Aubergine, baba ganoush

 https://www.thespruceeats.com/zucchini-baba-ganoush-4126885

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

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

Yotam Ottolenghi

@ottolenghi

Fri 1 Jun 2012 22.59 BST

3

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

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Make the filling by stirring together the cheeses, chives, thyme, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Put a tablespoon in the base of each flower and gently twist the tips of the petals to secure the filling inside.

Prepare three shallow bowls: one with the flour and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, one with the beaten eggs and one with the breadcrumbs and a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Toss each stuffed flower and attached courgette first in the flour, shaking off any excess, then in the egg. Finally coat with breadcrumbs and set aside.

Pour around 350ml oil into a medium, nonstick frying pan (enough to come 1cm up the sides of the pan) and place on a high heat. After two minutes, turn down the heat to medium and, when bubbles start to surface, put the courgettes in the hot oil, a few at a time, adjusting the temperature so they take about a minute on each side to go a nice golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt. Place the hot flowers on a serving plate, drizzle over a little honey and serve at once.

Courgettes and pasta

After making ravioli today, I had some pasta dough left over so I turned it into tagliatelle.
Dried it and bagged it up for another day when I would need a quick meal.

Coming back from the allotment with a handful of courgettes, I wondered what to do with them.
Then the doorbell rang and my youngest son, paid us a surprise visit.

So out came the tagliatelle and found Nigella's recipe which was quick and extremely tasty.
Definitively one to do again, especially in courgette season.

A seasonal meal - last of the runner beans and courgettes

We started with a lettuce and courgette soup as the lettuce that was harvested a couple of days ago was so large, we used most of it to add to our soup. Ted, our allotment friend had some courgettes that needed using so making a lovely velvety soup was just the ticket.

  

Preparing for the Runner Bean Quinoa Salad with Maple Citrus Dressing. We changed the recipe a bit and felt it needed 1/3 less beans and the juice of one tangerine as well as the segments of one more tangerine. The roasted sliced almonds were really nice and added texture and taste. If you want this recipe to be vegan just omit the feta cheese, to be honest it did not add too much extra to the dish.

 

The dessert made with pears from the tree is the garden was delicious. Simple and quick to make but definitively a winner.

Melenddra peeling pears

    

Apples and Pears galore

As we picked loads of apples (from The Othersyde,) and pears (From corner chesterton Road) I have decided to turn them into juice before going on holiday.

Arisa pressing the apples

Sara, Sayaka, Hiroe, Arisa and Today prepping the apples

I am also looking after Maria and Pete's allotment, which has 8 very large broccoli heads in need of picking, for that reason, I have decided to use the Broccoli, Courgette and Spinach soup with gorgonzola from book 1

June is looking after the pears

and as a desert we used the pears instead of the Rhubarb when making the Rhubarb crumble from book 2. The almond and ginger topping went really well with the pears and no sound was heard when we were eating.  A keeper we have decided.

Dezyre making the crumble topping

Todai and Arisa went around the garden to pick the sweet mini mini tomatoes which we turned into salad.

Everyone was able to take back with them some pears and a bottle of apple juice.
Yet another lovely morning.