The gluts have left the building (shed)
This is where I used to write about the gluts I get from my veg patch and the ensuing gluttony in the kitchen.
Now I write a weekly mostly-veggie recipe over on Substack, plus share tales from the veg patch and exclusive videos. You can subscribe for free by clicking on the link below and every recipe will be sent straight to your inbox. If you’d like more content (such as those videos I mentioned, interviews and printer-friendly PDFs of every recipe to collect) do consider becoming a paid subscriber. More on that here.
In the meantime, here’s an archive of my old Gluts and Gluttony blog:
Blood Orange & Saffron Polenta Cake
Making a seasonal pudding is a tough brief in February. Not much seasonal fruit around and there’s only so many times I can raid the freezer for gluts of gooseberries squirrelled away last summer. But I’m happy to venture further afield, and glad of some imported sunshine …
Damson, blackberry & cobnut chocolate pots
Damsons, blackberries and cobnuts all arrive in the hedgerows around my house at the same time. It’s as if Nature if giving you a hint. And, never one to ignore her, I am happy to oblige.
Simnel Trifle Pudding Pots
This recipe is a quick fix pudding that I loosely term 'trifle' or 'pudding pot'. It is packed with simnel cake, lemon curd, marzipan, candied peel and almonds - all the flavours of Easter in a single pot, and a five minute job
Quincemeat Bakewell Tart
I turn this time to Nigella Lawson for quince inspiration (quinspiration? Too much?). Her quincemeat recipe is an annual event in our house offering, as it does, all the usual loveliness of mincemeat but with the addition of fragrant roast quince. Use it to make mince pies of course, but do try this tart too. It is the lovechild of a mince pie and a Bakewell tart, born at Christmastime under a lucky star and the perfect festive dessert.
Spiced Pear & Toffee Jam
There’s nothing like giving someone a jar of homemade jam at Christmas to make you come over all Barbara Good. You feel like you just stepped out of a Country Living feature and the recipient can only enjoy it, can’t they? Well, only if it’s decent jam…
Gooseberry & Elderflower Trifle
Poor gooseberries. The unwanted spare part of the idiom world. And so too in the kitchen I fear. Pest free (relatively), easy to grow in the UK and delicious, gooseberries should be piled high on our shelves at this time of year. But they are not. Instead our heads are turned by that golden couple raspberries and strawberries whilst the plain old gooseberry sits awkwardly on the shelf being, in every sense, a gooseberry. But not here.
Fig Leaf Panna Cotta
My fig tree is a maverick. No straight and narrow for her. No conforming to the usual fig-tree stereotypes. No, not for her the trappings of traditional fig-tree identity built and reinforced through generations of oppression. She absolutely categorically refuses to produce a single sodding fig. Still, fig leaves are not a harvest to be ignored because when used to infuse a liquid they impart the richest, sweetest, most figgy of fig flavours you can imagine.
Strawberry & Rose Ice-Cream
The strawberries this year are recalcitrant. They have taken one look at the rain and found there no incentive to put on a good showing since Wimbledon will undoubtedly be rained off and so the nation won’t be requiring any strawberries. As a general rule, the veg patch is usually quite happy about warm rain, growing lush and green and rocketing to jungle-like proportions. But enough is enough and everyone, me included, is in need of some sunshine.
Blackcurrant Yogurt Lollies
It’s my first year with a berry harvest. And, goodness, it’s been a whopper. A proper old-fashioned, sinks full of berries, break the scales, stain the trug kind of glut. Redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, blackberries – we’ve had the works.