Finely chop the oregano and the coriander, (until the moisture in the leaves is starting to ooze out). Neatly dice the capsicum and chop the onion finely.
Toast the ground cumin in a medium saucepan for 1 – 2 minutes (until aromatic). Add the onion, vinegar, sugar, oregano, habanero and salt, and bring to boiling point. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the capsicum and corn, and simmer for a further 3 – 4 minutes, or until the corn is cooked through.
Pour into hot sterilised jars and preserve using the water bath method.
Adapted from the recipe for ‘Cilantro Corn Relish’ from About.Com Home Cooking.
My beautiful lily Oriental Lily Gluhwein is flowering is the moment. I planted the bulb a couple of years ago, and this year the plant has produced two very full stalks of flowers, despite the paucity of rain recently.
This morning we went for an excursion to a farm near Helensville to purchase some fresh, full-cream milk. For a small fee, we were able to join up with a cooperative which means that we will be able to obtain fresh, unpasteurised milk, almost straight from the cows.
I’ve made soft cheeses before, using milk purchased from the supermarket, but it’s not that easy to find full cream milk in this day and age of trim and ultra-trim milk. And everything I’ve read about making cheese tells me that the best milk to use is that sourced directly from a farm.
We embarked on our 70 km round trip at around 8.00 am, allowing time for brunch at The Cafe in Helensville and for the purchase of a 4 litre stainless steel milk can from RD1.
The agreed rendezvous was a dairy shed at the end of a dusty, gravel road, and we arrived right on time at 10.00 am. I’m not sure what I expected, but there were quite a few people there ahead of us, carrying receptacles of various sizes and chatting amongst themselves.
The fresh milk is stored in a huge gleaming stainless steel tank. Once you have joined the cooperative, it works on an honesty-box system. We are able to turn up on any day between 9.00 and 11.00 am to purchase milk and/or any of the small range of other dairy products available, e.g. yoghurt, heavy cream, light cream or cream cheese.
We purchased 4 litres of the fresh milk, plus a jar of the heavy cream (for our Christmas Pudding on Wednesday). And I’m definitely keen to buy some of the yoghurt, as it has been made using Caspian Sea culture. This is a serial culturer, which means I can use the yoghurt to start new batches over and over again, and it’s one of the few yoghurts that will culture at room temperature.
When we arrived home, I used 1.5 litres of the milk to make a simple curd cheese. The result is a soft, white cheese which can be used for sweet or savoury dishes. My 1.5 litres produced 352 grams of the cheese. Once it has drained through muslin, the curd forms a soft creamy ball which can be crumbled, sliced or cut into cubes, depending on what you wish to use if for. You can also blend it with a little sugar and vanilla or cinnamon for a dessert cheese. I added salt to today’s batch as I wanted a savoury cheese.
Our afternoon tea comprised of some toasted, freshly-baked Italian bread, sliced gherkins (from last week’s batch) and some of this lovely fresh cheese.
Later in the day, Ben dug up some horseradish roots (Armoracia rusticana) to prepare Horseradish Cream. The plant itself looks quite a bit like a dock plant, and the roots are very long and stretch deeply into the soil.
Freshly-dug horseradish root.
Fresh horseradish is grated finely and mixed with fresh cream, lemon juice or vinegar, a pinch of sugar, then seasoned with a little salt and pepper.
Horseradish is a member of the brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, wasabi, and mustard – it has a very strong (hot) flavour and Horseradish Cream is very popular in Finland, where it’s called Piparjuurikerma. Horseradish is also a traditional accompaniment to Gefilte Fish.
Freshly-made Horseradish Cream
Our horseradish has been in the same spot in the vegetable garden for about three years now, and is growing very densely. The slightest piece of root will start a new plant, so you need to take care not to put trimmings in the compost heap! At some stage we’ll need to move the plants out of the vegetable garden to a more suitable site. One of the many gardening tasks for ‘later on’.
Apparently hens like horseradish, too! Lottie ate a good proportion of this pile while Ben was trying to photograph it. Afterwards, she cleaned her beak, and seemed non-affected. I’m not sure what her egg will taste like tomorrow, though, and it should get rid of any worms!
As well as being a vermifuge, horseradish is great for clearing the sinuses and also has anti-bacterial properties. There is some interesting other information about horseradish on this page Lilith’s Apothecary. I really value having horseradish in our garden.
Heat the milk to boiling point in a stainless steel pan.
Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Move the liquid very slowly with a plastic or wooden spoon, until a curd begins to form. The curds will start to cling together.
Leave for about 5 minutes, then pour through a colander or sieve lined with muslin or cheese-cloth. Ensure that the colander/sieve is sitting over another pan or a bowl to collect the whey.
Tie the neck of the cloth and hang the cheese from the tap so that it can drain into the sink. In about 10 minutes all of the whey will have drained off, and the remaining curd can be turned into a storage container. At this stage salt can be added to taste.
You can see the pattern from the cheese-cloth on the cheese I made today.
This cheese should be stored in the refrigerator and eaten within a few days. It’s great for savoury or sweet dishes. e.g. cheesecakes, as a base for dips, creamed for a dessert topping, sliced or crumbled into salads, etc.
It was as I expected. When I braved the heat yesterday afternoon, I discovered that the plants in the pumpkin patch have put on a huge amount of growth and there were 6 gherkins big enough for pickling. The two days I’d been away had been hot, dry and sunny. Weeds are rampant and most of the plums have ripened and dropped (or been eaten or frozen).
It’s actually too hot to stay out in the sun for too long in the middle of the day. I spent about 15 minutes trying to weed around parts of the vegetable garden, but it felt like the heat was pushing down on me as a physical force.
I tried a new gherkin recipe yesterday afternoon. You can sample them after a minimum of 3-5 days, although of course, ideally they should be left for at least a month for the full flavour to develop.
If this recipe tastes good, I’ll use it for any more that are produced. It has no added sugar, which will suit my taste buds much better than the sweet gherkin recipe I tried a couple of years ago.
Pickled Gherkins
In the barn, the four blackbird chicks have left the nest. We could see three last night – two perched on the washing line and one huddled down on a ledge.
Earlier today I could only see one chick. It was standing on the woodpile, staring solemnly at me, and not moving. When I left the barn, the blackbird hen flew to it with a beak full of worms.
blackbird chick yesterdayBlackbird chick today
Currently we have the following herbs and vegetables in the garden ready for eating: asparagus, basil, beetroot, coriander, dill, lettuces, silver beet and zucchini.
The climbing beans are on the point of being ready, as are the strawberries, and our tomatoes are tiny and green. But now that the fruit has formed, eating them is not far away.
Pickled Gherkins Recipe
500 grams gherkins
125 grams sea salt
3 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
1 bay leaf
1 bunch fresh dill
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 cups water
Wash gherkins thoroughly and dry.
Cover them with salt in a sealed plastic bag and set aside for 3-5 hours.
Mix the vinegar and water in a pan, and heat.
Add garlic (thinly sliced), bay leaf, dill and coriander seeds.
Simmer for five minutes.
Remove the gherkins from the salt.
Wash them thoroughly and dry them once again.
Place the gherkins in sterilised jars;
carefully fill with the vinegar/water solution (gherkins should be covered) and seal.
Set aside at room temperature for three to five days before eating.
Adapted from the recipe for ‘Cilantro Corn Relish’ from About.Com Home Cooking.
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