seasonal food « Penny Golightly

British seasonal food in October

October 13th, 2011 by Penny Golightly

I love October’s seasonal foods. It’s the perfect excuse to make a casserole, followed by a blackberry and apple crumble. Or maybe a bouillabaisse, followed by some nice cheese and biscuits. Or maybe some cream of cauliflower soup.

Anyway, here’s what’s waiting for you at the market this month. Get stuck in.

Fruit: new season apples, blackberries, crab apples, damsons, elderberries, figs, hazelnuts, juniper berries, Kentish cobnuts, pears, plums, quinces, raspberries, sloes, sweet chestnuts, walnuts.

Vegetables: asian greens, autumn and red cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and tops, cardoons, cauliflower at its peak, celeriac, celery, chicory, courgettes finishing, fennel, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, last of the lettuce, leeks, peppers, marrow, mushrooms (chanterelles, ceps, hedgehog fungus, horn of plenty), parsnips, pumpkins and squashes, radishes, rocket, salsify and scorzonera, spinach, spring onions, swedes, sweetcorn, turnips, watercress.

Fish and shellfish: brill, brown hen crab, brown shrimp, cod, Dover sole, eels, lobster, mackerel, mussels, native and rock oysters, prawns, scallops, sea bass, sprats, squid, spider crab, squid, turbot, wild salmon.

Meat, poultry and game: Autumn lamb, grouse, wild duck, partridge, pheasant, woodcock.

Cheeses: Caerphilly. Gruyere, Saint-Nectaire and all the other main French hard cheeses.

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So, what are you going to cook?

Tags: British seasonal food, ingredients in season, october seasonal food, seasonal food, seasonal foods for October, UK seasonal food
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Book review: Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton

September 23rd, 2011 by Penny Golightly

We haven’t had a book review for a while, have we? Let’s get straight back into it with this copy of Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton.

He’s the clever clogs behind the dishes at the Michelin-starred Maze. The premise of the book is that you can have fine dining for a fiver per head, by which he means a light-ish two-course meal (starter and main, or main and dessert) without drinks.

Without a doubt this is dinner party food, or a hearty lunch for foodies, and the recipes are all to serve four people. It’s easy enough to scale the portions up or down too. In order for it to truly be a meal for a fiver you have to have quite a few store cupboard staples already otherwise you’ll be buying in extra ingredients that can cost a fair bit for a whole bottle or packet.

It also helps if you live near a decent fishmonger or butcher, as there are many ingredients that work out great value for money and are very tasty indeed, but you’re unlikely to get them from the average supermarket. Likewise, some of the flavourings would be best purchased from an Indian grocery shop, or a Chinese or Thai supermarket.

The book also relies on seasonal foods, things that are at their best and also hopefully cheaper because they’re plentiful. I’d say that you’d need to be a fairly confident cook to tackle some of the dishes, intermediate to advanced level mainly, but you’d be able to make some real show-stoppers.

It’s the chef-y touches that really make this book, including the ‘plating up’ directions. It’s all designed to look beautiful when you serve it up, and each recipe is accompanied by a full page colour photo. The desserts are stunning.

If I’m going to be niggly, some of the chef-yness is also a slight drawback at times as the home cook cannot haggle for trade discounts on ingredients and loses out on economies of scale. One example is the creation of a pudding that’s entirely made from staple ingredients, which then has ’15g of fresh coconut’ shaved over the top of it – fine of you’re making 20 in a restaurant kitchen, not within budget for the average home cook as it’s impossible to buy this amount on its own. This is where experience and ability to improvise comes in handy, as a little grated chocolate or sprinkle of toasted dessicated coconut could be possible substitutes.

In summary: a very beautiful cookbook with fresh, innovative recipes and seasonal ingredients. Not one for beginners, but definitely a book to consider if you’d like to shake up your romantic dinner repertoire or try something new when you’re feeding your foodie friends. Worth it for the desserts alone.

Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton is published by Quadrille Ltd and has an RRP of £14.99. It’s currently available from Amazon priced £7.70 and qualifies for free Super Saver delivery.

Tags: book review, cheaper food, cook book, fine foods, gourmet foods for less, Penny Golightly book review, seasonal food
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British seasonal food in September

September 21st, 2011 by Penny Golightly

What’s in season this month? I’m looking forward to autumn berries, the best wild mushrooms, the return of the shellfish, and the biggest range of goodies from the kitchen garden in the whole of the growing year.

Lots of UK gardeners have had problems getting crops to ripen this year due a lack of sunny days during the crucial months. In particular, quite a few people have complained to me about green tomatoes so stay tuned for ripening methods and the tastiest ways to use up the ones that stubbornly refuse to ripen. Meanwhile, on with the seasonal show:

Fruit & nuts: apples, bilberries, blackberries, blueberries, crab apples, damsons, elderberries, figs, grapes, greengages, juniper berries, first Kentish cobnuts, loganberries, pears, plums, raspberries, sloes. Imported: melons, nectarines and peaches.

Vegetables: all salad leaves, asian greens, aubergines, beetroot, broccoli, late summer cauliflower, celery, chard, chillies, chives, courgettes, cucumbers, fennel, globe artichokes, green beans (French, runner, and borlotto pods), green and red cabbage, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, marrows, peppers, pumpkins (put first Winter ones aside to mature rather than eat), radishes, red onions, rocket, salsify and scorzonera, samphire, shallots, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, squashes, swedes, sweetcorn, summer squash, tomatoes, watercress, wild mushrooms (ceps, chanterelles, oyster, puffball, shaggy ink cap and more).

Fish and shellfish: black bream, brown and rainbow trout, brown hen crabs, brown shrimp, clams, cockles, Dover sole, eels, lobster, mussels, native oysters, pilchards, plaice, prawns, scallops, sea bass, signal crayfish, skate, sprats, squid, turbot.

Meat, poultry and game: Michaelmas goose, Autumn lamb, grouse, partridge, venison at its best, wild duck.

Cheeses: UK: Double Gloucester, Farmhouse Cheshire. French: Brie de Meaux. (For other French seasonal cheeses see this table at baudelet.net).

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What are you going to cook? Ideas please!

Tags: British seasonal food, eating the seasons, food in season September, seasonal food, seasonal fruit and veg, September fruit and vegetables, September seasonal foods
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Garden pests and diseases, and how to deal with them

February 9th, 2011 by Penny Golightly

Every new garden has its success stories, but it also has its problems. Here’s a quick overview of some of the troubleshooting I’ve had to do in the last 12 months.

Many problems can be overcome by chucking expensive chemicals at them, but it isn’t a guaranteed fix and you wouldn’t necessarily want to eat your veggies afterwards.

Let’s start with a little ‘murder mystery’, shall we? Look at the picture below and guess what disease or creature caused this damage to this sprouting broccoli plant.

Competition: The first correct ‘Diagnosis Murder’ answer left in the comments section below will win a mini-collection of vegetable seeds suitable for growing in a small garden. (UK entrants only). The answer will be revealed on Friday morning so you’ll need to be quick.

The garden has been very productive for the most part, but there have been problems with animals of all sizes:

pets (not all of them mine)
ants
blackfly and other aphids
slugs and snails
foxes
assorted birds
butterflies and moths
beet leaf miners
wasps

Amazingly there was no carrot root fly, but that’s probably because I did some companion planting and stuck to the rules about thinning and harvesting. I’ll write about those on another occasion.

Plus there have been problems with diseases, mainly:

Downy mildew
Rust
Mosaic virus
General stem rot

The one thing I was most worried about was blight, but the area I live in escaped somehow so we ended up with strong and healthy tomato and potato plants. That could have been because we had some long hot stretches over the summer, or it could have been blind luck.

I’ll be writing about all kinds of garden pests and diseases – and how to cheaply stop them destroying all your crops – over the next few weeks, as the gardening year starts to take shape. On Friday I’ll begin by tackling our mystery ‘friend’ from the crime scene above.

Have you had problems with any garden pests or diseases? Did you manage to deal with them without using harsh chemicals? Any tips for other growers?

Tags: allotment gardening, British garden kitchen, British seasonal food, common garden pests, common plant diseases, container gardening, dealing with garden pests, get rid of blackfly, get rid of slugs and snails, grow veg cheaply, grow your own vegetables, growing vegetables cheaply, growing vegetables on a budget, keep cats out of your garden, keep this up kitty and I will be serving you up as a side dish, seasonal food
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