Zucchini Soup

I don't usually like to eat soup during summer. It's something that I long for as the long hot summer draws to a close. But yesterday was cold and wet and as we have an abundance of zucchini I decided it was just right for dinner last night.

 Cream of Zucchini Soup

Ingredients

2 Tblspns.  oil
1 tsp butter
1 onion roughly chopped
1 kg zucchini, trimmed and sliced
2 tblspns fresh oregano
2 1/2 cups stock
4 oz cheese
300mls cream 

Method 

Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan. Add onion and cook gently until softened but not brown

Add zucchini and oregano. Cook over a medium heat for 10 mins, stirring frequently. 

Pour in stock and bring to the boil, stirring. lower the heat and simmer gently stirring occasionally   for about 10 mins. Stir in cheese until melted.

Process the soup with food processor until smooth. 

Add 2/3 cup cream and stir over low heat but not boiling. swirl in remaining cream and garnish with oregano and extra cheese. 

And look who we rescued from the rain last night. The geese had wandered a little too far yesterday and this little one couldn't keep up so Mark picked her up and brought her inside. She was very chirpy this morning full of cheek so I put her back out with the others. I've kept them locked up in a smaller paddock today so they can't take her too far.

 Rain is still falling and has delayed the harvest for today's CSA but it will get delivered, just a little later than usual.
 

Weekly Meal Plan

We have been operating our CSA for 10 years now and over that time we have seen subscribers come and go, but on the whole our most loyal customers have been with us from day one. They are your typical foodie types and can manage to use up every morsel of produce we put in their box. They look in their box every week and think of what they can make for the week that best uses the produce and gives them a variety of meals throughout the week. It's about planning the weekly meals based on what's in the box.

Here's my weekly meal plan based on this week's box.....

Last night was our farm community weekly shared meal. I made this rice and vegie pie. Another member made a garden salad and another made a couscous salad. This served 6 adults with most vegetable ingredients sourced from individual CSA boxes.

Rice and Vegetable Pie

Ingredients

2 cups cooked brown rice (sometimes I use leftover rice ) cooked in stock
2 cups grated or finely chopped seasonal vegies. I always include mushrooms.
1 onion
Chopped parsley
4 eggs
1 cup grated cheese
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. herbs of your choice.

Method

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Place in pie dish and top with extra cheese if you like. Bake in moderate oven for 45 mins. or until firm.

Can be served hot or cold. Great to take on picnics and such.

I used one of the zucchinis, tatsoi, eggs and herbs from the box plus carrot, onion and mushrooms from the fridge.

The other meals on my plan will use the remaining vegies from the box spread out over the week so nothing goes to waste.

Zucchini Cake

At this time of year it can be a challenge to use all the produce in the CSA box, with such an abundance ofsummer vegies. At the moment the boxes are recieving 3 or more zucchini each and what do you do with them all?

We eat as many as we can in as many ways as we can and at the moment it's probably three times a day. But for us there is always an excess even with the amount going into boxes for our subscribers. 

We preserve them in mustard pickles which gives us a lovely condiment all year round.

And we make Zucchini chocolate cake which can be frozen thus preserving our zucchinis in a different way or eaten there and then....

Ingredients

1/2cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
4 Tblsp. cocoa
2 1/2 cups SR flour
1 tsp. bicarb
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups shredded zucchini

Method

Cream butter and sugar
Beat in eggs
Add milk and vanilla and sifted dry ingredients
Stir in zucchini
Grease and flour a 23cm x 30cm tin ( I used a smaller ropund tin and a ring tin giving me two cakes. I found the lareger tin didn't cook evenly as it's such a moist cake).

Bake at 160 deg. C for 40 - 45 mins.

Slow Food

One of the things I learned in Italy (did I tell you we went to Italy last year?) was how to prepare and enjoy simple food. We stayed for  a week with an exWWOOFer in Laverno, just south of Pisa. This is in Tuscany, where the climate is so very similar to ours, here in the Hunter. They grow olives, grapes, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber and everything else that grows well here. But, unlike us they grow food everywhere. Looking out of a train window allowed us to see the lengths people will go to to grow themselves food. Small allotments, including a shed to stay in over the weekend, are prolific in Tuscany. They are all along the tracks, in small odd shaped areas between the tracks and a road and invariably have olives, kiwi fruit and grapes growing. Tuscany is renowned for it's olive oil. Some of the allotments are tiny, some are around an acre. Italians love their food. But not the highly processed, fast food that is so prevalent here in Australia. No, Italians love fresh seasonal,local produce.The only fast food outlets I saw were at railway stations and airports! I only saw one large shopping centre. There are mini markets in the cities but mainly people shop at markets that are set up within the city that change daily depending on vendor availability. All sorts of produce can be found at these markets along with clothing, furnishings, and bric a brac. There is bread, cheeses, fresh seafood, and fruit and vegies. Here's a little three wheeler van selling produce in Turin.

and a market in Venice...

Here's another market in Venice, floating this time..

I loved that I could walk to the markets everyday and buy anything I needed from an open air market. And I loved that I could go to a cafe and have an espresso and freshly baked pastry or a glass of wine or beer. I loved that I could go to the drinks cabinet in a cafe and take out a beer from alongside the fizzy drinks. I loved that we would be given some nibblies to have with our beer or wine, free of charge.

 I loved that we could sit and play cards at the cafe while we drank our beer. (notice the cards don't have any numbers...very tricky!)

And when we got back to Elizabetta's (wwoofer) she knew that we would have been indulging with the local food and wine and she would say that we were going on a diet that night and would serve us up lightly steamed fresh vegies with a liberal amount of olive oil.

Elizabetta showed us how much food meant to the Italians. It was all about choosing fresh local food, cooking it simply, with friends, a glass of beer close at hand, and savouring it, seated around a simply, but beautifully set table. Eating slowly with a glass of wine, talking and laughing. One night, after a day in Florence, with came home and found a friend of Elizabetta's was in her kitchen preparing some food for us. He had a fresh salad, to be eaten first. Followed by some lightly steamed vegies. As our contribution Elizabetta showed us how to make a simple pasta dish with broccoli, which had just come into season over there (Autumn). Start cooking the pasta and in the last 5 mins drop in broccoli. While that's cooking fry up garlic and onion in a lot of olive oil. Combine with cooked pasta and broccoli. Add more olive oil and serve. One of the most delicious meals ever. Simple and fast.  Elizabetta said to use whatever seasonal produce is available for this dish so that's what I did for dinner last night. Overwhelmed with the amount of zucchini, beans and tomatoe we have at the moment I wanted to use up a lot of them. With some of the garlic and onion we have hanging on the verandah drying ....

and some of the excesses from the garden....

I made up a very simple pasta dish reminiscent of the broccoli pasta from Italy. I fried the onion and garlic, then added zucchini, and beans and lastly tomatoes. Serve with pasta with lots of olive oil and parmesan cheese. Delicious!!

There is lots we can learn from the Italians.

In Preparation

Rhonnie is due to have her second baby in April, so in preparation, my eldest daughter and I took advantage of our fortnightly get together, to stockpile some meals. There will only be 2 years between babies so I know that time will be precious when the babe arrives. What better way to help her prepare for this busy time than to help out with meals. And what a lovely way to spend some time together..we love it.

 A very pregnant Rhonwyn with her sister Meghann. Evan likes to be involved!

Pizza for lunch. Pumpkin and basil from Rhonnie's garden and some lovely paneer for a delicious touch.

10 meals ready to freeze. Tomato pasta sauce, chickpea curry and cauliflower pasta sauce. They will just need to cook up some rice or pasta. We will make up some vegetarian lasagne and spinach canneloni next time.

Meghann's birthday gift to her sister. A picnic rug made from vintage sheets, backed with a vintage chenille bedspread. Pattern from Amanda Soule's book.

We had a lovely and very productive time. It's a time I look forward to every second Thursday, this gathering with two of my daughters. We all miss the youngest daughter/ sister Sarah who is busy with her degree in Melbourne and look forward to the time that she may be able to join us.

Cooking with Summer Produce

Dinner last night was thanks to Evi. She posted a recipe yesterday for Greek Briam from the Greek Vegetarian blog, and I just had to try it. We had most of the ingredients from our very own garden: onions, garlic, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes, parsley, oregano, eggplants and potatoes.. Olive oil and feta was the only thing not from the farm.

Because the day was so hot I decided to use the solar cooker...

It turned out beautifully. Evi suggested having foccacia with it and even posted a recipe, but I ran out of time. We had guests for dinner and needed to make the briam stretch a little further so we cooked up some arborio rice and made risotto.

Thanks for the suggestion Evi and the link to the recipe. xx

Breakfast

This was our breakfast this morning...

Mark cooked us poached eggs for breakfast this morning using produce from the garden. Eggs from our hens, tatsoi leaves, tomatoes and basil on top of our own sour dough bread. A very satisfying feeling.We often joke about what our meals would cost if we ate them in a restaurant. At home they cost us very little and we are always more pleased with the home cooked version. Not that we are great cooks but probably because of the ingredients. Mostly home grown, freshly picked and grown with love. Not to mention the love that goes into cooking the meals. Oh and we really do enjoy simple food or peasant food as we call it.

We have been on a bit of a break from everything. Not the farm of course as it needs  constant attention. All the animals need to be checked throughout the day to make sure that they are coping with the heat. Our live in helper has moved on to be with the love of her life and we have had to take up the slack.We've enjoyed a quiet Christmas and New Year, stopped the food boxes for a week and relaxed. I read books and Mark has watched the cricket. It's been a struggle to get back here and write wondering what I want to write and how I want this space to look this year. I have some thoughts and we'll see how it pans out.

I have managed to read my favourite blogs but don't seem to have had the energy to even comment there. Sorry to all my dear friends out there in blogger land. I will get back to my usual self shortly.

 I will leave you with a link to a blog that I have just discovered. http://meadoworchard.blogspot.com.au/

 I've enjoyed her musings on simple living and where she's at with the whole concept.

Good to be back and we'll talk again soon.

Eating in Season

One of our favourite recipes for summer is Mexican Chilli Corn Pie fromVegetarian Main Meals by Kathryn Hawkins. Most of the ingredients are sourced from our garden at this time of year. Sweet corn, tomatoes,onions, capsicum (bell pepper) celery, garlic, chilli and tomatoes are bountiful at the moment.

The recipe asks for cans of tomatoes, sweet corn and red kidney beans, but why use cans when you have it fresh. The dried kidney beans are cooked in the solar oven ( energy from the sun is also plentiful right now, some could say a little too plentiful with another day in the 40's) and then added to the other ingredients once they have all been fried together and boiled for 10mins.

What makes this pie so delicious is the polenta topping. Mix together 2/3 cup polenta (cornmeal), 1tablespoon  flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2teaspoons baking powder. Make a well in the centre, add 1 beaten egg, 6 tablespoons milk, and 1 tablespoon oil and beat until smooth. Spoon over the tomato mixture and sprinkle with 1 cup of grated cheese. Bake in oven at 220 cfor 25 30 mins. It will take a little longer in the solar oven as it doesn't get quite that hot.

served up ready to eat

 

 

 

Straight from the solar oven.

 

I thought it might need to be grilled for a few minutes but it came out of the solar oven quite crispy on top.Have you cooked with polenta? I do like it fried but haven't yet succeeded in getting it to set well enough for that.

 

 

P.S.  Mark down loaded these photos for me. Two via picasa and the last from photobucket. Sorry the last two are in the wrong order but just didn't have the heart to try and change them. Thank you to those who commented about downloading photos. I just wanted to be able to download like I used to, I'm a bit lazy and technically challenged to bother with all the fiddling, but I'll try.



Zucchini and Corn Patties

Joining in once again with  Linda for a Tuesday night vego challenge. Linda has some beaut looking bean burgers tonight and we're having zucchini and corn patties served up with a crisp garden salad. At this time of year just about everything has zucchini in it and these patties are favourite way of using them up. Just to vary it a bit and because we have the corn fresh from the garden we are adding corn to the batter.

Ingredients.

1 cup grated zucchini
1 tspn salt
1 egg lightly beaten
pinch of chilli to taste
1 cup plain flour ( we use wholemeal)
1 tblspn oil
 2/3 cup tepid water
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
other vegies on hand ( corn for us tonight)

Method

Add salt to grated zucchini and mix it through, set aside to draw out moisture in zucchini. Add chilli to lightly beaten egg. In a separate bowl mix flour with oil, working oil into flour with the back of a wooden spoon. Add enough water to make a firm dough. Add undrained zucchini.Add more water if required to make a soft dough ( like fritter batter). Add any other vegies now eg.corn, chopped red capsicum or peas and the cheese.

Place spoonfuls of batter in to shallow oil in frypan.

And serve with a fresh garden salad...

We find this a very quick and easy meal, nourishing and satisfying!

Tuesday Night Vego Challenge

I'm joining in with Linda for her Tuesday night vego challenge . Being vegetarian every night for us is vego night but the challenge for Tuesdays is fast, easy, healthy, in season, real food, which is us usually every night as well but sometimes they are not so fast. The emphasis on my entry into the challenge is to provide as many of the ingredients from the garden as possible.


One problem I had was when do I post this, but Linda answered that for me today as she had thought of the problem as well. So here's the one from last night....The best Fried Rice in the world (I am a little biased) cooked by Mark.

These are the ingredients from the garden.....

and these are from the shop...

The secret to Mark's great fried rice is that he fries the uncooked rice until it's nutty brown. The onion, garlic, and grated ginger are fried first and then whatever vegies are available.(The eggs are fried separately) These are removed from the wok and then the uncooked rice is fried in some oil.. Once it has reached that nutty brown look, stock is added and  boiled until rice is cooked, at which time all vegetables are added to the rice. The fried egg is added and stirred gently into the rice just before serving. Soy sauce may be added to taste.


More and more our meals are dependant on what is growing in the garden, and popular recipes are adapted to what we have available in the form of produce and what's in the pantry. The challenge I have set myself this year is to be much more conscious of this, with every meal. How many ways are there to have eggs for breakfast, without getting sick of them!