Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #33

I don't really have too much happening on my balcony at the moment. I've not planted a lot of the "crops" I'd planned to experiment with over winter (like potatoes + garlic) as The Boy + I are heading away for a month soon (insert *happy dance* here) and I didn't want to leave plants growing on the balcony with noone home to look after them.

That said I have planted a few winter things like carrots, beetroot, beans, peas + bok choi (that sounds like a lot, but for me it's nothing) that I can use before we head away.  Mostly though I am just making use of the herbs I have growing, like my chives.

I think this is the last meal I got out of my chives before the attack of the dreaded black aphids happened.  Such a shame that my chives have basically been eaten alive (not by me, by the aphids) as I love the mild garlic note they add to meals.  Towards the end of their life these chives really looked...disgusting, there's just no other word for it. That black stuff on the chives isn't dirt by the way, it's a SWARM of black aphids *shudder*.

I bought these Dry Porcini Mushrooms from the Adelaide Central Markets last November and they've just sat in the dark recesses of my cupboard until recently.  If I'm telling the truth I was just a bit intimated by them.  I'm not sure what was stopping me from using these little guys -- maybe the thought of food expanding like a sponge when I added water freaked me out? Once rehydrated these guys had quite a pungent, earthy smell that I really liked...and I liked that the soaking water can be used in the cooking too. It adds a real depth of flavour. 

I've always loved risotto but I CANNOT cook it.  My risotto making just ends up with me adding 57 liters of stock and STILL having crunchy rice. WHY? All the stirring of the stock and the rice also really kills my arm.  Risotto is NOT my friend. In fact cooking it makes me quite cross.  So a few weeks ago I abandoned altogether trying to make stove-top risotto as I fail at it every time.

The thing is I still want to eat risotto.  So, I've found a good oven baked version of risotto that I usually make with chicken but this time I wanted something vegetarian - enter the mushrooms.  It's SO simple - you literally chuck everything into an ovenproof dish and bung it in the oven. That's my kinda cooking!  The rice was just a smidgen gluggy (why is that people), but topped with my freshly grown chives it tasted…not too bad.

You can view more Harvest Monday posts on Daphne's Dandelions blog.