Sauce of the Season - Plum Sauce

Plum Sauce and the not-so-sweet plums it was made from

If you find you have inadvertently acquired a plum tree which does not have very sweet and delicious plums, do not despair. Plums which are not so nice for eating raw can be often be better cooked, especially when they are used as a carrier for spicy flavours. Plum Sauce is a great way to make use of these sorts of plums, and I have a whole tree of them, so I have been hard at it. This sauce is a perfect accompaniment to Zucchini and Feta Fritters, falafels, and other fried morsels of all kinds.

It is easy if a little time-consuming to make – especially straining out all the stones. But the taste is well worth it. Here is the recipe I used, made up by amalgamating the features I liked best from the Plum Sauce recipes provided by Digby Law and Gilian Painter in their excellent books of home preserve recipes.

PLUM SAUCE

Ingredients

3 kg plums (count the number this comes to, so that you know how many stones to strain out)

1 kg white sugar

1.5 litres malt vinegar

2 Tbsp salt

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp whole allspice, 2 tsp whole cloves and 2 tsp black peppercorns, all tied together in a muslin spice bag

Method

Weigh the plums, wash them, and count them.

Put them in a large preserving pan along with the rest of the ingredients and simmer the mixture for 1-2 hours, until a sauce-like consistency is reached.

(Stir often as the mixture starts to thicken, to prevent it burning.)

Strain out the stones.

(I scooped them out with a slotted spoon, put them and surrounding plum flesh in a sieve, pushed the flesh through the sieve, and picked out the stones. If you know of an easier way, please tell me!)

Whizz the sauce in batches in a food processor, until it is smooth.

Reheat it to boiling, and bottle it in hot, sterilised bottles or jars.

It will keep for a year or so (keep it in the fridge once it is opened), and improves with keeping.

The Black Boy Peach - a Kiwi thing

 Black boy peaches ripening in the Eco Garden

In a week or two the peaches on my self-sown blackboy peach trees will be ready to eat raw – and to start turning into pies, tarts, chutney, sauce, icecream... My big and bonny trees grew from stones that survived the composting process. It was clear from their leaves when they were small that they would turn into peach trees, and I let them grow on where they had planted themselves to see whether they would be a tasty variety (most peaches do not come true from seed). Both of them turned out to be blackboy peaches. Within three years of self-sowing they had already started to flower and fruit, and now they are both at least 4 metres tall and have heavy crops. Unlike my white and yellow-fleshed peach trees from the garden centre they don't get leaf curl or other serious diseases, and all in all I can't think of a more trouble-free and productive fruit tree.

It is also, as I discovered when trying to find out more about this wonder tree, rather a mystery. The name Black Boy Peach (hereafter BBP) seems to be a totally New Zealand thing, and New Zealand also seems to be the current world capital of the tree/fruit itself. I found various claims on line that the BBP is really the Peche de Vigne (vineyard peach) of France, but the French language Wikipedia entry on peaches says that such peaches are not exclusively dark-red, like the BBP, but rather have been so named because they ripen at the same time as grapes and are planted (or self-sow) around vineyards where they act as an indicator for pest and diseases that might harm the vines, especially mildew. This information is seconded, in English, by Colin Elliot, an English gardener in France, who says that a red-fleshed form of a peche de vigne has been commercialised in Soucieu-en-Jarrest, self-styled Capital of Peche de Vigne, south-west of Lyon.

I would dearly love to know if this is anything like the BBP we grow in New Zealand. Almost everything else about the BBP that I can find on on-line is contradictory (it will/will not grow true from seed; it is/is not good to eat fresh; it is/is not better cooked; it is/is not disease free). All I can say about about my own experience of growing and eating the BBP in Banks Peninsula conditions is that it does appear to come true from seed, that it doesn't get the diseases my other peach trees do, that it is delicious fresh if you pick it when perfectly ripe, and that you can cook it in lots of tasty ways. (Such as Roasted Blackboy PeachChutney and Vegan Black Boy Peach Cake.)

Courgette Loaf

 

Freshly-baked courgette loaf with lime icing

Courgette Loaf is an easy and effective way of making good use of an over-sized vegetable. Americans would call this recipe Zucchini Bread, but I have decided to stick with its 'English' name. You can also make the recipe with grated carrot. It's fine without icing, but as the third course of a zucchini-based meal a little extra flavour is nice, so I iced this loaf with a water icing where I replaced the water with freshly-squeezed lime juice. Enjoy!

Courgette Loaf

Ingredients

1 cup grated courgette

1 large or 2 small eggs

half cup light olive or soya oil

½ - ¾ cup raw sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups flour (wholemeal, white, or your preferred combination)

pinch of salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon OR allspice

½ cup sultanas AND/OR chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease a large loaf tin well.

In a large bowl, mix the grated courgette, egg, oil, sugar and vanilla essence. Sift in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, and mix well. Add nuts or sultanas, if using.

The mixture should be quite moist.

Bake for 45 minutes, test to see if a skewer comes out clean, bake a little longer if it does not.

Ice (if desired) with a water icing made with fresh lime, lemon or orange juice instead of the water.

Zucchini and Feta Fritters

 

Zucchini and Feta Fritters served with lemon wedges.

These fritters are based on a Turkish recipe - it seems they are popular there. They are easy to prepare, and make a good light lunch by themselves, or the highlight of a dinner accompanied by rice pilaf and salad. This recipe makes enough fritters for two people.

Zucchini and Feta Fritters

Ingredients

350-400 g zucchini, coarsely grated

70-100g feta cheese, crumbled

[haloumi cheese can be used instead, or equal parts of feta and ricotta]

2 spring onions, minced or very finely chopped

3-4 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped

[other herbs which can be used as well are fresh mint and flat-leaf parsley]

1 egg, lightly beaten

100g flour and 1 tsp baking powder, sifted together

freshly ground pepper

salt to taste

Method

Grate the zucchini, and squeeze them hard to get out as much moisture as possible. (If there is time, put the grated and squeezed zucchini in a colander, put a plate on top, put something heavy on the plate and leave it to drain out the remaining moisture.)

In a large bowl, mix together the zucchini with the feta, onion, dill and egg.

Sift in the flour and baking powder gradually, stirring each time until a stiff batter is achieved.

If this happens before the full measure of flour is used, stop adding it; if the mix still seems bit runny when the full measure is used, add some more.

Add pepper and salt to taste, bearing in mind that the feta cheese may have provided enough salt.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy frying pan, and add 1 heaped tablespoon of fritter mix per fritter, flattening each one as it starts to set, and flipping it when it is brown underneath.

As each batch of fritters is done, put them on a heavy platter in a low oven to keep warm while the next lot is fried. Line the platter with paper towels to soak up any excess oil.

Sever the fritters hot, with lemon quarters to squeeze over them.

Zucchini Garlic Soup

 Zucchini Garlic Soup with home-made Sourdough Bread

This soup makes excellent use of surplus zucchini. It's easy to make, although allow an hour to make it (most of which is simmering time), or an hour and a half if you are going to make your own vege stock for it, as suggested. It is a quite 'creamy' soup, despite have only 2 tablespoons of butter in it. If you want it creamier, use more butter to start with, or swirl a spoon of thick natural yoghurt or heavy cream through each bowl when serving it. 

I had some peas in the pod that needed using up, so I added the peas to the soup and the pods to the stock pot, giving extra flavour and colour to the soup this way. But they are not necessary if you don't have any to hand. The recipe makes enough for a substantial lunch for two, or a dinner starter for four.

Zucchini Garlic Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 white onion, sliced
8-9 large cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
600g zucchini, peeled if necessary, and sliced
1 potato, peeled and diced
100-200g green peas (optional)
4 cups vegetable stock*
½ teaspoon ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Melt the butter in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and onion and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.

When the onions are soft, add the zucchini and potato and cook until softish. Then add the peas (if using) and the stock and bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer at a low heat for about 40 minutes.

Let the soup cool slightly, then blend it with an immersion blender until creamy, or transfer to a blender or food processor to puree in two or three batches, until creamy.

Return the pureed soup to the pot, taste and season it with ginger, salt and pepper, and gently reheat it. The soup will improve in flavour if left overnight in the fridge.

* Quick Vegetable Stock
You can use vegetable stock powder for this recipe, but the soup will be tastier if you make a real stock for it. Simmer together a chopped onion, a clove of garlic, trimmings from the zucchini, tender pea pods, a chopped potato, some carrot, celery, leek, silverbeet, green beans (whatever veges you have, except for the strong flavoured members of the cabbage family, or ones which that will affect the colour of the soup, like beetroot), a bay leaf and some fresh herb sprigs (parsley, thyme, marjoram, dill, basil - whatever you fancy) in 1.5 litres of water for 30 minutes. Strain and use in the soup recipe.

Take 1 over-grown zucchini - make a 3 course meal

 The zucchini that got away on me...

The height of the zucchini season is upon us, and once again slim little cylinders are ballooning into monstrous vegetable baseball bats as soon as one turns one's back on them. They are no good for stir-frying or adding to salads when they become super-sized, but a portly zucchini need not go straight to the compost heap.

From the zucchini in the photograph (which weighed just under 1 kg) I made fritters and a courgette loaf, and from a couple of smaller fatties I made delicious soup. A three course meal! Zucchini may be rather bland vegetables, but this means that a little extra flavouring goes a long way when it comes to creating a variety of dishes from a zucchini base.

I will put up the recipes for Zucchini Garlic Soup, Zucchini and Feta Fritters, and Courgette Loaf over the next three days, but if you can't wait that long to start transforming your over-grown zucchini into something delicious, check out my  Zucchini and Gherkin Relish recipe from last year.

Small - but imperfectly formed - a 'Gold Rush' double zucchini

Summer Garden Workshop - A Taste of Herbs

 Lemon balm, lemon verbena, sage, or mint ... which herbal tea do you prefer?

The summer workshop in the Eco Garden will focus on growing and using herbs.

The three hour workshop will include a garden tour, hands-on learning about growing and using culinary and medicinal herbs, a chance to taste teas made from a variety of fresh herbs, an afternoon tea which includes herbal baking, and herb seeds or a herb plant to take home. All for only $30!

The workshop runs from 2 p.m - 5 p.m. on Sunday February 26. Numbers are limited to 12 – early registrations are advised - by Sunday, February 19. 

Email ecogardenernz [at] gmail.com or call 329 4588.