Kohlrabi...you say what?

On a whim, yes, a real whim, I ordered some Kohlrabi from Wild Organics last week. I have never eaten it but have always admired it bulbous stem and wondered what it tastes like. More on that in a bit!

I ordered 4 bulbs and then they sat and stared at me until I got going with my weeks menu planning and they were looking like they needed cooking. So in my new "no waste" policy I decided to see if I could make a bake of sorts with them.

I had heard they taste like broccoli, so I thought of all the nice flavours that go with brassicas - smoked bacon, nutmeg, parsley, cream...yes!

These were turned into a delicious dish that was quick to make after peeling the awkward shaped vegetables...

Kohlrabi is indeed part of the Brassica family so it falls into a winter vegetables for my climate. The stem is the swollen part that you can see in the photo on the left. This is the edible part. If the leaves were fresher and perhaps more of them, I would have used them in a cabbage type meal.



So this is the recipe:

4 large kohlrabi bulbs, peeled and cubed
A large bunch of parsley
2 cloves of garlic
A packet free range bacon
3 egg yolks
250ml cream
Salt
Pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
Dry chilli flakes
Parmesan cheese

Melt a tablespoon of butter, add the two crushed cloves of garlic and fry lightly. Add the chopped bacon and cook well.

Add the cubed kohlrabi and toss in butter then allow it to cook gently until slightly cooked. Turn your oven on to 180 deg C.

While that is cooking, mix the cream with some salt and pepper and egg yolks and about a handful of grated parmesan as well as the chopped parsley and nutmeg.

When kohlrabi is soft add to a baking dish, pour the sauce over, pushing the vegetable under the sauce.

Bake for about 30 mins. Serve warm with a salad.

And yes, it does taste like broccoli!

Linking up at Simple Lives Thursday

Gobble gobble munch munch

Spinach, kale, brassica’s – one of them on our plate every night.

Brassica’s have to be munched before the white moth comes a visiting and they bolt in the heat. Spinach and kale have to be gobbled quickly to make space for the new season vegetables.

Here are some of the things we did with these great veggies this week:

Kale and mushroom lasagna was truly the star of the week. A while ago my wonderful Sister sent me River Cottage Veg and with each glut of veggies over the last year or so it has been a favourite of mine to dip into.

We have so much kale (Cavelo Nero) that even when we had cut a full basket of the leaves there was more for many, many days to come. Kale is a cut and come again veggie and it grows taller than a person. {Blushing} I only found this out recently and realize that my 12 Kale plants are in the wrong place.

I am looking for a new permanent home for them in the garden so that the bed they are in can be freed up for seasonal crops.

Lucky for you, if you want to try this delicious recipe, you do not need to buy the book as Hugh has kindly put it here for free! It really is worth the effort!

 

Calzone made with spinach and mushrooms and a rich garlicky herby sauce was supper last night. I made a very good tasting pizza crust using refined spelt which was very yummy when stuffed with the sauce and loads of mozzarella.

Steamed spinach with butter and nutmeg was a side dish a couple of times too. The thing with spinach is to find the sweet spot…don’t cook too long because then it looks, smells and tastes like old dishcloths and cook too short and your teeth will squeak for ages afterwards.

Once it’s cooked drain and put in a bowl with a good knob of butter, salt, pepper and a healthy grating of fresh nutmeg. Delicious!

Kale was the green veggie of choice in morning carrot and orange juice. I pick one leaf per person (6) otherwise the juice is to green for young taste buds.

And of course our asparagus is feeding us too!

One of my 8 plants seem to have died over winter, but I cut the spears of the other 7 as they are about 7 – 10cm long and if there is not enough for all wanting, I store them in a glass with spring water while I harvest over the next three days until we have enough for all the gobblers. You cannot leave them attached to the crown once they are long enough for harvest, as almost overnight they start opening up to the beautiful ferns.

The first batch of asparagus was sneakily munched by Superman and I with some hollandaise sauce one evening when nobody was looking J . The spears are delicious lightly steamed and then added to salads with tangy sundried tomatoes, feta and avo on a bed of butter lettuce.

Tomorrow night I have Jamie Oliver’s brassica cannelloni planned…oooh my taste buds can’t wait. That will be the end to our broccoli and cauliflower until next season! This recipe is in his Jamie At Home recipe book.

What are you eating from your garden at the moment?

Cauliflower - the queen of the garden

Right now we are eating cauliflower....lots of it.

There is a circular flower bed in our pool area which has been the recipient of a good nitrogen feed ;) for a few years and since last winter I have noticed that heavy feeder crops grow beautifully there.

Our broccoli from winter 2012 was huge, deep rich green and delicious. Our Aubergines from summer 2012 never stopped coming and were given away as we were Aubergined out!

And now the queen has come into her own. There is something special about seeing those huge white heads standing around the base of the fig tree.

The green leaves are massive and once the cauliflower is harvested the chickens feed on a couple a day.

So far they have escaped the white moth and her caterpillar babies which can munch though those leaves in a day!

I made a delicious rich cauliflower cheese last weekend for guests, this week another cauli was added to Mac n Cheese with a lovely rosemary, garlic and bread crumb on top.

But the best recipe was a Jamie Oliver one called "Curried Cauliflower Fritters" from Jamie at Home. And boy, were they delicious.

I am not one who deep fries - ever - well except this once...and I am so glad I did. These were simply gorgeous and made the cauliflower the star of the show, not the normal side dish.

Even my fussy eater could not stop gobbling these delectable treats.

Fried in a crispy beer batter spiced with cumin, curry powder and a bit of chilli these were a hit!

This week in pictures

Just for you, Sis....

Broccoli was repotted

Broad beans really showed up

Compost was bagged for use in winter

The veggie garden that was is no more.

Tiffany looking beautiful

Toby looking buff

Wood was stacked for soon warm fires

Aubergines to come

Aubergines harvested

Garden plan done...so simple...only two areas now.

Promise of things to come

For the last 8 days we have been blessed to have Superman's Dad with us while my mom in law is overseas. He is a gentle loving kind Oupa and he fitted into our lives so nicely. He quietly got on and did his day time thing, listening in on our Bible study in the morning, the school time reading and watching the busy in and out of the afternoons.

Asparagus today

He was also so full of praise for our vegetables that were fresh from the garden most nights. He hasn't eaten broad beans since he was a kid and he entertained us over dinner times with his stories of growing up around South Africa in different little towns as his father was a station master on the SA railways.

He related fond memories of his lambs he raised, the huge peaches that grew in their orchards and how the local boys always tried to steal them. It was so lovely to hear him say that we have done a good job in the garden. It didn't puff us up it just gave us some well needed encouragement at this time in our journey.

I have thought about his comments over the last few days about the vegetables that make it to our table within an hour of harvest and wondered whether I was taking it for granted. I look at all the work we have put in, the hard times (there have been many of them), the hours planning, sourcing seeds, compost making, weeping over lost crops and failures, excitement as the promise of the next season comes...I have come up with a resounding "no", I do not take it for granted.

Berry blossom

We have worked hard to get to this stage where I more or less know what I am doing. The hardwork of the first years establishing beds, feeding the soil, learning the ropes are all paying off. I know there is still so much more to learn but the pace almost seems slower now that we have laid out all the areas that we can and now we need to learn how to better our production levels.

 Most evenings we have some offering from the garden on the table. This is amazing for me when I think back to our first year when at this time of the year we had only salads and some peas.
  
This early spring season we are eating spinach, broad beans, peas and asparagus. We have a small crop of about 10 broccoli plants growing around the fig tree and these will be ready in the next few week. This really surprised me as I had some plants needing a place to grow from seedlings and the only spot I had was a pretty undernourished bed near the pool where a tree once stood. We moved the fig in there in winter and added the broccoli. This area has enjoyed full sun all winter and the reward is in the soon to eat brassica!

Strawberry setting fruit

The promise of strawberries is showing in the baskets around the home. We have found this to be the best way to grow strawberries and the most contained way for growing new plants from runners. Last year was not a good strawberry season...funny that...one season its glut and another want.

I grew peas wherever I could this year...in the tubs where we had planted asparagus which dies back in winter, around the long awaited garlic, in between the beds where we have more asparagus.

Most of the peas are eaten raw as we go about the garden, but we will pick the remainder in the next weeks to blanch and freeze for later eating.

And my favourite flower is in full bloom...I know they are edible and gorgeous in salads, but I enjoy then trailing up the fence and sprawling around the pond. They are a bright face amongst the green.

What's growing in your garden?

Winter garden catch-up

I have said many times before how grateful I am that we can grow veggies year round due to our climate. Our winters are cold and wet but we do not get such low temperatures that frost becomes a problem. Our days range from 5 - 13 degrees C most days and as long as there is no storm raging, like yesterday, we can enjoy some mild sunshine each day.

This is what is growing and going on in our garden at the moment...Hart Nursery has a winter special on for shrubs and trees so when I was in the area last week I picked up a lemon, olive, clementine and blueberry bush to plant. Winter is a good time to establish new trees and shrubs.

Lemon tree planted under my daughter's bedroom window

Olive tree planted neat compost heap

Clementine planted in reworked potato planters that didn't work. Chives are going to be planted around the bottom as a companion planting to keep away aphids.

Blueberry bush in a wine barrel. We need to get another variety for pollination but the nursery didn't have at the time I was there.

Broad beans growing strong, sprouting broccoli and purple cauliflower and beets in front.

Garlic looking good with self seeded calendula growing behind..so pretty.

Peas gone crazy and the wind knocked over their support yesterday, should be able to start eating some this week.

Desperately trying to finish up the lettuce so that we can get the next planting in of brassicas which are waiting in newspaper pots.

This week we harvested some of the purple cauli and sprouting broccoli for a delicious vegetable curry.

I am picking armloads (keep forgetting the basket inside) of chard a couple times a week which is always yummy no matter how we make it. 5 ways with spinach post coming up soon!

So that's it for the garden update....how's yours growing? Are you in winter or summer?

The charm of an Autumn garden

Before we left for the UK we did a big push in the garden to get everything planted. This work has paid off as the warm days that occured here, while Son and I we freezing in the Norther Hemisphere, have caused all the growth we needed to get a head start on our future winter harvests. Over the next while we will sow seeds for the late winter.

Autumn is such a lovely time as the bugs have subsided, the hectic harvests of summer are over, the warmth of the midday is mellow and I can feel a gentleness settle around my garden. Here is what we have growing at the moment:

Mixed salad leaves (front) Swiss Chard (back)

Beets

Bok Choi

Broad Beans

Sprouting broccoli as we have much more success with it that ones that need to develop a full head

New granadilla as our one planted in 2008 died at the end of summer

Sage - to be used in cooking but mainly grown for sage and lemon grass soap.

Peas with quick growing salads in between

Onion - red and white

Herbs - borage, last of basil and yarrow.

Why my dogs love "stock day" and 2 recipes

One of my sweet children asked me: "Surely you are not going to put that picture on your blog?" when this child saw the following picture in the taking....


Well, I did! (blush blush) However this is the reason my dogs love stock day! They know that when I have poured off the liquid and the bones and skin are left, they get the bits and pieces. Our big white dog starts to lick his chops when the delicious stock smells waft through the house...he walks in and nudges me every now and again as if to say: "Done yet mum?"...

My precious baby lamb a.k.a. Lucky lies under my feet the whole time jumping up the moment I move...but then dinner time comes (or breakfast depending on what time I start) and they are satisfied.


I never re-use the beef meat that is left over, it tastes like cardboard after 12 hrs in the stock pot, but the chicken I cook for shorter and can be used in pies or bakes. On Sunday I made a delicious chicken and broccoli bake from the stock chicken. This year I planted sprouting broccoli and purple broccoli and we can cut from the plants at least once a week and I had a nice bowl full to use.

I steamed the broccoli, spiced up the chicken with salt and pepper and made a white sauce with a good dollop of mustard. This was all combined, topped with grated cheese and baked. Served over brown rice it was delicious.

My lemon tree is full of lemons...my first tree died in the transplant from pot to ground, but this one, in a pot, is doing fabulously.

I found a delicious recipe on a young girls blog who is friends with my daughter....

And because hers looks so much better than mine did, you can pop over to Beautiful Girlhood to take a look at the picture and get the recipe....it was very yummy.