This morning the organic vegetable box arrived and brought potatoes, carrots, onions, celeriac, round cabbage, spring greens, 3 leeks, bag of small beetroot, 2 apples, 2 oranges, 2 pears and 6 eggs.
Also arrived this morning was my knife block, true to the promised next working day delivery.
So that's all the worktop stuff sorted. I really ought to get down to the cutlery drawers!
I still had a cauliflower left from my visit to the farm shop so I am making cauliflower gratin using a variation of the organic farm’s recipe: (I am also publishing this recipe on my recipe blog)
Ingredients
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small cauliflower
1oz plain flour
Little butter for frying
½ pint skimmed milk
3 oz Scottish mature cheddar, grated
Method
Place the onion and garlic in a heavy based pan and sauté in a little oil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Break the cauliflower into florets and add to the pan, continue cooking with a lid on, so the vegetables cook partially in their own steam while you make the sauce.
Place the flour and butter in a saucepan over a moderate heat to make a roux, gradually add the milk, stirring between additions.
Remove from the heat and add the cheese. You can also add mustard and black pepper to give it a nice kick.
Place the cauliflower mixture in an ovenproof dish and cover with the sauce, sprinkle more cheese over the top and bake for about 20 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.
It is amazing how much dirt gets under your nails when you are preparing mushrooms for freezing; my thumb in particular is black! However that is about half a pound frozen. I had meant to use them in some mince, but they had reached that stage where they were better frozen than kept in the fridge.
I have also peeled and cut to size 1 large potato and 2 purple carrots together with one pale yellow one, all to be boiled together. I have prepared the last of some Savoy cabbage to go in the steamer over the potato pan.
Getting the organic vegetable box has really changed my eating habits. How often was I sure I would not like things, without even trying them? Such as balsamic vinegar (because I hated malt vinegar), Savoy cabbage, that ugly, but delicious celeriac, leeks as vegetables on your plate (instead of only in soup) and so on.
The organic vegetable people usually send out a recipe with the delivery and I plan on trying today’s one soon. I shall report back!
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3 comments:
To dickiebo, I am so sorry I deleted another comment as I didn't want to publish it, and I managed to delete yours too.
The veg is all grown locally on the organic farm. They use tunnels and fleeces to bring some on. They also plant a lot from seed.
The fruit is not grown there, but is organic.
Ah, on revisiting your comment, I think I need to clarify things.
As I said, everything from the organic farm is their own produce, grown on the farm, apart from the fruit which is bought in, but is also organic.
What I failed to pick up (about some of the produce being out of season) is that I did not differentiate between my organic veg box delivery and my visits to a completely different farm where they have a shop oin a shed over the winter months. Their produce is not organic (although they say they use few chemicals) and most of it is bought in - hence tomatoes, grapes and so on.
Thnx Elaine.
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