Category Archives: Recipes – All About – Tried and Tested

Cooking for Family and Friends

Combating food waste : My contribution

Pomodori alla Grilia2015-01-12 - Pomodori Secchi 2015-01-12- Cherry Time  2015-01-12 - Peperoni alla griglia

 

I love eating fresh produce in season and preserving all the excesses during the growing season for the rest of the year. Summer fruits and vegetables are expensive in winter and in summer there is a lot of glut and waste, especially at the small local green grocer who sells his fruit and vegetables fresh, in season and does not keep things in cool rooms for years. The supermarkets hold fresh foods over until they can hike the price so I avoid them. Why buy expensive bad produce, albeit blemish free if one can have uglier and tastier produce for less .
I do not have a glass house  ( green house? ) and find it impossible to grow the vegetables that are important for Italian food like capsicum and eggplant in Dunedin. My solution is to have a good relationship with the local shop and to buy fresh produce that he can not sell. A small blemish or spot of rot, a wrinkle here and there, a few tomatoes that are too ripe for locals but just ripe and soft enough for a great sauce can be had for very little money. The  shop keeper  gets in money he would not have had,  and it helps me to process things like eggplant, capsicum, tomatoes and a variety of fruits for use out of season without going bankrupt.  I prevent, in a small way the waste of good food and wish I could convince more people to do the same.

Vegetables can be  preserved in many ways, as sauce or ingredients for soups and stews or dried.  Fruits are made in to jam or pitted and vacuum sealed to bake in to pies and tarts. I always sort fruit and the best specimens are devoured by the troops before being processed.

We have been pretty busy. The worst thing to process are the delicious cherries. Every one has to be pipped before jam can be made or the can be pasteurised for baking.  I have a stiff shoulder and my arm and hand hurts. My hands and nails are stained purple and I have purple juice spots on my face. Keeping going is essential, though, because in dealing with this type of product ” time is of the essence “, seriously!

http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/06/stop-food-waste/?sf6758268=1

BACK YARD FARMER’S LUNCH

2015-01-15 - Italian Lunch

Cured olives (picked last year in Cromwell), dried tomatoes, garden salad, peperoni sott’ olio (capsicum under olive oil), peperoni grigliati (roasted capsicum), calabrese salame, pickled onions, provolone cheese, focaccia and, of course, dry wine (apple and black currant) – ALL HOME MADE. I am very happy with the result of all the hard work. A few more kilograms tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants processed should see us through the winter.

FOUR DIFFERENT EGGS FOR BREAKFAST

2014-12-17 - Four Eggs 2 2014-12-17 - Four Eggs

 

Fried eggs for breakfast. The unique thing was not the bit of chili and butter in the pan but that the eggs were from top to bottom: bought brown hens egg , pure white egg, laid by my Ancona hen, egg laid by my guinea fowl hen and a pretty speckled egg laid by my quail hen.  In the pan the pale yellow is the bought egg and the middle egg beside it is the guinea fowl egg. The latter took a bit longer to cook than the others. Very tasty treat. Yolk color is more often than not an indication of quality of the feed consumed and the general well being of the bird.

Porchetta – Roast Pork Leg

Riomaggiore gebakte vark2014-12-04 - Pork Roast 1 2014-12-04 - Pork Roast 2

We were given a lovely bit of pork – free range of course! It was quite a big leg and I had to trim it quite a lot to make it fit the pot. I do have roasting trays big enough for large pieces of meat but my present oven is not wide enough for them.

PORCHETTA  (leg only. In Italy one sees the whole pig roasted to perfection)

The pork will roast for a few hours so arrange the rosemary and sage twigs, a handful of bay leaves, one lemon, two whole garlic (skin on), for the pork to rest on, in the bottom of the pot. Drizzle generously with olive oil

Score the skin of the joint deeply, right down to the meat

Ingredients for paste :

1 handful of fresh rosemary

1 handful if fresh sage

3 peeled cloves of garlic

4 or 5 fresh bay leaves

3 tablespoons olive oil or more

salt and pepper

Pre heat the oven to maximum heat. It must be really hot so heat it for at least 20 minutes

Meanwhile, put all the paste ingredients in a mortar and pound vigorously. Add olive oil to make a rough paste. Cover the skin with the mixture forcing it between the scored pieces of skin. Rub salt on the skin to help the crackling process. Put the meat in the pot or pan, on top of the sage, rosemary, bay and garlic. and put it in the center of the hot oven. Roast the meat at the high heat for about 25 minutes or until you have golden brown crackling, then turn the heat down to 170 degrees and cook for 3 hours or until the meat is soft enough to break away wit a fork.

The flavor and aroma is wonderful and the leftovers are even better. With friends and family present when the pork came out of the oven, on the excitement, I forgot to photograph the finished product so you will have to take my word for it that it was perfectly crackled all over!

 

 

Bruschetta al Pomodoro e Basilico

2014-12-04 - Bruschetta

100 ml Extra virgin olive oil
2 Cloves garlic – finely chopped
4 – 6 Slices home made bread or good Italian style bread like ciabatta
4 Fresh, ripe and sweet tomatoes – coarsely chopped
Small bunch basil
Generous pinch salt
Black pepper
In a large bowl, combine the chopped tomatoes, basil, black pepper, chopped garlic, salt and extra virgin olive oil , mix to combine. In the meantime toast a few slices of home made bread and rub with fresh garlic. Drizzle the warm bread with extra virgin olive oil. Cover the still warm bread with the tomato mixture, and serve immediately.  The trick is not to let the mix stand because it becomes watery. ENJOY !!