Home Grown

Sometimes, I despair at my attempts to grow vegetables in our garden. 

Yet there has been more than one occasion on which I have been able to throw together an appetizing green salad of various leaves picked from the garden.

The nasturtiums I sowed last year have finally come good, so I picked a few leaves to make a salad recently.  I'm not a great fan of nasturtium leaves in salads but I don't mind a scant sprinkling of them.  I grew the nasturtiums for the seed because I would like to try and make poor man's capers from them.

I have also grown a few Russian kale plants, these I don't mind so a good handful went into the salad bowl.

My rocket (arugula) bolted to seed but do you know that rocket flowers are edible?  They have a flavour which I think is very much like sesame seeds.  I have noticed that the native bees are very attracted to them as well.

To the salad I added a few blanched green beans and an avocado along with a thinly sliced lemon and voila! - A healthy green salad to serve with the main course.

A vinaigrette is my favourite salad dressing which I make from freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil and Dijon or French mustard.

Hmmm, is it still a vinaigrette if it doesn't have vinegar as an ingredient?

Well, here's a recipe for 

Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing

80ml (1/3 cup) olive oil

2 1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice, strained

1 tsp Dijon or French mustard

Fine sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a glass jar with lid, shake vigorously and serve.

Enjoy.

Making Do

Some days, most things are an effort.

Some days, the shops are too far away.

Some days, it's easier to make do.

And making do can produce the most amazingly flavoursome meals.

In the refrigerator crisper I found two beetroot and half a head of broccoli.

From the pantry I took 225g puy lentils, olive oil, cumin powder and pine nuts.

From the garden I took a handful of baby rocket, a few sprigs chocolate mint, eau de cologne mint, mint, lemon thyme, thyme, basil, lemon balm, marjoram,lemon scented tea tree, a few peas, blue berries, oregano flowers, and nasturtium leaves.

The lentils were cooked as per instructions on the pack and rinsed well, then fried quickly in hot olive oil with about one tablespoon ground cumin and salt and pepper to taste.

The broccoli (broken into flowerettes) was lightly steamed.

The beetroot was grated and cooked Russian style with butter and lemon juice and salt and pepper.

All were simply layered, puy lentils first, Russian Style beetroot next, steamed broccoli next and garden greens etcetera sprinkled on top with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts.

Drizzle with more olive oil.

Serve immediately with lemon wedges and enjoy the flavour bursts.

Here's a recipe for the beetroot.  I did  not use the flour to thicken, just cooked until the water had all evaporated.

I would normally have added an onion in there somewhere except the one onion I found in the pantry was ready to explode!

Crop & Swap

Saturday 12th November, Inaugural Meeting Of Crop & Swap, Faulconbridge NSW.

A big thank you to Jo & Joe!

Here is what I took (or some of it at least) 

Broad beans, herbs, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves.

Potted herbs.

Sprouted adzuki beans and live silkworms!

Here is Joe giving the inauguration speech!

And below are some of the goodies I came home with, nom, nom, nom!

Kombucha

Daikon

I made a salad with all of this produce for birthday lunch at my sister's.

Birthday for Second Son, (38 already!!!)and Second Youngest Niece (13).

It's amazing how much more appetizing home grown and fresh is!!!!!

Sorry no pictures of resulting salad...no time, gobbled all up before a chance for photo-shoot(!!).

Also brought home basil, eggs, mushrooms, cookies, sage, well, I really believe I came home with more than I went with.

Priceless...the experience of satisfaction at being able to contribute to the household pantry without exchanging one cent!

Can't wait for next Crop & Swap.