The Vegie Patch

Pride

Several weeks ago in our garden we pulled up a carrot. We had decided that they must be nearly ready, seeing some distinctly orange carrot top forcing itself out of the earth. In visions of Beatrix Potter-like perfection we yanked it out only to be disappointed by it’s size. It was about the size of a lady’s thumb and we decided to ignore the carrots for a few more weeks because they were obviously growing a little slower than expected.

Today we endured the same sort of nervous anticipation as we saw a rather promisingly large carrot top protruding from the dirt. In danger of getting our hopes up, we began to dig down beside it, as our soil is very dense and clay-y we were ever-nervous of snapping it off. We both had a go at digging and eventually, in a moment of pride and excitement, I finally prised it out of the earth!

It was slightly less perfect than a supermarket carrot, but as we scrubbed the dirt away it revealed a brilliant, youthful orange colour, quite unlike any mass produced carrot I’ve ever seen. We are so proud of it at the moment that our brains are going wild trying to think of a recipe suitable to enjoy it!

In my mind, seeing this one carrot finally grow to a decent size, ready for eating has given me a deeper appreciation for vegetables and their production process and I wonder how much land is being used in unsustainable ways, either by over-farming or under-farming. I can understand the pressure on farmers and the reasons for GM crops and research, today we’ve pulled up one big carrot but the rest still look pretty puny.

But I also feel that this is a basic human process that everyone should be aware of. After all it isn’t effortful, you put some seeds in the ground, water and watch, it’s not hard and the rewards are great.

Crepes

The truth about crepes is that they’re nowhere near as difficult as you think they’re going to be. Because they’re so thin they take no time at all to cook and, unlike pancakes, they never come out gooey in the middle and even flipping them is easier, as you’re about to find out. The only issue I’ve had with crepes is trying to get them nice and big and round, for some reason I’m always leaning toward stinginess with the batter and so they tend to come out in slightly odd shapes. This however is a minor concern as it has no impact on taste.

And speaking of taste, as a kid I always liked my pancakes with lemon and sugar (More sugar! More sugar!) but last weekend we discovered something new... LIME and sugar! There is no turning back!

110g plain flour

a pinch of salt

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon oil (something light and flavourless)

290mL milk

caster sugar and lime wedges for serving

Whisk everything together in a jug, adding milk until it reaches the consistency of thin cream and put it in the fridge for half an hour. This is similar to the bread making process and will allow the yeast in the flour to develop and bind the ingredients together in a more elastic batter. Without this step your crepes will crumble and refuse to turn successfully.

Heat up your frying pan to a medium to high heat and wipe it with a little oil. The oil in the batter should make them less likely to stick anyway and if you have a non-stick pan this probably isn’t strictly necessary, but I am not afraid of fat and so adding a smear of oil doesn’t worry me.

Pour your batter into the hot pan, lifting and tilting to cover the whole base of the pan. Within a few seconds the edges will be drying and curling and this is your cue to turn it over. Leave it for a few seconds more just to set the other side then turn out onto a piece of paper towel.

Serve as soon as possible (being so thin they don’t hold their heat for very long) with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of caster sugar, rolled up for presentation. My sister and I ate ours from our hands while still standing at the stove!

It's all about presentation

Bollywood Camel

I bought a camel shaped cookie cutter partly because I was stunned by the absurdity of such an unattractive animal being made into a yummy cookie and partly because I wanted to use them for Christmas cookies. I thought they’d be a really original way to celebrate the Epiphany.

It has sat unused in my drawer for longer than I care to admit and finally these past holidays I made some gingerbread and put it to good use. The results speak for themselves.

Brr! It's cold in here...

With the weather finally cooling off it’s a time to stock the freezer and go into semi-hibernation, especially if you have the appropriate DVD collection to support such a venture. Perhaps it’s a result of growing up in small town a long way from supermarkets, or because of my slightly squirrelly tendencies, but I always feel somewhat calm if I can picture a freezer full of meals or even potential meals.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those modern ladies with a freezer full of lean cuisine and half a carton of lite white in the fridge, I have a snaplock bag fetish and a domestically dutiful streak. I feel it is obligatory to have the means to provide something nourishing at the click of my fingers. This means at best having the ingredients to feed a group of four at the ring of the telephone, and at least having a meal for one at the last lazy minute.

Of course my fiance has no idea the bounty I have been building for him over the holidays, dated and labelled snaplock bags filled with cookies, soups, pasta bake and leftover homemade pizza, so that he won’t feel so neglected when I go back to work. I feel an overwhelming sense of pride at the prospect of “having it all”, being a career girl with a well fed family.

The Simple Life

Simple food and sunshine, secrets to good health.

Too often people get sucked into thinking that certain foods are passé. I cannot abide this kind of snobbishness, I want only food that tastes good and I don’t care if it is “so yesterday”. The most comforting feasts are usually those that are passed down from generation to generation, those that are tried and true and perfected beyond mere reliability to absolute certainty of pleasing results.

The meal above was our lunch a few days ago, toasted cheese sandwiches with Dijon mustard and mum’s homemade mayonnaise, and Heinz tomato soup, heated up on the stove with a spoonful of sour cream dolloped in. A feast made with little more effort than staring into the pantry and waiting for a meal to suggest itself with the ingredients present there.

Whilst I might feel embarrassed to serve it to guests, and you won’t find the recipe in a fancy book, (just as you won’t find the recipe for beans on toast or a boiled egg with toasted soldiers) this is the food that we eat on a regular basis. And for good reason too, it was utterly delicious, every morsel of it gobbled up and seconds suggested.

Rocky Road

A perfect picnic

The thing with your everyday, common-or-garden rocky road is that any old goose can melt chocolate and stir in marshmallows, that’s not an overly taxing task. And to throw in a few nuts or glacé cherries, well whoopdeedo! The Hummingbird Bakery version, which I sampled at their Portobello Road store in December, is startlingly creative but so obvious you’ll wish you had thought of it first.

There’s only one problem with most rocky road recipes and that is that they include far too much chocolate. This makes them a bit neater looks-wise, but that advantage will be counteracted by the fact that it will be nearly impossible to cut. The Hummingbird book wants you to use 1.4kg of chocolate, and what with all the other ingredients I just can’t justify that kind of extravagance for myself, even in the face of debilitating cravings. The good news is that you don’t actually need that much chocolate, try to see it as just the glue holding things together. Here’s my take on the original;

400g of dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled (I don’t go for all that double-boiler nonsense, I just put the chocolate in a saucepan on a very low heat and stand vigilantly over it, taking it off when there are still a few small lumps floating around in the mix.)

200g Maltesers

250g marshmallows

200g Mars bars, chopped

100g dried apricots, chopped

100g raisins

100g cornflakes

chocolate sprinkles for decoration

Stir all ingredients together, except the sprinkles, with grim determination until everything is coated in chocolate. It will feel as if it’s never going to work but stick with it and you will be rewarded. Spread onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper. Less chocolate sticks to baking paper and we want as much as possible of our ingredients available for consumption in the end product!

While it’s still a bit melty, decorate with chocolate sprinkles. These seem like an unnecessary garnish but they cover a myriad of sins and act as a fabulous distraction from the otherwise, let’s face it, not-altogether-appealing look of the rocky road. Pop it in the fridge for a few hours and then chop up and serve to unsuspecting guests. Don’t brag, just wait for them to discover all the treats on their own.

So much time...

With the beginning of the holidays upon us, I feel have a lot more time on my hands to spend in the kitchen and I can experiment and enjoy the process of creating.

And so, with the door to possibilities wide open, we have decided to try making our own cider. I say “we” because the idea comes from my fiancé, though I have gone through fads and phases of wanting to make my own spirits as they did in the good ol’ days or, at the opposing extreme, own my own vineyard. But I think that’s a perfectly normal fantasy, especially if you drink as much wine as we do! Now we’ll get a chance to see whether the creation of alcohol is part of my wide range of talents, or if perhaps I should just stick to consuming.

Of course there is the potential for major catastrophe and we all know the stories of explosions, poisoning, or just downright undrinkable swill, unimaginable frustration and utter despair after several months of tentatively gleeful anticipation.

But if all goes well, as we have every right to hope that it will, we shall be very pleased with ourselves and perhaps we’ll even have the courage to try making our own beer.