12/5: Broad Beans & Fennel tops

Fennel tops are often thrown away, which is a waste of such a wonderful vegetable, or pot-herb, with all its lovely aniseedy flavours. Fennel makes a great partner for broad beans and this 'little dish' of broad beans stewed in olive oil is pepped up with the addition of garlic and shredded fennel tops. You can serve this vegetable dish as one of a group of mezze or tapas, on rice or on a bed of dressed lettuce leaves see pictured.

Serves 2 Prep / cook 10-15 minutes

• Broad Beans (shelled)
• handful fennel ferns (or other herbs such as dill, parsley, or tarragon)
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• salt & cracked black pepper
• lemon juice

Put a wide pan on the hob to heat up and add a thick layer of olive oil. Bash up the garlic and throw it in along with a little sea salt and cracked black pepper. After a minute or less throw in the beans and cook gently until the beans are soft. Meanwhile wash and finely chop the fennel ferns and throw these into the pan once the beans are ready. Stir once or twice to wilt the fennel then serve with a little squeeze of lemon juice.

Variations

For a delicious creamy version stir in some crème fraîche at the last minute, stir to warm through and  serve.


Serving idea warm on a bed of dressed lettuce makes a great summer lunch

Gardeners Note
I would normally be starting to harvest my fresh young broad beans about now but last autumn I couldn't sow the beans, as planned, because the wild boar were still getting into the garden. Curiously I feel like eating beans, it must be hard wired for this time of year, so I got some out of the freezer and perhaps this recipe might be useful for anyone who is harvesting this years beans soon.

12/5: Fennel Soup

While I was processing and freezing batches of fennel bulbs, ferns and stalks I experimented with how to make the best fennel soup with all my left over trimmings. It turned out so good, I'm posting the recipe as my new favourite soup. Absolutely delicious smooth, creamy and delicate with plenty of flavour. The colour is a little off putting but; its not what it looks like, its what it tastes like that counts.

• Fennel bulbs, stalks and ferns
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp verdurette (home made vegetable stock) (optional)
• 2 litres water or chicken stock made with a stock cube
• 1 apple, cored & chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp caraway seeds

In a large roomy pan add a thin layer of olive oil. Throw the onions and garlic, with a pinch of black pepper and the caraway seeds, into the pan and fry gently for a few minutes, until the onions are soft. Wash and finely chop the fennel and add it to the pan, stir well and let it sweat.  Add the rest of the ingredients cover and simmer for 1 hour. Remove the bay leaves and liquidise the soup. Check the seasoning and serve as it is or as one of these variations, with a scattering of chopped fennel leaves.

Variations
I was on a roll with this fennel soup and ended up making several different versions, all delicious in their own way.

Fennel Velouté
Follow the recipe as above and after liquidising the soup pass it through a sieve to make an extra smooth and thinner soup, mix together an egg with a little crème fraîche and stir into the hot soup and you've got yourself what the French might call a Velouté de Fenouil. This version is delicate enough to be served at swanky dinner parties or in cups as a taster. More down to earth I drank the thinner soup before adding the crème fraîche and egg and it was great, a cup-a-soup on the move.

Fennel & Smoked Salmon Soup (pictured)
Follow the recipe for the Velouté and just before serving top with thin strips of smoked salmon.

Freezing
The basic soup can be frozen. I recycle wide neck 1 litre plastic milk bottles, which are perfect for freezing soups.

9/5: Fennel Harvest

I've not managed to get fennel to grow for me here until this year, so this is my first real fennel harvest. So what made it work this year, what was the difference?

I bought new seed, sowed it undercover and sowed at a different time of year. The new seeds came from Seeds of Italy and I sowed it in the polytunnel in November. Previously (4 years in a row) I've sown spring-summer outdoors, at the same time as autumn beetroot, and it just has not germinated in the hot spring to summer months. So this year I tried sowing it in the polytunnel just before the first frosts (when I also sow beetroot and carrot) and I am harvesting it now.

It has not been altogether successful but that was entirely my fault. I did not thin out the row of fennel, being lazy and not wanting to pull up plants I've found so difficult to grow. The result was that they have not had enough room or nutrients to grow properly and as the temperatures soar they are just going to seed in the tunnel before bulbing up. I did manage to get a few heads though, as you can see in the picture, so I am happy.

With so many changes I will need to unpick what really made the difference so I will sow the new seed outdoors, as I have done previously, in summer.  In November I'll sow at the same time undercover but really thin them out. I will also sow in August, which is when the Italians sow it for a harvest in December and January.

I must say my polytunnel really has made a difference, I love it.

7/5: First Strawberry Bite

I picked my first strawberry from the veg patch yesterday, a variety called Mara de Bois. But it looks like something beat me to taking the first bite. We have had lots of rains over the last 2 months and an army of slugs have miraculously appeared out of nowhere. Normally the land is too dry and stony to even get any slugs, but this year has been a different matter.  They have eaten trays of my seedling peppers, herbs and all sorts in the polytunnel. I've been fending them off my newly planted pepper seedlings with coffee grounds spread around the base, which seems to work so long as the band is wide enough and without breaks. For the strawberries I use a pine needle mulch which obviously needs a top up. Pine needles are a great mulch for strawberries helping to keep the soil acid and replicate their natural forest setting and it helps to keep the slugs off.

If only we had too many snails, a dash of garlic butter and voila!

7/5: Kale & Potato Mash

Otherwise known as Colcannon, this is an Irish invention of potatoes mashed with cabbage. It is a poor man's country dish which, the Irish and Scots took with them wherever they settled. I love it. It is simple, hearty and actually very tasty,  it is particularly good if you use black Tuscan kale. As you would expect, with an old country dish, there are many variations to it, some add meat or other vegetables, mine is fairly straight forward but with onion and garlic and is made with olive oil rather than butter.



Serves 4

• Potatoes
• Kale
• Olive oil
• Half a small onion
• 1 clove garlic
• Large pinch sea salt
• Large pinch cracked black pepper
• knob of butter to finish (optional)

Wash and chop (peel if you want) the potatoes and put on the stove in a roomy pan of boiling water to cook. Boil for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender, but not falling apart, and drain. Meanwhile wash and shred the kale, chop the onion finely and crush the garlic. In another pan put a good slosh of olive oil in the bottom add the onion, garlic, salt & pepper and fry until softened. When the alliums are softened add the kale stir well to coat it in the oil, add a little water, cover and simmer/steam on a low heat for 5-7 minutes until the kale is tender but still has some bite. Tip the simmered kale and its juices into the pan of drained potatoes and mash. At this point you could also add a little butter or the dripping from roast meat or chicken.

Freezing Kale for storage
I harvested the last of our Tuscan Kale this week to make room for the Tomato beds and there is quite a bit of it, so I will freeze some of it in batches.  To freeze kale wash and shred it then drop into a large pan of boiling water, lift it out after 2 minutes and plunge into ice cold water to halt cooking. Drain well then put useable size portions into freezer bags and freeze immediately. Frozen kale lasts for about a year at -18 and keeps its colour, texture and taste. It is great in dishes like this one or added to vegetable soups like Ribolita or vegetables dishes such as  Tuscan Kale in Pepper Sauce