Recipes » Carl Legge

Asparagus, tarragon and piave tart recipe

Dairy, Forest Garden, Permaculture, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Vegetable 8 Responses »

May 102012

People have enjoyed the luxurious taste of asparagus for millennia. The Ancient Egyptians ate it. And it appeared in The Roman Cookery of Apicius in the late 4th & early 5th Century CE.

Asparagus seasonal right now but only for a short period. Also in season is the wonderfully aromatic, anise flavoured french tarragon. As with many things that are seasonal at the same time, these two ingredients make perfect partners. We grow both of these ingredients on the smallholding, so I had a ‘free’ meal in the making when paired with eggs from our chickens.

In this recipe I complemented these ingredients with some wonderfully sweet and full tasting, 24 month’s old, piave cheese. This is a cow’s milk cheese from a small area in Italy with the same name. I was lucky enough to receive some from my Twitter friend in Rome, Carla Tomasi.

The finished tart tasted really smooth, rich and special. The fragrance of the shoots, herb and cheese was subtle: our senses were gently stroked. We had the tart with new potatoes lightly dressed in wild garlic mayo and steamed brassica shoots the first day; and with lemony cous-cous and tarragon marinated tomato salad the next.

If you’d like to know how to make this tart and see some tips for how to grow your own asparagus, please read on…

Vollkornbrot: rye sourdough bread

Autumn, Bread & baking, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Summer, Winter 11 Responses »

Mar 222012

In my goody box from Anne at the Felin Ganol Mill was some wholemeal rye flour and chopped rye berries. Along with some sunflower seeds, these are just what you need to make this delicious, hearty & earthy bread.

The result was fantastic and we ate it with some very special cheese. The soaked rye chops help keep the bread wonderfully moist. Those and the sunflower seeds mean it also has a nutty texture.

The bread is easy to make as long as you do not expect the same feel and process as making bread with wheat flour. Rye doesn’t have the same gluten development as wheat, so you don’t get a big rise. The dough starts, and remains, sticky and so you have to handle it sparingly with wet hands.

It’s also best to ‘age’ the bread once it’s made for 24 hours or more so that the crumb can develop the proper characteristics.

If you would like to make this bread, read on… Continue reading »

Wild garlic mash, warm chickweed salad & seafood

Autumn, Foraging, Forest Garden, Permaculture, Recipes, Seafood, Spring, Vegetable, Winter 11 Responses »

Mar 202012

This meal started off as one of those: “What do I do with these?” scenarios.

Debs had made a gorgeous parsnip, cinnamon and lemon cake with some of our over-wintered parsnips. It was delicious. I had one parsnip left that Debs had not been able to use.

And I had cleared a space in our big polytunnel for a new kiwi ‘Jenny’ and for our tarragon. (How posh is that, to have a big and a little polytunnel?) The space for these had a huge clump of chickweed in it that we’d been harvesting for ages.

And, of course, it’s wild garlic time.

So I thought that the parsnip would make a really intense sweet/savoury mash with potatoes and wild garlic pesto. It did.

I gave the chickweed a good haircut. Then I just washed it, gave it a good shake and wilted a 2 litre pan full, covered and shaken for 2-3 minutes. I dressed it with my normal vinaigrette.

I brushed the seafood with a little harissa and griddled it on a very hot ridged griddle for about 4 minutes. I then turned the heat off and covered with a saucepan lid to leave it to cook in the residual heat and steam.

The whole recipe took less than 30 minutes to prepare and had a lovely contrast of colours, flavours and textures.

So the only thing for me to add is a recipe for wild garlic pesto. Read on… Continue reading »

First nettles of 2012

Foraging, Forest Garden, Pasta, Permaculture, Seasons, Spring, Vegetable 6 Responses »

Mar 182012

The first nettles of the 2012 season for us.

While the spaghetti cooks, gently fry garlic & anchovies in extra virgin olive oil. Then add nettles to the pan and cover till they wilt. Season with salt, ground black pepper and lemon juice. Mix through lightly drained spaghetti with a good handful of finely grated Parmesan cheese. Delicious!

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Felin Ganol – Tybalt Flour: Sourdough Bread

Autumn, Bread & baking, Fermentation, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Summer, Winter 1 Response »

Mar 152012

Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
No better term than this,—thou art a villain

Now why would you name a wheat after someone who would say that?

I think this Particular Tybalt, unlike Romeo’s assailant, is more fiery in name than in nature.

This is another test bake of one of the flours I received the the Felin Ganol Mill. This particular flour is a fine grained white flour. I decided to use is as part of my normal bake of 2.7kgs of sourdough along with some Felin Ganol wholemeal spelt. Anne & Andrew say on the packet that they recommend it is mixed with 30% strong white flour. What I did was replace some of my usual strong white bread flour with the Tybalt.

Here’s the formula I used… Continue reading »

Stick blender Mayonnaise – Salad dressings No. 2

Autumn, Foraging, Forest Garden, Permaculture, Poultry, Preserves, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Summer, Vegetable, Winter 15 Responses »

Mar 112012

I promised some more salad dressings when I wrote the Vinaigrette recipe the other day. I really looked forward to doing this post because mayonnaise this way is so simple and so spectacular. You’ll have great mayo in less than a minute. I hope once you have made this the first time, you will not feel the need to buy mayo ever again.

What’s more, it gave me an excuse to make a food-related video to show you how easy it all is. So it was lucky I needed some mayonnaise yesterday. It was to make into a wild garlic mayonnaise to go with some juicy prawns grilled with breadcrumbs and parmesan. I’m afraid there’s no picture of the finished dish because we ate it!

If you want to know how make this, wild garlic mayonnaise or tartar sauce, please read on… Continue reading »

Felin Ganol Amaretto Flour: Sourdough Bread

Autumn, Bread & baking, Fermentation, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Summer, Winter 2 Responses »

Mar 102012

It’s very funny how life works.

I nearly met Anne & Andrew Parry from Felin Ganol Mill last year. We were temporarily in the same room and then I had to leave the next day. That was at an ‘international’ meet up of bakers in Bethesda, North Wales.

Love of bread (and food in general) led me to become online mates with Azelia Torres-Martin. If you look at her blog, you’ll soon find out that Azelia is a bit of a flour geek. Azelia came across the Parrys through her flour researches. She introduced me to them virtually (over t’internet) because she thought we had similar values and ideals about life.

And after a brief email exchange with Anne, I now have a big box of different flours to try from Anne & Andrew’s beautiful mill. That says a lot about their approach to life and to their craft. In exchange for some free flour, they asked for feedback about it from someone who bakes a lot and knows a bit about what they feel & taste. Now I’ve not achieved the levels of geekery that Azelia has, but I do bake quite a bit and enjoy the challenge to learn about new flours.

This is a review of the first flour I tried. It’s milled from a 100% ‘Amaretto’ wheat variety grown by Howard Roberts in Hammonds End Farm, Harpenden. It’s at 70% extraction, which in baker speak means it has only 30% of the wholemeal bits removed. The flour is from the 2011 harvest and has a protein content of 12.3% for those that are into such things.

Leaving some of the bran etc in the flour makes baking a good loaf slightly more difficult. This is because the solid particles break into the strands of protein (gluten) which hold the gas produced by the yeast. So the loaf may not rise as high and the crumb can be dense. I’m sure you’ve had wholemeal ‘bricks’ of bread too. As you can see above, the flour performed very well for me. To find out what I did, please read on… Continue reading »

Winter Panzanella Recipe – Bread Salad

Dairy, Foraging, Forest Garden, Fruit, Permaculture, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Vegetable, Winter 10 Responses »

Mar 092012

If you make or use much good bread, you’ll have bits left over that are a shame to waste. Sourdough is great for this because it lasts without going mouldy much longer than yeasted bread. So you can collect a little stash. The bread needs to be a few days old and dry or drying.

Many people know about the summer panzanella made with juicy & fragrant tomatoes. For this winter salad, I made the bread into crispy parmesan croutons and added some raw and roasted vegetables to make a big, punchy & pretty salad for a main meal.

I was asked on twitter if it’s filling enough for hearty appetites. Well this made enough for three hungry gluttons with some left over for a lunch the next day.

This is an ideal way to continue to have salad through the darker parts of the year. It’s another contribution from me to the 52 Week Salad Challenge.

It’s a very simple recipe, read on to find out more… Continue reading »

Vegetarian chilli with chocolate recipe

Autumn, Recipes, Seasons, Spring, Summer, Vegetable, Winter 10 Responses »

Feb 282012

Chillies and chocolate are a classic combination. The spicy warmth & smokiness of the chilli combine perfectly with the rich, smooth depth of the chocolate.

I was prompted to develop a recipe by Choclette’s February I Should Cocoa Challenge. The challenge was to use chocolate in a savoury vegetarian recipe. I’d previously done a Challenge in April last year in producing my Hidden Hearts muffins.

I had some wonderfully fragrant chipotle chillies which are mexican smoked jalapenos that I wanted to use.

The resulting chilli is rich, slightly fiery and smooth. The beans & grains provide substance. It’s a pretty frugal meal too that you can make loads of and freeze or can the leftovers for later. I served this with some brilliant yellow corn bread.

If you’d like to know what I did, please read on… Continue reading »

I’m sorry for the slight interruption in service…

I’m sorry for the slight interruption in service… Book reviews, Permaculture, Recipes 10 Responses »

Feb 282012

In case anyone missed me, I’m sorry for the big gap in posts for this blog.

I’ve been on a big push to get the manuscript of my first book The Permaculture Kitchen to my publisher Permanent Publications. To finish it I needed to concentrate my attention on it 100% so my blog had to take a back seat.

It’s an introduction how to cook for busy people who want to cook fresh, local, seasonal food, in a sustainable way. I’ve tried to make the recipes and ideas faff free to encourage people who don’t normally cook to start. I’ve written explanations of how to create recipes and menus on the fly with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of flavour.

The manuscript is now with editors and I wait for their feedback on my efforts. That’s a bit nerve-wracking. I’ve written lots in my professional life as a lawyer, marketer and public affairs person. To write an accessible food book is a different matter, so I’m ready for the feedback and some re-writes. There are pictures to sort and lots of design work still to do. I hope the book will come out as an e-book this summer. If it does really well, who knows, we may do a print version.

It’s been a new experience for me to develop recipes, write the book and manage the smallholding & the rest of life. In the last year I’ve made some compromises & decisions about priorities that were difficult. Debs has been a real help to cover the gaps and keep me relatively sane.

Now I’ve broken the back of this one, I really miss the process of writing a book. So I’m planning the next ones in the hope that my publisher and, more importantly, you like what I’ve done and want more.

I’ll keep you posted on progress.