Cleaning Up

Our tomatoes were a disappointment this year, as were the pear trees.  Good thing I made tons of chili and tomato sauce last year.  The tomatoes that we did harvest went into salsa. This week was all about cleaning up the garden. We have had an unusually long stretch of beautiful, warm days so we took advantage of that today. Terry rototilled where the garlic will soon be planted and spread winter rye grass seed to enrich the soil over the winter.

The chard is still looking great so I tried another recipe from the book, Jerusalem, by Yotam Ottolenghi. It was another winner and a little easier to prepare.

Swiss Chard Fritters
Serves 4 as a starter

14 oz/400 g Swiss Chard leaves, stalks removed
1 oz./30 g flat-leaf parsley
2/3 oz/20 g cilantro
2/3 oz./20 g  dill
1 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp sugar
3 T. all-purpose flour
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 large free-range eggs
3 oz./80 g feta cheese, broken into small pieces
4 T. olive oil
1 lemon cut into 4 wedges
salt and freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil, add the chard and simmer for 5 minutes.

Drain the leaves and squeeze them well until completely dry. Place in a food processor along with the herbs, nutmeg, sugar, flour, garlic, eggs, generous 1/4 tsp. of salt and some pepper. Blitz until smooth and then fold the feta through the mix by hand.

Pour 1 T. of the oil into a medium frying pan. Place over medium-high heat and and spoon in a heaping tablespoon of the mixture for each fritter. Press down gently with the spoon to get a 3/8 inch thick fritter.  Cook fritters for 3-4 minutes in total, turning once until they have taken on some color.

Transfer to paper towels, then keep each batch warm while you cook the remaining mixture, adding the remaining oil as needed. Serve at once with the lemon wedges.  I also served these with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

This week at the market we will have chard, cilantro, red and green lettuce, jams, basil, beets (limited quantity) and fresh flowers will be back!