As my garden is in full swing now providing me with plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs I thought the menu theme for August could be "Tales from my Garden". This month I will be sharing recipes with you that I create with the fresh produce from my small vegetable plot.
Some recipes may include store cupboard ingredients or things I haven't grown but the main ingredient in each recipe will be picked fresh from my back garden.
I love this time of the year and I'm enjoying the sunshine even if it does mean watering my garden with a watering can that needs 30 refills and takes about an hour. I really should invest in a hosepipe!
If only I had more time to give, just imagine what I could grow. If you're thinking about growing your own next year or even this year (yep there is still time) take a look at my post on gardening and the infographic on what to grow when.
And just to tantalize your taste buds here is a few shots of what I've been growing......
The other day I posted my courgette risotto recipe and I said that my first courgettes of the season would be eaten in a raw dish - well here it is!
Once I'd picked them I just wanted to take a bite out of them, like you would with an apple, but I resisted .....until I got to my kitchen!
I used an eight ball courgette and a pattypan for this recipe, if you can call it a recipe!
The fresh flavour of raw courgette is subtle but one I will never tire of and these two summer squashes were crying out for just a drizzle of dressing. My tummy was rumbling..............
Ingredients
1 Eight ball courgette
1 Pattypan summer squash
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil*
1 Tsp Capers
Handful of basil leaves
¼ Tsp Mint sauce
Pink Himalayan salt
Black pepper
1 Slice Jalapeno pepper (optional)
*The most expensive you can afford - you will taste the difference
Method
Slice the eight ball courgette and Pattypan thinly and arrange on a plate.
To make the dressing pour the olive oil into a small ball Quarter the capers and place in the bowl. Finely shred the basil leaves and add to the bowl. Give the dressing a quick stir so the oil can be infused with the basil.
Add the mint sauce and a good grind of salt and pepper. If you're using the jalapeno, you really don't need much dice finely and add to the bow.
Give everything one more stir before pouring over the thinly sliced courgettes.
Devour!
Yay, I've been picking my first courgettes of the season over the last couple of days! I was getting a little worried as we were fast approaching the end of July and I hadn't posted a courgette recipe. For my first courgette of the season I really wanted to taste and savour the flavour so I decided that my first courgette should be celebrated in style and eaten as a raw dish. But more of that to follow - watch out for the specials board.
Thankfully I managed to pick a few more since, my two 8 Ball courgette plants are growing their round courgettes so fast its amazing to see the start of one grow one morning to go back a couple of days later and find it ready to harvest. Yes, really they grow that quickly! My standard courgette plant seems a little slower but I've had a couple so far, hopefully it will pick up. My beautiful pattypan plants are growing their spaceship shape squashes too, they're just so cute!
For my courgette risotto I used the standard shape courgette, if you grow your own don't let them get too big as I think they lose their flavour.
Ingredients
500ml Vegetable stock
1 Tsp Porcini powder
1 Onion, diced
3 Garlic cloves*
250g Arborio rice
100ml White wine
500g Courgettes
5 Sprigs fresh oregano
5 Shoots fresh chives
Handful of fresh parsley (large)
Handful of fresh basil (large)
2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp Vitalite
* I used 1 clove from my elephant garlic, which was huge but I think it was probably the equivalent to 3 standard cloves
Method - Serves 3-4
First prepare your vegetable stock, either make it yourself or use vegetable bouillon and mix the porcini powder into it. Set to one side
Divide the courgettes up so you have 250g of grated courgette and 250g diced courgette. Put the grated courgette to one side. In a frying pan saute the diced courgette in a little olive oil until cooked through and starting to turn a golden brown. Remove from the frying pan and set aside.
Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the rice and saute for another minute stirring all the time so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
Pour in the white wine, the mixture will bubble furiously, keep stirring until the liquid had been soaked up by the rice. Add the grated courgette and stir through then add a little of the stock. Let the mixture soak up the stock before adding anymore. Continue adding the stock slowly and waiting till it has been absorbed before you add another ladle or two.
Once all the stock has been used and the rice is cooked around 15 minutes add the diced courgette back to the pan along with the nutritional yeast.
Remove the leaves from the oregano stalks and chop with the chives and parsley and add to the pan stir to combine.
Add the vitalite and carefully beat into the mixture to give the risotto a glossy shine.
Shred the basil leaves and add to the pan and stir so everything is combined thoroughly. Serve straight away.
The risotto will keep if you have any left over, but you may need to add a little stock to 'loosen' the risotto.
Yesterday I posted my recipe for raspberry cake and I did say that you would have some raspberry puree left over to make these - Raspberry & Coconut Mousse.
I've used a completely different method to make a mousse here than I did with my strawberry mousse or chocolate mousse. Instead of using coconut cream or avocado I used silken tofu. All three methods provide a silky smooth mousse, who needs eggs?
Ingredients
150ml Raspberry puree*
170g Silken Tofu**
1 Tbsp Maple syrup
1 Tbsp Coconut oil, melted
Chocolate shavings or mint leaves
for decoration
*Left over from the raspberry puree I made to make my raspberry cake yesterday.
** Left over from the raspberry cake recipe I made yesterday.
Method - Serves 3-4
Add the raspberry puree, maple syrup and silken tofu to a food processor and blend, scraping down the sides until everything is well combined and silky smooth.
Add the coconut oil liquid and blend again.
Transfer to small glasses, depending on the size the mixture will fill 3-4 small glasses or 2 large glasses like wine glasses.
Decorate with sprigs of fresh garden mint or shavings of chocolate. To make a chocolate shaving, turn a block of dark chocolate upside down and using a Y vegetable peeler start at the corner and drag across the chocolate.
I think this recipe fits the bill for the "Treat Petite" challenge, which is hosted by Kat on the Baking Explorer Blog and Stuart over at Cakeboi. Kat is hosting July's challenge which is the theme "Summer". You can't get anymore summary than fresh berries!
Kat states: "The idea behind Treat Petite is quite simple – it’s any sweet treat you can think of that’s not a big cake! From cookies to macarons, krispie treats to truffles; we want to see any delicious concoction you conjure up in the kitchen that is individually portioned!! And don’t worry; cupcakes are permitted."
