Blackrock Rd Salted Olives

Jeanette picking for salted olives

 Two delights from our olive grove are producing our own oil, and our salted olives. This year we picked for oil on 17 - 18th May. We let the olives ripen for two more weeks so they were dark red and juicy then David, Jeantte and I, helped by cottage guests Libby and Mark, picked over Queens Birthday weekend for our salted olives.

 Olive oil corner in the kitchen

We picked 50kg on one day, then Jeanette, David and I sorted them. We chose the largest plumpest olives. This meant close to 25 percent of what we had picked were discarded. These olives were either flawed or had bruised. With the remainder we layered olives and salt and then left them to drain, turning the buckets every few days.

Now they are ready. I rinse the salt off the olives and leave them to dry. After 48 hours,  I sort them again. I sort the large from the small - about 10% are small. The olives have dried massively in the salt. The others are plump and wrinkled. Any that have been bruised in the processes are discarded too.

Olives ready to go into the jars

I smother these in our fresh olive oil then store them in jars. Each jar has 200gms of olives and includes more or less 100 olives!

These olives are whole food/vegan of course. The whole process is kept below 60 degrees, and only NZ sea salt, our organic olive oil, and our organic olives! How good is that. Theses taste fabulous. Neighbour Mena calls them Moroccan sucking stones...pop them in your mouth, eat the olive, then suck on the stone. Comforting and delicious. Variations include adding preserved lemon or orange rind, warming the olives for 15  seconds in the microwave, and adding fresh chopped thyme, or your favourite fresh herbs.

Whole food juices for breakfast and lunch

In 1972 I had a month in Indonesia and then Singapore. Amidst all the chillies and spices, I loved the fresh juices, especially freshly made watermelon juice. I bought a trusty juicer (right) for around $40, duty free, and it is still going strong.

I notice with whole foods, I am eating more carbohydrates with cereals, corn breads and buckwheat blinis. Every now and again I just feel like nutritious juices, and yes I have read reboot with Joe and his inspirational story.

Now I know my way around Commonsense Organics which stocks seasonal products, so my winter juices are fantastic. Usually a base of kale which comes out bright dark green, looks amazing and tastes earthy. I add cucumbers from time to time.  Then I make a mix of carrots, root ginger, apples, persimmons, oranges. sometimes I add a lemon, or kiwifruit. I usually put 20% vegetable juice in with the mixed fruit juice. The final colour is nothing to write home about - khaki - but looking down on the juice you can see the oranges, yellows and greens of the different ingredients. And it tastes divine and feels decidedly nutritious.

More recently I came across organic powdered kale, and if I haven't had a chance to buy fresh kale, in goes a teaspoon or two of this. Not quite the same as fresh, but good enough for now and then. I sprinkle a teaspoon of this onto a small amount of juice and let it sit, then stir it in, then add the rest of the juice.

Yes it does seem odd having a powdered organic version of a delicious fresh vegetable, but, there you go.

Also just read in Organics NZ (birthday present from neighbour Jane) that Remuera New World directly contracts 30 -35 organic growers for direct supply. Best news is they commit to selling the produce at the same price as non-organic. And, they have noticed sales of organic produce has gone up from $1000 a week three years ago for organic produces to $35,000 currently. How good is that? New World Remuera also stock over 250 Ceres (organic) products. We are lucky to have Commonsense Organics in Wellington with their amazing range of fresh products sourced from all over NZ and other organic products sourced from all over the world. I love doing my weekly shop there.

In praise of Ottolenghi - three great winter dishes

Cauliflower bake

 Winter meals are always a treat. Nothing like a warm, soft, nutritious dishes for cold winter nights. And so much better if they are easy to make. Having discovered Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's recipes, there is no looking back. I have bought two of their books, Plenty and and The Cookbook. And I have bought both the Kindle versions for when we are over at the farm, and the hard copies for when I am in town!

Their dishes are simple, made with in-season fresh vegetables, and dashes of magic. Here are three I have made recently. These first two dishes are definitely not vegan, just vegetarian as cheese, cream and/or eggs feature. Delicious treats.

Ottolenghi is wonderfully generous and you can find some of their recipes here: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes

Ottolenghi's name for the cauliflower bake is Smoky Frittata. How can anyone resists that. Just gorgeous on its own, or with green vegetables.

Ottolenghi's Herbed Mushroom Polenta

the ultimate winter couscous

 The herbed mushroom and potenta dish is one of those which quickly became a favourite.I use my winter thyme and rosemary straight from the garden together with Parkvale tiny bronw mushrooms. Such a fantastic Friday evening dish, relaxing by the fire after the weeks work. This takes about 25 minutes to prepare. You can find the recipe here: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/mushroom-and-herb-polenta-shop





 Couscous dishes have been favourite of mine for a while. this one is vegan and Ottolenghi's version is distinctive with the vegetables gently roasted with cinammon sticks, star anise, bay leaves, and ginger, tumeric, paprika and chilli flakes together with the magic of saffron threads and fresh corriander sprinkled on at the last minute.You can find this recipe here:
http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/ultimate-winter-couscous-shop

DIY Muesli from the Melbourne Age

Who would have thought! In my so far relentless e-search for delicious breakfasts, without white or refined sugar, I came across this great recipe in the e-version of the Melbourne Age. I read the Age most days, or have a glance and then settle into the moderate difficulty e-sudoku.
500 g rolled oats toasted
100g slivered almonds
half cup of organic saltanas or currents
half cup shredded coconut
half cup of sunflower seeds
half cup of gogji berries
half cup ofpuffed quinoa
Half cup of flax seeds or sesame seeds
and half cup of anything else delicious you want to put into this
Serve with almond milk or coconut milk, a dollop of coconut yoghurt and fresh fruit. Simply delicious, and extremely healthy.  

http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/hot-food-diy-muesli-20140412-36j9p.html    Peter Ray photo Melbourne age

Hankering for thick dark bread, and there’s a baker in the house

Friday night and we head for the farm. Cher and John are staying at the apartment. We will have dinner together on Sunday evening. I am restless. My achy back isn’t improving, and I feel worse for wear. My Friday session with the physio reveals I may have a slipped disc and pinched nerve. A few weeks ago, I didn’t take him seriously when he said do these exercises 5 times a day. I do now. From yesterday, I have my phone timer set at two hourly intervals, and every two hours I am up and about I do 3 exercises 10 times each. 

 So with all this in mind, we head for Masterton. All I want to eat is thick dark bread. We stop off at Countdown and head for the organic section. Found. Pumpernickel. Friday dinner is pumpernickel smeared with avocado, and topped with fresh tomatoes. Dinner was deeply satisfying. Who would have thought? 

First thing this morning, David is up and make mixed grain bread! Kibbled rye, wholemeal flour and oat flakes. Pip and Pete gave the bread maker to David a few years ago, and recently some of his bread hasn't mixed well and has come out rather firm and definitely stodgy.

Top L: Rising, cut the cross on the loaf, the loaves have risen! DB testing (20 mins at 190C), the loaves!
 These mini loaves are great. Moist and delicious and fun to eat!
My work for the weekend is to make a dish for to go with the bread. I decide on green beans in tomatoes. My friend Maria from Tuscany taught me this dish a couple of years ago. Gently simmer one diced onion in olive oil. Remove. Add the whole green beans minus their tops and tails. 
Move them around gentle until they soften slightly. Add the simmered onions, two or three handfuls

of chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, pepper, a fresh red chilli (my addition), ground pepper and simmer together. When soft and lush, add 1 – 2 cups of vegetable stock. I’m using Rapunzel organic vegetable bullion from Commonsense Organics via Germany. This one is low salt. Put the lid on, and simmer for 20 minutes, take the lid off and simmer until the juices are thick. This final bit takes between 5 – 20 minutes, depending on your taste preferences. Cool and reheat when you are ready to serve. Goes well with crusty bread, and off course lamb!  (which I don’t eating any more). I’m appreciating a lot I like mucking around in the kitchen. And appreciating I have the time in the weekends to do this.

On Thursday night David and I went to The Grand Budapest Hotel, a Wes Anderson movie. A Christmas gift from Pirimia and Darrin were vouchers for the Roxy. It was a great fun movie. Exquisite visually and rather ‘dark’. We both really enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to have an almost vegan dinner, a bit of butter here and there, and I didn't mind a bit!

Arancini with mushroom and parsley, followed by pumpkin and sage ravioli with sage butter and pumpkin seeds. So it was only the butter, and sage butter is close to heaven especially with pumpkin ravioli! This is the second time I have had butter in 4 weeks. Not so bad.

Much to my surprise, being (almost) vegan is not so difficult. As with any food preferences, one of the secrets is to have a well stocked pantry and fresh staples in the fridge, and some prepared frozen meals.

There's been something I have been looking forward to trying.  Corn bread. So into the range of flour we now have. Vegan corn bread http://vegetarian.about.com/od/sidevegetabledishes/r/cornbread2.htm  Just like the recipe! You may notice there is a lot of baking and

carbohydrate eating in our house now. I am quite amazed in that over the past few years, we had both 'given up' bread, rice, pasta, and anything with white flour. I've taken baking on with a vengeance. The recipe was pretty firm, and the bread crumbly (no gluten), however just what I imagined. So into the freezer half of it goes.

Farm work this weekend - cutting the lavendar, planting broad beans, digging the red onions ready to dry, and David straighted the weeping birch. (Its an obsession of his)

In praise of Gilli Bassan, and an experimental salad

One of my favourite dinners even pre this whole food extravaganza was Gilli Bassan’s pumpkin and chickpea tagine. You can find something similar at http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/vegetarianmaindishes/r/moroccan_carrot_chickpea_tagine.htm

If you make this one, use lots more spices than recommended. I double the amounts.

And both carrot or pumpkin are delicious. One of the great things about this dish is that it is likely you would have all the ingredients in your pantry, and it takes about 25 mins total, including preparation.

Tonight I made a new salad. Using our super duper peeler; finely peel one fresh zucchini, toss in lemon juice and olive oil, sprinkle lots of dried dill and chopped fresh mint. Add some finely sliced iceberg lettuce, and just before serving add speedily boiled fresh green peas. As we grew the zucchini, mint, lettuce, lemon and oil , you can see why I liked it. The peas were Watties baby minted peas.

End of week 2 – a little bit of everything

I have eaten a lot of whole food this week. I have cooked lots of it too. I am eating a lot more carbohydrate than usual particularly with brown rice and buckwheat flour. Most dishes have a number of spices emphasizing different flavours in the food.

Breakfasts:

• Rolled oats with almond milk, stewed fruit
• Corn fritters, avocado and tomato salsa
• Warmed Quinoa with stewed plums, maples syrup, almond milk, cinnamon and slivered almonds
• Banana-blueberry pancakes with maple syrup
• Tomatoes on toast sprinkled with savoury yeast, or homemade pesto
• Banana and blueberry smoothie with almond milk, pea protein and cinnamon 

Lunches

• Hummus on buckwheat wafers with sliced tomatoes
• Miso soup
• Falafel with hummus with raw carrot
• Tofu with peanut sauce
• Warmed leftover corn fritters
• Apple and pear juice with ginger
• Lettuce, tomato, avocado and cumin spiced grated carrot corn bread wrap

Dinners

• Roasted vegetables with tomato and red pepper
• Thousand jeweled quinoa
• Warmed tortillas stuffed with chilli fried beans, lettuce, tomato and avocado 
• Aashe
• Carrot and avocado soup with coconut and cashews
• Carrot and chickpea tagine
• Babganoush, hummus, guacamole with carrot sticks

Snacks

• Apple slices with smear of almond butter
• Bliss balls
• Banana
• 2 x Omega plums
• Walnut and banana buckwheat and brown rice flour Mini muffin with chia seeds
• Mini carrot cake fritters with many spices and maple syrup

 

Most exotic meal: Shahla’s made two of us dinner using traditional family recipes from her Mum – Aashe (pronounced Oosh), then Iranian crispy rice with saffron syrup, broad beans with garlic and dill,

Shahla serving dinner

The blitzed walnuts after an hour and before being cooked 

walnut sauce with eggplant and pomegranate molasses. 



Everything was absolutely divine. I learned to make the walnut paste you pulse and grind the walnuts for an hour! A true labour of love, and a memorable evening. 

Most delightful surprise meal: the salads at Charlie Nobles, beautifully constructed, delicious and nutritious and fabulous tastes; and carrot and avocado soup with coconut, coriander and cashews.

Weirdest meal: carrot cake fritters with maple syrup for breakfast!

Most Over-rated: Savoury yeast! this does not taste like cheese at all. I have realized eating cheese is an experience - texture, taste, smell, visual delight, memories. Eating savoury yeast is nothing like that.

Quickest meal: Anything Mexican

Not sure yet: Pea protein in smoothies.

Favourite meal: crunchy corn fritters with tomato salsa and avocado; Gilli Bassan’s carrot or pumpkin and chickpea tagine. 

Can’t wait to try: coconut yoghurt made with probiotics, making my own corn bread

Best finds:

Pear Jelly, made from our pears, and chelsea white sugar!

• Vogel’s gluten free 6 seed bread
• Mountain breads corn wraps
• Corn tortillas
• Almond milk
• Black coffee with cardamom
• Smoothies for breakfast

Things I miss a little bit

Pear paste (cooked with sugar!) on blue cheese (verboten). I can still eat the walnuts though 

Left: I don't shop in this section of the supermarket any more!

PS. I have not put on any weight this week. 

Myths and riddles with B12 and making traditional pear jelly

One of the things in eating whole foods is that they don’t contain Vitamin B-12 (aka Cobalamin). B-12 is one of the largest and most complex vitamin currently known, and its central source is meat, eggs and fish. A slight deficiency of vitamin B-12 can lead to anemia, fatigue, mania, and depression, while a long term deficiency can cause permanent damage to the brain and central nervous system. Spooky stuff.
Read more at http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-high-in-vitamin-B12.php#slu8O7eUfquc7azH.99

 I had thought I would get my B12 from a supplement. I have second thoughts. Supplements seemed an odd choice as they are processed, manufactured,  and the whole aim of whole foods is to avoid processed foods.  The more I read about health food supplement producers they are linked to making synthetic drugs and performance enhancers so not so much my cup of tea, so to speak.

Super red berry oats with almonds

More B12 facts. An average daily intake for an adult is 2.8 micrograms (mcg). The supplements I looked at were 50mcg each which seems a bit odd for daily intake. Having read quite a bit more research,I see soy, rice, and almond milks per cup,each have 1mcg. So with breakfast smoothie or almond milk and oats, I get half what is needed each day.

Thai fish curry: aka B12 for DJ

I am not keen to fret over micrograms I have decided it is easier to eat fish once a week  or an egg here and there. Here’s the Thai fish curry I made on Friday night.

 There have been big winds during the week, and sadly I have lost yet another olive tree branch. I hate seeing this happen so I am glad I wasn’t here. So out with my trusty saw and pruning paste. Heartbreaking as this branch was laden with olives, one of the few in the North Olives of about 40 trees. Oh the pain of being a horticulturalist!

 This weekend I have cut back the raspberries and planted kale. There are still lettuces, chillies, capsicum, courgettes, herbs, lemons, mandarins and one last strawberry.  Autumn is here.

The last of our pears

Pear Jelly

I have made pear jelly using a Christine Ferber recipe via www.shesimmers.com using four of our pears. I decided to use sugar! This is an indulgence cos sugar is definately NOT vegan. So far the jelly hasn’t set even after boiling for half an hour with pectin.   So its more like pear honey! I do have this dream of making crystal clear pear jelly, where you can spoon it our of the jar - not pour it. I made it once and cant for the life of me recall what I did!

Batch number two with our final five pears. This looks better but doesn't look likely to set. Note for next year.....make like strawberry jam,use juicy pears and don't add water! Or maybe juice the pears and go from there.

Heading off to Minerva with the shovels

 The other excitement this weekend, is Minerva has at last found her feet! I made Minerva shortly after I met David and she stood proudly on our back deck. During the rennovations she was knocked over and her hair fell off, and her base broke. That was over ten years ago. At last she is standing by the eucalyptus tree with an infrastructure of concrete going down 500cm! Thank you David. 

David putting final touches with Minerva

During spring I plan to plant red poppies at her feet so in summer she will really be on show. 

Its been seven days now

And whole foods all the way. No dairy, eggs, fish, animal or bird products have passed my lips. No salt, no white flour or white sugar either. How about that! What have I noticed? Several things;

·      I am really enjoying this new way of eating

·      I have 0.5 kg lighter. Unintentional but good

·      I feel good and have lots of energy

·      I don’t have cravings and don’t feel hungry

·      I am liking eating Iranian and Turkish foods and am loving finding recipes

·      I am beginning to get a handle on the different food groups and how they go together nutritionally

·      I am enjoying black coffee!!! After being a dedicated latte drinker for many years

·      I am drinking less wine and less often

I am trawling whole food websites and collecting whole food recipes of things I am looking forward to making, and eating. This weekend I am trying a roasted tomato soup recipe Maddy had published in the Nelson Leader; go Maddy http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/communities/9849151/Make-the-most-of-tomatoes

I think I am becoming food obsessed.

View from the cottage door

Friday night at the farm. We arrived a little later than usual this evening (6.30pm) to a beautiful still clear light autumn evening. All our hard work of the past seven years was on display. Proud moment. Here, with pictures.

the vegetable garden

Produce from the garden

Dinner is to be couscous with roasted vegetables.

the bbq chef at work

Veges roasting in the bbq

the Kale and zucchini went in last

the chopped mandarin and mint (both from the garden) ready for the couscous. I toasted some almonds, stirring all the time. The turned the heat off and added the saltanas, to warm them.

Couscous ready to eat

The onion skins were all that was left!

The roasted vegetable

A still Wairarapa evening