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BBC Harvest, hosted by Gregg Wallace (of Masterchef UK fame) and Philippa Forester, was a three-part series broadcast on BBC Two in mid-September which set out to reveal the secrets behind our crop-growing season, and shed light on British farming and its contribution to our food.
Aside from joining the team on location at a cherry farm in Herefordshire to discover the skill and serious hard graft behind the cherry harvest – a team of 250 workers struggle to delicately pick 40 million cherries by hand in just a few short weeks! – I had the added pleasure of cooking, styling and photographing eight of Gregg’s harvest related recipes for the BBC Learning guide to accompany the series.
This is just a quick post to share a few of my favourite shots as well as Gregg Wallace’s Ginger and Carrot soup recipe to put a smile back on your face as autumn officially kicks in!
[The full guide and all the recipes are available to download as a PDF via the BBC Harvest website.]
Carrot and Ginger Soup (courtesy of Gregg Wallace for the BBC Harvest season)
(Serves 4)
Heat the oil and 25g (1oz) of the butter in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry gently for 5 minutes, until softened but not brown. Add the celery, carrots and potatoes, cover the pan and sweat the vegetables over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add the fresh and ground ginger, the stock and milk and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, with the lid off for 15 minutes, until the carrots and potatoes are tender.
Towards the end of the cooking time, melt the remaining butter in a pan and fry the celery tops. When the soup is ready, whiz until smooth using a handheld blender. Season well. Serve sprinkled with some of the fried celery tops.
1 tbsp vegetable oil
50g/ 1¾ oz butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, sliced
450g/ 1lb young
carrots, sliced
2 small potatoes, chopped into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
1 litre/ 1¾ pints vegetable or chicken stock
200ml/ 7fl oz full-fat milk
2-3 leafy celery tops, chopped
Seasoning
Such a simple, but great recipe – I have never tried fried celery tops before and they literally just melt in your mouth – really stunning.
Lorna