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.

It's Black Sapote Harvest Time.

Best quality Black Sapote. Juicy and seedless. Yum.

Here is a delicious recipe for a Chocolate Sapote Mousse and more, plus more information from Suwannerose.

Fran's Fermented Elderflower Soda

Elderberry flower heads

Pick two or three elderflower heads and remove flowers from stems. 

Put six cups of unchlorinated water into a two litre jar. 

Add a heaped tablespoon of honey and stir to dissolve. 

Stir in the elderflowers. 

To speed up the fermenting process you can add a pinch of yeast or some whey from the top of plain yoghurt. 

Put the jar (with no lid) on a kitchen bench so you can give it a quick stir whenever you walk past. 

Place a cloth over the top to keep bugs out. 

Within two to six days, depending on temperature, the mixture will start to bubble. 

Once it has a bit of fizz strain the flowers off and put the soda in
the fridge. 

Sandies's Bean and Yoghurt Dip, adapted by Shann

500gm thick Greek style yoghurt (drain but not too much)

2 green chilies, seeds left in and finely chopped.

1/2 bunch mint, finely chopped

1/2 lemon. juiced

Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper

40 mls extra virgin olive oil

40-80mls extra virgin olive oil

Two 400gm cans of butter beans, drained and rinsed.

Method:

Combine yoghurt, chili, mint and lemon juice in a bowl.

Season with salt and pepper and stir though the oil.

Using remaining olive oil fry the beans over medium heat for a few minutes or until skins begin to split.

Season with salt, add garlic and cook for 3 minutes until golden.

Stir though paprika.

Pour yoghurt mixture onto a plate and make a well. Spoon in the bean mix

Note: Adapt to taste says Shann

"Only add chili to taste. I mash the beans leaving some small hunks. 

I use less oil in the yoghurt.

I retain some of the bean can liquid in case they mash too dry."

Cooked greens with sweet banana porridge

Cooked greens with sweet banana porridge

This is an easy recipe that adds more green vegetables to your breakfast.

It also makes a useful meal at other times with different vegetables and sweeteners added.

Chop a cup of mixed greens that do not require extensive cooking to remove any toxins, such as Okinawa Spinach, Malabar Spinach, Leaf Amaranth, Longevity Spinach, Silver Beet and Spinach.

OR 

Cook chopped greens that do require cooking to remove toxins such as Chaya, Cassava leaves, Taro leaves. 

Add to a microwave bowl with a cup of porridge oats (I prefer traditional oats rather than quick oats)  finely sliced banana, milk, and your preferred sweetener if desired. 

Microwave until the oats are cooked, around 3 minutes.  Enjoy.

................................

Experiment cooking greens into polenta and maize flour.

Related:

Growing and eating Malabar Spinach (Ceylon Spinach)

Okinawa Spinach Growing Information

This tasty vegetable grows very easily in the Bellingen Valley. It is a little cold sensitive. Protect from frosts.  Share cuttings with friends.
Green Harvest has plants.


From the Green Harvest catalogue 

© Frances Michaels

BOTANICAL NAME:Gynura crepioides
COMMON NAMES: Okinawa spinach, Hong tsoi, Okinawa lettuce
FAMILY: Asteraceae
ORIGIN: Native to Indonesia

PLANT DESCRIPTION
Okinawa Spinach is a dense, low growing plant to 70 cm high. Easily the most low maintenance perennial leaf vegetable; it is a hardy plant and relatively pest-free. Thriving in warm, wet conditions Okinawa Spinach does best in subtropical and tropical areas; it is sensitive to frost. An attractive plant with shiny leaves that are green on top and purple underneath; the flowers are very small and orange. It grows best in full sun to partial shade. It needs ample water, rich, fertile well-drained soil that is kept mulched and prefers a pH of between 6.1 and 6.5.

USES

• Food: It is a very nutritious vegetable, eaten raw or cooked. The leaves and young shoot tips are steamed, used in stir fry, tempura, stews, and soups. Try not to overcook it as it can become slimy. The leaves have a crisp, nutty taste with a faint hint of pine. In Okinawa the leaves are often fried and served as tempura. It can also be steamed with rice if it is added for the last 7 minutes of cooking time. This leafy green is also known as cholesterol spinach, and there are many claims that it lowers cholesterol. Young leaves have a much better flavour than the older leaves.
• Edible Landscaping: The vivid leaf colour makes this a good choice as a background plant in ornamental beds. Okinawa Spinach can be used in landscaping as a groundcover in full sun (with enough water) or it does well in partial shade. It is very adaptable to container gardening and hanging baskets and will grow inside on a windowsill with good light.

PLANTING DETAILS

• Recommended Planting Time: Cuttings are best taken when the soil temperature is at least 25°C. Rooting the cutting in water before planting will improve results. The plant responds well to pruning, rapidly becoming bushy. Pruning also prolongs its life.
• Planting Depth: Cuttings 10 - 20 cm long should be half buried in potting mix and kept moist.
• Spacing: Space plants at 60 cm apart.

Recipes from The Edible Plant Project :

Okinawa Spinach
Okinawa Spinach with Rice & Mango
Okinawa Spinach & Grits

Growing and eating Malabar Spinach (Ceylon Spinach)

Basella alba is another subtropical vegetable for growing in the Bellinger Valley.

California Gardening

Published on Oct 30, 2016

In today's episode we look at how to grow Malabar Spinach in a container. We look at everything you need to grow Malabar Spinach, from the soil selection to the fertilizer schedule to the harvest and saving seeds once the season is over. We also include a Malabar Spinach Fritters Recipe in this episode!

Note: Baking soda and bicarbonate of soda are the same thing. Gram is chickpea flour. Experiment with your own flour batter.

Related:

Okinawa Spinach Growing Information

Video: Longevity Spinach - Gynura procumbens

We grow this scrumptious,  healthy vegetable so easily in our Bellinger Valley. Use it like spinach or chard.


Related:

Okinawa Spinach Growing Information

Using Coffee Cherries - Flour, Tea, Jam/Jelly

Coffee Flour^™ is…

"…An agricultural innovation with the potential to do some really great things for the world. And we don’t just mean the food world.

Each year the billions of coffee beans that eventually make their way into the Americanos, lattes, and no-foam, extra-hot, triple-shot cappuccinos of the world are harvested by milling and extracting them from the coffee plant. The surrounding fruit, is discarded. It often gets dumped into rivers or left to rot in heaps. So we invented something better to do with it. Something that’s better for everyone."

Read the full article on http://www.coffeeflour.com/

Also read about

Drying coffee beans at home

Growing + Making Cascara: Coffee Berry tea

See also Making Jam without Sugar

#coffee #coffeecherries #coffeeflour #coffeejam

Making jam without sugar: using excess fruit

This is a variety of useful recipes plucked from the net for making a jam or spread. There are source credits after the recipes for links to the original sites. There is no need to do without jam just because you are avoiding high energy sweeteners like sugar, honey and various syrups. Please take notice of the recommendations regarding the use by periods.

I boil down our home grown cumquats with only a very small amount of sugar and a little water to make a delicious sauce or runny jam, perhaps I will now try cooking down citrus without any sugar or use stevia to sweeten. Happy experimentation.

Click pictures to enlarge.

Bunya Nut Cake

Growing locally Bunya Nuts can be boiled and utilised as a nut meal. This recipe blends the nuts with milk to make a paste.

Green Banana Rissoles-Cakes

Oven baked green banana savoury cake

• Boil and mash sufficient green bananas (or plantains) to replace the meat in a traditional rissole recipe.

• Blend with plain flour (wholemeal, half wholemeal is preferred), an egg if you like, crushed nuts, finely chopped vegetables, seasonings (cumin works well) and herbs of your choice until you have a mix that can be shaped into small rissoles.

• Fry in a frypan using coconut or olive oil or bake in the oven to avoid oils. These little savoury cakes go well to nibble with pumpkin soup or serve with a savoury sauce.

Carambola (Star Fruit) Upside Down Cake

Carambola (Star Fruit) Fruit

This is a paraphrased variation of the Mango Upside Down Cake from Linda Woodrow's amazingly useful and relevant Witches Kitchen blog which made use of a Mango seasonal glut. In the Bellinger Valley we are now entering a carambola (star fruit) glut. We find the carambola perfectly replaces the mangoes texture and taste.

The Recipe:

Turn your oven on to heat up to medium (180°C or 350°F).

Recipe: Green Vegetable Bake.

The half demolished Bake

I am always looking for recipes that utilise our abundant garden greens. The accompanying picture looks unappetising but the leftovers were refridgerated


 1. Collect your greens and any other vegetables. I prefer to use tomatoes in a salad rather than a bake but I use any of the following in a mix of greens :

• Small chokoes  • pumpkin leaves, • Katuk • Okinawa Spinach, • Ceylon Spinach, spinach • silver beet or beet leaves • Surinam Spinach • Brazil Spinach  •sweet potato leaves  • some chili or capsicum leaves • capsicum • various herbs • spring onions • Moringa leaves and flowers • cooked Chaya Spinach Tree leaves • cooked Warrigal Greens •mustard • rocket • zucchini 

2. Rinse well if required.

3. Fry some garlic and onion in oil (I prefer olive oil but coconut oil also works) .

4. In a 'kitchen whizz' chop a layer of hard vegetables such as pumpkin and carrot with the cooked onion and garlic. Add an egg or two and some cream or a little milk or yoghurt. Season. Also add some tasty cheese or feta cheese.

5. Layer the chopped vegetables in an oiled or buttered oven proof dish.

6.  'Whizz"/chop the green vegetables along with some seasoning,  eggs and a little milk or cream and add as another layer to the ovenproof dish. Keep the amounts of liquids small because the greens generate plenty of liquid. If you like you can just mix everything into one layer.

7. Bake for close to an hour in a moderate oven until dry on top.

8. Optional: Top with cheese (feta, tasty or parmesan) and bake for another 5 minutes.

9. Serve warm or cold with a salad.

See also:

Eat your Pumpkin leaves and links to vegetable recipes using indigenous plants

PINEAPPLE, MANGO & COCONUT BANANA BREAD

PINEAPPLE, MANGO &

COCONUT BANANA BREAD

Adapted from Coles Magazine by Rae

Prep 20 mins I Cook 1-1 ¼ hr I Makes 1 Loaf

1 ½ cups (225g) self-raising flour

1 cup (220g) brown sugar

½ cup (40g) shredded coconut

450g can crushed pineapple

½ cup (125ml) buttermilk

150g melted butter

2 large eggs

2 large (or 3 medium) ripe bananas, mashed

400g finely chopped frozen mango

Method

·   Preheat oven to 180°C

·   Mix flour, brown sugar and coconut in a bowl

·   Drain pineapple in a sieve, pressing out liquid

·   Whisk buttermilk, melted butter, eggs and mashed banana in a bowl

·   Add to flour mixture

·   Stir to combine

·   Pour mix into a greased and lined 10cm x 22cm loaf pan

·   Smooth the surface

·   Bake at 180°C for 1-1 ¼ hours or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean

·   Cool in the pan for 5 mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely

Spinach/Silverbeet Pie Recipe: Georgie's version of a Stephanie Alexander recipe

Okinawa Spinach

Note: This is a great way to use edible weeds and most greens.

Ingredients to make a pie the size of large pizza tray.

Pastry

2 cups plain flour (wholemeal if you like)

pinch of salt

1meagre cup of water

4 tbsp olive oil

Method:  Sift flour and salt into large bowl. Add water slowly and oil and mix with hands.  Make a good dough mixture that you can knead.  So all water may not be used as that depends on flour.  Knead it in the bowl or tip onto surface and knead for 10 minutes.  Put in bowl, cover (I put my bowl into plastic bag) and put in frig whilst you do the mixture.  

Recipe: Hummingbird Cake

 Hummingbird Cake

PREPARATION TIME 35 MINUTES• BAKING TIME 40 MINUTES

This moist, luscious cake from the American Deep South translates as delicious

in anyone's language. You need approximately 2 large over-ripe (460g) bananas

for this recipe.

450g can crushed pineapple in syrup

1 cup (150g) plain flour

½ cup (75g) self-raising flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup (200g) firmly packed brown sugar

½ cup (45g) desiccated coconut

1 cup mashed banana

2 eggs, beaten lightly

¾ cup (180ml) vegetable oil

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

30g butter, softened

60g cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1½ cups (240g) icing sugar mixture

1 Position oven shelves; preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Grease deep 23cm square cake pan, line base with baking paper.

2 Drain pineapple over medium bowl, pressing with spoon to extract as

much syrup as possible. Reserve 1/4 cup (60ml) syrup.

3 Sift flours, soda, spices and sugar into large bowl. Using wooden

spoon, stir in drained pineapple, reserved syrup, coconut, banana,

egg and oil; pour into prepared pan.

4 Bake cake in moderate oven about 40 minutes. Stand cake 5 minutes

then turn onto wire rack; turn cake top-side up to cool.

5 cream cheese frosting

Beat butter, cream cheese and essence in small bowl with electric mixer

until light and fluffy; gradually beat in icing sugar.

6 Spread cold cake with cream cheese frosting.

Omshree's Chickpea Salad

1 cup dried chickpeas soaked overnight

rinse thoroughly

Pressure cook chickpeas with a dollop of olive oil, no salt (half hour on high pressure is good)

rinse thoroughly

Add as much as you like quartered sweet cherry tomatoes      

1 large red onion diced                                         

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon roasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 dessertspoon tamari (soy sauce)

Recipe is subject to preference. For example can use sea-salt instead of tamari; add grated ginger;  add lime zest; vary quantities of garlic, onion, cherry tomatoes; whole cherry tomatoes instead of quartered; add parsley, chives, or shallots; and so on