Winter Vegie Garden Results

our little vegie patch is NOT in a good spot for a winter garden! it gets NO sun ever through winter, and never dries out. I really didn't know what to try in it. so after posting on EB for advice I planted:

• kale
  
• shallots
  
• carrots
  
• beetroots
  
• parsnips
  
• lettuce
  
• rocket
  
• onions
  
• turnips
  
• broccolli
  
• brussells sprouts
  
• spinach
  
• and i still had the silverbeet from summer growing
  

anyway, most things grew - but very very very slowly. so slow as to not be worth it ie: the shallots (spring onions) are sitll only about 15cm high despite growing for about 3-4 months now. a lot of the stuff went straight to seed in spring time, without ever having produced anything - such as the brussells sprouts.

the things that did well and I would like to grow again next year are:

• kale
  
• lettuce
  
• rocket
  
• broccoli (did OK, not great)
  
• silverbeet
  

the snails were a bit of an issue - eggshells helped but i needed more! and the dampness after our wettest winter yet didn't help - the weeds grew crazily, but it was just too squlchy for me to get out and weed for weeks or months!

i think the silverbeet is finally on its way out - it's now growing horizontally instead of vertically, anyone know if that's right? should i pull it out and start afresh?

anyway, even if we've only managed one meal every week or two out of it it's been a fun experiment and I'll know what to plant more of next year! (hopefully i might have the end of the garden - which gets more sun - ready to go for next winter instead!)

Sang Choy Bau - cool dinner for a hot day

Yesterday it was 38'c here so we didn't want anything too hot to prepare or eat. Based on our nearly empty fridge we decided on Sang Choy Bau, based on the recipe in Gluten Free and Easy by Robyn Russell

geoff cooked it and made a few minor changes, such a chicken instead of pork / veal mince, cashews instead of peanuts and served with hoisin sauce instead of the dipping sauce (which we couldn't be bothered to make lol)

the lettuce and vietnamese mint you can see in the picture was grown by us in our garden :D

the whole meal was delish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a Delicious Risotto Variation (Chicken, Porcini, Pea and Pumpkin) (GF, TMX)

The other night I was making risotto but didn't want to wait til our F&V shop arrived (home with Geoff) so decided to use up some stuff in the fridge and freezer. this was VERY good!! I make my risotto now based on baf65's recipe, which is a good one, much better than the one in my copy of the EDC. (i do love Tenina's version with basil, cream and lemon zest though, mmmmm)

I made this risotto using peas from our garden! yay! they were delish (though they needed a little more cooking than I'd given them).

If you are doing parmesan chop it before starting (maybe 10 secs on speed 8 i think)
chop a medium onion on speed 5 for a few seconds
add 50g of olive oil
saute for 2mins/100C/speed soft
add in some dried porcini mushrooms then chop on speed 5 until you can hear they are mostly chopped
pop in the butterfly
add 380g of arborio rice and 100g of white wine
saute for 2mins/100c/speed soft/reverse
add in 2tsp of stock concentrate (or 2 stock cubes) and 1000g of water
cook for 16mins/100c/speed soft/reverse *

Pour into thermoserver and leave to satnd for 5mins or so until more of the liquid is absorbed. serve with parmesan if desired

* at 8 minutes i added in:
1 chicken breast which i had previous put into portuguese spices, then grilled and chopped into 2cm pieces,
around 1/2 cup fresh peas (though i think fresh need to go in at the start of the cooking, frozen would go in now)
and about 200ml of pumpkin soup from the freezer :)

posted by Karen on http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/