Monthly Archives: February 2014

An Artichoke, a Pumpkin Flower, some Sage Leaves = Lunch

2014-02-04 12.10.06

I cleaned up the garden and brought in one small artichoke, one pumpkin flower and some sage leaves. I did not know what to do with my meager harvest so I decided to deep fry

every thing.  I added some fast home made bread, (pane veloce) put out the last of the carrot top pesto and ricotta cheese. Poured a bit of red and had a great meal.

Flour and Water Batter

1 cup plain white flour

Pinch of salt

water

Mix flour and salt add water a little at a time while whisking until you have a thick creamy consistency. Set aside 

Frying the Veg 

If you have a very young fresh artichoke, boil it in water for about 20 min or until tender but not falling apart. Set aside on kitchen paper, allow the retained water to drain and cut in half or, if it is a large artichoke, quarter and remove the choke.

Heat about 6 cm of vegetable oil in a pan, when the oil is hot,  dip the vegetables in the batter and slip them in to the pan. Do not overcrowd.. When crisp remove the veg, drain on kitchen paper and put in a new batch. Serve immediately, if you wait the batter loses its crispness.   

Cardoon and Artichoke

I have a cardoon and an artichoke growing in my veg patch plus two more artichokes in other parts of the garden, all from seeds.  I have never grown cardoon before and the mature one that I saw in the Dunedin Botanic Garden was almost as tall as me . It is a huge plant so one needs space to plant it.Next season I shall plant it in the ‘ornamental’ section of the garden since it becomes such a spectacular plant.  One eats the ‘flower buds’ on the artichoke and the stems of the cardoon. Artichokes are a firm fixture on our menu when they are in season, but I have never cooked cardoon before. I have been collecting ideas and recipes and shall post my favourites once I have either of them harvested and cooked.

Presently the plant look similar, both have small flowers buds, so I have to wait and see what the mature plants look like.  On the left is the cardoon and on the right the artichoke as they are at present.

2014-02-03 11.33.562014-02-03 11.33.16

Cardoon                                                                                           Artichoke

 

At the Stadium Markets in Dunedin every Sunday

We had a lovely sunny day in Dunedin and many residents went to the beach – I went myself and there were more people than I had ever seen on the beach.

Those that came to the market would have found fantastic apricots that actually had ripened on the tree also sweet black plums, cherries and peaches. All of these and vegetables were on offer for very reasonable prices and were locally grown and fresh.  Nothing that sat in supermarket warehouses for years!

Flagstaff Alpacas had a stand beside mine and had a well deserved late windfall. A few tourists arrived just before everyone started to pack up and bought virtually his entire stock of lovely knitwear, yarns, fleece, duvets and toys.  The stall owners farm the Alpacas, and produce all their unique articles in their own mill locally in Milton.  They also have farm stay facilities. In my opinion more enterprises of this type will really put Dunedin on the tourist map. Their website is worth a look : http://www.flagstaffalpacas.co.nz

More news next Monday