In The Kitchen – June

June in Fife is the start of the harvest – herbs, vegetables and even some fruit. Many foods are becoming available but remember, in Scotland crops are usually a couple of weeks behind the south of England. In season this month are:

Vegetables

• Beetroot
• Peas (later in the month)
• Globe artichokes
• Early potatoes
• Salad leaves
• Spring onions
• Herbs – chives, rosemary, thyme, oregano, lemon balm
• Sorrel
• Spinach
• Chard
• Broad beans
• Asparagus (finishing off).

Fruit

• Strawberries (towards the end of the month)
• Gooseberries (good simmered with a head of elderflower and made into a crumble or fool).

Wild harvest

• Elderflowers (use the creamy white flowers, pour sparkling water over with a slice of lemon, drain and serve over ice)
• Dandelion (use the small new leaves sparingly in salads).

Below are images of ruby chard and spinach growing in my garden.

Seasonal Recipes – June

I should warn you in advance that I don’t always cook with specific measurements, often using ‘a pinch’ or ‘a dollop’ but it’s all about experimenting to try new things.

Herb Quiche
Pastry: rub 75g cold butter into 175g plain flour until mixture is like breadcrumbs. Add approx 3 tablespoons of cold water and mix to a firm dough. Wrap the pastry in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 30 mins. Roll the pastry into the shape of a baking tin. I use a rectangular one but people often expect quiches to be round so a cake tin would be fine. Line the tin with the pastry and prick all over with a fork. Bake it at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. This should stop the pastry going soggy.

Filling: in a measuring jug you need to whisk together half a pint of milk or cream (or a mixture of both, depending on how creamy you want the quiche), 2 eggs, sea salt and black pepper. Grate a chunk of hard cheese (cheddar or double Gloucester).

In the pastry case you put the vegetable filling, in June I use cooked spinach or chard, loads of fresh herbs such as oregano, thyme, savoury and chives) peas, broad beans and asparagus. However you can use anything available in season. Sprinkle the grated cheese over and pour on the egg and cheese mixture. Bake at 180 degrees for approx 30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with salad leaves and new/early potatoes.

Cheat’s Risotto
I always get fed up with adding stock bit by bit so I now cheat as follows: using Long Grain rice I measure 1 cup (it doesn’t matter what size but use the same cup or mug throughout). Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and add the rice, stir to coat. Add a sprinkling of sea salt and a teaspoon of stock powder or a crumbled stock cube. Stir to mix and then using the same cup or mug add 2 cups of boiling water. Simmer until the rice has absorbed all the water (around 10-15 mins). To this you can add any cooked vegetable.

In June I will add chunks of asparagus, tiny broad beans, wilted spinach, peas, herbs, and anything else I can find in the garden! The add a knob of butter and a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan (or crumbled stilton or goat cheese) and for a bit of luxury you can add a tablespoon of cream. Season well with sea salt and black pepper.

Hugh’s Asparagus
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did this on TV last week. He steamed the asparagus until tender and then served it with a 4 minute egg to which he added a knob of butter and a few drops of cider vinegar thus making a version of Hollandaise sauce. The asparagus is dipped in the egg. I haven’t tried it yet but it went down really well with the customers in the River Cottage restaurant.

Otherwise asparagus is most delicious served with sea salt and melted butter or a sprinkling of parmesan and some black pepper.

Potato salad
New or early potatoes don’t need much to help them along. Try boiling them until tender and then allow to cool slightly. Toss them with mayonnaise or crème fraiche and chopped chives. Or a big knob of butter and some sea salt.

Gooseberry (or rhubarb) crumble
Gently simmer chopped rhubarb or topped and tailed gooseberries with Demerara sugar until tender but still firm. Place in an ovenproof dish Make crumble mix by rubbing in 90g butter to 250g flour and then stirring in 150g sugar. Sprinkle on to the cooked fruit and bake at 180 degrees for approx 30 minutes until browned. Serve with cream or custard.

In The Garden – June

Sowing
June is the month to keep on sowing lettuces and salad leaves for a continuous supply. The cut-and-come-again salad leaves are great, you can pick as much or as little as you like and let the rest keep growing. You can buy seed packets with mixed leaves in the garden centre. I have planted a spicy mix this year. Rocket and spinach can be sown like this too and both are good in salads. Spring onions can also be sown this month as they are relatively quick to grow.

For a quick salad ingredient, why not try radishes. The will be big enough to eat in around 6 weeks. Try succession sowing – sow a few every week to keep you supplied throughout the growing season. You can also put in some beetroot seeds at the start of June. As temperatures are a bit warmer (hopefully!) they should germinate quickly.

Growing
The start of June is the time to plant out the more tender vegetables such as courgettes, pumpkins and sweetcorn.

Courgettes and pumpkins are ‘greedy feeders’ so when planting you should incorporate plenty of home compost, well rotted manure or you can buy bags of farmyard manure from the garden centre. I usually dig a hole and mix in my compost then put in the plant. I create a saucer shaped dip around the plant to help with watering and then mulch it. Mulch can be many things: shredded newspaper, cocoa shells, grass clippings. I discovered something this year called ’strulch’ which is a straw based product (from www.wigglywigglers.co.uk) that so far seems to be very effective at preventing weeds . Mulch also helps to retain water in plants and courgettes and pumpkins need plenty of water to develop.

Sweetcorn should be planted in a block formation rather than in rows to encourage pollination. I have had success with mini corn but am still experimenting to find a bigger variety that will grow well outdoors.

While on the topic of pollination I always plant some flowers in beside my courgettes and pumpkins. This is to help encourage the pollinating insects. I usually use cornflowers, convolvulus, poached egg plants and marigolds (marigolds are also good companions to tomatoes and help to deter predators). It also looks good!

I was watching Gardener’s World last week (Fridays, 8pm BBC2) and saw Joe Swift planting fennel in with his brassicas (broccoli and cauliflower) to prevent the moths from laying eggs. I always have problem with the cabbage moths and caterpillars and end up with naked stalks on the broccoli so I think I’ll give this a go and see what happens. If you haven’t already put out your broccoli and summer cauliflowers then now is the time to do so.

Also with French beans and peas, if you haven’t planted them out then go for it! I’ve put nasturtiums in with my climbing beans this year and am hoping this will help with pollination. Should look great climbing up the wooden wigwams.

Harvesting
The beginning of June is full of anticipation I always think as I can see the potential harvest in the garden but there’s not an awful lot ready!

If you are lucky enough to have asparagus in your garden, you’ll be harvesting the last of it at the start of June. Make sure you leave some spears to grow into ferns to revitalise the crowns for next year. I watched Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall do interesting stuff with asparagus last week (Wednesdays, 9pm Channel 4) – see this months recipes.

I have a lot of herbs in full flower (chives, thyme, savoury, rosemary, oregano) and have sorrel, lovage, chard, Good King Henry and the beginnings of salad leaves. My wild rocket has over-wintered beautifully and is delicious (not as strong as cultivated rocket). The rhubarb is just about finished but I have a few big stalks left.

Below are images of (clockwise from top left) wild rocket, chives, ruby chard and Good King Henry.