This week is National Allotments Week. The theme for 2020 is Growing Food for Health and Well-being, a reflection of the benefits of growing, cooking and eating your own fruit and vegetables.
Gardeners World have been featuring gardens and allotments over the last few months. If you are interested in submitting a video of your allotment visit the Gardeners World website here.
You can see pictures from our allotment site on instagram here and follow #nationalallotmentweek
It’s that time in the allotment year when, if you are lucky, you have a glut of courgettes. These summer squash are incredibly versatile and can be used in savory and sweet dishes.
If you want to try something a bit different, below is my favourite courgette loaf cake recipe.
Courgette cake (cuts into 10-12 slices).
60g raisins (or pecans/walnuts)
180g golden caster sugar
185ml light olive oil
3 eggs
280g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
380g courgettes coarsely grated
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Gas 4). Butter a 12 x 4 inch loaf tin.
Method
Beat the sugar with the oil and vanilla until smooth and then add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Keep on beating until you have a thick, yet light and fluffy batter. Sift in the flower, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add a pinch of salt and the courgettes, several good grinds of black pepper and the lemon zest and fold together well. Gently stir the raisins into the the batter.
Scrape the batter into the tin and bake for 55-60 mins (it took me 75 mins) until a skewer poked into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Leave the tin on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before turning the loaf out onto the rack to cool.
Serve warm or at room temperature, buttered if you like. Well wrapped up, this stays moist and soft for days and it toasts well even after it’s lost its moistness.
Note: If using walnuts or pecans toast them in the oven first by spreading them on a baking tray and heating them in the oven until they are just crisp and lightly roasted then remove them and allow to cool. Then coarsely chop them before stirring into the batter.
At this time of year woods and hedgerows are brightened by masses of tiny white flowers hanging in sprays which develop into purple elderberries later in the summer.
The fragrant elderflowers have many different culinary uses from drinks to desserts with perhaps the most well known being elderflower cordial.
One of our members, has kindly sent through details of how to make elderflower coridal using flowers harvested from the hedgerows on site and a recipe on BBC Good Food. They suggested making a half quantity as the recipe produces 3 litres of cordial.
Ingredients
2½ kg white sugar
2 unwaxed lemons
20 fresh elderflower heads, stalks trimmed
85g citric acid (from chemists)
1.5L water
Method
Step 1: Dissolve the sugar in 1.5l water on low heat. Do not boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Step 2: Add rest of ingredients and cover. Set aside for 24 hours.
Step 3: Strain through a clean cloth or tea towel and bottle.
Step 4: Will keep in fridge for the whole summer.
A really simple recipe. For the next batch our member is going to try infusing ginger and/or lemongrass.
