tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84195222586813351502024-03-05T21:07:23.053+13:00Five Course GardenHand-made, home-grown inspiration from my garden and kitchen.Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.comBlogger247125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-45158945426644316222015-06-26T04:16:00.000+12:002015-06-26T04:16:13.941+12:00Not so Lush, but Promising<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I really wanted the vege garden to be lush for its first blog appearance, but it ain't. We planted the first seeds nearly a month ago. They all germinated quickly, but since they've been above ground they've had to deal with random blasts of hot and cold temperatures, heavy rain and strong winds. So it's still looking a bit stunted out there. But full of promise. A vege garden is nothing if not full promises for piles of salad greens, armfuls of fresh herbs, bowls of buttery corn, sweet new potato salad, steamed green and yellow beans. It's all coming. <div>
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Five weeks ago this vege garden only existed in our minds and on graph paper in the garden notebook. But like all clear visions backed by a bit of determination and planning, it became real. The wonderful people from <a href="http://www.downtoearthgardening.ca/" target="_blank">Down to Earth Landscaping</a> got on the job, and turned our dream into reality in no time at all. (We had considered building the raised beds ourselves, but after we saw what was involved, we had to laugh in our own faces!)</div>
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First, you need something bigger than a shovel to move all that earth around and create a flattish space for the garden beds.</div>
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Then there's the not-so-small matter of hauling the lumber in from the street.</div>
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Getting the beds built, and built in the right spot, required skill, patience, and the use of surveying equipment and chain saws. </div>
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These guys obviously knew what they were doing because all of a sudden we had a beautiful vege garden where there used to be a big mound of clay.</div>
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The beds are laid out in two pods of four beds with a decent sized space in the middle of each pod for sitting or planting a scarecrow, or something gardeny we haven't thought up yet. There's one extra bed out the side just because we had space for it. It feels generous and spacious out there. </div>
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Someone asked us "Why raised beds? Why not just plant into the ground?" I just love the look of a garden with raised beds and paths. There are some benefits though. With raised beds you can expect to have good drainage, possibly fewer weeds, your soil might be a bit warmer earlier in the season, the beds are protected from foot traffic, and you can sit on the edge of them to harvest. You don't need to dig them, either, as long as you keep up a supply of compost -- I don't know if this is Official, but in my previous raised beds, I never dug. I just dumped a bag of ZooDoo on top of them every year and they were sweet. I intend to do the same here, but with our own compost. </div>
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Here's what's growing, promising today:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carrot babies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM6Z5sVEGOCwTIN2QAJaet0Yf_RKYzOqPVkHyeQknSpsmnIEAWF3TuwLiUrSiUn-5IlLsH1RBexzp2dJz2BDtRuxHt-kE8CTvEwCevlieq7wH81jIU9xKmDtOZZbiySgBiUXJC4Pfg_QrM/s1600/blog+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM6Z5sVEGOCwTIN2QAJaet0Yf_RKYzOqPVkHyeQknSpsmnIEAWF3TuwLiUrSiUn-5IlLsH1RBexzp2dJz2BDtRuxHt-kE8CTvEwCevlieq7wH81jIU9xKmDtOZZbiySgBiUXJC4Pfg_QrM/s400/blog+7.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salad Onion Ave</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrx_7cA08K5ssK3tpaYY2C5eGhFLbrorn1_prVxxPG30j5e8GAeVLg3htj1HZgZFJ2FxpLzjDgZ-99BVUtyh7vhuERahaznBOpOfuuPLWuD7C_3vcDGDGlo8VmJLzT_24H9oiZwot2Msq/s1600/blog+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrx_7cA08K5ssK3tpaYY2C5eGhFLbrorn1_prVxxPG30j5e8GAeVLg3htj1HZgZFJ2FxpLzjDgZ-99BVUtyh7vhuERahaznBOpOfuuPLWuD7C_3vcDGDGlo8VmJLzT_24H9oiZwot2Msq/s400/blog+8.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Zealand spinach. Why is it growing such tiny leaves? I can't work this out.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGBgPvVHNwgMcqx1giI8QxksNS4daCOPK8v6Op-SmnzEnMm-xhb5H8FA_hp92dT2QDQ9ZUhU-tFiR6g_7ankkoBoIuiEa35QuMietil4RtxNen5OPERnkySe8ZU1zgtGXkmVrmdnWhbVF/s1600/blog+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGBgPvVHNwgMcqx1giI8QxksNS4daCOPK8v6Op-SmnzEnMm-xhb5H8FA_hp92dT2QDQ9ZUhU-tFiR6g_7ankkoBoIuiEa35QuMietil4RtxNen5OPERnkySe8ZU1zgtGXkmVrmdnWhbVF/s400/blog+9.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greener beaners. And yellow ones too. Pole beans and bush beans. Beans for the planet.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBrnqIWnI-UWeqHmuWoJPvCAmaMky-thTHLFPvSJ0VVjxcmI5cvDdkiVGKbNXr9ysSjgEA6jUqssv_a8dajNzVGazO0XtQbeC_uc3xG3wEoFobdLRm-nCSHhDcd7wXegTXUZnhgCV6K7Iq/s1600/blog+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBrnqIWnI-UWeqHmuWoJPvCAmaMky-thTHLFPvSJ0VVjxcmI5cvDdkiVGKbNXr9ysSjgEA6jUqssv_a8dajNzVGazO0XtQbeC_uc3xG3wEoFobdLRm-nCSHhDcd7wXegTXUZnhgCV6K7Iq/s400/blog+10.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tomatoes have been looking utterly forlorn, but this is looking promising. </td></tr>
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I've been drawing up plans for tunnel houses to go over the raised beds. It's just been too cold for most of the veges to thrive, so next year we'll give them some protection from the elements.</div>
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And next year we'll raise the seeds in the greenhouse, which you can see in the background of that last picture. It's still a bit of a constuction site inside, but I am writing from in there today, on my picnic table, looking up at the garden. Such a great spot to sit and look at all the promise outside. <div>
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Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-4874332602387742632015-06-18T06:35:00.001+12:002015-06-18T07:28:47.999+12:00Cilantro Pesto<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was poking around the garden yesterday, and the cilantro plants kept giving me a look that said, "If you don't pick us right now we're going to bolt and go to seed. You've been warned!" So I picked the lot, about 3 loosely packed cups of greener than jealousy leaves. Cilantro pesto on the menu.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cilantro, coriander, call it what you like. It will taste the same either way.</td></tr>
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I have to be honest and say I used to absolutely hate cilantro. I first ate it in Mexico and South America, where it was served pretty much at every meal. Every time I saw it I expected it to be parsley, which it never was, and it always tricked me into sticking it into my mouth and getting a rude shock. I never really learned.<br />
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But now I love it for its heat, tang, and even the slightly soapy mouth feel doesn't bother me. I guess the trick is to accept it for what it is. It's a good idea to accept pesto for what it is too, and serve it simply on hot pasta.<br />
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Pesto means paste. It's just ground up green herbs with oil, salt, some nuts or seeds, and some lemon juice. It's not even cooked. You just make a herby green slush in a whizzer or mortar and pestle. You can make pesto out of any soft green herb. Basil is the famous pesto relative, but parsley, arugula/rocket, sorrel, or cilantro/coriander all make fine pesto.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">For 6 generous servings you'll need:</span></b><br />
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2 - 3 cups cilantro leaves and tender stems (toss out any gnarly hard stems)<br />
1/2 cup of pine nuts or any nut or seed you like (toasted if you like, but it's not necessary)<br />
1/2 tsp salt<br />
2 small garlic cloves<br />
juice of one lemon<br />
a fresh green chilli, but only if you want some heat. No pressure.<br />
1/2 cup olive oil<br />
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Pasta of your choice, and grated Parmesan to serve.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">How to make it:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Grind or whizz</span></b> all the ingredients except the olive oil. Keep it rough--no liquidizing!<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Drizzle </span></b>the oil in slowly, a little bit at a time, mixing or whizzing gently, until you have a nice sloppy texture that pours easily off a spoon.<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Taste</span></b>, and add salt or lemon juice or more garlic if you like.<br />
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Hey pesto, you're done!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Serve</span></b> about a tablespoon of cold pesto with hot pasta, and sprinkle with parmesan.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">FAQ</span></b><br />
Haha. You all know I'm totally making this FAQ up, but in case you have questions, here are some answers.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Q.</b></span> How much pesto should I use per serving of pasta? Is one tablespoon really enough?<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">A.</span></b> 1 tablespoon. Seriously, that's enough. This is intense stuff.<br />
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<b style="color: #38761d;">Q.</b> Can I freeze the leftover pesto?<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">A.</span></b> Yes of course. It's lovely to have pesto ice cubes in the freezer to make a quick pasta dinner, or to toss in a soup or even a pot of scrambled eggs.<br />
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<b style="color: #38761d;">Q.</b> I thought you were supposed to put the parmesan in with the rest of the pesto ingredients. Why don't you do that?<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">A.</span></b> Because it monkeys around with the texture, in my opinion. When the pesto meets the hot pasta, the parmesan melts and clumps, and you don't get such a glorious coating on the pasta. I much prefer adding parmesan at the table. But zillions of Italian Nonnas would disagree, so feel free to do what you like!<br />
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<b style="color: #38761d;">Q.</b> I hate cilantro, do I have to use it for this recipe?<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">A.</span></b> No, you can use any soft tasty herb you like. But try cilantro. It really takes on a new character in pesto, and it might surprise you. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/mid-winter-taste-of-summer.html" target="_blank">Sorrel makes an outstanding pesto.</a><br />
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<b style="color: #38761d;">Q. </b>Do I have to serve it on pasta?<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">A.</span></b> No, you can spread it on toast, use it as a marinade for chicken or a chop, put it on grilled fish, spread it in a sandwich or wrap, or use as a pizza topping. Go mad!<br />
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<b style="color: #38761d;">Q. </b>Should I bother toasting the nuts?<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">A.</span></b> Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. The pesto always tastes good. If you feel like toasting, go for it. If you don't, don't.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I nearly set my camera on fire taking this photo of toasting pine nuts. </td></tr>
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<br />Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-17988914346399698232015-06-02T03:41:00.000+12:002015-06-02T12:09:07.359+12:00Orchard on Orchard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've dreamed of having an orchard for pretty much my Whole Life. My first ever book from the library, and one I borrowed over and over again for years was <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=rain+makes+applesauce&tag=googcana-20&index=aps&hvadid=6085865817&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17633820182283155871&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_79yeavl0fx_e" target="_blank">Rain Makes Applesauce</a>, a book of nonsense with a serious sub-plot about the relationship between rain and an apple seed planted and cared for. I loved that sub-plot. I recently bought a copy of the book and it's still awesome.<br />
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Back in my late teens and early twenties I dreamed of running off to an acre or two of fertile soil, growing veges and fruit, living off the land. I read books about self-sufficiency, and thought it sounded right up my street. That dream has never faded, and now it's actually come true. I'm not sure why I'm stunned by this, but I truly am. After becoming adept at very compact gardening over the years, it was a huge indulgence to order 12 fruit trees, and not a dwarf variety among them.<br />
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There's a lot to think about when you're choosing what to grow in an orchard: what fruit suits the climate (stone and pip); what kinds of fruit do we want to eat (every kind); are they self-pollinators, or do they need a particular tree next to them for pollination (some do, some don't); how big will they grow; when will they produce. It's not as simple as sticking an apple seed in the ground. Here's what we chose:<br />
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<li>greengage plum for its irresistible green taste and colour, and unbeatable jam. (Bud photo above.)</li>
<li>quince, the big fuzzy yellow kind, because they are ancient and smell so glorious, and make <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/beautiful-and-useful-quince.html" target="_blank">the best crumble you've ever eaten, guaranteed</a>.</li>
<li>apricots for their glorious orange jam and orange fuzzy cuteness.</li>
<li>cherries because this valley was once famous for cherries so they're bound to be good growers.</li>
<li>an apple for cooking (wolf river) and two for eating (golden russet, liberty) because you can't have a true blue orchard without apples.</li>
<li>Stanley plum for my dear friend Jennifer.</li>
<li>peach because there's nothing on earth like a warm peach right off the tree on a hot summer day.</li>
<li>crimson gold nectarine because I couldn't resist that name.</li>
<li>a 4-way pear, one of those trees with four pear varieties grafted onto one trunk. I like pears in my mind more than in my mouth. I totally love the shape and colour and feel of them. A slice or two with cheese, yes please. Cooked or preserved, I'm not much of a fan. But I couldn't resist a 4-way tree, just for the novelty factor.</li>
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The trees arrived on May 5, all bare naked and sad-sack, just like the rest of the deciduous trees at the end of winter. We left them huddled together at the back of the house, to give them a chance to get used to their new home.<br />
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On May 13, we started planting, two or three trees a day. David dug the holes (as deep and twice as wide as the pots), Lucy sniffed about, and I took the photos.<br />
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Sometimes Lucy just curled up and snoozed. Check out the trees down the back. Still bare in the middle of May.<br />
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Planting the trees involved adding compost to the holes and watering, back filling the soil, making sure there were no air pockets around the root ball, and making sure the joint between the root and the trunk was positioned just above ground. They have to be tucked in very firmly.</div>
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We finished planting on May 18. Over the next week we mulched with cedar chips, wrapped collars around the trunks so mice and squirrels can't climb up and ransack, and chased off ants that wanted to burrow in the freshly dug soil. Ants don't like cinnamon, so I've been sprinkling it around the base of the trees, which seems to have stopped them wanting to move in. We've cut and raked the grass and weeds. Some of the trees have blossomed, others have put out leaves, some are forming teeny fruits. The whole world has turned lush in the last two weeks.</div>
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Take a walk in it:</div>
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There are a lot of self-sewn trees and wild roses in this part of the garden too. We've left them be for now. It's a wonderful place to sit and be still, or have a nap on a blanket and dream of pies, jams and tarts. </div>
Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com0Wolfville, NS, Canada45.0917598 -64.35983540000000945.0693388 -64.400175900000008 45.1141808 -64.319494900000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-28737766958990740862015-04-19T10:31:00.000+12:002015-04-19T10:31:26.364+12:00Broadcasting live from Wolfville, Nova ScotiaI've thought long and hard about what to do with this blog, now that we've left the original Five Course Garden behind and moved to Canada. I remember the day, back in late December 2009, when I was walking around that blank canvas of an urban garden on Rolleston St, imagining growing some food there, getting ready to test my writing mettle and find out if I had what it took to write a regular column about gardening and cooking. I remember when the blog title came to me, out of the blue. I was thinking about my sisters, and how all five of us like to cook and eat. I was thinking about food, and growing it, and cooking it, and Five Course Garden formed in my mind and it sounded right. It sounded like something I could be excited about. Thank goodness nobody else thought of it first!<div>
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I've decided to keep the Five Course Garden blog going, just move it on from 167 meters of terraced urban land in Wellington, New Zealand, to a rolling acre of rich red soil in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I'm still obsessed with gardening and cooking, I'm still committed to writing, and let me tell you, there's An Awful Lot I'm going to learn in this new place. I'm going to have to learn about a new climate, a new gardening zone, a whole new scale of garden (this garden is 24 times bigger than my last one!) and I'm also going to be learning about greenhouse growing. Plenty of material here. </div>
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Here's what I'm looking at out the window as I write.</div>
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Believe me when I say I find this incredibly exciting. All I can see in this view is a couple of dozen heirloom tomato varieties in full fruit, masses of salad veges, bushes dripping blueberries, herbs and veges and fruit galore. Soon. Not tomorrow, but soon. I'm already planting seeds.<br />
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The glasshouse isn't even built yet, but the concrete floor is in, and it's warm as toast when the sun's shining. I just planted some herbs and salad to get something growing.<br />
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Planted left to right: arugula, basil, chives, coriander, spicy mesclun mix, onions, parsley, spinach. (Yes, in alphabetical order, otherwise how would I remember?)<br />
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I still need to bring the trays inside overnight, as it's still freezing out, but in just three days the arugula has germinated, and the rest won't be far behind.<br />
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There's a lot more going on in the kitchen than in the garden right now. We came to a brand new fully-kitted-out kitchen, and we brought the absolutely essential kitchen equipment with us: a pot, a couple of knives, potato peeler, lemon squeezer, microplane zester, wooden spoons, egg flip and a roasting dish. And two plastic plates, 2 plastic bowls, and knife, fork and spoon each. We bought a couple of non-stick pans and a cutting board when we arrived. The oven came with a lovely blue enamel roasting pan. So we're sort of camping, with a fraction of the usual cooking kit.<br />
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Our pantry and fridge are pretty bare too. We've got olive oil, salt, pepper, vinegar, chilies, lemons. Veges and some meat or fish. Eggs and bacon of course, in case the cooked breakfast urge overcomes us. We've been feasting, and mostly using just the oven to cook.<br />
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This was a stellar meal, and incredibly simple. Roast sausages and potatoes, panfried zucchini and salad. These are sage and ginger pork sausages from a local deli, and they are outstanding. They are also small. I would never eat three regular sized sausages in one sitting!<br />
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This is roast pork tenderloin with roast apple, onion and sage sauce. Carrot and parsnip mash, and salad. I marinated the tenderloin in a dry-ish rub of sage, salt, pepper, lemon zest and a tiny splash of olive oil. Then pan-seared it on the stove top on all four sides, and finished off in a hot over for about 10 mins. Gorgeous. The apple sauce went like this:<br />
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Layer on foil: sliced red onions, peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples, fresh chopped sage, salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Wrap foil loosely and bake in the oven for about half an hour at 190 - 200, until the apples have disintegrated into a sauce. Serve the pork sliced on top of the apples. Yum.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-CO7mje6fT5d0BsM6KMT-ht540nNSIVSiw3X1Bl_FjzZZcFZVaO42fUkY1ZWv06BJfIdNqEdKC_QJ53P9684JQePWWCVNvPSPvndMUsr-RsY8GC05ywgElLLU6ky8_tGLPHWhsJdEeeUQ/s1600/P1060380.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-CO7mje6fT5d0BsM6KMT-ht540nNSIVSiw3X1Bl_FjzZZcFZVaO42fUkY1ZWv06BJfIdNqEdKC_QJ53P9684JQePWWCVNvPSPvndMUsr-RsY8GC05ywgElLLU6ky8_tGLPHWhsJdEeeUQ/s1600/P1060380.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
There's not much in the way of fresh veges at our local farmers' market yet, but there are plenty of beets. Beets are another natural for roasting--they are sweeter and have a much meatier texture when they're roasted rather than boiled. Just peel and cut them up roughly, put them in foil, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, wrap loosely and roast at 190 for about 30 or 40 mins. The smaller you cut them, the faster they cook. You can serve hot as they are, or let them cool off and drizzle with about a tablespoon of vinegar for a great salad.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLf7SB6qQbEBvLm_kGnyxdZN4oHyNvkSkbbYgPf_udeMMW7kcDCUdA3anc-6EmbqQUkSXGgYmSp61kb4-0GbeiKKD4N2iYSS6jm8xUoK2l1UsNn-XLdb1zJUXkTn83heGOQ3MCPi-2jFa/s1600/P1060366.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLf7SB6qQbEBvLm_kGnyxdZN4oHyNvkSkbbYgPf_udeMMW7kcDCUdA3anc-6EmbqQUkSXGgYmSp61kb4-0GbeiKKD4N2iYSS6jm8xUoK2l1UsNn-XLdb1zJUXkTn83heGOQ3MCPi-2jFa/s1600/P1060366.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
Last but not least, the trusty Sunday roast chicken.<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.ca/2014/03/roast-chicken-dinner-foodie-underdog.html" target="_blank"> Full instructions here.</a> I just wanted to put this photo in to show off the lovely blue roasting pan that came with the oven. Love It.<br />
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I do miss the Wellington garden. I think about it a lot. But I am also incredibly hopeful and committed to this new garden -- the whole snowy, muddy acre of it. I don't miss the Wellington kitchen though. It was an amazing kitchen--I really did love it. But this new kitchen suits me even better. It's got a stainless steel bench on one side and a butcher block on the other. It's a tiny bit bigger, and has a bigger oven. But it sure does look a lot like the old kitchen! I replicated all my favourite bits.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8B651M7WqaP-SKtj-qu4qTTUz48BK5YMgqhkBPR-du6PPPd1JAd07IYrQ_gaT0yBBMUnlU08HSRSivuZV61BiGeXnDadgbcvyO_ggY5vVx2sNfDBSggCZV1jhrIrLTyniDYB_0STaE_n/s1600/P1060365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8B651M7WqaP-SKtj-qu4qTTUz48BK5YMgqhkBPR-du6PPPd1JAd07IYrQ_gaT0yBBMUnlU08HSRSivuZV61BiGeXnDadgbcvyO_ggY5vVx2sNfDBSggCZV1jhrIrLTyniDYB_0STaE_n/s1600/P1060365.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
That window looks out to where the glasshouse will be...chock full of seedlings. I can see them already.<br />
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Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-53181256478801853582015-01-23T12:06:00.003+13:002015-01-25T14:05:18.612+13:00The Five Course Garden is For Sale<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFULNxj5z2-HpgVaio19NntsogkNKKDGKFRCmbtT7utocI2Q7AAoBZne5_blpelbiXXXoZQvvtrKemRCxJuRcamHYjKCc9XWarUDl4X9uZV9V6CR2Q_8SFFxcEcJI0Mk0Ar0vqmhtrFiU8/s1600/20141206_085532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFULNxj5z2-HpgVaio19NntsogkNKKDGKFRCmbtT7utocI2Q7AAoBZne5_blpelbiXXXoZQvvtrKemRCxJuRcamHYjKCc9XWarUDl4X9uZV9V6CR2Q_8SFFxcEcJI0Mk0Ar0vqmhtrFiU8/s1600/20141206_085532.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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I've had this post title in my mind for more than a year. I've been dreading writing it. But the time has come. The Five Course Garden is for sale.<br />
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Those of you who follow this blog know how much I love this garden. And the kitchen, and the whole place. It's been an amazing place to live, and if we weren't off on a rather serious adventure to garden a whole acre in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, we would never leave this place. But we're off on that adventure, and we're selling up.<br />
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A gardener feels like a traitor when they put their garden on the market. I know. I've done it a few times, and it doesn't get any easier. The great thing about this garden is that I've documented its every move over the years. I thought it might be fitting (and might soften my guilt) to do a review of the garden over the past five years, and resurface some old but good posts that tell the story of its transformation.<br />
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Day one. This is where we started. Before this, there was a whole other story. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/a-bit-of-history.html" target="_blank">You can read about the history here.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1dJHWQnoesY4bp5Noj60BXjIpxGD9y6S61QnSHATkYbgVkrZQsLEgoh0S2PmAqYoI-j0nK4xUzNEwgllfWX1iKeyxi2x04-7F9z_CEhA6Fn_VqYZwjcSZ_zbaYhFYkMxmNkzHvhq5p4/s1600/IMG_5050.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1dJHWQnoesY4bp5Noj60BXjIpxGD9y6S61QnSHATkYbgVkrZQsLEgoh0S2PmAqYoI-j0nK4xUzNEwgllfWX1iKeyxi2x04-7F9z_CEhA6Fn_VqYZwjcSZ_zbaYhFYkMxmNkzHvhq5p4/s400/IMG_5050.JPG" /></a></div>
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About nine months later, we've added the glasshouse/shed, and planted a bunch of edibles. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/whole-back-yard.html" target="_blank">Have a look at the whole back yard in those early days.</a></div>
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I think it looks particularly glorious in the dark. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/gardening-after-dark.html" target="_blank">See more night photos.</a></div>
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I did my apprenticeship in fruit growing in this garden. It's a tiny space, but at different times of the year you can nibble on giant smooth-stem blackberries, blueberries, orangeberries, guavas, mountain pawpaws, figs, peaches, plums, currants, passionfruit, crab apples (if you are that way inclined). I say "nibble" because this is a tiny garden, so we're not doing huge crops. But we are doing huge diversity of plants, and it's so cool to nibble your way around the place. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/fruity.html?q=fruity" target="_blank">More fruity reading here.</a></div>
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We brought the old fig tree back to life, and this year it's totally loaded with fruit, and best of all, it's been warm enough for the figs to ripen. I've been going outside every day for the past couple of weeks and eating warm juicy figs off that tree. </div>
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Out the front, we've transformed the old ivy bank into a fruit and nut garden, and it's got a true-blue hedgerow up the side, complete with roses, blackberries and hazelnuts. It's quite a tangle out there, but magically filled with things to eat all year round. Mainly herbs in winter, but there's good fruit picking in summer. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/garden-share-collective-march.html" target="_blank">Read more about the front garden pickings.</a> (We also had that lovely little shed built into the front yard -- it's very cute, and very useful, just like a shed should be.)</div>
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It's also an awesome dog garden. Lucy loves sleeping in the parsley in the gravel paths, eating the little heritage strawberries, and digging the very occasional hole in the soil up behind the shed. </div>
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Even better, it's only half a block from the green belt, two rugby fields for cone-throwing and catching, miles of tracks and hills to climb, native bush, and a creek. Dog heaven. </div>
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People ask if I'm sad about leaving. Of course I'm sad. We've been so lucky to live in Wellington, live in this lovely house, be able to walk to work and the shops, have such a great place for a dog. We've got lovely neighbours all around us here too. I'll miss it all. </div>
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But the thing I'm saddest about is leaving the garden. This year, as if it knew what was going on, it did some spectacular things. The sweet peas and roses out the back were huge and stunning. The pear tree out the front has fruited for the first time. The figs have ripened in great numbers. The orangeberries are fruiting like crazy. The red passionfruit is flowering and fruiting like mad. There are a handful of almonds this year, furry and shy, but true blue almonds. This all makes me happy. It will be sad to leave it. But there's a big adventure ahead. </div>
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Our next gardening challenge is in an extreme climate on a grand scale -- 24 times bigger than this one! If you want to read about that adventure, have a look at our blog about the new house build: </div>
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<a href="http://thenestonorchard.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">http://thenestonorchard.blogspot.co.nz/</a>.</div>
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If you're looking for an amazing city garden in Wellington, buy the Five Course Garden. Leave a comment below if you want me to let you know about open homes and all that. Also feel free to ask any questions about the garden. </div>
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Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-1516747469690661062014-08-05T08:28:00.000+12:002014-09-22T07:21:19.940+12:00Pea and Ham Soup: Foodie Underdog Recipe #4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q6bXQ3eoj6U/U8yxQaklnUI/AAAAAAAAHmQ/nhbZi2yt3r4/s1600/P1060313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q6bXQ3eoj6U/U8yxQaklnUI/AAAAAAAAHmQ/nhbZi2yt3r4/s1600/P1060313.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
Here's a rib-sticking meal of a soup made from only 2 ingredients. Yes, 2 (two). (Plus water.) So easy, tasty, warming, comforting. So cheap -- a massive pot of thick hearty nourishment for about 8 bucks. This is real food at its simplest. Serve it to your loved ones or yourself as soon as you come in from the cold, and all will be well in your world. <br />
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This is so easy, it's hardly a recipe, but you do need to be at home for about three hours while it cooks, so plan it for a day when you've got a good book to read, or a dress to sew, or a huge jigsaw puzzle to finish.<br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Ingredients</b></span><br />
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<li>a 550gm bag of dried split peas. Green or yellow, whatever you prefer.</li>
<li>a smoked bacon (or ham hock)</li>
<li>water from the tap </li>
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That's it folks. The peas cost $2.35 (bargain of the century) and the ham hock cost $5-7 for the happy pig, free range ones.<br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Kitchen equipment </b></span><br />
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<li>a big pot</li>
<li>a wooden spoon</li>
<li>a chopping board and knife</li>
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>What to do </b></span><br />
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Put the ham hock in a big pot with at least 3 litres of water. Make sure the hock is fully covered. Turn on the heat and bring to a boil.<br />
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Turn the heat down very low, put a lid on the pot, set your timer for 2 hours. Hours, not minutes like I did the first time! It just needs to simmer away quietly. If there are huge billows of steam coming out of the pot or the lid is rattling, it's cooking too fast. Slow, steady is what we're looking for, so the water doesn't all evaporate.<br />
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After two hours, take the hock out of the pot, and let it sit on a plate to cool down. Use your kitchen tongs to do this, and a firm grip.<br />
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Pour all your peas into the hot water -- which is now, by the way, delicious stock. You don't need to add any flavourings at all. It is perfect already. Keep the heat on low.<br />
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Add a couple of cups more water. <br />
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Give the peas a stir around, put the lid back on the pot, keep the heat low, and set your timer for 45 minutes (not hours!).<br />
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After 45 mins, the peas will be cooked, and starting to disintegrate into a lovely soupy mush. And the hock will be cool enough for you to handle. <br />
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Peel off the skin, take the meat off the bone, and chop it into nice little pieces. Sadly you get to throw out the bone and skin at this point.<br />
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Add the meat to the mushy peas, and stir madly with a wooden spoon until all the peas are broken down. Voila, you have soup. <br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>A warning: </b></span>When you let this soup sit and cool, it will separate into a thick sludgy layer and a stock layer. Don't panic, just stir it up and it will be soup again. And when you refrigerate it, it will turn into a weird jelly -- seriously -- thick green sludgy jelly on the bottom, and clear brown jelly on the top. Don't panic. Just scoop it into a pot, heat it up, stir it around and it will be good as gold.<br />
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Will keep for several days in the fridge, but it probably won't last that long because it's so delicious.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Can we make this recipe better?</span></b><br />
If you try this recipe, and have any trouble or think you can make it easier, please let me know. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">What's Foodie Underdogs about?</span></b><br />
Foodie underdogs are people who've never learned to cook, or don't like cooking, but have to feed themselves or other people.<br />
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Mealtimes are an ongoing pain in the ass for foodie underdogs. So I've decided to rescue them from their mealtime hell, with totally basic, doable meals, that require an absolute minimum of ingredients, hardly any kitchen equipment, and the least amount of kitchen time possible.<br />
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<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/foodie-underdogs.html" target="_blank">Read about the Foodie Underdogs project</a><br />
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Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-57755138964662027162014-07-06T13:45:00.000+12:002014-07-07T10:55:33.647+12:00Garden Share Collective: July<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mid-winter feels like spring this year. Wellington has been glorious -- cold but not freezing, sunny, not windy, just enough rain to keep the garden green and gorgeous. We're over the slump of the shortest day, the seed catalog has arrived, and it feels like summer is just around the corner. I've been kicking up my heels, planting and plotting, pruning and pottering. Not everyday like in summer, but when I look up from my kitchen table desk and see the sun in the courtyard, flooding the shed with lovely light and warming the bulbs and seedlings, I just can't help slipping on my gumboots and gloves, and getting amongst it!<br />
This is my July post for the <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a> -- a wonderful online community sharing the garden love.<br />
<span style="color: purple;"><b>July harvest</b></span><br />
It's all about flowers and herbs this month. <br />
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I wish you could smell this Daphne. When you stick your nose into the bush and sniff hard, it's like being in Fiji or Hawaii... a tropical mix of pineapple + orange + lime. Totally gorgeous, and not what I expect from a winter flower. But nature knows when we're craving a trip to the tropics, and gives us a good whiff of it. I pruned this bush back a few months ago, and it's flowered monstrously in response. I also read that it likes to be fed tea leaves, so I'm making the trip downstairs a couple of times a day to empty the tea pot. Seems to be paying off.<br />
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The jasmine is all glorious and heady at the moment too. I purposely put the Daphne out the front, well away from this jasmine hedge, because their smells are totally different, and I sensed they wouldn't mingle well. The jasmine is sweet, dense, and smokey almost. It's not the kind of flower I want to stick my nose into. But I do love catching a lazy whiff as I hang out the washing. <br />
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The rosemary is thick and sticky with oil. It also sticks out into the path out the front so I brush against it every time I pass. The smell is takes me to a place I've never been, but can imagine. Somewhere in Europe where lambs are cooked whole over hot coals, and potatoes are roasted with lemons, rosemary and salt. I MUST go to Greece one day soon.<br />
Here's a wonderful, moreish snack using fresh rosemary. <br />
<span style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Rosemary almonds</b></span></span><br />
Mix:<br />
<ul>
<li>200 gm raw almonds</li>
<li>1tbs olive oil</li>
<li>2tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary</li>
<li>1tsp sea salt</li>
</ul>
Bake on baking paper at 200C for 7 - 8 minutes.<br />
Cool, and munch contentedly.<br />
Thanks to my friend Helen for the inspiration. <br />
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<span style="color: purple;"><b>July planting</b></span><br />
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The seeds I planted in May have been looking like they're totally over the tiny pots and seed raising mix, so I've put most of them out in the raised bed at the top of the garden. This bed gets the most winter sun, so they should be happy up there.<br />
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This bed already has self-sewn lettuce and fennel in it, but I just planted around them. It's now a radicchio, beet, fennel, lettuce and green onion bed. Exciting. <br />
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If you're not <span id="goog_224118320"></span><span id="goog_224118321"></span>sure whether seedlings are ready to be planted out, you can tip them gently out of the pot and have a look at their roots... if the roots are filling the pot, like these onion roots, it's time to get them into the ground.<br />
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That's all the planting for July. I'm not going to plant any more seeds this winter because I'm totally out of space. I'll wait a couple of months, then get stuck into planting tomatoes, cukes, eggplants, and all those summer veges. <span style="color: purple;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><b>July Chores</b></span><br />
There really isn't that much work to do in the garden at the moment. I just keep an eye on the proceedings, and intervene when the plants look like they need something.<br />
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A good example of plants needing attention is the sweet peas. They're planted in a pot, they were about 6 inches tall, and every time it rained or the wind blew, they would flop over. Why? Because they are climbers and not designed to hold their own weight on their stems. It's important to give climbers something to climb on -- the minute they sense a piece of wire or string or anything rigid with their tendrils, they'll loop around it and get climbing. So while this wire mesh looks a bit ugly at the back door, it will soon be covered with happy climbing sweet peas.<br />
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I'm also keeping an eye on the daffy bulbs. They haven't needed any intervention, but I did take them into the shed one day last week when we got a quick freak dump of hail. They are bursting quite gleefully out of their shells and looking very excited about spring. No flowers yet, but they're coming!<br />
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I spotted this hyacinth this morning on my photography patrol. It was one I rescued from a shop a year or two ago, looking very forelorn. It's quite happy in the garden though, and will be the next scent sensation on the front path.<br />
If you need encouragement about keeping on top of your slug and snail population, have a look at this:<br />
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The top photo was my poor pack choi after it was stripped during <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/garden-share-collective-may.html">the May snail infestation</a>. I was going to pull it out, but decided to see if the old "cut and come again" theory worked for a plant that had been stripped by snails. And it does. Same plant. Amazing eh? This is why I love gardening. There's always some magic going on out there.<br />
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Of course I'd get nothing done in the garden without my trusty assistant. Lucy's deeply interested in salad greens at the moment.<br />
Happy gardening everyone. If you've got any questions, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-45120179561840553782014-06-01T16:10:00.000+12:002014-06-02T08:31:03.875+12:00Garden Share Collective: JuneWould you believe me if I told you I've only spent two and a half hours in the garden during May? It's true. And it's typical of winter in this tiny urban garden. It's not as if there's nothing going on out there... there's heaps... but there's not that much for me to do, except wander and ponder, pull the odd weed, chop off the odd dead bit, and be grateful to have such a happy piece of paradise under my care. And it really is a paradise. Even with the cold temperatures, short days, the storms and snail plague, there are some really beautiful things going on outside. My work as a gardener this month was mostly to slow down and look closely. <br />
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This is my June post for the <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a> -- a wonderful online community sharing the garden love.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #674ea7;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #674ea7;">June Harvest</span></span></b></span></div>
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We're pretty much reduced to herbs and greens for harvesting. It will be like this for the next few months. The herbs that are doing really well at the moment are the ones I want for stuffing inside <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/roast-chicken-sunday.html">a roast chicken</a>, or under a rack of lamb. Rosemary, thyme, bay. There's also a mother lode of parsley, and the good old dependable sorrel, which I mostly just nibble raw while hanging out the washing or dumping the kitchen compost. </div>
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I don't do much sitting in my high perch over the winter, but sometimes I get rugged up and take a hot drink, a cushion and my journal up there for a bit of writing first thing in the morning. It's a very special spot. The parsley and sorrel are big and lush up there.<br />
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Down in the lower level raised bed, the green onions are soldiering along and the pak choy which got decimated by the snails have started to grow back. The snail infestation is over, thank goodness. There are little bits of greens to pick in this bed now, and the self sewn lettuces will keep us in small but fabulous salads all winter long.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #351c75;">June Planting</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><b>Veges</b></span><br />
I planted so many seeds last month, I didn't plant any at all this month. One chore I have been doing (almost) every day is moving the seedlings in and out of the shed. They usually have the day out on the courtyard table, and the night in the shed.<br />
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They're all doing really well, and starting to resemble the adult plants they'll become. But I haven't got the heart to put them out into the soil yet. I'll let them have just a bit more time being molly-coddled.<br />
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The basil is soldiering on, but very very slowly. I might bring the containers inside, one at a time, so see if I can get them to grow a bit faster. I do feel a bit bad trying to grow basil in the cold... they are reluctant in a way only a warm summer plant can be in winter. I do feel a bit mean for planting them when I did. What to do? <br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b>Sweet peas</b></span><br />
Here are those sweet peas I planted last month. Good and healthy, and they seem to be loving the cold. They will need to get planted out pretty soon. I hope next month's post will show them shooting up a trellis like sweet pea rockets, heading for the stars.<br />
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><b>Bulbs</b></span><br />
Every year I think, I must plant some bulbs in pots, just to have at the back door for their eye candy factor. And I never get around to it. Until this year. Here's the daffodil nursery.<br />
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I can't wait till these are flowering and dazzling us with their glorious smell and colour. <br />
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It's super easy to get bulbs to grow like this. Just put some potting soil in a container -- shallow containers seem to be perfect for the job -- pop your bulbs in, flat end down, pointy end up, and press them about half-way into the soil. Water and wait. You can buy bags of bulbs at the garden for pretty cheap. These early cheers were $8 for 20 bulbs. It's a nice easy project with big impact if you're gardening in a tiny space.<br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>June chores</b></span><br />
Chances are I'll take most of the month off again, and limit my gardening to idle snipping, weed pulling, and picking up dead leaves while I'm wandering the garden paths. I'll definitely be watching out for the return of the snails. But mostly it will be another quiet month inside doing crochet.<br />
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I'll keep the camera handy though, just in case there are more winter surprises in store. Here's what I found out there this morning.<br />
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The Daphne is budding up way earlier than it usually does. We don't usually see these until late July, early August.<br />
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Strawberry leaves, dusted in dew, looking all hoary and furry and cute.<br />
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This is pretty exciting. A hellebore, I think grown from seed. I can't wait to see what colour the flowers are. <br />
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Japonica, also not due to flower until July, but showing off its little orange party dress already. <br />
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Did I mention I do quite a lot of crochet? I get my inspiration from the passionfruit vine!<br />
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Guavas, in season and on time. These guys are tiny and will ripen to yellow. Like little lolly fruits, perfect to pop in your mouth on your way up the path.<br />
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Happy gardening everyone. Don't forget to slow down, wander and ponder, and cherish every moment in your own piece of paradise. Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-48535566957489112972014-05-04T14:28:00.001+12:002014-05-05T07:46:25.044+12:00Garden Share Collective: May<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It might be the Year of the Horse in the rest of the world, but it's Year of the Snail in my garden. And my neighbours' gardens too. There are zillions. Well, there were zillions. Now, not so many. A couple of weeks ago they weren't just decimating the tender plants I put in last month for the winter salad bowl. They were covering the shed
windows, they were out in broad daylight, they'd had so many babies
it was astounding. They had to go, but getting rid of them wasn't without its issues. Snails were coming at me from all directions, not just the garden.<br />
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I'd be lying on the yoga mat at the end of class, and during the closing reading appeared a line about the miracle of a snail's tentacle, feeling tentatively into the cool morning air. Yes, those tentacles are miraculous things. I watched an amazing TED talk about electron-microscopic filming, and one of the loveliest images was inside a snail's mouth. Ahimsa is a yogic principle that translates into "non-harming" and is behind the vegetarian side of a yogic lifestyle, as well as the principle of not killing things... And here's me, Dr Death, out with my torch and blunt instrument, bludgeoning hundreds of snails, night after night. I also broke down and put a load of Quash around the cracks and crevices. The box said it doesn't harm birds, pets or children, so... <br />
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Anyway, the death of a thousand snails has been added to my karma account. On the other side of the cosmic spreadsheet, I've planted just as many seeds this month as I've killed snails, so hopefully that makes things karma-neutral. I hope so.<br />
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And now the confession is out of the way, here's my May post for the <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a> -- a wonderful online community sharing the garden love. <br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>MAY HARVEST</b></span><br />
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I've already mentioned the snails. We're not eating much produce from the garden at the moment -- only herbs (cilantro, parsley, rosemary, oregano, fennel, mint... all the usual suspects). There's still a load of sorrel out there, and that reminds me that it's time for <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/mid-winter-taste-of-summer.html" target="_blank">a batch of sorrel pesto.</a> If you've got sorrel and love pesto, give this a go. It's gorgeous. <br />
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What's a photo of a whirligig got do do with anything? I have these in the gardens to scare the birds away when I plant out a fresh patch of dirt. I found ten (yes 10) snails inside this whirligig this morning. This windmill has been whizzing around like mad all week... the snails must have been so horribly motion sick. Well, it's over now. They have been 'harvested'. <br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>MAY PLANTING</b></span><br />
I don't usually spend much time thinking about new growth and germination as winter closes in, but this year it's been top of mind. In less than 10 days from planting, I've got zillions of seedlings. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Chioggia beets,</b></span> striped like peppermint candy canes, and gorgeous thinly sliced in salads. I've had good luck growing these in pots in ordinary potting mix, and that's where these ones will end up when they get a bit bigger. I've read that beets don't like to be transplanted, but I've never had any problems with them.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Salad greens and reds. </b></span>By the look of things I was a bit heavy-handed with the seed sprinkling in these pots. But never mind. These are the tomato and basil pots. I pulled up the spent plants, took out a bit of the old soil and mixed in some fresh potting mix, then put a couple of inches of seed raising mix on top. Just sprinkle seeds, press into the soil, cover with a thin layer of soil, and give them a good watering. If you want a proper tutorial on planting salad from seeds, <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/salad-101.html" target="_blank">check out Salad 101</a> for basic instructions. <br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Chicory </b></span>is a wonderfully bitter addition to any salad, and it adores wet cool conditions, so I always grow it over the winter. It's good to know you've got a load growing when you see it for sale for $24 a kilo in the shops. <br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Green onions.</b></span> These are Ishikura onions, which I love for their name and their deeply pungent flavour. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/green-onions-101.html" target="_blank">Green onions 101</a> is all about growing these lovely veges. Today I've been admiring how beautiful they look as they emerge from the ground, with their heads still in the sand.<br />
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They bow so elegantly to each other, but some forget to take their hats off for the occasion!<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Basil. </b></span>I know, basil is a summer herb, and it probably won't thrive at this time of the year. But I just wanted to have a go. The basil seeds that I covered with plastic bag mini greenhouses germinated within 10 days. Uncovered they took an extra week. But they have germinated! I'll molly-coddle them in the shed and see how big I can get them. I'd be happy with a warm clovey smelling sprig to rub between my fingers every now and then over the cold dark months. <br />
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I spotted some <span style="color: #990000;"><b>sweet pea</b></span> varieties that I haven't grown before, so splashed out on a few packets. We can expect spring to be announced with clouds of pale blue and deep purple flowers filling the courtyard with awesome smells. Can't wait. <br />
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I'm no permaculture expert, but I do like to encourage self-seeding, so I've squished quite a few rotten tomatoes into the pots, and have left the last cucumber of the season to rot into the ground, and maybe we'll get some early seedlings out of them. They will need shelter to get through the winter cold, and for that I'll use my <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/nifty-mini-glasshouses.html" target="_blank">nifty mini glasshouses. </a>If you want a very cheap portable glasshouse system, check them out.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>MAY CHORES</b></span><br />
I read up about pruning, and will continue to snip away at the various fruit trees and shrubs as I get confident. I cut back (rather radically) the lavendar and daphne bushes that were obstructing the front path. I think they will come back with a vengence in spring.<br />
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I've put the currant pruning on hold. The books say to prune after the leaf fall and before spring budding. Everything is happening at once out there. The leaves are still on the bushes and they are already covered in buds. Besides, the currant bushes are holding up the passionfruit vine. It was all a bit hard, so I put the clippers away and decided to let nature do its thing. <br />
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I have a lovely bag of daffodil bulbs to plant. I'm just deciding whether to put them artfully in among the irises and violas out the front, or stuff them all into one pot and have a one-shot wonder daffodil explosion instead. I think I'll go for the explosion.<br />
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AND I will continue killing snails. I certainly don't want any more of this kind of thing happening in my winter vege plots.<br />
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If you've got any questions, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.<br />
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Thanks for reading, and happy gardening everyone!<br />
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<br />Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-28668448417170460052014-04-06T10:39:00.003+12:002014-04-06T11:41:23.567+12:00Garden Share Collective: AprilIf the garden was a person, it would spend April going through its closets, throwing out its worn-out summer t-shirts and shorts, digging up the wool stash and crocheting a hat, scarf and gloves, and having the occasional bowl of soup for lunch instead of a tomato and cucumber sandwich. Getting ready for winter. <br />
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But it would also be enjoying every last drop of summer. Here in Wellington, it's been surprisingly warm and dry out in the early mornings -- a sharp change from the heavy dew we had most mornings this summer. Winter's definitely coming, but it's not here yet.<br />
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Here's my April post for the <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a> -- a wonderful online community sharing the garden love. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">APRIL HARVEST</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Tomatoes.</b></span> I do try to space the tomato planting so I get a crop over the longest period possible, but I still never manage to avoid the end-of-summer tomato avalanche. This year I experimented with the tomato preserving and made my new absolute favourite toast spread -- tomato and chilli marmalade. It's just an ordinary old jam recipe, with tomatoes and a chilli substituted for the fruit, whole chopped lemon for the pectin component, and a tablespoon of salt added to the sugar. <br />
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I will write a post about this miracle of modern tomatoes soon. Meanwhile you can trust me that this is the best thing since sliced bread.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Crab apples. </b></span>It's nearly jelly time. I keep saying to myself "I'll harvest the crab apples when they're the same colour as the ones on the tree next door." The crab apples next door are always several shades of gorgeous orangey-pinkness richer than mine! They always seem to be basking in golden sunlight, taunting me a bit while mine seem quite shy and reserved in comparison. I must get over myself and pick the damned crab apples!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Coriander.</b> </span>Coriander, or cilantro as it's called in other places, shines in the cooler weather... well maybe shine is too grand a claim. It doesn't go to seed in five minutes in the cooler weather.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pJoSkCPi3l8/Uuwiv_RH3lI/AAAAAAAAGJw/VOJ-N86PCGg/s1600/P1050716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pJoSkCPi3l8/Uuwiv_RH3lI/AAAAAAAAGJw/VOJ-N86PCGg/s1600/P1050716.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the photo of the self-sewn coriander in February.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DZgkHQOyoNw/U0BiBTvZOgI/AAAAAAAAGvE/x7hqFlr23kE/s1600/P1060076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DZgkHQOyoNw/U0BiBTvZOgI/AAAAAAAAGvE/x7hqFlr23kE/s1600/P1060076.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here it is today -- juicy, cool, and waiting to jump into a bowl of salsa, or a thick spicy root vegetable stew. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>The
last of the nibbling fruit:</b></span> There is still plenty of fruit nibbling to be done out on the front path.<br />
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The little heritage strawberries just keep on giving. They've been fruiting since before Christmas, and every day there is more in the undergrowth. The red banana passionfruit is also going mad, flowering and setting fruit. If you look closely at the tangle of ivy, jasmine, honeysuckle, and weeds in the bottom photo, you'll see three passionfruit nestled in there. I hope there's enough summer left for them to ripen.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>APRIL PLANTING</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Salads, onions, spinach.</b></span> I have to confess that I went to the garden center and bought seedlings at the end of March. We were going away for a week, I hadn't planted any seeds as planned, and I really wanted to get some winter veges going...<br />
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So the old wheelbarrow at the back door and the raised bed on the first terrace have got instant growth factor. It was very gratifying getting from overgrown to half-grown in one day. I cover newly planted seedlings with old fridge/freezer baskets. They look ugly, but they keep the neighbourhood cats and the forraging birds away while the plants get a chance to get established.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Sweet peas.</b></span> Every year at the start of winter, I sprinkle sweet pea seeds around the garden. They seem to thrive in the cool weather, and will have grown to great heights by the time they flower in early spring. I love walking outside into a big sweet pea waft in the first days of spring. <br />
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They will be finished flowering by the time it's warm enough to plant the beans and tomatoes out. <span id="goog_1011737186"></span><span id="goog_1011737187"></span><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>A garden for someone else. </b></span>Here's what I did on my recent holiday to Invercargill. My sister and her partner have a way bigger garden than I do, but it was just a little bit overgrown and neglected. So I decided to give them a garden makeover. Here's how to turn a weed patch into a kitchen garden in one day... <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SYMuaYiD0kQ/U0B4liZHc7I/AAAAAAAAGyg/1LAnXgUZ0l8/s1600/P1050941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SYMuaYiD0kQ/U0B4liZHc7I/AAAAAAAAGyg/1LAnXgUZ0l8/s1600/P1050941.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stand in Garden Warrior pose, and take a couple of deep breaths.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-r8QN6K1ws/U0B4o2WzcBI/AAAAAAAAGyo/aP97u0GErg8/s1600/P1050945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-r8QN6K1ws/U0B4o2WzcBI/AAAAAAAAGyo/aP97u0GErg8/s1600/P1050945.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Start at one side, and pull everything up. Toss the waste, save the spuds.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-siE1k0Qo99U/U0B4y5KolWI/AAAAAAAAGzA/MJpyVzp6Kt0/s1600/P1050956.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-siE1k0Qo99U/U0B4y5KolWI/AAAAAAAAGzA/MJpyVzp6Kt0/s1600/P1050956.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Voila. It's time to go shopping!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ubvMo_hDyI/U0B4tm3s5RI/AAAAAAAAGyw/rWk5u_pDXCU/s1600/P1050946.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ubvMo_hDyI/U0B4tm3s5RI/AAAAAAAAGyw/rWk5u_pDXCU/s1600/P1050946.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pick your crop. Buy what's on offer at your local garden centre, as they know what's what when it comes to your local conditions.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VXNjx1aG5aE/U0B407egjfI/AAAAAAAAGzI/H1xeTzLzAAg/s1600/P1050958.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VXNjx1aG5aE/U0B407egjfI/AAAAAAAAGzI/H1xeTzLzAAg/s1600/P1050958.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Make a path with old bricks, pavers and planks -- just somewhere to stand while you're planting and harvesting. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z25SYcwdSH4/U0B42pzgz_I/AAAAAAAAGzQ/ttR5tB3Pnb8/s1600/P1050959.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z25SYcwdSH4/U0B42pzgz_I/AAAAAAAAGzQ/ttR5tB3Pnb8/s1600/P1050959.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add some compost to the soil and mix it in with a rake. It's cheap to buy in bags. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r02vU09hLtE/U0B47U3ziZI/AAAAAAAAGzY/9OJpxQblQGE/s1600/P1050964.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r02vU09hLtE/U0B47U3ziZI/AAAAAAAAGzY/9OJpxQblQGE/s1600/P1050964.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plant out your seedlings in rows or patches, or whatever you like. Just be gentle with the roots, get them into the soil quickly, tuck them in snugly, and water. They will look sad for a few days, but they will perk up.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>APRIL CHORES</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Pruning. </b></span>This April I'm going to get out my gardening books and learn how to prune. More on that next month, when I know what I'm talking about! Right now, pruning is a bit of a mystery to me, but I know I need to get my head around it if I want to continue to enjoy nibbling out there.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Clearing the last of the summer plots.</span></b> I've made a good start on this in the lower terraces, but up top... it's a total embarassment. Check this out:<br />
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I am going to clear this crazy tangle of tomatoes, seeded fennel, lettuces, sorrel, parsley, cucumbers, beans... And plant out radicchio, radishes, and chiogga beets, and fennel bulbs. That's a winning salad combination in late winter, but only if you plant now.<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>A little bit of housework.</b></span> I'll keep on picking up leaves, squishing bugs, hunting snails, pulling weeds and clipping off the dead or diseased bits of plants. These are chores that become second nature after a while. They don't take up much time, but they do make your garden happy.<br />
<br />
If you've got any questions, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading, and happy gardening everyone!Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-73313800772565270222014-03-20T20:27:00.000+13:002014-03-20T20:36:36.464+13:00Five-a-Side Burgers: Foodie Underdog Recipe #3Put on your shades, foodie underdogs. Dinner time is about to get a whole lot brighter.<br />
Burgers
are super easy to make, quick to cook, and the home made ones can even
be a model of nutritiousness. What more could we ask for? Popularity?
You got it. This is one meal that keeps everyone happy -- the meat
eaters and the vegetarians alike.<br />
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Five-a-Side burgers are named for their simple cooking: all the bits cut to the same size, and grilled on a hot barbeque five minutes each side, so they're perfectly cooked and ready at the same time. Stack the cooked meat and/or veges up in a bun with a slice of tomato and avocado (or cucumber or anything you like), and serve with a simple green salad. You get
your protein, your starch, your veges and your greens. Eat with
your hands for the ultimate in casual dining.<br />
<br />
I would
never willingly eat a burger from a fast food place, but I make them at
home pretty much every week. Sometimes they're meat burgers, sometimes
salmon burgers, sometimes vege burgers. But they're always
amazingburgers. <br />
<br />
I do all the burger cooking on the
barbeque. Why? Because it's a high-heat job, and I don't want smoke setting off the smoke alarms, and
cooking smells lurking in the house. If a recipe calls for high heat, I
say "take it outside." But if you don't have a barbie, or you can't use
yours because it's currently buried in snow, you can use a frypan, a Foreman grill, or your toaster oven to do the cooking instead.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>FIVE-A-SIDE BURGERS</b></span><br />
Makes burgers for 4<br />
Start about 30 minutes before you want to eat. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Ingredients</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Start with the basics</span></b><br />
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<ul>
<li>A big fat red onion</li>
<li>A big fat tomato</li>
<li>A ripe avocado is nice, but not essential</li>
<li>Buns -- one per person is probably enough, but if you've got some big eaters in the house, get them a couple. </li>
</ul>
<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Then add the extras</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>Minced beef for the carnivores</li>
<li>Salmon for the fish lovers</li>
<li>Mushrooms and other veges for the vegetarians</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7blmX9EQJaI/UyJiyQSlHoI/AAAAAAAAGi8/_caUrvTj8Og/s1600/P1050853.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7blmX9EQJaI/UyJiyQSlHoI/AAAAAAAAGi8/_caUrvTj8Og/s1600/P1050853.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Add ground beef for beef burgers.</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zDxuvFM68SQ/UyJizBDyuzI/AAAAAAAAGjE/5wRh53ahHeE/s1600/P1050855.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zDxuvFM68SQ/UyJizBDyuzI/AAAAAAAAGjE/5wRh53ahHeE/s1600/P1050855.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Add salmon for salmon burgers. Small tail ends are perfect.<span style="color: #b45f06;"> </span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PsWcUpOZ8cc/UyJi03BCeHI/AAAAAAAAGjU/1OVFRZM_vVM/s1600/P1050859.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PsWcUpOZ8cc/UyJi03BCeHI/AAAAAAAAGjU/1OVFRZM_vVM/s1600/P1050859.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Add big mushrooms, slices of eggplant... or whatever other veges you like for vege burgers</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">And for seasoning</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>olive oil</li>
<li>salt -- the nice flaky stuff</li>
<li>pepper -- whole peppercorns in a pepper grinder</li>
</ul>
You can get away with simple ingredients and cooking methods if
you use good seasonings. If you're not sure about what oil, salt and
pepper you need, <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/foodie-underdog-essentials.html">check the Foodie Underdogs Essentials list.</a><br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Kitchen equipment</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>a knife and chopping board </li>
<li>tongs</li>
<li>foil </li>
<li>a barbeque, smoking hot</li>
<li>a timer </li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>HOW TO</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Turn your barbie onto to high</b>,<span style="color: black;"> and let it get smoking hot while you prepare the food. (Whatever you're using for cooking, you want it pretty hot.)</span></span> <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Prepare the veges for grilling</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="color: black;">Cut the veges you're going to cook into thick slices</span></span> -- about half an inch thick. (That's roughly 1.5 cm.) You don't need to cut mushrooms.<br />
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Brush
or rub the veges with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I have
this nifty silicone brush that I use all the time. I'd get one if I were
you. But if you don't have one, just pour some olive oil into your
hands and rub it on both sides of the vege slices and mushrooms.</div>
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Stack the oiled, seasoned veges in a dish, and eave them aside while you... <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Slice up your tomato and avocado, and buns</b></span><br />
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Buns in half, tomato and avocado in thick slices like the other veges.<br />
Try different kinds of buns. These are sourdough
(thick and chewy), ciabatta (puffy and chewy), and parmesan (light and
fluffy). If you're a gluten free zone, get gluten free. Want more fibre,
get wholemeal. It's your bun. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Prepare the meat and/or salmon</b></span><br />
Use
good quality lean beef mince for your burger. It needs to have a bit of
fat, but not too much. Someone's going to complain about paying $14 a
kilo for mince. You only need half a kilo for four burgers. That's $1.75
per burger. You're worth it. <br />
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Divide
the mince evenly into four, and shape into rough patties. Use your
fingers to make dints in the patties. You want the meat nice and loose, not all rammed into a hard lump. This just helps it cook properly and get nice brown bits on the outside. <br />
<br />
Brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. That's it. <br />
<br />
But
every other burger recipe you've seen tells you to add breadcrumbs and
eggs and milk and tomato sauce, and herbs and dog-knows what else! I
know. Just try this simple burger. I predict it will convert you.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Salmon burgers?</b></span><br />
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Rub or brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. (Noticing a trend here? It's the foodie underdog way!)<br />
<br />
You don't need to take the skin off the bottom. It holds the salmon together while it's cooking, and it's fine to eat too.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Time to cook</b></span><br />
Your barbeque will now be hot enough. Leave it on high while you cook.<br />
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Put
all your seasoned veges and meat on the barbie. (If you've got room,
do it all in one shift. If not, you can do it in a couple of shifts.)<br />
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Set your timer for 5 minutes.<br />
<br />
DO NOT TOUCH the food on the barbeque! Seriously. Just leave it alone to cook for 5 minutes. That way you'll get nice even cooking, gorgeous grill marks, and your meat patties won't fall apart. <br />
When the timer goes off, use your tongs to turn everything over. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wzu6w482lsQ/UyJjEZa2QlI/AAAAAAAAGk8/UWAXua7Z4sU/s1600/P1050890.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wzu6w482lsQ/UyJjEZa2QlI/AAAAAAAAGk8/UWAXua7Z4sU/s1600/P1050890.JPG" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at all those lovely grill marks! You wouldn' thave those if you poked and prodded and flipped and squished.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Set the timer again, and DO NOT TOUCH anything on the barbeque. When the timer goes off the second time, everything will be done.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Cook salmon exactly the same way as the patties. Oil, salt, pepper, five-a-side, Do Not Touch while cooking.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Wrap in foil, and take inside. </div>
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Before you turn the barbie off, pop the buns on to warm them through.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Just half a minute a side. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #e69138;"><b>Happy barbeque tip: </b></span>Clean it before you turn it off. So much easier. Just give it a quick scrub with a wire brush, shut the lid, and turn it off. Next time you use the barbie, it will be clean. </div>
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Build the burgers </b></span><br />
Let everyone build their own burger. My sister Julie thought 'five-a-side' burgers had five toppings on each side of the bun! Nice idea. But two or three will be quite enough!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mfl8dDlt7Mo/UyJjb6A7osI/AAAAAAAAGmM/diYWkwlxQMw/s1600/P1050913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mfl8dDlt7Mo/UyJjb6A7osI/AAAAAAAAGmM/diYWkwlxQMw/s1600/P1050913.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avocado, beef, onion, mushroom and tomato on Parmesan bun for Mike.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avocado, tomato, onion and salmon on ciabatta for me.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLk6bSpuiu0/UyJubE33OxI/AAAAAAAAGm0/mBvBuK-AT14/s1600/P1050912.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLk6bSpuiu0/UyJubE33OxI/AAAAAAAAGm0/mBvBuK-AT14/s1600/P1050912.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avocado, beef, onion and eggplant on Parmesan bun for dc. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Smear your bun with mustard or chutney if you like, but you don't really need to. Everything will be juicy and tasty. <br />
<br />
Serve with a green salad (from a bag is totally fine). <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Can we make this recipe better?</b></span><br />
If you try this recipe, and have any trouble or think you can make it
easier, please let me know. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>What's Foodie Underdogs about?</b></span><br />
Foodie underdogs are people who've never learned to cook, or don't like cooking, but have to feed themselves or other people. <br />
<br />
Mealtimes are an ongoing pain in the ass for foodie underdogs. So I've
decided to rescue them from their mealtime hell, with totally basic,
doable meals, that require an absolute minimum of ingredients, hardly
any kitchen equipment, and the least amount of kitchen time possible. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/foodie-underdogs.html" target="_blank">Read about the Foodie Underdogs project</a>Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-14663055423991920772014-03-06T21:13:00.000+13:002014-03-07T12:05:59.170+13:00Roast Chicken Dinner: Foodie Underdog Recipe #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you think you couldn't roast a chicken to save your life, think again, foodie underdogs. You <i>so</i> can. You just need to follow the 30 + 30 + 30 rule, and you'll be
serving up delicious roast chicken dinners every week. Everyone in the
household will think you're a marvel of modern cuisine. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>What's the 30 + 30 + 30 rule?</b></span><br />
The cooking time is divided into three 30-minute slots, to give you a perfectly cooked chicken, veges, some delicious cooking juices, all ready at the same time, in one roasting dish. It goes like this:<br />
<ul>
<li>First 30 minutes: chicken cooks alone with the roasting dish lid on.</li>
<li>Middle 30 minutes: veges added in with chicken, keep lid on.</li>
<li>Last 30 minutes: take lid off. </li>
</ul>
Easy, as long as you use a timer.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Roast chicken dinner</b></span><br />
Makes 4 average-sized meals<br />
Start about 2 hours before you want to eat. Don't panic. You won't be in the kitchen all this time. You'll only be there for about 15 minutes. This meal pretty much cooks itself. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Ingredients</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>1 whole chicken</li>
<li>a bag or box of small, pre-washed potatoes (just because they're so convenient!)</li>
<li>6 - 8 carrots</li>
<li>salt, pepper and olive oil.</li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Kitchen equipment</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>a big roasting pan with a lid (or foil will do if you don't have a lid).</li>
<li>a knife and chopping board</li>
<li>tongs</li>
<li>your oven, set to 190 degrees (375 if you live somewhere non-metric)</li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>A little pep talk about buying chicken</b></span> Free range? Organic? Fresh? Frozen? You choose. I get free-range chickens, because I think they taste better. But don't fret about it. Just buy the best chicken you can afford. If your chicken is frozen, make sure it's completely thawed before you start. <br />
I can hear someone saying, "But I never buy a whole chicken. I only like skinless chicken breasts!" OK, time to stop that. Why?<br />
<ul>
<li>A whole chicken generally costs half the price of chicken pieces, per kilo. </li>
<li>A whole chicken has bones in it that enhance the flavour when it's cooking. </li>
<li>A whole chicken has skin on it that enhances the flavour when cooking. </li>
<li>A whole chicken has thighs, and legs, and wings -- all much more delicious interesting than the breasts. </li>
<li>A whole chicken has a nice big cavity in it, which is ideal for stuffing with herbs, lemons, and all sorts of other things. But I'm getting ahead of myself. </li>
</ul>
Please buy a plain whole chicken. Not one marinated in yukky sticky anything. Just a chicken.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>A couple of enhancements, but only if you like</b></span><br />
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You can add different root veges into the mix. Turnip (or swede if you're a Southlander) and parsnips are good. And if you've got some fresh rosemary, thyme or lemon lying around, you can use them too. But totally fine not to. I just want to give you some options.<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>HOW TO</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Turn on your oven</b></span><br />
190 degrees, bake setting (that's 375 for non-metric ovens)<br />
While the oven is heating, you can get the chicken and veges ready for cooking.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Prep the chicken</b></span><br />
<br />
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<ul>
<li>Take the chicken out of its bag, and put it into the roasting pan. </li>
<li>Sprinkle it lightly with salt and pepper.</li>
<li>Then put a bit of olive oil on your hands (about a tablespoon) and rub it all over the salty peppery chicken. If you're too squeamish, you don't absolutely have to do this. But it will make the skin crunchier and tastier.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>If you're using herbs, stuff them inside the chicken. You can stuff some lemon quarters in too if you like.</li>
<li>Add 3/4 cup of water to the pan. You can use wine or stock instead, but water is just fine. </li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Prep the vegetables</b></span><br />
How many veges?<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="color: black;"> Per serving, roughly: a handful of spuds, a couple of carrots, half a parsnip and a quarter a turnip should do it. </span></span><br />
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<ul>
<li>Chop the veges into medium sized chunks. If the spuds are nice and small, you can leave them whole. You don't need to peel potatoes or carrots for this dish. Peel parsnips and swede if they have tough skins, but you can get away without peeling. </li>
<li>Put cut veges into a big bowl.</li>
<li>Drizzle some olive oil over them (about 1 - 2 tablespoons) and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.</li>
<li>Stir them around to coat them in the oil and seasonings.</li>
<li>If you've got a fresh lemon, cut it into quarters and put it in with the veges. Don't worry about pips.</li>
<li>Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap if you like. </li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #783f04;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>First 30 minutes </b></span><br />
<ul>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li> Put the lid over the chicken in the roasting pan (or cover with foil) and tuck into the hot oven (and shut the oven door!). </li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>Set a timer for 30 minutes.</li>
</ul>
Your chicken is going to spend the first 30 minutes steaming.<br />
<br />
Stick the timer in your pocket, and head off to do something else.<br />
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When the timer goes off, it's time to add the veges to the roasting dish. <br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Middle 30 minutes </b></span><br />
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<ul>
<li>Take the roasting dish out of the oven and admire your gorgeous steaming chicken!</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>Tip the veges in, and give them a gentle stir around. (This photo is showing an awful lot of veges. I overdid it for 4 serves. But what the heck. It's always better to have too much dinner than not enough.)</li>
<li>Put the lid back on. </li>
<li>Put the the roasting dish back in the oven.</li>
<li>Set the timer for another 30 minutes. </li>
</ul>
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For the middle 30 minutes, the chicken will continue to steam and the veges will steam along with it.<br />
You can wander off again. Just keep that timer with you. <br />
<br />
When the timer goes off, just take the lid off the roasting pan. Set the timer for another 30 minutes. <br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Last 30 minutes</b></span><br />
For the last 30 minutes, cooking with the lid off, the chicken will brown up and the veges will finish cooking. You can continue to do whatever you like, or nothing at all.<br />
<br />
When the timer goes off for the last time, dinner is done.<br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Is the chicken really done?</b></span><br />
It would be remiss of me not to tell you how to check for absolute sure your chicken is properly cooked. Here are the tests:<br />
<ul>
<li>grab ahold of the end of one of the legs and give it a wee wiggle. Does it move easily? Can you pull the leg bone out of the chicken body quite easily? It's done.</li>
<li>poke a sharp knife or a skewer into the chicken meat between the leg and the breast. Watch the juice that comes out. Is it clear? It's done. (Bloody, not done)</li>
<li>does your house it smell lovely and roast-chickeny? It's done. </li>
</ul>
If the chicken fails any of the tests above, put it back in the over for another 10 - 15 minutes and test it again. But if your oven is the right temperature, 1.5 hours at 190 will be enough.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Serve it up</b></span><br />
Turn off the oven, and pop some plates into it for a few minutes to take the chill off them. Serve dinner right out of the roasting pan. <br />
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I use kitchen tongs for serving. You do not need to carve a chicken. Use tongs to rip the chicken apart, and to serve the veges. There will likely be some juice in the bottom of the pan (lemon flavoured if you used a lemon). Scoop it up with a spoon and drizzle it over the plates. <br />
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Who doesn't love roast chicken? Sorry to the vegetarians. Next Foodie Underdog recipe will have plenty of vegetarian options.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Can we make this recipe better?</b></span><br />
If you try this recipe, and have any trouble or think you can make it
easier, please let me know. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you. <br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>What's Foodie Underdogs about?</b></span><br />
Foodie underdogs are people who've never learned to cook, or don't like cooking, but have to feed themselves or other people. <br />
<br />
Mealtimes are an ongoing pain in the ass for foodie underdogs. So I've
decided to rescue them from their mealtime hell, with totally basic,
doable meals, that require an absolute minimum of ingredients, hardly
any kitchen equipment, and the least amount of kitchen time possible. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/foodie-underdogs.html" target="_blank">Read about the Foodie Underdogs project</a><br />
<br />Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-63197276267609410372014-03-02T16:13:00.000+13:002014-03-02T16:56:00.912+13:00Garden Share Collective: March<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This monthly writing assignment for the <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a> has been very good for my gardening concentration. Instead of just muddling through, like an absent-minded gardener, I've been paying much closer attention to what's going on out there. And what's going on right now is Fruit. So March is officially fruit month in the Five Course Garden.<br />
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Most of the fruit is happening in the front yard, formerly a weed and ivy bank, and now a fruit nibbling garden. Nibbling really is the right word here. We do not grow what would qualify as "crops". Some days we might just pick a single plum. Or a shiny cluster of six currants. No matter how small the harvest, it's delightful.<br />
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From a distance, it still looks a bit like a weed and ivy bank. But if you walk slowly, and pay enough attention, you can eat all sorts of things on your way up or down the path. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">MARCH HARVEST</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Chilean guavas. </span> </span></b>In the bed right at the front just behind the fence, the Chilean guavas are ripening and putting out the most gorgeous toffee smell.<br />
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These guavas are only the size of peas, and to be honest, they look poisonous. They have a leathery looking skin, the birds never touch them, and they never have a bug near them. They start out a really dark red, and go pinker as they ripen, which also seems backwards and slightly suspicious to me. But pop one into your month, and it's like a rose + pineapple lolly. Sweet, tropical, floral. Fabulous. We eat them fresh -- there aren't really enough to cook, but they can be stewed, added to jams, and I suspect they would make a worthy addition to an apple crumble.<br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Peaches.</b> </span>Also in the front border, in among the Chilean guavas, there are two dwarf peach trees, which have been pickable for the past couple of weeks.<br />
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There have been maybe 20 small peaches from both trees. There is nothing quite like standing on the path, with juice running down your chin and hands, having just eaten a warm peach from your own tree. I also love casually reaching down into the knee-high canopy, pulling out a perfectly ripe peach, and handing it to an innocent by-stander. Makes me feel like a magician.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Crab apples.</b></span> The crab apples are just blushing up now, so it will be jelly time later on in March.<br />
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The crab apple tree sits right in front of the shed on the front border. It has done incredibly well there. I think we planted it two and a half years ago, and it was just a stick insect of a tree. Last year I did get what would qualify as a crop from it. 1.5 kilos; enough for a few small jars of jelly. This year I bet there will be three kilos. The branches are laden. I've been putting crushed egg shells around the base of this tree because last year the fruit was quite brown inside. It was still OK to cook with, but that's a sign of calcium deficiency, and egg shells take good care of that problem. <br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">Blackberries.</span> </span></b><span style="color: orange;"><span style="color: black;">On the left side of the front garden, as you're looking up from the street, there was a clapped out old fence and years of weeds. We planted a hedgerow there, which is a glorious tangle of hazelnuts, roses, and blackberries -- with quite a few other edible plants joining in the party.</span></span><b><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span></b><br />
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Right now it's the blackberries' time to shine -- only a handful at a time, but what amazing taste. I would love to get enough for some blackberry jelly. It's one of my absolute favourites. Perhaps I could get close to it by squishing some of these beauties onto hot buttered toast.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Passionfruit.</b></span> Here's the wild card from the front garden. <i>Passiflora Antioquiensis</i>, red banana for short. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/wtf.html" target="_blank">I wrote about this glorious apparition last year</a>, and explained in my totally absent-minded professor-ness why it would never set fruit in Wellington, namely because we don't have hummingbirds in New Zealand. Made perfect sense at the time! But take a look at this.<br />
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Real live passionfruit. This plant really seems to have hit its stride this year, with heaps of leaves and flowers, and now fruit. I can't wait to see what colour it is inside, and what it tastes like. Exciting. <br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Damsons.</b></span> I've always loved these dusty blue plums, for their colour and intense taste. I did have big plans for making damson jam this year, but I only squeezed this tree into the hedgerow two years ago (there's always room for one more), so it's still young. I think it did an amazing job producing 30-odd plums so soon. <br />
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And out the back, there's even more ripe fruit.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Lemons and an orange</b></span><br />
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These are the last three citrus fruits on the four potted trees, leftovers from last winter. I can't bear to pick them. They give me so much pleasure every time I walk past and give them a little affectionate scratch to release their amazing fragrance. Last week there was also one lime and one grapefruit. But they dropped off their trees. <br />
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The lime found itself floating in a sea of soda water. The grapefruit is still sitting on the counter, getting its daily scratch. I need to juice it.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><b>Blueberries.</b></span> The blueberries are tangy and plentiful this year. It's become a bit of an Olympic sport to beat the birds and the dog to the perfectly ripe ones. The humans are winning, mostly. <br />
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They look a bit like mini-damsons. I do love having blueberries in the garden. They are real troopers, producing fruit year after year, and wanting no more than a bit of rose mulch or pine needles, and the occasional water. <br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>MARCH PLANTING</b></span><br />
I'm going to plant some seeds in small pots because I've got no spare space in the ground at the moment. I'll plant them out as I pull out the spent tomatoes. I plan to plant:<br />
<ul>
<li>Fava beans (or broad beans, but I like their Italian name way better)</li>
<li>Peas -- edibles and sweetpeas</li>
<li>Green beans -- just an experiment to see if they'll cope with the mild wet winter.</li>
<li>Green onions -- <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/green-onions-101.html" target="_blank">read Green Onions 101</a> for the basics. </li>
<li>Salad greens and spinach -- now that it's cooling off, they will get happy and lush again, and not spend all their energy going to seed. </li>
<li>Beets -- I just plant the stripey chiogga beets because I never see them in the shops, and they look so amazing shaved in<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/smile-inducing-winter-salad.html" target="_blank"> this root vege salad.</a></li>
<li>Radishes -- because I'm having a craze on them in salads at the moment.</li>
</ul>
That's probably going to be enough.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">MARCH CHORES</span></b><br />
<br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Ripping it up. </span></b>March is the month to toughen up and start ripping spent plants out of the raised beds. I really do love the lush, overgrown tangle of tomatoes, fennel, mint, oregano, and strawberries, but before winter I need to have a tidy up, put some compost into the soil, and get the beds ready for winter growing. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Mulching.</b></span> Before winter sets in, I'll put a layer of compost and some bark mulch on all the plants in pots, and around all the fruit trees out the back. I just make sure I do that twice a year, and the end of summer seems like a good time. We don't get frost here, but I think it's good gardening practice to tuck your plants up for winter. Seems like the decent thing to do. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Enjoying the last of the evenings outside. </b></span>I don't light the outside fire during the summer, but I do really love having a fireside dinner or two when the nights get cooler toward the end of March and into April. It's that lovely time between feeling a bit brown and sun-kissed, wearing straw hats, and starting to feel the tug toward thick wool sweaters and beanies. Lighting a fire is not a chore, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a great way to end a day of full-on garden clearing. <br />
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As always, ask any questions you like and I'll do my best to answer them.<br />
Happy happy gardening everyone.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-37955571368291453162014-02-27T16:22:00.002+13:002014-02-27T16:22:43.552+13:00Spaghetti and Cheatballs: Foodie Underdog recipe #1This is the first of a series of recipes for all you foodie underdogs out there.<br />
<br />
Foodie underdogs are people who've never learned to cook, or don't like cooking, but have to feed themselves or other people. <br />
<br />
Mealtimes are an ongoing pain in the ass for foodie underdogs. So I've decided to rescue them from their mealtime hell, with totally basic, doable meals, that require an absolute minimum of ingredients, hardly any kitchen equipment, and the least amount of kitchen time possible. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/foodie-underdogs.html" target="_blank">Read all about the Foodie Underdogs project</a> <br />
<br />
<b>Spaghetti and Cheatballs </b><br />
<br />
Makes 4 average-sized meals. <br />
Start cooking about 30 minutes before you want to eat.<br />
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Look at this lovely steaming pile of spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce and meatballs. You can make that sauce with only two ingredients, and the whole meal has only four ingredients. Cheatballs are just little lumps of ‘ready made’ meatballs squeezed out of the sausage skins. Add some canned tomatoes and you’ve got a great sauce. Boil water, and add pasta, and you’ve got an easy, tasty, meal<br />
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Step up foodie underdogs. This recipe is going to change your life!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Ingredients</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>6 good quality, fresh, spicy sausages</li>
<li>two tins of plain chopped tomatoes</li>
<li>box of pasta -- any kind you like</li>
<li>salt for the pasta water </li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Kitchen equipment</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>a medium sized pot or pan for the sauce, preferably one with a heavy bottom.</li>
<li>a big pot to boil the pasta</li>
<li>a colander or sieve for straining the pasta</li>
<li>a can opener and a knife </li>
<li>a timer </li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>A little pep talk about buying sausages</b></span><br />
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See
all these lovely sausages? These are the ones you're after for this meal. You want sausages made from
real, fresh meat, fat and seasonings -- not pre-cooked and full of fillers and
preservatives. If you're confused, just ask one of the shop people to
show you a good fresh sausage suitable for turning into meatballs.<br />
<br />
The sausages are going to provide all the seasoning for this dish, so get something spicy. We love chorizo, merguez, or spicy Italian. But if you hate
spicy, go for something milder -- they're your cheatballs afterall!<br />
<br />
I
know someone's going to say something like "I'm not spending $12 on a
pack of 6 fresh sausages. That's way too expensive." To you I say, It's only
$3 per serve of good quality meat. You're worth it.<br />
<br /><span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>How to make cheatballs</b></span><br />
<br />
Heat a heavy bottomed pot on the stove. Just medium heat, not super hot.<br />
Grab a sausage confidently (if they're all strung together, cut them apart).<br />
Squeeze out meatballs like this:<br />
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Pinch the sausage skin.</div>
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Squeeze balls of meat out of the skin, and straight into the hot pot.</div>
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Keep going, sausage by sausage. You'll get about 6 - 8 meatballs per sausage.</div>
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Look at that! Instant meatballs.</div>
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Once all the meatballs are in the pot, let them cook for 8 - 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Bits of meat will get stuck on the bottom of the pot. That's all good. It adds to the flavour. </div>
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It's OK if they don't all look cooked through. They will finish off cooking in the tomatoes.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">On to the tomato sauce</span></b></div>
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Open the cans of plain chopped tomatoes.</div>
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Dump the tomatoes, juice and all, into the meatballs. Stir around, and leave to bubble away gently. I mean gently. No frazzled full-on boiling here. As the sauce bubbles the tomatoes will thicken a bit, the meatballs will cook through, and the seasoning from the meat will get into the tomatoes. Yum. </div>
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That's the sauce more or less done. Just watch it, and stir occasionally while the pasta is cooking. Start the pasta now, so the sauce and pasta will be ready at the same time. At any point if you think the sauce is thick enough for you, turn the heat off and put a lid on the pot.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Now, cook the pasta</b></span></div>
If you already know how to cook pasta, then just cook it. If you don't, here's how:<br />
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Get the biggest pot you've got, and fill it about 2/3 full with hot water from the tap. Add a good handful of salt to the water. Just use <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/foodie-underdog-essentials.html" target="_blank">cheap old iodised table salt.</a> Don't panic about this
being too much salt. You're not going to eat it all. It's just
seasoning the water. Put the lid on (if you've got one) and turn the heat to high.<br />
<br />
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Once the water is boiling madly, drop the pasta in. The water will stop boiling for a bit. That's cool. Just watch until it's up to a boil again, and set your timer for 11 or 12 minutes (or whatever time the directions on your pasta package says).<br />
<br />
Let the pasta boil madly, with the lid off. (Why? Because if you leave the lid on, it will boil over and make a mess on your stove. That sort of thing ruins dinner.)<br />
<br />
When the timer goes off, fish out a piece of pasta and bite it. If it's still hard or dry in the middle, leave the pot to boil for another minute, and test again. When it's soft and nice to bite through, it's done. Now's the time to drain the pasta.<br />
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Put a colander or strainer in the sink, and pour the pasta and water into it.<br />
<br />
Put the pasta straight back in the pot and put the lid on. It's OK if there's still a bit of water dripping out of the pasta. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Serve up proudly </b></span><br />
It's best to serve pasta as soon as it's cooked. So get to it.<br />
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Pile some pasta in a bowl. Spoon the sauce over the top. Love every bite.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Can we make this recipe better?</b></span><br />
If you try this recipe, and have any trouble or think you can make it easier, please let me know. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you. Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-16839032007973441742014-02-02T18:02:00.000+13:002014-02-02T18:11:56.859+13:00Garden Share Collective: FebruaryThis is my first post for the <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a>. I'm delighted to be part of this community of gardeners and writers who share what they're doing in their gardens every month, so others can learn and get growing themselves. <br />
<br />
My garden is in Wellington, New Zealand, on a tiny, steep section close to the city. It's mostly an edible garden, but I also grow roses, clematis, daphne, jasmine and honeysuckle.<br />
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This is what it looked like out the back door this morning. Overcrowded! But that's how I like it. I don't have room to grow big crops here, so I grow little bits of heaps of different things, some in the ground, and others in containers. I think of this as a nibbling garden -- at the moment we can nibble strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, bits of lettuce and sorrel, basil, fennel seeds, mountain pawpaw, figs and blackberries... just a wee bit of each.<br />
<br />
Here's what's happening in my garden in February. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">FEBRUARY HARVEST</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Tomatoes.</span></b> There are just enough tomatoes ripening for us to declare <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/really-good-tomato-salad.html?q=really+good+tomato+salad" target="_blank">Really Good Tomato Salad</a> season open. The long green tomato is called Green Sausage, and the big gnarly one is a Oaxacan Jewel -- my favourite tomato ever. The other green ones got "harvested" by an over-active dog's tail, so only got into the photo on a technicality.<br />
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You can see what I mean by overcrowding. The tomatoes are all growing through each other, and interlaced with mint and basil, but they seem quite happy.<br />
<br />
If you want to learn how to grow tomatoes from seed, I've written <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/tomatoes-101.html" target="_blank">Tomatoes 101</a> to get you started. It's too late to plant tomato seeds this season, but it's never too late to start dreaming and scheming about all the wonderful heirloom varieties you're going to grow next summer.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Strawberries.</b></span> I was expecting the strawberries to ripen in December, but they're really only getting going now. The top photo is of an heirloom strawberry with roots (not literally) all the way back to the first ever strawberry to arrive in Wellington -- at least according to my friend Kaye who gave me a plant three years ago. I now have hundreds of these little beauties everywhere in the garden -- they throw out heaps of runners, and start baby plants all along the edges of the paths, and they make fantastic weed mats. The berries are small and a bit misshapen, but they have incredibly deep sweet flavour. Sadly, the dog's taken a liking to them too, so the harvest is a bit of a competitive sport at the moment. Surprisingly, the birds don't seem that interested in them. It might be because they are quite shy -- the berries, not the birds. The berries grow and ripen under the leaves, so you need to know they're there, and dig to find them.<br />
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The second strawberry came from the garden centre. It's bolder, more "perfect" looking (maybe), but you can just tell it's not going to taste anywhere near as good as the heirloom variety. And it doesn't. <br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">Fennel pollen and seeds. </span></b>The fennel grows huge in our neighbourhood, and it attracts bees, so I like to let it flower and go to seed. Then recently I read that fennel pollen is used in the middle east as a culinary spice, so I decided to have a go at harvesting some. The pollen is like little yellow pieces of sand. I just pick the flower heads after the bees have had a good go at them, and stick them into a paper bag. The pollen falls out into the bag, and voila, you've got a new spice in your pantry. I've only got about .05 of a teaspoon so far! But man does it smell good -- just like a bag of Licorice Allsorts.<br />
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I love these fennel flower heads -- the shadows are so gorgeous.<br />
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Some of the fennel flowers I've left to go to seed. I love chewing on the seeds and getting that childhood memory taste of aniseed wheels. Also good in chai and curries of course.<br />
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<span style="color: lime;"><b>Basil. </b></span>February is also basil month. I plant loads of basil seeds in spring, and usually get enough for a couple of batches of pesto and several weeks of salad garnishes. I'm diligent about snipping off the flower heads as soon as they appear -- that's just so the plant doesn't put all its energy into flower and seed production, when I want the leaves to get nice and fat and flavourful. Sounds a bit mean, I know, but sometimes you have to be tough in the garden. I plant the basil in the same pots as tomatoes, and along the edges of the paths, and just in among everything else. <br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>FEBRUARY PLANTING</b></span><br />
The garden is so full at the moment, that I'm not going to actively plant anything out in February. But I am doing a bit of passive planting, by letting some plants go to seed.<br />
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This is a buttercrunch lettuce. More like several hundred butter crunch lettuces. I just leave one or two plants to go to seed like this, and in winter and spring there will be buttercrunch lettuces all over the garden, on the paths, and probably all over the neighbours' gardens too. They don't mind. We all use this technique, and passively swap lettuce, coriander, fennel, spinach, parsley and more across the fences and hedges... Frankly, if we didn't let our veges and herbs seed all over the place, we'd have more weeds to deal with so this is an awesome way to garden. <br />
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This is a crop of coriander that has self-seeded in a trough at the back door. The parent plants came up at the end of last winter, matured over spring, went to seed in November, and now the next generation have germinated. Fantastic.<br />
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If you want to know more about letting plants self-seed, <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/going-to-seed.html" target="_blank">read my Going to Seed post.</a><br />
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">FEBRUARY CHORES</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Watering:</b></span><br />
Our summer warmth is only just arriving now, and I need to water the plants in pots every day now. I only water the plants in the ground a couple of times a week, and only if it doesn't rain. We have a mild climate, the overnight temperatures are low, and we have dew overnight almost every day, so the ground plants aren't that needy when it comes to water.<br />
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I like to water in the morning, while the soil and the plants are cool, so the water won't be a shock to them. It doesn't seem right to water at night, and expect the plants to hang about in cold wet soil overnight. But I know many great gardeners who water at night... do what you think is best! <br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Feeding:</b></span><br />
Every couple of weeks in spring and summer, I try to remember to give all the plants a seaweed feed. I usually just mix some seaweed concentrate from the garden shop into the watering can and water that around the roots. Seems to do the trick. I will also give the plants in containers a soil top up. Just sprinkle some compost (your own, or bagged from the garden shop) into the pots or containers if there's room. After you've been watering container plants for a while, the soil gets washed away or compacted, and the nutrients will have been used by the plant or washed away. Think 'top up' so the potted plants have enough nourishment. <br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Shouting at the birds:</b></span><br />
The birds have already eaten almost all the ripe figs, but I'm not going to let them get the blueberries. So I'll either put up a net, hang some bright shiny dangly things from the clothes line, or keep running outside like a mad woman shouting at the birds. Or perhaps all of those things.<br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Potting up wild seedlings:</b></span><br />
Because I'm not a terribly neat gardener, and let plants go to seed, I have a lot of seedlings growing 'wild' around the place. These are just free plants, and I like to put them in small pots, and give them away to other gardeners. The community gardens or school gardens seem to like free plants, and so do people starting new gardens. This month I'll be potting up and giving away heirloom strawberries, oregano, and lemon balm plants. <br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>Sitting quietly doing nothing:</b></span><br />
Sometimes I forget to just go outside, sit quietly and soak in the sights, sounds and smells of the garden. So in February I will make a point of doing that. I always have something to learn from my dog. <br />
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Thanks for visiting the Five Course Garden. I hope you find some inspiration here, and learn something useful. I'm very happy to answer questions about gardening in tiny spaces, and growing in containers. Just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.<br />
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Happy gardening.Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com8Wellington, New Zealand-41.2864603 174.77623600000004-41.6685158 174.13078900000005 -40.9044048 175.42168300000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-3304263219276473112014-01-26T11:38:00.000+13:002014-01-27T06:54:26.800+13:00Scarlett Spice Cookies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Scarlett asked for the recipe for these cookies, and because it didn't have a name yet, I decided to named it after her. Everyone should have at least one good recipe named after them, don't you think?<br />
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I love it when someone asks me for a
recipe. Especially when it's baking. It's taken me a while to get
confident with baking, but this cookie
recipe has survived my experimenting ways, and I really think it's the
cookie bomb. (Thanks to Allison Gofton's brown butter biscuits for the starting point.)<br />
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These cookies are crisp, crunchy and sweetly spiced (perfect with chai). The recipe is versatile -- you can use gluten free bread flour if you like, or just ordinary flour. You can use any spice combination you like. And you can even substitute half a cup of flour for half a cup of cocoa powder and switch the spices for a good pinch of chilli powder for an earthy-sweet-hot chocolate chilli cookie. Yum.<br />
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Even better, you don't need a cake mixer, and you make the whole recipe in one pot, so there are hardly any dishes to clean up.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>YOU'LL NEED</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Equipment</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>a medium sized pot</li>
<li>wooden spoon</li>
<li>cutting board and knife</li>
<li>cookie baking sheet (plus baking paper if it's not a flash non-stick kind)</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>200 gm butter</li>
<li>3/4 cup sugar (I use golden castor sugar, but regular sugar works fine)</li>
<li>1 egg</li>
<li>2 1/2 cups flour (wheat or substitute gluten free bread flour)</li>
<li>1 tsp baking powder</li>
<li>Spices: I use 2 tsp cardamon; 1 tsp ginger powder; 1 tsp cinnamon;1/4 ground cloves. But feel free to experiment.</li>
<li>a tiny pinch of salt -- tiny. </li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>HOW TO</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Brown the butter</b></span><br />
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I have made these cookies without going to the trouble of browning the butter, and they are good, but they are so much better with browned butter. So do it. Here's how you know your butter is good and browned:<br />
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Melt the butter over a low/medium heat until it starts bubbling. Wear an apron, and keep watching the pot. It's going to be a bit splattery. Listen to the butter -- it's quite noisy at this stage because the water in it is evaporating and exploding in big steamy puffs--a bit like a boiling mud pool. Stir it every now and then, and be patient. <br />
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After about 8 minutes, the bubbles will become much smaller, and quieter.<br />
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And then after a few more minutes, they will turn into foam and be almost silent. That's when you take the pot off the heat.<br />
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Leave the butter in the pot, but put it somewhere to cool down. Swirl it around and see the lovely brown colour. The bits on the bottom of the pot are all good. They add heaps of flavour.<br />
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Set a timer for 30 minutes, and leave the butter to cool down. You really need to do this. If you add an egg to hot butter, the egg will scramble and it will be disgusting.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">Turn the oven on: 160 degrees</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Add the sugar and egg</b></span><br />
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When the butter has cooled down, pour in 3/4 cup sugar.<br />
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Then break in one egg.<br />
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Then stir it as fast as you can with a wooden spoon, until it's well mixed, and you can't see the butter separating out. The colour will get lighter the more you mix.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">Add the flour, baking powder, spices and salt</span></b><br />
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Just throw them into the pot. No need to sieve or fuss. If you're using salt, just put in a really tiny pinch. Then mix again with the wooden spoon.<br />
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When it looks like this, it's time to get your hands in there.<br />
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Roll it into a ball. If the mixture is really too sticky to do this, you can add a bit more flour. But it should be soft and slightly buttery.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Shape and cut the cookies</b></span><br />
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Divide the dough in half, and use your hands to shape them into logs. Use baking paper if you've got it. I like making the logs quite flat, because I like small cookies, but you can make them any shape you like.<br />
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Use a sharp knife to slice cookies off the loaf, and gently put them on the baking sheet. I love using baking paper because it's so easy and it never sticks.<br />
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Ready for the oven. They will expand a bit, but not much.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b>Bake for 20 minutes (and while they are baking, cut up your second log)</b></span><br />
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Oops, I forgot to take photos of this stage. Just put the cookie sheet on a rack close to the middle of the oven, and set your timer for 20 minutes. Keep your nose on the job. If the kitchen starts smelling like a gorgeous cookie factory after 15 minutes, check the oven. They might be ready. You can tell by the smell, and if they are just starting to look a tiny bit browner on the bottom than on the top.<br />
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When they are baked, take the baking tray our of the oven, and very carefully slide the baking paper with all the cookies on it, onto a wire cooling rack.<br />
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Put the second batch in the oven.<br />
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I wouldn't say you absolutely must have a typewriter in the kitchen, but I'd highly recommend it. Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-90863944241983135712013-11-20T08:15:00.000+13:002013-11-20T08:15:02.355+13:00Beans on Toast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The other day, while Jamie Oliver was prancing around the French Pyrenees on TV, whipping up truffle omelets and shooting wild boar with the village blokes, I was inspired to prance around and whip up my own straight-from-the-garden snack. Fava bean hummus on toast. (OK, broad bean hummus on on toast, but you tell me which one you're going to eat. The Italians know how to name their beans, and I'm Italian about this one.)<br />
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I do love how the celebrity chefs waft around, doing the markets, finding themselves in unspeakably romantic kitchens with roaring fires and rustic chopping blocks, the freshest produce at their fingertips. Sometimes when I'm watching them I'm mesmerised and enchanted. Other times I'm jealous as hell to the point of being enraged. But most often I'm watching them out one eye, scanning the cook book shelf out the other, gradually losing interest in TV, and itching to get into the kitchen. For all the hype and smoke and mirrors, food TV inspires me.<br />
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So I left Jamie to his truffle snuffling, and went hunting in my own garden, imaginary TV crew in tow, zooming into the undergrowth and capturing my rapture when I discovered the fava beans were just right to pick.<br />
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I've been experimenting with planting seeds in winter, which always feels wrong, but always (so far anyway) gives me a lovely crop in spring. This is something our grandparents were all over, planting the rights seeds at the right time so there was always a crop of something to eat. So far I've just been doing this with fava beans and sweet peas. It works. I'll do another post on seasonal seed planting, as it's a whole other story.<br />
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Back to my TV show about fava bean hummus on toast. <br />
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Take the beans out of their pods. You can leave their pleather coats on. I recommend doing this in a sunny spot in a really comfortable chair.<br />
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Steam them for 5 minutes. Put a clove of garlic in with them while they steam. This just softens and sweetens the garlic so the hummus isn't too sharp.<br />
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Pulverise the beans, garlic, a wee sprinkle of salt, a squirt of lemon juice and a good dollop of olive oil. You can do this in a food processor, a mincer, or with a mortar and pestle.<br /><br />
Taste it and add extra salt or lemon if you like. If it's too dry, add some more olive oil. And if it's too wet? Well, I guess just serve it as a dip rather than a spread.<br />
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Pile on hot buttered toast and devour.<br />
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On the off chance you didn't plant fava beans over the winter... try making a spread like this with peas, or carrots or kumara. You could make it with canned beans (no need to steam), or frozen peas even. Just think cooked or soft vege + garlic, lemon, salt, olive oil + crushing implement. As Nigella would say, "How easy is that?"<br />
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And just so this page doesn't look too green, here's what grew out of my other winter seed planting. The sweet peas are totally stunning. Every time I walk out the back door their smell stops me in my tracks.<br />
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Do I want my own food TV show? Yes, of course. But no. That dish took no more than 20 minutes from idea to the first bite. If the TV crew was real, it would have taken all day, and I'd be frazzled. And I'd probably even have to wear makeup, which just wouldn't do. So for now I'll remain a celebrity in my own mind. I do have a swish new phone with a swish video camera though, so it's very tempting to see what might happen if I figured out how to use it.Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-33939490524544725102013-10-16T13:48:00.000+13:002013-10-16T13:48:07.561+13:00Lavender Extract<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every time I've walked past this lavender on the front path in the past couple of weeks, I've had a spark of something I can only describe as a potent mix of memory and idea. It's something I know deeply, but don't know at all. An instinct crossed with an experiment. I always pluck a flower or a leaf, crush it in my hands and stick my nose in for a massive inhale. If you're there, I'll shove your nose in it too, assuming you'd find the smell of fresh-crushed lavender as glorious and miraculous as I do. But as I said, the lavender was urging me on to do something else with it. And not just dry the flowers and make sachets for under the pillow. <br />
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None of the usual lavender uses -- tea, strewn in bath tub, skin lotion -- were hitting the spot. I was after something sciency, not crafty. (Secretly I was imagining myself in a rustic laboratory in the middle of a huge walled garden filled with medicinal plants, filling rich blue bottles with potions and cures, sealing them with glass stoppers... as you do. Well, as I do, sometimes. OK, quite a lot. Being an apothecary is either a past life memory, or a latent midlife crisis for this gardener.)<br />
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Anyway, I was delighted this morning to find out, on the internet of course, about lavender extract. Turns out you can make lavender extract just like you make vanilla extract. You can cook and bake with it, put it in your bathtub, use it as perfume, add it to creams and lotions and potions! It's kind of like <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/jamming.html" target="_blank">making jam</a> -- bottling some of the summer love for later in the year.<br />
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But it's much easier than making jam. It takes about 10 minutes. So I had to do it. Today. Right now.<br />
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>How to:</b></span><br />
Get yourself outside with some scales and clippers, and <b><span style="color: #a64d79;">cut about 100 grams of lavendar. </span></b>That's two or three generous bunches. Mind the bees. I was worried we didn't have that many bees this year... I've changed my mind about that. The lavendar is crawing with bees today.<br />
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When I got back to the instructions, they said 100 grams of flowers, and I'd picked stems and flowers, so I decided to split the crop, and make flower extract and leaf extract, and see if there's any difference.<br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79;"><b>Chop up the flowers.</b></span> You can do this in a blender or food processor, or by hand. Hand-chopping the flowers is kind of alarming. The lavender flower heads are like beautiful soft furry caterpillar bodies; when I cut into them I half expected them to spurt out guts. But they just spurted out the most amazing smell, thank goodness!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #a64d79;">Stuff the chopped flowers into a jar. </span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79;"><b>Cover with extracting liquid.</b></span> You have a few choices: vodka or brandy; apple cider vinegar; or vegetable glycerine. Apparently they all do the trick. I used vodka for this batch because I had some in the pantry. I'm going to pick up some vegetable glycerine later and make another batch with that, for some swanky mock-tail action over the summer.<br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79;"><b>Steep and shake.</b></span> For the next two to six weeks, this jar needs to sit out in a warm, sunny spot, and get a daily shake up. Then it gets strained and put into a rich blue bottle, sealed with a glass stopper, and stored alongside the vanilla extract in the pantry. <br />
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I processed the leaves the same way. But I can tell after only half an hour, that the flower extract is far better smelling than the leaves. The leaves have a distinct grassy overtone that I can't imagine wanting to cook with. The flowers, however, have got me thinking about Christmas shortbread, and lavender scented meringues!<br />
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So that's how you make a tincture -- a liquid infused with the properties of a plant -- in your modern kitchen. No need for a rustic lab in a walled medicinal plant garden. The lemon-balm-gone-mad in the back garden is next. <br />
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Thank you to Andrea. I found out all about lavender extract, its uses and how to make it, on her lovely and very informative website, <a href="http://frugallysustainable.com/2013/07/how-to-make-and-use-lavender-flower-extract/" target="_blank">Frugally Sustainable.</a><br />
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Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-16300558482140818612013-09-15T13:59:00.001+12:002013-09-16T08:15:27.062+12:00Tricks of the Spice Trade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I taught myself to cook the same way I taught myself many life skills -- by getting books out of the library and subscribing to magazines. Over the years my library card has come in handy for learning about netball and swimming, playing the guitar, camping, spiritual growth, menstruation, relationships, sex, travelling, dysfunctional family dynamics, gardening, triathlons, obsessions and addictions, interior decorating, painting and drawing, knitting and crochet, decluttering, writing books, yoga. All those things I've needed to know about at one time or another, in order to survive or thrive, depending.<br />
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My first magazine subscription was Fine Cooking. It was totally over my head. But I read it religiously, never doubting that it would teach me to be a Fine Cook. It took a while, but one day I "got it" about braising meat, and I became, pretty much overnight, a more confident cook, more optimistic and experimental, less fearful about what might go wrong and more open to things going right in the kitchen. <br />
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I've kept my favourite issues of Fine Cooking. Every now and then I pull one out and look at the kitchen-worn pages, and remember the meals I made for an ever-expanding list of dinner guests in the seriously crappy kitchen in my apartment on 6th Ave in Vancouver, birthplace of the keen cook I am today... and I feel grateful and happy. <br />
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Lately, I've been in cooking deconstruction mode, thinking about the bare bones basics of meal making, stripping home cooking down to what's only just necessary to make a decent meal -- I'm looking at ingredients, equipment, cooking techniques and time. I'm working on an idea for people I call the foodie underdogs -- people who have never learned to cook, who didn't subscribe to Fine Cooking back in the 90s, and who just want to make some decent home cooked meals instead of eating fast, junky, or processed food. So I'm simplifying, big time, as I get my head around this idea.<br />
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I've ended up testing ready-made spice mixes -- a confession I don't make lightly! Thanks to my <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/p/kitchen-muses.html" target="_blank">obsessive cook book reading</a>, food blog following, and years of magazine subscriptions, I'm a dab hand at roasting, grinding, mincing or pounding my own spice mixes, rubs and pastes. But this is exactly the kind of barrier I want to remove for beginner cooks, so they can just make a decent meal, right now, and without feeling like a loser because they haven't got half the stuff in their pantry, and don't know what it is anyway. That's one of the reasons foodie underdogs slam shut the recipe book and dial 0800 PIZZA.<br />
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Ready-Made Spice Mixes people. I've been surprised at how good these can be. Here are three that ship me straight to Portugal, Morocco and Mexico, and are now staples in my pantry. I wouldn't say they've put my mortar and pestle out of business, but close. <br />
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<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>PORTUGAL WITH JONATHAN: sardines on toast</b></span><br />
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I met Jonathan at Moore Wilson's, at his free sample table. I'm assuming the guy who was so enthusiastic about these seasonings was Jonathan himself. I've used his wonderful mixes before, but not the Portuguese seasoning. Jonathan insisted I try it with sardines on toast, which made my face screw up a bit. But after he'd whisked me through the idea, with his arms waving and eyes shining, I was totally revved to have them for pre-dinner snacks.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">You'll need</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>A couple of tablespoons of Jonathan's Portuguese seasoning. </li>
<li>A can of sardines in olive oil. The Spanish ones in the yellow tin are gorgeous, and not over-fishy smelly.</li>
<li>Some good chewy bread that makes nice toast.</li>
</ul>
<b><span style="color: #b45f06;">How to</span></b><br />
Coat the sardines in the seasoning. Roll them in it, or sprinkle it on them. <br />
Heat sardines in a heavy pan, on moderate heat, till they're warmed through and the seasoning is crunchy. They've got enough oil in them already, so no need to add any to the pan.<br />
Toast your bread.<br />
Pile the sardines on the toast, and eat like you're in a tapas bar in Lisbon.<br />
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You're in for a real treat here. Salty, herby, oily, hot, crunchy, with a mysterious, lingering sweetness. I couldn't stop eating these, and so ruined my appetite for dinner that night. Worth it.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;">MOROCCO WITH ALEXANDRA: lamb shanks</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #783f04;"></span></b>Alexandra's spice mixes are absolutely gorgeous -- both the package design and the rich, complex flavour of North Africa. I haven't met Alexandra, but I bet she waves her arms around excitedly and has sparkly eyes, just like Jonathan. Her zahtar smells kind of zingy and perky --it's exciting on the nose. When it's cooked with the lamb and tomatoes, it becomes deep and rich and almost creamy. I like to sprinkle a little bit of uncooked zahtar over the cooked dish, just to give it a chance to shine on both levels. You can also mix some zahtar with olive oil and lemon juice, and drizzle over before serving. Read on... <br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>You'll need</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>Lamb shanks. 4 big ones = 4 normal servings.</li>
<li>Alaxantra's Bazaar zahtar</li>
<li>4 carrots and 2 onions</li>
<li>A can of tomatoes. 440g</li>
<li>Roughly a cup of red wine or water </li>
<li>A can of big butter beans or chickpeas. 400g</li>
<li>Olive oil</li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>How to</b></span><br />
Heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy, oven-proof pot with a lid.<br />
Peel and quarter the onions, roughly chop the carrots, and heat gently in the olive oil.<br />
Add the lamb shanks, 2 tablespoons zahtar, and tomatoes with all their juice.<br />
Add red wine or water, just enough to bring the liquid level about half way up the lamb shanks.<br />
Stir gently to distribute the spices.<br />
Put the lid on, and put in the oven at 160 for 2 - 3 hours. It doesn't really matter how long you leave it. Just check at the one hour mark and make sure it's not drying out. Add some water if you need to. <br />
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It's ready when the lamb is falling off the bone. If you're not ready to eat it right away, you can cool and keep in the fridge for a day or two. You can take the fat off the surface if you want to. Before you eat it, heat and add a can of big fat butter beans, drained.<br />
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Taste, and add another sprinkle of zahtar if you want. Or make a glorious drizzle by mixing 1 tbs zahtar with 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs lemon juice. Drip on top before eating.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #7f6000;">MEXICO WITH UNCLE PABLO: tacos and salsa</span></b><br />
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Uncle Pablo makes hot, clean and tangy seasoning mix which is just amazing in a meat or bean chilli or in salsa. I haven't cooked with it recently, but take a trip to the archives for a <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/09/mid-week-mexican.html" target="_blank">tacos and salsa treat</a>.<br />
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And while we're in Mexico, Jonathan also has some amazing manuka smoked chipotle power that packs a huge punch as a table seasoning (use it instead of pepper). I haven't cooked with this yet, but I am really looking forward to using it in a pork belly taco recipe I saw on Jamie's 15-minute meals.<br />
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So really, with help like this around, there is absolutely no need to make your own spice mixes, rubs, or pastes again. Having said that, I'm heading out to the shed to read some gardening magazines, and check up on <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/tomatoes-101.html" target="_blank">my tomato seedlings.</a> I may have given up on spice mixing, but I still haven't found a decent substitute for <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/gazing-into-salad-bowl.html" target="_blank">home-grown tomatoes.</a>Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-74687774849753076522013-07-26T17:49:00.000+12:002013-07-26T18:45:58.392+12:00Hedgerow Happy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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How's this for an early morning, mid winter sky? There's nowhere like Wellington on a good day. And there's nothing that promises spring like bud-studded twigs. These are almonds, and I'm hopeful things will get very nutty at this end of the hedgerow in a few months.<br />
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The low-growing, orange glowing Japonica aka quince. This is the colour of bridesmaids' dresses in the 60s, and I love it. Especially gorgeous against that cyan sky. Loads more flowers on this plant this year, so perhaps we'll have some mini-quinces to eat in summer. </div>
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More nuttiness potential on the hazelnuts -- or filberts as they're also called. They should have called the new prince Filbert; it's cute and regal all at once. I'm not up to speed on the anatomy and physiology of hazelnuts, and I have no idea what these catkin things are for... maybe they are flowers making pollen for future nuts? I'll just go out and check that theory... Yes, the're full of pollen. But how they turn into hazelnuts, I don't know. Must keep a close eye on them and see what happens.<br />
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Instead of spreading themselves wantonly down the hill with the nuts and vines, spreading the love, the hellebores have clumped resolutely together like cliquey schoolgirls. Come to think of it, they're freckly like schoolgirls too. And their tutus get more frilly and frou-frou every year. This year though, the fashion has shifted from pretty blossom pink to a more sophisticated creamy yellow pink. I approve. I just wish they'd widen their circles a bit. I did sprinkle last year's seeds all along the hedgerow. Maybe they take longer than one year to flower? Maybe I pulled them up thinking they were weeds. Maybe I should have raised the seeds in the glass house so I could keep an eye on them.<br />
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There's a handful of violas popping up ahead of the leaves, shining pinky blue (violet?) in the sun, and looking very pleased with themselves.<br />
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Even the stunted gooseberry at the top corner of the hedgerow is bursting into life this year. But man those spikes are brutal. I don't mind if this bush doesn't grow any taller than its current eight inches, but I would love it to grow me a handful of tart gooseberries to cook into a sugary pulp and eat with whipped cream. Yum.<br />
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And finally, not strictly in the hedgerow, but a close neighbour and current star of the front garden is madame Daphne. She has so many clusters of flowers this year I can't resist sticking my head right inside and whiffing my nose full of orangey pineapple scent. It's just the thing in winter -- a quick trip to the tropics with Daphne. <br />
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There's so much delightful growing going on out there, in spite of the cold weather, short days, and storms. The days are getting ever-so-slightly longer, the Kings Seeds catalogue arrived in the mail earlier in the week, and I can feel a touch of spring fever coming on.<br />
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Prince Filbert has such a nice ring to it. Maybe I'll send them a telegram. Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-43463751726713478202013-07-16T13:50:00.002+12:002014-06-02T10:11:27.509+12:00Fermenting Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I get bombarded with messages about the same thing for a very long time, I eventually sit up and take notice. Recently that message was fermentation. It was right on the tail of me giving up a fairly entrenched habit of drinking fermented grape juice, so I put it down to irony. <br />
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But fermented vegetables kept coming at me from every direction. Cookbooks, blog posts, emails, magazine articles... whooping it up about the amazing health benefits of eating shredded cabbage left to ferment at room temperature in an unsterilised jar. Yikes. It was too intriguing not to try. But I didn't want to write about it here until I was sure it wasn't going to kill anyone. I grew up with a <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/baking-is-therapy.html" target="_blank">palpable fear of what could go wrong in the kitchen</a>, and fear of botulism from improper preserving is tattooed on my heart. <br />
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Anyway,I've been eating home made fermented vegetables almost every day for two months now and I'm still alive and thriving. <br />
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They are easy and fun to make -- interactive like bread and <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/bit-more-culture.html" target="_blank">yogurt</a> -- with happy bacteria doing happy things in those jars. They taste wonderful -- tart, vinegary, salty and sour. They're amazing for digestion because they give the gut the bacteria it needs to do its job properly. And perhaps most astounding to me, they have cured my sugar cravings. <br />
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I've never liked the sound of sauerkraut. It sounds grumpy and cross, it's a pale shade of beige, and I just don't feel inclined to put it in my mouth. Kimchi on the other hand, sounds cute and cuddly, and appetising. Sauerkraut and kimchi are just fermented vegetables from different countries. The internet is awash with video tutorials about how to make them. <br />
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Here's my recipe for <span style="color: magenta;"><b>Hot Pink Kimchi</b></span>, based on a bunch of reading from all over the place. It's really hot pink, with a good balance of hot and sour flavours, and has great crunch. I can't get enough of it.<br />
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Go to the farmers' market and buy a red cabbage, a big bunch of green onions, a few big carrots, a big bunch of radishes, a knob of fresh ginger, garlic and two or three fresh red chillies. Quantities are roughly:<br />
<ul>
<li>a red cabbage</li>
<li>2 grated carrots</li>
<li>4 grated radishes (nice big ones)</li>
<li>a large grated beetroot or a couple of smaller ones</li>
<li>6 green onions</li>
<li>garlic if you like. It's good with or without. </li>
<li>three tablespoons ginger (or more if you're a ginger nut)</li>
<li>chillies to your taste -- I use two or three, depending on how ouchy hot they are. You can also use dried chillies. </li>
</ul>
<b>UPDATE</b><br />
I've experimented with adding:<br />
<ul>
<li>a sprinkle of cumin seeds. Infuses the fermented veges with that musky earthy sweetness. A little bit goes a long way. I think maybe the fermenting process intensifies the flavour. I just use untoasted seeds.</li>
<li>thinly sliced red onions. A mistake I think. Even a little bit takes over the whole party. I'd go easy on the onions unless you're really into pungent. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
You'll also need 2 tbs sea salt <strike>OR 1 tbs sea salt + 4 tbs whey. </strike> I've now tested this recipe without whey and it's totally great, so forget the whey. Keep it simple and just use salt. <br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Shred, grate and chop all the vegetables,</b></span> and put them in a container that's big enough for your to get your hands into and give the veges a good massage. If you're squeamish or lack upper body tone, you can instead bash them with a wooden mallet or your bashing implement of choice. The point of this is to release some of the juices, but not to mush everything to a pulp. The cabbage will start to look a bit translucent and watery; that's when you can stop.<br />
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Just in case anyone thinks my kitchen is always pristine, it's not.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Fill a clean, wide-mouthed jar with the grated veges</b></span>, and press them down really really tightly, until the juices start to come up to the top of the vegetables. The quantities listed above should be enough for about a 1.5 litre jar. Really squash them in, and fill a second jar if you've got too many veges. <br />
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At this point, there are all sorts of conflicting instructions on the internet, so here's what I did:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Use a skewer or chop stick to release any air bubbles</b></span> around the side of the jar. Leave a decent space at the top of the jar -- at least an inch -- rather than packing it full, as there is going to be some fermentation happening, and you want to make room for it. <br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Seal the jar tightly, leave on the counter at room temperature, and wait.</b></span> How long?<br />
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It depends. Most of the recipes I read say three days, then move to the fridge or other cold storage. But mine start bubbling away after 24 hours (maybe I do have the central heating up too high!) so I put it in the fridge at that point to slow the fermentation down.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Burp the jars</b></span> -- just open them quickly to let the compressed air out, a couple of times a day. If you don't do this, the jars will start burping themselves and leak pink juice everywhere.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Taste it. </b></span>After a few days, have a little sample. See if it's sour enough, or pickly enough for you. How's the crunch factor? When it tastes good to you...<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Put it in the fridge.</b></span> And eat it. <br />
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I've been eating the kimchi as soon as it's chilled down in the fridge. It's stayed tasty and crunchy for the couple of weeks that each large jar has lasted. I've read that it tastes better and develops better health-giving properties the longer you leave it, and that it can last for many many months, years even. I'm not testing that theory.<br />
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Be warned, it does smell of cabbage burp (OK cabbage fart might be more accurate) when you open the jar. But it's not a bad smell, just a distinctive one. I have read that if the kimchi has actually gone bad, it will smell so putrid you'll never be convinced to eat it. A healthy cabbage fart isn't putrid. <br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>There must be hundreds of ways to eat kimchi.</b></span> Here are my favourites so far:<br />
<ul>
<li>On hot buttered toast -- an exotic taste and texture fest. </li>
<li>Sprinkled over a salad -- you won't need a vinegar dressing as there's a wonderful vinegar flavour in the kimchi itself. </li>
<li>Just serve yourself a little bowl and eat it neat. </li>
<li>Not too much at once! It's supposed to be used as a condiment, not a main event. </li>
</ul>
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When I tried the first batch, I immediately got a craving for it. It was like my body kept saying "Give me more of that pink stuff right now because I need to have it!" Seriously. My body needed whatever was in that jar. It must have restored whatever was out of balance, because those voices have gone quiet now.<br />
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And the sugar cravings? They're gone too. They were pretty bad for a while. When I stopped drinking alcohol, I promptly started eating a lot of chocolate, and craving sweet things. One day I was having a sweet craving and I thought "how about some of that pink stuff instead?" Two spoons of kimchi and the craving went away. I did this for a while, and now I'm not having sweet cravings at all. That's a big, welcome change. The pink stuff is setting some things right in my body. <br />
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I need to stress that while Hot Pink Kimchi hasn't killed me or my loved ones, and has cured me of my sugar cravings, I am not a fermented vegetable expert. So if you want to give them a go, please have a good read about the subject and pick a method of making and storing them that appeals to you. The authority on this and many other traditional food preparation methods is <a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/" target="_blank">the Weston A Price Foundation.</a><br />
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I love slicing red cabbage nice and thin. So pink. So satisfying. Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-25781207104681298322013-05-25T17:32:00.000+12:002013-05-25T17:49:08.801+12:00Toast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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I made this bread yesterday, after seeing a recipe on Facebook for the rather boastfully named <a href="http://mynewroots.org/site/2013/02/the-life-changing-loaf-of-bread/" target="_blank">Life-changing Loaf of Bread.</a>
If it hadn't looked just like my old favourite North's bread, and caused a flood of
happy toast memories (and saliva), I would have scrolled on by. But I
ended up baking bread instead. </div>
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This is no ordinary bread. There's no kneading or proofing and rising. It's actually more like making breakfast cereal than bread. It just happens to be gluten free, dairy free, and sugar-free and it's full of healthy healthy ingredients like coconut oil, nuts, seeds, loads of fibre -- not that you'd know. In spite of these healthy credentials, it's moreish. But best of all, it makes incredible toast.</div>
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Memories of toast are perhaps my most abundant food memories. Some of them are happy, and some are not so flash. In the happy toast file, I count after-school white bread toast dripping with butter and golden syrup, eaten doubled up because the the bread was so thin; slender toast soldiers, thick with butter and dunked in the yolk of a soft boiled egg; the toast nana used to make on the end of a fork over the coal fire, vaguely smokey, slathered with butter and tart blackcurrant jam, so much crunchier than anything that came out of the electric toaster at home.</div>
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In the unhappy toast file, there's the toast that got burned black, then scraped angrily with a knife to "unburn" it, charcoal staining the butter and just plain nasty; thick white "toast bread" that never did anything in the toaster but get hot and gloopy, and ripped apart when you tried to butter it; and the worst ever, cold vegemite toast "sandwiches", wrapped in Gladwrap, flaccid and embarrassing in the lunchbox at school. <br />
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Toast experiences, like all food experiences in my childhood, were random and uncontrollable. We ate what we were given, and that was that. Sometimes it was delicious, and sometimes it was disgusting. I suppose we just dealt with it. <br />
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But when I left home at the ripe old age of 21, the thing I most wanted to sort out in my life was the food. I immediately taught myself to cook food that was totally different to my white bread, meat and potato, stewed fruit and instant pudding upbringing. I discovered vegetarian food, Italian food, Middle Eastern food. And I discovered North's bread, a dense, dark, nutty, seedy, grainy, heavy loaf that even came in an unsliced version! It made terrible sandwiches (too dense and heavy) but incredible toast -- crunchy and chewy, indestructible, even when spread with cold butter. And it had a sour exotic smell that set it apart from any bread I'd ever eaten. It was the kind of bread my family would have hated. It was exactly the culinary statement I wanted to make. <br />
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North's bread looked a bit like this. <br />
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I was thrilled that this loaf was so similar to my long lost friend North's bread. I made a few changes to this recipe, including a name change. The original at <a href="http://mynewroots.org/site/2013/02/the-life-changing-loaf-of-bread/" target="_blank">My New Roots</a> was the inspiration, and looks every bit as good, but here's my version.<br />
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<span style="color: #7f6000;"><b>North of 50 Toast Bread </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>In a large bowl, mix up:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>1 cup sunflower seeds</li>
<li>1/2 cup whole flax seeds</li>
<li>1/2 cup almonds. I used skinned, slithered almonds, because I had them in the cupboard. I think any kind will do, but I'd chop them up a wee bit.</li>
<li>1 1/2 cups rolled oats</li>
<li>4 tablespoons psyllium husks </li>
<li>2 tablespoons chia seeds</li>
<li>1 tsp salt</li>
</ul>
I reckon you could use any nuts and seeds you like here, but I wouldn't monkey around with the oats and psyllium husks, as they seem to be responsible for soaking up the liquid and "gluing" the other ingredients together so nicely.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">In another bowl, mix together:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>3 tablespoons melted coconut oil</li>
<li>1 tablespoon maple syrup</li>
<li>1 cup of water</li>
<li>1/2 cup of whey (or not, read on)</li>
</ul>
OR... give olive oil a go... or butter even. And any sweetener you like. I'm going to give coconut sugar a go next time.<br />
And don't sweat about using whey. It is my current kitchen fad, so I'm looking for any opportunity to use it. The original recipe just uses 1 1/2 cups water, no whey. I've been reading about the health benefits of soaking grains in whey before cooking with them, so I wanted to try it out with this bread. I have nothing to compare with, but I was very pleased with the slighly sourdough flavour of my loaf, and I'm pretty sure it came by way of the whey. In case you are interested, there are how to make whey instructions at the bottom of this page.<br />
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Mix the liquids in with the dry ingredients, and press the resulting stiff mush into a baking tin.<br />
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Cover with a cloth or Gladwrap, and let it sit at room temperature overnight or for a few hours so the liquid can get firmly gummed up with all that fibre. A silicon baking dish is ideal, because you can easily see when the loaf is stiff and able to hold its own shape... but I think you could also tell by giving it a good poke, so don't be put off if you've only got regular baking tins.<br />
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(What are those dark things in the photo above? Raisins and cranberries. I'm trying a fruit flavoured batch. Not sure how it's going to work but I'll let you know. I had a dodgy memory card in my camera, and lost a load of photos for the original batch of bread, so this is a substitute shot.)<br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Baking</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li>Set your oven to 175 C.</li>
<li>Bake the loaf in its baking tin for 20 minutes, on the middle rack.</li>
<li>When the 20 minutes is up, tip the loaf out of the baking dish, sit it naked on the oven rack, and bake for another 30 or 40 minutes. Now you know why the mixture needs time to stiffen up before you bake it...</li>
<li>Like all bread, it's ready when it sounds hollow when you knock on it. Just give it a rap and listen. If it doesn't sound hollow, give it another 10 mins and try again. </li>
</ul>
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Let the loaf cool down before you try to slice it. And use a serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion for the thinnest, most gorgeous slices. Eat as is, or toast for maximum taste and crunch. Excellent with butter and honey. Or crab apple jelly. Or vegemite. <br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>A North of 50 experiment</b></span><br />
We used to buy and devour <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LesleyStowesRaincoastCrisps" target="_blank">Lesley Stowe's Raincoast Crisps</a> when we lived in Vancouver. We always look forward to eating them when we're back in Canada. But alas, they don't make it to New Zealand shops. My North of 50 loaf reminded me of those crisps. Which got me thinking...<br />
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What if I made some super thin slices of North of 50 bread... <br />
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... baked them for about an hour in a low oven... say 150 C? How close could I get to the original Raincoast Crisps?<br />
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Looks and texture wise, they are very close. Flavour wise, they're not there yet.<br />
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But the real reason for this experiment was to show off my new nifty manual meat slicer, a gift from my good friend and op shopping champion Jo. Isn't it a gem? And boy, does it cut thin toast.<br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>And finally, if you're interested in using whey</b></span> in this recipe, here's how to make it, and get a lovely batch of cream cheese at the same time.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Get a fine sieve, and drape a clean piece of cheesecloth or cotton over it. </li>
<li>Pour boiling water over the sieve and cloth -- I don't know if that's necessary, but I feel good doing it, so I do it. </li>
<li>Set the sieve and cloth over a large bowl or jug.</li>
<li>Pour a tub or bottle of natural full fat yogurt or buttermilk into the sieve. </li>
<li>Watch the whey drip into the bowl. </li>
<li>After a few hours, or overnight (you can stop watching whenever you like), there will be a lovely ball of cream cheese in the sieve, and whey in the bowl. </li>
<li>Use the whey for making this bread, and you know what to do with the cream cheese...</li>
</ul>
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For all things whey, start at this wonderful blog: <a href="http://nourishedkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Nourished Kitchen -- reviving traditional foods.</a><br />
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If you've got a toast memory, I'd love to read it. Comment away about toast. Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-78934890641499119612013-03-26T13:12:00.001+13:002013-03-26T13:12:23.330+13:00Plenty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Cucumber plenty</b></span><br />
Look what I found in the undergrowth! Talk about treasure in unexpected places. This "dead" cucumber plant had been looking so awful, with its decaying leaves and limp stems. I decided to put it out of its misery on Saturday, and to clear out its caterpillar-ridden tomato neighbours while I was at it. <br />
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But when I started pulling, one of the vines was way too heavy for a dead plant. It was kind of like hauling a loaded long line into a boat. Awesome. Five fat crunchy juicy cukes -- 1.5 kilos. I love surprises like this. <br />
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This plant (all from one tiny seed I can't help adding) has been giving us cucumbers since January. I planted it in a bag of old potting mix, put it in a hot, sheltered corner, kept it watered and gave it a couple of seaweed spa treatments while it was flowering. Given its root restriction, I wasn't expecting too much from it. Hmmm. <br />
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Simple cucumber salad. Salt, pepper, a splash of white wine vinegar. I don't bother removing the seeds. They're so soft, silky and plentiful it just seems like a waste. I will be saving a few for next year's crop though. <br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;"><b>Crab apple plenty </b></span><br />
Did anyone else describe someone (usually a girl) who was sharp and nasty as a crab apple? We did. "Don't be such a crab apple!" I think the insult went. Anyway, like all sharp, nasty things, crab apples have their soft side. You can see a hint of it in their gentle blush.<br />
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But it's only when you take the time to get to know them and find out what makes them tick, that you get the full joy out of these little tarts.<br />
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Sure, it takes more than a casual chat over a cup of tea to find the crab apples' inner beauty and true potential -- which is jelly. You've got to chop and mix and simmer, strain and sweeten and skim off the scum. Only then do you get something worth bottling.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Guava plenty </b></span><br />
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They float like cranberries, but they are super sweet and way more plentiful than the cranberries. The Chilean guavas have been wafting their delightful toffee-flavoured perfume over the front path for weeks now. I mixed them in with the crab apples, hoping to end up with a toffee-apple jelly. But no. I'll see what I can do with next year's crop. I think it's an idea worth pursuing.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Lettuce and onion plenty</b></span><br />
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I can never get over the over-the-topness of seed production in some plants. One tiny black spec of an onion seed, one slither of a lettuce seed... and look at how many new seeds they produce. These seeds will drop and blow all over the garden, and soon I'll find buttercrunch lettuces and Welsh onions in the path, in the spouting, in cracks in bricks... and some in the vege beds even. Free salad all winter. <br /><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Strawberry plenty + a giveaway</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"></span>A couple of years ago, Kaye from <a href="http://www.growfromhere.co.nz/" target="_blank">Grow From Here</a> gave me a cute little strawberry plant. She said it was descended from the first strawberry ever to grow in Wellington, arrived in a boat from somewhere far away. Cool, I thought, and stuck it in a quiet corner, not giving it much more thought. Now I'm stunned Wellington isn't the strawberry capital of New Zealand -- these little blighters breed like rattlesnakes.<br />
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I've trained them around the edges of the vege patch and path, where they provide convenient dog snacks and make a wonderful natural weed mat. <br />
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But I've got way too much of a good thing going on now, with strawberries growing all over the the garden, crowding the vege patches and paths, and tumbling down the walls. I figure it's time for my first blog give-away. Free strawberry plants to a good home. You pick up in Wellington. Comment below to get some. <br />
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They're all packed up and ready to move to good homes. <br /><br />
I love this time of the year. It's like the plants have all woken up from their summer holidays and thought "Holy shit! It's autumn already." And they all get busy making sure there's another generation to survive them. The intelligence evident in even a little garden plot on a Wellington hillside blows me away. And all this writing about plenty reminds me it's probably an OK time to go look at the winter seed catalog.<br />
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Don't forget to let me know if you want strawberries. There are enough for everyone.<br />
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Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-81557229956868087662013-03-20T21:32:00.000+13:002013-03-20T22:09:02.520+13:00Gazing Into the Salad Bowl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have had a shocking case of writing block for weeks. I keep
giving myself the same advice I give other blocked bloggers. "It all
starts with the camera! Take some photos and use them to inspire your
words and shape your post."<br />
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Yeah right. How annoying does that sound
when you're in the pits of feeling you've got nothing new to say about
anything any more -- when you're feeling <i>uninspired. </i><br />
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But meditate on that sorry thought for a moment -- <i>I'm uninspired</i>
-- and it uncovers a couple of human foibles called arrogance and
blindness. I mean, really. I only have to open my eyes and get over
myself for one moment -- just look in the salad bowl for crying out
loud! -- and Be Inspired by what's right in front of my eyes, if only I
would give it some attention and appreciation. So let's just gaze into the salad bowl for a moment and be amazed, enthralled and inspired.<br />
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Before we get into the salads, let's admire the ingredients. Tomatoes have been the stars of the salad bowl recently. They're just like people really. Some are a bit gnarly, some polished and neat, some sweet, others a bit on the harsh, sour side. Some are a bit dodgy-looking but the best ever inside. These were all planted from <a href="http://kingsseeds.co.nz/" target="_blank">Kings Seeds's</a> heritage seeds.<br />
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The Oaxacan Jewels -- the orange gnarly ones -- are my favourites. They're colourful, very sweet tasting, quirky and plentiful.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Really Good Tomato Salad </b></span><br />
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Gazing first into the blue glass bowl, we have Really Good Tomato salad = a selection of ripe tomatoes + slithers of red onion + a green onion + a shake of olive oil + a few drips of balsamic vinegar + a sprinkle of salt. Great flavours dancing on the tongue. <a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/really-good-tomato-salad.html" target="_blank">Here's a story about the original Really Good Tomato salad. </a><br />
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Salsa Fresca</span></b><br />
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Finely diced tomatoes, chillies, red onion, green onion, chilli oil, and generous squeezes of lime juice make an amazing salsa for scooping up with crunchy corn chips.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Salsamole </b></span><br />
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Staying with the Mexican theme, if you're pressed for time, avocadoes and tomatoes with a good dash of salt and a load of lime juice make a mighty fine substitute for salsa and guacamole.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Dripping with Pearls</b></span><br />
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Moghrabieh or Lebanese couscous will give you the pearls in this recipe. I boiled them in salted water for about 20 minutes until they were tender but still with some bite. Tossed them with tomatoes, green onions, cooked sweetcorn and carrots. Slick with olive oil, dribble over some red wine vinegar, and season with sumac.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Almost Greek Salad </b></span><br />
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Is it still Greek Salad without feta and olives? Probably not, but cucumber, tomato, red onion, green onion and mint with olive oil and tarragon vinegar is as Mediterranean as it gets. Try it with grilled lamb chops to Greek it up.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Simply Tomatoes</b></span><br />
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There is a point when the tomatoes are so perfectly sweet and tart, meaty and juicy that the only preparation they need is chopping into bite sized pieces. When the harvest is coming thick and fast, we eat them with pretty much every meal. <br />
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There is something so adorable about Roma tomatoes.Their shapely bodies, and perky hair-dos always make me happy.<br />
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So I guess I wasn't really uninspired at all. I probably just needed a bit of time off writing. Now I've started again, my brain wheels are spinning and I'm thinking about writing about the peppers stuffed with spicy lamb that we just ate for dinner.Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419522258681335150.post-85314827072903187692013-02-10T18:04:00.000+13:002013-02-12T20:48:30.798+13:00Fruit and Nuts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The dream of walking up the front path nibbling on fruit and nuts is coming true. And nibbling is the right word for it. No gorging this year yet, but sometimes the things you grow in the garden are even more special because of their scarcity. <br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>3 Hazelnuts</b></span><br />
I noticed these hazelnuts weeks ago, and have loved watching them toast up to a gorgeous hazelnutty orange brown.<br />
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These three nuts are the only offspring from five trees, so they qualify as miracles. I'll have to figure out what makes hazelnuts fruit more (or is that nut more?), and I'll have to work out when to harvest them too. Right now I'm happy enough admiring them, but one day I'd like to eat them. I think I'll write a chocolate cake recipe that finishes up with "toast exactly three hazelnuts, chop them finely, sprinkle over the wet chocolate icing, and eat immediately."<br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>9 Damsons</b></span><br />
Three still left on the tree, starting to split after all the recent rain. The other six eaten on the way down to the mail box. They are yellow-fleshed, tart, and the flesh clings for dear life onto the stone; sucking the stone is a bit like sucking a really sour lolly. Nice.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>1 Peach</b></span><br />
Yes, just one, from two trees, but what a peach! It was an unplanned picking, prompted by a scary thought: what if someone passing by notices it and absentmindedly plucks it and eats it? That's just the sort of thing I'd do, so I quickly picked it and ate it before anyone else could. I almost forgot to take a photo. Small, sticky, sweet and very very peachy. I'm really glad it didn't get stolen. <br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>6 Orangeberries</b></span><br />
The orangeberry carpet fruited for about five minutes a few weeks ago. I ate all six orangeberries in one go, and didn't stop to take a photo. They looked like pale orange raspberries, and tasted a bit like plum, a bit like apricot and a bit tropical. I would be thrilled to get a big crop next year -- they would make an amazing jam I reckon.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>0 (yes zero) almonds, currants, passionfruit</b></span><br />
The almond tree is healthy and leafy, so let's hope it does some nutting next year. The currants did give a wee bit of fruit -- but it all got eaten by a tenacious blackbird who set up shop on the power pole and swooped in and out all day, stripping the plants. I did my share of yelling and broom waving, but it just looked at me with that "what a crazy lady" look and ate all the currants.<br />
<a href="http://fivecoursegarden.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/wtf.html" target="_blank">The single passionfruit flower</a> dropped off the vine before it set fruit. Not enough hummingbird action maybe.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Plenty to come</b></span><br />
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Slowly, surely, the blackberries ripen. There will be enough for a pie -- hopefully without a blackbird in it.<br />
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Guavas, starting as tiny elegant fireworks, morphing into goofy stars, and bulking up into pop-in-your-mouth tropical snacks.<br />
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The Chilean guavas have started to fill the very front border. This year there are hundreds of little baubles, plumping up, but still too tart to eat. The birds don't seem to be interested in them, and neither do the passers by, so I should get enough to make a jar or two of jam.<br />
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Dozens of crab apples this year. Last year the crop looked amazing, but every crab apple was black inside -- a lack of calcium apparently. I've been putting crushed eggshells around the base of the tree, and also giving it comfrey leaves, and so far, so good. There's jelly on the menu -- one of my very favourite things.<br />
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Can't resist another brag about the hazelnuts. Only three, but so so beautiful, so hopeful, so exciting.<br />
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What's exciting you in your garden? I'd love to know.<br />
<br />Sue Kerrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07569178603238739003noreply@blogger.com12