I cook Vegetable Pakora for supper - Thursday, 21st August 2014

Hi there,

At Banbury's Food Festival on Sunday, I purchased Coriander Garden's Pakora - Onion Bhaji Mix and a jar of their special Authentic Tamarind Chutney.

Tonight we ate a dish of mixed vegetable Pakora with the Tamarind Chutney, lovingly piled on top of a bed of my cooked,garden-fresh, French beans for supper, and very good it was too!

So easy just to add the required amount of cold  water to the contents of a packet of Onion Bhaji mix, whisk together in a wide, shallow bowl, to make a creamy dip-like mixture; drop in the vegetable chunks to coat then gently scoop out with a slotted spoon and tip out into a pan of hot oil. Cooking your coated veggies quickly, in small batches makes for a very tasty crunchy lunch dish, serving  it with a jar of Coriander Garden's delicious chutney and rice or gluten-free pasta or a tossed salad with rice cakes or buttered new potatoes.

A dish of vegetable Pakora would make a very welcome addition to any cold buffet table, while a small dish of the cooked veg and chunks of warmed bread, excellent for a speedy snack at any time of the day!!!

The onion Bhaji mix is made up of Gram flour, salt, dry spices and paprika and could be a very easy home make, for any kitchen,  but I guess its Coriander Garden's own special  compound of Dry Spices, which gives their product its very distinctive flavour......

the finished article on a bed of cooked, garden-fresh, runner beans - mine!!!

Here's the fixings for my dish...

into the batter mix ...


and all cooked in hot oil in  my  wok, which worked very well.  I also oven-baked a few which  were OK  but, well,  were just a little less crunchy and interesting!!!


Daisy xxx

Hi there it's ME on home food thoughts - Monday, 19th May 2014

My first runner bean harvest...all ready for the pot!!!

Also....three rows of potatoes!

I'm growing green peppers too!

My flower garden...

A catch-up for May!  I've been on garden-leave, with more gardening still waiting to be done, for I've begun a veg. garden in an abandoned and unwanted garden space.  It's all in rather an awful mess and, because of the lateness of the season, as regards to getting plants under way and into production, I'm digging up weeds and old plants, and planting my new veggies in as soon as I have a cleared ground area.

I've put in three trenches of potatoes in last week and green shoots have started to poke their heads thru' already!  Of course, they were well developed tubers, being late to plant, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good harvest!!!

Food has had to be quick and easy!  My liver and bacon........well goodness me, its 1st July, where have the weeks flown by!

So here's a catch-up for the last few missing weeks!....

And now its the second week of August!  I'm harvesting my runner beans and French beans and herbs. My tomato plants are handsomely tom

ating...can't wait for them to redden up ....but could make green tomato chutney if they don't???  The runner beans are absolutely delicious and I'm picking them as quickly as I can.  You simply must not allow runner beans to grow too big for that's how they become tough and too stringy..and then they are just awful.  I've heard tell this year's a bad year for beans and I've tried some bad ones myself.  I'm terribly fortunate in growing mine on a bed of very well nourished and fed earth for despite the fact I'm working on a regenerated garden, in a previous life, the garden was keenly worked, nourished and cared for. That's the secret of my success and that's so thrilling.

Being so late to get the garden into production, I had no idea how my plants would fare, and with little time to keep new weeds at bay, sufficient watering and holiday absence, we're all amazed by its productive powers to date.  I shall be looking to growing many more veggies next summer.

My tomato plants...

French beans, Runner beans and Mange tout - Tuesday, 12th August 2014

His finished plate of food - with my garlic-oil infused runner beans - so very delicious!

It's harvest time for my little vegetable garden and we're eating beautiful beans and mange tout and spinach and rainbow chard.

Not all at once, of course, but certainly linked!

Next year, here's hoping, I shall grow carrots, many more herbs, courgettes and marrows and berries for breakfast, whose name I can't remember !

Gardening is not only producing yummy veggies to eat, but the fresh air and exercise is also producing whoops of joy on a daily basis - um aha!  It's quite simple really - I'm taking in great quantities of fresh air, lovely cold water to quench my thirst and heaps of warm to hot sunshine: the net result of which means my appetite is being lessened!  Wow!  T-da!!!

So, small meals are the thing to make, do and eat.  Even when the dear SO cooks, and believe me he cooks good,  really good food but - omg - way too much food, like food is going out of fashion for ever, y'know what I mean???

So he cooks, serves up, calls me to the kitchen, where I set about removing some items from my plate!  I'm a good girl, I am, brought up to eat all my greens and every scrap of food set before me.  You might have thought by the time I got to be a grandmother, I would have insisted on knowing how much food I wanted to eat, but no.  I've had a raving appetite for years now, really I have, so imagine my delight to discover that now I do know how much food its good for me to consume!  I'm even able not to feel guilty for leaving food scraps when I become too full.

However, my thought process tells me it's better to have less on ones plate, for the simple reason you can, if you truly must, return to the kitchen for second helpings if you're starving, or just plan greedy!

Take a look at my green harvest - doesn't it look good?  Don't forget to come back for more harvestings and cooking...

my first runner bean harvest - cooked to perfection, then tossed in olive oil and garlic infusion!!!



As you may notice, his meal was enormous but I was extremely hungry. so I did eat every morsel.  It was good but, omg, was I more than replete, if you know what I mean!!!

Happy eating, cooking and gardening!!!

Daisy