Recipe - Eggs Florentine

My DD love's poached eggs florentine for a brunch. cook off the spinach/chard, strain well then chop and add a grating of fresh nutmeg, some seasoning and a little cream, poach some eggs whilst the spinach is cooking.

Place spinach/chard on the plate in a pile in the middle, pop the poached egg on top grate a few shavings of parmesan over the top.

Serve with some hot buttered toast.

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Recipe - Baked mushrooms with ricotta and pesto

This is a scrummy recipe that was in my BBC Good Food Magazine, it is one of our favourites, and they still taste great cold. I normally put them out at Christmas on a buffet table, they are perfectly bite sized and smell delicious. Use normal mushrooms if you can't find the chestnut, also great in the large field mushrooms as a main course for Veggies.

Baked mushrooms with ricotta and pesto

The rich pesto helps balance the tangy ricotta and earthy mushroom flavours of this easy starter.
Takes 35-45 minutes. Serves 4 as a starter

Vegetarian

Ingredients
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
16 medium chestnut mushrooms
250g tub ricotta
2 tbsp green pesto
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
25g/1oz freshly grated parmesan
1 rounded tbsp pesto and
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, preferably flatleaf, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Choose an ovenproof dish big enough to take all the mushrooms in one layer and generously brush it with 1 tbsp of the oil.
Trim the mushroom stalks level with their caps, if you need to, then put the mushrooms, rounded cap side down, in the dish. Mix the ricotta, pesto and garlic and spoon into the mushrooms (there's enough to pile it up quite high). Sprinkle over the parmesan and drizzle over the rest of the oil.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft all the way through and the cheese is just starting to turn golden. If this doesn't happen, put the dish under a preheated grill for a few minutes. If the mushrooms gave given off a lot of juice after baking, you can drain some of it off.
To serve, blob a little pesto on top of each mushroom and scatter with the parsley.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

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Initial ideas for this weeks box

Trying to plan what I'm going to make from this weeks box.I think I may have to make some broccoli cheese. Aubergine (got to be a moussaka). If I cook enough mash and cabbage for dinner, with the left overs I can make bubble and squeak. Must find a good braised celery recipe, see if my daughter likes it cooked. Crumpets toasted, great for tea with some cheese and celery sticks.The squash will keep for the moment, its great steamed, keeps all the flavour and is real comfort food.Off to think about the rest.........................

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Recipe - Buttered Grated Beetroot

This came out on a leaflet that accompanies the box, I thought I'd give it a go and everyone loved it. Hubby knew where the recipe came from and I was very impressed that he went on the Riverford site and then cooked it for us, very resourceful.

buttered grated beetroot
Preparation Time: 5 minsCooking Time: 10 mins
Serves: 2

Ingredients
300g grated, raw beetroot
40g unsalted butter
1 tbsp water
2 tsp red wine vinegar
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
The kitchen bible of the Southern Hemisphere, Stephanie Alexander’s The Cooks Companion is full of ideas for beetroot. Try this simple recipe from the book.
Serve this beautifully shiny beetroot as a luxury vegetable with a grilled steak.
1. Put beetroot, butter, water and vinegar into a small saucepan and cook, covered for 8 minutes, stirring once or twice. Uncover and check beetroot is just tender.
2. Raise heat and boil off any extra liquid, if necessary, and season. The beetroot should be a little crisp.

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The contents of box 3/11/06

I just thought you may like to see the contents of the box that was delivered today from Riverford.
Today's box has got

• leeks,
• potatoes,
• carrots,
• red onions,
• celery,
• broccoli,
• aubergine,
• swiss chard,
• white cabbage
• crown prince squash

all for £11.50.

Here's the box when packed

I've tried to show the contents better here:

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The first message off UK Scrappers thread on Organic Boxes.

I've had organic boxes now for about 5 years and wouldn't be without it. We did stop for about 1 year as the scheme we used stopped, but now have a fantastic box delivered everyweek. The produce is great, mines just arrived today from Riverford I have a medium box for 2 adults & 1 child, but we do try and push the 5 portions a day. I love the flexibility, never really knowing what I'm going to get. Today's box has got leeks, potatoes, carrots, red onions, celery, broccoli and aubergine, swiss chard, white cabbage and a crown prince squash all for £11.50. It is delivered every Friday (depends on your area) and comes with a newsletter, recipe of the week. You can always check your predicted contents online, but this is liable to change depending on the weather and what is picked. If you decide that you want to change your order you can do this provided it's 2 days in advance of delivery. You can also add to the order. I manage all my orders online, I have a regular order setup, but add things if I want to. They also have a fantastic recipe bank on the site. We are very adventurous with our veg, DH is great at experimenting too. You can really taste the difference and I KNOW that no horrid pesticides are used and that I can safely eat the skins too. You get the odd bug, but that's life. I was amazed the other week, found something not uptoscratch, emailed the company and received free gifts the following week, I hadn't expected that. The customer service is fantastic. My daughter loves the veg and gets excited seeing what is in the box. DH doesn't like celeriac, but I adore it, he doesn't mind though cooking it especially for me.Good for you and the environment and I think much better than buying organic from Tescos, the company aim to buy in as local as possible. Tescos source organic and fly in, the whole idea is to reduce foodmiles too.

Original thread

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