Homemade Mango Chutney

We had a week away at my brother's place just after Christmas. It was a real change of scene. A six hour drive through the country to a fairly remote mountain top where he lives at a major astronomical observatory. We explored the place and some of the local sights, played with my small niece and nephew and did a lot of amazing eating! He is a great cook with a real passion for asian flavours and sauces. He inspired us with how much he makes from scratch and preserves in jars to stockpile. There's always something marinading, curing or pickling and a project on the way (a smoking box at the moment).
I'm sure you'll hear more from this adventure!


So,  energised from this trip we went to the produce markets on the weekend and went a little wild! Lots of fruit & veg, lots of plans!!

I tried to choose things we genuinely use a lot of that would save us time or money by stockpiling. We eat a lot of Mango Chutney. With all our curries, pappadums, vegie burgers, as a snack with greek yoghurt and naan bread and importantly, Eva likes it in school sandwiches - but she is fussy so we compared several recipes and jars of ones she likes, tasted spices and came up with our own recipe. And it's great - and importantly Eva thinks so too!

Eva's Mango Chutney.

Ingredients
1.8kg diced ripe mango flesh (this was about 12-14 mangoes)
600ml white wine vinegar
600g white sugar
30g grated fresh ginger
1 Tbspn salt
1 tspn brown mustard seeds
1 tspn curry powder
1 tspn mixed spice
1/2 tspn ground clove

Method
Place all ingredients into a large heavy based pan.
Bring to boil then turn down to a simmer.
Simmer for about 1.5hr until darkened and thickened and tasty.
You can cool a tiny amount in a small dish in the freezer if you want to check for thickness as you do for jams.

Makes about 2 litres - 6 good sized jars.


Nicola


PS Mia has written about a Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam she made on the same day at her blog - The little blue bicycle - if you'd like to read more ...

Pumpkin and Sweet Corn Frittata for a days sailing (in the rain)

In the dying days of the long summer holidays we were invited to join some friends on their yachting holiday for a day! We were to bring lunch (for 10), they took care of dinner.


We had eggs overflowing almost falling out of our refrigerator (from our reliable flock of 4 gorgeous chickens) so I decided to make a frittata.

I baked pumpkin, cooked sweet corn and chopped shallots and arranged them around my favourite frittata pan. (These were the vegies I had on hand - but many would work - we commonly use sweet potato or semi-dried tomato, sometimes caramelised onion, fried mushrooms, char-grilled zuchini or eggplant, basil. Meat eaters could add ham also.)

I topped it with some of my homemade ricotta (but you could use any almost any cheese here)


I cracked 12 eggs and whisked them with a little milk, salt and pepper and poured if over the vegetables. (I sometimes use cream but I didn't have any on hand)

I baked it for about 45 minutes on 180C. (I would have preferred on hour at 160C but was sharing the oven with Ian's sourdoughs.)

We served it with a green salad and a grainy sourdough Ian had baked. It was all eaten and enjoyed.

Ian's batch of sourdoughs - we took the large one on the left.

The day, sadly, rained heavily from beginning to end!! What happened to Sydney's summer!!! But it didn't stop lots of swimming, dam building, sailing, rides on the doughnut of the back of the boat, much fun and of course much eating!

Nicola

Iced Tea

I was at a café the other day, craving iced tea. But it’s like $4.00 dollars for a really small bottle so I had something else instead.

And in my iced tea craving that followed, it occurred to me that iced tea is pretty much just tea and sugar, plus maybe a bit of flavouring.

So how the heck can shops get away with charging $4.00!!!!!!!!!

I’d made iced tea before, but only ever  lemon, but suddenly I realized how easy it would be to make it peach flavoured! (or any other flavor for that matter)!

And it was really yummy! And just like the stuff you get at the shops! Plus it probably cost less than a dollar to make the whole jug!

I used this fruity T2 tea (Strawberries and Cream), which gave it a lighter, sweeter taste, but you could use any black, green or herbal tea of your choosing.

 Basic Iced Tea Recipe

1 Tbsp Loose leaf tea or 1 tea bag of your choosing

1 and a ½ Tbsp Sugar

1 litre of boiling water

Put the teabags in a large jug (if using loose leaf be sure to put it in an infuser). Pour over the water and allow to infuse for five minutes, or until your tea is stronger than you wuld drink hot. Stir in the sugar until dissolved, and allow to cool before putting it in the fridge to cool completely. 

Variations:

-       Peach flavor

Add 2 peeled, diced peaches to the jug with the teabags, before adding the water. Either remove it before serving or serve it in the tea.

-       Lemon Flavour

Add a tablespoon of lemon juice (or to taste) to the tea when you add the water. You may choose to add more sugar for a sweeter tea.

Mia