THE GREAT BIG VEGETABLE CHALLENGE

A rallying call to all Brussels Sprouts lovers out there......

2009-11-17T10:41:00.007+01:00

It's that time of year when the Brussels Sprout starts to take centre stage in the vegetable stalls of Britain. I feel a hint of guilt about the humble sprout. As a child, I hated them. I would go to extraordinary lengths to avoid eating them. I perfected the art of hiding the sprout in one cheek whilst consuming the rest of the meal. At the end, I would leave the table and run with one bulging cheek like a hamster up to the top of the house where I would retrieve the intact sprout and throw it out of the window. I can remember watching the sprout bounce down the slates of the roof before falling three stories down into the garden.

Having learned to love sprouts and even more surprisingly found that Freddie loves them too, it is time to pay them back. So when I read a news story earlier this year, I thought it was time the Great Big Veg Challenge started to campaign. But I really need all your help in this. Let me tell you first the story that grabbed our attention:
Royal Navy Commanding Officer Wayne Keble OBE is in charge of the illustrious HMS Bulwark. He was allegedly heard to say that sprouts were the 'devil's vegetable' and should be banned from the Captain's table. Read one version of the full story here. Looking at the picture of the Commanding Officer in that newspaper article, he seems a reasonable man, a friendly face - not one that you would associate with an irrational fear of sprouts.
I imagine it might be difficult for sprouts to sue for libel. And they are frequently the target of negative press. A few years back they were voted in a survey Britain's most hated vegetable. (Apparently they have regained some ground coming second to the aubergine this year).
So what can we all do? Well, we've thought of two things:
1.We have started a petition to encourage Commanding Officer Wayne Keble to learn to enjoy sprouts. We'd love you to sign this petition online. This is what you would commit to:
"We the undersigned, call on Commanding Officer Wayne Keble OBE, to put aside his hatred of Brussels Sprouts and to lead his men and women by example, sampling delicious recipes and dishes that demonstrate the delectable taste of sprouts.
We the undersigned will also commit to supply him and his Royal Navy catering team with irresistible sprout recipes to help him on this culinary voyage of discovery".

2. And the second thing I would like you to do is to join me in putting together the most imaginative and delicious selection of your Brussels Sprouts recipes. If you are a blogger, would you agree to one day where you celebrate the sprout and feature your favourite recipe dedicated to Commanding Offiver Wayne Keble? No negative postings here please - just an attempt to encourage all sproutophobes. If you are interested in this - please leave me a comment or email me.

Black Garlic and Mushroom Tartlets

2009-11-15T11:59:00.003+01:00

"Mum's bought slugs!"

I hadn't of course, but I concede my latest vegetable discovery is a dead ringer for the Arion Ater lurking under the hostas in our garden. One of the earliest things we learnt in our Great Big Veg Challenge was to be brave, not to be frightened of the vegetable unknown. We have tried everything from seaweed, cacti and nettles to bitter gourd and now Black Garlic. Alex discovered them on a stall at MasterChef Live in London's Olympia. According to the packet, black garlic is aged white garlic. The packaging boasts the only ingredients are regular garlic, heat, humidity and time. So we bought some and brought them home.

The little black cloves have the texture of a piece of chewy liquorice. They taste of fermented wine, intense sweet garlic, a touch of liquorice and the bizarre thing is although you are eating whole cloves of garlic, your breath doesn't stink. And in our house, this is a critical issue. My husband has a deep-seated loathing of garlic. His hatred of the stinking-rose extends to cooking smells and particuarly garlicky-breathe. This is a shame, because neither Freddie or Alex have inherited the garlic-hating gene. In fact, when Freddie was a toddler we called him dough-boy in honour of his ability to polish off a plate of Pizza Express garlic dough-balls in record time.

So as you can imagine, the prospect of being able to introduce garlic into family-mealtime without causing a rift is very welcome. I baked some Mushroom and Black Garlic Tartlets. (Or if you like Freddie's alternative name, Tarte au Slug). Freddie has learnt to enjoy mushrooms largely because of his friend Bertie's Superb Mushroom Pasta Sauce. (Click HERE to find the recipe - I assure you it can turn round the most ardent mushroom-haters.) Now 'He Who Hates Garlic' has decided that Black Garlic is acceptable. If any of you know any more about black garlic please let me know. I have a pot in the fridge and I need more recipes.

Mushroom and Black Garlic Tartlets

350g of sliced mushrooms

1 tbsp of olive oil

5 shallot onions peeled and very finely chopped

2 tbsp of finely chopped black garlic

375g of shortcrust pastry ready rolled

3 eggs, beaten

1 egg yolk, beaten

150 ml of milk

Some Parmegiano Cheese to grate over the tartlets

1. Lightly saute mushrooms and shallots in oil for 5 minutes until softened.

2. Season and add the chopped black garlic - saute for a further 3 minutes

3. Beat the eggs in a bowl with the milk and season with salt and pepper

4. Cut out the ready rolled pastry into circles big enough to line the mini-tartlet cases. ( Make sure they are lightly oiled before so the tarts don't stick)

5. Line the pastry cases equally and evenly with the mushroom, black garlic and shallot onions.

6. Pour over the egg and milk mixture.

7. Shave some parmegiano cheese over the top of each tartlet

8. Bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 mins at 200C

Serve hot or cold

Breathe liberally on friends and neighbours afterwards without fear of knocking them out with garlic breathe.

Butternut Squash Cannelloni

2009-11-05T15:20:00.002+01:00

I think the roadworks a few yards from me are beginning to influence my subconscious. In the next street they are laying gigantic striped-plastic tubes underground. They are big enough for a large man to climb through. At night the place becomes one huge theme park for the millions of London rats who raid our bins. They can now combine an evening's top-class scavenging with a tubular ride. I find myself watching the workmen for long periods of time, mesmerised as they thread these enormous tubes through a hole in the ground. Then I walked to the supermarket.. Wheeling my trolley past the pasta shelves I was drawn towards the cannelloni.

And this is the end result - Butternut Squash and Puy Lentil Cannelloni. If there are any leftovers, and I suspect there won't be, I will deprive the rats and take it over to the workmen in celebration of their tubular engineering.

Butternut Squash Cannelloni

2 medium onions very finely chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp smoked paprika
half a teaspoon of cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of mixed herbs
500 gr butternut squash, peeled and cut into half inch cubes
250ml vegetable stock or bouillon
100g of rinsed puy lentils
200g tomato puree double concentrate
400g tinned chopped tomatoes

For the cheese sauce;
25g plain flour sifted
25g butter
575ml milk
100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
20g of parmegiano cheese, finely grated
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the oil, and soften the finely chopped onion and crushed garlic for 5 minutes with the smoked paprika, cinnamon and mixed herbs , stirring all the time.
2. Add the small-cubed butternut squash and stir occasionally for 8 minutes on a medium heat, making sure it doesn't stick. they should soften and be well coated with the onion spice mixture.

3. Add the vegetable stock and lentils and bring to the boil. Then turn down the heat and allow to simmer on a low heat with the lid on for 15 minutes.

4. Stir in the tomato paste and tinned chopped tomatoes over a medium heat for a further four minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Stuff the cannelloni tunbes with the butternut squash mixture - using a teaspoon to make sure they are properly filled.Lay them out cheek by jowl in a rectangular oven dish. Pour over the leftover butternut squash mixture evenly.

To make the cheese sauce;
1.Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat
2. Stir in the flour and keep stirring until it forms a smooth paste.
3. Add the milk and whisk constantly till the sauce thickens.
4. Allow the sauce to boil for a minute, stirring constantly

5. Add the grated cheddar cheese and stir in on a low heat until it is smooth and melted. If you have any lumps you can always push the sauce through a sieve.

6. Pour the cheese sauce evenly over the butternut squash canneloni, sprinkle over the finely grated parmeggiano cheese and finely chopped basil leaves.

Cook in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes at 180C.

I had a lovely email from another blogger - Jennifer Johnson in the USA who works with student nurses. I was intrigued by her top tips for making a drive-thru meal more healthy - and because i am a great believer in changing eating habits by altering the everyday things we do - here they are. If any of you have anything you want to share with me - please do let me know!

Locusts and butternut squash soup...all in a day.

2009-09-26T17:51:00.005+01:00

The Great Big Veg Challenge has been asleep online for a few months...as I recovered from a back injury. I have returned ashamed to find weeds in the garden in the form of Bloog Spam. Freddie and I have weeded the garden, turned over the soil and are back to share our vegetable-eating adventures with all of you who are kind enough to visit and read. Thank you!

To celebrate and get back into the right frame of mind to be adventurous we went to the new Darwin centre in the Natural History Museum. If you are ever in London, this is the most amazing place, recently opened by Prince William to house many millions of natural history specimens.

(Picture from Natural History Museum site)
They have opened the Attenborough Studio, a space-age space where you can sit and listen to scientists share their enthusiasm. The events are all broadcast live online so at 1230 today if you had logged on to the museum site you might have caught sight of me biting into a (dead) locusts, egged on by Freddie. This was the Edible Insects lecture with scientist and insect - eating enthusiast Stuart Hine. "Is this as bad as eating celeriac?"he whispered as I sat back down. Well, Stuart had kindly placed the fried locust into a rocket and marie rose sauce sandwich which made the prized locust seem more like a crunchy prawn. We have just got home and are preparing to eat a more conventional meal and share the recipe with you all. And its a soup that Freddie and Alex love. No locusts required. Oh - and because we need to get back to old habits - this soup gets a 10 out of 10 from the former Veggie-phobe.

Smoky Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

Half a butternut squash ( around 700g)
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 medium peeled potato
olive oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
5 carrots diced
1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock
3 tbsp of creme fraiche to serve
1 tsp of smoked paprika
salt and ground pepper to season

preheat oven to 180 c (350F)
Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds
Rub a little olive oil on the flesh and place the squash flesh-down on a baking tray with a little rosemary underneath. This adds the most delicious flavour to the squash. Bake for 40 mins in the oven. when ready, scoop out all the baked flesh. Put aside the rosemary.

Saute onion, garlic,diced potato, diced carrot in a pan with a little olive oil and the paprika. When the onions are softened and translucent. (takes about 4 mins)

When they are soft and ready - add the butternut squash flesh, the stock and
bring to the boil, stirring all the time. When it reaches boiling point, turn the heat right down and simmer gently for 20 mins.

Remove from the hob, stir in the creme fraiche and blend the soup in a processor or with a hand blender....

(No locusts required)

So what's weirdest food you have ever eaten?

Until we have learned to taste....

2009-05-16T10:55:00.001+01:00

"Until we have learned to explore, our tastes are so limited, our experience is so narrow, that we can make no valid comparisons, can found no true judgements. So it is with food. We must learn to eat first." (The Robert Carrier Cookbook)

Forgive me for being such an unreliable blogger over the past month. I have been recovering from a back problem. Due to the combined magic of painkillers and an osteopath I am slowly getting better and returning to normal life. And back to blogging!

I haven't ventured outside much but I couldn't resist the invitation to be a judge for the Great Taste Awards at the Real Food Festival in London. Having spent 18 months of our lives tasting an entire alphabet of vegetables, Freddie and I have learnt to explore tastes. But until you have had to taste 10 different flavoured sausages, 9 boozy ice creams, 8 sloe gins, 7 chocolates with chilli, 6 gluten-free cakes, 5 fruit jams, 4 savoury biscuits, 3 hot puddings, 2 fine butters and 1 noble anchovy you haven't really earned the title of taster. On my table was a wondeful lady from Devon, a farmers wife and an experienced Womens Institute judge known as Ruth Maile. She taught me how to scrape back the butter and see whether it is well blended, to think about the balance of flavours in a spoonful of jam, and to consider the crispness of a savoury biscuit. I left feeling as if I had been through the equivalent of an aerobics exercise for the palate. On the final day of judging I took Freddie with me and we were invited to sit on the Supreme Table.

This table receives all the recommendations from the other judging tables for the coveted gold awards. You don't know what products you will be sampling. So he was a little nervous. Until the plates of chocolate started to arrive, lining up on our table, waiting for a second opinion. He turned to me and said,"This is my idea of a brilliant job - can I be a chocolate taster?" And on our table was just that - an experienced chocoatier Marc Demarquette who encouraged this fledgling chocolatier to put aside his pocket money chocolate palate and learn to identify the taste of a really good quality cocoa bean.

Learning to explore food, learning to taste, Richard Carrier was right. Until we have done that we can't make valid judgements. Children should be given classes in tasting and exploring food. Any of you have any inspiring ideas for encouraging children to widen their taste horizons?

Great Big Lunch Out Challenge no 2 - Welcome to Little Chef.

2009-04-12T18:42:00.005+01:00

This is the second of our Great Big Lunch Out Challenges. The aim is to praise the best attempts by restaurants and cafes to feed children good value, good quality food. This time it's more of a Great Big Breakfast Out Challenge but it is the holiday season, a time when many of us spend hours on the motorway and sometimes it is hard to avoid motorway service stations. It was 9.30 am on the A38 outside Exeter in Devon when the portly figure of Mr Little Chef beckoned. I should have known that he was not to be trusted. If you look carefully, his chef whites look decidedly grubby. But I wanted to give Mr Little Chef a chance - especially after reading that Heston Blumenthall has been advising the owners on how to turn round the restaurant chain's fortunes. I have no idea on whether the chain is being refitted, whether it is about to alter its menu, but all I know is that none of the hype appears to have reached the A38 outside Exeter. We sat down at one of only two tables with diners. After 20 minutes a waitress decides to ask if we would like to order. We were more than ready. The children ordered the Early Starter Breakfast for £5.99. I plumped for the lighter touch - the healthy choice breakfast which offered me fruit compote, low fat yoghurt and crunchy cereal on top for £4.95. Another 15 minutes passed and the breakfast arrived in a curious order. First of all one glass of water arrived, then another, and then a cup of tea was plonked in front of my husband Chris. The tea bag floated appealingly on top. There was no saucer on which to place it. I suppose any sense of ceremony must have been extra. He asked for a plate on which to place the tea-bag and the waitress looked a little offended. Then the breakfasts arrived. A plastic pat of butter for the toast

sat on top of the fried egg - another strange touch.

Ok, so its clear by now that Heston hasn't stepped into this branch of Little Chef. (If any of you have visited one that is different please review it and let us know). I was still waiting for my healthy offering. Then the waitress came over empty handed. "I'm afraid we have run out of yoghurt,"she apologised. The thing is when you have waited so long for something so simple and everyone else is already eating their breakfast, you run out of sympathy. I must have looked disappointed because the waitress tensed up and grimaced at me. "Well since we have run out of yoghurt, we can offer you more toast instead."

"More toast? But the whole point of the dish is that it is fruit compote and yoghurt. Toast doesn't really work as a replacement. And how can you run out of something so simple as yoghurt? Why don't you just go to the local supermarket and buy some?"

"Well..." hesitated the waitress. "Well we ran out last night and we haven't had any more in yet. Would you like the extra toast instead?"

I declined. I know it's not the fault of the waitress and I wasn't rude but really, how hard can it be to make sure you have some yoghurt in the fridge? And if you run out, why not use some initiative and buy some more? And if that is too hard and you spot this yoghurt deficit the night before, why are you still taking an order for fruit compote and yoghurt? By now the children have finished their breakfasts which are unimaginative, and we leave. Their score for taste - 5 out of 10. Our score for value - 2. And Heston, if you are really involved in helping out the fat guy in grubby chef whites, please rush down to Exeter. Unless Little Chef is prepared to pay for us to try out their food at a refurbished branch, then we won't be going back. It was appalling.

Now I know that there is better out there for families - let us know about it. Wherever you are in the world, take photos, write a review, score it for value and taste and email us here. Because families deserve better!

Read our first review here

Sweet Potato and Sausage Casserole

2009-03-30T21:28:00.001+01:00

Pavlov's dogs drooled when he blew a whistle, trained to associate the whistling with mealtime. Within just four days, my children are showing that they too have conditioned reflexes. When our visiting Vitasteam machine pings at the end of the cooking cycle, they rush through to the kitchen. I think I may record the ping for future use, long after the Miele machine is returned to their head quarters.

We were following their recipe booklet but I now feel confident to go off piste. I made an organic sausage and sweet potato casserole which Freddie scored 9 out of 10. I've got into a rhythm now. Using the steamer speeds up the process of making a casserole, but you still have to start the process on the hob. Then you put it all in the steamer , stir in a little cornflour and cook for 3o minutes. And Ping, the kids run through.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Casserole
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 large potatoes peeled and cut into chunks

2 medium onions peeled and finely sliced

500 ml good quality stock (vegetable or chicken stock works well)

2 large tablespoons of concentrated tomato paste

1teaspoon of Za'atar (sesame, sea salt,somac,thyme,oregano,marjoram)

half a teaspoon of harissa paste

1 tablespoon of olive oil

salt and pepper to season

In a large pan on a medium hob heat the olive oil with the onions and softened for 6 minutes, add the sausages and brown them gently. Add the cubed sweet potato and potato with the stock, spices and tomato paste and harissa paste. Stir well and bring to the boil. Take out a little of the stock and in a cup mix a tablespoon of cornflour with the stock and then re-add to the casserole, stirring in to thicken the sauce. Place in a oven proof casserole in an oven at 170 C for an hour, stirring every now and again.

If you are using a Miele steam oven then at the point after you have added the cornflour, out the casserole into a lidded steam container and cook in the vitasteam for 35 minutes at 100.

Serve with flat bread.

Steamed eggs for breakfast!

2009-03-28T10:07:00.000+01:00

I blame binge-drinking. Not me, I hasten to add, but other people. Because at around five o'clock this morning a drunk couple zig-zagged up my street laughing hysterically and I woke up. I couldn't get back to sleep. So I read the Vitasteam manual and found out that I could steam eggs. I also read the bit about using heat-proof containers. You should never act on thoughts that come to you at five in the morning. Three hours later and I have refilled the water container, put two eggs in two Alessi egg-cups and set it to 3 minutes for soft-boiled. Easy. The roary-steamy bit happened, the odd puff of steam shot out and the machine beeped to say,'ready'. The children are excited, looking on as I open the door. A sorry site greets me. The cheery faces of my egg cups have altered, as if they have suffered some kind of stroke, one side of their face appears to have slipped slightly. They have dropped their precious cargo of eggs, unbroken and lie prone on the tray base. The asparagus spears are perfectly steamed.
The children are crestfallen but hungry so once I transfer their steamed eggs to a new cup they are happy again.

We've had to bin the egg cups as they can no longer hold an egg, but that's my fault. I thought they were heat proof, having sterilised similar containers before. "This is the perfect egg," says Freddie to console me. "Really, really soft and delicious." He dips the asparagus into the egg, one of the first vegetables that he learnt to love with the Great Big Veg Challenge. And day two of my steam-cooking crash course I put it all down to experience.

How to turn your kitchen into a sauna

2009-03-27T20:51:00.000+01:00

As I write there is an unfamiliar sound in my kitchen; a bubbling, perculating noise coming from a black and chrome box on the kitchen counter. This is my introduction to the world of steam-cooking. One of the fun side-effects of writing 'The Great Big Veg Challenge' blog is that I am occasionally invited to try out food products, bakeware and for the first time I have been leant a state of the art steam oven by Miele to try out. For a few weeks the 'Vitasteam'
email sat in my junk mail file alongside the offers from Mr Adjela in Lagos to share in his 'wondrous good fortune, Lord bless you' and guarantees that I had yet again won the Spanish Euro Lottery. Matt from Miele persisted and I am pleased he did. Not being hugely in touch with the world of cooking appliances, I don't know much about steam-cooking other than my steel steamer. This machine is like something out of Star Wars. It is the R2D2 of steam-cooking.

Once Freddie has popped all the bubble wrap, my husband commented on where exactly we would have the space for this monster steamer and Alex asked for supper. That was easily answered. I've been sent a recipe booklet. "Tonight, we will be having Spring lamb Casserole". Alex helped me to prep all the ingredients, I filled the machine's water container and looked at the recipe and panicked. I need to find a steam container with a lid. I had visions of blowing up the fancy machine and having to email Miele Matt with my tail between my legs. I find a heat proof dish with a lid and stick the ingredients in, turn on the machine and after a quiet ten minutes, the machine beeps at me and a code number flashes up. I look through the manual searching for code numbers. I'm under pressure. The family is hungry, the casserole is uncooked and I have a pathological hatred of manuals. The code number informs me that I have not properly installed the water container. I open the oven door, jiggle around with the water container and close it again. The casserole starts cooking. Every now and again the perculating oven sounds angry. I get anxious. The roary-bubbly sound calms down and the machine becomes eerily quiet. That is more unsettling. Should steam be so quiet? I am expecting more of a Flying Scotsman presence, the occasional train whistle, maybe even a Brief Encounter moment as I view my husband through billowing steam. But steam-cooking is far less dramatic. It just bubbles away until a beep informs me that dinner is ready. It worked. I open the door of the bubbling machine and a puff of steam hits me. (Note to self, do not stand directly in front of the door next time - the manual HAD warned me). The casserole is perfectly cooked. Freddie eats everything, even the carrots and the runner beans. For the next week or so my kitchen will become more of a sauna than a kitchen.

Roast Trout, Sweet Potato and Broccoli Chowder

2009-03-19T16:00:00.001+01:00

I have been working on creating delicious soups which won't result in my children being hungry an hour later. Chowders are the way forward...
Have also worked out that it is a good idea to test-drive meals at home, so that the first time Freddie comes across a new dish isn't in the school canteen. Because there is nothing worse than opening your lunch box, staring inside and thinking, "This sucks."
So try this out... Freddie and Alex gave this recipe 8 out of 10.

Trout, Purple Sprouted Broccoli and Sweet Potato Chowder

Makes 4 servings (generous)
2 trout fillet portions (or try salmon fillets if you prefer)
1.2 litres of vegetable stock
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
200gr of purple sprouted broccoli (or ordinary broccoli florets)
1 small tub of creme-fraiche
1 tablespoon of olive oil
A few strands of saffron if you have some - but its not essential

In the oven at 180C for 20 minutes roast the fish fillets, covered with foil. Remove the skin. On the hob in a large pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and on a medium heat saute the cubed potato and sweet potato for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time until they are softened. Add the stock. Bring to boil and then simmer gently with lid on for 10 minutes. Add the broccoli, which should have the larger stalks removed - just include the delicate florets. Simmer for another 6 minutes until the florets are softened. Season with salt and pepper and if you have some, a few strands of saffron to add a lovely yellow colour. Stir in the creme-fraiche and then serve with hot bread.
To serve in a food flask, allow to cool and then bag into portion sizes and freeze. Defrost thoroughly the night before you need it - and heat up thoroughly ready for the food flask.

Great Big Lunch Out Challenge - Number One

2009-03-17T11:03:00.001+01:00

What is it about caterers and their idea of a children's lunch? They toss a cheap selection of dull snacks in a cardboard box, decorate it with a cartoon character, add an underripe banana to tick the 'healthy box' and charge a hapeless parent as much as £4.99. This box of delights is on sale at the vast majority of visitor attractions across Britain, in service stations, museums, castles, galleries and theme parks. So what do you do if you haven't the time to put together a picnic and you want to buy lunch for your family without spending a fortune? Well this is where the Great Big Lunch Out Challenge is going to help out. But I need your help. If you find a place where they are rising to the challenge of offering a nutritious lunch at a fair price for children without resorting to chicken nuggets and chips or the depressing cardboard box lunch, then let me know. Send me a photo, review it, rate it out of 10, tell me the worst that you find and the best.....And please, this isn't just about British sites, wherever you live in the world, tell us about what is on offer for your children. My email is in the profile section of the blog. Or leave a comment below.

This is my first offering. And because I know there are good caterers out there who do want to offer something better for children, let's start on a positive note. This Saturday we went to visit the farmers' market in Bute Street, South Kensington and the nearby museums. Sitting opposite the Natural History Museum and Science Museum is the Victoria and Albert Museum. And inside the V&A is a restaurant that has made the revolutionary decision to allow children to eat the same food as adults. There is no two-tier system here...and although part of me wants to keep this secret to myself, there is a bargain meal offer for children. For £4.95 they can have a generous children's portion of the freshly cooked adult meals with whatever organic juice drink they want and a piece of fruit. And the rooms in which you sit down to eat are beautiful; the Morris, Gamble and Poynter Rooms. The woman behind the counter told me these three rooms were the first museum restaurant in the world. And as if that isn't enough for £4.95, there is a pianist playing jazz in the background, a student from the nearby Royal College of Music.
V & A Cafe Opening times
Open everyday from 10.00-17.15 and from 10.00-21.30 on Fridays.
Freddie and Alex's score - 9/10.
My score for value - 10/10.
Remember that you don't have to pay to visit any of these museums.Right, its over to you - calling all parents or grandparents and carers to join the Great Big Lunch Out Challenge!

2009-03-09T08:26:00.001+01:00

I am sorry it has been over a month since I last posted but we have been distracted. One of the children has been in and out of hospital but they are completely better now. And to ease everyone back into their school lunches things have had to have extra-appeal. Or as it is called in our house, Friday appeal. Because on a Friday at school they serve forbidden foods like chips, burgers and chocolate brownies. So this is our Friday special - Courgette or Zucchini Turkey Burgers.
Zucchini Turkey Burgers
Makes around 18 burgers
250g zucchini or courgette finely grated
500g turkey mince
half teaspoon of turmeric
half a teaspoon of ground paprika
1 clove of garlic crushed
cooking spray oil
18 mini burger buns or mini panini

In a bowl mix together the courgette, turkey mince and turmeric paprika and garlic.
Shape the mixture into small balls that fit int he palm of your hand
Flatten them slightly to make a burger.
Lightly spray a griddle pan with a little oil and heat to med high. Place the burgers in the pan. Cook them for at least 3 minutes eachside, turning them over carefuly with a fish slice. When the meat is cooked through serve in a mini burger bun.

You can also use grilled red peppers and mozzarella slices to give the burgers extra colour. These are just as delicious cool in a lunch box as hot in a meal at home.

The Great Big Veg Challenge book

Slow is the new fast - Slow Cooked Green Beans

2009-01-22T08:59:00.004+01:00

Ed writes The Slow Cook blog. He lives in Washington DC and often writes about the food appreciation classes offered to encourage school children to eat healthily and to connect with the food they eat. He also introduced Freddie and Alex to the delights of slow-cooked green beans. For this alone we are eternally grateful. These have now featured as a perfect lunch for our food flasks....And are proof that when it comes to food, Slow is the new Fast.
Slow Cooked Green Beans

450g green beans, topped.
1 medium onion finely chopped
400g can of chopped tomatoes.
A twist of freshly ground black pepper.
2 tablespoons olive oil
Half a teaspoon of smoked paprika
2-3 slices of thick-cut bacon, cut into small chunks or use gammon steak

Use a flameproof casserole dish or pan with a tight fitting lid. On the hob, cook the onion in the oil on a medium heat until it is translucent and soft. Add the paprika,tomatoes and green beans which have had their stalks cut off. Add the bacon pieces. Mix together and simmer on a low heat for at least three hours. You may have to add a very small amount of water every now and again if it needs. The beans will break down and become far less fibrous.

We are looking for inspiration on hot puddings. These have got to work when decanted into a little insulated food flask...rice puddins, semolina - that kind of thing.

Where's the pudding?

2009-01-13T12:21:00.001+01:00

On the wall of our kitchen is an 1950's school sign. Two purposeful children, one with perfect pigtails - both with a confident swagger - are striding off to school. Fast forward to 2009 and the picture in our household is rather different on a school day. Hair is unkempt, eyes bleary and invariably there is a row going on; arguments over lost sports kit, incomplete homework, empty cereal boxes, shoes without laces. In fact when we leave the house in the morning at the unearthly time of 7.30 to walk to school, we stumble out onto the pavement. The only creature with anything approaching a confident swagger is the cat. Every morning he attempts to escape through the front door on a kamakazi mission to run across the road where he will meet certain death. Every morning so far, we have stopped him.
So the hot school lunch in a flask mission has required some 1950's style discipline. I feel the spirit of Elizabeth Craig and Etheline Fearon running through me as I look into my freezer. I have become the queen of batch cooking and last week's lunches included a one-pot Winter Casserole (11 out of 10 from Freddie),Leek and Potato Soup, Leek and Macaroni Cheese, Tomato and Lentil soup and Hot Dogs. We are doing well, but there was one major complaint.
"What is for pudding?" You see, Freddie's school has a superb line in hot puddings. I still have the school menu emailed to me so I know why he is a little disappointed by my efforts. This week they are serving Pear and Ginger oaties, rice pudding with forest fruits, Toffee Flapjack, Bread Pudding, Sweet potato pudding, Chocolate Orange Peel Muffins, Pineapple and Coconut Sponge and Assorted Jellies.
So I made these muffins, half of which were inhaled hot from the oven by my children last night - the others made it into the lunchbox, alongside the hot Leek and Potato Soup.
Here are Buttermilk, Beetroot and Apple Muffins. Scored 9 out of 10.
Makes six large muffins or 12 smaller ones 1 egg, beaten
150ml buttermilk
50g butter, melted
1 eating apple, peeled, cored and finely diced
2 small beetroot, cooked and finely diced
50g Demerara sugar
1 tablespoon of maple syrup (or runny honey)
150g plain flour
1 and a half tsp of baking powder
For the topping
1 tablespoon of porridge oats
1 tablespoon of Demerara sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180C. If you are using a deep muffin tray, cut out six squares of baking parchment 15 cms by 15 cms. Line each muffin tin with a square of paper. You can use paper cases if you prefer. Melt the butter, allow to cool slightly and in a bowl stir in the sugar, beaten egg and buttermilk. Mix well. Add the finely diced cooked beetroot and diced apple and spoon of maple syrup. Sieve the flour and baking powder and roughly stir in so the flour is distributed but don’t over mix. Spoon the mixture evenly into each lined muffin tin. Mix together the ingredients for the topping and sprinkle evenly over the top of each muffin.
Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

2008-12-30T10:07:00.004+01:00

After nearly two years of consuming the alphabet of vegetables the Great Big Veg Challenge is entering a new phase. We're going mobile. From next week, when the new school term starts, we are going to be making our own lunches to take in. And Freddie has dusted off his scoring cards and will be marking each meal out of 10. The challenge is to make cheap, hot meals,using seasonal vegetables. I've cleared two shelves in the freezer and bought two new food flasks which look like steel time capsules. And on the Naming and Shaming fridge I've stuck a reminder - a copy of last year's school lunch bill which came to around £1200.00 for both children. For the last few months, Alex has been leading the way. Her brother finally decided to join in when we perfected hot dogs with home-made wholemeal rolls and chicken and sweetcorn soup. We've found a site, Think Vegetables, which tells you what's in season each month. For December, ideas include Desiree, Wilja and Maris Piper potatoes, cauliflower, kale, savoy cabbage, mustard cress, baby leeks and something called 'Teen Spinach'. I imagine teen spinach can be tricky to deal with, refusing to get out of bed, arguing with you when you try and cook it, looking sullen when you pick it up with a fork. "Talk to the stalk, cause the leaf ain't listening."

Anyhow I've started tasting sessions with Freddie. First off was a very simple macaroni cheese dish. You can see his score....

Macaroni Cheese with Leek and Ham

Makes around 6 portions for a 50l food flask

1 medium leek, very finely sliced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 clove of garlic, crushed

150g of reduced fat cheddar cheese

350g macaroni pasta

100g thickly sliced ham, diced

450ml of skimmed milk

50g reduced fat spread or butter

50g flour

1 tablespoon of dijon mustard

100 ml of vegetable stock

For the topping

40g grated cheddar or parmegiano

40g stale breadcrumbs

1 tsp smoked paprika

1. Saute finely sliced leeks with the crushed garlic in the olive oil for about 8-10 minutes on a low heat until the leeks are softened.

2. Cook the macaroni pasta according to packet instructions

3. Melt the butter or reduced fat spread on a low heat. Stir in the flour and make a smooth paste. Little by little add the milk and vegetable stock until you have a thickening sauce. Season with salt and pepper and add the dijon mustard. Stir in the grated cheese until it is fully melted and absorbed into the sauce. Turn off the heat. Stir in the chopped ham and sauteed leeks. Pour into an oven-proof dish. Mix together the topping of breadcrumbs, cheese and smoked paprika and sprinkle evenly over the macaroni cheese. Put in a preheated oven (180C) for about 25 minutes. (This makes around 6 portion sizes for the 0.5l food flask.)

If you have any favourite meals, that would work in a flask, using anything that is in season, let us know and we will try them out.

The Great Big Veg Challenge school lunches - Edamame Bean and Potato Frittata

2008-12-03T17:39:00.002+01:00

I thought I had seen it all early this year with the four year old ordered by his Gucci-clad Mama to take part in a diary synchronisation meeting whilst in the sandpit of Holland Park. But on the weekend I visited the new mammoth Westfield Shopping Centre where I saw two mothers, who looked as if they were cacooned in cashmere, eating lunch with their two 18 month old babies. Each baby had their own portable DVD player enabling their mothers to discuss the effects of the credit crunch on their Jimmy Choo buying habits uninterrupted by tiresome infant noises. And the two babies sat mouths open, eyes staring blankly at their DVD entertainment which was propped up on the table in front of them. What hope is there for humanity I thought, if two Mums can't even be bothered to speak to their children during lunch. Desperate.
Anyway, I digress. This is my latest cheap school lunch creation, which scored a healthy 9 out of 10 from Alexandra and an 8 from Freddie. Each tortilla which I baked in a silicone large muffin tray costs about 25p to make. Now I am thinking I might branch out and make new combinations - any ideas? The trick is to include potato because they hold their shape better. Otherwise they flop like a souffle.

Edamame Bean and Potato Frittata.
6 large eggs
a small knob of butter
Freshly grated parmesan or parmeggiano
200g of potatoes, boiled and diced
200g of edamame beans
1 large onion
2 tbsp of olive oil

Cook the frozen edamame beans in boilking water for 4 minutes. Drain. Cook and finely dice the potatoes and then drain. Cook the finely diced onion in the olive oil on a medium heat until translucent and soft. Beat the eggs in a bowl with some asalt and pepper. Allowing the vegetables to cool down, distribute them equally in each of the muffin holes. (Having lightly oiled the muffin baking tray)Make sure they all have a decent amount of beans, potato and onion. Pour over the egg equally divided between each muffin hole. Srpinkle some parmesan on the top and then place in the oven at 180 for about 2o-25 minutes. They will rise and are ready when they are lightly golden brown. Eat hot or cold. Deliicious and cheap!

2008-11-26T10:58:00.004+01:00

If there was an Elizabeth Craig cult, I would be tempted to join. The other morning a parcel arrived, a book bought through eBay. 'Cooking in Wartime' was written in the 1940's. When I read the back cover I felt myself sit up straight and reach for a sensible pinny. "Are you worried?" it asked me. "Because the butter ration won't go far? Because your family will eat meat? Because the children need puddings and cakes, but the eggs make them so dear? Because you won't have enough sugar to make jam? Because you've got a dog to feed? Because fuel costs you more? LET THIS BOOK HELP YOU - It can take that load off your mind!" Ms Craig could be writing in 2008 and not 1941. She wants me to make satisfying tasty dishes from cheap rationed cuts. And who am I to say no? Ox cheek is being marketed in some supermarkets as a 'forgotten cut' which is an odd phrase a bit like 'heritage' vegetables. I went to the butchers to buy some. The butcher appeared to have come directly from central casting. He looked like an Enid Blyton butcher; round, red cheeked and wearing a striped navy and white apron. And when I asked for my ox cheek, small dimples popped out from his plump cheeks and he cooed at me approvingly."You won't be disappointed with this. All my older ladies love ox cheek." I left wondering whether I had now joined the ranks of the older ladies with their sensible shoes and quilted jackets, smelling of talcum powder. I shuffled home to make my ox cheek casserole. The butcher was right. Noone was disappointed. Freddie took a mouthful, smiled and asked, "Exactly which cheek on an ox is this from?" Then he gave the dish 10 out of 10. And Alex asked for the leftover portion to be out aside for her next school lunch. And I thought that Elizabeth would have approved of us. Alex walked off to school the following morning swinging her lunch box with its hot ox cheek casserole in a thermos flask. I leave you with her stirring words, "Never allow it to be said that we British women, whose job it was to cook in the war, failed at our post. Armed with wooden spoon, basin, and saucepan we'll keep the pots boiling whatever happens."

Ox Cheek Casserole

4 large carrots, scrapped and chopped

1 sweet potato, scrapped and diced

1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 tablespoons of olive oil
500g ox cheek, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tin butter beans
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 pint of vegetable bouillon or beef stock
half a teaspoon of dried oregano, thyme, rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of cornflour
Salt and pepper to season
Trim and dice ox cheek. Prepare all the vegetables. Heat the oil and saute the onions, garlic and leeks for about 4 minutes. Add the ox cheek and brown for about 3 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and saute for another 2 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, herbs,bay leaf, salt and pepper and bring the casserole until it just starts to boil and then turn heat down to simmer with the lid on. Place in the oven at 170C for around an hour. Check every now and again to make sure the casserole isn't becoming too dry. Add a little more stock if it is. After an hour, mix the cornflour with a few spoons of stock ( you can take this from the casserole itself) until it is smooth and add back to the casserole, stirring in to thicken it. Cook for another 30 minutes.

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

2008-11-03T15:35:00.005+01:00

Last year our Halloween celebrations turned into a (admittedly minor) tragedy when our pumpkin was stolen and later smashed by the notorious West London Five-a-Day gang. This year we left nothing to chance and our carved pumpkin was an entirely private affair, sitting plump on our kitchen table. This had its drawbacks. There wasn't really enough space for the four of us to sit and eat but at least we knew Pumpernickel jnr was safe.

We lured him into a false sense of security before striking. I scraped out his innards and roasted them with a little olive oil and then turned them into soup and then pumpkin pie. Despite this vicious attack he still sat with a fixed grin on our table as we enjoyed our roasted pumpkin and apple soup. A spare portion has been frozen to make the next credit crunch lunch soup and will be taken into school in a new flask. (Cost approximately 20p per serving)

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

500g roasted pumpkin flesh

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 medium onions finely chopped

2 tablespoons of rape seed oil (or olive oil)

2 medium cooking apples, peeled cored and diced

1 roasted garlic bulb ( roast at same time as pumpkin flesh)

1 and a quarter pints (750 ml) of chicken or vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to season

Roast the pumpkin flesh by scraping out the flesh in large chunks and laying it in a baking tray, season with salt and pepper and mix round with a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Roast in the oven at 180 for about 35 to 40 minutes. Wrap whole garlic bulb in foil with a little oil drizzled on top and roast at the same time.

In a small frying pan, gently saute the chopped onions and apple together until both are soft.

Puree roast pumpkin, add squeezed out roast garlic. Add onion and apple and stock and puree with a hand held blender or in a food processor. Cook in a large pan over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Serve with warm bread and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Butternut Squash Tarts and the Credit Crunch Lunch

2008-10-18T09:09:00.005+01:00

The economic doom and gloom has crept into our kitchen. But it's a good thing. We worked out the school lunch meal bill for Alex and Freddie was about £1200 ($2069) a year. The meals are made from decent ingredients but I still think its a lot of money for a child's lunch. So here is the Great Big Veg Challenge Credit Crunch Lunch. Alex has switched onto packed lunches, Freddie is still unconvinced and every morning inspects his sister's lunchbox, looking wistfully...

"This is SO unfair. She is getting really nice food. You are trying to ma-nip-ul-ise me," complained Freddie.

"No Freddie, it is entirely up to you - if you want to have these lunches you only have to ask."

I know, its a sly trick. And the hardest thing is ensuring that I can maintain the irrestibility of the packed lunches. Our first Credit Crunch Lunch offering for the blog is Butternut Squash and St Agur cheese tarts. (Cost approximately 40 pence a tart)

Butternut Squash and St Agur Tarts

500g (1 1b) ready-made shortcrust pastry

For the filling

Half a medium sized butternut squash, roasted

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to season

3 eggs, beaten

1 egg yolk

150ml (quarter pint) creme fraiche

1 teaspoon of dried sage

125g St Agur cheese

Preheat oven to 180 C (350F). Cut the squash in half lengthways, scoop out seeds and rub a little oilive oil, season with salt and pepper and place flesh side down on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. When cooked, allow it to cool down, peel and cut into small cubes. Place in a bowl with a little olive oil and the dried sage. Mix together the beaten eggs, extra egg yolk and creme fraiche. Add a twist of freshly ground pepper.

Line the bottom of metal tartlet tins ( mine are around 12 cms in diameter) with non-stick baking paper. Lightly grease the sides of the tins. Line with the pastry and prick it . Bake blind for about 6 minutes in an oven at 190C . You can if you prefer make just one large tart in a single flan tin, or this recipe makes about 8 tartlets. Take them out of the oven and share out equally the butternut squash cubes between the pastry cases. Pour over the egg mixture and sprinkle equally between the cases little pieces of the cheese. St Agur tastes good but if you prefer milder tastes, some soft goats cheese. Place them back in the oven and bake for about 20 -25 minutes. The contents of the quiche will rise. Take care that the pastry does not burn.

I batch bake these and freeze them and they can be taken out the night before to be defrosted for use in school lunch boxes. They are just as delicious eaten cold as warm.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE CREDIT CRUNCH LUNCH BOX MEAL?

Help us celebrate by making a vegetable face....

2008-10-07T08:00:00.000+01:00

Last year we asked you all to join us in making vegetable faces.To celebrate reaching the end of the alphabet and the book coming out this week, Freddie and Alex would like to invite you all to send in your 2008 vegetable faces to us. We will send the best one a copy of The Great Big Veg Challenge book! There is a prize for the best entry from an adult and a prize for the best face made by a child.
Go on - you know you want to! Get in touch with your inner child... Send us your faces to our email address which is in the profile. The rules are simple - use vegetables to create a face, photograph it, email it to us with your first name and where in the world you come from...We would love to have faces from people in every continent!

Enjoying a Purple haze at the Abergavenny Food Festival

2008-09-23T14:38:00.003+01:00

Last weekend was another first for us as a family. We were invited to the Abergavenny Food Festival to give a talk. Alex's advice to me the day before was wise. "Mum, just in case there are children in the audience and they get bored with you going on about vegetables, bring along some cakes." So that night we cooked past midnight, baking Beetroot and Chocolate Cakes and Petit Pois Muffins to take with us. And there were lots of children in the audience and the cakes were very useful.

Abergavenny is an ancient market town in South Wales, surrounded by beautiful mountains and countryside and this is a two day festival devoted to celebrating fantastic local produce and expertise about food and cooking. On Saturday night we walked up to the ruined castle for the festival's tenth anniversary party. We sat round fire braziers munching on delicious welsh lamb skewers, staring at the fireworks and the stars and listening to jazz bands, harp music and stand up comedians. I know Abergavenny from my school days, but this was my first visit to a festival which has been voted the greatest event in Wales. If you love good food, cooking in a beautiful setting, you will love the annual festival in Abergavenny.

Where ever I go I seem to collect new vegetables. In one of the hundreds of market stalls there was an organic vegetable growers and I spotted some some purple cauliflower, grown in South Wales. So on Sunday night when we returned home I made a special Purple Cauliflower Festival Soup as a thank you to Abergavenny for inviting us for a great weekend.

Purple Festival Soup

1 large purple cauliflower, thicker stalks cut off

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

2 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons Hillfarm rape seed oil

900 ml ( 1 and a half pints) chicken or vegetable stock

1 teaspoon of dijon mustard (or English mustard!)

3 tablespoons of creme fraiche from Rachel's Dairy in Aberystwyth

a little grated beetroot to decorate

Salt and pepper to season

Heat the oil in the pan and saute the onions, finely chopped garlic for 3 minutes on a medium heat. Add the potaotes and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring them all to stop them burning. Add the vegetable stock and dijon mustard and the purple cauliflower florets. Chop up the stalks and add. As soon as the stock reaches boiling point, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the creme fraiche and puree in a food processor or with a hand blender. Serve with a little finely grated raw beetroot for added purple power.

This is my entry for The British Food Fortnight Blogging Event which is being hosted by Antonia at Food Glorious Food. The aim of this event ( details here) is to celebrate British produce and to raise the profile of much maligned UK cuisine. So I thought our purple cauliflower festival soup would do the trick....Cauliflower, potatoes, onions and beetroot grown in Wales, creme fraiche from Rachel's Dairy in Wales and Scottish garlic. The rape seed oil came from Hill Farm in Suffolk and the only interloper was a spoon of delicious French Dijon mustard. I know - I should have used English mustard but I slipped up!

Tale of an Urban Forager

2008-08-23T08:33:00.002+01:00

Something strange is afoot;quite literally. Due to the temporary closure of my local underground station, my walk home now takes me down some of the poshest streets in London. These are wide tree-lined avenues with huge nineteenth century mansions that are in a perpetual state of renewal. Every day a new skip is parked up against the pavement to receive the contents of someone's last-season kitchen or bathroom. This is the equivalent of plastic surgery for houses. Sometimes I rescue items from the skips. Occasionally the owner, standing proud in her spanking new designer room looks out and sees me and smiles benignly. I shuffle off with a plank of salvaged skirting board under my arm.
The other day there was trouble in Luxury Avenue.
"I cannot believe it. I have rung the council and they are not prepared to do ANYTHING about this. It's completely disgusting. My car is covered in mess. And it makes a mockery of the new paving stones", ranted Burberry lady to a tweed-suited man.
"I blame the pigeons", he said.
I stopped to see what they were complaining about. Burberry Lady and Tweed-suited man were peering at the pavement, which was covered in huge purple splats. The car roofs were also decorated with deep bluish-purple splashes. I followed the splats along the road, where they intensified at the end, reaching a crescendo of colour. I looked up. Above me was an ancient Mulberry tree, crashing through an old wall, leaning over the pavement. Ripe berries were scattered everywhere. I rushed home.
"Alex,I need your help - go and get the step ladder from the cellar."
I went into the kitchen to get plastic containers, baskets and put on an apron.
"Dad, she's lost it again," muttered Alex.
"What are you doing now? You have only just got home",said Chris. Having watched me spend the best part of two years obsess about strange vegetables,he had seen this all before.
"There are tons of mulberries and it's a complete waste. So I'm going to pick them."
I left, with my baskets and ladder. The good thing about living in London is that no one really notices if you are strange. Alex came with me,for the entertainment,if nothing else. We crossed over four lanes of traffic and found the tree which marks the boundary between Luxury Avenue and Scruffy Street. I knocked on the door of the house, ringing all the bell buttons, which were hanging by a wire. A young man opened the door, bending his head round. He appeared to be naked.
"Can I pick your Mulberries please?"
"What?", said Naked man, who I thought was Spanish.
"You have a Mulberry tree round the back and if you aren't using the fruit, would you mind if I did?"
Alex by now is so embarrassed she has crept out of sight.
Naked man is confused. So I mime the action of eating a berry and point to the tree down the street.
"Oh fruit - no problem. You must have fruit, yes."
So we set up our ladder. Curtains twitched as we piled up mulberries in their containers.
"Are you from the council?", said one passer-by.
"No I just like mulberries."
We went home clutching our ladder and full containers with purple-stained hands.

Please excuse our month-long absence from the blog but getting back into the swing of work and school has been all-consuming. We think The Great Big Veg Challenge might go a bit fruity. Freddie's refusal to eat yoghurt with bits makes me think that fruit could be our next big challenge. What do you think?

An Olympic Stir-fry

2008-08-15T20:59:00.003+01:00

Sleep patterns in our house appear to have regressed by at least ten years. We are being woken through the night and have found ourselves in front of the television at five in the morning. I blame two factors.The first is the arrival of an extremely naughty kitten and then there is the Olympics. The time zone difference with China is proving a challenge.
In honour of the first week of the 2008 Olympics Freddie asked for a Chinese meal.
"Let's have an Olympic stirfry," suggested Alex. "Five different vegetables for the five Olympic rings." And we were doing so well. We bought blue aubergine, yellow sweetcorn, green pak choi and red peppers. The whole thing nearly fell flat when we failed to find a black vegetable. We tracked down some dark-looking field mushrooms to save the dish. (Any other ideas for black vegetables?)
This was also an excuse to try out some British produced cold-pressed rapeseed oil which was sent to us to try out by Hillfarm. It is made by the Fairs family on their farm in Suffolk. They told me their favourite vegetable is roasted parsnips, (roasted of course in their very own oil) and their top tip for fussy eaters is to eat as a family and not to put too much on the plate. I agree with the first point but I am afraid that if I followed the second tip there would be official complaints. Half way through the meal, Freddie dropped his chopsticks to complain that there were in fact seven vegetables lurking in his stirfry. But he carried on eating so this was just a temporary glitch. The oil tasted perfect in the stirfry.

Olympic Stirfry
Serves 4-6
400g Pak Choi
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced thinly
200g baby sweetcorn, whole
150g mangetout
2 large field mushrooms, thinly sliced
Half a medium aubergine, cut into one inch cubes
1 large carrot, cut into thin batons
30g freshly grated ginger root
3 tablespoons of rape seed oil
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame seed oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sherry
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
500g Turkey fillet, cut into thin strips
1-2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
Slice the turkey fillet into thin strips. Prepare the Pak Choi by cutting off the leaves and cutting them into wide ribbons. Cut the stalks in half or if they are larger, into quarters. Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying pan on a medium-high heat.
Add the turkey with the grated ginger root and crushed garlic and cubes of aubergine. Stir-fry for 3 minutes. When the turkey is cooked through and golden brown, use a slotted spoon to put it on a plate. Add the rest of the oil to the wok with the aubergines, the Pak Choi stalks and leaves, red pepper,mushrooms, and baby sweetcorn. Stir fry for 3 minutes at a high heat. Put the turkey back into the wok and add the soy sauce and sherry. Stir fry for a minute and sprinkle on top the sesame seeds. Serve with rice or noodles.

Any other ideas for black vegetables? ( And I don't mean rotten ones...)

Talking vegetables on BBC Woman's Hour

2008-08-09T17:14:00.004+01:00

If you would like to listen to Freddie and me (definitely in that order!)speaking on BBC Woman's Hour...just click here.

Deep Fried Courgette Flowers

2008-08-08T11:27:00.000+01:00

We have been on holiday in Cornwall. Well, what passes for a holiday. There is only so much rain one family can withstand. When we went for a walk, Freddie decided to wear a wet suit. We marched up the lane in single file unable to see through the damp wall of sea mist to the person in front. We went on a guided kayaking trip up the River Fowey on a rare sunny day. After two hours on the river, the sky turned black and we found ourselves in the middle of a violent lightning storm. I couldn't see the kayaks in front of us and the suncream that I had optimistically applied to our faces began to run down, stinging our eyes so that we were forced to close our eyes and paddle on blind down the river. An hour later the back-up motor boat found us lost up a creek and towed us home.
So I suppose the few highlights of this year's summer break stand out more sharply. We found rock samphire and marsh samphire which we ate with locally caught mackerel fillets. And the farm where we buy our vegetables gave us courgette flowers which were a first for Freddie and Alex.
I made a light batter with self-raising flour and ice-cold soda water and stuffed the courgette flowers with a little goats cheese and tomato paste, dipped them in the batter which is the consistency of single cream and deep fried them for couple of minutes in some vegetable oil. Alex scored them 9 out of 10 and Freddie gave them a seven. And in a week of relentless damp, eating courgette flowers appears to be a rare highlight.
How do you like to eat your courgette flowers?

We have returned to find more vegetable faces in the inbox and will be announcing a winner in a weeks time. But we need more faces...the more the merrier. And lets face it with the summer we are all having, we all need something to do on a rainy day.

Go on - you know you want to - make a vegetable face!

2008-07-25T07:02:00.000+01:00

To celebrate reaching the end of the alphabet in our Great Big Veg Challenge we would like to invite you all to make a vegetable face. We will send a copy of the book to the best vegetable face by a child and by an adult. Just email it to us - the address is in the profile on the sidebar.
To whet your appetite here are a few of the entries so far. Go on, you know you want to...make a vegetable face!

Escaping the alphabet...part one

2008-07-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

Heading up the motorway for a weekend in Suffolk after a week of giving interviews, we were looking forward to a rest.
"Does that mean we are eating normally now - no alphabet?" asked Alex.
"Yes, I replied. "No alphabet. We will be eating loads of vegetables still but that's it for the alphabet."
"Actually Mum", said Freddie, "This weekend I am not eating ANY vegetables at all. I have talked about them all week and I want a rest." We agreed it could be a vegetable free weekend.
We arrived at our friends' beautiful 15th century home, where they grow soft fruit and have a lovely vegetable garden,which Freddie resolutely avoided. He got his cricket set out and started to play with Chris. A while later the ball fell into a flowerbed. He went to retrieve it,foraging around amongst the stalks of some huge prickly looking flowers. He looked up.
"What are these? They look enormous - like something a dinosaur would eat."
"They are Globe Artichokes," replied our friend Sue.
Freddie looked up at the artichokes who winked back at him.
"Those are the ones we ate with all the butter right at the beginning of the Great Big Veg Challenge," he said.
He went back to the cricket game. But a little while later he came and found us in the kitchen as we were getting the artichokes ready for supper. This was a task that required a strong pair of kitchen scissors and tough skin to withstand the spikes.
"I know I said I didn't want to eat any vegetables this weekend but I would like some of those artichokes, as long as there is loads of butter."
So not only did he eat artichokes with gusto, something even more sinister happened. We found ourselves back at the beginning of the alphabet again. Which is not what I wanted at all. Are there strange vegetable forces at work?

A week out of focus

2008-07-19T08:48:00.001+01:00

The past week has passed by in a blur. It started with a party at our local bookshop where I stood,signed and looked wild-eyed as a pile of books grew smaller and smaller. This was the first time that we had seen the book in any greater quantity than one. Freddie got into the swing of things, perfecting a flourish in his signature. My messages started out carefully chosen and daintily written. Several glasses of wine later and I was scrawling "Eat yer veg!".Hannah Miles from Hannah's Country Kitchen arrived with a huge basket of beautiful vegetable cakes. Then there was the fun of visiting bookshops and stores and finding the book on their shelves. A car picked us up to take us to the BBC to be teleported around the UK in a virtual radio tour from Scotland to Northern Ireland, down to the Solent and up to Northumberland, eight interviews in a day. Whenever there was a gap between interviews we escaped the hessian-clad walls of the BBC studio for an aquarium shop next door; swapping one goldfish bowl for another. Freddie was silent when asked, "So has your mother psychologically manipulated you?" and then quietly muttered into the mike, "I don't think so." whilst mouthing to me, "what does he mean Mum?". He spilt an entire cup of lukewarm cocoa over his trousers during one interview. An hour later and the room smelt of sour milk. "At least its not television", said Freddie, as he stared at this huge brown stain on his trousers.
A reporter from a Sunday paper came to see our kitchen, the scene of a thousand vegetable challenges. We called Freddie in from the street where he was batting a ball against a wall and he politely answered questions about his vegetable adventures, turning to me every two minutes to ask if he could eat a third piece of chocolate cake.
Other highlights of the week include...
Squeezing myself into a tight black lycra tube, following a recommendation by a friend that if I did, it would look as if I had dropped a dress size. In fact I looked like a giant black slug.
And Alexandra helping me at one in the morning to finish cooking four dishes from the book the night before a TV interview.(Following a last minute request from a TV producer, would you be able to bring in some food with you?)

So far we have some wonderful vegetable faces in - but we need more. Australia has yet to send us one which is very disappointing! ( Confused - see two posts down...)

Z is for Zucchini Party - reaching the end of a journey

2008-07-12T08:58:00.002+01:00

“What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
(TS Eliot)

As we have travelled to the very end of the alphabet, vegetables have become much more scarce. We have leapfrogged over U, V and X, and arrived at Z. The full stop for our adventure. We've all been feeling a little mournful about it.
“I loved it like this, trying all these new vegetables. I want it to carry on,”said Alex.
“At least we won’t have to wait until you have photographed each meal before we can eat it,” said Chris, my husband.
“I was thinking it would stop half way through – that you would give up,” said Freddie. “Why don’t we have a party to celebrate reaching the end of the alphabet?”
So a litle while back we did hold a Z for Zucchini party. Zucchini was the only Z vegetable we could find and a bit of a cheat, having already tried it under its English alter ego, the courgette. But we wanted an excuse to make the zucchini muffin recipe sent by Garrett, a fellow blogger in Sacramento. Alex and Freddie chose their favourite vegetable recipes from our year of eating adventurously and invited some friends round. We made Zucchini muffins, Courgette Quesadillas,Zucchini Turkey Burgers, Petit Pois Muffins, Herby Burgers, Artichoke Pizzas, Asparagus Twists, Vegetable Kebabs and the delicious Chocolate & Beetroot Cake.
We decorated the kitchen with vegetables. Artichokes, radishes, corn cobs and aubergines hung from strings around the room, looking like the signal flags on a ship.
At most kids’ parties, parents offer carrot sticks or cherry tomatoes as a nod to healthy eating. They are normally ignored and thrown away. But at this party, the vegetables were the stars. Those with a fear of vegetables were entering enemy territory. There was a table full of food, but would they denounce it as fake party food? There were no cheesy wotsits, no bowls of iced gems or sausages on sticks. A year before and the sight of all these vegetables would have made Freddie swoon. But he reassured his guests and recommended his favourite food. He had become a vegetable ambassador.
They played “Name that Veg”, identifying all the weird and wonderful vegetables hanging from the ceiling. I stood at the oven, flipping over zucchini burgers and taking orders for more quesadillas. The mound of food disappeared, along with my nervousness. Instead of party bags, Freddie handed out vegetables with recipes attached; an invitation to join our adventure.
And fuelled by a final slice of chocolate and beetroot cake, they all ran off to the park and played football until the light started to fade. We traipsed home, slumped down in front of the television and put our feet up.
“What’s for dinner Mum?” asked Freddie.
And that is how The Great Big Vegetable Challenge reached the end. Except it isn’t really an end but a new beginning.

ZUCCHINI TURKEY BURGERS
Makes 18 mini burgers
250g finely grated zucchini (courgette)
500g turkey mince
1 clove garlic, crushed
Half a teaspoon of ground turmeric
Half a teaspoon of ground paprika
Cooking spray oil
18 mini bread rolls or mini Panini
Top and tail the zucchini and finely grate it or process it in a food processor. In a bowl, mix together the finely grated zucchini, turkey mince, turmeric, paprika and crushed garlic. The easiest method is to use your hands to do this. (Remember when touching raw meat to wash your hands thoroughly before and after) Shape the mixture into small balls that fit in the palm of your hand. Flatten them slightly to make a burger. Making them small is perfect for parties. Lightly spray a griddle pan or large flat frying pan with oil. Turn on the hob to medium high and when the griddle is hot, place the burgers in the pan. Cook them for at least 3 minutes each side , turning them over carefully with a fish slice. When the meat is cooked through, serve in a mini burger bun.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Garrett from the Vanilla Garlic blog. http://www.vanillagarlic.blogspot.com/. We love Garrett!

Zucchini and Raisin Muffins
Makes 18-20 muffins
375g plain flour
275g dark muscovado sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
4 eggs
100g butter
200g of finely grated zucchini (otherwise known as courgette)
100g raisins
150 ml of apple juice
Paper muffin cases (these are larger than standard cake cases)

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon. Make a well in the centre. Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly. In another smaller bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, vanilla essence. Add to the flour and stir well until it is evenly combined. Add the apple juice and stir, then stir in the raisins and grated zucchini. Spoon the batter into paper cases in a muffin baking tray. They should be filled about half-full. Place in a preheated oven at 180C for between 20-25 minutes. Half way through cooking time, turn the baking tray around so that they cook more evenly. To test if they are ready, use a wooden cocktail stick. If it comes out clean, the muffins are ready.

Celebrate with us - make a vegetable face!

2008-07-10T10:14:00.003+01:00

We have had such a busy week....with the book coming out today. A little while back we held a party for Freddie and Alex and their friends to mark reaching Z for Zucchini. It has been a very long journey, nearly two years and has been such fun for all of us. To celebrate with all of you out there, Freddie and Alex thought you might like to try making another vegetable face, as we did last year. We will send the best one a copy of The Great Big Veg Challenge book! If you have children or grandchildren or pupils, there is a prize for the best entry from a child but also a prize for the best vegetable face from an adult. So get in touch with your inner child... Send us your faces to our email address which is in the profile. The rules are simple - use vegetables to create a face, photograph it, email it to us with your first name and where in the world you come from...We would love to have faces from people in every continent!

Y is for Beef and Yam Stew

2008-07-07T11:14:00.002+01:00

I met up with my friend Grace. As Freddie kicked a ball about with her son Delassi, she taught me more about yams. Grace grew up on the south coast of Ghana, her family belonging to the Ewe tribe. By the age of 10 she had learnt how to cook by watching and helping her mother and aunty. Grace explained that yams cook far quicker than potatoes. You can mash them, make yam porridge, deep fry them or chop them up and use them in meat and fish stews. Her advice was to add the diced yams later on in the recipe so that they don't overcook. Back home we made our first Beef and Yam stew, using fresh ginger, garlic and ground cloves. The yams do not have a strong flavour and are better if they can soak up the flavours of meat and spices. Freddie and Alex enjoyed their warm beef stew and they liked the crisp texture of the white yams. Freddie scored the stew 8 out of 10.
Beef and Yam Stew
Serves 4:
500g stewing steak, cubed
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 large carrot, finely diced
400g white yam
400g can of tomatoes
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
500g carton of tomato puree or passata
Half a teaspoon of ground clove
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of mild chilli powder
25g fresh ginger root, grated
Salt and Pepper to season

Roughly chop the onion and place in a food processor with the 3 garlic cloves, ground cloves, cinnamon, freshly grated ginger. Blend together. In a large pan, heat up two tablespoons of oil and add the cubed stewing steak, browning the meat for 3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the onion, garlic, cloves, cinnamon and ginger mixture and stir with the meat. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. If the meat is very lean, you may want to add a little more oil into the pan. Add one large carrot, finely chopped with the tomato puree. Turn down the heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes, so the sauce reduces. Stir occasionally. Add the can of tomatoes and stir in. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring every now and again. Peel the yam well and rinse it well under water. Cut into small cubes. Add to the pan and stir. Cook for another 15 minutes. Serve with rice or flat bread.
If you can't buy yams, don't despair - try potatoes, sweet potatoes instead...

Y is for Yams

2008-07-01T06:09:00.002+01:00

There is a stall in our local market that sells exotic fruit and vegetables. On our first visit it was like visiting a zoo and being unable to recognise any of the animals. But now we are old hands. Freddie was circling the stall pointing at each vegetable saying, “I’ve eaten that”, “Tried that”, “Hated that”, “Loved that.”
He enjoys collecting football cards. This market stall has become his own personal vegetable collection.
Freddie stopped at one huge pen of vegetables and called me over. There was tray after tray of huge boulders; a Jurassic park of vegetables. They looked like nests of dinosaur eggs and Freddie was in awe. The price label said yams. On sale were Cocoa yams, white yams from Ghana, yellow yams, gigantic yams labelled Puna yams and Brazil soft yams, oozing sticky white milk.
We wondered if they might hatch if we took them home.
Yams are grown in tropical countries with different species cultivated in each area. I dithered over what to buy, my confidence waning. Freddie picked up one of the biggest boulders with skin like tree bark.
I edged up to a woman in the local fruit and vegetable market, leaning against a huge wooden tray of yams. I quizzed her on cooking techniques and how to prepare the different varieties.
“Are you feeding a lot of people?”she asked.
“No just the four of us.”
“Well if you want to use it to put in a beef stew, then buy some white yams. They can be a little bit hard but they are good in a stew. The easiest thing is to make some mash. But if you want to make a really soft mash that little children will like, try the soft yam,” she advised, pointing at the yam oozing white milk.
We brought our yam selection home. The yam is the swollen underground stem tuber of a sprawling vine. Each variety of yam differs in its texture, sweetness and moistness. They can be used like potatoes or sweet potatoes so I thought that we should try out Yam Rosti for a Sunday breakfast. We used the soft yam. When I cut into it and peeled it, it became very sticky and moist. I grated it into a bowl. By now the yam was soft and sticky and clung together. It was as if some kind of chemical reaction was underway. The yam rapidly turns an unpleasant grey colour if you don’t add some lemon juice. Using a tea-towel I squeezed some of the moisture out of the grated yam and spooned it into little mounds to fry as rosti. They need to be seasoned with some salt and pepper as yam does not have a very strong taste of its own. Freddie and Alex, who have tasted rosti made from potato and sweet potato thought the yams were just as good. They earned 9 out of 10.

Yam Rosti with poached eggs
To serve 4
450g of peeled and grated yam
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp of olive oil or knob of butter to fry.
4 eggs, poached
Peel the yam and grate it. You will need to squeeze some lemon juice into the grated yam as it discolours very quickly. Using a clean tea towel, squeeze the moisture out of the grated yam. Add some salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir round. Heat the olive oil or butter in a large frying pan. Put four tablespoons of grated yam spaced apart in the pan. Carefully flatten them down with a fish slice. Cook in the oil or butter for 1-2 minutes. Use a fish slice to turn over each rosti. Make sure both sides are golden brown and crisp. Prepare these in batches so warm a dish in the oven to store them as you cook each batch. Serve with a poached or if you prefer a fried egg on top.

How do you like your yams?

Watercress and Pine Nut Mayonnaise with Crimson Asparagus

2008-06-19T06:18:00.004+01:00

This recipe for Watercress and Pine Nut Mayonnaise was left by theSydney Grocer who writes the blog "Get Real" and lives one kilometre from Sydney harbour. Her business is supplying good quality fresh food to people's homes so if you are lucky enough to live in Sydney check them out...
I changed the recipe a bit to leave out the mayonnaise and simply used thick creme fraiche and it worked perfectly. Then we needed something to go with it. Freddie spotted crimson red asparagus in the supermarket. It is grown in Worcestershire. It has a beautiful beetroot red colour but when you blanche it in boiling water it turns a dark green. Asparagus has become a favourite vegetable so Freddie and Alex wanted to know if red asparagus tasted any different. It was so sweet and tender that Freddie was munching on it raw. The watercress and pine nut mayonnaise is delicious with the asparagus. Both scored 9 out of 10.

If you see crimson asparagus on sale - do try it out!

W is for Watercress and Ricotta Cheese Biscuits

2008-06-17T09:34:00.003+01:00

My husband's birthday got off to an exciting start.
Its five in the morning. Everyone is sleeping. My husband's presents are hidden behind the wardrobe. All's well in the world.
"Mum?" shouts Alex.
"Mum,where are you?"
"I'm in bed, asleep,"I reply. More a grunt than a reply.
"Can you come down?" shouts up Alex.
"No I am asleep. What's the matter?"
Then comes the birthday treat.
"The kitten has exploded all over my duvet!"
And he had. The door to the room with his litter tray had been shut by mistake. Never again will we make that mistake.
It is now 945 am and I have been washing duvets,sheets, pillows, soft toys and rugs for the past 5 hours. My husband's well-planned birthday breakfast has been postponed until tomorrow morning. The kitten is chasing bees in the garden.

This is obviously a huge digression from watercress. But it is hard to write about watercress when you are laundering mounds of soiled linen. I was looking forward to telling you all about our watercress and ricotta cheese biscuits. Thank you for all your suggestions. I decided to base the recipe on a simple cheese biscuit with ricotta, watercress and parmesan. And we served it with Watercress and Artichoke soup. Freddie's verdict on the watercress biscuits was dramatic.
"I would be happy if this was the only food in the world you could eat."
The soup was given nine out of 10 and the biscuits were too good to be scored. Or so he said.
Watercress and Ricotta Biscuits
40g watercress, finely chopped
100g butter
100g plain flour
60g parmigiano reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons of ricotta cheese
Half a teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 beaten egg to glaze

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a large baking tray with baking parchment. Use a food mixer to mix together the butter, flour ricotta and parmegiano cheese. Add the watercress and mustard and mix in the processor until it forms a dough. Using a spatula, scoop out the dough, adding a little flour if it is too sticky. Knead into a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Take it out and roll it out on a floured surface to a half inch thickness or less if you prefer them thinner. Cut out using small biscuit cutters. Brush each biscuit with beaten egg. Put in the oven for between 7 and 10 minutes depending on the thickness of the dough. Serve with soup.

Right it is back to the laundry. Can I ask a quick question - many of you have suggested making a watercress pesto to have maybe with burgers which we like the sound of - but when I made a watercress pesto it was too peppery hot. Does anyone know a milder version?

W is for Watercress - the nose-twister of the vegetable world

2008-06-14T09:35:00.000+01:00

Watercress is the nose-twister of the vegetable world. It is a member of the mustard family and its botanical name is Nasturtium officinale. In Latin this means something that twists or tortures the nostrils. So how do you go about convincing a child that nose-twisting watercress is in fact delicious? Well we went back to an old trick of the Great Big Veg Challenge - quesadillas. The rest of the watercress looked on from its very own throne - a 1920's watercress dish that my husband found in an Oxfam shop a few weeks ago.

Freddie knows all my tricks by now but he is quite happy to go along with it. "I don't really like watercress. It's too peppery. But this is ok because I love quesadillas. And can you put extra pancetta in mine?"

Watercress Quesadillas with Mozzarella and pine nuts or pancetta
To make one quesadilla:
1 tortilla wrap ( try finding the multi grain wraps)
25g watercress
75g mozzarella cheese
15g toasted pine nuts
Cooking spray oil
Salt and pepper to season

OR add 2 slices of cooked pancetta and leave out the pine nuts

Wash and dry the watercress and roughly chop. Toast the pine nuts by heating up a small pan on a medium heat, sprinkle on the pine nuts and stir them around constantly for a minute or so until lightly browned. You won’t need to add any oil to do this. Chop up the mozzarella into thin slices.
Take a large non-stick frying pan. Lightly spray with a little cooking oil. Turn on the hob to a medium heat. Place a tortilla in the pan, and turn over a few times with a fish slice. It will bubble up slightly. First scatter the mozzarella cheese evenly over the surface of the tortilla. Add the watercress and then the pine nuts. A quesadilla should be quite flat so don’t overdo the filling. Use a fish slice to fold the tortilla in half so that the two edges match up with the filling in the middle. Gently press down so that the melting cheese sticks the tortilla together. Turn over to cook the other side. Don’t let the tortilla burn. Flip it over so that each side becomes a crisp golden brown.

FREDDIE'S SCORE - NINE OUT OF TEN

Help Please to any bakers out there. Can any of you out there point me in the direction of a recipe for watercress biscuits. We have tasted cheese and watercress biscuits at a food fair once but can't find a recipe. Or do any of you know what kind of savoury biscuit recipe we could adapt to add some watercress - a water biscuit recipe or something thicker?

W is for Watercress and our visit to Kingfisher Farm

2008-06-13T08:38:00.007+01:00

Its W for Watercress!

Kingfisher Farm is one of our favourite places to visit. It is a watercress farm in Abinger Hammer in Surrey. And when we were asked where we might like to go to have some photographs taken for the book this is where we went. Watercress has been cultivated since Roman times but the first reported watercress farm dates back to 1808.

The reason there is watercress growing in Abinger Hammer is because of a stream of chalk that streaks across England deep underground all the way up to Lincolnshire. The chalk behaves like a giant sponge storing water that then springs out bubbling up to the surface. And this is where watercress farms first started to appear. Barry Arminson from Kingfisher Farm showed us around the long rectangular beds and took Freddie with him to cut and bunch up the cress. Freddie tiptoed along wooden struts. But when it came to posing for the photographs, holding watercress, smiling and balancing was a challenge....

We dried off and had a watercress picnic on the village green - soup and watercress calzone. Over the next week we will be eating more and more watercress which is very much in season. So please tell us how you like to eat your watercress...as Freddie decided that having munched on the watercress fresh from their Abinger Hammer beds, he is keen to try new watercress recipes. Tonight we are making pancetta & watercress quesadillas.

V is for Vegetables to be enjoyed on the barbecue

2008-06-10T08:01:00.006+01:00

I know that for those of you who live in warmer countries my delight at having a little sun must seem quaint. We have eaten out in our tiny garden for every meal this week, including breakfast. On a school day this is at 7 am in the morning and we sit there biting toast and spreading honey in monastic silence, trying not to wake our neighbours. To round off our V for Vegetable Kebabs this is Freddie's favourite selection of dishes. But the "absolute top of them all" as he tells me are Lamb and Artichoke Kebabs which he recommends to you all.

Lamb and Artichoke Kebabs
Serves 4
600g lamb neck fillet
2 tbsp fresh rosemary
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tin of artichoke hearts, drained
Salt and ground pepper
Wooden skewers

Ask the butcher for lamb neck fillet and cut it into 4 cm cubes.
Wash and drain the artichoke hearts. Cut them in half. Put the lamb and artichoke in a bowl and add the olive oil, garlic, rosemary and season with salt and pepper. Mix round so it is well coated and marinade for an hour. Soak the wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes so that they don’t burn so easily on a barbecue. Thread the lamb and artichoke pieces onto the skewers. Brush with any remaining marinade. Cook on a barbecue or under a hot grill, turning frequently until the meat is well cooked.

The collage above features some of his favourite vegetable dishes to be enjoyed outside....here are the links ....

V is for Vegetable Kebabs

2008-06-01T08:12:00.001+01:00

I read in the paper today that it's going to be a scorching June but a wet July and August. So I know that over the next month we will be dining out at ever given opportunity.
Each year we measure the success of the spring and summer by counting how many days it was warm enough to eat outdoors. As a family we are easily pleased. Like many British people we are able to adopt a stiff upper lip when it comes to the weather. We're willing to set up a picnic in a chill wind or risk trekking out into a field even though the skies are turning deep, dark grey.
The Great Big Vegetable Challenge has changed our picnicking menu. So we are sharing our V for Vegetable Kebabs with you...normally cooked on one of those instant barbecues that leave an unattractive burnt rectangle on the grass beneath. Freddie has been getting used to all these new vegetables over the last year and is now willing to enjoy something more than a sausage roll in a picnic. He scored the mixed vegetable kebabs 7 out of 10. But he has a few other Great Big Veg Challenge barbecue treats to share. Meanwhile, what is your favourite vegetable kebab - or at least your best barbecue food using vegetables? For the mixed vegetable kebabs, we used our favourite vegetables and marinated them overnight. We then waited for the sky to turn a menacing slate grey, picked up our trusty barbecue and ran outside.

Mixed Vegetable Kebabs
Serves 4

2 cobs of sweetcorn
8 cherry tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
2 courgettes
8 small button mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to season
Wooden skewers

Soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes.
Cut each sweetcorn cob into 8 pieces. Halve and deseed the peppers and cut into 2cm strips. Cut the courgettes into 2cm slices. Halve the mushrooms. Leave the cherry tomatoes whole. Make the marinade in a large bowl, mixing together the oil, garlic, fresh basil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add the vegetables and mix together really well so that it is evenly coated. Cover the bowl with cling film and place in the fridge and marinade for two hours. Thread the different vegetables onto the wooden skewers. Brush with the remaining marinade. Put onto the barbecue or under a hot grill and cook for about 10-12 minutes. Turn regularly and brush with the marinade until the vegetables are gently browned and ready to eat.

The Turnip is your friend....

2008-05-30T06:00:00.001+01:00

Take one man, a moustache, some tight denim shorts and a line of turnips and you have a hit on You Tube. This film comes to you courtesy of the Survivalist Boards, who want you to know that the turnip is your friend. And who am I to argue?

Listen out at the last few minutes of the end of the film - the background barking of a dog comes to an abrupt end...is that a gunshot I can hear?

T is for Turnips roast with shallots and thyme

2008-05-29T06:55:00.002+01:00

As a child growing up in Scotland Halloween was always a special day. And turnips played an important part. I remember going out to buy large ‘neeps’ from the grocers and carrying them home in my tricyle basket. My father would slice off the tops and scoop out the hard flesh, cutting out eyes, a nose and mouth. My mother would cook this with potato to make ‘tatties and neeps.’ On Burns Night, we would eat it with haggis and at Halloween, with sausages. My father would thread a wire through the turnip and hook it on to a stick. We walked around the cobbled streets with our friends in the dark, scaring ourselves with turnip lanterns. Is it only in Scotland that this happens?
This week to round off our turnip tasting session, we made "Tatties and Neeps", mashing together floury Maris Piper potatoes with Swede, a little butter and some nutmeg. Then we turned our attention to the rather more dainty small white turnips with their bright purple tops.
When the children were younger we used to read them a story about a gigantic turnip. It involved a long cast of characters pulling an enormous turnip out of the ground. Freddie always used to worry about how the farmer and his family were going to finish all that turnip. I felt a little like that when I looked at my bag of small turnips. I promised to try and make these miniature versions as appetising as possible. I combined them with shallots, sprigs of thyme and cloves of garlic in a deep baking tray and roasted them in the oven. Nothing was going to live up to the high-scoring swede fries but our miniature turnips, served with salmon fillets, were given 7 out of 10.
Roast turnips with shallots and thyme
Serves 4 as a side dish
700g small turnips
300g shallots
5 garlic cloves
Handful of fresh thyme sprigs
Half a teaspoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cut off the stalk of the turnips and halve or quarter them, depending on how small they are. Remove the shallots skin and cut them in half. Shop the thyme into small sprigs. Keep the 5 garlic cloves in their skins. Put all the ingredients in a deep-sided roasting or baking tray. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and mix round with your hands to make sure everything is well covered. Sprinkle the sea-salt. Place in the oven and cook for about 40-45 minutes, until the turnips are golden brown and tender inside. Half way through cooking, turn them over with a fish slice so that they cook evenly. The garlic cloves will be soft inside. When they are cooked and ready to eat, pick out the garlic cloves which are in their skins and squeeze the soft roasted garlic out and mix it around to flavour the turnips and shallots. Serve immediately.

The alphabet winds on - and sadly when it comes to vegetables, some letters of the alphabet seem to be more greedy than others, leaving U and V out in the cold. So we are going to be inventive with V for Vegetable Kebabs coming up next. Do you have a favourite vegetable kebab recipe?

T is for Turnip,Crab and Leek Pasties

2008-05-24T05:59:00.003+01:00

Most parents when they cook a meal and present it to their children only ever have to see one or maybe two people grimace and say "yeeuuck!" But there is a man who lives in East Boldon, in the North East of England, who faces a chorus of screwed up faces every day of his working life. And he deserves a medal (or at least a stiff drink). David Hall works with school children as a demonstration chef, introducing them to fresh food, real cooking and new tastes. He sent Freddie a recipe for Turnip, Crab and Leek Pasties. And there wasn't a grimace in sight when I made them. This was a straight ten out of ten, "are there any seconds?" and let's fight over the last pastie. Thank you David - this takes turnip to new heights! Please visit David Hall's Book the Cook blog...
David Hall's delicious Crab, Turnip and Leek Pasties
1 leek, halved and sliced
1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
25g butter
1 small turnip, peeled and diced into small cubes
1 tbsp Cider vinegar
Half tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
1 tsp English Mustard
300g crabmeat, brown and white
Salt and pepper
1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry
A little milk

1 – Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C, GM6.
2 – In a non-stick pan, heat up the oil and butter then add the leeks. Cook gently for 5 minutes until softened but not coloured.
3 – Add the cubed turnip and heat through for a further minute.
4 – Stir in the crab meat, vinegar, cayenne pepper, Worcester sauce and English mustard along with a good grinding of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Taste for seasoning.
5 – On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry. Cut out discs approximately 5 inches in diameter. Place tablespoons of the crab mixture into the centre of the pastry.
6 – Dampen the edges of the pastry with milk then fold over and press the edges together. Crimp with a fork.
7 – Brush with milk then bake on a high shelf for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Delicious hot or cold.

If any of you work with children to encourage healthy eating, learning to cook or grow vegetables, please let me know and I will add you to our links. Or leave a comment telling us about what you do.

T is for Turnip - or Rutabaga

2008-05-21T08:04:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the delay. Before we started on turnips, we had to clear up some confusion. Are turnips different to swedes? After consulting several gardeners I was told that the swede is in fact a Swedish turnip. In America they are known as rutabaga. To add to the confusion, in Scotland the swede is often referred to as a turnip or neep. I found a fascinating book by Marwood Yeatman, ‘The Last Food of England. He writes that swedes are ‘the product of an accidental cross with cabbage’, arriving in England in the 1800's. So there was much relief in our house as this means we can deal with Swede turnips at the same time as any other turnips: two for the price of one. Freddie and I went to the supermarket to buy our turnips. We took a strong hessian bag and planned to take the bus back home. But when we eventually found our turnips, we were surprised. These were dainty little creatures, with pale skin and a tinge of purple around the top - small enough to fit in the palm of Freddie’s hand. We bought a bag full. Next to them were the larger, dark yellow swedes. Even they looked small compared with the cannon balls I remember as a child. For our first turnip I used the swede. Freddie had tried swede before and hadn’t liked it. How do you turn something like Swede into something that looks like fast food? I cut it into thin sticks tossed them in olive oil and a little sea salt and baked them in the oven for 20 minutes. There is a point every evening, about 20 minutes before supper is ready, when the children come in and hunt for snacks. I shoo them out of the kitchen.

I left the turnip fries, arranged them in a ramekin and left them on the kitchen table. At snacking time, Alex and Freddie came in. They scurried around like mice looking for scraps and discovered the turnip fries. Freddie thought they were potato fries. I said nothing and pretended not to notice. When they were finished I asked him for his score. “Those were made from swede?” said Freddie. “That is definitely ten out of ten.” Turnip - the ultimate fast food!
Oven-baked Swede Fries
Serves 4 as a side dish

2 swede turnips or rutabaga
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 200C. Peel the swedes and cut in half. Slice each half into even slices, 1.5 cm thick. Then slice those into sticks, like French fries. Place them on a baking tray and add the olive oil. Mix round with your hands so that the swede sticks are well-coated. Sprinkle the sea salt over evenly. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Half way through cooking, take out the tray and turn the sticks with a fish-slice so that both sides cook. Take care to make sure the fries become crispy but do not burn. Serve hot with some ketchup for dipping.

In the bag challenge - asparagus twists

2008-05-14T05:34:00.010+01:00

Just before we get mired in the world of turnips, Alexandra wanted to enter Real Epicurian's May "In the Bag" blogging challenge. Alphabetical eating is not always seasonal and we wanted to enjoy the English asparagus that is now in season. The ingredients in this month's challenge include asparagus and egg. I first learnt about asparagus' twists from Anna, a Swedish woman, with whom I sometimes work. As we waited for the kettle to boil, she told me about the recipe. Since then, Alex makes them regularly and has added her own twists. Can we recommend that you click on Chubby Checker down below as you learn how to twist!

Asparagus Twists
500g ready-made puff pastry

1 egg beaten

50g parmesan or parmeggiano cheese, finely grated

2 teaspoons of dried oregano

Salt and pepper to season

Bunch of asparagus spears - around 12 spears

Preheat the oven to 180C ( 350F). Sprinkle the parmesan and oregano over the pastry and gently roll into the pastry.Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle to a depth of about 5mm. Cut into ribbons that are 1 cm wide and a little longer than the asparagus stems. Cut 2.5cm from the woody stalk of the asparagus. Depending on the thickness of the stems you may like to steam the asparagus for two or three minutes. Dry them. Carefully wrap the ribbons of pastry around the spears in a spiral taking care to press the ends of the ribbon against the spear to seal them. Place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Brush pastry with beaten egg seasoned with salt and pepper. Sprinkle any leftover parmesan and oregano on top and place in the oven to cook for 15-20 mins. The pastry should be puffed up but not burnt. Serve hot or cold.

T is for Tomato and Pancetta Tart

2008-05-09T17:35:00.002+01:00

This is a tale of two tarts. Up until now all our tomato recipes have been smooth, the unsettling texture of the tomato removed to cause less anxiety to Freddie...But for our final tomato recipes I decided to flirt with danger and allow the tomato to flash a little flesh.
The creation above is a Tomato and Pancetta Tart. Freddie came back from school saying he was really hungry. In fact he looked at the tart with the thin slices of tomato and only saw the pancetta.There is a Latin saying, "Rabidus fame, ceu canis" as hungry as a dog. He attacked the tart like a puppy.
"So you do like tomatoes then?"
"No" muttered Freddie, ferociously biting into the tart.
"Well that's what you're eating."
He stopped mid-bite and looked down. With slightly less energy he carried on eating.
"Do you want another slice?"
"No thanks. I liked it but its not good enough to have seconds."

So I offered him the other tart - tart number two which we adapted from this recipe, adding sliced courgettes. Out of respect for the effort I had put into this meal, Freddie tried a little. Recently someone left a rather stark comment on the blog - all they wrote were five words. "Hunger is the best sauce." I could imagine the author of this comment, looking rather sternly at us. Trouble is the saying is completely right. Which is why tart number two got a pathetic four out of 10, against the first which did rather well, scoring 8.

Tomato and Pancetta Tart

250g of Ready rolled Puff Pastry

3 ripe tomatoes, sliced thinly

6-8 slices of pancetta

A handful of chopped black olives

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese, a teaspoon of dried oregano

a drizzle of olive oil and handful of fresh basil

Roll the pastry shaping it into a rectangle. We find it is better if it is rolled quite thin. To create a raised margin around the tart, score it lightly with a knife an inch in all the way around. Place on a siloconised baking parchment paper. Place a line of thin tomato, then a line of pancetta rashes until the tart is covered, leaving your margin clear. Scatter the finely grated parmesan or parmegiano cheese evenly over the tart with the oregano. Drizzle over the olive oil, scatter the chopped black olives. Place in the preheated oven at around 200C (400F) and bake for about 20 minutes, until the pastry is risen but not burnt. Serve hot or cold to HUNGRY children.

Do you know another saying out about hunger increasing appetite? If so let us know - oh and our next stop is going to be the slightly less glamourous turnip. If you have any favourite turnip recipes you can recommend let us know!

T is for Tomato Lipsmackers

2008-05-08T13:05:00.000+01:00

You know that your work-life balance is completely awry when you only see your child asleep. Alex sleeps facing upwards with her arms and legs akimbo whilst Freddie sleeps on his stomach, his head under the pillow and his limbs tucked underneath him, looking as if he was hibernating in the arctic. Which is strange because it has been very warm in London this week. I have been working in Dubai where it was over 40 C. When I came back to London yesterday the thermometer in the garden claimed that it had been 29C. So I revisted a previous success of the Great Big Veg Challenge and made Veggie Lipsmackers. This time we used tomato juice combined with purple grape juice and orange juice. The children teemed and ladled, tasted and then froze their creations. Freddie awarded his Tomato Lipsmacker a refreshing 8 out of 10.

T is for Tomato Risotto

2008-05-03T09:07:00.001+01:00

Last night I made a tomato risotto. The recipe came from the BBC Good Food Site and advertises itself as a quick risotto which you make in a microwave. Risotto has been a successful way of getting Freddie to try things he doesnt like so much. So I bought a punnet of cherry tomatoes and followed their instructions.These tomatoes were nothing like as sweet as the ones we bought last summer for the Pan con Tomate but we know that things in season taste best. Still this risotto tasted delicious and it is an impressively lazy way to make a risotto. And did Freddie like it? Well, this isn't something he will be begging me to make again but he did eat it and seemed to like the taste....his score was 8 out of 10.
"Even though not many children like the texture of tomatoes, I have made myself like tomatoes with this recipe... and it is worth trying if you have children ( especially children like me!!)" says Freddie.

THIS IS A LINK PROVIDED BY FREDDIE TO ALL OF YOU WHO HATE TOMATOES....ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES!

T is for Tomato Tasting - Pan con Tomate

2008-05-02T13:13:00.004+01:00

I read a comment by someone who said that tomatoes have the texture of the inside of an eyeball. Freddie shares this dislike for the texture of tomatoes. So following on from the success of our League of Lettuce I thought that we needed a similar tasting challenge with tomatoes. And late last summer Amanda, who blogs at Figs,Bay,Wine, came to our rescue.
She told us about Spanish Tomato Toast or Pan Con Tomate which is a traditional and very simple Catalan dish. Up until that time, Freddie would not eat raw tomatoes, only consuming them puréed in tomato soups or pasta sauces.
We went at the height of the tomato season to the supermarket. I thought I knew that tomatoes were red, unless of course they were unripe in which case they are green. But the tomatoes were competing with the lettuces in the variety stakes. Next to the conventional red ones were crates of yellow, purple, black and green tomatoes. And they boasted their own sign: ‘Heirloom Tomatoes'. Now when I think of heirlooms I imagine grandfather clocks or boxes of old photographs. But these jewels of the tomato world have exquisite names: the glamorous Eva Purple Ball, the exotic Green and Red Zebras, the esoteric Dr Wyche’s Yellow and the voluptuous French Marmande. It was a cast of tomatoes that boast good old-fashioned breeding. I politely invited them home to take part in a tomato tasting session.

And as we learnt, Pan Con Tomate has a great trick up its sleeve: it allows children to take charge of the meal. You simply give them huge tranches of toasted country bread, a little dish of olive oil, halved cloves of garlic, a little sea-salt and a selection of ripe tomatoes cut in half. Freddie and Alexandra squeezed, squelched and drizzled their way through plates of well-bred tomatoes. Freddie was creative with his scoring. “Its 10 out of 10 as a way of getting people interested in eating raw tomatoes and about 7 out of 10 for taste.” He didn't mention eyeballs at all!

T is for a Tomato Soup Memory

2008-04-28T06:37:00.002+01:00

This is my brother and I, circa 1975. We are standing in front of my Aunt and Uncle's pale blue Volkswagen Camper Van. It is probably mid-summer which is why we are wearing the essential English holiday attire of a thick arran sweater, shorts and wellington boots. In the background my Aunt is stirring a tin of tomato soup over the VW gas stove. Everyone should have a tomato soup memory. My aunt and uncle were responsible for providing me with a whole album full. I would visit them during the school holidays. Maybe children remember things in a different way to adults but I can recall the smell of my aunt's house; a combination of cooking gas and Imperial Leather soap. They had exciting things that we didn't have at home. Things like an Edwardian Pianola, variety packs of breakfast cereals but best of all, the VW Camper Van. When I wasn’t clinging onto the sides of the piano stool, frantically pedaling my way through “The Toreador”, my Aunt and Uncle would drive us round Britain sightseeing in this van. And wherever we were, the routine was the same. I loved the fact that it was the same every time.

Inside the van there were secret shelves and drawers. The formica top in front of my seat would lift up to reveal a little chrome sink with a tap that you pumped up and down to make the water flow. Even more exciting was the Calor Gas Stove. Wherever we were, my Aunt would unpack marmite sandwiches and heat up a tin of tomato soup. We would park in country lanes, on hard shoulders and at stately homes. One day my Aunt drove us into the centre of London to visit the Science Museum. The camper van was parked up right in front of the museum in Exhibition Road. The little gas stove was ignired, the obligatory tin of tomato soup opened. We sat in a row, my brother, my Aunt and me, the slide doors of the van wide open as all the tourists filed past into the museum.

I have passed on this love of creamy tomato soup to my own children. I don’t yet have a camper van but on holiday in Cornwall I bought a small gas camping stove. I bought the tomatoes from an honesty box with a difference. On the front door of a house in Lostwithiel, someone had pinned bags of vegetables grown in their garden with an instruction to put the money through the letter box. I brought the tomatoes home and made my own creamy tomato soup. To make it really smooth, I pushed the soup through a sieve, smoothing the tomatoes and potatoes through the metal mesh with a wooden spoon. And late that evening we all walked up to the top of a hill by the cottage where there is beautiful view of Lantic Bay. We lit up the gas stove and heated up the tomato soup which we sipped from mugs, looking out over the sea as the sun went down. One of many tomato soup memories that I hope my children will have forever.

Creamy Tomato Soup

900g ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp of tomato paste
1 medium sized potato, peeled
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, sliced
1 teaspoon of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of ground paprika
725 ml of chicken or vegetable stock
200ml single cream or half-fat cream
Salt and pepper to season

Boil a large pan of water. Add the whole tomatoes. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for a few minutes. The skins of the tomatoes will split. Drain them and peel off the skins. Chop the skinned tomatoes. Heat the olive oil in a large pan on a medium-low heat. Peel and finely dice the potato. Add the finely chopped onion, potato and crushed garlic and sauté for 3 minutes until the onion and potato is softened. Don’t allow it to burn. Add the ground paprika, tomatoes, tomato purée, caster sugar and stock. Bring to the boil, stirring well. Then lower the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and using a wooden spoon, smooth the soup through a sieve. If you prefer, puree in a food processor. Return to the pan and add the cream, stirring over a low heat. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Do you have a tomato soup memory?

What is your favourite way to enjoy tomatoes....

S is for Sweet Potato Calzone

2008-04-21T18:27:00.003+01:00

Right, here is Freddie's sweet potato recipe. He has taken over the kitchen and created something really delicious. Using a pizza base mix, he made calzone, which are like folded pizzas, filled with sweet potato, brie and basil. Like quesadillas, calzone are a great vegetable-containers! And of course whenever Freddie is involved in the cooking, his scores are much higher. Sweet potato calzone were given 10 out of 10.

Sweet potato, brie and basil calzone
Makes 4

290g Pizza base mix
300g sweet potato, finely diced
2 tablespoons of pesto sauce
175g brie
Generous handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
Salt and ground pepper to season

Preheat the oven to 220C. Make the pizza base mix according to the maker’s instructions. Knead the dough and divide into four equal pieces. Peel the sweet potato and cut into small cubes. Boil or steam for about 8 minutes until they are tender, but not mushy. Drain well. Place in a bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons of pesto sauce. In another bowl, cut the brie into small cubes.
Flour a clean surface and roll out each piece of dough into a 23cm diameter circle. On one side of each circle of dough, spoon some sweet potato, brie and add some basil leaves. Season with a little salt and ground pepper. Don’t put the filling too near the edge. Using your finger tips or a pastry brush dipped in water, slightly dampen round the circumference of the dough. Fold the dough over the side that is piled with the filling, matching up the two edges. Seal the edges firmly together by pinching and twisting the dough together. Make little twisty points with the dough at each corner. Dust a baking sheet with flour and place the calzone on top. Bake in the oven for about 12- 15 minutes. When ready, the calzone are very lightly browned. Take care as the filling can be piping hot!
If any of you try this recipe, Freddie would love to know how you got on....

S is for Sweet Potato

2008-04-19T09:00:00.003+01:00

When I was a child I spent a year living in the American city of Philadelphia. We arrived in 1976, a pale-faced English family with exemplary bad timing. Everyone was celebrating the bicentennial year of the American Declaration of Independence from the British Empire. Wherever we went there were renactments of battles. And to cap it all, my brother’s name was Benedict. In school he learnt with some unease that Benedict Arnold was an infamous traitor of the American revolution. We spent our first week at a university in Washington DC, undergoing “acclimatisation”. My parents sat through lectures on how to use the telephone, drive on the right-hand side of the road and dial 911 (preferably not all at once). I discovered the canteen. I drank coke, ate hot dogs and embraced hyperactivity. I chased round with all the other British children, high on sugar.
My own acclimatisation was rapid. Within a few months I stood on stage at my American school, belting out songs of the American revolution whilst trussed up in a Betsy Ross outfit. (She was said to have sewed the first American flag.) I tasted sweet potato mash for the first time and learnt how America’s first president George Washington grew them on his farm in Virginia. I hadn’t come across sweet potatoes before.
Nowadays they are in most supermarkets. Despite its name, sweet potato is not a type of potato and they are only distantly related. It is a sweet-tasting root vegetable with the cooked texture of a potato crossed with a carrot. Freddie’s first taste of sweet potato was a success. I baked them in their skins, in the same way as you might a potato, served with a little butter and black pepper. He scored this simple meal 8 out of 10.

Alex has cooked our next sweet potato meal - making spicy sweet potato wedges. Many of you have said how delicious these are. Alex created a paprika, chilli and curry powder spice mix. Freddie's score hit the jackpot, with 10 out of 10. "I think I want to do some of the cooking now with sweet potatoes..." Watch this space!

Sweet Potato Wedges
Serves 4 as a starter

500g sweet potatoes
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Half a tsp ground paprika
Half a tsp curry powder
Half a tsp mild chilli powder

Serve with a bowl of yoghurt or sour cream for dipping.

Preheat the oven to 220C.
Scrub the sweet potatoes clean but don’t peel. Cut them in half lengthways and then cut each half into four. In a bowl, add the oil and spices and mix together well. Lay the sweet potato wedges out on a non-stick baking tray and brush them well with the spiced oil. Make sure all sides are coated. Put them in the preheated oven and cook for 20 minutes. Serve them with a bowl of soured cream or yoghurt.

How do you like your sweet potatoes?

S is for Spinach Spaghetti - “Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.”

2008-04-16T16:50:00.003+01:00

Some days I feel as if I could do with support from the Army Catering Corps. The nights when we all arrive home late, drenched in rain and exhausted by work, school and football fixtures. There are instant demands for food. I fend them off with a drink of squash and a biscuit but that only buys a few minutes’ grace. The demands become more aggressive. An unexpected side effect of the Great Big Vegetable Challenge was that I am now far better at looking at the fridge and coming up with fast food, incorporating vegetables. I made spaghetti with baby spinach leaves, bacon and pine nuts. The pine nuts or pine kernels are oily and can be toasted very quickly in a dry pan. The meal takes as long to make as it takes to cook the spaghetti. The baby spinach wilts in the heat of the cooked pasta. The film star Sophia Loren said, “Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.” We were all so hungry, we followed her advice. Freddie’s score for this meal was 9 out of 10.

Spaghetti with spinach and bacon

Serves 4

400g Spaghetti (it is approximately 75g to 100g per person)

2 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp toasted pine nuts

250g of baby spinach leaves

4-5 rashes of streaky bacon

Salt and ground pepper to season

Freshly grated parmesan to sprinkle on top

Cook the spaghetti according to instructions on the packet. Whilst it is cooking, cut the streaky bacon rashes into squares and fry in a non-stick pan. You shouldn’t have to add any extra oil as it should cook in its own bacon fat. Toast the pine kernels by scattering in a small pan and stirring them on a medium heat for a minute or two until they turn golden brown. Wash and dry the spinach leaves. The spaghetti is ready when it reaches what the Italians call “al dente”, or “to the tooth”. This means it should be tender, with a slight resistance to the bite. Drain the pasta well and put back in the pan. Immediately add the spinach leaves and put the lid on for 2 minutes, allowing the heat of the spaghetti to wilt the spinach leaves. Then add the olive oil, bacon and pine nuts with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss the pasta round so that it is evenly coated. Serve with some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Spinach is quite clearly the ideal vegetable to serve children - but not turned into slime and served up like a medicine. Think quick with spinach - there isn't enough time to post all of our spinach adventures but as well as our Greek spinach tart, spinach and lamb curry and spinach fritters, we have made spinach and feta toasties and a wonderfully quick spinach omelette. We had better move on before this turns into an obsession.....

NEXT STOP THE SWEET POTATO - go on share your love for this vegetable!

S is for Lamb and Spinach Curry

2008-04-14T07:00:00.002+01:00

Spinach is taking over. After our Greek-inspired Spanakopita we've grown green wings and flown a couple of thousand miles east to India, for a Lamb and Spinach Curry. Our journey was inspired by Nupur of One Hot Stove and Ursula who left their ideas in the comment box. Every night Freddie and I rummage through the comment box, deliberating over our next move. Ursula recommended Madhur Jaffery's book "Indian Cookery" which I borrowed from a neighbour in exchange for a hand blender. There must be something in the water because yesterday the whole street was stepping out of their culinary comfort zone. Neighbours were crossing over the road holding casserole dishes and cooking torches. I handed over one rolling pin, a jar of capers, a funnel and a pestle, without its partner, the mortar. I am a little worried about the lone pestle. I can see the headlines in the Evening Standard: "Local man killed by deadly pestle blow." Am I an accessory to the crime? Anyhow, we made our Lamb and Spinach Curry using a recipe similar to this. I think spinach may be addictive because Freddie and Alex were so enthusiastic they asked for seconds.(I was reluctant to hand over because Chris and I wanted more). Freddie's score went through the roof as he awarded an 11 out of 10.

For those of you wanting more inspiration for Indian recipes, we can recommend Mamta's Kitchen which is an incredible resource. Our spinach odyssey continues....

S is for Spinach - Spanakopita

2008-04-13T07:57:00.007+01:00

"There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek."

(My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2002)

For a long time My Big Fat Greek Wedding was Freddie's favourite film. He would sit down and watch it at least twice a week, drawn in by the central themes of a huge family, large quantities of roasted red meat and the sound of the bouzouki. So when Ben from Mexico City left a comment about the joys of a Greek spinach dish, spanakopita, we had to try it out.
"This is an eight out of ten...", hesitated Freddie. "Or maybe it was more a 7.9. No actually make it an eight and tell Ben that it tasted really good."
Follow the same path that we took to find Ben's recipe for spanakopita. My version looks a little different to his as I blended the spinach in a food processor. But it tasted delicious. Thank you Ben!

What are your favourite ways to eat spinach?

Spinach - "We plunge it in cold water, boil it, and then force it on our children.”

2008-04-11T11:55:00.002+01:00

“An exotic from Persia, it was brought by the Moors to Spain, by the Spaniards to the Low Counties, by Flemish refugees to England. And after that great pilgrimage, we plunge it in cold water, boil it, and then force it on our children.”

I like what Robert Carrier says about spinach. This is a vegetable that has been forced on generations of children, presumably because of its reputation as an iron-rich wonder food. The trouble is, in our house, the ‘this is good for you’ approach is the kiss of death. All Freddie cares about is that his vegetables taste good.

So we took a brave step.

The Great Big Vegetable Challenge went on the road to test out our spinach recipe with the gardening club at Freddie’s school. On a small patch of land in front of the school, the children and their teachers have created their very own Garden of Eden. They dig, sow and weed with devotion, oblivious to the distant thunder of the Great Western Road. Through the year there are beetroot, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, rhubarb, pumpkins, chard and spinach. Little notices announce the progress of the garden. It reminds me of the official notices posted on the gates of Buckingham Palace. ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of a runner bean that succumbed to a green fly infestation’ or ‘the tallest sunflower broke all school records.’ There is something uplifting about a vegetable garden in the middle of a city. With the school gardeners I made rainbow chard pizzas and spinach fritters. They picked the chard and spinach leaves and washed them in the kitchen. The braver ones munched on the raw spinach leaves, flexing their biceps like Popeye. Once heated, spinach has Houdini like qualities. You think you’ve put a huge quantity of bright green leaves into a pan and within seconds in a cloud of steam the leaves disappear, leaving behind a dark green stringy slime. It is the escapologist of the vegetable kingdom. Slime is a complete turn-off for Freddie. With the spinach fritters, I cut the freshly picked leaves into thin strips, added them to the batter and quickly cooked them in a little oil in a hot pan. The young gardeners waited by the cooker like hungry puppies. They took their hot fritters out into the rain to enjoy. Judging by the speed with which they were consumed, spinach fritters passed the taste test with flying colours. And there was no hint of slime, the spinach staying bright green and succulent inside the fritter. Freddie’s score was ten out of ten. I think we are on a fast-stream these days with the scoring. A year into the Great Big Veg Challenge and he can hardly remember what it was like to really hate vegetables...

If you or your local school have a gardening blog or website, let me know and I will create a blogroll for people working in allotments and gardens to encourage children to learn how to grow and cook vegetables. Meanwhile - How do you like your spinach?

Spinach Fritters

Serves 6-8

100g of fresh spinach leaves

230g of self-raising flour

2 tsp of caster sugar (optional)

4 eggs, separated

1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

350ml milk

75g butter, melted

Cooking spray oil or 2-3 tbsp olive oil.Separate the eggs. Put the yolks in a large bowl and beat. In another bowl whisk together the egg whites until they form soft white peaks. Sift the flour into the bowl with the egg yolks, add the milk, melted butter and caster sugar. Mix together with a wooden spoon until it forms a smooth batter. Finely chop the fresh spinach so that it is in thin strips. Add to the batter along with 1 finely chopped garlic clove. Then gently fold in the egg whites. Make the fritters in batches of four in a large frying pan. You may need to have a bit of kitchen towel to hand to clean the pan of any burnt oil in between batches. Spray the frying pan with cooking oil or add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat the pan. When the oil is hot, drop in four to five dollops of batter, spacing them apart in the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes and when you see the edges begin to brown, flip them over to cook the other side. Wipe the pan with some kitchen paper and add a little fresh oil for each batch. Be warned, these may be consumed with undue speed....

Day 4 - Great Big Squash Up - Baked Gem Squash

2008-04-03T07:10:00.001+01:00

At work I got chatting to Frik, a colleague who comes from South Africa. This is one of the many conversations that I now enjoy at work. Office gossip has taken on a whole new vegetable dimension. Frik told me how his mum would make a Gem Squash recipe when he came home from school. He now lives thousands of miles away in London but regularly makes Gem Squash for supper, a reminder of home. He described how his Mum would boil the gem squash whole for about twenty minutes, then cut them in half and scoop out the seeds. She would fill them with creamed sweetcorn, topped with cheddar cheese and bake them. I took notes. Then at home I brought his mum’s recipe to life, for my children. Freddie asked what was for supper. “Is there no meat or fish in this recipe?” But when they came out of the oven and he tasted it, he smiled. “Tell Fric this is really good. And tell him his squash recipe gets the highest score.” We are on a roll with the Great Big Squash Up!

Baked gem squash with cheese and corn

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter

2 gem squash
250g (drained weight) tinned sweetcorn
100g cheddar cheese, grated
4 teaspoons freshly grated parmesan
(If you have ramekins, you can bake your gem squash inside them.)

Bring a large pan of water to boil. Add the whole gem squash. Simmer for 20-25 minutes. Remove and dry. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the four halves in a roasting tray. You can sometimes buy ready- creamed sweetcorn. If you can’t find it, drain the sweetcorn kernels and blend them until smooth in a food processor, adding a tablespoon of milk. Spoon some creamed corn into the centre of each gem squash. Then divide the grated cheese between the four halves and sprinkle on top. Add a teaspoon of grated Parmesan cheese to each. Place in a preheated oven at 180C for 25 minutes. The cheese will be golden brown and the squash soft.

Day 3 - Butternut Squash Lasagne

2008-04-02T18:45:00.011+01:00

It is Day Three of the Great Big Squash Up and today's lunch, butternut squash lasagne, comes to us courtesy of Ed Bruske Lane from The Slow Cook. Ed lives in Washington DC, a mile from the White House. On his blog is his manifesto, like a protestor's placard, railing against all thats wrong about modern processed junk food. "Reject fast food! Reject waiting lists at over-hyped, outrageously expensive restaurants! Reject food out of season! Sit, eat drink. Enjoy good food made by caring hands. Enjoy food eaten slowly, in good company."

Well with due reverence and with Ed's words ringing in my ears, I washed my caring hands and made this delicious meal. The recipe is over on his site and it won't disappoint you. Above is the before picture and below is the happy aftermath. Freddie and Alex both gave Ed's lasagne full marks, ten out of ten. The only trouble is we didn't really keep to the spirit of Ed's manifesto - at least the eaten slowly bit. This was consumed with indecent haste...Sorry Ed!

Another superb squash recipe has been posted by David Hall who we met last summer at Abingdon Children's Food Festival. David lives in South Tyneside and like Ed in Washington, he is passionate about persuading people to learn to cook and enjoy good food. He has created The Cumbrian Squashy Poton his Book the Cook blog. This looks fabulous and contains black or white pudding. For any of you unfamiliar with black pudding, this is what it looks like. I grew up in Scotland and we would have black pudding for Sunday breakfast.

Don't forget our other Great Big Squash Up contributors from around the world and featured in our last two posts.
1.Cynthia Nelson from Tastes Like Home with her sauted squash recipe which uses herbs, garlic and hot pepper to spice up what can be a bland vegetable. Thank you Cynthia!
2.Alanna Kellogg from Kitchen Parade Veggie Venture with Roasted Zucchini in orange and lemon. Thanks Alanna!
3. Hannah from Hannah's Country Kitchen has created a warming squash risotto for us to try out. Thanks Hannah...
4. And Manda from the the cat of stripes blog has been cooking up a Greek Pumpkin Pie from her home in Normandy in France. Manda - Thank you for kolokithopita!
There are countless more wonderful recipes in the comment boxes for you to try out. Please keep telling us your favourites. Freddie and Alex are strangely comfortable with the Great Big Squash Up. This is one vegetable that seems to be greeted with open arms.

Day two of the Great Big Squash Up

2008-03-31T13:44:00.008+01:00

Tasting all the different roasted squash has given us an idea of all their individual qualities. Freddie liked the butternut squash best because it tastes sweet and it has a soft melting texture. The wrong texture is a big turn-off with fussy eaters. Smooth is good, stringy or bitty is bad. So I bought some more butternut squash and made a soup. Because it is so smooth, it makes a perfect soup. Freddie awarded this 8 out of 10. I am in danger of becoming complacent - all his scores seem to be high.
Baked butternut squash and coconut soup
Serves 4

1 butternut squash
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
50g sachet of creamed coconut
1 litre of vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tablespoons of crème fraiche
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Rub a little olive oil and a pinch of salt into the flesh of the squash and place flesh down on a baking tray. Place a sprig of rosemary under each piece. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until the flesh is soft.
Remove and scoop out the flesh into a large pan. Discard the rosemary. Sauté the sliced onion, garlic, diced potato and carrot in a pan in a little oil for 5 minutes. When they are soft, add to the baked squash with the creamed coconut and vegetable stock. Stir well. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer gently on a low heat for 20 minutes. Turn off heat, stir in crème fraiche and use a hand blender to puree the soup.

But the whole idea of the Great Big Squash Up is that we open up the blog to people around the world. This is the part Freddie likes best, when he wades through all your ideas. First off is Alanna Kellog from Missouri in the United States. Alanna blogs at the Kitchen Parade Veggie Venture. Just so you know, Missouri is known as the Show-me State, the place which first gave the world iced tea, ice cream cones, the tallest man in medical history, the first successful parachute jump and of course Alanna, the Queen of Vegetables. She has a delicious looking roasted zucchini ( courgette) with orange and lemon recipe right here for you all to try out. Thanks Alanna!

Then there is another great blog, The Stripey Cat, written by a Vegan who lives in Normandy in France. Normandy is of course the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, and a place where wonderful things are cooked up by a lady called Manda who lives in the middle of the beautiful Normandy countryside. This is her recipe for Kolokithpita or Greek Pumpkin Pie, a filo pastry feast. Thank you Manda!

Now you would think that the picture above depicted an image of bucolic bliss, a gentle soul weaving flowers and strawberries in the shade of her kitchen garden. But beware, we have now sailed across the choppy waters of the English Channel to Bedfordshire, the home of Hannah Miles, from Hannah's Country Kitchen. I warn you, people visit Hannah's blog never to return. Hannah, a lawyer and country cook creates irresistible cakes and she lures you in with her tales of an idyllic country life. And for Freddie she has created a delicious Roasted Garlic And Squash Risotto for Freddie and all of you to try out.

If any of you have a favourite squash recipe let us know. Better still, post it and we will link to you!

Please join in the Great Big Squash Up!

2008-03-30T07:16:00.007+01:00

There is one family of vegetables that appear on market stalls and in the supermarkets like a collection of jewels. Mounds of brightly coloured squash compete for attention from the shopper. They do this in two ways; flaunting their flamboyant colours and muttering their elaborate names. The Red Kuri, also known as the Baby Red Hubbard, jostles with the yellow Patty Pan, Gem Squash, Golden Acorn, Turk’s Turban, Crown Prince and the Butternut squash. There are an overwhelming number of squash or ‘Cucurbita’. During the Great Big Vegetable Challenge we have already singled out some family members such as courgettes, cucumbers and pumpkins. Alex and I picked out the most colourful examples and brought them home for the Great Big Squash Up.
After a game of squash boules on the kitchen floor, two of them were singled out for special treatment. Freddie picked out butternut squash and acorn squash to make Spicy Roasted Squash. We added courgettes, baby corn and spices with the sweet flavour of roasted garlic. Freddie gave this recipe eight out of ten. The best thing about this dish is that you can combine any number of different squash together. And it was a great introduction to a week of squash-tasting...

Roasted Spicy Squash
1 butternut squash
1 acorn squash
2 courgettes
250g baby corn
1-2 teaspoons of mild chilli powder
1 roasted garlic bulb
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

Use a potato peeler to remove the skin of the squash. Cut them in half and scoop out all the seeds. Cut into wedges. Place in a lightly oiled baking tray. Wash and add the baby corn. Slice the courgettes diagonally into wedges. Sprinkle over the olive oil and 1-2 teaspoons of mild chilli powder, according to taste. Squeeze in the contents of 1 roasted garlic bulb. Use your washed hands to make sure the vegetables are evenly coated. Place in a preheated oven at 180C for around 50 minutes to an hour. Half way through cooking, use a spoon to stir round the vegetables. This is delicious served with lamb or pork chops.

This week we are devoting to the Great Big Squash Up...with some of our blogging friends from around the world sharing their favourite squash recipes, tempting the tastebuds of Freddie and all of you. Here is our first, from the talented Cynthia in Barbados who has offered up her recipe for bottle gourd squash...if you haven't visited Cynthia's blog, Tastes like Home, you are missing out! We would love to hear from any of you who want to join in - just leave your recipe in the comment box or email me to link to your squash post...

S is for Sorrel Sauce

2008-03-26T08:49:00.001+01:00

Back in London and this was the first sorrel recipe we made at home - a simple sauce to have with fish. It also gave us an excuse to use the set of fish plates that only get an outing on Christmas Eve. When Freddie was five years old he went to a church auction clutching a ten pound note. These plates caught his eye and he started bidding. It was a contest between a seasoned antique dealer from Notting Hill and a small boy in a Snoopy t-shirt. Freddie won. We came home on the bus with a huge laundry bag packed with a six place setting. Helped by the infamous fish plates, Freddie scored this mild creamy sorrel sauce 8 out of 10.

Creamy Sorrel Sauce

Sorrel leaves

A knob of butter

Teaspoon of water

Thick single cream

Heat a knob of butter on a medium heat in a pan with a teaspoon of water. Add the sorrel leaves and stir. They will quickly wilt and start to turn a khaki colour. Keep stirring. After two minutes, turn off the heat and stir in the cream. Use a hand blender to puree the sauce. Serve with chicken or fish or you can stir it into new potatoes.

How do you like to eat your sorrel?

S is for Sorrel at the Wild Food School

2008-03-21T16:03:00.010+01:00

This is the view from the cottage that we rent on holiday in Cornwall. A long narrow road winds alongside the coast. If we walk twenty minutes uplane we reach a farm selling its own organic meat. Twenty minutes down lane is a farm where we can buy vegetables and eggs. This is a world away from London.
Cornwall is the place where we first tasted Samphire but also our next S vegetable, Sorrel. In the back garden of a small cottage in a nearby town of Lostwithiel we took our first lesson in foraging. This is the home of Marcus Harrison who runs a Wild Food School. We were led into a long narrow strip garden round the back of the house. “This is like the herbology class at Hogwarts,” whispered Alex. It was full of giant weeds. But when you looked closer the weeds were lined up in ordered rows. Marcus' garden is an encyclopedia of wild edible plants, a living classroom. For two children who have grown up in an urban jungle, this was a whole new world. Freddie, who had already eaten dandelions, nettles and cactus, covered himself in burdock seeds, safely sampled petals, stalks and leaves under expert guidance.
A few weeks before Freddie had tried to taste a bulrush. I could see him featuring in one of those cautionary tales in Struwelpeter by Dr Heinrich Hoffman. ‘The Dreadful Story about Harriet and the Matches’ would be joined by ‘The Tragic Story of Frederic who bit into a Bulrush.’ Marcus has trained people from all over the world to survive on wild plants. First lesson for Freddie and Alex was all about caution. We moved out of the edible classroom into the Cornish countryside. He showed them watercress swirling in a brook and walked along a river bank where clumps of sorrel leaves were growing. We scrabbled along the bank, filling a basket with the sorrel. It had a sharp lemony taste. It is more of a cross between a herb and a vegetable and you can use the young leaves in salads. Having seen cultivated sorrel for sale at great expense in smart food shops, there was something satisfying about being able to pick it for free. Before we said goodbye to Marcus, he told us how to use sorrel in omelettes, quiches, soups and how to make trail food, sautéing it quickly with a little olive oil, a sprinkling of caster sugar,with some raisins, pine nuts and a dollop of crème fraiche or yoghurt. Sorrel is a pretty shade of green but once cooked it rapidly turns an unsettling shade of khaki. Freddie closed his eyes to taste the trail food. “If I had to eat it to stay alive I suppose I would,” he said.

S is for Salsify...the forgotten vegetable!

2008-03-19T15:52:00.002+01:00

It seems that the letter S has its fair share of unusual vegetables. After samphire, we moved on to Salsify. "Its the forgotten vegetable,” said the grocer. “It’s as if people don’t know that it exists and wouldn’t know what to do with it.” He was right. When I googled the word salsify there were countless entries from seed companies. Yet they hardly ever appear for sale. I had seen them in markets in France and Italy but much of Britain seems to have chosen to neglect them. The grocer was delighted to be able to sell me salsify. I took the bus to a grocers where there bundles of what looked like stumpy black wands stacked on display. This was black salsify, also known as scorzonera. A small pink label told me it came from a farm in Belgium. Salsify and scorzonera are both root vegetables. One is long and thin with light-brown whiskery skin. It is related to scorzonera which has much darker roots with skin like tree bark. I picked up Freddie from school. A small crowd of his friends gathered round the scorzonera. “They look like daggers” said Eleanor. Freddie took one look and asked if I had any biscuits he could eat. After artichokes, daikons, eddoes and karela, he doesn’t bat an eyelid at strange-looking vegetables. I looked through my older cookery books to learn what to do with my forgotten salsify. Constance Spry writes that in France, salsify authorities classify both types of salsify as one category “salsifis”. She also praises the black salsify for its superior taste. I couldn't find any lighter skinned salsify so we have nothing to compare it with.

I soon learnt that scorzonera has a strange habit. Where the bank had been scratched, a sticky white milk started to ooze from its skin. This stuck to my fingers like pvc glue, turning black. It was impervious to scrubbing. Apparently this milk is in fact latex. Salsify is apparently distantly related to the same family as dandelions, which ooze the same sticky white fluid. When I returned to prepare the scorzonera I wore rubber gloves. There was another unpleasant family characteristic that we were all to discover later on that evening. Like another distant relative, Jerusalem artichokes, they contain something called inulin, which has earned them the nickname "fartichokes". You have been warned. (The genteel Ms Spry hadn’t mentioned this).

With a new vegetable we have learnt to keep it simple. All of my older cookery books recommended boiling or steaming the scorzonera and serving it with browned butter and freshly chopped herbs. So this is what I did. Have a large pan of cold water with plenty of lemon juice ready before you start. The salsify is a sensitive soul. Once exposed to the air, its white flesh starts to brown. With my gloves on, I scrubbed the roots clean, peeled them and placed them in the water with lemon juice. I boiled them until they were tender ; soft but not mushy. Browning butter is easy. Unless you make the same mistake as I did, using a dark coloured pan. Unable to see how the butter was browning, I burnt it. I switched to a white pan and started afresh. This was the first time any of us had tasted any kind of salsify. We tried to describe it. Alex thought it was like a mild turnip, Freddie compared it to Jerusalem artichokes, Chris thought it was a little like asparagus in taste. None of us felt that it tasted like its nickname, oyster. The score from Freddie for his first taste of Scorzonera was 7 out of 10. The browned butter helped this score...

Scorzonera with browned butter and herbs

1 kg scorzonera

100g butter

Generous handful of freshly chopped chive and parsley

Clean the roots under running water, peel them and then put them into a large pan with some lemon juice. Make sure they are covered by the water. Cut into smaller pieces and slice them at an angle, into pieces the same size as penne pasta. Boil a pan of water with lemon juice and add the scorzonera. Simmer for around 25-30 minutes or until the roots are tender. There seems to be a huge difference in the recommended cooking time for this root vegetable. Some say that 10 minutes boiling is enough – we found that it took over 25 minutes. They are ready when they are tender and just soft – but not mushy. Drain well. In a small light-coloured pan, melt the butter and stir until it starts to turn a golden nutty brown. Drain the scorzonera and place in a serving dish. Pour over the browned butter with the chopped herbs. Serve immediately.

S is for Samphire and Crab Tart

2008-03-18T06:33:00.000+01:00

“half-way down
lies one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!”
(King Lear)

Hundreds of years ago samphire gatherers risked their lives to pick strands of the rarer rock samphire. At times, children were tied with rope and dangled over the cliff edge. This is the “dreadful trade” that Shakespeare refers to in King Lear. On Monday morning, with a day off work, I went to find marsh samphire. I wasn't hanging from the edge of a cliff but the route was almost as perilous. And that is because on Monday morning the pavements of West London are covered in unwanted furniture. In the half mile walk between home and the fishmongers I had to climb round enough furniture and fittings to furnish a small mansion. Two velour sofas, three dining chairs, a kitchen table, four rolled up carpets, a couple of standard lamps and a bedside table later I arrived at the fishmongers and bought my samphire which came from Mexico. Back through the forest of dumped furniture, which was now decorated by dog dirt, I arrived home.

I made a crab and samphire tart. Samphire is slightly salty and works well with the crab. Half way through I panicked and worried whether it might need some other flavour. So I called David from Book the Cook who lives up in South Shields. He was about to face 200 school children to teach them about the pleasures of cooking good food. "You could add some dill or chervil but really you don't want to overpower the crab and samphire." So encouraged by David, I kept it simple. Alex's verdict was " This tastes just like Cornwall" and Freddie gave it 10 out of 10.

Crab and Samphire Tart

170g tin of white crab meat ( drained weight 120g)

4 eggs, whisked

Salt and pepper

100 ml creme fraiche

A small handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

375 g of ready made short crust pastry

100g of samphire, rinsed well

Roll out the pastry to a circle to fit a round greased quiche tin. Blind bake the pastry in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes at 180C. Boil a pan of water and add the samphire for about a minute. Drain. Whisk the eggs, add the creme fraiche, parsley, drained white crab meat and seasoon with salt and pepper. Stir in the drained and cooled samphire. Take out the blind-baked pastry case and pour in the egg, samphire and crab mixture. Put back in the oven and bake for 35 minutes until the top is lightly golden. Serve warm or cold

S is for Samphire....

2008-03-17T07:53:00.009+01:00

Samphire is a succulent wild green plant that you find growing on coastal marshes around Great Britain. The North Norfolk coast and parts of the Essex coast are famous for it. The samphire season in Britain lasts between June and September. So this was one vegetable that we had to taste when it was available. On our last holiday in Cornwall I overheard people talking about samphire growing on a local estuary. The next day I went to find it. The children looked on from the safety of solid ground as I stepped out purposely into the mud with what I thought was a perfect foragers’ basket. When you go foraging you have to be optimistic. Then the mud started to creep over the top of my wellington boots. I clung to my wicker basket and squelched around. Never believe anything you hear in a pub. There was no samphire. Or at least if there was any, it was hidden by mud. I thrust my hand into the mud and pulled out weeds. It started to rain heavily and then thunder. Alex and Freddie shouted at me to get out and come home. With each step the boots became stuck. In order to scramble out, I let go of the basket. I climbed up on all fours, mud-drenched. Slowly and with considerable pathos, the foragers’ basket sank into the mud. With one final glug, the wicker handle was subsumed and a spray of tiny bubbles rose to the surface. My image as an intrepid samphire forager was in tatters. Freddie took me by the hand and led me home. Samphire makes you do strange things.

So their very first taste of marsh samphire came from Fowey Fishmongers and was accompanied by smoked mackerel. Samphire is known as sea asparagus or poor man’s asparagus. It looks like tiny strands of cacti. Like asparagus, it tastes good having been quickly boiled and served with a little melted butter or some extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Boiling it quickly, gives it an intense bright green colour. Yet despite its intense greenness, Freddie enjoyed it - because he liked the texture. Early on in the vegetable challenge, he had discovered the joys of asparagus and so samphire was added to his "I like this" list on the Naming and Shaming Fridge. The first taste earned 8 out of 10.

Samphire with lemon and butter
Marsh samphire
Unsalted butter or extra virgin olive oil
Lemon or lime juice

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Wash and rinse it thoroughly. Add the samphire to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. If you prefer, you can steam it instead. Drain and add a knob of butter, douse with lemon juice and serve immediately. I recommend using unsalted butter if you have some, because the samphire is naturally salty in taste.

When we came home to London, our local fishmongers was selling some that had come from Brittany. Our second samphire recipe was another very simple dish: samphire with poached eggs on toast. The poached eggs must not be overcooked as the combination of runny egg yolk and samphire is delicious. Alex and Freddie consumed this so quickly by the time Chris and I had sat down to eat our meal, they were already asking for seconds. Samphire with poached egg on toast scored the maximum ten out of ten.

And the samphire adventure is about to continue as samphire is back in the fishmongers, farmed somewhere in Mexico. So how do you like your samphire?

Exciting news from the Great Big Veg Challenge!

2008-03-13T08:51:00.002+01:00

Exciting news for us - the Great Big Veg Challenge is being turned into a book. A short while ago the publishers, Vermillion, who are an imprint of Random House contacted us. After months and months of stress ( I now have enormous respect for people who write books for their living) it is gradually becoming a reality and will be on sale from July 3rd 2008. This is the front cover that came through the post recently. Freddie read the quote at the top and muttered "....or she is bonkers."

Meanwhile we are munching our way through the alphabet as normal...our next stop will be S for Samphire which I was amazed to find in a local fishmongers.

S is for Salad Shells

2008-03-11T09:52:00.003+01:00

“My salad days, when I was green in judgement’

When Freddie was little he was invited to a birthday party at an extremely smart house. The child who lived there had not one but two nannies. Caterers had been brought in to celebrate his fourth birthday party. There were no sausage rolls, no chips, no jelly or sweets. Instead the mother looked on as tables of small children were served with salads and what can only be described as canapés for infants. The mothers and nannies became competitive.
“Come on now Peter, you know you like tomatoes.”
“Lucinda, try those lovely asparagus tips.”
Most of the kids went on strike. Some of them crawled under the table and started fighting. Even the birthday child refused to play ball. They held out until the cake arrived and then fell on it like vultures.

It has taken 5 more years to entice Freddie to eat a salad. I experimented with ingredients and dressings. After months of intensive research, we have stumbled on a successful formula; give complete control to the child and make the salad bowl edible. This is the ultimate do-it-yourself salad. Alex called the final product, made from tortilla wraps, ‘Salad Shells’.
This lifted the humble salad from being simply a side dish and turned it into something that Freddie awarded an astonishing 9 out of 10.

1. Make your tortilla salad shell
Metal tortilla bowl bakers or ovenproof glass bowl
Cooking spray oil
Medium sized tortilla wraps

I found a specialist tortilla bowl maker in TK Max. These are simply flat-bottomed non-stick metal shells. If you can’t get hold of one, try using an ovenproof glass bowl with a flat bottom. If you are using a tortilla shell baker, spray the inside of the shell pans lightly with cooking oil spray. Place a tortilla in each shell pan, smoothing it to make it fit the shape of the pan. Bake in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes at 180C. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan. If you are using an ovenproof bowl, lightly spray both sides of the tortilla and smooth with a kitchen towel. Take the tortilla and drape evenly over an upturned ovenproof bowl, place it on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 190C for between 6 and 8 minutes.

2. Pick your own salad shell fillings - some ideas for you to try out.

· Chose your favourite salad leaves. Wash them and make sure they are thoroughly dry. You don’t want the tortilla bowl to become soggy when filled with a salad.
· Take fresh or frozen edamame beans. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a wok with half a teaspoon of mild chilli powder. Stir-fry for 2 minutes.
· Take chopped asparagus tips. Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a wok with a tablespoon of sesame seeds. Add the asparagus and stir fry for 1 -2 minutes.
· Wash 250g of baby corn. Place them in boiling water or steam for 2 mins.

· 1 red or yellow pepper. Halve and deseed. Cut into strips and stir fry with a chopped garlic clove for 2 minutes in olive oil. Or you can offer them raw- but make sure they are very thinly sliced.
· Small new potatoes. Boil them till they are just soft. Cut them in half. Add a little knob of butter and some chopped fresh mint. Season with salt and pepper
· Button mushrooms. Wash and dry and chop in half.

· Grated carrot and celeriac, mixed together. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to stop the celeriac from going brown.
· Chose whatever selection of vegetables your family enjoys.

Toppings
· Roast chicken breast, cut into strips.
· Stir fry strips of beef fillet
· Crispy streaky bacon

· Any hard cheese, grated; Emmental, Cheddar, Gruyère.
· Mixed seeds like sesame, sunflower, pumpkin or raisins to sprinkle.

Offer a bowl of couscous or quinoa. Quinoa is a tasty alternative to rice and takes less time to prepare. The Incas used to refer to it as the mother of all grains.

Dressings
· Provide a choice of shop-bought or home made dressings. Don't use too much or the tortilla shell will become soggy. Here is one of our favourite dressings..
· Yoghurt and herb dressing. Beat 250g plain smooth ( not set) yoghurt with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons of chopped basil leaves and 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh mint.

Now because we think you might enjoy eating salad shells, try it out and email us an image of your salad creations and we will create a slide show.....

You made me love you, I didn't want to do it...

2008-03-08T17:16:00.005+01:00

Rocket Noodles
Serves 4

375g dried egg noodles
150g smoked salmon trimmings, cut into strips
100g rocket leaves,washed
1-2 tbsp olive oil or 1 tbsp of melted butter if preferred
3-4 tbsp freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Ground pepper to season (optional)

Smoked salmon trimmings are cheaper and perfect for this meal. Slice the trimmings into smaller strips. Wash and dry the rocket leaves. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. When they are ready, drain the noodles. Add the olive oil, stirring it round. Quickly stir in the rocket leaves which will wilt in the heat of the cooked noodles. Add the smoked salmon strips. Sprinkle some freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top.

We said our goodbyes to the Misses Roquette, Rocket and Aragula with a meal that earned an 8 out of 10. Our Namer-in-Chief, Alexandra, called it Rocket Noodles. It is easy to prepare with rocket, salmon and parmesan. Our Initiation Au Gout, inspired by a restaurant, La Cigale, has gone well. Freddie has learned to like the peppery taste of rocket in a potato salad, on pizzas, in noodles and in wraps. For lunch today we combined tuna with creme-fraiche, chopped rocket and basil all rolled up in a tortilla wrap. Freddie started singing,"You made me love you, I didn't want to do it..."

At the supermarket, in the queue at the fish counter was a beautifully dressed French woman. With her was a boy of about three dressed in a pastel blue suit and patent blue sandals with a buttoned strap. I like to pry at other people's shopping trolleys and this one was too good to miss. There were scallops, gulls' eggs, Sea bass, pomegranates and crab. I shifted a plastic bag to obscure mine (baked beans, pork sausages and past their sell-by-date hot cross buns), leaving only the wild rocket on show. As my trolley-envy grew, Madame Haute Cuisine completed her extensive fish order. This wasn't any ordinary shopping list - more an order to fill a large aquarium. The pastel prince was becoming bored and working up to a small tantrum in French. She moved on to her shellfish order. He upped the volume. Tantrums are universal, they need no translating. Except in between the whining I couldn't help hearing the word "Nugget." My trolley-envy disappeared. As his mother shopped for crayfish and caviar, he was screaming for chicken nuggets. And there was I thinking that the French were immune...

NEXT STOP is S for SALAD

Fly me to the moon...with rocket pizzas

2008-03-02T09:29:00.002+01:00

"On the continent, people have good food;
In England people have good table manners."

( George Mikes. How to be an Alien)

Actually in England, if our household is anything to go by, good table manners are hard to come by. One byproduct of the great big vegetable challenge is that we all eat together as a family far more often. You'd think this would stimulate interesting conversation. It does - but it also means we have to watch each other eat.

"So what did you do at school today? Can you please use a knife and fork."

"I thought we could go and see a film. Would you please not lick the plate clean."

"You do it."

"No I don't."

"I saw you."

Its a truce. It is disgusting to lick a plate clean at the table. But I console myself that at least it means someone is enjoying the food. A year ago, I hated seeing the plate full of food at the end of a meal. We've come a long way with plate licking...

Geek and Nerd did warn me that in her household, rocket pizzas are "inhaled" rather than eaten. Joanna told us about a pizza bianca, a white pizza base with parmesan with a drizzle of olive oil and rocket, capers, raisins and a little anchovy scattered on top. These were inhaled.

R is for Rocket

2008-02-28T07:19:00.001+01:00

Rocket isn’t just a vegetable: it’s a social climber. She can be found appearing under the more exotic names of Roquette and Rucola. In America, she dances under the soubriquet Arugula. Like Eliza in Pygmalion, she has learnt airs and graces. In reality, rocket is nothing special and has been a feature of British cookery since the sixteenth century. There is even a variety, known simply as ‘London Rocket’ that was noticed by botanists flourishing in the ruins after the 1666 Great Fire of London. I suspect that Miss Roquette learned very early on, that to survive, she had to reinvent herself. Nowadays rocket is definitely seen as posh food and with its peppery, zesty flavour, certainly not something that you would give to the children. But after a visit to France, I changed my mind.

We flew to Nantes to see my brother marry his French girlfriend. Now I know that when it comes to valuing and producing good food, France has always occupied the high ground. And watching the way that local delicacies and wines were woven into the day long celebrations, I can see why.
Freddie and Alex were involved in all this ceremony, summoning the guests with drums and banners into a huge circus tent. They sat with other children and enjoyed the same food as the adults. Between the courses the children danced, fought, chased each other, covered themselves in mud and behaved like children anywhere. But when the next course arrived, they returned to their seats and ate well. At midnight a flaming brioche processed through the room and I found Freddie asleep with his head on the table, still holding a spoon next to a plate of half-eaten patisseries.

We stayed in Nantes for the rest of the weekend. La Cigale is a famous brasserie in the centre of the city. They offer a children’s taster menu for only 7.50 Euros. In Britain, most childrens’ meals offer a variation on chips, beans, sausages, and chicken nuggets. The smarter menus appease parents with organic chicken nuggets and sausages. The occasional pasta and pizza option appears with a few vegetables thrown in for good measure. It is as if children require entirely different food to adults. At La Cigale, the ‘Initiation au Gout’ is exactly that. Children are introduced to tastes. They are treated as equals. Freddie and Alex were handed a children’s menu that was entirely grown-up. The dishes were simple versions of what we were eating. Warmed goats’ cheese, smoked salmon and sardines were tasted. They tried a roquette and tomato salad and we ordered six snails. “As long as you don’t think that they are snails, they taste fantastic,” said Freddie.
Alex, who has long since refused childrens’ menus in Britain, was impressed with the French version. The waiters were relaxed and there was nothing stuffy about the restaurant. We were surrounded by French families having Sunday supper. And there
wasn't a chicken nugget in sight...
What is the attitude to children's food where you live? I can't help thinking that in countries or cultures where a two-tier system exists, food for the children and different food for the adults, there must be more fussy eaters...

The next day we flew home. Freddie had decided in France that he liked the peppery taste of rocket so I made a warm potato and rocket salad. He scored it 9 out of 10.

Warm potato and rocket saladServes 4-5

60g rocket leaves
500g baby new potatoes
200g smoked bacon lardons
1 tsp honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chive

Cook the bacon lardons in a nonstick frying pan until they are beginning to crisp. You shouldn’t need to add any oil to do this – they will cook in their own fat. Boil potatoes for 15-20 minutes, until tender. Drain the potatoes and halve them. Whisk together the oil, lemon juice, honey, mustard in a small jug. Wash and dry the rocket leaves and put them in a large salad bowl. Add the chopped chives, cooked potatoes and lardons. When you are ready to eat, toss the salad with the dressing and serve.

Rhubarb and Beef Mince

2008-02-18T09:25:00.001+01:00

The first time that someone left their thoughts in the comment box I was elated. Freddie and Alex were intrigued that out of the ether, visitors had appeared on the blog. When people leave their cooking tips and recipes it is even more exciting. Rhubarb has brought out the best in you all. A lady known only as 'Schmoof' left a recipe for Rhubarb and Mince. This is all she wrote:- "I've never had rhubarb in a sweet dish (I'm not much of a pudding lover) but my dad makes a great rhubard and mince dish. He frys some beef mince with onions, garlic, celery and carrot, and then adds spices like cumin, paprika and a touch of tumeric. He then adds roughly chopped rhubarb, some beef stock, and a touch of sugar. Simmer it gently for about an hour, sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve over rice."

I printed the comment and took it downstairs to show Freddie. He thought that as it contained beef it was probably worth trying. Like a magic spell, Schmoof's recipe came alive in my kitchen. If there is one rhubarb dish you should all try, this is the one. It was delicious. I cooked it for over an hour and served it with baked sweet potatoes. Freddie was impressed and awarded this rhubarb dish an impressive 9 out of 10. And, Schmoof, if you are reading this, tell your Dad that because of his dish, rhubarb has been nudged into the "I like" category - a meteoric rise given its disappointing show with the compote. Thank you!

With the rest of our rhubarb, Alex made a cake using a recipe card picked up in Waitrose supermarket. For the Rhubarb and Soured Cream Cake recipe click here. This is an easy recipe to make but it is slow cooking, taking nearly two hours to bake in the oven. The house smelt wonderful at the end of the day. And not surprisingly this was given the maximum 10 out of 10 by Freddie and Alex. Which means that we can move on to our next R vegetable... rocket or aragula as its known in America. Any ideas?
If you want to know how to start your own Great Big Vegetable Challenge, watch this flipbook.

Veggies: Variety is the spice of life!

2008-02-16T23:53:00.000+01:00

We noticed a dramatic spike in the numbers of visitors from the USA to the Great Big Vegetable Challenge and traced it back to a paper published by the American Institute for Cancer Research. They are promoting the health benefits of eating a wider variety of vegetables and fruit and varying your diet. The title of the paper -"Veggies: More Variety for Maximum Cancer Protection" and they are trying to persaude people to expand their diet beyond starchy vegetables like potatoes. We were so excited to see that they recommend people eating through the A to Z of vegetables and linked directly to our blog.
Selling the health benefits of a better diet to an eight year old boy isn't easy, but it made me feel better that all the hundreds of meals we have made over the last 13 months may have another long term benefit for all of the family.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

2008-02-15T07:56:00.002+01:00

It was Valentine's Day in the supermarket. Over the tannoy, the voice of a tired irritated woman announced,"Today is the day when you have the opportunity to show the one you love just how much you care." There was a pause and a deep sigh."In Aisle 10 there are a range of gifts from as little as 99 pence." So if you really don't care that much, there is the perfect 99 pence gift. I can only imagine that announcing the promise of Valentine's Day twice an hour, had plunged the Voice of the Tannoy into a depression.
For my loved ones, I decided to buy more rhubarb. A shop assistant was straightening the vegetables. As I took a bag of rhubarb, he took the other end. "You will enjoy this won't you?" he said and smiled broadly at me. "Oh yes, of course." "It's just that rhubarb is my favourite."
"I won't let you down." I said. This was a man with a passion for rhubarb, someone who didn't want it to go to an unloving home.
Back at home I made rhubarb and strawberry compote. Many of you have left comments about the joys of a simple compote so I tried this with Freddie. And just so that you know, it isn't always plain sailing with the Great Big Vegetable Challenge. Freddie hated it. "Too sour and too stringy"
Alex loved it so I suppose this is a 50% success rate. But I daren't tell the man in the supermarket. Tonight we need another success and we will be trying out a recipe left by Schmoof, which is a meat and rhubarb mince made my her father. Wish us luck!

Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote
250g rhubarb sticks
250g strawberries
75g caster sugar
1 large orange

Wash and cut the rhubarb sticks into 3cm pieces. Wash, stem and cut the strawberries in half. Grate the orange zest and squeeze the juice. Add to a pan with the rhubarb, strawberries and sugar. Gently heat all the ingredients together until juice starts to run from the strawberries. For the next ten minutes, cook on a medium heat, stirring. The rhubarb will become tender. Serve with Greek yoghurt, vanilla ice cream or custard.

Wise words from Ethelind....

2008-02-07T11:27:00.000+01:00

A neighbour posted a small green pocket book through the letterbox with a post-it note stuck to one page. The book was Ethelind Fearon’s ‘Hot and Cold Sweets’, written in 1956. You don’t mess with Ethelind. “I shall expect some slight co-operation from the reader,” she warns. No gentle hand-holding here. Unlike modern day celebrity chefs, Ethelind does not appear in her book. So I can only imagine what she looks like. In my mind's eye I can see a starched apron and sensible shoes. I may be wrong. Anyhow whilst I was daydreaming, Ethelind took me by the scruff of my dirty apron, poked me with her wooden spoon and barked at me to get on with cooking rhubarb fingers. This recipe was sandwiched between ‘Puffs, Jugoslavian’ and ‘Rice Caramel.’ As I dusted the counter with flour, rolled out my rough puff pastry and dipped my rhubarb sticks in melted butter, a wave of 1950’s nostalgia passed over me. Freddie came down and started to play marbles on the kitchen floor. Alex came into the kitchen and joined in. For a split second (if I ignored the i-pod plugged into her ears) we looked like an illustration from a Ladybird book. You know the sort of thing. Jane and Peter are playing in the kitchen whilst Mummy cooks and Daddy is cleaning the car. Then I stepped on a marble, flipping a sugar-coated, butter-dripping rhubarb stick across the room. Mummy never swore in Ladybird books. Ethelind tutted disapprovingly and I pulled myself together, wrapped my rhubarb sticks in their puff pastry blankets and placed them in the oven. When they emerged, some had split. These looked the most appetising, revealing a flash of pink rhubarb. Freddie and Alex had no problem consuming a handful of rhubarb fingers and gave them 8 out of 10. I hope that Ethelind would have looked on approvingly. As she says, “you should be capable of devising your own variations on this delectable theme and have no need of advice from anyone at all.” Don't let on, but I am still in need of advice from all of you out there!

R is for Rhubarb

2008-02-05T08:35:00.001+01:00

There are some vegetables that sit on the fence: rhubarb is one of them. We treat rhubarb as if it was a fruit but as we eat the stems of the plant, it is in fact a vegetable. It has a rich history in Britain. In a triangle of farmland bordered by Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, rhubarb growers harvest their prize produce in sheds lit by candlelight. Cosseted in the dark warmth, the rhubarb can focus its efforts on producing long sweet stalks rather than wasting its efforts on leaves to absorb sunlight. This is ‘forced’ rhubarb and West Yorkshire used to produce 90% of the world’s winter rhubarb. The rhubarb would rumble its way down to London on a train known as the Rhubarb Express.

In a diversion from the alphabet, Freddie had his first taste of rhubarb last September when it was still growing happily indoors. Eating alphabetically has taken us on a fantastic journey but when a vegetable is in season you have to try it then and there. We travelled down to Wiltshire to stay with friends and enjoy their rhubarb. They live in a Georgian house where the cliché ‘time stands still’ is deserved. The original servants bells, painted mustard-yellow, hang in rows in the kitchen. On the floor are huge stone flags which lead into the old scullery with its vast ceramic sinks. To the left is the larder with wooden vegetable racks, mesh-fronted cupboards and meat hooks hanging down from a beam; an 18th century kitchen preserved.

Our friend Colette took Freddie through these rooms to the walled kitchen garden, bordered by apple, plum and damson trees. Left to its own devices, rhubarb produces flamboyant green and red-veined leaves, which also happen to be poisonous. Freddie helped to pick the stems and ran off to build a den with his friend Matthew. “We don’t eat enough puddings,” said Freddie as they ran off. “Can you make a rhubarb crumble?”

So I did, using a recipe from Colette’s book of family recipes.
The crumble topping is made from oats, rather than flour and helped to ensure that rhubarb scored 9 out of 10. Do you have a favourite rhubarb recipe to share? Let us know.

Rhubarb and Oat Crumble
Serves 6
75g caster sugar
Rind and juice of one large orange
1 kg rhubarb stalks

For the topping:
225g whole porridge oats
175g brown sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
175g butter

Preheat the oven to 180C. Chop the rhubarb stalks into 3cm pieces. Wash the orange and finely grate the rind. Then squeeze the juice from the oranges. Place the caster sugar, orange juice and rind with the rhubarb pieces in a pan over a medium heat, stirring for three to four minutes. Pour into an ovenproof dish.
To make the topping, melt the butter in a large pan. Remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon and brown sugar. Then add the porridge oats and stir so they are well-coated. Evenly spread the oat topping over the rhubarb and bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. The topping should be golden brown and the rhubarb bubbling. Serve with Greek yoghurt, custard or icecream.

The next stop is Radicchio

2008-02-02T18:14:00.000+01:00

I took the tube to the grocers to buy more radicchio. The grand lady wasn’t there. This time we picked out the Treviso and ditched any thoughts of "accents".
On the way home on the underground we approached Oxford Circus station. The spaced out voice of Miss London Underground came over the tannoy."The next stop is Ealing Broadway." For those of you who are lucky enough not to have become familiar with the London Tube Map, Ealing Broadway and Oxford Circus are many miles apart. I looked up and laughed. Miss Striped Suit sitting next to me, glanced up with a blank face. Noone else smiled;the entire carriage were clearly the victims of a mass humour-lobotomy. No one reacts normally on the underground. The tannoy could tell them they were about to be joined by a regiment of zombies and there would be no reaction. In fact thinking back, maybe they were zombies. I stopped smiling and stared at my radicchio.
Last year Freddie enjoyed chicory gratin so we adapted the recipe to suit its redheaded cousin. Braised in chicken stock and then enveloped in a cheese sauce, the radicchio was tamed. The bitterness didn’t seem quite so obvious. Freddie thought it was delicious which might have been more to do with the fact that he was about to watch a crucial football match on the television. On the other hand, his plate was empty and he gave this radicchio recipe 9 out of 10.
Radicchio Gratin
2 heads of radicchio
300 mls of vegetable or chicken stock
100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
1 and a half tablespoons of plain flour
175 ml milk
1 and a half tablespoons of butter
40g coarse breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to season
Trim the stems and quarter the radicchio. Pour the stock in a large frying pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat. Add the radicchio and simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on. Drain the stock away into a measuring jug. Take out the radicchio and lay them out in a deep baking tray. Preheat the oven to 180C.
In another pan on a low heat, melt the butter and stir in the flour so it forms a paste. Add the milk, 75ml of the reserved stock and bring it to the boil, whisking all the time. Add the grated cheese, whisk the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Pour evenly over the radicchio and sprinkle the bread crumbs on top. Put in the preheated oven with a foil lid. Bake for 25 minutes. For the last 10 minutes of cooking time, remove the foil lid so that the breadcrumbs crisp up.

Because you can have too much of a good thing we are moving on, this time to rhubarb. Because it is I am reliably informed not a fruit but a vegetable.

R is for Radicchio

2008-01-26T09:25:00.000+01:00

Radicchio, said Fred must be the radish’s Italian cousin. In fact they aren’t related. Radicchio is a red-leaved chicory. There are different types, named after the regions of Italy from where they originate. I found them in a grocers’ shop. There were three red-headed Divas on offer: the Chiogga, the Treviso and the Castelfranco. We chose the Chiogga, which was round and the leaves are compact.
“It tastes quite bitter,” warned the grocer. “Try grilling it with some olive oil.”
“Use it as an ‘accent’,” barked a rather grand lady who was buying fancy mushrooms. I didn’t want to reveal my ignorance.
“Oh yes, of course, an accent vegetable,” I muttered knowingly.
When it comes to vegetables, what exactly is an ‘accent’?
There are some vegetables that feel too grand for our family mealtimes and this had to be one of them. The Chiogga Radicchio came home with us in a brown paper bag, no doubt complaining bitterly that it had to travel on the bus.
I figured that the posh lady’s use of the word ‘accent’ was more akin to interior decoration. The radicchio needed to be given a decorative role. I quartered it once and then again, coated it with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little salt and grilled it. The bright red pigment rapidly ages in the heat and turns a rather distinguished mottled brown. I don’t know many children that like bitter tastes. Radiccio isn’t in the same bitterness league as the kerala or bitter gourd but it is still challenging. The grilled Chiogga was arranged on oven-warmed Foccacia bread with a slice of ripe Brie cheese. The grand lady would have been proud of me. I warned Freddie and Alex about the bitterness. Bolstered by the Brie, it scored 7 out of 10.

R is for Radish, Cannellini and Cheese

2008-01-20T15:29:00.000+01:00

The Roman poet Horace compiled a long list of foods that would wake up a weary stomach. Radishes are on his list. And there is nothing more weary than the stomach of a fussy eater. Freddie's own list on the Naming and Shaming Fridge is literally a moveable feast. Radishes have been allowed to creep up from "I hate" to "I am not sure about these ..." Our very last R for Radish recipe came from one of Freddie's favourite chefs, David Hall of the Book the Cook blogspot, who devotes a great deal of his time trying to inspire the appetites of young people. His recipe is slightly sweet, warming and prompted Freddie to nudge radish to the very borders of "I like." Right now the radish is waiting in vegetable transit to be given a visa to travel to "I like."

Cannellini Cheese and Radish Salad

1 tin of Cannelini beans

Radishes, thinly sliced

Crumbly goats' cheese or Lancashire

Red onion thinly sliced( optional - we left this out)

Fresh parsley, chopped finely

Dressing - 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, 3 tbsp olive oil,1 tbsp cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon runny honey.

Make the dressing and warm in a small pan with the cannellini beans. Simply dress the plate with the beans, radishes, onion and parsley and crumble the cheese over. Serve with crusty bread.

Our next stop is Raddichio...any thoughts?

R is for Roasted Radishes

2008-01-09T14:55:00.000+01:00

I did toy with the idea of carving a face in a radish and then came to my senses. For our very own 'Noche de Rabanos’, I roasted the radishes. I bought bunches of beautiful multicoloured radishes, coated them in seasoned olive oil and put them in the oven. I served them to Freddie and Alex with some roast chicken. “What sort of potatoes are these?”asked Freddie. Once roasted, the radishes become quite tender and they lose some of their fiery taste. I told Freddie he was eating radishes. he looked surprised but awarded the roasted radishes a stunning 8 out of 10. The radish is going up in his estimation...
Noche de Rabanos Roasted Radishes
750g radishes
6 garlic cloves
2-3 tablespoons of sesame oil
Half tsp of mild chilli powder
Half tsp of smoked paprika powder
A pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 190C. Cut the radishes in half. Place them in a deep baking tray. Peel the garlic cloves and add them whole.
Cover the radishes and garlic in the sesame oil, mild chilli powder and smoked paprika. Add a pinch of salt. Stir well to make sure they are coated in the oil and seasonings. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Half way through, stir them round to make sure they are evenly cooked. Serve hot.

You can try this with baby turnips and other root vegetables if you prefer.

R is for Radish with Comte Cheese

2008-01-07T11:27:00.000+01:00

“Can’t you DO something with the radishes? You didn’t exactly change them to make them taste any better”, said Freddie. This is true. Our previous effort, Radis au Beurre was delicious but the Radish was bare. They suffer from a rather limited public image: always the bridesmaid and never the bride. They are treated as a glorified garnish. In fact, did you know that on December 23rd each year in Oaxaca in Mexico, they hold a Radish Night where people compete to create the most elaborate radish sculptures? If you are a Mexican radish, La Noche de Rábanos is bigger than the Oscars. In the months leading up to the big night, radishes are lovingly cultivated and fertilized to grow to huge proportions. They are then carved into animals, dancers, entire scenes from the Nativity. There is nothing the good people of Oaxaca can’t make with a radish.
But as Freddie and I discovered, it was Anne from Sweden who offered us a radish lifeline with a radish and cheese salad with a white balsamic vinegar dressing.
Here is her recipe - which is simple and delicious. The Comte cheese adds a caramel like taste to the dish which we served with salmon.
"Tell Anne" decreed Freddie after his first mouthful of radish and cheese, "Tell Anne, that her radish and cheese recipe is at least seven out of 10 and tastes really good."
He got up from the table and went over to the Naming and Shaming Fridge and shunted the humble radish up from the "I hate" category and into " I am not sure about this vegetable..." which is progress. It is easier to escape from Alcatraz than for a vegetable to leave Freddie's "I hate" category.
Our taste journey continues with the radish. We are always open to your ideas. And thank you Anne for your winning dish.

R is for Radish and the Supertaster Test

2008-01-02T14:41:00.000+01:00

“We are going to try radishes tomorrow,” I announced.
“But I think I’m a Supertaster.” said Freddie as he sat in front of the television, watching a programme about fussy eaters. I had in mind a caped crusader saving the world by taking huge bites out of mounds of food. “I may have an extra powerful tongue for tasting,” he elaborated, “and that’s why supertasters don’t like things like vegetables.”
I looked up at the television to hear more. Apparently supertasters are not caped but they do have an unusually high number of taste buds, making them taste food more keenly. Freddie was convinced of his supertaster status. I was sceptical.

According to scientists at Yale University of Medicine 25% of people could be supertasters. On the internet there is even a simplified version of their taster test which we tried out.
1.Punch a 7mm whole in four small squares of paper.
2.Swab blue food colouring on to the tips of the tongue.
3.The tiny papillae that house the taste buds don’t absorb the blue dye, so they show up under a magnifying glass as tiny pink circles.
4.Place the paper with the punched out hole onto the tip of the tongue and count papillae through a magnifying glass.
5.Over 35 within the circle and you could be a supertaster.
(Incidentally if any of you have a fussy eater in the house, try the Supertaster Test and email us a picture...)
The entire family stood in a line with our blue-swabbed tongues hanging out in expectation. Our kitchen has a glass roof. A neighbour was looking down. I grinned back in embarrassment, my red face blushing and my blue tongue lolling. After intensive examination with a magnifying glass, we discovered that in the taste stakes we were all profoundly average. No excuses for Freddie. No avoiding the radishes.

So I bought a bunch of French breakfast radishes in the supermarket. As far as I know and I have asked around, the French do not eat radishes for breakfast but they do serve them thinly sliced on crusty bread with a little sea salt on the side to sprinkle on top, as an hors d’oeuvre,‘radis au beurre.’ These French breakfast radishes tasted milder than the smaller English versions but they have quite a kick. Alex loved them. Freddie hated them. But the bread and butter helped to earn this dish a modest 6 out of 10. On the naming and shaming fridge, the radishes remained in the “I hate” category.

1 Crusty French baguette
Unsalted French butter
1 bunch of French breakfast radishes
Sea salt to sprinkle
Slice the crusty bread at an angle to make longer slices. Wash the radishes and remove the green leaves at the stalk. Thinly slice them. Butter the bread and cover with the radish slices. Put some sea salt on the side to serve. (If you prefer salted butter, you won’t need the added salt.)
Any favourite radish dishes out there for us to try out?

Happy Christmas from the Great Big Vegetable Challenge

2007-12-29T08:23:00.000+01:00

Happy Christmas from the Great Big Vegetable Challenge!
Please excuse the two week absence from the blog. Our link to the outside world gave up in the cold weather. Deep under the pavement, the aluminium wires snaking into our home snapped in the cold. No phone, no broadband and no blog.
We enjoyed Christmas in London. On Christmas Eve we have a tradition that started six years ago. We make twelve fish dishes, light lots of candles and wade manfully through everything from Cromer crab to squid. The whole feast is served on special fish plates which come out once a year. It is not so much a meal as an aquarium. But Freddie and Alex look forward to it and family Christmas traditions have a habit of persisting, however bizarre.
On Christmas Day, we are more conventional, serving turkey and all-the-trimmings which include of course, the Brussels sprout. We ate Brussel Sprouts under B and very early on in our alphabetical vegetable challenge, Freddie discovered that he loved sprouts. Like many fussy-eaters, Freddie’s fears about vegetables would often revolve around the texture so I made a simple sprout puree which is sweet and goes well with a slice of turkey. Freddie, full of Christmas spirit, gave it 8 out of 10.

BRUSSELS SPROUT PUREE
Serves 4 as a side dish
1o -12 sprouts
A generous knob of butter
A handful of fresh basil leaves
3-4 tbsp of crème-fraiche
Salt and pepper to season

Bring a pan of water to boil. Quarter the sprouts and when the water is boiling, add them to the water and cook them for around 5 minutes. Take them out of the water with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl. Keep back a few sprout leaves.
Add a generous knob of butter, a handful of basil leaves and two tablespoons of crème- fraiche or double cream. Using a food processor or hand-blender, reduce them to a puree. Serve, decorating the edge of the bowl with the leaves you kept back.
Season with salt and pepper.

Facing the New Year of vegetable eating, we are now ready to resume our journey and the next letter is R and the first R vegetable we will be trying out is the Radish. Please send us all of your ideas....

The ten minute vegetable challenge

2007-12-14T10:03:00.000+01:00

Three new quick vegetable dishes for you to try out.
Hannah Miles in her country kitchen is sharing her quick pea and mint soup recipe that takes, according to our own reenactment, 8 minutes and 30 seconds from pea to plate. Freddie and Alex loved this soup which we made last night. Thank you Hannah.

David Hall, Book the Cook has created a brilliant quick turnaround treat, his Hasty, Hasty Sweet and Sour Peppers on toast. Delicious David - we will be making these tonight for the hoards when they return from school, hungry, tired and impatient. We always love what you do. Thank you David!

And that brings us to Holler in Scotland at Tinned Tomatoes with one of her favourite quick recipes, Red Pepper Houmous. This recipe, based on Nigella is perfect for this quick challenge. Now if you all combine these with the quick fried plantain tostones dippers. Holler, Freddie loves red pepper houmous and we will try out your version this weekend. This is a recipe that he can make. Thank you Holler!
And don't forget, in the post below are another three brilliant quick recipes from Figs,Olives,Wine, The Expatriate Kitchen,The Slow Cook and Purple Podded Peas.
Go on - tell us how much time you take to cook supper?

Q is for Quick Vegetable Dishes

2007-12-11T21:25:00.000+01:00

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." Will Rogers, 1930 in a Letter to the New York Times

Dr Edouard de Pomiane wrote a book, ‘La cuisine en dix minutes, ou l’Adaptation au rythme moderne’. This was translated into English as ‘Cooking in Ten Minutes or, Adapting to the Rhythm of Modern Life’. This was back in the 1930’s and in France. Who said that convenience food is a modern phenomenon? The difference is that Monsieur de Pomiane was teaching people how to cook real French food, quickly. In the time that it takes to remove the packaging, pierce a cellophane lid, microwave, stir and serve a ready-made meal to the family, we could be munching on Pig’s Ears in Egg and Breadcrumbs or rustling up Hare a la crème. And because our extensive search for Q vegetables drew a blank, here are some of attempts at slow food in a fast world; some of the quicker vegetable recipes that Freddie has enjoyed.At the bottom of the page is the recipe for our regular after school Formula One style quick turnaround Spinach Omelette and Freddie's breakfast favourite, Asparagus Dipped in Runny Egg. No time to cook? Well, with the help of some fellow bloggers we have some recipes designed to inspire the time-challenged amongst you.

1.Your first stop must be to click here and visit Ed Bruske who is the Slow Cook from Washington DC. He has created Quick Braised Swiss Chard with Pomegranate Molasses:his favourite way to prepare Swiss Chard. And if the Slow Cook is prepared to speed up to create something so delicious, what's stopping me? Thanks Ed!

2. Then please return to pay a visit to the The Expatriate Chef, where Beth is waiting for you with her super- quick Balsamic Glazed Carrots. Beth's blog is packed full of delicious recipes that you can create in minutes. Thanks Beth.

3. Celia is an artist from Cambridgeshire who resides at a beautifully verdant blog, Purple Podded Peas and who rather fittingly has cooked up in record time her speciality dish, Presto Pesto Pasta. Thank you Celia!

4. Amanda from Figs Olives Wine lives in New York, the city that according to the cliche, never sleeps. But nothing that Amanda creates ever looks rushed or frazzled. Her recipe for Wild Mushrooms with Sherry Shallots and Parsley takes well under 10 minutes to make. This is a dish where you will feel as you eat it, that time is standing still. Thank you Amanda....

In the next few days we will be bringing you more Quick Vegetable Dishes. What do you like to cook for your family in record time?

SPINACH OMELETTE

TIME TAKEN - 4 minutes,25 seconds
FREDDIE'S SCORE - 9 out of 10
QUICK VEG SCORE - 9 out of 10

Serves 3-4
6 eggs
225g baby spinach leaves
Salt and ground pepper to season
1 tbsp butter for cooking spinach
2 tbsp butter for cooking omelette (use a cooking spray if you prefer a lower-fat option)

Break 5 of the eggs into a bowl. With the 6th egg, separate it. Add the yolk to the other eggs and mix them together gently with a fork. With the one egg white, whisk in a separate bowl until it forms soft peaks. Gently fold into th beaten eggs. Wash and thoroughly dry the spinach. In a pan, heat the butter and stir in the spinach leaves, allowing them to wilt for about a minute. Take off the heat. Season with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in an omelette pan until it starts to foam. If the pan is too large the omelette will be too thin. If it is too small, the omelette will be too thick and tough to fold over.
Pour in the eggs and the spinach leaves. Stir them round with a fork. Tilt the pan so that the egg is evenly distributed. The eggs will start to set after 20 seconds. Redistribute any runny egg by tilting the pan round. With a fork trace round the edge of the omelette. When the egg is nearly set, fold the omelette in half in the pan using a spatula. Leave it to cook for nearly a minute. The remaining runny egg will set. Slide the omelette out of the pan and serve.
ASPARAGUS DIPPED IN EGG

Have vegetables for breakfast. This is something so simple it hardly seems important enough to post, but asparagus dipped in a runny boiled egg was one of the first recipes that persauded Freddie not to be so scared of vegetables. It also takes just minutes to prepare. Steam the asparagus tips for 4 minutes. Boil an egg for about 3 minutes. And serve...

TIME TAKEN - 4 minutes,10 seconds

FREDDIE'S SCORE - 10 out of 10

QUICK VEG SCORE - 10 out of 10

The Great Big Vegetable Challenge is just over a year old...

2007-12-10T22:42:00.001+01:00

We were all so busy munching through the alphabet of vegetables that we forgot to celebrate we were over a year old...As Freddie said, We never thought there were SO MANY vegetables out there to try...

Thank you to those of you who nominated us for a Well Fed Blog Award. We were very excited to find out we were in final five for the Family and Food category. If you enjoy reading our blog, please vote for us here - voting runs out on the 14th December.

And keep sending us your Quick Veg recipes which we will be trying out over the next week.

From P to Q

2007-12-09T08:53:00.000+01:00

We are saying goodbye to Plantain, but not before we have printed off the wonderful recipes that we have been sent. Plantain will now be a permanent feature of our family cooking. Take a look at Cynthia Nelson's homage to the plantain on Tastes Like Home.
And Siri's Corner sent us this plantain curry recipe to try out. Thank you Srilatha.
Our next stop is Q. Because the letter Q is not blessed with vegetables, we will be featuring Quick recipes that use vegetables - simple real food, made fast.

Tostones on a stormy day

2007-12-07T14:59:00.000+01:00

Freddie would like to thank you for tostones. We don't know how it is pronounced but knowing how it transforms plantain has been a revelation. We are particularly grateful for one comment left by someone known only as Carolina who told us about jibaritos. Carolina, wherever you are, in our home you have earned the title Queen of Plantain.

Let us start with Tostones which are fried, flattened and then refried slices of green plantain. There is something a little gothic about the name - add a "mb"and you get tombstones. I went out in the morning to buy my plantain when it was still dark and it was stormy. My nearest market runs along the side of a red brick railway line, punctuated with huge arches that are full of stalls selling anything from goat meat to salt fish. Every few minutes the stalls rattle as a train passes overhead. The plantain were being piled up by the grocer, glowing bright green in the half-light. By the time I got home, it was lighter but there were was a squall blowing. This is a recipe that requires a certain amount of brute force and the howling gale drowned out the sound of me flattening my plantain between two wooden chopping boards. It also drowned out the sound of me howling as I attempted to flatten my own finger. We used half of these delicious tostones as dippers, served with Guacamole, an avocado dip. This might not be the healthiest way to eat your plantains but it is delicious and Freddie awarded tostones the maximum 10 out of 10.

How to make Tostone Dippers

Serves 4

4 green plantain

vegetable oil

Choose the greenest plantains you can find. Peel them with a knife and slice them in half lengthways. In a large deep frying pan heat up enough oil to cover the plantain slices. Add the plantain when the oil is hot and fry for 3-4 minutes until they are a yellowy golden brown. Take the frying pan off the heat and remove the plantain carefully. Use a kitchen towel to absorb excess fat from the plantain. Find two large heavy chopping boards. If they are wooden, cover with clingfilm to protect them. Lay the plantain slices on top of one board, and press to flatten. Try not to break them as you want them to stay intact. When they are flattened, heat up the oil again and add the plantain to refry for a minute. Remove them, wipe them with kitchen towel to remove excess fat and keep in a warm place until ready to make your jibaritos. Serve as dippers with Guacamole. (If you prefer you can slice the plantain into 3 cm discs and then flatten them and serve them as s a snack.)

This is a post in two parts. With half of our tostones we made our own jibaritos (hee-bah-ree-to) which are inspired by a dish made by the Puerto Rican community in Chicago. Jibaritos are like sandwiches with slices of flattened plantain instead of bread. I filled our jibaritos with strips of beef steak, onions, red peppers and lettuce. Interestingly, Freddie was not sure whether it was the beef or the plantain slices that he liked most. He gave a 9 out of 10 for jibaritos. It is just over a year since we embarked on the Great Big Vegetable Challenge. Freddie has pushed plantain up to the top "I like" section of our Naming and Shaming Fridge.

How to make Jibaritos
Serve 4
4 green plantains
400g beef steak,cut into thin strips
Half a red pepper cut into thin strips
Half a round lettuce
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Half an onion, very finely chopped,
1 tablespoon of lime juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 ablespoons of mayonnaise

Follow the instructions above to make tostone dippers. Keep them in the oven on a low heat to stay warm. In a shallow frying pan, heat the olive oil. Saute the finely chopped onion, crushed garlic, red pepper, smoked paprika, oregano until the onion has softened. Cut the beef steak into thin strips and add to the onion and saute with a tablespoon of lime juice until the beef is cooked. Take a tostone slices,spread half a tablespoon of mayonnaise, scatter a quarter of the beef, pepper and onion mixture, a lettuce leaf and top with another tostone slice.Serve immediately.

Plantain and Chicken Skewers

2007-12-03T15:12:00.000+01:00

"Yes we have no bananas..."

Having accepted that plantains are not going to taste like bananas, Freddie has tried them again. In Shepherds Bush market there is a huge selection of fruit and vegetables from around the world and even better, queues of people who are willing to help you learn how to cook them. A woman waiting in the queue to pay, recommended that I buy the blackest plantain, the ones that you would reject if they were bananas. Plantain is more fibrous than a banana and has less sugar but as it ripens, the starch turns to sucrose. I took my black plantains home and cut them into chunks and marinaded them with the chicken. Freddie gave these kebabs 9 out of 10.

Plantain and Chicken kebabs
Serves 4-5

4 chicken fillets, boned and skinned
1 tbsp of jerk seasoning
2 ripe plantain
Juice of 1 lime
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and ground pepper to season
Wooden skewers

Plantain will take a few days to ripen. Unripe ones are green, semi-ripe are a mottled yellow and black and the ripe ones are black. Use two nearly ripened plantains for this recipe. Skin them and chop them diagonally into 3cm chunks.
Cut the chicken fillets into 3cm chunks. Put the plantain in a bowl and add the lime juice, then add the chicken, olive oil, jerk seasoning and crushed garlic. Stir well. Cover with cling film and leave to marinade for an hour. At the same time soak the wooden skewers in water. Thread the chicken and plantain onto the skewers and place on a baking tray. Pour over any remaining marinade liquid. Cook under a hot grill, turning regularly for about 20 minutes. Make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked before serving. You can also cook these on a barbecue.

Thank you for all your comments and recipe ideas. Freddie and I are choosing our next recipes together. We were sent this link to plantain heaven, on Cynthia Nelson's site, Tastes like Home. If only my home tasted as good as this. Take a look!

http://www.tasteslikehome.org/2007/09/gimme-plantains-friendship-breads.html

Do any of you make puddings from plantain? If so what do you make?

P is for Plantain

2007-11-28T20:26:00.000+01:00

"..the city is not an urban jungle, it is a human zoo."

(Desmond Morris, anthropologist)

For the Great Big Vegetable Challenge, we have grown pots of chilli peppers, herbs and tomato plants in our little patio. I have even allowed mushrooms to sprout in the airing cupboard. But I know that cities are not always easy places to show children where food comes from. You have to play to the strength of where you live and when it comes to finding out more about unfamiliar vegetables, the city comes into its own. A few months ago we did a bit of advance research into plantains, which is our next vegetable. Well it is more of fruit, looking like a bunch of large green bananas.

We took the bus to Notting Hill to enjoy the annual carnival. In the streets that lead off the main carnival route, there are hundreds of food stalls selling different Caribbean and African delicacies. People turn their basements into makeshift kitchens. We drifted from house to house, sampling goat curry, sucking on sticky chunks of sugar cane, drinking jelly coconut juice and biting into hot yam chips. This is also where Freddie and Alex had their first ever taste of fried plantain. The stall holder told me how the plantain can be eaten in different ways at different stages of ripeness. As they ripen they turn colour from green to yellow, brown and then black. The flesh becomes a little sweeter along the way. She handed Freddie a hot stick of fried plantain wrapped in waxed paper. Flinching from the heat, he took a bite. "This isn't as good as banana" was his first reaction. This was all about expectations. Plantain look like bananas but their texture and taste are quite different. They are firmer and the flesh is not as sweet. But he took another bite and started to enjoy it. He scored it 7 out of 10.

How to Fry Plantains

4 ripe plantains

vegetable oil

salt and pepper to season or 1 tsp of cinnamon powder

Peel and slice the plantains into 1.5 cm chunks. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and use enough so that it would just cover the plantain. When the oil is hot, add the plantain slices and fry them until both sides are deep yellow in colour and a little crispy on the outside. it should take about a minute. Take them out and lay on some kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. Season with salt and pepper or if you prefer some cinammon powder.

How do you like to have your plantains? Please let us know...

The Last Potato Post

2007-11-26T11:03:00.000+01:00

Last night it was so cold we needed to light a fire in our living room so I went foraging,in Central London. What we lack in trees, hedges and grass verges we are more than compensated for by skips. Every time someone moves into a new home, they throw out the old kitchen. The streets around are dotted with huge yellow builders'skips. If you were to look into the landfil sites around London, you would find entire room sets and intact kitchens, like dolls house rooms. I put our supper into the oven. This is our last potato dish of the Great Big Vegetable Challenge. The recipe was emailed to us by Cynthia Nelson, a Guyanese lady who lives in Barbados. Her site is called Tastes Like Home. And as I
put on a woollen hat, boots and fetched the Radio Flyer truck from the cellar, I thought of Cynthia in her warm kitchen in Barbados. Envy is unbecoming. Freddie waved me goodbye as I stepped out into the misty November night.
"You look like that woman in Mary Poppins," said Alex. "You know, the old tramp that feeds the birds."
I rifled through a huge skip that loomed out of the fog in the street around the corner and returned with a truck full of old wood. There is a movement, known as the Freegans, who spend their lives foraging in urban settings. I might join. I would stop short of rifling through the refuse bins of the local supermarket. I don't quite have the same zeal as the urban Freegans.
When I returned, Cynthia's twice baked potatoes were ready to eat. Freddie and Alex were waiting for me with the table set. For the children I had replaced the hot pepper sauce with a mild green tabasco sauce which has the heat but not the same bite as hot pepper sauce. This is the perfect meal for a winter's evening and Freddie wanted Cynthia to know that her recipe worked wonders. He gave it 9 out of 10From cold wet London we send a big thank you to Cynthia in Barbados.
This morning as I posted this, an email came from the wonderfully talented chef William Leigh at The Boy Done Food. His Pimp My Potato recipe ends our indulgent potato posts with a delicious Chorizo and Manchego cheese baked potato with fennel and tomato salad. Thank you William.

CYNTHIA'S TWICE BAKED POTATOES

5 large russet potatoes
¾ cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
¼ cup chopped green onions or chives
4 tbsp melted butter
4 tbsp heavy cream or sour cream
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
Salt to taste
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2.Scrub and wash potatoes, pat dry, prick with a fork all over and massage with oil
3.Place in a baking pan and roast for 1 to 1 ½ hours
4.When potatoes are finished baking, do not turn off oven, turn it up to 450 degrees F
5.When cool enough to handle, cut potatoes in half and using a spoon, scoop out the flesh, leaving about ¼” layer all around.
6.In a bowl, mash the potatoes with the melted butter and cream or sour cream, and cheese
7.Mix in pepper sauce
8.Fold in green onions
9.Divide the mixture equally into 4 parts and fill in the potato shells
10.Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a light crust forms on top.
Notes

•Though the recipe only makes 4 servings, you are using 5 potatoes so that you have enough stuffing.
•You can opt after the 20 minutes of the second baking to sprinkle cheese on top of your baked potato and bake for another 5 minutes letting the cheese melts.

PS If you have tried to leave a comment and can't I am sorry - there seems to be some blogger problem with the software. Please do let me know by email - the address is in the profile.

Baked Potato with asparagus, chicken and cress

2007-11-20T07:29:00.000+01:00

The Pimp my Potato challenge continues. And we think it is worth sharing this simple filling recipe because Freddie gave it 10 out of 10. And as you know, that doesn't happen too often.
Asparagus, Chicken and Sour Cream Filling
To make enough for four large baked potatoes:
8 asparagus spears
2-3 tablespoons of soured cream (can substitute with a lower fat creme fraiche)
2 tablespoons of fresh chive, finely chopped
Half a punnet of mustard or salad cress, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of dried sage
4 skinned and deboned chicken thighs
Salt and pepper to season

Steam the asparagus spears until just tender. Cut off the woody end and then slice at a slant into half inch pieces. Spray a pan with a little oil, add the deboned and skinned chicken thighs with a teaspoon of dried sage and cook over a medium high heat. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, remove and slice into strips. Add to a bowl with the asparagus, cress, soured cream and chives. Serve with a hot baked potato.

Don't leave before checking all the links to other baked potato recipes provided by wonderful bloggers from around the globe.
Amanda from Little Foodies is our latest entrant! She has made a wonderful vegetable packed recipe for our Pimp my potato round up.

The Great Big Baked Potato Challenge

2007-11-19T10:33:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Great Big Baked Potato Challenge. Baked Potatoes are the ultimate in comfort and convenience. But over the weekend Freddie and I have had some fun adding a little challenge and controversy. And best of all we have been joined by a stellar cast of food bloggers with their best baked potato recipes.
Our latest contender is the wonderful Amanda who writes the Little Foodies website. This is a great place to pick up some real inspiration for family meals and food to entice your children. (Her kids are also chefs in training)Her baked potato recipe is packed with vegetables. Thank you Amanda

To start off, look at this. It is fantastic. Celia from Purple Podded Peas is a talented artist and gardener but she knows how to pimp a potato. She has created an oriental baked potato dish at her kitchen studio in Cambridgeshire - a potato pagoda for Freddie. Inspirational.

Holler at Tinned Tomatoes who comes from Scotland, has harnessed the power of pesto with her delicious recipe.Freddie loves pesto so we will be making this. Thank you Holler.
David from Book the Cook is one of Freddie and Alex's favourite cooks. David's recipes always score highly with our children. And this one is superb. Devilled Crabby Tatties from South Shields are irresistible. Thank you David!
Hannah at Hannah's Country Kitchen has stirred up a creamy Herby Scented Mushrooms filling from her Bedfordshire kitchen. Hers is the kind of post that makes you wish for a scented internet service.
And from Sweden we have Annes Food, a beautiful site from Sweden. Anne sent me her recipe for a Swedish baked potato filling known as skagen. It combines shrimps and roe in a creamy sauce and looks delicious.
Fly thousands of miles over the Atlantic and you come to Peter who is a Canadian of Greek descent. He writes a wonderful blog called Kalofagus or the Pursuit of Delicious Food. And that is exactly what his "Pimp my Potato" Challenge recipe is - delicious. In his Toronto Kitchen he has created the Double Baked Stuffed Potato. Thank you Peter

And a shorter flight across to New York will introduce you to the lovely Amanda Darrach at Figs Olives Wine, who has posted a recipe that I think Peter would approve of - Aegean Potatoes with lemon, olive oil and sea salt. This is also something that I know Freddie and Alex will love.Amanda, we always love trying your recipes.

So the humble baked potato has been pimped up by cooks in Sweden, England, Scotland, America, Canada and Sweden. Over the next few days we will be linking to yet more baked potato recipes from across the globe. Please join in with your own if you can - and let me know. For Freddie from the very beginning of this blog over a year ago, the fun of learning from families thousands of miles away has been the biggest attraction. And the humble baked potato is a great way to share ideas. (And Freddie is keen to stay on P for Potatoes for as long as possible!)
And last but not least, here is our twice-baked potato recipe.Freddie gave our broccoli and roasted garlic just 7 out of 10 but the spring onion and sundried tomato version crept up to an 8

Baked Potato with Broccoli and Roasted Garlic
4 potatoes
1 head of broccoli, steamed
1 garlic bulb, roasted
2 tablespoons of half-fat creme fraiche
1 tablespoon of freshly chopped mint leaves
salt and ground pepper to season
3 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Rub a little olive oil into the potatoes and put them in a preheated oven at 190C. At the same time take a whole garlic bulb, wrap it in foil and drizzle over a few drops of olive oil and seal it up. Place in the oven with the potatoes. Bake them for an hour, depending on their size. Prick them with a fork to check if they are soft inside. Take out the potatoes and the roasted garlic bulb. Cut off the stalk of the broccoli and steam the florets for 3 minutes. Using an oven glove to old them, cut the potatoes in half lengthways. Scoop out the potato and place it in a bowl.Take care as you do this to keep the potato skins intact.To the bowl, add the chopped mint leaves, steamed broccoli florets, creme fraiche and squeeze out the soft contents of the roasted garlic bulb. Mash together well with a fork. Spoon back inside the jacket potato skins, sprinkle on the parmesan cheese and put back in the oven under a hot grill for about 6 minutes.

Alternative filling - Sundried tomatoes, spring onion and Cheddar Cheese.
Bake 4 potatoes as above and scoop out the potato. Mash with 4 finely chopped spring onion, 5 oz of cheddar cheese and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped sundried tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and spoon back inside the jacket potato skins and put back in the oven under a hot grill for 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and melted.

You like potato and I like Po-tah-to!

2007-11-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

Before we say goodbye to the potato, we wanted to know all about your favourite jacket potato recipes and toppings. If you have heard of the tv programme "Pimp my Car!", this is "Pimp my potato!" The food thought police may well prevent us from counting a potato as one of our five-a-day but if you have any canny ways of adding a few vegetable go-fast stripes, let us know. Over the next three days, Freddie, Alex and I will be sharing some of our favourite recipes with you.
If you have a blog, please email me your post or if you want, just leave your ideas in the comment box.