organic vegetable gardening courses, growing tips and homegrown recipes.
My tomato plants are outside now, tucked into bottomless-pots to keep off the worst of the wind and to stop the birds scratching out the plants. I'll take the pots off when I put up strings to support them once the plants are established. I've put up bamboo canes onto which I'll tie the strings. Here are some more ideas on how to get the best from … [Read more...]
Pastry is a tasty, flexible and waterproof layer that can be formed into a multitude of shapes and sizes. You can substitute one type of pastry for another quite happily in many applications. Although making your own pastry takes a little longer than using ready-made, you control what ingredients it contains and you can make the right amount for … [Read more...]
A slow-cooked stew can be even better in a pasty. It's easier to take to work for lunch in pasty form too. You could use ready-made puff pastry. I made some rough puff pastry. I made four pasties but they seemed a bit big for my taste and I think six or eight smaller ones would be better. 500g left over stew, chopped up small and with most of … [Read more...]
Having made lemon curd, I was looking for a way to use it in a dessert. Cafe Medici in Martinborough used to serve mini lemon curd tartlets that were worth the trip over the hill from Wellington in themselves. The addition of a meringue topping was satisfying because it increased their visual appeal, it used up the two orphaned egg whites from the … [Read more...]
In a household that has plenty of lemons and eggs, lemon curd is a wonderful condiment. Very yellow eggs also mean fantastically yellow curd. It's delicious spread on scones, pikelets or freshly made bread, used as a filling for mini tartlet cases or made into lemon ice-cream by rippling it through slightly softened boughten vanilla ice-cream. You … [Read more...]
