In last weekend’s Observer magazine, Nigel Slater sang the praises of kale – especially after a touch of frost. As well as using it as a side dish with a seasoning of crisp garlic and red chillies, he also cooked it with chorizo. For his recipe for a “less rich version of the classic cauliflower cheese” and other ways of using your winter greens, see his Cold as brassicas page.

Serves 2 as a light main course, 4 as a side dish

Preparation 5 minutes
Cooking 15 minutes

Ingredients
250g curly kale
250g cooking chorizo
a little groundnut or sunflower oil
50g skinned whole almonds
a clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

Method
Wash the kale thoroughly. Put several of the leaves on top of one another and shred them coarsely, discarding the really thick ends of the stalks as you go.

Cut the chorizo into thick slices. Warm a non-stick frying pan over a moderate heat, add the slices of chorizo and fry till the pieces are golden. Lift them out with a draining spoon on to a dish lined with kitchen paper. Discard the oil that has come out of the chorizo and wipe the frying pan clean. Add the almonds and cook for 2 or 3 minutes till pale gold then lift out and add to the chorizo.

Warm the oil in the pan, add the crushed garlic and shredded greens and cook for a couple of minutes, turning the greens over as they cook, till glossy and starting to darken in colour. Return the chorizo and almonds to the pan, add a little salt and continue cooking till all is sizzling, then tip on to hot plates.

This week’s boxes will be made up of the following:

potatoes ( Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* parsnip (Camel CSA)
curly kale (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* winter salad bag (Jeremy Brown)
* Jerusalem artichokes (Camel CSA)
(Sorry – cauliflowers not available because of the recent bad weather)

The medium boxes will also have:
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
carrots (Rest Harrow Farm)
sprouts (wholesale)

* = grown to organic principles

Congratulations to our intrepid picking and packing team who braved the wintry conditions to prepare Camel CSA’s first vegetable boxes of 2010.

Only the onions in the boxes came from Camel CSA’s own share of the harvest.  Our dwindling crops of parsnips, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes and last of the beetroot are well and truly frozen into the ground.

We’re grateful to local supplier Richard Hore of Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick for providing such a variety of green vegetables – leeks, curly kale and savoy cabbage as well as carrots.  And to our expert grower Jeremy Brown who collected the potatoes from Burlerrow Farm in icebound St Mabyn.

We put together a total of 23 boxes for our members to pick up. Fortunately our site is next to the A39 “Atlantic Highway” which has been kept relatively clear from ice and snow.

Local food

The fact that we could provide fresh vegetables this week goes to show how important it is to be able to source food locally. 

Supply chains across the country may be interrupted by the big freeze, but we’ve been able to keep our veg box scheme going – with just a little help from our friends in north Cornwall.

As Making Local Food Work said this week in its response to the Government’s widely-reported new national food strategy: “Communities must be engaged in the future of food.”

Many thanks to picking & packing supremo Trish, who fetched the veg from Trebetherick, and to the team – Cathy, Charlotte, Mike H, Mike S, Penny and Robert.

And enjoy our heartwarming seasonal soup! 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.

Happy New Year to you all! Our first veg boxes (snow, hail and ice permitting) will be available tomorrow – probably a little later than usual.

Small boxes will have:
* onions (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
purple sprouting broccoli (West Cornwall)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
savoy cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
carrots (Rest Harrow Farm)

Medium boxes will also have:
swede (wholesaler)
curly kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
mushrooms (Tregonning Farm, Stithians)

Hoping you all have a very peaceful and enjoyable break over Christmas and the New Year.

Thanks to all the volunteers in 2009 – weeders and sowers, pickers and packers. Veg boxes start again on 8 January but no Sunday volunteering for the time being.

As Jane said:

“There are always fewer jobs during the winter months even when there is more in the ground than we currently have. The recent weather has left the ground so saturated that to work it in any way will only result in damaging the soil structure and getting everyone very muddy!”

And lastly, a date for your new 2010 diary: the Camel CSA Annual General Meeting is on Wednesday 27 January at Egloshayle Pavilions, Wadebridge, at 7.30 pm. The meeting will include a review of the year, election of officers, a slide show, and homemade refreshments.

Henrietta says this is good ‘as a lunch snack with cheese or cold meats, also with winter casseroles.’ She warns that it’s best to dress the salad just before use otherwise it will become soggy.

Serves 8
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
100g pumpkin seeds
2 large carrots coarsely grated
200g spinach leaves, washed and thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ red cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced

For the dressing:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tbsp runny honey
salt, freshly ground pepper

Method
Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry fry-pan. Put all the above ingredients in a bowl and lightly mix together.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together and add to salad when ready to serve.

Jane Mellowship says this week’s boxes are ‘a little fuller than usual to spread some Christmas cheer!’

In the small boxes:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* large bunch of carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
mushrooms (Tregonning Farm, Stithians)
sprouts (wholesaler)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
red cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)
* rosemary sprigs (Jeremy Brown)

Standard boxes will also have:
* winter salad (Jane Mellowship)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
black kale (Rest Harrow Farm)

As you might have noticed from the rather random selection of cardboard boxes we had to use, we were struggling to find standard-size boxes last Friday. If anyone has a secret stash of them, could you please pop them in to St Kew Harvest before this Friday? Many thanks.

From Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ River Café Cook Book Easy. They add this note, ‘All bean soups are made more delicious with a generous addition of the spicy-flavoured newly pressed olive oil poured over each serving. Tuscan olive oil is pressed at the end of October, which is also when the frosty weather starts and cavolo nero is ready to be picked.’

Serves: a generous 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
500g cavolo nero
4 garlic cloves
2 red onions
4 carrots
1 celery head
1 dried chilli (or good pinch of dried chilli flakes)
400g tin borlotti beans
extra virgin olive oil (see note above)
½ tsp fennel seeds
200g tin tomatoes
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
¼ sourdough loaf

Method
Peel the garlic, onion and carrots. Roughly chop 3 garlic cloves, the onion, pale celery heart and carrots. Crumble the chilli. Drain and rinse the beans.

Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a thick-bottomed pan, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook gently until soft. Add the fennel seeds, chilli and garlic and stir, then add the tomatoes, chopping them as they cook. Season and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the beans and stock, and cook for another 15 minutes.

Discard the stalks from the cavolo nero and boil the leaves in salted water for 5 minutes, drain and chop. Keep 4 tbsp of the water. Add the water and cavolo to the soup. Stir and season.

Cut the bread into 1.5cm slices. Toast on both sides, then rub with the remaining garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Break up the toast and divide between the soup bowls. Spoon over the soup and serve with more olive oil.

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