Courgette curry

 courgette curry

To use up some excess courgettes this curry went down very well. Would be good with rice as well as naan bread.

Courgette Flowers

 As my aim is to grow food in my little garden that can double up as a flower garden, food for insects and  food for my friends and family.

Courgettes and squashes do just that. They are bold plants which look great in a flower garden and will feed your family and friends for weeks during the summer (and if stored properly, winter months)

Today I picked them to stuff the flowers and made this tempura batter as I had run out of eggs and this vegan version works very well too.

Ingredients

Tempura Batter

• ▢ 1/4 cup cold aquafaba
• ▢ 1 cup ice cold soda water, , plus more to thin batter
• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ pinch salt
• ▢ pinch brown sugar
• ▢ 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ▢ 3 tbsp oil

Vegetable Tempura

• ▢ 1/2 crown broccoli, , chopped into bite sized florets
• ▢ 1 medium sweet potato, , sliced into 1/4" rounds
• ▢ 150 grams green beans, , ends trimmed
• ▢ 1 bunch green onions, , chopped into 3" pieces
• ▢ 1 bunch chives
• ▢ vegetable oil, , for frying

Instructions

• Important tip: Anytime you are not using the tempura batter make sure to keep it in the fridge. It needs to be ice cold to work out the best. 
• To make the tempura, add aquafaba to a medium bowl and vigorously whisk until foamy. Add the soda water while continually whisking to keep the foam. Add the flour, salt, brown sugar and baking powder and whisk until smooth. Add the oil and mix until smooth - if the batter is thick add another splash of soda water to thin it out. It should be like a crepe batter. Store in the fridge until ready to use. 
• In a dutch oven or a deep pot pour in the vegetable oil until it's about 2" deep. Heat until 350F. 
• Add the chopped vegetables to the batter and coat. Place individually in the hot oil and fry until golden brown or about 3-4 minutes. Remember not to over-crowd the oil as this is a serious safety hazard. Check out our deep frying safety tips for more information. 
• Place fried tempura on a plate with paper towel to absorb any extra grease. Serve with soy sauce or spicy mayo

Courgettes are growing like mad!

Today we are ploughing through 5 huge courgettes as the sun and recent heavy rain made them grown so fast we could not keep up with them.

Although our group today was small as most of the from spade to Plate members have returned to their countries or have gone on holiday, we managed to use almost all of the courgettes.


So together with Lucy (and baby Thomas), June and Rozenn we turned them in a delicious creamy Plant based Courgette soup


We made some Courgetti Spaghetti 'nests' we put them in a muffin pan, added, some finely chopped onion, olives, fetta cheese, cheddar and a mix of egg and a little white wine. This went into the over for 20 minutes  to have as a little appetizer.





The rest if the courgettes were turned into a Lemon Courgette cake. We added poppy seeds to the recipes and a handful of blackberries from the garden.  It turned out lovely

Courgette and apple chutney

I used Glo's pears and Tom's elderberries instead of dried fruit.

After a holiday I had taken my eye off the ball and low and behold I had some whoppers of courgettes. I also harvested some apples the other day and had some left over  so with today's from spade to plate group we made Courgette and Apple chutney

As this recipe asked for a lot of vegetables to be grated, Jenny and Peng Un were in charge of the food processor. Here they are in action

Meanwhile  June, Glo, Rozenn and Melendra, chopped and chatted around the kitchen table.

Sarolta mixed all the spices to go into the mix.  We mixed them all together and left it to marinate for 30 minutes whilst we headed to the allotment to pick the tomatoes and take in the autumn air. 

It was sunny and a lovely temperature, blessed again after such a wonderful summer.

We also went out into the back garden to pick more tomatoes, carrots  and basil for our soup.

For lunch we have some fresh tomato soup 
with some home made bread

Monday 13th August - apple pressing and what to do with these courgettes?

Rain forecasted, but we are not put off. Just put a gazebo up to keep up  dry and cosy

With so many lovely sweet cherry tomatoes ready, having 10 people for lunch is a great opportunity to use them as a snack.  We made some mini tomato, basil, mozzarella kebabs

Caprese Salad Skewers

Ingredients

• Cherry tomatoes

• Mozzarella balls

• Fresh Basil

• Olive Oil

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar  (we used our homemade blackberry balsamic vinegar)

• salt and pepper

1. Assemble, tomatoes, basil (roll from one end to the other), and mozzarella balls on medium-sized toothpicks. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

1. To make balsamic glaze, add one cup of balsamic vinegar to a sauce pan over medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, set on simmer for about 10-15 minutes until it reduces to a syrup consistency. You can check by dipping a spoon in the balsamic and if it covers the back of it, it's done. As it cools, it will thicken a bit more then drizzle on top of caprese salad skewers.

Instructions

Apple Juice

With the apples being ready nearly 14 days earlier than last year, it threw me a little as this is normally a task AFTER holiday, so now thanks to some lovely helpers I will turn this batch of eaters and cookers into some tasty apple juice and can take some time off in the knowledge that when I come back some lovely juice is awaiting us.







As it is such a busy morning, we had a easy lunch. Courgette soup with feta and mint  with quick bread.  For the bread we used 220gr self raising flour, with a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of natural yoghurt, and some water to make a good dough. In this case we also added some pressed garlic, but we could have used sundried tomatoes, olives too.

As a surprise the children brought a cake for us all to enjoy, it was so tasty that we asked Ruth for the recipe

Ingredients

• 10ml vegetable oil

• 1 red onion, chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1–2kg large courgettes, cut into big chunks

• 2 bay leaves

• Sprig thyme

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• Salt and black pepper

• 15g mint, finely chopped

• 100g feta

• Drizzle extra-virgin olive oil

• Zest 1 unwaxed lemon

• Chive flowers, to garnish (optional)

Method

This simple soup tastes outstanding and when you have courgettes coming out of your ears, it feels like an achievement to eat so many in one go. Anyone can make it and it freezes well too. 

I know that, like me, my wife and son both really enjoy this (daily) soup, although the question, ‘How many courgettes did you use up?’ does sometimes make me wonder if I should give them the weekends off.

Gently heat the oil in your largest saucepan. Add the onions, garlic and courgettes with a generous sprinkling of salt. 

Cover with a lid just smaller than the pan, so it rests on the mountain of courgettes, pressing them down. 

Keep the heat low and allow to cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, so that all the courgette chunks get a turn at being on the bottom. 

Add the bay leaves and the sprig of thyme and allow to cook gently for a further ten minutes. 

Pour in the lemon juice, then replace the lid for about 15 minutes. The courgette chunks will start to break down and release their moisture. 

When all the courgettes have softened, there will be a considerable amount of liquid in the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and liquidise the contents until the soup is smooth. 

The courgette skins will create dark speckles, making a great visual contrast to the almost luminous paler green. 

Stir the mint into the soup before serving in individual bowls. 

Crumble a small handful of feta into the middle of each bowl, drizzle with the extra-virgin olive oil and finish with the lemon zest and a scattering of chive flowers, if you are using them.

Courgette and bacon loaf with a courgette and runner beans salad

Today we made a Rustic soft zucchini ham and mozzarella loaf.
It could have done with a little bit more salt and even cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella.
I added a little bit of blue cheese to the mix which made it a little more tasty I think. Well worth doing again, especially when the courgettes are growing so well.

I am hoping that Melendra will send me a picture of it.

Ingredients for a plumcake mold 24 x 13 cm

250 g of sr flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

130 ml of milk

120 ml of sunflower oil

1 jar of white whole yogurt

4 medium zucchini

2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese

1 clove of garlic

100 g of cubes of cooked ham

150 g of cubed mozzarella cheese

salt and pepper

We made a Courgette and Runnerbean  side dish  go with this cheesey loaf.
This is meant to be done on the BBQ but even in the pan on the stove was it a delightful
dish

Melendra gave me this Healthy chocolate and zucchini muffin recipe, easy to make and a great way to use up the glut of courgettes, not to mention the gorgeous taste!

It was a great shame that we had to say good-bye to our good friend Felicia, she is returning back to China where maybe she can share some of the recipes she had done with us, it was a joy to have had her in our group,  and will be sorely missed. 

Because of this, we had forgotten to take the usual group picture as there was a lot of hugging and saying goodbye. 

Drying courgettes, apples and bananas

With intense sunshine for a prolonged period, I have decided to dry my fruit and vegetables for use later in the year. I normally do this at the end of the season when I have a glut, but the glut has already arrived when it comes to courgettes, Eileen gave me a job lot of bananas and apples, so dried those too.