Digging in the Dirt

A Lesson From The Past

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Posted on May 19, 2012

Some people in various parts of the world are living in economies that are officially described as being in a recession but wherever we live, these are definitely uncertain times. At the same time there is research showing that many 1st world nations waste up to 20% of all food purchased. That is the equivalent of bringing home 5 bags of groceries and throwing one bag of groceries straight into the bin.

Perhaps it is time to look back to earlier generations and their ‘waste not, want not’ mentality. Everything was used, re-used and re-fashioned until not a single thing was left. This applied in equal measure to food, clothing, furniture and so on.

Today I want to show you how we can easily make better use of the abundant food that we have.

This morning I juiced a large carrot, 2 apples and about 1/3 of a pineapple. I drank the juice for breakfast and saved the pulp.

Next was a 600 ml container of cream. This was bought in January and not required for a luncheon we were hosting so it was put in the freezer. Last weekend I thawed it to have some cream on dessert. Only a small amount was used so today I put it in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and made butter. I followed the description from here. I was very pleased with the result.

I used 100g of the butter when I made pastry and this is what was left. From about 500ml of cream I made 220g of butter and had 250ml of buttermilk.

I used the buttermilk tonight when I made a bacon and mushroom quiche for dinner. I mixed a couple of tablespoons of milk powder into the buttermilk to make a thicker liquid for the quiche.

While the oven was on I also made a batch of muffins using the leftover fruit pulp from my juice.

I made beef curry in the slowcooker from a recipe in one of the Sally Wise cookbooks. This is now divided into portions and frozen along with several serves of bolognaise sauce and a dish of lasagne.

Making these meals is a reminder of how we can use our own condiments. The curry called for tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, chutney and curry powder as some of the ingredients. I had home-made versions of all of these to use. Some of the pasta sauce I made during the summer when tomatoes were very cheap and plentiful went into the bolognaise sauce. The lasagne sheets were ones I had made some weeks ago and frozen. It is great to have so many of the ingredients for meals at your fingertips and know that they have been created in your own kitchen and you know exactly what went into them.

The Duke has made our bread from bought pre-mixes for a number of years and now he is experimenting with making it from scratch. He has the white loaf pretty well perfect but has working on getting the wholemeal loaf the way he wants it. Here is the result of his effort today and naturally he is very pleased.

Tomorrow I plan to make lemon butter which will use our own eggs and lemons as well as some of the butter I made today.

How do you make the most of the food you have?

Friday Favourites – Stuffed Capsicums (Red Peppers)

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Posted on May 11, 2012

This is a meal (can’t really call it a recipe as such) that rarely ever makes it onto my menu plan. I make it when I happen to find suitable red capsicums (peppers) at a reasonable price – generally $2.99/kg or less.

There is no right or wrong way to make these. This is simply how I do it.

Allow 1 medium red capsicum (pepper) per person. Cut in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and stalk.

Place halves skin side up in an ovenproof glass dish. Cook in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then transfer to the oven (180C) for about half an hour or until skin is starting to loosen and char.

Remove and invert the halves and stuff.

For the stuffing I use pre-cooked short grain rice. Heat the rice in the microwave – this makes it easier to mix in the other ingredients. I add grated tasty cheese, dried onion powder or veg stock powder, black pepper and one or two things from the following list – diced ham, bacon or salami, chopped baby spinach, chopped parsley, Tabasco, chopped mushrooms. The stuffing is really limited only by your imagination.

When the stuffing ingredients are combined use it to fill the capsicum (pepper) shells. Return to the oven or grill to heat through. Top with some grated cheese for the last 5 minutes.

You can include breadcrumbs with the cheese. In the illustration (last night’s dinner), I sliced avocado on top then added the cheese.

Serve with a side salad.

This is a relatively quick and easy main meal which can easily be gluten free and/or vegetarian.

DIY vs Outsourcing

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Posted on May 5, 2012

Today we went to the Wood Expo and unfortunately I did not find anyone who was doing the type of restoration work that my cabinet will need. That is OK as I have plenty of time and no particular deadline. I took more photos and printed them before I went so I have a complete pictorial record of the unit as well as all of the dimensions. My next job will be to see if I can find someone who can give me an estimate of what my idea is likely to cost. I did see a slab of silky oak for sale today – $150 and it was more than what I imagine will be required for the job. I will let you know of any further developments. In the meantime, it functions perfectly well as a stand for the television and storage of other items.

I decided to outsource the restoration of the cabinet as the skills required are beyond that which we have. However, there are lots of things we can do and make for ourselves. We have managed to fill the rest of the day with doing things for ourselves.

The Duke makes our bread in the breadmaker and today was fruit loaf with sultanas, chopped raisins and chopped dried apricots.

He also bottled his latest home brew and then started a new one today.

I made some fresh pasta. Here is some of it cut into lasagne sheets and ready to go in the freezer. I used some to make chicken and mushroom canneloni for dinner. We had a serve each and here are the 2 leftover serves ready to be frozen for lunches later in the week.

I picked a pumpkin and also some cucumbers from the garden. We had mashed pumpkin and peas with the canneloni.

We made soda water using the Soda Stream and I had a glass of bubbles with fresh slices of lime.

Now I am off to do some more knitting on my dishcloth. I have done 4 so far and the 5th is underway.

Pizza Bases

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Posted on May 3, 2012

Since I was at home today I took advantage of the extra time and made tortillas to use as pizza bases. I found the recipe on Simple Savings and it is very simple.

2.5 cups of flour (I used 1/2 white and 1/2 wholemeal)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons oil
3/4 cup warm water (I used slightly more – probably due to the wholemeal flour)

Mix ingredients in food processer until combined. Knead dough for 5 minutes then leave to rest for 15 minutes. Divide into about 10 pieces and roll out thinly. Cook in a hot pan and set aside when cooked. Keep covered with a damp teatowel.

Here they are ready to use for pizza bases.

I was happy with the result and the pizzas were a success. Unfortunately we were too busy preparing and eating the pizzas to stop and take photos. Maybe another day I will remember. We used 2 tortillas and the rest are in the freezer for another time.

Friday Favourites – Lemon Tart

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Posted on April 27, 2012

I mentioned yesterday that ‘Friday Favourites’ will only appear when there is something really special that I want to share. This is one such recipe.

LEMON TART

1 quantity of sweet pastry. See this previous post about making pastry, the sweet pastry recipe is towards the bottom of the page.

FILLING

2 eggs
2 lemons
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 dessertspoon butter

Separate the eggs. Beat the egg yolks, water, juice and ring of the lemons. Place mixture in a saucepan with the sugar and flours. Blend carefully over a low heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from the heat. Beat in the butter and allow to cool. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture. Spoon the mixture into the tart shell and sprinkle with coconut. Chill.

Serve with ice-cream or cream.

NOTES: You will have an egg white left from the pastry if you use my recipe so I usually add it to the other egg whites so I get a bit more to mix into the tart.

Progress Report

Local Lunch

7 Comments

Posted on April 23, 2012

In my post, ‘Competing Priorities’ from a couple of days ago, I discussed buying organic vs local vs no packaging.

Since then I decided that even though I do buy some imported ingredients, I try to offset that by producing some of our own food and buying local food where possible. Stephanie’s comment re the priority of the ‘100 Mile Diet’ reminded to look at the origin of what we eat.

Today’s lunch measured up pretty well on all counts I think. I had lasagne (leftovers from the freezer) and a few bits of salad. Here is the analysis:

Cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and green bell chilli – all from our garden. – No packaging

Lasagne – made using fresh lasagne sheets, bechamel sauce, cheese and meat sauce. To extract this further:

Lasagne sheets – eggs produced by our chickens and flour (Australian) – bought from bulk bins from local independent supplier.
Cheese – bought from the Kenilworth cheese factory (about 40km from home).
Minced beef – grass-fed from about 400km away and bought at local independent butcher.
TVP (textured vegetable protein) – bought from bulk bins from local independent supplier (unsure of country of origin)
Pasta sauce – made and bottled at home using local tomatoes and capsicums plus home-grown onions.

The meal also used powdered milk, tomato paste (bought at local Aldi supermarket), red wine (Australian – purchased at the winery when travelling), pepper, spices (bought from bulk bins from local independent supplier). I use butter blend that I make myself using pure butter (comes in a paper wrapper which is re-used to line cake tins and then composted) and olive oil (local from about 30km away) bought in bulk from the local co-op.

I take my own re-used paper bags for everything I buy from the bulk bins. I take containers for the meat that I buy from the butcher and mesh bags for any fruit and vegetables that I buy. The 2.5kg block of cheese was encased in plastic and the packet that the packet from the powdered milk are the only non-recyclable waste generated from the ingredients used to prepare this meal.

Not every meal I prepare measures up quite as well in terms of local content but I plan to try to incorporate something we have produced ourselves in every lunch and dinner.

Do you ever consider waste and local content in terms of a whole meal?

Kitchen Kapers

6 Comments

Posted on April 22, 2012

I have spent the best part of today in the kitchen. The first thing was to juice the 60 limes I picked from the tree. Some is in ice-cube trays in the freezer and the remainder in a jug in the refrigerator. I will freeze this in trays as well once the others are completely frozen and can be removed from the trays and placed in a bag.

Next were 5 pumpkins from the garden. Unfortunately, I cannot leave them on the vine until the stalks dry out completely because some of the wildlife starts to eat them once they are mature. Because I have to pick them before the stalk has withered, this means that they will not store. So my plan was to cut and peel them (a mammoth job), roast in the oven and then mash the pumpkin. I have frozen it in batches so that it can be made into soup as required. By just freezing the mashed pumpkin I save space in the freezer as compared to making and freezing the soup.

I also sorted through the freezer and pulled out this bag of chopped onion tops.

These are from the onions I grew last winter but our winter is not long enough for the tops to die down before I have to harvest the onions. Otherwise our wet weather starts and they would just rot in the ground. I diced all of the onions and froze them in 150g packs and I could not bear to waste the fresh green tops so chopped them and pt the bag of them in the freezer while I considered what to do with them.

I decided to thaw them out and then put them on the trays in the food dehydrator. My plan is to dry them completely and then grind them in the spice grinder to make my own onion powder for seasoning. I will post about the success or otherwise of this venture in a day or so.

The other thing I retrieved from the freezer was a bag of cherry tomatoes. These were picked from the neighbour’s garden a couple of months ago when they were away and I didn’t have time to do anything with them apart from wash, hull and freeze them.

I found a tomato sauce recipe on the internet and made a couple of adjustments to suit the ingredients I had. I cooked up the sauce and 1.9 kg of cherry tomatoes made up into 1.75 litres of sauce.

Here it is – bottled and ready to add to the stock cupboard.

I made 3 batches of muffins – lime and coconut, fig and almond as well as banana ones. This is some of them packed and ready to freeze.

While the oven was on I made another zucchini quiche. We have an abundance of eggs and since this uses 5 eggs it is a good way to use some up.

I had planned to make so more fresh pasta – using eggs again – but the day was almost over. I will save that job for Wednesday which is a public holiday here (Anzac Day).

Most of my cooking and preparation was a direct result of produce from our garden, either fresh or frozen. Since we are blessed to be able to grow this food I feel it is important to make sure that we use it to the best of our ability.

Baking Powder – An Update

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Posted on March 29, 2012

Sometimes an innocent post takes on a life of its own. I received this comment to yesterday’s post.

“Do you make your own baking powder? If not, to do so, mix 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda with 2 teaspoons cream of tartar. If you wish to store it, add 1 teaspoon corn starch to absorb any moisture from the air. Most commercially made baking powders contain aluminium.”

Thanks to Val for the comment. I set off to the world of Google and discovered that the presence of aluminium in commercially prepared baking powder seems to be common knowledge. Which rock have I been hiding under?

This then begs the question – Does self-raising flour contain aluminium? Once again, thanks to Google, the answer is most definitely yes.

So, what started out as a way to simplify and streamline my pantry ingredients to a single type of flour has turned into a campaign to eliminate aluminium from our diet. Whilst nothing has been conclusively proven, there is potentially a link between levels of aluminium in the brain and Alzheimer’s Disease. Of course, flour and baking powder are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ingestion of aluminium. Many processed foods will also contain it. It yet another example of the importance of eating food in as natural a state as possible to avoid these hidden ingredients.

I will be discarding the baking powder and buying cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda to create my own baking powder. The proportions are 2 parts of cream of tartar and 1 part of bicarbonate of soda.

There are numerous sites that discuss making your own baking powder but this blog post explains it very clearly. I will be making a bulk quantity with the addition of cornflour and then using 2 teaspoons of the mixture to 1 cup of plain flour to make my own aluminium-free self-raising flour.

What do you think?