Yelvertoft cooking enthusiast Milly shares mouth-watering recipe to keep vampires at bay!

The inclement weather is playing havoc with the 2023 harvest.

We need a period of warm and dry weather to bring the crops into storage for the winter; any moisture will encourage

growth and will spoil what is heaped in the shed.

With heavy downpours becoming a regular daily occurrence, it is becoming quite a testing time for everyone.

It’s a bit like trying to mow your lawn when its saturated; the machinery just gets clogged up and it makes a real

mess!

With June being very dry and July being very wet, we just want a ‘normal’ August with a prolonged dry spell, otherwise it will be a case of ‘catch it if you can’ and working through the night when it isn’t raining to gather everything in safely.

In my kitchen garden, it is quite a different story.

Despite the weeds going mad, I’ve recently harvested a bumper crop of garlic and have been finding new ways to preserve the crop to enjoy throughout the year.

Garlic is a crop that you can plant in your garden at home.

You can buy small cloves to plant in late October and harvest around the end of July when the bulb is fully matured and starts to go yellow and dry out.

You’ll notice the intense flavour when you grow your own garlic. So I thought I would share my recipe for garlic butter which you can either use to stuff in some chicken breasts or spread on some crusty break to make garlic bread

Ingredients

- 4 cloves of garlic

- 150g of salted butter (leave out the fridge for 30 minutes before using)

- Handful of chopped parsley

Method

Place all ingredients into a blend and mix until combined

Use an ice cube tray to spread your mixture into the holes and freeze into small blocks.

For making chicken kievs, take 2 blocks out of the freezer. Pierce a small hole in each chicken breast and insert the garlic butter block.

You can baste in egg and cover in breadcrumbs for a proper crispy finish.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until cooked.

I find if you use the butter from frozen as it doesn’t melt and ooze away from the chicken so quickly. You can serve with some risotto rice or chips.

If making garlic bread, all you do is get a baguette and cut into small portions. Spread the garlic butter onto the bread and toast in the oven until golden brown and the butter has melted.

I’ve a real passion for growing food and cooking delicious meals the whole family can enjoy.

That’s why I created a food blog and Facebook page called No Fuss Meals for Busy Parents, to share recipe ideas, local ingredient suggestions as well as focus on food producers, providing a connection between the food produced in the UK and how to make quick and easy meals.

You can find more tasty recipes in my new e-book No Fuss Meals For Busy Parents by visiting: https://www.millyfyfe.com/store/No-Fuss-Meals-for-Busy-Parents-E-Book-p516676969 or follow the pages on social media @NoFussMealsForBusyParents or www.nofussmealsforbusyparents.com