Sometimes the tastiest harvests, the ones that make me most pleased that we grow our own food, are very small scale. Yesterday, when we were eating fried breadcrumbed mussels for lunch, I was inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s sorrel recipes to pick 6 large sorrel leaves and whizz them with a clove of garlic and 3 tablespoons of crème fraiche to make a sauce for the mussels. It was nice and sharp and made an interesting change from squeezing lemon on them.
Today I noticed that one of the small artichokes our plants are producing was ready to pick. Not a lot between two of us, but it made a very tasty mise en bouche sliced thinly and fried in olive oil. The oil was delicious too, soaked up straight from the pan with pieces of bread!
olivesandartichokes 
What is more beautiful than a young artichoke? I love your new banner photo.
Thank you! I thought it was time for artichoke rather than olives!
That’s my favourite artichoke starter how lovely to have it so fresh 😉
It’s my favourite too – such intense artichoke flavour. I first ate them like this in Figueres.
Love the idea of that sorrel sauce: could be used to dress up more than one dish 🙂 !
Yes, it would be good with other fish, or meat, or…..a lot of dishes, as you say!
How wonderful to be able to pick, prepare, and serve baby artichokes within a few hours. Very nice.
We’re very lucky!
Wonderful. I was thinking of planting some sorrel only yesterday. Haven’t done it yet, but that Ottolenghi sauce says that I should do it.