Winter food

I'm finally catching up with postings, harvest summaries and photos from the last few months. Many of the photos I've posted on Flickr and Facebook but have not yet got around to uploading them here.

I love winter food and this meal is an example of how wonderful veg can be at this time of year: vegetarian haggis with veg from the garden and Reading Farmers' Market. Cavolo nero and mashed squash from the garden; red cabbage, potatoes, leeks and celeriac (mixed in with the squash) from the market.

At this point in the year we were down to our last three home grown squashes. I called them traffic light squashes because of the colours and I am always reluctant to cut into the last of our autumn harvest. Pretty though they are they are grown to be eaten so it was the orange one that went into the haggis meal.

Lunch: an eclectic mix of flavours and ingredients

Today's lunch - usually our main meal when we are working at home - was an interesting mix of flavours and ingredients. Some came straight from the garden, some were dried or preserved garden produce and some shop bought.

So, starting at the top of the plate and moving clockwise, here is what we had.

Injera style sourdough flat breads (rye and spelt flour)

Red cabbage (bought at the local farmers' market) with fennel seeds (garden)

Various beans (some garden) with homemade tomato sauce (made a couple of months ago from garden tomatoes), onions (garden), garlic (garden), dried herbs (garden).

Green and puy lentils, swiss chard (garden), shallots (garden), garlic (garden), ginger and spiced with garam masala.

Home made, oven baked onion bhajis (onions from the garden).

Raita made with home-made yoghurt but shop bought, out of season cucumber [Gasp,  shock, horror!]

Sprinkling of coriander leaves (pot on window sill)

Sauerkraut

I love sauerkraut. It tastes delicious, is so easy to make and you can play around with the veg mix to get different flavours. I started this batch of sauerkraut about 8 days ago and included red cabbage, white cabbage, celeriac, carrots and some caraway seeds. This is my favourite mix at the moment.The only disappointing aspect about it is that you lose the individual colours of the vegetables and everything becomes pink but it's a sacrifice I can live with.

To keep the vegetables submerged under the brine while they are fermenting I place a whole cabbage leaf on top and a clean small jar filled with water on top of that (not easy to see in the photo on the left)

If you want to try making sauerkraut yourself, Sandor Katz explains the process in his video Fermenting Vegetables with Sandor Katz - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ

 

Warning: If you make sauerkraut in jars do not screw down the lids too tightly. The gas produced by the fermentation can cause the jar to explode. I make my sauerkraut in Ravenhead red top kilner jars. These have a glass lid that sits on top of the jar and is held in place by the plastic ring. When I have filled the jar I screw down the lid completely and then undo it by 2 turns. This allows the glass lid to move enough to let out the gas produced by the fermentation. These jars are no longer produced by Kilner but can be found second hand on eBay.

Lunch from the garden

After a soggy start to the gardening year and a few weeks of very hot, dry weather the garden is now flourishing.

Yesterday's lunch was gathered mostly from our garden. Apart from the flour, eggs and cheese the only two vegetables that were not home grown were the red cabbage and the asparagus. (Both were heavily reduced in a local shop and I couldn't resist!).

Yesterday's menu was:

• flan containing yellow and green courgettes, onions, asparagus, swiss chard, spinach, garlic, cheese, eggs, chives
• potato and spring onion salad
• cucumber and herb fennel
• tomato, onion and basil salad
• red cabbage and celeriac leaves
• courgette, feta cheese, rocket, mustard leaves and mint

The potatoes in particular have been fantastic this year. All have been growing or are still growing in containers of one sort or another and taste infinitely better than shop bought ones. We are, though, suffering from a surfeit of courgettes so I shall have to get creative with the recipes this week.