Food falls into all kinds of categories. Next month it’ll be glistening and colourful, done in big quantities, no holds barred, the best we can muster. But for now, in the quiet backwaters of November, I’m slipping in a dish that is really the opposite: not beautiful to look at, humble, personal, and so delicious. Continue reading Sauerkraut rice with pork and paprika (plus recipe for sauerkraut)
This is what happens when you marry a couple of months editing a seasonal and beautiful cocktail book (classy drinks flavoured with all manner of fruit, herbs, flowers and even vegetables), with one’s own crazy obsession with fruit and fruit trees! Continue reading Peach leaf prosecco (or soda)
Once a year I scramble across the roof of our chicken coop to pick a bucket of cherry plums. The tree hangs right over the roof, and conveniently the neighbour’s chicken coop is right next door and the tree hangs over that too … It’s just one little step from our roof to their roof and I do it, cheekily never asking for permission. Up there I’ve got full view of their whole yard, but with my head in a fruit tree I get a bit bold and reckless – I just want to fill my bucket! My six-year-old daughter now wants to join in! (Fruit-focused recklessness carrying on into the next generation.) Continue reading Plum curd
Planting horseradish is like letting a genie out of a bottle – you will never get it back in. My dear friend Alice told me about the horseradish in her grandmother’s country garden. As her grandmother got older and the garden went untended, the horseradish went wild and started covering the yard … I am not really talking the plant up, am I? Continue reading Beetroot and horseradish relish
January had a very particular kind of feel for me. Lots and lots (and lots!) of hours were spent on the computer editing a cooking and gardening book. In between sections I was often wistfully staring out our back window into the garden, thinking, thinking, thinking … Continue reading Sun-dried nectarines
The last month of autumn might seem the wrong month for thinking about tomatoes. Happy days of tomato and chive sandwiches with different coloured cherry tomatoes from our garden are well and truly finished, and there are no more meals accompanied by our favourite zucchini, tomato and basil stew. Continue reading Tomato sambal
Last weekend was the final hurrah for our old kitchen and bathroom. Now our weatherboard worker’s cottage has been stripped of its lean-to addition and reduced to four very cosy rooms, each one really having to pull its weight. We have a study/kitchen, two bedrooms/storage, and a living room/everything else. We’ll be spending the next few months building a new kitchen, bathroom and larger living space, and I’m aiming to be very calm and graceful and to take our chaos in my stride! (A wry smile from my husband.) Continue reading Tomato kasoundi