Friends for dinner
Last weekend we had friends over to dinner and I served a saffron & seafood risotto, with a decorative side salad. 

I would be over-reaching myself to claim the seafood risotto was 'seasonal': while the dill and chives came from my garden, the saffron and mussels did not! 

Home grown salad
However, the salad was 100% home grown, and a fun experiment. The peppery rocket came from the vegetable garden, while the silene and mustard had been growing in large bags in the ruined greenhouse, where they'd enjoyed the cool nights and warm days. The yellow and red tomatoes were also home grown. I decorated the salad with violet basil, and blue borage flowers from the orchard, then dressed it with a balsamic vinegrette. Enjoy!

This dish may appeal to the child in you. The proper name for the dish should be stuffed courgettes. But having stuffed, fried, and served them, we thought they looked like fried mice.

This is the quick cheat's version of the dish, for those without a deep fryer. It serves 2-3 people as a side dish.

Ingredients
Six courgette or pumpkin/squash flowers
About 80g Feta cheese
2 tbspns creme fraiche
1 egg
3 tbspns plain flour, mixed with half a crushed oatibix
1 tbspn finely chopped fresh dill, lemon rind, pepper, oil 

Method
Mash together the feta cheese and creme fraiche.  Add half a beaten egg, and the dill, a little finely grated lemon rind, and a grind of pepper. Don't add salt; the feta cheese is already salty. Mix to a dense, creamy texture; taste, then adjust seasoning, if necessary, before stuffing the flowers.

Carefully peel back a flower and push a few tspns of the mix inside. Dip the flowers in the remaining beaten egg, then in the flour and oatibix mix. 

Heat oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Fry for about 5 minutes, turning every few minutes to create an even golden colour. Serve, and enjoy.

Note: I use oatibix because I find it adds a subtle taste and crunch. You could use wheatibix or dry breadcrumbs instead.

This is the first year I've grown cabbage, and we enjoyed eating it for the first time last night. Here is my version of a classic - braised red cabbage - which I've jazzed up with a splash of Creme de Cassis.

Braised cabbage is traditionally served as a side dish for roast meat and game. However I find that it works well with smoked fish, too. The smoky, rich taste of smoked fish is hearty enough to handle the sharp, sweet crunch of the cabbage. 

Ingredients
1 medium purple cabbage
1/2 onion
1 Tbspn butter & 1 Tbspn oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup  red wine vinegar
1/4 cup  Creme de Cassis
3 Tbspns soft brown sugar
4-5 cloves & 2-3 peppercorns
A knob of unsalted butter
Salt & pepper to season

Method
Chop the cabbage, and finely slice the onion. 
Heat the butter and oil on medium heat, and gently fry the onion until softened.
Add the cabbage, stir for a minute or two to coat, then add the remaining ingredients.
Braise over a low to medium heat, stirring periodically, for about 20 minutes for cabbage with a slight crunch, or 25 minutes plus if you prefer your cabbage softer.
Finish with a little butter, and season as desired. 

I use vermiculite a lot when propagating, and have a large sack of it in the potting shed. One day recently I dipped my hand into the sack and came out with a handful of vermiculite that seemed to be covered in a fine web. I thought this a bit odd but used it anyway; ran out, dipped in my hand again, and brought up more webby material. The next time a huge spider ran over my hand and out of the sack and I screamed loud enough to bring Mr. P running.

Now, I grew up in Australia, so I fancy myself used to spiders, cockroaches, and flies. I once spent a rather uncomfortable night, when a student, sleeping in a friend's spider-infested room, and endured an entire summer house-sitting a flat that was so badly infested with cockroaches that they woke me in the night, scuttling over the sheets. And now, in an old house in the English countryside, I usually wack an average of one spider a night. 

But I'd rather not have them taking up residence in my potting shed. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that vermiculite is not just a sterile material for horticulture, it's also a sterile nesting material for arachnoids.  I've replaced it, and housed it in sealed containers instead.  

Rocket overload
During the summer I had a glut of rocket leaves several times, and used them to make a quick pesto. After the plants responded to successive chops and cooler conditions, they produce coarser and hotter leaves which are not as pleasant to eat in a salad. However they work nicely in this pesto recipe.
Ingredients
3 handfuls rocket leaves
3-5 sprigs aromatic basil
75g pine nuts
75g grated parmesan cheese
Good pinch of sea salt
75ml lightly flavoured olive oil

Method
Toast the pine nuts in a pre-heated hot oven (200 C, or 180 fan) for 4 minutes, keeping a close eye on them, until golden. Whip them and quickly remove from the tray to stop them browning and burning. In a food processor (or by hand, if you don't have one) whiz all the ingredients. Taste, and adjust seasoning as required. I don't add pepper to this, as these leaves are so peppery. 

Uses
Incorporate into freshly boiled pasta, or smear on a sheet of rolled puff pastry, top with tomatoes, pancetta, and chillies, and bake at 200 C (180 fan oven) for 20 minutes, for a quick supper. 
Blend in a food processor

A few days ago Mr. P raided the salad bags in the old ruined greenhouse, picked some of the tomatoes still ripening in our working greenhouse, and dipped into the veg patch, to create a quick 'risotto' with an unusual combination of flavours. I wondered whether I'd like it - and was happy to discover that I really did. I hope you enjoy it too.

Note: This recipe uses my Rocket Pesto. Timings are for an al dente texture, so cook for a few more minutes if you prefer a softer texture. It serves 4 for a main meal, or 3 hungry gardeners.

Ingredients
250g orzo 
1 Tbspn oil, 1 Tbspn butter
1 small onion
2 bay leaves
20g dried mushrooms 
Large bunch of silene
200g tomatoes
1 & 1/2 mushroom stockcubes, made into about 750ml stock
2 Tbspns Rocket Pesto
3 Tbspns ricotta
Grated parmesan

Method
1. Soak the mushrooms in hot stock for 10-20 minutes while you complete step #2. 
2. Dice then fry the onion in butter and oil over a medium heat until soft. 
3. Add the bay leaves and orzo, and stir for a minute to coat the orzo.
4. Add about half of the hot stock and all the mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 4 minutes.
6. Add the silene, stir several times to wilt, then add the pesto and ricotta.
7. Serve topped with grated parmesan and some salad leaves.