Landshare update & Grilled Mediterranean Salad

A Landshare update

Back in January, I posted about Landshare, and how I had decided to offer part of my garden to be turned into an 'allotment' for someone to grow vegetables. I thought I would give you an update on how the process has been going!

Once the snow had melted away and the ground was less frozen, the couple who have adopted part of my garden, J and K, came over and dug out the patch, de-turfing, de-stoning and generally putting in a LOT of hard work in not particularly nice weather. I felt a little guilty that I couldn't do much more than provide lots of cups of tea! Once they'd edged the patch and dug over the soil, they still had to wait a little while for the weather to warm a bit, but then finally they were able to put in some potatoes, then a week later some carrots.

And then I waited. And for ages nothing happened except a few weeds and bits of grass sprung up which J&K came occasionally to remove (more tea-making and cheerleading on my part). The last few weeks though, we've had some very warm days, alternating with wet weather, and the plants have just started to spring up.

Last Sunday J&K came over and added some onion plants to the patch and a polytunnel which I believe is for leeks. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures to show off their hard work!

This is the potato end of the patch, a couple of larger, more obvious plants here, but also lots of smaller ones to be spotted if you look hard!

Onions are next to the polytunnel - three kinds, spring onions, red and white, and then next to them is the carrots. Doesn't look like much is happening there but the small grass-like growth in this section is actually baby carrots =)

Tree overhead could do with some cutting back, but on the whole the plot gets good rain and sunshine and is quite sheltered from the wind.

Close up of the potato plants. Quite exciting!

Now that they've shown me what the plants look like and what the weeds look like, I'll be able to help them out by pulling out weeds when I see them come up. I haven't forgotten about the herb garden idea, but surprise surprise haven't done anything yet.

I do have some lovely bluebells in the wilder parts of the garden though:

Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables and Goats Cheese Salad

I had a roasted Mediterranean vegetable salad at Pizza Express a month or so ago and as I had aubergine, peppers and tomatos, I decided to give it a try myself. No pictures, sadly, as I forgot to take any before I wolfed the whole lot down!!

Serves 2 (though I ate it all myself *blush*)

1/2 large aubergine sliced into 1cm / 1/2inch slices
1 sweet red pepper (I used ramiro) cut into sections
1 large field mushroom cut into sections
3 medium sized tomatoes cut into halves.
1 small goats cheese
mix of salad leaves (I had rocket and spinach)
olive oil for brushing

vinaigrette:
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried mint
dried oregano
garlic powder
fresh ground pepper
fresh ground salt

I mixed the dressing up first in a small bowl and left aside so the flavours could absorb.
Sliced all the veg, brushed lightly with olive oil and then grilled.
I was in two minds whether to warm the cheese or not, and in the end I did put it under the grill for just a tiny amount, but I'm not sure that it needed this as I could have just mixed it with the hot veg and warmed it that way.
I arranged the salad on a plate, added some veg and cheese and then some dressing and had with some crusty bread.
It was so, so tasty. I ended up having the second helping too. Ah well, it's mostly good, healthy stuff! =D

-Hannah

Chinese Sausages and Pancakes!

Chinese Sausages

When I was growing up, my family used to go to a restaurant in Chinatown, London, called Poons. It's now called China City, and I'm not sure if it's the same people running it, but the food is still nice.

One of the things we would frequently order was wind-dried Chinese sausages. These seem to come in two main types - a lighter, fatty variety which looks a bit like a thin stick of salami and tastes of rich, cured pork, and a darker variety which has a more liver like taste to it. You can buy these sausages in Chinese supermarkets and whenever I'm near one, I always drop by to pick up a couple packs for me and my parents'... and they do the same.

Last week, my parents were in London and they brought me back two packs of sausages.

lighter type on the left, darker in the pink package on the right.

There are different ways to cook them, one of which is to simply pop them in the pot with your rice and let them cook together. Whilst this gives the rice a lot of flavour, it also means that all of the fat running out of the sausages goes into the rice. The result tends to make me feel a little queasy, so I prefer to steam mine over water, allowing the fat to run out.

I use a Chinese bamboo steamer (actually I own 3 of these because having bought one myself, I also received 2 as gifts. Doesn't matter because the steamer tends to start falling apart after a lot of use, so I'm glad I have back-up sections). As you can stack them up, I like to steam the sausages on the bottom level and the veg above - this way the fat from the sausages is running into the water rather than over the veg.

You fill the bottom of the wok with water and set over heat to boil, then stack the steamer(s) in the wok.

A few leaves of savoy cabbage in the top level.

Then the lid goes on top to keep the heat in. Need to keep an eye on these to make sure the wok doesn't run dry.

And after 20 mins, the sausages and the cabbage are steamed, and the rice is done:

here you can see the two different types, light and dark:

Afterwards, I let the water in the wok cool and evaporate off, leaving the fat behind and I dispose of this with a paper towel so I'm not putting the fat down the drains.

I have 'introduced' a lot of my friends to these sausages and so far only one has loved them as much as I do. I guess because the flavour is very rich and fatty, it's something that a lot of people don't like... but personally I think they are fab. =)


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Pancakes!

Shrove Tuesday (the day before the start of Lent) in the UK is celebrated by eating (flat) pancakes. I do mine the traditional way with lemon juice and sugar, rolled up. This is pretty much the only day of the year I don't feel guilty for eating 10 pancakes in a row, standing by the cooker as the next one cooks.

I did sneak in a banana and maple syrup one at the end though ;)

Also, I have to add, I am an expert pancake tosser!

~Hannah

box 3 + tons of fruit

5 turkey sausages

beef mince

pork shoulder joint

small savoy cabbage
3 leeks
pack of rocket
2 globe artichokes (first time I've gotten these!)
box close-cup mushrooms
5 apples
6 blood oranges

And I got a complimentary fruit box this week as well:

5 bananas
5 oranges
5 apples
6 kiwis
box of seedless grapes

Leftovers: beef mince, chard, celery, 2 tomatoes, 3 blood oranges, some garlic, some ginger, 2 onions, 1/2 pomegranate (EEP!)

Initial thoughts are that I have 14 oranges and 10 apples to get through this fortnight!!! I think I will try and give some of those away as there's no way I can eat that much fruit by myself.

Also, I've eaten globe artichokes about twice in my life (excluding pickled hearts from a jar), and never cooked them, so I'm really looking forward to that!

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Fruit Salad

So, first attempt to use up some fruit!

1 blood orange

1 apple

2 kiwis

1/2 pomegranate

couple bunches grapes

a little lemon juice.

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Turkey Sausages

grilled turkey sausages, grilled tomato, grilled mushrooms.

box 2

small joint of pork (800g)
beef mince (400g)
diced lamb (400g)

courgettes
swiss chard
ramiro pepper
celery
vine tomatoes

blood oranges
seedless grapes
complimentary lemon

Leftovers: potatoes, 1/4 onion, bananas, 2 cloves garlic
Additional purchases: fresh ginger, onions, garlic, pomegranate, bacon

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Spaghetti Bolognaise (sort of)

1/2 the beef mince, 1 courgette, 2 sticks celery, 1/4 onion, 3 large tomatoes
Worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs, oxo cube, tomato puree

served with spaghetti and parmesan cheese

-I like to put a lot of veg in my spag bol, partly because it stretches the meat out a lot farther and it's also healthier. I normally add bacon too, but don't have any today.

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Banana Bread

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Chinese Roast Pork

pork joint, garlic, fresh ginger
soy sauce, rice wine, chinese five spice, honey, brown sugar

-mixed all the seasonings, completely covered the joint and then put it the oven on a low temp for 2 hours total

served with courgette ribbons, ramiro pepper slices, 2 leaves chard.
with same seasonings as above, stir fried.

and rice.

-chard is less sweet than pak choi, but I treated it the same. It has a more earthy taste, but I don't mind that.
The pork was a wait, but very worth it because it turned out tender and moist and very tasty. I'm not a huge pork lover, but I do love it coupled with chinese flavours, and this was just perfect.

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Moroccan Lamb Tagine

diced lamb, garlic, fresh ginger, onion, courgette, ramiro pepper, fresh lemon juice
dates, apricots, honey, ground ginger, cumin, paprika, turmeric, allspice, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, lemon juice

served with rice and pomegranate seeds

-I love this style of cooking - using a lot of spices and fruits. The result is very rich, but so, so tasty.

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Wastage:

2 bananas
some leftover pork - I had so much of this that I just couldn't get through it all. Next time, I'll either invite someone over to share it, or cut it in half.

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Leftovers:

Half the beef mince - in the freezer
half the chard
half the celery
2 tomatos
3 blood oranges
some garlic
some ginger
2 onions

...so basically lots, but it's all still usable. =)
 
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Favourite meal of the fortnight was the roast pork. It was so, so delicious. The tagine was a close second though.
I had to buy extra stuff for the tagine, but it's actually the first time I've used it and I really wanted to try it out properly.

Landshare

Last summer I joined the website Landshare and listed my garden.

The idea of the website is that people with space in their gardens can 'lend' the space to a would-be gardener in order to grow vegetables, and then the harvest is split between the landowner and the grower. This struck me as a fantastic idea. I have a garden which I really don't use. I would love to grow veg myself but partly because of my health restrictions and partly because of laziness, I don't. There are so many people out there without gardens, sitting on allotment waiting lists and having to wait years before they can grow their own. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get any response and so, after a couple of months, I just forgot about it.

Then, last week I got a message from the site; someone had inquired about my listing! The guy in question is just a little younger than me and along with his girlfriend wants to be able to grow some fruit and veg, but doesn't have a garden. They also don't have a car, and the only available allotment they could find was too far away. Yesterday they came around to have a look at the garden and briefly chat with me and so come spring, they're going to turn part of the lawn into a veg patch!

They can't start clearing at the moment as it's buried under snow, but hopefully in a few weeks things can get started and I am looking forward to getting some real home-grown produce! I've said that I'm happy to help them, so perhaps this can also inspire me to do more myself - and start that herb garden I've been dreaming about all year!

-Hannah

2013 - box 1

Sporadic posting continues!

First box of 2013 and I got meat this time as well, as an experiment.

small joint of lamb
pork mince
diced beef

(all 500g ish)

calabrese brocoli
tomatoes on the vine
fennel bulb
lettuce
2 leeks

blood oranges
bananas

leftovers: 1 carrot, 1 onion
additionally bought: bag of potatoes, garlic bulb.


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Chinese braised pork:

half the minced pork, 1 piece garlic, small amount of the fennel
dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, five spice, salt and pepper, veg stock

served with rice and steamed brocoli

-technically there was enough for 2 meals here but it was so good, I ate it all. =D

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Roast Lamb Dinner:

the lamb joint, garlic, small amount of fennel
rosemary, mint, olive oil, lemon juice.

served with roast potatoes and steamed broccoli

-had leftovers of this the next day.

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Shepherds Pie:

leftover cooked lamb, garlic, potatoes
frozen peas, veg stock,

-I have never made shepherds pie with leftover scraps instead of mince, so this was an experience. Not really quite enough meat to make a decent pie, and could have done with more veg really, but I'm really glad I found a way to use up the leftovers... and it was enough for 2 meals.

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Leek & Fennel Soup:

both leeks, potatoes, rest of the fennel, garlic
veg stock, chicken stock, pepper, milk, black pepper

-Leek and potato soup is my favourite thing to do with leeks, and I needed to use the rest of the fennel up so decided to try putting it in the soup. I cooked everything aside from the milk and then blended it smooth. Bagged up two portions for the freezer, put a couple portions into the fridge and then mixed a small amount of milk in just before 'serving' each bowlful. I got a good 6 portions out of this, 2 of which are still in the freezer.

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Chinese Beef Stir fry:

2/3 the diced beef, carrot, half an onion
dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chinese rice wine, sesame oil, garlic, chinese five spice

served with rice.

-I found the carrot and onion in my larder, which was lucky because I'd really run out of stuff and was considering heading to the shop. This was really tasty and I ate 2 helpings, finishing it all off.

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Mexican Chilli Beef:

1/3 the diced beef, 1/4 onion, 3 (over-ripe) tomatoes, garlic
cumin, paprika, cayenne chili pepper, tabasco sauce, tomato puree

served with rice.

-Final meal of the week and definitely just thrown together to use up leftovers. I thought this was going to be boring because of a lack of beans or any other veg, but actually it was really tasty and a spicy meal was just what I needed on a snowy day.

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Wastage:

lettuce - it sat unused in my fridge for a week and I had to throw it out. I'm terrible at using lettuce, especially in the winter. Next time I get one, I need to make an effort to use it.

half the pork mince - The plan was to use the other half to make meatballs, but I ended up cooking the lamb the next night and getting a takeaway one night and then by the time I remembered I needed to use it, it was looking and smelling suspect so I threw it away. I need to be more careful and just freeze the other half of stuff if I can't use it right away.

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Leftovers:

Most of the bananas.
1/4 onion.

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All in all, I'm actually very proud of myself. I normally end up throwing away a lot more, and I think I was really good with using up leftovers and turning the fennel into soup so it all got used.

My favourite meal of the fortnight was... ohh so tricky! I really liked most of them!! It was a really good fortnight. I don't normally make roast dinner just for me, so that was really nice. The soup was lovely, especially as it's been snowing this week, and homemade soup goes down so well on a cold day. Lots of chinese food (I had a chinese takeaway as well!) but each meal was very different, so not too samey.

Chicken and Bacon Salad

I am notoriously bad at eating salad. It's usually the first thing to go off in my fridge and I feel guilty as I get lettuce or salad packs in my box and they end up in the bin.

So today I decided to make a mixed salad to try and use up some of the salady bits. =)

Cooked chicken - (from a ready-to-eat packet)
bacon
mixed salad leaves
lettuce
tomatoes
closed cup mushrooms sliced
slices of parmesan
french dressing

Should have been ranch dressing really, I guess, but I didn't have any... and the low-fat french dressing is probably a bit healthier.