Recipe for a Savoury Loaf

Ingredients:

1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tblsp of olive oil

3 cups of spinach leaves ( could use a mix of mushroom plant, basella and other 'meaty' greens)
salt & pepper
120g semidried tomatoes


2 cup self-raising flour with a pinch of salt
4 eggs
150 g sour cream
2/3 cup olive oil

120g feta cheese

Method:

Cook the onion and garlic in the 2T olive oil.
Add leaves and let them steam down
Then add chopped tomato.
Add salt and pepper and let cool.
When cooled add the other ingredients except for the feta cheese.
Mix
Add the coarsely chopped feta cheese.
Pour into a lined loaf tin.
Bake in 180 degree C oven for 40 - 45 minutes.

Serve as a slice for afternoon tea or with salad for a meal.

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

Snapshot: Harvest available May 6, 2012

This post is to highlight the edibles we can harvest during Autumn in Bellingen, NSW, Australia. We have not yet had a frost and many subtropicals are still growing despite the cooler nights.

Autumn, May 6, 2012 Perigee Moon

Sweet Basil

The Tumeric will soon die down.

Bamboo shoots

Turnip

Collards

Dino Kale or Cavolo Nero

Mouse Melon vine

Warrigal Greens

Chives

Pumpkin varieties

Rhubarb

Cassava

Custard Apple

Wing Bean

Loofah

Carambola

Mulberry

Tamarillo

Rosella (Australian hybrid)

Yam Bean climbing Macadamia Tree

Sweet Leaf

Kang Kong & Variegated Water Parsley (Oenanthe Javanica)

Brazilian Spinach

Red Amaranth with green Egyptian Spinach

Golden Brugmansia flower with Bunchosia (Peanut Butter Fruit)  fruit below

Perennial Capsicum

Mushroom Plant (Rungia klossii)

Large Leaf Rocket

West Indian Gherkin

Red Russian Kale Seedlings

Chilacayote

Yellow Guava, seeded by birds, very lemony

Yam Bean (The bean itself is poisonous. We eat the yam)

Sword Bean

Jak Fruit

Australian Sweet Lime

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?