From Spade to Plate: 3rd July -Cherry Jam - Vegetable curry

This post was first posted 1/7/2017
The other day I noticed a wonderful morello cherry tree in Pauline's back garden.
She did not have the energy to pick the cherries and turn them into something delicious.
So the Abundance Cambridge group got in action.

The NVS Cherry Harvesting group

As part of our From Spade to Plate project, we harvested the cherries and turn them into a reduced sugar 'jam'.  As for our lunch, we shall have a vegetable curry with freshly harvested, beans, courgettes, spinach and coriander from the garden and some rice.

We had a true united nations representation
June - UK
Servane - France
Sam - UK
Christine - China
Anne-Marie - America
Kiyomi- Japan
Silvia - Mexico
Simone - Italy
Karina - The Netherlands.

Servane reaching high

Anne marie -in charge of de-stoning

June harvesting cherries

We made 5 litres of cherry cordial and 9 jars of delicious jam

Jam jars filled to take home for some critical family jam tassting

Sam and Simone harvesting beans for the curry

T

Having a meal together

The recipe for the  Mung bean curry: 4 servings

1 cup of mung beans soaked for 6 hours or overnight
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 finely sliced onion
15 gr finely grated ginger
1 tsp tumeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
4-6 minced garlic cloves
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 carrots sliced into half moons
4 cups of vegetable stock
3 large handfuls of shredded silverbeet/spinach
sea salt to taste

In a large pot heat the oil over a medium high  heat and add the mustard seeds
When the mustard seeds start to pop add the cumin seeds and onion. Saute for a few minutes over a medium heat. When until onions become translucent, add the chilli, tumeric, ginger, garlic and tomatoes.

Continue to saute on gentle heat for another 5 minutes, until the tomato pieces are cooked down. Then mix in the mung beans and carrots. Stir thoroughly so all the spices and flavours coat the ingredients

Next add the stock and bring to boil. then turn down and gently simmer.
At this point you may want to add some salt, try 1/2 a teaspoon.

Cook for 30 minutes with the lid partially on, until the lentils are fully cooked and you have a thick caserole like consistency. You will need to stir consistently so that the beans don't stick to the bottom of the pot.
Once cooked, stir in the beet and simmer for a couple more minutes before turning off.

Serve with basmati rice, a dollop of yoghurt and a fresh salad.
Enjoy!

Stuffed Mushrooms - gluten free

This post was first posted 47/2017
Today we made a vegetarian gluten free  stuffed mushroom recipe with the mushrooms and rice and the french beans.



We started with a lettuce soup to show how easy and quick it is to make a delicious creamy soup.



As Pauline's Morello cherries are ready to harvest and we have 9 pairs of hands to prepare them, we picked them and turned them into jam.




Yesterday I made a batch and turned it into Cherry Juice and some jam.

Although I never use straws to drink from, I have found that the dried chives stalks that I was pulling out were perfect biodegradable straws!

  

A glorious day at From Spade to Plate

I made lavash today and thought of the 3rd feb when we first made this

We were welcomed by the sun today, the first bee was already buzzing so a little walk to the allotment was a treat.

As we were going to have to use the oven to bake our Lazy dough bread rolls so rather than having an empty oven to warm up, we made some Lavash. We used sesame and poppy seeds as well as some smoked paprika and put it directly into the flour. Then just before going into the oven we sprinkled sunflower and pumpkin seeds over the crackers.

 






When I saw this tasty Cheddar Soup,  and having some broccoli  and carrots in the allotment, thought we might slightly alter it to make a sauce rather than a soup. We just left out 2/3 of the stock, so it was thicker and  stayed in the bread rolls better.

Whilst June was keeping an eye on the oven (filled with crackers, vol au vents and bread rolls) the rest of us went off to forage for our salad.  We harvested some yacon, carrots, oca's in addition to edible flowers like daisies, corn flowers, calendula and rosemary (not too many as they are important for the bees to visit at this time of the year)

Mini Mushroom and Carrot pies,

Made these mini pies today and had great memories when we made it with from spade to plate in february.




As it was Esther's birthday today, we made a 2 ingredient chocolate cake, we only used chocolate and eggs, we topped it up with satsumas. Easy and delicious


For our main meal we made mushroom and carrot pies
Alice made the filling whilst Sabine cut out the short crust and puff pastry circles
.  

We made some hassleback potatoes 
 


 some rocket and pineapple salad.

Home made chickpea flour Tofu - a big hit

30/130 This week we made Chickpea flour tofu with both groups.  Not only was it very easy it was very quick and tasty too. So tasty in fact that most of use who hated tofu before we started cooking, are now convinced to make their own in future.


On Monday we used dried shop bought egg noodles, but after trying making them for my own family yesterday, we spent this morning making Chinese egg noodles from scratch. Fun, easy and tasty!



They went really well with my new Bami recipe. In the past I used the Conimex kruiden mix from Holland, but now I have found the spices combination, we made it with the spices from the kitchen and it tasted even nicer. We had this Bami with the pickled courgettes we made in the summer, some fried bananas and a fried egg.

Very filling but perfect for a day like today

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