Last year I planted a whole lot of rocket. In the warmer months, it went to seed and when I finally got around to it, I whipped the plants out and composted them. This year I planted more, unawares that below the soil lurked a hidden stockpile! The rocket self-seeded and has sprout all over my garden. We used a bit in salads and yummy quesadillas but it didn't make much of a dent to the crop. I was keen to make more use of it so I began searching for a recipe for rocket pesto. I followed the recipe initially but finding it had more bite to it then I intended, as my rocket was quite old (and peppery), I modified it.
Here is my tasty recipe for rocket pesto. It's particularly good for old, peppery rocket.
Ingredients
1 cup rocket
3/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup parsley
as much oil as you like - I use only enough to make it spreadable but others like it a bit oilier
Method
Blend!
Yum yum! I use a teeny tiny bit on ham or salami for a tasty sandwhich. You could also use it as a pizza base.
My mum disappered on a day trip last weekend to Creswick, a small town a bit over 100 kilometres north of Melbourne. There a friend of hers took her mushroom picking, armed with a knowledge of what was good and what was bad from a mushroom picking course she had taken. Mum returned with a basketful of pine mushrooms, some of which she kindly donated to us.
Late one evening, after an exhausting day, we decided to try out the pine mushrooms and a simple spagetti dish. We melted a huge chunk of butter, added a small packet of bacon, about 6 or 7 pine mushrooms (sliced) and, when the pasta was cooked, stirred it through with some of the leftover pasta water, parmesan cheese and fresh parsley from the garden. Delicious!
ugh. making dumplings, as yummy as they are, is often a real chore. Last time my partner and I made them we were almost cross-eyed by the end of the adventure.
I've been tossing up an idea for a little while as to whether making it a family and friends adventure might make the chore a bit more fun and this week I put it into practice, inviting family and friends over for dumpling day!
The set up was pretty basic, I sent everyone a couple of different recipes I'd sourced off the web (including my one, available here). They brought along the major ingredients, a mixing bowl and containers to store the prepared dumplings in and I provided some of the ingredients that aren't worth buying for a single use (shaoxing wine, soy sauce, etc.) and some banana cake (for energy).
It was a fantastic success! Between five of us, we made about 250 dumplings of three different types. I made my chicken mince dumplings, my soon-to-be sister-in-law made a chicken and pork mixture and my mother, always different, made prawn. The whole thing kept us busy for most of the afternoon but it was NOwhere near as tedious as previous adventures. And to show for it, I have about 100 of my own dumplings, plus some of everyone else's to sample!
We're thinking about making it a regular adventure - my soon-to-be sister-in-law has a great recipe for chicken filo parcels that I'd love to learn.
ugh. it's been a tough couple of weeks, trying to stay motivated. but today I found the best motivation when I ventured out to take a look at how the garden's going. it's thriving! The brussel sprouts are growing strongly
I have long broad bean shoots,
my cauliflowers are growing strongly in their protective containers
and the carrots have finally sprouted. They always seem to sprout a couple of days after I give up hope.
to celebrate, i planted some more seeds: some rocket, lettuce, bok choy and spinach.
however, to keep my motivation up, I've decided to make a list of all the things I want to accomplish in the next couple of weeks. here goes:
- mint icecream - just got to save the mint from the caterpillars
- dried marjoram to give away
- something with my lemon thyme
- nut brown sage butter - I had some at a restaurant and it was DELICIOUS!
- chicken stock
- plant more seedlings
- ginger beer
- some more lemonade / limeade
- something with my lemon verbena
- a family and friends day making dumplings - i've had a bit of interest and i think it would provide some inspiration as somethings making dumplings can get a little boring!
I was at the hairdresser last night and, whilst discussing what we were having for dinner (I was having my home made dumplings) we got onto a discussion on what was in our freezers.
In my freezer I've got spaghetti bolognaise, fish stock, dumplings and lots and lots of meat (I tend to buy in bulk - the butchers at the Victoria Markets often do special deals for 2kg lots).
I found it fascinating what she had in her freezer and I got lots of ideas for new projects. She had dumplings too (she has a great trick for making sure they don't freezer together - she freezes them in individual layers first and then puts them in their containers - she reckons you can separate the individual layers with gladwrap). She also had schnitzels that she'd made herself, cake, bread, almond meal, basil (in ice cubes) and ice cream. It gave me lots of ideas. I'd love to freeze herbs and to make more stuff from scratch.
I got very excited last night and made ... 3 litres of fish stock. I had an old snapper carcass stored in the freezer from a previous meal and we bought another whole snapper which we had for dinner on Monday night.
Last night, I decided to make the most of both carcasses and made some stock. It was much easier than I thought. After consulting a couple of recipe books, I removed the eyes and gills, broke up the carcasses, put them in a big stock pot, covered them with cold water, put the lid on and turned the stove on to a low heat. Once the water boiled, I took the lid off, turned the heat down and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, I turned the heat off, strained the stock through a sieve with a chux in it, to make sure I got the last of the bones and poured the stock into 125ml (1/4 cup) containers.
Once the containers had cooled, I stuck them in the freezer.
I made just under 3 litres of stock from 3 litres of water and two snapper carcasses. Both carcasses were originally 1kg fish, before they were gutted and eaten.
The first recipe I'm planning on using the fish stock for a prawn and saffron risotto recipe I found. I can't wait!!
Some very lovely friends came to dinner the other night and brought with them a gorgeous gift: fresh rosemary and bay leaves. I was thrilled and immediately started pondering all the possible things I could cook with them. In the meantime though, I'm going to dry them both. Some more googling has revealed that, like marjoram, bay leaves acquire more flavour as they dry. So up they went onto the wall, to replace the marjoram that's been bottled up.
The rosemary, I made into a new flower arrangement. Apparently although rosemary can be dried, it's better in its fresh form. I'll ponder over the next couple of days what to use it for!
