Courgette Season is Underway

We've already eaten one good-sized yellow courgette off our main plant. More are fattening up every day. This round one was bought on Friday at Lavelanet market. 

   I stuffed it with the usual sausage meat/tomato/courgette flesh mixture seasoned with herbes de Provence. While that was simmering away to reduce the liquid, I steamed four potatoes cut into quarters. Tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and lots of fresh rosemary, these went into the oven at the same time as the courgettes. 

  At Friday's market, I'd also picked up a big bunch of "Bright Lights" chard. About ten minutes before the courgette halves and potatoes were due to exit the oven, I brought a pan of water to boiling point. The chopped chard stems went in first; the shredded leaves a few minutes later. 

   Oh yes, it was good eaten in the garden as the temperature cooled, the sky grew dark and the level dropped in the rosé bottle.

Winter Vegetables and Caldo Vermelho

As usual, on Monday, I made a beeline for a certain produce stall at Mirepoix market. It only sells locally grown vegetables but, more to the point, here's where you can snap up the unusual. It's the only source I know of for parsnips, for instance. I've seen bunches of cilantro there too. Monday, the selection included yellow turnips, green cauliflowers, huge black and crimson radishes and vividly coloured chard.

The chard I bought was so darkly red, it verged on black. Its stems were a mix of deep gold and scarlet, like the kind of sunset you see on vintage Hawaiian postcards.

Back home, I sautéed a chopped onion and a garlic clove in olive oil, then added three potatoes cut into small cubes and enough water to cover them. While the mixture was coming to the boil, I cubed an end of chorizo, added that and simmered everything for 15 minutes. Next I mashed some of the potato against the sides of the pot to thicken the soup. Finally, in went shredded chard--leaves and stems--which I left to cook for another seven or eight minutes.

In Portugal, where it's the national soup, this is called caldo verde but this version was a deep warming red, so the name caldo vermelho (vermilion) seems more appropriate.