Homemade Harissa Paste

This is just for African Aussie...homemade harissa paste.

We are still cooking through Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals with the kids and have not found a single meal to be anything other than fabulous. A few weeks back we needed harissa paste to mix into the yoghurt as part of a pita bread filling. This is how we made it...it was full of flavour and the spicyness was well balanced with the yoghurt.

10 red chillies (we had just picked the last chillies from our plants and had 10 red ones!)
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 salt
A good glug of olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground coriander and caraway seeds. (I didn't have ground so used the motar and pestle to do it)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin

Remove stems and seeds of chillies and add to a bowl with all the rest of the ingredients.

Using a hand blender mix it to a fine paste.

We used had immediately and the other is stored in the fridge with a little oil on top for the next time.

I can feel it coming in the air....

The days are changing and getting that muggy December heat and the garden harvests are picking up. So once I had put the gammom in the oven for cold meats tomorrow with family we went for a look see in the garden.

When picking gems I noticed that the dreaded mildew is starting on some squash leaves. Despite everything we have tried over the last years, this thing can bring us to our knees. I now just harvest what I can right up until we pull the plants up and throw the infected parts away.

Lucky the potato dog struck again aided by her side-kick and they dug up a 5L bucket of wonderful potatoes. We are already planning meals with these crisp beautiful spuds.

We also tackled our chillies today and got 3 jars pickled.

Tomatoes are ripening all over the place...big ones, small ones, red ones, yellow ones....

And then my gorgeous red onions are ready to pick. I just leave them in the ground to carry on growing until I want their sweet flavour on or in something. This is the first time I have manged to get onions to full growth...so happy I persevered.

The predictability of a vegetable garden....

With a veggie garden comes the predictable work of composting, sowing and watering. Then the growing, nuturing and the harvesting. We have been away over the long weekend enjoying time with Superman's parents and friends. We came home to a giant marrow which was a lovely surprise as we brough home 5 extra people with hungry tummies and veggies stretched out meals!

When our house guests left we had a chance to attend to the gardens....this is some of what we did:

Weeded one of the 4 areas, picked a colander of beans and lots of spinach. Then we cut off the Brussell Sprouts (yes there are two girls in there).
Our carrots have grown beautifully and straight...last year we were given the tip to grow then straight after harvesting brassicas. I looked at this sandy soil with no added compost and was doubtful....but here they are - so gorgeous. Our youngest visitor had great delight in finding them and pulling them up one evening, so we have now been harvesting some each evening or just for a snack.
Our butternuts have formed fruit and while there have been some bees and bugs in the flowers, I haven't left pollination to chance and have hand pollinated what I can.
My lavender needed a hard cutting back so this is now drying and I plan to make some Amish "headache pillows" with it as well as some little pouches to put in clothes cupboards.
Our chilli bushes are heavy with ripe chillies...time to get a-pickling.

For the love of coriander

It goes by many names - coriander...dhania...cilantro....but I love it no matter what you call it.

At the moment we have loads of coriander growing just outside my kitchen door interplanted with the chilli bushes.

With all the rain we have been having we have been enjoying lots of curries...which if I am honest is just and excuse for me to use my coriander :-) However last night we had Peanut Butter Chicken...here's how:

1kg deboned chicken breast cubed marinated in:
~80ml soya sauce
~60ml lemon juice
~30ml brown sugar
~2 cloves
~1 star anise
~1 chilli
~10cm piece of lemon peel - heat all of these til sugar melts and pour over chicken. Leave to marinate for 40 mins.

Make the peanute butter sauce by:
~ fry one chopped onion, 10cm grated ginger & 4 cloves of garlic in some peanut oil.
~ add 1 small chopped chilli
~ add 300ml crunchy peanut butter
~ add 1 can of coconut milk

Heat and then allow to stand on a low heat while you fry the marinaded chicken in batches. I used peanut oil for this too.



When all the chicken is cooked, add back to the pan and pour peanut butter sauce over the chicken. Serve on basmati rice with chopped chillies and COPIOUS amounts of coriander.

Tis the season to be pickling....

Tralalalalalaaaa.........

Today I did some pickling....

I used Jane's Delicious Kitchen recipe book for two of the recipes...Hot Diggedy Chilli Jelly and Squash in Olive Oil.

The chilli jelly is nicely hot, not unbearable...

10 red chillies
2 sweet peppers
6 cups sugar
Tablespoon of lemon seeds (pectin rich)
1/3 cup lemon juice.

Blend chillies and sweet peppers, heat to boiling point. Add other ingredients then boil until set. Put into sterilized jars - it yielded 2 500ml jars.

The marrows were a little more complicated, and to be fair, buying the book is highly recommended. I have to harvest all our marrows small now as if I leave them on the plant they get stung.

Then I pickled the chillies we picked this morning in my simple mixture from last year.

The bigger chillies were picked a while back and are drying....

Come walk with me....

Another hard day in the garden...I am at the point now where I am thinking: "Enough is ENOUGH!" but we need to finish what we started. Everything is taking shape and my vision is meshing with Supermans after having some differences.

Today my son helped him build a little raised bed around the remaining trees...one is an indigenous Elder which the bees love and I can't think of the other name. Underneath the tree closest to the pond I have planted Arum Lillies which I got from other parts of the garden. They are water loving and hopefully when I get some tadpoles they may like to make their home inside the lillies.

If you walk up the garden path with the house on the left this is what you will see...




We also built another little planted next to the orange tree and I planted some Lemon Verbena and Evening Primrose in it. I also planted a purple chili bush...not sure of it's name...it just looked so colorful.

While the guys were busy, the girls sowed more seed into the newspaper pots. I hope we have planted enough now to see us through to the end of summer as I am running out of surfaces to keep the seedlings in the sun.

A little more canning

This past Sunday we picked all our chillies and rhubarb and canned them. I made a green chilli sauce that will test anyones manhood! I simple chopped the stalks off, and put them in a pot with onions, a couple of tomatoes and some sugar. I then cooked until soft and then used my stick blender to smooth.



Then I tried a recipe from Balls Book of Canning for my rhubarb. A very interesting Rhubarb and Orange Chutney was the result.







Then on Tuesday we bought 5kgs of delicious ripe tomatoes and I made pasta sauce which I use as a base for many dishes. This is made simply by chopping the tomatoes, adding some onion, garlic, celery, basil and grated carrot.



When it is reduced I use my stick blender to make it smooth. I prefer to freeze this rather than can as I have more space in my freezer than in my cupboards.

For the love of Mexican food!

There are a few things that really get my tastebuds all fired up. I love love love coriander and I love love mild chillies - Superman does the "burn-and-sweat" ones. About 3 years ago we watched a movie called "Tortilla Soup" which you have to watch with things to eat. As this "chef-dad" prepares the most delectable feasts each night for his daughters, your own tastebuds start crying out for food.

Thus began my journey into Mexican food. I taught myself to make a killer tortilla soup and this is our families all time favorite meal...no doubt here! But I also learned how to use chillies and coriander in many other dishes.



I have taught myself how to make killer frijoles...want to know how? Well, soak and cook your red beans (you can also buy canned ones) then fry some onion and garlic and a little fresh chilli. Then add the beans and cook until soft. Mash them with your wooden spoon as you stir. Then add two heaped tablespoons of cream cheese and voila!



My chilli plants are still dripping with chillies and even though we prefer to eat them fresh, we may have to can a few more bottles. We have 9 chilli plants of different varieties and strengths, so I just pick and pickle them together.



A simple easy Mexican meal that I whip up at least once a week is spicy mince served with frijoles, homemade quacamole, grated cheese, flour tortillas, lettuce and tomatoe. This takes no longer than 20 minutes to get to the table, especially if I have lots of hands to help.

No much to do in the garden.

Besides for planting some carrot and baby spinach seeds there was not a lot to do in the garden.

Therefore the kids and I tackled the last apples and made half into a yummy rhubarb and apple crumble and the other I made apple and rhubard butter.

I didin't follow a recipe but this is what I did: cored, peeled and chopped lots of apples and about 10 stalks of rhubarb. I steamed them then added them to a pot with 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinamon and 1 teaspoon mixed spice. I then let it reduce and put it into clean sterilized jars.



We then prepared the chillies by washing them and taking off the stalks. Then I made the same pickling liquid as last week and pickled 4 jars of them.

I also wanted to make a chilli relish so I used about 20 chopped chillies with 2 tomatoes, 1 onion, 125ml sugar and a tablespoon of garlic. I boiled this up then blended it up with my stick blender and put it in a jar. My hubby tasted it and said it was super hot!

We have so many chillies now that a friend will be the lucky recipient of a jar or two!

Friends are always friends

Mid 2009 was a tearful time for my family as we said goodbye to two families that have been our closest friends for many years. The one was a permanent goodbye as this family relocated to a farm up country, some 12 hours solid driving away.

The other family was joining them for a shorter period of up to 2 yrs to help them with some changes that needed to made to farm houses.

To our delight one of the families have returned for a 5 week stay - joy of joys! With them came lots of wonderful farm produce.




Our other friends who are staying on the farm until December have embraced farm life in every sense of the word and I was thrilled to discover a jar of their homegrown honey in my gifts. They also sent me some bees wax to try in my soaps. We all couldn't resist a teaspoon of this honey the moment it was uncovered.



We have enjoyed eating some of the corn freshly steamed on the cob, but the majority has been blanched and frozen.



The chillies are being eating fresh but will need to be preserved this weekend.



The box of organic apples have been slowly munched through by all of us but there remain quite a few which I want to try to make apple butter with this weekend.

I know my friends both read this blog - so thank you dearest ones. You are missed.

Preserving Chillies

Today I pickled our chillies. We had about 100 of them and last year I felt so bad as we didn't get to eating them all fresh so a lot were wasted. I really prefer my chillies fresh but I didn't want to repeat last years mistakes.



From this first picking we were able to bottle 3 jars which should do us for a while. I think we will get a second smaller batch still this season as there are still some flowers on the plants.



I used a simple pickle recipe by combining 1 part water with 4 parts vinegar, 1 part olive oil and a teaspoon of salt. Boil that up for 10 minutes while you trim the chillies....note the surgical gloves....I have heard of folk getting serious burns from working with chillies.




Pack them tightly into the sterilized jars and then pour the hot liquid over. Seal tightly, no need to water bath them. They should keep like this for a good few months, but need to be refridgerated once opened.

Seed saving and other happenings

We had a good session in the garden this morning and I am glad to have started early as it was very very hot here today.



We picked some corn which we ate for lunch and pulled up a pumpkin plant which still had lots of male flowers but no fruit. The flowers were stuffed with mozarella, battered and fried. Delicious.



I set dear daughter to picking about 100 chillies which weighed in at 600g. I will need to process them this week into hot sauce but I need to buy small jars first.

We pulled up our spent runner beans but found that there were some huge pods still attached. They would be too tough to eat so we have peeled them and they are drying. I will use them next year. I have saved some fire tongue beans as well as Ghost Rider pumpkins and carbon tomatoes.



I also had the opportunity to use my newish vacuum sealer. We have been eating beans like crazy that they kiddos are all complaining. So I blanched the 400g we picked to day and then sealed them and froze them for later one when we are missing summer beans.



Our garden looks a litle bare as we only have two corn patches left and everything is in its growing phase but I know that buried there in the ground are turnips, beets, spring onions, carrots, peas, broad beans, salads and spinach.

Early in the morning....

With summer in full swing we have to work in the garden early in the morning to avoid the heat. At 6 a.m. the garden has its fresh look and it is my favorite time to peep under leaves to see what is growing. This morning I found...

Chillies...



Sweet potatoes having recovered from a brutal overhaul by the chickens....



Our Ghost-Rider pumpkin which we planted in the compost heap in November...



We then dug out one batch of potatoes which should do us for 2 weeks and planted cabbage in their place. The radishes that we planted last week are up.



Broccoli and cauliflower went into the other free bed.



I pulled the last carrots (will have to plant more soon!), picked the prolific beans and all these cucumbers....



By 9 am we were done, but there was still weeding to be done, the sun was too hot, so we called it a day.