Top 5 – Sauces made with herbs

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Liz

Many of my herbs are starting their Spring growth.  The dill & basil have both recently germinated, the tarragon has reappeared and my mint is looking much happier.   Even the coriander is growing well.   Of course all this comes at the price of some bolting parsley and chervil but frankly you can’t have everything.  To celebrate all herby enthusiasm I thought I dedicate this weeks posts to the best sauces you can make with them.

Potato Salad with Smoked Trout & Salsa Verde dressing

Salsa Verde – I thought the first sauce I mentioned should be a sauce that uses a combination of herbs.  Salsa Verde combines a mixture of soft herbs (tarragon, dill, parsley, mint, chervil, coriander, basil, oregano – whatever you enjoy basically) with olives, capers and anchovies to produce a simply delicious sauce.  I love salsa verde, especially with fish but also goes well with potatoes.  Alternatively you can have it with both fish and potatoes in a salad like the one pictured.

Pesto – Although you can make pesto out of loads of different herbs it is basil pesto that I look forward to the most.  The combination of basil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan makes for one classic sauce.

Mint Sauce – Now I don’t eat a lot of lamb so I’m not talking about your classic mint sauce here, although I’m sure that does have its devotees.  Instead I am talking about a sweetened mint syrup used to pour over fruit salad or add to cocktails – sugary and refreshing – a lovely summery combination.

Parsley Sauce – When I was little, very little, about 18 months old I think, I had some digestive problems and the doctor recommended putting me on a diet of tripe.  For I don’t know how long my main meal of the day was tripe with parsley sauce.  The parsley sauce habit has stuck – I use parsley sauce as a base for things like pie fillings – the tripe habit less so.  In fact I can’t remember the last time I ate tripe and frankly I have little desire to renew my acquaintance with it.

Coriander Chutney – I am a huge fan of the fresh chutney’s of India.  My two favourites being quite similar: mint chutney and coriander chutney.  Both are made by mincing mint or coriander leaves with a combination of spring onions, lemon or lime juice, salt, chilli, a touch of sugar and garlic.  Lovely to dip samosas, poppadoms or pakoras in.

For more Top 5 fun head over to The New Goodlife for this weeks installment.

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Monday Harvest – Sept 10th 2012

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Liz

I harvested the last of my cauliflower this week.  The ones I planted later definitely did better than those planted earlier in Autumn, whether this is a coincidence or related to the time of planting is difficult to know.  I probably didn’t grow enough of them to form any real conclusions.  Regardless though I was very happy with the soup I made from this one.

The broccoli continues on although it too is showing some signs of slowing.  Fortunately the rest of my family don’t eat a great deal of it, so the amount I’m getting is still easily meeting my personal needs.

My radishes are recognising its Spring and starting to bolt so I harvested a few Easter Egg radishes – this is the only one that made it in front of the camera though.

Speaking of bolting my Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Kale) is sending up flowering shoots which I have been happily eating, along with their leaves, in frittatas and soups.  I’m not sure whether it was Diary of a Tomato or From Seed to Table that first recommended eating the flowering heads but thanks to both as I’ve been really enjoying them.

I have been making a fair bit of stock this week – I ran out, mostly due to making soup quite frequently and I thought I’d better replenish the freezer.  Here are some aromatics I put in one of the batches: parsley, thyme and a very well hidden bay leaf.  The lettuce went into a sandwich.

Despite the fact that my parsley is bolting I am still happily harvesting from it.  Miss 6 decided that parsley can double as a baby.  Here is some being tucked into bed.  Why parsley makes a good baby is not clear…

For more harvests, but almost certainly none containing photo’s of slightly mad 6 year olds mothering herbs head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions.

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August – The Wrap Up

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Liz

Yes I know, its the 8th of September and all that but I hadn’t done a wrap up post and despite occasional protests to the contrary I am a creature of habit/s (not all of them good….).  Before you start reading though I should warn you that not only am I drinking my second glass of wine for the evening but I did spend rather a taxing day in Melbourne’s city centre today.  What started as a ‘great idea’- to find as many of the 50 Mali sculptures as possible ended with a slightly manic 2 year old, a whinging 6 year old and two exhausted parents collapsing onto the train whispering ‘never again’.  I probably should explain at this point that Mali is an elephant who was born at Melbourne zoo last year(or perhaps the year before).  To celebrate the zoo’s 150th anniversary they made 50 life sized baby elephant sculptures and commissioned artists to paint/decorate them.  These sculptures are positioned at various locations around Melbourne’s city centre.  Whilst finding them is fun, trying to do it at the same time as trying to find shoes for a 6 year old with awkward shaped feet is to be avoided at all costs.   We managed 14,  my personal favourite being the one in the upper level food court at Melbourne Central, although woollen skinned one in Fed Square ran a very close second.

None of this has anything to with my garden in August though, but I think it probably gives context to the mood of the post if nothing else.  Anyway with no further ado here are some photos of signs of Spring, or to look at it another way – photos of my plants bolting:

Silver beet/Swiss Chard

Cavolo Nero/Tuscan Kale

Parsley

As I have chosen to regard all this rushing to flower as a sign of Spring, rather than a crisis,  I have forgiven the plants, but as usual I have neglected to sow replacement seed quite early enough…sigh….. To be fair though I should be able to get crops out of all of them for a while yet so all is not lost.

That is especially true when you consider that not only are the blueberries flowering but the Cape Gooseberry seems to have set some fruit:

The other thing doing well in the garden at the moment is the watercress.  We have had enough rain to keep it pretty content:

Also doing well, albeit a long way from harvest, is the garlic.  These are fatter than my leeks, which is probably as much a reflection on my leeks as anything else, but still this does look promising…

Then there are the broad beans which have recently started to flower, so I am now anxiously anticipating beans in the foreseeable future.  Ahhh now that really is something to look forward to.

For me August is something of a transition month, Spring kind of starts here in August to the extent that many winter crops start to bolt (even if the temperatures don’t really warm up until September, and even then not that much – today was about 16 degrees C).  Equally August is when I sow many of my summer crops so I have heaps of punnets of seedlings to show you, but that is for another post.  For now its bye bye winter, hello Spring!

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Top 5 – Songs with some (tenuous) link to gardening

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Liz

Now this is a bit of an indulgent list and obviously highly subjective, so subjective that if I was asked tomorrow I might come up with an entirely different list.  But today this is what I want to listen to.

Another Sunny Day – Belle & Sebastian.

Perfect song and top of the list because not only do I love it, today was sunny but best of all it includes the lyrics:

Another sunny day, I met you up in the garden

You were digging plants, I dug  you, beg your pardon

I took a photograph of you in the herbaceous border

It broke the heart of men and flowers and girls and trees

How could you not love a song that references herbaceous borders?

My second choice also includes the words beg your pardon – it would appear people who write songs which mention plants are also very polite.

I never promised you a Rose Garden – Lynn Anderson.

As I’ve grown older my tastes have become more and more country and this is one of my favourite traditional country songs.


Although my third choice doesn’t beg anyone’s pardon whatsoever it is still good.

Cattle and Cane – The Go Betweens

The Go-Betweens are my favourite band of all-time and this is one of my favourite of their songs.  The cane refers to sugar cane which is extensively grown in their native Queensland.

Harvest Moon – Neil Young

This was one of my nieces favourite songs when she was 3.  I feel her tastes have probably deteriorated since.  One Direction anyone?  Anyway when she was 3 she had a discerning ear – this is one of my favourite Neil Young songs (and there are many).  Unfortunately the link to gardening is fairly tenuous but then it was fairly tenuous with the above 3 as well…

Lime Tree Arbour – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

I’ve loved Nick Cave since my uni days (and yes the late 1980s were quite a while ago. Are the 80s vintage yet? or merely retro?). I kind of feel like he has matured as I have. This is from the first of his more mellow albums – A Boatman’s Call.

What would make your Top 5?*

* Please note that I  reserve the right to ridicule any suggestion that Agadoo (Push pineapple, shake the Tree) would make anyone’s Top Anything.

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Monday Harvest – 3rd Sept 2012

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Liz

Spring has arrived and so far it has been divine.  Sun, warmth and optimal growing conditions – could you ask for more?  Actually I wouldn’t mind a bit of time to spend in the garden.  I am working quite a lot at the moment and last Friday was my daughters 6th birthday.  We had the party on Saturday and as a result I spent most of Sunday recovering from entertaining 25 small children (although they would call themselves big kids….) and being nice to my partner as it was Father’s Day here.  I did have a bit of a play outdoors though and here are the fruits of my labours.

I had a couple of silver beet plants in a position I now want to use for mint.  Out they came:

I tidied up the chillies and removed the last of their fruits.

Ditto the mini capsicums.  I have been really pleased with this variety.  My dad bought a plant from chain store ‘which shall not be named’ last Spring and he harvested from it all Autumn.  I have been attempting to overwinter it as well as collecting seed which I am pleased to see have germinated.  I will be interested to see if it comes to to type.

If you have good eyes you will notice the tiny bit of cauliflower in the above photo.  This is why: –

 I probably should have picked it a few days before when the head was tighter but still I reckon it should taste good.  I have one left in the garden of this season’s crop.

The broccoli is still producing a decent number of shoots each week.

Also producing well are parsley and thyme which you can see here along with a bay leaf.  My bay tree needs potting up I think as its growth seems to have significantly of late.

  

Also on the herb front, spring has brought with it new growth on my sages.  Very timely as I roasted a chicken with a sage and onion stuffing for a Father’s Day.

Finally I continue to harvest mustard leaves.  Apart from making saag I’m not really sure what to do with them.  Any ideas?

In need of more harvests?  Head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for produce from across the globe.

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