Monday 16 March 2015

Busy in the kitchen

Hello, how are you?  I can hear the sigh of relief in the northern hemisphere from all the peeps who are longing for spring and warmer days.  I know it doesn't really warm up for a bit but I hope the appearance of bulbs poking out of the ground, the lengthening of days and a little sunshine here and there is cheering you up.  I'm not ready for autumn yet let alone winter as we had far too many grey cool days this summer in Melbourne.  Over in the west on the farm they are longing for cooler days after a long hot summer.  I guess the challenge is finding lovely things in all the seasons and making the most of it.

So late February is when the tomatoes start to ripen nicely and then we have to find different ways to use them before they spoil.  I've already posted about oven dried tomatoes here and have made another batch since.  I've also made some tomato chutney and used the few dodgy apples from the tree in the back yard that the parrots didn't get to.
 
 

Chutney cooking up nicely.





 This is cherry tomato tart we had for dinner one evening.  Delicious.


Hubby and I visited a farmers market recently and bought a couple of kilos of blood plums, my absolute favourite plums.   I used some of them to make this upside down cake.  Recipe can be found
here.


With yet more tomatoes ripening in the garden, a mix of cherry and grosse lisse, the making of tomato sauce/ketchup was next on the agenda.  I used the recipe found here
a slightly corrupted version using red onions (all I had to hand), balsamic and apple cider vinegars and brown sugar.  It was quite a process and you need a good three hours to make it but it is SO worth the effort, the sauce tastes amazing.




After the sauce had finished cooking I blended it with a stick blender which reduced the amount of pulp after sieving.


All that remained after sieving and that went into the compost.


The finished product.


 Hubby and I are off over to Western Australia next weekend for two weeks to visit Mum and for hubby, my brother and his mate to go on a fishing holiday for a week down to the south west coast.  On our return we will have some exciting news to share but until then I just have to be patient.

Anne xx

5 comments:

  1. Enjoy your trip Anne and I'm looking forward to your news!

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  2. You really have been very busy. I don't know what looks the most tasty, there's so much to choose from! The chutney and sauce does sound rather special though. Enjoy your trip xx

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  3. I hope you have a lovely time away. I'll look forward to your exciting news after this teaser!

    Also, re the comment you left on one of my most recent posts (a few weeks ago!) about the photos, you are welcome to paint any of the photos if you want to! If you'd like a larger version of any of them, just let me know :)

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  4. Your cooking all looks wonderful Anne! I bought a box of blood plums cheaply recently and cooked up some jam and some spicy plum sauce which were moderate successes. I think yours looks very tempting - and that cake!
    Of course now we are all dying to know your news. Have a lovely holiday. Hope it is not too hot in WA. We have 35 deg. predicted for later in week - wondering just when summer will end! cheers Wendy

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  5. I imagine that sauce tastes delicious. I hope you're having a great holiday Anne :)

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