Balcony Crop 2011

Winter is coming and I almost forgot...
This year crops were not better than last year, and considerably less than the first year, the ground in the vases is getting "worn out" and too compact so vegetables that grow in the ground (carrots and turnips) don't grow that much.


Still we managed one (yes, only one) bowl of steamed vegetables (150g). This year Luísa helped picking up the carrots.
The "top of the crop" goes to the turnip followed by the micro-carrot.


Unfortunately, the beetroot did not survive the very dry and hot spring followed by a damp and lousy summer...
I'm now awaiting for everything in the vases to dye out and then I reinforce the soil or change it all together...

Chillies in the Wok

Finally it was time to eat my first chilli of the year! I let my jalapeno/piri-piri hybrid ripe until it was almost all red and then... to the pan with it.



It was not very big nor powerful, but a decent chilli!



Sliced and Wok with it...



Here's the dish next to the little Chilies vase...
Shrimps, Chillies, Peas and Udon noodles in the Wok are always a winning combination... Om nom nom!

Hackerfruehstueck

It is really my version of the German Bauernfruehstueck, yesterday the local hackerspace had their new year's party and "official opening event", shame on me but I could not go.... hope I'll be able to meet some of the guys there.
I hope this helps recovering from last night's party... I know it helps after long nights of kernel compilation and cross-toolchain building...(geek thought, sorry)

Start by peeling the potatoes and cut them in slices of about 1cm thick, it is better if you use a type of potato that stays firm after cooking. I usually add in some vegetables, green beans are my favourite but other vegetable that cooks firm is fine (broccoli in small pieces). I usually steam them for about 15 minutes before going for the rest of the recipe.
Start by frying the bacon for a few minutes, turn the bacon slices over, and let it cook for one minute. Add the potatoes and vegetables (and some onion if you want), some pepper and salt and mix gently, let the potatoes cook until they are golden, add some sliced parsley and remove from the fry pan.
Do some scrambled eggs on the same pan (keeping some of the bacon's fat) and serve.
et voilà...
A few after-thoughts:
- remember your cholesterol bacon and eggs are your enemies, "but it tastes so good..";
- the fruit juice is important, use orange or carrot juice, helps digestion :-)

Harvesting the Carrots

Last Weekend we decided to Harvest my carrots from the vase. When we came back from a week away we noticed that they were not growing that much. We thought that they must have reached their limit in the vase so...it was harvest time... and we were in for some surprises...

The first one out of the vase was "Quasimodo", because we transplanted the carrots some of them had grown into strange forms. Lesson learned.... do not transplant carrots...

This one we really don't know what to call it... or... we do but it's not nice...they are actually two carrots that started in the same yogurt cup and ended up knotted together.Here's a picture of the whole crop, not bad for a single vase. Last but not the least:
This is the way the world ends,
this is the way the world ends,
this is the way the world ends,
not with a bang but with a chicken stew (at least for our carrots).

Follow up on Balcony garden

Our vegetables have been growing steadily for the past two weeks. I've been moving some of the sprouts that were born in the yogurt cups to the bigger vases, but now I don't have any more space. On some, instead of removing them from the cup, I just cut the cup bottom and push them into the vase.

I learned that carrots don't like and should not be moved! No wonder now that they took so long to adapt, on the other hand tomatoes, kale and the celeriac don't seem to bother being moved and are developing nicely.
On the "battle of the veggies" I seem to be up front in the kale, celeriac and carrots, unfortunately my tomatoes look like little dwarfs compared to Ana's..

Last week my kale reached some "maturity" and before it became too hot to eat a soup we decided to try doing a caldo-verde.

We used some of the bigger leaves of our kale to do it, with some "chouriço" and bread, hum ... delicious...

Pea Soup (Erweten soep)

We tried out "the famous Dutch pea soup" at one of the few really good places in the Hague "'t Hof van Eten", a small place but excellent food for brunches and breakfasts and a kindness of service that you're just not used to in Holland, then we also found another fantastic place "Le Gourmet" serving homemade pea soup, old style Dutch bistro where they serve the pea soup with two slices of rye bread and ham....
We decided to give it a go and do it ourselves... I found a really simple recipe on the net and we were off...
The ingredients are (for about 5 litres of soup):
- 750g-1kg of dried split peas;
- 1 leek;
- 250g of Bacon;
- a couple of carrots;
- one onion;
- a big "Rookwurst";
- one Celeriac root and some celery leaves;

Get a kilo of dried split peas and soak them in water.

Cut the Celeriac root, carrots and bacon into small cubes. Put the bacon in the pan, add some olive oil and let the bacon cook for 2 minutes. Then put the peas, Celeriac and carrots in a big pan with arround 3 litres of water (yep, soup for a week...), and let it boil for about an hour.

Then add the leek in small pieces, the rookwurst and let cook for about 20 minutes... Et voila... Dutch pea soup.