Pickled Zucchini

I am in the pickling mode ! At the end of summer, fruits and vegetables are cheap, in abundance and this is as good a time as any to start preserving and storing it away for winter when out of season fresh produce becomes scarce and expensive.

Bottling has taken on a new popularity as people become more aware of food and health consequences of unknown food additives in store bought items.

A very easy pickle to make. It was the first time I was able to use the slicing blade that came with my food processor. Within a minute, all the zuchinnis were finely sliced and ready for action.

Redneck said the pickled zucchini reminded him of eating a MacDonald cheese burger. It has that same taste. Have the zucchinis with your cold meat sandwiches, on rolls or add to your salad.

Makes 3 jars (Craig jam jars)

Ingredients
800gm zucchini thinly sliced
¼ cup salt

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Preserved Peaches in Light Sugar Syrup

There was an abundance of peaches from my peach tree this year. Thought it was about time I tried my hand at preserving as Redneck will eat preserved peaches but not fresh ones !


I chose to preserve it in a light syrup as the Red Haven peach is quite a sweet fruit. The peaches are lovely eaten as is or with ice cream.


Makes 8 jars

peaches

Syrup
400g sugar
8 cups water

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Chargrilled Red Capsicum Hummus

Chips and hummus dip is our Friday treat and roasted red capsicum hummus has to be our favourite at the moment. Since I bought the Amazing Bullet, making hummus is a breeze. I have a ready stock of pre-cooked chickpeas in my freezer which can be defrosted in the microwave in half a tick.

Capsicums are very cheap at the moment...$1 for 5 big ones. In fact I have 30 stashed away in the freezer so I can make hummus during the off-season.

There is no hard and fast rule to making hummus. We prefer a coarse instead of creamy smooth texture and we don't like it oily so I don't pour oil on it when serving.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp sesame seed (toasted)
½ tsp sesame oil
¼ tsp sea salt

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Homemade Kway Teow ~ Steamed Flat Rice Noodles

After many trials, errors and disappointments I am pleased to finally report success with making my own kway teow. I have gone through the whole rigamarole of testing various methods and different plates and trays. The kway teow came out perfectly using my black/grey coated baking tray.

Quite by accident I discovered that leaving the kway teow to cool, made it much easier to remove and the steamed rice noodle came out much smoother. Plus you don't get burnt fingers !

It is not really time consuming to make kway teow. You get lots of 5 minutes break in between steaming each tray, giving you heaps of time to clean the kitchen or take the opportunity to do your crosswords or crack your brain on the sudoku.

This kway teow had a nice and smooth texture with a 'bounce'. Just perfect for cutting up into strips for char kway teow (fried rice noodles).


Makes 8-9 pieces (½ kg)

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