Zucchini Tuesday - Zucchini trifolati

Now I am sure that you will agree with me that 4 zucchini is not a glut, but compared to the productivity to date from my zucchini, 4 feels like inundation.

The slightly cooler weather (still in the low 30s) has been kinder on all my plants and the zucchini is finally comfortable enough to set a number of fruit.

Armed with 4 small home-grown zukes, I decided to make this side dish. The recipe comes from a Gourmet Traveller but which issue I have no idea, I cut the recipe out. I provide the amounts here I used which are  pretty much the same as in the original  recipe. It takes no time at all to make. The most time consuming part is slicing the zuke very thinly which I definitely recommend you doing - it's worth it. Indeed 'trifolati' in Italian (apparently) means to slice thinly as you would a truffle.

Zucchini trifolati  (* from the garden)
50mls extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves crushed
2 anchovy fillets
*1 tbsp chopped rosemary
* 4  small zucchini  sliced thinly across wise ( the recipe suggests two yellow and two green skinned)
* 2 tbsp oregano leaves

Heat the oil and add garlic, rosemary and anchovy fillets and cook until the anchovy starts to disappear. Add zucchini and oregano and stir until zucchini is just tender. Serve warm or at room temp.  It would be beautiful with a white fish or smoked chicken, I had it with some left over cold roast lamb because that's what I had hanging around.

How is your zucchini crop? Still going?  Contemplating zucchini preserves yet? Relish or chutney?

This week Jen from Digging up the Dirt has made a zucchini burger, I am liking it!

Until next week - love your zucchini

Harvest Monday - 15th October 2012

I was silly... I posted about much of my harvest this week last Friday.

It was a Friday thing... a post work stroll thru the patch and the sort of ritual of picking that helps to soothe the working week away  - and it was such a good picking that I had to post about it then and there so plenty more produce shots there.

But to cover off  the whole week, last week I picked quite a nice stash of produce. Here it is.

• 1 main head of broccoli
• lots of broccoli side-shoots
• 2 big heads of cauliflower
• several bunches of new baby radishes
• the last of the snowpeas
• lots of herbs - oregano, thyme, parsley, basil, mint and bay
• 1 fennel bulb
• lettuce leaves
• rocket leaves
• celery leaves
• a solid bunch of celery stalks
• a bunch of young sweet beetroot
• a big handful of  lemon leaves

I also raided my stashes of the chillies from the freezer from last summer's glut, opened  new jars of my rocket fuel chilli sambal and my sweet chilli and tomato jam and dug into the home made strawberry jam and lemon marmalade.

These ingredients have gone into all sorts of food:

• broccoli oreccietta 
• lamb kofte with mint and wrapped in lemon leaves
• roast beetroot and mint salad - one of Suburban Tomato's recipes that is now a regular on my menu
• fresh green salad with loads of different leaves, herbs and fennel
• radishes dipped into hummus
• vegetable juices with quite peppery celery
• piles of steamed snow peas

It's a nice time in the garden and on the plate. I am contributing this to Daphne's Monday Harvest list, there will be plenty of produce to look at there soon, when the earth turns a little more.

What are you enjoying eating at the moment with your home growns?

Winter wrap - '12

Winter here in Sydney has been a season of two halves.  The first part of winter was decidedly wet and the second half quite dry -  a harbinger of the return of the little boy  El Nino? The last part of winter has also been unseasonably warm - I am not complaining....

Here are some of my observations from this winter.

Harvests

• cabbage - mine have been savoy
• cauliflower - these were fabulous
• broccoli
• snow peas
• spring onions
• lemons, lemons, lemons
• limes
• fennel
• rocket
• herbs - rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay and mint towards the late part of winter
• some chillies in the early part of winter
• some sunflowers in the early part of winter

What I have learnt

• lime your brassica patch lest you get mini caulies
• broccoli is less fussy liming-wise than caulies
• snow peas are heaven on a stalk
• my mint needs more winter sun
• never take your parsley for granted - it can lure you into a false sense of supply cause it lives for two years, but when it's time is up, it's up and you are left without even a sprig
• fennel loves lots of water - it will grow well without it and produce lovely bulbs, but when it gets water a plenty, the bulbs are fat and white and juicy
• plant more fennel in succession
• late winter chives are incredibly flavoursome 
• bok choi is pretty and easy
• brassicas planted in winter avoid the cabbage moth when they are babies but get the moth visiting in late winter - but by that time they are growing strongly and are little affected
• this year I was rubbish at having something to pick in late winter - I still have my second crop of brassicas in the ground and only now forming heads!
• prunning your citrus in late summer and again when the growth re-awakens is a good thing to do
• the beans you dried in summer are fantastic for winter meals
• baby rainbow lorikeets have black eyes and beaks
• lemon trees are sacred

Pleasures

• lemons all winter
• the beauty of a cauliflower
• seeing my first blueberries flower and form fruit
• thyme flowers
• the glut of lime flowers and miniture forming fruit
• the birds that visit my garden - rainbow lorikeets and currawongs especially
• Half-tail would be a comedian if s/he was a human

Thin pancakes, thin patch

Picked

• rocket
• 1 cauliflower
• Italian parsley
• oregano

Planted

• celery seedlings
• broccoli seedlings
• cauliflower seedlings
• savoy cabbage seedlings

Thin no 1
The day started extremely  well with one of the best Sunday breakfasts imaginable - thin pancakes with lemon and sugar (the lemon juice from the garden of course). This is a lad speciality and a massively appreciated one. When you happen to get the sugar and lemon balance just right, it is heavenly. Pancakes, black tea, the only thing that could have improved the scene was a sunny verandah, alas, it was grey and cool.

Thin no 2
The garden is a little thin too ( but not in a good way). It is thin on produce. I have two caulis and two cabbages still to pick,  a small amount of snow peas still flowering and  a few fennel and that is about it. I have a mountain of rocket and lemons  though - yes, the lemon glut doesn't have an end....

With most of my produce now picked it was time to restock the patch with broccoli, cabbage, cauli and celery. They are tiny and I will probably regret putting them in when I want my beds free for the planting of the summer crops... oh well, let's see. 

Most of today's pickings will go into dinner -  the oregano into tonight's dinner a chickpea, chorizo and red capsicum dish I have made before and unimaginatively  made again this evening (but I do enjoy it!).

The rocket is going into a  rocket, parsley and pecarino salad.

Rocket, parsley and pecarino salad

rocket*

Italian parsley*

pecarino slices thin 

lemon*juice

olive oil

Wash the rocket and parsley ( make sure there are no snails...) spin. Make dressing from oil and lemon juice. Mix a small amount of the dressing thru the leaves and arrange on a plate top with thin pieces of pecarino.

With SO much rocket in the patch and very little else, I can see I will need to think of many ways to eat it.  Got any ideas on endless rocket recipes?

More bean feeds

Picked

• big pile of snow peas
• side shoots of broccoli
• parsley
• oregano

Not a particularly cold evening, but nonetheless a bean feed was in order. Tonight's bean feed  was a chickpea and chorizo dish. This one is adapted from a recipe which appeared in Gourmet Traveller April 1999 which had a Spanish theme. It is an absolute favourite.  I have put the recipe here as I now use it rather than as originally published.  It is such a favourite that I don't use the recipe any more, it's just in my head.

Chickpeas and chorizo with red capsicum (* from the garden)

2 red capsicum

1 large onion

4 cloves of garlic*

2 chorizo sliced

2 can chickpeas

1 can tomatoes

2 chillies*

half a teaspoon of  rocket fuel*

bay leaves*

saffron

smoked paprika

oregano* and parsley*

Cut capsicum into pieces and grill until skin is black, sweat in a plastic bag and remove skins. Cut into rough pieces.  In the meantime brown chorizo and once oil released cook onion and garlic. Drain chickpeas and add to pan with tinned tomatoes, chillies, rocket fuel, spices and bay leaves. Cook on a low heat until the flavours have melded. Serve with a sprinkle of oregano and parsley.

Fettucini bolognese

tonight's herbs for pasta

Picked

• parsley
• basil
• oregano

Mmmm, home made pasta, made by the lad who has some Italian genes. Thank goodness!  Lovely silky home made pasta.  The lad uses a Jamie recipe.

Everyday quick pasta recipe
This is from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef.  The amounts given here are what we make up for dinner for two,  Jamie makes a bigger batch.

200g strong pasta flour
2 eggs
extra flour for dusting

Mix flour and eggs together, knead until smooth and silky.  We use a pasta maker to roll out the pasta and cut it.  I've never made it, David says it's easy but he has pastry hands...

Boil a big pot of water, put the pasta in the boiling water for a short time.  I don't know how long, but not very.  Try it after just a few minutes to see if it is how you like it.

Tonight the lad made bolognese sauce to go with it. I suspect Australians are pretty obsessed with this pasta sauce.  It's almost the first one we experienced as kids. It's also comfort food.  I am not sure what the appeal is, but tomatoey meaty sauce is a good start. And the saltyness of good Parmesan?

Our bolognese recipe

home made pasta

I am sure that this is not very different  to anyone elses' bolognese, but I'll share our version with you.

celery
carrot
onion
garlic
minced beef -  good quality
tinned tomatoes
a little home made rocket fuel chilli paste* (just a little!)
herbs*
black pepper
Parmesan

Finely chop celery, carrot and onion and cook in a frying pan with a little olive oil. Add crushed garlic and cook a little then add minced beef and brown off meat breaking it up as you cook.  Add tinned tomatoes and a little bit of chilli or chilli sauce - we use rocket fuel in any tomatoey sauce - not much just a little bit.  Add a couple of bay leaves - I like the fresh - ones and cook till it is a consistency you like.

Put sauce over your favourite pasta and sprinkle on the chopped herbs.

Yum!

But  you must have your favourite version?  Veal mince instead of beef? A mix of minces?  Adding your homemade tomato sauce? no carrot, no celery?  What's your version?