Kitchen Garden 08.2022_downmagaz.net_compressed

Focaccia is irresistible for nibbling fresh from the oven! If you can wait, then serve it with soup or pasta. These Tex-Mex style burritos are delicious if you like a savoury breakfast and if you like it hot! SERVES 6 Filled with black beans, egg, rice and plenty of hot chilli, it’s a great way to start the day. Preparation time: 30 minutes SERVES: 4-6 1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add Cooking time: 30 minutes the onion and sauté over medium-low heat Preparation time: 20 minutes until it is translucent. Add the garlic and ■ 300g/10oz strong white flour Cooking time: 20 minutes sauté for another minute before adding the ■ 1 tsp dry fast action yeast green pepper. Continue to sauté until the ■ 1 tsp sugar FILLING onion is lightly golden. ■ 1 tsp sea salt, plus more for the top ■ 1 tablespoon olive oil ■ 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for the top ■ 1 small onion, finely chopped 2. Add the beans along with the coriander, ■ 170ml (6fl oz) water ■ 2 cloves garlic, minced cumin, chilli and the stock. ■ 8-10 cherry tomatoes ■ 1 medium green bell pepper, finely ■ ½ whole garlic, pulled apart diced 3. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. ■ 400g (14oz) cooked pinto beans, black 1. Put the flour in a mixing bowl and make a beans or kidney beans 4. With a masher, roughly mash the bean well in the centre. Add the yeast, sugar and ■ 1 to 2 small fresh hot chilli peppers, mixture. Set aside. 100ml (3½fl oz) warm water. Gently mix with a seeded and minced fork and leave for 10 minutes. ■ a small bunch fresh coriander, to taste 5. Meanwhile, heat a pan with a splash of ■ 1 tsp ground cumin oil, add the beaten eggs, and cook while 2. Add the rest of the water, olive oil and 1 tsp ■ 100ml (3½fl oz) stock stirring gently for 3-4 minutes, until the flaked sea salt, stirring until the mixture forms a eggs are scrambled. sticky dough. Knead for 5-10 minutes, adding a ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS little extra oil if needed, until smooth and elastic. ■ 200g (7oz) cooked rice 6. To assemble, spoon some bean mixture ■ 4 eggs, beaten and a few spoonfuls of rice on to each 3. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside ■ 6 flour tortillas tortilla. Top with the scrambled egg, to prove for an hour, or until doubled in size. ■ 100g (3½oz) cheddar or Monterey Jack sprinkle with some grated cheese, and add cheese a few jalapeños. Fold two sides over the 4. Lightly grease a deep 20cm x 30cm (8in x ■ Jalapeños to serve filling, then roll up snugly. 12in) roasting tin with oil. Tip the dough into ■ Salt to taste the tin and stretch it out to fill the edges and 7. Serve at once. corners. Using oiled fingers, make dimples all over the surface of the dough, then press in www.youtube.com/kitchengardenmagazine cloves of garlic and tomatoes. Sprinkle with extra salt and cover again with the tea towel, set aside to prove a further 45 minutes. 5. Preheat the oven 220C/fan 200C/gas 6. 6. Bake the focaccia on the middle shelf for 30 minutes, or until slightly golden. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then drizzle with a little more olive oil before serving. ■ www.kitchengarden.co.uk | 101

LAST WORD Martin Fish is one of the UK’s most respected and loved horticulturalists. He has been a regular on TV and radio for nearly 30 years, while at the same time a prolific writer in national magazines and books. Here he chats with Grapevine podcast presenter Daniel Heighes Where did it all begin for you, Martin? maintained gardens. I was lucky enough to It’s a bit of a cliché but it started in my meet Geoff on several occasions through Grandma Smith’s garden when I was a young my BBC Radio work and he was always so child. She was a proper country woman and encouraging and happy to give me advice as a she loved to potter around growing flowers young gardener and broadcaster. in her cottage garden. I remember spending lots of time with her and my uncle who grew Apart from any books you have written, A formidable double act vegetables and kept hens. We also used to go what is the best gardening book you have on long walks and she taught me about nature ever read? If you were a fruit or vegetable, which one and wild flowers. I’ve got bookshelves of gardening books that do you think would best represent you? I’ve been collecting since I started gardening I think I’d be asparagus, because it’s a That led on to me getting a part time job that cover a range of gardening and plant perennial vegetable and if well cared for, gets when I was 13 on a small nursery in the subjects. I’m more into practical text books better each year. The vegetable (or rather village, which confirmed that I wanted to rather than glossy coffee table books and many fruit) I’d like to be is a tomato because it’s one grow plants and be a gardener. I left school at are well thumbed with years of use. One that of the first things I grew. It lives its life in a 16 and got an apprenticeship on the Newark I’ve referred to for nearly 45 years is one by the warm greenhouse and it can be used in many parks department, which started my career late Percy Thrower. I grew up watching him on different ways all through the year. in horticulture and the rest, as they say, the telly and when I started my apprenticeship is history! in June 1978 I bought In Your Garden with Are you much of a follower of permaculture Percy Thrower, which is basically a gardening principles? Who has been the biggest influence on you calendar through the year, week by week. I would describe myself as a traditional hands- in your horticultural journey so far? on gardener. I had an excellent training in the Early on in my gardening career Geoff It sits on my bookshelf at the side of principles of horticulture and that’s stuck with Hamilton definitely influenced me because my desk and I still pull the tatty old book me. I can’t call myself organic because I do use he was very much a practical gardener. From down occasionally to see what Percy would the late 1970s until his death in 1996 he was have been doing. I also had a copy of his the main TV gardener and I loved his relaxed, autobiography that he signed for me at the down-to-earth style that inspired so many Chelsea Flower Show in 1979, but years ago I people. I never wanted to design gardens for lent it to someone (I can’t remember who) and a living, but I love creating gardens and for never got it back! If you are that person and many years I grew plants, landscaped and reading this, can I have it back please? 102 | www.kitchengarden.co.uk www.youtube.com/kitchengardenmagazine

Martin sees himself as a hands-on gardener in layout with a four-bed rotation system. A YOU CAN FOLLOW the Geoff Hamilton tradition polytunnel for fruit and veg and a greenhouse MARTIN ON keeps me occupied all year round. some man-made fertilisers and occasionally ■ TWITTER: @Martinfishhort fungicides on ornamental plants. Having What was the inspiration behind your ■ TWITTER: @PTrowelsYou Tube: said that, I never spray anything we eat and book, Gardening on the Menu? ■ POTS & TROWELS FACEBOOK: if I do need to use any treatment on Jill my wife is a great cook (and also a very www.facebook.com/PTrowels ornamental plants, I try to use one based on good gardener) and everything we grow in our ■ His books are available from www. natural products. fruit and veg garden is put to good use. Several martinfish.co.uk and Amazon years ago we started giving talks to groups Where possible I always work with nature about growing and cooking fresh produce and Could you give the readers of Kitchen and encourage as much beneficial wildlife as a result of people saying: “Why don’t you Garden any tips? into the garden as possible, which helps to two write a book?” – we did! ■ Don’t think you have to fill your plot with maintain a balance – even down to having as many different vegetables as possible, just my chickens roaming in my small orchard It’s based on our garden and I cover the concentrate on those you like to eat. to control insect pests! I’m a great believer in growing side with lots of hints and tips on ■ Don’t get carried away and start too early in giving back to the soil and I use lots of manure getting the best from your fruit and veg, and the season. Wait until the soil is warming up and compost to keep the soil healthy and then Jill follows on with a really good selection in spring before you start sowing and planting. fertile. In the veg plot I use a rotation system of recipes and quick cook tips. Jill loves That way you’ll get better gemination and that works well for me. adapting recipes to suit our taste and many stronger plants. also came from our mums who were both very ■ Sow little and often over the growing What about your home garden? How is it good cooks. season. An average packet of lettuce has 1000 laid out and what do you grow? seeds in it! Rather than sowing the whole Our garden for the past 13 years has been What made you start your social media packet in one go, sow a small amount every in North Yorkshire where we developed our channel Pots & Trowels? few weeks from March to September to give a three-quarter acre plot from scratch on well- For many years I did regional gardening regular supply. drained, sandy loam. It’s laid out informally programmes, including 10 years as a ■ Make sure your plot is weed-free before with lawns and sweeping beds and borders gardening presenter for BBC East Midlands growing. It will make life much easier. full of trees, shrubs and perennials to provide Today, where I worked with a director called colour and interest all year round. I planted Finally, what are your plans for the future? a small orchard of 16 trees and a productive Sean Riley. We kept in touch and I’m kept busy with my writing, radio, vegetable garden that does have a more formal a few years ago started working gardening videos, group talks and working together again on promotional at shows with Jill. I also judge at all the A slice of Martin and Jill’s garden films. While chatting over lunch RHS shows and I’m involved with the Great one day we hatched the idea to do Yorkshire Show, RHS Harlow Carr and the a few practical gardening videos Harrogate Flower Shows. During lockdown, just like the old days! Jill and I decided that it was time for a new project and I want to create one more garden, Pots & Trowels was born and so at the moment we are in the process of we do one or two videos a week finding a new house with a garden that we can that are shown on Facebook and develop, so watch this space! YouTube. They are great fun to do and for me it’s all about ■ Discover great advice from Martin on the encouraging people to get out pages of KG every month! and enjoy their gardens, large or small. We cover a wide range You can read much more from of gardening subjects and try to Dan by visiting his website: cater for the more experienced http://thevillagegrapevine.co.uk gardeners as well as those starting from scratch. www.youtube.com/kitchengardenmagazine www.kitchengarden.co.uk | 103

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WEEKEND PROJECT: MAKE THIS MARTIN FISH’S ESSENTIAL GUIDE SUPER INSULATED COMPOST BIN TO PLANTING AUTUMN ONIONS *Not available outside of the UK IN YOUR SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF KITCHEN GARDEN MAGAZINE LEARN TOP SEED SAVING TIPS OUR GUIDE TO DRYING AND EMILY CUPIT PUTS PEAT-FREE FROM DR ANTON ROSENFELD PRESERVING YOUR PRODUCE COMPOSTS TO THE TEST FREE WITH EVERY ORDER WINTER LETTUCE WORTH COLLECTION: 40 PLANTS, 10 EACH £18.80 OF FOUR VARIETIES (*Free only with orders from reader offer pages) Scan this, and we’ll tell you! To order your next issue of Kitchen Garden, head to classicmagazines.co.uk/pre-order-kg We will send it directly to you! No need to nip out to the shops. 106 | www.kitchengarden.co.uk www.youtube.com/kitchengardenmagazine