Melbourne has had some warm, warm, warm days this week (well above 20 degrees Celsius anyway) – although normal service has now been resumed and we are back to winter temperatures (mid teens) but for awhile there it definitely looked like Spring had come early. It’ll be interesting to see how the plants react.
One plant that did seem to react almost instantaneously was my mint which had heaps of harvest-able leaves so I did just that.
But that was on Sunday and I should really have started with Tuesday shouldn’t I? On Tuesday I had a mixed salad for lunch again.
Later in the week and it was all about the brassicas. I actually harvested 3 cauliflowers this week – 2 of which became part of these pakoras, with the mint from above going into a chutney I served alongside.
On Saturday I had people over for dinner and we had curries – so curry leaves, chillies and coriander were needed. I also used the other cauliflower then – I love cauliflower cooked with ginger, cumin and chilli. Delicious.
And that was about it for this week – lots of flavourings but aside from the cauliflower not much substance. Oh well, the purple sprouting broccolli must start producing soon….surely….
For other Monday Harvests check out Daphne’s Dandelions blog.
Very pretty. Love the red peppers so bright behind the other veggies!
Thanks Shawn Ann – they tasted good too.
Are you growing your own curry leaves? I haven’t been able to get it to survive my winters, either indoors or out. It has such a lovely flavor and aroma, I wish I could grow it. Both versions of you cauliflower pakoras look delicious, I’ll have to give them a try some day. Nice winter harvest!
Hi Michelle, Yes they are my own curry leaves. My plant goes pretty dormant over winter but seems to come through them OK – I’ve only had it a couple of years though. I have been potting it up in Spring and then its grown a bit each year before going dormant when it gets cold (it gets fairly cold here but my garden doesn’t frost). A friend of mine who lives in a colder part of Melbourne has one which looses all its leaves over winter but then starts growing again in Spring. Hers is a lot bigger so I figure once you get them to a decent size then their fine. I would have thought you’d be able to grow them where you are especially if you can grow capers – having said that my knowledge of US climate zones isn’t great…..
Your cauliflower looks gorgeous! Nice harvest!
Lovely harvest!
I love that you grow curry. Sadly the curry plant isn’t hardy in my zone. That would be a fun one to grow. I still keep trying to grow cumin and keep failing. But maybe someday I’ll get it right.
I have been trying to find out more about growing cumin – my attempts so far have been to sow seeds I bought to cook with which somehow resulted in a punnet full of grass (I wonder if they doctor their seed a bit…..). My mission is to grow all the ingredients for a curry and cumin is my missing link.