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Box News and Piperade recipe

Matt in the veg roomby Matt in the veg room, 2 m, 3 wk ago in Blog
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This week’s potatoes are red ‘Desiree’, a good all-rounder with fairly firm, waxy flesh. The leeks and beetroot are Yorkshire grown, and the peppers and broccoli are Spanish. Small no potatoes boxes have Italian fennel, large boxes have Spanish celery and large no potatoes boxes have local Brussels sprouts. This week’s English apple is ‘Rosy Red’. We’re running a bit short of English pears now, so are having to buy in a few Italian ones this week. Most of the oranges are Sicilian ‘Moro’ blood oranges; they’re probably at their best now.
*** GARDENERS! ...We’re expecting organic ‘Longor’ shallot (£7.50 kg) and ‘Sturon’ onion sets (£6.00 kg) this week, for planting out as soon as the weather permits. We have plenty of seed potatoes left but are likely to sell out of one or two popular varieties fairly soon ***

PIPERADE ... This simple Basque dish comes in many variations. If you have the time, blacken the peppers under a hot grill and peel them. Similarly, if you have some nice ripe fresh tomatoes, scald them with boiling water and peel and deseed them too, but at this time of year you’re often better of using plum tomatoes from a can. Be generous with the seasonings. Good as a lunch dish with bread and salad, but also very nice with roast potatoes. For one of the very best 5 minutes of cooking on television, watch the late Keith Floyd attempting to cook his version on YouTube - just enter ‘Floyd Piperade’ into a search engine. For 4

  •  2 red and 1 green peppers thickly sliced
  • 1 large onion sliced
  • 1 can or 400g fresh tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic chopped
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp dried thyme, marjoram or oregano
  • salt and pepper
  • 6 eggs beaten
  • salt and pepper .
  1. In a frying pan or large saucepan heat the olive oil and gently soften the onions and garlic for 5 minutes.
  2. Add the peppers and herbs and after another 5 minutes the tomatoes, and cook until the vegetables are quite soft and any wateriness has gone.
  3. Stir in the eggs, season well and cook until they are lightly set.

Jane Grigson suggests a variation on Piperade in her ‘Vegetable Book’. To turn it into a Tunisian ‘Chakchouka’, instead of scrambling the eggs make depressions in the pepper and tomato stew, crack an egg into each one and gently cook until the whites are set.


 

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