Peach, Swiss Chard and Cabrales Pie

I've been thinking about making this Provençal pie for a few years now but the whole idea of vegetables and fruit didn't quite do it for me.  I'm used to eating spinach with sultanas and pine nuts, a Catalan dish that I love but I needed to clinch the recipe.  I mused over different cheese and even bought two or three but in the end I decided on the cabrales.  A strong blue cheese from Asturias in northern Spain.  It can be made from unpasteurised cows milk or more traditionally made with a blend of goat's and sheep's milk.  Other blue cheeses can be used in its place, Stilton would be a good choice.

The pastry is made with a blend of plain flour and Gofio, a toasted wheatgerm from the Canary Islands.

Serves 4 - 6

Preheat oven to 180°c

Ingredients

For the pastry

150g plain flour

50g gofio

100g butter

1 egg yolk

1 - 2 tablespoons cold water

salt and freshly ground pepper

Filling

1 kg Swiss chard or spinach

80g pine nuts

80g sultanas

100g cabrales

2 - 3 peaches

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 teaspoon of sugar

salt and pepper

2 eggs

50ml single cream or milk

How to go about it

Firstly put the sultanas in half a cup of water and bring to boil and then leave to cool in liquid.  Rub the butter into the two flour, add salt and a good grinding of pepper.  Bind with egg yolk and water to form pastry.  knead for seconds and wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take off the centres of chard an use in another recipe.  Cook green part in boiling water for 3 minutes, drain and cool and squeeze out all of liquid.  Lightly roast pine nuts, finely chop chard and mix with sultanas, pine nuts, spices, eggs, and cream, crumble the cheese and also add.  Season. 

Butter shallow pie dish and roll-out half the pastry and line pie dish.  Fill with chard mixture.  Cut peaches in half and stone and slice in medium slices, lay on top of chard and sprinkle the sugar on top.  Roll out the other half of pastry and cover the pie.  Brush with beaten egg mixed with tablespoon of water.  Bake for 45 - 55 minutes.

I wasn't disappointed, I think it was worth the two year musing before making it.  After all, you can't rush things in the Mediterranean.

Cannelloni bean and vegetable soup with harissa and yoghurt

So many vegetables in the garden, I think I am turning into a vegetarian.  I thought I would give this a bit of a twist, instead of making a straight forward minestrone I decided to put a bit of harissa and yoghurt in it.

Serves 4

Ingredients

300g of cannelloni beans, soaked overnight
3 carrots
1 courgette
bunch of swiss card
1 clove of garlic
1 onion
handful of green beans
1 - 2 teaspoons harissa (depending on how hot you like it)
1 tablespoon of tomato purée
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
small sprig of rosemary
small sprig of oregano
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

For the yoghurt sauce

4 tablespoons of yoghurt
juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
2 tablespoons chopped basil
salt

How to go about it

First cook beans in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes or 40 minutes in normal saucepan.  Drain but reserve liquid.  Peel and chop onion, garlic and carrots, chard stems, gentle fry in saucepan until soft.  Add chopped courgette and continue frying for a few minutes.  Add herbs and cumin and fry for 2 minutes.  Add harissa and purée, mix and them add tomatoes, chopped chard leaves, beans and liquid from beans and more water if you think it needs it.  Season.  Simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make yoghurt sauce by mixing all the ingredients. Serve.

Artichoke and black pudding Pasta

When you grow your own veg, you don't always have the choice of what you are going to eat.  It's a question of what needs harvesting in the garden and how am I going to cook this.  This is a recipe that works with different combinations of early Summer vegetables.  I bought these artichoke plants about 3 months ago and was told that they didn't need cutting down to the ground at the end of May and they wouldn't be any artichokes till the following Spring, so I was surprised to see these artichokes in June!

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 artichokes
bunch of swiss chard
1 courgette
handful of broad beans, fresh or frozen
2 black puddings
olive oil
salt and pepper
400g macaroni pasta

For the sauce

100 dl olive oil
100g parmesan cheese
1 lemon
fresh basil
3 cloves fresh garlic
small bunch of basil


I had in my garden an enormous plant which I knew to be of the onion/garlic family but was told by a neighbour it is what they call french garlic and it is used to make allioli (Catalan garlic mayonaise) as it is milder.

How to go about it

First make the sauce by finely chopping garlic and basil, add olive oil and the juice of lemon and parmesan, mix with a fork.

Put a saucepan of water on to boil for pasta.

Prepare artichokes, discarding outer leaves and cut into eights, fry in olive oil.  Wash and separate stalks of chard, chop stalks and add to artichokes.  Finely slice courgettes in semi circles and add to pan.  Fry on low heat for 5 minutes.  Add chopped chard leaves and broad beans and fry for another 5 minutes.  While this is cooking, put pasta on to cook.  Follow cooking instructions on packet.  Drain but DON'T RINSE.   Add a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.  Cover and keep warm.

Slice black pudding and gentle fry on both side for a few minutes. Remember that black pudding is already cooked so it just needs to be heated through and browning a bit. 

Mix pasta into veg, then mix in sauce.  Serve in bowls or on plates and arrange black pudding on top.

Butter bean and vegetable tart with a gofio shortcrust.

An early morning stroll down the garden in my pyjamas I saw this vibrant courgette flower.  So beautiful in the early morning sunlight.  I picked a few vegetables and strolled back up to the house.

Not much of a wide selection but I had some butter beans in soak and I had been thinking about making a vegetable tart, similar to one I had made about 25 years ago for my parents.  I don't know why I had been thinking about it but I suppose it is like going through old cookery magazines of the mind.

I thought that I would make the paté brisé a bit different and I remembered that a couple of months previous I had come across a packet of gofio on a supermarket shelf and bought it because I was curious to know what it was.  Well, it is a toasted wheatgerm that comes from the Canary Islands.  In appearance it looks like light brown cornflour but its smell  resembles wheatgerm.  Another thing that I use to eat in my 20's when I was a cycling fanatic, it was an ingredient in my power breakfast drink, which now I suppose would be called a smoothie.  So in a way this pie is a bit of a trip down memory taste lane.

Ingredients

for the pastry

150g plain flour
50g gofio
100g butter
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk

filling

small bunch of swiss chard or spinach
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
small bunch of fresh coriander
2 tablespoons of cream
1 egg
tomato frito
salt and pepper
25g roasted hazelnuts, chopped
2 carrots
2 courgettes

Firstly, make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the two flours, add salt and yolk and bind with a little cool water.  Knead for a few seconds and wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge. 

Drain butter beans and put in pressure cooker and cover with water and cook for 15 minutes under pressure, drain but reserve the cooking liquid.

Wash all the vegetables and separate the swiss chard stalks and chop stalks along with the onion, garlic and carrots.  Gentle fry this in olive oil for a few minutes, add cumin and fry for a couple of minutes longer.  Add the beans and about a cup of tomato frito and a little of the cooking liquid.  Let cook gentle for five minutes adding more liquid if needed.  Add chopped coriander and turn off heat.

Cook green part of swiss chard in a little water for five minutes, cool and drain, making sure you squeeze out excess moisture.  Liquidize with cream and a little nutmeg, let cool.

Slice courgettes thinly and parboil for two minutes, refresh in cold water, drain and pat dry.

Grease a 23cm flan dish, roll out pastry and line flan dish.  Prick base with a fork and line with foil, put in baking beans and cook for 10 minutes in a  preheated oven of 180°c, remove foil and baking beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Fill pastry lined dish with butter bean mixture, then mix in beaten egg to chard purée add hazelnuts then spread out on top of beans.  Top with courgettes overlapping in an ever decreasing circle, brush with olive oil and cook for 35 minutes  or until golden on top.

The gofio pastry I will definately be making again, it had a lovely nutty flavour.