Seasonal recipe No 61: Courgette gratin

An excellent, tasty recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie Does book.

Serves 6-8 as a side
(half quantities makes a generous main for 2)

Preparation: 35 minutes
Cooking in oven: 40 minutes

Ingredients
2 tbsp duck fat or olive oil
3 onions, peeled and very finely sliced
180g basmati rice
7 medium courgettes, finely sliced
500ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
4 heaped tbsp crème fraîche
150g emmental or cheddar cheese, finely grated
salt and black pepper
olive oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Get a large frying pan on a low heat and add the fat or oil and a splash of water. Once melted and hot, add the sliced onions and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until soft and sticky. Meanwhile, rinse your rice under cold running water until the water runs clear.

When the onions look ready, add the sliced courgettes to the pan along with the rice. Mix them up, then pour in the hot stock. Turn the heat up and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the mixture to stay quite loose and oozy, so add a little more stock if needed. Take the pan off the heat and gently stir in the crème fraîche and 100g of your grated cheese. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, then taste and adjust the seasoning if need be.

Lightly oil a roasting tray, gratin dish or casserole-type pan, approx 25cm x 25cm. Tip everything into the prepared tray, making sure the rice is evenly distributed. Roughly flatten it out and try to get most of the courgettes on top to help keep the moisture as it cooks. Sprinkle over the rest of the grated cheese.

Bake in the hot oven for 40 minutes, or until the top is golden and bubbling and the rice has absorbed most of the liquid. Serve next to grilled meat or fish and a lovely fresh salad.

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Blackcurrant bliss in this week’s veg boxes …

and peas and cucumber too.

Contents of our vegetable boxes this week are provided by Mark Norman, Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest and Camel CSA’s own plot, all of it grown to organic principles.

Small vegetable boxes will have:
potatoes – Pentland Javelin (Mark)
carrots (Mark)
blackcurrants (Mark)
peas (Jeremy)
cucumber (Jeremy)
broad beans (Camel CSA)
salad bags (Camel CSA)

Standard veg boxes will also have:
extra potatoes
mixed courgettes (Jeremy)
marrow (Jeremy)
swiss chard/perpetual spinach (Camel CSA)

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The year’s first courgettes in the veg boxes

As we complete our first year of veg boxes, we’ll be getting some tasty treats this week – including beetroot and courgettes from Mark Norman in Bodmin and Cornish strawberries from Treworder Fruit at Treworder Barton, Egloshayle, Wadebridge.

Small boxes will have:
* new potatoes (St Kew Harvest)
* lettuce (Camel CSA/St Kew Harvest)
* beetroot (Mark Norman)
* courgettes (Mark)
Cornish strawberries (Treworder Fruit)
* cabbage/spring greens (St Kew Harvest)

Standard boxes will also have:
* extra new potatoes (St Kew Harvest)
* broad beans (Camel CSA)
* cauliflower (Mark)
* turnips (Mark)

* = grown to organic principles

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Children join the beanfeast

Three of Camel CSA’s youngest members contributed their own homegrown veg to this week’s boxes.

Lilac (8), Willow (7) and four-year-old August grew all the runner beans and some of the courgettes.

Core group member Antonina, co-owner of St Kew Harvest Farm Shop, explains:

“Lilac, Willow and August wanted to share their harvest grown at their home at St Kew. 

 

So I paid them £8.60 for lots of runner beans and courgettes and three large marrows which they have grown from seed all by themselves. 

 

They’ve been following our blog, and got concerned about the beans being eaten!”

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Seasonal recipe No 9 – Grilled courgette, tomato and bean salad with basil sauce

There are plenty of tomatoes and courgettes in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.  This delicious salad is a firm favourite in my household, especially when we have grown lots of basil.  It comes from Jane Baxter at the Riverford Organics field kitchen.  

Preparation Time: Overnight
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
200g dried cannellini or haricot beans, soaked overnight
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 courgettes, cut into ribbons 5mm thick
a small punnet of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
for the dressing:
1 bunch of basil leaves
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
a pinch of salt
100ml olive oil

Method
1. Put the drained beans in a large pan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour or so, until tender. Drain, season to taste and dress with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Toss the courgettes with the remaining olive oil and grill on a ridged griddle pan (or under a hot grill) until tender and lightly charred.
3. For the dressing, put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and whiz until smooth.
4. Gently mix the beans, tomatoes and courgettes together in a large bowl and add enough basil dressing to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Notes
If you cheat and use tinned beans which have been rinsed and drained, this salad can be prepared in less than 30 minutes.

Nigel Slater makes a similar Courgette, tomato and ricotta bake, which also uses a generous amount of basil.  The first time I made this dish I had a “senior” moment and used mozzarella cheese instead of ricotta.  It was still very tasty!  He has lots of other ideas on how to use up a bumper crop of courgettes.

Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.

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This week’s boxes

We are enjoying some more of our recently-harvested onions in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s veg boxes this week. 

The Swiss chard, beetroot and potatoes also come from our own plot at St Kew Highway. 

Our expert growers have provided most of the rest of the vegetables.  Jeremy Brown cultivated some of the cucumbers and the flat-leaved parsley.  Jane Mellowship supplied the salad packs.  Mark Norman grew the courgettes and the remaining cucumbers, which feature in our Recipe No 7 – Cucumber raita.

We have a new local supplier – Polmorla Market Garden, Wadebridge – which provided the freshly-picked runner beans.  Unlike the rest of the box contents, these are not grown organically.

Oops!

The boxes also contain bunches of celeriac leaves, picked in ignorance as they were mistaken for mature flat-leaved parsley. 

These could be used as a garnish on salads or soup.  However they are rather coarse and have a distinctive, strong flavour.

It emerges that I may have caused irrevocable damage to our celeriac crop as a result of this inadvertent act of horticultural vandalism.  This is one of the downsides of relying on enthusiastic amateurs like me. 
S-o-o-o embarrassing!

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Seasonal recipe No 5 – Courgette frittata

A quick and easy recipe from Patience Gray’s Honey from a Weed. Tasty too!

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes

Serves 2

Ingredients
3 or 4 courgettes
1 small onion
olive oil
4 eggs
parsley
1 dessertspoon pane grattugiato (crushed crumbs from oven-dried bread)
1 dessertspoon grated parmesan
salt, pepper

Method
Wash, dry and dice the courgettes and chop the onion. Pour a little olive oil into an omelette pan, and fry the courgettes and onion on a quick fire until they brown, tossing them often, adding a minimum of salt.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with a little salt, pepper, some finely chopped parsley, and add the pane grattugiato and the grated parmesan. Pour the egg mixture over the browned contents of the pan and reduce the heat.

When the frittata is almost set, take a large plate, lid or board, cover the pan with it and reverse the frittata on to it. Then slide it back into the pan. Both sides should be brown. Serve at once, or let it cool and eat it on a picnic.

Notes
You can make a quantity of pane grattugiato (a good way of using up odd bits of bread) and it will keep well in a jam jar.

Have a look at these recipe suggestions on the eat the seasons website.

If you’ve got a favourite courgette recipe you’d like to share with the rest of us, please insert it as a comment on this post.

Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.

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This week’s share of the harvest

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Beautiful plump peas

The harvest from Camel Community Supported Agriculture includes some beautiful plump peas in this week’s share.  Otherwise we are providing a similar selection of vegetables to last week. 

The broad bean glut continues so please think of different ways to use these versatile vegetables. Please pick up your box from St Kew Harvest, as detailed in the e-mail to members. 

Subscribers can expect all or some of of the following: -

• potatoes (Arran Pilot)
• onions
• broad beans
• beetroot
• peas
• salad pack / lettuce
• cucumber
• courgettes
• turnips

 A definitive list and recipe ideas for beetroot will be posted once the boxes have been packed on Friday.

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