Monday, October 28, 2013

Herbs and Vietnamese 'Tacos'

Can I just say, if you never grow anything else, grow some herbs?

When I was younger I was quite cautious when using herbs; a little bit of parsley in the cheese sauce, some oregano in the bolognaise, a sprinkle of rosemary on the roast lamb.
These days, having travelled a bit and read a lot of cookbooks and food  magazines, I am much more liberal in my use of the flavourful green leaves known collectively as herbs.

I don't think I really have a single  favourite but I do have a list of herbs that I don't like to be without, although I sometimes do have to go without because if they're not growing in the garden it's bad luck, I can't exactly pop down to the shops and get them....and once you've had herbs fresh from the garden it is very hard to go back to bought ones because the flavour just isn't the same, not to mention the cost of them.

I have finally learnt how to grow thyme in this climate and am thrilled about that because it's right up there amongst my favourite, most often used herbs. I have planted it at the base of fruit trees in the orchard and it is thriving....in both full sun and part shade. Previously I have tried it in pots on the verandah but it always carked it in summer. It's now been growing successfully in the orchard for three years. Thyme is great added to stews and soups. I like to bake oiled baby carrots sprinkled with salt and thyme, and combined with lemon juice, garlic and olive oil it makes a delicious marinade for pork chops (right)

Flat leaf parsley grows really well here and, happily for me, it self seeds all over the place. I usually manage to keep a few plants growing in a shady spot through the summer but in winter I literally have to pull it out of the garden beds or it would take over. Parsley seems happy to grow in almost solid shade or full sun (not in summer).

Mint growning in a large pot
Mint growing under the fig tree
Mint seems to either grow prolifically or with great difficulty. It likes a bit of shade in summer and I have it planted in the orchard on the south side of my fig tree and an orange tree. Actually, I am amazed at how well it is doing out there as the sun is pretty fierce, even on the south side of the trees. I also have some in a pot on the verandah and the leaves here are much softer and bigger than the orchard plants. It gets virtually annihilated by little green caterpillars every year but seems to recover quite well. Mint is a herb that has taken me a while to use with confidence but I now  use it often and with abundance. It's bright freshness livens up lots of different salads, salsas and sauces so don't be afraid to use it liberally.

Holy basil growing in a pot
Basil is a much loved herb that loves the heat and really dislikes winter. Our winters are pretty mild so I  can keep my basil alive through winter if I keep it out of frost prone areas. There are many varieties of basil but I only grow two sorts; sweet and holy or Thai basil. Sweet basil is the sort used for pesto and in many other Mediterranean dishes and holy basil is used mainly in Asian cooking. It grows well in a pot and likes full sun or part shade. I have a massive plant growing under my young mulberry tree as well as in pots on the verandah.

Parsley, basil and mint are a great combination in Mediterranean style salads and ratatouille and you can  be generous when using them.

Laksa Leaf mint under
the quince tree
Tiny, late planted
coriander seedlings
in the shade house 
Coriander....it seems to divide people in to 'love it' or  'hate it' camps. My boys are in the latter. They reckon the coriander picked fresh from the garden tastes like stink bugs, but they hardly even notice it in food when I use shop bought stuff.....which sadly I have to resort to because I just can't seem to grow it here in summer as it bolts straight to seed. I keep trying though and currently have some little seedlings growing in a styrofoam box in the shade house.  If you've been successful growing coriander in summer I'd love to hear how you do it. Fortunately it grows very well here in the vege garden from autumn to early spring and is easy to sprinkle on top of my own plate of food rather than 'contaminate' the whole of whatever I have cooked.  There are two substitutes for coriander that do like the heat and they are saw-tooth coriander and laksa leaf (also know as Vietnamese) mint. I have planted some laksa leaf mint under the quince tree in the orchard and so far it is growing very well. I haven't had much luck with the saw-tooth because it always seems to get overrun with mealy bugs and I have given up!

Mint, holy basil and coriander are  essentials in south east Asian cuisine and are usually served fresh in a bowl as a side dish for people to add whatever they like to their meal. And that brings me to the  recipe that inspired this blog!

Last week I had defrosted a chicken for dinner. I didn't really know what I would do with it, I was just thinking along the lines of something Asian, so I poached it in a 'master stock' and let it cool. After some brain wracking I remembered the fabulous crispy pancakes we had in Vietnam so I looked up a recipe for them and from there developed what I now dub, Vietnamese Tacos! This is a fun meal where everyone can fill their own pancake at the table, just as you do with the original, Mexican version. Great for kids and, for those to whom it matters, it's gluten and dairy free to boot!


Vietnamese 'Tacos'

Master stock poached chicken or pork 
Shredded lettuce
grated or julienned carrot
Finely sliced capsicum
finely sliced cucumber
bean shoots
halved cherry tomatoes
Fresh herbs (coriander, mint, Vietnamese mint, holy basil) washed (and picked off the stalks if you want to)

Crispy Vietnamese Pancakes (makes about 8)

340g 
rice flour
1 tsp 
ground turmeric
560 ml
 coconut milk
560 ml
 water
½ cup
 chopped spring onion
peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
1/2 tsp salt 

To make the pancakes, place flour and tumeric in a large bowl. Add coconut milk and water and mix well to form a thin pancake batter. Add spring onions and allow to rest for 15 minutes.Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in a 20- 25 cm frying pan and ladle in enough batter to cover pan. Fry until crispy on one side. Don't flip. Slide out and let everyone fill their own pancake with cooked chicken or pork, salad and fresh herbs.   Serve with Nuoc Cham  

Nuoc Cham 
60ml (1/4 cup) fish sauce

60ml (1/4 cup) fresh lime juice

1 1/2 tbs water

1 tbs caster sugar

1 long fresh red chilli, halved, deseeded, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed


There are heaps of other wonderful herbs of course but these ones are my mainstays.   So, if you're not already growing some, I encourage you to have a go at your favourites and use them with abandon! 


 





Monday, October 14, 2013

Self Watering Trees and a Grand Passion (fruit)

Sometimes when you live in an extreme climate you need to take extreme measures to get the best outcomes and last week we did  some extreme tree planting! Not many people can do this because you need a drilling rig....which we are fortunate enough to have.....and, of course, someone to operate it. In this case, my son Tom.

On the 10th of September I planted some pre-sprouted carob seeds (using the same method that you use for sprouting alfalfa and the like i.e.  seeds in a jar, porous cloth over the top held with a lackey band, rinse with fresh water twice a day for about 6 or 7 days)  into tubes made from cardboard boxes....until I ran out of boxes and then I used cylinders made of card. The reason for planting into cardboard tubes is that carob trees have a very long tap root and apparently  they don't like it to be disturbed in the planting out process. This tap root is one of the main reasons I chose to plant carob trees as a wind break around the orchard. It makes carobs an ideal 'outside the yard' tree because once their tap root reaches the water table they wont need to be watered externally at all. And that is where the drilling rig comes in.

For each tree we drilled a six metre hole, right down to the water table. I then backfilled the hole, alternately adding some slow release fertiliser and chook poo as I went, to give the trees a bit of a boost as they grow. Just before reaching the top of the hole I added some compost, into which I nestled the cardboard tube. The tap root of each plant was already at the bottom of the tube, so in a month they grew about 25-30cm!

I covered each little tree with netting to keep out the rabbits and popped a bit of dried bush on top of that to provide a bit of shade. When the trees grow a bit I will have to make a circle of netting to go around them as they will be very tempting young morsels for rabbits, roos and goats.

Carobs are a very long living tree and  have lovely dark green, glossy leaves and a dense canopy. The females produce big pods of seeds, the pods being what the chocolate like sweet is made from. Animals absolutely adore carob pods and they are a highly nutritious food.

Of course you don't need a drilling rig to plant carobs! They would be quite happy planted in a conventional tree hole and in some places they would quite happily find their own way to the water table. However, here there is a layer of rock, known locally as 'Murchison Cement,' and that can make life difficult for deep rooted trees to reach it. The alternative is to just water them regularly.

I can't quite believe it but my Panama Red passionfruit vine is flowering and fruiting again. I was surprised when it started flowering in autumn, having only planted it the previous spring and now, it hasn't even dropped all the ripe fruit and it is going again! Is this normal? Anyway, I am so impressed with it I have planted another one.

We have a new favourite dessert using passionfruit. I have adapted an old favourite lemon delicious recipe, called 'Tasmanian Lemon Pudding' for some reason, to passionfruit. It is equally yummy served hot or cold with custard, cream or icecream - or all three!

Passionfruit Delicious Pudding

150g castor sugar
60g softened butter
2 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons plain flour
Top the passionfruit pulp up with milk
to make up one cup of liquid
rind of 1 lemon
5 large passionfruit, pulped
Enough milk to make up 1 cup of total liquid when combined with the passionfruit pulp

Butter well a 1 litre pie dish. Preheat oven to 160 deg celcius
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and beat well. Stir in lemon rind, flour and combined passionfruit pulp and milk.
Whip the egg white until stiff. Fold egg whites into passionfruit mixture.
Pour mixture into  pie dish and place into a larger dish. Pour hot water in to the bigger dish to half way up the side of the  pie dish, creating a bain maire.
Bake until slightly browned and set- about one hour.

Passionfruit Delicious- Intensely passion-fruity,
a lovely spongy 'cake'  with sauce underneath.






Monday, October 07, 2013

Garden Capers


If you are a gardener you will know that gardens are a constant source of delight and surprises....although I have to admit that the surprises are not always good ones!

Over the past couple of weeks I've had both lovely and infuriating surprises from my garden.  Often the surprises are not totally unexpected, you know that flowers will open and fruit will form imminently, you just don't know exactly when.  I walked around the corner to the vege garden the other day to see this poppy, the first of the season, in all its glorious, brilliant pink, frilled beauty. It made my day.

That same day I  noticed that the first of the season's capers were ready to pick. About six years ago I imported eight caper plants from a grower in South Australia. After going through customs and sitting at our mail depot for over a week in the December heat they weren't in great condition when they finally arrived. In fact, only two survived -just. These I tied a bow around and presented to my dad for Christmas. Under Dad's TLC they recovered and went on to thrive, producing great quantities of capers and caper berries. After much trial and error Dad managed to propagate many plants from seed, four of which I now have growing in my own garden. I have noticed that you can buy caper bushes from nurseries these days.

Capers are actually a very hardy and heat tolerant plant. If the buds are left on the bush, rather than plucked and pickled, their white flowers are elegant and orchid like.  Tough and drought tolerant, caper plants are worth growing as an ornamental even if you're not inclined to make the salty little flavour bombs we know as capers. If you are planning to brine your capers I  highly recommend planting your caper bushes in a raised bed because picking the buds daily is a bit of a back breaking job if they are at ground level.

Capers can be salted or brined. I know most chefs like the salted version but I find they lose too much plumpness and prefer the brined version. What I do is this;

Pickled Capers
For each cup of water add 5 teaspoons salt (ordinary cooking salt is fine) and stir until the salt is dissolved. Pour this into a screw top jar with a plastic lid (plastic doesn't corrode with the salt) and sit it on the bench. Just keep adding each day's pick to the jar until it is full. How many capers you add each day will depend entirely on how many plants you have. You may need to pour off a bit of the brine to fit the capers in. Leave the jar for about a week after the last lot of capers goes in before you use them. It's that easy!

In this photo the ones at the bottom of the jar are ready, the top ones are fresh picked.

Capers are a traditional accompaniment to corned meat but they also go really well  in salads. The Italian bread and tomato salad, panzanella, gets a pleasing salty hit with the addition of capers but probably my favourite salad that contains them is the following one, which came to me originally from my step mum Jan and now makes a regular appearance at our table....and is great for lunch boxes! I'm sorry, I don't have a photo right now.


Red Lentil Curry Salad

Keeps well in fridge for a week

600 grams dried red lentils
140 grams currants
1/3 cup capers
1 red onion finely chopped
½ cup chopped parsley

Rinse the lentils, put in a pot, cover with water plus 2cm and bring to the boil. Boil for approx one minute then test.  You may need a bit longer but be careful not to turn to mush. Strain and rinse. Pour into salad bowl and add capers and currants. Add finely chopped red onion and parsley. Pour over dressing while lentils are still warm.

Dressing

250ml good olive oil
70ml red wine vinegar (I have used white wine vinegar with a splash of balsamic)
2 tblsp sugar
2 tsp sea salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard powder
1 ½ tsp curry powder
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cinnamon 



So, on to the not so pleasant surprises...because it is so dry in the bush at the moment the animals (mainly sheep and kangaroos) are coming into the garden, lured by green lawn and, it seems, petunias and parsley! I woke up one morning last week to discover that a colourful tub of cascading petunias had been desecrated overnight :( The next day my parsley patch, which self seeds and grows abundantly under a lemon tree, was wiped out!  The offenders, two ewes with three lambs between them, are now securely behind bars in the sheep yards and eating hay.