Seasonal local food recipe No.143: Cauliflower cheese soup

This cold, wet spring weather invites soup! This recipe for a “perfect winter warmer” is from BBC Good Food magazine.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients
knob of butter
1 large onion , finely chopped
1 large cauliflower (about 900g/2lb), leaves trimmed and cut into florets
1 potato , peeled and cut into chunks
700ml vegetable stock (from a cube is fine)
400ml milk
100g mature cheddar , diced

Method
Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Tip in the onion and cook until softened, about 5 mins, stirring often. Add the cauliflower, potato, stock, milk and seasoning.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for about 30 mins until the cauliflower is soft and the potato almost collapsing.

Whizz in a food processor or crush with a potato masher until you get a creamy, thick soup. Top up with more milk to thin a little if serving in mugs. When ready to serve, warm through, ladle into mugs or bowls, top with the cheese pieces, then stir through before eating.

You can make it ahead up to two days in advance, cool, cover and leave in the fridge until needed, or freeze for up to one month.

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Cornish new potatoes in this week’s boxes

This week everyone will have:
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA and Mark Norman)
* parsley (Camel CSA)
* leeks (St Kew Harvest)
new potatoes (GrowFair Cornwall)
cauliflower (GrowFair Cornwall/Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will have extra new potatoes plus:
* rhubarb (Mark Norman)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* radishes (Camel CSA)
* sprouted mung beans (Mark Norman)

* = grown to organic principles

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It’s time to… plant shallots and sow salad rocket

The overwintered oriental leaves that have kept our vegetable boxes going over the past few months are starting to go to seed.

Instead, we have plenty of mixed lettuce, baby chard, radishes, bright red and yellow leaf beet, spring onions and salad rocket in the polytunnel to look forward to.

Our three expert growers have also been busy preparing growing beds and planting outside over the past week. As the last of the previous season’s onion harvest went into the veg boxes, the last of this year’s onion sets went into the ground.

Already planted are shallots, parsnips, beetroot, broad beans, turnips, cabbage, spring onions, radishes, perpetual spinach, garlic and calabrese. Next job on the list is to sow a bed of peas.

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Seasonal local food recipe No.142: Misticanza (sauteed mixed greens)

This Italian recipe tosses an assortment of green leaves with chilli and garlic in oil in a hot pan to make them more interesting.

It’s recommended by Bridget Gould, one of Camel CSA’s three expert growers, and comes from Bringing Italy Home by Ursula Ferrigno.

Any spring greens will do. Bridget says: “I have also used black kale to make this delicious dish and will be trying it with turnip tops when they’re available!”

Serves 4

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
675g mixed greens (spinach, Swiss chard, purple sprouting broccoli, endive)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1-2 small hot chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil

Method
Trim and thoroughly wash the leaves and vegetables.

Fill a large pan with three litres of water and bring to the boil. Add salt to taste. Stir in the greens and boil for three to five minutes, or until just tender. Drain and refresh under cold water and drain again. Squeeze to eliminate all the water, then chop coarsely.

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and chillies and cook lightly to soften. Add the greens, and saute until heated through. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil or fresh lemon juice.

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Seasonal local veg in this week’s boxes

There may be a little less in our boxes this week as the “hungry gap” starts to make itself felt.
Everyone will have:
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* salad bag – mixed lettuce, leaf beet, mibuna, baby chard,  endive, chives (Camel CSA)
* leeks (St Kew Harvest)
* swede (Mark Norman)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* radish bunch (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
cauliflower (Camel CSA/Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

* = grown to organic principles

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It’s time to… sow fennel and Swiss chard

Camel CSA’s hard-working secretary Mike Sadler loves fennel, so we’re sowing a whole 120-module tray of it especially for him. The seedlings will be planted outdoors later on our plot.

Other jobs for the growing team this Sunday morning include sowing more cabbage, chard and perpetual spinach (leaf beet) into modules. We’ll also be planting rocket in the polytunnel to add variety to our salad bags.

There’s parsnip seeds to sow straight into the ground as well as more onion beds to prepare and onion sets to plant.

See you there!

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Seasonal local food recipe No.141: Swiss chard (or spinach), blue cheese and pine nut lasagne

This tasty vegetarian dish is recommended by VegBox Recipes. They say: “This is an amazingly delicious recipe for Swiss chard or spinach lasagne. We kept going back for more.”

Serves 4

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
1 packet of no-cook lasagne sheets
500g Swiss chard (or spinach)
2 medium onions
4 cloves garlic
200g tub of half-fat creme fraiche (or Greek yoghurt)
75g pine nuts
200g blue cheese, such as Dolcelatte or Gorgonzola
200g mozzarella cheese
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon olive oil

750ml milk
1 oz butter
2 heaped tablespoons cornflour
1 bay leaf
75g parmesan cheese (or Cheddar)

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C (gas mark 4, 350F) . Heat a large pan (dry) and add the pine nuts. Cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes, until they start to brown. Put them in a bowl, to stop them burning.

Peel the onion and chop finely. Peel and crush the garlic. Wash the chard or spinach leaves and dry thoroughly (a salad spinner is ideal). Chop roughly.

Gently heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 5 minutes, until the onion is starting to go translucent. Add the chard or spinach and the nutmeg and stir well. Cover and cook for 3 minutes, until the chard or spinach has wilted.

Mix in the creme fraiche. Crumble the blue cheese and add to the chard or spinach mixture. Grate the mozarella and add. Stir well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To make the sauce, put the milk in a pan, add the bay leaf and bring to a gently boil. Simmer for 5 minutes on the lowest heat setting. Remove the bay leaf. Turn off the heat.

Mix the cornflour with 1 tablespoon milk or water, to form a thick paste. Pour into the milk, whisking constantly. Heat gently until the sauce thickens. Simmer gently for 3 minutes. Add more milk (a little at a time) if the sauce is too thick. Then add half ofthe cheese and stir well, to melt it. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Put ¼ of the cheese sauce into the bottom of a lasagne dish (about 9 or 10 inches in length). Cover this with ½ of the chard or spinach mixture. Top with lasagne sheets. Repeat. Top the lasagne with the remaining cheese sauce. Sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese.

Bake for about 45 minutes until the lasagne is bubbling and the top is golden brown. Top tip: this is easier to serve if you let it stand for 10 minutes after baking.

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St Kew Harvest leeks in this week’s veg boxes

We’ve another excellent selection of veg in this week’s boxes, including leeks from Jeremy Brown at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop and first of the rhubarb from our expert grower Mark Norman’s plot in Bodmin.

All small and standard veg boxes have: -
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* leeks (St Kew Harvest)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* Swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes also have: - 
extra potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* rhubarb (Mark Norman, Bodmin) 
* radishes (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

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It’s time to… sow radishes and plant more onion sets

We’ve been enjoying some ideal growing weather in Cornwall. We had south-west gales and torrential rain on Easter Monday (which sent the tourists scurrying home early) followed by several days of spring showers and warm sunshine.

So we’ve been hard at work planting hundreds more onion sets and sowing radishes.

We’ve also planted out bunched spring onions and shallots, spring cabbage and some colourful ruby red and canary yellow leaf beet (perpetual spinach).

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Seasonal local food recipe No.140: Sag aloo (chard or spinach with potato)

A quick and easy dish that can be made totally with the contents of Camel CSA’s veg boxes over the past fortnight – bar the spices, of course.

This version’s from Riverford Organic Veg but originally came from the Schumacher College at Dartington. They say: “Nice with rice, yoghurt raita and Indian pickles as a vegetarian meal or as part of a bigger Indian meal.”

If anything, the stronger-tasting Swiss chard is better than spinach on this occasion.

Serves: 4
Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 large onion chopped
2 large potatoes cut into 1/2 inch cubes or smaller
400g spinach or chard, stalks removed, coarsely chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp clove garlic coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
olive oil and butter

Method
Fry the cumin seeds in a heavy bottomed pan in the oil and butter until just starting to brown. Add the onion and fry until starting to brown. Add the potato, garlic, turmeric, ginger and garam masala, then fry until starting to soften. Add the chard or spinach and cook until it collapses over the potato. Salt to taste.

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