From spade to plate: Chard, Chickpea and mushroom Curry

The allotment is going into hibernation. Have cut back the asparagus, harvested the pumpkins and the  last of the sunflowers are in a vase in the kitchen.

Not so much left to eat from this allotment now we are about to enter November, just some yellow raspberries, corn salad, spinach beet and in a few months time the purple sprouting broccoli will surprise us.

The garlic I planted a couple of weeks ago is coming up, so are the winter onions and the broadbeans.
Lots of lovely food to look forward to in the new year.










With today's from Spade to plate we make

Chard, chickpea and mushroom curry  
with rice and flat bread.

Chard, chickpea and mushroom curry (V)

 Serves four to six.

2 tbsp sunflower (or rapeseed) oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped 
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 big pinch chilli flakes
300g chard, leaves separated from stalks
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 tin plum tomatoes
300g mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 tsp garam masala
Fresh coriander leaves, to serve 
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onions for 10 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and spices, and cook for a minute or two more – add a splash of water if it looks like it's going to catch and burn.

Remove the stalks from the chard and chop into bite-sized pieces. Add to the pan, cook for five minutes, then add the chickpeas. Crush the tinned tomatoes to a pulp with your hands and add these, too, as well as any juices from the tin. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the mushrooms until all liquid has been driven off and they take on some colour.

Shred the chard leaves, add to the curry pot along with the mushrooms, and cook for a few minutes, stirring often, until the leaves are tender and wilted. Stir in the garam masala, add salt and pepper to taste and serve scattered with coriander, with rice and/or flatbreads

Ingredients for the flatbread

• 2 cups / 300g plain flour (all purpose flour) (level cups, unsifted, not packed), + keep 1/4 cup extra for dusting & adjusting dough
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 tbsp / 50g butter (1.75 oz)
• 3/4 cup / 185 ml milk
• 1/2 tbsp oil (for cooking)

Instructions

1. Combine butter and milk and heat until butter is just melted - on stove or in microwave.
2. Combine 2 cups flour, salt, butter and milk.
3. Sprinkle work surface with flour then knead for a few minutes until it is smooth - it doesn't need much kneading. Add extra flour if the dough is too sticky.
4. Wrap with cling wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes or so.
5. Dust bench top with flour, cut dough into 4 pieces, roll into balls, then roll out into about 1/8" / 0.3cm thick rounds.
6. Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a non stick pan over medium heat - or lower if you have a heavy based skillet. (Note 1)
7. Place one flatbread in the pan, cook for around 1- 1 1/2 minutes - it should bubble up (see photo in post)- then flip and cook the other side, pressing down if it puffs up. There should be a smallish golden brown spots on both sides.
8. Stack the cooked bread and keep wrapped with a tea towel - the moisture helps soften the surface, making them even more pliable.
9. Continue to cook with remaining pieces.
10. Optional: Brush or spray bread with olive oil or melted butter, for a more luxurious finish. Or even with melted butter mixed with minced garlic for a garlic butter version!
    

    

    
    
    

From Spade to Plate: Fresh ravioli

With less and less ingredients in the allotment, we need to find ways to make a tasty meal that 'stretches'

What to do with one largish butternut squash.

As I had the oven on anyway to make this week's bread, I roasted the squash so we could use it for the various dishes for this week's from spade to plate session..


June had the messy job,she cut off the skin and put the flesh in a large pan. We pureed it and scooped out two large ladles worth to use for the ravioli filling. The rest we kept in the pan, added vegetable stock and brought it to the boil.
When all mixed, we added a good dose of five spice.  That's it. No onion, garlic, cream etc, just stock and roasted pumpkin
The soup was gorgeous with some freshly baked bread.



As I had some organic eggs and flour, I decided to make some fresh pasta.
For the pumpkin filling, we used some sage, cream cheese and blue cheese, salt and pepper and mixed ready for use.  After we made the ravioli we brought to the boil a large pan with salted water and for a couple of minutes and then added the ravioli and left it in  until the ravioli floated to the top.. We fished them out of the water with a slotted spoon, let it drain for a few minutes a drop of extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and chopped parley and chives to make it pretty as well as tasty.

This is a simple way to turn a minimum of ingredients into a delicious meal.
As I happen to have a pasta machine and a ravioli maker, we used these, but with a rolling pin you can make this just as well.

To get a good recipe click here

We use only the 2 egg yolks and a little more water. With the egg whites we will make a sorbet for dessert.

So lovely too to see Marie Christine again, who came straight from the airport to join us for a cooking session.

Mushroom Ravioli

Ingredients
Serves: 6 

·       3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

·       1 onion chopped

·       1 garlic clove, chopped

·       450 g (1 lb) mushrooms, finely chopped

·       3 tbsp sherry

·       100 g (3½ oz) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs

·       55 g (2 oz) Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

·       2 eggs

·       50gr ricotta cheese

·       2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

·       1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram or ¼ tsp dried marjoram

·       handful of garden peas

·       2 tbsp tiny tender sprigs of fresh thyme

·       1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional)

·       salt and pepper

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Method 

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and cook for a few seconds, then add the garlic and the mushrooms. Cook over a high heat, stirring, to brown the mushrooms, then reduce the heat and cook for about 10 minutes or until the mixture has reduced in volume.
2. Pour in the sherry and cook, stirring, until it has evaporated. Remove from the heat and add seasoning to taste.
3. Stir in the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, eggs, parsley and marjoram. The ingredients should be thoroughly bound into a moist paste. Set aside in the fridge while you prepare the pasta.
4. Put together your ravioli. Then freeze.
5. Boil water with a little salt. Then add the peas  after 5 minutes add the frozen ravioli. Per person add 6 pieces of ravioli on a plate, top with peas, drizzle  olive oil,  fresh black pepper, some fresh thyme leaves, plenty of parmesan and I topped it with a pea shoot (with flower)  This looked and tasted spectacular.
6. Serve with a salad.

From Spade to Plate: Pumpkins more ways than one: Part 3: Pumpkin curry and Pumpkin brownies

As colder days have now arrived a hearty pumpkin, spinach and chickpea curry

 with naan bread 




could be just the ticket, finished off with some pumpkin cake with icing sugar cream topping



Today we are showing some substitutes for what is in the recipes.

What to do when you run out of icing sugar: Make your own  use normal sugar and corn flour (put in 60% sugar and 40% cornflour)

What to do if you can't get lemon grass: Use lemon balm or lemon zest of 1 lemon to replace 2 stalks

What to do if you run out of eggs when you bake? Use Chia seeds: 3 tbsp water to 1 tbsp seeds. leave to well for 10 mins and use instead of 1 egg.

Thank you to Rozenn for sending me some more Pumpkin Recipes

Last apple pressing of the season

Mairaed suggested that I pick the apples of the tree in her allotment.
They were beautiful and hope they store well. Then, disaster strikes, when I arrived home, the bottom of the box dropped out so all the apples were bruised. Now they are no longer good for storing so change of plan we shall press them.

I put a call out to the new comers and visiting scholars and Gloria  (Spain) , Melandra (US) Oltea (Romania) and Githa my dear neighbour came to help. What a lovely morning we had. We pressed 20 litres. They took some juice apples and pears home for their families to taste and I bottled the rest for the winter.

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From Spade to plate: Monday 2nd October: Pumpkin many ways Part 2 - No bake Pumpkin Pie

As our sessions are relatively short (2 hours) I would like to start straight away with the making of the breadrolls and the pumpkin Pie.  Although these are quick 30 minute bread rolls, they need proving so hope it will be ready in time to have with our soup.



The pumpkin pie, is a no bake recipe and need refrigerating for a couple of hours, so again, hope that works for us in time.

No bake pumpkin Pie
This is a made up recipe, with inspiration of 3 other recipes I had, I have tried it and it tastes lovely. Just hope that we have enough time to refrigerate it enough to make and eat it at the same from spade to plate session.

No Bake Pumpkin Pie

1 c cooked pumpkin

1 c milk

¾ c brown sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp ginger

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

Making the shell

2 oz melted butter

7 oz crushed ginger nuts biscuits

2 tbsp maple syrup

Mix and press into the bottom of a lined pie dish

Combine all ingredients in a heavy duty pan, consistently stirring. Bring to a boil over medium heat until thicken. Pour into the pie crust and let cool before refrigerating. (have put in the freezer to speed up the cooling period)

For lunch we will make some Lentil and Zucchini Soup. The zucchini are in fact the marrows we picked a couple of weeks ago and could do with turning into something warm and hearty.

This recipe serves 4.

2 cups red lentils
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 medium zucchini diced
3 3/4 vegetable stock
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
salt and pepper
Crusty bread to serve.

Cook onion in oil until soft.
Reserve a hand full of zucchini to use later
Add the remaining zucchini to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes, add the stock and tumeric and bring to ta boil.
Reduce the hear over and simmer for 30 mins. Season with salt and pepper
When the soup is ready,  puree with the hand blender. Then just before serving add the reserved zucchini to the soup and cook for 1 minutes. Serve with warm crusty bread.



This coming year I hope to plant more vegetables in my back garden so that the from spade to plate group does not have to go out in wind and rain to the allotment to get the produce. Having the main ingredients in my back garden should be much easier.



This week we shall plant red baron winter onions, which we hope to harvest June 2018


This week we June, Sayoko, Glo, Simone, Maria Jose, Rozenn and Sarolta joined me.

From Spade to Plate: 25th September. Pumpkin many ways: Part 1. - Soup, Waffles and Jam

What to do with a large pumpkin?

With Halloween on the way and many people buying a pumpkin just for carving  I thought it might be nice to show a variety of recipes that can be used with the flesh.


In May I sowed the pumpkin and protected it from pests (slugs) as it was sown in a no dig allotment I did not have to worry about watering it. If I had been a farmer I would have had to spend lots of time and care to get this pumpkin to market and only to see it rot at the side of the road after it had been carved..  The truth is, you can do both. Enjoy the decorating. and use the seeds and flesh for some delicious treats.

Over the next few From Spade to Plate sessions I will do a variety of Pumpkin recipes.
It was a true united nations event

Bella - German
Rozenn - France
Lucy- Brasil
Yasmine - Canada
Simone - Italy
June - United Kingdom
Andrea - Canada
Karina - The Netherlands
Sayoko - Japan

For the main course we have Pumpkin Soup

As a dessert pumpkin Waffles and lemon Marrow  jam.

Ingredients for Marrow Jam: (makes 2 bonne Maman jars)

• 1lb x marrow peeled, seeded and diced (1 x 1 inch cubes)
• 1/3 pack of Dutch reduced sugar Jelly sugar. 
• 1 x lemon, zested and juices
• 1 oz x root ginger, (optional)  chopped & bruised (bashed with a rolling pin to release the natural ginger oils) 

Put marrow, lemon juice and rind in a pan with a little water and heat until the marrow is soft.

Puree with hand blender, then add the jelly sugar and boil for 1 minute.

Pour into sterilized jars and leave to cool.

Tomatoes, chillies and Peppers

We had a great year for tomatoes, although the ones I am using today I picked last week when they were still green and had to ripen off the vine due to blight.


I made 4 jars of tomatoes to use in soups (added basil and salt) and boiled for 30 minutes.

My other favourite this time of the year is to turn my peppers, tomatoes and chillies into sweet chilli Jam.  Thank you to Paola who gave me a few more jars as now I have run out! No doubt soon she will be able to taste some of this delicious jam.

Good place for pears and eating apples (late)

Went to St Edmunds college today thinking there would be loads of apples to pick as per usual.
However when I showed up, there was not an apple on the tree. I think the season is about 2-3 weeks early so missed the boat here.

Then went via French's road, where I normally go for late eating apples, and the kind owners were very happy for me to pick and tidy up the rotten ones.  Also their neighbours were happy for me to pick.

Then went on to Kate L. on Gough Road to pick Conference pears from her garden as well as some crab apples to make some apple cider vinegar. In her road in the verge was a pear tree which extremely large pears. Won't know yet if they will ripen or juice but will find out very soon.

Apples Galore - From Spade to plate Monday 5th Septembr

At the moment we are over run with cooking apples. Although at first I would have loved to press apples with the group, I could not get hold of any eaters so the juice would have been far too tart. Therefore change of plan.

We shall turn some of these beauties into delicious apple chutney which would take most of the time allocated for the From Spade to Plate group.

As the day started with rather dull and dreary weather, we stayed in and started the preparation but once the sun came through,  Bella, Rozenn and Simone went to the allotment with me to pick some leafbeet for the soup, sneaked in some tasty yellow raspberries and hidden cherry tomatoes.

We used some sage to 'clean' our teeth and explained the no dig method of gardening I use here.

Today we have some new visitors as well as the familiar ones:
June, Serolta, Bella, Rozenn, Glo, Gail and Simone

For lunch we make some cream of spinach soup with some Herby Feta Scones  Potato scones

Trial: mix between the potato scone recipe and the herby feta scones.

The Gluten Free version was delicious and light, well worth doing again.

450 gr potatoes
12 tsp salt
2 oz butter
4 oz Self Raising flour/ gluten free version
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 tbsp chives
1 tsp Thyme,

bake on griddle.

Abundance Cambridge - Apple pressing for the Victoria Homes

As this Sunday we shall be having the annual Victoria Homes bring and share event, I went to pick the apples from Alison's and Fernando's trees to turn them into apple juice for Sunday's event.
As the weather was good, some of the children are not yet in school and could do with an activity and I had some keen members from Spade to Plate group, I decided to use this gorgeous day to press and bottle. We also picked some of the apples from 70 VR as they started to drop.