Mid-Winter Fresh Food

Every day as August come closer, I get a bit worried that the amount of vegetables that can be harvested from our garden decreases. Well, that would be expected its already middle of winter. Moreover, I sowed and transplanted cool season vegetables rather late this year compared to previous year. But we should count ourselves lucky as we still have fresh harvest flowing to the kitchen as we have not even rely on our frozen vegetables as yet. We still have peppers slowly ripening for us which is a nice treat. Little Rayyan broke one of our capsicum branches so we had to harvest 3 green capsicums. Cherry capsicum managed to mature, although it hardly received any suns at the moment. We got to harvest some sprouting broccoli too this week. There are still some yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Some of the greens that were harvested last week~Baby kailans, purple mustards, loose-leaf lettuce and self-sowed cos lettuce. I did not noticed at first that some of our garden containers had self-seeded lettuce seedlings popping out. I thought it was weed at first until those seedlings grow bigger. Harvested some tatsoi, but it look really bad almost bald without leaves. We inter-planted tatsoi with cauliflowers. Those cauliflowers were saved from having the same fate as tatsoi which has been sacrificed to pest.

I got some mandarin from my backyard neighbour who grows vegetables and have some olive trees in his garden. He makes his own olive oil and every fall I watched him gather olives with his family from inside the house. Sometime, if he is alone I worry he will fell down from the tree. I was surprised last week he invited me to see his garden. We are usually shy and won't go out to garden at the other side of our backyard if anyone is there. But I have overcome my shyness a little bit and greet him whenever he come to visit his garden.  When I visited his garden, he offered me some mandarin and at first I was too shy to accept. Since he insisted and I was curious (malu-malu kucing) how fresh mandarin tasted like, I took some back home. Those mandarin was so juicy. We harvested our last wong bok (Napa cabbage) that was grown in container last week.  It was about to bolt.

Visit Daphne for Harvest Monday.

What vegetables is popular in your kitchen at the moment?

Giant Purple Mustard and Wong Bok Week

Well the main harvest for last week as the tittle says are Giant Purple Mustard and Wong Bok. The not so pretty wong bok are going to bolt soon so we harvested most of them. We transplanted cauliflower seedlings on the area that were growing wong bok last weekend. Giant purple mustard inter-planted with potatoes were also harvested with many holes on the leaves. In they go into Rayyan's ikea baby bathtub for a good washing to get rid of pest and dirt. Not good plastic quality as you can see the tub already broken on the sides. We recycled the baby bathtub to wash vegetables outside which is easier than in the sink.

Some rainbow chard were harvested too last week.

We harvested some Kennebec potatoes and a leek sowed last winter.

Made beef curry and cook the newly harvested potato together.

Tossed some chilies in for a good sweat in this cold winter night.

Rayyan tongue was on fire since he insisted to have a taste despite several warnings.

We have many not good looking vegetables this week~deformed Afghanistan carrot thinnings, peas that did not grow the size of usual pod, and very short sweet corns because the plants were about 50cm tall. Unattractive they look but taste good. Considering that they still managed to give us something for the kitchen in middle of winter. One long pepper bell did managed to turn red this week. Snow peas, chillies and yellow cherry tomato are still plenty to harvest which is good for the kitchen supply and at least we have something other than mustard and wong bok for last week.

For Wendy Garden To Table Challenge for this week is Anchovies Fried Rice. Since our sweet corns were not many and we have 5 people in the house so that everyone can have a taste, the kernels were taken out from the cob and toss into the fried rice.It has been such a busy week that I think we had fried rice 3 times last week. Sorry my boys, at least it is not instant food. Nothing wasted in the kitchen, having left over rice from yesterday and chopped fresh vegetables for a quick hot meal came out from the wok.

Join in Harvest Monday with Daphne as our host.

So Ugly but So Sweet

The main reason I am not fond of growing wong bok in winter is that it is a place where baby snail and slugs make as their hiding place. It won't be easy to search each layer of wong bok compact leaves for them especially near the plant base as it grows bigger. I have always imagine that the wong bok we grown is the type which will form compact barrel head. Apparently after 3 seasons attempts at growing this variety it seems not so. 

The wong bok seeds that we have bought, sowed and nurtured usually just form a flat head. At early growth stages the leaves are very prickly. I am thinking that the wong bok seeds are not true type but has been hybridised with other varieties. We have already sowed it in different seasons but the results are always the same.

So many type of pests feasting on wong bok.

Only one plant managed to form a barrel shape but it is still loose not compact. I wanted to wait more but I saw sign that it is going to bolt soon. So this week, we planned to harvest all of them growing on this area. These wong bok has also look very ugly, badly eaten by the pest. Nobody wants to buy them if it is on the market rack.

Here how it actually looks before harvest.

Badly eaten by those pests. Nothing has been sprayed on the vegetables this winter.

You will find caterpillars, snail or slug each layer of the leaves. Not only that caterpillar poo too.

I had a difficult time washing them clean.

But throw them away we did not.

Our wong bok look disgustingly ugly but it was the sweetest wong bok we ever eaten in our life.

The true wong bok flavour we tasted not like the bland taste from the shops.

If your vegetables look like this, would you eat it or throw them away?

I wish I can make kimchi with our wong bok harvest.

But it has been such a busy month, I could not find the time yet.

I need a really simple recipe to make kimchi.

If the weather permits this weekend, those wong bok will be replaced with cauliflower seedlings.

White sweet potatoes and shoots with coconut milk dish

This winter we are growing many vegetables that are new to us and we don't have any idea on what best cooking method to prepare them. Any advise are most welcome and will be deeply appreciated. We harvested our first rainbow chard and baby beets (thinnings) last Monday. Both of these vegetables are new to us and will be our first tasting experience. There were 2 rainbow chards growing in the same pot, so I harvest one because it is getting crowded. Other vegetables that were harvested was tomatoes, giant purple mustards, snow peas, capsicums, chilies and corianders. Join in and see what other gardeners are harvesting all around the world in Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne.

Rainbow chards and other vegetables were chopped. They danced in the wok for the making of salted dried mackeral fried rice dish. We like rainbow chard and will plant some more again in spring. I still don't know what suitable dish for beetroot and how to prepare it since it really bleeds. Boiled those baby beetroots together with Rayyan's porridge. It was a really bloody dish especially after using the mixer to chopped them into pieces. We tasted Rayyan red porridge and it was sweet with beetroot blend together. 

We grow dill for the first time and I keep on forgetting that I planted them. Out of curiosity, Lenay keep on reminding me of those dills because we never used dill in our cooking before. So snipped some for the kitchen. We also harvested some baby leeks, capsicums and chilies last Saturday.

I was clearing up some containers and areas in the veggie patch. From that we got some onion leaves which did not bulb last year, ginger rhizomes and our last beans. Our wong bok were looking really bad with caterpillars and snail attack that we harvest some of it. It took a lot of washing to get rid of snail and slug hiding in between these wong bok leaves. We have not enjoyed any wong bok since last year and Lenay was really missing it. After she experience growing brassicas especially wong bok and cabbage and know they are so difficult to grow 100% organically due to pest, we keep on reminding each other never to buy brassicas again in the market. When we passed by organic market, we still see sign of minimal spray used on those cute cabbages. Ours might not be a beauty but at least it does not contain hazardous chemicals. Cut some of wong bok and onion leaves to make a vegetarian fried rice noodles for Saturday breakfast.

With the newly fresh harvested ginger and dill, I made stir-fried ginger chicken for Saturday dinner. Usually we used boneless chicken meat for this dish but they were only chicken wings in the freezer so we had to improvise.

Last weekend we harvested all of our daikons. The ones which is not forky or broken due to digging it out were shared with other generous gardeners. I did not preserved any daikons this time.  Hopefully there will be another empty space in our veggie patch this month to sow another small batch of daikon. We also harvested some chilies, peas and sweet potato shoots.

We harvested some white sweet potatoes this month and I wasn't sure how to prepare it since I never tasted one before. Cikmanggis my cooking guru gave me some nice tips. So with her help I cook the sweet potato and sweet potato shoots with coconut milk. In Malaysia, this kind of dish is commonly known as masak lemak putih.

Ingredients (this is roughly what I did)

White sweet potato (one bowl cut into chunks)

Sweet potato shoots (one bowl-washed)

4 medium size garfish (boil in 1 litre water with just a little bit of slice ginger, keep the boiled water)

Red onion/shallots (I used 1 Red onion)

Black pepper

150ml coconut milk

Salt

Take only the meat from the boiled fish and in a mortar mash it with red onion and black pepper.

Heat the boiled water again and add in coconut milk, the mashed fish with red onion and black pepper and white sweet potatoes. Frequent stirring.

When the sweet potato is almost tender, add sweet potato shoots and stir well. Add salt to taste. Done.

It was really delicious, I had many servings and I was a satisfied cat.This will be my comfort food. White sweet potato has the sweetness that I like and it is a bit starchy. It reminds me of young tapioca that I had in my childhood. Hopefully with our next white sweet potato if we have good harvest, I would like to try Cat-in-Sydney suggestion of making pengat (Malaysia traditional cake). But I need some lesson on how to make it. I think mama showed several time how to make banana pengat a long long time ago but I forgot. My knowledge in making traditional cake is very limited.

Join in Wendy's Garden To Table Challenge.

To differentiate sprouted Asian leaf vegetable (brassica)

Asian leaf vegetable seeds sowed outside in end of August has sprouted nicely with germination rate almost 100%. Before the first true leaves develop, the leaves shapes look similar between the Asian leaf vegetable (brassica) family. I would have trouble identifying which is which without labels. 

Mustard Spinach @ Komatsuna (小松菜):

Wong Bok (白菜):

Choy sum :

Cabbage ‘Red Choi’ F1 hybrid ~ The red hue will help to identify this veggie apart from the same close family:

  Hon tsai tai @ Purple flower choy sum ~ The purple stem will help to differentiate it from other close relatives:

Seed propagation:

• Evening sun sunflower (home save seed)
• Sunflower Mammoth (Eden seed)
• Pumpkin Golden Nugget (Eden seed)
• Sweetcorn Early Gem (Eden seed)
• Snake bean (home save seed)
• Okra ‘ Clemson Spineless’ (home save seed)

Disposed Wong Bok growing in compost

Wong Bok (白菜) planted in end summer and autumn this year in our place has all bolted. None of them produce compact heads. We just pulled them out from where they were growing to make some space for spring planting later.Then temporarily put them in polystyrene boxes for composting later. To our surprise those disposed wong boks are very determined to produced flower for reproduction purposes after being dumped.

Happily growing without any soil after being dumped in the polystyrene box. Can it be that moistures from amidst layers of dead leaves sustaining the wong bok .The reason it is able to be still growing and producing flowers.

We need a new strategy to grow Wong Bok. We will have a go with wong bok again this spring.

No beginner luck with Wong Bok (白菜)

I sowed Wong Bok seeds in March, April and May (autumn). Germination was near 100% and grow very fast. So I thought that it was a suitable time to grow wong bok. After 3 months our wong bok did not show any sign of leaves developing firm compact head but the leaves were  lying flat towards the ground. We even tie the leaves together to make it shape like a barrel. All of them bolted. We have about 5 plants left growing in the patch which has not flower yet but I reckon it will bolt too.

This one the flower parts has even turn white in colour. Ilhan insist he carry that one for me and could see that Wong bok has grown very big.Wong Bok not into the wok but for compost.

This is one busy caterpillar found hiding in Wong Bok. It is difficult to detect any pest among the Wong Bok leaves.

This chili plant has survive Adelaide winter and produce fruit through the whole cold season as well. This chili plant is snuggle between broccoli plant that protected it from the cold harsh wind and growing in the patch that received the most sunlight in the day.

Will try again this spring with wong bok….

Any tips growing them?

In the Saturday Morning Garden

 

Finally its weekend and I can spend more time to observe what is happening in the veggie patch now. Planning which patch will provide some space first for spring planting. Few more weeks we will wave goodbye to winter and here come spring.

I planted two varieties of cauliflower this year, all year round and snowball. Below are these two varieties growing beside each other and about another week both of them will be ready to be harvest. Left picture is All Year Round and we can see the head clearly. On the right is the snowball variety and the leaves are folding the cauliflower head hiding it. I won’t know that it has start to develop head unless I peek inside.

We harvested hon tsai tai or also known as ‘Purple-flowered Choy Sum’. The purple stem of this asian vegetable is not a common thing to see.

Pull out from the patch another 4 bolted wong bok. I reckon we had a total of 12 bolted Wong Bok already. We still have more than that number growing in the patch. Hope not all of them bolted. Looking at so many hole in the Wong Bok, we found snail and slug hiding inside the leaves,

Can you see the caterpillar on the broccoli? I almost did not notice it. I did not intend to take the caterpillar picture but I was trying to get a good focus taking picture of this broccoli. When I look at the image in the camera did I notice this sneaky fat caterpillar.

I am not sure what is the yellow thing from the caterpillar.

Left are ‘sparkler’ radish. Middle and right are ‘pink radish’. I was not sure how the pink radish is supposed to look like and what is the right size to harvest them. So out of curiosity, I randomly pull pink radish out from the soil.The right one is not pink colour but deep purple. Could it be it is already too old? I have not try to eat them yet.

Wong bok 1st attempt

This is the first time we are growing wong bok. I am not really sure whether it is the correct time to grow wong bok in Adelaide or not. The seed packet did instruct that we have to experiment or do trial on which suitable planting time in our area. I did a series of succession sowing from end summer through mid-autumn. The seed germinate almost 100% during this period.Transplant seedling when they are big enough to handle ( I let it be at least more than 5cm tall). We were so looking forward for many harvest with this good start.So far, I have at least 9 plants that is in the process of bolting. Picture above after close up look like it is forming flowers. Mik (my cousin) help with pulling out all the bolted wong bok so we could plant other veggies on that now available space. Space are limited so I decided not to let it flower to keep seed because we still have so many seeds.

Picture Left: Some of the wong bok that Mik pull out from containers yesterday. I am going to reserve some of the available space in the container for onions ( another 1st attempt).Mik tied recycle stripped cloth to make wong bok look like barrels which they supposed to be look like instead of the leaves lay flat on the ground looking like a green rafflesia. We hope this will prevent more bolting.

This one look promising the leaves has shapen itself like a barrel. I am going to sow wong bok seeds next month and see how it goes again.

If we could keep bunny as a pet. It will be so fat eating wong bok!!!

Alas, off you go in the compost wong bok…