End Of The Summer Season

In New Zealand the seasons change on the first of the month, as opposed to the solstices or equinoxes, so we've been ensconced in autumn for a month now.  Aside from the calendar heralding the change of seasons, the weather has also let us know (in no uncertain terms) that summer's over... but further to that, the summer produce is definitely done.

First - the watermelon:

Check out my melon baby... kind of wish I had another one, so I could do a real classy melon shot!  Please excuse the crazy eyes and the teeth I've bared - I think I was a bit tired and disheveled from gardening.

Unfortunately, when I cut it, it was a bit anemic inside - a light pink instead of a beautiful juicy watermelon colour.  That hasn't stopped me from eating it - tastes alright.

Today my dinner was provided to me, courtesy of our garden.  I didn't feel like anything fancy, but everything just seemed to fall into place this evening.  The BEST thing is that this meal was delicious and relatively low in Weight Watchers ProPoints!

First, I whipped up some pesto, using some sad basil from the garden.  It's nearing the end of heat-loving-basil-growing season and my basil got blown over during a storm a while back, so it's a bit worse for wear, so I figured I needed to use it up quick smart.  I used the same recipe as I have before, except I was lazy and didn't toast the pine nuts.  It still tasted fabulous.

I had to fight some yucky snails for the last of my basil leaves.  I've still got a bit out there that I need to harvest.

My plan was to make a pesto cream sauce (I made one last week with some Philadelphia Cream for Cooking.)  It was lovely, but a touch bland... I was planning to give it another go, but to make the odd improvement. 

Then I looked at my veggies I gathered from the garden and hemmed and hawed for a while.

I chopped up the capsicum and when I tasted it, it felt like the bits exploded with flavour in my mouth!  I think I even did a little happy dance.

I decided I wasn't in a pasta mood, so I cooked up some quinoa.  We had it in the cupboard and both Phill and I weren't wild about it when we tried it - we found it far too bland to enjoy.  I have been convinced that I could find something that would work with it though.

So I chopped up the beans (after stringing them) and threw them in a pot with the silverbeet and a little bit of water so they could cook a tiny bit (about 10 min.)  I diced the capsicum and tomato and set them aside for later.  Once the quinoa was cooked I stirred in about 4 tablespoons of pesto, the cooked beans and silverbeet.  I spooned the mixture on a plate and sprinkled the diced capsicum and tomato over top of the warm quinoa and veggies.  The veggies are all 0 points, so all the points come from the quinoa and pesto - for the amount I used, it was around 7 ProPoints all together, but you could easily reduce the number of points by using a bit less pesto. 

I'm going to go right ahead and say it - it was AMAZING.  If I wasn't trying to practise some sort of portion control, I would have eaten another plateful!!  The remaining pesto is going to be frozen in the ice cube tray so I can enjoy the taste of summer in a few months' time.

Phill even liked it (he really didn't like quinoa when we had it) - I do attribute it to my heavy hand with the pesto.  To be honest, it had so much of it because my ice cube tray was full and I didn't want to sterilize a bottle to save a tablespoon's worth of pesto. 

We both agreed that a bit of chicken (cooked with a lot of garlic) would have made this amazing dish extraordinary.  Ooooh - maybe a bit of grated parmesan too?

Next time!

The Tomatoes Will Not Win!

You'd think, as a lover of tomatoes, the sight of them wouldn't really reduce me to near tears.  After gazing forlornly at the mountains of tomatoes in the kitchen yesterday, I decided to take action.

After making a lovely dinner (of course) I made another batch of oven roasted pasta sauce (not as good as last time - too much Worcester Sauce this time) and I decided to tackle some Tomato Chilli Jam.

A friend mentioned that it's quite lovely, so I thought I'd give it a go.  I'm pleased to report that my jam set beautifully this time!  I'll be bringing a jar of jam for my friend who suggested it... hopefully she'll like it!

Ingredients:

• 500 g tomatoes - peeled (blanched for a minute and then remove skins) and roughly chopped
• 250 g jam sugar (regular white sugar is fine too, but the jam sugar has setting agents in it)
• juice of 1 lemon (I used 4 tbsp lemon juice)
• 1 tsp mixed dried herbs
• 1 tsp chilli flakes.

Put all ingredients except sugar in a heavy based saucepan and boil on medium-low heat until the tomatoes are mushy (about 8 minutes.)

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. 

 Increase heat to medium high and bring to a rolling boil until thickened and glossy.

 Do the 'jam set test.'  While you test, remove the pot from the heat.  If you run your finger through and it makes a channel without running back together (as in the lower right hand corner of the picture) it's ready.  Phill's mum suggested that I put the plate in the freezer to help with the testing.  Happy to say it was indeed helpful.

Funnel/ladle into sterilized jars and seal.  I don't have any lids for these, but the jam jar covers from Pak'n'Save work a treat!

Good on poached eggs, chicken and assorted meats.  Keeps for 6 months if stored in a cool dark place.  Refrigerate after opening.  Easy peasy!  It took about 45 minutes all up... I'll be making this one again.

Updates

picture source

 Short & to the point...

1.  The red tomato chutney is even MORE amazing when made with half malt vinegar (instead of all white wine vinegar) and half brown sugar (instead of all caster sugar.)  I found this out because I had run out of white wine vinegar... a very worthwhile experiment!

2.  When making plum jam, do not pit and peel the plums.  Mum reckons that the pips have pectin and help with the setting.  Mine did not set well, but is delicious.  Only 7 1/2 more jars to go until it's all done.

3.  My oven roasted pasta sauce is FANTASTIC.  Highly recommended with a bit of mince (browned and drained of fat) and some veggies to bulk it up and served over simple pasta.  Can easily serve 4.