Two different meals

So it has been a while since the last post but this doesn't mean things haven't been happening; I have just been doing different things.

The blog post today is split into two parts, based around me eating two different meals components of which I have grown myself.

First of all, a lunch... cheese and tomato butties.

Four slightly over-ripe tomatoes freshly plucked from the plant in the front room.

Fresh barms with cheese on and the tomatoes as in previous picture, just gratuitously really.

Sliced and placed on the barm and ready for squashing and taking to work.

It's great making your own butties, but particularly good when they are made with things you have grown yourself. One day maybe it'll be my own bread and cheese too.

So that is part one, the second part is slightly more involved as today I cooked a meal and it was a great success and so I am going to try and record exactly how I did it for posterity. I only took pictures of the elements involving my own produce, unfortunately, but the processes are not complicated so if you want to try this for yourself, go for it.

So, the reason behind my cooking was to harvest and start eating the last of the potatoes in the yard.

The bag with the Rocket Potatoes in, ready for harvest.

I do love harvesting Potatoes the way I do it, which involves digging my hands into the soil and feel for tatties; these came out particularly well so I took a picture.

My harvest wasn't as good of these as of the last type I pulled up, but still I had more than enough for this meal, and will be finishing them off tomorrow I reckon.

I am cooking Rosties Hasselbacks (whoops misnamed) with the potatoes; something I picked up on my most recent trip to Bulgaria. You have to slice the Potatoes most of the way through but leave them attached at the base. Slice them as thinly as you can, but be careful not to separate any of the leaves. They should be raw, and definitely NOT par-boiled..

While I was slicing them Potatoes I had poured a generous amount of oil into a roasting dish and added a large nob of butter, and then put them in at about 200 degrees C to start melting. This pan is too large for the four potatoes I am cooking; Ideally the potatoes should be sitting deeply in the fat and butter however I didn't have the correct pan. The area which is covered with oil is probably too large already so use the smallest deep pan you have.

Here I have added the Potatoes to the not-very-hot yet pan. The process here is to keep basting the potatoes using a large spoon every five minutes or so. I also gave them a short turn standing on the sliced side but this was because the pan is bigger than I wanted so they were not as submerged in oil and melted butter as I wanted. These will not over cook so do not worry about starting them early; the longer they are in the better as they stay exceptionally moist, but then the tops crisp off nicely. Gorgeous.

Onto the other part of the meal, which I didn't photograph as I was only taking pictures for this blog and not a cooking one. My plan was a pork based oven bake type thing. First of all I chopped a large onion and started frying it in oil and some black pepper over quite a high flame and while this was sizzling (and being tossed every now and then) I took some strips of Pork Belly and sliced the strips into cubes. As soon as this was done I added the pork to the pan and fried them together. Finally I sliced half inch long sections from a "Chorizo Iberico" flavoured with smoked paprika and added these to the frying pan.

Next I took a leek and sliced this up into about inch long sections. I took a square casserole and separated the leek rings, spreading them evenly over the base, and sprinkled with a little olive oil. By this point the Pork was nicely browned off and I poured the lot over the top of the leek, making an even layer.

To add some interest I took a Crossley Special chili and sliced it carefully into rings and then scattered these equally over the hot Pork and Onion mix.

Finally I sliced a whole red pepper and placed the raw on top of the dish.

Once this was completed I sprinkled a tiny amount more olive oil over the lot and then put the casserole onto a shelf in the middle of the oven. During this process I was, of course, remembering to baste my Potatoes.

Similarly to the Potatoes, there is no real rush to remove this from the oven and you can cook it as fast or slow as you want; the Pork has been fried and everything else just needs heating or, if you leave it for about 25 mins like I did, it softens down nicely and everything is moist and lovely. You could probably leave it for even longer if you want.

The final element of my meal was the Cabbage and I had chosen a Savoy cabbage as I love the texture. Normally I would steam Cabbage but today I decided to fry it in butter. A generous amount of butter (about the same as I put in with the tattiees) was dropped in the frying pan which I had used to do the meat earlier (less washing up, and a chance to recover the last of the flavour burned into the pan) and the Cabbage was added before it melted. Pretty quickly this was sizzling away very nicely and then I had a brainwave.

Bacon bits!

With a rush I cut one rasher of bacon into bits, put the heat on really high under another frying pan and crisped them off before adding to the Cabbage.

Serving time was dictated by said Cabbage and about 2 minutes or so later I turned all the heat off and plated up.

It does not look the most elegant meal but it was amazingly tasty and this is proven by the fact that we both polished it off with no left overs at all.

So there you are, not just a gardener :)

If you try this, please let me know what you think.

Cheers

Ghost Chili etc

The past couple of weeks have definitely revolved around the Ghost Chili and therefore it is fitting that I am able to write an update starting off with this excellent plant.

My friend (he after whom the Crossley Special Chili is named, and who gave me the seeds for my attempt at growing some) invited me for dinner last week to have an excellent pasta dish cooked with the Ghost Chilis. It was epic and really highlighted why these are Chili plants which you should grow; undoubtedly they are very hot but this heat has an amazing flavour and, while you are crying, you are also making appreciative sounds because of their flavour. He was also nice enough to gift me a couple of whole chilis from his glut and we had half of one of these in an excellent tuna and rice dish with the same results; sweat and pleasure from the taste.

So my advice is; grow some yourself but if you are, remember to keep them in larger pots than you would have thought as they get dwarfed very easily if you don't pot them up early and often.

So, onto my update:

 The Ghost Chili plant has LOADS of flowers on it, and more coming all the time. I have just started manually moving the pollen around with an ear-bud and this does seem to be encouraging something more than just flowers...

... as you can see here. The red Chili appeared independently, but the (very blurry) green one at the front (and another couple) have all started since I went round with my promiscuous cotton bud.

Finally some delight from my Gardeners Delight Tomato, this is the only fruit I have achieved and it is slowly but surely ripening.

On the front room windowsill the Moneymaker Tomatoes are like a forest, and have a lot of fruit and still some flowers.

These ones are ripening nicely and will probably be put into a dish very soon.

Finally the aforementioned Crossley Special Chilis are still hanging onto their leaves (though they are dropping quite a lot now) but a couple of the plants have just got a new lease of life and put out LOADS more flowers. This is very strange as it is very late in the season. I reckon I will just keep watching these and looking after them and maybe I will get a late harvest.

So, that's that. No more pictures for today.

Keep growing.

Eating a Tomato

Today is a quick update as something exciting happened yesterday.

The first picked Tomato of the year (not that there are many others to pick) but this one smelled GORGEOUS and is lovely and shiny and red.

The home grown Tomato sitting on a gorgeous cheese toastie. It was absolutely lovely and tasted great, if it was a little sloppy.

So there you are, that was very exciting indeed.

For the progress report I have a couple of cool things to show you.

A load of Crossley Special Chillis. We have already started eating these and they are really nice; hot but tasty. Everything home grown always tastes better.

The Geranium flower pictured a week or so ago has now flowered fully, and another shoot has appeared next to it ready to flower in its own right.

So there you are, that is my update for today.

Keep growing.

Fruiting Progress

Well it's been longer than planned (as it normally is) since the last blog post but I am back for a short, but very sweet, update.

I will go straight to the pictures:

The Crossley Special Chillis, which have been fruiting spectacularly, have now started to ripen with many of them turning red. This one is a particularly interesting shape so I figured I'd take a picture.

The Moneymaker Tomatoes have started to develop some more fruit, these are tiny and towards the top of the plant.

The fruit which has been showing on the plant for longest is now starting to ripen too.

The larger of the two Geraniums has put up a stalk and I suddenly noticed, the other day, a flower has appeared at its tip. I am watching this now with interest.

The plant which is fairing best on the back windowsill is, unsurprisingly, the Mint. Mint plants like slightly shaded areas, and are also quite thirsty and what I am doing for this is obviously correct as it has flourished.

Last but not least the couple of herbs still on the kitchen window sill are surviving both the non-ideal location, and depredations caused by us eating them.

Anyway, that is the update for today; short but sweet I think you have to agree.

It is too hot for me to spend more time looking at a laptop in the evening.

Night

Different stages of the Chilli fruiting

I've had another few busy weeks so haven't had that much chance to do any updates on here however I have got round to taking some pictures for a series I have wanted to do.

My Crossley Special Chillis have been growing very well; probably the best of all (apart from the potatoes but that is for another update).

I now have Chilli fruits in all stages of growth so, for your delectation, here is a photo blog of that process:

This is a new flower starting to show on the Crossley Special Chilli plant.

Another flower but this one open and ready for insemination.

This flower has been fertilised and so the flower has gone brown and is dropping off, while the base of the flower is turning into a Chilli.

Here we have three Chillis growing showing that sometimes the dead flower stays attached to the bottom of the fruit.

Finally another more mature Chilli which has managed to grow down through the plastic ring used to stake the plant up.

So there you have it.

I have one other picture to show you, some good classic Tomato porn:

I now have two tomatoes on one of the Moneymaker's; you can see, similar to the Chillis, that the dead flower has stuck to the bottom of the fruit.

So, I do have LOADS of other things to update you on, like the potatoes have gone INSANE and grown huge (wish I had done the wooden planter design this year now but never mind... I'll not get as much crop as I could have done but it still proves last year was just bad luck) and I also have a tiny Gardeners Delight tomato plant (very late in the year now, I doubt I'll get much off of them).

Keep growing, and keep reading.

Cheers

Staking Up Chillis plus progress

I have been staring at the Crossley Special chillis for the last few weeks thinking they were getting close to requiring staking up so they don't fall over (and, as a side-thought also doing the same for the Moneymaker Tomato plants but I also need to pot them up and today I'm not doing that) and today I dragged myself into action to do this.

I've also got some good progress to report so I'll crack on with this update right away.

This is the first Crossley Special to receive the staking up treatment; those little plastic ties which I bought from Wilko's last year are really proving very useful and they are confirmed at the top of my "things you should buy that are really simple but really awesome".

Three of the Crossley Specials nicely staked and enjoying a rare glance of some sun.

Now some updates, starting with those self same Crossley Special Chillis

Every Crossley Special now has little flower pods starting to develop, this was the best picture I could get of one and I am very excited by this; it looks like they are going to be fruitful once again.

The first flower has opened on the Moneymaker Tomatoes and you can see that there are other flowers developing on this plant; this is actually the one which fell on the floor twice (as described earlier in the blog, regular readers will recognise) but it is the first to reach flower stage (though it is shorter than the other plant.

The late starting Gardeners Delight is now starting to really live up to its name and is developing fast. The other seed has not shown any progress at all yet though.

The other Moneymaker Tomato is very tall, but no flowers yet; I am thinking this could be because the other one has much more light, so this is trying to grow so it gets more. Maybe I will move this one onto a front wall window where the light is better and see if it gets stubbier, but with flowers.

The Geraniums have started showing some patterns on their leaves; I'm interested to see how these continue to change and develop over the next few weeks.

Very spikey Globe Artichoke leaves standing proud; this really is an incredible plant to watch grow and I can't wait to have a whole load of these plants. I am reading "The Self Sufficient Gardener" by John Seymour at the moment and these are apparently perennials which you can let settle over winter and will come back; sounds like my kind of plant.

Most excitingly (and once again proving that patience really does pay off) the other Globe Artichoke seedling looks like it is finally poking through! I will be keeping a very close eye on this.

A top down view of the stars of my previous blog, the poor little Birdseye Chillis. One thing however; can you spot what might be fresh growth on these little blighters.

I appear to be having 100% success so far with the Peppers; all the seedlings have now shown up for the party. I know this is very late to start these, but never mind. I'm still saving seeds from peppers I eat.

These are the seed grown Coriander looking very leggy and not very edible; I think these should have been put out into the garden ages ago; now they are busy producing seeds.

Finally for this update another shot of the Begonias growing in pots still on the spare room windowsill.

So there you have it; my most excitement is either the Tomato flower or the fact the second Globe Artichoke is finally starting to show green.

Keep growing, keep reading.

Cheers.

Chillis and Begonias amongst other things

Wow it has actually been a long time since my last post (for me during a growing season, that is). I have many reasons and excuses but the one I'm going to deploy is that there wasn't much to show you and just continually posting nearly identical pictures might be boring you....

.... so anyway, I am posting because the progress is significant enough to show, even if I haven't actually done anything since the last post; this weather really is screwing with my planting schedules. I haven't even put the potatoes out yet!

However, as I have said, there is progress for you and I will not delay any more.

The Mint plant is a little smaller than it was last time you saw; this is because Sassy the rabbit got out and onto the window sill and ate half of it! It is still alive and is slowly getting back to growing again.

The Crossley Special Chillis are particularly enjoying being right in the front window which gets lots of sunlight and stays nice and warm through the day.

The two Ghost Chillis are fully established and, while they aren't growing upwards, they are looking very healthy and established with quite a good number of leaves.

By contrast the two Birdseye Chillis are not really established yet, both of them with only two first-leaves and still a bit spindly. I am keeping my eyes on these and checking them every day.

This is the Moneymaker Tomato which has now been on the floor twice (once my fault, once Sassy's) but as you can see it is still alive, still thriving and amazingly looks like it will become a healthy plant.

The other Moneymaker Tomato which is taller and more established than the one which has been on the floor twice, which is as you'd expect I suppose. Both of these plants are really proving the worth of the self-watering planters.

This is the first Carrot plant which has developed it's second leaf and this is now showing how a Carrot leaf looks; that very distinctive serrated edge.

The Parsnip box with several seedlings in it, though none are showing second leaves yet.

This is the smaller of the two Geranium seedlings and, as you can see, it has really started to get bigger and putting on more leaves. Very satisfying to see, and definitely one of my best successes so far this year.

This is the other big success of this year so far.... the single Globe Artichoke seedling which sprouted. It is now sat on a windowsill at the top of the stairs and is putting out it's third set of leaves.

The seed grown Coriander is sat on a front windowsill and gets so much sun I am having to water it twice a day, and every time I go to it the soil is dry again. The left most plant has slightly yellowed leaves but all the others are looking very healthy and happy.

This is the most exciting of the news I have for you in the blog, however. This is one of the Begonia tubers with a sprout showing. Three of the four other tubers have also got some sprouts showing. I am very pleased that these appear to be have settled in and are growing now.

The egg shells with the chitting Potatoes in them; it is too cold for me to plant these (and I have not done the threatened photo-diary of chitting progress you will be happy to hear) so they will stay like this for another week or so before the spring finally springs and I feel happy to put them outside.

Talking of going outside, I've got pictures of my early plantings and, really, evidence that planting so early really hasn't worked for me. Where I was hoping to get an early harvest, it does just look like they showed green and then stopped growing full stop. This is the Lettuce and you could  be forgiven for saying "what Lettuce I don't see anything?"

Even worse, though, is the Onion which is almost invisible among the mold and left-over hay from my aborted attempt to protect from the snow.

Last but not least the Broccoli are still looking the most established but are also struggling a touch to put on a growth spurt as the spring is delayed.

Anyway, there you have it; a much delayed progress report but as you can see anything in the mean time would not really have been that exciting.

Here's to spring arriving and me being able to actually do some more planting and try some more stuff out.

Cheers