Marrow and Runner Bean Curry

 It has been a strange summer here in London. Boiling hot June then cold and wet July. Hasn't stop the garden cropping well but has deterred me from going down to the patch as often as I should (along with two new kittens arriving hot on the heels of the loss of our 20 year old cat Fitz). 

Onyx & Jasper

 So when I did pop down I found a courgette that had hidden from me last time and had gone rogue! The runner beans like the cooler, wetter weather and they are cropping well. So I needed something to use up the bounty.

 

 

A glut of Beans and Marrow

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 tbsp rape seed oil

1/2 Marrow, deseeded and sliced

1 Red Onion sliced into half moons

1 handful of runner beans de stringed and sliced

2 tsp curry paste - or more depending on your tastes

1 small can coconut cream

Splash of lime

Rice to serve.

Method

Fry the onion in the oil until it starts to take a little colour. Add the marrow and fry for a further few minutes. Add the runner beans and the curry paste and stir together and fry had for a few minutes. Add the coconut cream and a splash of water. Simmer for abut 10-12 minutes while you cook the rice and the vegetables are cooked. Add a splash of lime and serve.

Vegetarian Curry in less than 20 minutes.

Some prep work in the garden

The spring weather here in London has, shall we say, been a little mixed! In the past week we have had bright sunshine, cold northerly winds, hail, snow, rain, thunder and frogs. OK we didn't have the frogs although there are some tadpoles up at the allotment centre!

Given that the weather has been a bit better this weekend and I have broad bean, runner bean and courgette seeds germinating in the shed I thought I had better get started and prep the vegetable bed.

As usual you turn your back for a couple of days and all the weeds wake up and try and take over!

The Before Picture

As you can see there are plenty of dandelions which I wanted to dig up before they seeded themselves everywhere. Amongst them were horsetails and bindweed as well as the dried stalks of the Jerusalem artichokes of last year.

Two hours of hard digging later (spread over two days)...

That Looks Better!

Now all I have to do is the same with the much larger bed. It helped that the soil was moist - when it gets dry it sets hard being London clay based.

Of course I was supervised by two of our cats...

Fitz - The handsome one!

Latte - Who had been rolling in the dust!

Tara - or She Who Must be Obeyed / Evil Mistress of Darkness / The Vomiting One was asleep upstairs and only came out when the work was done!

Hopefully the weather will be good next weekend so we can get out and do the other bed. Otherwise by the time we come back from holiday we will be facing fully grown triffids!