adaption and resilience

For me, climate change is on the doorstep.

If I differentiate the back of the house from the front, the two spaces each have a different combination of energies or microclimate. For example, the back yard has the air moving quite differently as it tumbles off the multi-story house at the rear. Whereas the front yard is somewhat sheltered from the wind by our own home and the surrounding limestone wall. The back yard is mostly shaded, whereas the front yard is in full sun, apart from one section that has some afternoon shade from the neighbour’s carport.

All the garden ’soil’ is black sand, alkaline, free draining, and repels water.

We are considering installing a greywater reuse system and rainwater tanks as Perth’s 800 mm rainfall is reducing each year. The sprinkler ban during winter and now back to only being able to use irrigation twice per week is not enough to easily manage a lush food producing garden.

At the moment I consider myself fortunate in that I have the opportunity to grow my own food and that it is still a choice. That is, if I don’t grow food in my garden I can go to the shops and I buy what I need. It may not be as tasty, and there will be dozens of other decisions to make such as do I buy the local oranges from Gin Gin, Western Australia, oranges from South Australia, or from California. And that is not including the varieties or whether to buy organic or biodyanmic.

Eventually, we will have the greywater reuse system, rainwater tanks, solar hot water system fixed and back on the roof (currently we are using gas), and a photovoltaic system. We already have a pretty light carbon footprint, but we will do our best to look at ways of reducing it further.

Working with the climate, adapting to it, I feel is a better way of living sustainably and increasing resilience. So no, we won’t be installing the exterior uplights, swimming pool, or airconditioner that appears to be the new home essentials.

sourdough croissants

Yum!

If you had asked me before today whether I like croissants, I would have given you a straight no.

Today, I can tell you I like very much the sourdough croissants that I made with Yoke this morning.

We tasted and scoffed plain sourdough croissants, sourdough croissants with chocolate filling (i.e. shaved bitter chocolate), and sourdough croissants with an almond filling.

The workshop also consisted of making a Tarte Tatin and slow-roasted vegetable quiche both made with croissant dough. We had the quiche and Tarte Tatin for lunch. Phew!

The making does not require any special kitchen equipment (unlike the Wholegrain, Sprouted Wholegrain and Essene Sourdough breads), but I will need to clear the end of the kitchen bench to be able to roll out the dough 75 cm x 30 cm, and a wider rolling pin will make the task that much easier. Like in previous workshops, all the dough was made with organic or biodynamic ingredients and wholemeal wheat or spelt flours.

Fortunately, the pre-formed dough and formed croissants can be frozen or refrigerated so I don’t have to eat 32 croissants all at once. Knowing what goes into them, I think they will be a special treat! However, I’m looking forward to having some dough ready in the freezer and refrigerator. And just so you know, it takes hours for the dough to become something you can eat from the freezer or refrigerator.

organic and biodynamic weekend

Saturday was mostly taken up with Yoke’s ‘Wholegrain, Sprouted Wholegrain and Essene Sourdough’ workshop. A dozen of us ate and baked our way through:

• wholemeal sourdough sandwich bread
• multigrain sourdough bread (sweet and moist)
• black rice sourdough ciabatta (very sweet and dramatic looking)
• quinoa spelt sourdough bread (would look great with red quinoa)
• light rye spelt sourdough bread
• dark rye spelt bread
• essene bread (we made wafers and decided these may have been early ryvita but much tastier)

Yoke demonstrated making a multigrain sourdough bread dough, which we got to take home to bake. Also, we had the choice of what dough to make ourselves to bake at home. I made a quinoa spelt sourdough bread with 50% cooked quinoa and 50% sprouted quinoa. Apart from being a bit big for my small loaf tin and the difficulty of getting it out, the crust was crisp and the bread was delicious. We had it with Borlotti Bean soup on Sunday.

Now I need a kitchen gadget, i.e. a juicer/grinder to pulverise the sprouted grains. Having seen Yoke’s Samson – it was so quiet and steady, I’ll wait until I can save up for something similar. However, apart from the essene bread and multigrain, I can bake the other breads from the workshop and perfect these. What is really great about them, is that they require a lot of starter. Great for the those days, when it is plentiful and raring to go.

Armed with sun hats and umbrellas, on Sunday we went up to the WA Biodynamic Festival at High Vale Biodynamic Orchard in Pickering Brook. It did rain while we took a tour of the orchard, but the weather was warm and we missed the very heavy downpour. The guide’s presentation was interesting and he answered many questions clearly and succinctly. A article written about biodynamic vs traditional farming was posted with a photographic display of the farm that explained that a biodynamic farmer’s enthusiasm for the health of the soil is what makes them different to traditional farmers that rely on products brought onto the farm.

One of the reasons we went to the Biodynamic Festival, is that they promised tasting of their core cider. It was worth the drive. Unfortunately, we could only taste it. Distribution is not happening until January next year. We’ll be watching out for it.

Over Saturday and Sunday, I emptied the worm factory tray ready to plant seedlings, and moved the compost bin for the first time. Also planted two lots of cucumbers (bush crop and burpless), sweet corn, basil, and red onions. I planted the seedlings in the worm castings, and spread the compost around the plants. The compost is very black and a nice crumbly texture, and very wormful. Hopefully the worms will find new homes before the neighbourhood magpies come on their rounds. There were so many snails, that I opted for the snail pellets. Not sure what the biodynamic or organic gardening technique is for snails. Strange as it may seem, I have found that they prefer my basil seedlings to beer. Perhaps they are not Australian snails

cooking with tempeh

And that’s pronounced ‘tem-pay’, not ‘tem-per’ although the latter may be assumed if I cannot resolve the frustration at not being able to make my own tempeh.

I went to a fantastic workshop, and spent four hours observing Yoke and Ocean prepare the most wonderful Indonesian banquet which we all got to eat. I have the instructions for making my own tempeh, and with some hints (not documented in the notes) from Yoke I know I can do it once I solve the problem/issue of the incubator.

To make tempeh, you need to be in Indonesia or in a climate similar. The inoculated soybeans have to be at a constant 30C for 24-36 hours.

Having looked around at various ‘incubators’ [1][2][3][4][5], I’m still thinking of the best solution and it involves being able to monitor the temperature without me having to open the door/lid to view some thermometer. For example, the temperature to be sent digitally to my computer at some interval so that I can see it is at 30C, but also constant at 30C.

In the meantime, I have purchased tempeh produced by Tallyho Farm and Mariza. So far, the Mariza tempeh is more true to what I was introduced to in the workshop. However, the Terik Tempeh (tempeh in a dry and mild curry) that I cooked at home was pretty tasty using the Tallyho Farm ‘natural’ tempeh.

Have also been snacking on Bubur Ketan Hitam (Black Rice Pudding) with salted coconut milk infused with pandan leaves which I also learnt at the workshop.

Next task will be to investigate how to substitute for the coconut milk as I’m sure it is not doing my cholesterol levels any good. However, in addition to the recipes I got from Yoke, have found some pages of the The Book of Tempeh book, that offers some interesting tempeh recipes.

[1] http://www.soytempeh.com/IncubatorforMakingTempeh.html

[2] http://www.troutsfarm.com/In_the_Kitchen/Tempeh/tempeh.htm

[3] http://www.eggcartons.com/category-exec/category_id/114/nm/Incubators

[4] http://www.maketempeh.org/make_it_at_home.html

[5] http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/v3-509.html

flexitarianism

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month, and according to this article I can consider myself a “flexitarian”. That is, I eat at least four meatless meals per week.

Interestingly, this Saturday I am going to one of Yoke’s workshops on “TEMPEH: Exploring the traditional and the new way to cook with tempeh”. So hopefully, I will be able to add another food to my growing vegan/vegetarian menu plans.

Since enjoying Yoke’s Sourdough Breakmaking class in June, I have been nurturing my sourdough starter and baking bread. So I’m happy to recommend these thoroughly informative and hands-on classes [1].

Flexitarianism started for me when I began to read further about food miles and seek local food. Exploring and trying the foods available from Loose Produce has certainly made me more aware of fresh tasty food closer to home. Whether this is the sacks of rye flour delivered by the farmer himself to the shop so that I can purchase in smaller quantities to feed my sourdough starter, or the taste sensation of organic fetta cheese from Albany.

[1] As of a week ago, there were still places for the Tempeh workshops. Conducted in Ardross (suburb in Perth, Western Australia) on Thurs 23 Oct or Sat 25 Oct 10am – 2pm. Cost $110. Excerpt from Yoke’s email:

“TEMPEH: Exploring the traditional and the new way to cook with tempeh, a most important source of digestible protein and b-vitamin for vegetarians and vegans.

I was born in Solo, Java island (Indonesia) – the birthplace of tempeh, so it’s about time that I show you how easy it is to create simple, tasty, nutritious meals and snacks with tempeh. Most people dont like tempeh because they dont know how to cook it. Lets go beyond tempeh burger and learn how versatile and tasty tempeh really is. Class includes: fragrant coconut rice and authentic pandan leaf infused black rice coconut pudding. Hands-on class, wheat-free, dairy free and vegan.”

my first pomegranate

I got to eat the first ripe fruit from my very own pomegranate tree.

When I cut it from the tree I noticed that it had the obligatory spider in the end of the fruit. I don’t know why pomegranates have spiders, whether they are a particular species, or just opportunists.

It is one of the few things I don’t have to share, as H can’t be bothered. Also, he spits the pips out!

I scored it so that I could break it apart more easily – as you do.

Interestingly, when I went googling on how to propagate the pomegranate tree, I read on http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/pomegranate.html that:

For enjoying out-of-hand or at the table, the fruit is deeply scored several times vertically and then broken apart; then the clusters of juice sacs can be lifted out of the rind and eaten. Italians and other pomegranate fanciers consider this not a laborious handicap but a social, family or group activity, prolonging the pleasure of dining.

It was ripe enough, although it could have been left to ripen further. It was tasty, and it was mine.

There is a second larger fruit on the tree, and if I get to eat it this then the tree will have already paid for itself based on current greengrocer prices. Bonus.

trussed

Tonight, I got to try out my new food loopy things on Matambre (Rolled stuffed flank steak).

The only hitch is that I didn’t read the recipe properly until I was putting the ingredients out on the bench. The recipe stated that I needed twice the weight of steak that I had already defrosted and marinated.

I halved the stuffing, and we had most of the spinach and carrots on the side. The spinach I dressed with soy and dashi sauce, and bonito flakes.

Matambre is very tasty, inexpensive (as you can eat cold), and made with simple ingredients. Definitely one I will try again. Except, I don’t know about this ‘cut into 6 mm slices’ or ‘cut into thin slices and served cold’. There is no way that we could have carved our Matambre this way.

divine

I have been growing marjoram for over a year. It is used instead of oregano when we feel like a change in our Greek Salads.

Recently I harvested marjoram to use in a dish titled Oysters Bercy in Rosemary Hemphill’s Cooking with Herbs and Spices.

To some it may appear back to front to choose two teaspoons of flavouring, over the main ingredient of three dozen fresh oysters. But I think you have to have fresh from the garden herbs as well as fresh oysters for this dish as the flavours are so subtle.

Bruno at South Perth Seafoods provided us with two dozen beautiful oysters. I almost felt that it was a waste to coat them in a creamy sauce. A bit like a good malt not needing anything but a glass to drink from.

However, I’m pleased that I tried the Oysters Bercy recipe. It is DIVINE.

Note: The recipe does not indicate the number of servings. I could not quite stretch myself to purchase three dozen oysters, and two dozen appears to do well as a main meal. Recently I prepared this dish for four as an entree, and two dozen oysters seemed right for that too.

pickles

I like pickles, but have given up on buying them from the supermarket. Mostly because they tend to be very vinegary.

On Sunday, the first batch of Pickled Onions was ready for tasting, having let them pickle at room temperature for exactly two weeks.

Yum, I think they taste delicious. Unfortunately, H likes them too

I think they are a bit soft, but it has not stopped us from eating them. I have kept one jar aside for Dad who I know likes pickles too.

The next batch will not be ready for four days.

lettuce soup is bad for you

Crema de alface (Lettuce soup) is made from the lettuce that sometimes get frozen in our fridge, or lettuce leaves that don’t look presentable to go in a nice crisp green salad.

It also helps to have some left over cream, which we do when we have people over for dinner. I’m not sure why, but the recipes or menu plans that I follow for special occasions always appear to need cream somewhere.

Having made the lettuce soup, I have an egg white leftover. The most obvious thing to make from leftover egg whites is meringue – to me anyway. Following the sue’s meringues recipe from Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion, leaves me with an egg yolk.

On the same page as sue’s meringues is caramel custard, or creme caramel as I call them, that requires two egg yolks among other things. But from this recipe I’m back to having an egg white leftover.

Back to making meringues, then I have an egg yolk leftover, so I can make lettuce soup again. This time with no leftover egg.