Recipe No 30 – Leek and goats’ cheese tart

From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook

Serves 6-8

Preparation: 1½ hours (including 1 hour chilling of pastry)
Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
285ml single cream
salt and black pepper
4 leeks, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
200g soft goats’ cheese

For the pastry:
120g butter
½ tsp salt
200g plain flour

Method
First make the pastry. Sift the flour with the salt and work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add just enough cold water to bind it together. Roll out and use to line a 23cm flan dish. Put this in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Prick the base of the pastry case with a fork and bake blind (cover pastry with greaseproof paper weighed down with baking beans or rice) for 20-25 minutes. Remove the beans/rice and paper and allow to cool. Leave the oven on.

When the pastry has cooled a little, spread Dijon mustard over the base. Beat together the eggs, extra yolks, cream and seasoning. Fry the leeks in the oil gently until they’re soft and put them in the pastry case. Crumble the goats’ cheese over the leeks and pour over the egg mixture. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tart is set.

Recipe No 26 – Leek soup with parmesan

In his Kitchen Diaries Nigel Slater describes this as a “velvety soup for a clear, cold day”- seems very appropriate at the moment. He says he never throws away parmesan rinds – “no matter how dry and cracked they get, the craggy ends are full of intense, cheesy flavour”. You’ll need a couple for this recipe.

Serves 6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 1 hour

Ingredients
3 good-sized leeks
about 40g butter
3 medium-sized potatoes
parmesan rinds
1.5 litres light stock or water
a handful of parsley
6 tbps grated parmesan

Method
Trim the leeks, slice into thick rings and wash thoroughly. Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan, then tip in the washed leeks and let them soften slowly, covered with a lid, over a low to moderate heat. After about 20 minutes and with some occasional stirring they should be silkily tender.

While they are softening, peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks. Add them to the leeks when they are soft and let them cook for five minutes or so, before dropping in the cheese rinds and pouring in the stock or water. Season with salt and black pepper, then partially cover and leave to simmer for a good 40 minutes.

Remove and discard the undissolved cheese rinds, scraping back into the soup any cheesy goo from them as you go. Add the leaves of parsley and blitz the soup in a blender. Check the seasoning – it may need a surprisingly generous amount of salt and pepper – and bring briefly to the boil. Serve piping hot, with the grated parmesan.

Recipe No 19 – Pasta with sweet leeks and mascarpone

Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef cookbook. Naturally Jamie makes his own pasta – pappardelle (broad, wavy-edged pasta) – but shop-bought tagliatelle or linguine will work just as well for this simple dish.

Serves 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 small knob of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced at an angle
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper
200g mascarpone
455g pasta
1 handful grated parmesan cheese

Method
Put the butter and olive oil into a semi-hot, thick-bottomed pan, add the leeks and gardlic, with a -pinch of salt, and gently sweat, without colouring, for about 5-10 minutes with a lid on, until the leeks are soft and sweet. Add the mascarpone. Let this gently melt into the leeks, creating a semi-thick sauce. Taste for seasoning.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Toss gently in the sauce (if it seems slightly thick, add a little of the cooking water from the pasta). The sauce should perfectly coat the pasta. Serve sprinkled generously with parmesan.

Recipe No 13 – Leek, onion and potato soup

A bit of a classic from Delia Smith’s Cookery Course. And if the Indian summer continues, serve it chilled and call it Vichyssoise!

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
4 large leeks
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, chopped small
850ml light chicken or vegetable stock
275ml milk
50g butter
2 tbsp cream
1½ tbsp fresh snipped chives or parsley
salt, pepper

Method
Trim the tops and roots of the leeks, discarding the tough outer layer. Split in half lengthways, slice quite finely and wash thoroughly in two or three changes of water. Drain well.

In a large, thick-based saucepan, gently melt the butter. Add the leeks, potatoes and onion, stirring them all around so they get a good coating of butter. Season with salt and pepper, then cover and let the vegetables sweat over a very low heat for about 15 minutes. You don’t want them to brown. 

Add the stock and milk, bring to simmering point, put the lid back on and let the soup simmer very gently for a further 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. If the heat’s too high, the milk may boil over. Now either liquidise the lot or press through a sieve.

Return to the saucepan and reheat gently, tasting to check the seasoning. Add the chopped herbs and add a swirl of cream just before serving.

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

Jobs for Sunday

A message for anyone planning to volunteer this weekend from Jane Mellowship, one of Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s expert growers.

“Just to let you know the jobs for this Sunday.

“There are lettuce and leeks to sow in the potting shed and out in the field we need to transplant brassicas and chard.

“A second sowing of beetroot can be made and, as long as the weather is good and a bed can be formed with the tractor, a second sowing of carrots. Other than that, weeding the onion beds and probably the peas.

“See you Sunday.”

Last Sunday a bunch of around 10 volunteers got a lot more weeding done, but had to replant a row of brassica seedlings that had been devastated by another predator.  We should probably blame the resident pheasant this time, as it left tell-tale beak marks and foot prints!

The second sowing of peas that replaced the 30-metre row eaten by slugs is now emerging safely under a protective fleece.

Many thanks to volunteers Beverley, Cath, Charlotte, Mark N, Mike H, Mike S, Jane, Jeremy B, John and Kitty.

This Sunday turn up any time between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.  Remember to bring strong shoes or wellies, waterproofs, gardening gloves, drinks and a snack.  Also tools, ideally wheelbarrows, shovels, spades, forks and rakes.  If the weather’s good you might need suncream and a hat!

Click here for directions to the site.  If you have any questions call Antonina at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop on 01208 841818.