From garden to your plate
We are both growers – we fall into the ‘container veg’ category – and are both foodies – we have the waistlines to prove it. It was therefore thrilling to meet the chefs and growers featured in our new book and to see how the best in the business ensure their productive plots fuel their innovative, awardwinning kitchens. Witnessing the chefs’ passion for seasonality and provenance was enthralling – they opened our eyes to new ways of using a crop (they want to use every part of it, from root to shoot).
When it comes to what can be harvested and eaten, it appears that these chefs have thrown away the rule book with truly exciting results and their growers are only too keen to oblige and bring their ideas to the table. This collaboration has pushed the boundaries of growing edible crops and has resulted in the production of highquality food that is both flavoursome and attractive.
For those of us who ‘grow our own’, whether in a kitchen garden, allotment or in containers, it is hugely important to cook with crops that are fresh and in season. Many more of us are choosing to know where our food comes from, as we seek the opportunity to reduce food miles where possible. It is also an important environmental consideration that we change how we buy our day-to-day ingredients, that we look to the seasons for inspiration when it comes to home cooking, and that we celebrate local produce and producers. This interest in food goes beyond a feelgood story or a superficial claim to be the new Tom and Barbara from the 1970s UK television series The Good Life: it is also great fun and very satisfying to source good food as well as harvest home-grown fruit and veg.
In the past year we were lucky enough to spend time with some of the most talented growers in the UK, all of whom were unfailingly generous in sharing their horticultural knowledge. After visiting the 20 kitchen gardens described in our book, Kitchen Garden Experts, and learning the secrets of the growers, we now look at our own veg plot with renewed enthusiasm. We feel confident enough to experiment with varieties and try new techniques.
Our ‘kitchen garden experts’ have elevated growing-your-own to new heights that will appeal to foodies as much as to growers.
Serves 10
Ingredients
For the barbecue baby carrots:
Method
For the barbecue baby carrots, cut the carrots in half lengthways. Cook in a ceramic-shelled, lidded barbecue at 200C/400F for 4 mins, until charred.
For the pickled baby carrots, bring the sugar, vinegar, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf to the boil. Finely slice the carrots lengthways and pickle them in the mixture for a few hours.
For the baby beetroot, vacuum-pack each variety of beetroot in a separate bag, add butter, salt and pepper to each bag. Steam for 20 mins and allow to cool.
For the basil purée, preheat the oven to 110C/225F/gas mark ¼. Twice-peel each courgette and vacuum-pack with the peelings and all the other ingredients. Steam in the oven for 15 mins. Blitz for 1-2 mins in a blender. Put the basil purée back in the vac packs until needed.
For the confit cherry tomatoes, preheat the oven to 110C/225F/gas ¼. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water and refresh in ice-cold water. Remove skins, halve tomatoes and lay on a tray, flat-side up. On each half tomato, place a garlic clove slice, a leaf of thyme, salt, pepper and oneeighth of the icing sugar, then drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Cook the tomatoes in the oven for 5-10 mins.
For the onion croutons, brunoise the onion bread from frozen and drizzle with onion oil. Cook until golden, then place the onion bread on kitchen paper to drain. To serve, on each plate arrange a barbecued carrot, a pickled carrot, 2 baby beetroot, 2 confit tomato halves and some onion croutons, along with the basil purée, to taste. Garnish with baby rocket, borage flowers, pea shoots, purple pea pods, cucumber flowers, redcurrants, mustard leaves and fennel.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Method
Boil crab in salted water for 7 mins. Chill in a blast chiller or ice water. When chilled, crack the crab and separate the brown and white meat from the shell. Season the white meat with some of the brown, then add salt to taste. Clean each squid by removing its head followed by the pen (the feathershaped internal structure that supports the squid’s mantle) and guts. Rinse then remove the ne skin and sinew. Dry and freeze, then cut into 1cm squares and thaw. Peel, deseed and cut the cucumber into 1cm cubes. If you have a vacuum packer, vacuum the cucumber to compress before you dice it. For the mallow soup, sweat the onion until soft; add the cucumber and mallow leaves. Cook for 2 mins. Add boiling stock, cream and ascorbic acid. Blend until smooth, pass through a sieve, season and chill over ice.
For the squid croutons, preheat oven at 180C/350F/ gas 4. Mix the yeast with the water and ferment at 42C for 15 mins.
Mix the remaining ingredients with the fermented yeast and knead for 15 mins. Prove in a warm place until the dough trebles in size. Knead for a further 2 mins, divide into four and shape into four loaf tins. Cover and prove in a warm place until each dough piece trebles again. Bake for 25-30 mins. When cool, break into little rough croutons and fry in the clari ed butter with salt until crispy. To serve, mound some crabmeat in the centre of a plate. Spoon some seasoned raw squid on top and then place over some cucumber cubes. Spoon around some of the mallow soup, arranging the squid croutons, baby cucumbers, chrysanthemum shoots and mallow owers on top. Finish with a drizzle of rapeseed oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Method
Cut off the top stem of each g and cut each g in half. Tear each mozzarella ball into four pieces. Place the gs and mozzarella pieces on individual serving plates. Season and scatter over the basil. Mix lemon juice with four times its volume of olive oil and season. Pour dressing over each plate and serve.
Kitchen Garden Experts: Twenty Celebrated Chefs & Their Head Gardeners, by Cinead McTernan, with photography by Jason Ingram, is published by Frances Lincoln Ltd, priced £20.
When it comes to what can be harvested and eaten, it appears that these chefs have thrown away the rule book with truly exciting results and their growers are only too keen to oblige and bring their ideas to the table. This collaboration has pushed the boundaries of growing edible crops and has resulted in the production of highquality food that is both flavoursome and attractive.
For those of us who ‘grow our own’, whether in a kitchen garden, allotment or in containers, it is hugely important to cook with crops that are fresh and in season. Many more of us are choosing to know where our food comes from, as we seek the opportunity to reduce food miles where possible. It is also an important environmental consideration that we change how we buy our day-to-day ingredients, that we look to the seasons for inspiration when it comes to home cooking, and that we celebrate local produce and producers. This interest in food goes beyond a feelgood story or a superficial claim to be the new Tom and Barbara from the 1970s UK television series The Good Life: it is also great fun and very satisfying to source good food as well as harvest home-grown fruit and veg.
In the past year we were lucky enough to spend time with some of the most talented growers in the UK, all of whom were unfailingly generous in sharing their horticultural knowledge. After visiting the 20 kitchen gardens described in our book, Kitchen Garden Experts, and learning the secrets of the growers, we now look at our own veg plot with renewed enthusiasm. We feel confident enough to experiment with varieties and try new techniques.
Our ‘kitchen garden experts’ have elevated growing-your-own to new heights that will appeal to foodies as much as to growers.
WINTERINGHAM FIELDS POLYTUNNEL SALAD
By Colin McGurran at Winteringham FieldsServes 10
Ingredients
For the barbecue baby carrots:
- 4 baby carrots
- For the pickled baby carrots:
- 100g caster sugar
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- sprig of thyme
- sprig of rosemary
- bay leaf
- 4 baby carrots
- 8 red and golden baby beetroot
- 50g butter
- salt and pepper
- 300g courgettes
- 30g basil
- 30g butter
- 30ml double cream
- pinch of salt
- 4 cherry tomatoes
- garlic clove, sliced
- sprig of thyme
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp icing sugar
- lemon juice, to drizzle
- olive oil, to drizzle
- 2 slices of onion bread (heavy), frozen
- 2 tbsp onion oil
- baby rocket
- borage flowers
- pea shoots purple
- pea pods
- cucumber flowers
- redcurrants
- mustard leaves
- fennel
Method
For the barbecue baby carrots, cut the carrots in half lengthways. Cook in a ceramic-shelled, lidded barbecue at 200C/400F for 4 mins, until charred.
For the pickled baby carrots, bring the sugar, vinegar, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf to the boil. Finely slice the carrots lengthways and pickle them in the mixture for a few hours.
For the baby beetroot, vacuum-pack each variety of beetroot in a separate bag, add butter, salt and pepper to each bag. Steam for 20 mins and allow to cool.
For the basil purée, preheat the oven to 110C/225F/gas mark ¼. Twice-peel each courgette and vacuum-pack with the peelings and all the other ingredients. Steam in the oven for 15 mins. Blitz for 1-2 mins in a blender. Put the basil purée back in the vac packs until needed.
For the confit cherry tomatoes, preheat the oven to 110C/225F/gas ¼. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water and refresh in ice-cold water. Remove skins, halve tomatoes and lay on a tray, flat-side up. On each half tomato, place a garlic clove slice, a leaf of thyme, salt, pepper and oneeighth of the icing sugar, then drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Cook the tomatoes in the oven for 5-10 mins.
For the onion croutons, brunoise the onion bread from frozen and drizzle with onion oil. Cook until golden, then place the onion bread on kitchen paper to drain. To serve, on each plate arrange a barbecued carrot, a pickled carrot, 2 baby beetroot, 2 confit tomato halves and some onion croutons, along with the basil purée, to taste. Garnish with baby rocket, borage flowers, pea shoots, purple pea pods, cucumber flowers, redcurrants, mustard leaves and fennel.
FLAKY CRAB and CUCUMBER, MALLOW and YOUNG SQUID
By Simon Rogan at L’EnclumeServes 4
Ingredients
- 1 live medium crab
- salt
- 4 baby squid
- ¼ cucumber
- 150g onion, sliced
- 100g cucumber, sliced
- 350g mallow leaves
- 750ml boiling vegetable stock
- 140ml whipping cream
- 1 tsp ascorbic acid
- salt and pepper
- 50g dried yeast
- 250ml water
- 500g T55 bread flour
- 1 tbsp salt
- 100ml olive oil
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- 250ml squid ink
- 30g clarified butter, for frying
- baby cucumbers with their flowers
- chrysanthemum shoots
- mallow flowers
- rapeseed oil
- sea salt
Method
Boil crab in salted water for 7 mins. Chill in a blast chiller or ice water. When chilled, crack the crab and separate the brown and white meat from the shell. Season the white meat with some of the brown, then add salt to taste. Clean each squid by removing its head followed by the pen (the feathershaped internal structure that supports the squid’s mantle) and guts. Rinse then remove the ne skin and sinew. Dry and freeze, then cut into 1cm squares and thaw. Peel, deseed and cut the cucumber into 1cm cubes. If you have a vacuum packer, vacuum the cucumber to compress before you dice it. For the mallow soup, sweat the onion until soft; add the cucumber and mallow leaves. Cook for 2 mins. Add boiling stock, cream and ascorbic acid. Blend until smooth, pass through a sieve, season and chill over ice.
For the squid croutons, preheat oven at 180C/350F/ gas 4. Mix the yeast with the water and ferment at 42C for 15 mins.
Mix the remaining ingredients with the fermented yeast and knead for 15 mins. Prove in a warm place until the dough trebles in size. Knead for a further 2 mins, divide into four and shape into four loaf tins. Cover and prove in a warm place until each dough piece trebles again. Bake for 25-30 mins. When cool, break into little rough croutons and fry in the clari ed butter with salt until crispy. To serve, mound some crabmeat in the centre of a plate. Spoon some seasoned raw squid on top and then place over some cucumber cubes. Spoon around some of the mallow soup, arranging the squid croutons, baby cucumbers, chrysanthemum shoots and mallow owers on top. Finish with a drizzle of rapeseed oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
FIG, MOZZARELLA AND BASIL SALAD
By Ruth Rogers at The River CaféServes 4
Ingredients
- 6 ripe figs, green or purple
- 4 mozzarella balls
- salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp green basil
- 2 tbsp purple basil
- juice of 1 lemon
- extra-virgin olive oil
Method
Cut off the top stem of each g and cut each g in half. Tear each mozzarella ball into four pieces. Place the gs and mozzarella pieces on individual serving plates. Season and scatter over the basil. Mix lemon juice with four times its volume of olive oil and season. Pour dressing over each plate and serve.
Kitchen Garden Experts: Twenty Celebrated Chefs & Their Head Gardeners, by Cinead McTernan, with photography by Jason Ingram, is published by Frances Lincoln Ltd, priced £20.