Last tomato harvest

In June, and after a number of frosts. Clearly shade cloth provides good frost protection. They won't ripen, but will be useful for some more chutney - waste not, want not!

Variation on lizzie's carrot and beetroot salad

Today Lizzie posted a beetroot and carrot salad recipe. Spookily today in the organic veg mix there were beetroot and carrots. That's dinner sorted, along with local salad greens and local feta.

I didn't have mint so used parsley, and also added a dash of lime olive oil and some chermoula spice mix. Lovely!

 

 

I'm in love with an angel

Angel food cake, that is. As a fat free cake it would almost be healthy if it wasn't for the rather large amount of sugar. Its what I imagine pavlova would be, if it were a cake.

I made my first ever angel food cake today using the recipe from the David Lebovitz's fab blog...although I almost got distracted by his marshmallow recipe. I must confess to some trepidation when turning the cake upside down to cool, but all's well that ends well. It is very light and fluffy. Perhaps slightly moist, but it was my first go so I'm going to be forgiving as it seems to have the right texture.

Now that I have tasted it, I can see why he paired the cake with some plum and raspberry compote as it's almost (not quite, but almost) too sweet for me, and the plums would be a lovely counterpoint. Needless to say Jerry has never met a cake (or anything else for that matter) that is too sweet for him!

The other advantage if you have hens that are laying a lot is that this cake uses a LOT of eggs (well the whites) - 12 to be precise. Now, what to do with all the egg yolks? Ice cream seems to be a sensible option :-)

DIY Vinegar

My mini vinegar distillery is expanding. So far I've made red wine (using local organic wine), chardonnay, sav blanc and even prosecco vinegar (which was very tasty). I've even managed to produce enough to use in my own chutney. The mothers keep on producing so I can keep expanding production, as well as give some away. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with different acidity, and also making some cider vinegar with some local cider.

My home made vingear is softer and smoother, and more flavoursome than shop bought. Brilliant for using in dressings or gravies. It is very easy to make too. I bought my mother from the excellent green living australia , and use their instructions. The great thing is that as you make vinegar, you produce more mother cultures that you can then transfer to start new batches.If you haven't tried making your own vinegar then I recommend it - it's very easy and doesn't require any special equipment once you have your mother culture.