I have been so busy doing, that I have had very little time for Blogging about it.
I have been trying to make quince paste, trying to use pink pepper, trying to use up all of the foreign food in our pantry, finding new recipies for pumpkin, including roasting pumpkin seeds, baking pumpkin scones, and pumpkin pie, attending a series of inspiring Permaculture workshops with Stephen Poole here at the EcoVillage, attending the Rare fruit Society grafting day, Sorting out the finishing touches on our new kitchen, planting out trees, seedlings, and seeds. Hosting parties, doing lots of yoga, re-writing a Thai Massage manual, training and gearing up for a hike in Cradle Mountain National park, and chauffering my 15 year old around to various events. The whole time jaunting about in my mother-in-law's car while she was away. We normally share the family car - what a luxury it has been to be able to take off anywhere I choose, at a moment's notice, without having to ask anyone, or make prior arrangements - not very eco I know, but I liked it. However, tomorrow it will all change as my mother-in-law is back (I spent the morning cleaning it, checking the oil, petrol etc. - those new carwash places are pretty cool - I like the high pressure hose I think even the teenager might be convinced to use one of those!)
Back to the business of food,
Rotting Pumpkins
Quite a few of our pumpkins have started to go mouldy, so I have been trying to find inspiring things to do with them. My American friend Lynda mentioned that back home in the US they used to roast and eat the pumpkin seeds. So I tried to roast some, with limited success. I had trouble with the seeds sticking to the paper as they dried after I had rinsed them. So then I switched to drying them on T-Towels instead, which was much easier, but they still tended to discolour and go mouldy if I had not washed the dregs of pumpkin off well enough.
Next I tried drying the seeds immediately, skipping the washing drying process, and this seems the best method by far. However, I left them in too long in the oven and they started to pop like popcorn and split open, spraying all over my oven.
This is a split pumpkin seed, inside is the familiar green pepino seed which is nutty and pleasant to eat although small. The seed seemed to be in 2 or 3 parts and wafer thin, this is laborious and Lynda assured me that her family ate the whole seed, so I perservered. The shell was chewy and tough, fibrous in fact, and reminded me of physillium husks, so they would probably do wonders for the bowels, and be a great source of fibre, but a little unappetising. I tried crushing a few in the mortar and pestle to see if this helped with the consistency and flavour, but unfortunately, it did not help much. It would probably be okay as a thickener for soup, or an addition for stuffings or to add to crumbs.
I found a recipie for pumpkin pie that did not have condensed milk, but did have a layer of jam spread on the pastry before filling the pie with the egg, pumpkin mix. I have run out of cinnamon and nutmeg, so the jam was a good addition to give the pie some oomph.
Pumpkin scones, made with pureed pumpkin this time. The last batch I was too lazy to bother with the pureeing, so I just chucked in the cubed pumpkin and I had a few complaints from the boys, so thought I'd better puree this time. Gives the scones a lovely colour. The recipie has various spices, but they tasted fine without any.
Tea
I have done some investigating about growing my own tea bush. According to various internet sources, you can grow Camelia Sinensis in a pot, in a shady spot, likes acid soil, plenty of water & feed well. Camelias R Us is about the only place that I could source one. They are out of stock right now, but will have some in summer, and for $16.50 + Postage (approx $30 all up) they will post one to my door! This is the tree that Black tea, & Green tea is produced from, the only difference is in the fermentation and drying processes, which, by the way sound very challenging; sigh...
Here is the pepper that I have been drying
It loaded into the pepper grinder OK and the first few grinds were fine, but after a while, no pepper came out! I think that the grinder is clogged with the still slightly sticky pink coating on the corns. The pepper seems to be completely dry, but the pink is still sticky. I have not tried drying it in the dehydrator, but my guess is that this will have to be done to allow the grinder to work effectively.
At present this is too boring, so I have just filled this jar to be sorted later. In the mean time, I will use the mortar and pestle, and have trendy pepper in a small bowl.
Yummy Nuts - McLarenVale
I asked what they had in stock that was local - I bought this bag of flour.
( I was hoping that they would have some Kamut, as our supply from Four Leaf ran out and the Food co-op in Willunga ran out too. There have been no loaves of Kamut bread at Flower Power stall at the Farmer's Market for a while either. I assume the local supply is finished for the season, but will call Four leaf mill to check.)
There two bottles of juice from Patriti in Seacombe - south of Adelaide. The grapes and apples/pears are grown in McLarenVale.
This honey also from Mclaren Flat - I found the flavour disappointing. We are used to the Nangkita Honey Lady honey from the Farmer's market, and this tasted very sweet, almost like sugar. I wondered to myself if this is the result of bees being fed over winter with sugar water???
Barley Porridge
I decided to try the crockpot method, as the last time I tried it the grains were too tough for my liking. By cooking the barley slowly overnight, it gave us beautifully soft porridge for breakfast. It actually tasted a bit nutty, and smelled a bit wheaty, like hot wheetbix.
I love my crockpot, I bought it at a charity shop for about $10 I think, and it is a larger size, works perfectly, and the pot fits in the dishwasher. I also found out that if you have number 20 fowlers vacola jars, you can use the crockpot to make preserves! I am on the hunt for some no. 20 jars.
Chopped almonds add to the nutty flavour, I add them after to retain the crunch, but you could put them in at the start, and they would soften if you prefer that. I also added grated apple and honey.
Cheese Fondue
The recipie called for Emmemental or Gorgonzola, neither of which are made locally to my knowledge, so I substituted Tilsit BD cheese grated, Alexandrina Fetta, crumbled, and Finnis River Romano, grated. The Fetta was a mistake, as it remained lumpy, and the Romano with the Fetta was just too salty. Aarod and I bravely persevered, but could not finish it, so I secreted it into a lasagne the following night, no-one knew, and it worked a treat. I love it when that happens.
A curry with the few remaining spices we have in the pantry, coriander seeds (from our garden), and horseradish from Langhorne Creek. It was actually very good.
Quince Paste
Mark and Lisa from the Miss Merbein stall at WFM had Quinces for the first time I have ever seen them.
I have never cooked quince before, and here the crockpot comes to the fore, as this fruit is inedible unless cooked slowly for up to 10 hours!
Cooked overnight in a small amount of water they changed colour from pale yellow to a golden orange.
I put the chopped quince into the blender - it had a hard time blending them, so I had to add a cup of water. I am not sure if this is because I blunted my blades on the carob pods, or if this fruit is extremely dense.
I added the not so delicious honey from Mclaren Flat in stead of sugar.
The Spanish leave their quince paste in the sun to dry, so I tried that for a day, and then resorted to drying in the oven on the "keep warm" setting.
I finished up with one batch that worked well, I wrapped in grease proof paper and froze it (don't trust the mould free properties of honey) ready to defrost for the next cheese platter.
The other disaster batches were scraped out and put in a jar in the fridge to be used as"jam" I noticed an unappealing brown staining on the paste which probably came from the tins, and is probably why the recipie specifies the use of ceramic trays. (I ignored that instruction)
Roast -Willunga Butcher - Free Range Chicken & Farmer's Market veg.
Michael found this red wine vinegar from Coriole Winery, I use it as a substitute for Balsalmic vinegar. Jamie Oliver pours it over roast vegies, it gives a delicious sweet flavour, and turns the base of the veg dark brown and sticky.
