Sunny day in the garden

Yay! the sun came out so I was able to get out in to the garden and feel like I might be making some kind of progress out there. While, it still feels far too cold to be planting a lot of my seeds, I can't bear that the year is getting away from me - especially as the clocks change tonight. Despite the fact that I am sure that anything I plant in two or three weeks time will easily catch up with anything I planted today, I still wanted to feel like I might be on the way to some produce from the garden this summer.

I moved about a tonne of soil from a strange and rather random mound, where the small greenhouse is due to go, over to the raised beds in front of the big greenhouse. There are about four such mounds of soil in various places round the garden - its unclear why they are there or what they came from - but the ground needs to be flattened, and the beds need to be raised.

Into the bed on the left I've planted Sutherland Kale, San Marzano Turnip Broccoli, Touchstone Gold Beetroot, Dragon Purple Carrot, Triple Purple Orach, Red Flowered  Broad Bean and Martock Broad Beans.

I started to put up the pea netting on the bed on the right, and couldn't manage to get the canes into the ground beyond four inches - I found yet another set of paving slabs - what on earth were the previous owners doing? Fortunately there were only four of them and I was able to get them out very quickly.  Once the pea netting was in I planted Purple Podded Peas in the bed. This is a variety that grows to about 2 metres in height and I've had heavy yields in previous years so I've put tall poles in to try to maximise the yield.

I also planted more in the greenhouse - its so large I have a horrible feeling I am getting carried away planting things and won't have enough space in the garden when things have to be moved outside - but I'll deal with that when it arises. I've planted Asparagus Peas, Black Forest and Genovese Courgettes,  Mixed Squash Jaune de Poitou and Bleu de Solaise Leeks, Kailaan Chinese Stem Broccoli  and Giant Prague Celeriac.

Of the things I have planted in the greenhouse so far, only the peas have germinated - I don't blame the rest, its still far too cold for any plant to want to even venture out of the soil. Even the hop has not put up any shoots yet.

When clearing out the small greenhouse (moved from the old house and in the process of being erected) I found quite a few seed packets with a few seeds left over and some home-saved seeds as well. Rather than compost them I thought it would be worth seeing if any of them would germinate - so I've also planted a load of home-saved sunflowers and beans (dwarf, runner and french varieties) from 2011,  and some courgettes (lebanese, de nice, scallop, patty pan, black forest and golden zucchini), and dwarf purple and yellow climbing beans. I doubt any of them will grow but its worth a try - especially as the beans are all good tasting varieties.

Until then however I have to content myself with feeling that I am making progress, so a comparison between the garden when we first got started, and now is in order:

23rd February 2013

30th March 2013

Chilli and Chocolate Brownie Easter Cake

So its really just chocolate brownie...but in cake format with some added chilli! But chocolate brownies are always moister than a standard chocolate cake so it makes sense to make it in cake form, slather it with icing too - and piling on some mini eggs makes it a bit 'Easter-ish'.

200g chocolate
180g margarine
320g brown sugar
120g self raising flour
20g cocoa powder
1tbsp vanilla essence
3 medium size eggs
chilli oil

Melt the chocolate, then add the margarine and continue to heat until it's all melted. 
Mix in the sugar, then add the vanilla essence.
Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix
Add the eggs one at a time until the mixture is glossy and smooth, then add chilli oil to taste (just a slight hint of it is enough)
Put it into two 8inch baking tins
Cook for about 30 minutes at gas mark 3 - don't overcook as the edges go too hard - chocolate brownie is meant to be a bit gooey in the middle.

When the cake has cooled, sandwich the layers together with chocolate icing and then cover the top and side (I used a mix of margarine, cream cheese, icing sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla essence)

Adventures in cheesemaking (or not)

I'll start by admitting I haven't tried the cheese I made yet - it was sitting on the side in the kitchen in salty water looking at me accusingly waiting to be eaten and I bottled it and disappeared to the conservatory to write about the process of making it instead of being brave and eating it.

This cheesemaking is a result of re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' - in it she goes on a cheese making course and makes making mozzarella sound incredibly easy. I'm not so sure but am happy to have a few more practices this weekend (I have some basil and tomatoes ready and waiting)*
 
So, the process; get a gallon of cold milk, add some citric acid and then heat to 90F. I didn't have a gallon of milk - in any case it was an american gallon which is different from a UK gallon (apparently this was due to the shipping of whisky to the New World when it was first settled by Europeans - the gallons left here one size, and arrived on the other side of the pond somewhat smaller). Fortunately 4 pints of milk is sort of equivalent to two-thirds of an American gallon so I adjusted somewhat and carried on. I liberally added some citric acid (aka lemon juice - which is NOT recommended in some instructions I read) and started heating.

The milk with citric acid in it, and rennet just added

It was at this point I discovered my next problem - my very swish jam-making thermometer didn't in fact go down to 90F - in any case the numbers and graduations at the bottom were a bit washed off.... so it was all very hit and miss from then on

When it reached (an estimated) 90F I added rennet, stirred gently and then left it to sit for 5 minutes. Trouble is I forgot to turn the gas off so the temperature continued to rise. This was equivalent to doing a form of ultra high heat pasteurisation which may explain the non-mozzarella like consistency I ended up with finally - but I didn't realise that at this stage.

Formation of the curds is very apparent when cut up with a knife

What did happen though was a formation of curds as they separated from the whey - and it was of the right consistency as described in the instructions so I carried on blithely. After they have formed you cut them with a knife into 1 inch square chunks. You then begin to heat it all again to 105F.

Heating the curds and whey up to 105F and stirring - curds sinking to the bottom as more whey 'leaves' them

I did have 105F marked on the thermometer so felt I was getting back on track nicely. Trouble is the instructions said to stir gently - I did so and it seemed to break the curds up even more - in the picture accompanying the instructions though there appears to be no disturbance of the curds through stirring (is it better to follow written or pictoral instructions?)

I then put the curds into a colander using a slotted spoon - I got very excited at this stage as some of the curds seemed to pull and stretch just like the mozzarella instruction photos showed (but they were about 5 steps further along after numerous heatings in the microwave). I wish I had followed instict at that stage and not heated as much as the instructions said. But the aim is  to get the curds up to about 135F by heating for short bursts in the microwave and kneading between heatings to start it all stetching nicely.

I think I overdid it in the microwave (other distractions meant I wasn't properly paying attention and taking it out soon enough). I did lots of kneading and stretching but it had gone a little bit granular and not at all stretchy by this stage - signs of over-heating?

The finished product - it looks pretty much like mozzarella but not at all shiny on the outside. Sitting in salted water to improve flavour

However, I did finally manage to form it into a ball. Its not very shiny which the outer surface should be, and it certainly doesn't stretch in the way it is meant to - but I will eat it and see what it is like - and see whether it should even be called cheese?.  I will also try again over the weekend and see if instead of heating it in the microwave I can do it in boiling water which is the proper way - but painful!

The dogs loved drinking the whey although I kept a bit of that as I saw somewhere that you can make ricotta cheese using it - but I will try to get the mozzarella working properly first before I try anything else (but I feel goat milk and other cheesy variations calling already)

LUNCHTIME:

Basil, Mozzarella and Tomato salad

Taste good - but the texture is totally wrong; slightly granular and no stretch at all!

* The irony of this comment about tomatoes will not be wasted on anyone who has read the book - having tomatoes in March is exactly what the book is not about - it focuses on eating seasonal food that has been produced locally. While the tomatoes I have are from a local veg box scheme, the plants must have been heated to get them to produce fruit this early in the season so not very seasonal at all.