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Archive for November, 2011

Garlic Scapes

Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes, tagged , , , on November 11, 2011| 73 Comments »

Treasure!

That’s what I thought when the garlic scapes arrived.  Up until now, we’d only read about these – we’d never actually had any to play with.  Scapes are the “flower” stalks of garlic plants and interestingly, only certain varieties produce them.  I say “flower”, but in fact the head of the scape is a cluster of miniature cloves.

Our grower friends Ian and Diana recently cut the scapes off their garlic bulbs – a necessary process to ensure the plant doesn’t divert all its energy into flowering rather than forming cloves.  Di, bless her, arrived with a huge bag full for me…

A week later, Uncle Steve (Pete’s brother) dropped off another bag of scapes, although these were obviously from a different variety of garlic.  Whereas Diana’s were curled, these were straight…

As you can see, the heads are jam-packed with bulbils…

The entire scape is edible, although the tops were very garlicky indeed!  The stalks have a milder, but still very distinct, and very fresh, garlic flavour and aroma.

I didn’t want to waste this fabulous bounty, so I washed, chopped and froze about a third of the scapes…

Others were added to stirfries and stews for a gentle garlic kick.  The remainder were pulsed in the food processor with flaked almonds, salt and olive oil to create a delicious scape pistou – so called because unlike pesto, it doesn’t have any cheese added…

I’ve been stirring this garlicky paste into everything from pasta (and then I do add cheese) to fried rice.  It also makes a delicious dip spread over thin slices of sourdough.

I was right, wasn’t I?  It really was treasure.

PS. Have a look at what Linda’s doing with her homegrown scapes!

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A Ring for Sarah

Posted in Musings on November 9, 2011| 49 Comments »

I’ve bought a ring for Sarah.

She passed away last week, after an extended battle with cancer.  She was Pete’s cousin, and my friend.

Sarah was warm, funny and above all, honest – both with her words and her feelings.  My occasional phone conversations with her would lower my heart rate, in the same way that settling into a comfy lounge or sipping hot tea does.  I found her incredibly easy to talk to – words would tumble out, and our discussions would meander through the antics of our children, the quirky ups and downs of our everyday lives, and family happenings.

We met nearly twenty years ago, at Pete’s grandmother’s house.  We both adored the old lady, and a few years later, formulated a mad plan to rescue her from the nursing home when she became too infirm to live on her own.  It was never going to happen, of course, but that was Sarah’s way – lead with the heart, and try to figure out the details later.

We lived in different cities, so we only saw her every few years or so.  She and I would chat once or twice a year on the phone, often for an hour or more, and then be caught up on each other’s lives.  The last conversation we had was just a couple of weeks before she died, and it was a short one, as she was weak and struggling to talk.  Even then, she wanted to know how we all were, what we planned to do for Christmas, how the kids were going at school.  She always made us feel like we were special to her.

She had just fifty-three years of life, but it was so full of good things.  A lot of pain too, but I think she’d have said that the good stuff far outweighed the hard times.  She had wonderful parents, sisters who were her best friends, and a loving husband and children who adored her.  She had a rewarding and creative career, great friends, and a community that  supported her.

Sarah darling, you were loved so dearly by so many.  Truly, you had a life well lived.

And so I bought a ring for Sarah.  A big chunky sterling silver ring, which fills up my whole hand.  Whenever I wear it, I will remember the times that she made me laugh until I cried, and how I would relay the stories to Pete, and then he too, would laugh until tears came.  I will remember the times when I was struggling with Small Man’s illness, and Sarah would just listen, without judgment or endless advice.  I will remember the dozen or so meals we shared, the handmade Christmas cards, the blankets we traded for artwork, and the sheer joy of having known her.

Rest in peace, Sarah.  You will be missed more than you could ever have imagined.

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Duck Ragu Pasta

Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes, tagged , , , on November 8, 2011| 43 Comments »


There’s not a lot that Jonathan won’t have a crack at.

Pete’s baby cousin, who has never abseiled before in his life, recently announced that he was going down the side of the 28-storey AMP building at Circular Quay. And with typical Jono panache, he did so in a lycra Spiderman costume.

He then told me in no uncertain terms that such bravery should not go unrewarded, so last week he invited himself and the lovely Laura over for dinner.  He’ll squeal in protest when he reads that and, truth be told, we’re always delighted to have the opportunity to share a meal with them (particularly Small Man, who likes to bend Uncle Jono’s ear about golf).

We served Mystery Meat Pie (although I knew what the meat was this time), and Pete’s dinner party speciality – duck ragu pasta.

The day before, I roasted four duck marylands for a couple of hours in the oven until brown and crispy. I fed one to Big Boy who was home for lunch, and stripped the meat from the other three, discarding the bones and skin.

The roasting process produced a large quantity of duck fat and juice, which I poured into a bowl and popped into the fridge.  Once cold, the fat lifted cleanly off the top (and was stored in the freezer), leaving behind a small quantity of jellied stock which was used in the pasta dish.

Duck Ragu Pasta
(adapted from a recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Cook With Jamie)

  • shredded duck meat from three roasted marylands (thigh and drumstick portion)
  • olive oil
  • 6 slices of pancetta, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 yellow capsicum, seeded and chopped
  • ½ red capsicum, seeded and chopped
  • 2 sticks celery, finely diced
  • 6 sprigs fresh rosemary,  leaves picked and finely chopped
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 x 400g tins of San Marzano peeled tomatoes
  • ½ bottle fruity young red wine (we used an Ashton Hills Pinot Noir)
  • leftover duck stock from roasting
  • 500g pasta (we used orecchiette, but Jamie recommends occhi di lupo)
  • 50g salted butter
  • flat leaf parsley for garnish
  • 4 teaspoons of chardonnay vinegar
  • 2 teaspoon of sherry vinegar
  • 1 – 2 teaspoons sugar
  • salt to taste

1. In a large saute pan, heat a little olive oil and fry the pancetta until brown, then add the onion, capsicums, celery, rosemary, cinnamon and garlic.   Fry until softened, about 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes and red wine.  Lower the heat and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.

2. Add the shredded duck and duck stock, and simmer for another half an hour, adding water if required. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta.

3. Remove the cinnamon stick and add the vinegars, sugar and salt, all to taste.  The purpose of the vinegars and sugar is to give the dish a sweet/sour taste.  Jamie’s original recipe specifies orange juice and zest, combined with red wine vinegar.  Heat for a few minutes more to amalgamate the flavours, then add the butter and allow to melt into the sauce.

4. Boil the pasta until al dente, then drain well and add to the sauce.  Serve with a scattering of chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.

. . . . .

We finished the meal with Small Man’s Treacle Pudding and a large bowl of microwave custard.  Having eaten himself into a food-induced coma, Spiderman fell asleep on the floor shortly thereafter!

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Now, about those tomatoes…

Posted in Frugal Living, tagged , on November 6, 2011| 38 Comments »

To date, we’ve harvested nineteen tomatoes from our indoor plants.

The first two we cut open were mealy and watery, but the others have all been great.  We’ve been astonished by how large they’ve grown – here’s the biggest one of all…

It had sweet, pale flesh.  It obviously didn’t ripen as well as a tomato grown outdoors would have, but it wasn’t mushy in the middle and was great eating raw…

All the subsequent ones have been delicious too – we haven’t had another mealy tomato after the initial two. Here are the ones we ate tonight at dinner…

Hopefully as the weather warms up we’ll get improved ripening, but if not, we might look at getting some lights for next season.  We’ll keep you posted!

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Lessons Learnt

Posted in Frugal Living, tagged , , , on November 5, 2011| 61 Comments »

We learn something new every day…

Last year we planted garlic for the first time.  We grew it outdoors in an old concrete laundry tub, and were only able to produce small one-inch bulbs with tiny cloves.

This year, thanks to a tip from Gardening Australia, we stored the cloves in the fridge for a month before planting. In addition, we fed the plants with blood and bone, and this time most of them grew much larger…

Here’s one bulb, broken up and peeled.  Just three huge cloves…

. . . . .

We’ve been short on time lately for preserving, so instead of making our usual passata, we’ve been slow roasting tomatoes in the oven instead.

We drizzle halved Roma tomatoes with oil and a scattering of salt, then pop them into a low oven for a couple of hours, until they just start to burn at the edges.  Halfway through the cooking time, we squish them with a potato masher to flatten them out.

These store beautifully in the fridge for about a week, but also freeze really well in ziplock bags, ready to be taken out and added to the pot whenever a concentrated burst of roasted tomato flavour is needed.

They also make a wonderful addition to dishes like Pete’s vegetarian paella…

. . . . .

We’ve discovered that sometimes weeds help with pest control, like this one which seems to have attracted all the aphids in the patch, leaving the mint and garlic bug-free…

. . . . .

Finally, we’ll never throw out a sprouting onion again!  We planted an old Italian sweet onion in the hopes of collecting seed, but had to move the chook dome before the plant had time to flower.  So we pulled it out and found it had grown into quite a lot of edible onion…

So now, whenever an onion starts to sprout, we plant it in the garden and ignore it.  If we need spring onions, I go out and break off some green shoots, and when it’s time to move the chickens again, we pull out whatever is there and use it in a stir fry!

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