grow – Fruits, Roots & Shoots

Sugar Snap Pea

I am so excited about our garden at the moment, particularly the vegetables, they are coming on amazingly well hugely helped by the gorgeous unheard of sunshine we are having in Manchester. The beetroot and chard have recovered from the leaf miner bug that devastated them a few weeks ago, the kale has recovered from their caterpillar attack and everything else has just grown like the clappers. The first photo was taken 2 weeks ago, and the 2nd this morning, I cant believe how fast everything is growing!

One thing that hasn’t grown quite as well as I would have hoped is the sugar snap peas, whilst we have had a few, and I’m guilty of eating one every time I go out to the garden to inspect the veg they haven’t given us the abundant harvest I was hoping for. From what I gather they don’t love too much sunshine and dry weather so maybe that’s where they have fallen down a bit. Never mind, the rest of the crops most than make up for them.

So with my handful of pea pods that made it inside I thought I would make a delicious light meal for one that really showed them off. I always think a meal for one is an opportunity to really treat yourself; you don’t have to pander to anyone else’s tastes you just get to have all the things you love. Gnudi is similar to gnocchi but without potatoes, the main component is ricotta so they are much lighter and more summery and work so well with some fresh green veggies, in this case my lovely sweet sugar snap peas.

Ricotta Gnudi with Peas

Serves one – could easily be multiplied for up to 4 people I think more would be a faff.

175g ricotta
1 egg yolk
3tbsp Parmesan
Gated nutmeg
75g fine semolina*
25g butter
8 Sage Leaves
Handful of sugar snap peas

Strain the ricotta in some muslin – either overnight hanging or if your unorganised like me by squeezing it until as much liquid as possible comes out.

Combine the strained ricotta, egg yolk, parmesan and a good grating of nutmeg to form a thick dry-ish paste.

Spread a layer of semolina onto a plate, dampen your hands with water then cover in semolina – roll small ball of the nudie mixture in your hands to make a small sausage (there should be 12-14 gnudis) then place on the plate of semolina.

In a perfect world place the gnudi – covered in a clean tea towel (not cling film!) in the fridge for at least 4 hours so a skin forms and the center firms up. You can skip this step as long as you got your ricotta really dry and are careful with the next step although they wont be as perfect.

Add the gnudi a few at a time to a just simmering pan of salted water (if its boiling they will go to mush!) as soon as the nudies float to the surface fish out with a slotted spoon and place to one side on a plate. Repeat until all the nudies have floated up to the surface.

In a frying pan over a medium heat add the butter, once it has melted add the sage leaves for 1 min so they flavour the butter, add the gnudi and sliced sugar snap peas and cook for 2 mins until the nudies are lightly golden and the peas have softened slightly but still have bite.

Serve and enjoy – hopefully outside in the lovely sunshine!

*If you cant find fine semolina put blitz semolina in the blender for a few mins.

Chives

There are finally signs of spring around, we had a few days of sunshine, the cherry blossom in next doors garden looks amazing and the bulbs have really come into their own.

The herbs I have in pots and planted last year have also woken up, particularly the chives. Last year I had a real issue with slugs eating them but I spread some egg shell around and have been more attentive in my slug hunts so touch wood I haven’t had any issues this year and they are looking great. Other than trying to keep the slugs at bay I have done absolutely nothing to look after them, they are so easy!

There have been some pretty major advances on the garden front, Dad and Joel took out the lower branches of the Oak tree allowing loads more light into the bottom of the garden. I now have two raised veg beds and we have been digging out two large flower borders from the grass including making a circular area of slate chippings in the middle of the border ready for a bench. We’ve started the planting in the borders but have some way to go – a few key things are thyme and alpine strawberries to provide ground cover, Philadelphus for scent, a clematis to joining the climbing rose we inherited and plenty of others including a whole host of herbs around the seating area. Ill pop a few pictures at the bottom if anyone is interested.

Back to the food…Chives are such a lovely flavour, fresh and a little oniony but not overpowering. I think they get used too much as a garnish, chopped and scattered over any dish without much thought to their value as an ingredient. I tend to use them when I want that savoury onion-y flavour but with more subtlety than spring onion, perfect in a creamy salad dressing or with white fish. I wanted to make something where they were one of the main flavours and I love a savoury scone in fact I would much rather have a savoury scone than a sweet with jam and clotted cream. I judge a coffee shop or cafe on the quality of their cheese scone – Joel does this with Victoria sandwiches (although he isn’t exactly fussy). Soup and a scone is hard to beat as a lunch combination in my book.

Chive and Feta Mini Scones

Makes 14 Mini Scones

100g wholemeal plain flour
75g of white plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
35g butter
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
Salt and Papper
150g feta – crumbles into chunks
3 tbsp chopped chives

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees. Combine the flours, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl. Rub the butter in to make a fine sand like texture. Add the feta and chopped chives, a pinch of salt and grind of black pepper.

Whisk the egg in a separate bowl and add to the flour (holding back a teaspoons worth), combine with a little milk until it just comes together as a dough – you dont want it too wet and you dont want to overwork it of the scones will be dense.

On a floured surface, roll (or just pat out) to a thickness of about 2 cm. Cut out using a small circular cutter and place on a lined baking sheet. Brush the top of each scone with the remaining egg.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 12 mins.

There is no reason you couldn’t make these as big scones and cook for longer, I just like the little mini ones!

We ate ours with a spring green soup.

Runner Bean

So things have been very quiet on the blog for a few months, there has been a lot going on for me in the real world, Joel and I have bought and moved into our own house, we got married on a gorgeous sunny day surrounded by all our friends and family, Joel had a nasty bicycle vs car accident, which thankfully he has now recovered from.

We are spending time working on the house, making it ours and I have so many plans for the garden. Although with everything going on this summer the furthest I got with growing veggies was popping in the runner beans Joel’s parents gave us, and my usual salad leaves and herbs. Considering I literally stuck the small runner bean plants in the ground and stretched some string across the fence for support the runner bean plants did amazingly well, we have had a more beans than we could eat since the start of July. They are now coming to an end, the big chunky ones I have left on the plant till they dry out and I can harvest the beans to plant next year, the rest of them I have turned into chutney.

Our family friends Jenny and Peter make this chutney every year and it is always delicious – just the right balance of sweet and tangy so of course I had to get the recipe from them to make with my last batch of beans from the garden. The recipe came from the queen of reliable recipes – Delia, I should have known.

Spiced Pickled Runner Beans

Adapted from Delia’s recipe

900g of Runner Beans – trimmed and sliced
700g Onions – finely chopped
850ml Malt Vinegar
40g Cornflour
1 tbsp Mustard Powder
1 tbsp Turmeric
1 tsp black pepper
675g Demerara Sugar

Add the chopped onions and 300mls of the vinegar to a large pan and simmer until softened – around 20 mins.

Boil the sliced beans in a separate pan – Delia suggests 5 mins but I cooked mine for 10 due to now being a little tough, drain and add to the onion and vinegar mixture.

Mix the spices and corn flour with a little of the remaining vinegar to make a paste then add to the onion mix along with the rest of the vinegar.

Simmer for 10 mins, then add the sugar and simmer for a further 15 mins.

Pot the pickle into warm sterilized jars and leave to mature for at least a month.

Also here is a few pictures of our adventures over the past few months I’ve been away from the blog.