sartoric

Nonno Jack’s Sunday lunch. My husband Mark is one of five boys born in the late ‘50s / early ‘60s to Italian parents. After mass the family would visit their maternal grandparents for lunch. Often, nonno Jack would make chicken wings in a fresh tomato sauce. He used a pressure cooker and served the wings with pasta. I’m scared of my pressure cooker and prefer the wings with medium grain rice. The sauce is simple, olive oil, diced onion, garlic, tomato paste, white wine, blitzed fresh tomatoes and chilli flakes. I simmer them for an hour or so, until they’re very very tender. Served tonight with wild rocket from our garden, dressed in the traditional Italian way. Salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, added to the greens in that order, then tossed. For me, flats rule. Luckily, M likes the drumettes.

Bugger. I will miss his posts.

Yep, I’ve had em, and I actually like them. Thanks for reminding me

I first experienced fruit with chilli in northern Thailand. I was on a day trip with a group and an American Thai lady bought slices of green mango from a street vendor that came with a bag of chilli mix to dip. Was delicious. Enjoying your travelogue @Smithy

I’m sorry I can’t remember, would have been red and whatever we were growing at the time. My best guess is Birdseye. I guess the beauty of it is that you can store it forever. I still have a jar going, from at least five years ago.

I made a persimmon and chilli jam once. It was rather yummy with cheese and crackers.

I’d recommend anything by Madhur Jaffery, she’s my all time favourite. I just did a quick count and found 27 in my various shelves, I’m sure there’s more lurking around. Another favourite is by Meena Pathak (of the famous chutney and paste maker Pataks). oops, just found 6 more

I guess you’re referring to hugelkultur, cos I’m pretty sure you’d know the veggies. This is a hugelkultur bin, made from scrap corrugated iron and star pickets. Into the bin we piled layers of sticks and twigs, rotted hay, garden soil and compost. We have two of these bins. Here’s the other one, photo taken a while ago. It now has leafy greens, spring onions and radish planted. We have numerous other beds growing food plants. Some are enclosed to keep the critters out, others are planted with stuff the critters don’t eat. There’s a kitchen garden near the house with herbs and spices, plus about a dozen different fruit trees. The aim is to be self sufficient in fresh produce, and it helps that we can trade with neighbours and also sell excess in town. We sold a couple hundred bucks of citrus in the just finished season

I’m a bit excited about these from the hugelkultur bin. There’s a few caulis. Broad beans. And cabbage.

How very sad. I always enjoyed the cook offs, and was beyond thrilled when he posted something of mine on FB. Rest peacefully David.

Elephant garlic from last years crop, given to us by a neighbour. The largest head weighs 330g. This type of garlic grows best around these parts, we have a 100 plants in, they’ll be ready to harvest in November. Yesterday I made garlic chilli pickle with the big guy.

I’m late to the party, but enjoying it nonetheless. The food looks fabulous as does the scenery. We were supposed to go to Greece in May 2020. We all know why that didn’t happen. Good to see some are able to travel again. Thanks 🙏 @shain

I’ve never grown it before, so haven’t had fresh turmeric to play with until now. I’m going to try some drinks/teas tomorrow. Here’s the colour difference between the freshly dried and ground, vs store bought on the right.

Winter here, so time to harvest the turmeric. I’ve dehydrated and ground half of this so far. I think the rest might go in the freezer, unless you have a better idea ??

So sorry for your loss Liuzhou. The best any of us can hope for is a peaceful transition. It’s lovely that you got to see her recently.

@KennethThere’s my ornamental ginger. Do you know the variety ? Here’s turmeric nearly ready to harvest.

I have turmeric ready to harvest too. When it gets light I’ll take some photos of our ornamental ginger and maybe you can tell me what it is

My first time growing ginger. Love that I can just harvest enough for a few days. It costs $45 per kilo here, so there’s that too.

The leaves make a refreshing tea too.

Ah, yes. I thought of Thai curry paste after I asked the question. I also just remembered I tried making lime pickle (the Indian style) with some once. It was very bitter and ended up in the compost.

Thanks for sharing your interesting adventures. He who must be fed is angling for a road trip set up. We’re currently negotiating, he wants an off road caravan, I’m not so sure we’d get away that much.

I’m curious as to what you use kaffir limes for. I have a tree but only use the leaves. The fruit falls off eventually

My apologies for the assumption. Mines I knew back in the day were dirty places and very blokey.

Clearly you have never worked in a mine. Painted toenails = death by a thousand ostracisms.

Oh wow, I haven’t checked this forum for ages and look what I missed ! Well, I’ve caught up now over several hours and send my thanks 🙏 Safe onwards, and healing vibes to Mr Smithy.