Blessed Abundance

I am sitting on an old stone bench, facing the chicken run. It was built as a step for mounting horses. The warm air has a sweet spring fragrance. The chickens are industriously inspecting the upturned earth in their run after Winifred and the young pigs finished their day’s work of plowing it up for me. It is the golden hour, just before sunset, where everything is still except for the cheeping chicks, clucking hens and twitters of the white-browed sparrow weavers in the honey locust trees. Zizou, our Jack Russell Terrier, has just jumped up to join me. She is leaning against my back and staring across towards Lesotho over in the distance behind me. Next to me is a bucket filled with a lanky cauliflower and a generous picking of broad beans. The cauliflower is for tonight’s chicken soup, Jewish Penicillin, a Jamie favourite. I will substitute it for the broccoli in the recipe because that is what we have in the garden. The broad beans will be in tomorrow’s salad for the Quilt Club’s lunch I am hosting. 

Barbara Kingsolver, in her wonderful book Animal Vegetable Miracle, calls this time of year The Hungry Season. It is the time when winter is over along with the last of the stored autumn harvest, but the new spring crops haven’t grown enough to be harvested either. It has been a tough year where our summer harvest was not as good as usual and we also lost all our carefully frozen vegetables, yet we are doing pretty well for the hungry season. I always shop in the garden, pantry and freezer before making the trip to town to buy food.

Last night I picked a bucket of rainbow chard and some young Egyptian walking onions. I cooked them up with 2 slices of chopped leftover gammon and served them in toasted sandwiches with a little grated cheese. The Swiss chard is such a faithful friend. It has carried us through the winter frosts and drought. Once the weather warms up it will probably go to seed, but not before new seeds have grown up in another part of the veggie tunnel to replace the existing bed.

The broad beans are taller than ever and starting to produce what looks like a promising spring harvest. Along with some mange tout peas, we have plenty of greens for the table in the form of self seeded butter lettuce, nettles, rocket, oak leaf lettuce, cabbages, kale and then some young Chinese cabbage and mizuna. The Chinese cabbages have started going to seed in the warmer spring weather, so I will use them whole in stir-fries, flowers and all. As always, I will try to use all my harvest, even if it is not perfect. In the hope that our few cauliflowers would grow bigger, I left them too long so now they are past their best but still perfectly edible. I plan to use them to make Indian pakora with the chickpea flour that needs using in my pantry (It is best served with Chai tea on a rainy day.)

The spring sowing has begun. We have rows of tiny carrots and beetroot, and lots of  hopefulseeds trays for the tomatoes, peppers and brinjals. Last years garlic’s and leeks are looking great and the new onion seedlings are doing well. It’s a good start.

We have plenty of our own pasture-raised beef in the freezer now, which will hopefully last us for a long time. In the not too distant future, some organic free-range pork will join it. The pork is rather too free ranging at the moment: the naughty rascals keep disappearing leaving us searching all over, hence their being put to work in the chicken run this week.

Marigold and Matilda are leading their chicks to bed as the sun dips behind the hill. I will shut them all in securely, feed the dogs, close the curtains inside and then finish making dinner while I watch the last episode of Miss Marple. Decadent Dad is busy in his leather workshop. Our son is at his drawing board. They are each playing their own music selection while they work, so I will wear headphones to hear Miss Marple while I cook.

Summer Evening Stroll in the Tunnel

Strains of Michael Buble waft out into the sultry Summer night. A belated birthday meal is sizzling and bubbling in the kitchen, green peppercorn sauce over our own grass fed rump steak at my request. I sit on the wooden floor, sorting sandy potatoes into small piles for keeping and sharing. The mondial potatoes that I grew from a shop bought bag produced a disappointing harvest this year. Ladybug imposters gobbled their leaves faster than I could squash them and so the tubers stayed small. These, my early potatoes will provide us with just a few meals, including the potato chips tonight. I have my hopes set on the organic Varna seed potatoes planted later in Spring. Maybe they will perform better. Tonight, against all my grain, I sprayed them with an organic pesticide in the hopes of defeating the voracious red beetles before they defoliate our winter potato stores as well.

They are looking relatively healthy. Come and stroll through my veggie garden with  me...

The Country Gentleman sweetcorn has grown up tall and dignified as a gentleman should, so tall that the stalks are pushing up against the top of the tunnel. Maize pollinates via the wind. I hope their position in the plastic section of our tunnel doesn't prevent them from giving us full cobs of summer sweetness.

There is a green tunnel of maize and runner beans that my little nephew ran up and down when he visited from Cape Town. Every time I pick the rough skinned beans I remember his delight as he scampered in and out of green light and shadow, willing me to spray him with the hosepipe.


The tomatoes are happier than last week. They drunkenly cling to their stakes as their heavy fruits threaten to topple them over. Each morning I pick the fruit just as the colour is turning. I am jealous of my tomato harvest and refuse to share the ripe fruit with the resident field mouse and birds, so I set them in baskets to ripen on the kitchen counter.

The Kuroda carrots are the most disciplined of all out plantings this season. They stand to attention, proudly parading their promise of Autumn delights. Not so the rebellious Yellowstone carrots which, although vigorous, appear haphazardly in their allocated bed. Our spring planting of Purple Dragon carrots continue to mature randomly and so provide us with a continual supply of the pretty purple skinned orange vegetables.

Heirloom lettuce is gaily going to seed. I hope for many tiny babies that I can transplant at my leisure. Germinating the seed in trays has proved disastrous. From packet and packets of old heirloom lettuces, I have only successfully managed to grow three pink tinged Regina Di Maggio lettuces.

The Drumhead Savoy cabbages are just beginning to form round heads. They are rather moth eaten. Every day I mean to cover them with netting. Maybe tomorrow I will remember.

The pile of Waltham butternuts is growing inside the house. This is our first year growing them. Previously pumpkins took precedence. I am not sure how well these squashes keep. I will do my best to enable these beauties to reach their full culinary potential.

Winter meals of hearty dry Spanish Black beans are peeping through the leaves, biding their time until they are fully dry and ready for podding.

Bath-sponges-to-be hang seductively from their vine. Many many loofah seeds were planted before this one plant took root and trailed up the stake.

A stroll through our tunnel at sunset brings closure to my day, and hope for the harvest to come. Tomorrow morning, just after sunrise, I will return and greet my new day with the birds, our enthusiastically vociferous rooster and loving Lucy Lamb while my men young and old snore in good company with Winifred and Sausage, our two late-rising Piggies.

Back to Basics : Use-It-Up Stir Fry and Breakfast Bake

Yesterday I was pondering and pottering in our mesh-covered vegetable tunnel when I spied four or five rows of miniature bok choi plants, all glossy and green, some of them prematurely shooting lemon coloured flowers in their distress at our unseasonably warm, dry weather. That evening, while scrabbling frosted fingers amongst icy packets of summer vegetables trying to retrieve a packet of sausages, I found a bag of crisp Chinese long beans.

Mmm the makings of stir fry suggested themselves to me as I went about the mundane tasks of my day.  Yes, perfect. I want to dramatically diminish the contents of our freezer, and those bok choi plants are growing where I plan to plant potatoes in springtime.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that and tonight we had a delicious Thai stir fry topped with strips of omelette.  This stir fry meal is a basic recipe - BACK TO BASICS - that I often rely on. It's wonderful for using up leftovers, surplus garden produce and as a freezer clearer.

BASIC USE-IT-UP THAI STIR FRY
1) Start by gathering and prepping all your ingredients in advance. For me this means picking, washing and slicing veggies, gathering spices etc beforehand. This meal is fast to make, so have your table set and plates ready. If you are serving your meal on rice, it needs to be almost cooked before you start cooking the stir fry. If you use instant noodles in the dish, there is no need for rice.  (Tonight's choice of ingredients is shown in brackets)

2) In a very large, hot wok or frying pan, heat up your oil of choice (coconut oil for me tonight)
Sitr fry sliced ginger, garlic, sesame seeds if you have them and whatever oniony item you have  Lemongrass is great here too. (spring onions from our tunnel)

3) Stir in Thai spices or thai paste and a dash of soya sauce and/or fish sauce. (I used thai seven spice, soya sauce)

4) Add sliced leftover meat and/or nuts of choice e.g. bacon, white fish, chicken, pork, beef, cashew nuts. Stir rapidly. (I left this out and rather used the egg strips at a later stage)

5) Add a large quantity of veggies, in order of cooking time eg carrots then beans then spinach. (Our own frozen grated courgette, sweetcorn, mange tout and Chinese long beans were dumped still frozen into the pan, then once they were softened I added the fresh bok choi)

6) Sprinkle over some stock powder to complement your protein and the flavouring sachet from instant noodles, or not. Optional: Break up some instant noodles and stir into the pan. I use two spoons to keep everything in the pan. ( chicken stock and 1 packet of chicken flavoured 2 minute noodles)

7) Pour in a can of coconut milk if you have any, alternatively use a little water and a dollop of tart jam like plum or apricot jam or a dash of sherry if needed. Season to taste. (coconut milk for us tonight)

8) Place a lid on the pan while the noodles cook.  Top with egg strips if you like. (I did - Beat and cook an egg or two in a small pan without stirring, flip over like a pancake to ensure it is cooked through. Roll up and slice into strips).

Yummy!

In a similar fashion, the ideas for the other two meals of the day came together in my mind as I pondered various items that alerted me from garden, freezer or pantry. The most frequent question in my mind when entering my personal grocery store is, "What is begging to be used first?" This mindset ensures that there is minimal wastage.

Frozen apricots that escaped my daughter's smoothie-making frenzy last summer were calling the loudest from the freezer. So last night I used these apricots and a recipe from my sister to prepare breakfast for today: First I smashed the solid hunk of apricot halves onto the concrete floor to separate them inside their plastic bag. Half a packet of sweet frozen peach chunks were added to balance the tartness. Then my mind switched into FOOD FAMILY mode. Pecan nuts and peaches, the slightly bitter nutty crunch complements the soft sweet fruit. I whisked an egg, then stirred in the nuts, two handfuls of rolled oats, some oat bran, cinnamon and honey. I spread the mixture over the still frozen fruit in a casserole dish and popped it all in the fridge to defrost overnight. This morning all I needed to do was pop the dish in the oven to bake for half an hour while I showered. The oats soaked up the juices that oozed from the thawing fruit, then crisped up on top as the dish baked. We ate it alongside dollops of warm yoghurt drizzled with honey. Delicious. "Where's the recipe?" you may ask. Well it's simple

BASIC BREAKFAST BAKE
1) Place sliced fruit of choice on the bottom of your dish
2) choose nuts and spice to match eg apples and walnuts, peaches and pecans, apricots and almonds
3) mix (2) with 1 or 2 beaten eggs and a few handfuls of oats, oat or wheat bran, and a little honey/sugar mixed to a moist consistency
4) In the morning, bake in a moderate oven until bubbling and golden. Serve with plain yoghurt.

All those frozen vegetables needing to make way for the next season also inspired me to rustle up an Almost Mexican Vegetable and Bean Soup for lunch, which needed a crusty bread. So we turned cream into butter just for the buttermilk, a key bread-making ingredient around here. The butter went into the freezer and the excess buttermilk went into the soup pot. And the bonus was using up some frozen sweetcorn, green beans, mange touts and patty pans from summer. The mexican part came from the pantry - baked beans, a little tomato sauce, cumin, garlic and oregano and chilli sauce on the table. Oh and I used some of the ubiquitous leeks from the veggie tunnel.

I wrote this blog post to show how I plan my meals based on what needs using the most - true Elastic Mom Style, but meandered into sharing recipes. Both the stir-fry and breakfast bake are favourites in our home. I hope you adapt my BACK TO BASICS recipes to what's in your garden/freezer/pantry and give them a try.

Speedy Gonzales Mexican Beans

After a long, icy sojourn in my freezer, my last batch of Bouncing Beans from the December cook up finally made their way into the pot and onto our plates as SPEEDY GONZALES MEXICAN BEANS. This family favourite meal is an excellent Elastic Mom choice, named for the speed in which it arrives at the table.

- First fry up some onion, garlic and green pepper.
- Add generous amounts of MEXICAN spices - cumin (whole or ground), oregano and chili, if you like.
- When it is starting to smell delicious, toss in the beans.
- Add lots of tomato in whatever form you have it, the more the better.

- Simmer for a while until the flavours are well blended and the whole house smells wonderful.
- Then season to taste.

That's basically it.




Now Mexican food isn't Mexican without some good old corn added. So serve it up on top of whatever corn you have in the house. You can use sweetcorn cut off the cob and steamed, polenta, tacos, enchiladas, corn bread, or best off all... nachos cheese flavoured corn chips (crisps).



Top it with whatever you have of the following:

shredded lettuce
olives
salsa or chopped tomatoes
chives or spring onion
guacamole or chopped avo
sour cream or plain yoghurt
cilantro / fresh coriander
and NOT to be left out - grated cheese

Great variations are to fry up chopped chicken, or ground beef to either replace the beans or add to them.

My son loves this meal so much that it was his birthday dinner request.

Mother Hubbard's Paté

Bulk cooking is a wonderfully stretchy way of dealing with food. It's often a time stretcher and a money saver when we find larger quantities at better prices. Remember the BOUNCING BEANS from my last post? Well, they just keep bouncing into my mind and onto our plates in all sorts of wonderful disguises. 


After an absolutely delicious meal of Busting Butt Baked Beans, followed the next day by a hearty, yummy BEAN SOUP, I opened the fridge this evening to see a container of fat white beans just waiting to be made into MOTHER HUBBARD'S PATé for tomorrow's lunch.


So, while making supper this evening, I popped the beans into my food processor and whizzed them into a paté along with:
- a large dash of balsamic vinegar (normal vinegar or lemon juice would work just as well)
- a good measure of salt
- generous sprinklings of ground coriander and cumin
- and enough olive oil to make a spreadable consistency 


Tomorrow I will garnish it lavishly with fresh coriander leaves from my garden, and serve it on bread with some garden salad leaves.


Cooking a little extra of something when I am already busy in the kitchen is a TIME TAMING TECHNIQUE, and a way of blessing myself the next day with one less meal to prepare. It also miraculously converts what would have been two loads of dish washing into just one. 


This recipe was devised last month, during a no-shopping-pact time when my resources were rather lean and in need of some serious stretching. Nothing sparks my resourcefulness more than this sort of a challenge. I was in the mood for hummus, but had no chickpeas, nor garlic, nor lemons, nor tahini...... so I made a plan.... and it worked really well. My family gobbled it up, squabbling over the last blobs in the dish. 

Just a last word on that ground coriander. Last Summer I was dismayed to find the coriander in my veggie patch going to seed rather too quickly for my liking. But, in an Elastic Mom moment, I gathered as many of the dried seeds as I could, and they have supplied me with more ground coriander than I could use for the rest of the year. They also seeded themselves all over my veggie garden and have been supplying me with fresh leaves since early in Spring. 


Happily, the beans are still bouncing along merrily, feeding my family on the sniff of a pepper pot. I still have one frozen portion to cook, but that will have to wait. I wouldn't want to overdo the bean thing. And besides, the first marrows of the season have arrived. 

Busting Butt Baked BEANS

Flexibility and suppleness in your muscles comes from stretching them regularly. Likewise, a mom who learns to stretch her resources can smile when times are tight. Over the years I have learned quite a few elastic tricks which help to make my life easier and ease the load on my purse.

I will be sharing my stretchy lifestyle with you as I blog my way along.

The easiest place to stretch resources is at mealtimes. My food budget is usually a bit more than half of that of my friends' budgets. At a pinch and a strenuous stretch I have been known to halve that again. More about that in future blogs. For today I would like to tell you about tonight's dinner and BOUNCING BEANS.

Dried beans are dirt cheap, loaded with goodness and can be delicious if you treat them right. So, when you are pushing that trolley down the aisle of your favourite supermarket, pick out a large bag of dried beans. Look the other way as you pass the brightly coloured, convenient cans of beans. Convenience costs. Elastic Moms have a better plan. One can of beans supplies half a hearty meal for my family of four. For the same price, a bag of dried beans STRETCHES to at least four meals.

Ok, so last night I soaked the all the beans in lots of cold water. This morning I boiled them silly in water with no salt or anything added until they were soft enough to squish. Salt or acid added too early makes them hard. While they were merrily bubbling in the pot I got on with mothering my children and other Elastic Mom busyness. Then just fifteen minutes before racing out the front door, I scooped them out the pot. Some went into containers for freezing. One portion went into the fridge for tomorrow's Mother Hubbard Paté.

Then I turned my crock pot onto the highest setting for
BUSTING BUTT BAKED BEANS
 I tossed the last lot of beans into a pot of sizzling onions along with ....
...MOSTLY LEFTOVERS....
- half a can of tomatoes (leftover from pizza on Sunday, but fresh would do fine, or a whole can)
- a generous spoonful of sugar (traditionally treacle)
- a half-fist sized piece of smoked pork cut into cubes (the rest used in quiche and pasta last week)
- a dollop of tomato sauce (ketchup)
- a rinsing out of a bottle of liquid smoke... smoky water (Worcester sauce would do here too)
- some sprigs of oregano from outside the front door
- a stock cube (I happened to have beef on hand, any will do)
- and salt and pepper of course

When this was nice and hot, I sloshed it from the stove-top into my hot crock pot and raced out the door five minutes late. Rather a tad late than come home later to a cold stove.

This evening I returned from an erratic errand afternoon to the sumptuous scent of dinner. I popped some potatoes in a pot. Under the guise of teaching him how to make mash, I encouraged my son to strong arm the pot of potatoes. He picked some lettuce leaves from our veggie patch. And that was that. Dinner served.

But there's more, I had leftovers in my crock pot. SO, in the heart of the BOUNCING BEANS, I added more chopped onion, lots more stock, some crumbled sage, and have left the crock pot on 'low' for the night. Tomorrow I will whizz it up into a tasty BEAN SOUP for lunch.

Wait until you hear what will happen to the rest of the beans.