DJ: Frances Ambler
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“Now we’re gonna live, now we’re going to work it out, the pain is now over and the harvest is here”
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Photography: Ali Allen
Harvest | Things to do with Weird Veg Box Vegetables
Getting a vegetable you’ve never heard of in your veg box is very exciting and also slightly bewildering. Here’s what to do with anything unrecognisable or unpronounceable in your veg box…
Kohlrabi
Once a thing of mystery, now a veg box staple, the best thing to do with this (faintly unattractive but nice and crunchy) vegetable is to julienne it for a kohlrabi slaw, along with carrot, cabbage, red onion and a nice zesty dressing.
Celeriac
Tastes like a nutty turnip; looks like a brain, celeriac makes a lovely creamy soup or gratin, but we think it’s particularly good sliced into ribbons with a peeler as a replacement for pasta with a creamy, cheesy sauce, and a good sprinkling of Stilton and walnuts.
Brusselberry Sprouts
Like sprouts but red, these are too pretty just to accompany a roast. They’re lovely raw, shredded into a salad with nuts, dried fruit and other additions, but we like to show them off on long skewers, cooked on the barbecue or panfried, with chunks of bacon if you like, glazed with honey and lime juice, and then sprinkled with parmesan.
Padron Peppers
Lots of fun. Padron peppers mostly taste just like green peppers, but one in every so many is surprisingly spicy! The classic and best way to serve these tiny green peppers is blistered in a pan with a glug of olive oil and plenty of good salt. Serve with beers for a cooling swig whenever you get a hot one.
Oca
Also known as Oxalis Tuber Rosa, these are a colourful, knobbly alternative to a potato. But they have one thing over the potato - they can be eaten raw as well as cooked. Thinly sliced, they have a pleasant lemony flavour and make a great salad. When cooked they taste nutty rather than lemony, and we love them roasted in oil with salt and dried chilli, as a pre-dinner nibble.
In our September issue, Rachel de Thample has given us lots of advice on using up everything in your veg box , as well as recipes that are great for late-summer-early-autumn veg box contents. Find all her ideas from page 42 of our September issue. The feature includes recipes for sweetcorn polenta with runner bean ragu, apple soda bread, golden marrow marmalade, Moroccalilli and cauliflower dauphinoise.
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More from our September issue…
More veg box inspirations…
Photography & styling: Kym Grimshaw
Recipe | Schiacciata di uva
Schiacciata di uva
A RECIPE TO CELEBRATE HARVEST (SCHIACCIATA MEANS ‘SQUASHED’)
Serves 12
200g raisins
250ml vin santo or moscatel
850g strong white bread flour
2 scant tsp fast-action yeast
435ml warm water (100-110C)
1 1⁄2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
450g black seedless grapes, washed and stalks removed
2 tbsp demerara sugar
2 tbsp fennel seeds
you will need
A 33 x 22cm baking tray
1 In a small pan, bring the raisins and vin santo or moscatel to a boil, then turn off the heat and set aside for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.
2 Mix the flour and yeast with 1 tsp salt. In a jug, combine the warm water with the olive oil. Pour into the flour mixture and combine, then knead until smooth and elastic. Or use a mixer with dough hook attachment.
3 Brush a thin layer of oil over the inside of a large bowl and put the dough inside, turning it over in the oil. Cover with cling film or a plastic bag and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour 30 mins).
4 Brush a 33 x 22cm baking tray with oil. Divide the dough into two and roll half out to the size of the tray, pushing it into the corners. Drain the raisin mixture and spoon over the dough. Roll out the second half of dough to the same size and sandwich over the first. Pinch the edges to join. Leave in a warm place, covered with a clean tea towel, until risen (at least 30 mins).
5 Preheat oven to 190C/Fan 170C/ Gas 5. When the dough has risen, scatter over the grapes, then sprinkle over the sugar and fennel seeds.
6 Bake in the preheated oven for 45 mins, until you have a golden crust and the grapes are bubbling and releasing their juices. Cool on a wire rack for 15 mins, then cut into generous slices to serve, with coffee or as a dessert in its own right.
Turn to page 24 of October’s The Simple Things for more of our autumn fruit feast, including Blistered grapes, ricotta & toasted sourdough, Parma-wrapped chicken with figs & gorgonzola, Herb-roasted veg Kale & fennel salad, and Poached prunes with Pedro Ximénez.
A feast of autumn fruit was inspired by the annual harvest days at Dunleavy Vineyards in the Chew Valley, Somerset, when friends and family join together to help harvest grapes and share a meal in the vineyard afterwards.
Launched in 2008 by Ingrid Bates, the vineyard produces multi-award winning rosé wine from Pinot noir and Seyval blanc grapes. Dunleavy Vineyards’ first sparkling wine will be available from October 2018.
More from the October issue:
Featured
More harvest recipes:
Featured
Illustration: Joe Snow
How to make a corn dolly
Turn over a new sheaf with this traditional harvest custom
1 For this basic neck or sheaf dolly, gather some undamaged, hollow straw. Any straw will do (wheat is the most popular) – try practising with paper straws.
2 Dampen straw so it’s easier to work with.
3 Bundle together some waste stems to make your core: it should be around the size of a biro. Tie into place.
4 Tie five straws of roughly the same width around your core. Tie them near to the wheat heads as you can. Bend each stem at right angles so they’re each pointing in a different direction, like the points on a compass; with the last one pointing just to your left.
5 Take the fifth stem and bend it up, before bending it right so that it reaches over the next two compass points.
6 Turn a quarter clockwise and repeat, using what’s become the new ‘South’ straw.
7 Repeat, each time turning a quarter so that the circle builds. With broken straws, just slide a new one over it.
8 Once finished, tie with straw or ribbon.
More from the October issue:
Featured
More makes from The Simple Things:
Featured
