Picked first green-gage plums yesterday and collected a fallen ‘Victoria’ plum off the ground too. Blackberries are ripening. Broccoli has been picked. Five pumpkins are growing. It is August now – so that basically means autumn in the UK, but there is talk of 30C at the end of the week…
Yesterday I harvested our first aubergine – eggplant – of the year and made Ratatouille. I have posted a recipe before, but I think this one was better, so I will re-write it in a moment.
One of the best things about this dinner is that everything (except for the olive oil for frying and the rice I ate with it) is homegrown.
Very exciting!
So here is the updated recipe:
Ratatouille
(Serves 4)
-Olive oil, for frying in – 1 onion, sliced – 1 large aubergine (eggplant), sliced into small chunks – 2 medium sized courgettes (zucchini), sliced into discs – 1 red bell pepper, sliced into small chunks – 1 large garlic clove, diced – 250g fresh tomatoes, sliced in half – Salt and pepper, for seasoning
- Heat the oil in a large pan. Fry the sliced onion and aubergine, turning it down to simmer.
- Add the sliced courgette and pepper. Add the diced garlic and the tomatoes, stirring to combine.
- Leave to simmer for at least 15 minutes – 30 minutes, the longer the better, stirring now and then.
- Once the vegetables are tender and the tomatoes have broken down, releasing their juices to become a sauce, add salt and pepper for seasoning and remove from the heat and serve hot in dishes.
Option: serve with potato, sweet potato or rice, and any other vegetables for a hearty meal.
Other news: Firstly, my new fiction book, Crazy Killer Sister, is available now. If you fancy a summer read, please consider? I’m not one for advertising so apart from Facebook, this blog is the only way I promote it!
And finally, I was fortunate to be able to write a blog post for Angie Viet’s, an eating disorder recovery blog, on how gardening helped my own recovery.
Here is the link if anyone is interested:
https://www.angieviets.com/articles/6-ways-gardening-strengthened-my-recovery
Have a good week y’all!