courgettes revisited

So as promised in the previous post here is my courgette recipe.

We have been quite sensible this year and have grown 1 green and 1 yellow courgette plant on the plot. (Last year we had 4 plants and the remnants of the glut are still in the freezer!)

I had tried couscous stuffed red peppers whilst on holiday this year and wondered what courgette would be like. I regularly make a Moroccan style couscous and thought it would be perfect for the experiment, all that was required was a courgette/marrow big enough.

I started using a good food recipe few years ago but over time have adapted it to suit.

Ingredients for the sauce:
a dash of olive oil
1 red onion or 4/5 shallots (depending what I have in the veg store) cut chunky
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic sliced thinly.
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 red pepper cut into chunks about the size of a 10 pence piece
2 teaspoons Ras el hanout
1 tin chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper
1 tin of brown chickpeas drained and rinsed.

For the couscous:
100g couscous
juice of half a lemon (picked fresh from our tree)
6-8 dried apricots cut into 6 (depends what mood I'm in as to how many I add)
half a pint veg stock

and of course 1 large courgette. Cut in half (ours was that big I got Mr P to quarter it for me)


Method:

Prepare all vegetables etc. Scoop out the seeds from the inside of the courgette. Score the inside of the courgette and add a little freshly ground salt and black pepper. (I forgot to ask Mr P to score the courgette, something I would have automatically done in the past, so it took longer for it to cook)

Heat a large frying pan or wok with lid on a medium heat then add the olive oil. stir to cover the bottom of the pan then add the garlic and onion and cook for a few minutes.
Next add the carrots and peppers cook for 5 minutes then add the ras el hanout. Cook for for a couple more minutes until fragrant. I love the smell of the ras el hanout it gives a warm feeling to a wet summer's day.

Then add the tinned tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. I like to use freshly ground sea salt and black peppercorns, it also means that I get the Little P's to help with the cooking.

 Add a tablespoon of water if necessary. It's important not to let the sauce dry out.

While the sauce is simmering pour your couscous into a bowl. Add the lemon juice and stir, then the chopped apricots and stir again. Finally add the vegetable stock and stir a final time. Cover and leave for 5 minutes. (sometimes I'll add fresh ground salt and black pepper again depends on my mood)

After 5 minutes fluff the couscous with a fork. (This has definitely got to be one of the easiest recipes ever!)

When the sauce has reduced add the chickpeas and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the couscous to the pan. (you can serve the sauce on top of the couscous but for this recipe I got  Mr P to add it to the pan for me, not an easy one handed job)

Stuff the courgette with the couscous mixture.

Cover with foil and bake around 180 degrees C until the courgette is soft. (should take about 40-45 mins however not preparing the courgette properly ours took over an hour!)

Uncover and bake for a final 5 minutes for a crunchy top.

Best served out the skin.

Nom, nom, nom! ;)

Mr P had leftovers for dinner the following day.

Off on holibobs soon fingers crossed we don't return to a jungle. Thanks for reading :)

Getting over calamities

So despite last week's calamities, everything is growing nicely on 45 and 47. We borrowed a petrol mower but found it was too wide to get round all the paths on 47 so we borrowed a generator and have taken our little mower from home up to the plot. (Thank you Mum W for the loan of the genny and mower.) It's all looking a lot tidier.

So how is everything looking?

For starters our sweetcorn is coming on a treat. This photo was taken just over a week ago but I like how it makes you feel like you're lost in maize maze and not just a small patch. We have several large husks on all plants, just hoping our friendly neighbourhood pigeons and squirrels leave them alone!

CP's pea experiment has worked and every pea she planted has sprouted! If we're lucky we'll get another crop mid September.

The little P's had insisted on having their own bed on 47. They were motivated in the beginning. They weeded, chose and planted their own seeds, then left them in the greenhouse to grow. Unfortunately they did what children and teenagers do, they 'got bored of waiting' and left their bed for the weeds to take over. (Also not helped by Mr P telling them he'd rotivate it for them before planting) Anyway, the result was that the bed became over run with weeds again. 

I got half way along the bed before I had to stop and take more care, having pulled my back, been bitten... just read 'A week of Calamities' and you'll understand my frustration.

Having to slow down and be more careful was a good call as 47 yielded yet another unexpected surprise. Hidden among the weeds were asparagus. If the Little P's and Mr P had weeded and rotivated as planned, we probably would have lost these. The plan is now to divide the bed so we have an asparagus bed. It also means it is more manageable for the Little P's who still insist they want to have the bed next year. 

Our gherkins are fruiting and are full of fruit. The next challenge will be finding different recipes for pickling them.

Our cucamelons are still fruiting although we have yet to try them, again the neighbourhood wildlife beat us to it.

Our outside tomatoes are full of flowers and fruit and the marigolds are doing a fantastic job of keeping the aphids and blackfly away.

I love how the light reflects off the freshly watered marigolds in this picture, plus it shows how many flowers we still have on the tomato plants.

So what have we harvested this week?

Definitely a week of surprises on 47, we found our first ripe plums! So sweet and juicy. Looking forward to the glut that is soon to come.

From left to right, our giant gherkin, courgettes, an oddly shaped carrot, a crystal cucumber and a regular cucumber we were given by a friend. Looking forward to trying out some pickling recipes over the coming week.

We pulled our first carrot from 45. The slugs had got to it so we decided to pull it before they finished it off. I think next year we need to make dig deeper still and use more sand, given the way it has split.

We harvested a couple of our Otto courgettes. (We were gifted the plant after the slugs desecrated our original courgette plant.) We deliberately left one to grow more like a marrow as I had a couscous recipe I wanted to try out. I'll share that in my next blog.

We are digging up potatoes on a weekly basis as we need them. Also picked several cherry tomatoes, loganberries and raspberries however, they don't tend to make it home, nom, nom, nom.

So that's it for now. Thanks for reading and have good week. :)

A week of calamities.

The joys of allotmenteering

Ants, slugs, pigeons, rabbits,
Blackfly, aphids, wasps!
All the cabbage munchers,
and carrot crunchers.
So many pests I'm at a loss.


Walking along
Minding my business,
Something black and yellow decides to land.
Needle sharp, razor quick,
3 times it stung my hand!


One handed digging technique;
Not quite mastered yet!
Ouch! I've pulled my back,
Suck it up, keep on digging,
Got to get the plot back on track.


Weeds are taking over,
Manic digging,
Help I''m turning into a loon,
Keep on digging, Get the whole root
Next plot inspection must be soon!


Red ants nest gone
But they're not leaving without a fight
My poor hand starts to throb,
3 wasp stings, bitten by ants,
I think I'm going to sob.


Battling tall grass,
Seed spreading everywhere,
Be far easier with a mower,
I've got seed in my eye
Pulling it by hand is definitely slower!


Blinking, rubbing, hands flapping
I can't shift it from my eye,
Bitter taste in the back of my mouth,
Yup, I've just swallowed a fly.
At least the seeds now out my eye,


You persevere,
Surely nothing else can fail?
Just one small section left to dig.
That's done it,
Bubbles I've broke a nail!

Hot sunny days,
Waterbutts are empty,
Back and forth to the tap I go.
Try not to waste a drop,
We're on a meter don't you know?


All watered, Tools away
We can try again tomorrow.
Drive to the gate,
Loud thump as it swings back fast,
Is there no end to my sorrow?


Cup of tea with slice of cake
And then a nice hot shower,
The cascading water
gently soothes my aches.
I'll be asleep within the hour.


Tomorrow is another day
There is always something to do.
The weeds and pests keep coming,
But refreshed you start anew.

Feeling Fruity

As promised previously: sorbet and jam with the addition of cakes.

So we started with 400g of blackcurrants, a couple of punnets of mixed raspberries and loganberries and a couple of handful of blueberries. Oh and at home our lemon tree.

The end results?

1 tub of sorbet made following this recipe:

http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2014/06/raspberry-sorbet.html

Useful tip, be careful how much vanilla you add as the flavour can over power the berries. We served ours with either vanilla ice-cream or mango sorbet. We don't have an ice cream machine, but it might be going on the list for the jolly fat man ready for next summer.;)


1 and a half jars of jam.

My favourite recipe uses equal quantities of sugar to fruit. So easy to make and tastes fantastic!

Ingredients:

400g of blackcurrants
300ml water
400g granulated sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Wash and remove stalks from currants. Put a small plate in the fridge or freezer. Add to a large heavy base pan (I don't have a jam pan) with the water and bring to the boil until the skins are soft and the liquid has reduced.

Add the sugar and lemon juice....

Bring to a rolling boil and carefully stir occasionally.

After 10 minutes remove plate from fridge or freezer and drop a small amount of jam onto it. If it has a 'skin' and crinkles when pushed, remove jam from the heat. If not? boil for couple more minutes and check again.

Ready? Leave to cool before getting your sterilised jars and using a ladle carefully spoon the jam into the jars.

Note to self, next time choose smaller jars. The half jar we will eat in the coming weeks. The full jar will be kept as a reminder of summer when the weather takes a nose dive around October.

Cakes:

Getting practise in for the Great British Bake Off, I made vegan raspberry, loganberry and white chocolate muffins. Ok they were technically not fully vegan as I used normal white chocolate but the rest of the recipe is certain vegan. You can easily substitute for vegan white chocolate.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/653714

I made a double batch. I used 250g of raspberries and loganberries and 50g of white chocolate. Next time I will swap that for 200g fruit and 100g chocolate. I also reduced the amount of baking powder, instead of 6 tsp I used 5.

As it is the start of the Great British Bake off I can't resist a quick double entendre. These did have the dreaded 'soggy bottom!'  Lower oven temperature and cooking for longer next time. Using our cooker is a lot of trial of error as the markings on the dials have mostly rubbed away. Besides the double chocolate ones came out perfectly.

Topped with dairy free butter icing, they were enjoyed by all at my Gran's 90th birthday celebrations, and nobody realised they were egg free until my mum decided to point it out.

I really do need to 'big up' my Gran. She got me interested in growing fruit and vegetables at a young age. One of my fondest memories is picking raspberries with her and eating her home made raspberry sorbet.


Finally I made wheat free, vegan blueberry pancakes.

I can't give you the exact recipe for these as I judge by eye. I always run a batch without blueberries first to make sure I am happy with the consistency of the batter and the temperature of the pan.

Ingredients:
Wheat free flour
Apple juice about a cup
Soya milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Preheat crepe pan on a medium heat.

Pour flour into a large mixing bowl. Add apple juice, soya milk and vanilla extract. Whisk and add more soya milk as necessary until the batter is the right consistency.

Carefully slice the blueberries

Ladle into prepped preheated pan. (I use a tiny amount of dairy free butter to grease the pan first)

Add blueberries straight away to pancakes.

Flip the pancakes when start to bubble. (tip make sure the pan is not too hot otherwise you are going to burn the blueberries.)

Delicious served with a drop of maple syrup or CP's favourite hazelnut chocolate spread.

Not so much of an allotment blog this time, more of a making good use of your produce blog, but that's my cooking adventures over the past week and a half. I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed cooking with the Little P's. Thanks KP, JJ, CP and Bob for taking it in turns to be my right hand.

And thanks to you for reading. Have a good week. :)

3rd blog in a week!

Where has the month gone? It's been a busy month here and plots 45 and 47 are finally getting the TLC they deserve.

Before getting into the weekly events I wanted to share these pictures. Firstly our crystal cucumbers which are full of fruit and flowers.

Additionally the gherkins and cucamelons are also happy and full of flowers and fruit.

 

So what have we been up to this week?

The bed towards the back of 47 was dug over last weekend and since then it has rained every time I got my scruffs on ready to go the plot. Not helped by the stinking cold that's been brewing for the past week. (Yes I know picking in the rain was not the smartest move there but so worth it.)

All those plants that have been in desperate need of transplanting have finally gone in. I know they are late but hey better late than never.

We've tried to do a bit of companion planting. We've planted across the short distance of the bed. In the middle are our leeks and next to them are our carrots. Next to the carrots are our purple sprouts and a couple feet away from them are our dwarf patio tomatoes. Mr P and KP spent ages untangling roots and digging holes for leeks ;)

 


On the other side of the leeks are our parsnips. We started them germinating in a tub between two damp pieces of kitchen roll. This is a tip picked up from another blog and I am very sorry but I can't recall who posted it. Feel free to blow your own trumpet and comment and post the link in the comments. It worked very well on plot 45 and every single parsnip came up! The ones that went in yesterday had quite a bit of greenery on them as they had been sat in the tub so long. Mark spent time taking great care to ensure none of the roots were disturbed as he separated them and planted them. These really should have gone in months ago but as we eat a lot of parsnips and have dug them up before in to February before we thought we would try. If they succeed fantastic, if not we have to ration the ones on 45.

To the other side of the parsnips are spring onions. These are only a couple weeks of being ready and were growing well in the seed tray but why grow in a container when you have such a large space to fill?

In the corner away from everything we have planted sweetcorn. They are tall and stringy and it is very late, however I'm a firm believer in giving a plant a chance. Also topped with some good organic nettle stew they will thrive very quickly.

I found some sweet peas that had been missed so have planted them around the empty poles near the gherkins. The plants measured between 6 inches and 18 inches.

We also moved our Beef tomato outside as it seemed to be struggling in the greenhouse.

The finished bed.

 

Completed by a scattering of chicken pellets (some were dug through before planting) and a net over the sprouts and carrots to keep anything off wanting to have a munch.

Finally we have been given two red gooseberry bushes. They will make good additions to the fruit cage.

Next blog? Jams and sorbet.

Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend.

'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. :)