Harvest Monday

I can't take any credit for today's harvest: both the lovely basil and the walnuts came from a friend's garden who we paid a visit to today.  I've never seen fresh walnuts before. The dark ones still have their coating on which needs to be peeled off to reveal the hard shell underneath.  They taste quite different to shop-bought ones; much creamier and milder.  The basil has already been made into a batch of pesto - it's so nice to still have a taste of summer one day before the official start of winter.

My own garden is providing some meagre harvests of rocket, capsicum and wong bok, and the first Myer lemons.  Half of the garden is really shaded now so I'm only planting in the sunny areas which limits my growing space.  I have grand plans to move the shed to make more room for veggie beds as well as extending the existing ones, oh and to convert the front lawn into an edible food forest. I'm not sure when I will find the time but it's good  to dream!

Spicy pumpkin soup

I picked the second compost pumpkin a little while ago and it had been sitting on the kitchen bench waiting for an occasion to be cooked.  MMSTL was running a simple living workshop and invited around 20 people which seemed a fitting event to make a big pot of pumpkin soup for everyone to share. I usually find pumpkin soup a bit dull but roasting the pumpkin plus  the curry paste really livened it up.

Here is the recipe:

Roast chunks of de-seeded pumpkin (the one that I used was probably about 2 kg) for about an hour until it soft and starting to carmelize. Remove the skin and put the flesh into a big pot with a can of coconut cream, about a litre of vegetable stock and a couple of teaspoons of red curry paste.  Blend it all up and add more stock to adjust the consistency if necessary.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished soup but I can report that it was delicious: spicy, creamy and filling. The evening was also a great success and there were some inspiring a lot of discussions  including on how gardening and cooking from scratch are excellent ways to practice simplicity.  You can share your own ideas on what simple living means to you here.

Last of the beans and another Sri Lankan curry

 The bean plants had stopped producing so I cut them down and harvested the remaining beans. There were just enough left to go into a cashew  curry (recipe from 101 cookbooks).   A few of the other ingredients also came from the garden - the coriander seeds and chilli for the curry powder, and the fresh coriander.

1 cup coconut milk
1 - 2 tablespoons curry powder - see recipe below
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 medium garlic clove, chopped
1/3 cup water
1/2 packet tofu, cut into small cubes
1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
1 1/2 cups cauliflower, cut into tiny florets
1/3 cup cashews, toasted
a handful of coriander, loosely chopped

Curry powder (makes about 5 tbsps)
In a dry pan over medium heat toast 4 dried red chiles, 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom pods, and 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves. Toast for just a minute or two. Pound in a pestle and mortar until fine. Place in a small bowl and stir in a tablespoon of ground turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Bring half of the coconut milk to a simmer in a pan over medium-high heat. Whisk in the curry powder and salt.. Now stir in the chopped red onion and garlic and cook for a minute. Stir in the remaining coconut milk and the water, and then the tofu. Cook down the liquid for a couple minutes before adding the green beans and cauliflower. Cover and simmer for just about one minute, until the cauliflower and beans cook through a bit. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the cashews. Taste and adjust the seasoning (salt / curry powder) if needed. Serve with chopped coriander.


The curry was delicious - creamy and aromatic with a nice toasty crunch from the cashews.

Harvest Monday - stubborn parsnips

These parsnips have been in the ground for what seems like forever.  Actually they almost stayed there, they were that difficult to get out.  First I tried pulling and just got a handful of leaves, then I tried digging with a spade - no luck, then a fork, same result.  Then I tried to pull and twist at the same time - hopeless.  Finally I resorted to filling up the hole with  with water in an attempt to loosen the soil and eventually managed to dig them out. As you can see some of them look a bit  worse for wear after their ordeal!

The moral of this story:  parsnips + clay soil = very hard work and not really worth the effort.

Despite appearances they were nice - not as sweet as the ones my Dad grows, as they really need some frost to get the sugars going, but they roasted up a treat with some potatoes, carrots, onions and capsicum.  

 

Happy to be home

I'm back, just about over my jet lag, and after spending the last 3 weeks in huge cities (that's Bogota in the picture), staying in hotels and being driven around by insane taxi drivers, it's a relief to put my hands in the earth and listen to the birds in my little backyard oasis. Mind you, the garden isn't looking all that flash. MMSTL did his best to look after things but between snails, earwigs, escaping chickens and the free range rabbit (who is now the proud father of five baby rabbits to the  bunny next door after tunnelling under the fence.... ) there wasn't much left of my autumn/winter plantings!

Never mind. Luckily there was a food swap on Saturday so I gathered together my meager offerings - some capsicum, a couple of leeks, some chillies and some herbs - and set off.  I came home with rather more than  went with, including  a massive bunch of lemongrass, bread, sourdough starter, rhubarb, lettuce and some parsley. Hopefully I  will have some more produce to swap next time.  Then, my neighbour dropped by a huge bag of lemons and oranges from his tree so I had a go at making preserved lemons.

The "recipe" is simple; cut the lemons into quarters, but not quite through to the bottom.   Pack them with rock salt and squash into a sterilized jar, tucking a few bay leaves and cloves here and there.  Fill the jar, top up with salt and lemon juice to cover then seal.  The jar has gone into a cool cupboard for 4 weeks where it will be turned once a week.

Sorry for not posting..

.. but I do have a good excuse. I'm half way through a work trip to Chile, Colombia and Brazil which has been pretty crazy so far.  Santiago and Bogota - where I am now - are HUGE cities, with lots of high-rise living; quite a change from the peace and serenity of my little backyard.  MMSTL is looking after it for me, and assures me everything is fine and hopefully there will be something to harvest and cook when I return.