April Long Table & The Recipes…
Hear about our latest lunch & Recipes for Spring Nettle Cordial, Whole Roasted Sumac Cauliflower with Wild Garlic Heritage Peas, Perfectly Poached Rhubarb.
What a start!! Last Sunday we launched our first Long Table Lunch at Stroud Green Farmers Market. It was a bright and blustery day, where we gathered around a gorgeous table set with mis-matched crockery and our beautiful Bluebell&Flo bud vases filled with British blooms.
By 12pm the BBQ was alit and glowing, while the hustle and hum of the market was well under way. There was a long line for Eds Eggs and some gorgeous rhubarb on display at our produce stands. If you were around just shopping that day, you may have seen me whizzing around in my overalls as I tried to set up tables whilst prepping for the first dishes. I couldn’t have done it without the many kind hands of my supportive friends.
At 1pm our guests arrived to a table stacked with olive oil focaccias and bowls of whipped garlic & chive butter, with a few pitchers of nettle cordial to quench thirsts. It’s a very family affair, with the rectangles of fluffy bread free to tear, cut ,then slather with butter to your hearts content while you acquaint yourself with the new and old faces around the table.
Then the first round, settling on the table are small plates of charred leeks, fresh off the coals, topped with a golden garlic saffron mayonnaise and a crunchy, spiced fava bean dukkah. This was a crowd pleaser I must say! Followed by whole roasted sumac cauliflowers, that were roasted on the grill to attain a gorgeous smokey flavour. Sat atop a bed of heritage hodmedod dried peas, which have glorious named varieties such as Red Fox Carlin and Black Badger Carlins, Whole Blue and Whole Yellows, and Marrowfat Peas.
These peas were stirred into a gloriously green wild garlic sauce, a specialty of the season, thanks to Petersons farm pickers, and topped with our seasonal Ragstone Goats Cheese, recomended by Jonny our resident cheesemonger !
Dessert was a real hoot, a Rhubarb Meringue Tumble ! Ahoy! Layers of rich egg vanilla custard, luscious lemon curd, blood orange poached rhubarb, jersey cream and marshmallow Meringues.
We dined into the afternoon, watching as the stalls around us began to pack down, and as a once bustling marketplace reverted back to a pristine playgroud for another week. We bid farewell with promises to dine again soon xx
SPRING NETTLE CORDIAL
Makes approx 1 L
200g Fresh Nettles (pick your own or ask Oskar at Petersons Produce to bring them to the market :)
400g caster sugar
40g Citric acid
500ml Water
Remember to use gloves when handling nettles , as you might get a sting !
Firstly , cover your nettles with the water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes , then take it off the heat to infuse. You can leave it for 10 minutes up to 2 hours. Strain the liquid.
Next add the sugar and citric acid , bring back on to a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Taste to check for sweetness and balance.
Bottle up and use to dilute with water (still or sparkling) or experiment with cocktails and mocktails !
Whole Roasted Sumac Cauliflower with wild garlic heritage peas and Ragstone Goats Cheese
Serves 4
The Cauliflower:
1 whole cauliflower
2 Tablespoons Sumac
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 TB Olive oil
The Sauce:
150g Spinach (1 bunch)
75g Wild Garlic
30g of parsley
3 TB olive oil
2 cloves Garlic
Salt and pepper
The Peas:
250g dried Carlin peas or 700g Cooked
150g Ragstone Goats Cheese
(this mix, or buy them whole at various organic shops , holland and barrett or jarred ones at waitrose or Nourished Communities ) also can sub any other jarred or canned bean!
Soak your peas overnight in lots of fresh water. The next day, drain and pop them back into the pot with fresh water and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil , then reduce to a simmer and cook for 30-35 minutes until tender - these peas have a lovely bite to them. Let them cool in the pot while you carry on.
Whilst the peas are cooking, Pre heat your oven to 220C. Trim the end off your cauliflower and fill another pot large enough to fit the whole cauliflower and bring to the boil. Season , as if to cook pasta, and lower in your cauliflower down into the pot, stalk side down. Boil for 8 minutes, until you can pierce the stalk easily with a knife, do not over cook, as it will get a second blast.
Lift out the Cauliflower and allow to steam dry on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes, this will reduce the moisture. Mix up the sumac, salt and oil in a jar and lather over the cauliflower , then place in the hot oven for 45 min , basting with more oil halfway through.
This can all be done on a bbq , as we did for our April Lunch, just roast over smouldering coals for 45 minutes and flip over halfway through :)
For the wild garlic sauce, use the cauliflower pot to blanch the washed spinach and wild garlic for 1 minute before cooling rapidly in a bowl of cold running water, under the tap.
Roughly chop the greens and the herbs and blend with the remaining ingredients, tasting to your preference.
To finish the dish, combine the wild garlic sauce with the drained peas, adding a little bean broth to loosen the mix. Layer on the bottom of the dish , then place the whole burnished cauliflower on top. Garnish with hunks of ragstone cheese. Slice, serve and devour.
Perfectly Poached Rhubarb
Right now local fresh fruit is quite a rarity. We are coming to the end of the apples and pears and English berries have yet to fill out baskets. Thank goodness for Rhubarb 💖
Serves 4
400g rhubarb
2 blood oranges
A small knob of ginger
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
2 spoons of caster sugar.
To serve with ; atop meringue, stirred into cream or with breakfast porridge or yogurt. Beautiful with toasted chopped pistachios
Preheat oven to 180
Trim the rhubarb and slice at an angle, to about 5cm lengths. Ley them in one or two oven trays with enough room between them , as to not let the slices crowd each other.
Grate over the orange zest and add the chopped ginger.
Squeeze out the orange juice and stir the together with the vanilla and sugar in a sperate bowl. Pour this over the rhubarb and then wrap tightly in foil. Pop this in the oven for 15 minutes. Keep a close eye on and bake until just form tender, it can turn very quickly to mush ! (Delicious mush..)
Serve warm or cooled xx
WITH GREAT THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS PRODUCERS AND SUPPLIERS
Petersham Farm Produce
Perry Court Farm
Cacklebean Eggs & Estate Dairy from
A Taste Of The Good Life
Hampstead Cheese Board
Nourished Communities
Honest Toil
WildFarmed
Hodmedod
Bluebell&Flo