These were excellent.  I’m sure there’s more butter than is healthy for everyday eating, but great for special occasions.

This is delicious!

• Mansaf as per North Rd Bakery recipe. Using a half-leg of lamb in lieu of 5 lamb shanks worked fine. Using half Baharat and half ground cardamon worked less well. It needed the style of Baharat used in Townsville, which I think was dominated by smoked paprika.
• Roast lemon chicken. Fast, easy and tasty. Do again.
• Salsiccia ragu with paappardelle

• 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