Kitchen Garden Recipes

I have finally given up with blogger. It refused to let me log in to Cevenol Kitchen for the last time this week. I've been locked out of the site on and off for more than a year now - so frustrating - 4 new passwords and I still got blocked. So I moved all the recipes (nearly 300 of them) to a new blog Kitchen Garden Recipes on wordpress, which i find much easier to use, better with images and less problematic.

Here's the new site / blog with a new name too and lots of new recipes to come.

Do visit Kitchen Garden Recipes  at url  http://kitchengardenrecipes.wordpress.com  and sign up.

I am trying to make it easier to find the recipes - I can't even find my own recipes on this blogger site so hopefully Kitchen Garden Recipes will be easier to use. It does have better search and categorization functions.

I'll leave Cevenol Kitchen up until the end of the month then I'll delete it so anyone wanting to update their blogroll or bookmarks gets a bit of notice.

Blogger seems to have some crazy ideas about security and location (made worse by having 2 gmail accounts and posting from France I think). It also has some very annoying defaulting habits that keep repeating and stop me putting new posts on my own blog.  

By the way anyone else haveing issues with blogger and wants to move blog hosts. It took about 20 minutes to set up the new blog and less than 10 minutes to import all the recipes and comments from blogger to wordpress - result :-)

Beansprout Salad (Korean)

In Korea this banchan or small dish would be served as one of a number of dishes along side rice. Last time I was in London I took my friends to a small Korean canteen in New Malden, home to a thriving Korean community, and this was one of the salads we ate as an appetizer. It is also one of the most common and popular salads and no wonder, it is so easy to make and delicious. I love it and have tried to recreate it here with as many variations as I have tasted over the years. 

2 cups freshly sprouted mung bean

• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• salt to taste
• -
• toasted sesame seeds
• green onion (optional)
• soy sauce (optional)
• soft brown sugar (optional)
• pepper flakes (optional)
• fresh mild green chilli finely sliced (optional)
• Chinese chives/ garlic chives (optional)

Blanch the beansprouts quickly in salted boiling water and rinse immediately in cold water. Gently squeeze out any water and put into a bowl. Add the seasoning ingredients and toss well to coat. The first 3 are a must while the next 7 can be added in any combination to vary the salad. Serve sprinkled with pepper flakes or roasted sesame seeds.

Variation with Chinese Chives

Note

In the summmer months mung beans take only 3 days from dry to lovely fresh spouted bean shoots and so easy just make sure everything is very clean and the beans are washed twice daily.

Variation

You can also add cucumber or carrot fenely sliced to the salad. I also sometimes serve it sprinkled with deep fried crispy anchovies.

Hot Cucumber Pickle (Thai)

I love spicy side salads or relishes particularly in summer, they add just the right dash of freshness and heat to a meal on a hot day. Cucumber are one of the best and easiest ingredients to make quick pickles out of. This one pickles the cucumbers instantly in a Thai or East Asian style dressing and is great served with grilled foods such as barbecued chicken wings or simply with plain rice.

Serves 2 Preparation 4 minutes all in.

• 1/2 cucumber
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp mild ground chilli peppers
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp lime or lemon juice

Slice the cucumber into thin discs and toss with the remaining ingredients. Serve immediately or refridgerate until ready to serve. This pickled salad can be made ahead of time but is best eaten within 24 hours.

Green Olive Tapenade

Green olive pate is the perfect Mediterranean summer food, it does not spoil, travels well and tastes divine when its hot making it a great picnic or lunch item. Salty and sour with capers and anchovies ground to a paste with garlic and lemon juice, delicious! Serve on bread or crackers as an aperitif or snack.
Makes enough to fill a 1 pint (1 quart) kilner Jar. 

• 500g green olives, pitted
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp pickled capers 
• 4 anchovy fillets (optional)
• 1/4 cup oilive oil
• zest  and juice of half a lemon

Simply pound or grind all the ingredients together adding more or less of each ingredient to your own taste and to get a good consistency. Ready to eat immediately and will keep in the fridge for about 18 months.
Variations i sometimes add corriander leaf for a change and do not always add anchovies particularly when cooking for friends who are vegetarian.

Giacomo’s Fried Courgette Salad

Italian writer, Giacomo Castelvetro, set out to encourage the English to cook and appreciate vegetables in his book, A Brief Account of the Fruit, Herbs and Vegetables of Italy written in 1614. In it he describes all the produce of his beloved Italy as it comes into season and how best to prepare it. Almost 400 years on, his words are still an inspiration. For courgettes he recommends that young courgettes should be dipped in flour then fried in oil and served sprinkled with salt , pepper and agresto or verjus (the sour juice of unripe grapes) or lemon juice.
As we have an abundant and seemingly never ending crop of courgettes all through the summer and an  overcrowded grape vine it seems churlish not to take his advice. The result is delicious and works equally well with lemon, or lime juice which is easier to come by than unripe grapes.

• 3-4 young courgettes
• 25g white flour
• crushed sea salt and cracked black pepper
• Verjuice or lemon juice

Slice the courgettes into thin rounds and drop into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper then flour and toss to coat evenly. Shake off excess flour. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add a single layer of courgettes. Turn when the first side is browned and cook until the second side is brown. Drain on paper towels and continue in batches until all the courgettes are cooked. Arrange the courgettes in a serving bowl season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with verjuice or lemon and serve immediately.

Cook's TIP If the courgettes are too dry the flour won't stick to them. My dad used to make fried courgettes from the garden when i was a kid, by first dipping the slices in milk before flouring. This version has more of a light batter and is very delicious too.


Variation
Our grapes are not nearly big enough to make verjuice yet so i am using lemon juice which is a good alternative until the grapes are big enough. This year i'll freeze the verjuice in ice cube trays for winter use.

Onion & Mint Relish

This raw salad type relish has bags of flavour and a lovely fresh zing to it. Sweet white onions are simply seasoned with salt, lemon and mint and the result is a delicious fresh side salad or relish to go with grilled foods, lentil or rice dishes.

• 1 large sweet white onion
• 1/2 tsp dried mint 
• pinch salt
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Mince the onion finely. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Rub the dried mint between the palms to break it down to a fine powder and sprinkle over the onions. That is it done, stir and serve. The salad can be left for an hour or so before serving and is still good 24 hours later so it can be made in advance.

Note In this part of France we a re lucky that it is an area famous for its sweet onions including the Cevennes Doux. A sweet Spanish or salad onion would make a good substitute. In most cases I would choose fresh herbs rather than dried but for this relish dried really does work best. 

Garden Tip If you grow mint it is best to cut it back once or twice during the year, particularly as the weather gets hotter, to encourage fresh new growth. I grow a lot of mint so the twice annual cut backs provide plenty of mint to dry.

Simple Tomato Chutney

This is a simple tomato chutney or Tamatar Chatni made with fresh tomatoes and a light Indian spicing. The flavour is delicate, sweet with only a hint of heat. It goes wonderfully with all kinds of dishes.

• 3-4 large ripe tomatoes
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1-4 dried red chillis (to taste)
• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 3cm stick of cinamon
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Roughly chop the tomatoes discarding the cores. Heat the oil in a saucepan and when it is hot put in the chilli, cumin and cinamon and fry until the chillis start to turn brown. Add tomatoes sugar and salt and cook for about 15 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked down and the chutney is fairly thick.

This chutney is ready to serve immediately, it is not a preserve but it does last for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Source The original recipe came from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi.
Note the original recipe cooked the tomatoes in ghee but I prefer to use sunflower or vegetable oil and I also added more dried red chilli but that really is up to your taste buds it is also nice to add fresh green chillis thinly sliced green chillis for extra punch.