Honey and Lemon Roast Carrots

Yellow and orange Carrots roast with Honey and Lemon.  Piled on top of large grain wholemeal Couscous and Rocket.  Glamourised with Nasturtiums, Calendula Petals and Feta.  A super Sunday evening feast of allotment pickings.

Broad Beans with Chorizo, Patatas Bravas...

Fry Chorizo and Onion in Olive Oil, add blanched Broad Beans, heat through until hot, smother in Olive Oil, fresh Garlic and Spring Onions... Roast yesterday's leftover New Potatoes in Olive Oil with Rosemary.  A sort-of-Spanish feast from the allotment.

And for quite the best in Olive Oils:  I have just had a new delivery from Spain of Mother's Garden Olive Oil, it is so fresh it is buttery, almost drinkable.

Rocket Pesto

A fiery summer pesto, and a solution to all that rocket going to too quickly to seed.

My preferred pesto is one that both catches the flavours and textures of each separate ingredient, and at the same time appears as a whole, an entity unto its own.  Hmmmm.  The only guide to making it therefore is your own tastebuds.  I go about it something like this :

Fill a colander with Rocket.  Toast a handful of Sunflower Seeds. Grate some Parmesan (miss out if vegan).  Chop the Rocket by hand. [A Pesto made in a blender does not hold the beauty, the texture of a hand chopped pesto, and it really is no more efficient.]  Chop Garlic (fresh if available) with a pinch of coarse Salt.  Cover the Rocket in Olive Oil (and/or mixed with Sunflower Oil according to taste). 

Now add the other ingredients, tasting as you go, until you come to a powerful medley of the green, the nutty, the punch of Garlic, body given by the Cheese, the lot doused in Oil.  Finally, add a touch more Salt to taste.  Remembering the Parmesan is salty, but its saltiness is of a different nature to that of seasalt, you should be able to taste both.

This pesto can be eaten on bread, pasta, in potato salad, on carrots, in Vinaigrette, or in Courgette Soup ...oh the options are endless.

To preserve the pesto cover in oil, and close in a jar.  The layer of oil makes an airtight seal.  It will last about six months thus.  Or, simply freeze it.

Other Pestos :
Garden Pesto
Nettle Pesto
Wild Garlic Pesto

Oh Summer Salads