Using things up in the kitchen ....

 It's been a busy week of trying to use old veg that's been hanging round the kitchen and in the freezer since autumn.
 Last year's pumpkins are no longer keeping well, but starting to rot. Last week I made pumpkin marmalade, this week some chutney.

 Then I moved on to using some rather soft apples up and clearing some of the blackberries out of the freezer - seven jars of lovely 'black' jam.

Then, having picked some lovely early salad leaves from the garden, I decided I really should use up the stored blue radish.






This is a lot larger than little round red radish from the shop, but tastes more or less the same - a little hotter yet, having been stored since December, not as crisp. It's lovely to be able to start and put together a 'free lunch' again though :)

Free lunch - June 8th

 I'm still trying to keep up with my 'Free Lunch' plan but with holidays and other disturbances it seems to be getting harder. Also as the year progresses I'm finding less to eat fresh at the allotment, and no enthusiasm for a cooked meal with last year's frozen veg.

I've had lots of spinach and red lettuce to be adding to salads, wraps and sandwiches but apart from occasional radishes not a lot else

for breakfast though, I have something exciting - home grown strawberries to add.

Cooking radishes.....

I've been growing some unusual radishes at the allotment this year - BLUE ones that grow quite large and crop from autumn to winter.

So far we've only eaten them as salad radishes or sliced in sandwiches where they pack a horse-radish-like punch. But now we've lifted the larger ones and although I expect them to store well, much like parsnips or carrots, I decided it was time to find ways to use them.

Here's one all nicely cleaned up, looking purple rather than blue. You can see from the fork and small knife, that it's about 6 inches long and maybe 2 in diameter.

Anyway, I quickly searched the web for recipe ideas and was surprised how quickly I found some. A lot were talking about using them much the same way as turnips or parsnips but this was the easiest - chop into chunks, toss in olive oil, roast for about 20 minutes. So I threw some in with the dinner-time chicken drumsticks and potatoes.... and they tasted much like roasted turnips!
So far I'm inclined to think they're just a bit of a novelty but they certainly look different with their strange coloured skin.