organic vegetable gardening courses, growing tips and homegrown recipes.
It's a busy time of year picking beans, cucumbers and zucchinis. The trick is to pick them before they get too big - that's why I like yellow zucchinis as they're much easier to spot. These recipes will help out on the zucchini front. Zucchini fritters can be lunch-box fillers, pass-arounds or barbecue fare. Zucchini and corn self-crusting … [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...]
I made a gluten and dairy-free carrot cake by substituting a gluten-free baking mix for the wheat flour in this recipe. I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. It's a rich, dense, moist cake with the fat coming from oil and coconut instead of butter. 230g plain flour or gluten-free baking mix (I used Healtheries) One teaspoon each … [Read more...]
Pesto is usually made from basil and pinenuts but in spring when there are lemons and coriander about, I make this version. Mix it through mashed potato, spread it on a lamb steak before you wrap it in proscuitto and roast for about 20 minutes, use a tablespoon of it as a topping for a piece of fish or in pasta sauce. I spread it on sandwiches and … [Read more...]
Salad leaves can be colourful, spiky or bitter. Their taste, texture, shape, size and appearance are all important. There's much more to salad than lettuce and the best way to experience them all is to grow your own. Combined with some herbs and a great dressing you'd have the basis of a delicious lunch. Here's a selection of leaves you could grow … [Read more...]
Having tried and enjoyed Virgil Evetts' Swedish rye bread a few months ago, I found the remains of the bag of rye flour I'd bought for the purpose in the pantry. This time I decided to make pumpernickel bread in the bread maker. The previous trial I'd just made the dough in the bread maker and baked it in the oven. I used 'wheat' bread setting on … [Read more...]
Winter is the time for a different kind of salad. There’s still lettuce and rocket from the tunnel house but a crunchier combination comes from cabbage, carrot, spring onion and fresh herbs topped with cashews and strips of beef. I used meat left over from a slow-cooked beef shin. Processing robust raw ingredients, such as carrots and cabbage, … [Read more...]
