The August harvest will soon be here, but because of the  early warm summer and late rain some of the usual suspects, blackberries for example came early.
One of my favourite dishes at this time of year is Courgette and artichoke risotto.
 Artichokes are not grown a lot in this country, so if you can’t find any home-grown examples go for French imports. The simplest way to cook artichokes is to boil them in salted water with a good squeeze of lemon until the lower leaves pull off easily. Drain and eat with vinaigrette or melted butter.

Ingredients
2 artichokes
Lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup Italian parsley
Salt to taste
Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 shallot
500 g arborio rice
500 ml vegetable stock
5 yellow baby zucchini (as small as a finger) with flower still attached
Calendula petals to decorate

Serve 6

Cook the artichokes a day earlier. In a bowl with water and lemon juice wash the artichokes and cut out a few of the hardest leaves (petals).
Then finely chop the garlic cloves with the parsley and a little salt and then use to stuff the artichokes. Place in a small pan and drizzle with olive oil .Cover halfway through with water. Then simmer until the outer leaves are easy to detach from the central heart, add water from time to time if necessary. This  will make a lovely broth.

The next day, scrape all the flesh from the hardest outer leaves and place in a small saucepan with the artichoke hearts and their water, get rid of the hard bits. Mush flesh and hearts with a wooden spoon, gently reheat and keep warm andput on the side.

Very finely chop the shallots and sauté with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add the rice and when this is just ‘toasted’, add the artichokes and their water. Stir and then continue cooking, adding some hot vegetable stock very gradually, and stirring often. If the risotto is too dry you may need to add a little more stock .

Clean the yellow zucchini, dont detach the flowers, just remove the sepals. When the risotto is almost cooked add the zucchini, gently stir in to cover them completely with the risotto, turn the cooker ring off and cover the pot with a lid and let it stand for 5 minutes. The zucchini are very small and should cook with the heat of the risotto.

Good presentation is easy and important! So divide the risotto evenly between 6 plates, with one baby zucchini for each plate, sprinkle with calendula flowers and voila!

Other August food in season to have fun with is;

Asparagus
Beetroot
Blackberries
Broad beans
Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celeriac
Cucumber
Elderflower
Green cabbage
Leeks

Parsnips
New potatoes
Purple sprouting broccoli
Red Cabbage
Rhubarb
Radish
Spinach
Spring greens
Spring onions
Tomatoes