Long Weekend

Twas good to have a long weekend!! We kicked it off Friday night by having my brother and his wife over for a barbecue. We used our new Weber for the 2nd time. It was trial and error but it all tasted pretty good.

We enjoyed gourmet sausages from our local 'prize winning' butcher along with some of my rissoles.
It was a beautiful evening. This was the coolest spot to be and so we had a great time.

On Saturday morning the 4 of us drive out of town to my brothers orchard. We wore closed in footwear (2 of us in gumboots) as there is always the possibility of seeing a snake. Thankfully we saw no snakes (mind you, we sang, stomped etc) but we all had a great time picking some yummy fresh produce.

One of us found this tree of Cape Gooseberries. At first we did not know what it was. We tried one and it was very tasty and after 'googleling' we were all the more wiser. It is an easy shrub to grow and bears fruit in 6 months. The fruit is used for snacking, pies or jams. We chose to make a pie out of them.

One of my favourites, blackberries, and they were everywhere! We might have wore closed in footing but most of us had bare arms and so after picking a nice amount there was also quite a few scratches to go with them.

Last night we enjoyed a yummy blackberry sponge with fresh cream.

(plenty of leftovers!) I cooked it differently this time. Normally I make my sponge and pop it on cold fruit. I found a recipe that said to make sure the sponge was put on hot fruit otherwise the sponge would not rise. I think I need to try again. In the past I know the sponge take 2-3 times longer to cook but this one the sponge seemed to sink into the berries. But it was yummy all the same. The berries are so sweet and juicy.

My brother brought a crayfish for me which he had caught and cooked a few days ago. I made it up into a curry and served it on rice. It immediately got the '3 tick score' from all the family and so I share the recipe with you below.

Fish Curry

 

30g butter

1 onion, diced

3 ts curry powder

2 teaspoons chicken or vegetable stock powder (I used TM Veggie concentrate)

3 cups milk

2 teaspoons smooth-textured chutney (I used my hm Plum Sauce)

2 Tb cornflour mixed to a paste with bit of milk

3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup each of frozen peas and corn cooked in microwave

400g cooked fish, cubed

 

Melt butter in saucepan and fry onion until transparent. Add curry and stock. Cook for 1 minute. Add the milk and bring to the boil. Thicken by stirring in the cornflour paste, then mix is chutney and grated cheese. Add the fish and vegetables and heat through.

Serve with rice.

 



And there were numerous apple trees. The apples at the back with the bit of red on them are delicous eating apples. We don't know there name. The other apples here are golden delicous and granny smith.

My hubby is amused with all the fresh produce lying around the kitchen. What to do with it all!!!
Over the next few blogs I will share what I have been up to and share some recipes with you.

I am having lots of fun....Dot

Take a lesson from the ant...learn from their ways and become wise! They labor hard all summer gathering food for winter (Proverbs 6)