Friday 22 July 2011

Drowning in citrus...

Our lemon and lime trees are groaning with their second crop of citrus for the year - must be all that rain. So this weekend I will be making pickle and marmalade...and then a bit more marmalade.

I started the lime pickle tonight, but there are still enough limes in the basked for a couple of batches of marmalade.....and plenty more on the tree! 1kg of limes makes about 10 jars of marmalade.

I couldn't resist buying a couple of kilos of Seville oranges in the greengrocer's. They make the best marmalade, so I will be whipping up a batch of whiskey Seville marmalade this weekend. This afternoon one of our friends dropped by with a huge bag of tangelos and some mandarins and lemonade lemons. So that's the juice and snacks taken care of.
 These are 7 year bean seeds (scarlet runner beans) - aren't they pretty? Anyone want some?
What are your kitchen plans for the weekend?

Friday 15 July 2011

Sweet potato, sweet potato

In spite of planting them late, a cooler and shorter summer, and not remembering to look for them until yesterday, I managed to grow some sweet potato!!


OK, so only 1.5 kg, and it is starting to go a bit soft (due to the wet and cold earth) but hey, I'll take it! To celebrate I made my variation on Ainsley Harriot's butternut squash (pumpkin) and sweet potato "curry" - with home grown sweet potato AND home grown pumpkin (queensland blue).


Pumpkin and sweet potato curry - north african style
  • Pumpkin and sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks - enough for the number of people you are feeding
  • onion - chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic (or more if you fancy)
  • handful of sultanas or raisins
  • harissa (to taste)
  • ras el hanout spice blend (or blend of your choice - I like screaming seeds)
  • water or stock
Gently fry the onion for 3-4 minutes in some oil. Then add in the pumpkin, sweet potato, garlic and spices and fry for a few minutes until you are drooling at the aroma. Add in water or stock to not quite cover the veg, harissa, and sultanas. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer, covered for about 15-20 minutes until the veges are soft. Serve with cous cous, rice, quinoa, or even tortilla or indian bread. I also like to add some yoghurt with mint to the top of ours when serving, as we like ours very (harissa) hot.

There are, of course, endless variations on this recipe - change the spice blend and omit the sultanas to make it more Indian style, or add in some lentils or regular potatoes....whatever takes your fancy really! Leftovers don't freeze well, due to the sweet potato, but they do make an excellent lunch the next day

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Normal service will resume shortly

After 2.5 months in 'old blighty' I'm back and almost de-jetlagged!  Normal service will resume shortly, although there won't be much garden blogging as it's cold, wet and wintry outside, and I've had a few months off the garden! Although I did manage to harvest a few Jalapenos and a bunch of everlasting shallots to use in tonight's dinne, and there's plenty of citrus!
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