I feel like I’ve had a truly rural visit to England this time around – taking in the Sussex hills while chugging along in a steam engine and visiting a vintage tractor show – and today I concluded the trip with another countryside classic: Picking and cooking with homegrown produce.
I’ve been in New York for nearly two years now, and in that time, my mum and brother have cultivated an impressive greenhouse and vegetable patch. I can imagine they know all about what fantastic things you could grow in your garden. Even when using hanging plant baskets. Tastefully revealed the Best Full Sun Hanging Plants if you were interested in learning more for yourself about how to grow some more organic produce in your home. My friend said they had some handy tips. I know my entire family loves the organic food we grow so everyone in your home will surely love it too. Today we had lots of relatives gathering at our house for a family reunion, so we decided to cook up a storm with produce from the garden.
It seemed such a simple pleasure that I can’t get in New York. (I could put a plant pot on my fire escape, but I’m not too sure it’d actually get any sun. Plus it wouldn’t be fair on Seamless.)
Basil
Cucumbers
Not-quite-ripe tomatoes
Bay leaf
Dyl and I picked parsley, coriander (cilantro to you Americans), bay leaves, cucumbers, lettuce, red lettuce and tomatoes, and he led me through the other budding plants: Butternut squash, potatoes, courgettes, beetroots, carrots, peas. Good job, the Warrens.
Love how Dyl has paraded a collection of NYC-themed tees since I’ve been home
Beetroot salad filled with our lovely garden herbs
We whipped up a green salad, a beetroot and tomato salad (using all of our herbs), and got to work on a parsnip roulade to go with it. This was another new experience – and to be honest, Mummy Warren should probably take all the credit for how delicious it was.
We used 450g parsnips, olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, 1 bay leaf, 5 large eggs, 85g Shropshire Blue cheese (we used cheddar because it’s vegetarian), 250g mascarpone, 2 tbsp pesto (we used red pepper pesto) and a tub of sun-dried tomatoes. And this is how we used them:
Recipe at the ready…
Chop the parsnips, add unpeeled garlic, 2 tbsp oil, salt and pepper – and the bay leaf
Roast for 30 mins and discard the bay leaf
Add parsnips to the blender and squeeze out the roasted garlic into the mix, too
Blend with three of the egg yolks – add one by one
Add cheese – you’re supposed to use blue cheese, but we opted for a veggie cheddar
Liki selflessly helps us clean up our spilled cheese
Whip up the whites from the five eggs
Mix together
Then slather the mixture over a tray
And cook!
Liki’s already tired out
When it’s cool, cover with red pepper pesto
And slap on the marscapone
Chop some sun-dried tomatoes
Chuck them on top
Try to avoid getting told off by Mummy Warren
And start to roll!
(I did nothing but stand back and watch)
Ta daaa
And then serve
And then everyone arrived and tucked in.
With full bellies, we swapped news, played endless games of Bop It! and table football, and posed for photographs – which marked another first. Today’s the day I was with all of my British cousins for the first time ever – and aren’t they lovely? (Apart from a couple)
The cousins with Nannie Jones
What a great trip home. Back to New York tonight!
Liki finishes off the meal with some ice cream
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