Category Archives: Vegetables – All About

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

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 !!

Passata di Pomodoro

2014-11-27 - Passata 12014-11-27 - Passata 2

No good Italian can live without tomatoes, and plenty of it. So the annual Passata day always takes effect when tomatoes are in abundance, ripe, sweet and fresh. Making about 60 kilograms of Passata every year for our own needs, and some as gifts, has been a family tradition for many decades. It helps to be on a good footing with the local green grocer who is only too pleased to discount  the tomatoes that would be considered over ripe in New Zealand, but just right in Italy.

RECIPE

Wash and roughly cut up the tomatoes, and at the same time remove the odd bad or discolored spots. Now boil the tomatoes, without water, for about five to ten minutes, depending on the ripeness, until soft, but not cooked.

2014-11-27 - Passata 62014-11-27 - Passata 82014-11-27 - Passata 9

Passata making can be a huge job without the magical Passata Machine – a device that separates the skin and seeds from the flesh. This little machine can do in excess of 100 kilograms per hour and is wonderfully designed, easy to operate, durable and very quick to clean. No self respecting Italian household is without one! Within minutes I had processed 30 kilograms of tomatoes into 28.5 kilograms of Passata leaving 1.5  kilograms of seeds and skins to compost, or dry to plant next year.

Bottle the tomatoes in clean canning bottles – do not use the cheap screw on type of bottles, but a good strong bottle with lid that can seal properly. There is  no need to sterilise the clean bottles before hand, as it is going to happen after filling them. Put the filled and sealed bottles in a large enough pot that would totally cover the bottles when filled with water. It is good to have a tea towel or some screen in the bottom of the pot, so that the bottles do not stand directly on the heated surface. Now fill the pot with water of about the same temperature as the product is at this stage (prevent bottles from cracking).  Heat until the water is boiling and then boil for twenty minutes more. Immediately remove the bottles from the boiling water, if the water starts to cool, water may be sucked  into the product.

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Cool and label.  PRONTO !!

2014-11-27 - Passata 4

While washing the tomatoes, select the ripest and firmest tomatoes for Bruschetta with tomato, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Mrs BYF cannot be beaten for making the best Bruschetta!  ENJOY!

NO MEAT LUNCH

2014-11-16 - No Meat Lunch2014-11-16 - Artichokes2014-11-16 - Carcioffi Cooked2014-11-16 - Carcioffi Eaten

Lunch without meat does not often happen in our house, but today’s meal was so good I almost did not miss it. Fritters made from radish leaves, of which the seeds were purchased from Italian Seeds Pronto the very good Italian Franchi seed supplier in New Zealand, complimented by home made yogurt with milk purchased from the most beautiful dairy farm ever. A salad with borage leaves and flowers, the plant being supplied by Kimberley of Good Life Gardens in Dunedin, mixed with radish from the back yard and a good vinaigrette  – mix two parts good extra virgin olive oil with one part of home made apple cider vinegar, ad a bit of salt and pepper and shake well before dressing. Of coarse all were supplemented by good home made wine.

This was followed by artichokes again from our dairy farm in Port Chalmers. We like to cook it in water with a squeeze of lemon until the leaves come free when pulled lightly, then drained. Pull the leaves from the head and dip into good extra virgin olive oil with plenty of salt added to it and then rip the soft flesh from the leave with your teeth. After an enjoyable meal you eventually reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – artichoke hearts!

All of the above accompanied by delicious home baked bread and at the end there is no space left for the meat in any way.

ENJOY !!!

 

Frittata di Borragine e Cacciatore (Frittata with Borage and pork sausages)

2014-11-13 - Frittata di Borragine 3

This morning’s breakfast was a feast put together by Mrs BYF (I knew it was breakfast, because I did not have wine with the meal). Borage (Borago officinalis) is one of the plants that actually thrives in Dunedin’s whether, so one has to make the most of it. The flowers and young leaves are delightful in a salad and the older leaves can be cooked like spinach as a side vegetable. Making a frittata with home made Cacciatore sausages was not only very pretty, but also exquisite.

RECIPE

Fry some onions and garlic in butter and olive oil in a heavy pan, ad the sausage and fry until it starts to color, then ad the borage leaves and cook until almost done. In the mean time, lightly beat 24 quail eggs (6 chicken eggs) with six tablespoons of water. Ad a bit of grated parmigiano cheese, salt and pepper and pour into the pan with the other ingredients. Turn the temperature down to medium and leave, without stirring, for a few minutes until it just starts to set on the top. Now put in in the oven under the grill until lightly brown. ENJOY !!! (If after 10H00 a good red wine is permitted)