Top 5 – Things about Spring

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Liz

Yeah I know it hasn’t quite arrived here yet, but it will and soon…and frankly I can’t wait!  Spring – yay!  Now I do feel a little sad for all those of you who live in the Northern hemisphere for whom the end of August means the end of summer but seeing as most of you seem to be having it either ridiculously hot, windy or in the case England temperatures marginally warmer than our winters it doesn’t sound like too many of you will miss Summer anyway.   Besides Autumn’s a lovely season too.  So with no further ado these are my Top 5 things to enjoy in Spring:

The garden smells lovely.  In my case this is because of two plants – the Jasmine and the Boronia Megastigma.  I know that neither are particularly kitchen garden related but in my defence my daughter does suck the nectar from the jasmine so I guess it does have some culinary application if you are fairly loose with your definition of culinary.  I have no excuse at all for mentioning the Boronia – its not in the least edible to my knowledge but it is a great plant in that it smells divine, has these nice browny red flowers and best of all grows happily in fairly shaded spots.

Tomato seedlings – I love growing tomatoes but quite often I find the anticipation of growing tomatoes is better than the reality.  My plants often don’t quite live up to expectation, by either not producing sufficient crops, succumbing to some sort of disease or just generally looking a bit sad and sorry for themselves.  In Spring though its all anticipation, the  plants look healthy, they grow lots, start setting flowers and generally the world is filled with hope.

Watercress – My garden suffers from something of a hungry gap for quite a bit of Spring but one thing that does come into its own from the end of winter onwards is the watercress.  Peppery, green, delicious and highly nutritious its such a fabulous plant.   And it makes great soup and great salads so no matter what Springs weather throws at you there is a watercress dish to suit.

Broad Beans – Broad Beans pretty much only crop here in Spring, and as such they remain one of the truly seasonal joys of kitchen gardening.  Mine have just started flowering and I have to admit I can’t wait to eat the first beans, ideally with some lovely green garlic and mint (both of which are great Spring fare).

Its gardening weather!  Summer is often too hot, Winter often too cold, Autumn here moves from too hot to too cold in the matter of a couple of weeks whereas Spring is usually mild.  Spring temperatures here are generally somewhere in the 20s, low 20s at the start moving to the occasional 30 degree day by Springs end.  All very civilised really and absolutely perfect for being outside in the garden.  And that is where I very much want to be, ideally with a glass of wine and a BBQ dinner after a day of seed sowing and planting out.  Ahhhhh – just a few days to go…

What do you like about Spring?  (or indeed Autumn if that’s more on your mind at the moment.)  What else should I be savouring before it disappears to make way for Summer?

At the time of posting the New Goodlife has yet to publish her Top 5 – stop by and see if she has yet.

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Monday Harvest – Aug 27th 2012

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Liz

Spring is almost here and I have to admit to feeling quite excited.  This winter has been pretty cold and damp, in Melbourne terms anyway, and so I am very excited about the idea of warmer days.  For those of you who are a little dubious about the start of Spring bringing significantly warmer weather need look no further than our weather forecast for Sunday and Monday which is for 19 & 21 degrees respectively and sunny on both days.  Can’t wait!  The plants on the other hand seem to be responding as if Spring has already arrived – by bolting –  as a result I’m harvesting quite a lot of greens.  Like this Cavolo Nero (or Tuscan Kale) which went into a Kale and bacon quiche.

Also putting up flower heads is the silver beet.  This went into a curry (as usual I hear some say…but in my defence the kids eat it happily in that form…).

My final photo of the week is of Broccoli, half of this rather decent sized basket full was stir fried with oyster sauce.  The remainder is sitting in the fridge awaiting further inspiration.

I am still harvesting other things but sadly this week none of the potatoes, spring onions, mint, parsley, coriander, chervil, chillies or lettuce made it in front of the camera.  That’s what happens when  you decide to cook things at the last minute after its either dark, or immediately after your camera battery has died…

Ah well there’s always plenty of veg that has made it in front of the camera lens over at Daphne’s – go and have a look.

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A Winter of Salads – Fennel & Pomegranate

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Liz

After my failure to post a Salad Days recipe in July I am trying to makes amends this month, although how successful I’ve been depends on how you view fennel.  Now I know fennel isn’t actually a leaf but as this salad also contains herbs and the fennel provides a cool, crisp base for the salad, just as a salad leaf would, so I thought I could get away with it.  Regardless though I love fennel and whilst I enjoy it cooked I do generally prefer it raw in salads.  I also love pomegranate and fortunately it is in season here at the same time as fennel so makes for a great seasonal combination.

Fennel & Pomegranate Salad

  • 1 fennel bulb – finely sliced
  • 1 small red onion – finely sliced
  • 1 small bunch soft herbs – eg parsley, coriander – finely chopped
  • Seeds from 1 pomegranate
  • 1 cucumber – finely sliced
  • 100g feta crumbled (optional)

Dressing:

  • 1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses
  • 1tblspn lemon juice
  • 3 tblspns extra virgin olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Place salad ingredients onto a serving dish.  Combine the dressing ingredients and pour over salad.  Serve.

Aside from this post being a part of the Vegplotting Salad Days series, I am also sharing it as part of The Gardener of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard , and Greenish Thumb’s Garden to Table.

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Top 5 – Best Vegetables for Soup

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Liz

It’s slowly warming up here as we approach Spring, but not so warm that soup isn’t still on the menu.  I am hopeful of moving into salad territory soon, but before winter leaves us completely I thought it only appropriate to give homage to that most wintery of dishes – soup.  These are my top 5 vegetables to use in soup.  Some like pumpkin are the primary ingredient and other like leeks often play supporting roles but all make fabulous, fabulous soups.

Pumpkin  – Is there a better soup made from a single vegetable than pumpkin? (Well I do add onion to my pumpkin soup but as onions are in practically everything I make it doesn’t really count does it???)  Pumpkin Soup is deliciously creamy even without adding any dairy, great with curry spices through it and fabulous topped with grated cheddar cheese.  It warms you up and gives you a lovely glow all day.  What more can you ask from such a humble dish.

Leeks – Leeks and soup go together brilliantly.  Not only are they fabulous in stock, not only can they be used as a flavour base in practically any/every soup you care to mention but they are also an intrinsic part of one of the worlds great soups: Leek & Potato or Vichyssoise.

Tomatoes – Growing up one of my mothers fall back lunches was opening a can of tomato soup.  I think every Anglo Australian child of the 70s would have had tinned tomato soup at least once a week – well I did and I reckon most of my friends did.  I even remember it being the standard ‘starter’ course at school sausage sizzles.  I can’t remember the last time I actually ate tinned tomato soup but I do remember the last time I used tomato in soup.   From minestrone to gazpacho tomato makes for great soups, and maybe just maybe the canned stuff tastes good too????

Carrots – One of my favourite soups is carrot and white bean, its a really lovely combination.  But even without that soup the contribution carrots make to soup is huge.  I grew up eating soups made from meat stocks, barley and vegetables.  The vegetables in these soups were inevitably carrots.  Now carrots feature in most of my mixed vegetable soups.  Whether I’m roasting them to puree with sweet potatoes & parsnips, cutting them into chunks for minestrone or throwing a few into my stock they are virtually indispensable in many recipes.

Something Green – Yes I know something green isn’t a vegetable in itself, but I love soups that taste of green.  The watercress soup pictured below is a case in point, but its not just watercress that can gives you that lovely green flavour, parsley works too, as does silver beet, spinach, or even kale.  The flavour varies a bit with the vegetable or herb but all taste unmistakably green, and delicious for it.

I know that you’ll be able to come up with many more – I would love to hear what your favourites are.

This week The New Goodlife has Top 5 Quick & Easy Vegetarian Dishes, definitely worth a look.

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Gado-Gado

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Liz

I can still remember the first time I ate gado-gado.  It was at a restaurant in Carlton, Melbourne, called Nyonya.  At the time I thought it was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted (still do), the only possible challenger would being Laksa (a Malaysian coconut curry soup) which I also tried for the first time at the same restaurant.  That was in the late 80’s (possibly even very early 90’s) when I was vegetarian.    Around the same time I discovered a little Indonesian cookbook on my mothers shelf.  It was written in the late 1960s by an Indonesian woman who’d migrated to Australia and was trying to recapture the cuisine of her homeland using the ingredients available in Melbourne at that time.  Whilst now it is absolutely no problem finding all manner of Indonesian ingredients locally, then it would have been a very different story.  Anyway in the book was a recipe for gado-gado, or more specifically for the peanut sauce that is used to dress gado-gado and I’ve been making versions of that sauce ever since.  In retrospect its interesting that my mother possessed such a book as I certainly don’t remember her ever cooking from it – well not until the mid to late 90s at least.  Growing up our diets were pretty much meat and 3 veg or pasta with not much variation at all.

Gado-Gado is an Indonesian salad with a satay type dressing.  Its served either cold or warm, the salad ingredients vary but it is always eaten is topped with a lovely creamy peanut sauce.

This is how I make mine:

Gado-Gado Sauce:

  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 1 tspn finely grated garlic
  • 1/2 tspn finely grated turmeric (optional)
  • 1 clove garlic -crushed
  • 2 tblspns oil
  • 1/2- 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tblspn soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp tamarind puree (or if unavailable lemon juice works really well)
  • 4 tblspn peanut butter
  • 165ml coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup water

Heat the oil in a small/medium sized saucepan.  Fry onion until it starts to brown, add ginger, garlic and turmeric and fry until golden.  Add chilli powder, stir.  Then add soy sauce, sugar, tamarind puree (if using lemon juice add it at the end rather than at this point) and peanut butter.  Cook over a very gentle heat for a couple of minutes until the peanut butter has melted down.  Add the coconut milk and the sauce will thicken considerably.  Gradually add the water until you reach a very thick pouring consistency.  Taste and season with more tamarind, sugar and salt if needed.

I usually make gado-gado by steaming some veg, hard boiling a couple of eggs and serving the veg and eggs covered in sauce and on rice.  It is a great dish for using up little harvests especially if, like me, you tend to grow small amounts of a wide variety of things.  Some of my favourite veg to use include: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, silver beet and green beans. It is also worth trying with raw vegetables, especially cucumber, carrots and capsicum.

For other ‘straight from the garden’ ideas head over to The Gardener of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard , and Greenish Thumb’s Garden to Table.

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