Category: Recipes

Continue reading Spring Greens Salad Recipe

Autumn is in full swing which means we are right in the middle of another Feijoa season which typically runs from late March until June. Today we made the most of it and went out foraging some and collected a huge box full for everyone to share. Although Feijoas are not actually native to New Zealand, as they originated from South America, they have become some what of a regular in peoples backyards. These green egg shaped fruits don’t look particularly exciting but when you cut them in half and see the pretty clover shaped pattern and jelly like seed pulp that runs through them then take a whiff of their distinctive sweet aroma things definitely start to look up.

After various sessions of stewing, bottling and just happily munching away on them straight from the box we decided to make some Feijoa Kefir Sodas. Here’s the recipe taken from the fermented drinks section of our book change of heart incase you have your own harvest that you’re looking for different ways to utiltise them.

Feijoa Kefir Soda

1 x 4 litre glass jar

Kefir Grains (Well washed)
The best place to source these is via this facebook group and they can give you lots of fermenting tips and tricks.

Good Quality Water

Sweetener (honey, rapadura or stevia)

3 slices of fresh ginger

Glass jars with screw on lids

Feijoas scooped out

• Put all ingredients into the 4 litre jar, putting the lid on (but not tight). Leave in a warm place until you see bubbles around the top (in the summer I leave the jar on the kitchen bench, in the winter I put it into the hot water cupboard or beside the wood stove). Ideally it takes about 2-3 days to produce bubbles.

• Once you have small bubbles, simply strain the liquid through a sieve into a fliptop bottle (eg 2 litre Grolsch bottles), and leave for 2 days before drinking (This will finish the process of turning the sugar into fizz and make it a delicious and super healthy drink, because of the range of bacteria and fungi the kefir grains impart into the drink – super good for our entire digestive system!)

• Retrieve your kefir grains from the sieve and rinse them under the tap, to begin your next jar of soda. Just as it is with all of these ‘living’ foods, the air temperature and season will affect the way they work, so you have to ‘tune in’. Placing your bottled sodas in the fridge will slow down the process of fermentation, if that is what you need.

Essene Bread/Sprouted Wheat Cakes

This is wonderful bread, so sweet and full of flavoursome texture, that you hardly need anything to spread on it. I love to eat it by the chunk with soup.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups whole wheat or rye sprouts, or a mix of both (use within 48 hours of the first white root tips appearing). You can also make these using Konini Wheat, Essene Flaxseed or Barley.
1/2 tsp sea salt a little warm water 1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)

METHOD

1. Grind the sprouts in your corn grinder, or suitable electric alternative. I prefer to have some grains still almost whole and others finely ground. You’ll get your own idea of how you like to grind the sprouts with experience, all ways are good. At this point you have to decide if you need to add a little warm water. Sometimes the mixture after sprouting is a little too hard or stiff to work with easily, other times it seems fine. It needs to be feeling soft and springy, so if you need to add water to achieve this, add it here.
2. Mix the sea salt and caraway seeds into the mixture, remove from bowl and form a round loaf with your hands. Place onto a floured oven tray and bake at 95-150°C for 4 hours, or if you have a hot dry climate you can bake the loaves in the sun, turning them once. I’ll try this in our solar drier.
3. You can make small loaves as well, about 3cm high and 5cm wide, like little buns (which will cook far quicker). You can also flatten the mixture into an oiled cake tin and bake like a big flat biscuit – this can have grooves cut into it half way through cooking, to become break lines for the biscuits – or make small cakes and fry in a pan. All these smaller versions of the round loaf will cook faster, so keep an eye on them. Time to cook will obviously depend on the size you make them.
4. Leave the loaf to cool completely before breaking to eat. Do not attempt to slice this bread with a bread knife!!!

Herby Cheese Dip (p.192) or kefir cheese (p.57) is great on this bread, you will find these recipes in Kay & Bob’s recipe book – Change of Heart.

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What are Vegetable Lactic Pickles?

Lactic Fermentation refers to Lactobacillus bacteria which are present on the surface of all plants. They convert sugars into lactic acid which is a natural preservative. If you’re living without a fridge to cut down on costs then this is quite important and you’ll love ferments once you get started! It’s essential food security and a great way to store food.

Almost all traditional cultures in the world ate their main meals with side dishes of lactic vegetable pickles in some form, and even today millions of people around the world still do. These lactic pickles are not not only a wonderful digestive aid, but also add much flavour to your meal, going together perfectly. It’s not only a digestive aid but the food becomes much more nutritious because the actions of the anaerobic microbes unlock more minerals than our digestive system with it’s aerobic microbes are able to do. So fermented cabbage is more nutritious than a raw cabbage and much easier to digest. If you are a person who has indigestion on a regular basis, then take a little sauerkraut juice before dinner every night, it is wonderful stuff!

LACTIC FERMENT BEETROOT PICKLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

Beetroot
1 Liter wide-mouthed jars
1 tsp sea salt per jar
1 tsp mustard seeds per jar
1 heaped tsp honey per jar
2-4 tsp whey per jar
brine (1 Tbsp of sea salt for each cup of filtered water)

METHOD

1. Cut the tops off your beetroot and scrub, ready to bake with the skin on. Bake until the flesh is soft but firm. Remove from the oven and when cooled slip the skins off the beetroot.
2. Cut the beetroot into 1cm cubes and place into jars (Agee bottling jars etc.). Pound the cubes a little to make sure they are packed tightly into the jar and the juice is beginning to be released.
3. Add salt, mustard seeds, honey, whey and enough brine to cover2cm over the top of the beetroot. Leave in a warm place for 3 days, then put into fridge for 4 weeks before eating.

If you like this recipe check out Change of Heart which is the book it’s published in. Plenty more lactic ferments to discover in there too!

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We can speak from vast experience that this is AMAZING!!! She makes it then just add’s it to her fresh baked beans and BAM! Amazingness! It’s also perfect with scrambled eggs for a quick and easy lunch!

Eggplant pepper tomato oil pickle

2kgs eggplants, any kind
1kg onions, any kind
1 kg peppers (any kind, if they are hot the sauce will be hot)
2 kgs fresh tomatoes
2 bulbs of fresh garlic
unrefined seasalt to taste
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 Tbsp black mustard seeds
1 Tbsp turmeric powder
1/2 litre olive oil

Char eggplants, peppers, onions on the BBQ (ours is a rocket stove BBQ)until soft. Remove and when cool peel off charred skins. Chop into chunks, then ¼ tomatoes, removing hard cores. Finely chop garlic.

Add oil to wok, the garlic and soften, then add cumin, and mustard seeds, cook 2 minutes then then add all ingredients except tumeric, and gently simmer until all the runny liquid is gone and it is a thick consistency.. add turmeric stir while gently cooking 5 more minutes. .

Pour into small hot jars with hot lids ready and seal.

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A long-time fan of Kay’s work, when Peta Mathias found out about Koanga’s fundraising mission she wanted to know what she could do to help. Not only will she be introducing Kay in Auckland on the speaking tour, Peta also sent us this recipe for our organic heritage artichokes, alongside our old favourites Florence Fennel and Giant Geniton Apples.

Artichoke, Fennel & Blood Orange Salad with Apple Aioli
(For 4 people)

For the salad:
500g fennel bulbs
4 blood oranges
8 baby artichokes or 1 X 390g tin artichoke hearts in brine
100g black olives
extra virgin olive oil
lemons
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
cup of fresh mint, torn but not chopped

1. Trim the ends off the fennel bulbs. Cut in half and cut tough hearts out in a V. Slice finely and immediately place in lemon water to prevent browning.
2. Take one orange and zest half of it. Peel it and the others, removing all the pith. Slice.
3. Cut the baby artichokes in half, scrape out the hairy choke with your finger and boil for 10 mins in salted, lemon water. If using tinned artichokes, cut in half and drain well.
4. Remove the olive stones with an olive stoner and sauté them in hot oil for 5 mins.
5. Drain the fennel well and toss gently with the oranges, zest,  artichokes, olives, salt, pepper and mint. Pile up on a platter and squeeze lemon juice all over. Serve the apple aioli on the side. A glass of Lombardi Sauvignon Blanc to wash it down with would not go astray.

For the Aioli:
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 egg yokes
1 tsp Dijon mustard
500 ml extra virgin olive oil or 1/2 olive 1/2 vegetable oil
lemon juice
a small tart apple, peeled and diced
1. Mash the garlic and salt salt together with a mortar and pestle.
2. Stir in the egg yokes and mustard with the pestle then gradually add the oil drop by drop.
3. When half the oil is in add a little lemon juice and warm water and continue the stream of oil, stirring with the pestle till all is incorporated. This can be done with a food processor or hand beater.
4. Taste for seasoning and stir in the diced apple.

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The Urenika potato was the first Maori potato in Koanga’s collection. It is long and tubular with dark purple skin and flesh, which retains its colour beautifully when cooked. The Urenika is part of our potato trial where we are endeavouring to turn-back the deterioration of New Zealand’s organic heritage potatoes, which have been shrinking in size and losing resilience over the past 20-years. Read about our potato trials for 40-odd NZ organic heritage varieties here.

This Urenika Potato and Quinoa Salad with Capsicum Aioli recipe has kindly been shared with us by Kokako organic cafe in Grey Lynn Auckland. It tastes best when you grow the ingredients yourself  -get your seeds  here.
Serves 4

Salad ingredients
• 500g Urenika purple potatoes (cut into bite-sized pieces)
• 150g red organic quinoa
• 1 courgette (cut into small cubes)
• 10g red onion (sliced very finely)
• 50g green beans (cut into 2cm lengths)
• 10g pinenuts
• 5g chopped spring onion
• 5g chopped parsley

Aioli ingredients
• 25ml extra virgin olive oil
• 125ml canola oil 
• 1 egg yolk
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 red capsicum
• 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
• 1/2-1 Tbsp cabernet sauvignon vinegar (or any kind of red/white wine vinegar)
• salt and pepper to taste
1. Prepare the salad ingredients:
– Boil the Urenika potatoes for 10-15 minutes until sufficiently cooked.
- Cook quinoa in boiling water for 10-15 minutes.
- Sauté courgette until lightly caramelised.
- Spread pinenuts on a baking sheet and bake at 180°C, stirring occasionally, until golden-brown, which should take 5-10 minutes.
2. Prepare the aioli:
– Sauté or roast capsicum until nicely cooked, put aside to cool.
- Place egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, capsicum, salt and pepper in food processor.
- With the motor running, add oil in a thin, steady stream until the mixture emulsifies and thickens.
- Taste and add more seasoning or vinegar if needed.
3. Place all vegetables in a bowl and pour the aioli, toss gently. Taste and season if needed. Sprinkle over pinenuts, parsley and spring onion.

Quinoa

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