Friday 1 April 2011

Time for harvest

Today we harvested and ate our first home-grown purple sprouting broccoli from our garden. It was tasty. The tastiest broccoli I've ever had! And there's lots more to come, so we're very excited.
The purple sprouting broccoli takes a few months to grow, and this plant was sowed last summer. We didn't think anything would come of it after the winter, but lo and behold- there was broccoli after all! It's easy to grow; we're growing it in a grow-bag on the patio in our garden.

Another thing I discovered this week, apart from home-grown broccoli, is rocket pesto. Just as good as normal pesto, but far cheaper to make yourself. This recipe is from 'The Vicar's Wife's Cookbook' by Elisa Benyon:

50g pine nuts (roasted in a dry frying pan)
1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
zest of 1-2 lemons
125g rocket (I used less than this)
ca 100ml olive oil
70g grated Parmesan or Grana Padano

I wouldn't necessarily follow the measurements very strictly, but add a little at the time, taste it and maybe add some more until it looks and tastes right. Put the ingredients into a food processor (or a pestle and mortar) and put it on full speed until you have a sloppy pesto (not runny). Enjoy this with your pasta, or even better: marinate a couple of chicken breasts in lemon juice for half an hour. Put them in an oven proof dish and cover with the rocket pesto and then a slice of mozzarella on top. Add some salt and pepper and stick it in the oven for about 20-25 mins. Yum! Really tasty.


Happy weekend to you all!

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