For a while now I have heard about 'the leaf man' on the Cambridge market on Sundays. But with working most Sundays and being a hermit on those that I've been off I haven't had a chance to explore for myself. I finally made it there this weekend and I wasn't disappointed. As well as the more standard salad leaves, wild rocket, sorrel etc they sell Asian leaves like tatsoi and shiso. I found some beautiful cavolo nero kale which I have been after for such a long time (I have only been able to find curly kale in the supermarket) and courgette flowers which I have wanted to have a go at cooking with for a very long time.
Everything they sell is grown to soil association organic standards in Great Abington, just south of Cambridge. Great for those who want to cook with some slightly more unusual leaves whilst still eating local. The chap on the stall was extremely helpful and recommended ways of cooking with the ingredients. I ended up buying a huge bag of kale and a box of courgette flowers for an extremely reasonable £3.50. I can't recommend paying them a visit enough.
This recipe was inspired by the guy on the market but I added a few ingredients. Courgette flowers are normally fried but firstly I wanted to make something a little healthier and also frying things is always a little frightening at home.
Stuffed Courgette FlowersMakes 4
- 4 Courgette Flowers
- 100g ricotta
- Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
- 1/2 tbsp toasted pine nuts, chopped coarsely
- 3 basil leaves, roughly chopped
- Salt & Pepper
Begin by preheating your oven to 180C. Combine the ricotta, lemon zest, pine nuts, basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
They are on the Cambridge market every sunday. To find out more details about Wild Country and to find out about their pitches in London check out their website www.wildco.co.uk
I love courgette flowers, and it makes it special that they can only be sold when they are fresh. His stall looks lovely :)
ReplyDeleteLovely- I made these last season and posted about it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://ladyofthearts.blogspot.com/2011/08/squash-flower-potchky-to-make.html
The main sentiment was that it was a lot of work for small reward-
these look great! i've never heard of courgette flowers. they remind me of zucchini blossoms. we do something similar with them ;)
ReplyDeletethe blog looks great!! sorry i haven't been around. this move has me so thrown off. hey, i wanted to ask you. do you have a good macaron recipe?? i attempted to make them and it was a serious fail ;(