I love food!

I love food. I love growing it, cooking it and eating it!    And that is just what I did this evening....
I grew it, cooked it and ate it.  The entire dinner came from the garden - potatoes, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, shallots and garlic.  (OK there were a few extra ingredients - olive oil, salt and pepper and a few spices.)  Food miles - about 10 metres!  It was a simple dinner but delicious.  It was a recipe from
 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal's - River Cottage Veg Every Day. (Curried bubble and squeak).

 I love this cookbook.  I am trying to work my way through it - I made lots of soups over winter and there is still so much I want to try!

PS it isn't all healthy vegetable eating here....while I am at home eating vegetables the boys are off camping -eating sausages, marshmallows and beer....

Vietnamese Coleslaw

 

This is (one of) my latest favourite foods - Vietnamese style coleslaw (as opposed to coldsore which is what I thought coleslaw was called when I was a kid!).

All picked fresh from the garden - cabbage, carrot, shallots, Vietnamese mint, coriander, mint.
Then mix up the dressing:
* 2 tbsp lime juice
* 1.5 tbsp fish sauce
* 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
* 1 - 2 tbsp brown sugar
* pinch salt
* clove of crushed garlic
* 1 hot chilli (optional)

I have also been wrapping this salad up in rice paper rolls - yum! Unfortunately the cabbages are coming to an end for this season...I wonder what else i could put this dressing on? Cucumbers perhaps....

I have also been picking a bit of beetroot and recently made this yummy Indian pickle (recipe courtesy of an Indian restaurant in London - via Liz and Claire).  

 

 

As you can see I am no food photographer .
(Also unless you like it very hot I would put in only 1 tsp of chilli.)

This is my favourite song for this week....rock n roll... 

I love the passion in his voice....

Honey Snaps

 

 

Today I finally made Honey Snaps.  I have been wanting to make these for ages.  I used the honey I was given for my birthday from some lovely neighbours.   I often fantasize about bee keeping myself but why bother when we have very generous neighbours and we can buy our honey from here.    Maybe one day I'll do it too.....

 Anyway these were super easy to make and very yummy (perhaps a little sweet.....)
Ingredients: 3 tbspn honey, 2 tblspn sugar, 50 g butter, 1/2 cup plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or ginger)

Preheat oven to 180.  In a saucepan heat  butter, honey and sugar until melted.  Take off heat.  Mix all dry ingredients into the saucepan and mix well.  Drop teaspoons of mixture onto cold tray.  Bake for 10 mins.

There have been some cold and frosty mornings lately.  Brrrrrr.

I finally finished these presants.  I did the fronts ages ago but had to finish off the backs.  I should really make more of an effort to actually finish things.  It does feel good when you do.  I am definately a starter.  I was about to start a new knitting project but resisted - i should finish Sunny's dress first!!

 

The oranges are good at the moment.   Check out how big one of them is - they are all from the same tree!   An orange a day keeps the doctor away - well I hope so anyway! (It hasn't worked for poor Django who has been very sick these past few days, but he usually only eats half an orange, maybe that's the problem???).

MMMMM Food....

When I'm not sure what else to do, I tend to garden or cook.  That always needs doing and I do like to do it.  Today I picked the last few masssive Zuccinis from the garden.  Tonight I am going to cook this....

It is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Zuccini and Rice Filo pie - recipe is here.

For breakfast I have been making this Nut and Seed Granola (recipe from Soule Mamma's blog)  for the past few months. I love it, especially with some good vanilla yoghurt and blue berries or strawberries (I have to wait for them to come back in!)

My other latest  food  fad is cream cheese with Sweet Tomato Chutney on sour dough bread with lettuce. I could eat it every day (and I have been!!)  I made the chutney last week and there is not much left - it is from the food of India cookbook.

Alphabet biscuits

The boys made some alphabet biscuits. They are quite dry but they love them!

Ingredients

1 cup SR flour
1/2 tbspn corn flour
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 beaten egg

1. Sift flours into bowl.
2. Rub in the butter (they love to do this!)
3. Crack egg into small bowl and beat with fork.
4. Add egg and sugar to mix.
5. Combine ingredients with hands.
6. Tip out onto floured bench and knead the dough.
7. Roll small bits into sausages and make into letters, numbers or shapes.

(Eating the uncooked mixture is very popular - it is hard to get any into the oven!)

8. Bake in a moderate oven (180) for about 15 - 20 mins.

Popovers

After being away for over a week we came home to 14 eggs! How exciting! So with eggs to spare and cupboards that are a bit bare, Django and Nelson made popovers and organised themselves a lovely little feast with lots of honey and jam to make the table sticky with.

The recipe is very easy and is from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen.


Popover Recipe
melted butter for greasing tray
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
(jam, honey, maple syrup for the popovers)

1.  Preheat oven to 190 C
2.  Brush muffin tray with melted butter.
3. Break eggs into bowl.
4. Add milk & whisk.
5. Add flour & salt and whisk again.
6.  Pour batter into cup -about half to two thirds full.
7. Bake for 20 mins ( recipe says 30 but mine are always 20 ish)
8.  Remove from pan, spread with sweet sticky stuff and eat! (Nelson & Django love them)

A lovely day at home

I have had a lovely day at home today.  The boys were all out and Sunny had a very long sleep.  Instead of doing any of the billion things I could have done  I made myself a little picnic of cheese and gherkin vita weats, a cup of tea (twining's chai) and the last piece of chocolate caramel slice, sat on the couch outside in the sun and read my book.  I started Arabella by Georgette Heyer last night.  It is a historical romance and is great light escapist literature ( the intelligent woman's Mills and boons as Libby calls it).  After awhile the midges started to bite, the wind came up and it started to rain.....so I retired upstairs to the loft to continue reading in bed.  Still Sunny slept on.....what a rare treat!!

All good things must come to an end and feeling refreshed I went out into the garden and picked some Zucchinis and coriander for dinner.  I made a delicious, simple and quick Indian recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery called.....

Prawns with courgettes

350g zucchini
1 1/4 tsp salt
350 g peeled frozen prawns (defrosted and patted dry)  - I'm sure you could use fresh ones???
5 tbsp veg oil ( I used a bit less)
6 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped ( I used 2 massive Russian garlic cloves)
75g finely chopped fresh coriander
1 fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped ( I used 1/2 a hot yellow one)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ( I left this out)
1 can of tomatoes
1 tsp peeled, finely grated ginger
1 tbs lemon juice ( our lemons are not yet ripe so I used lime)

1. Cut the zucchinis into 4 slices lengthwise.  Cut each slice into 4 long strips. Cut the strips into thirds crosswise. (sort of like matchsticks) Put the zucchini in a bowl and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp of salt.  Toss to mix, set aside for 30 mins. Drain and pat dry.   ( I didn't really do this bit)

2. Put oil in frypan set over med high heat.  When hot put in chopped garlic. Stir and fry till light brown. Put in zucchinis and all the other ingredients except the prawns.  Stir to mix and bring to a simmer.  Add prawns and stir them in.  Bring back to simmer, cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 3 mins. ( I think i did cook it a bit longer).

3.  Uncover, turn heat to medium and boil away the liquid, if there is any so that you are left with a thickish sauce.

Serve with rice and I also made a cucumber raita.  YUM

This is a great cookbook.  If you like Indian food I would highly recommend it!

After cooking dinner I had to pick up the kids, take them into town for swimming lessons, go to the shop to get some cardboard boxes so that Nelson could make his hat for the Easter Hat parade.  He decided to make a robot bunny.

Now everyone is in bed and I'm going to go and finish that book.  Goodnight.

Harrissa

Harrissa

Ingredients:

• 10-12 dried red chili peppers - 100grams
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 - 1  teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2  teaspoon ground caraway seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin 
• 2-3 tsp lemon juice

Put it all in the blender, wizz it all up and store in the fridge for up to a month.  It is a bit hot for me but Trisso loves it!

Dill Gherkins

This summer I have been making lots of gherkins. Some were delicious, some too salty, some went cloudy, some were too mustardy. There are so many different recipes and procedures. Anyway I tried several and I think this is what I'll do next time (this is a cross between 2 recipes).
     1 kg gherkins
     salt
     several cloves of garlic
     bunch of fresh dill
     2 tsp coriander seeds
     1 tsp mustard seeds
     1/2 cup white vinegar
     2 cups water
1.  Soak gherkins in iced water for 1-2 hours.
2.  Layer and salt very generously the gherkins  in a bowl  and leave for 4 hours.  Rinse thoroughly.
3.  Put vinegar and water together in saucepan and bring to boil.
4.  Slice the garlic and add to vinegar solution.  Add the dill and seeds and simmer 5 mins.
5.  Pack gherkins in sterilized jars add a sprig of extra dill to each.
6.  Pour hot vinegar into jars making sure gherkins are completely covered.  Put on lids.
7.  Seal and process - boil jar upright in a pan of water for 30 mins.