Peas galore and strawberry jam

It was such a lovely surprise to have Julie come and join us on her first day of retirement.
The fact that Annie managed to make it was amazing too. Her baby is due soon so she is flying back to China tomorrow, but not until she had another cooking session at From Spade to Plate!

She brought Tang (or her English name: June) for whom it was her first time to join this group. She became the queen of pasta making.  We split the group up a little so that we managed all the activities within the 2 hours.

Bella,  Yumi and June  made the pasta, which was left to dry whilst we all went to the allotment to pick the strawberries for the jam.

Whilst there, we picked some flowers to take home and cheer up our houses.

Whilst one group was making the pasta,  Veridiana, Annie and Julie  shelled the peas and cut the asparagus to go into the pasta at the last minute.


We made a soup out of the pea shells, some potatoes and ends of asparagus. Added a couple of hands of lettuce leaves and a stock cube, we let this bubble away whilst picking the strawberries so on return it was soft enough to put through the Passe vite (Mouly), to thicken it a little we added some corn flour.  The soup turned out to be delicious with a toasted piece of granary loaf.



The Jam 90% strawberries and 10% rhubarb was just enough for everyone to take a jar home. They were labeled and left to cool down to set. Fingers crossed it turns out well.

We had our soup and just before everyone had finished, we added the pasta into the boiling salted water for 1 minute. Once done, the asparagus, peas, (zest of 1 lemon) blue cheese and pepper and salt were added and topped with herbs before serving.  Lovely and so simple!

Another lovely morning. I am so lucky with such lovely friends and such amazing food.

New potato and broad bean salad with strawberry puff braid

It is time to harvest the potato bed and do something with the broad beans.

Simone showing the 'mother' potato

An amazing crop from a very shallow bed

Carmen, Mairead and June harvesting broadbeans

Shelling the braod beans and having a chat

This potato and broad bean salad  was just the ticket
We used  milk mayo for the potato salad

We went out to harvest the strawberries in the vertical garden bed.
and got enough to make a 
strawberry braid as well as some strawberry cordial.

washing the strawberries

Asako and June making the braid

Apricot crown

Monday 4th June: From Spade to Plate: Broadbean and asparagus risotto with strawberry and mixed salad

What a joy!  Both the strawberries and the broad beans are ready to be harvested.
Now what can I do to make a nice lunch out of this?

Thanks to the internet I have found two lovely recipes.

The Broadbean and asparagus risotto  is based on this recipe and added some lemon rind and juice to lift it a bit.


As a salad we will harvest the leaves of the lettuces we sowed in March and include the first strawberries

As the morning was very overcasted and a light rain, I harvested the broadbeans and the asparagus earlier in the day, just in case it would rain properly when the group would arrive. It turned out that it was dry enough to go out and pick more strawberries from the garden for the salad and the strawberry and banana icecream.

We also managed to go into the allotment where we picked flowers to cheer up our homes with colour and sweet memories. (somehow many of us have old memories when seeing Sweet William flowers)





The risotto and the salad were delicious!

Wednesday 30th May. From Spade to plate: Creamy mushroom and spinach

As we are clearing the chard from the allotment, and sowing again for the coming season.

A bit of a Green theme today.

Asparagus and Spinach soup  with tomato bruschetta

What is so wonderful about our group is that apart from sowing, harvesting, and turning lovely fruit and vegetables into something delicious and nutritious, we spend a lot of time chatting and discussing  issues that are questions from our foreign visitors. Felicia had questions regarding the history of the wives of King Henry 8th. Thank goodness for Melendra's input as she seemed to know more about the UK royal history than the English members of our group. Also great that we had Google on hand, to verify the facts.

Melendra and Felicia, checking our History facts

 I thought  this tasty  recipe with Mushrooms and spinach, thought it might go well with some rice.





As a dessert we had banana, strawberry and rhubarb icecream.

We had frozen banana slices, whizzed it in the foodprocessor with some strawberry jam and stewed rhubarb. We then had an instant creamy, vegan icecream.

Bank Holiday Monday: From Spade to Plate

We had a full house today. It was great as the swiss chard had bolted and therefore in need of removing and making space for the next crop.

freshly harvested chard

I decided to make a cream of spinach soup with some garlic bread (only a couple of ingredients)
This basic bread recipe is quick and easy and is the basis for pretzels, pizza base and bagels as well.

Terry washing the Chard

For our main meal we made Swiss Chard with chickpeas and cousous.

A hive of activity

For dessert we made a rhubarb muffin

Chopping the rhubarb

What joy to get to hear from my lovely From Spade to Plate friends.

Over the last few weeks I received the occasional update from my From Spade to Plate friends.
It is so lovely to know that the recipes we have used are tried in their own accommodation to share with their families.

Last week I heard from Asako and Annie,



 today within hours of making the elderflower cordial I received this from Yumi

Hello Karina,

I was very enjoyed your session today.

After that, I and Yuki went to a park to find elderflower .

It was difficult, but we found two elderflower trees!

We picked many flowers.It was very interesting!

I am looking forward to make elderflower cordial.

Best regards 

Yumi

It was great fun. I’m so excited about the vegan smoked salmon. Joe and Sage will be too!

Love,
Melendra

Paola's Spinach recipe.

Cook the spinach, squeeze all the water out and chop. Mix with ricotta, egg (or eggs) parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg and a bit of flour.
We used this gnocchi recipe but added loads of spinach

Form into balls and roll into flour. 

When the water comes to boil drop them in and lift them out once they come to the surface (like gnocchi). Don't let the water boil too hard because that could cause them to disintegrate….





For the tomato sauce put some oil in a pan with a clove of garlic. Fry the garlic without letting it go brown and add chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar as well as basil.
Cook for about 10 minutes, Voila!
Ciao x

Thanks Paola, the end result was gorgeous.

Wednesday 9th May: Leek, mushroom spinach and nettle galette

First thing this morning I went to pick some rhubarb so we could started the cordial straight away.
It was easy and quick to make. We even managed a glass in the sunshine, whilst the crumble and galette were in the oven.

Yesterday I saw some lovely nettles that we could use for todays meal.
I think is goes well in the Leek, mushroom, spinach Galette we just added the nettle tops after thoroughly washing them (with gloves on) then blanching them to avoid any stinging.

The end result was delicious


We  picked the first of this year's lettuce that we sowed with the group a few weeks ago and had it  with our meal.





As a desert we have a rhubarb crumble

Dandelion bread - Dandelion Cordial

At this time of the year the grass in the allotment is dotted with dandelions and plenty of them.
Did you know that you can turn them into delicious bread?

Making some dandelion jelly to eat with it.

Dandelion cordial


Some nutritional facts about Dandelion