Getting an Early Start

We always tell ourselves that October is the time to start planting stuff. Accordingly, we put off doing anything about the garden until Labour weekend, by which time life is getting busy again, and so we put it off further.

In other words, we procrastinate, and nothing gets done. We've managed to keep a few pumpkins and potatoes going in the past, and our little crops of tomatoes on the doorstep have been OK, and the herbs - which are just glorified weeds, let's not forget - seem to thrive despite being neglected for weeks at a time.

But in terms of really having a proper vege garden that will yield a significant harvest, in the past we simply haven't done the work to make it happen.

Last weekend, that all changed.
We took a drive to the hardware store and the garden centre, then came home and cleared out one overgrown corner of our little front yard to put our planter down.
After getting it relatively level, we spread a layer of ash, in what may have been a misguided attempt to keep the weeds down.
Then we put down some plastic sheeting, punctured to permit some drainage, and assembled the 4'x4' planter box over top of it.

Now, I'm not saying that you should follow our lead here. We may have done ourselves all sorts of damage, like not permitting the soil to breathe and wotnot, but our main concern was for the weeds. The weeds up the back are the bane of my potato patch, and I don't want them invading this plot too.
Next, we got in some awfully cheap labour to do the grunt work.
Potting mix, about 8 bags, including a bag of strawberry mix, turn this from a wooden square into a miniature garden.
Then we got to planting: Strawberries, Lettuces, Beans, Peas, Tomatoes, Silverbeet, Cauliflower and Broccoli, several of each.
Into the potting mix, with a nice dousing of water and plenty of sunshine.
Finally, a bit of mesh to keep the local wildlife out - particularly our cat (I'd post a picture of said feline but I'm sorry, this just isn't that kind of blog). The mesh is attached to pieces of wire which are stapled into the timber, allowing access to the garden to weed and prune and harvest.

Since it's still winter and there may yet be frost, we also rigged a sheet of clear plastic which will double as a frost cover overnight and as a mini glasshouse of sorts on cooler days.

So there it is, August and we have our vege garden planted out. And the best thing is that a week later, the seedlings are not only alive but actually getting bigger. I hold out great hopes.
So after a big day's work like that (I could be honest and say that it was spread over 2 days, but that would completely dissolve the mystique surrounding our achievements), the hard workers deserve a cold, relaxing brew.
And sausages. There must be lovely lamb sausages.
Which are then made into burgers. What a perfect way to end the day.

(In case you're curious, Sausage Burgers contain sausage, lettuce, beetroot, cheese, sour cream, and sauce. Just like your mum used to make them. )

All that Webby Goodness

I've been putting aside all sorts of great stuff this year, but haven't got as far as sharing any of it, so here goes a little slice of web pie, from me to you.

First, a local plug for a local site: texture.co.nz is a Wellington website, covering the many fine offerings that our capital city has to offer locals and visitors alike, from galleries and events to food reviews and community links. Be sure to check out their Restaurant Reviews before you head out with a rumbly tummy.

On a more hands-on subject, the Ethicurean recently ran a brilliant article on making your own sausages from scratch. Combine that with the advice on loading up those casings with your scrummy homemade filling provided by Bob del Grosso at Hunger Artist, and you'll have no excuse left for buying those snarlers full of numbers from the supermarket ever again.

Bob del Grosso is one of my favourite bloggers, actually, a man who knows his organic food inside-out - quite literally. Well worth a look for anyone who wants an insight into the back end of the small farm, be it raising animals, making cheese, or preparing meat products, from butchery through to salami. Not something I think I'll ever be likely to get my hands into, but it's nice to know that there are still people out there who see food production as a craft, rather than a mass market.

He also has a brilliant article here, on the art and skill of cooking, and how it is as much a talent as it is a craft, but one that anyone can learn and perfect. Highly Recommended. Read it, any never let me hear you say you can't cook.

In non-foody related subjects, anyone who has ever been a fan of the fantasy genre and fantasy role-playing in particular, and enjoys having a great laugh at that genre's expense, will love this. Thanks to Mr 2-Trees for the link.

I'd also like to make a mention here of two audiobooks that I'm listening to right now. Hoad's Grim is a horror audiobook drama, very much R-18, and absolutely riveting. I'm drafting a complete review, but the story is presently up to Chapter 20 and I don't want to spoil the mood by getting all wordy on it's @ss. The audio production is superb, and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting the next episodes to come down. BTW, it's a free download, so if you can handle a dose of the macabre that will seriously scare you silly if you listen to it alone in the dark, go start downloading. (Hat Tip: John Joseph Adams at Tor.com, with this interview [1, 2].) I have found a new reason to take my ipod in the car, and to turn the radio up.

The other one is called Crescent, and is also a horror story, though this one is set on a dilapidated and haunted space station on the fringes of the colonised galaxy. So, obviously, very sci-fi, and very VERY adult. Some of Crescent has made me squirm quite uncomfortably, so this one is not recommended for the tender-hearted. Unfortunately, the audio production is not as slick as Hoad's Grim, but this is mainly due to the author's decision to handle all of the voice talent himself, even the women. This makes following the dialogue confusing from time to time, but some of the writing is quite brilliant, and overall I haven't been able to stop listening yet.

Anyway, this was meant to be a quick post so I can get some more work done on my novel, so I must hit the post button. Byebye.

Seasoning the BBQ in the BBQ Season

Summer is the season of the barbeque, as we all know. Barbeques are a classic kiwi tradition, as I'm sure they are in much of the rest of the world. Yes, for some reason we seem to think this is a unique condition.

I have a few curious observations to make about barbeques and the culture that surrounds them, which I'd like to share. Please be aware, some gentle male sensibilities may be offended (the rest of us are permitted to laugh ourselves silly, if we so desire).

For starters, I have yet to understand why barbeque tools seem to come in such ridiculous sizes. Personally, I use the little paring knife and a pair of tongs from the kitchen when I barbeque. We concluded that the reason for barbeque tools being so stupidly big is so that men can stand around the barbeque with their beers in one hand and compare the sizes of their tools.

Which I'm sure is also not a uniquely kiwi practice.

While we're on the subject of men and their misplaced sense of entitlement to the role of barbeque chef, may I ask what it is about having the appropriate chromosomes that makes so many males think that suddenly, despite not having stepped in front of any piece of cooking equipment more technical than a toaster for ten months of the year, they can suddenly claim dominion over the outdoor gas (or charcoal) grill? They then proceed to stand over said grill, drink beer, talk sh!t, burn the sausages, reduce the steak to hunks of leather, drink more beer, talk more sh!t, and complain about where the salad is and why the bread isn't buttered already.

Gents, I hang my head in embarrasment for you. The barbeque's a glorified frying pan, that's all, and if you can't drive a frypan, then you have no right to ruin everyone else's food by declaring yourself its master. "BBQ FLAVOUR" is not a substitute for basic culinary competence. Get into the kitchen, make the salad and butter the bread, and let the cooks do the cooking.

Full credit to all those men who can and do cook; you have every right to be out there, drinking beer and talking sh!t to your hearts' content (so long as you made the salad and buttered the bread before you started!).

The other thing that men seem incapable of doing more often than not is cleaning the barbeque after it's been used. The excuse for this is also BBQ FLAVOUR, that indefinable taste which seems to be not so much a matter of ingredients and technique but rather one of cultivation; as in, strains of bacteria. Perhaps there is some primal urge among men to bulk up their immune systems by allowing all manner of germs and micro-organisms to breed on "their" cooking grills, and the obligatory overcooking of any meat that comes within range is therefore more a matter of survival than anything else. That special flavour can only be achieved by allowing the petrie dish to fester and then cooking that flavour off onto the meat, which must then be virtually incinerated to ensure it is safe to eat. All of this men know instinctively, and is perhaps why they can't actually cook on a barbeque despite what all the advertising tries to tell us.

Please note, I write the above lines in the full knowledge that my own barbeque is sitting outside uncleaned since last I used it, but I assure you it will get a thorough scrub before it is used next.

Do I have anything useful to say, or am I just taking great pleasure in deriding my fellow man? (Ah, the joy of picking on people who aren't here to defend themselves...)

In fact, I do. This comes back to the cleaning of the barbeque. There is the small matter of the last of the soapy taste that you can't quite get rid of, and who wants to cook on that?
Here's the solution:Chop up a large onion and a handful of fresh herbs and garlic, mix it up with some rice bran oil and freshly ground pepper and salt, get the barbeque really hot and season it with the onion-herb mixture. Cook this stuff right down, constantly shifting it around the grill. Some of it will stick, and thats OK. Scoop the rest off, and you have a seasoned barbeque, with no soapy residue whatsoever. Real Barbeque Flavour, without the heirloom cultures.
A couple of weeks ago Liz E. Bear's Mum brought a pile of steak around, dressed in fresh sage and rosemary from their garden, and I didn't want to waste it. So I proceeded to RESEASON the grill with the herbs before cooking the steak, letting them wilt and adding a little more oil and salt, so that there was a lovely herbed oil sizzling away on the barbeque for the steak to go onto. I then removed the herbs and put the steak on to cook, placing the wilted herbs back on top of them to infuse the meat as it cooked.
Blimmin' delicious it was. And if you want to know how to cook the perfect steak, go read this too.

Hooray for real Barbeque Flavour!

P.S. To anyone out there who may feel offended by what I've said here, tough. Pun intended.

EDIT: Go on, read the comments. You know you want to. Heeheehee.

First Barbeque of the Season

Summer is most certainly upon us now. It rained today, but it was warm. That must just about prove it.

In honour of the season of long slow evenings, sandflies, mosquitoes, sunburn, and sand in places where it shouldn't be, we have duly broken out the barbeque and given it a run, to ...er... season it ... for the season.
Cooking here we have: Wai-ora Lamb and Mint Sausages; Gluten-Free Sausages; Homemade Gluten-Free Meat Patties; and Egg-Free, Gluten-Free Meatballs (I just did a couple of meatballs before I added the egg to make the patties, and squashed them down really tight so they didn't fall apart). When everything else is done - since all of the above can happily sit on the edge of the BBQ and stay warm - we drop in the steak. Hammered with the back of a knife, seasoned with freshly ground pepper and salt, crushed garlic and olive oil, and cooked as per my Perfect Steak Technique.

Serve up with fresh bread and crisp green salad, sauce and a cold beer for a perfect summer evening's dining. May there be many more to come.

Lamb Sausages

I promised I'd review these sausages, so here it is.
What more can I say? Once again, the fine folk at Wai-Ora have outdone themselves. These are no ordinary bangers. I love it when you can have something like a sausage and really taste what you're eating. For the price-tag of $5.00 for 6 sausages, they were expensive in comparison to the ones you might find at the supermarket, other than the very high end ones, but the difference here is simply the quality of the product, the way it tastes, and knowledge that the meat isn't processed all to hell before it gets to you. It's the taste of honesty.

I cooked ours up with vege hash, preboiling the sausages slightly before grilling them.
Dished up with peas and veges fresh from the market, these were really superb. Not even any need for gravy, as the sausages are just so flavourful on their own they just don't need it.
My next Wai-Ora review will be of the Forequarter Rolled Roast, which we had on Labour Weekend. Watch this space!

Hot Diggity Dog

You can't always be good.

This has to be the ultimate in naughty comfort food, but I do put a tiny healthy spin on it. Hot Dogs are a good mid-week food, so long as you remember to get what you need at the supermarket on shopping day. The other good thing about them is that its easy to add whatever you like to them. Which may or may not make them good for you. But we all deserve a treat now and then, and if its one that only takes 15 minutes to prepare, then I'm happy with that.

American Hot Dogs

Boil a pot of water, and place 6 Frankfurters in to cook.

Slice 6 long rolls lengthwise across the top. Butter lightly, and place under the grill for a minute if you're sure you won't forget about them.

Grate some cheese and a carrot or two. Chop up half a red onion and some capsicum.

Stand by your favourite sauces: Tomato, BBQ, Sweet Thai Chilli, Mustard, Aoili or what have you.

When the franks are just starting to split, pull them from the heat and drain.
This is one of those meals that you just put everything on the bench and let everyone make their own. Better than anything you'll get from a street vendor, even in NY itself.

Alfredo with Chorizo and Mushrooms

This is a variation on a theme using our favourite Alfredo sauce. Big Ups to Aunty A for the inspiration for this one. This is a great midweek meal, as it's quick, easy and tasty.

Alfredo with Chorizo and Mushrooms (Serves 3)

Boil a pot of salted water with a good lug of olive in it and put a handful of long pasta in to cook.

In a steamer over the pasta cook some brocolli, cauliflower and carrots.

Slice up 5-6 button mushrooms and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Heat 1T of olive oil in a small pan and brown the mushrooms and garlic.

While these are cooking, slice 3-4 Chorizo sausages. With just a little oil (the Chorizo will release plenty of their own!) brown the sausage on both sides.

In a small pot, prepare the Alfredo Sauce: Melt 2 T Butter. Add 1 Cup of cream and gently stir for 5 mins or so. Heat well without boiling. Whisk in 3/4 Cup of Cheddar Cheese and about 1/4 Cup of stronger cheese, like Parmesan or Emmental until melted. Add pepper and parsley to taste.
Everything should come together about the same time. Drain the pasta and mix in the Chorizo and Alfredo sauce. Dish, layering the mushrooms on top and drizzling extra Alfredo over the steamed veges. Serve with pepper and a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Ricotta Sausage Bake

Time Warp: This post was written prior to my week of cooking alone, but I didn't have the camera with photos on it, so this is like a trip back in time. By a week. Thats kind of cool if you don't think about it for too long.

Since we got the Slow Cooker, we've tried cooking various things in it. One of the less successful of these attempts was devilled sausages. Its not that they weren't nice, its just that there seemed to be no benefit to doing them in the crock pot. So when we had sausages come up on the menu again, I decided I'd head back to the old-fashioned way of cooking up good old bangers, and then altered it somewhat.

What I really liked about this meal was that I found a use for my Top Secret Pizza Sauce. We were towards the end of the week, and having missed out on the market the weekend before due to the whole family being sick, it was slim pickings in the veges department. So I whisked up a tomato sauce, fleshing it out with a dose of the famous aforementioned Sauce, boiled and then grilled the sausages and layered them together in the oven with the sauce, some cheese, and what was left of the Ricotta from the Bacon and Leek extravaganza. In the end, it was just bangers with cheese and pasta sauce, but it was good.

Ricotta Sausage Bake

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add 3 sliced garlic cloves, one chopped onion and 3 diced tomatoes. Mix well and add 4T of Top Secret Pizza Sauce. Allow to simmer and thicken. Season to taste with freshly ground salt and pepper.
Boil up a tray of sausages for about 10 minutes. This is both to precook the meat and to knock out some of the fat that sausages are notorious for. Pull the sausages out into a shallow oven dish, score on all sides and place under a hot grill, turning as each side browns.
Boil up a pot of your favourite pasta.

Drain the fat from the sausage dish and spoon the Tomato and Onion Sauce over and around the sausages. Place tablespoons of Ricotta around the sausages and grate cheddar cheese over the dish. Place back under the grill and allow the cheese to brown. Steam up some greens to go with the Sausages. When you dish, take care to keep the clumps of Ricotta intact.

Impromptu Indulgences

On a bit of a spur of the moment, we took a ferry to Picton on Friday night and spent the the weekend on Obi and Nan's boat. The weather came to the party on Saturday and after the morning's frost we had a beautiful day on the water. We motored across Queen Charlotte Sound from Waikawa and anchored up in Kaipakirikiri Bay, where Isaac showed Mum and Obi how to row the dinghy. We had soup and toast for lunch and as the sun disappeared we slipped back to Waikawa and relaxed.

Cheese and crackers and mussels came out for a late afternoon snack, and when no-one could be bothered cooking a proper dinner, we improvised. We grilled up a packet of Gluten Free Smokey Bacon Sausages and began stuffing them with cheese. Mmmm. Then someone had the bright idea that sausage stuffed with creamy blue cheese and mussel might be nice, and I had to try it.

So. Good.

Smokey Sausage stuffed with Blue Cheese and Mussels

Slice a cooked sausage into one-inch long segments, and slice these lengthwise to about 3/4 deep. Slice off a thin hunk of Creamy Blue Cheese (or Cambozola, or something Blue) and squeeze it into the sausage. Slice a Mussel in half and push it into the cheese. Give a few moments for the heat of the sausage to soften the cheese, and eat.

Just to get back to the healthy stuff, we had a double lamb roast last night. Check back here for full coverage in a day or two.

Sometimes we cheat

Its hard to be good all the time.

Some days, like everyone, we're too tired and it seems like too much hard work to get into the kitchen and cook a meal. So we made the call, and I went and picked up the fish and chips. No photos of the greasy feast will grace this page.

Which raises the issue of how good is good, and how bad is bad? There are fanatics on this topic, and I have to admit I'm not one of them. I'm a realist. We're a single income family with a toddler and a mortgage, and we have to balance our food spending with our concerns for our health and nutrition. There are things we can stretch to, and there are things we do regularly to save money. Apart from the occasional slip when the local chippy gets the call, we walk this line as best we can.

So, How Good is Good? In an ideal world, we would eat only certified organic meat and produce, vegies grown in our own garden, eggs from our own free range chickens, and make our own milk and cheese from dear Daisy who doubles as a full time lawn mower. But the hard facts are you can't have livestock in a suburban area, the levies charged by the council to keep chickens swallows up any savings you might make by having them in the first place, and any vegies we grow will only be enough to occasionally supplement our diet, never to sustain it. If anyone has ever tried to do a full grocery shop in an organics shop, they'll know just how hungry or poor you'll end up as a result. I fully support the concept of organics, but we just can't pay that sort of a food bill. So, next best option is the local grocer's market. We've been going to the one in the Hutt for the past few weeks and I'm loving it. The variety is great, you can shop around for price and quality, and it's a chance for the whole family to get out for a walk around by the river. Even with the extra petrol expense, we come away with more vegies than we ever used to at the supermarket, for less expense overall. This week we'll probably check out the Tawa market, as its closer to home. Looking forward to that.

Also, How Bad is Bad? We avoid as much processed food as we can, but there are things we tolerate and things we don't touch. We know how bad they are, but we still eat processed smallgoods like salami, luncheon and sizzlers, in small quantities. Every couple of weeks we weaken and get the above-mentioned shark and tatie. But we pretty much don't touch the extremes, the McDs and the BKs of the world, unless we're travelling and really too tired to care. There are an awful of people with an awful lot to say about the fast food giants of the world, about how they destroy the environment and the health of everyone they touch, and 99% of the time I fully agree with them. But sometimes, its just what you need. I would be a hypocrite to claim that my position was otherwise. Yes, there is no nutritional value in the food that these companies serve; they are largely responsible for the environmental degradation of several third world countries; there is a strong ethical and health argument to support the general boycott of these companies, and this has been documented by others more thoroughly and succinctly than I could hope to achieve here. But as long as the economic models we live within value speed of service and fat-saturated taste over good health and ethical business practice, there will be a market for KFC, BK, McDs, DQ, and AJs.

So what exactly, I hear you ask, do we not touch? I personally just can't abide prepackaged dinners. TV Dinners, to use the American. I simply have too much pride as a cook and someone who eats to stoop to that. There are a few organic suppliers who do nice risottos and soups and suchlike in single serves, and full credit to them, but that's the limit of it. I just can't imagine what must go into those meals to make them all heat up just right at the same time. And don't get me started on the issue of heating plastic in the microwave.

Well, that was a rant.

To end on a good note, last night we had Stuffed Sausages with Coconut Rice. Very quickly:

Vigorously boil 6 Real Sausages (ie, not precooked) for about 5 mins, then remove to a grill tray and slice lengthwise to about 3/4 deep. While these cool, mix up in a bowl 2 chopped fresh tomatoes, about 4 finely chopped garlic cloves, freshly ground salt and pepper, about 1/4 cup of grated edam and parmesan cheese, and a handful of chopped fresh herbs such as parsley or thyme. Squeeze this into the sliced sausages and place under a grill. Give them a good 15 mins, time enough to brown up beautifully, melt the cheese and cook right through.

This basic recipe can be modified to suit your own tastes and the flavour of sausage you have on hand.

To make the Coconut Rice, first fry up a finely chopped onion in a large pot. Then put 1 cup of boiling water, 1 cup of rice, and a tin of coconut milk in the pot with the onion and a little sprinkle of salt. Bring to the boil then turn down to a gentle simmer until almost all of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft to the bite (about 20 mins).


Enjoy.