Showing posts with label eggs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eggs. Show all posts

Monday, 9 July 2012

Egg epode......



Some try to find
more outlandish ways
to put you on our dishes
But the secret here
is not so wild
But to listen to your wishes.
The best of you
came from green grass,
and woodland chooks who toiled
to find their food and freely laid....
Serve simply, some salt, just boiled.


Don't get me wrong I love all sorts of dishes involving eggs. I delight in a freshly made egg custard tart and scrambled eggs and lemon curd and eggs benedict and scotch eggs........I could go on......

However there is something very special about having just come back from egg hunting............

and yes hunting , as our chickens are their own mistresses, they go where they please and come calling for top up food as they feel inclined. I am constantly aiming to chicken proof my veggies and fruits and the cleaning up of chook poop from the house deck and pathway is now only augmented by the guinea fowl!

But they are happy chooks and healthy chooks - no drugs of any sort here. They get worms, like any normal animal, and they develop a load they can deal with, their extensive lifestyle contributing to their good health. If they do develop a fatally high worm load then............that's just what it is.....fatal.......but this is very rare because we have a low number of chickens for the land area.

..........as I was saying before I sidetracked............coming back from egg hunting, boiling up one or two eggs whilst I get a cup of English Breakfast tea on the go. Then sitting down to the simplest of pleasures which is a warm hard boiled egg dappled with sea salt.....the firm smooth white splitting to expose the creamy bright yellow treasure inside, our chickens' yolks will always be the tastiest and most vibrant yellow of all.....

They so deserve to be sat on this piece of Royal Crown Derby


I also adore soft boiled eggs, but as these MUST have toast soldiers with them to be dipped in until the yolk runs all over the cup and plate below....they aren't technically the most simple way of having the egg ;)

Sunday, 8 July 2012

Gourmet Grapefruit ......

It's pretty chilly here, and this morning what I would consider a heavy frost but I know South Islanders would just laugh....
So I decided to take some advice from the daytime sunshine and get some 'glow-on' inside the house, so the toddler cherub and I went out and picked our few grapefruit from our wee tree.

 (You will have to excuse the long grass....I was unable to get to it before the deluge came and now the ground is as soggy as anything and will need some more drying out days before I can attempt to take the mower in there! But the trees are doing okay, and I'll get to it.......eventually :)  I am sure everyone with land, animals and small children knows the situation!)


Having eaten one with a little sprinkled sugar, and it was tasty, refreshing and summery, I thought there must be a delicious way of enjoying these fruits without it being all over in one sitting. So after some trawling through the recipe books I decided to make a grapefruit curd and a marmalade. (I also had a small fruit left over and it zinged up a lentil, lamb neck and kumara stew just nicely)

The grapefruit curd was super easy - I just followed my lemon curd method but with the following ingredients.

Grapefruit Curd
1/2 Cup grapefruit grated peel (padded down in cup)
1 Cup Grapefruit juice (full to top not scant)
1 1/3 Cups caster sugar
2/3 Cup butter

It is lipsmackingly tasty and we are loving it on toast, in yoghurt and simply as a sneaky spoonful :)



The chooks have decided to lay a few eggs this winter, which is nice....I am wondering whether the arrival of the guinea fowl has prompted them to up their game?
So there is also quiche on the menu today. The wonderful added feature of the cooking that is going on is that the house is getting lovely and toasty!

The Grapefruit marmalade recipe was done using Marguerite Patten's second Seville/Bitter Orange marmalade recipe (a sweeter variety). It requires soaking the sliced up fruit along with pips (in muslin), overnight in water. Then simmering for about 1 1/2 hours before removing the pip bag. Adding lemon juice and boiling rapidly till setting point reached.
This is just lovely, sweet with a tangy grapefruit undercurrent. Someone in the family is in for a treat at Christmas.