Origins of Emails to myself

Recently we had some friends from England, Peter and Helen Cleland, on the boat with us. We had some radical impromptu meals which they seemed to love.

Helen wanted to know how to ‘throw’ food together and I promised to ‘throw’ together a little book of some sorts of things I cook in my own haphazard manner.

Mind you, my food is meant to look haphazard and thrown together but in truth is it the meals are planned meticulously. Menus planned well in advance and shopping done to meet this planning and this makes things much easier for me. Time to drink and talk more than I should!

Peter Cleland happens to be the son of the wonderful woman who first inspired me to cook. Nora Cleland awakened in me what I consider to be a one of the few gifts that I have. I also found that my birth mother also has this gift (although her palate is fading and she is inclined to be like the old woman in the vicar of Dibley who made anchovy and marshmallow sandwiches or raisin and marmite quiche}.

I use the term ‘gift’ modestly but this gift has been passed onto my stupendous daughter Laura, who, I hesitate to say is using her talent and taking her gift to the next level. I never thought I would/could say this…. but she is almost a better cook than I am.

Most of the things I cook are based on the things that are available in the garden, the store cupboard and as a result of my unplanned grocery shopping.

I loved Nigel Slater’s book when he wrote a sort of diary of what he had cooked for his family over a year. The book was punctuated with little anecdotes which makes the book real and heart warming.

I read recipe books in bed and watch endless cooking programs but rarely do I use a recipe but I gather ideas in my sub conscious until needed.

Cooking is my therapy, ‘my act of service and love’. It is my creative outlet, my downfall which makes me fat at times. It is my torment, it is my triumph and my happiness. And I suppose it is my obsession.

Boating salads

Hot smoked salmon and tomato
Asian prawn
Celery apple and walnut

Lemon slice

ANZAC Monday

I am trying to eat the bits in the fridge instead of feeding them to the chooks. I know the scraps come out as eggs but as they are off the lay it seems a bit of a waste.

We had welsh rabbit for breakfast to eat up the left over mashed potato. When I lived in high country I used to make this for the shearers for morning tea and they loved it.

½ mashed potato
½ grated tasty cheese
1 egg yolk
1 small finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped tomato
White pepper to season

Mix it together and heap on brown bread that you have toasted on one side. Put under the grill until they are bubbling nicely.

They are substantial and will keep the most hungry going until lunch or you can serve them for lunch.

Another thing that I do with left over mashed potato is gnocchi. There is something about mashed potato, you can never make enough, I always make too much. My mash would kill a stable of race horses. I remember Grahame Thorne, a friend of the past, making mashed potatoes by mashing the boiling water back into the potato, it was disgusting. You need lots of butter and cream whipped into the well boiled potatoes. Leave on the element to dry off any water that might be lingering in the bottom of the pot.

For little expense and a little time you can have a substantial meal. I recently taught a couple of you girls I work with to make these. They were enchanted when the little dumpling rose to the top of the boiling water that we had popped them into. And even more impressed when they were laid on a deep rich tomato sauce and covered with a little cream and grated cheese and baked in a hot oven until bubbling and little brown crusts of deliciousness form on the top.

1 cup mashed potato
½ cup of flour (this will alter according to how soft the mash is)

Mix the two together with your hands until you feel it forming a soft firmish dough

Divide the mixture into four even pieces and roll them out like we used to roll plastercine until they are about an inch thick. Then cut the ropes into I inch cubes. You are meant to squish it with a fork but I just put my finger into them to flatten them before dropping them into a pot of boiling water a few at a time. The little dumpling will rise to the top and them you take them out when they rise to the top. Drain on a clean dry tea towel before popping them into a dish which you have placed a layer of tomato sauce. Dribble over ½ cup of cream and sprinkle with ½ grated cheese. You can place them on white sauce cover with a little white sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Cleaning Saturday

On Saturdays Robyn and her trusty husband come out to the farm to help and clean. They have been with us for seven years now and since we moved out of the city they still make the journey into the country every Saturday, come hell or high water. I try to make some thing interesting for lunch. This weekend it was white bean, tuna with fettuccine.

Empty a tin of white bean and a tin of chunky tuna into a bowl with half a teaspoon of dry chicken stock powder and the rind and juice of one lemon. I usually add a good handful of finely chopped of flat leafed parsley and a good dollop of grainy mustard. Boil pasta until soft, it needs to be well cooked I think. You can heat this mixture in the microwave before adding the cooked fettuccine.

I usually try to get some preparation cooking done for the following week. Bake a cake, biscuits, make a casserole, make the bread for the week. I also pick and prep the things that have grown in the gardening during the week while I am at work.

I picked the last of the sweet corn and the leggy basil and the bolting coriander which became Coriander/basil almond pesto ready to pile on spaghetti for a hurried meal or spooned onto some grilled chicken or fish.

I found two little cucumbers nestling in the last browning leaves of the vine. I peeled them and made an Asian inspired Dressing by mixing tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce, with the juice of a lime, ½ tablespoon of soya sauce. Tip over the chopped cucumber and chill in the fridge for a long as you can bear it.

There are vases of nasturtium flowers on the window sills punctuated with bunches of rocket. I don’t like rocket much but the big plump leaves look really flashy mixed in with the bright orange flowers.

The last of the green tomatoes need to be picked to be made into green tomato sauce of chutney or green fried tomatoes. Green fried tomatoes.

Feijoas abound for my coconut and almond cake and the last of the quinces are ready to be made into jam, paste. They lambs from last year are in the freezer and this year I make a delicious quince and lamb casserole. The little lamb chops are delicious with Herb butter

I have started to use pulses, beans, rice and pasta more now as they are always at hand.
But recently an African friend has introduced me to dried corn which can be used as Dhal but I have been making a very interesting peas and corn soup.

peas and corn soup
fried rice
Estelle’s chicken, almond and orange risotto