food ripe from my garden

winter in my vege garden – leeks

Leeks can wait all winter in the vege garden and be ready when you want them, but you need to time their sowing so they are big enough before growth slows in the really cold part of the winter. Then, along with carrots and celery (which you also might have managed to grow in time),…

the long pause – winter solstice

From our house, the sun used to rise out of the ocean, until all the trees down by the beach grew. Where it rises swings back and forth along the horizon like a slow pendulum as the year progresses. It pauses at the extreme south-eastern point of its swing in mid-summer, then reverses direction and…

Cauliflower cream cheesecake

Cauliflower cream cheesecake This is a savoury cheesecake that lets the delicate, sweet, slightly nutty flavour of cauliflower shine through. It is a centerpiece, not a side dish. Many cauliflower dishes incorporate strong flavours like anchovies and curry spices but for this I wanted to let the cauliflower shine. And it does. Ingredients 1 cauliflower,…

Red cabbage and soba noodles with white miso dressing

This is something I come back to over and over. It is super fast to make and is more like a warm salad than a stir-fry as the finely sliced vegetables are cooked in the residual heat of the hot noodles. You can make it with any seasonal vegetables (below are photos of two versions,…

Purple cauliflower, tahini dressing

In this flavourful winter salad, I experimented with keeping the purple pigments intact. If you boil a purple cauliflower it will turn bright green. I read that cooking without water, instead tossing in olive oil and gently sautéing or roasting, will keep the purple pigments from leeching out. It kind of worked. The cauli wasn’t…

winter in my garden- red cabbage and purple cauliflowers

Today the winter sun is shining on the red cabbages. They are resplendent in their hues of red, blue, and purple. The sun, shining through the drab outer leaves, lights up an intricate network of red veins threading throughout. The colour of red cabbages varies according to the Ph level of the soil they are grown…

This is why I grow parsnips

Carrot and parsnip mash Called a ‘bowl of sunshine’ in Ireland, this is truly the only reason I grow parsnips. An inexplicable alchemy happens with the carrot and parsnip (and butter don’t forget…quite a lot of it) combo and it ends up tasting like neither, instead it just tastes like …well… a bowl of sunshine….

Winter wildgreens pasta

This is the kind of peasant food that reminds us we do not need to fill a trolley at the supermarket to eat something delicious, nourishing and sustaining. This is made from wild foraged greens, a couple of eggs and some flour, and it made us a huge lunch. I collected a variety of greens…

Slaw

Anglicised from the Dutch word koolsla (cabbage salad), Cole Slaw is, at its simplest, a salad of finely shredded cabbage mixed with a dressing, either creamy mayo based or a vinaigrette. Cabbage salad has been prepared in eastern Europe for centuries – krautsalat in Germany, капуста провансаль or kapusta provansa in Russia, and surówka z kapusty…

the winter garden – kohlrabi

There is no evidence of any magical properties for this sturdy eastern European vegetable, but plenty for its benefits to your health. Popular in German speaking countries (kohl/cabbage-rube/turnip), including American states with German populations, this brassica has also made its way to India and south east Asia. Kohl rabi is eaten both raw in salads…