Zucchini pickle - summer in a jar!

Zucchini are on my must-grow list every summer - they're easy and prolific and can be used in sooooo many ways.  There's only so much zucchini one can eat before being completely sick of them.  That's when I

 get out my jars and make pickles - great over the winter and spring in many dishes, my favourite is mixed with leftover rice, salad leaves, a tin of sardines or tuna, parsley and a squirt of BBQ sauce, mmmmm!  You can also use in sandwiches, salads, on crackers.....

I have about 30 jars of pickles in my cupboard from the summer just gone and it did get to the stage where I was sick of making pick

les or relish (recipe another day!) every coup

le of days and resorted to grating and freezin

g in small portions.

Zucchini pickle

Ingredients:

5 large zucchini or 10-15 small ones (a mix of yellow and green looks nice)

2-3 finely chopped onions

1/2 c salt

3 1/2 c white vinegar

750g sugar

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp celery seeds

1-2 tsp turmeric

Method:

1.  Cut zucchini into slices, the halve or quarter if large.  Place in a non-metallic bowl with onions, salt and 1 litre of cold water to cover.  Stand 3 hours then drain.

2.  Combine white vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds and turmeric.  Bring to the boil then add the drained vegetables.  Bring back to boiling point but do not boil.

3. Remove from heat, pour into sterilised jars (wash then dry in a low oven for 20 minutes) and seal.

You can substitute cucumber for the zucchini, but it's not quite as nice!

Adapted from: Jill Brewis 'In a Pickle'

My favourite breaky!

I love breakfast!  It's probably my favourite meal of the day.  

Three mornings a week I run and, as it's the middle of winter over here at the moment, my runs are at 5:30 in the morning in the dark and cold!  What gets me through the last few k's is the thought of a HUGE bowl of porridge and the morning paper! Bliss.

Porridge with a twist

Ingredients for one:

1/4 c oats (I use a mixture of rolled and whole)

1/2 a pre-frozen banana 

1 T mixed seeds (I use linseed, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame), ground

1 tsp honey

sprinkle of cinnamon

Yoghurt, milk and berries to serve

Method:

1.  Place oats in a small saucepan with the banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Add water to cover plus a little extra (I leave mine here to take my run so the banana has time to defrost a bit).

2.  Cook over low heat around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the banana is soft and the oats cooked.  Add the honey and stir until dissolved.

3.  Remove from the heat and stir in the ground seeds.  Pour into a bowl and top with berries, yoghurt and milk.

Enjoy with the morning paper!

Travel, babies and a vegan-friendly frozen treat

Well it's been an exciting few days!  We booked our flights to Spain on Tuesday - was a tense few hours waiting while M got his leave approved hoping that the cheap seats didn't disappear!  It all worked out though and we fly into Barcelona early Sept, pick up our camper and head over to France for a France/Spain/Portugal (and Morocco if time) surf trip!  Soooooo excited, been on my list of things to do for the last 10 or so years, a pre-baby must!!  Looking forward to sampling all the great food the area has on offer.....mmmmmmmmm...........

The next morning I got a phone call to say my sister was going into labour, which would be great except the baby wasn't due until September! I couldn't concentrate on work and decided to drive the 5 hours to be there just in case....  Anyway, she had already had my new niece Luka, by the time I got there, and despite Luka having to stay in an incubator for the next 8 weeks all is well.

Which brings me to the last bit of my post.  I have a vegan friend coming for the weekend.  Not such a biggie as we are vegetarian/fish only anyway.  But will have to remember no dairy, eggs or honey!  Thought I would make some coconut sorbet to have for dessert with fruit.  Only 3 ingredients and very easy!

Coconut sorbet

1.  Place a tin of coconut milk (I use lite), 1/2 c dessicated coconut and 1/2 c white sugar in a saucepan.

2.  Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  

3.  Remove from the heat.  Cool, then place in fridge overnight or until very cold.  Churn in an ice-cream maker.

Silverbeet and rice pie - a quick and easy dinner

I had planned to make a potato-top fish pie for dinner tonight.  I had already put the pan of water on to boil then went to the pantry to get the potatoes....and there were none!  Someone hadn't put on the shopping list that we were out, nor had he mentioned it when I told him what I was going to make for dinner!

Oh well, straight to my 'what the heck are we going to have for dinner there's no fresh vege and i'm out of idea's' recipe!  This 'pie' has three ingredients - rice, cheese and silverbeet (swiss chard), is super easy to make and the best bit is it tastes WAY better than it sounds!

Try it!!

Silverbeet and rice pie

1.  Cook 1 c rice  (I use long grain brown but basmati is good too).

2.  While the rice is cooking steam/boil roughly chopped silverbeet (you can use spinach too) for around 5 minutes until wilted.  I use maybe 10 silverbeet leaves, with stems removed.  

3.  Layer half the rice into the bottom of a casserole dish, top with half the silverbeet, sprinkle with cheese (whatever works for you - I use feta).  Repeat the layers, ending with cheese (I use grated edam here).

4.  Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Serve with a veggie side.

 

The Best pasta

Right it's time to put on some photo's if I want people to actually read this blog! so here goes....

Well, it's not quite where I had planned it to be but it's there so it's a start!

This is on our local mountain, Mt Taranaki (or Egmont as it says on the map, but i've never heard a local call it that since I moved here 6 years ago!).  Anyway this is on a tramping trip on Waitangi weekend in February.  It was around 3 hours to this hut.  So anyway, after such a long (mostly uphill) walk we needed food. Pasta.  I grow my own delicious heirloom tomatoes in summer and preserve whatever we don't eat for later in the year - I refuse to buy a tomato or tomato sauce for that matter!  Anyway, along with sauce I also make loads of pasta sauce to bottle, plain chopped tomatos, relish and freeze some for later.  

On this trip I took a jar of pasta sauce, cooked up some pasta and lentils, mixed them all together and dinner was served.  Haha it's great how good things taste out in the fresh air when you've really earned them!

Pasta sauce

1.  Chop an onion and a carrot finely and saute in oil over very low heat until soft.  Add 2 cloves of chopped or crushed garlic and cook for a minute more.

2.  Add chopped tomatoes - a can if that's all you have or maybe 6 - 10 fresh ones depending on size, along with 1 tsp brown sugar, a splash of balsamic vinegar (add a little extra if preserving the tomatoes as this will stop the top exploding!)., a sprinkle of dried herbs (one or more of basil, oregano, majoram, thyme or mixed herbs) and 1-2 T tomato paste.

3.  Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens slightly - around 20 minutes.

4.  Use as is or with lenitls, tuna etc added, bottle or cool and freeze.

Enjoy, i'm off to practise some food photography!

My favourite afternoon snack

On nights where I have the gym or basketball after work I like to have a snack to get me through to dinner time......banana frozen yoghurt!  So easy, sooooo good!  I buy the 'yucky' bananas when they're on special, peel, halve and put in a zip lock bag in the freezer ready to use in smoothies, my morning porridge and especially this recipe! 

Banana frozen yoghurt

1. Place a frozen banana in the bowl of a food processor.

2. Add around 1/2 c plain, unsweetened yoghurt and blend until the banana breaks up.

3.  Add a teaspoon of runny honey, blend briefly again.

Eat, yum!!

Autumn goodies

Guavas are another great treat to look forward to in the winter - my friend has a large tree, but doesn't eat them herself, so I raid it often!  I either eat the little red globes fresh or make guava jelly.  I first tasted guava jelly while at uni - my flatmates grandma used to make it for him, and I helped eat it!  I remembered back all those years (wow, doesn't time fly!) and attempted to make it last winter.  The first bach was slightly over-done - I think around 2 c of sugar went into each jar!  But had it sussed second time round and it was just like I remembered it - a beautiful red, tangy but sweet.  Don't be tempted to cook it down to far, once it starts coating the back of the spoon it's nearly done!

Guava jelly

1.  Rinse the fruit and place in a preserving pan, cover with water and mush the guavas up a bit with a potato masher.

2.  Bring to the boil then simmer for around 20 minutes.

3.  Line a colander with muslin (or similar - I used baby gauze doubled up) and place inside a stockpot or similar. Pour in the fruit.  Leave it for 10-20 minutes until the juice has dripped through - don't be tempted to push the fruit down!

4.  Lift out the colander and discard fruit. 

5.  Measure out how much juice you have return to preserving pan with an equal amount of sugar (i.e. 5 c juice plus 5 c sugar).  Bring to boil then simmer 25 or more minutes until it starts to coat the back of the spoon and go thick.

6.  Pour into sterilised jars and seal.