Hand made pasta

I have lots and lots of eggs. One of the ways I am using them is to make hand made pasta.
In fact it is a good way of storing the surplus eggs. Make up a big batch of pasta dough, divide it into serving size balls and freeze it.
Making pasta from scratch is very easy and really it takes not much more time to prepare it than it does to reach for bought pasta and is way more yummy.
I knead my pasta in the bread machine for 5 minutes, but it can be done by hand easily enough.
I also have a pasta cutter, but the dough can be rolled out by hand very thinly and cut with a knife.
 I divide this recipe into 3 balls. When I am by myself one ball is a big enough serving, but when there are two of us the 3 balls give a generous serving each.
The recipe:
1 1/2 c flour. (I have used all purpose flour in past, but now use spelt flour)
2 eggs
1 tbsp. oil
I put all the ingredients in the bread machine. It may be necessary to adjust the liquids. Add a little water if the mix is dry or a little more flour it is a bit wet.
Knead for 5 minutes.
Divide into 3 balls. Keep well floured and roll it out.

 

Here are the balls of dough. Some are wrapped ready to go into the freezer.

 

 

Roll out thinly and cut into thin strips or do this with the pasta cutter. I then hang it on a wooden spoon while I make the sauce. this helps dry it a little and I find it is less inclined to clump when cooking.

To cook throw the cut pasta  into boiling water. It'll only take a few minutes to cook and be ready for your favourite pasta sauce.

 

 

Keeping the garden producing

Over the summer, I try and plant a few seeds every week, so that the garden keeps producing. It is easy to not plant and have the garden grind to a halt mid summer.
If we were here for the winter I'd start planting for that season, but we leave here late April, so my plantings are timed for then. In fact I probably won't plant much more now except for green manures and garlic.
This summer is another hot and dry one. The rain that is promised never seems to materialise.
So it takes a bit of effort to keep planting. I have been starting peas, beans, pak choi and lettuce every few weeks since we arrived here in December, and hope the season favours some of them.
Here I have some lettuce that I started about 2 weeks ago. They'll probably be planted out in about 3 more weeks.

These seedlings were started about 5 weeks ago. As I find space I'll start planting them out. They are big enough that they should survive well after the transplant.

These I started in early January and have been eating leaves from them for a couple of weeks now.
I have more of the same in the garden, but I like to have a few lettuces from each sowing planted in pots so I can baby them along, and it offers a little insurance if something happens to the ones in the garden.

Most of the beans that were started in October were finished by the time we arrived back in late December. I managed to keep a few purple podded bean plants going for a while, but in the heat they gave up also, though the scarlet runner beans have continued to do well. I have some bush Roquefort beans that were started in January just coming into production, so it looks like we'll have lots of beans again until we leave.

Lots and lots of tomatoes

The tomatoes are finally producing faster than we can eat them.

 

 It is time to make some relish. The rest get cooked up and mushed and preserved as passata to be used in future sauces.

Yogurt

We use yogurt in a variety of ways. The obvious is plain served with fresh fruit and or granola.
But we also use it in the fabulous Indian curries that Steve makes and we also make a tasty soft cheese from it.
Yogurt is easy to make. If you don't have some left over from a previous batch you can buy some plain unsweetened yogurt and use this as a starter.
I use powdered milk to make mine, as I usually have a bag of it on hand, but of course fresh milk will work as well.

 

To make the yogurt:

If I am using milk powder, I put 1/2 c milk powder in a jar with 2 c water and 1/4c plain yogurt from a previous batch. Shake it altogether and put in a warm spot for 8 hrs. If you are using fresh milk add the 1/4c yogurt starter to 2 c milk.

For the warm spot I usually use a rice cooker. I place the jar with the milk mixture in it, in the rice cooker that has enough water in it to bring it above the level of the milk mixture in the jar. I set the rice cooker to the warm mode,( leave the rice cooker lid off) and leave it in over night.

A hot water cupboard would work as well. I have even placed the yogurt mix on the dash of a car on a warm day.

 

 

 

For the soft cheese:
We tip the yogurt into a muslin lined strainer that is sitting on a bowl. Gather the muslin at the top and twist lightly, then place a weight on top of the yogurt that is wrapped in the muslin. For the weight I use a jar filled with water. The idea is to drain the whey out of the yogurt and be left with the dryish curds.
This can take an hour or 2.
The clear whey can be used to replace liquids in another recipe.
The curds can have salt and pepper, garlic, herbs, smoked fish or whatever other flavourings you can think to add to it.
This is heavenly on a cracker or slice of bread, either by its self or maybe with a slice of tomato or avocado.

A rose by any other name...

Yesterday in my garden I found a perfect rose.
I have no idea of its name. It has a wonderful perfume, flowers continuously through the summer, and each flower is a blend of pinks and golden yellows.
I'm not a rose person, but this rose came from my mothers garden as a cutting. She is not with us now, but the rose continues to flourish in the garden, and every flower it produces is a poignant reminder of my mum.