We're mostly #Vegetarian. My wife is actually #pescatarian and eats fish, milk and eggs. I'm technically an omnivore but I never cook/eat meat in the house and even then I can't eat anything on the bone and it's mostly fish and chicken as I don't really like red meat.
so all being well we'll have NO food waste any longer, and should have loads and loads of rich living compost full of microbial goodness and nutrients.
I've made a small dry curry with the last of the tindora, and it is delicious. Also, the aroma of the spices while cooking.
The recipe is from
Plant-Based India: Nourishing Recipes Rooted in Tradition, by Dr. Sheil Shukla.
It is one of my most loved Indian cookbooks, altho I tend to love them all. This one is very special.
The tindora is sliced and stirfried with a range of spices for 25 mins, then hit with some lime juice.
How to Keep Tomatoes for the Winter – Purees, Pastes, Freezing, Drying
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Freeze Pastes, Cooked Purees and Savoury Jams
It is worth freezing a range of tomato bases for adding layers of flavours to dishes during winter. Here are some that I make that work really well.
An Italian Tomato Paste cooks down with a mirepoix to a flavoursome paste that freezes easily Spiced Tomato Puree has a hit of red wine to deepen the flavours and add complexity A great herb flavoured Italian Sauce – also contains a little red wine for deeper flavours Pomarola – an Italian Tomato Sauce for Pizzas (and other uses) A great Tomato and Chilli Jam which can be defrosted and used as a sauce, spread, dip or dressing.
Or simply puree tomatoes and freeze the results.
Make a little of each, to get you through the winter with gorgeous tomato flavours. Cheaper, cooking tomatoes can be used for pastes, purees, sauces and jams.
Drying Tomatoes
Small tomatoes can also be successfully dried. Cherry or Grape tomatoes are the best for this - slit or halve. For larger tomatoes, halve or quarter them and increase the drying times.
Use the oven on low heat or a dehydrator. While you have it on, why not dry some Capsicums as well?
How to Keep Tomatoes for the Winter – Purees, Pastes, Freezing, Drying
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Freezing Whole Tomatoes
When I came across this tip quite a few years ago, I was rather sceptical. Freeze whole tomatoes? Really? But it does work, and it helps with supplying tomatoes for cooking throughout the winter.
It is easy. Take some medium ziplock bags, place 2 or 3 washed and dried, whole tomatoes in the bag. Press the bag to remove as much air as possible and zip it closed. Place into the freezer.
When you want to use the tomatoes, add to soups, sauces, dals, braises etc straight from the freezer. They will break up as they defrost and cook.
It works a treat. I do hope that you get to try it.
Freeze Juice
Throw some tomatoes through the juicer, and freeze the wonderful juice. It is perfect for lots of tomato soups in winter, and can also be added to dishes such as dals, curries, rasams etc. Cheaper, cooking tomatoes can be used for juicing.
You can also puree the tomatoes and freeze the puree.
How to Keep Tomatoes for the Winter – Purees, Pastes, Freezing, Drying
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In Autumn, tomatoes are often cheaper and great quality, and more flavoursome than Summer tomatoes. It is a perfect time to freeze tomatoes for use during winter. And it is useful to have tomatoes on hand that you can use without having to rush to the shops.
Here are the two jars of the beetroot kvass I mentioned above 
and made 2 days ago, with the differences in fermentation rate quite evident. Jar 1 is just with some spice seeds, jar 2 with just ginger.
The seeds possibly support fermentation, or the ginger slows it down. Beetroot is notoriously a strong fermenter. So maybe the ginger is the slowing the second jar down. UPDATE: Yes, strong inhibitor of fermentation. But I have always made beetroot kvass this way before and it is excellent.
OMG!!
Remember the makrut lime pickle I made 1 week ago?
Today was the scheduled opening day, so I have just tried it.
Hot, sour, with a slight and delicious bitter after-note. Not bitter and not as sour as fresh makrut limes, and the flavours have definitely mellowed *a lot* from when I first made the pickle.
The recipe simmers the lime first before mixing with Indian pickling spices. I think this makes all the difference.
I simmered them on the stove for about 30 mins (till I judged them soft enough), and used Ramdev Aachar spices (instead of the individual ones mentioned) as their mix is always terrific.
So happy to have a use for the makrut limes! I have made other pickles with them in the past, but they have been rather bitter.
https://gayathriscookspot.com/2016/01/naarthangai-oorugai-kafir-lime-pickle/
In case you've not roasted eggplants before (lots of uses), this is a good guide.
https://foolproofliving.com/how-to-roast-whole-eggplant-in-oven/
Here is another of my loved rustic soups. It is a health-boost in a bowl, this soup. I usually don’t make it until later in the Wintery cough-and-cold season, but if it seems a bad season I make it early. It was a staple during lockdowns.
Chickpea Soup with Parsley and Turmeric.
There could be some kitchen action today, so gird your loins for some kitchen posts.
I made some kvass yesterday, or was it the day before... - 1 jar with fennel, cumin and parsley seeds, and 1 with ginger root.
Oh goodness, the one with the seeds is fermenting strongly! The ginger one is gently fizzing.
The oven is on to roast eggplants.
I often say that Autumn veggies are the best. I picked really magnificent tomatoes, chillies, red capsicums, beetroot and eggplants this week.
Oh mymymy it is such a gorgeous day outside. Why am I sitting here paying work bills when I could be elsewhere? Like a whole day in the garden?
Beetroot kvass is made - 2 * 1litre jars.
Tulsi leaves are drying in the sun, but htere are days and days of more pruning and drying.
I am talking to the bees to tell them what is happening. I love how I brush against the bushes which are covered in bees, and which are covering the paths, but I have to get through. But the bees don't care. I think they know me.
s are picked. I need to roast them today I think, for the freezer. I have had excellent results with frozen eggplant pulp 
I found 3 more ripe tomatoes! I thought they were all done for this year.
Sweet basil is having a second flush. I'll puree the leaves for the freezer.
I am sure there will be more #FromTheGarden later on....
Saffron Rasayana for the Weary
Are you weary? Stressed? In need of some relaxation? I have a rasayana for you – saffron in milk with honey and ghee. Always use less honey than ghee in the recipe. Amazingly, this drink relaxes and destresses. You feel your breath ease and deepen and worries vanish.
The art and science of #rasayana is about lengthening the lifespan, and individual rasayana recipes can be considered as tonics or something that enhances well being. Rasayanas not only include food but behaviours and practices.
South River Miso makes the best miso I have ever had in my life outside of Japan.
Miso is a living food, rich in probiotics, so they only ship during cooler weather.
They are nearing the end of their shipping season!
If you want to stock up on world-class miso pastes made from organic ingredients and packaged in glass jars, April 23 is the last order day in most US regions. Don't miss it!
Just discovered this vegan ham at lidl and it's the first good meat alternative like this that I have been able to find in the UK. Not as good as the German fake meats imo but good enough!
#vegan #vegetarian #lidl
Vegetables, Beans, and Fruits Are the Secret Ingredients in These 12 Decadent Desserts https://vegnews.com/vegetables-beans-fruits-secret-ingredients-desserts?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #vegan #vegetarian
because i've been reading a lot of his work again of late - & because i made the mistake of watching 'haunted summer' today in a fit of folly - had to have a go at depicting the laudanum daddy himself, percy bysshe shelley. naturally, i've romanticised him.
#percyByssheShelley #nature #illustration #poetry #romanticism #atheism #vegetarian
Domo 
