Vegetable

At the Farm Shop we don’t treat cooking as a precise science, nor are we trying to give a comprehensive list of recipes. These are some of our favourite dishes and we hope you’ll give some of them a try. They’ve worked for us on countless occasions but that doesn’t mean, with a bit of imagination and a few tweaks, they can’t be improved. Good luck.
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Rowley Leigh’s CaponataBy Ben WatsonTraditionally a Sicilian dish, caponata can be found in numerous variations of chopped aubergines, celery, capers and with older versions that even include cocoa powder. Although, this could be a step too far. Last July, chef Rowley Leigh hosted a Summer Feast with us and he opened with his classic caponata recipe served alongside our charcuterie.
Rainbow Goodwill PieBy Ben WatsonLoosely based on a combination of Anna Jones’s Christmas Goodwill Pie and Dan Lepard’s amazing rough puff pastry with a bit of our nut roast mix thrown in for good measure. OK; as I’m really coming clean, the inspiration for our nut roast  comes from Felicity Cloake in the Guardian. Wherever it comes from, the stuffing adds a few Christmas flavours to the mix and makes it a bit more celebratory.
Pumpkin (squash) TirshyBy Ben WatsonThis Moroccan style dip traditionally calls for pumpkins - but we know they really mean butternut squash! In Ben's version, he's toned down the spices  to allow the combination of sweet squash and sour preserved lemons to really sing. The original recipe suggests serving with olives and feta cheese but we think it really works with dukkah and olive oil.
Apple, Squash and Tamarind ChutneyBy Ben Watson

If you ordered from us at Christmas a few years ago, hopefully you will have already enjoyed our 'Happy Christmas Chutney' . Born out of an abundance of butternut squash from the veg farm, we thought it was pretty good. So good in fact, that it can be enjoyed year-round. Tamarind offers a lot of ‘bangs for bucks’ so don’t worry if you don’t have the ingredients for the full spice bag. In fact, because most of the spices are dry, so absorb liquid, I’m never that sure how much flavour actually gets out of the bag and into the chutney. So I started grinding the toasted spices and adding to the onions, garlic etc at the frying stage.

Fabulous French Onion TartBy Ben WatsonNot to be confused with Quiche Lorraine, French Onion tart really is what it says. Onions. With a bit of cream, cheese and eggs. But don't let the apparent simplicity fool you - it is a real treat, especially if enjoyed al fresco. In fact, it really comes into its own served at picnic hamper temperature. There's a bit of room to get creative with the pastry too.  A few fresh thyme leaves, a little Dijon mustard and even a splash of wine all add a little je ne sais quoi.
Vegan Bagna CaudaBy Ben WatsonBagna Cauda (literally warm bath) is a Piedmontese dip, traditionally made with garlic and anchovies. A chance delivery of some rather overpowering smoked anchovies got me thinking about it and, as it's largely a dip for raw vegetables, this vegan version was born. Whilst not technically Piedmontese, it is pretty good with vegetables, bread and all manner of 'dippable' things nonetheless.
Austrian Apple & Horseradish SauceBy Ben Watson

Traditionally served with tafelspitz (an Austrian 'boiled' beef dish much favoured by the Emperor Franz Joseph) this apple and horseradish sauce adds a kick to any meal. It can be adapted to suit your tastes, so whether you like it hot or a little more on the mild side, it's a must. 

Pesto alla Poly TunnelBy Ben WatsonLike many, I think I might have overdone it a bit on the tomato planting in the poly tunnel yet again this year, so any way of preserving them in their semi fresh state is to be jumped at. My basil is also entering its 'use it or lose it' stage so when Rachel Roddy started eulogizing about the about pesto alla trapanese in the Guardian a few weeks ago when I was on the verge of binning bucket loads of its two main ingredients, I sat up and took notice. The third ingredient, almonds are far cheaper than pine nuts, but I still couldn't resist substituting a part ration of sunflower seeds. That seemed to work, leaving the possibility of swapping olive oil for rapeseed oil, for a true Pesto alla Brexit. Rightly or wrongly, I've always been a bit wary of the neonicotinoid/rapeseed connection so tend to avoid it, but I'm sure it would work. A brief online search revealed that the Pesto Trapanese recipe is about as loose as they come - the main areas of divergence being the amount of garlic and whether or not to add a pecorino type cheese. I quickly decided that the cheese was best left until the end but the garlic was more difficult. Rachel Roddy's 1-3 cloves seemed more reasonable than others' 6-10 but whilst the latter puts me in quarantine for a week the former was a bit insipid. Tempering the full amount by lightly roasting might seem cowardly but it bought about benefits in terms of body, depth and untuosity (good word). I imagine it would be good with pasta but it never gets further than a piece of toast in my house - maybe with a slice or two of griddled courgette - I have an abundance of those too.
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