Rich runner bean soup

So many runner beans! And as per all the crops we've had an abundance of we decided to make a soup. So far this year we've had tomato soup, courgette soup, beetroot soup and now runner bean soup. It's getting colder and the nights are getting longer so definitely a good time to curl up on the couch with a warm creamy soup.

We've been caught out with our runner beans though (so much to learn in this gardening business!) We left them slightly too long so they've become quite stringy. Apparently it's best to harvest them quite young otherwise the skin becomes coarse. They've grown splendidly in the little soil patch we have around the greenhouse. On one side of the greenhouse we rested a trellis fence and the beans happily climbed it showing off some very pretty red flowers as they did so. On the other side of the greenhouse we built a bean wigwam and they loved that too but soon outgrew it so we pinched off the growing tips at that point. They're very thirsty plants so as long as you give them enough water they flourish and grow without too much trouble. Now I understand why they say it's a good beginner plant to grow.

So about this recipe. We harvested over 500g of runner beans and considering it was such a cold and rainy day yesterday we thought it would be a good idea to make a soup. The one we made was inspired by a recipe on the fantastic site Cook Sister. We added a few extra ingredients and topped it off with a very indulgent helping of roquefort. Delicious! However, remember to harvest your runner beans when they're young otherwise you'll get lots of stringy bits stuck between your teeth. Eww!

Ingredients

3 tbsp butter or margarine

500g runner beans

2 garlic cloves

1 large onion

1 courgette

700ml vegetable stock

100ml single cream

Roquefort cheese

Chilli flakes (they always manage to sneak their way into my recipes...)

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Top and tail the runner beans and remove the stringy bits on either side with a potato slicer

2. Chop the onion, garlic cloves and courgette

3. Heat the butter or margarine in a large saucepan and add the chilli flakes - one teaspoon should be enough

4.  Fry the onion and garlic and then add the chopped courgette and the runner beans

5.  When the beans are starting to look a little softer, add the vegetable stock

6. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes

7. Puree in a blender and then add to the soup bowls with generous crumblings of gooey smelly roquefort cheese, a sprinkling of salt and a healthy helping of pepper

Banana pups part 2

They've been saved by the rain! If it hadn't rained there might have been a banana massacre. We cut one banana pup away from the mum but cut too close to the stem of the pup (my suggestion to cut closer- oops) and as a result we cut through the root bulb so poor little pup only has half his roots with him. I doubt he'll survive but we've put him in a pot and we'll see what happens.

We didn't realise that the bulbs are quite deep underground and because there is so much growing in Cowick Garden it wasn't very easy to position ourselves next to the plants as we also had to fight our way between palm leaves and ferns and the branches from the apple tree. It then started raining so we scurried inside and decided to do a bit more research on this whole transplanting process.

A few websites suggested waiting till spring or at least until there is enough warm weather remaining to allow the pups to settle into their new habitat. With temperatures due to drop over the next few weeks then now is probably not a good time. This sound advice made sense and I'm sure a large number of the pups we have won't survive the winter anyway as they are far too small. So we're going to let nature run its course and see how many pups remain after winter and deal with the fiesty survivors in the spring.

So the pups are still intact and they're out there lapping up the rain with one lonely pup in a pot on the deck, also getting a good soaking.

Tomato and courgette linguine with pesto

This recipe was inspired by courgette and pesto pasta; a recipe I found on goodtoknow.co.uk. We'd harvested some cherry tomatoes that day so I decided to add them to the mix and the result was this very quick and simple pasta dish.

Ingredients
4-5 small courgettes, coarsely grated
Large handful of cherry tomaotes, chopped in half
Chilli flakes
Olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
300g linguine
4tbsp green pesto (I bought it fresh from Waitrose)
Parmesan, grated
Handful of fresh basil leaves

Method
1. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the chilli flakes and cook the onion until soft, approximately 5 minutes

2. While the onion is cooking, cook the linguine in a pot of salted boiling water for approximately 11 minutes, or according to the instructions on the pack

3. Add the grated courgettes to the onion and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes

4. Drain the pasta and add it to the courgette and onion mix. Add the tomatoes and fresh pesto and toss

5. Add the parmesan and continue to toss

6. Garnish with a generous helping of fresh basil leaves

I'm a big fan of chilli and all things spicy so I normally add at least a small teaspoon of chilli flakes to most of my pasta dishes  but you could easily leave this ingredient out for an equally tasty dish.

Goodbye broccoli

Well we chickened out of separating the pups from the mothers this weekend but we ended up doing something equally difficult: we pulled out all our broccoli. Unfortunately the caterpillars were victorious. They gorged themselves very happily on most of our broccoli leaves and despite trying to remove as many of them as possible we realised we were defeated and there were simply too many of those voracious little creatures. Even if we spent an entire day digging them out from around the foliage and scraping them off the leaves, we still wouldn't find them all.

It was a shame as we were just starting to get some broccoli heads after so many months of waiting. Doubt we could have eaten any of that broccoli though considering how many small caterpillars had burrowed their ways into the florets too.

So one by one we pulled out each broccoli plant. Some of the plants near the back fence were reduced to pale green skeletons as the caterpillars had devoured all the fleshy parts of the leaves leaving only the harder green stems.

Apparently, the best way to prevent caterpillars attacking your broccoli is to cover the plants just after you've sown the seeds and make sure the cover is held down tightly with landscaping pins. Seeing as we didn't do this and the caterpillars struck we could have, if we'd done this as soon as we spotted the first caterpillars, used a soil bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis which is a naturally occuring soil bacteria to kill them off. Well, we'll know for next time.

On a happier note, we harvested some more tomatoes and also some courgettes, baby courgettes. For some reason our courgettes now seem to be rotting when they reach a certain size. They were growing quite well in July and when we went on holiday in August we came back to find three very large marrows in the courgette patch.  However, since the marrow-episode we haven't had as many courgettes (that's usually because if you let the vegetables reach that size, the plant thinks job done,time for a rest!) and the few we have had start rotting very soon after the flowers fall off.

Despite this we managed to harvest at least five healthy-looking baby courgettes and made a very delicious tomato and courgette pesto linguine. I'll upload the recipe in the next post.

Banana pups

One of the most striking features in Cowick Garden is the banana trees. We had six large ones on one side of the garden and four smaller ones on the other side. Sadly, the snow and bitter cold over the last winter took its toll and two of the larger trees didn't make it.  We were glad that most of them did survive and watching them come back to life in spring and seeing the green shoots emerge out of the shabby brown stumps in the ground was very exciting! As you can tell I don't get out much.

Anyway, the two banana trees that didn't quite make it have produced pups. Yes, apparently baby banana trees are called pups and when a tree dies the long root or corm produces little shoots known as pups. These pups can, so I'm told, be easily separated from the corm and replanted. Well there are so many little banana pups in Cowick Garden and I mean so many that not only are we going to have to replant some elsewhere (if we can find the space) but we're going to have to put some in pots and give them away. I can't bear to throw any of them away and especially now that I know they're called pups?! That would just be too cruel!

I started looking up the best ways of separating the pups from the corm and came across descriptions on the Internet which referred to the main tree or plant as the 'mother' and the connection between the mother and the pup as the 'umbilical cord.' Eek! With these analogies and pictures now in my head I have no idea how I'm going to find the courage to perform this little operation and separate the pups from the mums! Wish me luck...

Apples are ripening

The apples are getting redder and redder! Don't think they are ready to pick just yet. You know when they are ripe when you cup an apple in your hand and twist the stem very lightly and it falls off in your hand. I've been trying this everyday for the last week but up until now they are holding on very tightly.

We're getting a bit impatient for them to ripen because one of our favourite recipes is apple crumble. We made this last year and it's a delicious comfort treat when the weather is turning colder and the days are getting shorter. This recipe is courtesy of Merrilees Parker on the BBC website and it's one of the simplest ones we found.

A good trick (and we were caught out a few times) is to only peel and cut the apples at the very last minute. As soon as you cut the apples they turn brown and though this doesn't affect the taste it doesn't look very attractive.

Comforting apple crumble

Ingredients
For the crumble:
300g plain flour, sieved with a pinch of salt
175g unrefined brown sugar
200g unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature (room temperature bit -important!)
Butter or margarine for greasing
For the filling:
500g apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm pieces (leave till the last minute)
50g unrefined brown sugar
1tbsp plain flour
1 very generous pinch of ground cinnamon

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C

2. Pour the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix together.

3. Add  a few cubes of butter and rub into the flour mixture with your fingers. Keep adding the butter and rubbing together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs

4. Place the apples pieces in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well and take care not to break up the fruit. Breathe in the delicious heart-warming comforting smell of apple and cinnamon. Delicious!

5. Grease the ovenproof dish and spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom and sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.

6. Bake in the oven for approximately 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the apple mixture is bubbling.

7. Serve with cream and custard!

Refreshing bean risotto

We've made this risotto about three times and each time it's even more delicious than the last. I never used to enjoy risottos as I always found them too heavy and stodgy and ended up walking away from my meal feeling all bloated. But this recipe turns risotto into a refreshing and extremely moorish dish. It's little piece de resistance is simply lemon zest. Somehow that lifts up all the flavours in the dish and turns it into a lively little taste sensation. Some might find the lemon zest too overpowering so worth trying it out with a small lemon to begin with.

We found this recipe on www.uktv.co.uk and modified it slightly. In the spring we used broad beans from the garden which we planted over winter and more recently we've used runner beans which are growing madly around the greenhouse.

Ingredients
100g margarine
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery
1.5 litres vegetable stock
350g Carnaroli risotto rice
1 large glass white wine
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and chopped
150g broad beans, blanched or runner beans, chopped and steamed
1 lemon, zest only
100g parmesan, grated

Method
1. Melt the margarine in a large pan over a low heat and add the onion and celery and let it soften

2. Add the rice and mix all the ingredients together for about two minutes until the risotto grains become translucent

3. Heat the stock in another saucepan and keep it simmering

4. Turn up the heat under the risotto and add the white wine. Allow it to bubble, stirring the whole time until all the liquid has been absorbed.

5. Add the chopped asparagus.

5. Now for the tedious part. This is the part where you need to make sure you have some good music on the radio and the bottle with the remaining wine nearby. Add a ladleful of stock and stir until all the stock has been absorbed. Add another ladleful of stock and carry on stirring until it's all absorbed. Repeat. Have sip of wine. Repeat.

6. After about 15 minutes of cooking and stirring, add the broad beans or runner beans to the risotto and then carry on stirring in the remaining stock for another five minutes or until the rice is creamy and tender. You may not need all the stock, then again you may need to make more if you run out.

7. When the risotto is cooked, and your arm is aching from all the stirring, remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon zest and parmesan and some extra margarine.

8. Season with freshly ground salt and pepper and leave to stand for a few minutes and there you have it, a beautiful lively zingy risotto!

Tasty tomato soup

In the days before the caterpillars we made some lovely tomato soup. I found a very simple recipe by Emma Lewis on BBC Good Food and modified it slightly using vegetable stock instead of milk so the soup wasn't too creamy but still very filling and tasty.


Ingredients

500g tomatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tomato sauce or tomato puree

600 ml vegetable stock

Handful of basil leaves

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic

2. Cook over a low to moderate heat until the onion and garlic have softened which should take about 5 minutes

3. Add the tomato sauce or the tomato puree, the chopped tomatoes and some of the basil and bring up to the boil

4. Once the mixture has started to boil, turn down the heat and leave to simmer for 15 minutes

5. And then it's all into the blender for a quick whizz to make it smooth

6. At this point you can pack the mixture away into a container in your freezer for later use (it can freeze for up to one month).

7. However, if you're hungry now return the mixture back to the pan and add the vegetable stock.

8. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes

9. Serve and garnish with basil leaves

Caterpillars!

There we were enjoying the deliciously juicy cherry tomatoes from our garden; making tomato soup, tomato salads, tomato sauces, more tomato soup and then what happens? The caterpillars strike! Large pale green ones, big furry black ones and sickly looking yellow ones all over the tomato plants, helping themselves to all our delectable fruit. The cheek!

It has to be said that we were struggling to keep up with all the tomatoes our plants were generously producing. We also bought a variety of tomato suitable for hanging baskets but then didn't have enough hanging baskets to plant them in and so planted them in the ground which wasn't the best solution as they are not the easiest variety to tie to sticks and bamboo. No matter what they give in to gravity and keep hanging down. So there were dozens and dozens of deliciously ripe juicy tomatoes trailing along the ground in our greenhouse and the caterpillars probably thought well if you aren't making the most of these we happily will, thanks very much. All very well if they eat a whole tomato here and there but no they have a little bit of a nibble here and a nibble there and eat some leaves and some stems while they're at it and before you know it the leaves are turning yellow, all your fruit is rotting and your plant is dying.

What to do?!