Trio of Beetroot with Honey Caramelized Almonds and Mustard Leaf

 

Quick Kimchi

 

I planted cabbage in the patch last September to over winter for spring. It seemed like a good idea to have something in the ground as a winter crop. All true except for the fact, I never cook with cabbage! especially white cabbages. sometimes i'll make bacon and cabbage, but not 10 plants worth, which is what i have growing. I decided the best use would be a load of kimchi, and I was right!

my over wintered cabbage plants took awhile to produce heads after the long winter we had in Ireland.

I love kimchi and its quite hard to get in Ireland. Kimchi is the spicy Korean equivalent to sauerkraut. which is a fermented cabbage condiment. this recipe is for a quick 'white person' version, as opposed to the one that ferments for weeks (sometimes months!) as is the standard with authentic kimchi. a Korean friend of mine told me his Nan (grandmother) would put hers in a clay pot underground for 6 months during the winter! now, that must be a pungent mixture!



chill powder, ginger, green garlic and anchovies

don't let that scare you, with this recipe you'll have tasty kimchi in 2 days. the flavour develops nicely over the next couple of weeks so you have time to eat all of it. try keeping some around and tasting it as time passes.


 

if you are feeling creative try mixing different thinly cut veggies into the kimchi, as anything goes with this mix. beetroot would be interesting as well as some kale. I used green garlic stems, as my garlic wasn't quite ready for digging up, and im really happy with the results. I've been eating it with beef burgers (see the FWDR Instagram feed) and teriyaki mayo. its amazing with fish and chicken too. I even had it with scrambled eggs for breakfast, shoved into a pita - its the perfect kick start to the morning!

 

_________________________________________________________

Quick Kimchi

Makes nearly 1.5 litres (6 cups)

Recipe adapted from What I had growing in the veg patch, The Simple Things Magazine and Wild Fermentation by Sandor Elix Katz (see Bookshelf)

this is a two day affair, but the kimchi gets better with age so you can keep it in the fridge for weeks after preparing. serve kimchi with a Korean BBQ, roast chicken, grilled fish, breakfast, lunch or dinner. its especially good on a burger with a bit of soya sauce mixed into you favourite mayonnaise. VERY more-ish.

2 pounds (900g) white cabbage, finely sliced into ribbons
2 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 whole stalks of green garlic, or 10 cloves of fresh garlic, finely chopped
20 slices of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 tablespoons chilli powder
1 small tin anchovy fillets in oil
4 fl oz (100ml) soya sauce
1 bunch of spring onions
1/2 pound (225g) carrots, peeled and cut into julienne strips

• place cabbage salt and sugar in a large container and toss, leave covered in the fridge overnight.
• the next day, rise the cabbage and dry out thoroughly
• in a separate bowl add the marinade ingredients - garlic, ginger, chilli powder, anchovy fillets, and soya sauce and mix thoroughly, blending in the anchovy as much as possible.
• add water to make the marinade the consistency of a thick salad dressing.
• add the spring onions and carrots to the cabbage
• stir in the marinade to the veggies.
• tightly pack the kimchi into sterilized jars or a large container
• this kimchi is great after 24 hours in the fridge, better after a week and at 2 weeks its in its prime. if you like strong flavours you can keep it around up to a month

Easy Sponge Cake - with citrus, rosemary and thyme

this week  is the FWDR Blog Birthday week! it's been an whole entire year since the first post 52 weeks ago, and how far we've come. the year has been a good one, with lots of sun (and rain) and great home grown food. when FWDR first posted the Homegrown Bloody Mary post, it was also THE Julia Child's Birthday, and what a day to begin a food blog! So, in honour of Julia and the big birthday, I've taken from Julia's, Baking with Julia Cookbook, a cake recipe I've used time and time again with great results. I tweaked it a little to give it an FWDR spin, by adding lime zest, rosemary and thyme. its a perfect sponge recipe made even better with freshly whipped cream and homemade jam.

 

I've added a lot of pictures of the sponge making process, as I feel many people are afraid of making sponge cake. it really is easy, though. the one trick is to use a light touch, and not to be scared! the only leavening to this cake is the air you whip into the eggs, so an aggressive hand will knock out vital air and lend to a dense, lifeless cake. this is a traditional French genoise recipe, using the cold technique. don't skimp on whipping time, you need to whip the eggs and sugar until a ribbon sits on top of the mixture for 10 seconds, so beat those eggs for at least 5 minutes.

 

 

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Phew! Finally found a scrap of time to pull this post together. The computer is still being fixed, which is the main reason it's taken so long to post. So just The same as my last post, this is all being written on my smartphone. 

The weather has really turned back to an Irish summer, it's grey, warm, wet and the air is quite close. Which are the perfect conditions for blight! That said i just finished pulling up my second early potatoes, called 'records'. They looked great, with no blight at all. All that's left are the main crop 'golden wonder' spuds. Looking forward to them! 

Since its been so dreary out I've been really craving warm summer Mexican cuisine. The first crop of tomatillos were harvested just last week. I knew what was destined for those babies- tomatillo salsa. It's great as a dip for tortilla chips or it makes a fantastic and authentic enchilada sauce, which is where my tomatillos ended up. Baked with cheese and spicy beef filling. 

Radicchio Apple and Grapes

It's been an exciting week with daily rain and thunder showers then amazing blazing sunny periods. the veg patch Is loving the weather, im not so sure about it myself. The week was made even more exciting when the video card in our computer died, oops. Could be a few weeks till its back up and running! So this post is being written entirely from my smartphone. Which with the blogger app isn't as bad as I would have imagined. 

The up side is my Radicchio Treviso plants are looking fab, and I've decided to try out a recipe I've earmarked for a time like now when my plants were ready. The recipe is adapted from Around my French Table, by Dorrie Greenspan, (see Bookshelf Page, above) a must have for any enthusiastic chef who loves entertaining with simplistic and delicious food. I love recipes that toy with sweet and savoury ingredients, so this one caught my eye.

Radicchio is part of the endive/chicory family of plants thats flavours range from faintly bitter to intensely bitter. The Bitterness can change during the growing season too, depending on outside temperatures, cooler temperatures aiding in a more mild flavour. The bitterness mellows with cooking as well, adding a bit of cream helps too. This dish is slow cooked with salted butter, sweet grapes and tart apples balance out the bitter tones of the radicchio. One bite is bitter the next sweet and savoury, its a flavour sensation, and a little rosemary undertone sews the whole plate together. Enjoy! 

______________________________

Radicchio, Apple and Grapes

Serves 2 as a main or 4 starters

Making this dish reminds me of cooking a tart tatin, the aromas of the butter caramelising with the apples and grapes are part of the reason. Another is the time involved, patience is key. Everything needs to be soft and melting for this dish to be perfect. 

2 medium heads Radicchio Treviso or 1 large head, halved for medium heads or quartered for large

1 1/2 Gala apples, quartered and cored

3 small clumps of green grapes

3 -4 small sprigs rosemary

2 tablespoons salted butter 

• place a large sauté pan on a low heat , add the butter and let melt. 

• place radicchio in pan cut side down, fill in gaps with apples, grapes and rosemary, leave to bubble away slowly for 20-25 minutes

•check to see if everything is caramelising, if not turn up heat a fraction and wait to turn the fruit and radicchio.

• once browned flip everything over and repeat cooking another 20-25 minutes

• poke the radicchio, apples and grapes to make sure they are soft, check got caramelisation, if ready remove from heat and plate. If not let cook longer adjusting heat if necessary.

• add a small bit of water to the pan to make a scant amount of sauce and spoon over the finished dish

Aioli Egg Salad

luckily working in a bakery I get bread on tap, as well as having chickens in the garden I always have eggs on hand. with that, a bit of oil and a minute or two of wisking I have aioli( too. (or homemade mayo). egg salad or 'egg mayonaise' is one of my comfort foods, especially when served in a toasted croissant.

I've been relying on it for sustenance after getting home from work. something crunchy and warm (toast) and something cold and creamy (egg salad), no complaints here! I've had a glut of eggs lately which is good because the garden has yet to reach that glut stage.

Cucumber Gin Gimlet

 

what's better than a day in the garden? a drink afterwards! especially on a misty day like today. (its the first rain in weeks!) this cocktail is the perfect summer time refreshment and if you are growing your own cucumbers you shouldn't have to wait much longer to harvest your own 'cucs' and try out this handy cucumber gin infusion recipe. then you can sit back and admire your garden and your fancy cocktail skills.

 

a gimlet is a classic cocktail traditionally made with Rose's Lime Juice (a sweetened lime juice) and gin or vodka. Rose's proves hard to find in this part of the world so a simple syrup and fresh lime juice combo makes a good stand in. the gimlet has many variations, a cocktail tip: if you substitute the gin/vodka for rum you'd be making a daiquiri!

 

I had my first gimlet last year in a cool cocktail bar in Barcelona, with no menu.  the gimlets were served with a retro green maraschino cherry as a garnish. im not sure if it was the day-glo green cherries or the heat (or maybe just the gin), but I've been thinking about my own version ever since. a cucumber gin and lime pairing seemed like a good idea. after the first test run I was a bit surprised that I didn't have to tweak the ratio at all. the cucumber flavour makes a great background for the zingy lime juice and herbal gin spices. a word of warning - just follow this golden rule: no more than two!

 

 

I ended up using a store bought cucumber for this recipe, I just couldn't wait for the in season ones! be sure to use the entire thing for packing loads of cucumber flavour in your gin, I recommend Gordon's gin for this recipe it's my favourite at the moment. De-lish!

 

Radish, Smoked Butter and Flaky Sea Salt

 

 

Violet Syrup

the 'dog violet'

after recently bumping into a recipe online for violet syrup (see the 'life's a lasagne' blog, here), I gave it a go myself. there's quite a few clumps of violets growing in the hedges around my garden so I didn't have to travel too far. If you are planning on making this recipe it does take quite a lot of flower to make 1 cup (240ml) of syrup.

 

if only for the colour itself it's worth making this vibrant syrup. it's apparently that's what I made it for too. I found out after smelling my syrup that it didn't smell much of violets at all! I discovered the violets I used were 'dog violets' which don't really smell at all. oops! the fragrant variety is called 'sweet violet' and bears a yellow centre. that's the violet to use for this recipe, so I did the leg work for you! now you know.

 

i'm planning on devising a cocktail with my syrup so stay tuned for the follow up post to this one. possibly a violet prosecco cocktail? I mean, whats better than after a good day in the garden than a refreshing drink? a partially foraged one.

Green Garlic Dressing

purple sprouting broccoli shoots, kale buds, pea shoots, ruby steaks mustard, baby kale, green garlic and chive

its hard to believe that yesterday was the first day I got a whole salad out of the garden. everything seems a month behind at the moment, the spuds only just got their heads in gear, the over wintered cabbages are yet to form heads (will they?) and my peas just poked through the soil a week ago.

 

the salad bed (from bottom left to top right): easter egg radish (with mixed leaves to follow), ruby streaks mustard, garlic, little gem, garlic, beetroot, snow pea and ruby streaks mustard

this year I took a page out of joy larkom's creative vegetable gardening book and planted my salad bed with contrasting colours and texture, as well as planting the rows on the diagonal for visual interest. as you can see from the above picture its still has a bit more to fill out but the idea is starting to shape out.

 



a small garlic shoot for thining and using as green garlic

I only recently learned about green garlic (a.k.a wet garlic) as an ingredient. before the garlic reaches maturity the whole bulb and stem can be used, I picked mine very early as a thinning measure. its great in soups, dressings and marinades. the flavour is more subtle than mature garlic lacking the strong spicy edge. think: chives but better.

 



green garlic

the great thing about growing garlic yourself is a) its super easy and b) you can have a go with green garlic in the kitchen. (I've only seen it one or twice in the green grocers ) the use of green garlic is starting to pop up more in cookbooks and restaurants lately, so if you don't grow you're own you might see it popping up at a good green grocers soon. 

 

Smoked Butter

yes it's true! smoking butter at home is quite simple. you need a metal box with large-ish holes punched in it, wood chips, a pot with tight fitting lid, a plate and some butter. I saw this recipe first in the Lark cookbook. (to read the FWDR review on the book click, here.) it instantly got my attention, the chefs at Lark were equally as inspired by the NOMA Cookbook, where they first discovered smoking butter.

 



smoking butter is such a great and simple idea - we smoke cheese, why not butter? it adds a lovely flavour to country bread and is great tossed with steamed veggies, you can make a killer beurre blanc sauce with it too, as they do in the Lark Cookbook. I used it here with fresh sliced radishes and flaky sea salt.

my attempt at smoking butter was a bit of trial and error. I used fine oak shavings my carpenter friend gave me, the recipe first called for chips. I used a roses tin for the smoke box. which I needed to make the holes a bit bigger. i'd say half a centimetre would have been best.

 



Homemade Chicken Stock

chicken bones, carrots, celery, garlic, cheese rinds, herb stalks, and cauliflower stems

homemade chicken stock is a great thing to make when you've got extra bits left over from dinner. i'm sure many of you have made chicken stock before at home and know the joys and the world of difference it can make to your own home cooking.

throw in some onion and a couple bay leaves and your in business the 'stock market'!

i don't have a specific recipe and really its just scraps thrown into a pot and covered with water. one thing that really makes the stock special is the addition of cheese rinds, the ends of hard cheeses like parmesean are great to throw into stock. the dried out ends seem to and an extra savoury depth, without melting too much and getting all gooey. so, next time you have some hard cheesey bits left over just throw them in the freezer for your next batch of chicken or veg stock.

simmer for two hours, strain out the bits and you're done!

the consensus with stock is to always use the holy trinity of veg: carrots, celery and onions. from there its all up to you! once your chicken stock has finished cooking and cooled down you can store it in the fridge or in the freezer till needed.