in the olive oil in a large pan for a few minutes until the garlic is light brown. Add the anchovies, remove the pan from the heat and stir vigorously so the anchovies ‘melt’ into the oil. If necessary add a little water from the pan of boiling salted water. When the water is boiling, cook the purple sprouting broccoli – leaves and all – for about 4 minutes, until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon. Drain and roughly chop. Add to the anchovy oil and cook for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile add the pasta to the same water for about 12 minutes, or according to the packet directions, until almost cooked but a little al dente. Drain well and place in the pan with the purple sprouting broccoli. Season well and add a little more olive oil and lots of grated Parmesan to taste.

So, it is back to the allotment and although the amount of work still to do for this year seems daunting, I must not forget that a year ago it looked like this!

Variations on a Theme.

It has been all work and no play at the moment so I afraid that my blog has been a little abandoned but I am back and hurrah, so is Asparagus.  By that I mean English Asparagus and it marks the end of the hungry gap - that long period between December and April when the root vegetables have come to an end and although Spring is all around us, there is still a long wait for the first spring crops.  This means that we have to make do with the end of the winter crops such as leeks, cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli, mushrooms and potatoes. 

The current torrential rain and lack of sunshine has delayed Spring crops still further, so I am still struggling with my vegetable boxes to move the menu on from Winter. The potatoes thankfully never seen to disappoint as there is always a different variety that can be exploited to stretch the seasons and a Gratin Dauphinoise never fails to please at a Riverford lunch.  I have learnt to adapted the recipe to include all sorts of vegetables and it is certainly always one of the most popular dishes that I ever cook at my Riverford lunches or indeed, dinners. 

Through until the end of winter I was often adding leeks, mushrooms and lots of garlic. Last week I tried out a really delicious new version with spring greens and bacon but you can use any greens from pointed cabbage to savoy.  All are delicious.  Another variation is to add some anchovy and lots of rosemary.  This is classically known as Jansson’s Temptation and I often add some sautéed chard as well. Absolutely delicious to accompany some Spring lamb and guaranteed to warm you up at the same time.  Just what you need this Spring.

Potato, Leek and Mushroom Gratin

Sometimes I like to add a little truffle oil with the cream.

500 mls Double cream
500g large potatoes, sliced paper-thin
10 sprigs fresh thyme (very finely chopped)
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 sliced mushrooms
3 Leeks, cut in rings and well washed and dried to remove all grit
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan big enough to hold all the potatoes, bring the cream to the boil, being careful not to boil over. Season with salt to taste. Add the potatoes and bring back to the boil, stirring gently until the cream thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and test again for seasoning. 

Meanwhile, coat a frying pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. Sauté the mushrooms until golden brown. Add the thyme and season. Remove. Heat another frying pan and sauté leeks in butter and olive oil without colour until soft for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange 1/2 of the potato mixture on the bottom of a gratin dish. Top potatoes with the mushrooms and the leeks. Finish with another layer of potatoes. Press the layers down with a spatula to condense. Bake in a low oven at about 160 degrees. Cook for 1 -1 1/2 hours until the potatoes are tender. A blunt knife should easily sink in.  

Potato, Spring Green and Bacon Gratin

You could use any greens including Kale or cabbage in this. They are all delicious. You can easily omit the bacon if you are vegetarian.

                   

500 mls Double cream
A handful of rosemary (very finely chopped) 

500g large potatoes, sliced paper-thin 

1 packet of good smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
3 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped or crushed

2 tablespoons olive oil

Large bag of spring greens, Kale or a cabbage (stems removed and shredded)

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan big enough to hold all the potatoes, bring the cream to the boil, being careful not to boil over. Season with salt to taste. Add the potatoes and bring back to the boil, stirring gently until the cream thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and test again for seasoning.

Meanwhile blanch the greens in a large pan of salted boiling water. Return to the boil and cook for about three minutes. Remove and lay out flat on a dry tea towel and allow to cool. When cool, use the tea towel to squeeze out any excess water. In a frying pan with olive oil fry the bacon until golden brown and crisp. Add the chopped garlic, fry for a few seconds and add the greens. Stir fry for a few minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Arrange 1/2 of the potato mixture on the bottom of a gratin dish. Top potatoes with the greens. Finish with another layer of potatoes. Press the layers down with a spatula to condense. Bake in a low oven at about 160 degrees. Cook for 1 -1 1/2 hours until the potatoes are tender. A blunt knife should easily sink in.

Potato and Chard Gratin with Anchovy 
This is a variation on a famous potato dish called Jansson’s Temptation which I first found in a Jane Grigson Book 

500 mls Double cream
A handful of rosemary (very finely chopped) 

500g large potatoes, sliced paper-thin  
A few handfuls of chard 2 garlic cloves thinly sliced  
6-8 good quality anchovy fillets
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan big enough to hold all the potatoes, bring the cream to the boil infused with the rosemary, being careful not to boil over. Season with salt to taste. Add the potatoes and bring back to the boil, stirring gently until the cream thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and test again for seasoning.

Prepare Chard by removing the leaves from the stems. Chop the stems into strips. Blanch first the leaves and then the stems in a pan of boiling salted water for a few minutes each. The stem will take a minute or two more than the leaves. Remove and lay out to cool on a flat surface such as a clean teatowel. When cool, squeeze the excess water from the leaves and roughly chop. In a fryingpan, first saute the anchovies and garlic in the olive oil. The anchovies should dissolve. Next add the stalks and finally the leaves. Season with salt and pepper and stir really well. Taste for seasoning.  In a gratin dish arrange 1/2 of the potato mixture on the bottom, top with the chard mixture and finally top with the remaining potato. Press the layers down with a spatula to condense. Bake in a low oven at about 160 degrees. Cook for 1 -1 1/2 hours until the potatoes are tender.  A blunt knife should easily sink in. 

Spring Clean

 My cupboards are fit to bursting.  I am forever buying a new sort of noodle, sauce or spice for some dish or another and it is taking its toll on my already incredibly cramped storage space.  To top it off my Dad has just done his annual Passover trip to Golder's Green, when he feels an over-whelming urge to buy a glut of random food products, simply because they are "Kosher for Passover".  Why a bottle of lemonade or a jar of raspberry jam should ever have been in contact with "Chumetz" (anything which may ferment) in the first place, I have no idea, but he returns triumphant from "the North" with his bounty and distributes it - heaps of boxes of Matzos, several different varieties of pickle cucumber and a selection of arbitrary products, upon my Mother and each of his children and their families. 

I know it is a story of poor Jewish boy done good. I know he sees it as a Mitvah (a good deed). I know he misses shopping for his Mum.  She lived on a measly pension and would have really appreciated him schlepping up to Hendon every week and making sure that she had enough to eat, although she probably never said so.  Nothing makes one value "having" like "not having" and as a child, my Farther would have known what is was like to have gone without.  So I try to appriciate this annual offering of strange things, that I have nowhere to put in my tiny house and every year, about this time I go through my cupboards to see what space I can find.  I like to think of it as a Spring clean. This year on the discovery of several packets of Japenese noodles, I felt much akin to religious Jewish families searching their houses from top to bottom for anything containing wheat or yeast and I simply had to use them up before Passover began.

I had made some chicken soup in my pledge to use up all the chicken bones from out weekly roast chicken, which I now freeze until I have an impressive enough collection to make soup.  Every country in the world seems to have it's own version of chicken soup but one involving Soba Noodles could only be Japanese.  I added some vegetables, dried mushrooms, a little ginger, sesame oil,  miso and chilli.  I found a packet of dried seaweed in the cupboard as well.    Really simple, really quick. A really clean, healthy, restorative soup which will give you a Spring clean as well. 

Chicken Soba Noodle Soup
You can use all sorts of green leafy vegetables in this soup including all sorts of Choi, cabbage or spinach. As for the mushrooms, I used black fungus which don't have much taste but have a great texture but you could use Shiitake.  If you do not have a Japenese supermarket near you, such as Atari Ya, then you can buy most products made by Clearspring in the speciality section in a large supermarket.  Finally, if you are vegetarian, 
just omit the chicken stock, add a little more Miso and you will still have a delicious soup.
2 pints rich chicken soup
A large knob of ginger, julienned
A few teaspoons of soy
1/2 packet Soba Japanese buckwheat noodles
2 bok choi, cut into quarters lenghthways
6 oz. dried Asian style mushrooms
Small handful of dried seaweed (Wakame)
1 tablespoon Miso
1 bunch spring onions
1 fresh red chilli, very thinly sliced
1 lime
Sesame Oil
Togarashi

Heat up the chicken soup with the ginger juice to infuse and season with soy and salt to taste. Add the noddles and Bok Choi and simmer for about 5-7 minutes until cooked. Add the mushrooms and seaweed and simmer until re-hydrated (this takes a matter of minutes). Add a squeeze of lime and a drizzle of sesame oil. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Top with spring onions and chilli. Divide the soup between bowls and add a dash of Togarashi if using.