Christmas Fare

Happy New Year Everyone!

We had a wonderful family Christmas, with 18 people staying here in the homestead. A bit of planning goes in to catering for that number of people over  four days, especially when the nearest shop is 100km away.  I have to say that we ate very well, and I am very grateful to have a coolroom! Fortunately all the girls in the family are  very capable and enthusiastic cooks.....we have to keep reminding each other  to 'keep it simple' as there is a bit of tendency to get carried away with the gourmet creations!

It's a given that it will be hot here at Christmas so lighting the oven is definitely not a good idea. For lunch on Christmas Day we shared a homegrown turkey roasted in the normal BBQ and a leg of our own pork, roasted in the Webber kettle BBQ. Both were magnificent. I'm afraid I don't 'do' traditional stuffing for the turkey. I prefer to jam fistfuls of fresh herbs, cloves of garlic  and  halves of lemon in the cavity of the bird, all of which impart lovely flavour and, importantly with turkey, moisture. This bird took about 2 hours to cook at a pretty high temperature, and half an hour to rest. The skin, which I rubbed with a cut lemon, rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled liberally with salt, was crispy and delicious and the meat was tender and juicy. I know a lot of people think turkey is a dry meat, and maybe factory farmed turkey is, but homegrown and cooked well it is superb.

I'm sure some of the boys in the family would have been happy just to eat pork and turkey for lunch but we did also have some yummy salads.
The one in the foreground of the photo is made with freekeh, which is cracked green wheat, roasted. It is a delicious and interesting alternative to rice or pasta and can be used hot or cold, plain or mixed with other ingredients. We made a salad with herbs and cherry tomatoes from my garden, cucumber from my step mum's garden and red cabbage from a friend's garden as well as chickpeas and a few other ingredients.  We also had a fresh garden salad, a spinach, roast pumpkin and feta salad and a simple but delicious potato salad made with steamed kipfler potatoes, hard boiled eggs, parsley and homemade aioli.

Our Christmas dessert is usually centred around ice-cream and this year it was Pina Colada flavoured (think coconut, pineapple and rum) and rolled in a toasted coconut crumb, served with a pineapple salsa and a mango and homegrown passionfruit salad. Very tropical and a perfect ending to lunch on a hot day. See the (very easy) recipe at the end of this post.

My sister in law Pam, adding rice to the
paella, cooked in the giant wok on
 the back lawn. I'm stirring.

On Boxing Day we enjoyed cooking and eating Paella (a Spanish seafood and rice dish) on the back lawn. Years ago my Dad made the best outdoor cooking contraption I've ever used....he's pretty clever my Dad. Many years before  I had given Dad a giant wok to sit on his Webber BBQ but, due to the effort of having to light heat beads and so on, he had used it only rarely, so he went about making a gas burner for it. The body of it is custom made from rolled iron and the circumference is the same as a Webber. The flame comes from a standard four ring gas burner bought at a camping supplies store. The base is flat steel.  Of course you can also use pots, frying pans and even camp ovens on the burner, all of which I have done. I reckon I would use this burner about 3 times a week on average and it is brilliant for outdoor entertaining. Our paella, cooked in the wok, fed twenty people with leftovers, but it  can be used to do a stir-fry for two if you wish to.


Pina Colada Ice-Cream - From ABC's delicious. magazine Dec 2013/Jan 2014

3  cups (720g) sour cream
2 1/2 cups (375g ) pure icing sugar, sifted * (300g for the ice-cream and 75g for the coconut crumb)
440g can crushed pineapple, drained
125ml coconut cream
100ml Malibu or other coconut liqueur
2 1/2 cups (245g) shredded coconut, toasted
1 tsp cinnamon *
Mint leaves, to garnish

*I used 200g of icing sugar (150g for the ice-cream and 50g for the crumb) and it was sweet enough for our taste. I omitted the cinnamon as I felt it didn't really fit the flavour profile.

Pineapple Salsa

1 lemongrass stalk (inner core only) bruised (if you don't have lemongrass use a couple of strips of lemon peel)
10cm piece (50g) ginger, peeled and chopped
150g caster sugar
4 kaffir lime leaves
1/2 a fresh pineapple, peeled cored and thinly sliced

To make the ice-cream whiz the sour cream, 2 cups (300g) of icing sugar, crushed pineapple, coconut cream and Malibu in a food processor to a smooth puree. Transfer to an ice-cream machine and churn. (Alternatively, pour into a shallow container and freeze for 2 hours, or until frozen at the edges. Remove from freezer and beat with electric beaters. Return to freezer. Repeat 2 or 3 times)  Transfer to a 1.75 L terrine (or load tin) lined with plastic wrap and freeze overnight or until firm.

For the pineapple salsa, place lemongrass, ginger, caster sugar, kaffir lime leaves and 1 cup (250ml) of water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for about 2-3 minute until the sugar dissolves. Add pineapple and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Remove pineapple with a slotted spoon and set aside. Return pan to heat and cook syrup for a further 5-6 minuted until reduced by half. Discard solids and pour over the pineapple and chill until ready to serve.

To make the crumb, place coconut, cinnamon (if using) and remaining icing sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine.

Remove ice-cream from freezer 5 minutes before serving. Uncover and invert onto a plate, gently pulling on the plastic wrap to remove ice-cream from pan. Slice into thick slices, then roll the thin edges of each slice in the crumb. If too fiddley just sprinkle on top of the slice.

Serve immediately with pineapple salsa and garnish with mint leaves.  (We actually folded finely chopped mint through the pineapple salsa) The mango and passionfruit salad was our own extra addition.


And just for your enjoyment here are some photos of a couple of visitors to the garden.

The Splendid Fairy Wren lives in the garden with his harem of ladies, regularly flitting under the sprinklers to cool off.







And one of several Monitor lizards, or Bungarras as we call them,  that amble around like small dinosaurs. They can get very quiet  and quite cheeky, coming inside to steal the cat food if they get a chance. However, they are quite effective at keeping snakes away which is a good reason to encourage them!

Thanks to my nephew Douglas for all the photos!

Zucchini Solutions

It's been a bit long since my last post, I'm sorry. This past week I've been producing the quarterly newsletter for the Isolated Children's Parents' Association of WA, a volunteer group that lobbies for access to appropriate education for rural students, so most of my computer time has been taken up with that. I was away the week before that.

I've been picking heaps of peaches over the last couple of weeks and they probably only have ten days to go before they are finished. We've eaten them mostly fresh, but of the ones that have been damaged by rubbing on the tree or by insects, I've cut the 'bad' bits out and sliced the rest into a plastic container to either cook with or put on top of our breakfast cereal.

Julia, my son Tom's girlfriend, made Belinda Jeffrey's Gooey Butterscotch Peach Cake from her book, Mix and Bake and it was a scrumptious dessert, served with homemade custard. Belinda is my absolute favourite cake cook and her recipes are always winners. For some unknown reason we didn't take a photo.

As I said I went away for a few days and, as they sometimes do, one of the zucchinis grew, unnoticed, into a monster! This is half of it next to a cherry tomato. The first half went into making this lovely, moist, reluctant-vegetable-eater-tricking cake.

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
170 g butter
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
375 g plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Beat the first five ingredients for 3 minutes on medium speed in an electric mixer. Add the zucchini and mix through. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.
Pour into a 24cm round springform tin and bake at 160 deg C for about an hour, depending on your oven. Cool 5 mins before taking out of the tin. Leave to cool completely and ice with chocolate icing if desired.

The second half I made into these zucchini fritters. Lovely and crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. Fritters are eternally popular with men and children in my experience.....even vegetable ones!
You could serve them with a salad for a meat free meal, or do as we did and have some barbecued lamb chops alongside.

Zucchini, Corn and Feta Fritters

Mix together:


2 cups grated zucchini
1 x 420g tin of corn kernels, rinsed. Or better still you could strip a cob or two of fresh corn.
2 spring onions, finely sliced
150 g crumbled feta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
3 beaten eggs
100 g plain flour
1 large clove crushed garlic
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
Finely chopped red chilli - to taste (optional)
Salt and pepper

Heat a frying pan and add enough oil and a bit of butter to cover the base. Spoon ladles-full of mixture into the pan and gently flatten so that the fritters are the same thickness all the way through. Cook over medium heat until one side is nicely brown and crisp, then flip and cook the other side.

This mixture should make about 10-12 fritters.

My 'Ratatouille Garden'

As I have just picked the first zucchini for the season, and last year's eggplants are fruiting again, also the capsicums, I thought I should tell you about what I call my 'Ratatouille Garden.' I started this garden in the orchard last year with eggplant, capsicum and tomatoes. This year I left out the tomatoes and planted zucchini instead....didn't really need any more tomatoes!

Capsicum, eggplant and zucchini growing happily
together under shade in the 'ratatouille garden' 

Before last year I hadn't had much luck growing eggplants because I'd only tried the normal big ones and the grubs burrowed in to them before they were ready. Last year I planted the slim, Lebanese variety and it seems that they mature before the bugs hit them too hard, and as a bonus they are quite prolific.

I have also tried to germinate some Thai Pea eggplant seeds without success. If anyone has any tips on how to get these going I would be very grateful because I have never seen seedlings of this variety in the nurseries in WA, and I've never seen the actual fruit being sold in shops. In fact, I've never even eaten pea eggplant but I'm very keen to try them. According to the seed brochure they are very prolific.

My son's girlfriend and I had a boy free night this week which meant we could cook what I call, 'chick food.' This usually means a vegetable salad containing pulses of some description, and in this instance it was  chickpeas - combined with roasted capsicum, grilled zucchini, grilled eggplant, chopped herbs and feta. I don't have exact measurements for this salad, and its not that important, but it goes something like this:

Ratatouille and Chickpea Salad

1 tin of chickpeas, rinsed
1 zucchini, sliced length ways about 3mm thick
2 Lebanese eggplants, halved length ways
1 red capsicum
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
8 shallots or pickling onions
100g of feta cheese
1/2 cup of pitted black olives, halved
a couple of tablespoons each of chopped parsley, mint and basil
Olive oil for brushing vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste (do this after you add the dressing because the tamari is salty)


Dressing: 

Combine the following ingredients;

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed (or grated on a microplane which is how I always do it)

Brush the strips of zucchini with oil on both sides and cook on either a griddle pan, BBQ plate or frying pan. Cut into 2cm cubes. Do the same with the eggplants. Peel the shallots but leave whole. Cook, covered,  over low heat with some olive oil and butter until they are soft and caramelised. This will take about 10 minutes, or a bit more depending how big they are.

Blacken the capsicum skin either over flame or in a hot oven. I use a camping toaster on the gas stove for this as it is quicker than in the oven and allows more control than over a bare flame (see left). Once black all over pop into a sealed plastic container to sweat and cool....after which the blackened skin will peel off easily, leaving you with  lovely soft, sweet flesh. Cut the flesh into 2cm squares.

The capsicum sweating
in a plastic container

Combine the cooked vegetables in a bowl with the chick
peas, crumbled feta, olives, herbs and tomatoes. Pour over dressing, season and serve. This is a yummy vegetarian meal but would also be delicious with  grilled or barbecued lamb chops.

PS, This dressing sounds a bit weird but trust me, it is delicious and works really well with the salad.







Now this has nothing to do with ratatouille but I just had to show you my peaches :)  Until today we had one ripening about every two days but today there were seven! including the first white one from the other tree. I don't think there will be any recipes for peaches, they are just so perfect to eat straight off the tree. This is the tree's second summer and I am thrilled with the size and flavour of the fruit.  I estimate that I would have pulled about 120 little green fruit off this tree in order for it to support the remaining ones to reach a reasonable size. It hurt at the time but, a bit like childbirth, it was worth it in the end!

And while I'm at it, I took a photo of this impressive string of passionfruit this evening also.

Tomatoes and Feta - a delicious combo!

At least ten years ago I planted some Tommy Toe tomato seeds I bought from the Diggers Club and I have never needed to buy  them again! Forever since they have popped up around the garden and occasionally one gets a real strong hold and the next thing you know I am overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes.

My rather spread out cherry tomato
growing happily under the guava

Why is it that self sown plants seem to do so well?  I guess its because they have chosen where they are happiest to grow. One big, feral tomato bush has chosen to grow under the guava tree in the orchard and as the guava doesn't seem to be suffering I have let it be. It may be that the guava is enjoying having its roots shaded by the tomato? In any case, the guava is covered in buds and flowers so it obviously doesn't mind sharing it's space too much.

I think over the years my seed stock must have adapted to this climate because the two plants that are currently producing prolifically are coming in to their third summer and show no signs of slowing down. In fact, apart from a very short spell in August, I have been picking tomatoes all year.

Some of this week's harvest

This is of course a good problem to have, after all a woman with tasty, homegrown tomatoes in the middle of winter has many friends! Right now however there are so many I am literally forcing them on all passersby that happen to call in. I was even thinking about putting some at the end of the drive with an honesty box...that thought lasted about as long as the tomatoes would sitting in the sun on a 42 degree day! Of course, one can make chutney and relish and tomato jam etc etc etc but cutting up cherry tomatoes is fiddly and time consuming and besides, eventually one runs out of vinegar and sugar.

My latest favourite snack (yes, I admit it's a pretty substantial 'snack') is  marinated feta and  cherry tomato halves on a piece of toasted homemade sour dough bread and seasoned with lots of salt and pepper. If I'm feeling particularly motivated I pop outside and pick some basil and/or mint to top it off (there's those herbs again). I have to say, it is pretty delicious.

But back to the homemade feta. During mustering back in September Shelley, a local lady who keeps a milking goat, very kindly sent me (via another friend with a car fridge) 6 litres of freshly frozen goat's milk. I didn't have time then to make cheese so I stored it in the freezer until last week when I was motivated by this blog, Eight Acres,  to pull it out and have another crack at making what is probably my favourite and most used cheese. 'Liz the Farmer' that writes Eight Acres, shared a link to The Little Green Cheese, a blog by urban 'farmer' Gavin Webber, who has written a little ebook on cheese making at home. I was pretty impressed with Gavin's simple approach to cheese making and bought and downloaded his ebook, Keep Calm and Make Cheese.

Not a great photo of my marinated feta

I've made feta before but wasn't overly pleased with the results as it was not firm enough. This time, following Gavin's recipe, it is perhaps a bit too firm but I prefer it like that than too soft. Next time I make it I think I will use the same recipe and method but with a bit less rennet.  As a side note, while I was making the cheese I checked three separate references and they all asked for  different milk temperatures and different stirring and setting times, which leads me to think that there is a lot of 'grace' in cheese making and one shouldn't get too hung up about it!

You don't need a friend with a cow or goat to make cheese, you can use shop bought milk. Non-homogenised milk is best and is even available in some supermarkets. In the past I have bought non-homogenised milk from farmers' markets.....am so tempted to get a cow though! You can buy cheese making kits online.

If you've ever had the urge to make cheese but thought it was too hard, I reckon you should give it a go. If you can follow a recipe, you can make cheese.

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! 

 

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.

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.

The Orchard

Recently we have had a gorgeous Swedish backpacker helping out during mustering. Before coming here she was working in a small country pub in the Great Southern grain growing region of WA, regularly chatting to farmers.  Working together in the kitchen one day, this self confessed 'city girl'  made the comment that she, "Would never complain about the price of food again after seeing the effort that goes in to producing it." She went on to say that she thinks all city people should spend some time on farms to learn a bit about where food comes from.

I was thrilled that her time here, feeding chooks and pigs, watering plants and helping mark the lambs has had such an impact on her thinking. If only we could better educate the entire population about farming and food production- what a difference it would make to today's farmers to feel valued by society, as they once were.  Unfortunately I think that until Australia is importing a vast quantity of its food and/or facing food shortages this is not to be, and I don't think I'll see that in my lifetime.

On a lighter note, it is such a fabulous time of year for a gardener! Practically everything that flowers is blooming and new growth is prolific. The scent of citrus flowers in the orchard is almost overpowering (in a good way) on a balmy evening and, in a very dry year in the bush,  the flowers are providing otherwise scarce nectar for the native bees. If you look closely you can see a bee on the flower in the photo.

The peaches are growing at a phenomenal rate. They flower in August and will be ready for picking in about late November so I guess they have to grow pretty fast. The tree is pretty loaded so I will have to grit my teeth and thin it out a bit to get good quality fruit....or we could just have lots of small ones! 

Upon visiting the orchard my father in law came up to me and whispered in my ear, "I think your husband spoils you," to which I must agree because look what, with a bit of help from the 'kids,' he built to protect the stone fruit trees from birds. This structure is made with 9 metre lengths of 50mm poly, curved over and pushed over star pickets securely hammered into the ground. It is braced with wire crosses between the pipe and has three lengths of wire running across the top, to which shade cloth is attached. The shade cloth runs the length of the tunnel and will protect the trees from the full impact of

high summer sun.

                                     With the trees growing so fast it is important to keep feeding them and I am putting the manure from the chook yard to good use. A good way to share it around is to make liquid manure using a shade cloth 'teabag' filled with manure  and suspended in a drum of water. (left) This might not be such a great idea if you live in suburbia...it gets pretty stinky!

Happily for me my Dad likes growing things
as much as I do and we often
exchange plants and seeds. Below
is a photo of some horse radish that Dad grew in a pot and I have planted in the orchard. I'm not sure how it will go in the heat here but I will cover it with some shade cloth and hope for the best. It is certainly pretty happy at the moment.











                                                                                 
                                                                                                                           

Makin' Bacon

Firstly I must say that I am no expert at making home-cured bacon, I just follow the recipe in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's  book, The River Cottage MEAT Book which is my 'bible' when it comes to most things meat related.

As described by Hugh, this recipe/method results in "...a pancetta-style streaky bacon-strong and concentrated in flavour, a little on the salty side..."

This is Hugh's recipe for the Dry Cure Mixture and is enough for 1 whole pork belly cut into 3 pieces, skin scored. I used the loin as well.

About 1kg coarse salt
2 teaspoons saltpetre (potasium nitrate) optional - the main function of it is to make the bacon pink. I don't use it.
A few bay leaves, finely chopped
About 20 juniper berries, lightly crushed
200g soft brown sugar
25g coarsley ground black pepper



In a non metallic container (oops, I used a stainless steel bowl) thoroughly mix all the ingredients for the cure with your hands. (see above) Place one piece of belly at a time on a clean work surface and start rubbing it all over with your fingers into all the surfaces of the meat. Place in a non metallic tray/container (right). Repeat with the other pieces.

 Stack the finished pieces on top of each other and leave, covered in a cool place (the fridge if you live in a warm climate) Keep the leftover cure mix. After a day you will see that meat juice has collected in the bottom of the tray (left). Take the bellies out of the tray and pour this liquid away. Rub meat again with fresh cure mix. Re-stack the pieces, moving the bottom one to the top.

Day 5

Repeat this process daily. The bacon will be ready in about 5 days (longer if you use the loin like I did) however it will keep better if you salt it longer, up to 10 days.

The finished product (cut), day 10.

When ready, rinse the bacon and pat dry with paper towel. Wrap in clean muslin, or a linen tea towel and keep in the fridge. If the bacon is a bit too salty you can soak pieces in fresh water for a few hours before eating to leach out some of the salt. If you need the bacon to last a long time you can freeze pieces.

Ideally you would use a piece with a bit more fat on it than the one I used.

The first thing I made with my new bacon was pasta carbonara, with lovely chunky bits.  I think I will have to hide the rest for fear that it will be all gone after Sunday morning's breakfast!