Harvest Monday - chestnut terrine

Brrr, we've finally got some really chilly weather...I even got hailed on the other day. It's about time too, we need to get rid of the nasties over winter (last winter was really mild and so this summer we had a major slug problem).

 

On the harvest front, I've mainly been using up what I'd already picked, though I've harvested a few more peppers from the lean-to. I haven't cooked them up yet and am deciding what to make. Any suggestions? There's still more to pick as well...I need to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't start rotting on the plants.

I've also picked a load of kale and chard from the allotment. Nice dark colours.

I saved some seeds from a little pumpkin recently. Normally I don't bother because when I've baked them they've not turned out that well and just been rather fibrous. But these seeds looked so plump I decided to give it another try. So a quick internet search suggested that you just basically add salt plus whatever flavours you fancy. I decided on freshly ground cumin seeds and garam masala. Here they are (before baking) spread on a baking sheet, mixed with oil and the salt / spices.

And afterwards...10 minutes on gas mark 4. They're very yummy...I'm converted!

The oven was already on because I'd made a chestnut terrine....a first for me. This took a couple of evenings to work up to because it takes ages to prepare the chestnuts. I rinsed them off first.

Sliced each one down the middle, 'cause otherwise they burst when cooked.

Boiled them for about 20 minutes until soft, then peeled. Actually I mainly scooped out the flesh with a little spoon. If you keep the chestnuts warm after cooking, the skins peel off easily (this has worked for me in the past) but this time round they went cool so the skins had stuck fast.

Hmm, I don't seem to have a picture of the scooped-out innards but there was a big old bowl of them. So looking for chestnut recipes, I found the terrine one in a book. It seemed pretty easy, but not being one to follow recipes to the letter I adapted it for the veggies and quantities I had available.

 

My version was (roughly):

- a cup of fresh breadcrumbs

- 500g of mixed broccoli and leafy greens (cooked and chopped). I had these already cooked, leftover from another meal.

- 300g cooked chestnuts

- 4 tbsp natural yogurt

- 2 tbsp grated mature cheddar

- 3 eggs

- shake of nutmeg

- crunch of pepper

 

Once you've got all the component parts it's really easy - just mix them all well in a bowl. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment and spoon in the mixture, flattening it into the corners. I'd used larger quantities than the recipe in the book so split my mixture across two tins. You then put the tins in a roasting tray or similar and fill up the tray with boiled water, to about halfway up the side of the tins. Cook for about 25 minutes on gas mark 4. We had a lot going on in the kitchen at the time so I didn't get any photos of the process, whoops.

 

But here's the finished result, straight out the oven, needing to cool a bit.

We had two of these...they look pretty good.

And sliced well and taste nice too

It seems like the kind of recipe that can be adapted in loads of different ways so I'll be making something similar soon. Very soon in fact, I have another 500g cooked chestnuts still to use (they're in the fridge) plus a second big tub that needs cooking too. Maybe I'll add a few peppers into the mix next time, and some of that kale.

 

Thanks for reading, I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

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Harvest Monday, foraging and a glean

After being away for a few days, I've had a very foodie week. I got back to find a couple of ripe tomatoes and a little cucumber in the lean-to. The tomatoes are in a tray, ripening slowly.

There were a couple of ripe peppers ready too.

On the allotment there were a couple of teeny courgettes and a handful of beans. I spotted some in the back garden aswell today but forgot to pick them.

I helped in my friend's mum's garden again this week and came away with some very tasty eating apples. The skin is a bit rough in places but the flavour is lovely.

On Friday I helped chop veggies with Norwich Foodcycle, in readiness for the Norwich Pumpkin Rescue event on Saturday in the city centre....the aim being to encourage people to cook-up their pumpkins, not just carve them up and chuck away the innards. A couple of local supermarkets had donated some spare pumpkins, potatoes, onions, garlic, celery etc, which we chopped-up into a humongous soup (four massive pans on the go) which was being given away free the next day. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of that but it was fun to be involved in mass catering for the morning. I didn't get chance to taste the soup either but it smelled lovely.

 

Then on Saturday I helped at another glean with Feedback (rescuing crops that the farmer doesn't want, which then get distributed to various homeless shelters etc). It was carrots this time....take a look at the huge pile of carrots that didn't meet the grade (but that we could dib into). Some were a bit manky (had a virus or something) but lots of them were just slightly bent or even just too big.

There were also carrots throughout the field which the machinery had missed or dropped. It's like hunting for treasure.

We got two pallet loads...not bad for just four people. Next up is an apple glean that I'm looking forward to. The farm is nearer to Norwich so hopefully more people will be able to make it.

Here's our co-ordinator Jannine with one of the graded-out carrots.... how cute is it?

Yesterday, Jan and I got the bus out to a village just outside Norwich to go chestnutting (Not sure if that's actually a word but anyway...). Seems like it's a really good year for chestnuts, wow there were some big ones. I think we were a bit late last year, and there weren't many left, so I'll have to make a mental note that the end of October is prime chestnut season.

We walked back into the city along Marriott's Way disused railway, like last year too. It was a gorgeous day.

And finally, today I picked another couple of peppers from the lean-to, plus a chilli from inside.

The chilli went into some cauliflower fritters and we had one of the peppers raw on the side, along with a homemade slaw. The pepper turned out to have a hot / sweet combo like one a few weeks ago..odd! It's a Quadrato variety which is meant to just be sweet. We ended up having a blob of plain yogurt on the side too, to help counteract the hotness.

Oh I forgot....finally finally, tonight I went to a talk organised by the Norfolk Organic Growers, given by one of the founders of Hodmedod's British grown pulses and grains. The business developed after it was identified that in Britain we hardly grow any of our own pulses anymore, even though we used to and the climate is good for it (apparently it went out of fashion as they were associated as peasant food). So these guys are bringing it back in fashion, and have been doing it in an ethical and sustainable manner, developing relationships with farmers and encouraging them to diversify into organic pulses ....brilliant.

I actually used to buy their products a few years back and didn't realise I was supporting their early adventures into the world of pulses. They've come a really long way by the sounds of it, so I'll look out for their new lines. There were a few free recipe cards too...the dishes look really good, mmm.

 

Okay, that's me for now, thanks for reading. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday, kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

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Harvest Monday - chestnut roast

I had a baking day on Saturday. The weather was terrible with heavy rain but I'd had a good session on the plot the day before, making a start on moving a strawberry bed and setting up a stretch of fence to grow peas or something up. So I didn't feel guilty about staying in all day!

 

I made two loaves - a chestnut roast (left) using chestnuts we'd collected in the autumn (the same recipe as we had for Christmas Day - see recipe below ) and a chick pea loaf using Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen's recipe (right).

To prepare the chestnuts, I sliced them length ways, boiled for 15 minutes, let cool a little bit then peeled. If you let them cool too much they're harder to peel. When slicing the nuts, I check inside each one to look for grubs (I did have to discard a few nuts because of this). Normally you can tell from the outside, as there's a little hole which is a bit of a give away but sometimes they're hard to spot. I'd kept the nuts in the fridge since we collected them, having read somewhere to keep them in plastic bags (with holes for ventilation) and stored in a single layer. Actually, when I still had loads left they weren't in a single layer (due to space) but seemed to keep ok anyway, with lots of holes in the bags. It's the first year I've tried this, so will definitely do it again.

Some herbs picked from the front yard also went in the chestnut roast - Rosemary and sage (I don't have any thyme).

Shaheen's recipe for chickpea loaf was really easy. I include it here as I did use my own onions and mini greeny-red pepper that was the last on my plant I'd brought indoors (above, with my remaining chillis). You can see my remaining squashes in the background too.

I also made a carrot cake but that didn't involve any home grown or foraged ingredients!

Other things picked this week - I found a few more potatoes! I was forking a bed a bit to temporarily move some strawberry plants into it and discovered these, in good condition too.

I picked a couple of the chillis, making a massive soup (with some other ingredients of course!)

And today popped to the plot in my lunch break to pick a bit of chard that went into a curry tonight.

That's me for the week, linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

Chestnut Roast recipe (Chestnut, walnut and mushroom nut roast. Serves 4-6)

So we got this recipe from Jan's mum, and not sure exactly where she got it from but the scanned page we have says 'inspired by Rose Eliot and Sarah Brown.' My instructions written below are adapted from the recipe, to cut down on washing up!

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1 red onion finely chopped (I used a normal onion)

1-2 small carrots, grated or finely chopped

200g mushrooms, finely chopped (or in my case, roughly chopped)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

200g chestnut purée or mashed chestnuts

125g walnuts, finely chopped (we used a mixture, and they were roughly chopped, for varied texture, and laziness)

1-2tbsp fresh herbs finely chopped. Eg Rosemary, parsley, sage, thyme

1tbsp tamari or soy sauce (I found this too salty, as the cheese is salty too, so the second time, used half a spoon)

1 egg

1 cup (100g) grated tasty cheese (We used mature cheddar each time)

black pepper

1. Grease and line a loaf tin

2. Preheat oven to 200 C

3. Heat oil in large pan and fry onion, celery and carrots for about 5 mins. Add mushrooms and garlic and fry another 5 mins.

4. Turn off, and let it cool a bit (as you're about to add the egg and otherwise it will start cooking). Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

5. Spoon in to the loaf tin and bake for 45-60 mins

6. Let it sit for about 10 mins then turn onto a serving dish

7. EAT!

You can adjust the recipe loads of ways eg add chilli, different nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.

 

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