Radishes, rainbow chard and rhubarb in Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes

The vibrant reds and greens of spring are in our vegetable boxes from Cornwall this week.

In all the boxes this week:-
*radishes
*sprouted mung beans
rhubarb (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
leeks (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
beetroot (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*rainbow chard
*mixed salad leaves
*parsley

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

Try these ways with radishes on Camel CSA’s recipe page (more than 350 recipes for you to try):-
Warm halloumi with radish, apple and pecan salad
Radish and mint tzatziki

Seasonal local food recipe No.357 – Jerusalem artichoke soup

This recipe is from one of the first cookery books I ever bought – the classic Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson.

Serves 4-5

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-45 minutes

Ingredients
750 g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
25 g butter
900 ml vegetable stock
300 ml milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the vegetables.  Cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes without browning. Shake the pan occasionally to prevent sticking.

Add the stock and seasoning and simmer until the vegetable are tender.  Liquidise the mixture (I use a stick blender in the pan), add the milk and reheat.  Taste for seasoning.  Serve with a swirl of cream and some chopped parsley.

Seasonal local food recipe No.356 – Wild garlic and cheese muffins

Camel CSA’s chair Diana Barry recommends this River Cottage Handbook No.8 Pam Corbin recipe for wild garlic. Pam says: “It’s heady, yet sweet aroma combines beautifully with strong Cheddar to make moreishly good muffins.”

Makes 10 large muffins

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp English mustard powder or 1/2 rsp cayenne pepper (optional)
125ml milk
125ml plain yogurt
1 egg
100ml sunflower or rapeseed oil
2 level tbsp finely chopped wild garlic leaves (about 20 leaves)
100-150g strong Cheddar cheese, grated
5 cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. Sift the first five ingredients into a medium mixing bowl, making sure they are evenly blended together.

Put the milk, yogurt, egg, oil, chopped garlic leaves and three-quarters of the cheese into a large mixing bowl. Beat together until well combined and the mture is like a very thick batter. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir very lightly, scraping son the sides, until just combined, with no clumps of dried flour lurking in the bottom of the bowl.

Place 10 muffin cases in a muffin tray with holes 2cm deep / 6.5cm diameter. Divide the mixture between the cases, filling each 3/4 full. Place half a tomato, if using, on top of each muffin and sprinkle with the remaining sheese.

Bake in the oven until well risen and golden on top.They should spring back into shape when touched lightly.

Salad leaves and wild garlic in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

Spring comes early to Cornwall. The longer days and increased light levels are encouraging seeds to germinate and veg plants to put on a growth spurt.

In all the boxes this week:-
*salad bag – rocket, lettuce, mizuma, baby beet/spinach, red/golden mustard leaves
*wild garlic leaves – foraged
*sprouted mung beans
cauliflower Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick
parsnips (Restharrow)
Jerusalem artichokes(Restharrow)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*red Russian kale or purple sprouting broccoli
leeks (Restharrow)
onions (Restharrow)

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

Seasonal local food recipe No.355 – Wild garlic frittata

Newly-laid eggs are the perfect partner for wild garlic during its short season in Cornwall. This tasty and colourful recipe from Demuths Vegetarian Cookery School is delicious served with the red kale or purple sprouting broccoli in our weekly veg boxes.

Serves: 2
Preparation and cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
1 medium potato peeled and diced very small
1 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs
50g ricotta
25g vegetarian-style Parmesan, grated
1 large handful of young wild garlic leaves, chopped roughly
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
In a 24cm frying pan, one without a plastic handle, heat the olive oil and gently sauté the potato, with a lid on until cooked, which takes about 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with 2/3rds of the ricotta and parmesan, add the wild garlic and season with salt and pepper. Add the egg mix to the potatoes and cook on a gentle heat, until almost set. You will need to run a heatproof spatula around the frittata to stop it from sticking.

Pre-heat the grill. Scatter the remaining ricotta and parmesan over the top of the frittata and grill until the top is golden. Serve at once cut into wedges. with wild garlic leaves drizzled with your favourite nut or olive oil.

Tips
Flavour frittatas with whatever is in season, spring onions and peas with chervil, steamed asparagus tips with fresh mint, sweet tomatoes with basil or wild mushrooms with tarragon.

Wild garlic leaves in Camel CSA’s seasonal veg boxes

Wild garlic is in season in Cornwall, so we’re foraging madly! We expect it to be in our veg boxes over the next 2-3 weeks, depending on the weather conditions. Our picking and packing team forage the garlic leaves from private locations where no chemical fertilisers or sprays are used.

In all the boxes this week:-
*wild garlic leaves – foraged
*swede
*purple sprouting broccoli or red kale (Camel CSA / Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick
leeks (Restharrow)
red onions (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*flat-leaved parsley
*beetroot (Camel CSA / Restharrow)
Jerusalem artichokes (Restharrow)

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

Seasonal local food recipe No.354 – Beetroot and caraway soda bread

Frank made this loaf for Sunday lunch last weekend.  The recipe’s from Anna Jones in The Guardian. You might expect the loaf to be bright pink.  It was before it went into the oven but oddly, once baked, it turned to a more palatable shade of yellow!  Whatever the colour it tasted great.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Makes 1 x 750g loaf

Ingredients
300g cooked beetroot, chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
100ml buttermilk (or plain yoghurt let down with a splash of milk)
200g white spelt flour
200g wholemeal spelt flour
50g pumpkin seeds, plus more for sprinkling
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Black pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Put the beetroot (see the note below if you’re roasting your own), spices and buttermilk in a food processor and puree until smooth.

Put the flours, pumpkin seeds, salt, bicarbonate of soda and pepper into a large bowl and mix well.  Pour the beetroot mixture into the flours and mix with a fork until well combined, then use your hands to gently bring the lot into a rough ball. Don’t knead it though, or it will make the finished loaf tough.

Scatter some flour over a baking sheet and put your ball of dough on top. Dust with a little more flour and a few more pumpkin seeds.   Cut a deep cross in the bread, then bake for 30 – 40 minutes until golden and risen.

Remove from the oven and tap the bottom of the loaf. If you get a hollow sound, it’s perfect, so pop it on a wire rack to cool. This is delicious warm with salted or almond butter.

If you are roasting the beetroot yourself
Wash the beetroot well and trim off the stalks. Place the whole beetroot in a foil parcel, wrapped really tightly so the steam doesn’t escape. Cook for around an hour (depending on the size of your beetroot) until tender. Once cooked, allow to cool in the foil parcel, this will make it really easy to remove the skins. When cool enough to handle slip the skins off and discard. Extra roasted beetroot can be used in salads or alongside dips such as hummus.

White sprouting broccoli in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

Our boxes are bursting with staple winter vegetables.

In all our veg boxes: –
white sprouting broccoli (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
red onions (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
beetroot (Restharrow)
leeks (Restharrow)
parsnips (Restharrow)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*coriander
*cabbage
*mixed salad leaves – rocket, lettuce, mizuma, baby beet/spinach, red/golden mustard

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

Try these delicious ways with roasted cauliflower on Camel CSA’s recipe page: –
Yotam’s roast cauliflower with chorizo and green olives
Roasted curried cauliflower
Roasted cauliflower gigli with pine nuts and currants

Beetroot and bean sprouts in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

We’ve all got a free copy of Westcountry FoodLover magazine in this week’s veg boxes, full of tempting seasonal recipes.

In all our veg boxes this week: –
*bean sprouts
*mixed salad leaves – rocket, lettuce, mizuma, baby beet/spinach, red/golden mustard
*purple sprouting broccoli ( Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
beetroot
leeks (Restharrow)
red Russian kale (Restharrow)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*flat-leaved parsley
parsnips (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)

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

Try these delicious chocolate beetroot cakes on Camel CSA’s recipe page: –
Chocolate beetroot cake (rich, moist and oozing)
Beetroot and chocolate traybake (a tad less indulgent)

Camel CSA’s seasonal local veg box will help you get your 10-a-day

We’re all being urged to start eating 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.  Eating seasonally and locally reduces the cost of a 10-a-day diet. So why not sign up for a 4-week veg box trial with us?

In all our veg boxes this week: –
*herb bag (rosemary, bay, sage + curry plant sprig)
*sprouting broccoli (Camel CSA / Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
red cabbage
leeks (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
parsnips (Restharrow)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*kale ‘Red Russian’ or ‘black Tuscan’
*swede
red onions (Restharrow)

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