July 8, 2011
A green and herby treat from Yotam Ottolenghi to celebrate the first of the season’s swiss chard.
Serves 4 as a starter
Preparation and cooking About 20 minutes
Ingredients
400g swiss chard, leaves only (or 600g spinach)
30g fresh parsley
20g fresh coriander
20g fresh dill
1½ tsp grated nutmeg
½ tsp sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 free-range eggs
salt and freshly ground black pepper
80g feta, broken into small pieces
60ml olive oil
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
Method
Bring a pan of salted water to a boil, and simmer the chard for five minutes. Drain, squeeze dry, then whizz in a food processor with the herbs, nutmeg, sugar, flour, garlic, eggs, a third of a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Fold in the feta by hand.
Pour a tablespoon of oil into a frying pan over medium-high heat and spoon in three heaped tablespoons of the mix, one per fritter. Press down gently to shape into 7cm wide, 1cm thick fritters, and cook for three to four minutes, turning once, until they take on some colour. Transfer to kitchen paper and repeat with the remaining fritter mix and oil. Serve hot with a wedge of lemon.
July 7, 2011
This week sees the first courgettes from expert grower Mark Norman and the last of the french beans from the CSA’s polytunnel. Also potatoes from Jeremy Brown at St Kew Harvest. Everyone will have:
* courgettes (Mark)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* french beans (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (St Kew Harvest)
Standard boxes will also have:
* red kale (Camel CSA)
* peas (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* = grown to organic principles
UPDATE: The peas aren’t quite ready despite the recent heavy rain. So, instead, all the boxes have a bunch of freshly-picked radishes and extra kale (lots of it!)
July 2, 2011
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. It makes a good pudding, she says, served warm with cream, crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt. You can make it in advance and reheat it gently, covered with a piece of foil.
Preparation and cooking: about 45 minutes
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
200g butter, plus a little more for the flan tin
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g blackcurrants, topped and tailed
icing sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Butter a 25cm loose-bottomed flan tin and line the base with a circle of baking parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar in a food processor or with a hand beater until the mixture is pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and, after each addition, fold in some of the ground almonds and a few drops of vanilla extract. Put the mixture in the flan tin and scatter over the blackcurrants. Their flavour is intense, so don’t be tempted to use more fruit.
Cook for 30 minutes until golden and just firm and, before serving, sieve over some icing sugar.
June 30, 2011
Jane reports that this week’s small boxes will be ‘full to the brim’ to make up for last week’s being a little light! Once again it’s all our own produce – with contributions from expert grower Mark Norman and CSA member Mark Malcolmson – and all grown to organic principles. The french beans are coming to an end while the peas are just beginning, so you might get one or t’other.
Everyone will get:cucumber-trish.jpg
*potatoes (Mark Norman)
*lettuce (Camel CSA)
*cucumber (Camel CSA)
*cabbage (Camel CSA)
*radishes (Camel CSA)
*garlic (Camel CSA)
*beans/peas (Camel CSA)
*blackcurrants (Mark N)
Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus
*rocket (Camel CSA)
*courgettes (Mark N)
*shitake mushrooms (Mark Malcolmson)
* = grown to organic principles
June 25, 2011
This is a delicious alternative to the traditional gooseberry crumble and takes only a little longer to make. Try it with Mark Norman’s organically-grown gooseberries in this week’s veg boxes, also available for sale at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.
The ground almonds make all the difference. And if you’ve got any elderflower cordial, add a few drops of that. As Nigel Slater says, it’s very much a “cut-and-come-again cake” so it’s popular with children and teenagers. My daughters love it.
Serves 8
Preparation and cooking: 75 – 90 minutes (mostly cooking time)
Ingredients
For the cake:
butter, softened 180g
golden caster sugar 90g
light muscovado sugar 90g
eggs 2
ground almonds 80g
self-raising flour 150g
vanilla extract 2–3 drops
gooseberries 350g
For the crumble:
plain flour 110g
butter 80g
caster sugar 2 tbsp
Method
Preheat the oven to 175C/gas mark 3. Line the base of a 20cm round tin with baking parchment. To make the crumble topping, blitz the flour and the butter to crumbs in a food processor. Add the caster sugar and mix lightly. Remove the mixer bowl from the stand and add a few drops of water. Shake the bowl a little so that some of the crumbs stick together like small pebbles.
To make the cake, beat the butter and sugars in a food mixer for 8-10 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs gently then gradually introduce them to the mixture with the beater on slow.
Fold in the ground almonds and flour then add the drops of vanilla extract. Transfer the mixture to the tin and smooth it flat. Scatter the gooseberries on top, pressing them down a little. Then scatter the crumble mixture loosely over the gooseberries.
Bake for 60-75 minutes, checking for doneness with a skewer. The skewer should come out damp from the gooseberries but without any raw cake mixture attached. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and set aside.
June 23, 2011
All “home” grown once again – plus all grown to organic principles. And next week, says expert grower Jane Mellowship: “We will definitely have Treworder strawberries, promise!” For now, everyone will get:
* lettuce (Camel CSA)
* french beans (Camel CSA)
* purple kale (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* green onions (Mark Norman)
* gooseberries (Mark)
Standard boxes will also have:
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Mark)
* turnips (Camel CSA/Mark)
* = grown to organic principles
UPDATE: If you want more of Mark Norman’s organically-grown gooseberries they’ve got plenty more for sale at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop, next door to our vegetable plot at St Kew Highway.
June 22, 2011
Camel CSA’s contribution in Cornwall to Making Local Food Work is featured in a new YouTube video commissioned by the Plunkett Foundation, made by eclips film.
We turned our grow-your-own dream into reality with the support and guidance of the Soil Association via Making Local Food Work. We have £60,000 funding from the Big Lottery’s Local Food programme and the East Cornwall Local Action Group (part of the South West Regional Development Agency).
June 17, 2011
Two recipes for a sauce to accompany grilled mackerel or roast pork, both from Nigel Slater’s Tender Vol. II. The second one makes use of elderflower cordial and ginger – an idea taken from Yotam Ottolenghi.
1. A gooseberry sauce
Makes enough to accompany grills mackerel or roast pork for six.
Ingredients
500g gooseberries
50g sugar
3-4 tbsp water
Method
Top and tail the gooseberries, tip them into a stainless steel pan, then add the sugar and water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Use warm or at room temperature.
2. A hot gooseberry and ginger sauce
Enough for 6
Ingredients
400g gooseberries
100g caster sugar
4 tbsp elderflower cordial
large lump of fresh ginger, about the size of your thumb
Method
Top and tail the gooseberries and tip them into a pan with the sugar and cordial. Peel and coarsely grate the ginger and add to the pot. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Serve with pork or oily fish.
June 16, 2011
The contents of this week’s boxes come from Camel CSA’s own plot at St Kew Highway and from our own expert grower Mark Norman’s smallholding on the outskirts of Bodmin.
We’ve all sharing a bumper French bean harvest. This early crop is growing really well in our first polytunnel.
Everyone will have:
* French beans (Camel CSA)
* round cabbage (Camel CSA)
* salad bags (Camel CSA)
* new potatoes (Mark Norman)
* carrots (Mark)
* gooseberries (Mark)
Standard boxes will have extra potatoes as well as:
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Mark)
* = grown to organic principles
June 13, 2011
Isn’t it cute?! This is the new little red tractor bought at the Royal Cornwall Show for our community veg plot at St Kew Highway.
We sent a small team to the show to look for one, led by expert grower Mark Norman. They had such fun choosing it – a TAFE 35 DI classic, built in India.
Now we can’t wait for the tractor to be delivered.
It was paid for out of our £49,000 grant funding pot from the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food Programme.
Thank you Big Lottery!
