Promise this is the final blog about the cauliflower harvest. Last week the weather warmed up and then it rained, and the last 10 caulis all came along at once and some went a bit too far!
I harvested them all, except two late baby ones and gave away 3. As most came from outside I threw the florets into a bath of salted water to get rid of bugs/slugs before sorting them into firm florets and sightly "blown" ones. I have frozen 8 bags (about 60% of pile here) of firm florets big enough for our usual dishes of cauli cheese having blanched them for 3 mins. We will just have to eat our way through the other load.
Meanwhile the warm weather gave us some asparagus and then it went cold again and they stopped! Had a look in the local shops on way to butchers today and their ones there did not look mush bigger than mine. The asparagus makes us feel very up market - luxury lunch this week was asparagus lightly browned with slivers of smoked bacon and served with a poached egg. Yum.
I've heard of a wine lake and a butter mountain, but never a cauliflower hill! YOu could make vats of cauliflower soup, of course ... some with leek, some with potato, some with blue cheese ... I suppose Heston Blumenwhatsit would turn it into ice cream!
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
For some strange reason I like green broccoli soup with blue cheese but not cauli. I threw some in our rogan josh chicken curry last night and it tasted nice.
DeleteThis evening I didn't know what to make for our supper - we'd had bacon and tomatoes on toast for breakfast, and a roast loin of pork for lunch (with stuffing, small roast potatoes, roast parsnips, leek cheese, and gravy, followed by crème caramel. So I delved deep into the fridge veg box and dug out part of a cauli left over from last week, some celery with the green tops still on them, a green pepper, half a packet of purple sprouting spears and half a courgette. First I sautéed a small onion in garlic butter and a little oil and then added all the green veg, boiling water to cover, 3 veggie Oxo cubes, ground black pepper and simmer it all for about 20 minutes. Then added a small portion of At Agur cheese, a dollop of crème fraiche and whizzed it all with my hand-blender. Served with crusty bread it was delicious and all from virtually bits in the veggie box. The main flavour coming through wasn't the blue cheese or the cauli, both strong flavours, but the celery, but it was really tasty.
DeleteMargaret P
I meant St Agur cheese, not At Agur.
DeleteMargaret P
At school we had a dinner lady who prepped all the veg, trouble is she wasn't very good at it, I well remember gritty potatoes and bug riddled caulis , those were the days...lol
ReplyDeleteUck!
DeleteI'm so jealous of your cauli mountain. I wish I had one its my favourite veg.
ReplyDeleteNeighbour has a rhubarb mountain he keeps trying to pass over this way! Frozen 3 servings and planning some jam making. One day my plants will rival his giant 4 ft long stalks!
DeleteCaulis are one veg I dont like and dont grow, yours look good, I harvested asparagus again today 3rd picking this year :-)
ReplyDeleteSee asparagus is £2.50 a bundle. Think we may get 8 spears tomorrow!
Delete