Cooking – Page 3 – MakeCookGrow.com

Blood Orange Marmalade and Reading

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MARMALADE

The citrus trees are loaded with fruit: orange, yellow, lime green and orange with a red blush. The latter is blood orange which fruit from about August to October. Slightly sweet with a lovely aroma, I usually make gelato, a family favourite when they are in season but this time I made marmalade.

The actual word MARMALADE is under attack from the EU ( European Union) Traditionally, a spread made from citrus fruit is called marmalade and a spread made from other fruit is called jam. The EU want to change marmalade to citrus marmalade and all other jams will be called marmalade. Poor Paddington Bear wont be able to share his marmalade sandwich with royalty anymore. Let them eat citrus instead!

Making any fruit spread requires preparing the fruit. Usually it is washed, dried, peeled, de-cored and chopped into small pieces. A very sharp knife is essential for this task. I use a whetstone to sharpen our Japanese knives. I submerge the whetstone in a jug of water for about half an hour and then place it on a towel with the coarser side facing up.

To prepare the whetstone I fill a jug with water and gently put the stone in until it is fully submerged.

Gently swipe the blade, at a slight angle, over the stone. Do the full length of the blade in one sweep. I do this three times, then turn the knife over, repeat. Wipe the blade clean on a cloth and repeat the process using the other, finer grade side of the stone. Carefully wash the knife. Now the blade is very sharp. Just right for preparing fruit for marmalade.

To prepare the fruit use a peeler to lightly skim the peel off the pith, the white layer between the skin and fruit. It doesn’t matter if the skin breaks during peeling as it’s chopped finely later to go in with the fruit. Then use a knife to cut off the pith which can be very bitter and tough. Cut the fruit in half longways, then into half again. Save the pips. Remove any white fleshy bits from the centre, then cut the fruit into smaller pieces. Not too small as marmalade is best with some fruity pieces still remaining after cooking.

Then scrape the cut up fruit, thinly sliced peel and any juice into a pot, if you’re making the marmalade on the stove top, or a glass bowl if you’re making it in the microwave. Knot the saved pips in a piece of muslin and put in with the fruit. I couldn’t find my muslin, so used a washed handkerchief. Add the sugar and water and put to cook. I actually added some Jam Setta pectin to the mix as it was too thin for our taste. I haven’t added the recipe as there are so many online and it’s best to find a method to suit how you like to cook.

I prefer using the microwave as it is quicker and seems cleaner. Using a pot on the stove top seems to make everything sticky! That is obviously the traditional way. It is also the way I made the marmalade this time. I’ve never made Blood Orange Marmalade before and felt I could watch when it began to thicken more easily if it was in a pot on the stove top.

When the marmalade was nearly at the ‘set’ point I boiled a kettle of water to pour over the jars I’d already sterilised in the dishwasher but mostly to do the lids which had been hand washed. I let them air dry then poured in the beautiful smelling marmalade. Online photos show people filling their jars using funnels, I use a soup ladle ( because I have always done it this way!)

Marmalade is simply fruit and sugar with water and sometimes, pectin added. I think it is probably an economical way to make jam, especially if the fruit is growing on your own tree or given to you. Of course, that assumes you have someone who eats marmalade and jam! The glass jars are finitely recyclable and originally were bought with jam or marmalade in them.

READING

Are you a fan of Richard Osman and his Thursday Murder Club series? I’m reading his latest murder mystery called The Last Devil To Die and it is beautifully crafted, full of unexpected twists and turns and humour. It follows the same characters we met in his previous three books The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed. Another smart, funny and warm novel as his retirees ( The Thursday Murder Club) discover and solve a series of events all following on from the murder of their antique dealer friend. Osam deals compassionately with aging, living in a retirement village on the ongoing decline of the husband of one of the main characters. It was a great read!

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Car Batteries, Killing Weeds. and Batch Cooking

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CAR BATTERIES

Last week I wrote about the anomaly between producing electric car batteries and the supply of materials needed to be mined to enable their production. This week I’ll tell you about the battery in my husband’s car. When he had his car serviced, the mechanic said he needed a new battery. So he rang the RAC (Royal Automobile Club who provide road side assistance, insurance, batteries, travel and accommodation and other related services) and a van arrived half an hour later. The serviceman told him they installed the existing battery in 2015. It was guaranteed for two years. It had lasted eight years..

VINEGAR AND WEEDS

Vinegar is a multi purpose liquid. Essential in so many recipes, a great cleaner ( avoid using it on porous surfaces as it can etch the material), a disinfectant and also a stain remover. I’ve bought 4 litres of vinegar for a different purpose; I’m killing the weeds in the brick paths and paving. After the wettest winter I can remember for years and being away from the house often, the weeds are taking over.

I used to mix it with salt and detergent, but now I just tip it into a spray bottle and twist the nozzle to a very directed, narrow spray and hit the weeds! It’s important to only spray the vinegar onto pathways or paving as it will alter the ph of the soil. Vinegar will kill ants, spiders and mosquitos but also bees, so be mindful of this when spraying.

Usually the weeds will begin to wilt within 24 hours. I let them really dry out then remove the residual plant with a hoe. Sometimes , if it is really sunny, the weeds will be dry enough to just sweep up. Later, I’ll use a pressure washer to really clean but I really like the moss growing between the pavers in some areas. We never have moss!

WINTER COOKING

Zucchinis were 49c each at the green grocer so I knew I’d be making a big pot of ratatouille. Traditionally, the French made ratatouille using zucchini, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, plus extra virgin olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. We don’t eat eggplant ( well, I do, but nobody else likely to eat my ratatouille does) but I will add other vegetables which are abundant at the time. So, sometimes, sweet potato, or pumpkin or corn appear.

Ratatouille is a great side dish. I drizzle a tiny amount of extra virgin olive oil over it. I especially enjoy a bowl of it for lunch with crumbled fetta. At the moment I am resisting cutting the crust off the loaf of sourdough I have just taken out of the oven which would soak up some of the lovely juices, but the loaf tears easily if it’s cut while it is still hot!

This is goats’ milk fetta and doesn’t crumble well but tastes very good.

My Mother has been in hospital and then respite for a month or so, so we were going up and down to visit her. We’d stay for four days then come back, do what we needed to do here, then go back. We’d leave her for an hour or so while she had lunch and often enjoy going to a cafe or restaurant. Then we’d have something really light for dinner. When we’d get back to Perth there were a few things I’d quickly thaw from the freezer for dinner, but eventually the freezer was bare!

So when we settled for scrambled eggs on crumpets ( we had no bread for toast) I knew it was time to get cooking. I have restocked the freezer with tikka masala ( I microwave the rice while the vegetables boil to serve with it) and pad thai. We intersperse these with salmon fillets and occasionally, eggs! I read blogs about people who batch cook for a fortnight at a time and I’m so inspired but never actually follow through, but a week at a time is working. I was also inspired by the bloggers who precook all their meals for when they’re away but that is a stretch too far when every minute seems to be committed at the moment!

I have rarely used meal kits as I have always made our meals ‘from scratch’ except I rely quite a bit on red and green curry pastes as a basis for several things we frequently eat. Time poor and trying to do an enormous number of jobs in three days, I bought the tikka masala and the pad thai kits after seeing both brands recommended on Insta. They were delicious! Unfortunately, the same site recommended two new flavours of chocolate bars and I bought both of those, too. They were also delicious but long gone.

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Capers and Some Interesting Road Safety Statistics

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CAPERS

As I arranged some capers on my smoked salmon sandwich, I wondered where they came from, did they grow on a bush and do we grow them in Australia? Capers are the edible flower buds of the capparis spinosa, the caper bush. It is a prickly bush which grows wild across the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. Caper plants also grow well in the hot, dry regions of Australia. The capers I ate at lunchtime were pickled and bottled in Italy from ‘imported produce.’

Once picked, they are pickled to preserve them. Interestingly, preserved nasturtiums seeds can be used in place of capers. They are considered to be more pepppery than capers. The seeds are pickled in a brine of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper corns.

Although I don’t think people eat huge amounts of capers at any one time, one of the Australian growers claim capers contain two flavonoid compounds, rutin, which strengthens capillaries and prevents platelets clumping in blood vessels, and quercetin, considered to be anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and also an analgesic. So eat up and think of the benefits!

Now that your taste buds are tingling, I’ll share an amazing French Potato Salad recipe. It’s not creamy and thick with mayonnaise, but really delicious and, you guessed it, includes CAPERS! This French Potato Salad is more like a traditional German Potato Salad. I used small red potatoes because they taste so good and look attractive.

FRENCH POTATO SALAD

Try to make this at least one day before you need it for the flavours to blend and develop. You need

• 1 kg ( 2.2lb) potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

• ¼ cp vinegar, any sort you prefer ( I found apple cider vinegar was not sharp enough)

• 1/4 cp mild olive oil

• heaped dspn of drained capers, 2 dspn chopped parsley, 2 dspn chopped shallots, or red onion or chives

• salt and pepper

1. Cut the potatoes to bite size pieces, put in a pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Test doneness with a fork. Drain the potatoes, leave for a few minutes to cool slightly, then while potatoes are still warm, tip them into a bowl.

2. Shake the vinegar and oil in a screw capped jar to amalgamate then pour over the chunks of potato and stir. Repeat about every five minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed. It doesn’t take long. Add some pepper and a good pinch of salt and stir again.

3. Stir and add the capers, chopped chives ( or red onion or thinly sliced shallots ) and the parsley.

4. Leave to cool then stir. All the liquid will now be absorbed. Cover and put in the fridge. This French Potato Salad will improve in flavour overnight and is even better the second day.

There are so many varieties of French Potato Salad. Although the basics are the same, some recipes add chopped gherkins, some add anchovies and some add celery for crunch. Many recipes include garlic in the dressing. It depends on what you have available and what you like!

This French Potato Salad is suitable for lactose and gluten intolerant people plus suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

I had to open a new jar of capers the second time I made this salad and although they were packed in Australia the capers had come from Morocco.

ROAD SAFETY STATISTICS

All statistics referred to in this section were obtained from August/September 2023 HORIZONS magazine printed by the RAC W.A. The information was collected from a number of member surveys.

Recently the sun was shining briefly after freezing cold days with frequent rain so we went for a drive along the beach. I was the passenger and was surprised at how many drivers along side me were using their mobile phones. It is illegal in Western Australia to use a mobile phone when driving. Then I read in the Horizons magazine that 15% of drivers surveyed thought using their mobiles to text, phone or watch movies is acceptable at traffic lights. At one set of traffic lights the female next to me was texting when she arrived, kept texting waiting for the lights to change and continued texting as she drove off. The survey revealed 27% of all respondents had used their mobile phones when driving and 44% of drivers under 30 admitted they they’d done it in the last year.

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In the same survey 93% say of people say they generally use private cars to get to work/study, 12% catch the train, 9% work from home, 7% walk and 5% cycle, including e-bikes. There’s some overlap as sometimes commuters used one or the other method of transport. Although people have varied reasons for driving their own cars to work the train network in Perth has been extended in the past few years. We were once regular train users to go to the Art Gallery WA, the Museum, to eat in Northbridge and shop in the City but the last two journeys were marred by unsociable behaviour. In fact, on one journey, many of us got off at the first station and went down a carriage rather than be abused. When we talked about this with friends, they agreed it was a problem but not so bad during the usual going to and from work times. They are the times we try to avoid! Do you feel safe on the train?

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Home Ownership, Happiness and Household Things

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DOES HOME OWNERSHIP MAKE YOU HAPPY?

Australia is experiencing ever increasing inflation with no end in sight. The cost of food, fuel, insurance, electricity and consumer goods rises every week. Home owners with mortgages are experiencing regular increases in their repayments and most are feeling the pinch. The cost of living continues to rise. ( Mortgage stress is considered to be making repayments greater than 25% of the homeowner’s post tax income. It is estimated more than 30% of West Australians with mortgages are already in this position)

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This poses the question: Does home ownership make you happy? A leading psychologist in New Zealand, Professor Robert MacCullioch, an expert on Money and Well Being refers to the cognitive bias, the ‘Endowment Effect’ which claims human beings place more value on the things they own.

The article also claims that people who own their own homes are richer and this results in greater happiness. This is because people feel they have control of their money. Home ownership also means you move less often and children perform better at school. Other research claims areas where home ownership is high have better schools and children achieve better outcomes. They also have greater access to services within their community. There’s references to higher social status, better mental health, financial security and independence, as well as less crime in areas of high home ownership.

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This is supported by research both internationally and in New Zealand which consistently supports the belief that home owners are more satisfied with their lives. Some studies cite psychological security ( the home is a safe haven), privacy, equity in the home, choice about where you live, a sense of belonging and being part of a community as important components of home ownership.

So what about countries where renting is more common? Countries such as Germany where more than 50% of people rent have laws that protect the renter, obligations about maintaining the properties and long leases. Traditionally most people rented rather than purchasing their own homes as a result of the substantial deposit required to get a mortgage. Culturally, renting was accepted as a way of life. Due to the shortage of housing stock in Germany anyone wanting to buy their own home would more commonly buy land and build a house. Similar situations exist throughout Switzerland and France.

HOUSEHOLD THINGS

Are you building or renovating your kitchen? I’d like to suggest you place the rubbish bin in a pullout ‘drawer’ below the area where most food preparation will occur. Then you can just pull it out and clean the cutting board or bench top by wiping everything straight into the bin.

This terrible photo of the slide out rubbish bin shows how easily I can swipe rubbish into the bin from the bench top where I do most of the food preparation. I know I should make compost from fruit and vegetable scraps but past experiences make it plain compost is not my forté.

I frequently make sourdough bread. This time I added caraway seeds to the dough and sprinkled some on top before the loaf went into the oven. Lovely flavour. I’ll do that again.

Our greengrocer is full of many different types of apples at the moment. I bought too many for us to eat raw so I stewed some and made tarts and an apple pie. Disappeared quickly.

Now that we have two or three different bins for different sorts of rubbish I use spatulas to clean jars and tins as clean as possible before washing them to go into recycling. Some things can be swished out with hot water and added to whatever you’re cooking or the soup pot.

Thought I’d try a supermarket brand of baked beans having read a few articles saying these items are the same as brand name products. I am sure some are, but not the baked beans I bought. Never mind, they went into the pot of minestrone and tasted wonderful after mixing with everything else.

Minestrone with home brand baked beans. I had to dilute it with more stock as it just got thicker and thicker. Three days of slightly different soup depending on what I added to use up or just dilute it!

Made cheese and sweetcorn muffins to have with the soup. The leftover corn went into the soup, too. Recipe I used (here).

Today is WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY. Well, that’s easy to celebrate!

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How to Sterilise Jars, Preserving Lemons, Pickling Cucumber and Quick Soup

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STERILISING JARS

Glass jars for storing food can be used and re-used multiple times. They are strong, easy to see the contents and easily cleaned and reused. Of course, they are useful for storing many other things, too, but they are perfect for food. So how do you sterilise a glass jar for food storage?

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For each method you begin by washing the jars in hot soapy water, rinse but don’t towel dry.

1. Set the oven to 110°C, place the jars on an oven tray, place in the oven for 15 minutes, carefully remove and leave to cool.

2.Alternatively if you have a pot deep enough you can set the washed jars in it, cover with water and boil for 10 minutes. Remove carefully and leave to cool.

3. Or you could place washed jars in the microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove carefully and allow to cool.

HOW TO PRESERVE LEMONS

It’s citrus season in Western Australia and I use fresh lemons and limes in so many ways. Nearly every style of cuisine involves citrus.

I like to extend the citrus season by preserving some of the lemons. Preserved lemons are pickled in their own juice and salt for three weeks. Originating in Morocco and Middle Eastern recipes I find a little preserved lemon adds zing to everything from salads to stews. Sterilise the jar you want to use to preserve your lemons. A wide opening makes it easy to insert them. Cut off the tops and bottoms after you have washed and dried them. Then cut your lemons into quarters leaving them joined at the base. Spoon two dessert spoons of salt into the jar and spoon more salt into the first lemon. Place it in the bottom of the jar. Continue adding salted lemons, squashing them down and releasing juice. Finally, when the jar is full of salted lemons top up with extra juice.

I push the lemons down with a round wooden ‘stick’ I’ve had forever. I don’t know what it was originally intended for but it’s great for making sauerkraut. And preserved lemons. An upended wooden spoon would do the same job.

Screw on the lid, put the jar into the fridge. Invert the jar each day for three weeks. Then, uncap and remove a quarter. Scrape off any remaining pulp, thinly slice the skin into strips and add to a salad, a stew, a tagine, anything you like.

PICKLED CUCUMBER

The Fruit and Vegetable sections are full of crisp, fresh cucumbers. It’s the coldest and wettest winter we’ve had for years, so salads don’t feature in this house. Raw, cold food doesn’t appeal at all, but the lovely cucumbers do, so I’m pickling them. I still eat them cold but only a little bit at a time.

Pickling cucumbers is easy. Sterilise wide mouthed jars. Make the pickling liquor by putting 2:1 vinegar and water with coriander seeds and mustard seeds in a pot and bring to the boil. Then slice the cucumbers long ways into thin slices. A mandolin would be useful but I don’t have one. Do this while the pickling liquor simmers for about ten minutes. Then leave it to cool.

I added star anise to the pickling liquor because they’re so pretty! Unfortunately, my pickles don’t taste like traditional pickles, which is what I prefer. They taste good, but just not how I usually make them!

Trim the sliced cucumber to fit in your jars. Pack them in closely. When the pickling liquor has cooled pour it carefully into the jars, adding some of the spices. Put the lid on and into the fridge. These are ready to eat the next day.

When I’d filled the two jars I had about a third of a cucumber left. I try very hard not to waste food, so I diced it finely, then gathered yoghurt and garlic. I still had some cut lemons on the bench from earlier so I had lemon juice, too.

I mixed the diced cucumber, a big dollop of Greek yoghurt, a squeeze of lemon juice and some garlic to make tzatziki. Instant afternoon tea. No waste.

TOMATO SOUP

I was asked this week if I had any other suggestions for ‘quick soup’ that doesn’t require lots of chopping or other preparation. It’s good if the ingredients are already in the pantry so you can make it without going shopping. So here is my other speedy, satisfying and very easy soup!

Dice an onion and fry it with two diced cloves of garlic in a big pot. I use diced garlic out of a jar for this (2 tspn) as the juices add to the flavour and it’s all about speed and flavour. Add two cans of crushed/diced tomatoes and three cups of vegetable stock, made from bullion or homemade. Let it bubble away for about 10 minutes, blend, reheat. Serve with a sprig of basil. A little grated cheese on top is nice, too.

This Tomato Soup takes twenty minutes from gathering the ingredients to serving up, including going out the back to pick some basil. I know because I timed it. Serves four big bowls or six smaller bowls or mugs. Delicious. And economical. Let me know if you make it.

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Rice, Mending and Winter Food

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RICE

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Do you eat rice? Rice forms the basis of many diets. It is a tropical crop which can be grown twice a year, in the wet season and in the dry season. It is mostly grown in China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Japan and Pakistan also grow rice. South America, Europe and Australia grow some rice, too.

So, how healthy is rice? Brown rice, which still has the husk on it, is far more nutritious than white rice. But the question really is SHOULD YOU WASH RICE? Traditionally we were advised to wash rice to make it less sticky. According to Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director for Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of South Australia, washing rice before you cook it makes no difference to stickiness.

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Washing is recommended in some countries to remove dust, insects, little stones and husks left from hulling.

There are good reasons to wash rice anyway. The heavy use of plastics in food production means microplastics are being found in all foods including rice. Washing the rice before cooking it can rove about 20% of plastics regardless of the material used in packaging. Rinsing pre-cooked rice can remove 40% of the microplastics.

Washing rice has no impact on bacteria, although cooking it at high temperatures will kill bacteria. Also avoid cooked rice which has been left at room temperature for long periods as it may develop bacteria producing toxins.

More information www.miragenews.com

MENDING

Bought this merino wool cardigan at the end of winter last year. Seem to remember wearing it twice. Got it out on Saturday and as I put it on I realised the shoulder seam had a hole! This was an expensive cardigan so I imagined it lasting a long time.

Inspected the hole. The trimmer had cut too close to the stitching. Investigated all the other seams. They were fine. I can’t remember where I bought it and obviously have no receipt. So, I mended it, using cotton thread. The hardest part of mending was finding a colour close to the colour of the cardigan. Done and wearing it again. Still cross.

WINTER COOKING

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. Western Australia is in the middle of winter. This has been the coldest and wettest June for twelve years. This winter feels like the winters of long ago when I was a child. Raincoats, flannelette sheets, hot water bottle and roaring fires were common then.

All this cold weather means lots of hot meals. The green grocer was bursting with lush, fresh winter vegetables. We filled our baskets with celery, potatoes, zucchini, onions, cucumber and butternut pumpkin, plus pears, mandarins and apples. We also got a salami and some cheese.

So when we got home and unpacked our shopping I began to chop vegetables. The first thing I made was Ratatouille. Such a satisfying cold weather lunch. I used onions, zucchini, diced tomatoes and par- cooked butternut pumpkin. I know, eggplant/aubergine is the traditional vegetable but we don’t eat it. Sometimes I add sweet potato and sometimes pumpkin because I like the pop of colour and the flavour. Tastes great when it’s cooked but wonderful the next day when the flavours have matured. Delicious.

While I was chopping the vegetables I diced onions and carrots. I also chopped the top off the celery stalks where the line is on the stalk. The thinner stalks and even some of the crisp lime green leaves, finely diced, taste good in soup. I added stock, this time made from bouillon as I forgot to thaw some stock from the freezer. There’s no way it would have thawed in a few hours in this weather .

I added some curry paste and left it all to bubble for about 25 minutes. Used the stab blender until it was smooth, then added some broken spaghetti. Actually, rice would probably have been a more likely addition, but I’m not a big fan of rice despite living and still frequently visiting Asian countries where rice is served every meal.

This was served over two days and was very good.

We like toast with soup. Actually, the soup was so thick and filling it was all we had for dinner one night, plus some toast. These two loaves look very rustic! I’ve begun adding more rye to the mix. I also sprinkled poppy seeds on one loaf and caraway on the other. I’ll add caraway seeds to the mix next time. They taste so good!

Winter also means citrus fruit. I love all forms of citrus! I made this lemon cake with lots of lemon juice and then used more juice and zest in the icing.

My ‘go to’ winter citrus cake is a Lemon Drizzle Cake but I didn’t have any mild Greek yoghurt, only sheeps’ yoghurt, so I made this loaf cake.

No risk of scurvy in this house!

We’ve picked many lemons and limes so they will be featuring in our cooking for some time, yet.

Keep warm if you’re in W.A.!

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Easy Dinner and Other Domestic Business

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SALMON PATTIES

The overdue pantry clean and sort produced a tin of pink salmon. Probably bought during one of the pandemic lockdowns, along with a 10 kg bag of rice, baked beans and cans of chickpeas. I don’t think we’ll ever get through the bag of rice. Determined to use the salmon, I searched online and found many recipes for Salmon Patties.

The recipe I chose for Salmon Patties required six ingredients, all to hand. So, I tidied up the weather beaten spring onions when I went out to get two for the recipe, boiled about a cup of potato, took out the jar of breadcrumbs and finally, an egg. All the ingredients went into the food processors and quickly amalgamated into a mixture I could spoon into my hand and shape into patties.

Next time I’d season with salt. According to the recipe, the mix would make eight patties, I made twelve, so make them bigger than mine!

In the evening, I took the plate of Salmon Patties out of the fridge, heated the oil, cooked them until they were golden on both sides and served them with steamed vegetables and wedges of lemon. Very tasty, quick to make and everything to hand. We enjoyed them! Recipe here.

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/salmon-patties/c5b04490-0973-4042-b77d-3c6b3504d141

KITCHEN SCISSORS

I have a rack of knives and a pair of scissors just next to the workbench I use for food preparation. Why scissors? Because they are so useful! From opening packets to snipping herbs and vegetables and even cutting up cold chocolate which refuses to snap, I use scissors. I wash them along with the knives. I also have a pair of scissors in a drawer I use for snipping the stems clean on cut flowers, something I do every few days to prolong their freshness. They get washed in hot, soapy water, too.

ALOE VERA

Twelve months ago a dear friend gave me an aloe vera plant. It is very attractive but also has magic powers! I burnt my hand on a hotplate two weeks ago. It was quite a deep burn. Ran my throbbing hand under cold water for a very long time; every time I took it away from the water it hurt! Our son was staying with us and he cut a piece off the aloe vera plant. I put it on the burn. Relief! When the aloe vera got hot and dry, I cut a little piece off and applied it again. And again, along with a cold compress.

Aloe vera is a cactus like plant which grows well in most climates. Its uses listed online are surprising, but most commonly, it’s recommended for treating sunburn, burns and radiation toxicity. There’s a surprising number of other uses which made me consider this attractive plant in another light!

The aloe vera soothed the pain and limited the swelling. By the next day the burnt area was very stiff and tight and puffy. It slowly settled into a long, hard strip of wrinkled skin. Over the next two weeks the wound cracked and I picked pieces off! Still a bit tight but now there’s just a strip of new pink skin.

PERSIMMON

A favourite in South East Asia, persimmons are in season now. Apparently, once common in Australian gardens, they’re now out of fashion. They are very attractive. My husband brought three home when he’d been shopping so we could try them. I cut one into quarters, removed the core and skin and then cut another in half to scoop the flesh out, like it was a cup.

Easy to prepare and tasty, plus very pretty but I probably wouldn’t buy them again.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

You know I try to avoid food waste! So, leftover bread, buttered and spread with jam, some milk and eggs became pudding one night and breakfast the next day.

The dried cranberries plumped up into delicious taste surprises through the pudding. I added nutmeg and cinnamon to the top before putting it in the oven. Just add cream or icecream.

SHAKING BEEF

Cold and very wet. We’ve had more rain in five days than Perth usually gets in the month of June. So dinner needs to be hot with strong flavours to satisfy the taste buds. Cubed beef is marinated in garlic and sugar plus oyster, soy, sesame and fish sauce then cooked in a hot wok. Some vinaigrette, made from rice wine vinegar, sugar, salt and some thinly sliced red onion is poured over the meat when it is cooked and the rest, with squeezed lime, when it is served. Full of flavour and warmth, we really liked it! This was very good served on rice with beans topped with coriander.

I’ll be making this again!

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Cooking and Eating

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MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

I’ve made a lot of Chocolate Brownies over the years. I’ve misplaced my favourite recipe and tried many others, some quite good, some too rich or sticky and some didn’t really impress. Recently I made a tray of Chocolate Brownies to set for afternoon tea and was then asked for the recipe. Began a serious hunt for my favourite recipe. Although I was unsuccessful, I have culled my recipe books by at least half, even the beautiful ones I thought I might use on day.

So, I went looking online. Online recipes are the reason I wasn’t using most of my recipe book collection! If an online recipe is a success, I print it and keep it in a book or I bookmark it to refer to later. This works well for me.

My search results included a recipe for microwaved Chocolate Brownies. I was intrigued and gathered the ingredients and made it. Quick, easy and I had all the ingredients in the pantry. I don’t know what golden caster sugar is but substituted caster sugar. I also used 100gm of dark intense 91% bitter chocolate, although the recipe called for 75gm of any sort of chocolate, because the block weighed 100gm and who keeps 25gm of leftover chocolate? I know where that would have disappeared to in no time!

Cooked as directed and left to cool. Sliced into twelve generous sized pieces. It is a really delicious slice, not too gooey, not dry but way too easy to eat. The bitter chocolate is just the right balance. Not ‘fudgey’ like so many other slices, but I prefer the bitter flavour and cake-like structure of this brownie.

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/microwave-chocolate-brownies.html

OTHER COOKING

Meanwhile, I was cooking other meals for the next few days. I made a spicy meat sauce to eat with tortillas for dinner. I make the spice mix instead of buying little packets. At dinner time I added bowls of grated carrot, fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped lettuce, grated cheese, tomatoes and salsa so we could make our own tortilla.

This is the mix for homemade Taco Flavouring. Quick, easy, economical. Combine

1 tablespoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon of each garlic powder, onion powder and dried oregano
1 ½ teaspoons of ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
salt and pepper to suit

I mix and store it in a screw cap jar in the pantry. Add about 2 tablespoons of the Taco Mix to 500gm (1.1 lb) of meat. I make three times the above list of ingredients at one time as it keeps well.

We knew we’d be down at my Mother’s place all day Saturday and would be late getting back, so I used the slow cooker to make a hearty beef casserole. I started browning cubed beef, adding onions and garlic before putting that into the slow cooker. Made a gravy from the pan juices, some beef stock and tomato concentrate plus Worcester Sauce. Thickened it a little with plain flour, added some grated black pepper and poured over the meat. Tipped in thawed, frozen vegetables plus some cubed potatoes and left it cooking for about seven hours.

Everything in the pot, lid on and seven hours later, a hearty, hot dinner.

Put some of the slow cooker beef casserole in the freezer and served the rest when we got back from down south. While it was warming, I cooked some shredded cabbage with a drizzle of oil and some cubed bacon. Almost instant dinner.

The other dish on the menu was Toad In A Hole. I know, funny name, but a traditional English recipe my husband has made before and I like to encourage him to cook! He was closely overseen by our son, who has been staying with us for a week while he was completing a course. Our son is a very good cook and gave advice. He also made this luscious gravy to have with the Toad In The Hole.

Shelled a pile of prawns for lunch one day and wondered how prawns are prepared commercially. Turns out they’re lined up on a roller which removes their heads, then splits the shells and spikes from below remove the shell in one piece. Pondered the pile of manually removed shells in front of me, once I’d cleaned my hands under running water followed by rubbing them in a cut lemon.

Went looking for uses for prawn shells. I soon discovered some people suck the prawn heads clean. Eh, no, didn’t appeal, so kept looking. Soon discovered fish stock recipes. Put the shells and heads, or you could use any other fish bits ( total 500g) into water (6ooml) with a chopped up carrot ( should have a chopped stalk of celery, too, but I’d run out.) Boiled for 20 minutes then left to cool before straining it and putting the liquid in a jar in the freezer. I am still considering the numerous online recipes which called for fish stock.

Lots of warming foods to keep us going and the base for some soup. I also have vegetable stock in the freezer.

As always when the family are together, go have yum cha. Luscious little steamed treats. Our favourite yum cha restaurant is always packed, so we get there early and line up. It’s worth it!

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Sweet Chili Chicken Balls, Potato Salad and Garden Trends

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SWEET CHILI CHICKEN BALLS

It’s suddenly quite chilly by dinnertime in our part of Western Australia, so my thoughts turn to hot, tasty dinners. This time I made Sweet Chili Chicken Balls. Try them, they’re quick and easy and taste great.

INGREDIENTS

To make 16 balls, you need

500g chicken mince

2 finely chopped cloves of garlic

I tspn ground ginger

1/4 tspn of each salt and ground pepper

4 tbspn chopped spring ( green ) onion and some more to serve

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup sweet chili sauce.

METHOD

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. The chicken mince I used must have been very moist as I eventually added half a cup of breadcrumbs to get a good, firm consistency. Roll to the size of golf balls and cook in 160°C F/F for 20 minutes. Pour 1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce over the chicken balls and return to the oven for 5 minutes.

I served the chicken balls with roasted potato cooked in duck fat with rosemary and sea salt plus cauliflower and beans. Very nice dinner.

I microwaved the potato wedges for 6 minutes, added a little more melted duck fat, rosemary and sea salt then roasted them in the oven.

NOTE I used spring onion in this recipes as they are growing enthusiastically, but chives would be nice, too.

POTATO SALAD

This easy potato salad can be served warm or cold but I like to leave it to cool so the potatoes really absorb the flavours. Potato salads made with mayonnaise always seem more appropriate for warm weather meals. I’ll serve this tonight, slightly warmed, with German sausages and fried cabbage. It is a cold night dinner.

To make this Potato Salad boil about a 1.5 kg (3lbs) of any potato cut into biggish cubes. Add a generous teaspoon of salt to the cooking water once it is boiling. After about 10 minutes cooking, insert a knife to test if the potatoes are slightly soft, but not mushy! While they’re boiling gather a handful of herbs. I used basil, chives and a small leaf parsley, but just finely chop whatever you have on hand. Dice half a red onion ( I store the remaining half in the fridge in a glass jar)

Marinate the potatoes in 3 tablespoons of vinegar, stirring every now and then for about half an hour. The potatoes absorb most of the vinegar and this adds to the clean flavour of the dish. Then pour half a cup of extra virgin olive oil into a jar, add 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons of vinegar, screw the lid on and shake until the dressing is amalgamated. Strain off any remaining vinegar. Pour the dressing over the potatoes, stir in the onion and herbs and let it sit for a while before serving.

Heat slightly in the microwave before adding the dressing if you prefer to serve the salad warm.

NOTE. I used 25 %food grade acetic acid, known as essig essenz, to marinate the potatoes, which is what would be used in Germany. It breaks down the cell walls and is absorbed effectively into the potatoes. Readily available overseas, harder to access in Australia. This recipe works with ordinary white vinegar too.

Delicious!

CHELSEA GARDEN WEEK NEWS

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The main message from the Chelsea Garden show this year seems to be WEEDS are good! Yes, I reeled in shock, too, especially as I had a massive weeding session planned for the weekend. We’ve been away for two weeks and returned to a tsunami of weeds. Apparently, bees love weeds, they are an important source of nectar. I think it will take me a while to digest this news!

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Another feature noticeable in many gardens is the inclusion of dead wood. Pieces of dead wood, normally tidied up and burnt, should be left to create insect habitats. Insects are key species in healthy ecosystems and need our support to thrive. They are threatened by the removal of trees around houses which are bulldozed to allow high rise apartments. This is particularly relevant in Perth where multiple old houses on big blocks are being bulldozed along with every feature of the landscape. These are replaced by huge blocks of apartments with no gardens.

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The plot-to-plate theme continues to gain popularity. Many of the gardens incorporated herbs and other edibles in their designs. These edible ornamentals even have a name; they are called edimentals. This trend is easy to achieve, too, and the benefits are enormous. Fresh herbs and vegetables are delicious. I also have a couple of quite compact blueberry bushes, too, along with lots of herbs. Nasturtiums as edimentals were big too. I have lot of orange and yellow nasturtiums but have never eaten them. Have you?

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Another trend is growing your own mushrooms. I have done this a few times in the past and not been overly impressed by the harvest. Also, I am the only one in the family who eats mushrooms but I think I’ll try it again this year. My favourite self grown mushrooms were oyster mushrooms. They look like baby aliens when they first germinated but they taste great.

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Do you have any special gardening plans?

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Preventing Breast Cancer, Tarts and Mystery Chicken Dinner

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GARDENING, OTHER EXERCISES AND CANCER PREVENTION

An article I read last week makes some interesting comments about exercise, gardening and the prevention of breast cancer. We know what we eat and how much we eat, how active we are and how much sleep we get are fundamental aspects of our well being.

The article from The Journal of Physical Activity and Exercise, published on the Mail Online News site summarises a study of 48 000 women in the UK and concludes daily light exercise, such as gardening, housework and walking can reduce the chance of developing breast cancer by 21%

a woman in a blue top and leggings is on a pink exercise ball

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Being active for 5 hours and 45 minutes seems to have the most impact on preventing breast cancer. The 48 000 participants wore fitness trackers to determine their daily activity. The researchers also considered age, weight, alcohol consumption and smoking histories, all contributing factors in developing breast cancer. It is not clear if genetics such as a family history of breast cancer were considered as part of the research.

Before feeling overwhelmed by this amount of activity consider the steps taken getting to and from work, at work, doing the shopping, cleaning and generally attending to daily activities. Add some weight bearing exercises and you will be close to the daily target. To determine the amount of exercise suited to age, weight, health and current fitness level just search online. There’s a wealth of information.

woman in blue dress shirt and blue denim jeans standing beside brown wooden chair

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Recognising gardening as being good for your health is great! I like gardening. I wander out the back first thing in the morning to have a look around, I often do some tidying up during the day and water in summer in the evening as well as walk around out there talking to my Mother on the phone every night. My minimum step goal each day is 12 000 steps, some in the high intensity range but a lot are accrued incidentally.

So now that gardening is identified as a healthy activity, here’s a brief update of what’s happening in our garden.

This frequently blooming canna continues to please with brightly coloured flowers. I’m often asked what it is called and I don’t know! My mother grew it at the farm and she has it at her new house, I grew some , too. It was growing in a garden bed but it was so vigorous I dug it up and put it is pots. So pretty.

The hollyhock seeds have germinated as have the stock seeds, planted in a recycled dip container. I will plant them soon and add ranuncula corms to entice bees to the garden. We enquired about ‘hosting’ a beehive in our garden and were told it was too crowded. Shame, it seems bees need a bigger runway than we can supply.

PUMPKIN, FETA AND CARAMELIZED ONION TART

Needed to take finger food to an At Home movie night so decided to make a tart. Roasted some butternut pumpkin, caramelized some onions and crumbled some fetta. I had intended to use crumbled stilton but decided it might be too rich. ( So I ate it instead) Lined the tart tin with pastry and blind baked it, then added the other ingredients plus beaten eggs and milk, sprinkled fresh rosemary on top and baked it. Delicious.

How something that tasted so wonderful could look so unattractive is a mystery but I think it’s the caramelized onion which looks black, not luscious brown and richly flavoured.

Turned the leftover pastry, feta, onions and butternut pumpkin plus eggs and milk into a smaller, rather rustic pie to eat on the weekend.

What is the difference between a tart and flan? Both are open topped and generally pastry based but a tart can have a savoury or sweet filling but a flan is generally sweet. Despite finding agreement in these definitions I have seen both terms used to refer to both sweet and savoury dishes.

CHICKEN DINNER

I thought I was pretty particular about labeling leftover food before I put it in the freezer. Apparently not, so the container of chicken I thawed to make something for dinner was a bit of a mystery. I added leftover roasted butternut pumpkin, leftover caramelized onion and half a cup of peas. Turns out the chicken had a slight curry flavour and went well with the other flavours. Mystery dinner was great but I’ll never be able to repeat it as it will never taste quite the same. And I’ll be sure to label containers before I put them in the freezer.

CINNAMON SCROLLS

Then the weather changed and it really started to feel like autumn even though winter is only a month away.My thoughts drifted to cosy, warming afternoon tea food. I made cinnamon scrolls. The soft, satisfying dough, kneading and adding cinnamon and sugar and rolling them out resulted in fat little scrolls.They smelt so good while they baked. When they were cool I added drizzled icing. We fell on these cold weather treats. Luckily there were some left for breakfast, too.

Did you watch the coronation?

This frequently blooming canna continues to please with brightly coloured flowers. I’m often asked what it is called and I don’t know! My mother grew it at the farm and she has it at her new house, I grew some for my son and of, course, we have some. It was growing in a garden bed but it was so vigorous I dug it up and put it is pots. So pretty.

The hollyhock seeds have germinated as have the stock seeds, planted in a recycled dip container. I will plant them soon and add ranuncula corms to entice bees to the garden. We enquired about ‘hosting’ a beehive in our garden and were told it was too small. Shame. A lot of alysium seedlings have have self seeded in the same area.

An article I read last week makes some interesting comments about exercise, gardening and preventing breast cancer. We know what we eat and how much we eat, how active we are and how much sleep we get are fundamental aspects of our well being.

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