Saturday 13 November 2021

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey

 Deep-fried courgette flowers are a treat at the best of times, but cooked this way they’re a real luxury

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey
Yotam Ottolenghi’s fried courgette flowers with lavender honey: Go on, treat yourself.

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey (V)

I am more than happy just dipping courgette flowers in egg, shallow frying them and serving with lemon, but on special occasions I make this luxurious variation. Serves four.

125g soft goat's cheese
30g parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), finely grated
2 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp chopped thyme
Salt and black pepper
8 female courgette flowers with the baby courgette attached
100g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten
120g panko breadcrumbs
350ml sunflower oil, for frying
About 1 tbsp lavender honey

Thursday 4 November 2021

Yacon

 Today in the allotment I noticed that the row of yacon was affected by the frost. The leaves turned from a vibrant green to a shrivelled black. Not long then before we can harvest the yacon!

Here are a few recipe ideas

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Raspberry vinegar

 With so much apple cider vinegar and an abundance of raspberries, I made he base for the balsamic vinegar on 3/10 and left it with the raspberries for one month. Today I strained out the berries and was left with a beautifully red vinegar. I added 3/4 sugar to 1 part of vinegar and ended up with 3 lovely bottles of raspberry balsamic vinegar. MMM what a treat for the winter.

Some benefits of raspberry vinegar (without the sugar)



Monday 1 November 2021

A wonderful festive meal made in no time.

Last week Julie asked when we could make a festive meal. I was not planning to do this quite yet, but seeing the first red pepper and spinach in the allotment made me think of the vegetable loaf we made a few years ago and was put in my first cook book.


The carrots and the potatoes too came in handy as they were roasted whilst the puff pastry loaf was getting ready in the oven.

We made some vegannaise (using aquafaba) which was used in the loaf.




Later the chickpeas and broccoli from the allotment were turned into creamy broccoli and chickpea soup.

This time we had a full house with 8 adults and baby Tomo after the meal we walked to the allotment and harvested some raspberries and beetroot to take home.