Happy New Year, Forthcoming Events, & a Give-away

Happy New Year to you all - this is always probably my favourite day of the whole year.  A day when I look back over the previous year with gratitude for all the good things that happened;  acknowledge and surrender the not so good things that happened;  and look towards the future with hope in my heart.  This year I feel this more keenly than ever.  Set against the backdrop of a year which was both tumultuous and challenging at times, especially financially (we are still in the depths of a recession after all), great things nevertheless happened in my life in 2010 and I have much to be grateful for - I'm grateful of course for the good health that I continue to enjoy, but mostly I am grateful for some truly wonderful people in my life - I don't need to say more, you know who you are.

Of course it goes without saying that I'm also incredibly grateful for all of you, my readers, for without you this blog wouldn't exist.  I'm so grateful for your support, your readership, your comments (every single one of them), and for the friendship with many of you which has grown from that - I even, over Christmas, got to meet one of my "bloggie friends".  The lovely Sasa of Sasasunakku was the second person to ever leave me a comment on one of my posts, and I was so excited to meet her when I went up to Auckland for Christmas, and she was visiting her family there at the same time.  Now you might expect that two bloggers, drawn together across the continents by a common love for blogging and food, and who don't know each other very well, might while away the time by talking about ... well, food.  Nope.  Although we are almost 25 years apart in age, we chatted away as comfortably as old friends, talking about family, travel, boyfriends, husbands, relationships, religion, politics, work, study, the future - food and blogging scarcely rated a mention.  Sasa is beautiful, talented, witty, interesting, engaging, intelligent, well-travelled, thoughtful, and definitely someone I would like to get to know better, oh and did I mention beautiful (okay, maybe that makes me sound like a stalker now).  Anyway, she creates a wonderful blog - if you haven't visited her before please go and check it out - you won't be disappointed.

As the year drew to its close, the winds of change began to blow - this seemed to begin as a subtle shift in energy a couple of months ago, and gathered momentum over the last few weeks, steering me towards a shift in course on many levels.  Where will that lead?  Who can say, but keep watching this space to see how things unfold - I feel certain that there are exciting things ahead.

In the meantime, while I've been absent from my blog over the last few weeks I've spent much time reflecting on where my blog has come to and where I want it to go from here.  When I first started my blog some 18 months ago, I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted it to deliver.  I wanted to learn and explore my ideas about making good ethical choices about the food that I consume - such choices are not always easy or convenient, and the solutions are not always as simple as they may at first seem.  Getting all the facts about what we eat is never easy, and we don't always make the right choices, but we cannot live more consciously without having the dialogue, investigating, asking the questions - we then at least make a conscious decision about our consumption (on many levels).  Even if we don't get it right, I believe that is better than acting thoughtlessly, unconsciously, without care for the consequences.  I also wanted to share with you something of the importance that my yoga practice plays in my life, and how my constantly evolving practice also influences more conscious behaviours and decisions.  I also wanted to explore and share with you interesting and more unusual ingredients and ways in which they might be used.  I wanted to encourage you to make food from scratch and discover the joys and rewards of nurturing your families with food prepared with love.

Although many of my early posts may have been a little "rough around the edges" (okay so they've still got a long way to go, but I think they've improved a little) in terms of style and execution, I think the content was definitely true to my message.  As the months went on, I feel as though I've drifted off course somewhat (seduced by page views, SEOs, and craving comments), resorting to just recipe-swapping instead of expressing my point of view, indulging in quantity rather than quality.  Time to get back on track I feel.  As a way of doing that I have decided that each week I will choose a particular ingredient, write a post about it and use it in a recipe, and I will also put up a "linky" so that if you'd like to cook along with me using the week's chosen ingredient then you can join in too.  I hope that this will be both fun and informative, and give you all the opportunity to perhaps try an ingredient you haven't used before or don't use too often.  I'll be kicking this off this coming Monday, and the event will be called "Make it with ...... Mondays".

Of course, I hope that you'll come back on Monday to read more and join in the fun, but by way of sneak preview I can tell you that the first ingredient will be saffron.  So get that little box of saffron out of the back of the pantry, dust off a few cookbooks, and "Make it with ... Saffron".  What's more, to celebrate this new event, I have a give-away, so keep reading - I'll explain more about that at the end of this post.

Another event I want to remind you all about is the monthly Tackling Bittman Recipe Hop.  A month flashes by very quickly and it's that time again - we're Tackling Bittman again this coming Thursday 6 January.  So get out one of your Bittman books, get cooking, and link up with us on Thursday - remember that linking up old posts is fine.

Now about that give-away.  If you've been following this blog for a while then you know that, not only am I big Bittman fan, but I also regularly use and swear by the How to Cook Everything iPhone Application. 

This application works on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, and provides every one of the recipes and variations that are contained in the big book, as well as how-to illustrations, ability to cross-reference recipes with shopping lists, built-in timers and more.  In short I love it, so when Mark from Culinate, Inc contacted me and said he would like to offer me a few free copies of the application to give away to my readers I was pretty excited.  Now I could go to great lengths at this stage to do a full review of the application, but my friends Alex at A Moderate Life and Pam at Sidewalk Shoes have recently reviewed this product, so "why invent the wheel?" is my motto.  I'm just going to tell you how you can win one of these applications and then you can go and visit Alex and Pam if you would like more information about it.

Firstly, in order to win you need to have either a US-based iTunes account (in which case the appropriate code enabling you to download the application will be sent to you), or if you live outside the US then you need to have a PayPal account (in which case the value of the purchase price of the application in your country will be sent to you).

So now, getting your first entry to win this application is as simple as leaving me a comment below telling me some of those more unusual ingredients that you'd like me to feature on "Make it with ..... Mondays".  Maybe you already have some of them in your pantry and are not sure what to do with them.

For a further entry, come back during the week and link up a post to "Make it with ..... Mondays".  Older posts are welcome, and you can link as many posts as you like as long as the featured ingredient is used, and each one will get an entry.  If your post also happens to be a Bittman recipe then it will score an extra entry.

And for a further entry still, come back on Thursday and link up an appropriate post to the Tackling Bittman Recipe Hop.

Entries will close midnight Thursday 13 January (NZ time) and the winner will be chosen by random number generator and announced on Monday 17 January.

I hope you all enjoy what remains of your New Year's Day, wherever you are in the world, and that you'll come back tomorrow for Cranberry & Pomegranate Bellinis to welcome in the new year.

I'm also submitting this post to the Hearth and Soul blog hop, a place where you'll find lots of wonderful people who are passionate about great food and cooking from the heart - do go and have a look at what they're all cooking this week.

If you were a season, what would you be?

Me, without question, I would be autumn.  Quite apart from now being in what I consider the autumn of my life - yes, I believe the human life cycle has its seasons just like nature - I have always been drawn to all things autumnal.  One of my fondest memories is that of coming to Christchurch on a holiday in May when I was 10 years old.  Coming from Auckland (a city which almost seems to completely by-pass autumn), I was blown away by the colours of the autumn foliage.  I recall gathering up armfuls of leaves in every imaginable shade of yellow, orange and red, and then insisting on taking them all back home with me and pressing them all into a scrapbook.

There is so much about autumn that I love.   The days are still beautifully warm (20 to 24 degrees C), and we seem to get a reprieve from the wretched, cold Easterly wind that ruins many a good summer day in Christchurch.

I adore the colours of autumn, and they're the same colours I'm drawn to in my clothes and the things that I surround myself with in my home.  Skies are blue and clear, not in that harsh and brash way that we observe in a summer sky, but softer and more brittle, with a hint of the cooler skies that are yet to come, and everything is imbued with a golden light that almost makes your heart ache.  Foliage everywhere in this garden city is turning to shades of celadon, chartreuse, amber, russet, cabernet, and already fallen leaves "clatter" down the street in the occasional breeze.

And of course I love autumn food - crisp, cool salad days are slipping away, and we start to think of things that stick to the ribs a little more - I'm starting to think of mushroom risotto, pumpkin curry, sweet potato ravioli, and apple crumble.

Earlier this week we were blessed with probably the most perfect autumn day I've ever experienced - the kind of day that is so perfect you want it to last forever.  So, having done an early morning yoga practice, and no class to teach until evening, it seemed like the perfect afternoon to enjoy some time in our Botanical Gardens.  I was not alone - seemed like half of Christchurch had come out to enjoy the day.  It being school holidays, small children were enjoying a last splash in the pool before the winter covers go on;  "bigger kids" paddled on the river;  and a young Japanese couple posing for their wedding photos, gazed adoringly at each other as though the Gods had designed this day with just them in mind.

I hope I can remember this day in a few months time, when we are shivering inside several layers of clothing and longing for spring to come.  I took my camera with me so that I could share this day with you.

This tulip tree is right outside our yoga school.  Although I photographed this from street level, our windows open right into its branches.  I love to watch the seasons pass by gazing into this tree on a daily basis.

It was a beautiful day even for the bees!

Shadows lengthen.

I have no idea what this bush is called, but I love its heart-shaped leaves in so many colours.

Green lace canopy

Autumn crocuses

I don 't know what this shrub is either, but the flowers make me think of ballerinas

I love this circle of trees

Hydrangea hedge

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die

A time to plant, a time to reap

A time to kill, a time to heal

A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down

A time to dance, a time to mourn

A time to cast away stones

A time to gather stones together

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time of war, a time of peace

A time of love, a time of hate

A time you may embrace

A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rend, a time to sew

A time to love, a time to hate

A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!

- The Byrds

Wherever in the world you are right now, I wish you peace, happiness, and all the joy that the season can bring.

Preserved Lemons & Aparigraha

The weather here in Christchurch is beyond bleak at present – day after day after day of cold, grey miserable days. Now in my 16^th winter in Christchurch, this feels like the worst so far. It did occur to me that this could be an age thing – that maybe each year older I start to feel the cold a little more – but since people half my age are complaining about the cold as well, I can thankfully avoid putting the chill in my bones down to decrepitude just yet. 

One of the joys of winter, however, is an abundance of citrus fruit – particularly lemons. Not that they grow particularly well here in Christchurch, but at least at this time of year we can get New Zealand grown lemons as opposed to Californian.

I grew up in Auckland, where nearly every home had a backyard lemon tree – a city where no-one ever bought lemons! If you didn’t have a lemon tree yourself, at the very least your neighbour did. Lemons were plentiful year round, and if you asked your neighbour for a lemon, you were usually armed with a large brown paper bag (these days more likely a plastic supermarket bag) and told to go help yourself – it being fully expected that you would take as many as the bag would hold, not just the one lemon that you need for tonight’s gin & tonic.

In my family, the lemons came from a magnificent Meyer lemon tree which stood in the centre of Nana’s backyard, and grapefruit came from our own garden. Cartons full of both would get shipped off down to the South Island to Dad’s sisters, and much of that produce would get turned into Aunty Joan’s exceptional marmalade (perhaps I can wangle the recipe out of her for a later post).

So it was a big shock to me when I moved to Christchurch and discovered that here you had to buy lemons!! And for a long time I just couldn’t do it – I refused to buy lemons, which was difficult because I love them and use them a lot – I mean just about any dish can be enhanced with a spritzing of lemon juice or a sprinkling of grated rind – right?  But for a long time I went without, buying only the occasional “essential” lemon, and really resenting it.

 
The gorgeous green bowl in this photo is by New Zealand artist Christine Boswijck

I’ve long since given up resisting and buy them freely now, but all of a sudden I feel quite obsessed with them. There’s something about the sight of those bright yellow orbs that fills me with joy on these bleak, grey days, and I feel as though I can’t get enough of them. They offer the promise of warmth and sunshine, and I can’t seem to go shopping without buying a bag full of them. So now I am preserving lemons, see directions below (I love the delicious salty tang and texture that these bring to salads, dressings, tagines, couscous, etc), and and have plans for some jars of lemon curd and lemon sorbet on the weekend.

But the thought occurs to me … is the idea of preserving & storing food in conflict with the yogic principle of aparigraha (non-greed, non-grasping, non-hoarding)? The concept of aparigraha is that we should only take or keep that which is necessary, and that hoarding and holding on to a lot of stuff that we don’t “need” suggests we don’t have the faith that we will be able to provide what we require when the need arises. Certainly back in the times of our hunter/gatherer forbears preserving and storing food during times of plenty was essential to survival during times when food supplies were not available. And it is not that long ago that lack of refrigeration and modern transportation made the preserving of food at the very least practical. But today, when we can get pretty much anything we need, any time, is it just hoarding?

Certainly, I think it is infinitely better to be buying produce while it is in season and plentiful, and preserving it to use when it is not, than to be buying out of season produce that has travelled half way round the world to get to our supermarkets. But, nevertheless, if I’m to adhere strictly to this yogic principle, should I be doing without things that have been preserved, dried, frozen or stored for a time when they are not available, and consuming only what is fresh and available right now? I think the raw foodists would agree, but I don’t think I’m ready to make that leap just yet. I can adhere to buying fresh food in season, and as much as possible locally sourced goods, but I just can’t imagine life without dozens of things in my pantry, such as tinned tomatoes, dried beans & pulses, grains, jams, and of course preserved lemons – most of which are very useful, but I’m not sure I can say how necessary they are. It is easier for me to clear out my wardrobe than the pantry, so at the moment my pantry seems the very antithesis of an “aparigrahic” (probably not a real word) place. I have a long way to go, but …

I’ve made a start today by getting rid of that jar of Red Pepper Relish that has been languishing at the back of the pantry for eight years! An item I purchased even though I don’t like relish, but because it looked so pretty! I’ve replaced that relish with the jar of preserved lemons I made today, which I know I will use – I’m okay with that.

Preserved Lemons Recipe

lemons

coarse sea salt

sterilised preserving jars

Clean lemons well, especially giving them a good scrub to remove any waxy coating if you are using store bought lemons.

Cut a small slice from the stalk end so that you can stand the lemon upright on your chopping board. Then make two vertical cuts, at right angles to each other, down through the lemon to about 1cm from the bottom – take care not to cut all the way through. Your lemon should now be in quarters but still attached at the bottom.

Gently squeeze the lemon open and fill the cuts with as much salt as possible. Then push the cuts back together and holding the salt in as best you can put the lemons into the sterlised jar. Squash as many lemons as you can, pushing them in firmly so that they release some of their juice as you do so, and adding more salt between each layer if you're filling a large jar.

No need to add more juice at this stage, as the lemons will continue to release juice during the pickling process. Seal jar and then store in a cool place, shaking every day (to help dissolve and distribute the salt) for a week.  After a week, now top up the jar with extra lemon juice if necessary, then return to a cool, dark place and leave them alone for a month.

Once opened, store in the fridge.
 

To use: Remove and discard the pulpy flesh; rinse and dry the rind, then use as required.