Recycling store bought vegetables

Since sowing certain vegetables from seed can be unpredictable, and I am determined to ensure my first season of gardening produces a small variety of edibles, I have looked to other methods of growing.

Regrowing cut vegetables is something that we came across not long ago in an article and I thought it was a fantastic way to reduce waste, get more greens and save money!

It's a very simple method at absolutely zero cost! Cut vegetables the way you usually do to cook and put the bottoms in water. 

Cut ends of pak choi, fennel, and celery

I have done it with pak choi, fennel and celery. In over a week, new shoots will start growing.

Regrown pak choi

Regrown celery

And then it's time plant them in soil. 

(The fennel is still slowing growing but not yet photo worthy)

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Related Posts

Potato plant

My potato plants seem to be doing well, popping their leaves above the soil so I'll add a bit more soil like I've read should be done so it buries the potatoes deeper, allowing more room below for growth. So will keep adding until the soil reaches the top of the box and hopefully will have some potatoes later in the year.

Potato plant

Sourdough olive bread

Every fortnight I bring some bread into the office, my colleagues bring accompaniments, and we have ourselves a mini buffet. For this week I made an olive bread, which everyone enjoyed, but the comment from one of my colleagues sums it up "this bread even smells good"! So if you like olives and if you like bread, you should give this one a try.

Sliced olive bread

Ingredients

• 250g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 275g water
• 1 lemon, zest only
• 350g white bread flour
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 200g olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 2tsp italian herbs
• 2tsp salt

Method

• Measure the water into a mixing bowl and mix in the starter and the lemon zest.
• Add the flours, the herbs, and the salt and mix until well incorporated. Add the olives, and fold until they are part of the dough. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled surface and knead it about 10-12 times. Shape it into a ball, put the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Rest the dough for 30 minutes. Repeat this process three more times.
• After the last knead, put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and rest it for 1 hour. 
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes. 
• Shape the dough into a tight ball and put it in a floured bread basked, seam side up, and proof it for about 4 hours. 
• Bake in a pre-heated oven to 230C for 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 220C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until done.

Sourdough flatbreads

We have been trying to have a picnic for a while now, but the weather has not been very cooperative. So we had a picnic for two indoors, with a few dips, cheese, spanish sausage and salad, and served with this freshly made flatbreads. It is quite entertaining to watch them puff up in the oven while baking. These are best served soft and warm.

Sourdough flatbreads

Ingredients

• 100g sourdough starter
• 125g white bread flour
• 75g wholemeal flour or rye flour
• 135g water
• 15g olive oil
• 1/2tsp salt

Method

• Measure the water into a mixing bowl and mix in the starter and the olive oil.
• Add the flours and the salt, and mix until everything is well incorporated. Cover and rest the dough for 10 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled surface and knead it about 10-12 times. Shape it into a ball, put the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Rest the dough for 10 minutes. Repeat this process 2 more times.
• After kneading the last time, rest the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, divide it in 6 pieces and shape each one into a ball. Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Roll each ball into a thin disk, cover and rest it for a couple of minutes.
• Bake each piece in a pre-heated oven to 250C for around 4 minutes, or until puffy. Don't let the tops brown. Once backed wrap the breads with a cloth to keep them soft.

Drying rosemary

My rosemary plant is looking nice and healthy with lots of lilac flowers so I've decided to give it a little prune and dry some rosemary.

Rosemary plant

After giving them a good rinse, I tried to use the excess heat of the oven after cooking over a few days to dry my herbs.

Rosemary on baking sheet

I read that rosemary loses its flavour if dried too quickly so if oven drying it, it needs to be at around 60-80C, and turned once a while to even out the drying process.  But I was impatient and put them in whilst the oven was too hot and my first batch came out too dark.

So picked a second lot... 

Freshly picked rosemary

And this time decided to use the old fashion method of air drying them hanging them they upside down using my handy clothes peg device.

Air dried rosemary

After about 2 weeks, I began stripping them off the bark and took out any brown bits leaving just the green leaves and violet flowers which I thought looked very pretty.

Sorting out the dried rosemary bits

I then made origami packets and gave them away to some friends.

Origami packets

Spiced sourdough rye bread

This is a rye bread even for people that don't like rye. It is now one of my favourite breads, packed with aromatic spices, the smell that fills the kitchen when baking is just amazing, and so is the bread. It goes both with sweet or savoury toppings, but the way I prefer is lightly toasted with some goats butter. Simple but delicious.

Sliced and ready to be eaten

Ingredients

• 125g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 190g water
• 20g molasses
• 1tsp fennel seeds
• 1tsp aniseed
• 1/2tsp caraway seeds
• Zest of one orange
• 125g rye flour
• 125g white bread flour
• 1tsp salt

Method

• Measure the water into a mixing bowl and mix in the starter. Add the molasses, all the spices and the orange zest, and mix.
• In a separate bowl mix the flours together with the salt. Add the flours to the wet mixture, mixing until well incorporated. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled surface and knead it about 10-12 times. Shape it into a ball and put the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Repeat this process 3 more times.
• After kneading the last time, rest the dough for 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Shape the dough into a tight ball and put it in a floured bread basked, seam side up, and proof it for about 4 hours.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven to 240C for 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 220C and bake for a further 15 minutes or until done.

Homemade tabasco

I do love a few dashes of tabasco on pizza and pasta and have always been curious on how it's made. I was planning to make some if my chilli plants are successful later in the season but since my friend left some chillies at mine, I decided to experiment. Looking at a few recipes online, I didn't have enough ingredients to follow any of them exactly so I improvised.

I took the 4 large chillies that were left, cut them into chunks, about 1/2 cup of cider vinegar, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, all in a saucepan and simmered for about 5 minutes. Then put them in a blender, blitzed and poured it into a bottle where it will sit in the fridge for 3 weeks or more. Shop bought tabasco has a distinct taste from fermenting for years in barrels so I'm extremely curious how mine will taste!

My tabasco experiment

Rosemary, potato, and raisin sourdough

This one started by just being a simple potato bread, but during the mixing of the ingredients I decided to experiment and added a few more things, fresh rosemary leaves and some raisins.

Dough during the kneading stage

Ingredients:

• 250g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 300g water
• 75g grated potatoes, with skin
• 25g honey
• 2 sprigs of rosemary (leaves only)
• 100g raisins
• 2tsps salt
• 150g wholemeal bread flour
• 350g white bread flour

Method:

• In a large bowl mix the starter, water, potatoes, honey, rosemary, raisins, and the salt. Add the flours and mix until everything is well incorporated and you have a slightly sticky dough. Cover with a cloth and rest the dough for 30 minutes.
• On an oiled surface, knead the dough 10 to 12 times, shape into a ball, put it back in the bowl and cover it. Repeat this process three more times.
• After the last knead, put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and rest it for 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Shape the dough into a tight ball and put it in a floured bread basked, seam side up, and proof it for about 4 hours.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven to 230C for 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 220C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until done.

The finished product - Rosemary, potato, and raisin sourdough bread

Buckwheat pancakes

Is there anything better for breakfast than pancakes? Probably not, and by using buckwheat flour instead of normal flour the pancakes gain a nutty and delicious flavour. Also some say it is healthier.

Buckwheat pancakes served with blood oranges and bananas

This recipe makes four pancakes.

Ingredients:

• 125g buckwheat flour
• 1tsp backing powder
• 1/4tsp salt
• 50g plain yogurt
• 75g milk or water
• 1 egg
• 1tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup or honey
• 1tbsp olive oil

Method:

• In a bowl, mix together the flour, backing powder and salt.
• In a different bowl whisk together the yogurt, water, egg, agave and olive oil.
• Add the wet mix to the flour and mix together until well incorporated. Let it rest for a couple of minutes.
• Pre-heat a frying pan on low heat and drop a ladle fill of batter into the pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Once done transfer to a plate and cover with a cloth to keep warm, while making the rest of the pancakes.
• Enjoy with fresh cut fruit and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Those little tasty Portuguese egg tarts (Pastéis de nata)

Pastéis de nata (Portuguese egg tarts) are one of our favourite Portuguese pastries. During our last visit to Portugal we tried to find a recipe so we could finally have a go at making them. They didn't come out as desired and they don't look like the real thing, because we had to make a few changes due to the items available in our pantry. But they still tasted delicious, and we will definitely make them again.

Pastéis de nata, sprinkled with cinnamon

The recipe we followed is in Youtube in Portuguese, but it should be clear enough to follow. We only made half of the recipe, and because we didn't have caster sugar, we used light brown sugar instead, and reduced the amount by 50 grams. They were still very sweet.

Rooting lavender mint and melissa cuttings in water

I took some cuttings from our family's garden in Portugal and rooted them in water when we got back about 3 weeks ago. 

Rooted cuttings

The parsley cuttings completely didn't survive but the lavender mint and melissa have rooted nicely (apart from one) and I have repotted them and hopefully they will be able to flourish in their new environment.

Lavender mint

Melissa

Planter boxes from old shelves

We have a small plot on our flat roof to grow our greens and since it's a terrace, we have to grow in containers.

The previous owners have done a fantastic job on it and left us a few nice plants. But of course we want to grow more and have planned this even before we moved by keeping some of our old shelving units to make into planter boxes. 

Our old shelves in pieces

I have resisted buying any additional pots or grow bags until the planters are made, to ensure I don't buy anything unnecessary.

Finally we had some time to get started and this is what we have made so far. 

First planter box