Seasonal recipe No 54: Chicken and Swiss chard melt

A recipe from Allegra McEvedy, who says: “The best thing about this simple supper is the chard … You can use it anywhere you might use wholeleaf spinach, but you will get a more boldly textured result. Chard is even better for you than spinach, too – it just never had the PR muscle of Popeye behind it. It contains less oxalic acid than spinach, which means that we are able to absorb more of its nutrients.”

Apologies to CSA members with small veg boxes who had perpetual spinach rather than Swiss chard this week! Still good for you, though.

Apparently, the Swiss prefix came about in the 19th-century to distinguish it from French chard, which we now call cardoon.

Serves 2

Preparation/Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients
150g brown rice
250g Swiss chard (big whole leaf spinach will do)
1 lemon
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
2 free-range chicken breasts
150g ball of mozzarella
1 ripe tomato
big pinch dried oregano
salt and pepper

Method
Rinse the rice in cold water, then tip into a saucepan with twice the volume of cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until cooked – about half an hour.

Meanwhile, put a second pan on with salted water for blanching the chard.

Trim and chuck away the very ends of the chard stalks, then cut the stalks away from the leaves. Slice the stalks into 2cm-thick pieces and leave the leaves whole. Blanch the stalks first for about three minutes, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, cool under running water and set aside. Now blanch the leaves for three minutes, rinse under cold water and set aside separately from the stalks.

Zest the lemon and put it with the chard stalks.

In a bowl, mix the garlic with the juice of half the lemon, a couple of tbsp of the olive oil and some seasoning. Squeeze the water out of the chard leaves and coat them thoroughly in the flavoured oil.

Oil a baking tray and pre-heat under a very hot grill. Make a cut down the length of the chicken breasts, but not all the way through so that they open up like a book (this is called butterflying for obvious reasons).

Season the meat, then lay on the dressed chard leaves. Top with slices of mozzarella and tomato, and finish with a little salt and the oregano.

Grill for 10-12 minutes. When the rice is cooked, stir in the chard stalks, some salt and a good splosh of olive oil and serve with the chicken on top.

Seasonal recipe No 4 – Swiss chard and potato gratin

Another excellent recipe from the Riverford Organic Vegetables website. 

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
500g Swiss chard
75g margarine
2tbsp plain flour
100g cheddar cheese
750g potatoes
4 garlic cloves
600ml (1 pint) milk
salt and pepper

Method
1. Remove and roughly chop the green part of the chard leaves. Cut the stalks into 2cm lengths and steam for 10 mins. Stir in the green leaves and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Wash the potatoes and cut into 1cm slices. Boil for 5 mins until just tender. Drain.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish and layer with half the potatoes, the chard, then the remaining potatoes.

To make the sauce:
1. Melt the margarine and fry the crushed garlic for 2 mins. Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 1 min.
2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens.
3. Add half the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 180° Mark 4 for 35 mins.

Do you have a recipe for Swiss chard that you would like to share with the rest of us?  Just click on Comments at the top of this article and let us have it!

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

Our veg boxes are tops!

We’ve had an enthusiastic response from our members to Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first vegetable boxes.  This is despite some teething problems with distribution.

Tony says:

Our first standard veg box

“The box looks fantastic! We’re looking forward to next week’s already.”

John and Cathy are delighted with the quality:

“The cucumber which was sweet and fresh and the lettuce and onion we used in a salad.”

They like the wide and interesting variety of vegetables and have found new ways of using them:

 ”The beet greens we cooked almost like a spinach or spring greens and had with fish - better than spinach – along with broad beans and potatoes.

 

The beets will be roasted and eaten with a lamb casserole with the rest of the onion, turnips and courgettes and we will try your broad bean soup.  Nothing wasted.”

In the end, both small and standard boxes contained potatoes, broad beans, beetroot, turnip, cucumber and onions.  Standard boxes had a salad pack and small boxes a lollo rosso lettuce.  In addition, standard boxes contained Swiss chard and courgettes.  There wasn’t enough time to pick parsley.

We have a glut of broad beans, so each box was given an extra £4-worth at shop prices!  We don’t yet have our own poly tunnel, so our three expert growers – Jane, Jeremy and Mark – supplied the salad bags, lettuce, courgettes and cucumber.

New team

Grateful thanks to our volunteer picking and packing team of expert grower Mark Norman, Mike H, Penny, Robert and Trish.  Mark says:

” It’s great to see some new faces.  I hope the boxes going out means that we’ll see even more volunteers next week.

 

As first boxes they are excellent.  I hope we can keep the variety going.”

If you would like to volunteer, either picking and packing or planting and cultivating, just turn up on a Friday or Sunday between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.

Compost bin

This Sunday we constructed a compost bin from wooden pallets lashed together with binder twine.  At long last we have somewhere to dump the annual weeds, unwanted plant tops and thinnings.

A great deal of effort was devoted to the backbreaking job of cutting down the remaining dock leaves to stop them going to seed and spreading all over the site.  We were grateful there were so many of us to share this potentially soul-destroying task!

We weeded the Swiss chard, carrots and brussels sprouts.  We planted more radishes to replace the ones which had gone to seed in the hot weather.

A big thank you to expert growers Jane and Mark N and Charlotte, Danny, Ian, Mark M, Mike H, Mike S.

They deserve a medal!

We’re having an extra mid-week volunteer session on Thursday as there’s so much work to do at Camel Community Supported Agriculture.  Charlotte, Kitty and Mike S have already put their names forward.

We need to plant out brassicas, celeriac, parsley and spring onion plants and, if we have time, sow sweetcorn and squash seeds.

If you’re able to give a hand, we’ll be on the site this Thursday 28 May between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.  Click here for directions. 

If you can’t make it on Thursday morning, why not give expert grower Jeremy Brown a ring on 07971762227 to find out when else it might be convenient to help out.

Medals all round

Last Sunday’s team deserves special praise.  Everyone got down on their knees and hand weeded. 

The onion, shallot and Swiss chard beds were comparatively easy to tackle, but weeding the carrots by hand was an exacting and extremely fiddly job. The air was blue at times.  We’ll savour every single one of those carrots when they appear in our weekly vegetable boxes!

Grateful thanks to volunteer expert growers Jane, Jeremy and Mark and to their willing helpers – Beverley, Cath, Carolyn, Charlotte, John, Kitty, Mike H and Mike S.

There’s so much effort going into preparing the first vegetable shares, which should start to be available in mid-June.  A lot of thought is being given to when and how they will be picked, packed and distributed.  

We’ll be working on the site as usual next Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.   Do come along and enjoy the fresh air and exercise.  It’s not all hard work.  It’s good company – and fun too.

Mid-week volunteering

Members are more than welcome to volunteer to work during the week - not just on Sunday mornings.

Give expert grower Jeremy Brown a ring on 07971762227 to find out when it might be convenient to help out on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s vegetable beds.  Weather permitting, of course!

He’s there every day as a member of the farming family who own the land and who have generously offered it rent-free to Camel CSA for the first few months.  He grows his own vegetables on the adjoining plot to sell at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.

Jeremy can arrange to meet you on the site and explain what jobs need to be done.   These might include sowing seeds in the potting shed, spreading compost on new beds and weeding around our emerging crops.

Last Sunday we got several new beds raked, fresh compost spread and more seeds sown, including an extra row of peas and some more radishes.  We planted out beetroot and chard seedlings and hoed up weeds in the pea, onion and shallot beds. 

The devastation to the first rows of peas that had to be replaced was caused by the pea and bean weevil, not slugs.  Apologies all round.  Either the resident pheasant or a partridge has been having a go at the spring onions, but the damage is not lasting.

A big thank you to Sunday’s energetic crew – volunteer expert growers Jane, Jeremy B and Mark N and volunteer members Carolyn, Charlotte, Diana, Kitty, Mike H and Mike S.

We had a useful discussion during the tea break about the kind of activities we want to organise for the Open Day on Sunday 7 June – Open Farm Sunday.  Any suggestions welcome. 

Click here to view our entry on the Open Farm Sunday website.

Come and join us on Sunday

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s spring planting programme continues apace.  We’re relying on volunteers to tackle a whole lot more jobs this Sunday 5 April.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

“There’s lots of sowing to be done and more compost to put on beds. We plan to do carrots, parsnips, turnips, swiss chard and plant another bed of onion sets. Also dock leaf removal for the willing!

“A new seed order is being prepared. It includes broccoli, fennel and sweetcorn.”

We would love it if you could join us this Sunday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Our expert growers will be waiting for you at the site behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.

Do come and help out.  You will learn what’s involved in preparing a vegetable plot, what’s on the planting schedule and also work up a good appetite for Sunday lunch.

Please bring strong shoes or wellies, waterproofs, drinks and a snack.  And don’t forget some gardening gloves!  Also bring any tools, ideally wheelbarrows, shovels, spades, forks and rakes.

If you would like more information or have any questions call Antonina at St Kew Harvest on 01208 841818.

Click here for directions to the site.