Finding a healthy balance

Feast and famine.

In my work life I work on Cadbury and as part of that I get to taste quite a lot of chocolate. Great on one hand but not so good if you want to get healthy.

Obviously the exercise involved in preparing the plot by digging and weeding does some good but it can only do so much. Especially when the weather encourages me to stay indoors.

So I also rely on the hoped for health benefits of the vegetables we grow.

The general principle seems to be don't over cook the vegetables - the fashionable way is to have them with a little bite. Steaming or stir frying tends to get the required result without leaching all the goodness out.

If you do boil, then try use the water with nutrients in - maybe as a stock or in the gravy.

I have been brought up on my aunt's veg which, though microwaved, is usually meltingly soft so I find the crispy veg thing still a little alien to me - I'll have to force myself to be fashionable.

Actually it's not just modern tastes that discourage overcooking. According to the excellent ministry of food exhibition at the imperial war museum (sadly finished now) -during the war much effort was put into improving the nation's health and getting the most from the limited food we did have. Never mind that part of the motivation was to have enough healthy men of fighting age to send into an essentially unhealthy situation, war. The legacy of vitamins and food for health was a good one that lasted. At least until ready meals and fast food came along.

Some people shy away from frozen vegetables as they worry it has been tampered with or lost its goodness somehow but in fact the vegetables are often frozen within hours of picking so can be fresher and retain more nutrients than the unfrozen vegetables you see on the supermarket shelves.

The general rule though for healthy veg is that the closer to raw the better.

However rules are made to be broken and some foods are healthier cooked. Tomatoes in particular contain more lycopene when cooked than raw. Lycopene is good because it has
Free radicals that have key cancer fighting properties.
They are also apparently easier to digest.

What to do with over 5kg of cabbage

A quick visit to the allotment to harvest the cabbages that look past their prime.

When trimming them there are more leaves discarded than salvaged. The slugs and worms are quite disgusting. Still, there was over 5kg of cabbage to process and find uses for. A mixture of crisp white cabbage and savoy cabbage rescued just in the nick of time.

Looked up a sauerkraut recipe but it seems you have to work it over tens of days and it involves skimming off scum from fermented juices. Strangely enough, I didn't feel like doing it after all. Though I made a great potato and sauerkraut bake (from a jar) tonight.

Stir fried the cabbage with stock and lemon juice and added a couple of tablespoons of sherry as suggested. Hope to find something to do with it all soon.

Vast amounts of coleslaw was made last weekend but it's a week later and I still don't feel like cabbage when I get home.

Excited to see the elephant garlic is sprouting - fingers crossed. It's amazing roasted on french bread.

Gearing up for the year ahead

The days are starting to get longer but the cold weather isn't behind us yet. While last weekend brought sunny skies and temperatures of 8 degrees we are due for a cold snap again.

While I'm impatient to start sowing seeds I know that there is little point if I can't plant them out in March.

The remaining potatoes are sprouting away in the cupboard but I will just have to concentrate on cooking rather than growing them.

Ordinarily I would attempt potato dauphinoise but I have the added complication of starting a new health kick so for the next 12 weeks at least I intend to only use healthy recipes (at least once the apple custard cake is finished).

The red cabbages on the plot are starting to look a little sorry for themselves so I guess they will have to be next. Ordinarily I would combine them with bacon or chorizo as I find even the most uninspiring vegetable benefits from being combined with a salty pork product. This time I will have to find an alternative. Magazines often suggest chilli but I have a wimpy palate the can't cope with hot spice so I'll have to investigate some form of bubble and squeak or rosti.

New growth emerging

The days are getting longer and it lifts the spirit.

While the green we see on the plot are mainly plants that have over wintered such as herbs, brassicas and strawberries there are signs of new life.

The rhubarb is poking its pink nose out of the ground, garlic shoots have pierced the soil and leaves are emerging on the raspberries.

It's a long way to the lushness of summer but it's a very welcome start.

Hi ho hi ho and we dig dig dig

Clearly last weekend I took my inspiration from the seven dwarfs and ventured down to the allotment. My back was braced against the infrequent exercise and the insidious cold with a back support and even then I could only manage two hours of digging.

This was enough to clear three areas of grass and weeds and to build my beautiful compost bin from Crocus. A self-gift, it slots easily together and looks ever so smart. I only wish I had bought the large one now.

Even though I already had a cabbage at home I still couldn't resist cutting another savoy cabbage (700g).

Luckily I found an interesting recipe in Sophie Grigson's book 'vegetables' for what is essentially cabbage pie. I had some ready rolled puff pastry in the freezer so my shape ended up more of a giant calzone. Apparently this is a Russian recipe that would have seen then through the cold winters while not costing much.

Shred 600g cabbage (she says 1.2kg but that created much too much - lunch is sorted for the rest of the week!). Pour over boiling water and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile fry up chopped onion then drain the cabbage and add it to the onion. Season with salt and a little sugar. Add 5 chopped eggs. At this stage also add chopped anchovy or bacon if you want an extra salty hit. Alternatively keep it veggie and use chopped feta or goats cheese. Pile into the middle of the pastry and fold over. Brush with milk and lay a few slices of Parma onto the pastry. Cook in an oven preheated to 220 degrees for 30 mins or until golden brown.

Should feed 4 people unless you are greedy - which we were.

A hard wind's going to blow

I roused myself from my sick bed to briefly inspect the allotment which I haven't seen for some time what with frosts and festivities.

It is on days like these that you appreciate brassicas as they were among the few plants still standing. The strawberry plants look healthy as do the pak choi and the Swiss chard, though battered, is surviving.

I harvested most of the remaining Brussels sprouts - 1.5kg of them. I also took home two of the healthiest looking Brussels tops as I'd heard they can be a delicious alternative to cabbage. Not that I needed them as I also cut a small cabbage head and the last few broccoli shoots.

All that is left are the (hopefully) purple sprouting broccoli that have been squatting on the plot all year with no results so fingers crossed for spring!

Looking forward to the coming growing season, I think I won't bother with brassicas again. They take too much space, take too long to mature, are dead cheap in shops and don't taste significantly better to me. Perhaps the odd broccoli plant that allows me to cut and come again but on the whole I'll use the space for other plants.

For example the amazing Jerusalem artichoke.

I harvested a whole 3.6kg of artichokes from one plant today! I'm not sure how to use them all but I'll give it a damn good go. I'm thinking gratin and soups.

Follow up: 2 delicious dishes later...

Brussel tops, Artichoke and Bacon salad (adapted from Great Allotment Cookbook):
4 small Jerusalem artichokes
2 tbsp walnut oil
8 slices of pancetta
40g walnuts (can also replace with pine nuts)
4-6 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp bramble/ redcurrant jelly
2 brussel tops (or 175g watercress salad/ mixed leaves)

Scrub the artichokes and slice them into 5mm slices. Toss witht eh walnut oil in a roasting tin and roast in a preheated oven, 200 C for 20 mins turning after 10 mins.

Meanwhile, grill the pancetta until crisp, then break it into bite size pieces. Dry-fry the walnuts/ pine nuts. Set aside. Heat 1 tbsp of oil and fry the garlic until lightly golden. Add the vinegar and remaining olive oil and bramble jelly/ redcurrant jelly and keep warm.

Layer the greens, bacon, walnuts/ pine nuts and bacon and drizzle with the sauce. YUM.

Jerusalem artichoke soup from the Great Allotment Cookbook:
1kg Jerusalem artichokes sliced
50g butter
1 onion
600ml stock
600ml milk
150ml single cream

Melt butter, add the onion and cook until soft (5 minutes). Add the artichokes and cook for 3 minutes. Season to taste, add the stock and milk and bring to the simmering point. Reduce the heat, partially cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Blend the soup in a food processor. Reheat gently without boiling then add the cream. 

Weighing up 2010

Despite the snow and ice thawing and in theory I could revisit the allotment and start digging. But as the rain falls I still don't feel like it.

Instead I am enjoying staying on my sofa and dreaming of the crops to come in 2011. Surrounded by seed catalogues and an insatiable urge to buy more seeds and plants I find it useful to look in my seed store to see what I already have, look over past posts to remember what was problematic and, in a nerdy way, look at my crop spreadsheet.

Not only did I weigh every harvest (apart from a few of the later ones) and chronicle when they were harvested but I also went round a local supermarket getting a guide price per kilo so I can now work out which crop was worth the effort and if the plot itself broke even.

As we were starting from scratch there was some spending (£253) on tools and plants and scaffolding for raised beds (still not built!) which will be spread over the years but on the whole it seems to have worked out well. I slipped up a little in record keeping in the party season and didn't measure everything (including the Brussels sprouts on Christmas day) and don't have prices for all the vegetables I grew but even taking that into account, the value of what was grown was £800 (and 187kg of produce). Of course we had to buy a new freezer to keep them all in!

By far the most productive vegetable was the tomato - 67kg and worth £374 alone. 23kilos of Runner beans while worth a decent amount, £152, was excessive as they are not as versatile as tomatoes and courgettes. I also got 23kg of courgettes (worth £79) however they proved to be great for cakes and stews though not so good at freezing as they get water-logged.   26 kilos of potatoes were very welcome and we are still eating them now. Definitely worth repeating again though I will have to switch our carb habits from pasta and rice to potatoes so we use them up quicker.  Jerusalem artichokes are promising to be very productive too - 3.6kg from just one plant already. Delicious and difficult to find in shops - definitely on the list for the coming growing year. Salad is not only easy and fast to grow but also expensive to buy in shops - another winner.

The Patty Pans were cute but I wasn't fast enough in using them all, equally the excitement of finally managing to grow radishes doesn't overcome the fact I'm not too keen on them.

What else is on the plans for this year? More soft fruit like currants (red and black), gooseberries and raspberries.  I can't wait.