I made this tasty soup recently, the recipe is from a Guardian feature where you cook a large quantity of a particular ingredient, in this case butter beans, and use it for four different meals.  You could easily use tinned butter beans if you prefer.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
500 g leeks, trimmed and sliced
500 g cooked butter beans
1.5 litres water
2 Tbsp Marigold bouillon powder
A small handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Method
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the leeks, stir, then cover and cook gently for 5-10 minutes.  Add the beans and the water, then bring to the boil.  Sprinkle the bouillon powder over the surface, stirring to disperse it, then leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, until the leeks are tender.  Add the fresh parsley, and blend the soup lightly with a hand blender to just thicken it slightly, but leave some visible pieces of bean and chunks of leek.  Check the seasoning and serve.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/butter-beans-recipe-curry-soup-salad-pate

We’ve switched to an electric van for our weekly vegetable box deliveries. It means we’re cutting the cost of food miles as well as CO2 emissions.

Camel CSA veg grower Mark Norman said: “It’s so clean. It doesn’t use any juice so it’s not chucking out exhaust emissions.

“It’s really convenient for deliveries when you’re stopping and starting all the time. You just press the button and go.”

This recipe is from Sarah Brown’s classic Vegetarian Kitchen. The quantities will fill either six individual tartlet tins 7cm in diameter or one 28cm flan tin.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 40-50 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients
450 g onions, peeled and finely chopped
40 g butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh tarragon or 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
50 ml single cream
75 g Cheddar cheese, grated
Wholemeal shortcrust pastry made with:
165 g wholewheat flour,
1 1/2 tsp baking powder,
a pinch of salt,
75 g mixed fats (half butter and half solid vegetable fat),
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar,
5-6 Tbsp cold water,
1 1/2 Tbsp oil

Method
Roll out the pastry to fill six individual tartlet tins or one flan tin.  Press the pastry firmly into the cases and prick well.  Bake for 5 minutes at 200°C/ Gas mark 6 so that the pastry sets.

Meanwhile, fry the onions in the butter, taking care not to colour them.  During the frying, lightly sprinkle them with salt as this brings out the juices.  Then stir in the brown sugar and tarragon.  Remove from the heat and leave the mixture to cool.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs thoroughly and then mix in the cream and grated cheese.  When the onion filling is cool, season with extra salt and black pepper.  Mix it into the cheese and egg mixture and spoon this filling into the pastry cases.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until the pastry shells are cooked and the filling is firm.  Serve hot, warm or cold.

Our polytunnel-grown vegetables are coming on surprisingly well despite the lack of warmth and light.

In all our veg boxes : –
*parsley
*onions
leeks (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
parsnips (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
savoy cabbage (Restharrow)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*mixed salad bag
*beetroot
Jerusalem artichokes (Restharrow)

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.

Try these savoy cabbage dishes on Camel CSA’s recipes page:-
Farfalle with savoy cabbage, pancetta, thyme and mozzarella
Fried cabbage with juniper

Storm Imogen damaged two of our polytunnels, which have large tears in the covers. Polytunnel doors were forced open by the sheer strength of the wind. It looks bad, but could have been a great deal worse.

We have spring onions and home-grown bean sprouts in this week’s veg boxes. My husband Frank adapted Felicity Cloake’s perfect pad thai recipe as we were lacking several other ingredients! If you haven’t got palm sugar he recommends using soft brown sugar. If you want a vegetarian pad thai just leave out the prawns.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
120g 2-3mm wide flat rice noodles
60ml fish sauce
60ml tamarind water (you can use tamarind concentrate, thinned with a little water)
60g palm sugar
Pinch of chilli powder, to taste
80ml groundnut or vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
100g firm tofu, chopped into small cubes
8 large prawns
2 large eggs, beaten with 1 tsp sesame oil
100g beansprouts
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
50g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped, lime wedges, chilli flakes, fish sauce and sugar, to garnish

Method
Cook the rice noodles as directed on the packet until pliable but al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining the fish sauce, tamarind and palm sugar in a small pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar and taste – add more of any of the ingredients as you wish. Season with chilli to taste and set aside.

Lay out all the ingredients within easy reach of the hob in the order they’ll be used. Put a wok on a high heat and add half the oil. Add the beaten egg and stir fry until cooked, remove from the pan.  Add the rest of the oil and the garlic and spring onions, stir fry for a few seconds. Add the prawns, stir fry until they are starting to turn pink, then add the beansprouts and tofu and stir fry for 30 seconds or so.

Add the noodles, the cooked egg and the sauce, then stir until heated through and the noodles are soft enough to eat.  Serve with the garnishes for people to add as they wish.

It’s exceptionally muddy on our site after Storm Imogen brought torrential rain and high winds to Cornwall.

In our weekly veg boxes today: –
*spring onions
*sprouted mung beans (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*curly kale
celeriac (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
carrots (Restharrow)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*Swiss chard or purple sprouting broccoli
*parsnips
red cabbage (Restharrow)

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.

Try celeriac in these roots dishes on Camel CSA’s recipes page:-
Three-root mash
Three-root boulangère

This recipe is taken from The Guardian in Nigel Slater’s midweek dinner series.  I changed the quantities slightly as I find Nigel often uses too much cream for my tastes, missed out the dill as I didn’t have any and cut down on the amount of sausage.  Still tasted good though!

Serves 2

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
6 butchers sausages
1-2 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 heaped tsp chopped fresh dill
1-2 leeks, sliced into 1 cm discs
2 Tbsp olive oil
150 g tagliatelle
100 ml double cream
salt and pepper
a handful of chopped fresh parsley

Method
Remove the sausage meat from the skins, place in a mixing bowl and mix with the chilli flakes and dill.  Divide the mixture into small balls (I aim to get 4 balls from each sausage) and flatten slightly.  Warm the olive oil in a shallow pan.  Brown the balls on both sides then leave over a low heat, covered, until cooked right through – about 4-5 minutes.

Remove the balls from the pan, then add the leeks and let them cook in the pan juices for 7-8 minutes until soft and tender.  Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, cook the tagliatelle until tender, then drain.

Stir the cream into the leeks, season with salt, pepper and parsley then add the drained pasta to the leeks.  Return the sausage balls to the pan and let everything bubble for a minute or so, then serve.

The mild, very wet weather in Cornwall continues to set challenges for vegetable growers everywhere as crops mature earlier than normal, causing potential shortages later on.

Fortunately our partnership with other growers like our own Mark Norman in Bodmin, Restharrow Farm at Trebetherick and Burlerrow Farm at St Mabyn means we can continue to fill the boxes while maintaining plenty of variety. And we do have veg coming on in the polytunnels plus plenty of onions in store!

In our veg boxes this week: –
*onions
*kale – cavelo nero
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Restharrow)
red cabbage (Restharrow)
beetroot (Restharrow)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*pak choi
*green coriander
carrots (Restharrow)

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.

Try this red cabbage dish on Camel CSA’s recipes page:-
Henrietta’s winter salad

Bridget Gould, one of our professional growers, has recommended this recipe from Felicity Cloake in The Guardian.  Looks like Sunday lunch is sorted in our household!

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
800g peeled and seeded pumpkin or squash
2 carrots, about 200g, peeled
4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
400g tin of plum tomatoes
100g red lentils
small bunch of coriander

Method
Heat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.  Cut the squash and carrots into chunks about 4 cm square and toss with a little oil.  Spread out on a baking sheet and cook for about 30 minutes until tender and very slightly charred.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat and cook the onion until soft, golden and beginning to caramelise.  Stir in half a teaspoon of paprika and cook for another minute or so, then tip in the tomatoes and mash up.  Stir in the lentils and about a litre of water and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft.

Add the roasted vegetables to the pan and take off the heat.  Whisk together the remaining teaspoon of paprika with the remaining tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt.  Puree the soup and season to taste, adding a little more water if you prefer it thinner.  Roughly chop the coriander.  Divide between bowls and drizzle over the paprika oil.  Top with coriander and serve.

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