Seasonal recipe No 45: Roast Cornish new potatoes with garlic and lemon

This is a simple way of cooking new potatoes that’s very different from the usual buttered, boiled or steamed. It comes from Henrietta Danvers, who’s one of Camel CSA’s volunteer picking and packing team members.

Serves 6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 45 minutes

Ingredients
750g baby new potatoes, skin on
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 lemon, zest and juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan) or gas mark 7. Wash the potatoes, keeping the skin on. Put them in a roasting pan.  Drizzle half the oil over the potatoes and season. Roast for 45 minutes and remove when soft. Mix the garlic, remaining oil and lemon zest and juice. Spoon through the hot potatoes and serve.

Seasonal recipe No 36 – Potato cake with thyme

From Nigel Slater’s Tender cookbook. “Good with lamb,” he says.

Enough for 6

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 50 minutes

Ingredients
5 medium potatoes (floury are best)
90g butter
leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

Method
Set the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly. They should be so thin that you are almost able to see through them. If you tend to work slowly, put the sliced potatoes into a bowl of cold water to prevent them browning.

Melt the butter, then brush some of it on to the bottom and sides of a loaf tin (or use a round, solid-based tin). Cover with a piece of greaseproof paper, leaving a little extra overlapping the sides to get hold of when you come to turn out the cake. Cover the bottom of the tin with slices of potato, brush with more butter and season with salt, pepper, and a light sprinkling of thyme leaves. Continue layering the potatoes, adding the butter and seasonings every two or three layers, until you have used them all up. Pour any remaining butter over the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes, till the top is golden and a skewer can be inserted effortlessly into the layers of tender potato.

To serve, lift the potato cake out by holding both long sides of the greaseproof paper and pulling upwards. Cut into six pieces. If it falls apart, and well it might, just push the slices back together.

Seasonal 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.

Seasonal recipe No 20 – Palestine soup

Jane Grigson gives this recipe in both her English Food and Vegetable cookbooks.   Ideal for the first appearance in the boxes of our own Camel CSA Jerusalem artichokes.

In general, because they are so knobbly, rather than peeling them raw, it’s best to scrub and parboil Jerusalem artichokes for about five minutes, refresh in cold water and then rub the skins off. 

Jerusalem artichokes have a bit of a reputation for causing wind so, as Grigson advises, eat: ”A little and not too much, too often.”

Serves 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients
500g Jerusalem artichokes or 250g each artichokes and potatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ stick celery, chopped
125g butter
2 rashers unsmoked bacon or 60g ham
1 litre light chicken or vegetable stock
250ml milk (optional)
salt, pepper
6 tbsp cream
chopped parsley and chives

Method
Scrub, parboil and then peel the artichokes as suggested above. Cut up the artichokes and, if you are using potatoes, peel and slice them. Put them with the onion, garlic and celery in a large pan with half the butter. Cover tightly and stew over a low heat for 10 minutes, giving the pan an occasional shake or stir. Now add the bacon or ham and cook a moment or two longer. Pour in the stock and leave to simmer until all the vegetables are soft. Liquidise or sieve, Reheat, adding water or the milk to dilute to taste. Correct the seasoning. Finally stir in the last of the butter, the cream and herbs. Serve with croutons of bread fried in butter.

More and bigger helpings

The extra potatoes in our shares are put there in direct response to a plea from Camel CSA members.  Standard boxes contain 2.5 kg of Wilja spuds this week and there are 1.5 kg in the small boxes.

Our picking and packing volunteers had to dodge some sharp, heavy showers as they picked, dug, sorted and weighed the veg on Friday.  The team’s now rigged up some rudimentary shelter to help them escape the worst of Cornwall’s wild autumn equinoxal weather.

Picking and packing supremo Trish explains:

“We’ve been loaned a gazebo which we put up over the sorting area.  We’re hoping it’ll stay put and not take off once we put a couple of ties into the wall.

 

“It was good to stay reasonably dry while doing the packing and it meant we could leave the boxes under cover at the end.”

Friday’s band of helpers alongside Trish were Penny and Robert, Mike H, Henrietta and Jennie M.

The growing team still have broad beans to sow and garlic sets to plant which we hope (weather permitting!) to get finished this Sunday.  See you then.

Spuds you like …

We’re increasing the quantity of potatoes in this week’s veg boxes. Find out more about the different varieties – this week’s are Wilja – and what to do with them at the Potato Council website.

In the small boxes this week there’ll be:
* onions (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
Wilja potatoes (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)
* hot and spicy salad bag (Jane Mellowship)
broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

Medium boxes also have:
kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
* mixed peppers (small ones hot, larger ones sweet) (Jeremy Brown)
* sprouts (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Seasonal recipe No 17 – Stilton, onion and potato pie

Nigel Slater calls it ‘a cheesy pie to warm the soul’. It’s from his Kitchen Diaries book. And it doesn’t have to be Stilton – Cornish blue, Sue’s Trelawney – any fairly strong cheese will work just as well.

Serves: 6

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

Ingredients
1.5kg floury potatoes
4 medium onions
80g butter
150ml milk
225g Stilton or other cheese
25g grated Parmesan

Method
Peel the potatoes, cut into halves or quarters and cook in boiling salted water until tender – about 15 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, peel the onions and cut them in half, then cut each into five or six segments. Put them in a heavy-based frying pan with 40g of the butter and let them cook over a moderate to low heat, stirring from time to time. They will need 20-25 minutes to become thoroughly soft and sticky.

Bring the milk to the boil and turn off the heat. Drain the potatoes, then tip them into the bowl of a food mixer, or mash them in the pan with a hand-held beater. Slowly add the milk and the remaining butter. Beat to a smooth mash.

Set the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Butter the base and sides of a 28cm baking dish. Spoon in half the potato, smooth it a little, then add the onions and a grinding of black pepper. Crumble the cheese over the onions. Pile the rest of the mash over the top and smooth lightly with the back of a spoon.

Dust over the grated Parmesan, then bake for 25-30 minutes, by which time the top will be pale gold and the filling will be bubbling up around the edges.

Enough for 6 as a main dish with greens or a salad.

Seasonal 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.

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

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!