Minestrone

We were lucky to have a lot of tomatoes from our two cherry-tomato buckets. Here is an autumnal recipe (with a personal twist, of course) of my favorite tomato based soup - Minestrone.

Cooking time for maximum flavor is around 2 hours on a lazy Sunday night or one hour on a weekday for a less spectacular result.

You will need (in order of usage):

• butter (a reasonable quantity)
• olive oil (I prefer Bertolli, extra virgin)
• 2 cups chopped onions (or just one big onion chopped) 
• one chilli (hot!)
• one portion Knorr Bouillon Pur with herbs and garlic (or fresh beef stock instead of water... )
• water (1l or more)
•  3 to 4 large carrots chopped 
• 1 zucchini chopped
• 500ml passata  (best possible quality)
• 500g tomatoes (chopped, I do not worry about de-seeding)
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 1 cup small pasta shells
• a healthy bunch of fresh oregano & rosemary (from the balcony or garden!)
• salt & pepper

I cook onions until slightly translucent, mix in the stock concentrate, crushed chilli and add water. Bring to slow boil, add diced carrots. When carrots have cooked for 10-15min, add zucchini, passata and tomatoes. Return to boil and simmer. Add kidney beans, pasta and herbs - cook until pasta is ready. Remember to take out any rosemary sprigs before serving. As with most soups, it tastes even better the next day. 

I use Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs to decorate. Buon appetito!

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!

The Last of Zucchini (Courgettes)

It is official - our zucchini (courgette) crop is well and truly over. Each of the 6-7 plants produced many many zucchini and I had to be ever so inventive with the different ways they can be incorporated in recipes.  One thing we did not try though and will next year is cooking with zucchini flowers.  Maybe in a tempura batter or similar - don't have any recipes at the moment to start off with.

These photos are taken in September and by now the plants are shriveled small and frost-bitten and flopped on the ground.

Amongst many inventions is the Zucchini 'Lasagna'.  I used slices of zucchini as layer divisions and added canned tomato, fried onions, stale white bread, lots and lots of parsley, lots of cheese and smoked paprika.  variations included a layer of spinach, cooked carrot, celery leaves or marjoram (from our allotment).

New Spuds

Early in spring - March to be specific - we started planting potatoes. We planted four rows with mostly three potatoe varieties - Lady Balfour (or Mrs Spud), Orla, Desiree Organic and Desiree from cupboard.. (as in shop potatoes that started growing). And three random plants from the previous crop. The latter we have not dug up yet, so no idea what type of potatoes it is. So far we dug up Desiree and Lady B. Not only dug up, but also cooked, baked, pan fried. They are so very, very tasty! The first tatties we brought home were just boiled and the devoured with some yogurt and our own 'home-grown' dill.

Non-cucumber

Despite some great beginnings - cucumbers did not grow. They were dwarfed by dill that was meant to be a complimenting herb, but grew to about 1.5m and could have supplied many many breakfasts, lunches and dinners. However, cucumber attempted to flower at a dizzying height of 4cm and then dwindled. Oh, well, better luck next time.

So, apart from freezing dill and making dill-butter and freezing that for the dark winter days, I made dill vinegar. The recipe came from Ann Kleinbeg's book 'Flavoured Oils & Vinegars'. Despite the dull title, it has some great salad dressing ideas that work and very nice photos. The dill & peppercorn vinegar - take cider vinegar - place in a saucepan, heat, simmer for 2min, add dill and whole black peppercorns, turn off heat, sit for a while, pour in a jar, where I had placed extra dill. Does not keep forever, but a dark shelf or fridge is fine for a few weeks at least.