The day passed with me achieving very little and my plans for returning to the country didn't eventuate until Monday.
Monday was another perfect day and I arrived at the farm to glorious sunshine and a very green garden. The rains that fell in this area whilst I was away had done a great job in keeping the place alive and flourishing. I parked the car and headed straight to the fig tree and plucked a beautiful piece of fruit which I promptly ate followed by several more. In the 4 years since I have been here I have never seen the trees bear so much fruit.
My next joy was to discover that the rain water tanks are all full for the first time ever. One less thing to worry about!!!
Actually I have never seen the garden looking so green and so healthy and the smell of ripe quinces was and still is intoxicating.
So, 35 liters of weed killer later, several hours of mowing and a day or 2 of weeding the vegetable beds, the place is back in order.
These lovely days have been tempered by several which were very cool with freezing nights and I was convinced I had seen the last of the warm weather. But this is Melbourne and the warm weather has returned.
I have been delighted to find that the vegetable garden has continued to produce beans ( although they are looking very raggy and need to be pulled) tomatoes, plenty of eggplant and I managed to get a few more zucchini before I pulled the untidy remains out.
The chillies are a source of amazement because I have never seen so much fruit grow on one plant. As mentioned before there are also many quinces and figs.
If I haven't been working in the garden, driving up and down to town to deal with the mundane issues of life I have been working frantically in the kitchen. These activities have been punctuated by Easter and birthday celebrations and a little bit of painting to boot!!! I have produced quince paste, fig paste, fig jam, tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce and have been trying to use all the available produce in my day to day cooking.
I thought it senseless to plant anything else as I have plans to travel again but the pleasure that I experience from growing my own food has got the better of me and lettuce, broccholi and beet root are back in the garden. My major achievement has been to finally use the compost that has been maturing away with absolutely no assistance from me. I am embarrassed to relate the excitement that I felt once I had turned this organic matter over and dug it into the bare veggie boxes!!!!
The main work and renovations are just about complete and this week saw the final light fittings installed outside and Ross has just a day or 2 of work to complete a few minor outstanding jobs. The water feature in the front garden has the fountain installed and I now have to buy more water plants. I still have 9 fruit trees to pick up from the nursery and am contemplating where to position them. The last of the blueberries have been planted and there is a little bit of space in the planter boxes for who knows what!
Now most of the intensive work is done I no longer have an excuse for not getting back to my Spanish lessons ( except that I find it hard to sit still for that long) and am returning to Zumba, have to fill those long cold winter days.
On the weekend Lois and Dennis came to visit and this seemed a prime opportunity to test cook some Cambodian recipes. I made the Ginger Chicken, stir fried veg and we followed this with a quince sponge which is hardly Cambodian but I will blog the recipe anyway! The sweet chilli sauce is in keeping with this food even though it is a recently discovered one and successfully made through trial and error!
What I have discovered with Cambodian cooking is that a lot of garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce and chicken stock powder is used! Ginger is used in specific dishes and not too many dishes have a hot bite to them. I am always tempted to add chilli to my food so have to restrain myself here!!!!
I have westernized the chicken cuts as I find chicken with little bones off putting when eating a stir fry.
GINGER CHICKEN:
Serves 4.
Vegetable oil 2teaspoons
Butter 2 teaspoons
Chicken thighs. 500 gms chopped into approx 2 cm cubes
Ginger. 1/4 cup fine matchstick pieces
Garlic. 2 teaspoons finely chopped
Sugar. 1 level desert spoon
Oyster sauce. 2 tablespoons
Fish sauce. 1 teaspoon
Chicken stock powder 2 teaspoons
Water. 1/4 cup
Spring onions. 4 washed, trimmed and cut into 2 cm lengths ( green and white)
Onion. 1 small peeled and sliced into fine crescents
Sauté ginger until tender and aromatic
Add garlic, sauces, sugar and chicken powder, stir well
Add chicken and brown
Add water and simmer with cover on for 5 minutes then remove cover and cook until chicken is sticky and cooked through ( approx 5-8 minutes)
Add onion and spring onions, stir through and serve.
Serve with Jasmine rice.
CHEATS RICE:
Serves 4
Thoroughly wash 2 cups jasmine rice
Cover with 3 cups hot water
Microwave uncovered 10 minutes
Fork up and let sit covered for 5 minutes.
Fork up again and serve
STIR FRY VEGETABLES WITH OYSTER SAUCE:
Serves 4
Lebanese cucumber. 1 peeled decoratively and sliced on the diagonal
Cauliflower 1/4 cut into florets
Green or snake beans. 1/2 cup sliced into 3 cm pieces
Carrot. 1/2 cup decoratively cut into bite size 3 cm batons
Red or green capsicum. 1/4 cup cut into bite size pieces
Garlic. 1 teaspoon finely chopped
Chicken powder. 1 teaspoon
Oyster sauce. 1 tablespoon
Butter 2 teaspoons
Vegetable oil. 2 teaspoons
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil
Add carrots and beans, blanch 1 minute
Add capsicum, blanch 1 further minute
Add cauliflower and blanch further 1 minute
Drain well and refresh veg in cold water
Melt butter and oil in wok
Sauté garlic until tender and golden
Add stock powder and oyster sauce
Add cucumber and fry for 1 minute
Add remaining veg and sauté 1 minute until heated through
I bought a vegetable cutter in the Siem Reap market that has a 10 cm fluted edge that is perfect for decoratively slicing the vegetables. This looks nice but also seems to hold the sauce better.
SWEET CHILLI SAUCE:
Although not generally served in Cambodia, I really like this with the cold or fried spring rolls. We seemed to be served this more in Vietnam.
Long red chillies. 12 chopped finely seeds included!!!!
Garlic. 8 cloves chopped finely
Ginger. 2 cm knob hopped finely
White sugar. 4 cups
White vinegar. 4 cups ( can use rice, wine or standard)
Salt. 2 teaspoons
Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.
Cook uncovered, stirring frequently over a low heat ( keep surface bubbling)
Reduce for about 20 minutes until syrupy ( remember it thickens on cooling)
Let sit 5 minutes
Pour into sterile jars and let cool before refrigerating. I would think that this should also be OK kept in a cool pantry.
Nice as a dipping sauce or in a stir fry to add some zip!!!!!!
Hope you try these dishes and enjoy them.
Next attempt will be a beef dísh called Lok Lac but first need an audience to practice on!!
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