Blettes in the garden. Yum!
I added smoked lardons (bacon) and chunks of goat cheese to the quiche. It was great. The chard should continue to produce until we have a hard frost. I'll probably blanch and freeze some of it for use over winter.
Blettes and goat cheese baked into a quiche.
We're also eating the collard greens that got planted at the same time. Again, we will likely freeze some for winter in the coming weeks.
Beautiful chard leaves. Tasty and sweet!
I may plant more in the spring, depending on what else we decided to put in next year. Stay tuned.
Walt, if you can protect the crowns through any period of frost, they will come again strongly in the spring and can be harvested until May. We covered ours with a polythene tunnel just before the "BIG" freeze this year and all but one came through unscathed. Our main crop for this year was done in two stages... a row of four plants in early June, followed by a row of ten in late August... just in time for the drought! But the August ones came through happily and have now caught up with the earlies. We started cropping in mid August from the first four.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to eat chard as a side veg, cutting up stalk and leaf together and cooking it in about a pint of water, turning the mix over frequently.
Another way I've used them is removing most of the stalk and cooking just the leaf the above way... then treating the stalk like celery and braising it, followed by a dressing of sesame oil and light soy sauce [I've also used butter and some celery salt as a dressing]... that way there are two veg on the plate from the same plant!
Also, instead of melting butter on the drained chard leaf... try some walnut or pumpkin seed oil and a little salt. Cumin and caraway seed... whole or ground... are two other changes to what is served up. The cooked chard also freezes well... ready for the occasions where it is too cold,damp, etc to go and pick [or when you just carntbe'arsed!
I am dropping by your house for breakfast quiche! OM NOM NOM
ReplyDeleteThat quiche looks delish!!! Thanks for tempting me...now I feel hungry.
ReplyDeleteThat's a beauty :)))
ReplyDeleteDid you buy anything chez Ikea?
I think Tim has the right idea about
ReplyDeleteprotecting your chard. They look so
healthy and strong right now. Seems a
shame to let them freeze. If you don't
want to buy poly tunnels, how about
moving your coldframes onto the plot.
Hello Walt,
ReplyDeleteLooks wonderful, I really like cooking with it also. Not sure why people don't use it more. We also grow it but lost ours in the freeze this year and didn't replant any - next year!
Ivan
I like blettes better than chard!
ReplyDeleteDoes homegrown chard taste better than store bought?
ReplyDeletetim, Ken tells me that we've overwintered chard before. We've certainly done it with collard greens. Maybe we'll do it again this year.
ReplyDeleteannemarie, oh, then I'd better bake another one! That one's all gone!
virginiac, I know... happens to me all the time when I read food blogs at 8:00 in the morning!
judy, yes, we picked up a bunch of little stuff, and an artificial xmas tree.
sheila, a possibility!
ivan, when I only want to use the leaves, I blanch and freeze the stems then use them later for soups or gratins. Yum.
starman, lol!
michael, I don't really know... I don't buy them in the store.