Jerusalem

Jerusalem Artichokes: This one is a bit of a 'love or hate' but i love 'em , they're nutty little nuggets and much more versatile than you'd think. For me though simplicity is key and this dish is simplicity personified. Sautéed the artichokes in olive oil with garlic . bay and finish with some lemon juice. Simple, as the best things often are.

Spring driven thing

A couple of items turned up in my veg box this week that strictly aren’t in season, but given that Riverford have organic farms both in the south of France and in Spain, the growing season is somewhat extended. Anyway I’m not complaining as I happen to love both of these vegetables and they inspired a springtime salad of autumnal veg, if you get my meaning. Juicy sweet butternut squash and delicate aniseed fennel, what a great combination, add a little mint and some nutty flavoured dressing, perfect. This is super easy, can be prepared in advance and then just thrown together. It makes a lovely stand-alone lunch or goes perfectly with some grilled fish, try some fresh Mackerel!

 Butternut squash, fennel & potato salad

Serves: 4

• 1 x butternut squash 
• 2 medium sized fennel bulb 
• 300g potato 
• 100g walnuts 
• 8 mint leaves 
• Rocket & watercress leaves
• Lemon juice 
• 3 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 tsp Sesame oil 
• Brown rice vinegar, a dash 
• Salt & pepper 

Peel & deseed the butternut squash, cut into small 1-2cm chunks. Plunge into boiling water and blanch for a few minutes to soften. Drain and set aside. Similarly cut the potato (you can leave the skin on , especially if using small new potato) into small 1-2cm chunks and again blanch these in boiling water to soften, drain and set aside. Cut the fennel bulbs in halve and steam (place in a colander above the boiling potato is a good idea) until just getting tender. When the fennel is done, remove from the steamer and slice across the bulb into thick slices, set aside.

Heat a large frying pan, add some olive oil and quickly brown the chunks of butternut, potato and fennel in small batches until crisp and coloured, set aside on kitchen paper. Brown the walnuts until crisp and golden and again set aside. 

In a large salad bowl mix the sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice together to form a dressing, taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Place butternut, potato, fennel and walnuts in the bowl so there is a nice balance of ingredients, add the rocket and watercress leaves and tear some mint leaves into the bowl. With a spoon mix & toss everything together until it is all coated with the dressing, add another squeeze of lemon juice, adjust seasoning and serve. 

Riverford at Pines Gardens

Dover, Kent was the location for the latest demonstration for my friends at Riverford organics , the veg box people. Once again we were inspiring new ideas and some innovative methods of cooking some of the , well , less exciting veg that heralds in the new autumn season, the much maligned Swede for instance. Autumn also has a treasure-trove of delights in store and is quite possibly my favourite food season. Much as in spring when purple sprouting broccoli is available for the first time , Kale brings a similar frisson of excitement with it's arrival in the weekly box. This week it was the deeply gorgeous long leaves of Cavalo Nero but soon curly Kale will be in abundance and I shall indulge.

The main focus of this weeks demonstration was Swede though and sage seemed to be the appropriate partner. Try roasting Swede seasoned with salt and pepper, some chopped sage leaves and roasted in the over for 20 minutes or so and serve as an alternative to roast potato. Using a very similar method , only chopping the Swede into more delicate pieces a risotto of roasted Swede and sage butter drizzle was a real hit with both lovers and haters of this golden and fleshed root.

Roast Swede and sage risotto

Serves: 4

• 250g Arborio rice 
• 750ml Vegetable stock 
• 3tbsp olive oil 
• 1 white onion finely chopped 
• 1 celery stick, finely chopped 
• 150g grated parmesan cheese 
• 1 garlic clove crushed 
• 1 lemon juiced 
• 1 glass of white dry wine 
• 30g butter 
• Salt & pepper 

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and gently fry the onion & celery for a few minutes. Add the crushed garlic clove stir in for a minute or two and then pour in some more olive oil and add the rice. Cook the rice for a few minutes until the rice absorbs some of the oil and starts to puff a little. If you are using wine this is the time to add it to the pan and heat until absorbed into the rice. Now start adding the stock, just cover the rice and stir whilst it is absorbed and then repeat. Keep cooking until the rice is nearly done but still a bit ‘husky’ and now add the lemon juice, season with salt & pepper and keep cooking adding more stock as required until the rice is al dente. Remove from the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese cover and let it sit for five minutes, before adding flavourings.

Roasted Swede & sage: 

• 1 medium Swede 
• a handful of fresh sage leaves 
• a few spinach leaves , washed and dried 
• olive oil 

Cube the Swede into 1cm pieces, drizzle with olive oil, season and add a handful of chopped sage leaves, mix together and roast in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 mins or so. Add the roasted Swede to the risotto with a handful of spinach leaves and while the risotto is resting, fry some sage leaves in butter until crisp. Serve the crisp leaves on top of the risotto and drizzle with the butter.

Event photos by Chrissy Asteraki-Speer

More green issues ...

Baking has never come completely naturally to me, not like my mother or grandmother who both seem to bake so effortlessly, no, it has always been a bit of a recipe following exercise as far as I am concerned. Bread I’m OK with, I’ve practised enough to have developed a ‘feel’ for it and I like the scientific element to the whole process. So I was somewhat surprised in myself as to why I was drawn to these little pancakes when I was looking for something new to try.

It started with a beautiful bunch of organic Spinach that had arrived on my doorstep courtesy of my weekly Riverford veg box. I was browsing through the cook books to find something interesting and new to do with this wonderful bag of bright green leaves, when I stumbled upon this recipe in my new Ottolenghi book Plenty. For some reason this recipe just jumped off the page, not too fussy and plenty of room for a more rustic method, and so, as if by fate, green spinach pancakes it was!

I was considering augmenting these delightful pancakes with some chopped up bacon or pancetta but in the end I left well alone and followed the recipe. These would make a great brunch or breakfast dish, served with a tomato relish maybe, or just eat them straight from the frying pan as I did, fold them in half and munch like a sandwich, absolutely delicious!

Green Spinach pancakes

(from Ottolenghi Plenty)

Serves: 2

• 300g spinach
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp cumin
• 4 spring onions chopped
• 1 green chilli chopped
• 150ml milk
• 110 self raising flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 50g butter, melted
• Sea salt
• 1 egg white
• Olive oil

Wash and dry the spinach then wilt in a dry pan over a medium heat. When soft place the spinach in a roll of kitchen paper and squeeze out as much water as possible. Lay the spinach out on fresh paper for a while then roughly chop and set to one side.


Place the flour, baking powder, whole egg, salt, cumin, in a bowl and whisk until a smooth. Add the chopped chilli and spring onions and stir into the pancake mix. Now stir in the spinach and season well, then, whisk the egg white to stiff peaks and fold this into the pancake batter.

In a hot non-stick frying pan drizzle some olive oil and add two tablespoons of the pancake mixture into the fat. Pat down a little so the pancakes don't get too thick and cook more evenly. Fry for two minutes on each side until golden and cooked through. This recipe makes about 6 pancakes.