Variety has been the spice of life in the appetite kitchen this month. First, to a glut of parsley, garlic and cucumber gifted to us by Mark and James at the Kitchen Garden at Vallum. Now, one does not wish to appear ungrateful, and I do love the aforementioned produce, but even I, never knowingly under-catered, can be over-faced by a bin liner stuffed with parsley. This is appetite magazine not Ready, Steady, Cook, boys!
A very late night later, and the bag’s contents had been transformed into parsley and garlic butter (several logs of it in the freezer and enough to share with the neighbours), and a huge quantity of parsley pesto souped up with walnuts, an unholy quantity of Parmesan cheese, and lemon. I also have enough persillade – parsley, garlic, olive oil and vinegar – to keep the appetite kitchen going all winter long.
As for the scores of fat cucumbers, the pair of miniature tortoises we babysat during half term weren’t really up to the job, so I took to Google for inspiration. The result, cucumber coleslaw with cabbage, cashews, scallions, ginger, rice wine vinegar, tamari, sesame oil and honey; Delia’s wonderful late summer cucumber soup; Asian bread and butter pickles; and a face pack (which didn’t really cut it, but you can’t expect miracles).
On a roll, the glut of apples in the appetite garden, which always make my heart sing until I’m three hours into peeling and coring, are transformed into pies and crumbles in the freezer, tubs of apple sauce and stewed apple. The best surprises? Carrot, apple and ginger soup and an American apple relish recipe I found online. I was satisfied with a job well done, then the boys turned up at the door with another bin bag. Aaaghhh!