This recipe is from www.british-leeks.co.uk via West Country Foodlover magazine.  Be careful not to overcook the leeks at the beginning as they cook some more as the sauce is made.

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
30g butter
4 large leeks cut into 2cm slices
30g plain flour
400mls whole milk
175g cheddar cheese, grated
2 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
30g chopped parsley

For the topping
100g plain flour
100g rolled oats
75g diced butter
50g chopped hazelnuts
50g grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
Salt and pepper

Method
 Preheat oven to 190°C. Place the butter in a large sauté pan and turn the heat to medium. When melted, add the sliced leeks, stir around in the butter and cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When the leeks are soft, add the flour and stir around in the leeks for a few minutes.

Now add half the milk, stir well and bring to the boil. When the sauce starts to thicken, add the remaining milk and repeat the process. Add the grated cheese, the mustard, the chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper and leave to cool.

Make the crumble topping by combining the flour with the oats before adding the diced butter and combining together using your fingers. Once the mix resembles bread crumbs, add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour the leek sauce into a baking dish and top with the crumble. Place into a hot oven to cook for 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Serve straight from the oven to the table.

This week all boxes have:-
*kale
*beetroot
*mixed salad leaves
*chillies
carrots (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Restharrow)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:
Extra potatoes
*cabbage or purple sprouting broccoli
*coriander
cauliflower (Restharrow)

All veg grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated
* = grown organic principles
Please ensure you wash all salad vegetables carefully.

This week’s recommended recipes from our online archive:-
Stir-fried curly kale with chilli and garlic
Hugh’s pasta with greens, garlic and chilli

This is from a Thomasina Miers column in The Guardian. If you haven’t got chipotle en adobo (a relish) she suggests deseeding a dried chipotle, simmering it in water for 20 minutes to soften before pureeing it; failing that use smoked paprika.  You could also substitute hazelnuts for the almonds.

The sprouts made a tasty supper with grilled sausages.  Thomasina Miers also suggests serving over rice or quinoa loosened with sesame oil, and topped with feta.

Serves 2-4

Preparation time: 10-20 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients
500g brussels sprouts
45g almonds (optional), skinned
60 g butter
1 tbsp chipotle en adobo (or 1 tsp hot smoked paprika)
1 tbsp honey
juice of 1 lime

Method
Wash and tail the sprouts, cut away any discoloured/damaged leaves, and cut into halves.  Put a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan on a medium heat and, when hot, toast the nuts (if using) for 5-10 minutes, tossing them every so often until they are toasted all over.  Roughly chop the nuts.

Turn the heat under the pan right up, add the butter, wait for the butter to start foaming, then cook until the solids turn a rich deep brown and it smells deliciously nutty.  Throw in the sprouts, fry for a few minutes, then turn them over and cook for 5 minutes more, tossing every so often so they colour all over.

Add the honey and chipotle to the pan, toss to coat the sprouts and squeeze in the lime juice.  Leave to heat through for a minute and sprinkle with the chopped nuts before serving.

Our first vegetable boxes of 2015 are full of fresh winter variety.

All boxes have: –
*sprouted mung beans
*leeks
*loose sprouts
*squash ‘Metro’
*parsnips (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*Jerusalem artichokes (Mark) See recipes below
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:
Extra potatoes
*beetroot
*Swiss chard
*sprouting broccoli or carrots

All veg grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated
* = grown to organic principles

This week’s recommended recipes from our website archive:
Palestine soup
A casserole of artichokes and pork for deepest winter

I cooked this cauliflower cake at the weekend.  It was rather time consuming to prepare but it looked impressive and tasted good!  I served it with a green salad. It’s from Yotam Ottolenghi’s newest book Plenty More.

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
1 small cauliflower, broken into 3 cm florets
salt and black pepper
1 medium red onion, peeled
75 ml olive oil
1/2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
7 eggs
15g basil, chopped
120g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp ground turmeric
150g coarsely grated parmesan
melted butter, to grease the tin
1 tbs white sesame seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds

Method
Put the cauliflower florets in a pan and add a teaspoon of salt.  Cover with water, bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, until they florets are quite soft.  Strain and leave in a colander to dry.

Cut 3 or 4 round 0.5 cm slices off one end of the onion and set aside.  Coarsely chop the rest of the onion, and put in a small pan with the oil and rosemary.  Cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat, stirring from time to time, until soft, then set aside to cool.  Transfer the cooked onion to a large bowl, add the eggs and basil, whisk, then add the flour, baking powder, turmeric, cheese, a teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper.  Whisk until smooth, then add the cauliflower and stir gently, trying not to break up all the florets.

Line the base and sides of a 24 cm springform cake tin with baking parchment, and brush the sides with melted butter.  Mix together the sesame and nigella seeds and toss them around the inside of the tin, so they stick to the sides.  Tip in the cauliflower mix and arrange the reserved onion rings on top.  Bake in the centre of a preheated oven 200°C/Gas mark 6 for 45 minutes, until golden brown and set: a knife inserted into the middle should come out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave for at least 20 minutes before serving; it needs to be served just warm, or at room temperature, rather than hot.

Happy Christmas to our veg box members. We all have a beautiful selection of vegetables to see us through the festive season as well as  a jar of our own chutney plus some Cornish honey from Chris Tamblyn in Helland. Happy eating everyone!

All boxes have:-

*green tomato chutney
*Crown Prince squash
*spring onions
*parsley
*Red Russian kale
*mixed salad leaves
carrots (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
sprout stalk (Restharrow)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
leeks (Restharrow)
Cornish honey (Chris Tamblyn, Helland)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:
Extra potatoes
*Swiss chard
red cabbage (Restharrow)
beetroot (Restharrow)
kohl rabi (Restharrow)

All veg grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated
* = grown to organic principles

Recommended recipes from our website archive:
The perfect potato gratin
Christmas roasted vegetables with honey and spice

This side dish from Nigel Slater’s classic Real Good Food. It’s delicious served with roast meat but can also be served as a main course on its own.

Serves: 4 as a side dish

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients
500g waxy potatoes, peeled
a medium-sized celeriac, peeled
90 g butter
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
2 heaped tablespoons Dijon mustard
a level teaspoon of thyme leaves
60ml vegetable stock
a handful of dill leaves

Method
Slice the potato and celeriac so thinly you can see through them.  Mix them together and soak in cold water. Melt the butter in a metal-handled, deep frying pan (one that can go in the oven) and when it starts to bubble add the garlic and cook slowly for five minutes, till it is soft and has perfumed the butter.  Take off the heat and stir in the mustard, thyme leaves and a grinding of salt and pepper.

Drain the potatoes and celeriac and dry them on kitchen paper.  Toss them in the mustard butter so that they are wet all over, then loosely flatten them and pour in the stock.

Cover with a circle of greaseproof paper, then bake in an oven preheated to 190°C/Gas mark 5 for an hour and ten minutes, until tender to the point of a knife.  Remove the greaseproof, turn up the heat to 220°C/Gas mark 7 and bake for a further ten minutes, until coloured and lightly crisp on top.  Tear the dill up a bit and scatter it over the top and into the juices.

We all have a celeriac root in our weekly boxes together with a lovely variety of top-quality winter vegetables. Standard boxes can also look forward to butternut squash and a Brussels sprout top.

All this week’s boxes have: –
*celeriac (Mark Norman, Bodmin)

*leeks
*swede
*chillies
*kale ((Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
*carrots (Camel CSA/Restharrow)
potatoes (
Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:
Extra potatoes
*butternut squash
red cabbage (Restharrow)
Brussels sprout tops (Restharrow)

All veg grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated
* = grown to organic principles

This week’s recommended recipes from our website archive:
Remoulade of celeriac and smoked bacon
Sprout tops and gorgonzola frittata

My husband made these delicious morsels for tea last night, he used pomegranate molasses instead of tamarind paste in the raita and it was delicious. They’re from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day.

Serves 6-8

Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients
1 medium cauliflower (about 800g), trimmed
sunflower oil, for frying
For the batter:
150g gram (chickpea) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
a good shake of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

For the tamarind raita
6 heaped tbs plain yoghurt
A large handful coriander, chopped
2 tsps tamarind paste or mango chutney
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
For the raita, mix all the ingredients together, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.
Cut the cauliflower into small florets, no more that 2 cm across in any direction, discarding nearly all the stalk.
For the batter, put the gram flour, baking powder, ground spices and salt into a large bowl.  Whisk to combine and get rid of any lumps.  Slowly whisk in 175 ml cold water, which should give you a smooth batter with a similar consistency to double cream.  Add a little more water if necessary – different brands of gram flour will vary in how much they absorb.

Add the cauliflower florets to the batter and turn them, making sure they are all thoroughly coated.  Heat about 1 cm of oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat.  When the oil is hot enough to turn a cube of white bread light golden in 30-40 seconds, start cooking the pakoras, a few at a time so you don’t crowd the pan.

Place spoonfuls of battered cauliflower – just a few florets per spoonful – into the hot oil.  Cook for about 2 minutes, until crisp and golden brown on the base, then turn over and cook for another minute or two.  drain the pakoras on kitchen paper, then serve piping hot with the raita for dipping.

All this week’s boxes have: –
*kale (see recipe ideas below)
*carrots
*beetroot
*parsley
*leeks
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:
Extra potatoes
*turnips or swede
*sprouting broccoli
loose Brussels sprouts (Restharrow)

All veg grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated
* = grown to organic principles

This week’s recommended recipes from our website archive:
Chinese-style kale
Dahl with kale

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