Seasonal local food recipe No.222 – Hugh’s spinach, penne and cheese spouffle

This is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Veg Every Day book.  He puts cooked pasta into a soufflé mix to turn it into a sustaining one-pot dish – a spoufflé!  I’ve been waiting for spinach (or chard) in my veg box to try this again.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients
300ml milk
1 bay leaf
1/2 onion
a few black peppercorns
100g penne
olive oil
250g spinach, any tough stalks removed
50g butter, plus extra for greasing
50g plain flour
75g mature cheddar cheese, grated
a little freshly grated nutmeg
3 large eggs, separated, plus 1 extra egg white
salt and pepper

Method
Put the milk, bay leaf, onion and peppercorns into a small pan and bring to just below a simmer.  Turn off the heat and leave to infuse.

Cook the penne until al dente, drain well then toss in a tiny bit of olive oil to stop it sticking together.

Cook the spinach, with just the water clinging to it after washing, in a covered pan over a medium heat until wilted – just a few minutes.  Drain well.  When cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess water and chop roughly.

Heat the butter in a pan over a medium heat, stir in the flour to form a roux and cook for a few minutes.  Reheat the infused milk, then strain.  Add the milk to the roux a third at a time, beating well: you will end up with a thick bechamel sauce.  Cook, stirring for a couple of minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, nutmeg, chopped spinach and season to taste.  Beat in the egg yolks, then fold in the cooked penne.

In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to firm peaks.  Stir a spoonful into the bechamel mix to loosen it, then carefully fold in the rest.

Tip into a buttered 1.5 litre soufflé dish, place on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven gas mark 5/190°C for 25-30 minutes until well risen and golden.  Serve straight away.

Camel CSA’s own tomato chutney and Cornish honey in our Christmas vegetable boxes

Our bumper Xmas boxes contain a fabulous selection of seasonal vegetables to see us into the New Year.

There’s also a tasty jar of our homemade tomato and apple chutney in each double-size box + honey from Lewis Cox of St Mabyn and his grandson Chris Tamblyn in Helland. You can’t get more local than that!

A very merry Christmas and happy New Year to you all.

All boxes have: –
* tomato and apple chutney (Camel CSA)
* cavolo nero – Tuscan black kale (Camel CSA)
* squash – Crown Prince or Bon Bon
* small salad bag (Camel CSA) **
* parsley (Camel CSA)
* onions (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
Brussels sprouts stalk (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
savoy cabbage (Restharrow)
carrots (Restharrow)
potatoes 1.5kg ‘Wilja‘ (Restharrow)
Cornish honey (Lewis Cox, St Mabyn / Chris Tamblyn, Helland)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra 500g potatoes
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
red cabbage (Restharrow)
leeks (Restharrow)
swede (Restharrow)

* = grown to organic principles
** mibuna, mizuna, baby leaf beet, pak choi, lettuce, rocket,  red mustard and golden mustard greens

Local and seasonal produce in this week’s boxes

This week everyone will have: –
*  mixed salad – lettuce, curly endive (Camel CSA)
* spinach and swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* sprouted mung beans (Mark Norman/Camel CSA)
potatoes (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)
rhubarb (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
spring greens (Newquay Fruit Sales)
cauliflower (Newquay Fruit Sales)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes and rhubarb plus:
wild garlic (foraged by Charlotte Barry)
bay leaves (Bridget Gould)
purple sprouting broccoli (Tom Corbishley)

* = grown to organic principles

Seasonal local food recipe No 177: Spicy Moroccan carrot salad

Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe incorporates sweet spices, fresh herbs and a lemony kick. Serve with other Middle Eastern salads, or just to accompany fried fish. You could serve it warm as well as cold, with a pilaf.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking 30 mins + cooling time

Ingredients
1kg carrots
80ml olive oil, plus extra to finish
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp caster sugar
3 garlic cloves crushed
2 medium green chillies, finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped preserved lemon skin
40g chopped coriander, plus extra to garnish
120ml Greek yoghurt, chilled
salt

Method
Peel the carrots and cut them, depending on their size, into cylinders or semi-circles 1cm thick; all the pieces should end up roughly the same size. Place in a large saucepan and cover with salted water. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until tender but still crunchy. Drain and leave to dry out.

Heat the oil in a large pan and saute the onion for 12 minutes on a medium heat until soft and slightly brown. Add the cooked carrots to the onions, followed by all the remaining ingredients, apart from the fresh coriander and the yoghurt. Remove from the heat. Season liberally with salt, stir well and leave to cool.

Before serving, stir in the coriander, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve in individual bowls with a dollop of yoghurt, a drizzle of oil and garnished with the extra coriander.

Seasonal local food recipe No 176: Dal with kale

The winning ‘remedy’ recipe in a recent Guardian ‘Cook’ supplement was this quick and easy dal – ‘spicy enough to cut through a cold, and healthy enough to feel medicinal’. Recipe and photo by Helen Best-Shaw, fussfreeflavours.com

Preparation and cooking 40 minutes

Serves 2
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds
100g red lentils
250ml vegetable stock
juice of a lemon
1 large handful of kale, shredded
salt and black peppeer

Method
Fry the onion in the oil for a couple of minutes until softened, then add the spices and the lentils. Fry for a few minutes until the spices are fragrant.

Add the stock, simmer over a low heat, stirring from time to time for about half an hour, until the lentils are soft but still holding their shape. Add more stock if needed – you want them to be quite soupy.

Add the lemon juice, stir in the kale and cook for a few more minutes until it is wilted. Season to taste.

Seasonal local food recipe No 174: Chargrilled broccoli with chilli and garlic

Much loved by customers at Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurant, this can be made with calabrese or purple sprouting broccoli. For extra oomph, add four chopped anchovy fillets to the chilli and garlic when cooking them in the oil.

Serves 2-4

Preparation and cooking 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
2 heads broccoli or about 500g sprouting broccoli
115ml olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 mild red chillies, thinly sliced
coarse sea salt and black pepper
toasted flaked almonds or very thin slices of lemon (with skin) to garnish (optional)

Method
Prepare the broccoli by separating it into florets or cut the sprouting broccoli into small pieces if necessary. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Throw in the broccoli and blanch for 2 minutes only. With a large slotted spoon, transfer the broccoli to a bowl full of ice-cold water. Drain in a colander and allow to dry completely. It must not be wet at all. In a mixing bowl, toss the broccoli with 45ml of the oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Place a ridged riddle pan over a high heat and leave it there for at least 5 minutes, until it is extremely hot. Depending on the size of your pan, grill the broccoli in several batches. The florets mustn’t be cramped. Turn them around as they grill so they get char marks all over. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and continue with another batch.

While grilling the broccoli, place the rest of the oil in a small saucepan with the garlic and chillies. Cook over a medium heat until the garlic just begins to turn golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn – they will keep on cooking even when off the heat. Pour the oil, garlic and chilli over the hot broccoli and toss together well. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve warm or at room temperature. You can garnish the broccoli with almonds or lemon just before serving if you like.

Photo and recipe from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Seasonal local food recipe No 156: A salad of potatoes, mustard and cucumber

A tasty-sounding salad from Nigel Slater’s Tender Vol I: “At first rich, then intensely warm and piquant, this is a perfectly balanced salad for accompanying fish or maybe a grilled steak. It is just the job with freshly dressed crab or smoked trout or eel.” The potatoes should be warm when you dress them.

Serves 4

Preparation: half an hour draining the cucumber
Cooking: 20 minutes

Ingredients
half a cucumber
500-750g new potatoes

for the dressing:
a good pinch of caster sugar
1 tbsp white wine or cider vinegar
generous tbsp Dijon mustard
4 tbsp olive oil
6 lightly crushed juniper berries
2 tbsp chopped dill (or substitute parsley)

Method
Peel the cucumber, halve it down its length and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Slice the cucumber into chunks about 2cm in width. Sprinkly lightly with salt and leave in a colander in the sink for about half an hour.

Put a pan of water on to boil. Scrub the potatoes. Salt the water, add the potatoes and let them boil for about 15 minutes, until they are tender to the point of a knife. Drain and briefly set aside.

While the potatoes are boiling, make the dressing. Put the sugar and vinegar in a small mixing bowl and stir till the sugar has dissolved. Add some black pepper. Mix in the mustard, then gently whisk in the olive oil. Stir in the juniper berries, the cucumber and the chopped dill and set aside.

Slice the warm potatoes, letting them fall into the dressing, then fold them together gently. Leave for no more than 20 minutes, then serve.

A Cornish asparagus treat in this week’s veg boxes

First of the season! A special treat for us all from Gill and Roger Derryman’s Cornish asparagus farm at Sladesbridge, near Wadebridge.

Everyone will have:
asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)
new potatoes (GrowFair Cornwall)
* leeks (St Kew Harvest)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* salad bag
cauliflower (GrowFair Cornwall)
* parsley or parsnips (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Seasonal local food recipe No 135: Farfalle with savoy cabbage, pancetta, thyme and mozzarella

A pasta recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Return of the Naked Chef to make good use of the cabbage and garlic from this week’s veg boxes.

Serves 4
Preparation/Cooking: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
10 rashers of pancetta or dry-cured streaky bacon, thinly sliced
olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 good handful of thyme, leaves picked
1 large Savoy cabbage (outer leaves removed) quartered, cored and finely sliced
1 handful of grated Parmesan cheese
455g dried farfalle, the best you can get
salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
200g buffalo mozzarella, cut into 1cm dice
2 handfuls of pine nuts, lighly toasted

Method
In a pan fry your pancetta in a little olive oil until lightly golden. Add the garlic and thyme and soften. Add the Savoy cabbage and Parmesan, then stir and put the lid on the pan. Cook for a further 5 minutes, shaking every now and again, while you cook your farfalle in salted boiling water until al dente. When the cabbage is nice and tender, season and loosen with some nice peppery extra virgin olive oil. Toss the drained farfalle into the cabbage and at the last minute mix in the mozzarella and pine nuts. Serve immediately.

Seasonal Cornish veg in this week’s boxes

Everyone will be getting:
* onions (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* red cabbage (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* purple sprouting broccoli (Camel CSA)
* salad bags (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles