Garden week of 30th August

Tomatoes are all grown but are struggling to ripen in the weather, but the ones which have ripened have been lovely.

Had a multitude of cucumbers, not very impressed with the gherkin variety, they grew very large and were prickly, but the cucino smooth ones were lovely.

Still waiting to see any fruit from the Tomatillo or Aubergine but the Cape Gooseberries are showing signs but very small.

Had some great sucess with the onions grown from sets. Ended up with over 50 of them, they were put out to dry in the garage and then bagged up ready for use.

Have had a glut of courgettes and runner beans, the courgettes I have used in as many different recipes as possible which you can find on the site and the runner beans I pick and then put in water to make them crisp (thanks Mum!), then use the bean slicer and chop them up smaller, put in a zip lock bag and freeze to use whenever.

The carrots are starting to come through and we have had a good harvest of potatoes. I am now starting to plan for the winter months, putting sun tunnels over the back two beds to ensure I can produce over the wintertime. I still have kale producing, broccoli, sprouts and cabbage, had some great cauliflowers this year and got leeks, turnips, swede, parsnips and carrots to come - winter veg is mainly going to be cabbage, salad, beans, beetroot and turnip.

Ravioli fillings

This is an extension on the Spicy Squash Tortelloni I made last year. I bought a ravioli press from Lakeland Limited which helped immensely and then the second time I tried these I had bought the pasta machine attachment for my Kenwood chef which made making the pasta sheets a lot quicker and easier.

First you need to make pasta dough, the second time I made the ravioli, as I was making four different fillings, I added different flavours to the pasta dough to change the colour, add a tablespoon of pesto to make green, a tablespoon of sun dried tomato paste to make it red, tablespoon of olive tapenade to make it black. Once the dough is kneaded and ready leave it in the fridge whilst you make the fillings:

Spicy Squash and Ricotta - I used the spicy squash recipe from above but added 2 tsp cumin seeds to the mix as well and added some courgette to the squash I had peeled. Then I mashed it all up and added a tub of ricotta to it and put it in the fridge.

Goats chesse and sundried tomato - 2 logs of soft goats cheese, 10 pieces of sundried tomato - put into a food processor and mix together adding salt and pepper to taste, put in fridge to cool.

Boursin mushroom - chop one onion finely and one 500g portion of mushrooms (preferably chop in the food processor to get very fine) mix with a 200g French Roule to make a creamy garlic mushroom mix, put in fridge to cool.

Mozerella, courgette and onion - fry onions and courgettes in a pan (probably 3-4 courgettes and 1-2 medium onions) and then chop 2 balls mozerella finely and mix in as well, leave to cool.

Pulled Beef - the day before or in the morning put a joint of beef (a cheap one will do) into a slow cooker or a very low oven with a bottle of red wine, a couple of sticks of celery and an onion chopped into two and leave to stew for 6-8hrs. Once it is cooked remove from the juice but do not discard. Place the beef on a chopping board and pull apart into strings of meat, once it is all pulled apart add it to a pan with some of the cooking juice and reduce down. Add a jar of tomato pasta sauce and again reduce down. Leave to cool.

Take the pasta and roll into sheets, do not take it to the thinnest sheet level, but one just before to leave it a little thicker and more elastic. Each portion of pasta dough made as per the recipe above can be cut into 4 and will make 4 sheets which each make one portion of 12 ravioli so 48 pieces of each.

Once you have the sheet made, flour both sides and flour the press. Place the sheet over the press and gently push the white piece into the pasta to form the cups for the fillings. Add just under a teaspoon of whichever mix into the cups. Take an egg wash (egg mixed with milk) and paste the remaining pasta sheet with it so when you lay it over the top of the pasta with filling and roll over the top of the press it forms a good seal. Tip the pieces out of the press and cut further with a knife if needed. Place the pieces of ravioli on a floured plate and allow to dry for an hour.

To cook place in boiling water for around 6-8 minutes and serve with a flavoured butter.