• Quick pastitsio along with butter braised celery
• Chicken pancetta with red wine ragu
• Salmon, leek & dill frittata – the self-seeded dill is starting to grow ahead a little in the garden

• Asian chicken soup
• Marcela lentil soup
• Roast tomato, eggplant, pesto pasta

After picking a substantial amount of olives on Saturday 27th May, and using a water bath swapped daily from Sunday 28th, it’s time to start the final brine. All were single sliced on the Sunday morning and water curing started Sunday afternoon.

Based on the mediterranean style cracked olive style from  The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources publication 8267 via Chiotsrun.com I prepared

1. 3 jars of green olives that had been water cured for 16 days at room temperature (~ 17 – 19 degrees). These smelt like preserved olives, and were no longer bitter. In smaller metric units, 870mL of cool water to 105g to 110mL of white-wine vinegar was used as the brining solution, and olives were packed with lemon slices.
2. A further jar of green olives that had been water cured outside ( ~ 5 – 15 degrees).
3. A further two jars of black olives that had been water cured outside, no lemon.

Allegedly these are ready in 4 days, or weekend of 17th June, and will keep in the fridge for up to a year.

Based on the kalamata-style olive recipe, using dark-red olives that had been water cured outside, I prepared a further 10 or so jars of black olives in 2L of metric equivalent brining solution of 790mL cool water, 95g salt and 210mL of red-wine vinegar. These returned to the shed given current temperature outside. These are expected to be ready in a month, or 13 July, and will keep in the cool for a year if the jars remain airtight.

Jars were immersed for 20 seconds in a boiling water bath for a crude sterilization prior.

• Salmon, leek & dill frittata – excellent, do again. Used a 210g can of salmon.
• Beef and pumpkin curry

• Pumpkin Feta Pastitio
• Spicy chicken zigni curry (reduce cayenne pepper to reduce spice; spice quantities could probably be halved in future)
• Lamb and pumpkin tagine (substitute butterflied leg for shanks)
• For next week – polenta crusted vegie casserole
• keen to try these Jaffa Truffles
• Kate also suggests this Cannellini bean, cumin and yoghurt dip, and Mini pea frittatas

Red Lentil, chickpea and chilli soup

Local cafe does an amazing pan fried beetroot and vodka cured salmon. I’m going to try to approximate it at home, starting with this recipe that I will modify a bit and pan fry.
Beetroot and Vodka Cured salmon

Update: the spices were delicious, but it was a bit salty, which in hindsight made sense as I was pan frying and not curing like gravlax.  I think I will try again, but cut back the salt and sugar a lot, and maybe try one of the juniper berry versions.

Update: tried again with only 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar and fresh ginger to substitute for fresh horseradish.  It was well received by our lunch guest and we could certainly make it again.  Served with a cucumber and green apple salad and roasted root veg, it was a great meal.

Some ideas for this week.

• Saturday night: Roast mushroom pork bake
• Sunday lunch: Persian baked eggs with lentils
• Sunday night: Teriyaki beef asian mushrooms and soba noodles
• Monday or Tuesday night: Chicken and eggplant curry

The Teriyaki beef and mushrooms was good, and definite do again – but best when asian mushrooms are discounted.

The persian baked eggs with lentils may be OK, but it turns out Master Foods moroccan seasoning is half salt and filler, so if using North Road Bakery ras el hanout… then probably 1/2 tsp instead of 3 tsp is the right amount.

The roast mushroom pork bake I used a trimmed piece of shoulder roast, and gave it a slower (180 degree) 2 hour roasting instead, throwing the mushrooms in 30 minutes from the end. The meat was a bit dry; I was perhaps too vigorous in trimming…

We bottled William Bartlett pears this morning. 3.9kg fruit and 2.5L of light syrup (200g sugar made to 1L of syrup with warm water).

Ready for the fowlers