Popping Cherry Tomatoes into my Mouth

I left work a little early this afternoon and on my way down in the lift a young lad got on carrying a sunflower in a pot.  You may wonder why this is unusual.  I work in a tower block, there are literally no green spaces around us, its all concrete.  He noted my bemusement and told me, they are having a competition in their office with the tallest sunflower.  Oh I smiled, that's nice.

When I got back home, I took a gander at my sunflowers in my garden and they are every size, but the size the should be.  According to the packet they are Russian Giant Sunflowers should grow up to ten feet, well mine are not even my height, which is just over five foot by the way.  Well, I guess there is still time. 

Anyway, here is my small, but tasty harvest.

  Some cherry tomatoes.

Some more broad beans and mint that were picked last week and used for a Gnocchi Salad dish. 

This is what I picked from the garden plot yesterday, some peas, runner beans and dwarf yellow beans, and my first yellow courgette of the year.  

A number of the vegetables above, went into the Garden Vegetable Quiche below.  Oh forgot to mention, the salad leaves are homegrown too. Its good to be eating homegrown vegetables, especially the tomatoes. 

I am sharing this harvest with Dave who blogs at Happy Acres for Harvest Monday.  

Simple Broad Beans, Gnocchi and Mint Salad

It's been an interesting week with lots happening around me as I found myself in Cardiff this week where Extinction Rebellion were in the city protesting again climate change and climate emergency . 

These are just a handful of pictures, I managed to snap with my smart phone. 

Castle Street is one of the busiest streets in Cardiff and it was a change from seeing it traffic free. 

The broad beans have been gracing the dinner table the last two weeks.  We have been eating them simply, briefly blanched in simmering water, drained and then tossed in a little seasoned extra virgin oil.

Work has been keeping me busy, so I am not going to apologise for using shop brought gnocchi here.  There have been days when I have just wanted to put something quick on the table for supper and this was on one of those evenings.   I don't even have a recipe to share here either, as I eye-balled the ingredients and tweaked the flavours to taste, namely mint and lemon.  I will admit though I did somewhat find shelling the broad beans a little therapeutic and satisfying.

It made for s nice light meal and one we could have sat out and ate in the garden, but no - we plonked ourselves in front of the TV to watch the Channel 4 News. 

I am sharing this Simple Broad Bean, Gnocchi and Mint Salad with Eat Your Greens which I co-host with the Veg Hog, this month it is my turn; and Soup, Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen

Baby Beetroot and Broad Beans

We have more broad beans from the garden plot; and some baby beetroot.

I had to pull the beetroot out of the ground as they were beginning to bolt.  

I also harvested some more raspberries, but the strawberries are beginning to dwindle.  

And for those of you who came by last week, this is what I did to my red gooseberries.  I made a Red Gooseberry and Raspberry Tart.  

If you look close, you will see half the side is filled with red gooseberries and the other half with raspberries. It was delicious.  

I will share the recipe for the Red Gooseberry or Raspberry Tart over the next few days, right now though I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres for Harvest Monday, where gardeners from all over the world come together to share their harvest.

Broad Beans and Red Gooseberries

Last month I shared the first of my strawberries and the last of the chard from the garden plot.

Today, I share a small harvest of goodies from the garden.

Here are some broad beans, some strawberries and a good handful of raspberries.  

And most of the red gooseberries. I managed to get to them this year before the birds did. 

If anyone has got any sweet recipe ideas for red gooseberries, please do let me know. 

Now a quick peek to see what else is growing, of course more raspberries.  I have to say, these are much tastier than those I harvested last year that lacked flavour. We've been eating them with Greek Yogurt.

Blueberries coming along.  

In the greenhouse we have tomatoes, still a little way off.  We are not growing any fancy tomatoes this year, which I am a little disappointed about as I do like to try some heritage variety, but just was not organised enough.  Plus our good neighbour got himself a new hobby which included a greenhouse is growing a number of heritage tomatoes.  He is even growing goji berries.  He has been bestowed these plants by a friend of his who grows unusual vegetables and heritage variety.  Am I jealous - of course not - yes I am a little, I want his friend to give me some. Truthfully though, we get on well with this neighbour, he is the one that gave us cherries and the reddest eating apples I have ever seen. So I am really pleased that he is enjoying his new hobby. 

Here are some broad beans - more ready for the picking.

The peas are coming along now, there are pods if you look closely. 

And finally climbing beans in purple, yellow and green, as well as runner beans.

You can't see it here, but right in front is the courgette patch, the gold/yellow variety.  I think I will have harvested my first courgette come the weekend. And forgive me for the make shift cane toppers which also includes a empty bottle of wine and beer.  Well someone stole my terracotta pig cane toppers that I haven't got round to replacing them, so I am doing a bit of reusing.

And finally this Echinacea belong to D.  He bought it for the bees, as if our garden doesn't have enough bee friendly plants! No I am really happy about it.  I marvel at how its grows. 

I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres for Harvest Monday.  

Broad Bean and Black Peppermint Flan

The last few weeks, I've been creating a lot of tart and flan based meals, and here I go again and present you with another savoury one.

This flan is studded with fresh broad beans and some black peppermint which came from the garden.  Black peppermint is exactly what is says it is - its mint that smells like black pepper.  But unlike the traditional green mint, the leaves of this one are thicker and dark, almost velvet purple in colour.  On cooking, the black peppermint didn't impart that much flavour .  I think to appreciate it more for both scent and flavour, it would benefit being part of a salad rather than a cooked dish like this;. 

Still we enjoyed a slice of this tart earlier.  We have more than half left over, which we will be taking with us tomorrow as we will be travelling down South again.  To be honest, I want to go and see my mother-in-law and my family again, as well as see the progress on my Dads allotment but at the same time there are so many things here that we have to do for our move down - I guess they will just have to wait until we come back.

I am submitting this recipe to Cinzia of Cindy Star for this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB) #290. WHB is overseen by Haalo from Cook Almost Anything.
Broad Bean and Black Peppermint Flan
For the shortcrust pastry to line a 8 - 9 inch round tin
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
225g plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
125g butter
3 tablespoons water
Method
Add flour and salt to a bowl. Add the butter then rub it into the flour with your fingertips, lifting the mixture out of the bowl to incorporate as much air as possible as this will make the pastry light. Continue until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then add the water a little at a time and use your fingertips to press the mixture together and form a dough. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead rolling out the dough into a round. Blind bake in a hot oven at gas mark 6 for 20 minutes.

Ingredients for the filling
200g broad beans, shelled
1 tablespoon Black peppermint or regular mint, minced
Spring onions, sliced
250g cottage cheese
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Blanch the broad beans for a couple of minutes. Then mix the broad beans with the cottage cheese, mint, spring onions, seasoning and the beaten egg. Spread the mixture in the flan case and bake in the oven at gas mark 5 for 30 – 35 minutes. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Braised baby carrots with cheats broad bean pilau

Pilau, puloa or pilaf is a dish in which a grain, such as rice or cracked wheat is cooked. It begins with the process of caramelizing sliced onions in butter, until it is browned and golden, the rice is added and is then cooked in a highly seasoned broth made with a large blend of spices. Pilau's may also contain a variety of meat and vegetables.
My pilau is a cheats version, you will forgive me I'm sure, when I tell you its much healthier too as I've replaced the butter with Olive oil. The baby carrots, broad beans and the sad excuse of a garlic bulb are all from my garden plot. Its not highly flavoured as a traditional pilau, but it served us well for a homely meal.

Braised baby carrots with Broad Bean pilau

Serves 2

Ingredients

Basmati rice, enough for two people

Enough baby carrots for two people

Enough broad beans for two people

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, finely sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

100ml vegetables stock

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

Tabasco sauce

Salt and pepper

Method

Cook the rice, set aside.

Place carrots in a wide saucepan together with 2 tablespoons olive oil, ground cumin, vegetable stock, garlic, dash or two of Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with a lid and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, until the carrots are tender and coated in the sauce.

While the carrots cook, in another pan, blanch the broad beans in boiling water for 7 minutes and drain. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and fry until brown and crisp in places. Add the cumin seeds and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the broad beans. Stir well over low heat for a minutes. Then stir the broad beans and the onions with all the oil into the rice and serve with the carrots and its sauce.

Adapted from Nadine Abensur's Cranks Fast Food. To make this more of a substantial meal, it may be worth serving it with some lentils or pulses. I think I may do that next time.

Summer is here

When I first planned to grow broad beans, D snugged his nose and told me I would be eating them all on my own. His memory of broad beans like many were of school dinners where they would come straight out of a tin and tasted quite vile. But when he tasted one of our home grown beans, straight out of the furry pod, his eyebrows raised. I think he like.

Since then I have been cooking them in various guises, including spring risotto with baby carrots, broad bean pilau and even broad bean cakes. He was truly converted.

This year I have grown Super Aquadulce, they are a little bitter, but still good.
I can hardly call this a recipe, its just boiled potatoes, with broad beans, some raw (the smaller ones) and some blanched (those the size of a thumbnail) for a couple of minutes to reduce the bitterness, seasoned with salt and pepper and shredded fresh mint.

Truly feels like summer is here.

Farewell Pear Tree Wullie

You may remember from previous blog entries that I was going to show you a digital film of some of our worst plots and the allotment site itself. Well, there have been some massive improvements since the last Committee meeting early this month. Personally I think some of this positive step forward is due to the presence of a new Committee member. Four of the vacant plots on my strip have finally been allocated to new people with small families, and two of these plots have seen a whirlwind of activity. Amazing stuff. Oh I wish I had taken a picture and shown you of them before and after. Wow, just in a couple of weeks and the visible change, it’s so nice to see that buzz and maybe the start of a communal ownership. However, amongst the recent good energy, there are still a lot of poor practices, thieving is still continuing, a large hole in one of the wire fencing apparently big enough for a small vehicle to get in was found by one of the older committee members, plus rumours of some aggressive and bullish behaviour over the weekend by one or two old faces. So much can happen when you are away.

We spend most of the yesterday morning at the allotment. We worked at Ds plot for 2 hours. D put the broad beans into the ground. He had decided to support them with bamboo sticks as last year the weight of the beans were making them topple over. So far we have 18 plants in the ground and another 16 to go in. Broad beans were one of the legumes the acrobatic mouse had nabbed. I have decided not to sow anymore broad bean seeds. I think we have plenty to enjoy and. to share with those around us.
I continued with the never ending task of weeding, then gave up for the day and decided to pick some nettle growing wild around Ds compost bin for our dinner later. I needed about 150g, but stopped picking when I felt the carrier bag was heavy enough, plus the stings had gotten to me.

I also picked a twig of sage from Ds herb plot, which is starting to fill up. The mint is and lemon balm are starting to emerge from the ground. What was a surprise was the lovage had come out of nowhere. I like lovage, but you have to enjoy it in small quantities.

As I closed the gate behind us, I noted that the grass at Plot 11 needs cutting but that is a job for the weekend now. On our way to Plot 45, we saw Fitzy and Thanked him for watering our seedlings.

We also found out that Pear Tree Wullie had passed away a couple of months ago. Sad thing, people have only just found out that Wullie has passed away and you could see some of the long term plot holders casing his Plot for treasures. This was one thing that annoyed me about some of the Committee members, you rarely saw these two particular individuals doing anything in relation to the upkeep of the allotment or addressing irresponsible behaviour on the site, but when someone left the allotment or had passed away, they were very quick to ‘take’ things from that persons plot. I had witnessed this first hand when I was given Plot 45, when I viewed it was packed with pots, tools, chairs ….even when I was finally allocated the plot, the Treasurer kept the keys to the hut so that she could take the stuff for her plot from the hut at her ease. It was a month before I got the key. She left behind the junk. Anyway, the past is past and I should keep looking forward.

At the front of my plot, D planted an eating apple tree which we purchased at a supermarket. While I got on with sowing some seeds, especially those that had got nabbed. I also transplanted my turnips and parsnips into the ground and then covered them over with netting so that the magpies and pigeons could not feast on them. I was excited to spot tiny buds on some of my strawberry plants. I am sure the slugs and snails have noticed them too!!!