Mid Summer Garden

This plant was bought at CERES about 5 years ago when we were establishing our garden and looking for drought tolerant plants. It's a form of grass tree, Xanthorrhoea quadrangulata, which is native to South Australia. Amazingly, this summer it decided to create this phallic looking flower!

The grass tree then made little flowers on the big flower stem!

Some garden art. Admittedly, most of the art was created by Frank, not a 16 month old!

Our albizia tree has been very fast growing and makes some beautiful sweetly scented pink flowers in summer.

And some random succulents!

Dolmades

This doesn't actually use anything from our garden (except for mint, which we do have in abundance!) but we'd bought a jar of vine leaves in brine from the Mediterranian Wholesalers ages ago and wanted to find a use for them.

 

40 vines leaves (preserved in brine)

1 cup rice

½ cup olive oil

Dill & mint finely chopped

3 spring onions finely chopped

Juice of one lemon

Fry the onions in half the oil, then add the rice and cook slowly for a further 2 minutes. Add dill, mint, salt, pepper and a couple of tablespoons of water. Leave aside to cool for 5 minutes.

Wash the brine off the vine leaves. Place a teaspoon of rice mixture onto the vine leaves and wrap into parcels. 

Pack the dolmades in rows in a thick bottomed saucepan and cover with water and add the remaining olive oil and lemon juice.

Simmer gently for about 1.5hrs, until the rice is tender.

I made these a few weeks ago, and probably didn't let them cook for long enough, so when they cooled down some of them became crunchy. Next time I'll cook them a bit longer and also add in some sultanas and pine nuts.

Eggplant and Rick Stein Part Two

Rick Stein also reminded us of a Sicilian pasta we used to make all the time. It's very simple, but great at this time of year when eggplants, basil and tomatoes are so delicious.

 

Sicilian eggplant pasta

1 large eggplant (salt for 30 minutes then wipe the juice off)

Bunch of cherry tomatoes

Chilli flakes

3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Handful of fresh basil

100g feta cheese

Pasta

Cook the pasta in a big pot of boiling, salty water.

Fry the eggplant in a pan in olive oil until brown, then remove. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes and chilli flakes and sauté for 5 mins, until the sauce is thickened. 

Return the eggplant, season the sauce with salt and pepper.  Finally add the crumbled feta, torn up basil leaves and the drained pasta. Serve straight away.

Tromboncino and Rick Stein Part One

We were watching Rick Stein travelling (and eating) throughout Sicily and found this recipe for cucuzzo longa. As we didn't grow any this year, we cooked it instead with tromboncino. We normally cook them in a tomato sauce, and have a glut of them every January, so it's nice to find a different way to eat them.

This recipe could all just be substituted with zucchini (especially the sweet white ones) or squash.
 It's simple and extremely tasty.

 

1 tromboncino (or white zucchini or cucuzzo longa)

1 onion

Dried oregano and mint

Olive oil

Pecorino cheese

Slice up tromboncino (or cuccuzo) and dice onion. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Add dried oregano and mint, salt and pepper. Boil together until the trombocino is soft and water has reduced to make a sauce. Add grated pecorino and drizzle with olive oil.

Our Pomegranate Tree

I just love our Pomegranate tree. It is a couple of years old now and I love how it changes through the seasons. It is a deciduous tree and in spring just as the leaves emerge, they have a beautiful orange/red tinge which catches the sunlight. Going into the end of Spring the tree then blossoms into flower with big red blooms. Best of all it then produces the fruit (also known as the fuit of the Gods). Finally the tree goes into dormancy, ready to do it all again next year.

Raspberries

The first of our raspberries are changing colour and will soon be ready to be gobbled down by our daughter (if my wife doesn't get to them first!).

This is the first time I have grown these berries. Our neighbour gave me some surplus canes over winter which i stuck into the ground along our fence in a shadier part of our garden. I was quite surprised just how easy they were to grow and looks like I will get a few punnets worth off only about 4 canes. Will definitely grow a few more next year !

Broad beans

This time of year we eat a serious amount of broad beans. Our 13month old daughter is enjoying picking them and eating them fresh in the garden. If any make it inside the house we like to make this Broad Bean Bruschetta.

Recipe:

Broad beans (shelled twice)
Pecorino cheese
Olive oil
1 clove of garlic
Crusty bread

Thinly slice the bread, lay on a tray and drizzle with olive oil. Place them in a moderate oven and cook until a golden colour.

Meanwhile, in a mortar and pestle add the broad beans and generous amounts of pecorino cheese and olive oil. Smash to form a paste. Add some freshly cracked black pepper.

When the bread is golden and crunchy rub one side with a clove of garlic. Top with the broad bean mixture and serve immediately with an extra drizzle of olive oil.

It is simple but extremely tasty!