Garden Harvest

These blueberries were mostly eaten for breakfast, either with homemade waffles or stirred into Greek yoghurt.

We thinned out the beetroot and carrot pot. The carrots are not worth mentioning at the moment, but the baby beetroot was excellent. We have begun digging out some potatoes. The green and dwarf yellow beans are beginning to dwindle and we don't have much in the way of runner beans this year. There is also plenty of tomatoes coming from the greenhouse. 

 The courgettes are coming thick and fast.  If i miss one, you can guarantee the next day or two, they tease me having becme overgrown marrows, but i've been fortunate as my mother and sister in law are requesting the marrows to accompany a meat dish they make.  

I'm not being overly inspired with courgettes to be honest, adding them to mostly to pasta dishes. 

This is a tweaked Chilli with courgettes and sweetcorn in place of the usual peppers or carrots.

And this is one I actually made last year, but failed to blog about it. It's a Courgette Casserole.  I sliced 3 medium courgettes, crushed 6 cloves garlic, sliced 4 spring onion, stirred in 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of olive oil along with salt and pepper to taste and a handful of fresh parsley.  Then stirred well. Before pouring over 3 -4 large tomatoes roughly chopped to create a sauce of sorts.  Stirred again, before transferring  to a baking dish.  Transfer to preheated oven gas mark 4/180oc for 45 minutes.  It was served alongside some boiled new potatoes.  

These green beans were used in this recipe called Piccalilli Spiced Rice. It also incudes cauliflower, red onion, carrots and red chillies

The recipe was bookmarked from Meera Sodha's cookbook East.  I must admit, it's perhaps one of my most used cookbook from the past year or so. 

The Piccalilli Spiced Rice dish was really good, we topped the dish off with some mango chutney. 

Lovely homegrown tomatoes. 

I made a few dishes from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's cookbook Jerusalem.

 Mixed Bean Salad with red peppers and Spiced Chickpeas and fresh vegetable salad. 

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

Ending with these poppies from the garden, they are all gone now burned from the heatwave, but they were lovely to see while they lasted. 

Mid August In My Kitchen

Its been a while since i've joined in with In My Kitchen Series.  There has been cooking in my kitchen, but its much of a muchness. I go back to firm favourites.  But the thing that is always new in my kitchen is homegrown produce.  So let me share some of them with you.  

Windfall apples, some in tact, some bruised, still edible. 

These stunning voluptuous tomatoes.  

Mish mash of vegetables: yellow and green beans, yellow and gree courgettes. Albeit some a little on the large size.

Good diversity of tomatoes including one described as a green sausage tomato by our neighbour. I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday.  

Here are some of the dishes made with the homegrown vegetables.  

Chunky courgette pasta in a mildly  spiced tomato sauce. This one was made by eye-balling ingredients. I used a 500g bag of penne pasta, 6 cloves of garlic crushed sauteed in 6 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon chilli flakes, then added 6 medium courgettes, sliced lengthways then half moons, 1 fat red chilli sliced (optional for more kick) and about 350g tomatoes, chopped in half added to the pot with salt and pepper to taste.

Turn the heat down until tomatoes are breaking down and courgettes are softening, but still have some bite.  Stir in the cooked pasta to coat. Stir in optional chopped coriander or parsley. Taste and adjust seasoning before transferring to a large serving dish for everyone to help themselves. 

I've been cooking quite a bit from 'What Will I do with all those Courgetttes' by Elaine Borish.  Including this Layered Vegetable Salad which made a good alternative to our usual new potato salad.  

And this Spicy African Stew, but i adapted it replacing the uncooked white rice with brown rice. and reducing the peanut butter by half - it was 175g.  It was very rich and the rice seemed to have absorbed much of the liquid that i could hardly call it a stew.  It was more of a Risotto/Jambalaya dish.  It was substantial too, serving at least 8 people. Well I had to take some of it over to my nephew and O, who enjoyed it, but stated it was rich in flavour.  I think its a good dish to serve up at a buffet or potluck lunch.   

I also made this Zucchini Spice Bread - nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and ginger. And don't laugh, i forgot to put in both the raisins and the chopped walnuts.  It turned out dry, but that was my fault.  We've been eating the bread smothered in butter or jam.

Not all the recipes have been adapted or inspired by cookbooks.  Courgette and Bean Curry

From natural food to processed snacks in my kitchen. I was introduced to Takis a few months back, by my niece and i have been loving these tangtastic bites.  

I leaped in excitement, when i saw it make an appearance on the series The Wilds, that was recommended to me by a friend. i thoroughly enjoyed it by the way for some mindless escapism.  But then i introduced the same friend that introduced me to the series to an actual packet of Takis's and she squealed in excitement in the same way i did, but to be honest - she tried a couple, but they were a bit too strong for her palette.    

I am sharing this blog post with Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen series.  Please do go by and check out the other contributions. 

July Harvest Monday

Summer is in full swing and the vegetable garden is beginning to reward us with some home grown produce.  

But these cherries are not from the garden, these were bestowed to us by our neighbour who harvested them from a a friends garden. 

Raspberries are beginning to ripen too, enough for a bowl with some yogurt or scattered ove home made waffles with maple syrup. 

Soon we will have blueberries. 

Cooking apples and pears growing well too.  It's the first time our apple tree has been laden.  But our plum tree is disappointing this year (no photographs). 

We have artichokes, but i have not harvested them.  Letting them bloom for the bees. 

These are dwarf green beans. You would not think so, looking at the length of them. 

Although we have some beetroot growing, ours are not ready yet.  These came from our neighbour who sowed his seeds early in the year.  We've already roasted them and stirred them into a potato salad.

This little yellow cucumber also came from our neighbour.

We were not organised this year with sowing seeds and growing plants from scratch this year. Our neighbour has been very kind and gave us a lot of tomato plants.  Names of which i do not know, like these black tomatoes.   

These little tomatoes were plants we picked up from a garden centre. I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday.  It's always nice to see what's happening in other vegetable growers garden around different parts of the world. 

September in my kitchen

Almost a month since i lasted blogged here. 

So much has been happening around me.  Tentative steps being surrounded by people and larger crowds.  One of which was attending a wedding in a marquee. It was beautiful.  I will soon be going on holiday, so my absence blogging will be noted by regular readers. I will share more on my return and promise to catch up with you all and your blogging on my return. 

But let me share what's in my kitchen.

 Mostly home grown vegetables and fruit - a handful of blueberries

Yellow, glossy shiny courgettes.

 Purple, yellow and green beans.

 More courgettes and some that become marrows.

I made this Ukranian recipe called Coyc/Sous - Courgette and Potato Stew.  A little bit of additional work was required in coating the courgettes in flour and pan frying

 before they were added to a rich tomato sauce that was thickened with soured cream. 

It was suggested to serve this with crusty bread, but i went with plain and finished off with a garnish of dill.

This Armenian Roasted Vegetables: cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, red pepper and dill was a recipe from the same cookbook - Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and beyond by Olia Hercules.  This made a change from the Double Potato Halloumi or Feta Bake that we often make; and the bonus was we used homegrown courgettes and tomatoes from the garden plot.  The tomatoes are not as sweet as previous years, regardless we are thankful to have some growing at home as the flavour is still far more superior than anything you will find in the supermarket. 

Finishing off with some baby beetroot that was simply boiled and served as part of an antipasti meal one hot evening.

And some dirty carrots, that I'll share with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday.  

I may not have loads of new things to share in my kitchen, but I am always happy to join in with In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherry's Pickings with my home grown produce and homemade eats. 

August in My Kitchen

I may not have loads of new things to share in my kitchen, but I am always happy to join in with In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherry's Pickings with my home grown produce and homemade eat. 

So here goes, starting off with some homegrown vegetables. 

First of the purple, yellow and green beans. 

Our neighbour gave us a couple of aubergine plants aka eggplant.  We put them in the greenhouse. This is the first aubergine we have harvested, instead of being the oblong shape, its more of a ball, i think this may have been because the plant had hit the ground and was unable to shape in the traditional manner that we expect aubergines to shape.  I will be cooking this burgundy beauty later today.  

These are meant to be courgettes aka zucchini, but as you can see some have become marrows.  Most of these have been devoured in pasta dishes, quiches or bakes. I also char griddled some of the courgettes these were enjoyed as anti-pasti, stirred into pasta and covered puff pastry base with the addition of feta cheese. 

These yellow courgettes encountered a similar fate. 

We have been very fortunate with home grown strawberries, every other day I'd come back with a bowl full. Sadly, those featured in the image below - we the last of the season.  They were good while they lasted.

Same with these broad beans and peas, though we may still have more peas to come.  But truth is, with the new puppy, we have both been distracted and neglecting the garden.  It is overgrown and needs serious attention and weeding.  We had both intended to spend some time out in the garden this weekend, but its both blustery and raising, so its house work instead.   

I am also sharing this post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday.  

Now let me share with you some homemade bake - well one, Courgette and Raisin muffins.  The recipe made way too many for us, that we ended up sharing them with neighbours. 

I also made Thai Green Curry.  We also have some Pak Choi growing in the garden. But this is the only one that got to enjoy, as those remaining in the garden have bolted and gone to seed, due to neglect. 

I made Quiche with the Chargriddled courgettes.  Yes, i made the shortcrust pastry from scratch.  I tend to trim of the pastry ends, when the quiche filling has been baked and set.

It was handy making this Chargrilled quiche in advance, as last week it was extremely hot and this made for buffet style lunch and dinner. I am also taking the opportunity to share this slice of quiche with a simple side salad of cucumber, tomatoes, and red onion with  Soup, Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen.  

I haven't picked up many edible things for the kitchen, however on of our day trip out to a place called Pontypridd.  I picked up this Welsh Honey.  We have been to Pontypridd a few times over the years including its Museum, for the indoor market and Pete's Shop where i picked up this golden Welsh honey.  I am surprised at myself, that i have never shared photographs of it on my blog.  So I will share some in the next few days.   Just before the pandemic, Pontypridd had been hit by Storm Dennis and was one of the many towns and villages hit by flooding. 

On another one of our day trips, i also had the popped into a couple of charity shops and was pleased with myself coming out of one of them with not one, not two, not three, but four vegan - vegetarian cookbooks that all cost me less that £6.00.  I was mot pleased with Planted as I had wanted that for a while and kept borrowing a copy from the library pre-pandemic, and as for V for Vegan by Kerstin Rodgers - i do have copy, but decided to pick this up to gift to a friend. 

I remember the hype around the Blender Girl and the other Vegan cookbook author was new to me, but peaked my interest enough to bring it home with me.    Now, let us hope that i cook from these in not to long.