Another of Angela Hartnett’s mid-week supper suggestions in the Guardian‘s Food & drink section (the Murano chef patron is fast becoming a favourite of ours).

It’s a variation on the classic Italian broccoli al peperoncino or red hot broccoli and pairs up the calabrese/broccoli and fresh red chillies in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.

Angela advises: “The chicken can be served hot or cold, but you want the cooking juices to soak into the broccoli. It’s spicy, so tone down the chilli if you want.”

Serves four
Preparation and cooking time: 50-60 minutes

Ingredients
1 chicken, jointed, so you’ll have eight pieces – but halve each breast to make 10
2 tsp sweet paprika
5 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1 lemon cut into quarters
300ml white wine
200ml water (chicken stock if you have it)
1 tsp sliced fresh chilli
500g broccoli
Freshly milled salt and pepper

Method
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of some of the paprika powder.

Heat a pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the butter and brown the chicken all over. Remove from the pan, add the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary and sauté for two minutes.

Add the rest of the paprika, then after a minute return the chicken to the pan, along with the lemon. Pour the white wine into the pan, stirring well. Allow the wine to reduce, then add the water or stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken breasts as soon as they’re cooked, to stop them becoming dry, and allow the rest to cook for another five minutes.

When all the chicken is cooked, leave to one side while you prepare the broccoli. Bring some salted water to the boil, and blanch the broccoli in it until just cooked. Drain the broccoli, then heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the sliced chilli for one minute before adding the broccoli and tossing them together.

Season, and serve on a large plate with the chicken on top, pouring over any extra juices.

Once again, apart from the potatoes and bay leaves, all of this week’s contents come from the CSA’s plot. Everyone will have:

1kg potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* sweetcorn
* florence fennel
* swiss chard
* tomatoes
* chillies
* bay leaves (Trish) (part dried but need further drying out in warm airy place before storing in airtight containers)
* aubergine
* onions
* calabrese/purple sprouting broccoli
* carrots
* salad leaves

Standard boxes will also have:
* borlotti beans
* radicchio
* leeks
* parsley

* = grown to organic principles

FRIDAY UPDATE – no borlotti beans afte all, I’m afraid, as there weren’t enough to go round

I love autumn. And there’s no better time of year to be involved in a community agriculture project.

The veg boxes are bursting with our own-grown Cornish produce – including delicacies like raddichio and fresh borlotti beans.

At this moment my kitchen is filling with a tantalising spicy aroma –  a mix of allspice, ginger, pepper, brown sugar, vinegar – coming from a large pan of chutney bubbling on the stove.

The green tomato and apple chutney is being made with our surplus produce – using unripe tomatoes from the polytunnel, apples from our adopted orchard and onions and garlic from our dry store.

Other Camel CSA members are also busy making pickles and preserves from other vegetables. Henrietta has a garage full of runner bean chutney, turnip pickle and tomato marmalade. Cath’s about to start producing chilli oil (oh boy, do we have a glut of chillis!)

We’re not doing anything new, of course. Preserving is a traditional way of using up fruit and veg surpluses that helps provide some variety in the winter months and during the “hungry gap” in spring.

So look out for all these delicious goodies as they start appearing from Christmas onwards in our weekly veg boxes.

Our community supported agriculture project has a guest slot this Wednesday evening at the Eden Project’s Cafe Conversations.

Eden’s new eco cafe is in St Austell town centre. Its free event this Wednesday 19 October from 6.30 – 8.30pm is about the joys of growing, cooking and eating community food. 

I’ll be talking about what we’ve learned at Camel CSA about running a community grow-your-own project – the successes and the setbacks. The other guest is Clive Cobb, creative thinker behind Town Mill Bakery in Dorset and the new Eden Bakery.

In the Eden Project’s words: “Whether you’re a food producer, aspiring grower or just curious to know a bit more, come and join the conversation.”

Why not join us? Find the Eden Project Cafe here.

Camel CSA’s third annual Apple Day was our best ever – in spite of the Cornish mizzle. All ages pitched in to chop, crush and press around 90 litres of apple juice to share among everyone who took part.  

We’ve had an abundance of apples to juice this year. Most were picked from our adopted orchard in St Mabyn, the rest came from members’ gardens.

Our team didn’t have the time or energy to press the entire mountain of fruit before the equipment had to go back to our friends at Chyan Community Field.

So we came to an agreement with the St Mabyn “Cider Boys” (don’t ask!) and we now have an extra 50 litres or so of delicious juice to share out.

A member of the chicory family sometimes known as red chicory, radicchio has distinctive pink-red leaves with white veins. Its firm, cup-shaped leaves have a strongly bitter taste. It is generally used in salads mixed with other salad leaves. In its native Italy it is often served shredded. Alternatively, tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. But there are also a number of recipes that make use of it cooked.

Yotam Ottolenghi cooks it lightly and mixes it with walnuts, lentils and honey for a tasty dish. And Sarah Raven has this recipe for Radicchio and lemon pasta in her Garden Cookbook which she says is quick to prepare and delicious cold the next day.

Serves 4
Preparation and cooking: about 15 minutes

Ingredients
100g chopped pancetta
2-3 tbsp olive oil
½ onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
200g dried egg tagliatelle
200g radicchio
3 tbsp dry white wine
50g butter
grated zest of 1 lemon
100ml double cream
handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
grated parmesan, to serve
salt and black pepper

Method
Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Put the chopped pancetta into a wide shallow pan over a moderate heat with half the olive oil. When the fat begins to run, add the chopped onion and garlic, and then cook with the pancetta for about 3-4 minutes, until the onion has softened.

Put the pasta into the pan of salted boiling water and cook until al dente.

Slice the radicchio into thin strips and add to the onion mixture with the wine and sauté until the radicchio begins to wilt. Add the butter and lemon zest; pour in the cream and season well. Add this to the drained pasta with the remaining olive oil and the chopped flat-leaf parsley. Finish with a generous topping of parmesan.

Once again, apart from the potatoes, everything’s from Camel CSA’s own plot in north Cornwall.

Everyone will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions
* calabrese/purple sprouting broccoli
* tuscan/curly kale
* borlotti beans (these need podding; there’s a pasta recipe here and a herby one here)
* carrots
* sweetcorn
* tomatoes
* aubergine
* radicchio
* chillies

Standard boxes will also have:
* leeks
* beetroot
* sweet peppers
* turnips

* = grown to organic principles

The apples are harvested and the apple press is on its way.

We’re all looking forward to our third annual Cornish Apple Day on Sunday when we’ll be producing masses of delicious fresh apple juice to share.

Come and take part in the apple pressing on our community veg-growing plot between 10am and 1pm this Sunday 9 October. Find us here at St Kew Highway near Wadebridge in north Cornwall.

If you can bring any apples and a plastic juice container with you, all the better!

This moist and incredibly more-ish cake comes from Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1. The mixture turns a lurid pink colour when you add the beetroot, but tones down by the time it comes out of the oven.

If you want to save time and beat the eggs up whole rather than separating them first, it seems to make no difference to the quality. The only other tip I have is: Go easy on the icing – a drizzle will do. (But then I always say that!)

I shared the cake with friends on a glorious summer’s day beside the River Fal at Quay Cottage, Trelissick next to King Harry Ferry. It didn’t last long.

Serves 8-10

Preparation / cooking: 65-70 minutes 

Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 scant tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
180ml sunflower oil
225g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
150g raw beetroot
juice of half a lemon
75g sultanas or raisins
75g mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, linseed)

For the icing:
8 tbsp icing sugar
lemon juice or orange blossom water
poppy seeds

Method

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Lightly butter a rectangular loaf tin (20cm x 9cm x 7cm deep, measured across the bottom) then line the bottom with baking parchment.

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Beat the oil and sugar in a food mixer until well creamed then introduce the beaten egg yolks one by one, reserving the whites for later.

Grate the beetroot coarsely and fold into the mixture, then add the lemon juice, raisins or sultanas and the assorted seeds. Fold the flour and raising agents into the mixture while the machine is turning slowly.

Beat the egg whites till light and almost stiff. Fold gently but thoroughly into the mixture with a large metal spoon (a wooden one will knock the air out). Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, covering the top with a piece of foil after 30 minutes. Test with a skewer to see if done. The cake should be moist inside but not sticky. Leave the cake to settle for a good 20 minutes before turning out of its tin on to a wire cooling rack.

To make the icing, sieve the icing sugar and stir in enough lemon juice or orange blossom water to achieve a consistency where the icing will run over the top of the cake and dribble slowly down the sides (about three teaspoonfuls), stirring to remove any lumps. Drizzle over the cake and scatter with poppy seeds. Leave to set before eating.

All our own produce again, apart from the potatoes. Everyone will have:

1kg potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* runner/french beans (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* leeks (Camel CSA)
* broccoli (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* red onions (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* chillies (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will also have:
* sweet peppers (Camel CSA)
* aubergines (Camel CSA)
* tuscan/curly kale (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

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