hydroponic update

Much has changed since the last posting about hydroponics, the one tomato plant remaining in the DWC since the removal of the other plantings that failed, has enjoyed a revival. The one plant several feet bare from the bottom to some blossoms at the top, has sprung growth all along the main stem.

One idea that was illustrated to me by http://www.hydroponics.com.au/  (in one of their online magazines) was the method of where tomatoes grow to excessive length, that they are lowered and then trained to grow horizontally. since the new growth spurt caused the plant to grow beyond the top of the tomato tower, I did drop, and resecure the plant now winding it around the poles and suspending it with the twine and clamps.

Pictures tell the story better than description.

(Small additional greens have been started and placed in 2 of the net pots.)

Thats the air pump in the background , runs 24/7, housed in a plastic container.

Egg and sausage

A food processor makes a quick task of making sausage meat, a bit of pork diced to facilitate chopping then add spices of what you like. I added some bacon for the fat content and other  spices and herbs. Stored in a plastic bag refrigerated at least overnight gives me fresh sausage meat to use in recipes or alone as a patty.

broiled sausage pattie,served on a large peice of toast with some green lettuce,egg and a cup of Mexican (origin) coffee.

Mary’s Victoria Sandwich

Here’s a recipe from the popular (to some) PBS series The Great  British Baking Show.  I scoured the kitchen and pantry to look for ingredients on hand shortly after viewing the program and finding the recipe . A few substitutions to get this recipe completed. (August celebration cake!)

)Recipe link here(

Here are the changes :

Regular eggs in lieu of free range eggs

All purpose flour , added with 1 teaspoon baking soda, instead of self rising flour

Still use the 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Short on unsalted butter, the remainder was salted butter to complete

For the jam, about 3 ounces of raspberry jam made from raspberries from the garden mixed with about 3 ounces of Smuckers raspberry jam. Heated and simmered. Placed on a plate and refrigerated to cool and thicken.

Butter cream, salted butter, in place of unsalted butter.

Parchment circles for the 8 inch pans, used readily available baking spray.

READY !   SET !   B A K E !!!!!

Baking  the sponges, one came out overdone, temperature and attention are required when trying to replicate the recipe precisely. The  end result was delicious.

Cakes , jam and buttercream ready for assembly.

Raspberries jam spread on the cakes…

The completed sandwich…

The cakes were slightly overdone. We had to refrigerate the sandwich as the jelly contained fresh berries, the sandwich holds well in the fridge. The color from the filling  bled over time into the cakes. A good recipe if you like a sandwich cake that is not too sweet with frosting. The sponge recipe is easy to mix.

Light supper

Stir fry broccoli, green onions, a splash of wine vinegar, rice wine, scrambled egg with toast and shrimp paste.

Toasted sesame seeds garnish.

shopping

shopping , prices,

leek and mushroom soup

2 leeks left from the market , What to do with them. I had eaten some in a salad recently but I figured I could make a soup before the leeks dried out.

Sliced the leaks in the food processor, with 1/2 a white onion. In the soup pot sweated with a combination of butter, olive oil and seeds, fennel, caraway, celery and a touch of saffron. Course salt and quad mix pepper to taste, gifts of Hawaiian sea salt and  Himalayan pink salt were used.

Sweat the leeks covered at the simmer while dried mushrooms soaked, simply place the mushrooms in a glass container and use heated water from a single serving coffee machine (Keurig) however may cups it take to fully soak the mushrooms. Let steep while the leeks simmer for about 20 minutes.

Drain the mushrooms, chop if needed. Add flour by eye to the leak mixture and cook a bit more to provide the consistency of the soup.

Add stock (or water) to leek mixture and simmer till it thickens, add the drained mushrooms. Adjust viscosity if needed. I poured about 1/2 the volume of the soup to a food processor, processed till creamy by adding a bit of heavy cream and  milk and returned it to the pan with the unprocessed remainder so some leeks are present in the soup.

Excellent soup the only downside is that I didn’t have any toast to accompany the soup as dough was rising at the time.

Today’s breakfast