Gardeners Question Time

Watched a recording of GQT last night. Won’t spill the beans on the programme (out early feb), except for a few nuggets:

- The apple in the Garden of Eden was, in fact, a pomegranate.

- Watercress is easy to grow – try in a washing bowl, drilled with drainage holes and filled with compost, floating in a tub of water.

- Want to know the greatest myth in gardening? That – as TV shows claim – you can make a garden in an afternoon or week of work.

- For early crops, try blackening the soil, for example by spreading with powdered charcoal.

- Popeye and his spinach addiction was based on a mistake – a study stated spinach had incredible levels of iron but the decimal place was incorrect.

African shopping in Paris

La Goutte D’Or, a world apart from the swankier markets. This is full-on ethnic Paris – edgy and vibrant. On the edges of the market, police struggle to clear illegal hawkers. Cigarette sellers hide their stashes in litter bins. Couscous is a typical dish of the day in local cafes.

Visit on a Saturday morning. Also try Jambo or Le Palanka restaurants for top-notch food from Africa.

Off to market ….

Just back from latest early morning trip to New Covent Garden Market, where I write their monthly produce report.

‘The year ahead is mysterious. What lies in store for business? How will London cope with the Olympics? 2012 is an especially tricky year to predict. Even the seasons are out of kilter, with last year officially the second warmest since records began.

On the market, however, January is reliably offering its seasonal highlights. The first forced rhubarb has arrived, with also both blood and Seville oranges for their fleeting season.

A new wholesaler, Covent Garden Supply, has taken up a new position on buyer’s walk with a strong track record in catering supply. The company offers a wide selection, including Datterini and San Marzano tomatoes – lines previously supplied by Italian importer L’Orto di Sorrento, who have now sadly ceased trading.

Their other produce on my visit included fine lemons from La Costiera, blood oranges, tardivo, fennel, celeriac, spinach, butternut squash, potatoes, onions, swedes and turnips. “Italy, Egypt, America, China … it’s a United Nations,” remarks director Paul Whyman.

Elsewhere on the market, the usual winter staples are abundant. Wild mushrooms, chestnuts and cranberries are at their best. Madjoul dates and Agen prunes are piled by the box.

Brassicas include sprouts, tops, cauliflowers, kales, cabbages and excellent purple sprouting. “It just keeps growing and growing,” explains farmer and purple sprouting specialist Martin Sanders from Cherry Fields farm in Worcestershire. “The kids are picking in their jeans and t-shirts because it’s so mild.” His crop is sold by wholesalers including Premier Fruits.

Squashes are coming to an end, but traders such as S Thorogood & Sons still have a varied selection. For spuds, new crop Cyprus potatoes are best for flavour.

C & C Fruit boast some more unusual items such as Piccolo parsnips and other minis including turnips, patty pans and leeks. Highlights at The French Garden include romanesco, top notch winter salads such as red Batavian and speckled lettuces, Swiss chard, cime di rappe and smoked and rose garlic. The European Salad Company stocks some similar quality produce including first rate French watercress and crosnes (Chinese artichokes).

For fruit, expect English Cox, Braeburn and Bramley apples plus Conference and Concorde pears. Pomegranates, quinces, clementines and satsumas are at their best. The South African season for grapes, peaches and nectarines is in full swing. Strawberries hail from Morocco, Holland and Egypt.

So what are the traders’ predictions for 2012? Opinions are mixed, although a consensus is that trading will be tough. The Olympics, believes Paul Whyman, will complicate transport for companies like his. Eddy Barrett, salesman on H G Walker, is more upbeat about the event: “Theoretically it will make it better but we’ll have to see how many of the boys get contracts.” ‘

Spicy Tips

Spent the day with Spice Market chefs, a lavish outpost of Jean-Georges Vongerichten off Leicester Square.

Learnt clever techniques, including their Thai Basil dipping sauce. To make it, blitz the leaves with grapeseed oil, then filter through muslin. Use this oil to make a mayonnaise-style dip. Start with egg yolk, lime juice, salt and a little fish sauce, then slowly incorporate the oil.

Herbs @ The Corner Room

The little sister of Viajante in Dalston. For their herb purée, a mix of spinach, parsley and dill blitzed to a vibrant green paste. With courgettes, lamb breast and goats cheese.

Mustard Leaves

Forget rocket leaves – a handful of mixed mustards pack oodles more oomph and character. They are doddle to grow – I mixed up seed from different seed packets and sowed thickly in a recycled blue mushroom crate. You can cut and they will come again too. Steak sandwich with mustards and a slather of coriander chutney.

Samphire and capers

Try it – a new discovery.

The vinegary capers change character, from land to sea. Mixed into the samphire, flash fried in butter, they become juicy seaweed-y nuggets.

I would never mess much with samphire, but this match is a winner. Just add a squeeze of lemon juice to complete the buttery, vinegary juices.

Japanese Wineberries

I would grow this plant even if it never fruited. The colour and texture of those bristly red stems are unlike anything else in the garden. It’s a perennial from the raspberry family, and the berries are a delight. Just slightly sticky, sweet and special.

Forced rhubarb

Got a few stalks of first, forced rhubarb at the weekend. About 80p each. Also visited a kitchen garden in Kent, where they are forcing their rhubarb – see pic below.

Forcing rhubarb

Roasted them to have with mackerel. The trick with cooking the stalks is to keep their firm texture, rather than turning mushy. Roasting or grilling both work. To roast, chop into chunks, then lay in a roasting tin with a few splashs of water. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar.

Coriander

Getting on a coriander tip, researching the best ways to grow it and experimenting with recipes for the leaves, stalk / root, and seeds. In a grow bag, I’ve got a strip of both coriander and chervil popping up, sowing a few seeds each week for a continuous supply.

For recipes for coriander leaves and stalk, had a go at a coriander-heavy chutney, inspired by a recipe in The London Cookbook. Actually, it felt more like a pesto to me – thicker paste, very delicious, good hit of green chilli.

To make it, you dry roast a spoonful of cumin seeds then a handful of peanuts in a heavy frying pan, then grind them up. Then, in a blender, whizz garlic and green chillies, add the peanuts and cumin, sugar (jaggery), salt, lemon juice and then bunches of coriander, chopped down to just above their root.

I deliberately haven’t included exact quantities. This is the kind of recipe that needs a bit of instinct to balance the flavours how you like it.

Coriander chutney

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Gardening: chillies and tomatoes germinating in heated propagator, earlies chitting, peas and broad beans in cold frame, garlic okey dokey.