The End of Summer

I meant to post this ages ago, as Summer died and Autumn reminded us that Perth had temperatures lower than 40°C.

The seasons are turning, Summer into Autumn, with the Easter weekend providing a promise of rain and storms to rejuvenate the garden.

The Council in their infinite wisdom and eagerness to kill the grass in the storm-water drain, forgot to take the wind into consideration and succeeded in killing one of our favourite bankias. It is being replace, by us, because we feel its loss dreadfully.

Botanical update

I haven't written an update on Mum's garden in quite a while. Things have happened and the garden has rippled through the phases of its life with very little drama.
Things grow, things get severely pruned, things get mulched, things surprise Mum by erupting into a mass of beautiful flowers when she thought they never would, or were on their last legs.

An Open Garden plan

Just the other weekend, Mum and I disappeared off to Fremantle to check out a private garden opened to the public as part of Open Gardens Australia.

Revitalise

When Mum and Dad got home from Europe, the garden in a sorry state; the reticulation had failed so we had patchy grass, a sad looking herb garden and a few dead prize plants.

It wasn't too much of a surprise as our garden water is pumped from a mill stream which can run dry over summer and some plants end up dying anyway, despite Mum's hawk-like attentions. It was devastating for Mum though as it was somewhat more severe than usual.

By the time I returned a week later, some things were in the process of being revived.

Preserving Lemons

Preserved Lemons are one of those things that are ridiculously expensive given what they are and how easy they are to make.
Essentially they're just lemons cut up enough to have the juice squeezed out and salt squeezed in. They're then left in their own salt enriched juices to mature for a few months, preferably in a cool dark place.

With an annual abundance of limes I keep meaning to make them, but never do.
Until this year... finally.

It's not as though we don't need them, or wouldn't use them for they are always the missing ingredient when we make Moroccan and Dad likes to cook his chicken in the juices.

I don't know whether it was that finally I had a set of jars to use, I was more confident with the sterilisation process, had fewer other ideas for how to use the fruit...
but they're now bottled to await the long maturation in storage process.

Half of the limes undiced:

Half of them diced. Each recipe seems to have a preferred method of cutting them, be it in sixths, eighths or fluted at one end while kept whole, the salt squeezed in through the open end. I'll admit, I was lazy and just cut them in a simple easy manner so that they would be easy to juice, easy to press the salt in and easy to pack into a jar. 

Squeezed, salted and thoroughly mixed,

before being packed into a jar with the salty juice poured in over.

These will be dumped in the back corner of the pantry and forgotten about, so let's wait and see how they turn out in a few months. 

The Recipe: 

Loquat Season

There's a loquat tree in the garden and this year it's covered in fruit. So, in a bid to stop the birds from getting more than their fair share, I've been cooking... again.

Now loquats are one of those fiddly fruits where if you don't eat them in a day or two, they go bad and are wasted. They're also the type that you have to gather at just the right time: you want them to be losing the last of their green tinge so they're still slightly tart. Otherwise they're a bit too sweet.

So having picked two bowls full, I set about peeling and pitting them.

The first bowl went on these; Tarte aux Néfle du Japon Frangipane.

They were delicious, but the fruit lost some of its bite as a result of the steaming process and didn't contrast strongly enough with the additional sweetness of the Frangipane mixture.

So the second bowl was put to a different use. 

Loquat and Onion Chutney.
I found the recipe through Yummly one of my favourite sources of food inspiration, but typically, wasn't satisfied with the recipe 'as is' and so adapted it slightly.

In this case, that just meant throwing in a few more spices and not exactly measuring the amounts properly. (The coriander seeds, cardamon seeds and fengreek were all additions)

It was left to bubble away on the stove for a while giving the fruit time to disintegrate into the mixture and spices to infuse throughout the onions and fruit.
I forgot to cut the loquats into small pieces before throwing them in, and so when they had well and truly softened I took the potato masher to them. Seemed to do the job.

With the few leftover loquats, I followed a recipe for brandied loquats, compacting them into a jar, covering them in sugar and hiding them in a dark cool corner of the pantry, allowing them to ferment in their own juices. I'm not sure how that will turn out, but the recipe looked interesting enough to be worth a try, and unusually flavoured alcohol is always appreciated.

Will just have to remember to check on it in a month or two. 

And I've found a recipe for the left over seeds. Next time... 

A Garden in Aestivation

I haven't posted much on the garden of late, simply because with the summer heat most of the life went in to aestivation (hibernation due to excessive heat as opposed to excessive cold). Now that winter has definitely set in, I probably should look back on the past few months. 

A spider constructing a cocoon or web from an old crunchy leaf under the eaves, away from the peril of hungry wattle birds. 

With the red capped gum in full flower, the lorikeets were showing themselves to be true gluttons. Climbing onto the pillar to get a better angle I had a family of them shouting abuse as they deemed me to have crossed into their territory.


After shouting a few choice phrases back, the braver ones decided the food was too good to give up and descended.

The bees make the most of another flowering gum with branches too fragile to support the greedy lorikeets.

Having coaxed it to flower for years, the golden shower put on a spectacular showing sending streams of sunshine down over the centre of the garden. 

One afternoon, Mya was spotted trying to climb into one of the spindly Christmas-decoration grevillias. It wasn't a plant she usually devoted her attention to (being the local drink spot of her tormentors: the wattle birds) but on this occasion she seemed to be showing it unwarranted attention.

That was until we wandered outside and saw this poor mouse clinging to the spindliest branches at the top of the shrub quacking with fear.

(unaware that we'd rescued it, Mya spent the afternoon in the vicinity trying to renew her acquaintance with this new friend.)

Another of the ground covering banksias. A not-so-small shrub, this native remains inconspicuous until autumn when it sends out these vibrant candles, each one edged in brilliant red.

Years ago, enduring the long drive from Esperance to Kalgoorlie to Perth, we stopped suddenly and unexpectedly. Mum had seen an unusual native that she wanted in her own garden. Having bought and killed (unintentionally) several, this one is thriving, if only to be used by the wattle birds to play peek-a-boo.

Several years ago the red Pincushion Hakea decided to give up the ghost. It had been a beautiful tree, dotted with flowers of white pins sticking out of bright red cushions. It has been replaced with a pink version, dotted with similar flowers if not quite so striking.

Slowly covering the garden, this native ground cover is a beauty to behold until such time as the weeds grow amongst it and make the process of weeding far more challenging.

The scottish thistle dryandra.

Autumn started with the appearance of the aptly named Autumn Crocus

After the first rains:

... and the weeds who say 'wacko', and cover every other inch of the garden.

With winter coming, a medley of bulbs were scattered throughout the garden. Already home to freesias and jonquils (erlicheer and paperwhites), and Ipheions, we added several others including these Sir Winston Churchill daffodils.

More Mandarin-Limes (Rangpur Limes)

Rangpur Limes seem to be one of those fruits that you don't really discover unless you know someone with a tree. In my case, that someone happens to be my grandfather, and as I couldn't bear to let the fruit go to waste, I have a sudden glut and a desire for more recipes. Because truthfully, a girl can never have enough amazing recipes.

Finding recipes that cater specifically for Rangpur Limes was a little trickier than I'd anticipated. Normally I don't bother: a lime/lemon/orange recipe caters for all citrus fruits, but as I was making Jam I wanted something a little more specific, and then decided I wanted something that catered specifically for the deceptive colour/flavour combination of the fruit. I found the easiest way to find these less-usual recipes was by bouncing from one blog to another using the links sprinkled liberally within.

What with me being a sweet tooth and appreciating the contents of the liquor cabinet, theses recipes sounded fun.


Candied Rangpur Lime Rounds and Syrup
courtesy of Martha Stewart

I found this recipe while perusing my new favourite recipe database Yummly.com (unfortunately the US version is better than the UK one and there is no AU version).

The syrup is that strange combination of sour, bitter and sweet and in a glass of soda water tastes like Tonic with a twist of lime and after-taste of the Rangpur lime. And truthfully, it probably contains about as much sugar as a bottle of tonic water does anyway.

Rangpur Lime Syrup

courtesy of WestoftheLoop

Not realising I'd end up with a tasty syrup from the candied rounds (this syrup contained none of the juice and got all of its flavour from the skins of the limes), I decided to made another syrup, this one to drink with soda and gin and incorporate into margaritas and mojitos.

1 cup sugar

1 cup water
1 cup Rangpur lime juice (about 8 large limes)*
Zest from the juiced limes (oops forgot this one)

Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. (This is just a simple syrup). When the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool. Add the Rangpur lime juice and zest to the simple syrup and whisk together. Place syrup in a jar or bottle and refrigerate. Serve with sparkling water, sparkling wine or gin. Yum!

*I stole the juice for this recipe from the jamming fruit as the jam seemed to have more than enough flavour to go around. 

Rangpur Lime Gin

courtesy of WhatJuliaAte

I have yet to see it, but the internet tells me that Tanqueray makes a Rangpur Gin. As this doesn't seem to be available in local bottleshops, it's probably easier to make my own. Having discovered the amazing setting qualities of Rangpur Lime anything ( the fruit is packed full of pectin) I thought it might be wise to remove the pips, but having de-pipped so many for the jam and candied rounds, truthfully I couldn't be stuffed.  

8 Rangpur Limes, quartered

1 cup sugar

1 bottle Gin

Fill a seal-able jar with the limes and add the sugar. 

Pour the gin over the top to cover the fruit (plus some)

Store in a cool dark place and agitate the jar everyday for a month. I think I shall be storing it near my laptop to remind me to agitate it, and whet my appetite for when it is ready. 

I'm curious to see which tastes better at the end of the month, the lime infused gin, or the gin soaked limes. 

Rangpur Lime Jam

see the previous blog post

...because I had so many fruit I needed another batch. Besides, Granddad (owner of the tree) needs at least one jar and my first test batch didn't provide quite enough. 

In addition to the basic Jam, I also decided to make a small batch of a sweeter Cinnamon Lime Jam and a smaller batch of Ginger Lime Jam. 

Whole Rangpur Lime Cake

see the previous blog post

There will be a few of these coming out of the kitchen in the next day or two. 

Good thing I had a writing group to feed one to, and family for another. 

A gift of Rangpur Limes

My aunt (who made the marmalade that went so well with the pannacotta) who is this family's queen of preserves usually makes a batch or two of marmalade and so the remnants of the basket have departed in her direction. 

Pity the tree is still not denuded.