Suburban Life – Page 6 – MakeCookGrow.com

Spots, Rubbish, Books and Electric Cars

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Several technological problems resulted in a muddled and late post last week. My apologies.

SPOTS AND RUBBISH

I have a navy cotton/linen blend dress with big white spots. It’s versatile and can be dressed up with strappy sandals and for a more casual occasion, worn with espadrilles. I’m telling you all this because I’ve just read in a decorating magazine that psychologist Dr Dion Terrelonge says we should avoid spots and polka dots as they can cause stress and a negative effect.

Instead we should opt for horizontal patterns. Apparently our eyes naturally scan horizontally so these designs echo patterns found in nature. Interestingly, the article acknowledge that spots and polka dots are big in fashion this year, but there’s no comment on how these patterns on clothing impact on our stress levels. I really like my navy and white dress and it will be out and about come spring. It will be worn frequently, unlike most pieces of clothing owned by Australian women, which are worn only seven times before being discarded.

Apparently, only 15% of clothing donated to op shops/thrift shops can be on sold. The rest goes overseas to developing countries or is sold by weight as rags. It all ends up as landfill. There’s lots of information online about effectively laundering clothes to keep them looking fresh, ways to invisibly and visibly mend everything, even zips, and reasons why we should all buy less and certainly less man made fibres.

Ahead of the annual Clean Up Australia Day, it has been revealed that beaches in Western Australia are the most littered in Australia. Although we have the least amount of plastics collected in the cleanup, we have the highest amount of other rubbish, mostly metal and glass. This results in 1100 tonnes of metal and glass going directly to landfill.

We pride ourselves on having one of the most beautiful coastlines in the World but the figures highlight the need for a different attitude towards caring for our beaches. The five most common pieces of rubbish are

1. cigarette buts

2. glass fragments

3. alcohol cans

4. alcohol bottles

5. bottle caps and lids

OTHER THINGS

I know you’re not supposed to play with your food but I like to paint mine before I eat it. My eyesight is not good so I’ve moved from botanical paintings to smaller, less detailed subjects.

Small paintings every day in an old, unused Moleskin diary. Not really water colour paper, but small, quick paintings are very satisfying when life is so busy.

Currently reading Large Print books leading up to eye surgery. The first, which I’m really enjoying is Louise Penny’s All The Devils Are Here, set in Quebec and Paris involving a Canadian detective investigating his French Godfather’s attempted murder. Shakespeare said,’Hell is empty and all the Devils are here’. which indicates the many twists and turns throughout this story.

Winner of the Agatha Christie Award For The Best Mystery Novel of 2021 this is Perry’s 16th Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sureté du Quebec series. I’ll be looking for more.

The other book is Claire Balding’s Walking Home, My Family and Other Ramblings. Balding is a well known horse race commentator in the UK and is also an award winning British radio announcer known for her commentaries from the Olympic Games. She’s prolific author. This book details her ‘rambles’ around the UK all recorded and broadcast on radio. She is eloquently describes the beauty of each of her walks while interviewing people of interest. Apparently, the broadcasts, called “Ramblings” are very popular.

As usual, both books are borrowed from the library.

A BATTERY ANOMALY

Last week a group of protesters gathered outside Western Australia’s Parliament House to protest about logging in native forests. All logging is banned in Western Australia’s native forests by 2024. WA already imports 80% of timber required.

Apparently, according to Green MLA Brad Pettitt, ‘The main issue in WA is the mining practices which would still be allowed in the forests after logging stops.”

Here’s the ANOMALY

To supply the quantities of lithium, copper, nickel etc required for electric car batteries and storage batteries will need more of all these metals in mineable deposits than is known to exist. These batteries are known to last for less than 10 years. Then those chemicals will need to be replaced with freshly mined chemicals as there is no effective method of recycling them at this time. They will become landfill.

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So we are saving the Planet by hugely increasing mining which is said to be destroying the environment with no end in sight. We must also ignore the well established but inconvenient fact the electric cars require six times more energy to manufacture than ordinary cars and that their manufacture produces much more CO2.

It is a dilemma which makes me think of the children’s story,’ The Emperors New Clothes’

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Capers and Some Interesting Road Safety Statistics

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CAPERS

As I arranged some capers on my smoked salmon sandwich, I wondered where they came from, did they grow on a bush and do we grow them in Australia? Capers are the edible flower buds of the capparis spinosa, the caper bush. It is a prickly bush which grows wild across the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. Caper plants also grow well in the hot, dry regions of Australia. The capers I ate at lunchtime were pickled and bottled in Italy from ‘imported produce.’

Once picked, they are pickled to preserve them. Interestingly, preserved nasturtiums seeds can be used in place of capers. They are considered to be more pepppery than capers. The seeds are pickled in a brine of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper corns.

Although I don’t think people eat huge amounts of capers at any one time, one of the Australian growers claim capers contain two flavonoid compounds, rutin, which strengthens capillaries and prevents platelets clumping in blood vessels, and quercetin, considered to be anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and also an analgesic. So eat up and think of the benefits!

Now that your taste buds are tingling, I’ll share an amazing French Potato Salad recipe. It’s not creamy and thick with mayonnaise, but really delicious and, you guessed it, includes CAPERS! This French Potato Salad is more like a traditional German Potato Salad. I used small red potatoes because they taste so good and look attractive.

FRENCH POTATO SALAD

Try to make this at least one day before you need it for the flavours to blend and develop. You need

• 1 kg ( 2.2lb) potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

• ¼ cp vinegar, any sort you prefer ( I found apple cider vinegar was not sharp enough)

• 1/4 cp mild olive oil

• heaped dspn of drained capers, 2 dspn chopped parsley, 2 dspn chopped shallots, or red onion or chives

• salt and pepper

1. Cut the potatoes to bite size pieces, put in a pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Test doneness with a fork. Drain the potatoes, leave for a few minutes to cool slightly, then while potatoes are still warm, tip them into a bowl.

2. Shake the vinegar and oil in a screw capped jar to amalgamate then pour over the chunks of potato and stir. Repeat about every five minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed. It doesn’t take long. Add some pepper and a good pinch of salt and stir again.

3. Stir and add the capers, chopped chives ( or red onion or thinly sliced shallots ) and the parsley.

4. Leave to cool then stir. All the liquid will now be absorbed. Cover and put in the fridge. This French Potato Salad will improve in flavour overnight and is even better the second day.

There are so many varieties of French Potato Salad. Although the basics are the same, some recipes add chopped gherkins, some add anchovies and some add celery for crunch. Many recipes include garlic in the dressing. It depends on what you have available and what you like!

This French Potato Salad is suitable for lactose and gluten intolerant people plus suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

I had to open a new jar of capers the second time I made this salad and although they were packed in Australia the capers had come from Morocco.

ROAD SAFETY STATISTICS

All statistics referred to in this section were obtained from August/September 2023 HORIZONS magazine printed by the RAC W.A. The information was collected from a number of member surveys.

Recently the sun was shining briefly after freezing cold days with frequent rain so we went for a drive along the beach. I was the passenger and was surprised at how many drivers along side me were using their mobile phones. It is illegal in Western Australia to use a mobile phone when driving. Then I read in the Horizons magazine that 15% of drivers surveyed thought using their mobiles to text, phone or watch movies is acceptable at traffic lights. At one set of traffic lights the female next to me was texting when she arrived, kept texting waiting for the lights to change and continued texting as she drove off. The survey revealed 27% of all respondents had used their mobile phones when driving and 44% of drivers under 30 admitted they they’d done it in the last year.

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In the same survey 93% say of people say they generally use private cars to get to work/study, 12% catch the train, 9% work from home, 7% walk and 5% cycle, including e-bikes. There’s some overlap as sometimes commuters used one or the other method of transport. Although people have varied reasons for driving their own cars to work the train network in Perth has been extended in the past few years. We were once regular train users to go to the Art Gallery WA, the Museum, to eat in Northbridge and shop in the City but the last two journeys were marred by unsociable behaviour. In fact, on one journey, many of us got off at the first station and went down a carriage rather than be abused. When we talked about this with friends, they agreed it was a problem but not so bad during the usual going to and from work times. They are the times we try to avoid! Do you feel safe on the train?

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Free Range Eggs and Plastic Free July

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FREE RANGE EGGS IN AUSTRALIA

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We can buy eggs laid by caged hens or eggs laid by free range hens in Australia. According to Australian Consumer law, free range eggs are defined as eggs laid by hens who have meaningful and regular access to the outdoor areas, are free to roam and forage and are stocked at less than 10 000 hens per hectare. Caged hens live inside large, climate controlled sheds. The cage must be 40cm high, provide at least 550cm² per hen and 10cm feeder space. Eggs from caged hens are considered safer than free range eggs and production is higher and more efficient. Caged hens rarely get sick and live longer.

New legislation in Australia dictates that caged hens will be phased out by 2036, but each state will decide on its own timeline. Many states are already predicting 2025 as the goal for ending caged hens. Battery hens, or caged hens, will still be legal but egg farmers will need to provide larger cages and ‘enrichment’ for the chickens.

Apparently, only 30% of eggs purchased in Australia currently come from caged hens. Both large supermarket chains in Australia have announced they will end the sale of caged eggs by 2025. ( Some research says 40% of eggs bought in Australia are from caged hens.)

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Free range eggs are more expensive than caged eggs. Nutritionally, both are very similar. Eggs are high in vitamins and minerals. We have sought out free range eggs for many years. We were concerned about the welfare of the hens. I also like the environmental aspects on chicken poo returning to the paddock as fertilizer. Free range hens are able to practice normal behaviours, such as perching, nesting and dust bathing. I try not to buy eggs from large supermarkets as they are not as fresh as eggs from other sources. By the end of 2022 our ‘other sources’, one a commercial farm with low stocking levels with daylight hours spent outdoors and another, an independent supplier, had dried up. We’re looking for alternatives.

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PLASTIC FREE JULY

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Plastic free July was started by Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, the founder of the Plastic Free Foundation, and a small team of supporters. Begun in 2011 and since 2017, a not for profit charity, Plastic Free July encourages everyone to reduce their use of plastics. Their vision is to see a World free of plastic waste.

Most plastics are produced from oil and gas and don’t decompose. This means plastic micro beads ( broken down plastic) can remain in landfill, soil, rivers and oceans, harming the environment and animals for centuries.

So what can we each do? There’s many checklists, ideas and helpful information online. Try making little changes all the time. Select the easy things to start with, such as refusing plastic wrapped items in the fruit and veggie aisle ( take you’re own fabric bags and if you forget, use a paper bag from the mushroom area), buy milk in a glass bottle (cartons are lined in plastic), store things in glass, bamboo lidded containers or glass jars, both of which are infinitely reusable.

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If you have room and the ability to make compost, put all your veggie and fruit scraps into the pile. I make evil smelling slime, not compost, so turn all sorts of vegetable off cuts/remains into stock, which I freeze, or turn into soup. Stock will be strained so apparently you can add onion skins and garlic skins. I haven’t tried doing this, but intend to soon. The trick is to store the remnants in a glass jar or similar in the freezer until you have collected enough to make stock. And if you’ve never made stock, inspire yourself by reading the ingredients in bought, liquid stock, packaged in a plastic lined carton.

I have bought waxed fabric wraps and also done a workshop making them from fabric and beeswax. They look very attractive but never adhered properly to my containers, so I gave up. I had to add a rubber band to keep them on the container, too much faffing around. I use shower caps collected from hotel rooms. Used, wash, hang over the tap to dry, reuse. Problem is they finally tear away from the elastic and then become landfill. So I’m trying beeswax wrappers again.

To make bees wax wrappers you need washed cotton squares, beeswax and grater, an iron and old fashioned grease proof paper. You need to iron your fabric square, grate the beeswax if you’re using it or buy beeswax pellets. I have seen pellets for sale online. This would be quicker.

I did what I have done before except I used a lot of grated beeswax as I really wanted this to work. I have accepted that I cannot make compost and today I have accepted beeswax wrappers aren’t for me, either. The wrapper I tried just doesn’t seal tightly enough for me. Last time this happened with bought wrappers I keep them securely on with rubber bands. Wont be doing that, either, so my bees wax wrapper will go into someone else’s compost!

If you want to try beeswax wrappers there’s many YouTube and online tutorials. Good Luck!

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Computers in Classrooms, The Most Livable Cities and Reading

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COMPUTERS IN JUNIOR CLASSROOMS

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Western Australians are currently enjoying two weeks of school holidays. I enjoy the holidays, too, despite not having school aged children because I catch up with several groups of friends I have taught with at four different schools. Three of those groups are involved in primary school education.

There is one constant concern expressed by these teachers; learning is prescriptive, online and difficult to assess. Many learning areas are totally digitalised and children work on their devices alone. It has long been known children develop writing and spelling skills by actually sounding out and writing words. The physical involvement reinforces and embeds the skill. Self correcting digital programs do not require nor develop these cognitive skills.

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So I was interested to read that Sweden’s Minister For Education, Lotta Edholm, has recently announced a plan to reduce the use of computers in primary schools. This follows Sweden’s poor score in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study . This indicates Sweden’s performance has declined from high to intermediate in the past five years. The test measures the reading comprehension of 9 – 10 year olds.

Computers are everywhere and will be part of everyday life in all areas. Children will become adept at using them without missing out on standardised learning objectives, the current trend. The article refers to comments by Isobel Dans, Professor, University of Santiago and researcher in Diadactics and Digital Education. She says “Screens are everywhere. What is a mistake is to link them to more traditional learning without assessing their usefulness.”

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I know many experienced junior primary teachers in Western Australia who would agree!

Further information SOURCE

THE MOST LIVABLE CITIES IN THE WORLD

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Vienna is the most livable city in the world. Vienna has won this award several times in the past five years. The city is recognised for its stability, infrastructure, culture and entertainment and education. Return to order after the covid-19 pandemic was also considered. Improvements made in developing countries were also noted.

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The 30 indicators for each of the 175 cities assessed are ranked from 1 ↔100. The indicators are assessed according to ratings of acceptable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.

The top five most livable cities in the World as rated June 21st, 2023 are

Vienna, Austria
Copenhagen, Denmark
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Vancouver, Canada

READING

STORIES of the SAHARA by Sanmao.

This cover would win the award for the least clear and enticing cover on a book.

My neighbour lent me an unusual book of essays. Originally published in Chinese this translation of Stories of the Sahara into English was published in 2019. The author is described as a writer, novelist and a pioneer. Born in China in 1943, she excelled at school, especially in literature and was offered opportunities to study philosophy. She then continues her studies in Spain.

Widely traveled, she is fascinated by the Sahara Desert. She meets a Spanish diver and underwater engineer, José, who moves to El Aqúin in Spanish Sahara to begin work for a mining company.. Sanmao soon follows and they consequentially marry. Housing is in short supply and expensive, so they move into a small, unfinished derelict home in the cemetery district and settle into desert life.

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The Spanish colonized this area of the Sahara in 1884 to capitalize on the fishing opportunities and ports on the coast. They increased their claim in 1958. They also mined phosphate. The Muslim Sahrawi, the traditional owners, living around the Spanish mining ventures, continued living the way they had for centuries. It is an uneasy arrangment, but ever curious Sanmao goes exploring, often alone, in the desert. She makes friends with some of the locals by getting to know their children.

Sanmao is thrilled by the desert and writes essays about the temperature, sand storms, mirages and the way the light changes at sunset. She describes its vastness as ‘majestic’ and is awed by the changes in colour during the day and the total blackness at night. She has an array of Chinese and Western medicines and despite no medical training, becomes known for helping with aches and pains, infections and other health problems. She holds ‘school’ for the local girls and teaches them to count, a skill previously only known to males.

Unlike other Spanish living in El Aqúin, Sanmao develops friendships with some Sahrawi families. She writes about the planned guerilla led revolution against the Spanish and the occupation by the Moroccans. Although I found her behaviour to be frequently reckless and also dangerous for the Sahrawi involved, she was adventurous and a keen observer of local life. She records and writes about local life in both positive and negative ways.

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El Aqúin is two thirds down the coast of the yellow part of the map.

What also intrigued me about this book was my ignorance about the Spanish occupation, the bungled decision making about their future in the Sahara, the downfall of the Sahrawi guerillas and the eventual occupation by the Moroccans. Spain began to withdraw due to international pressure, especially from the United Nations. Morocco and Mauritania now preside over different parts of the region. The history of the area, south of Morocco, highlights the problems of colonization, particularly when the colonizing country withdraws.

Sanmao was a free spirit, a skilled writer and she lived an extraordinary life. José died in a diving accident in 1997. Supported by her parents, she returned to Taiwan, where her extended family lived, and continued writing, teaching and traveling before committing suicide in 1991, aged forty seven.

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Home Ownership, Happiness and Household Things

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DOES HOME OWNERSHIP MAKE YOU HAPPY?

Australia is experiencing ever increasing inflation with no end in sight. The cost of food, fuel, insurance, electricity and consumer goods rises every week. Home owners with mortgages are experiencing regular increases in their repayments and most are feeling the pinch. The cost of living continues to rise. ( Mortgage stress is considered to be making repayments greater than 25% of the homeowner’s post tax income. It is estimated more than 30% of West Australians with mortgages are already in this position)

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This poses the question: Does home ownership make you happy? A leading psychologist in New Zealand, Professor Robert MacCullioch, an expert on Money and Well Being refers to the cognitive bias, the ‘Endowment Effect’ which claims human beings place more value on the things they own.

The article also claims that people who own their own homes are richer and this results in greater happiness. This is because people feel they have control of their money. Home ownership also means you move less often and children perform better at school. Other research claims areas where home ownership is high have better schools and children achieve better outcomes. They also have greater access to services within their community. There’s references to higher social status, better mental health, financial security and independence, as well as less crime in areas of high home ownership.

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This is supported by research both internationally and in New Zealand which consistently supports the belief that home owners are more satisfied with their lives. Some studies cite psychological security ( the home is a safe haven), privacy, equity in the home, choice about where you live, a sense of belonging and being part of a community as important components of home ownership.

So what about countries where renting is more common? Countries such as Germany where more than 50% of people rent have laws that protect the renter, obligations about maintaining the properties and long leases. Traditionally most people rented rather than purchasing their own homes as a result of the substantial deposit required to get a mortgage. Culturally, renting was accepted as a way of life. Due to the shortage of housing stock in Germany anyone wanting to buy their own home would more commonly buy land and build a house. Similar situations exist throughout Switzerland and France.

HOUSEHOLD THINGS

Are you building or renovating your kitchen? I’d like to suggest you place the rubbish bin in a pullout ‘drawer’ below the area where most food preparation will occur. Then you can just pull it out and clean the cutting board or bench top by wiping everything straight into the bin.

This terrible photo of the slide out rubbish bin shows how easily I can swipe rubbish into the bin from the bench top where I do most of the food preparation. I know I should make compost from fruit and vegetable scraps but past experiences make it plain compost is not my forté.

I frequently make sourdough bread. This time I added caraway seeds to the dough and sprinkled some on top before the loaf went into the oven. Lovely flavour. I’ll do that again.

Our greengrocer is full of many different types of apples at the moment. I bought too many for us to eat raw so I stewed some and made tarts and an apple pie. Disappeared quickly.

Now that we have two or three different bins for different sorts of rubbish I use spatulas to clean jars and tins as clean as possible before washing them to go into recycling. Some things can be swished out with hot water and added to whatever you’re cooking or the soup pot.

Thought I’d try a supermarket brand of baked beans having read a few articles saying these items are the same as brand name products. I am sure some are, but not the baked beans I bought. Never mind, they went into the pot of minestrone and tasted wonderful after mixing with everything else.

Minestrone with home brand baked beans. I had to dilute it with more stock as it just got thicker and thicker. Three days of slightly different soup depending on what I added to use up or just dilute it!

Made cheese and sweetcorn muffins to have with the soup. The leftover corn went into the soup, too. Recipe I used (here).

Today is WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY. Well, that’s easy to celebrate!

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How to Sterilise Jars, Preserving Lemons, Pickling Cucumber and Quick Soup

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STERILISING JARS

Glass jars for storing food can be used and re-used multiple times. They are strong, easy to see the contents and easily cleaned and reused. Of course, they are useful for storing many other things, too, but they are perfect for food. So how do you sterilise a glass jar for food storage?

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For each method you begin by washing the jars in hot soapy water, rinse but don’t towel dry.

1. Set the oven to 110°C, place the jars on an oven tray, place in the oven for 15 minutes, carefully remove and leave to cool.

2.Alternatively if you have a pot deep enough you can set the washed jars in it, cover with water and boil for 10 minutes. Remove carefully and leave to cool.

3. Or you could place washed jars in the microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove carefully and allow to cool.

HOW TO PRESERVE LEMONS

It’s citrus season in Western Australia and I use fresh lemons and limes in so many ways. Nearly every style of cuisine involves citrus.

I like to extend the citrus season by preserving some of the lemons. Preserved lemons are pickled in their own juice and salt for three weeks. Originating in Morocco and Middle Eastern recipes I find a little preserved lemon adds zing to everything from salads to stews. Sterilise the jar you want to use to preserve your lemons. A wide opening makes it easy to insert them. Cut off the tops and bottoms after you have washed and dried them. Then cut your lemons into quarters leaving them joined at the base. Spoon two dessert spoons of salt into the jar and spoon more salt into the first lemon. Place it in the bottom of the jar. Continue adding salted lemons, squashing them down and releasing juice. Finally, when the jar is full of salted lemons top up with extra juice.

I push the lemons down with a round wooden ‘stick’ I’ve had forever. I don’t know what it was originally intended for but it’s great for making sauerkraut. And preserved lemons. An upended wooden spoon would do the same job.

Screw on the lid, put the jar into the fridge. Invert the jar each day for three weeks. Then, uncap and remove a quarter. Scrape off any remaining pulp, thinly slice the skin into strips and add to a salad, a stew, a tagine, anything you like.

PICKLED CUCUMBER

The Fruit and Vegetable sections are full of crisp, fresh cucumbers. It’s the coldest and wettest winter we’ve had for years, so salads don’t feature in this house. Raw, cold food doesn’t appeal at all, but the lovely cucumbers do, so I’m pickling them. I still eat them cold but only a little bit at a time.

Pickling cucumbers is easy. Sterilise wide mouthed jars. Make the pickling liquor by putting 2:1 vinegar and water with coriander seeds and mustard seeds in a pot and bring to the boil. Then slice the cucumbers long ways into thin slices. A mandolin would be useful but I don’t have one. Do this while the pickling liquor simmers for about ten minutes. Then leave it to cool.

I added star anise to the pickling liquor because they’re so pretty! Unfortunately, my pickles don’t taste like traditional pickles, which is what I prefer. They taste good, but just not how I usually make them!

Trim the sliced cucumber to fit in your jars. Pack them in closely. When the pickling liquor has cooled pour it carefully into the jars, adding some of the spices. Put the lid on and into the fridge. These are ready to eat the next day.

When I’d filled the two jars I had about a third of a cucumber left. I try very hard not to waste food, so I diced it finely, then gathered yoghurt and garlic. I still had some cut lemons on the bench from earlier so I had lemon juice, too.

I mixed the diced cucumber, a big dollop of Greek yoghurt, a squeeze of lemon juice and some garlic to make tzatziki. Instant afternoon tea. No waste.

TOMATO SOUP

I was asked this week if I had any other suggestions for ‘quick soup’ that doesn’t require lots of chopping or other preparation. It’s good if the ingredients are already in the pantry so you can make it without going shopping. So here is my other speedy, satisfying and very easy soup!

Dice an onion and fry it with two diced cloves of garlic in a big pot. I use diced garlic out of a jar for this (2 tspn) as the juices add to the flavour and it’s all about speed and flavour. Add two cans of crushed/diced tomatoes and three cups of vegetable stock, made from bullion or homemade. Let it bubble away for about 10 minutes, blend, reheat. Serve with a sprig of basil. A little grated cheese on top is nice, too.

This Tomato Soup takes twenty minutes from gathering the ingredients to serving up, including going out the back to pick some basil. I know because I timed it. Serves four big bowls or six smaller bowls or mugs. Delicious. And economical. Let me know if you make it.

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Rice, Mending and Winter Food

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RICE

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Do you eat rice? Rice forms the basis of many diets. It is a tropical crop which can be grown twice a year, in the wet season and in the dry season. It is mostly grown in China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Japan and Pakistan also grow rice. South America, Europe and Australia grow some rice, too.

So, how healthy is rice? Brown rice, which still has the husk on it, is far more nutritious than white rice. But the question really is SHOULD YOU WASH RICE? Traditionally we were advised to wash rice to make it less sticky. According to Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director for Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of South Australia, washing rice before you cook it makes no difference to stickiness.

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Washing is recommended in some countries to remove dust, insects, little stones and husks left from hulling.

There are good reasons to wash rice anyway. The heavy use of plastics in food production means microplastics are being found in all foods including rice. Washing the rice before cooking it can rove about 20% of plastics regardless of the material used in packaging. Rinsing pre-cooked rice can remove 40% of the microplastics.

Washing rice has no impact on bacteria, although cooking it at high temperatures will kill bacteria. Also avoid cooked rice which has been left at room temperature for long periods as it may develop bacteria producing toxins.

More information www.miragenews.com

MENDING

Bought this merino wool cardigan at the end of winter last year. Seem to remember wearing it twice. Got it out on Saturday and as I put it on I realised the shoulder seam had a hole! This was an expensive cardigan so I imagined it lasting a long time.

Inspected the hole. The trimmer had cut too close to the stitching. Investigated all the other seams. They were fine. I can’t remember where I bought it and obviously have no receipt. So, I mended it, using cotton thread. The hardest part of mending was finding a colour close to the colour of the cardigan. Done and wearing it again. Still cross.

WINTER COOKING

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. Western Australia is in the middle of winter. This has been the coldest and wettest June for twelve years. This winter feels like the winters of long ago when I was a child. Raincoats, flannelette sheets, hot water bottle and roaring fires were common then.

All this cold weather means lots of hot meals. The green grocer was bursting with lush, fresh winter vegetables. We filled our baskets with celery, potatoes, zucchini, onions, cucumber and butternut pumpkin, plus pears, mandarins and apples. We also got a salami and some cheese.

So when we got home and unpacked our shopping I began to chop vegetables. The first thing I made was Ratatouille. Such a satisfying cold weather lunch. I used onions, zucchini, diced tomatoes and par- cooked butternut pumpkin. I know, eggplant/aubergine is the traditional vegetable but we don’t eat it. Sometimes I add sweet potato and sometimes pumpkin because I like the pop of colour and the flavour. Tastes great when it’s cooked but wonderful the next day when the flavours have matured. Delicious.

While I was chopping the vegetables I diced onions and carrots. I also chopped the top off the celery stalks where the line is on the stalk. The thinner stalks and even some of the crisp lime green leaves, finely diced, taste good in soup. I added stock, this time made from bouillon as I forgot to thaw some stock from the freezer. There’s no way it would have thawed in a few hours in this weather .

I added some curry paste and left it all to bubble for about 25 minutes. Used the stab blender until it was smooth, then added some broken spaghetti. Actually, rice would probably have been a more likely addition, but I’m not a big fan of rice despite living and still frequently visiting Asian countries where rice is served every meal.

This was served over two days and was very good.

We like toast with soup. Actually, the soup was so thick and filling it was all we had for dinner one night, plus some toast. These two loaves look very rustic! I’ve begun adding more rye to the mix. I also sprinkled poppy seeds on one loaf and caraway on the other. I’ll add caraway seeds to the mix next time. They taste so good!

Winter also means citrus fruit. I love all forms of citrus! I made this lemon cake with lots of lemon juice and then used more juice and zest in the icing.

My ‘go to’ winter citrus cake is a Lemon Drizzle Cake but I didn’t have any mild Greek yoghurt, only sheeps’ yoghurt, so I made this loaf cake.

No risk of scurvy in this house!

We’ve picked many lemons and limes so they will be featuring in our cooking for some time, yet.

Keep warm if you’re in W.A.!

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Easy Dinner and Other Domestic Business

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SALMON PATTIES

The overdue pantry clean and sort produced a tin of pink salmon. Probably bought during one of the pandemic lockdowns, along with a 10 kg bag of rice, baked beans and cans of chickpeas. I don’t think we’ll ever get through the bag of rice. Determined to use the salmon, I searched online and found many recipes for Salmon Patties.

The recipe I chose for Salmon Patties required six ingredients, all to hand. So, I tidied up the weather beaten spring onions when I went out to get two for the recipe, boiled about a cup of potato, took out the jar of breadcrumbs and finally, an egg. All the ingredients went into the food processors and quickly amalgamated into a mixture I could spoon into my hand and shape into patties.

Next time I’d season with salt. According to the recipe, the mix would make eight patties, I made twelve, so make them bigger than mine!

In the evening, I took the plate of Salmon Patties out of the fridge, heated the oil, cooked them until they were golden on both sides and served them with steamed vegetables and wedges of lemon. Very tasty, quick to make and everything to hand. We enjoyed them! Recipe here.

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/salmon-patties/c5b04490-0973-4042-b77d-3c6b3504d141

KITCHEN SCISSORS

I have a rack of knives and a pair of scissors just next to the workbench I use for food preparation. Why scissors? Because they are so useful! From opening packets to snipping herbs and vegetables and even cutting up cold chocolate which refuses to snap, I use scissors. I wash them along with the knives. I also have a pair of scissors in a drawer I use for snipping the stems clean on cut flowers, something I do every few days to prolong their freshness. They get washed in hot, soapy water, too.

ALOE VERA

Twelve months ago a dear friend gave me an aloe vera plant. It is very attractive but also has magic powers! I burnt my hand on a hotplate two weeks ago. It was quite a deep burn. Ran my throbbing hand under cold water for a very long time; every time I took it away from the water it hurt! Our son was staying with us and he cut a piece off the aloe vera plant. I put it on the burn. Relief! When the aloe vera got hot and dry, I cut a little piece off and applied it again. And again, along with a cold compress.

Aloe vera is a cactus like plant which grows well in most climates. Its uses listed online are surprising, but most commonly, it’s recommended for treating sunburn, burns and radiation toxicity. There’s a surprising number of other uses which made me consider this attractive plant in another light!

The aloe vera soothed the pain and limited the swelling. By the next day the burnt area was very stiff and tight and puffy. It slowly settled into a long, hard strip of wrinkled skin. Over the next two weeks the wound cracked and I picked pieces off! Still a bit tight but now there’s just a strip of new pink skin.

PERSIMMON

A favourite in South East Asia, persimmons are in season now. Apparently, once common in Australian gardens, they’re now out of fashion. They are very attractive. My husband brought three home when he’d been shopping so we could try them. I cut one into quarters, removed the core and skin and then cut another in half to scoop the flesh out, like it was a cup.

Easy to prepare and tasty, plus very pretty but I probably wouldn’t buy them again.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

You know I try to avoid food waste! So, leftover bread, buttered and spread with jam, some milk and eggs became pudding one night and breakfast the next day.

The dried cranberries plumped up into delicious taste surprises through the pudding. I added nutmeg and cinnamon to the top before putting it in the oven. Just add cream or icecream.

SHAKING BEEF

Cold and very wet. We’ve had more rain in five days than Perth usually gets in the month of June. So dinner needs to be hot with strong flavours to satisfy the taste buds. Cubed beef is marinated in garlic and sugar plus oyster, soy, sesame and fish sauce then cooked in a hot wok. Some vinaigrette, made from rice wine vinegar, sugar, salt and some thinly sliced red onion is poured over the meat when it is cooked and the rest, with squeezed lime, when it is served. Full of flavour and warmth, we really liked it! This was very good served on rice with beans topped with coriander.

I’ll be making this again!

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Sweet Chili Chicken Balls, Potato Salad and Garden Trends

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SWEET CHILI CHICKEN BALLS

It’s suddenly quite chilly by dinnertime in our part of Western Australia, so my thoughts turn to hot, tasty dinners. This time I made Sweet Chili Chicken Balls. Try them, they’re quick and easy and taste great.

INGREDIENTS

To make 16 balls, you need

500g chicken mince

2 finely chopped cloves of garlic

I tspn ground ginger

1/4 tspn of each salt and ground pepper

4 tbspn chopped spring ( green ) onion and some more to serve

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup sweet chili sauce.

METHOD

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. The chicken mince I used must have been very moist as I eventually added half a cup of breadcrumbs to get a good, firm consistency. Roll to the size of golf balls and cook in 160°C F/F for 20 minutes. Pour 1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce over the chicken balls and return to the oven for 5 minutes.

I served the chicken balls with roasted potato cooked in duck fat with rosemary and sea salt plus cauliflower and beans. Very nice dinner.

I microwaved the potato wedges for 6 minutes, added a little more melted duck fat, rosemary and sea salt then roasted them in the oven.

NOTE I used spring onion in this recipes as they are growing enthusiastically, but chives would be nice, too.

POTATO SALAD

This easy potato salad can be served warm or cold but I like to leave it to cool so the potatoes really absorb the flavours. Potato salads made with mayonnaise always seem more appropriate for warm weather meals. I’ll serve this tonight, slightly warmed, with German sausages and fried cabbage. It is a cold night dinner.

To make this Potato Salad boil about a 1.5 kg (3lbs) of any potato cut into biggish cubes. Add a generous teaspoon of salt to the cooking water once it is boiling. After about 10 minutes cooking, insert a knife to test if the potatoes are slightly soft, but not mushy! While they’re boiling gather a handful of herbs. I used basil, chives and a small leaf parsley, but just finely chop whatever you have on hand. Dice half a red onion ( I store the remaining half in the fridge in a glass jar)

Marinate the potatoes in 3 tablespoons of vinegar, stirring every now and then for about half an hour. The potatoes absorb most of the vinegar and this adds to the clean flavour of the dish. Then pour half a cup of extra virgin olive oil into a jar, add 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons of vinegar, screw the lid on and shake until the dressing is amalgamated. Strain off any remaining vinegar. Pour the dressing over the potatoes, stir in the onion and herbs and let it sit for a while before serving.

Heat slightly in the microwave before adding the dressing if you prefer to serve the salad warm.

NOTE. I used 25 %food grade acetic acid, known as essig essenz, to marinate the potatoes, which is what would be used in Germany. It breaks down the cell walls and is absorbed effectively into the potatoes. Readily available overseas, harder to access in Australia. This recipe works with ordinary white vinegar too.

Delicious!

CHELSEA GARDEN WEEK NEWS

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The main message from the Chelsea Garden show this year seems to be WEEDS are good! Yes, I reeled in shock, too, especially as I had a massive weeding session planned for the weekend. We’ve been away for two weeks and returned to a tsunami of weeds. Apparently, bees love weeds, they are an important source of nectar. I think it will take me a while to digest this news!

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Another feature noticeable in many gardens is the inclusion of dead wood. Pieces of dead wood, normally tidied up and burnt, should be left to create insect habitats. Insects are key species in healthy ecosystems and need our support to thrive. They are threatened by the removal of trees around houses which are bulldozed to allow high rise apartments. This is particularly relevant in Perth where multiple old houses on big blocks are being bulldozed along with every feature of the landscape. These are replaced by huge blocks of apartments with no gardens.

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The plot-to-plate theme continues to gain popularity. Many of the gardens incorporated herbs and other edibles in their designs. These edible ornamentals even have a name; they are called edimentals. This trend is easy to achieve, too, and the benefits are enormous. Fresh herbs and vegetables are delicious. I also have a couple of quite compact blueberry bushes, too, along with lots of herbs. Nasturtiums as edimentals were big too. I have lot of orange and yellow nasturtiums but have never eaten them. Have you?

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Another trend is growing your own mushrooms. I have done this a few times in the past and not been overly impressed by the harvest. Also, I am the only one in the family who eats mushrooms but I think I’ll try it again this year. My favourite self grown mushrooms were oyster mushrooms. They look like baby aliens when they first germinated but they taste great.

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Do you have any special gardening plans?

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Shopping in Bali and Good Books

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After two weeks in Bali we are back in Perth and back to our old routines. We left Bali on a sunny 30C° day and arrived back in Perth to overcast skies and 20°C. So getting all the washing dry has been challenging. The garden has obviously enjoyed the rain and will need attention later.

I’ve been asked about shopping in Bali. There’s everything from open fronted stalls to grand new malls. We went back to a shopping centre in Kuta where my husband bought quality boat shoes four years ago and were pleased to find they still have that brand, so he bought another pair! He wears size 46 (12) shoes and they had his size.

A bit squashed straight from the suitcase.

Wandered around the same department store and found cashmere scarves. Obviously not big sellers in Bali, they were being offered at 50% off the original price. We have two new scarves. We have found unexpected things to buy in Bali each visit.

Cashmere scarves found in Bali.

The next day we went to one of the newer, big shopping malls. I don’t normally shop at H&M and there isn’t one close to us in Perth but there was one at this shopping mall. I have a new shirt. The tag says it is made from 95% organic cotton and it replaces a very old striped T-shirt I have worn for many, many years. There were a few other clothing shops, lots of optical shops, Watsons pharmacy, tech shops and so many food outlets. (The entrance to many new shopping centres is off the main road. You’ll probably need to ask the person at the valet parking desk at the entrance to phone for a taxi unless someone is dropped off in one and you can grab it)

The price and information tags are attached by cotton threads, not strips of plastic.

So many shops everywhere selling clothes in every price range, shoes, too, and lots of decor shops but the most surprising thing was the number of tattoo shops! So many. Lots of lovely woven baskets with and without linings but I have so many baskets already. Some gorgeous jewelry, too, and other small items.

Food to prepare at your villa or room is available at various shops. Although we buy crackers and cheese, icecream and punnets of strawberries I haven’t bought things to cook or prepare. If we are hungry we order in or wander down the road. I cook all the time here but not in Bali. I am on holidays!

READING

We are keen readers and take books when we travel we’ll both read. The Ann Cleeves thriller The Heron’s Cry was in this category. Cleeves is probably best known for her Vera and Shetland detective series. Interestingly, Ann Cleeves’ first name is actually VERA. This book is one of her new Two Rivers series featuring Detective Matthew Venn and is the second one I’ve read.

Cleeves weaves clever tales with many twists and turns. This is a story about current issues in society, such as struggling small towns in the UK, suicide and the inability of health services to provide necessary services and the impact on families when one member is involved in a long running and complex murder enquiry.

It’s a great thriller and we both enjoyed it. We leave the books we have finished in the office for other guests to read. I like to borrow books from the library when we’re not traveling as we have so many, already, but take paperbacks on holidays.

Are you a fan of Redoutè’s gorgeous floral engravings and paintings? You’ll recognize his paintings everywhere, especially on gift cards, notebooks and address books because they are so beautiful. A lovely Mother’s Day gift, I am reading Pierre Joseph Redouté The Book of Flowers published by Taschen. Redouté, is referred to as the ‘Raphael of flowers’ for his exquisite, naturalistic paintings and engravings. This book features engravings from his Roses, Selection of the Most Beautiful Flowers and Lilies collections.

The works featured in this 500 page book are all amazingly accurate and very beautiful but just as interesting is the historical information about the time and the focus on gardens, herbariums and horticulture generally. The advancement in printing the engravings and watercolours, plus the developments in mass publications are all addressed, too.

Included is Redoutè original index of plants, plus a modern index reflecting reclassifications. A hefty tome, overflowing with glorious paintings and masses of information. An excellent reference book for gardeners, artists and historians. Redouté paintings feature on my address book, a notebook , an old diary I’ve kept for the beautiful pictures and several postcards so a very welcome gift!

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Lucky Bay, a West Australian Beach at Esperance, named by the explorer Matthew Flinders, is named the Most Beautiful Beach In The World.

So as the Southern hemisphere heads into winter the Northern Hemisphere heads into summer. Enjoy the special aspects of each seasons where ever you are in the World!

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