Cooking
Rachel has always had an interest in cooking. Producing meals from scratch to utilise our home grown produce has become an integral part of our lives. Preserving and canning enables us to store many of our crops and reducing food waste is a key part of making sustainable changes to our lifestyle. The kitchen isn’t completely Rachel’s domain – Anthony can make a mean flapjack too!
Pressure canning a curry sauce base: UK canner
Coleslaw, bean salad & courgette fritters
UK canner – food storage – store your allotment harvests
Fermented chilli sauce – processing chillies and bottling #hotsauce
Two sweet baking recipes using redcurrants: pancakes & stuffed shortbread
Rachel prepares two sweet baking recipes using redcurrants : Redcurrant & almond scotch pancakes Redcurrant & Lemon curd stuffed shortbread.
Use redcurrants to replace pomegranate in this Middle Eastern inspired salad
Rachel uses redcurrants to make a freekah grain salad with fresh greens and halloumi. Redcurrants make a brilliant replacement where pomegranate may have been traditionally used. From plot to plate Rachel harvests the ingredients and prepares the meal.
Tour of the pressure canned food store
Rachel does a tour of our home canned food stores in preparation for this season’s cropping in the coming months. We pressure can vegetables, meals in a jar and cooking ingredients alongside pickling, jam and chutney making.
Batata Vada – Indian Potato fritters
Batata Vada are an Indian street food. I was tempted to try these after a friend posted a yummy looking picture on Facebook. This is my take on the spicy snack – n.b. spices used may not be fully traditional as I have adapted with what I had available.
5 allotment tasks for the Christmas holiday
Do you have a few days annual leave between Christmas and New Year and fancy spending a few hours at the plot? For us, autumn and winter are very important preparation times. In an ideal world if you have a tidy, and planned out, plot going into spring it makes a #kitchengarden much easier to manage!
Brocolli-Lemon Bulgar Wheat salad
With a real glut of brocolli I have been getting as creative as possible to use this crop up – there is only so much soup a household can eat and we were getting pretty close to the brocolli soup limit!!
This salad can be served as a side or main. Would be lovely with some grilled chicken, fish or halloumi.
One side serving here is about 200g in weight or around one cup.