Kathryn's Blog (15)

Green Lentils

With the cooler weather starting and the winter veggies appearing we tend to eat slightly more legumes at this time. It isnt always easy to think of ways to utilise them. I have over many years being cooking with lentils both green and red, they are very nutritious and very cheap which makes them ideal for cooking on a budget or for large meals. With these recipes you can use canned if you wish, I usually have some precooked in my freezer for times when I need to make a meal in a hurry. SALAD… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 15, 2009 at 12:30am — 2 Comments

Olives

Have been to the Bazar and bought several kilos of Olives. The ones they sell are green, havent seen any black at the local bazars. I came home and cut into all the olives and have started the leaching. In about a months time I should have some olives ready for the table. I took a knife and cut 2 vertical cuts into each one, then using several containers added water. You then change the water every day for about a month until all the bitterness has left. Then you use a brine solution. It is ver… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 4, 2009 at 6:00am — 3 Comments

Eggplants, Peppers and Zuchinni

İf you have been blessed with an abundance of produce you may want to think about something a little differerent. These are great and easy to make. The peppers are easiest so we will start with those. You cut the tops off the peppers, deseed and wash them. Get a needle and thick th… Continue

Added by Kathryn on August 27, 2009 at 1:40am — 5 Comments

Green Beans

Green Beans are in. İ like them straight off the vine best but this recipe is great. İ will post 2 recipes - same recipe but with a twist. Green Beans 1 1 kilo beans topped, tailed and chopped into halves or quaters 2 onions, finely diced 1 tbsp tomato paste 2 tomatoes finely diced salt and pepper to taste chilli if so desired Saute the onion in a little oil, add in the beans and saute until the colour changes. then add in the tomato paste etc. Add enough water to cover the beans and cook on… Continue

Added by Kathryn on August 7, 2009 at 7:42am — No Comments

Summer Bounty

Here is the time for stone fruits, the cherries have past but we have saved all the stems for winter use. Apricots and peaches have come in so will be making jam soon. İ am waiting for all the little gerkins and small green chillies so İ can pickle those for winter. The herb prices are at a low at the moment so İ intend on buying quite a few to dry(one kilo of parsley is1 lira, very cheap and about the same as the Australian dollar) İ had lunch at a restaurant today, lamachun(flat bread with a… Continue

Added by Kathryn on August 6, 2009 at 9:40am — No Comments

Asure or Noahs Pudding

Asure day is coming up in Turkey, it is a food that is made and eaten over a couple of days. Usually people will make it and give some to thier neighbours. Over the last few years İ have been lucky enough to sample quite a few bowls. There is a main recipe people seem to follow but within that alot of variations, even minor changes can change the whole taste. İt is said this food was made first by Noah, after he came to ground as he looked at his stores and what was left he mixed in a pot and m… Continue

Added by Kathryn on December 30, 2008 at 8:22am — 2 Comments

SALGAM

Black Carrots as they are called in Turkish - Siyah Havuc - are great. We would probably say they are purple or some even red, they are the same colour as purple cabbages just slightly deeper. My husband comes from Adana and there is a famous drink made from these black carrots. İ was first introduced to this elixir at a restaurant that got it from major supplier. İ thought it was the most disgusting thing İ had ever tasted, it had alot of vinegar in it. İ have since made my own and even though… Continue

Added by Kathryn on December 24, 2008 at 4:58am — No Comments

Red Cabbage

İ spent yesterday cutting up a large red cabbage. İt is said that in the Mersin-Tarsaus region red cabbage pickle is famous. İt is usually served with an onion salad, green salad and kebaps. 1 head or more of red cabbage Salt Citric acid Lemon Garlic Finely slice cabbage and add rest of ingredients to large container and fill with water. İ havent used amounts as that depends on the size of your container and the amount of cabbage. İf you want to add garlic then add as much or as little as you… Continue

Added by Kathryn on December 16, 2008 at 2:08am — 1 Comment

Kale-Kara Lahana

İ have seen Kale growing in my neighbours garden and thought what would you do with this? İ have seen it for sale in the pazars and thought how would you cook it? So İ have never ventured there. But İ have seen a few peoples posts and a great looking recipe on this site about Kale. At first İ didnt recognise it as here it goes by the name Kara lahana which means black cabbage and tradditionally this is a food of the people in the Black Sea region. My neighbour who İ mentioned earlier is from the… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 24, 2008 at 9:29am — 2 Comments

Celeriac

There are two recipes İ will give for this vegetable, both of which are lovely and both of which İ have been told by İstanbul natives as coming from İstanbul itself. The first recipe İ believe is an old one. Celeriac With Orange Juice 1 celeriac 1 potato 2 onions 1 carrot 2 cups of orange juice salt pepper garlic if desired This is known in Turkey as an Olive oil dish and as such usually are served cold. İ eat this hot or cold served with rice. One of my friends says it cant have garl… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 17, 2008 at 6:05am — 1 Comment

More Dried Soup

OK here are a couple of more ideas to make your own dried soup. Like İ said earlier making it is very easy and economical - it is always nice to have something in your cupboards that you know is healthy and you know exactly what is in it. Vegetable Soup 1 kilo of vegetables - your choice 5 onions garlic as much or little as you want - İ put in more as the taste is subtle in the end salt 7 cups of flour or as much as you need to make a soft dough Cut all the vegetables up into small pie… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 13, 2008 at 2:49am — 1 Comment

Pekmez Grape and otherwise

This post really goes on from the last one about pomegranate molasses as it uses the same process. So easy and the end result is fantastic. Pekmez you probably know it as Grape Molasses is also a wonderful product claimed here as a cure all tonic with some doctors prescribing it. İt can… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 12, 2008 at 2:55am — No Comments

Pomegranate Molasses

İ go to the Pazar every weekend and at the moment Pomegranates are in. For 1 lira a kilo you cant get better. This year they seem bigger-juicier and redder. You can eat them straight out of the skin or pull them apart and eat them more delicately either way they are great and very healthy. Fights Breast Cancer Lung Cancer Prevention Slows Prostate Cancer Keeps PSA Levels Stable Protects the Neonatal Brain Prevention of Osteoarthritis Protects the Arteries Alzheimer's Disease Preventi… Continue

Added by Kathryn on November 11, 2008 at 2:30pm — 7 Comments

Sun dried tomato paste

İ have a great recipe for you if you grow lots of tomatoes or if you cant get them bulk cheap. İf you like tomato paste and want to make your own this is a great recipe - the bonus is it is sun dried so you dont need to store it in the fridge. Because you sun dry it the flavour is deeper. You dont dry it to the jerky-rollup stage you just dry it enough so it can be stored. You can also make this with red capsicums and it is much nicer. Here is the tomato one to start with. İ would start with 25… Continue

Added by Kathryn on October 21, 2008 at 4:26am — 5 Comments

Make your own dried soup

İn Turkey everyone used to be pretty much self sufficent and alot of the people still are making everything from dried soups to textiles to shoes. Many of the villages still make thier tradditonal crafts and most are specific to each region. But all of the villages grow thier own produce and process for the coming months. They make some amazing things from Pekmez which is a syrup from boiled grapes - mulberries or carob pods. Pismaniye they make at home it is a spun sugar product that the women… Continue

Added by Kathryn on October 11, 2008 at 4:05am — 2 Comments

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8 hours ago

Mary Riekert left a comment for Sally Parrot

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Martha Hill replied to Janet Hoshel's discussion 'Vert Slightly sweet sauerkraut ????'

Thank you for the email addy !! I am always looking for variations on the food I preserve !! Let us know how yours turns out !! You can`t have too many recipes you know !! I don`t think that I would add sugar till after the brining process !! It c...

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Congrats on your new venture !!! Hope it does well !! Will be looking for you back in the future when you have things under way !!

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Martha Hill replied to Penelope's discussion 'Feeling Stuck'

You are forgetting one thing !! The person who will be eating the food you prepare !! Yourself !!! If it pleases you,,,I wouldn`t worry about anything else !! Cooking should be an adventure !! I wouldn`t make a comparison unless you have tasted th...

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Georg Strafella replied to Jeff St.Clair's discussion 'Compost news'

hi jeff, as i suppose you live in crete, do know anything more about the phrase "strafela", is this a usual word in greek?? or is it used just in certain parts of crete?? would be great if you could give me any info about it, thanks, georg

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Maggie commented on Glenn Fletcher's photo 'My Allotment'

Wow, they are good sized plots. I wish we had allotment areas here in Adelaide. Do you get to know the other allotment gardeners?. We have almost finished our composting, pruning back, seed saving and planting out of our seedlings. With a small ga...

11 hours ago

Glenn Fletcher commented on Glenn Fletcher's photo 'My Allotment'

Hi Kathryn This image is a screenshot from Google Earth. The only drawback with Google Earth is that you cannot zoom in as close as you would like. I have a greenhouse in the bottom right and a shed and covered compost bin at top right. A lot of t...

14 hours ago

Glenn Fletcher commented on Salma Kamal's blog post 'Pakistan: “Home Kitchen gardening to crush hunger”.'

Hi Salma I am lucky in that my allotment is only a short bicycle ride from my house. Some people in larger cities like London have to travel to theirs in a car. It is interesting to find out from you just how things are in your country. I think as...

14 hours ago

Bea Kunz replied to Roger's discussion 'Press inquiry: Women gardeners feeding the hungry'

Thanks for sharing Roger, I sent my info and will let you know what transpires. Have a Joyful day~ Bea Kunz

15 hours ago

Salma Kamal commented on Salma Kamal's blog post 'Pakistan: “Home Kitchen gardening to crush hunger”.'

How times have changed. There was time when there was no food shortage and agriculture was not a profitable business. The poor farmer was having a hard time. After toiling in the field from dawn to dusk he failed to generate enough money to suppor...

16 hours ago

Salma Kamal commented on Salma Kamal's blog post 'Pakistan: “Home Kitchen gardening to crush hunger”.'

Glenn!British allotment system is quite interesting. It should be initiated here in Pakistan. Is this alloted land close to your home? I mean you have to travel to your home kitchen garden to fetch your vegetables ??

17 hours ago

James R. McBride replied to PiscesGirl's discussion 'Seed Sources?'

I also recommend Seed Savers Exchange. Not only does Heritage Farm offer seeds they've grown, but you can become a member and exchange thousands of seeds with other gardeners. The beauty of seed savers is you can use heirloom seeds that you have g...

23 hours ago

amna mufti commented on Salma Kamal's blog post 'Pakistan: “Home Kitchen gardening to crush hunger”.'

........So the story is that this land is under the unlawful use of big wigs.No body dares to touch them.As they are usually in govt.or are the relatives of those in power.That is why I was telling Salma,problem is not simple.It is so intricate,it...

yesterday

amna mufti commented on Salma Kamal's blog post 'Pakistan: “Home Kitchen gardening to crush hunger”.'

Glenn! we also have the same allotment system.In which about 550 square feet ,(if I am not mistaken) or so is alloted to a family to grow fuel wood on it .Govt. only plants the trees and then the family looks it aftern grow what everthey want alon...

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Mussarat Nadeem is now friends with Kathryn and amna mufti

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Wild Edible Hunters

DIscussion group for people who hunt wild edibles.

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Kathryn commented on Glenn Fletcher's blog post 'What is an Allotment'

I would love to have an allotment, there needs to be more of them.

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Notes

HOW TO - ADD A LINK

Several people have experienced difficulty putting working links into comments and blogs etc and I know it is clumsy.... so here is how you do it.....

First type the text you want to appear.... ie IAN'S PAGE

Then go back and highlight the link text.

Then hit the hyperlink button...a pictogram of a chain link.

Your browser may intervene and request permission to allow temporary scripting or some similar message. Allow it and go back and highlight the text again

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Created by Ian Jun 7, 2009 at 7:28pm. Last updated by Ian Jun 8.

Forum Policy

Hi, I'm starting to put together a few guidlines on using the discussion forum on here.

I would be happy to hear any comments you may have. This is very much a work in progress so plese feel free to ask me to add anything you think is needed.

I don't want to make our community hide bound by rules and regulations but I think that, as the community has grown, some explanation of what is expected is needed.

Administration

You can refer any que

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Created by Ian May 23, 2009 at 1:55am. Last updated by Ian May 25.

Climate maps

Hi following recent discussion I have put climate maps of the USA, Australia and Europe on here for reference..

Climate map of the USA

Climate map of Australia

Climate map of Europe

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Created by Ian Sep 12, 2008 at 6:20pm. Last updated by Ian Apr 14.

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes

Hi Everyone, I've started to collect together recipes from various posts on the site and put them all together here.

If you have a recipe you want to add on here, just post it on the site and leave a comment on my page telling me where it is and I'll go and fetch it back here.

They are organised in Contributor Order but I'm open to better suggestions!

BEVA'S RECIPES

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Created by Ian Jun 2, 2008 at 9:54am. Last updated by Ian Apr 13.

US STATES ABBREVIATIONS

US STATE ABBREVIATIONS

AK - Alaska               AL - Alabama              AR - Arkansas
AZ - Arizona              CA - California           CO - Colorado
CT - Connecticut          DC - Dist of Columbia *   DE - Delaware
FL - Florida              GA - Georgia              GU

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Created by Ian Jan 27, 2009 at 4:27pm. Last updated by Ian Jan 27.

HOW TO - MAKE COMPOST

Recently there was an excellent discussion about composting. I’ve pulled together all the various comments here. You can also watch KGI's video on composting here.

KATE’S ADVICE

I used to have a tumbler that we made from a wine-barrel but

1 you have to fill it up all at once

2. it seemed mostly

… Continue

Created by Ian May 30, 2008 at 5:29am. Last updated by Roger Jan 15.