Green beans Szechuan style with minced pork (Neil Perry's recipe)

We've had buckets of green beans from Frank's dad this year. This is one way we have eaten our way through them! It's like the pork is a dressing for the beans. And the vinegar adds a great sour contrast to the sweetness of the beans and pork.

We grew the purple king climbing bean variety this year, but sadly most of them ripened when were away over the christmas holidays. We'll keep them for seed for next year. The purple king beans are easy to pick as the purple stands out amongst the foliage. The beans turn green when they are cooked (just like magic). 



Green beans with vinegar and minced pork

200g minced pork

300g green beans (Neil Perry uses snake beans)

4tbsVegetable oil

½ knob of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 tsp Chilli oil

1 tbs shaoxing wine

1 tbsChinkiang vinegar

2 spring onions

1 tsp sesame oil

3 tbs Chicken stock

1 tsp Salt

1tsp Sugar

Clean the beans- wash and pat dry. Heat the vegetable oil until the oil is just smoking. Fry the beans in 2 batches until they are wrinkled. Remove from the pan.

Add the chilli oil to the wok. Stir fry the pork until it browns. Add the ginger and stir fry until it becomes fragrant. Deglaze with shoaxing. 

Add stock, sugar, salt, vinegar and beans to the pan. Cook until the sauce thickens. Drizzle with sesame oil and serve with the finely sliced spring onions on top.

Our beans on death row. Now good for seed saving!

Zucchini, prawn and preserved lemon risotto

This is from Greg Malouf's book Arabesque (incidentally, everything we cook out of this book has been amazing). A great risotto, full of flavour... actually one of our favourite risottos to cook. We have some homemade preserved lemon and of course, home grown zucchini!

Rumour (and Google News) has it that Greg Malouf is leaving Melbourne and MoMo is no more. Very sad day, but at least we'll still have Abla's!

2 large zucchini, cut into small batons

240g raw prawns

60ml olive oil

1 small onion, finely sliced

400g Arborio rice

1L chicken stock

150mL white wine

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 preserved lemon (skin only)

100g butter

2 tbs finely chopped fresh parsley

Cut zucchini into small batons. Clean prawns. Dice the skin of the preserved lemon.

To make the risotto, fry onion and 1 clove of garlic in the olive oil until browned. Add the Arborio rice and stir until all the rice is coated with the oil (a couple of minutes).

Deglaze the pan with 150mL white wine. Cook off the alcohol for a couple of minutes then add warm chicken stock (one ladle at a time.) Once each ladle of stock is absorbed, keep adding another ladle, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Continue until most of the stock has been absorbed and the rice is nearly cooked. 

Whilst the stock is being absorbed, in a separate frying pan fry the zucchinis in olive oil. Remove when cooked (approximately one minute).

Return the pan to the heat and add the prawns and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the prawns change colour (less than a minute). Remove from the pan.

Once risotto is nearly ready, add the prawns, zucchini, diced preserved lemon, parsley and the butter with any remaining stock. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Figs falling from the sky

So figs aren't literally falling from the sky, but we are harvesting buckets of them every day. We are trying to pick them before the birds and bats get to them. Now the challenge is to

(a) find friends and random strangers to give them away to

(b) find a good method of preserving them and

(c) restrict our 17 month old to only consuming 3 per day...
 

Figs and blue cheese- always a perfect match. There is also some homemade quince paste on the plate- hoping to make more this year.

Zucchini and feta fritters

So we are eating zucchini like mad now. It's almost like a challenge not to throw one out and find new ways of eating them but not entirely realising you are eating a zucchini at the same time.
This recipe is a winner as it uses a whopping 5 zucchinis in one hit.

These fritters are pretty darn good. In a restuarant they would be deep fried and amazing. For numerous reasons, we will never own a deep fryer, so we shallow fry them instead.

5 medium zucchinis grated

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Fresh parsley, fresh mint

100g feta cheese

2tbs plain flour

2tbs cornflour

Salt and Pepper

1 small onion finely chopped

1 clove garlic finely chopped

Yoghurt to serve

Grate the zucchini and sprinkle with a few teaspoons of salt. Leave for 20 minutes, then give it a rinse and squeeze out any excess water.

Beat the eggs and add to the zucchini. Add the feta, onion, garlic, finely chopped herbs and salt and pepper. Mix together.

Finally add the plain flour and cornflour and combine.

 

Heat some olive oil in a frypan and fry tablespoons of mixture in the oil. 

Serve with some creamy yoghurt and a wedge of lemon.

Zucchini

Time for the annual zucchini glut. We've grown the Romanesco variety- this is an Italian variety that is apparently a favourite of restaurateurs (and Maggie Beer but we were growing it first) because of it's sweetness and flavour. The plants are quite large, very easy to grow and produce for months. You only need 1 or 2 plants per household. Otherwise you end up like us... wishing you didn't have to see another zucchini. Until next year when you get excited again.

We'll try to post some more inventive ways of cooking them (we're constantly trying to come up with new ways to eat them at this time of year). Meanwhile, here's the recipe for our trusty old zucchini slice. Because it's full of bacon you never get sick of it!

 

5 medium sized zucchinis, grated

3 rashers bacon, sliced

1 onion, finely sliced

100g tasty cheese, grated

½ cup plain flour

½ cup vegie oil

4 eggs, lightly beaten.

Salt and pepper

Mix everything- put into a baking dish and bake for 45 mins (until cooked through and brown on top). 

Hope you enjoy- feel free to double the amount of bacon.

Tomatoes Tomatoes

Our tomatoes are suddenly ripening up at an alarming rate, which means it's time for endless Caprese Salads. We love this simple salad so much, and it really doesn't taste anywhere near as good without home grown tomatoes!

This salad is so simple it doesn't even need a recipe. It's just home grown tomatoes, torn up fresh basil leaves and bocconcini (or fresh mozzarella), drizzled with good quality olive oil. 

If we don't have home grown tomatoes we sometimes cheat and use shop bought tomatoes sprinkled with a little sugar... doesn't taste the same though!!!

Surprise chef watermelon and feta salad

We sometimes play surprise chef every now and again when it seems like the cupboards are bare. This week, we had watermelon left over from a picnic. We had never tried this salad before, and there were some reservations but it was surprisingly good.

We used lemon thyme (because our normal thyme is on death row) and made a lemon vinaigrette to go with it. So it was like lemony, salty watermelon. Yum.

Watermelon and Feta Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette and Lemon Thyme

¼ ripe watermelon

100g crumbled feta

Lemon vinaigrette:

Juice of ½ lemon

3-4 TBS olive oil

½ tsp Dijon mustard

1 clove of garlic

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Lemon thyme

To make vinaigrette:

Rub the mixing bowl with clove of garlic. Add olive oil and squeeze in the lemon juice. Add salt and freshly cracked black pepper and the Dijon mustard. Whisk.

Slice the watermelon into large cubes, crumble over the feta.

Drizzle over the vinaigrette and then finish with the lemon thyme and more cracked pepper.

Mud play

Our daughter has taken to gardening. She will follow Frank around the garden and likes to compulsively water the strawberries. She also likes to pick the cherry tomatoes and chillies (I thought she would've learnt her lesson the first time). Oddly, she likes eating parsley seeds. And mud.

Sicilian Caponata

This is like a Sicilian ratatouille. We make a big pot of it then eat it hot or cold (controversially). 

Interestingly, whilst eating our caponata a close family member disclosed to us that she had always believed that capers were actually derived from tiny fish and refused to eat them. We showed her a jar and she still maintained that they looked "fishy'.

Here's our recipe... keep it a secret.

1 large eggplant, cut into large chunks

2 red capsicum, roughly chopped

4 small potatoes, cut into quarters

2 tins tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 red onion, sliced

¼ cup red wine vinegar

2 tsp capers

2 tbs green olives

1tbs sugar

Large bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Fry the eggplant chunks in olive oil until brown, then remove from the pan.

In a large, heavy based saucepan fry the onion, garlic and capsicum for a few minutes then deglaze the pan with red wine vinegar.

Add the tinned tomatoes and potatoes and season with salt, pepper and sugar. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until the sauce is thick and the potatoes are tender.

Return the eggplant to the pot, add the capers, olives and parsley. Ready to serve!