Ok so,
I'm going to get on my soapbox here. Although I have no culinary training, no experience in farming, I did luckily grow up in a house where we grew a lot of our fruit and vegetables, and am concerned about the way we eat and choose our food today.
Many chefs go on about seasonality in food, how it's best to pick the food when it's in the prime of its growing season and tasting the best. This is so very true however along with this no-one highlights the carbon footprint of vegetables when consumed out of season.
Let me paint you a picture, fruit and vegetables that are grown out of season in foreign countries are usually picked when un-ripe, shipped in zero oxygen dark containers, and then given a blast of air for a day or so to ripen the produce up and sell it on the market. Now apart from, zero amount of nutritional value, think of the carbon footprint needed for this style of shipping.
The produce grown out of Ireland’s natural growing season needs to be flown from far off fields, where intensive methods of farming are killing off fragile ecosystems and harmful insecticides are used where local corrupt beau racy will turn a blind eye to massive fish kills from the polluted run off.
Unlike meat, which can be frozen with no major ill effects. This produce needs to be flown over to stack our shelves of our local supermarket. Flown, in a jet plane, that we, as consumers, are told that we cannot use as we kill the planet because of our extravagance. This method of travel that supports our local economy through tourism that our government now will place a carbon tax on and further deter people away from this ailing state.
So if you have a hankering for French beans or strawberries in January, don't. Go to your local greengrocer, they'll know everything there is to know about seasonality and what stuff they have in at the moment that is good. If you have to go to your local supermarket, check the label on where it's grown and make the moral choice.
Now that I'm off my soapbox, here's a recipe for two cracking veggies that are bang in season at the moment and are really really tasty.
Butternut Squash and Courgette Risotto
Ingredients
2 stalks of celery
One medium Onion
Half a medium sized Butternut squash.
A medium sized courgette
300g of Risotto rice
Chicken stock (about 1200 ml)
150ml of white wine.
50g of parmesan
One teaspoon of fresh ground Nutmeg
One teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice
Butter
One tablespoon of chopped thyme
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C
Peel the butternut squash with a potato peeler, top and tail, and then de-core. Chop into bite sized chunks and spread on a roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil, season well and sprinkle with nutmeg and Chinese 5 spice. Put into the oven for 30 mins.
Run a potato peeler over the outside of the celery to get rid of the stringy bits, and then chop along with the onion finely.
Put a heavy based wide pan over a medium flame and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the celery and onion and cover for 2 minutes, shake the pan to prevent caramelising or burning. When the celery and onion is translucent, then you’re ready to go.
Turn the heat up and add the rice. Stir constantly until the rice has taken a translucent edge and then add the wine. When that has cooked off, then slowly add the stock bit by bit. Stir to allow the rice to take on the stock, if you think it’s cooking too fast then adjust the heat down. Continue to add the stock bit by bit, stirring constantly.
Whilst the rice is on the go, take a frying pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat. Add the diced courgette and cook till lightly browned and soft. Season well and add the thyme.
By this stage you rice should be nearly done. Have a taste and the rice should retain just a little bite. Take it off the heat.
Take the squash out of the oven; it should be soft and browned at the edges. Add it and the courgette to the rice along with half the parmesan grated and a couple of knobs of butter. Stir, then cover and leave for 5 minutes.
Serve with the rest of the parmesan shaved and plenty of fresh ground black pepper.
