This recipe for sprouts with chestnuts is perfect for Christmas, & will feed 8 – 10 people.
Ingredients:
- 1.5kg Brussels sprouts
- 250g vacuum-packed chestnuts
- 100g butter
- nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Method:
- trim the sprouts
- halve the chestnuts
- add the sprouts to a pan of boiling, salted water & cook for 7 minutes
- drain the sprouts
- melt the butter in a pan
- toss the chestnuts in the butter until they are warm, then add the drained sprouts
- sprinkle with fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste
- stir the mixture so that the sprouts are well coated with butter
- serve in a warm dish
This recipe for sprouts with chestnuts will encourage everyone to eat their sprouts!
This pumpkin soup recipe is all you need after a hard days gardening!
pumpkin-slice
Ingredients:
- 1 large onion
- 1 lb pumpkin
- 1 lb potatoes
- 8 oz carrot
- 1 litre chicken or veg stock
- 1/2 pint milk
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- salt & pepper
- knob butter
- 2 tablespoon oil
Method:
- place butter & oil in pan
- saute onions
- add pumpkin, potatoes & carrots
- pour in stock
- simmer for 40 minutes
- liquidise
- season to taste
- add ginger, nutmeg & milk
- serve piping hot!
Pumpkin Soup recipe is ideal for a Halloween party!
Sloes are in abundance this year, so we are using 2 recipes:
fat-juicy-sloes
Our sloes are big and juicy, and ripe for picking now. Choose a dry day and fill a basket!
sloe-basket
The sloe jelly is a wonderful dark purple colour and a great jelly to serve with game, particularly hare.
Ingredients
- at least 1kg sloes
- granulated sugar – 75grams per 100ml of juice
- water to just cover the sloes
Method
- pick out the good sloes & wash them
- place in a pan & just cover with water
- bring to the boil, then simmer, for at least 30 mins, till soft
- pour mixture from pan through a jelly bag or equivalent sieve & leave over night to drip. Do not push anything through – just rely on the drip.
- measure the collected liquid & add 75grams of sugar per 100ml juice
- stir in a gently warming pan until sugar dissolved
- then bring pan to the boil and keep boiling until setting point is reached. Takes about 30 mins. Test by putting a drop of juice onto cold saucer – if goes jelly like it is ready
- skim the scum off then pour into sterilsed, heated jars and seal
Mick Cowan’s Sloe Gin
- break the skin on the sloes – either by pricking with a pin, or putting in the freezer over night
- 3/4 fill a bottle with sloes
- cover the sloes with gin (cheap is OK)
- add sugar (white or brown) 0.5 pounds sugar per pound of sloes. More sugar can be added, to taste, later if needed
- top the bottle up with gin
- seal the bottle
- shake the bottle every day for a week, then every Monday until Christmas
- put the bottle away in a cool,dark place
- strain the fruit out when it has been in the bottle for 6 to 9 months
- rebottle, and store until the following Christmas!
We ate the sloes left in the jelly bag for pudding – mixed with a little apple jelly and lots of yoghurt. The sloes strained from the gin are excellent when cooked in a special bread and butter pudding.
These 2 recipes for sloes are easy, but rewarding!
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Courgette or marrow jam is a pleasant solution to a courgette glut.
courgette-glut
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds courgette or marrow deseeded – in skin unless very tough- chopped
- 6 lemons – sliced really thinly with skin
- 2 pounds preserving sugar
Method:
- Place chopped cougette/marrow in pan with finely sliced lemons
- Add cold water so that the mixture is only just covered
- Cook the mixture very gently until it is really soft
- Add the preserving sugar & simmer gently, stirring all the while, until the sugar is dissolved
- Turn the heat up and boil rapidly until setting point is reached
- Setting point will be reached when a small drop of the mixture solidifies when it touches a cold plate
- Pour the courgette / marrow jam into warmed, sterilised jars & seal
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The abundance of courgettes in the vegetable garden prompts the search for more innovative recipes! Elaine Borish has written a book called “What will I do with All Those Courgettes?”
We enjoy our own recipe for courgettes on toast:
Add some crushed garlic to hot olive oil in a pan. Stir in 4 or 6 chopped courgettes. When sizzling gently, put the lid on the pan and turn off the heat. After 10 minutes place on buttered toast. Chopped bacon fried before adding the courgettes is a good variation!
Waitrose have a delicious, quick and easy courgette tagliatelle recipe.
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The harvest for Birds Eye peas is in full swing. Click this link to watch the piece on TV last night:
http://www.itv.com/yorkshire/peas-and-good-will17836/
Birds Eye peas are frozen within 2.5 hours of vining – to keep all the flavour and goodness in.
Also on the clip is Rachel Green, cooking a pea risotto in the middle of the harvest field!
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David Travis has posted this fantastic jacket potato on facebook:
- baked beans
- plus lots of extra ketchup
- lashings of HP Rather Hot Jalapeno & Lime sauce
Definitely a baked potato recipe to try!
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This recipe for green bean and tomato stew is a novel way of using up a glut of runner beans & tomatoes at the end of the season.
bean-slicer
Ingredients:
- 2lb runner beans
- 1lb ripe tomatoes
- 3 onions
- 1/2 pint olive oil
- 1/2 pint hot water
- 1 tbs sugar
- salt & pepper
Method:
- string & slice beans
- peel & chop tomatoes
- peel & grate onions
- heat oil in pan
- add onions and tomatoes & cook slowly till soft
- add beans, sugar, salt, pepper & hot water
- simmer till tender
- remove pan from heat & stand for 30 minutes before serving
- serve warm or cold
This green & tomato stew recipe is good for vegetarians.
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leek-patch-February
We have an abundance of leeks in the vegetable garden, so this leek soup recipe is being much enjoyed!
Ingredients
- 2 leeks – washed & sliced (about 10oz)
- 2 potatoes – peeled & sliced (about 10oz)
- 3 rashers lean & chopped bacon (about 5oz)
- 1 pint stock
- 1/2 pint milk
- freshly ground pepper
cooking-leek-soup
Method:
- gently cook the bacon, leeks and potatoes until the leeks are soft, but not coloured
- add the stock and simmer until the potatoes are tender
- liquidise
- return to the pan and add the milk
- serve when hot
Click the links below to buy the recipe books which show you how to cook what you grow:
Whilst trawling the net for inspiration of how to cook leeks, with recipes, the British Leek Association popped up! They have lots of new recipes for cooking leeks.
Leeks are a truly versatile vegetable:
- milder, sweeter flavour than onions
- smooth texture similar to asparagus
prizewinner-leeks
Our leeks will see us through the winter- we have several months supply left in the ground. They seem particularly delicious this year, and the hard, frosty weather has not hurt them at all.
close-spaced-leeks
A recipe for leek soup:
Ingredients
- 2 leeks – washed & sliced (about 10oz)
- 2 potatoes – peeled & sliced (about 10oz)
- 3 rashers lean & chopped bacon (about 5oz)
- 1 pint stock
- 1/2 pint milk
- freshly ground pepper
cooking-leek-soup
Method:
- gently cook the bacon, leeks and potatoes until the leeks are soft, but not coloured
- add the stock and simmer until the potatoes are tender
- liquidise
- return to the pan and add the milk
- serve when hot
Click this link for recipes showing how to cook leeks.
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