Sometimes I just get excited about food and feel the need to share... I think a big part of reconnecting to your food is taking time to really work with your ingredients. Although none of the ingredients here were local except the garlic, bay leaf, and carrot, I spent the time nourishing myself–a totally worthwhile endeavour. And should totally happen, wherever your ingredients are from.
I started by dry frying the crushed spices-cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, coriander seed, fenugreek, and peppercorns.
When the smell seeded almost too much to handle, I cranked the love up to 11 and added fresh garlic and ginger to the mix.
I then added the bottle of passata, coconut milk, bay leaf, curry leaf, and vegetables (sweet potato, onion, and purple carrot) and let it simmer until the veggies were soft (around 40 mins).
Beauty! Savour spices in their whole form–it elevates basic ingredients to heavenly heights!
When your potato stalks start to die, you know it's time to harvest! I took my makeshift potato bags and tipped them over, throwing the stalks into the compost as "browns" and dig some digging for spuds! Such fun and so easy! The soil wasn't great so there weren't too many but man, am I ever excited to eat them!
This is why dill spreads so fast.... 1 seed grows into one plant that makes this many seeds! When the seed pods turn black like this, you can save the seeds before it spreads across your garden. Or let it spread! There is worse things than a garden full of dill!
With the last of my plots bush beans and the first of the cucumber glut, I decided to try fermenting again. I pulled some dill weed from my garden, and put in it a hot water washed jar with 1/2 cup of pickling salt and some hot pepper flakes. The cucumbers I put into the jar with the salt, a few peppercorns, and more dill weed. I filled both jars with tap water, ensuring the vegetables were covered, and then put a piece of parchment paper over top with an elastic to let it breathe a bit, but to keep the bugs out. Let's see how these go! The cabbage and garlic scapes are delectable!!
Serve that with delicious locally made red pepper and garlic jelly on cream cheese on top of Molly B Gluten's locally made pumpernickel bread and farmers market breakfast sausages with a beautiful cup of tea–golden! This is how I keep myself centred–a leisurely breakfast of beautiful food on the porch in the morning :)
