Rob’s Recipe of the Week: A Dish Full of Pink
We’ve had a whole lot of beetroot to contend with this winter and I’m still trying to find new ways to use it. This recipe seemed very lockdown themed as I imagine a lot of people have been trying out sourdough bread for the first time. I’m not a big fan myself but combined with a beetroot gratin I can give it a chance!
Beetroot and pink peppercorn gratin
As good with roast beef for Sunday lunch as it is a smart veggie main. The pink peppercorns add an extra rosy zing, but just use normal black pepper if you can’t find them.
Serves 6 (Scale the recipe to match your share size.)
Ingredients
1.5kg beetroot, peeled
4 garlic cloves
250ml double cream
2 slices of day-old sourdough bread
40g butter, chilled, diced
Olive oil
3 tbsp finely ground pink peppercorns
Red wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper
Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Thinly slice the beetroot either by hand or using a mandolin.
2 Give the garlic cloves a good bash and pop them in a pan with the cream, slowly bring to the boil, simmer gently for 10 minutes and then leave to infuse for a further 10 minutes.
3 Sieve the cream on to the beetroot, pressing the garlic with the back of a spoon to extract the flavour. Season generously with salt and mix well.
4 Pack the beetroot into an ovenproof roasting dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for anywhere between 30-45 minutes (it will depend on the age and season of the beetroots) or until it yields easily to the tip of a knife.
5 Cut the crusts from your sourdough and blend the insides into a coarse crumb, add the cold butter and a small glug of olive oil and pulse again, as though you’re making a crumble topping.
6 Remove foil and stir in the pink peppercorns, a dash of red wine vinegar to taste and check the seasoning. Arrange in a gratin dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs. Bake until golden brown on top and bubbling.
Rob Andrew, Riverford Field Kitchen, https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/beetroot-and-pink-peppercorn-gratin
Featured in Guardian Food, 10 Best Beetroot Recipes https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/24/10-best-beetroot-recipes
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Superlative Parsnips
This is EXACTLY what you need to eat on Easter Sunday.* Whatever else you’re serving, this will make it even better. The recipe comes from Abra Berens, who recommends accompanying it with grilled duck breast and radicchio. It’s also pretty super spread on a piece of toast.
Parsnip Purée
Serves 4.
Ingredients
120ml olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and cut into thin slices
250ml white wine
900g parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
2 teaspoons salt
250ml double cream (although we in fact substituted oatmilk)
2 star anise
Zest of one orange
Preparation
In a medium saucepan, heat a generous glug of the oil over very low heat. Add the onion and cook until very soft, for about 15 minutes.
Add the wine, and continue to cook until it’s almost completely evaporated.
Add the parsnips and salt, and toss together.
Add the cream, the remaining olive oil, and star anise. Bring to a boil, the reduce the heat so that the mixture simmers gently. Cover and cook until the parsnips are falling-apart tender, about 15 minutes more. Remove the star anise.
Purée the mixture (liquid and all) until it is very smooth. Add the orange zest and enjoy.
Recipe adapted from Abra Berens, Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables (2019).
*I expect you can work it into a Seder as well…
Rob’s Recipe of the Week: ‘Spring on the way’ soup
I haven’t used a soup recipe for a while and I’ve suddenly realised I’ve been surviving off beans and toast for lunch for a little too long, We have an abundance of leeks at the moment and I could go for the easy option of leek and potato soup, but thought I would try this slightly different idea instead.
Leek, spring green and apple soup
Ingredients:
25g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
600g leeks (about 3-4 large), finely shredded
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 apples, peeled and diced
250ml cider
1 litre veg stock
100g spring greens, finely shredded
salt and pepper
Method
Heat the butter and oil in a large pan. Add the onion and leeks. Fry on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and apple and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cider and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the spring greens and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the greens are tender. Blitz until smooth or leave chunkier, whichever you prefer.
Season, and serve.
Taken from: https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/leek-spring-green-apple-soup
Onion planting – still needs to happen despite COVID-19…
This year’s onion planting will happen in a slightly different way to usual, to make sure this big annual task can be completed whilst at the same time enabling members to get out in the fresh air and still maintain the recommended social distancing measures.
Come and help plant the main onion crop – a task suitable for all ages! The work will continue for as many days as needed (Tuesday-Saturday) and any member who is well and symptom free, and has not been advised to self-isolate, is welcome to come and join in – the work will be arranged so that social distancing measures can be maintained.
Due to COVID-19 we will not be providing any refreshments or arranging shared food during onion planting work sessions. You are encouraged to bring a flask with your own hot drinks, and are welcome to bring a packed lunch if you want to work both sides of lunchtime.
We will be contacting members to let them know when the work can start (dependent on the ground being dry enough for the land to be prepared). Saturday 4th April or 11th April onwards – to be advised
2020 – March news: A Load of Crap
Many people have an idealistic mental image of land work, of ruddy-cheeked farmhands chewing a stalk of hay, cheerfully digging carrots against a bucolic backdrop of butterflies fluttering across wildflower meadows.
This week, however, reality came crashing down as the time finally came to dig out the compost toilet. You may be aware that one half of the toilets has been shut for the last six months to allow its contents to decompose and pathogens to die off; consequently much of what we “harvested” was beautiful black gold, well-rotted compost with a pleasant aroma of nutrition and fertility, a far cry from its stinky beginnings, such is the cycle of order and chaos that we call nature.
Digging out the toilet chamber 
A trailer load of humanure
Organic regulations prohibit the use of this “humanure” in growing, so we got permission to deposit it in an inaccessible corner of a nearby private woodland. Find out more about compost toilets at https://humanurehandbook.com/.
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Celebrating La Jimena
We all need a good cocktail now and then. This is my new favourite. It’s an ideal way to use your remaining La Jimena oranges. Alternatively, it’s very good with blood orange juice, if you can lay your hands on any.
To make a twist of orange zest, use a vegetable peeler to cut a long strip of zest from the orange before you juice it. If you want to be super-elegant you can use a knife to trim the edges to produce a long, thin (2mm) strip. Carefully shape the strip into a tight corkscrew shape before placing it on top of your drink in the glass.
Blood and Sand
Serves 1
Ingredients
25ml fresh orange juice
30ml whisky
15ml sweet red vermouth
15ml cherry brandy
1 twist of orange zest, to garnish
Preparation
Fill a cocktail glass with ice to chill while you prepare the cocktail. (Discard the ice before you fill the glass.)
Put the orange juice into a blender and whizz for 30 seconds so that it gets a bit frothy.
Put the whisky, vermouth and cherry liqueur in a cocktail shaker with lots of ice and shake vigorously.
Gently fold in the fluffy, blitzed orange juice into the shaker, and then strain into the chilled glass.
Garnish with the orange twist and enjoy.
Recipe adapted from The Guardian, 21 Feb. 2020.
Rob’s Recipe of the Week: Beetroot – something a little different…
In the summer I went biking in the alps and was lucky enough to stay at a chalet hosted by an ex-River cottage and Heston Blumenthal employed chef (White Room MTB if anyone is interested). Every afternoon we would return to find cake ready and waiting for us and the beetroot chocolate cake below was so good I had to ask Matty to put it up on his blog!
Beetroot brownie cake
Ingredients for the cake – This makes two 8-inch cake tins:
125 g dark chocolate (70% or over)
125 g unsalted butter
2 whole eggs
125 g caster sugar
1 large grated beetroot
95 g flour
40 g pure cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs Butter & flour for greasing your cake tins or use baking paper.
Method:
Pre heat your oven to 175°c. Grease and line 2 x 8 inch cake tins with butter and flour or baking paper.
Gently melt butter and chocolate together using a double boiler or a microwave until melted.
Meanwhile using an electric mixer whip the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.
Pour the melted butter and chocolate mixture into the whipped eggs and continue beating for about a minute.
Then grate a large beetroot into the mixture and stir until all incorporated.
Sift in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until all incorporated.
Divide the mix into both cake tins and bake for about 25 to 35 minutes depending on your oven. When the cake is ready it will be soft but not a raw liquid wobble if you know what I mean. If it’s still batter keep it cooking.
Once cooked take out of the oven and let it cool on the side until ready to garnish.
This cake is good as is. However covering anything with cream and more chocolate will always be better 😂😉
Assemble as you like and enjoy. Bon Appetit! Xx
From https://www.mattygcooks.com/post/beetroot-brownie-cake
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Pink Pickled Turnips (or Spanish Radish)
Dishes of pickled turnips often accompany the mezzes at a Middle Eastern restaurant (or, probably, a Middle Eastern meal). Salty and pink, they are easy to make at home. You can substitute those confusing giant Spanish black radishes for the turnips, if you still have some of these in your fridge. The lovely pink colour comes from beetroot.
The ratio of turnip to beetroot is approximate.
You can sterilise jars by placing clean washed jars in a 130C oven for 20 minutes. Switch the oven off and leave the jars inside until needed. Alternatively, pour boiling water over clean jars and leave until you’re ready to use them.
Pink Pickled Turnips
Ingredients
500ml water
3 tablespoons salt
1.5 kilos turnips or Spanish black radishes, or a mixture
250g beetroot
3-4 cloves of garlic
Handful of celery leaves
A few bay leaves (optional)
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns (optional)
2 cups white vinegar
Preparation
Boil the water and salt together for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.
Peel the turnips or radishes, and the beetroot, and cut into wedges. (The size does not matter a great deal; cut them into the size you’d like to eat.) Peel the garlic and cut each clove in half.
Layer the turnips (or radishes) in sterilised jars, packing some garlic, celery leaves, and optional bay leaves and peppercorns in between each layer.
Combine the vinegar with the water-and-salt mixture and pour this over the vegetables. Poke the vegetables down with a spoon to ensure there are no air pockets and that the vegetables are fully submerged. Seal the jar—Sally Butcher recommends putting a layer of clingfilm over the top before sealing if you’re using a metal lid—and leave for at least 2 weeks and up to 6 months.
Recipe adapted from Sally Butcher, Veggistan: A Vegetable Lover’s Tour of the Middle East (2011).
2020 – February news: Wet and wild
For two successive weekends we have had been battered by wet and windy weather, and many members have expressed concern about the consequences for our infrastructure and crops. Fortunately Canalside has emerged unscathed, with the tunnels and other structures all surviving the wind without a hitch (touch wood!), and most of our field-stored crops seem to be coping well with the repeated deluges. You might think farmers are helpless against the onslaught of brutal storms, but there are many farming practices that can really help mitigate the effect of extreme rainfall that we’ve seen over the last five months, most of which are integral to the organic approach and involve protecting and nourishing healthy soil as your most precious resource.
^ Leasowe Farm’s Tallis Wood: trees help hold back water in the landscape
Green manures: winter ground cover protects the soil ^
You may also be interested in this article which describes some of the factors from agricultural practices that contribute to flooding.
Rob’s Recipe of the Week: Beets and onions, French style
We seem to have had a huge haul of beetroot this year, so I’ve been looking for recipes to make use of this. I tried this one last week, but my housemate had just moved out taking all the kitchen equipment with him so mine ended up a little strange with orange chunks instead of zest, and hand rolled pastry… It was still great though! I added a little wensleydale to offset the sweetness but leave this out and the recipe is vegan.
Beetroot & red onion tarte tatin
Ingredients:
400g beetroot, cut into wedges
1 red onion, cut into wedges
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 star anise
flour, for rolling
500g block puff pastry (there is a vegan Jus-Rol)
1 orange, zested
peppery green salad, to serve
Method:
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. In a bowl, toss the beetroot and onion in 2 tbsp of the oil, the vinegar and sugar. Add the star anise and season well. Heat the rest of the oil in a large, ovenproof non-stick frying pan (normal ceramic dish worked fine for me), then nestle in the veg so that they cover the surface of the pan. Cover with foil and cook in the oven for 45 mins.
On a well-floured surface, roll the pastry to a thickness of 0.5cm and cut out a circle the same size as your frying pan. Carefully take the pan out of the oven, remove the foil and wiggle the beets and onion around in the pan to make a compact layer. Put the pastry on top, tucking it in all around the edges, then return the pan to the oven and bake for 35 mins or until the pastry has puffed up and is a deep golden brown.
Slide a palate knife around the edge of the tart, then put a plate on top of the pastry, serving side down. Flip the pan over to turn the tart out onto the plate – be careful not to burn yourself with the handle. Top with the orange zest and a sprinkle of sea salt, then serve with a peppery salad on the side.
From https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beetroot-red-onion-tarte-tatin
