The allotment seems to have gone mad recently, probably helped by liberal helpings of rain. I knew creating new raised beds for drought conditions would be bound to have this effect! Not ideal for picking flowers, but extremely good growing conditions for weeds and (fortunately) for summer fruit and veg too. The courgettes are growing fast and furious, as are the beans, French and runner, although they were only sown in early June so won’t be ready for harvest any time soon.
I thought my root crops hadn’t done well this year, with only seven parsnip seeds germinating (despite covering the earth with fleece before sowing in April) and gaps in my rows of carrots and beetroot. Take your eye off the ball, however, and things can change virtually overnight! When I went up to the plot one evening this week to weed the root bed, I was amazed to find some huge cylindrical beetroot and plenty more coming. The Snowball turnips were also looking promising, so I thinned them as I weeded. The carrots, under their protective Enviromesh tunnel to foil the dreaded root fly, are looking good too. I sowed more carrot and beetroot seeds in the gaps in the parsnip rows for an autumn crop and went home feeling much better – armed with a basket of beets!
Deciding what to do with these beauties was no contest: I love beetroot roasted and served with cheese and fresh bread, as a side, or taking centre stage in a Puy lentil salad. Just wash, remove the leaves (reserving for later use – they’re equally delicious as long as they’re still green and fresh) and wrap individually in foil, then bake at 180-200°C fan (Gas 5-6) for 1-2 hours, depending on size. They should feel just squishy to the touch when ready. I leave to cool in the oven, then the skin should just rub off when cold, and you can slice them, sprinkling with balsamic vinegar, and chill in the fridge until ready to serve or use in another recipe. My usual beetroot & lentil salad uses feta, but I didn’t have any on this occasion; griddled halloumi makes a pleasant change.
It always seems a shame to throw away the leaves and they taste similar to spinach or chard, so absolutely no reason not to cook them too. You can eat the leaves of beetroot thinnings in salads, but the bigger ones tend to need cooking. I stir-fried my first batch and mixed them in with the lentil salad but transformed the next lot into a delectable beetroot leaf, onion & ham tart, inspired originally by Jamie Oliver’s Italian ham & spinach tart in his ‘Jamie at Home’. Tweaked, of course – I was only cooking for one (with plenty of leftovers for lunch the next few days), so used a smaller circular tart tin and substituted beetroot leaves for the spinach he suggests. I also had two egg yolks left over from making a jostaberry mousse earlier in the week (see below!), so used those with one whole egg. You can omit the ham if you prefer, and make it vegetarian using toasted pine nuts, mushrooms or even capers instead.
Beetroot Leaf, Onion & Ham Tart – serves 3-4
20cm shortcrust pastry case, baked blind
Large bunch fresh beetroot leaves (or you can use 150-200g spinach or chard if you prefer, thick stalks removed)
2 red onions, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1tsp sugar
Fresh thyme leaves (several sprigs, leaves stripped from the wiry stalks)
Olive oil
Dash of balsamic vinegar
50g Parma ham (or bacon/any other form of ham you happen to have!)
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks (or use 2 eggs)
200ml crème fraîche (or double cream, or blend of both)
75g freshly grated Parmesan (or Grana Padano, which is cheaper but still pretty tasty)
Salt and black pepper to season
Cook the sliced onions and garlic in olive oil until starting to soften (15 minutes or so), then add the beet leaves and thyme, cooking over a low heat until well wilted down – another 5-10 minutes. Add the ham, then 1 tsp sugar and a dash of balsamic vinegar, then leave to stand until you’ve prepared the egg custard mix.
Meanwhile, mix the egg and yolks in a large bowl, add the crème fraîche and/or cream, season with salt and pepper, then stir in one generous tbsp of grated Parmesan. Tip in the contents of the beet leaf pan and mix thoroughly, then transfer to the cooked pastry case, smoothing the filling out to cover evenly. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and bake for 20-25 mins at 180°C fan (Gas 5). Serve warm with salad and a side of roasted beetroot if you have them. Also delicious eaten cold or warmed through the following day for lunch.
Air fryers are brilliant for heating things like tarts, incidentally. You can use the microwave, of course, but the pastry base has a tendency to go soggy. If you pre-heat the air fryer as usual, it only takes a few minutes to warm a slice of tart – much cheaper than turning the whole oven on and the base remains crispy 😊.
Another of this week’s gluts has been jostaberries. These aren’t actually mine, but both my lovely allotment neighbour and friends with a smallholding have a jostaberry bush, so I invariably get invited to help myself at this time of year. The bushes grow to huge proportions and produce corresponding amounts of fruit. As a cross between blackcurrants and gooseberries, the fruit is quite tart, but lends itself beautifully to jam and compotes, and also works well in fruit fools. Just substitute them for gooseberries or blackcurrants in any fool recipe. As a bonus, you don’t need to top and tail them as you’ll be sieving the compote anyway to make the smooth purée.
This week, when I’ve been quiet on the work front during the usual July lull when all my clients seem to be on holiday, I’ve made jostaberry jam, using my usual recipe. I’d read a great tip online to ease the arduous task of topping and tailing the berries, which are squishy like blackcurrants but have obtrusive tails like gooseberries. By freezing the berries first, the tails just brush off – genius! It still takes a while, as 1.5 kg of jostaberries is a lot of individual berries, but it’s far less messy. And doing them watching a work webinar made not only made the time fly, it also ticked the CPD box. Win-win!
I also made a jostaberry mousse (finally getting on to those spare egg whites!) as a change from fool. It’s been ages since I made a mousse, but they’re not really any trickier than fools and have a delightfully cloud-like texture. This is what I did:
Jostaberry Mousse – serves 4-6
450g jostaberries
100g caster sugar
3 tbsp crème de cassis (optional)
3 sheets of leaf gelatine
150ml double cream
2 egg whites
Put the jostaberries with the sugar and cassis (or a dash of water if not using) in a pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes until soft.
Meanwhile, soak the gelatine in cold water in a small bowl until it softens.
When the berries are cooked, stir in the softened gelatine, then strain into a bowl. Leave to cool, watching carefully as you need to catch it just before it sets. You can refrigerate to speed the process up but do keep checking! I find it usually takes an hour or so and stay in the kitchen doing other tasks so I’m on hand at the critical moment.
Just as it starts to thicken, whip the double cream until the soft swirl stage, then fold gently into the setting mousse. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold them carefully into the mousse mix until there are no specks of egg white or cream remaining. Pour the mousse into 4-6 glass dishes and chill for a couple of hours before serving.
Rhubarb & Raspberries 