Seasonal local food recipe No.368 – Aubergine curry with chilli, tomato and kaffir lime leaves

This recipe is taken from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey.  If you miss out the shrimp paste, you have got a pleasing vegetarian curry. The kaffir lime leaves can also be replaced with grated lime zest.

Kecap manis is a thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce which Rick Stein says is not interchangeable with ordinary soy sauce but we just put in a little extra dark soy sauce.  The use of fresh tomatoes gave the curry a nice fresh taste.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
2 medium-sized aubergines
7 tbsp vegetable oil
200g shallots, thinly sliced
25g garlic, thinly sliced
25g peeled ginger, finely chopped
2 medium-hot red chillies, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
200g chopped tomatoes
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp kecap manis
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp palm sugar
juice of 1/2 lime

Method
Cut the aubergines in half lengthways and then across into slices 1cm thick.  Heat 5 tablespoons of the oil in a wok or large, deep frying pan.  Add the aubergines and stir fry for 6 minutes until lightly golden.  Lift out with a slotted spoon onto a plate and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan, add the shallots and garlic and fry until golden.  Add the ginger, chillies, shrimp paste and tomatoes and cook for a few seconds more until the tomatoes have softened.

Return the aubergines to the pan with the lime leaves and 6 tablespoons of water.  Simmer for 2 minutes until the aubergines are tender and the sauce has reduced slightly.  Stir in the kecap manis, dark soy sauce, sugar, lime juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste, and serve.

Chillies and curly kale in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

In all our boxes this week: –
*chillies
*curly kale
*salad leaves
*onions
parsnips (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*swede
*cabbage (Camel CSA / Mark Norman, Bodmin)
leeks (Restharrow)

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit.
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.

Try these delicious kale and chilli dishes on Camel CSA’s recipe pages: –
Stir-fried curly kale with chilli and garlic
Hugh’s pasta with greens, garlic and chilli

Aubergines and sweetcorn in Camel CSA’s weekly boxes

The veg boxes are still bursting with our bountiful harvest. It’s been a wonderful, warm, sunny week.

In all our boxes this week:
*aubergines
*beetroot
*tomatoes
*calabrese or sprouting broccoli
*cucumbers
*sweetcorn
*green peppers
potatoes ‘Caesar’ (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*mixed salad bag
*French beans
*cucumbers

* = grown to organic principles. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these tasty dishes on Camel CSA’s recipe page –
Raw salsa
Chicken with lemon, and chilli broccoli

Seasonal local food recipe No.208 – Stir-fried curly kale with chilli & garlic

A quick and easy way to give kale a kick from ever-reliable BBC GoodFood. Use the kale in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week along with our homegrown garlic and chilli.

Serves: 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 8 minutes

Ingredients
200g curly kale
1tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 red chilli pepper, deseeded and sliced

Method
Heat the oil in a large wok or frying pan, then add the kale and a couple tbsp water. Season, then stir-fry for 5-8 mins, adding the garlic and chilli for the final 2 mins. When the kale is tender and a vibrant green, remove from the heat and serve.

Some chilli heat in this week’s veg boxes

Everyone will have:
* onions – red and white (Camel CSA)
* chillies (Camel CSA)
* salad (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* peppers (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* cavolo nero – black Tuscan kale (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
potatoes ((Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* spinach (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Chilli festive garlands ready to go in Christmas veg boxes

Camel CSA members got together as planned to create around 40 decorative chilli strings for our Christmas vegetable boxes.

At a ready guess we used up more than 4,000 surplus chillies harvested from the magnificent crop in our second polytunnel.

The garlands make beautiful swags for the mantelpiece, table centrepieces or runners, or Christmas tree decorations.

And, of course, they can be eaten!

Festive greetings to the chilli stringing team – Anne, Caroline, Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Evie, Jenny, Kitty, Mark, Penny, Robert, Tess and Trish F.

Hot chilli Christmas garlands create festive fire

Camel CSA’s vegetable boxes have been overflowing with a surplus of produce for months now.

All kinds of chutneys and preserves have been made from the veg gluts, but we’ve been almost defeated by the enormous surplus of chillies cultivated in our second polytunnel.

The problem with chillies is that a little goes a very long way.

They feature regularly in our weekly vegetable boxes. Volunteer veg packer Henrietta has made some into chilli jam. Volunteer grower Mark M (who loves to crunch them up raw) pickled some chillies in vinegar. Membership secretary Cath experimented with chilli oil.

All these culinary enterprises proved extremely expensive and time-consuming. I still have hundreds – no thousands – of chillies drying out slowly on the laundry rack above my boiler at home.

Enter now the artistic wing of our food-growing social enterprise.

The latest plan is to turn the chilli surplus into natural edible garlands to go in our Christmas veg boxes. After the festivities are over, the chillies can be plucked from the decorative string and used in cooking.

We’re holding a chilli stringing evening this coming week, when the hundreds of chillis will be threaded on to fishing line. We’re supplying the wine, the chillies, the materials and the surgical gloves(!) Camel CSA members are providing the labour.

I’m amazed at what people charge for hot chilli garlands, centrepieces and edible chilli and herb garlands, so I’ll be interested to see how many we can string together in just one evening!