In the Garden with Kath and Eoin

It’s been a fruitful summer here at Mm Towers. Whilst most of our Molecules have been hard at work on Dreams, our next creative adventure game for the PS4, there’s been some impressive work going on outside the studio too… in our Mm garden!

Yes you did read that right, we have a garden! Well, technically it’s a balcony but thanks to our amazing in-house chefs Kath and Eoin, our once bare balcony has been transformed into a green and pleasant outdoor space for all the Molecules to enjoy. And they don’t just enjoy the sight of it; our garden is a fully fledged kitchen garden filled with a wonderful variety of fruits and veggies which are regularly harvested and used for meals!

I myself am a huge lover of gardening. Whenever I can I’m always out tending to my plants and surrounding myself with greenery. I’ve even got a few Mm plants in my own garden at home, which were very generously gifted to me by Kath *thanks Kath!*

Seeing as we’ve had such a bountiful crop this year, I thought it was the perfect time to share our Mmarvellous Molecule garden with you all, along with introducing our extremely talented chefs Kath and Eoin. As I mentioned before, Kath and Eoin are our in-house chefs and they look after all our food-related needs, whether that’s cooking three square meals a day, or serving up refreshments for meetings; whatever the Molecule requires K&E will whip us up something delicious, fresh and healthy.

Well that’s enough from me, let’s hear from the taste makers themselves! I sat down with Kath and Eoin recently for a chat to find out more about our delicious duo…

Hello Kath and Eoin! Thank you for coming on the Molecule blog today!

Let’s start by getting to know you both a little better :)

What/who was it that inspired you into the world of cookery and how did you end up working in the culinary business?

Eoin – Keith Floyd for his style – he was the first TV chef to make cooking fun and accessible. My mum for a still unbeatable Irish apple pie!

Kath – A memory of cooking huge piles of langoustines with my dad on camping holidays in France is one of my favourite. A menu from The River Café signed by Rose Gray tucked in the front of the most food splattered cookbook. Hours spent pottering around food markets. A wild food foraging course in Cornwall….. too many to mention!

Where were you working before Mm?

E - A local nursery, Child’s Play, setting up and running their forest school.

K – Running & owning local pub, The Keystone, which is of course how I know the lovely Molecules!

What’s an average day like at Media Molecule?

That’s the great thing about Mm – there is no average day! Lunches, charity breakfasts, BBQ’s, picnics in the bluebell woods, Piping in the Haggis, cultural day, mini molecule events……..

How do you come up with the weekly menus? Are you inspired by what’s in season/fresh at the time?

We are always on the lookout for new ideas, ingredients, flavours and suppliers. I recommend making good friends with all the foodie guys at your local market. I almost have our butcher on speed dial – he text me last week to let me know that the wild rabbits are now in and how the game season was coming on.

What do you think is the most challenging dish to cook?

We are working on perfecting our soda bread recipe at the moment & trialling using the BBQ as more of a smoker to impart new flavours – loved the result of the smoked beer can chicken!

What is the Molecules’ favourite food?

A BBQ always goes down a treat, or anything hands-on that they can get messy with – like the particularly sticky session with Vietnamese Summer Rolls!

I hear you bake all the birthday cakes too! What is your favourite cake/dessert to make?

E – The traditional French madeleine, a perfect bite sized breakfast cake straight from the oven!

K – Very happy to have mastered the Pavlova recently!

The garden looks amazing, how did the idea for a kitchen garden come about?

We’ve always grown our own at home and wanted to make the most out of the lovely space here at Mm. Veggies can look just as lovely as flowers & you get to potter around grazing as you go – nothing beats a freshly picked pod of peas or a ripe cherry tomato.

How long did it take to set up and establish the garden? Is it quite easy?

A month or so to get the basics in. It will keep developing month by month as we work out what plants like the particularly windy balcony. For anyone wanting to have a go, don’t think you need to do it all at once, add a bit by bit & if you miss something one year just have it in mind for the next – maybe have a diary reminder to sow the seeds in the best month.

What vegetables and fruits have you grown this year?

Thyme, lemon thyme, sage, rosemary, fennel, lemon balm and peppermint for teas, basil for homemade pesto and salads, bay for all those lovely stews we are about to start – so much more flavoursome than the dried leaves. Peas, sweet peas, runner beans, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and a work in progress, though showing the first fruit – our fig tree. We have just sown a planter full of wild flowers & hidden some miniature narcissi bulbs in for a splash of early spring colour. Next will be some indoor salad leaves to keep us smiling through the winter.

Do you have any tips for anyone who wants to grow their own food? Are there any ‘easier’ plants to start off with?

Try some cut & come again salad leaves – you can sow these in lengths of guttering on a windowsill in fortnightly intervals and use them as microherbs – so much flavour. If you fancy a go at tomatoes try Balconi Yellow or Tumbling Tom for containers or Gardeners Delight if you have space for a grow bag. All of these produce lots of cherry tomatoes – remember to pinch out the tips after the third set of branching out.

The RHS has some great advice on how to prune tomatoes, take a look: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/...

What’s been your bumper crop from the garden this year?

Cherry tomatoes definitely and a heap of basil grown on from separating out supermarket bought pots – a little tip – there are usually 5 or 6 plants in each £2 pot which can be easily divided and potted on.

Thank you Kath and Eoin, that was awesome! It's sure made me want to get outside asap to plant some veggies :) So much inspiration!

We'll be keeping up with K & E regularly from now on to see what delicious recipes they're cooking up, any tips and ticks they can share with us and also what's growing in the garden! I can't wait, see you next time folks <3