Stake it!

6 long cayene lying on the ground

On this evening's  post-work garden sojourn, I  found another broken branch on my long cayene. A branch with 6 fabulously long chillies snapped clean off. I now have a total of 24  long chillies in the freezer!  I am obviously not vigilant enough with staking, I think I have learnt my lesson now.  Next year when I grow these beauties I will stake, stake, stake.

I think I am going to have to make some pickled chillies over the weekend.  Might try these recipes.

http://rasamalaysia.com/pickled-chilies/
http://livingfootprints.com.au/?p=1968

The end is nigh!

Today's pick

Picked

• chillies (including 1 long cayene)
• yellow-green chillies
• eggplants
• tomatoes - lots but nearly the last

 Gathered

• fallen lemons

I think we might be at the end of the tomatoes for the year.  The plants look unhappy, the fruit on the broad yellow ripple currant tomatoes are much smaller than usual and same for the sugar lumps. I think they might get pulled out next weekend.

The only tomato variety that seem a little happier are the brown berries. They might stay in a little longer? Let's see next weekend.

My cucumbers seem to have been found by huge numbers of aphids -  more than I can control really.  Where did they come from in just a day or two? They might end that crop too!

a long cayene against some pretty big lemons

The eggplant are still powering on as are the chillies.

Oh well, it was a strange summer, but the water tank is full, the limes and lemons nice and juicy and I haven't had to get the hose out much so I guess that is all positive.

The mind drifts to brassicas and snow peas...and the hungry gap.

Tonight its homemade (and homegrown) basil pesto - its being made as I type -  that's the chink, bang, bang, bang, chink, bang  you can hear in the background... with some roasted sugar lump tomatoes on top. Mmm.

A glut of chillies

Thai green curry paste

I love growing chillies.  They are such pretty plants and chillies can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours and intensities.  The trouble is you can only eat so much chilli  in one go so preserving is essential.

Today I decided to preserve some of the glut in Thai curry pastes. These recipes are adapted from Authentic Recipes from Thailand a book I bought  in Bangkok airport after a holiday of great eating and good fortune. It was the year of the tsunami and we were very fortunate to have left the coast the day before it struck. 

 Red or Green Thai curry paste

1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
5-10  red or green chillies* (I used my very long cayenne for the green paste)
3 tablespoons  sliced shallots

3 cloves garlic (8 cloves for the red paste)
1 teaspoon galangal (get a young one and cut some very thin slices)
1 tablespoon lemongrass
1/2 teaspoon lime* rind (the recipe uses kaffir lime)
1 tablespoon coriander root
5 black peppercorns (10 for the red paste)
1 teaspoon dried shrimp paste

Thai red curry paste

Dry fry the coriander and cumin seed then grind. Add the rest of the ingredients except shrimp paste in a mortar and pestle and mash. You could use a blender but I think it is better in the mortar. I like mine a little textured or maybe I am just lazy.  When it is a texture you like, add shrimp paste.  I spoon it into an icecube frame and freeze and pop out into another container to store. I use two cubes each time I make a red or green Thai curry or stirfry with red curry paste.

Anyone got any good chilli preserving methods?  Particularly for green chillies?

Weird scenes inside the backshed...

We had noticed a very large red-back spider inside our shed lately.  Figuring she has a right to life, we have left her alone knowing where she prefers to spin her web and keeping our distance.

Today, a weird scene awaited us. A baby mouse (or rat?), slighlty mumified and madam red-back atop.  Had she killed it?  What would she do with it now?

For those non-Australians in the readership, the red-back is one of Australia's fabled 'poisonous' spiders, endemic to the suburban backyard.  If you think me foolhardy, you probably need to take into account that as a Primary School student before there were anti-venines for the more poisonous funnel-web, I was taught how to collect them and take them alive and healthy to the Council for 'milking' of their venom so that they could develop an antidote. I am not afraid of spiders.

Beat the beet week (3), parsley and finger limes

Today's tomato and chilli pick

Picked

• parsley
• spring onions
• mint
• big pile of cherry and berry tomatoes
• chillies

Pulled out

• zucchini
• zebra tomatoes

Planted

• spring onions
• Italian parsley
• curly parsely
• violas
• broccoli
• beetroot seed

A sunny morning got me into the patch early.  I picked a big basket of tomatoes and chillies before heading to the market. On return I decided that the zucchini was on its last legs and so it was removed. I also decided that the zebra tomatoes I had planted back in October really just hadn't thrived.  At first I thought that was becasue they got too much shade but I dont think the season helped. They thickened up a bit on removal of the wattle but they were a sad case of sprawly growth with a few fruit fly infested green orbs despite my yellow glue traps!  So they came out too. Hmm, space to plant! So spring onions, two types of parsley, broccoli, beetroot seed and some violas went in.

PARSLEY
I grow both types of parsley -  I like them both.  But the curled parsley seems to have suffered with the wet weather and have gone a bit soggy and rotted. The Italian parsley has coped much better. David made tabouleh to go with falafel and hommous for lunch -  great way to deal with a big bunch of parsley!

Tabouleh
This recipe is adapted from a very old Tess Mallos cookbook - The Complete Middle East Cookbook. It's been very well used and is a little worse for it.  I think that it might be late '70s or early '80s when Lebanese food started to become popular in Sydney. Suddenly even the most dedicated Shire-dwelling WASP  family was serving hommous and flat bread at dinner parties. We ate with our hands and started using words like tahini and baba ghanoush -  words that still sound so great in the mouth. I even dabbled with 6 months of Arabic at Sydney Uni and regularly headed off campus at lunch time to grab a falafel roll from Maurice's in Newtown. To this day I think they were the best falafel rolls I have ever had. Maurice's little corner shop has been empty for years. 

Anyway, I felt very sophisticated when the mother of a boyfriend of mine gave me this book one birthday or Christmas. Thanks Pat -  who'd guess that it was still in use.

Well used Tess Mallos cookbook -  thanks Pat!

3/4 cup burghul
2 cups finely chopped parsley* ( Italian is best I think)
spring onions*
mint*
olive oil
lemon juice*
pepper
cherry tomatoes* cut in half

Soak burgul in cold water for 30 mins or so and squeeze water out.  Chop all greens finely and add to a bowl  with cherry tomatoes. Stir thru burghul.  Mix oil and lemon juice together with pepper and mix thru the salad.

BEETROOT GLUT
And how is the beetroot glut going?  Well today I decided to get over my morbid fear of  the pickled beetroot and decided to take the plunge.  I followed Rhonda's recipe and the result is one beautiful jar full of beetroot.  I could have probably made two jars but what if I don't like them?  So I still have quite a few  fresh ones left over.

Aren't they a beautiful colour?

Collette

FINGER LIME (Microcitrus australasica)
My lusted after beauty called "Collette" arrived late in the week from Daley's in Kyogle all upright and protected in a fab cardboard box.  This spikey lass will produce black shiny fruit and dark lime green pulp.  Here she is!

Compost crisis and pizza triumph

Picked

today's eggplant and chilli pick

• pile of eggplant
• big bunch of basil
• 3 yellow-green chillies 
• 3 zucchinis
• chillies

Help! I have a compost crisis. What is the best thing to do when you have a maggot invasion? Is it a problem or not? Or is it just yucky?

To add or not to add lime?  To add or not to add more carbon? Relax and let them munch and squirm? Turn the bin out and hope the birds pick thru it? I never put meat or dairy in the bin.

Roasted cherry tomatoes, eggplant, fetta and oregano pizza

Tonight is Friday night pizza night - all homemade and garden focussed! David did the honours including home made yeasty bases. Yum.

One pizza with roasted cherry tomatoes*, eggplant*, fetta and oregano*. Another with a  basil* pesto base, zucchinis*, mushrooms and black olives. 

pesto, zucchini, mushroom and olive pizza

* from the garden

Beat the beet week (2)

Roasted roots

Picked

• lemons
• 2 punnets tomatoes ( berries and cherries)
• 3 zucchinis
• chillies

Tonight's beat the beet recipe is...

Roasted Roots
3 beetroot*
6 shallots
2 potatoes
sweet potato
half a head of garlic broken into cloves
bay leaves*
olive oil

Heat oil in roasting pan, toss in vegetables cut into small chunky bits add bay leaves and roast until everything is crunchy and caramelised and the insides are soft.

Tonight we are eating with berber sprinkled lamb skewers, baba ganoush, cucumber salad (borrowing from  Sydney Foodie with a few changes)

Smashed cucumber salad (I know this as La ban huanggua -  spicy mixed cucumber in Chinese)
I am grateful for Sydney foodie's recipe for reminding me of this. I have such fond memories of eating this dish in China in really hot and humid days.  The crunch of the cucumber and garlic and chillies goes great with a cold beer too...

smashed cucumber salad

2 cucumbers smashed and seeds removed*
1 clove garlic smashed and chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
Chinese white wine vinegar
Chinese Shaoxing wine
Peanut oil

Leave the skin on the cucumber, smash the cucmber with a Chinese cleaver or other heavy knife,  when open remove the excess seedy bits (mine are quite seedy at the moment!). If the smashing doesn't give you small enough pieces break the rest up with your hands.  Breaking or smashing  it rather than cutting it really is a feature of la ban huanggua and gives you a nice chunky texture. Add garlic and chillies and mix.  Heat a small amount of peanut oil in a saucepan and when smoking pour over cucumber, it'll crackle. Then add a little Shaoxing wine and Chinese white vinegar. I think the vinegar really makes it. If you like a little chopped coriander is good too.