frugal by choice

3 left over egg whites

3 dozen crunchy almond macaroons with amaretto

one $14 box of tomatoes

12 jars of tomato puree

1 large jar of dried tomatoes in olive oil

several glasses of tomato juice (a by product of preparing the tomatoes)
 served with chilli flakes, pepper, salt and worscestershire sauce

about 2 kilos of plums picked from an abandoned orchard and a few apples picked from trees growing by the side of the road

3 jars of plum/apple jelly

 plum 'ice cream' made by processing plum/apple pulp from jelly making
with a frozen banana and drizzled with honey

a quick sweet made with sweetened pureed plum/apple pulp and
 a vanilla egg custard with a sprinkle of cinnamon

tomato preserves..three ways..

i planted several roma tomato plants last year in anticipation of preserving my own tomatoes this year but all of my tomatoes, including the romas, failed to produce a decent crop..next spring i am going to plant  them in a southerly position where they will receive plenty of eastern and western sunshine but where they'll be protected from the dry, harsh northernly wind and sun..hopefully i will then be harvesting tomatoes again..my northerly garden seems to produce great winter vegetables but it's just far too hot for many summer vegetables..

so, because i haven't had my own and since i've wanted to do some preserving, i've bought tomatoes for that purpose..32 kilos to be exact..and i've made three styles of preserved tomatoes..

1.

16 bottles of fowler's vacola tomato puree preserves-i wanted to do more today but it's predicted to be 38 deg c here today and so i will do more next week when it's cooler

dehydrating tomatoes

2.

semi dried tomatoes with garlic slivers, parsley, olive oil and salt-these tomatoes require refrigeration and will only last a week

3.

fully dehydrated tomatoes with added home grown chilli flakes
 and covered in extra virgin olive oil-no refrigeration required

i'm doing another batch of fully dried tomatoes today and so because they take at least 18 hours to dry i'd better get going..

happy weekend everyone..x

a culinary day in honour of my mother..

when i was planning my garden after i moved into my new house 3 years ago i decided to plant productive trees only..but i decided on those trees where the fruit is not readily available in the shops..among the trees i planted were a pomegranate, a cumquat, a feijoa, an elderberry and a crabapple..

in those 3 years my dear little crabapple, 'malus gorgeous', has battled through 2 years of drought..with the temperature reaching 48 deg centigrade on the 7th feb 2008..

it was on this day that i had organised my mother's 80th birthday celebration at one of her favourite restaurants with family and friends in the dandenongs (a range of low mountains about an hour from the centre of melbourne)..while we were celebrating we were aware of bushfires because we could see smoke in the distance but we were unaware just how serious the fires were..we only learned when we arrived home and heard the devastating news that whole townships had been completely razed by bushfire and that many people had tragically lost their lives..

this winter has been kinder to victoria because we have had quite a lot of rain..and for the first time i have had a crop, albeit very small, of crabapples..i left them to sit on the tree for months to enjoy the little ruby jewels but today i picked them in order to make a small jar of crab apple jelly..i did so because i wanted to have a culinary day that reflected some of foodie things that i associate with my mother who died 2 years ago today (five months after her birthday)..

crabapple recipe

i washed the crabapples, removed the stalks, and placed them in a saucepan with water and the juice of half of a lemon just to cover and cooked them until they were quite soft..the pulp was strained, without squeezing, through 4 layers of muslin..the resulting juice was measured and placed back in a saucepan with an equal amount of sugar and heated until the sugar dissolved..it was then boiled until it set which occurred within 5 minutes of it boiling..then it was poured into a sterilized jar and sealed.. 

ruby jewels from 'gorgeous'

'gorgeous'  pink crabapple juice

crabapple juice and sugar

'gorgeous' ruby jelly

the violets i now have growing with exhuberant fecundity in my garden come from my mother's garden..and today i made candied violets as another culinary journey in honour of my mother..

candied violet recipe

i picked the violets early and tied them into a bunch to facilitate washing them (much easier than trying to wash them untied) and then i cut the heads from the stalks..i then put them into my dehydrator on 35 deg c for 2 hours..once they were dry, using tweezers, i dipped each violet into beaten egg white and then into castor sugar..i then put them on a fresh plate of castor sugar to dry..

fuzzy violets

a lovely bunch of violets

washed and drying violets

violets in dehydrator

and they actually are purple still!

sourdough loaf number 2

and while i was making the jelly and the violets i made sourdough loaf number 2 from my sourdough starter..it's an improvement on the first loaf..and it goes really well with the crabapple jelly..yum..

sourdough loaf no 2 from sourdough starter

and by the way those violets are going to adorn some cupcakes i plan to make in a few weeks time for a going away party i am hosting for a family member..jane