25th October 2007 |
| Posted on Oct 25 2007 at 12:07 PM |
Whilst putting together the list of contents of this week’s box, which is strongly influenced of course by what is ready to harvest in the field, it struck me that this week’s contents are rather bizarre. Looking back at previous years, this is the latest we have ever had sweetcorn and the celery which I was hoping would have grown more by now, will just give up the ghost if not harvested now it has become frosty. So, what to do with the last, single token sweetcorn of the season, and the meagre offering of celery with it’s rather sad looking foliage! As our regulars will know, we’re great advocates of the stir fry, so thought it’s probably time this was elaborated upon.
As anyone who has approached Helen at a Farmers’ Market and said “how long do I boil this for?” will know, (as they then have a lecture on the horrors of loosing all the nutrients in the vegetables to the boiling water, the length of which will depend upon how many other customers are waiting to be served, and may also go on to include a diatribe about microwaves as well), stir-frying, is a great way of keeping all your vegetables’ nutrients so that they still end up on your plate and not down the drain. Whilst Helen certainly can’t profess to be a stir-frying expert, this is how it happens in the Linscombe Farm household:
First of all prepare all your vegetables – wash roots, peel squash, chop and dice them OR grate them. Get the greens – shred leafy greens (kale, cabbage, cauli leaves) into long, thin strips, cut the florets off caulis and calabrese and dice up the main stalk. Dice the stalks of celery, kale or chard. Dice onions, shallots etc. knife the corn off the cob. Basically, ANY vegetable can be stir fried, and you’ll be amazed at what you can stir-fry successfully together that you’d never contemplate serving as traditional veg together with meat, but potato is usually best re-heated in the stir fry if you had left-overs the day before and is probably the vegetable we stir fry least.? The quantity of each vegetable you use depends entirely on personal preference – (we bias towards more greens), and the beauty of it is that you can use just a part of each veg – one side of the corn cob, half a calabrese head, a couple of sticks of celery, one small beetroot etc. We also tend to grate our roots as they cook quicker like this and the kids seem to enjoy trying to slice their fingers off in the grater, but at least it gets them involved and out the way of the chopping knife.
The order of cooking really depends on how you like your vegetables. So whilst the following is a suggestion, based on having everything cooked to the same degree, if you love the taste of raw onions, for example, put them in last and cook them least. OK. Ready? Get your wok (a non-stick frying pan or such-like will do) and add sunflower oil (apparently olive oil shouldn’t be heated too hot so don’t use that). Heat oil so it’s very hot and covering the entire cooking surface of your pan, then throw in the onion, diced roots (unless you are using grated roots) and stalks. Do be careful if you washed the veg and there is still water on it, as at this stage the hot oil will spit on you if it comes into contact with water. Stir around to give a fine coating of oil onto this veg and if you do want to wander off to do something else, turn the heat down or you’ll end up burning the veg, the smoke alarm goes off and the kids say “oh no Mummy’s cooking again, can’t Daddy cook as usual”. When the onion is getting to be browned or the outer surfaces of the diced roots has become tender (not the inside) then add any nuts/seeds (sunflower seeds are great, or pine nuts or cashews if you’re feeling more extravagant)and raisins/sultanas if you want to encourage the kids, or have a sweet tooth yourself. Stir again. Now throw in grated roots/squash and florets. Stir around. Add more oil if the grated roots soak up the existing oil so that everything starts to stick to the pan despite your stirring. When the florets noticeably change their colour to their bright one they go on heat exposure, add leafy greens and stir again. Once these latter are cooked to your liking it’s ready and of course, it can always be cooked for longer if you prefer your veg cooked for longer, but it’s worth experimenting at this stage, as you may be surprised how al dente you like your stir fries. If you do like things cooked through more, you can always add a splash of water, put a lid on and steam everything for five minutes. An alternative to this is to add frozen prawns at the end, as this gives off enough water as the prawns defrost and cook to allow you to simmer the vegetables more. The stirring may sound exhausting, but somehow I usually get away with very little, just getting back to rescue the bottom of the pan each time, and the whole thing takes less than 15 minutes for al dente, up to 25 minutes for a longer cook. Garnish with herbs.Good Luck.
Enjoy your vegetables! All the best, Phil, Helen, Tom, David and James and Team.
Extras currently available:
White pots 1.20/kg, 2kgs 2.20, 10kgs 8. Red pots 1.50/kg. Carrots, 1.40/kg, 2kgs 2.50, Parsnips 2.25/kg White onion 1.40/kg Red onion ?2/kg, parsley 65p/50g, chard 1/220g, kale 1/220g