October Doings

This has been the mildest October we've ever had I think. We've recently had a few really hot days, but for most of the month, it's been quite pleasant with lots of storms around - albeit not lots of rain in those storms. Some rain has meant that our grass is greening up a bit.....as usual though, we need more. I shouldn't complain, we've had almost 60mm for October and still looking like more storms coming.

Bush Lime season again, so we picked heaps and made a huge batch of cordial. I did make a small batch in the thermomix first up and then Edmund decided that it was so good that he would pick more for a big batch. I made about 5 litres of cordial and have also frozen some limes to make more when that lot runs out. It does have a lot of sugar so I don't tend to drink it, but Edmund is young and works very hard, so I don't think it hurts him too much!

The bush lime tree. The limes themselves are very small - about the size of a pea.

After the first burst of rain, we did get a few mushrooms. I ended up picking about 3 basket fulls. Some we ate some fresh, but most of them were dried. I can add these to soups or stews or the ground powder can be added to just about anything for some extra flavour.

I've been buying lots of tomatoes lately from the markets so have made a huge batch of tomato sauce. I got this recipe of a friend and it has been my go to sauce recipe for many years. I do change it up occasionally and will give some options for that too. I've included the apples in the recipe, but I never do any more. I have used green mangoes when I have them - I think they are just a filler/thickener.

Tomato Sauce

6kg tomatoes

1kg green apples (optional)

1/2kg onions

1 litre vinegar

125g salt

1kg sugar

15g each cloves, ginger, allspice, white pepper

125g garlic

Pinch Chilli

Cut the vegetables up. Place all the ingredients int a large saucepan, stir well, especially the last hour. Boil for about 2.5 hours. Bottle and seal while hot.

N.B. As mentioned, I don't use the apples, so it may be a bit thin - either keep boiling until it thickens or thicken with a little flour mixed in vinegar. The original recipe said to strain. I don't, but if I had a stick blender, I would give it a good whiz to make the sauce smoother. I use the thermomix to cut the tomatoes and onions and because I don't have a stick blender, I do process them fairly fine. You could peel the tomatoes if you don't like the tomato skin. I couldn't be bothered with that. Reduce the amounts to make a smaller batch. Eg by doing a 1kg batch of tomatoes in the thermomix, just divide everything by 6.

Variations: swap the spices with coriander and cumin and increase the chilli for a spicy version. Or swap them for ginger for a different flavour. 

I've been doing quite a bit of preserving of foods lately, including a batch of tomato pasatta, which I was inspired to do after reading the Milkwood Book. I'll have to do another post about some of my other preserves that I've done in the last little while. This is a very old Fowlers Vacola Preserving pot, which I was given by my Aunt. I've misplaced some of the bits that go with it, including the thermometer that goes down the outside of the pot in the slot you can see. I've bought new lids and seals in recent years, but the jars are original. I've got a lot of jars, that I don't use, but I really would love to do more of this type of preserving. Time.......