cooking in the greenhouse garden

We are cooking alfresco in the greenhouse gardens this morning 10.30-1pm Sat 26th May. Join us for some late spring salads and flatbreads with food writer Lucas Hollweg.

Biriyani Food heroes session postponed

Because of the event by the cafe tomorrow 19th May we will be postponing the advertised Biriyani food heores session to another date. Sorry for any disappointed Indian food fans but do come along for the BBQ and salads tomorrow instead!

Outdoor cooking by the Little Cat Cafe

Tomorrow we will be preparing some salads in the open air using produce from our greenhouse and surplus food provided by the Brixton Peoples Kitchen. https://www.facebook.com/events/301779329907357/

Anyone is welcome to come and help chop, stir and taste, we’ll be eating what we’ve made between 1-2.30pm along with a BBq provided by the cafe.

This event is part of Jamie Olivers Food Revolution Day http://foodrevolutionday.com/public-event/739/Salad-Revolution-Day-Recipes-Exchange.html and a collaboration between Myatt’s Fields Food Projects and the Peoples Kitchen. We will also be starting a community recipe exchange so would love people to bring recipes and ideas they love to cook.

More beetroot

More beetroot! Because we grow it in the greenhouse and it is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. And it is delicious!

Yesterday 11 volunteers came to the monthly greenhouse open day. The kitchen was steaming busy, 4 cooks were working hard to brighten this gloomy Sunday with a cheerful Indian meal. Here’s how the final product looked like:

What you can see is beetroot greens (they taste a bit like spinach and it’s a terrible waste to throw them away when you buy fresh beetroot or grow your own!), cabbage, rice and beetroot and mushroom curry. As promised, here is a recipe for the latter one, it comes from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian:

Beetroot and mushroom curry

3 tblsp vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon yellow or brown mustard seeds

180 medium mushrooms, cut in half

400g raw beetroots, peeled and cut into 2cm dice

2 teaspoons peeled fresh ginger grated to a pulp

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed to a pulp

1 fresh green chilli, very finely chopped

250ml tomato passata

1tsp salt

Put the oil in a medium pan and set over medium high heat. When hot, put in the cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop – a matter of seconds – put in the mushrooms. Give the mushrooms a quick stir, then put in the beetroots. Stir and fry for 2 minutes. Now add the ginger, garlic and chilli. Stir and fry, still on medium-high heat, for another 2 minutes. Pour in the tomato passata and 250m water. Add the salt. Stir to mix, then bring to the boil. Cover, turn the heat to low and cook gently for about 40 minutes or until the beetroots are tender. Serves 4

Beetroot is so good for you I have just found a whole website dedicated solely to beetroot! Yum!

Rhubarb and beetroot delight

Both rhubarb and beetroot are in season now and we grow them in Myatt’s Fields Park greenhouse.  Therefore this week’s novelties in Little Cat Cafe and senior’s lunch club: beetroot and chocolate cake (no, unfortunately we don’t grow chocolate yet) and beetroot and rhubarb soup.

It is impossible to describe the beautiful colour of this soup, you just have to make it or have it in the cafe next time you see it on the menu. In case you are a DIY person, here’s a recipe that comes from New Covent Garden Food Cookbook:

25g butter

300g rhubarb, chopped

300g cooked beetroot, diced

500ml vegetable stock

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Melt the butter in a pan, add the rhubarb and cook gently until softened

Add the beetroot and stock, then bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender

Blend until smooth

Return to the pan, season to taste and serve

Serves 4

Tasting this soup in Myatt’s Fields Park is even better when you think about the history. Did you know it was Joseph Myatt, after whom the park is named, who propagated rhubarb stems for cooking purposes when it was known mainly as a medicine? If you would like to know more, read the post on Deptford Pudding blog.

Easter fever at the food groups!

The toddlers enjoyed an easter egg hunt around the grounds of the mulberry centre this morning at the last breakfast club before Easter. This group will now take a break for two weeks and be back on the 20th April when we will make green smoothies!

One of our regular attendees of the pensioners lunch club kindly treated everyone to a cadburys creme egg  today too. We also had quails eggs and a spinach frittata to eat, so eggs seem to be the theme of the day! There will be no pensioners lunch next week but we will be back on the 13th April at 12pm.

Tomorrow’s food heroes session will be a passover meal which will be based on the biblical Easter story and the traditional passover celebration meal of lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It’s a family friendly event and all are welcome to attend. 10.30-1pm in the depot/greenhouse kitchen.

Recipes from last weeks Paella food heroes session

This week: Come along and try your hand at Gnocchi with tomato and mozzarrella and imagine you are in Italy! Tomorrow 10.30-1pm in the depot kitchen, all welcome.PAELLA&ESCALIVA_10032012[1]