Here is a sneak peek behind the scenes at all the food we have been growing, harvesting, preparing and, of course, eating!

mielies

purple carrots

apples

sweet potatoes

mielies with mint and butter

pumpkin and spice cookies

two fig and ginger jam

stuffed squash flowers and purple carrots and wild garlic

pumpkin pie

figs

wild garlic rolls

rhus toffee sweets

rainbow radishes

feasting

more feasting

even more feasting

second helpings!

Grace before a meal:

“Blessings on the blossoms,

Blessings on the fruit,

Blessings on the leaves and stems

and Blessings on the root.

Blessings on this meal”

]]> http://awellseasonedbook.com/2013/03/07/a-new-way-to-taste/ Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:26:51 +0000 AWellSeasonedBook http://awellseasonedbook.com/2013/03/07/a-new-way-to-taste/ I’m pretty excited because two things happened today that me that brought me great joy. I made a new cookie tonight – Black and White Chip Cookies with Roasted Almonds and now I’m planning on trying a new recipe this weekend – Creamy Polenta with Sausages and Roasted Grapes. I’m not sure when I clipped this recipe from my Bon Appetite Flipboard to Instapaper, but there it was and it sounds delicious. I’m also toying with the idea of making bagels – and yes, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost my mind on the bagel issue, but that’s another blog edition.

Planning my polenta extravaganza I arrived at a new thought all together. What’s the price of a good meal? Last time I checked, sausages and polenta were not break the bank ingredients. Now I know all too well how the foodie lifestyle can get blown way out of cost proportions and this is one of the reasons I’ve turned to classical literature as my guide. Times were simpler back then and simple can be better. Being diabetic I’ve learned to cut down on the prepackaged extras. Something in that type of processed food elevates my blood sugars to crazy numbers. Not cool.

Now I’m not saying you should start harvesting your own wheat and roll Little Red Hen style, but I am saying that rather than spend your money on prepackaged donuts, cookies, or applesauce cups, spend that money on a quality flour, butter, brown sugar, chocolate, apple, or cinnamon. Slowly start the switch over and never go back. I say this mostly to remind myself of what counts in the world of taste and what matters in my reality of carbs. Cookie day is a treat for me because I can eat but one cookie a day, however it’s the best cookie in the world because I used the best ingredients I could find. I had to learn a new way to taste. What is your new way to taste?

Happy Ingredients,

-m

She didn’t skip a beat and said “Simple. Lotsa Veg and Live happy.” After a short pause, she winked and said “I also love to party.” She’s my kinda woman!

She’s living proof that you don’t need to torture yourself with diets or fancy burn-a-hole-in-pocket miracle creams to glow with forever youth. Just simple Veg & Happiness. Sounds so achievable doesn’t it?

If you’re after a veg dish that is packed with flavours & vitamins plus fills you up as a main meal, here’s a simple to make one-pot vegetable curry dish you can make in 20 minutes.

You can add your own preferred variety of hardy vegetables eg. sweet potatoes, broccoli, pumpkin or whatever is in season! This is really a throw it in one pot kinda dish so don’t stress over the following recipe to the T.

And oh, it goes really well with a nice glass of easy-drinking red wine

One-Pot Vegetable Curry

(adapted from Chef Wan’s Simply Sedap Recipe)

Health Taste So Yummy with this!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup oil

1/2 teaspoon cumins seeds

2 Red chillies, chopped

1 cm ginger, peeled & sliced

3 cloves chopped garlic

1/4 teaspoon powdered turmeric (I added 1/2 teaspoon as I love turmeric and it has loads of health benefits)

1 tablespoon powdered coriander

1 cup tomato puree or passata

2 carrots chopped (I’m often lazy too peel them if they’re from a reliable organic source)

2 potatoes diced

1/2 head of cauliflower

Handful of French beans

2 tomatoes roughly chopped

Handful (or more!) of chopped fresh coriander

Method:

1. Heat the oil and sauté the cumin seeds, onion and chillies in a casserole dish for 3 mins (I used the chinese sand-claypot. Makes a nice rustic serving dish for your one-pot dishes.)

2. Add ginger, garlic, powdered turmeric, coriander and fry till fragrant. Mix in tomato puree and cook for 5 minutes.

3. Add all the vegetables and cook for another 3 mins.

4. Add tomatoes, coriander leaves, salt. Cook over low heat until vegetables are tender.

Serve with basmati rice or naan bread & greek yoghurt on the side.

And for some inspired living:

Swayze Foster recently posted a “low-sodium” sauerkraut-related video, in which she talked mostly about how she hates sauerkraut.

I’m a fermenter, and I do like sauerkraut, and I have been lucky that everyone who has tasted my sauerkraut has liked it (I do get lucky like that – people who say they are don’t like something that I am pushing  generally tend to like it once they have tasted it). 

Swayze says she put her sauerkraut in a jar covered by leaves, and topped  by cheesecloth to ferment for three days. That is, by me, the first mistake – if you are going to make “short-ferment” vegetables of any sort, you need to 1) press the vegetables down under the liquid, and/or 2)cover the recipient with a tight lid.

I’ve tried several ways to weight the vegetables, all of which involved putting a cabbage leaf on top and putting a weight on that, and then putting the lid on.  Each time, I have ended up with a slimy cabbage leaf, and an iffy batch of sauerkraut.

The sauerkraut I make is low sodium (I use a maximum of 1 T sea salt to a large head of cabbage — 2 1-qt jars worth). The sea salt is already low sodium, and it helps to draw the liquid/juice from the cabbage.  I find that the kicker, or the trick, to making a successful, tasty raw sauerkraut is the addition of 1 – 2 capsules-worth (or 1 teaspoon) of probiotics to the mix  (you could mix it in by hand, but I worry that some might get stuck on my glove and not remain in the mix, or you could mix it into the water you add to top off the jar)  The salt works to ferment, but salt wants a while.  The probiotics go to work immediately, and practically ensure that your batch of sauerkraut will succeed (when I first started making sauerkraut, I was warned that my first batches might fail – the only failed batches I have ever had were the ones where I did not use the probiotics)

I usually let my sauerkraut batches go for 3-4 days before I open them.  With the tight cap on them, I need to open them over the sink, as the probiotics will have created a fizzy pressure, and the cabbage sometimes pops out of the top of the jar.  I like the sweetness of the 3-4 day ferment, but I have left it as long as 7 days with no ill results.  My batches rarely last more than 7 days in the refrigerator, as, when I have a batch of sauerkraut, it goes into almost everything I make up (wakame seaweed and vegetable salad, raw tuno, crackers – you name it!)  I often eat it on its own, as I love the flavor (I most frequently simply add jalapeno pepper slices, but often I add garlic, dill, cilantro, curry powder, or kimchi spices).

The way I figure it is, if you don’t like raw sauerkraut, most probably, you have gotten a bad batch, or you don’t like the flavorings.  A simple, plain raw sauerkraut made with just sea salt and probiotics will be tasty, sweet-ish,  to almost anyone, even children, and will be a good addition to just about anything you want to make up.

One last thing about sauerkraut, or any other fermented vegetable: If you don’t like to chew,  or if you don’t like crunchy, process your vegetables to a fine grate (not applesauce texture, but more like if you chopped for 20 mins) and be sure to include probiotics in your mix (many people tell me you can use sauerkraut juice from an older batch, but I never have that much juice left, and I don’t trust commercial batches.  For my first batches, I used a Zukay salad dressing for the probiotic, but, since Zukay salad dressings are not available in New York City as of this writing, and the company refuses to sell even crates of their product to individual buyers, I have never used that since).

Over the years the garden was lost and forgotten, until a few years ago when my wife Rosie took up the mantle of reinvigorating the garden at Duart. Why were we buying in other people’s vegetables when we have a garden to grow them in right here at the Castle? The idea flourished and Rosie designed a new garden with Mike and Jenny Swift, who were the gardeners at Torosay Castle.

If you look at the Aerial photograph, you can clearly see the polytunnel greenhouse, and the paths and beds.

The project has taken two years and last summer we produced our first yield of organic vegetables. Now, onions, carrots, leeks, parsnips all ripen within Duart soil and we are delighted to have a continuous supply of ingredients for our delicious homemade soups lovingly served in our Tearoom.
Although the garden is not formally open to the public, we are very happy for people to look round and see what we’re growing. We are hoping to also grow flowers which we can use in the Castle. So far everything looks very good, and we hope that we will have another bumper summer.

So we look forward to welcoming you to gardens at Duart Castle this summer, they will make a lovely backdrop to a number of exciting Events including Pipers and Highland Dancing, Maclean storytelling, Birds of Prey day and Swordsmanship demonstrations plus much more.

Please visit www.duartcastle.com or call 01689 812309 for more information.

Just one last one for your digestion, it’s all at one go. Thats me, I’m an all or nothing kind of gal. You got nothing for a few months and now yir gettin it all. So I had a lot of fun with this one. You might recognize the Drumlane gardeners as I have posted many photos of them over the years, that is of course if any of you have been reading or looking at my posts (is there anyone out thereeeee..). It OK , it’s ok , this is not a guilt trip, I know there are a lot of amazing blogs out there, professionals for God’s Sake! Never mind, but do feel free to check out this last one.

On a personal note, or an ever more personal than usual note. I am dedicating the blogging of this video to my wee jack russel Rockey. Who I thought would be with us for years and years. He got knocked down on Friday morning, he died instantly. This little guy was an amazing spirit, everyone who met him loved him and remembered him. You will see him in following video, and understand. Say a little prayer or wish him well if you are inclined. Thanks