Good news and good food

Received word from the RBGE that I’ve passed the Certificate of Practical Horticulture with merit. Not only that, but because that was the first year the course was run and there were some teething problems with the course handbook etc., all the students have been offered a free place on a one-day course next year.

The course was enjoyable, the assessment day was fun and I’ve got something to show from it. However I won’t be able to make the award ceremony since I’m at Typography: thinking with type on that day.

This evening I headed to the allotment via Waitrose. I wanted to make Summer Pudding, so wanted to get some cream. The thought of the ride from Shandon to Morningside, through Craiglockhart Woods and to the allotment was also enticing. At the plot I picked redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants and then headed home, getting there just before the rain came on.

Summer Pudding adapted from Nigel Slater’s Appetite

Put the fruits in a pan with enough water to cover them, then boil for a couple of minutes. This will burst the skin and release the juice. Into a suitable receptacle (I used a glass tumbler), layer sliced white bread and the fruit mixture, keeping the bread very moist. Then pop it in the fridge for an hour, turn out and serve with goat cream.

tasty Summer Pudding with cream

In other news: I’ve signed up for the four week long beginners course in Italian at IALS starting at the end of this month.

Feeding guests from the allotment

Sat 14: a couple of hours, weeding and picking fruit. Inordinately happy to be picking fruit form the plot, although I’m learning how to do things for next year. Fed houseguests this weekend with a Scottish dessert consisting of raspberries and blackcurrants from the allotment, strawberries from Fife and ice cream from Orkney.

Tried to get rid of some slugs that were hanging round the courgettes. Still a bit squeamish about killing them, although I have a new-found respect as they’re tough to drown, with one particularly big one which kept climbing out of the plastic water container. I eventually chucked them in the river.

And there’s one French bean which is holding out. A small tendril is curling up the bamboo, so there may be a few beans this year.

Urticaceae!

Sounds like a sneeze but tastes good: I have been cooking cream of nettle and potato soup. It’s extreme cooking where one has to clear up fastidiously, and I’m minded not to go barefoot when cooking with nettles again. Wore gardening gloves at the allotment to put them into a bag; wore marigolds in the kitchen when preparing them.

Chopped the potatoes into large chunks and started to sautée them in olive oil; chopped garlic and caraway seeds and put to one side. On opening the bag of nettles there was a fresh smell, like cut grass, with an astringent immediacy. Handled them very carefully, removed the leaves from the stalks which were quite tough (it is quite late in the year for culinary nettles), and washed them. Then chopped handfuls into strips. Once all were cut, I popped the garlic and seeds into the pan, stirred for a few seconds and threw in the nettles. Cleaned up carefully, and took the gloves off.

Sautéed them for a few minutes. Was very reminiscent of spinach, and looks like a dahl sag with them would work OK. Then poured in stock and left to simmer until the potatoes softened. Liquidised and then poured in the cream.

Perhaps I put too many caraway seeds in because I could only notice a faint vegetable taste when I started eating the soup. After some spoonfuls I could pick up an aftertaste, metallic and minty, but not much. Will see how I get on.

The Scot’s Herbal by Tess Darwin (ISBN 1873644604) has a couple of pages on nettles. Apparently they have laxative and diuretic properties so I’d better make this second bowl my last. They’re certainly fibrous but no more so than kale. She notes that they’re usually picked when 15-25cm high, and that repeated cutting keeps the plants in a juvenile state for much of the summer. She recounts an 1898 recipe from Islay to take a large apronful of nettles, two handfuls of meal, two gallons of water and a piece of salt beef or braxty.

A helping hand is very welcome

I’m almost delirious with tiredness after spending the best part of today down the allotment. Add a vodka and Barr’s cola and I’m in serious danger of wobbling …