Nettles are packed full of healthiness, they grow everywhere (you could say like weeds…) and yet I’ve still not managed to get into cooking them myself despite being told years ago how good they are and how easy they are to cook with. This recipe looks really simple, so I’m thinking it must be a good one for anyone looking for an introduction to wild food.

It is the best time for nettles in the UK right NOW. For the best nettles pick the young fresh green tips of the plant. Be careful not to pick from anywhere that is likely to have been sprayed with chemicals and pick as far from paths as possible (to avoid dog pee). I’m slightly gutted I can’t do this myself this year, so can someone please make it for me and let me know how it is?…

Nettle Pesto

Nettles
Mint (if you’ve got it, or other herbs, or none)
Garlic
Wholemeal bread
Cheddar
Oil

Pick a colander full of young nettle tops (you’ll need gloves). Rinse them, then plunge them into boiling water for one minute to blanch them and take the sting out of them. As soon as the minute’s up, tip them back into the colander (keep the water, it’s full of goodness and can be drunk like a tisane) and run under the cold tap to stop them cooking. When they’re cold, squeeze out the water.

Put a slice of wholemeal bread into the food processor. Add a chunk of cheese, a peeled clove of garlic and the nettles and a little mint. Blitz, then add oil in a stream. I used rapeseed oil. Keep tasting, adjusting the amounts. Hard to say how much oil, as it depends on what you are going to do with the sauce.

Sounds good doesn’t it? There’s so many other things they could be used in too. Generally you cook them in the same way as, and they taste like, spinach. So I’m thinking anything which is good with spinach must be good with nettles – quiche, pasta, omelettes, pies, on pizza, or just cooked simply with garlic. Mmm. You’ve got to give it a go! For more adventurous ‘superfood’ addicts  go for a banana and nettle smoothie, the raw hit will give you maximum vitamin goodness.

My new student is flying! Last week we made this amazing roast vegetable lasagne. I’d never made a roast vegetable lasagne so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but all went to plan and it was very tasty indeed. I’m a little worried I could be out of a job soon though, apart from putting together the recipe and a bit of advice on making sure the cheese sauce was smooth, she did the whole thing. Gonna have to do something really tricky next time or I’ll be out!

It could probably do with a bit more cheese, there wasn’t quite enough saved for over the top, I like it  when you get a nice crispy cheesy topping. It still got 8 out of 10 Andy points, so a potential 9 I recon with this adjustment.

Roast Vegetable Lasagne

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 red onion, cut into chunks and separated
• 1 aubergine, cut in half and sliced
• 3 courgettes, sliced
• 1 red and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 15 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes, chopped
• 2tsp paprika
• 3 tbsp oregano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 lasagne sheets
• 8oz cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 oz butter
• 2 oz plain flour
• 1 pt milk
• nutmeg

1. Pre-heat oven to 190°C, Gas Mark 6. Put onions and vegetables in roasting dish, splash with olive oil, S+P bake for 20 minutes, until beginning to brown on edges. May need to do in two separate dishes as quite a lot of veg.
2. Put cooked veg in a big pan, add the tomatoes, paprika, oregano, garlic, S+P and bring to the boil. Turn to simmer and leave for 10 minutes or so while you are making the cheese sauce.
3. For the cheese sauce. Melt the butter, then stir in the flour and cook for 1 min.
4. Gradually stir in the milk, just a little at first to break the flour mix.
5. As thickens add ¾ of the cheese, and stir through until all the cheese melts. Do not allow to boil.
6. Place alternate layers of vegetables, cheese sauce and pasta sheets in an oven proof dish, finishing with a layer of pasta then cheese sauce. Grate over some nutmeg and a sprinkle of black pepper. Top with cheese and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown.

It really is so easy to make and far, far tastier than the gloopy gunk that comes in tins. Years ago when I was working I used to eat tinned soup quite often and Marzena, a Polish girl who came to work with us was astounded that you could actually buy soup in tins. “Soup comes in tins?… Really?… I can’t believe it…. but why?”. At the time I thought she was bonkers, now I feel exactly the same (about the soup/tin thing, not her being bonkers. Although actually she is a bit).

Most simple soups follow the same basic idea, cook your onions off in a a little oil, or butter (nicer), add the chopped vegetables, cover to sweat for ten minutes or so, then cover with stock and leave to simmer until all veg are soft and then blitz it, maybe add a bit of cream. Lovely jubbly.

While I’m on my soup frenzy I’ll put the recipe up for anything I make that turns out to be of particular yumminess, starting with these two, sweetcorn chowder and onion soup. Sweetcorn chowder was given 9 out of 10 no less. A pretty impressive score as the critic has said he never gives a ten.

Sweetcorn Chowder

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, sliced
• 8oz of potatoes, 1/2 chopped, 1/2 small cubes
• 1 large carrot, small cubes (1/2 cm or so)
• 1 x 340g tin sweetcorn
• 1 red chili, finely chopped (or to taste)
• 1 1/4 pints of water
• 1 red pepper finely chopped
• 1 green pepper finely chopped
• 75ml double cream
• S+P

• fresh coriander to garnish

1. Heat the oil and cook the onion and garlic over a low heat until golden (approx 15 mins).
2. Add the celery, half the carrot, the chopped potatoes,  half the sweetcorn, the chili, cook for two minutes then add the water and bring to boil.
3. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, then zuzz.
4. Add the chopped peppers, cubed carrot, potatoes and the rest of the sweetcorn. Simmer for 10 more minutes.
5. Stir in the double cream, add seasoning and serve garnished with chopped coriander.

Onion Soup

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 700g red onions, finely sliced
• 400g shallots, finely sliced
• 1 heaped tbsp plain flour
• 2 tsp mustard
• 2 pints veg stock
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 tbsp greek yoghurt
• S+P

• grated cheddar to garnish

1. Heat the oil and gently fry the red onions and shallots over a really low heat for about 40 minutes until golden and caramelised. Do not cook too quickly, or let burn. The sweetness will come out better the as these turn golden after slow cooking.
2. Stir in the flour and mustard and cook for a further 2 minutes before adding the stock and thyme.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Pick out the thyme and allow to cool just a little before adding the yoghurt and seasoning.
4. Serve with a little cheddar grated over.

It’s a couple of months since we were there now, here is a little post about our stay at Plan-it Earth in Sancreed, which is pretty much at Land’s End in Cornwall. I think I might have mentioned it before, it’s a seven acre small holding which runs eco-education courses and has two yurts for holiday rentals. We’d gone there wwoofing, intending to stay for just three days, but ended up staying over a week. It was a really great place. We learnt loads and had a great time. As an added bonus for the first couple of days we were able to stay in this lovely yurt before the next guests arrived.

The first day there was a bit of a downpour and we spent most of the morning weeding the polytunnel, dashing out into the garden to pick artichokes and redcurrants in any dry spells. Rachel kindly suggested that due to the inclement weather we might like to do a few jobs in the house. Andy did some work on the website and I helped prepare the artichokes we’d picked, which I have decided are an evil vegetable. Spikey and tough, we spent over two hours hacking away at them to use in some kind of potato and artichoke broth type thing. It was very tasty, but you can’t really trim them down without wasting most of the vegetable which means when you eat it you end up picking the tough, half chewed bits of stalk out of your mouth and get covered in sauce.  Not a recipe I’ll be trying again. They are however delicious just cooked simlpy whole and served as a starter. Boil them for around 40 minutes then pick the leaves off individually, dip them in butter then scrape the flesh off with your teeth. The inside heart it the tastiest bit, but you’ve got to be careful to get rid of all the “choke”, another evil little treat the artichoke has hiding at it’s centre.

Summer Fruits Pudding

This was a recipe for a Delia Smith cookbook they had. I like Delia, her recipes are always good, traditional, no nonsense and work well, or they were until recently when she appears to have gone a little mad with her supermarket time saving fake food book, but nevermind, just ignore that one and you’re safe.

800g mixed summer fruits, we had redcurrrants, logan berries and strawberries, I think you can use any berries, but maybe try get something a bit sharp or it could be too sweet.

150g sugar

8 slices of nice white bread

A lightly buttered 1 1/2 pint pudding basin

Put the fruit and sugar in a pan over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until the sugar has melted and the juices start to run, it will look a like fruity massacre like this:

Take the fruit off the heat and line the bottom and sides of the pudding basin with the bread, take care to overlap it so there are no gaps which the fruit juices could run out of.

Pour in the fruit, apart from about a cupful to keep for sauce later, and then cover the top with bread slices too.

Put a weight on top to squash the bread down, something fairly heavy, and put it in the fridge overnight.

Just before serving tip it out onto a plate and pour over the remaining juice and serve with thick cream.

Don’t laugh, but here’s what Delia’s version looks like… maybe I need more practice. I’d cut the crusts off if I did it again.

:

I’m going to really miss the chickens. They’re so funny. The way they walk is ridiculous, and the way they run even more ridiculous. It’s as though their head is attached to their legs by a string through their body and it wobbles backwards and forwards faster the faster they go. They hear you coming out of the back door and if they’re not already there by the time you have got outside they’ll come racing across the yard sliding to a stop by your feet. Bwoooooooaaak! Can’t wait until I have some of my own.

Despite their cheeky bean eating behaviour I’ll also miss the cats. In fact I’d rather they were eating beans than their habit of bringing various animals in for us. They seem to have been brought up with great manners and like to eat them at the table. The sound of the cat eating my beans was much more enjoyable than the sound of it crunching through a mouse’s skull. Still they are very cute and seem to like hanging out with us on an evening, which is nice.

I think we’ll both be sad to leave tomorrow. We’ve had a great time, what a lovely place, and what lovely people for trusting us to look after it despite the fact the really don’t know us at all, very grateful to them we are. I couldn’t imagine that kind of thing having happened in Manchester. Anybody else in need of a friendly pair of house sitters feel free to contact us. This is my kind of job. Just pottering around doing very little for a week. Nice.

Here’s the recipe for the quiche I made last night. I was worried after an attempt some years ago that it would go horribly wrong somehow, but it was really easy and incredibly tasty. Andy was making some very strange faces and noises while he was eating it.

Broccoli and Blue Cheese Quiche

For the pastry:
6oz plain flour
3 oz butter
pinch of salt

For the filling:
1 small head broccoli
8 eggs
1/2 pint milk
100g blue cheese
150g mature cheddar
black pepper

Mix all pastry the ingredients together, rubbing the flour into the butter until it is like fine breadcrumbs. Then add a tablespoon of water and mix it together. Add a tiny amount more water if necessary to bring it together. Not too much or it will go sticky. Put this in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190.

Line 25cm quiche dish with pastry. Line the pastry with silver foil and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 minutes covered up , then remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes.

Lower the oven to 150

Put the broccoli into boiling water for 3 minutes, drain and put in the pastry case.

Mix together the eggs crumbled or grated cheese, milk and pepper and pour them into the case with the broccoli.

Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 35 minutes until golden brown. The quiche will begin to rise up a little and should feel fairly solid to the middle. Well not like rock hard, just not sloppy eggs.