baked beans

The baked beans made from scratch were fairly successful. I will be playing around with the ingredients a little to get the best taste - not entirely sure about the amount of molasses in this batch. I've put two dinner's worth in the freezer. Now all need to know is several hours in advance that I will not want to cook proper dinner and then I'll have beans for dinner which are not from a can. Though the home made ones really suited being eaten with rice which does make it a two pot meal. Which then counts as proper cooking.

The kefir is still alive. I've been drinking the drained kefir milk each morning.

It stopped raining for a while last night. I transplanted five lettuces from the seed raising punnet into individual pots. They can grow like that on the outside table for another fortnight or so until they are big enough that slugs will not devour them whole in one evening. I weeded a bit in the old chook run where there are still plenty of weed seeds which germinated when I transplanted the bay trees into this garden. Then I mulched with pea straw. The Maori potatoes which I planted all over the place are coming up - mostly in places where I forgot about them and planted something else there as well. I also staked some peas which have grown in the old chook run out of the mulch. Maybe we will get more peas out of this wild batch as we've only had three pods' worth out of all the carefully sown, bought pea seeds which I started off months ago.

I'll be thinking of my Mum's family this week as they bury my Great Aunt Shirley. My Great Uncle Ron died just days before we left for the UK, when we were already in Auckland ready to fly out. I lit candles for him in Ireland where we visited just two months later and I never made the time to let Shirley know this. She was on my list for visiting next time we go to Christchurch. I used to visit Ron and Shirley when I was a student in Christchurch. My brother and I biked around there for lunch one day when he was still at boarding school. Later I got lazy and caught the bus. Ron, a skilled handyman like all of the men in my Mum's family, kindly fixed our student flat washing machine many times. Shirley was a tiny woman, always very neat, who looked after her father in law, my great grandfather, with great love and care in his last days. Rest in Peace Shirley. May your faith give you strength and your presence stay warm in the hearts of your children.

Egg-less chocolate cake and black bean soup

Egg-less chocolate cake
The chocolate cake recipe is an adaptation from one in the New Zealand Food Allergy Cookbook. I added the jam and linseeds because I thought the jam would be yummy and the linseeds, of which we have many in the fridge being used too slowly, might fit in as well.

1 C sugar
250g melted butter
1-3 t of ground cloves/mixed spice/ground cinnamon
3 T cocoa powder
1 C warm water
1 t baking soda
2 C plain flour
1 dessertspoon of jam
1 dessertspoon of ground linseeds

Mix sugar, spices and cocoa. Dissolve baking soda in the water and add to the spice mixture. Sift the flour and add to the wet mixture. Mix the linseeds and jam together and then add to the cake mixture. Mix well and then tip into a greased round cake tin, about 20-22cm. Cook at 180 degrees celsius for about 45 minutes.

We had friends over for dinner last night and served the cake with yoghurt for pudding. I have no idea how long it keeps for as ours got eaten very quickly.

Black Bean Soup
This comes from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat. I love this book, both her writing and her lovely hedonistic joy in food. Serves eight, makes great leftovers.
450 g dried black turtle beans
2 bay leaves
200ml extra virgin olive oil
2 large red peppers, seeded and chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T ground cumin
2 T ground dried oregano
zest of 1 lime, plus more limes for serving
0.5 T sugar
1 T salt
2 T dry sherry
1 red onion, diced, to serve
coriander, chopped
250 ml sour cream to serve

No need to soak the beans, cover with 2 litres of water, add bay leaves and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 1.5-2 hours until soft but not squishy, adding more water if necessary to keep well covered. (Could do this bit in the pressure cooker - I did last time but forget for how long)

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the peppers, shallots and onions until the onions are translucent - about 15 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, oregano and lime zest and cook for a further 5 minutes. Put in a blender and puree until smooth.

When the beans are almost tender, add the pureed mixture, sugar, salt and sherry. Serve with bowls of sour cream,`limes, red onion and coriander so that people can add as they wish. Tabasco goes down well also.

Things I have found out: we love sour cream with this. We never seem to have coriander at the right time which is a shame as it is lovely. Good without though or with parsley instead. I always put lime zest in, but not always on the table due to cost. All onions is fine if you don't have shallots. I don't always bother with red onions on the table. Next time I'm going to try it without bothering to puree the red pepper mixture. Given that I don't seem to have a kitchen fairy, a meal which involves the pressure cooker, the frypan AND the food processor is a little overkill on the dirty dishes front. This is very filling. You could fit in dessert if it is a special meal, but not a main course as well. Definitely main course soup imo.

peasant food, tobacco and beer

Rice pudding was successful. I ate lots of it. 1/2 C short grain rice, 3 C milk, 2-3 T sugar, 1 t vanilla, pinches of nutmeg and cinnamon. Put on low for 3-4 hours in the (greased) slow cooker.

I've been looking through my Spanish recipe book. I have the great pleasure of owning Culinaria Spain, a story of Spanish food, customs and recipes region by region.

As I often do, I've been reading up on traditional food growing and preparation practices and recalling what I saw and learnt during our time travelling in Spain. I've been thinking this time particularly about meat and bean use in peasant cooking. The gorgeous Fabada which I remember so fondly from the Asturias is now made with big chunks of meat and while it was once so for the wealthy, one piece of preserved pig goes a long way to flavour a bean stew in more modest homes.

Now I'm thinking about a kind of modest self sufficiency where the animal protein might come from one slaughtered pig per annum, together with the eggs of three chooks, the meat of 2-3 roosters and the occasional haul of fish. How much meat would that be per week on average? I don't have the data to help me work it out but I'd hazard 1-2 times per week. I've read some graphic accounts of traditional pig slaughter and they all observe that no part of the pig is wasted.

I've still got leftovers from yesterday's/tonight's vegetarian soup. Even though everyone ate up well on it again this evening. I've played around successfully with bacon bones, pork bones and chorizo providing flavours for predominantly bean and veg meals since we've been back in New Zealand. Next trip to Blackball Salami, I'm going to buy some black and white puddings and see what I can create with them. Meat as flavour, not as filler, is my project. Or one of a trillion projects.

We've been discussing the tobacco, Favourite Handyman and I. Looks like we have sufficient harvest to last nearly all year. Massive sigh of financial relief. I am thrilled. Now we're both talking about having a go at home brewed beer.

So on the list for new seed for Spring:

hops

cannelini beans

chickpeas

early and late potatoes

pumpkins for eating. The amount of pumpkin seeds sitting lost and unloved in our cupboards tells me clearly not to bother with growing for edible seed again.