Creative garden spaces

Let's face it, not everyone is lucky enough (or perhaps they don't want to) live on a large property that has plenty of ground space for a garden. That doesn't mean, however, that they can't have a garden. All it takes is a more creative look at space and space management, coupled with some ingenuity and elbow grease.
I'm going to be the first to say this (before my brother and sister make some snide comment), I'm pretty useless with most tools that one might use in the garden. That hasn't, however, stopped me from making myself a few interesting veggie spaces.
Project 1: at the bottom of my garden, there's a shed with the side wall facing the afternoon sun. So I drilled a few holes in the side, attached some plastic gutters, filled them with soil and now I have vertical planting spaces.
Project 2: I took PVC pipes (the kind used to transport water underground), drilled holes in them at regular intervals, filled them with soil, stood them erect and planted lettuce plants in the holes. The lettuce grows off the soil (keeping them clean) while the snails stay away.
Project 3: I took a wood palette, disassembled it, put thick painter's plastic on the inside and then reassembled it, leaving the top and bottom open. I then stood this structure on its thin edge in a 20cm ditch which I filled in so that it could stand, filled it up with soil and then broke the plastic with my finger and planted veggies in the holes. The plants then grow out and up with the roots firmly held in the structure.
Project 4: Back with the PVC pipes. I took all the leftover seeds and stalks and unusable chillies (that I had been preparing to make into a sauce), mixed them with a buck of soil and then filled the PVC pipe with the mixture, capping both ends. Now, as the seeds germinate, they grow towards the sunlight and seek out the holes in the pipe. The pipe itself I mounted on two stages that had gutter holders on them.
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Winter garden

This post isn't about food as such and yet at the same time it is exactly about food. It's about keeping your own garden and how you can harvest the entire year and use your own produce in your kitchen.
Today is the second day of autumn (in Argentina - Southern Hemisphere). It is also bright and hot and part of a four-day weekend. So there was really no excuse for me to get into my 4m x 3m veggie patch, pull up the weeds and leftover plants from summer, till the soil and so make a start to my winter garden.
For the type of climate we have here in Buenos Aires in autumn and winter, I've opted for the following veggies (I must confess that I had to Google many of these to find the English name):
chard / acelga              chili / aji picante
chicory / achicora        peas / arveja
onions / cebolla           spinach / espinaca
lima beans / haba         lettuce / lechuga
parsley / perejil            leeks / puerro
radish / rabanito           beetroot / remolacha
cabbage / repollo          carrots / zanahoria
Watch this space ...
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Couscous

This is a traditional Berber dish of semolina which is cooked by steaming and it can be eaten both hot and cold, alone or accompanied by a variety of add-ins.
My family's preferred way of eating couscous is as a cold salad.
Measure out the same amount of dry couscous as water (one cup of water to one cup of couscous). Bring the water to the boil with some salt added in. Turn the heat off, add in the dry couscous, stir and leave for about five to ten minutes. During this time the couscous will absorb all the water and be perfectly cooked. To separate the grains, add a small knob of butter and stir. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, finely chop up whatever veggies you'd like to add into your salad, making sure that everything is really finely chopped. Onions, spring onions, carrots, celery, coriander / cilantro work well but feel free to experiment with other hard veggies too. Stir this into the cooled couscous and you're ready to go.
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Lemon chicken

This is one of those dishes you will always come back to since it is so easy to make and the variables are almost endless, so that it simply reinvents itself every time.
My kids love this and with minor changes to the dish I keep them guessing.
Start off with some chicken breasts, cleaned of course. Flip each of the breasts over and cut away the loose, flappy bit (which you can accumulate and store in the freezer for a stir fry later on). Now turn the breast back over and filet into two or three fillets (depending on how thick you like the chicken).
Once you have all the breasts filleted, salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle some sweet paprika on it. This will give the fried fillet a lovely colour (and taste).
In a pan, add some butter and, when melted, add the fillets. As the chicken is frying, add the juice of half to whole lemon and continue to cook on both sides until the chicken takes on a brown colour.
Variations that work well are: orange instead of lemon, a drizzle of honey, some balsamic vinegar.
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Hummus

This is a really simple and versatile dish to make and may be eaten as a starter, as part of a larger starter meal with bread as dips or, let's face it, on it's own, in front of the TV while chilling out!
Hummus is merely cooked and blended chick peas with a few added spices. I rarely actually boil my own chick peas but go for the canned ones instead.
Drain the liquid from the can, place the chick peas in a deep jug, add the juice of half a lemon, some salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste as well as one or two cloves of garlic. Blend with a hand-held blender until smooth. The mixture will be thick and lumpy. Add olive oil and blend until you get the consistency you're looking for. Place in a bowl, decorate with some cayenne pepper or sweet paprika and a healthy dose of olive oil. Serve with flat bread or biscuits or just get a teaspoon and enjoy.
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Pears in red wine

This is a really simple to make dessert with the wow factor thrown in as a bonus.
Select pears that are firm as they will have to boil for quite a while. Peel the pears, making sure to leave the stems.
In a pot, add a bottle of red wine (hint: use the cheaper stuff) to which you need to add anywhere between one and a half to two cups of sugar. Ground cinnamon and/or stick cinnamon, a few cloves, the rind of a lemon and a half teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Heat until the sugar is dissolved and add the pears, standing if possible. Boil until the pears are soft. Remove the fruit from the mixture and continue to boil the liquid until it reduces to a thickish, sticky sauce.
Serve the pears on individual plates, coated with the syrup and a dollop of cream or ice cream.
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Garlic bread

For some or other reason, I always have bread (French loaf) left over after an asado and I'm loathe to throw it away. So I store it in the freezer and the I use it to make garlic bread.
Simply allow the bread to defrost, slice up, keeping the slices in order as you will be "reassembling" the bread again.
Now crush a clove or two of garlic with some coarse salt to which you add soft butter and mix well.
Next, butter each of the slices of your French loaf with this garlic butter, still keeping them in the correct sequence. Once done, wrap the bread up in tin foil and place on the parrilla (grill) while you are cooking your meat, making sure to turn it over once in a while. Soon the butter will be melted and the bread will be warm and toasted and it will be the perfect starter.
Variations to butter are lemon and herbs.
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Koesisters

As a kid growing up in Lansdowne, Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday mornings were great because my mom always bought koesisters from one of our many Muslim neighbours. They are, in effect, a sort of flavoured pastry, what in Argentina is called "facturas". The taste and the smell of these delights will always fondly be associated to Mrs Salie and Sunday mornings.
In honour of that memory, I've decided to make them and I was surprised how simple they are:
Mix 500g of flour into a mixing bowl to which you add a teaspoon of dry ginger, one teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of cardamom powder, two teaspoons of aniseed powder and one packet of instant yeast. Set aside.
In a separate measuring jug, melt one dessert spoon of butter in a cup of hot water with half a cup of sugar. Into this mixture, beat an egg. Now complete the mixture with milk until half a liter.
Slowly add the liquid mixture to the dry one until you have a soft dough. Set aside and allow to rise until double in size.
Once risen, divide the dough into about 30 equal-sized balls and leave on a greased surface until they puff up again. Meanwhile, heat oil in a deep bot and once suitably hot, take the balls (pulling them gently into an oblong form) and gently drop into the oil, frying for about two minutes until evenly cooked on both sides. Remove from oil and allow to drain on absorbent paper.
To make the syrup, take 500ml of water to which you add 250ml of sugar and boil. When ready, take the cooked koesisters, dip them in the syrup and once coated, sprinkle with coconut and enjoy!
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Boerewors

This is a South African sausage that is traditionally eaten at a braai (asado / barbecue) and it is the flagship taste from my home country. Needless to say, I only het to eat it when I travel to South Africa.
However, thanks to an ex-student, Jasper Vink, who gave me a boerewors recipe, I now no longer have to wait for a trip to SA. It was, however, with some trepidation, that I embarked on this mission to try and recreate that traditional boerewors taste.
The trip to my local butcher to get 2kg of beef and 1 kg of pork and 500g of fat was the easy part. I then minced the meat up and mixed it thoroughly. It to was added 20g of coriander, 2ml crushed cloves, 2ml ground nutmeg, 5ml freshly ground black pepper and 30g of fine salt. All these spices are then added to the meat and mixed through, after which 100ml of vinegar is added and then the whole thing is left to rest in the fridge (in my case for 24 hours).
The next part was the painful but also pleasing part: getting the meat into the sausage casings. I used a large funnel with a thick spout, onto which I threaded all the casings (about three meters) and then gradually pressed the meat into the funnel and into the casings.
The labour aside, this has been an amazing experience ... and the taste took me straight back home to a family braai.
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Melon and ginger jam

When I first prepared this jam and shared it with friends, the responses were: "Melon with ginger? Yuck". I know it sounds like a strange combination but rest assured, it is a refreshing taste and an excellent, easy-to-make jam.
Take a melon, remove the skin as well as the inner pips and then dice up into large cubes, add to a glass bowl and cover in sugar (sugar to net weight of the melon is about the same) and leave for a while (even overnight). Bring to the boil and add about 50 to 100g of grated ginger (this ingredient is to everyone's personal taste as the ginger can be very overpowering). Lastly, add the juice of one lemon and continue to boil for about an hour.
Add the still warm jam to sterilized jars and seal immediately.
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