There aren't many things as satisfying as going out into your own garden and getting the fruit and veg that you are going to cook for dinner. With all the rain that we've been having the veg have been pretty slow in coming (the tomatoes, now that there are any, are still all green, even in the greenhouse) but the fruit - oh, the fruit! - is amazing this year. We are having an absolute glutt of plums, and green gages, and apples and pears.
The green gages are all gone now, but the victoria plums are just coming online so tonight I went out there and I picked a little bowl full of them and made a dish that brings back a lot of childhood memories for me: Zwetschgenknoedel (plum dumplings), which is a dish from Germany / Bohemia. The plums are wrapped in a thin layer of quark dough (just quark, flour and a pinch of salt), are cooked in simmering water until they float. They are then cut open, sprinkled liberally with sugar and drizzled with melted butter. DELICIOUS!
Poor D was all shook up though, because he was having pudding for dinner. I think the idea of eating a sweet dish as a main meal is more German than British...
Of course the lads were sceptical, so I also dug up the first lot of little new potatoes (which were beautiful - aren't the first new potatoes always the best?) and grilled the obligatory fish fingers. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if there is any government recommendation on how many fishfingers one family should eat. I'm sure we are well over the limit!
I am completely jealous and feel the urge to plant an orchard.
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