Saturday 2 June 2018

What's in the Kitchen


An easy way of making mayonaise.  Thanks to a recipe on the blog 
'Living the life in Saint Aignan'. 

 Put one cup of oil (vegetable oil) in a long narrow container, crack in one egg, add a few tablespoons of vinegar, same of mustard, salt and pulse with one of those stick blenders.  Mayonaise in minutes.  Unfortunately once again I used olive oil which is all I had on hand.  It makes the taste too strong,  I ate it all but next time I'll use sunflower oil which is what I think we use sometimes for frying.  Can't remember what he used.  Search 'recipes' on his side bar if you want.  If you don't find mayonaise then you'll find a load of other wonderful, mainly french, recipes.

Add some crushed garlic for aioli


Round zucchinis.  These have been on the market for a couple of years now and are popular here.  More tender and sweet says my traditional person and they are the perfect shape for stuffing


Flat peaches.  Have you ever seen such a thing?  I saw them in a supermarket on a quick trip to Athens.  Can't remember the price but I did pick one up to make sure it was real.

Called a Saturn or donut peach, harvested at the end of spring (here at least), sweeter, less fuzz and less juice.  Introduced from China.
Says Wikipedia







Grating a big red juicy tomato.  Only the skin is left behind and that goes into the compost.  Makes wonderful juice for a fresh sauce




Egg shell and coffee ground mix, before and after being blended


A 'soupy' mix ready to go on the tomato plants




Olives preserved in a salt and water mix with olive oil on top.  
We still have many big jars of these.  Enough to last till the next harvest.  Now the classic greek salad is in season and traditional people insist on 5 or 6 olives on every salad.  Recipe for preserving olives and salt content coming soon.  I still have to consult with aging neighbour Vaso.  What she doesn't know about olives is not worth knowing



This is a thick slice of cheese though I'm sure you couldn't tell exactly what it is in the photo.  This is a hard cheese which softens but does not melt and is used to make 'saganaki' or fried cheese.  Just trickle a little oil into the frying pan and fry briefly till brown on both sides.  Delicious.  We found a nice salty cheese which holds its shape perfectly.  If it melts you might have trouble scraping it off the pan




Still squeezing lemons.  Sometimes a simple fork does the squeezing trick just as well




We were given a bag of apricots,  and strawberries are cheap just now so I made jam.  The second batch of strawberry jam was overcooked and set as hard as toffee.  After a bit of googling I scraped it with difficulty back into a clean pot, added water and gently warmed it.  When it had softened I added a knob of butter and a shot glass of whisky, put in a bowl with a lid and keep it in the fridge as a strawberry sauce.  It's fine.  Tastes great and spreads.  

There were a dozen apples sitting out on the bench so I pureed all those and made a 'dutch apple cake' with half of the puree.  That disappeared fast although grandchildren do prefer chocolate-something-or-other.  The other half of the puree is in the freezer along with pureed pears which were going soft and plums from last year.

All that work was done before temperatures rose.  Its in the mid 30s now.  Too hot for faffing about in the kitchen, except for making icecream

25 comments:

  1. A friend of mine makes her own mayonnaise. It's not really something I use much of, but my kids like it on a ham sandwich. I would be willing to try. Good advice about the oil. -Jenn

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    1. Jen, because of the raw egg it doesn't last all that long. If you don't eat a lot then keep to a small jar of the family favourite.
      In our house I'm the only one who eats mayo and I just threw out half of this. Not worth for us either but I had to give it a try. I've tried many times to make a decent mayonaisexand this was dead easy

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    2. Ehhh how did that come out as 'mayonaisex'? Not something I'd like to try lol

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  2. Wow, you did a lot!!!! I'm tired, at all your accomplishment! :-)

    Egg shells and coffee grounds to feed tomato plants! Husband and grand son are planting them today. Have to try the "feed" idea.

    We made mayonnaise, a long time ago. And it was good. Would be a wise thing to do, as mass produced "stuff," is full of "unknowns" and just plain not-good stuff.


    A 'Nana' in the upper North East of the US

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    1. From one Nana to another....
      I googled growing tomatoes over the winter and discovered that tomatoes and peppers are supposed to love coffee grounds and eggshells, the latter well broken up which is why I use the blender. Tomato plants are thriving on this regular brew. We are still drinking filter coffee in the morning but soon we'll be drinking not iced coffee with instant nescafe

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    2. Hard writing correct comments on the tablet. Soon we'll be drinking only iced coffee. Too hot for hot coffee

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    3. Our tomatoes are planted, in the little garden, in next door son/family's yard. Their chickens can run around fenced in yard, at times. So.... The chickens may well be attracted, to the egg shell "brew." :-)

      So that's why husband doesn't want to try it.

      I had forgotten the chickens. -grin-

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  3. Busy days! Thanks for the coffee and eggshell tip, we'll give that a go. If you have made that ice cream, I'll have mine with a dollop of that strawberry sauce, sounds so good that I'll risk a migraine for it. My stick blender is definitely one of my ten favourite kitchen gadgets, they are so useful.

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    1. The coffee and eggshells seem to be appreciated by the plants, along with a few goat droppings. I see tomatoes on the vine

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  4. Round zucchinis I've never ever seen those but I have seen flat peaches a few months ago when it was Summer here.

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    1. Flat peaches, wonders will never cease lol

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  5. Years and years and years ago....a long time ago.....like 1970/80s..... I would make mayo like that using a Tupperware hand shaken fizzy blender type thingy. Had a little zing to it - the mayo not the shaker - and yes I was the only one to use it.
    Everyone else wanted Heinz salad cream or shop bought mayonaise.
    I must look out for flat peaches and I laughed at the coffee grounds and egg shells for tomatoes - it's also recommended to put round roses as well!

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    1. That is a Tupperware mug/bowl thing that I used, which I presume you recognised . It's almost as old as I am lol
      I'll use that milkshake n the roses too. Thanks

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  6. I made strawberry jam yesterday, and I've also made Mayo with this method; it takes seconds.

    I don't like those flat peaches. I much prefer the big fat white peaches that dribble juice down your chin.

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    1. I won't bother buying these peaches. I'm a traditional peach person. Why bother. Dribbling juice is fine with me too

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  7. I’ve see. The flat peaches. I’ve never had one but any fresh fruit has to be good for you
    I have a lemon squeezer that looks like a giant garlic press. It’s no much easier on my hands. And gets all the juice out easily.

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    1. We have three types are f lemon juicers and I am not thrilled with any other f them. The good old fork works well, gets the juice out and rinses quickly. However I'll keep an eye out for the one you mention

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  8. An only egg needs a lot of oil and makes a huge amount of maionaise and, unless you're feeding an army, it's a waste to make homemade. I made it a couple of times. The oil must drop in a continuous thin stream while the processor is spinning. I used to put the vinigar in hot; it was meant to preserve the maionaise for a little longer.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. With the stick blender you don't have to dribble in the oil. You just pulse and it immulsifies immediately without separating the egg and oil.
      It is as you say, makes enough for an army. Don't think I'll bother again. We mostly we oil and vinegar vinaigrette. You probably do too in Italy.

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    2. Yes, salt, pepper, vinigar and olive oil. x

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  9. Re: your comment on my blog... That you love the illustrations, I used. Thank you!!!!

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  10. Your illustrations make the blog a pleasure to read

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  11. I've seen the flat peaches here but they're very expensive. I'd much rather have a nice big, round, juicy one. I save all my coffee grounds and sprinkle them around my tomato plants and blueberry bushes and then water them. Also pulverize the egg shell in my food processor and sprinkle those around the tomato plants.

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    1. Thank goodness for google. I would never have thought f coffee grounds and eggshells. They used to just go in the compost. Now I keep them separate

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