Sue's Baked beetroot, sweet potato & haloumi balls

Ingredients

• 2 large/500g beetroots, grated
• 1 small/200g sweet potato, grated
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 200g haloumi, grated
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes or 1 small fresh chilli, finely sliced
• A handful of basil, roughly torn
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1/2 cup rolled oats (gluten-free if needed)
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• Salt and pepper

How to make

• Heat your oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with a piece of baking paper
• Combine the grated beetroot, sweet potato, haloumi, diced onion, minced garlic, chilli and basil in a large mixing bowl until everything is mixed together really well
• Add the eggs, oats, chickpea flour, salt and pepper and combine the mixture again until it starts to come together and hold its shape. Once it’s thoroughly mixed, place the mixing bowl in the fridge and let it rest for around 15 minutes to allow the oats and chickpea flour to absorb the liquid. If you are struggling to get the mixture to hold, add a tablespoon of chickpea flour at a time until the mixture holds well
• Mould the batter into balls with your hands, squeezing out any excess liquid back into the bowl. Transfer them to the baking tray and place in the oven to cook for approximately 40 minutes or until the balls come up golden and crispy on the outside. Allow them to cool slightly before enjoying with your favourite salad vegetables and sauces

• Cooking time can vary depending on the size of your balls. If you want to cook these quickly make the balls smaller or shape them into patties rather than round balls

Sue’s Note: I rolled small balls and then flattened them somewhat with a fork once on the baking tray. I cooked mine for around 30 – 35 minutes, turning once. They ended up slightly golden on the outside but still soft inside. This recipe made around 35 – 40.

Garlicky marrow rings- Using zucchinis & carrot top pesto

Says Jack: This is one way to cope with a glut of marrows(overgrown zucchinis/courgettes). Why not try this with cucumbers.

Garlicky marrow rings… that actually taste good!

  See also

Preserving Courgette Gluts For Winter

  from

   

 

See also

Carrot top pesto recipes

From:

Carl Legge Seeking sustainability on the Llyn Peninsula

Says Jack: I suppose any green, which can be eaten uncooked, can be used to make pesto. I will use Okinawa Spinach because I have a glut at the moment.  A little perennial basil (also a glut) will add flavour and I have unshelled macadamia nuts I should use. There is a host of recipes for the use of pesto.

Fruit and vegetable harvest May 9 in a subtropical/warm temperate area of NSW

Bananas

Blue Browallia with red Irisene behind

Brazilian Spinach

Grapefruit

Coffee

Custard Apple

Mouse Melon

Perennial Capsicum

Basella

Edible Hibiscus

Fig

Jackfruit

Kent pumpkin

Lemon Basil

Lucullus silver beet

Mandarin

Meyer Lemon

Mountain Paw Paw

Naranjila flowers

Almost ripe Naranjila fruit

Bunchosia

Rocket

Single tree dahlia

Small white guava

Katuk/Sweet Leaf

Tamarillo

Tree Chili

Small cream guava

Wing Bean

Choko/Sechium edule

Cherimoya

Coconut Pumpkin Soup

We grow pumpkins and the other ingredients for this soup so easily in our climate. Click on the link for the recipe.

 Silky Coconut Pumpkin Soup

With our indigenous “pumpkin”, calabaza squash, in full season we buy a wedge every week and I try a new recipe. Epicurious.com has been a good source for recipes, some are great as is, and others, like this one, needed some tweaking. Here’s my version which turns out to be very much like those I had in South East Asia. Note that the roasting of the shallots is important for the flavour.

You could also try

Pumpkin Carrot Soup with ginger

Early winter recipes tasted at our June Workshop

Auntie Beryl's Choko Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 good sized chokos (chayote), peeled and chopped
• 2-3 rashers bacon (or substitute) finely chopped
• 1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons of uncooked rice
• 3 chicken stock cubes (or vegetable stock)
• 6 cups water
• 2-3 teaspoons curry powder
• salt and pepper

Method:

• Saute bacon and onion
• Stir in rice, bacon and chokos
• Add stock cubes and water (or 6 cups of chicken/vegetable stock)
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Simmer until choko is soft (approximately 30 minutes)
• Allow to cool then puree with a blender

Enjoying Choko Soup

* Aunty Beryl used Sanitarum Bacon Style Rashers and also vegetable stock to make this delicious soup. We all have loads of chokos at the moment and if not they are freely available in many local places including the old caravan park in Bellingen.










Savoury Muffins with Mushroom Plant, Basil, Sundried Tomato & Cheese

Ingredients

Spray Oil
2 cups self raising flour (fresh is best)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups tasty cheese and a 1/3 cup extra
1/4 cup sundried tomato, drained and coarsely diced

1/2 cup finely chopped basil and mushroom plant (young leafy tips)
1/4 cup toasted pine or macadamia nuts
1 cup milk
80g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly whisked

Method:

• Preheat oven to moderate 180 degrees C. Lightly spray a 12 hole muffin tray with oil.
• Sift flour and salt together  into a large bowl.
• Stir in cheese, tomatoes, basil & mushroom plant mix, and nuts
• In a jug combine milk, melted butter and whisked egg.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingrediaents. Add milk mixture all at once. Mix lightly until just combined.
• Spoon mixture evenly into prepared muffin tray and sprinkle with extra cheese.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes until cooked when tested with a skewer.
• Cool in tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.



Leela's Finger Sandwiches

• Delicious local 'Hearthfire' Spelt Bread topped with avocado, lettuce and cooked slices of capsicum.

Our perennial capsicum bushes are still fruiting. Avocados are hanging on our trees and will ripen after picking.

 Our workshop group worked on streamlining our seed packet labelling and providing more information on the packets. We have also placed some resources (see the new page link at Home) and will list our group's immediate goals on the blog under the Seed Savers Network Aims.

Linda's Orange & Cardamom Biscotti

3 egg whites

1/3 cup caster sugar

2/3 cup plain flour

Zest 2 oranges

½ cup blanched almonds

Linda's Orange & Cardamom Biscotti

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

Optional: 1 teaspoon of Orange Liqueur

Preheat oven to 180’

Grease & line a loaf tin

Whip egg whites until stiff then gradually whisk in sugar

Gently fold in flour, zest, almonds, cardamom and Orange Liqueur.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Remove from tin and cool on rack.

When loaf is cold, slice into thin slices, spread on a baking tray and bake at 140’ for 15 minutes or until slices are crisp. 

Cool and store in an airtight container.


COMING SOON

Jeff's Moist Chunky Banana & Sultana Cake

January Fruiting in the Bellingen Area

Here are a few of the plants fruiting in this area at this time.

 This White Sapote has yielded a few fruit and as you can see there are more on the way as they seem to ripen over a few months. Bagging against fruit fly is necessary.

The cucumbers are at their most productive.

 Black Kale (Dino Kale, Cavallo Nero) are still producing fresh leaves although the older leaves are well nibbled by the white cabbage moth.

Keeping the birds away from the ripening grapes can be a chore.

 These Perennial Capsicums are small but prolific at a time when capsicums can be quite costly.

Rhubarb does not like much heat but the weather has been more wet and humid than hot and sunny.

It is time to dig the Cassava.

 The bush Butter Beans are adding to the climbing beans and Snake Beans which have been producing since Christmas.

 This Cranberry Hibiscus was a surprise seedling. A few young leaves added to the salad bowl taste like sorrel, contributing a slight lemony flavour.

At present this Mountain Paw Paw drops its fruit before they reach a useful size.

This Wax Jambu is producing loads of crisp, crunchy, moist fruit. These are great to eat fresh but not to everyones taste. Wax Jambu would really contribute to an asian salad with a lime juice dressing.

 This tamarillo has been fruiting for a month. If grilled, like a tomato,  a Tamarillo will add flavour to the breakfast plate.

The first of the Wing Beans are ready to pick before they become too big and full of fibre. These plants have regrown from the 2010, 2011 tubers.

This is a moth eaten leaf but the tiny sprouts of Purple Sprouting Broccoli are still being produced.

 The sweet basil loves the humid warm weather.

 The New Guinean Mushroom plant also likes some rain, heat and shade.

 The ginger has been shooting for six weeks now. It loves this weather and is growing in shade beneath the Tiger Grass.

 The unblanched celery is tough but softens when cooked.

The Snake Beans love the heat. Why do they attract so many ants? Picking each bean with a twist, so the growing point will fruit again, has contributed to the yield.  What is fruiting in your garden at this time?