Seasonal local food recipe No.386 – River Cafe’s spaghetti with lemon

In hot weather I never feel like cooking. But we have to eat! This couldn’t be easier, and uses basil from Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes. It’s another summer dish from the Observer Food Monthly‘s 20 Best Recipes and is taken from River Café 30 by Ruth Rogers, Rose Gray, Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli.

Serves: 6 (as a starter or light lunch)
Preparation and cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
250g spaghetti
juice of 3-4 unwaxed lemons
150ml olive oil
150g parmesan, freshly grated
2 handfuls fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
finely grated lemon zest, optional

Method
Cook the spaghetti in a generous amount of boiling salted water, then drain thoroughly and return to the saucepan.

Meanwhile, whisk the lemon juice with the olive oil, then stir in the parmesan – it will melt into the mixture, making it thick and creamy. Season with sea salt and black pepper and add more lemon juice to taste.

Add the sauce to the spaghetti and shake the pan so that each strand of pasta is coated with the cheese. Finally, stir in the chopped basil and, ideally, some lemon zest.

Sweet aromatic basil in Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes

What a treat! Beautiful basil and elephant garlic in this week’s vegetable boxes from north Cornwall.

In all boxes:-
*basil
*elephant garlic
*carrots – ‘Early Nantes’
*cucumber
*young turnips or kohlrabi or beetroot
*runner beans (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*courgettes (Mark)
*new potatoes – ‘Rocket’ or ‘Estima’ (CSA / Mark)

Standard boxes also have:-
*aubergine
*salad leaves
*spring onions

Hand-dug new potatoes in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

Some of the vegetables in our weekly veg boxes are grown for us by Mark Norman on his smallholding on the outskirts of Bodmin. Mark also works two days a week as lead grower at Camel CSA, alongside our other grower Bridget Gould and our seasonal worker Ann Smith.

In all boxes:-
*carrots – ‘Early Nantes’ or ‘Amsterdam Forcing’
*Swiss chard
*salad leaves
*spring onions
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*new beetroot (CSA / Mark)
*new potatoes – ‘Rocket’ or ‘Estima’ (CSA / Mark)

Standard boxes also have:-
*cucumbers
*French beans – ‘Amethyst’
*calabrese (Mark)

Seasonal local food recipe No. 384 – New potato & green bean salad

This has to be one of the best and easiest salad combos I’ve tried for a while. The lovely purple French beans in Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes turn green when cooked. They look and taste beautiful in this healthy recipe from BBC Good Food magazine.

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 8 minutes

Ingredients
500g medium new potatoes, thickly sliced
200g green bean, trimmed

For the dressing
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp clear honey
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
3 tbsp olive oil
4 spring onions, thinly sliced

Method
Boil potatoes in salted water for 8 mins until just tender, then drain and keep warm (they will absorb the dressing better than cold potatoes). Meanwhile, steam the beans in a steamer over the potatoes for 4 mins. Keep a close eye on them as you want them to be just tender rather than soft. Cool the beans under the cold tap to keep their colour.

Mix the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Add the warm potatoes and beans, and toss really well to coat in the dressing.

Basil, beans and early carrots in Camel CSA’s veg boxes from Cornwall

There’s a cracking combination of home-grown local produce in this week’s Cornish veg boxes! Mark Norman is our lead grower at Camel CSA. He also grows some vegetables for us on his smallholding on the outskirts of Bodmin.

In all boxes:-
*basil
*cucumbers
*French beans – ‘Amethyst’
*salad leaves
*spring onions
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*new potatoes – ‘Estima’ (Mark Norman)
strawberries (Mitchell Fruit Garden)

Standard boxes also have:-
*young carrots – ‘Early Nantes’
*Swiss chard
*calabrese (Mark Norman)

*= grown to organic principles.  Please wash all produce thoroughly.
All veg grown by Camel CSA unless stated otherwise.

Weekly veg boxes camel community supported agriculture, Camel CSA, cornwall, local food, st kew, vegetable boxes, wadebridge, weekly veg boxes

Seasonal local food recipe No. 383 – Jane Grigson’s gooseberry fool

Some of us have got those reddish-pink gooseberries in Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes. They’re ideal for making Jane Grigson‘s gooseberry fool from Good Things, her classic about fresh local food. As far as I’m concerned, this has always been the only way to make fruit fool, with cream only. Sometimes the simple recipes are the best.

It’s featured in the Observer Food Monthly‘s 20 Best Recipes. Later in the year other fruit may be substituted, uncooked raspberries and strawberries and peaches for instance, and in the autumn cooked purees or apple flavoured with apricot jam or quinces. Use just over half a pint of puree to half a pint of cream or custard.

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
350g young gooseberries, topped and tailed
55g butter
sugar, to taste
275ml double cream 275ml, whipped, or 150ml each double and single cream
(or 275ml single cream and 3 egg yolks if making custard)

Stew the gooseberries slowly in a covered pan, with the butter, until they are yellow and just cooked. Crush with a fork, sweeten to taste and mix carefully and lightly into the whipped cream.

To make custard, bring single cream (or rich milk) to the boil, and pour on to the egg yolks, whisking all the time. Set the bowl over a pan of hot water and stir steadily until the custard thickens to double cream consistency. Strain into a bowl, and leave to cool before folding in the gooseberries.

Serve in custard glasses or plain white cups, with some homemade almond biscuits or macaroons.

Broad beans and Cornish asparagus in Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes

So much tasty young spring produce to share this week in our vegetable boxes from north Cornwall.

In all the boxes:-
*broad beans
*mixed salad leaves
*spring greens
*turnips
Cornish asparagus (St Enodoc Asparagus)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
*peas in pod
*rhubarb
*Swiss chard

Radishes in Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes

We have such zingy homegrown spring produce in this week’s vegetable boxes.

In all the boxes:-
*radishes
*mixed salad leaves
*rainbow chard
*parsley
purple sprouting broccoli (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
beetroot (Restharrow)
potatoes (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)

Standard boxes also have:-
*rhubarb
*spring greens
onions (Restharrow)

It’s time to… tie up the broad bean plants

The heady scent of broad beans fills the polytunnel as grower Bridget and volunteer Vicky ensure the early broad bean crop is tied in securely.

Wild garlic and radishes in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

Spring has finally sprung! Our volunteer picking and packing team have been foraging wild garlic leaves to go in this week’s veg boxes.

In all the boxes:-
*wild garlic (foraged locally)
*radish bunch
*spring onions
*bean sprouts
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
purple sprouting broccoli (Restharrow)
potatoes (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)

Standard boxes also have:-
*parsley
*rainbow chard
leeks (Restharrow)