Sunday 7 July 2013

A Rainy Day in the Kitchen

Themalux Stove   Our Kitchen is the perfect place to spend a rainy day. The wood stove chugging away always ready, hearty vegetable soup on the way for lunch. Its  a good time to top up the kombucha- the tea  today is a mix of rose hips,dried apple peel with ginger and a little green tea. Yogurt is next on the list, in winter it sits by the side of the stove until ready.

Cracking nut is another wet day activity. Today I cracked some macadamias to make  sesame squares these are great with coffee or when you crave something sweet.sesame squares they are quick and easy to make.

Sesame Squares

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup nuts roughly chopped. I use macadamias, walnuts or hazelnuts because that what we grow but any nuts will do.

1cup coconut or rolled oats

Mix the above ingredients and toast.

Place 90g butter, ½ cup sugar and 1 tablespoon honey in a saucepan and cook til bubbling. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well. Press into an oiled tray and cut into squares when cold.

I also cracked some walnuts to make walnut butter.Simply roast the nuts and put in a food processor until the nut transform into a paste. Great on toast!

Next up prepare dinner- this required waiting for a suitable window when the rain was not belting down so I could get the vegetables from the garden. At this time of the year there is so much to choose from to add to stews like celery, cabbage,broccoli, swedes, turnips,kale, chard, carrots ,florence fennel. I  settled on the last 2 to add to the lamb neck chops, onion and garlic. No real recipe here just brown meat, sweat off veg add all to pot, add some of our dried mushrooms, before a quick dash to the cellar resulted in some elderberry and apple wine to add. Then into the top oven for a couple of hours and then, adjust seasonings,gravy and into the bottom oven until dinner time.

winter oranges crystallised orange peel on cake Before I can put the stew in the bottom oven I have to remove the dish of citrus peel which is being soaked in preparation for crystallising and drying.The ones being dried just need rinsing and being covered with cold water overnight before being dried in the bottom oven.They are then blended so they can be added to porridge,cakes, bread etc.

 

 

 

 

Crystallised Orange strips

4 oranges

Water

1cup sugar

1 tablespoon glucose liquid

2 teasp orange bitters

Extra sugar

Remove the skins from the oranges in 4 or 6 lengthwise sections,Place in an ovenproof  dish cover with cold water and place in a cool oven leave overnight .Drain and repeat next day but in a moderate oven 2hs ,drain and repeat  or place in a saucepan, and cover with water and bring to boil. Drain, re-cover with water and heat to boiling-repeat this process 2 xs. Drain scrape away the surplus white flesh from the back of the orange skin with a teaspoon. Cut skins into thin strips.

Put sugar, glucose and bitters in large saucepan with ½ cup water. Dissolve the sugar and Bring to boil, allow to simmer 10 minutes separating the orange strips carefully from time to time.

Coat a plate with sugar, lift the orange strips on to this and sprinkle with more sugar. Allow drying, turning strips occasionally before storing in an air tight container. Store 2 weeks.vegetable wildlife

There is always something interesting that ventures inside on the vegies. This little guy hitched a ride on the fennel! 

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