Grow. with Sarah Raven

Transcription

1 Grow &Cook with Sarah Raven Continuing her new series, the gardener and writer presents her favourite produce ready to be harvested from the plot and shows how to savour the flavours in fresh, seasonal recipes this month: peas, beans & berries PHOTOGRAPHS BY JONATHAN BUCKLEY FOOD & DRINK EDITOR ALISON WALKER

2 FOOD & DRINK Gardener, writer and cook Sarah Raven tends a wide range of vegetables and fruit at Perch Hill Farm in East Sussex, and is an expert on how to grow, cut and eat from the garden In June, one of my favourite things is to wander through the vegetable and fruit beds, picking and grazing as I go. I love a straight-from-the-plant raw meal, eating what s there without having to take the produce into the kitchen. So this month, burst open some of the first pods of peas and eat them less than a foot away from the plant Alderman is my favourite shelling pea, with burst-in-the-mouth intense flavour. Pick a handful of pea shoots, the succulent side ones off the main stem. With the sweet taste of peas and the crunch of watercress, these are one of the treats of the June vegetable garden. I throw a handful of seeds into a cleaned-out polystyrene fish crate with a few holes in the bottom. Within a month, I m harvesting the tips. Broad beans, young, small and tender, are delicious raw, too, particularly Stereo, which doesn t form that leathery outer coat to the beans themselves and has a higher sugar, lower starch count than other varieties. June is the time to pinch out the tips of the plants. This helps to prevent infestation by the black bean aphid. Don t throw the tips on the compost heap, but roughly chop them and add them to a garden salad (see overleaf) or use to make a soup: soften a couple of chopped onions in olive oil for ten minutes over a gentle heat, adding the broad bean tips for the last five until they ve wilted. Then whizz them up in vegetable stock. Now is also the time to harvest your first carrots, taking them only as far as the garden tap before eating. Finish with a handful of strawberries. My favourite is Mara Des Bois, which tastes like the miniature wild kind. Add a conventional variety or two such as Honeoye and Florence, both with fantastic flavour. And it s the month of the globe artichoke. I grow Violetta di Chioggia for early June, moving on to Green Globe and Gros Vert de Laon. These three crop a week or two apart, so give an excellent succession. When one plant finishes, cut it to the ground, leaves and all. Up it comes again to give you a second crop in early autumn. You can eat artichokes raw (or marinated in olive oil and lemon juice), finely sliced, with the choke removed, but they re best whole, with each bud scale dipped into a herby Angelica sauce (page 139) the perfect June meal. Strawberry and orange granita PREPARATION 10 MINUTES, PLUS FREEZING. COOKING 10 MINUTES. SERVES 6-8 This is quick, easy and very delicious topped with a shot of Cointreau or vodka. juice of 4 medium oranges and finely grated zest of 2 100g granulated sugar 800g fresh strawberries, hulled 1 tablespoon lemon juice Cointreau, for serving 1 Put the orange juice and zest with the sugar in a pan set over a low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat, pour into a bowl and allow to cool. 2 Put the strawberries in a food processor and whizz briefly into a purée. Mix into the cooled orange syrup, add the lemon juice and stir well to combine. 3 Pour the mixture into a freezerproof container and freeze for two hours. Take it out and break up the mixture with a fork. Put it back in the freezer for at least another couple of hours. 4 Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving, break up the granita and soften it slightly with a fork. Spoon into bowls and pour a little Cointreau over each one, or serve with a jug for people to help themselves. e right Woven hazel hurdles edge the beds in Sarah s kitchen garden, where flowers, vegetables and salads grow in abundance countryliving.co.uk JUNE

3 FOOD & DRINK this page Sweet Alpine Mignonette and succulent Florence strawberries are ideal partners for a fruit tart Strawberry and cucumber salad PREPARATION 15 MINUTES. SERVES 4 Cucumbers and strawberries make a strangely good match one is soft and sweet, the other cool and crunchy and they both love mint. This salad is delicious with a goat s cheese tart, grilled spiced chicken or anything with strong flavour. You can slice the ingredients a little beforehand, but only throw this together just as you want to eat. FOR THE SALAD 1 large or 2 small cucumbers, trimmed 500g strawberries, hulled a few fresh mint leaves, to garnish FOR THE DRESSING juice and zest of ½ lemon 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 good pinch golden caster sugar 2 heaped tablespoons fresh mint leaves, finely chopped 1 red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped 1 Using a potato peeler, stripe the cucumber by peeling along the length at regular intervals. Then cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon (to make the salad less watery). Cut into 1cm slices. 2 Slice each strawberry into 3-4 pieces from top to bottom, depending on their size. 3 Put the dressing ingredients into a small mixing bowl and whisk with a fork until you have a good emulsion. Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 4 Place the cucumber and strawberry slices into a salad bowl and pour over the dressing. Stir to combine, throw over a few fresh chopped mint leaves, and serve immediately. A handful of strawberries is the perfect garden treat. Grow a mix of varieties offering fantastic flavour and reliability and you ll enjoy a colourful harvest right through the summer PHOTOGRAPH OF STRAWBERRIES IN COLANDERS TAKEN AT YEO VALLEY 136 JUNE 2013 countryliving.co.uk

4 this page, from right Enjoy straight-fromthe-plant meals with a mouthwatering mix of shoots and garden peas, including the purple podded variety June garden salad PREPARATION 35 MINUTES. COOKING 10 MINUTES. SERVES 4 When they re small and very fresh, asparagus spears, peas and broad beans are delicious raw or briefly blanched, mixed in a salad with rocket, pea tips and a few curls of a salty hard cheese spears of new asparagus handful of small broad beans, podded handful of fresh peas, podded 75g rocket (or milder spinach) 25g pea tips Maldon sea salt 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil chopped flat-leaf parsley a few curls of pecorino cheese balsamic vinegar, for drizzling 1 Break off the tips of the asparagus and divide into two piles. Leave half raw and blanch the other half for 2 minutes in boiling water. Remove any coarse bits from the stalks with a potato peeler and slice thinly at an angle. Blanch these, too. 2 If any of the broad beans are larger than a thumbnail, remove their skins, blanch for 2 minutes in boiling water and peel. Blanch the peas for 1-2 minutes. 3 Dress the rocket and pea tips with salt and olive oil, and put to one side. Lightly dress the beans, peas and asparagus with olive oil and salt, and pile on a plate. Put the rocket on the top and toss a little, adding the parsley, pecorino and a drizzle of balsamic. e countryliving.co.uk JUNE

5 FOOD & DRINK Vegetable stir-fry PREPARATION 35 MINUTES. COOKING 10 MINUTES. SERVES 6 Add strips of beef or chicken for a more substantial dish. FOR THE VEGETABLES 600g summer vegetables (carrots, courgettes, purple sprouting or tender stem broccoli, pea tips, sugar snaps 4 spring onions, cut diagonally 500g fresh egg noodles 2 tablespoons sunflower oil 1 red finger chilli, cut in half, seeds removed and sliced 1 thumb ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks 2 stems lemongrass, chopped plenty of fresh coriander FOR THE DRESSING 3 tablespoons rapeseed or sunflower oil 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil 1 garlic clove, crushed 2 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped 3 spring onions, finely sliced 1 bag of beansprouts (optional) 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted 4 tablespoons light soy sauce juice of 1 lime 50g bunch coriander, chopped 1 Cut all the vegetables into even-sized pieces, about 6-7cm in length and about 3-4mm wide. 2 Put the noodles in a large pan of boiling water and take off the heat. Cover and leave for 6 minutes, stirring halfway through. 3 Heat the sunflower oil over a high heat in a large wok. Fry the chilli, ginger and lemongrass for 30 seconds. Add the vegetables. Season and stir for 5 minutes. 4 To make the dressing, mix the oils, garlic and peanut butter. Add the chilli, spring onion, beansprouts (if using) and sesame seeds. 5 Drain the noodles and transfer to a large warmed serving bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss. Add the soy sauce, lime juice and coriander, toss again and season. 6 Take the vegetables off the heat and stir through the fresh coriander. Serve immediately with the noodles. 138 JUNE 2013 countryliving.co.uk

6 June is also the month of the globe artichoke. They are at their best eaten whole, with each bud scale dipped into a delicious herby sauce the discarded leaves make great garden mulch Globe artichokes with Angelica sauce PREPARATION 30 MINUTES. COOKING 40 MINUTES. SERVES 6-8 I love the whole palaver of artichokes: pulling the leaves off until you get to the soft heart, which you dunk and eat in one go. Remove the choke with a teaspoon before you do so. 1-2 small artichokes per person FOR THE SAUCE 4 eggs, hard-boiled and shelled 1 very large bunch of soft green herbs (a bunch to fill the palm of your hand), half flat-leaf parsley and the rest a mixture of chives, fennel, dill and/or coriander, or one of these 2 tablespoons capers 2 tins anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped 300ml extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 Cook the artichokes in boiling, salted water for 40 minutes until one of the outer scales easily falls away with a gentle tug. Drain them in the sink, face down, for 5 minutes and, when they ve cooled a bit, give each a squeeze to get rid of any remaining water. 2 It s best to chop the sauce ingredients by hand. Break up the eggs roughly with the back of a fork and chop the herbs, capers and anchovies with a knife. Mix together with the oil and vinegar in a large bowl. You won t need much salt but add lots of freshly ground black pepper. 3 Give everyone an artichoke or two if small on a plate with enough room for a good dollop of sauce. You ll also need a large bowl for the discarded leaves. d this page The globe artichokes grown at Perch Hill include Gros Vert and Violetta di Chioggia CL READER OFFER Sarah Raven is offering Country Living readers a 10% discount on the Mira bowls that are shown holding the Vegetable Stir Fry. The offer is valid from 2 May-2 June, using the code CLJUNE13 at sarahraven.com or by calling See the website for full offer terms. countryliving.co.uk JUNE