One of the joys of living in the country – and not just the country, but the ‘fruit bowl of Western Australia’ is the abundance of fresh fruit and veggies all year round. Funnily enough, this also presents quite a challenge at times as these glorious fruit and veggies rarely arrive in little half kilo clear plastic bag portions like the supermarket. Nope, they are usually handed to you as you leave someone’s house, or left on your door step as a 20kg box of peaches, or 3 shopping bags full of apples or pumpkins or tomatoes... Having lived where people don’t have enough to eat I can’t bear to waste food, so I’ve embarked on a eating in season, ‘waste not- want not‘ foodie experience. Although you may not be in the position where you’re being handed all this sort of stuff for free, it IS in season- which means it’s cheap, and if you have a deep freezer and some time on your hands- you might just find the following recipes useful!
Tomatoes Ok- so there not in season anymore, but were the first item I received in bulk. 2kgs from this friend’s garden, 3 kg’s from that friend and another few kg’s...and I started to feel panicy about what to do! Then I remembered the Jamie Oliver recipe I had tucked away in my cook book- and I’ve been on the look out for tomatoes ever since!
Jamie Oliver’s Pizza Sauce Recipe (I use it as a base for pasta sauce too)
1 clove garlic, crushed and fried about 30sec in olive oil. Then add
3 large tomatoes chopped (or a can of tomatoes if you live in the city and haven’t got around to growing your own yet- but seriously- you should grow your own- they’re easy to get started and are happy tucked away in a pot -or tyre! somewhere. I think you’ve gotta wait ‘til Spring now though)
1 bay leaf
6 chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tspn fresh thyme chopped (instead of paying heaps at the supermarket- I bought healthy herb plants from a nursery. Pinched a few leaves for my recipe and used the rest to start my own herb garden!)
And...( I don’t think this is part of Jamies recipe) half a masel stock cube, or salt/sugar to balance the flavour. Simmer for about 25min for a thick pizza base sauce, less for a pasta sauce. It freezes well, so you can have amazing pizza or pasta sauce all through winter!
Pumpkin My Aunty grows pumpkins and squash for market, so I get loads. I chop up as many pumpkins fit in my pressure cooker, scoop out the seeds (and save a few for my garden next spring) and boil in a bit of water till soft. Then cool, scoop out the flesh and freeze. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones. YUM! My fav pumpkin soup is Mums Thai pumpkin soup. This recipe’s been sms’sd all the way from Malawi!
‘just use half tsp cumin n coriander lots of ginger n garlic half can coc milk chick stock cude n sp to taste luv mum’
See how ya go with that one!!
Peaches According to one of the organic magazines I’ve been reading, peaches are the highest absorbers of any pesticides sprayed on them, so if you love peaches- it’s really worth planting one in your back yard...or front yard. I never liked peaches until I got a 20kg boxful from a tree down the back of my uncles paddock left at my caravan door. They were so good, a week later I found myself up that tree with 3 plastic bags getting scratched to bits rescuing the last of the fruit from the 4 rams that were circling me beneath the tree. They knew what was good for em. They camped out under that tree til the wind blew, or that crazy human (accidentally!!) dropped the delicious morsels for them.
Unfortunately peaches really don’t last very long-so, after I had distributed the bounty among friends, I had to stew the rest ( i haven’t got room in the caravan to do any bottling this year!). the texture of the skin puts my teeth on edge, so i roll up my sleeves and spend hours in juiciness peeling them, but once they’re stewed they make a mean pie or crumble without any lemon/sugar help.
Lyn’s Crumble
2 Tbspn butter, 1 cup plain flour, ½ cup raw sugar, 1 cup rolled oats, 1 cup shredded coconut, 1 tspn cinnamon or other spices. Combine to make the crumble. Sprinkle over prepared fruit (fresh or defrosted). Moderate oven until golden brown
Apples and Pears As above, OR they are very nice dried. There are heaps of ways of drying, but the consistent part is- soak thin slices of the fruit in lemon and water- then get em dry as fast as possible! Some people have fancy fruit dryers, some people thread apple rings on strings and hang them on their verandas in the sun. I use a potato peeler to get thin slices, lay them out on every rack I can find, then put the racks on the bonnet of my car in the sun, or in the oven with the fan heater pointed at them for an hour or 2. Warms the caravan, dries my fruit!
Figs, Mulberries and Blackberries These are all in one category, cos I always intend on somehow storing them for later- but usually end up eating them fresh cos they’re just so yummy. Picking blackberries helps reduce the spread of this noxious weed- just make sure the plants haven’t been sprayed. Ie no road side picking. Both Blackberries and mulberries make awesome pie fillings. If you don’t have enough berries- bulk it up with apple. Yum. They also all make great jams.
Figs- I had this wonderful ‘figs poached in port’ recipe that I thought about trying with the several kg’s of fruit I had collected at a friends farm. But the recipe had ALOT of sugar in it and I’m not a huge ‘super sweet’ fan. So I decided to sip some port while eating the figs- which was ok. But to be honest- i preferred the figs straight! Or dried, chopped up on my muesli. Mine didn’t last long enough to dry though (hehe).
Last but not least: Carrots We harvest 100’s of kgs of carrots a week at a friends organic farm where I hang out, so I’m always in good supply of delicious, sweet carrots. My waistline says I’m making WAY too much carrot cake, but I also love substituting carrot for pasta to make a light, refreshing meal. I saw the recipe on a vegan website once. Basically, peel your carrots, then using the peeler, make long strips of ‘spaghetti’. Saute a diced clove of garlic in some olive oil, throw in a few carrots worth of strips, toss until lightly brown on the edges, then serve up with your favourite pasta sauce.
My garden is now full of cabbage, broad beans, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, Swedes, turnips and beetroot... so I’ll let you know how I go!
