Winter warmer - spicy vegetable soup

Hallo 2013!

Here is a great winter recipe that never fails me!

Ingredients:

• Chicken or Veg Stock
• Smoked paprika
• Olive oil (best kind)
• Salt
• Coriander seeds
• Dried mixed Italian herbs
• Minced garlic 
• Dried chilly (I used bird's eye) (1)
• Carrots (3)
• Sweet potato (1)
• Leek (1)
• Swede (1/4)
• Can of diced tomatoes (1)

Serve with sour cream and fresh parsley.

1. Boil about 1,5l of water with chicken or veg stock.
2. Add generous amounts of smoked paprika, dash of olive oil (best kind), salt, coriander seeds, dried mixed Italian herbs, half-spoon of minced garlic and a dried chilly (I used one dried bird's eye).
3. Roughly shop up some peeled carrots (3), one large sweet potato, one leek and a quarter of a swede.
4. Boil for about 30 minutes.
5. Drain the veg, setting the boiling liquid aside for later.
6. Chuck the veg in the oven for 10 minutes on 200C (fan-forced) with an optional small drizzle of honey to caramelise.
7. Process small amounts of grilled veg in the food processor together with the boiling liquid, plus one can of diced tomatoes, until it's a smooth liquid. I prefer the soup a bit lumpy. A bit more rustic?
8. Return to heat up, but not boil.
9. Serve with sour cream and fresh parsley.

I have tried this with all sorts of variations. For example using Indian spices and pumpkin, using corn, coriander and cumin… anything is possible. A tip for success is to think of complimenting foods and I use a geographical food region as a reference - Italian, French, Latvian, Hungarian, Thai etc.

Enjoy! : )

Herbs

I look forward to my new herb garden.  I especially look forward to having fresh coriander once again.  I still have a supply of coriander seeds, which I harvested and dried last year from our allotment.  Because it is such a strong herb, you only need a little bit - a few crushed seeds will flavour an entire casserole.  Unlike fresh coriander, dried seeds are good for casseroles - slow and long cooking recipes. Thyme is great for stews and sauces too - so I have a packet of thyme leaves ready to be planted this weekend. Hopefully we get the balcony-pot soil this weekend, some nice weather too, and all the herbs can be planted! (below is a photo from last year's out-of-control dill jungle)

I found that making herb butter is one of the best ways to ensure that I have plenty of herbs in supply well into winter.  Here are a few photos and a recipe I made in June 2010.   I made parsley butter, coriander butter and dill butter.

Directions: Wash and dry all herbs and check for any garden immigrants.  Chop herbs in a mixer or by hand - quite finely.

 Soften butter to room temperature butter, cube and add to the herbs. Add a dash of salt and for the coriander version I also added garlic.
Cool down the mixture a little and roll into sausages in grease-proof paper. Then put them in the freezer. Once frozen they can stay in the freezer for a while and then just slice pieces off with a sharp knife and add to whatever. 

Coriander seeds can be dried - place in an oven at a low temperature (~80-100 deg C) for a few hours.  If you pack them away without being completely dry they will rot and grow mold - as it happened to me first time I collected the seeds.  Thyme and rosemary can be dried too, but rosemary is fine to be stored in the freezer for a long periods without drying.  I wrap it in a damp kitchen paper towel and leave it in a Tupperware box.

Delia's ideas with herbs are quite inspiring.  She has a particularly good mixed-herb butter recipe with parsley, chives, tarragon and more.  Check it out!

2012 - Willkommen zurück

We are back - five months later and in a new country!

A little about leaving the allotment: late November and December 2012 I tidied up our much loved allotment and collected any seeds that could be used.


It was tough to say ‘cheerio’ and I even spend an afternoon by myself collecting some ridiculously late raspberries, veg, remaining herbs and flower seeds.



We even still had some tomatoes - in December! How crazy is that?!

Looking back, this was a fantastic opportunity to experiment and learn about vegetables, herbs and flowers and, although time consuming, it has been very worthwhile.

Our new home does not have a garden or even space to rent one anywhere in the walking distance.  However, what we do have is a great new project: a large city balcony/terrace! Very exciting.  It is south/west facing, so plenty of sun almost the whole day long.  In addition the balcony is well protected from wind.  The balcony is 15.5 m² with 4 m  wall of railings exposed to sun.  There are hooks in place for five reasonable size rectangle flower containers. Easy!

At this point the idea is to have several containers that are reasonably low-maintenance.  Because the balcony will be used for mealtimes, entertaining and relaxing, I want plants with fresh and gentle fragrance, so no lilies or roses (anything with thorns or spikes for that matter!).  I have come up with a list of herbs and flowers to use and here is the list:

Seeds I have already: mixed flowers (collected from the allotment: marigolds, cornflowers, poppies etc.), Cornflower, Lupine, China Aster (mixed colours), Lavender, decorative sage (purple/pink - Salvia Horminum), lettuce, dill, parsley (Gigante di Napoli - it did very well in the allotment), thyme, coriander and lemon balm (Melissa Officinalis).

Plants and seeds planning to purchase: tomatoes, peppermint, chilli, two pots of larger conifers (yet to decide - any suggestions for fragrance and species suitable for pots???), Rosemary (found: Hänge-Rosemarin ‘Capri’, looks very pretty!), Riesen-Hosta (or just Hosta) and anti-mozzy Geranium Citrioderum.

Here is the current layout plan - very proximate - made using The Better Homes and Gardens, Arrange-a-Deck online app:

In addition to the south-facing balcony, we have a small north-facing and shady balcony.  For this space I have planned a combination of shade-loving plants, flowers and herbs.  I have done a little bit of research online and also have a bit of experience from planting in the shady area of the allotment. At the moment I am considering Begonias, Hostas (Riesen-Hosta), sage (Salvia Officinalis) and peppermint (Mentha Piperata).  Peppermint  and sage are apparently good insect repellents, so this might be useful when airing the house in summer.  Hostas have flowers, but are mostly a very decorative foliage.  I am not sure how well geraniums would cope with just about full-shade.  Any suggestions?
This is an exciting time - spring - and I cannot wait to have our garden oasis!

Spring 2011!

Welcome 2011. After a long break we are back in the allotment and everything is growing extremely fast - mostly weeds at the moment!

 In February we went to inspect the allotment and found some interesting things - like these zucchini plant left-overs.

With the growing season starting soon, we have stocked up and bought many seeds and seed potatoes. We also have an inventory of the seeds bought and collected last year that can be planted.  From the last category we have: lupine, marigold, dill, poppies, watercress and coriander.  The list of seeds purchased is rather long, so I might account for the things we have managed to plant in the last two weekends. It has been unusually warm and spring-like.  Around +15C during the day, but still a threat of frost at nighttime.

One of the first things planted this year are potatoes. Here is a picture of them occupying a large space of the kitchen floor.  This process is called chitting and allows them to grow little green shoots, which helps them grow faster. We planted a row of Maris Piper and a row of Desiree potatoes.  Maris Piper and Desiree are both main crop variety which will be ready to harvest in June-July. I think Desiree was the organic variety, but I am to lazy to walk to the garage to check the bags and labels.

But before the spuds went a row of carrots (Mr Fothergill's, Early Nantes 5) with a row of onions (Homebase home-brand Stuttgarter Riesen) next to the carrots them to keep the carrot-fly away.

The front of the allotment is full of new marigold seeds and a mix of field flowers to attract bees and other good insects. Plus a Lidl (cheap supermarket) budget brand summer flower mix.  Marigold is meant to deter animals and I am hoping that means no dogs and cats would be wondering around the allotment.  

We've planted quiet a few rows of Gigante di Napoli parsley - seeds left over from last year, purchased at the Real Food Festival in Earls Court, London.  Last year this parsley grew like mad.  It was not exactly 'gigante', but very tasty.  In the parsley box, we've planted some dill randomly amongst the other herbs surviving the winter - not sure if these seeds collected from last year's plants will actually grow.  The main plan this year is to continually plant herbs throughout the summer, so I have small batches of them to use all the time and not a plantation of dill or parsley in one go. We have made a patch ready for the pumpkin seeds, but did not get very far with planting - perhaps this weekend...? Meanwhile all the weeds are flowering and attracting these bumble-bees that sound like small helicopters!


Never mind, since the weeds are all prostrate - ground covering - and seem to come out reasonably easy. With such a large plot of weeds, the plan is to only clear the area immediately for working on, but that's still quite a lot! But with so much space, we'd be made not to go nuts with planting food! Every week, something new, and every month a new set of spuds and root veg! That should be a great harvest!

August

Our August update will have to follow in several installments as this was a very busy month on the allotment. However, here is a synopsis:

• We started digging out onions.
  
• We had zucchini, parsley, raspberries in abundance.
  
• Out of a whole row of beetroot, we harvested 2 and have 3 more in the ground. A little disappointing on the quantities there, but the flavor makes up for it.
• In addition, we invented many recipes for all the potatoes and zucchinis. Every recipe that could do with a spoonful of parsley - got several cups of it.
• It was a bit hard to work out what can be planted in August. We have planted more potatoes, which by now are close to flowering. Our runner beans were planted in early August and now are close to harvest. (In fact, collected a handful tonight - shall steam them for dinner tomorrow.) We planted more coriander, rosemary and three rows of lettuce.