We might be closed on Sundays, but I will be up bright and early today to head up to Dundee.
This weekend is the annual flower and food festival at Camperdown Country Park, a tremendous celebration of much more than the name suggests. I will be doing a cookery demonstration as always but not before I've explored my favourite section: the oversized vegetable growing exhibition. Leeks as long as legs, onions like footballs and peas like plump marbles are all normal. Welcome to the insane garden allotment of a mad, good-natured, green fingered professor. Marvelling at these Goliath growths, I always feel I have shrunk.
They are in stark contrast to the tiny baby vegetables so beloved by many chefs. I am not sure the enormous specimens on display, remarkable as they are, would be tasty at all, just woody and stringy. Similarly, I sometimes think that baby vegetables are offered more for show, rather than taste.
We manage to grow little carrots in our garden, hitting what I hope is an ideal balance between elegant size and that all important big flavour. Growing your own gives you the chance to follow organic practices, select different varieties, and, above all, enjoy the just-dug-up freshness of the intense flavour that only comes from the satisfying knowledge that you grew that carrot. The sharp snap when you break one in two and its meaty depth of sweetness are miles away from the shop shelf. Even the simplest of vegetable dishes are suddenly luxuriously exquisite.
Young carrots and peas cooked in their own buttery juices
Recipe serves 4
50g unsalted butter
600g small carrots, preferably with their green leafy tops intact
1.2kg peas in the pod (or around 350g podded)
half a teaspoon of caster sugar
Maldon sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
A rounded teaspoon of both chopped tarragon and also of chervil, plus some of the reserved leaf from the tops of the carrots
Method
1. Peel the carrots with a swivel-head peeler, taking care to retain the cylindrical shape of the carrot and not to give it jagged shoulders as you peel away the skin. Pop the peas out of the pods. Ensure the top is cut off the carrots and retain the smaller fronds of carrot herb leaf from the top, if your carrots came with this on.
2. Slice the carrots into coins of three millimetres in thickness and set aside for the moment
3. Now, over a gentle flame, heat a saucepan.
4. Add the butter and allow it to melt and slightly start to foam, but leave it so long that it starts to brown. Add the carrots and a little sea salt flakes and stir well to coat, then cover with a lid and sweat for up to five minutes, stirring a couple of times.
5. Add a scant sprinkling of sugar and add 100ml water. Add the peas and a little more sea salt. Cut out a disc of greaseproof paper and place over the surface of the vegetables then cover the pan with a lid.
6. Turn up the heat and cook briskly, until the peas are cooked, about 4-6 minutes. All the water should pretty much evaporate, leaving buttery juices at the bottom
7. Add the chopped tarragon and chervil and season with fresh ground black pepper then toss.
8. Taste for seasoning then spoon the mixture onto a serving dish and sprinkle with the carrot herb. Serve at once.
The air of the flower and food festival is famously always perfumed with Iain Spinks' Arbroath smokies, cooked on the spot throughout the day. I always nibble one as I wander around. If I could get some home, I would make these fish cakes.
Arbroath smokies fish cakes
Recipe serves 4
600g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into 1½ inch cubes
350-400g Arbroath smokies or substitute un-dyed smoked haddock
4 spring onions cut into fine rounds
a knob of butter
1 rounded dessertspoon of chopped parsley
an egg
a dessertspoon or so of plain flour to help the shaping process of the fish cakes
milk to poach the fish, about 200mls
a sprig of thyme, optional
Method
1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan, add a little salt and cover with cold water, then bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Drain well and ensure the pan is empty of water then return the potatoes to the pan and place over a very low heat. Shake the pan gently once or twice as you steam dry the potatoes of excess moisture for one minute, no more. Now mash the potatoes and transfer to a mixing bowl.
2. Meanwhile, poach the fish by placing it in a small pan and covering with milk and add the thyme, if using. Bring to a simmer then remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand so the residual heat will finish the fish gently. Lift out the fish and drain on absorbent kitchen paper then add to the potatoes.
3. Sweat the onions in a little butter until soft (a few minutes) then add these to the potatoes. Finally, add the chopped parsley and the whole egg and stir in well to mix thoroughly.
4. Dust a clean work surface with a little flour and divide the fish cake mix into eight balls. Using a spatula and your hands, shape the fishcake balls into even-sized flattened cylinders, rather like an ice hockey puck. They should be lightly coated on both faces with the flour. Transfer to a tray lined with greaseproof paper then store until needed, up to a day.
5. To cook, heat a wide frying pan and fry on both faces in a hot oil and a little foaming butter until lightly golden on both sides, then transfer to a baking sheet and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180c until hot in the centre, about 8 to 10 minutes. Serve with the peas and carrots, above, or a green salad, some leeks wilted in butter and a scattering of very small capers plus a lemon wedge to squeeze over.
Geoffrey Smeddle is the chef patron of The Peat Inn, by St Andrews, Fife Ky15 5LH 01334 840206 www.thepeatinn.co.uk
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