Seasonal local food recipe No.367 – Egg fried rice

This is an old favourite from Ken Hom‘s classic Hot Wok, using the cucumber from this week’s veg boxes.

Serves 2-4

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients
Cooked rice – see below
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp groundnut oil
225g onions, coarsely chopped
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
175g cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
100g fresh or frozen sweetcorn kernels
1 tsp chilli oil

Method
Combine the eggs with the sesame oil. Heat a wok or large frying pan over a high heat until it is hot. Add the oil and, when it is hot and slightly smoking, add the onions, salt and pepper and stir fry for 2 minutes. Then add the beaten eggs and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the cooked rice and continue to stir-fry for 3 minutes. Finally add the cucumber, sweetcorn and chilli oil and continue to stir-fry for 5 minutes. Turn on to a warm platter and serve hot or cold as a rice salad.

Rice
Enough rice to fill l measuring jug to 400 ml level
600 ml water
Put the rice into a large bowl and wash it in several changes of water until the water becomes clear.  Drain the rice and put it into a heavy pan with the water and bring it to the boil.  Continue boiling until most of the surface liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. The surface of the rice should have small indentations like pitted craters.

At this point, cover the pot with a very tight-fitting lid, turn the heat down to as low as possible and let the rice cook undisturbed for 15 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly and then put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Seasonal local food recipe No.293 – Bread and butter pickles

Makes 4 x 450g (1lb) jars

Red and yellow tomatoes in our veg boxes

Standard box members also have the first of this season’s aubergines and green peppers.

In all our boxes this week:-
*tomatoes
*broad beans
*parsley
*cucumber
*new potatoes
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*French beans (yellow or purple) OR peas OR mangetout
rosemary sprig (Janet Hulme, Wadebridge)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra new potatoes
*green pepper
*aubergine
*spinach OR calabrese

* = grown to organic principles

All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.  Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these delicious side dishes on our recipe page –
Lemon cashew parsley dip
Cucumber raita

Seasonal local food recipe No. 282 – Radish and cucumber salad

This simple recipe appeared in issue 29 of the FoodLover magazine which celebrates West Country food.

Serves 4
Cooking and preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 cucumber
20 radishes
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
rock salt
handful of rocket leaves

Method
Heat a small frying pan, add the oil then add the mustard and fennel seeds and cook for a few minutes until they become fragrant and start to pop but don’t burn.  Set aside to cool.

Slice the cucumber and the radishes into thin disks and arrange on a platter.  Combine the cooled oil and seeds with the red wine vinegar and season with rock salt to taste.  Drizzle the dressing over the cucumber and radish and then scatter with the rocket.

Radishes and spring onions in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

The summer salad veg are ripening fast. Some of us also have the first of the cucumber crop this week, with plenty more to come.  Plenty!

In all our boxes this week:-
*radishes
*spring onions
*parsley
*new potatoes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*calabrese OR spinach (Mark Norman  / Camel CSA)
*cauliflower (Mark)
*cabbage (Mark)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra new potatoes
*kohlrabi (how to use it)
*carrots
*peas OR cucumber

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

Seasonal local food recipe No.236 – Spicy cucumber salad

Serves: 4

Method
Slice the cucumber in half lengthways and use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds. Slice cucumber into thick diagonal chunks. Tip it into a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar, vinegar and large pinch of salt. Leave for about 30 mins in the fridge. Meanwhile, tip the other salad ingredients into a bowl. Drain the cucumber and tip in with the rest.

Seasonal local food recipe No.201 – Hugh’s melon, cucumber and courgette salad with olives and red onion

Camel CSA’s growing skills don’t quite extend to melons, but there are some beautiful ones on sale at the moment at The Vine in Wadebridge. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in The Guardian suggests partnering them with cucumbers and courgettes in this side dish. Luckily we’ve got plenty of those.

He says: “All that delicate, juicy flesh is pointed up beautifully by the assertive flavours of olives and onion.”

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients
½ large cucumber (about 200g)
1 medium courgette (about 200g)
¼ small charentais or galia melon (about 200g)
50g pitted black olives, such as kalamata
½ medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
Juice of ½ small lemon
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Quarter the cucumber lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and slice into thin quarter-moons about 2mm thick. Put the slices in a large bowl. Top and tail the courgette, quarter it lengthways and cut into pieces the same thickness as the cucumber. Add to the bowl.

Scoop the seeds out of the melon. Carefully slice the melon off its skin, then cut it first lengthways into two to three slender wedges, then crosswise, as with the cucumber and courgette, and add to the bowl.

Roughly chop the olives and add to the salad with the onion. Squeeze over the lemon juice, trickle over the oil, give it a good seasoning and stir together gently. Taste, add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if needed, and serve straight away.

Seasonal local food recipe No.196 – Nigel’s strawberry and cucumber fruit salad

There are lots of cucumbers in the polytunnel, so we’re on the lookout for different ways to prepare them.

Nigel Slater says: “I know this sounds extraordinary, but [this] is the crispest, most refreshing fruit salad imaginable… summer in a bowl. And if you really can’t handle the idea of cucumber, then it is jolly good with strawberries and banana.” (via The Observer)

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes + 30 minutes in fridge

Ingredients
For the syrup:
3 tbsp honey
10 mint leaves
5 tbsp elderflower cordial

2 cucumbers
450g medium strawberries

Method
Put the honey, mint and elderflower syrup into a blender and blitz to a thick, fragrant syrup. If you don’t have a blender, chop the mint very, very finely, mix it with the honey and cordial, then leave it for an hour. Strain through a fine sieve or muslin to remove the mint.

Peel the cucumbers, slice them in half down their length, then scrape the seeds out with a teaspoon. Dice the flesh finely and put it in a large bowl. Remove the leaves from the strawberries, slice the fruit in half and toss gently with the cucumber.

Pour the mint and elderflower syrup into the fruit, stir very gently, then leave for about 30 minutes, in the fridge and covered, before serving.

What we’re getting in our vegetable boxes

We can expect to find some tomatoes and a cauliflower among the contents of this week’s veg boxes.

These vegetables come from Richard Hore, our new supplier at Rest Harrow, Trebetherick (between Daymer Bay and Rock).  They’re not grown to organic principles, but are freshly picked and have clocked up few food miles – barely five in fact.

The potatoes and onions are our own contribution to the harvest.  They’ve been grown by our volunteers on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s two-acre plot at St Kew Highway. 

Our expert growers are providing the rest of the box contents.  Salad bags – Jane Mellowship, cucumber and curly parsley – Jeremy Brown, celery – Mark Norman. 

See this week’s Recipe No 8 – Braised celery

Seasonal recipe No 7 – Cucumber raita

Serve this as a side dish with curries or simply as a dip. This recipe is from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook.  Without the turmeric and with a bit more garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil, you’ll have Greek tzatziki. And the Turkish cucumber and yoghurt salad cacik is pretty much identical too.

Draining time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 5 minutes

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
½ cucumber
¼ teaspoon fine salt
200g mild natural yoghurt
small bunch of mint
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
small pinch of ground turmeric or paprika

Method
Grate the cucumber – you don’t need to skin – and put it in a sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle it with the fine salt and leave it to drain for half an hour. Pat the cucumber dry with kitchen paper. Mix with the yoghurt, mint, garlic and just enough water to give you the consistency you want, usually in the region of 100ml. Add a pinch of turmeric for extra flavour and pale yellow colouring or sprinkle paprika over the top.

Notes
I didn’t find it necessary to add water! There are many variations on this recipe: Delia Smith slices rather than grates the cucumber and adds a finely chopped spring onion, 2 pinches cayenne pepper and 1 pinch cumin seeds; Madhur Jaffrey doesn’t bother with draining the cucumber and uses 1 pinch roasted cumin seeds. But whichever way you make it, it’s a refreshing and cooling dish.

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