Ingredients

500gms lean beef mince: (you can use chicken mince here as an alternative, but just make sure you add chicken stock);
1 brown onion (Diced finely) (G)

1 clove garlic, crushed & chopped finely (G)
1 carrot, quarter and diced (G)
1 stick of celery finely sliced (G)
1 tspn celery seed
1-2 tblspns of Worcestershire sauce
1-2 tbspns of tomatoe paste
1-2 tspsn of Dijon mustard
1 bay leave
2 cups of beef stock (NB: chicken stock if you are using chicken mince)
2 corn cobs (tin corn or frozen corn)(G) or other vegetables 1-2 marinated mushrooms, finely diced here, works terrifically.

4-5 potatoes
250mls milk (can be soy or rice if needed)

Method

Roast Mash Potatoes

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsiu;(P)
2. Line an oven tray with coarse salt and place the potatoes on top of the salt;(K)
3. Roast until tender;
4. With   a clean tea towel, remove the potatoes flesh from the skin and place it into a saucepan of hot milk (soy or rice milk if intolerant to dairy);(P)
5. Mash until smooth(K)
6. Add a nob of butter (or Nuttlex), salt and pepper to season;(K)

This can be made ahead of time or during seasonal months and refrigerated until needed or frozen until ready to make the pie.

Filling

1. Heat oil in pan (P);
   
2. Add onion and fry until transparent (P);
3. Add your Garlic & celery seed (P);
4. Add diced carrot and celery and fry until softened;
5. Fry your tomato paste;
   
6. Quickly add your meat and fry until brown;
7. Season the meat whilst brown with Salt n’ pepper and the Worcestershire sauce & Dijon mustard;
8. Add bay leaf;
9. Pour in your beef stock;
10. Add your vegetables, here you can add peas, corn, silver beet, spinach, tomatoes, 
11. Tin tomatoes (optional);
12. Simmer for 1 hour then add your gravy powder/corn starch to thicken.

Assembly

I usually make a pie crust of short crust pastry or sour cream pastry and blind bake it while you are doing the potatoes.   When this is ready your pour in your filling and then top with mash potatoes and grated tasty cheese.  However if you have gluten or wheat intolerance you will need to either not use pastry, which is still okay, but not quite as firm, or use a dairy and wheat alternative in the pastry.


Key:
G:   Fresh produce from your garden, harvest on the day of use if possible;
P:    Parent recommended technique
K:    Kids can help out here

Technorati Tags: cooking, garden, marinated mushrooms, Sheppard's pie

Ingredients

2 corn cobs (tin corn or frozen corn)(G)
2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 cup cooked tofu (you can use diced chicken fillets here instead)
1 cup broccoli floweretts (G)
1 clove garlic, crushed & chopped finely (G)
1 tspn chilli (or 1 fresh chilli from your garden) OPTIONAL NB: a lot of kids have a real aversion to chilli
2 cups of fresh silver beet or spinach (G)
1 tin water chestnuts
2 spring onions (G)
1 handful of freshly picked parsley (G)
handful of fresh chives (G)
3 farm fresh eggs
Soy sauce (tamari sauce if gluten and wheat intolerant), sesame oil

Method

1. Fry Tofu in hot oil until brown, move vigorously in wok so that it does not stew.  You may have to do this in small batches.(P)
2. In the last batch of chicken or tofu add the broccoli and one or two of the marinated mushrooms, sliced in to slices;  Remove& cool (P)
3. Pour the scrambled egg into the wok and fry with the wok chuck until only just cooked. (K)  The egg will appear quite runny still but will continue cooking once removed from the wok and then re added to the rice. Remove (P)
4. Heat a little more oil in the wok, add celery seed, garlic, and chilli.  NB: you will have to move quickly now to prevent the garlic/chilli/celery (GCC) from burning.(P)
5. Add your cooked rice and fry for 1-2 minutes;(P)
6. Add corn, water chestnuts;(P)
7. Add broccoli, chicken/tofu plus your silver beet or spinach; (P)
8. Finally add your spring onions, chives, a sprinkle of soy sauce & 1-2 droplets of sesame oil. (P)

Garnish with Fried shallots and serve immediately.


If you want that little bit extra protein, you can add some toasted sesame seeds and or toasted almonds to the mix.

Key:
G:    Fresh produce from your garden
P:    Parent technique recommended
K:    Kids can help out here



This recipe is so versatile, it can be adapted to be made suitable for vegetarians, gluten and wheat intolerance and if you have an egg intolerance, you can just omit it.  I have coded most of the cooking items as parent assisted ones here but I enlist the help from my kids.  I have taught them about heat and hot pans and I supervise them when cooking.  Kids love participating, but I recommend you apply the parental guidance you use in your own home.

Technorati Tags: corn, fried rice, Garden cooking, marinated mushrooms, silver beet

Garden Cooking Ingredients
500gms of Mushrooms (portabello, swiss brown)  Any mushies will suit this recipe (G);
2 cloves of garlic, (crushed) (G);
Olive Oil
Salt n’ Pepper to taste
Sprigs of Lemon thyme (G)  Home grown is the ONLY way with to use fresh herbs,  their flavor is incredible.

Garden Cooking Method
(K): Brush mushrooms with a clean tea towel to remove all the dirt.
(K): Place in a oven proof dish that has a fitting lid on it.  
(K): Place in the garlic (whole) and the sprigs of lemon thyme
(P): Drizzle the whole dish with good extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt n’ pepper.  
(P): Bake in a hot oven with the lid on for about 20-30 minutes or until the mushies have released their lovely mushie juice and have softened.   

Garden Cooking Tips:   Once cooked, the whole dish can be stored in the refridgerator, whizzed up in the food processor to make a mushie dip, or frozen for another dish another day.   I use these mushies in all sorts of disches like my Garden Cooking Fried Rice, Mushroom Risotto, Spinach, mushroom & lemon pasta,  or they are sooo good I even just serve them as an impressive, but simple, side dish to BBQ or other main meals. 

Gluten free, Dairy free & Suitable for vegetarians.

Key:

P = Parent reccommended technique.

K= Kids can help out here;

G= grown directly from your garden, harvest on the day of use if possible.

Ny.

Technorati Tags: Garlic, Lemon Thyme, Mushrooms, Onions

I have to tell you that cooking isn’t just something that came my way out of thin air.  No sir, cooking has been in my blood for generations.  In my life I have pursued other career alternatives but for some odd reason I just keep getting pulled back to food, but more importantly using garden cooking to ensure, explore and enhance the cooking in my kitchen.  Everything I do is food, I love to eat it, talk about it, read about it and most of all I love to learn about it.   You know I’m the kind of person who is just not satisfied with following a recipe.   Sure, I’ll  give a new recipe a go but if somewhere along the line I feel as though it needs a added flavor boost or a new dimension to give the dish an added extra “zing”, well then I’ll just add it in.   You know you can have just boring old risotto, but add some fresh silverbeet from your garden, some lemon thyme and some parsley and you’ll be a success in the kitchen.   Its about focusing on flavour and making the little adjustments along the way that give you that fantastic cooking result.

My mother, how is an avid recipe follower, thinks I’m crazy,  but she does love a lot of the garden cooking

I guess it all started out with my Nanna, my mother’s mother.   Apparently it was she who had a real flair, a real passion for cooking.    In those days, nothing was wasted so there was a big deal made about preserving food when it was in season, like tomatoes.  Making jam and marmalade was another big day for the family to participate in.  Not only did she pass a lot of techniques down to her children, but I think through her passion, her children developed their own passion for cooking.   My mother tells me that she remembers Nanna teaching them in the kitchen, involving them in nearly every  cooking preparation step along the way, so that while they were learning they were actually enjoying making things and taking a pride in the participation of the end result.    So my Nanna had three children, all three have this undoubted  passion for food and cooking.   

My mother, loves experimenting with new ingredients and new flavors  every weekend she’ll come up to me and show me something new she has discovered in the local newspaper or magazine that she is going to try out.   And she has never been afraid to give something a go.    She loves flavors and textures of food  and loves it when these two things work harmoniously together to form a fusion in your mouth.    Mum has always been keen on bottling the freshest produce as well, she is well known around my town and my friends for her home made tomatoe sauce.  On a hot day in the middle of summer, when the tomatoes are ripe and ready to preserve, you can walk down our street and smell the aroma of my mother cooking a  massive pot of bubbling tomatoes for her sauce.   The last time she did this, she set up a little wok burner on the back veranda and sat out in the morning sunshine cooking her tomato sauce away.   She did this not only to keep her kitchen cleaner, as the tomato sauce is known for bubbling quite a bit, as much as she did it to get away from the heat. 

But above and beyond all of that its my families influence on cooking, and their passion for garden cooking that has and still is being passed on through the generations now to my own children.  What a beautiful thing it is to see a young child and his grandmother, aunt, uncle or mother in the garden, tending to the fresh produce and harvesting it ready to use in a recipe.    My Son loved watching Nanna cook the tomato sauce so much so that he can’t wait for this years harvest, to make more.   Its just such a majical learning process involving your children in your garden cooking, they learn so much about harvesting, planting, feeding the garden and then cooking the produce while at the same time they are spending quality time with you.   Not to mention there is just nothing that beats the flavour, texture, taste, and nutritional content of vegetables from your own garden. s

Technorati Tags: Garden cooking

1 Red Capsicum (G)
2-3 Cloves of garlic(G)
100gms Feta cheese
2 tbspns Cottage Cheese
Juice of 1 lemon (G)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (the better quality) the cheekier the dip!

(K): Drizzle Capsicum & Garlic in good olive oil,  sea salt and cracked black pepper, and roast in hot oven (180degrees) until soft. 
(P): NB: the garlic will soften more quickly than the capsicum so be sure to take it out before the capsicum.  Take out the cooked capsicum and place in a plastic bag, seal it and place in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

(P): Remove the capsicum from the bag, at this stage it should look all soggy and soft.  Be sure not to let all of the lovely juices run out of the bag as they are the “zing” in the dip that makes it work.  

(P):  Gently peel off the outer skin from the capsicum, it should come away easily if the capsicum is ready.  Slice the capsicum in half, but don’t slice through the top. (This area as all the seeds attached to it and it is important not to slice through it or you will end up with seeds EVERYWHERE).   Put your thumb under the seed bulb and gently break it away from the flesh.    Using a sharp knife edge scrape along the inside of the flesh to remove any other scattered seeds from the flesh.   You can slice it up at this stage into thin strips ready for the blender.

(P): With the garlic, once cooled it should squeeze out of the husk quickly and easily.   

(P): Place all the other ingredients in blender, squeeze out the garlic, and then de-skin & de-seed the capsicum and add to blender.

(K): My kids love to turn on the blender once all the ingredients have been added.  I make sure that I am always beside them supervising when they do this.  Most food processors these days wont work unless there have been several steps taken to lock things into place to ensure the machine is safe to use.

(K): Chill & serve with floweretts of broccoli, celery or carrot,

NB:  You can spruse it up a bit with a sprinkle of  fresh parsley, fresh spinach or fresh coriander.(G)  A nice little lug of oil, flaxseed or olive oil wouldn’t go astray either in finishing.

TIPS:  Being efficient I normally roast a whole clove of Garlic at once.  This prevents it burning and you can always squeeze and freeze it  to use in other dishes.

Technorati Tags: broccoli, capsicum, carrots, celery, cooking, Garlic, lemons, vegetable

I just love cooking this recipe for my family.  Its so easy, I don’t have to think about it, it tastes great and my kids love harvesting alot the ingredients from the garden to use in garden cooking.

GARDEN  INGREDIENTS
500 gms Good quality lean Mincebeef
1 onion finely diced (G)
1 clove garlic, bruised, finely chopped (G)
2 handfulls of Spinach/Silverbeet roughly chopped (G)
1 tblspn extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Pecorino cheese finely grated
pinch salt to taste
pinch paprika (sweet is better)
2 pinches of dried oregano/basil/parsley.  If using fresh which is better flavor, you will need 1 handfull of each roughly torn.(G)

COOKING METHOD
(P):    Place all ingredients into large mixing bowl. 
(K):    Ask the kids (after washing their hands) to mix it all together with their hands.   Parent may need to superfvise kids here as the mixture needs to mixed until it all blends into a smooth paste.   You will need to “slap” the mixture into the bowl to ensure all of the proteins denature and help the mixture bind together in balls.  Slapping the mixture means grabbing a handful and whacking it back into the bowl.  My kids thought this was hilarious!
(K):    Make small balls of the mixture ready to drop into the fry pan

(P):    Heat a large fry pan with a little cooking oil of your choice, I always go for grapeseed oil.
(P):    Place meatballs in the fry pan, turn once or twice, cook until golden brown.


Cooks Tips:    Mixture is suitable for freezing either at the raw mixture stage or directly after the meatballs have been cooked.

Glueten Free, can be dairy free (just omit the cheese), Not suitable for vegetarians.

P:= Parent recommended technique
K:= Kids can help here.
G:= grown directly from your garden to use in your cooking, harvest the day of use if possible.

Technorati Tags: cooking, Gardening Kids, Garlic, Methods, Onion, Silverbeet, Spinach

Congratulations you found us!  This is so exciting,   I am so glad you have made it to the ultimate garden cooking website!   This site is designed to enable you to maximise the use of your fruit and vegetable growing so that you can use more of this home grown produce in your cooking.   There are so many good reasons for starting to incorporate this way of garden cooking in your lifestyle but probably the number one reason would have to be the rising cost of living.
Families, singles, couples people all over the world have noticed the rising cost of day to day living and by maximising your fresh produce from your own garden you are certainly going to save money on your home cooking.    Other benefits of learning how to get the most out of your garden are:

•    utilise the freshest produce during the season its available;
•    increase the spontaneity in your garden cooking so that you eliminate those mundane, worn-out recipes and introduce some exciting new flavours, textures to well love favourite vegetables/fruit;
•    keep your body healthy by eating  the freshest produce thereby maximising the most available vitamin and mineral source;
•    teach yourself, your friends and family more about growing fruit and vegetables, composting, garden cooking.
So have a lot of fun and I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Ny.

Technorati Tags: cooking, garden, vegetables

1.  Pantry analysis – cooking

The first is to do a thorough analysis of your pantry.  Go through the categories of meals and for this I like to use a simple excel spreadsheet which list the days of the week on the “X”axis and the meals you eat in your house, on the “Y” axis.  Then conduct your research noting down the meals you have over the week to two week period.    It is important to put here as many ingredients in each cell that you use per meal so that you can incorportate and utilise herbs as well as other main garden fruit and vegetables.    
Once this has been done you can then go over your spreadsheet with a highlighter and mark the repetitive ingredients.    The patten will emerge,  you will see things that have been used over that two week period over and over.   My suggestion is that these are the items you should begin planting in your garden with the goal of achieving impressive garden cooking.

Technorati Tags: cooking, fruit, garden, pantry, vegetables