The Garden to Kitchen Expert: A Fab Easter Giveaway


To celebrate Easter in a much healthier way than eating loads of chocolate* I have three copies of The Garden to Kitchen Expert book to giveaway :)

We're about to enter that wonderful time of the year when our plots and gardens really start to produce big time and we look towards our cookbooks for inspiration for getting the most out of our crops, particularly those gluts. Whilst this book is a little more unusual to its companions in the Expert stable, the style and layout are in the same tradition and is designed to be a companion to the Vegetable & Herb, Fruit and Greenhouse Expert volumes.

There's over 680 recipes to tempt you, arranged broadly into Vegetable and Fruit sections with a brief nod towards Herbs, Ornamentals and Weeds too. There's advice on storage, preserving and good basic recipes for jams, chutneys and other preserves. None of the recipes are complicated, so it's ideal for someone in the Can't Cook Won't Cook mould, especially as there's also No Cooking Required and Basic Cooking information for each vegetable and fruit featured. It reminds me of the first cookbooks I acquired when I first left home, but is much more comprehensive.

All you need to do is tell me in the comments below your favourite recipe you turn to when dealing with a glut. If you don't grow your own, then do tell me about your favourite seasonal recipe instead. Make sure you leave me enough information so that I can get in touch with you in the event I pull your name out of my magic terracotta pot. If  I can't contact you, then someone else gets it! The closing date is midnight BST, 2 weeks from today i.e. 8th May.

Sorry, this one's open to UK readers only as postage costs are too expensive for elsewhere.

Don't forget that today's the last day to enter my Bird Care competition and there's still a little time to treat yourself and grab a 20% discount on Bath Gardening School courses (as featured by Countryfile no less), or to win a very Posh Cloche :)

* = something I most certainly will be indulging in later ;)

Comments

  1. Deborah24 April 2011 at 13:20

    Hi! Thanks for the opportunity to win this cookbook!

    I frequently get courgette or zucchini gluts in august. I'm away from the plot for a few days, and I come back to a cricket bat, or I'll get 10 at a time. That's when i make one of my zucchini bread recipes. I have both a 'regular' and a chocolate recipe that freeze well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janet/Plantaliscious24 April 2011 at 13:23

    What a great prize! I've not had a glut yet, this being my first year of growing, although some would say I had one of courgettes last year. I grew three plants in pots on the patio, and couldn't get enough of them. Appart from courgette bread and courgette with feta muffins, my favourite way to eat them is when very small still, thinly sliced lengthwise and griddled until marked with dark stripes. Then drizzle with a lemon and olive oil dressing, sprinkle with a few slices of chilli and some crushed garlic, and tuck in. I'm hoping for lots and lots of courgettes this year, so that I can indulge myself in this as much as I want and still have plenty over for ratatouille, bread, muffins etc. If I am lucky enough to win a copy, you can find me via my contact page. Happy Easter!

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP24 April 2011 at 13:35

    Deborah - welcome! I like the sound of your chocolate zucchini bread. I have one which uses lemon and tarragon which I love. Sadly the giveaway is only open to UK readers :(

    Janet- yum :)

    NB courgettes/zucchinni isn't the only glut we get Word Verification for instance is suggesting we need some recipes for quince ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. HappyMouffetard24 April 2011 at 14:06

    Having had a lot of blackcurrants over the past few years, I have perfected a recipe for hot blackcurrant gin sauce, which goes very nicely over vanilla ice cream. I'll have to put a recipe up when it's backcurrant time of year again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. petoskystone24 April 2011 at 14:13

    my little patch isn't even planted yet! few weeks too early..the soil is cold, very wet, & the sun not warm enough. but my seedlings are doing well inside :) i have a nice green tomato chutney recipe i like to use as tomatoes seem to pop up everywhere at once (yea..i know, uk readers ;).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Esther Montgomery24 April 2011 at 15:50

    I wouldn't want a cookery book - it would mean I had to cook . . . BUT . . . have a very happy Easter VP.

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  7. Karen - An Artist's Garden24 April 2011 at 19:37

    My favourite glut to have is tomatoes - especially late in the year and then we have them roasted in olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar with every meal. For those people who find tomatoes difficult to digest this way of eating them is preferable to eating raw. As I am in the can't cook (well I can but I won't - but have to) I am nominating Shedman's name for your terracotta pot - then he might cook some of our yummy veg as well as grow them!!!
    Hope you are having a good Easter VP
    K

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gwenfar's Lottie26 April 2011 at 18:31

    Ohhhh, cook book... Mine's another courgette suggestion though..!

    How about Lavender Cupcakes? These are gluten free and you can use some of your fresh or dried lavender flowers. They taste amazing. I've found them very popular by both children and adults. I thought children would find the lavender flavour strong but they loved them. A good way to get children to eat veggies.

    And as courgette doesn't freeze well, you can freeze the cupcakes. Alternatively, you can grate (I use a blender) a large amount of courgette and then measure out into containers (I recycle chinese takeaway containers) the required amount for the recipe and pop them in the freezer. Defrost when you want to make a new batch of cupcakes. Gives you a burst of summer in the middle of winter!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Robyn Clarke29 April 2011 at 17:39

    I've only started growing my own this year, But I remember when I was younger my mum had a glut of tomatoes. She made the most gorgeous tomato chutney. Also our freezer was filled with tomato based pasta sauces. Delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Martyna1 May 2011 at 20:23

    Hi! Your post reminded me of an occasion a few years back when I cooked a butternut squash for my dad. I know squash is easy to keep so perhaps this recipe doesn't quite fit the intent behind your post, still, ever since he has deliberately grown a glut every year so he can have an excuse to eat this very unhealthy dish. (Anyone on a diet, please look away now...)
    Slices of Butternut Squash, roasted with lashings of butter, garlic and fresh sage, topped with a drizzle of warmed double cream with a little nutmeg. And melted Gruyere cheese on top. It's so rich you can feed a family on just one. I eat it with a rocket and watercress salad to make myself feel a little less guilty.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Paul and Melanie5 May 2011 at 18:04

    Gluts eh, well like so many others we always seem to have a courgette glut, but we also normally end up with more cooking apples than we know what to do with too.

    Last year we made huge batches of apple and marrow (or courgette) chutney which helped on both fronts and it still feeding us now. Oh, and a bunch of apples also went into some apple wine which is still sitting in a demi-john aging nicely... :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Angela M - Garden Tea Cakes and Me7 May 2011 at 08:03

    What a lovely and useful book.

    At the moment I am digging out my favourite Rhubarb recipes. Which of course is a crumble with a nice Oat topping, I also vary this by adding differing quantities of Orange Juice. When I have an excess of stewed Rhubarb I usually make a tray bake sponge with some of this mixed in, in freezes really well. Also have a lovely Rhubarb and Apple Jam recipe, which is a great hit.

    Many thanks
    Angela

    ReplyDelete
  13. VP9 May 2011 at 09:00

    Wow - there's loads of fab ideas :)

    I must try and find these recipes and try them out for myself.

    The draw's about to happen...

    ReplyDelete

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