After weeks of rain rolling down every hill in Ireland it seems the spring has arrived. The weather is very changeable but give me four seasons in a day any day rather than wall-to-wall grey.
It doesn’t take much sunshine for everything to kick into action and the birds are the first to remark on it with their early morning birdsong; it’s such a pleasure to wake up to instead of rain bouncing on the roof.
I discovered the peach tree in blossom this afternoon – just two days of sunshine was enough for it to flower. I’m constantly amazed at how quickly plants react to little tweaks in the weather.
We are cautiously sowing seeds in the propagator, only enough to start us off, as we don’t want to get caught with a load of seedlings and a cold spell.
We are going to grow less this year. I think we are finally kicking the feed-the-masses reflex when it comes to gardening, as we just can’t eat it all. The plan is to sow more tomatoes and less of most other things. Giving up growing is not an option, as we are addicted to the pleasure of seasonal vegetables.
Right now we are picking kale, spinach, rocket and raddichio from our garden in the tunnel and the sprouting broccoli has started to produce outside. These vegetables are so welcome after the little winter hiatus. I would eat any of the above vegetables in a salad but they also have many other uses.
We have been picking chillies all winter – Firecrackers, Tabasco, Bangalore Torpedoes… They took a long time to ripen but then they just kept on coming. The Bangalore Torpedoes were the most prolific and have a zippy spicy kick. I think I’ve enjoyed using them the most.
Today’s mini garden harvest proffered a lot of ripe chillies and a little purple sprouting broccoli. This is the dish that I made.
It’s a very versatile list of ingredients. You can use any noodle that you fancy – rice noodle, egg noodle or ramen noodle. Just prepare them first by soaking or cooking according to the packet instructions. I used broccoli and mushrooms because that’s what I had but you could stir-fry most vegetables, tofu, or even chicken to put on top.
I’m hoping you have soya sauce and vinegar in your pantry. The Gochujang paste is available in the Asian store. Miso is available in wholefood shops but you could swop that out with peanut butter or even tahini if that’s what you have.
Enjoy!
Sprouting Broccoli Noodle Bowl
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
• 2-3 nests of egg noodles or noodles of your choice
• 6-9 stems of sprouting broccoli
• 2 portobello mushrooms or 150g button mushrooma
• 3-4 spring onions
• 1-3 chillies
• 2cm finger of fresh ginger
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2tbs vegetable oil
• 700mls vegetable stock
• 2tsp soya sauce or tamari
• 2tsp rice vinegar – could use white wine vinegar
• 2tsp white miso OR 1 tbs peanut butter
• 2tsp Gochujang paste
• half tsp sugar
• 100–150mls coconut milk
Method:
Put a pot of water to boil to cook the noodles. Cook according to packet instructions, ideally to be ready at the same time as the broth and the veg. Don’t worry too much if they are ready early, warm noodles will be fine, as the hot broth will heat them up.
Drain the noodles when they are cooked.
Wash the broccoli, trim the end of the stem then chop the rest until the broccoli floret is the right size enough to fit in your mouth in one go. This is not a knife and fork dinner.
Wipe the mushroom(s). If you are using portobello mushrooms cut them into half then into wedges.
Trim the spring onion and chop.
Put all of these on one side then peel and chop the ginger finely, peel the garlic then chop together with the chillies.
Measure the soya sauce, Gochujang, vinegar and miso or peanut butter, then mix together in a small bowl. Add a little veg stock if it’s too thick to move.
Heat a small pot, add the oil, then add the chopped chilli, garlic, ginger mix. Cook on medium heat, stirring for a minute, then add the vegetable broth. Bring to the boil then simmer. Stir in the gochujang/soya mix then add the sugar and coconut milk. Leave to gently simmer while you stir fry the veg.
Heat a pan, add the oil and the broccoli, broccoli stems and mushrooms. Toss well, then cook on a high heat for a few minutes. Season with a little salt. Add the chopped spring onions, toss together for one minute.
Divide the noodles between two or three bowls, pour the broth over and around then pile the veggies on top.
Eat immediately.
Enjoy the spring!
There’s a Spring Cooking class on Saturday, April 12 for anyone who’s looking for inspiration, please email me for details.
Karen
Lettercollum,
Timoleague, Co Cork
karen@lettercollum.ie
www.lettercollum.ie
