'We're picking in the rain'

After letting the mange tout and peas go over last week I am on a mission to use as much of our produce as possible. Great principle, only down side is it now means planning meals in advance and harvesting veg when you need them, no matter what the weather conditions are!!!

Yesterday's planned meal was Sunday dinner. Some of the shallots dug up the other week were past their best and needed eating sooner rather than later so great lets make a caramelised shallot tarte tatin. We have an abundance of potatoes and knowing from past experience Charlotte potatoes with skins left on make fantastic roasties. Finish off with some roast chicken breasts for the Little Ps who can't eat the tart. (we cater for wheat intolerance and a milk intolerance oh and my egg allergy. Eating out can get interesting!

Is there anything else can we use from the plot? Yes of course there is!! At the plot we had mange tout and purple French beans. Oh and not forgetting all those lovely raspberries and loganberries, they will make a lovely sorbet for pudding. Only down side? It was raining :-(

Now a sensible person might say oh well, we'll have them tomorrow, however it's pizza on the menu for tomorrow and last time I checked mange tout doesn't really go with pizza, (feel free to tell me otherwise!) So off to the plot we went in the rain.

Unsurprisingly we were the only crazy people at the plots when we got there. (At the plot or lost the plot, jury's still out on that one!!)

At the plot we set to picking fruit. It was easy work as the rain had softened the berries and they came away with a light touch. Glad we picked them otherwise it would have been another crop wasted.

We sent KP to gather the blueberries for Monday's breakfast pancakes. She came back to us with half a tub of large blackcurrants! There were not enough to do anything with them, so we went back and picked some more. We chose the larger fruits and when we got home found we had enough to make a couple of jars of jam.

Lesson of the weekend, the difference between a blackcurrant and a blueberry. And yes Mr P did decide to go to the allotment in the rain without a coat. Luckily it had eased slightly by the time we left the fruit cage.

Whilst picking the blackcurrants we came across our whitecurrant bush full of fruits ready to pick. General consensus make a nice addition to the sorbet. 

Luckily picking the mange tout and french beans were uneventful. We even found our first courgette.

On to dinner.

There are several recipes online for shallot tarte tatin. I followed one from BBC good food:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/shallot-tatin

I don't have an ovenproof frying pan so I used a regular dish to layer the tart. I then got Mr P to flip it when it was ready, definitely not a one handed job.

It was finished off with chunks of goats cheese and then put back in the oven after it had been switched off to melt the cheese a little bit.

Served with new potatoes, roasties, honey glazed carrots and parsnips and steamed veg including the mange tout and beans. Comfort food for a cold, wet day. Shame we ran out of time to make the sorbet but it will be a nice pudding after the pizza ;)

Thanks for reading. Hope you've had a good weekend too. :)