All the veg & herbs are grown organically at Castle Farm, and need to be washed thoroughly before eating.
Storage: -Soft herbs are best kept in the fridge wrapped up in a damp tea towel. -Soft herbs can also be frozen, then added to soups and stews. -Hard herbs can last in or out of the fridge. -To keep hard herbs for a long time, tie them up and hang them somewhere to dry. -Salad and greens are best kept in the fridge. If they go a bit limp, fear not, plunge the leaves into ice cold water for a couple of minutes and it should crisp them up. -If you are not intending to eat the salad straight away, leave it in its bag, as it will keep longer.
Tips: -Soft herbs such a as sweet cicely, bronze fennel, mint & lemon balm are great mixed into salads as they add subtle but delicious bursts of flavour.
-Make a herbal tea, with mint, lemon balm or fennel. Simply steep in boiled water and enjoy!
-Lovage can be used instead of celery, so its perfect for your Bloody Mary. -Lovage Salt…If you want to go the extra mile, leave the lovage to dry for a couple of days then whizz in a food processor/blender with good quality salt. Store in an airtight jar and use it in your Bloody Mary instead of celery salt.
-Soft herbs are also great for mixing into bowls of pasta, with a knob of butter, squeeze of lemon juice, and lots of Parmesan for a quick and easy Primavera pasta.
-Chop all the soft herbs, mix in a little good quality oil, some crushed garlic (an optional a tsp of mustard, capers or chilli) for a quick Salsa Verde to go with your BBQ.
-Boiled new potatoes with a generous knob of butter, sea salt and mix of chopped herbs is great.
-Garlic chives, great with fried rice or mixed into any stir fry.
-If you have spare hard herbs, fill a bottle of good quality oil, we use Fussels Rapeseed oil, and add the herbs, and maybe a few cloves of garlic or chilli flakes. Perfect for marinating meats/veg, to drizzle on your pizza/flatbreads, to use on your roast potatoes before they head into the oven.
-Greens are versatile and can be used in many ways, sautéed with butter with your roast, stir fried with chopped garlic, soy and chilli.
-Creamed chard, with a little garlic and a generous grating of nutmeg is a favourite too.
-All greens work well in stews, curry or soups.
We never let any veg go to waste. If they are a little limp, and forgotten in the back of the fridge just chop them finely and toss them through any meal. Our go-to fridge clear out is a Frittata.
Top tip for kids to eat more organic greens, chop them very finely and mix them in your lasagne!
Curry Knowledge:
The curries are cooked fresh every Friday morning and should ideally be eaten over the weekend or pop them in the freezer for a later day.
To reheat, pop the curries in the microwave or heat them in a saucepan until piping hot. Eat them as they come, or add meat or fish to them.
To reheat the roti, either wrap them up in a damp tea towel and microwave or heat a frying pan with a little oil and gently fry them whilst flipping, to get the roti warm, crispy and juicy!
Take Out Boxes:
Everything is cooked fresh in your take out boxes and you collect it cold to store in your fridge until you are ready to eat, it simply needs reheating at home the same way you reheat any other food, microwave, hob or oven, if there are ever any special instructions we will include them with the box. This means your food is always piping hot, fresh and at it’s best when you enjoy it at home!
Baked Goods Info:
-Baked goods are baked fresh early on Friday mornings and in our opinion, should be eaten same day. -The bread freezes really well and just defrost when needed. Top tip is to slice the bread before freezing, then you can toast slices straight from frozen and not worry about wasting any bread. -The buns don’t really freeze that well and if for some reason they have managed to go un eaten (probably never happens) then we suggest that they are dunked in hot coffee, or a quick ping in Chef mike (the microwave) will do the job. -If they still haven’t been eaten by Sunday (that should never be the case)then the best thing to do is use them in a Bread & Butter Pudding to go with your Sunday lunch or tear them up and mix the with chocolate sauce and ice cream for a kids sundae.
-Old or stale bread should never go in the bin, either make a Panzanella or Tuscan bread soup (perfect for when you need holiday vibes but can’t travel, due to lock down) -or use them in a treacle tart -or just let them dry out and grate them, ready for using for your homemade fish fingers.
Take out Boxes:
All of our take out boxes are designed to be heated up at home in whichever way you usually heat up food, hob, oven or microwave are all fine. The food is all cooked when you collect it so unless there are any special instructions needed, you simply heat until piping hot and enjoy!
Sunday Roast Boxes:
Our roasts are packed up at ambient temps, so preparation is minimal. Preheat your oven to 160c/180c(depending on your oven)and simply heat everything through, either in the foil trays they arrive in or decant to your Sunday best oven proof serving dishes.
We recommend starting with Cauliflower cheese, roasted veg, vegetarian roast (if applicable) roast potatoes and greens (add an optional knob of butter to greens before putting in the oven) for around 15 minutes, again this will depend on your oven. Add your meat for the last couple of minutes so it doesn’t dry out/overcook, we cook the beef pink, if you prefer your beef more well done, leave it in until it is to your liking.
Yorkshire puddings don’t necessarily need reheating, a good glug of hot gravy will do the trick on your plate, but if you do want to warm them up we recommend a short 30 second blast in the oven just before you take everything out to serve.
Gravy can be heated in a saucepan on the hob or in the microwave.
This is a guide and all ovens vary so just keep an eye on everything!
