I promised one of my blog readers that I would obtain the recipe for zucchini balls made at one of Canberra's very best restaurants. I found out today that it is all in the technique, not the recipe. Here's the secret. You grate the zucchini and salt it in the colander and let it drain but do this several hours before you want to make the balls. After you squeeze out the moisture add lots of beaten eggs so that it is a consistency that sticks together. Then you can add flour and whatever else to taste. Then you deep fry for four minutes. It's not like eggplant though - you don't salt the zucchini to draw out the moisture, you do it to alter the chemical consistency somewhat. Or so I'm told on good authority.
Marc Verat
Speaking of chemical consistency, recently I came across France's answer to Heston Blumenthal but a hippy forest lovin' Gallic version. I begrudgingly admire Heston after seeing his historic Roman and mediaeval feasts but I find his food science a bit over the top sometimes.
Marc Verat is similarly technical with vegetable matter prepared in a lab coat with various scientific looking implements. It's called molecular gastronomy and he uses essences of roots, herbs and plants found in the French alps. He seems like the Willy Wonka of the cooking world to me and wanders around in a black hat. Terribly eccentric but considered the best chef in Europe. He too has had no formal training. His restaurant is no longer open but was one of the most sought after places to eat in France before it closed in 2009 due to Marc's ill health. Located in the mountains, the footage of the restaurant showed exclusive diners eating next to live pigs and chickens happily ensconced in pens. 'In your face' dining to show where your food actually comes from just in case you're not sure. I watched him inject an egg simmered for nine hours with an infusion of cumin and other herbs. While watching the Discovery channel doco that featured him, I was moved by his passion and love for wandering through the forest gathering the food his father had shown him as a young boy.
Vegetables growing in between graves
Oh dear - I thought I was a bit radical planting out our ornamental vegetable garden in the front yard but Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall just reported on real food vegie activitists in Britain who grow plantings in between historic graves. Two women grow vegetables initially without council permission wherever they can find open space. Bus stop leeks, grave yard beans, lovage and other herbs from a verge. Then they have a harvest festival for people in their village using their roadside bounty. The council has since given permission to plant 500 fruit trees on public land and were looking into other plots.
Autumn
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| Autumn on Limestone Avenue, Ainslie. |
Hugh F-W was raving about Autumn in the episode I watched. The change of seasons gives us a sense of purpose and he thinks Autumn is the most productive growing season. As an Autumn task I have turned my late tomatoes and chillis into chutney and pulled out the basil. I am planting cabbage, cauliflower, snow peas, peas, artichokes, red onions, winter lettuce and broad beans. My coloured silverbeet in a container was planted in summer but is not doing too well all of a sudden - it's a bit mottled. Maybe the compost soil is not right for it as I note silverbeet definitely needs lime. In the front yard I have planted a rosemary hedge inspired by the Albert Hall and I found some ornamental kale which makes the most divine crimson border plant for the vegie garden. We visited the Yarralumla Heritage Nursery this weekend where I spotted the ornamental kale. It truly has some gorgeous and unique offerings including many heritage varieties. I particularly love the way they display their trees so that you can see a range of species. The nursery is aptly located next to many of the original Thomas Charles Weston experimental plantings that greened our gracious city. We dined at the outdoor cafe underneath a Gingko Biloba tree. The distinctive yellow leaves are the last to fall in Autumn.
While at the nursery we splashed out on a Pawlonia Sapphire Dragon Tree and the children planted it today. I've told them it's their Jack in the Beanstalk tree and I am looking forward to it growing fast and tall and producing beautiful blue pendulous bracts in the Springtime. It should shade a hot spot where the house faces north and create a lovely vista.
The life and love of trees by Lewis Blackwell is now on my 'must have' list. It is truly the most beautiful and remarkable photographic book I have seen and features a range of stunning images from around the world. A former editor of Getty images for 10 years, Blackwell indulges his love of nature with a selection of amazing works by photographers. He writes beautiful essays and poetry as an accompanying text. The eucaplyt, giant buttressing ficus in Queensland rainforests and the Wollemi Pine are local features but Madagascan boababs and the world's 'fattest' tree from Mexico are some of the favourites.
Japan's acers, maples and blossom trees feature in this exquisite book. Sadly I read today it is the blossom festival in Japan at the moment but a very sombre time. 14,000 people have been killed. savethechildren.org.au/JapanEarthquake is one place where you find out what's been done to help create child-friendly spaces during the emergency and download instructions to make paper cranes. 'An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand Japanese cranes will be granted one wish...' The appeal is now closed as they've met their fundraising target.
I have never been there but this country is the source of so much beauty in our lives due to the Japanese mastery of simplicity and design. Tachibana no Toshitsuna wrote Notes on garden making in the 11th Century, one of the world's earliest manuals of garden design: recall the vistas of various famous places, select what attracts you and add your own interpretation. I dream of visiting Kyoto during the children's festival and seeing the bamboo forest walk. I had the chance last year and now I regret not going as I fear Japan will never be the same for many years. Life goes on.
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