Cookery...

...my timing this year has been less than perfect. The garden's been doing quite well - or, at least, was doing ok until the building work started. I've now got a few crops that never quite got a proper chance, plus a couple more that I'd be happy to cook if I only had a working cooker.

Today's solution to that problem was to wander down the road and use Elaine's cooker instead, which gave me a chance to try another recipe from Nigel Slater's kitchen garden cookbook, Tender. 

Baked marrow, minced pork.  Specifically, that's marrow baked with lemon juice, olive oil, mint and garlic - plus chilli-spiced pork mince with dill, parsley and a little more garlic. Not bad. I think my marrow might have taken well to another few minutes in the oven, but the mint and lemon do make it rather flavoursome. I might use a little more chilli next time, too...

...but it worked rather well, and there will be a next time. The book's also given me a few more ideas for other things to do with marrows, which may be just as well. Not sure I'll get any more this year, but I'll certainly be growing 'em again next year... :)

Tender, in general, seems pretty good (this is the second recipe I've tried - the first one being a coleslaw variant, which I'll also be using again). Between this, the River Cottage Veg Patch book and Sophie Grigson's Vegetable Bible, I've now got a fairly comprehensive list of suggestions for serving up anything I might happen to grow.

Now I just need that working cooker again!