Day 6 - BBQ

The day started with Paul picking another 3 cucumber.

Paul invited friends over for a BBQ, - Day 6 - feeling cocky - garden fresh salad (lettuce, tomato and cucumber), corn and squash were on the menu. The chips well that was up to chance, the boys dug up the spot and found a nice bunch of potatoes to feed the masses present. The corn was cooked in its husk - steamed nicely over the BBQ and the squash, cut in slides and cooked over the grill.

Richard help me out with the BBQ, both of us cheering every time a sausage spat into the chips. Though the chips didn't exactly need it thanks to them being cooked in cobram EVOO.

Simon assisted by washing down the vegies with some Boddingtons and a few laughs.

Dinner - leftovers or something new....?

Now I know how a vegetarian feels like at a BBQ

On Tuesday evening we were invited to a barbeque at my mates Gregs place in the Adelaide Hills. The bbq plate was chock full of high quality lamb chops, snags and fresh baby octopus. I was armed with bag of fresh potatoes, roma tomatoes and a couple of corn cobs. I also had a left-over yellow capsicum stuffed with spicy rice and chilli that I had made the previous day.

Surprisingly I didn’t feel a strong urge to eat the meat, but the bbq’ed octopus looked and smelled sensational.

After the plate was thoroughly scraped, and flooded with good South Australian Extra Virgin olive oil, the potatoes were turned into yummy fried greasy chips. The romas were lightly bbq’ed just enough to make them soft but not mushy. The stuffed capsicum tasted better than the day before. The tomatoes and capsicum delight were then finished with a drizzle of grassy robust Frantoio EVOO. Not that it needed more fat - but I use EVOO for flavour.

However, it was clear that vegetarians (even a transient one like myself) get subjugated to meat eaters in these circumstances. By the time I had prepared my meal, the others had finished eating. I'm not complaining as I'm looking forward to getting my own back to a unsuspecting real vegetarian some time in the very near future.

But a couple of Bourogne’s later and all was forgotten. A great finish to a top warm South Australian arvo.

Gruelling Times

Yes I’ve been a little slack – working this week. That’s my excuse anyway.

So lets start at the beginning of the challenge. First things first. The weather was threatening to be a stinker, so I was keen to take off as much of the heat sensitive crop that I could. I also wanted to get at that valuable stash of potatoes that I planted way back in July. But there were carrots planted on top of them so they had to go first. Here’s a few pics of the ceremony. Overall the amount of Pontiac potatoes were less than expected. Only a single layer of them, when I was expecting two as I had mounded them once or twice. But there were enough there to keep me happy.

The purple heirloom carrots were complete duds. Looked great on top, but had gnarly twisted and hairy roots about as thick as my nose hairs. Right next to them planted in the same soil were the traditional carrots. I picked a couple. Here they are shown side by side. The more I deal with heirloom vegetables the more I realise that they didn’t become ‘lost’ in time for no reason. Other superior varieties just replaced them. Incidentally, in my opinion the heirlooms actually had less carrot flavour.

The tomatoes were there in abundance. Some were cooked inside due to the extreme heat that we just experienced. They looked perfect on the outside but had the texture of tinned tomatoes. They didn’t go to waste though. I scooped out the flesh to add to my famous vegetable gruel.

Paul was right about some of my corn. They were a little overdone. Again, great flavour but a pappy texture. Once again, the kernels were cut off and added to the gruel. The French beans were hit hard by the heat and again were overdone. Yes, you guessed it – they went into the gruel.

My Gruel Recipe

Cut off anything off your horrid vegetables. If you think the dog wouldn't eat it then it goes. Keep the rest.

Put it in a big pot with 100mls of robust extra virgin olive oil.

Add two hot chillis

Assalt it (to a greviously bodily harm stage)

Add as much pepper as possible.

Boil the shit out of it.

Simmer for 10 hours.

Enjoy!

Day 5 - Lunch and Dinner

Lunch - salad - consisted of roasted pumpkin thrown in with other salad material - tomatoes and cucumber etc.



Dinner - soup - consisting of multiple vegetables - zuchini, tomato, eggplant, corn, celery, carrot, onion, shelled beans and 70g of pasta. Soup accompanied by bruchetta, cobram EVOO and sol beer - excellent on a warn evening.

Start of Day 5

A quick little harvest to start the day, 5 (not so) mighty reds and 5 cucumbers.

Day 4

After a big session surfing yesterday, today I was feeling the need for food.

Breakfast - again consisted of two slices of toast and tomatoes.

Lunch - feeling really hungry - has some tabouli for lunch and consumed the left over curry and goulash.

Better, but then another surf session in arvo - this time with my youngest - not so intense. But with all this physical activity, a big fry up was required.

Dinner - BBQ time - pumpkin, zuchini, potato and pumpkin seek (interesting) - all that food smothered in oil (EVOO) cooked on BBQ - I almost felt like a meat eater again (even made own tomato sauce to get that real pig out BBQ feeling)

Dinner Day 3

Had dinner with that other moron - vegetarian goulash (tomatoes, peppers - long yellow & green bell, chillies, zuchini, corn and shelled fresh beans), potatoes and french beans washed down with Adelaide Hills extra virgin olive oil and Conawarra cab sav.



Never seen Richard eat so much - times are tough in the leafy suburbs!

Unfortunately, next time dinner is vegetable gruel/soup - Richard's cooking!

Pumpkin

Did I forget to mention the pumpkin. The rationing of this is in place (see picture below). One beautiful orange and fully ripened wedge went into tonights curry.

Plump corn on Day 2

Day 2 saw the harvest of some beans, strawberries, two peppers, another cucumber (four so far) and two plump corns (see below - no shrivelling going on there).





Breakfast was again, black coffee and tomatoes drissled with olive oil on two pieces of toast and 6 strawberries (I doubled up - feeling hungry)

Lunch consisted of a cucumber, tomato, pepper and corn (so plump, fresh, sweet and juicy that it was eaten raw), coriander, chives and basil salad.




Dinner saw the cutting of the pumpkin. I cooked a curry consisting of onion, pumpkin, zucchini, potato, pepper, tomato, corn and purple string beans combined with 50g of lentils. All atop a very small serve of rice.




However, the harvest hasn't been all great - my peas failed dismally (they are dead and gone!), I thought that the eggplant had totally failed, but I got one (see below) and the potato harvest from the black tube is sad (but I managed to put two into tonights curry) and tomatoes, while they will get me through the week, they are not as prolific as the great Gawel.

Day 1 of the Challenge from the Kings Park Plotter

It’s been a tough few days just prior to the start of the Man v Carrot challenge. After a long warm and fairly moist spring the hot weather hit with vengeance. 38C, 41C, 40C and 40C. It has been quite a challenge keeping things alive. Today is going to be particularly interesting as a strong hot northerly is in play today. Pauly’s garden never seems to suffer as much, but he won’t give up the secret.

But the posturing is over – The challenge has begun!

Last night I travelled to the suburbs of fear to Pauls place for the all important weigh in. Putting on weight during the challenge period will result in instant disqualification. No reason for the rule, except that going vego for a week MUST result in weight loss. Either that, or all that stuff I’ve been saying about vegetarianism all these years is wrong. And we couldn’t have that could we?

After my last carno meal of spaghetti bog and a few beers plus a full bladder I came in at 7#.5kg and Paul who has leaned up after a few days of surfing came in at a massive 8#.5 kg (incidentally #=somewhere between 5 and 9 - let's face it, if was between 0 and 4 I would have put the numbers in).

So here I am on the first morning. I finally braved the heat (it was 35.6 at 10am) and harvested the beans that I should have pulled off two weeks ago, some nice ripe yellow capsicums, a cucumber that was hiding in the undergrowth (that means I have 2, not one as I reported previously), a few radishes hiding amongst the beans, and of course some rich ripe Improved Apollo tomatoes.

Today’s menu: 1) Tomato on extra virgin olive oil (variety Picual what else with tomatoes! - from Tatiara in SE South Australia) smeared toasted bread, 2) Long yellow capsicum stuffed with spicy rice, 3) fresh garden salad smothered in EVOO, and 3) overstewed lumpy bean and lentil soup - prison style, and a cob of corn. (the rice, lentils and bread must not exceed the daily allowance of 200gms).

And for the doomsdayer Paul, here is the most advanced of my corn cobs. Yes a tiny weeny bit overdone at the top, but fully formed golden yellow yummy ears in every position available. I had a peek and the rest look totally plump (like you and I buddy!), so beholden the golden I say.

I'll take a leaf out of the fellow challengers book and post some pics of my passionately thought out and executed culinary creations.

Breakfast and Lunch Day1

So what is on the menu you wonder... let me show you...

Breakfast - Black Coffee, A carrot (but of course), tomatoes drissled with extra virgin olive oil and topped with basil on 50g of wholemeal toast and three strawberries.



Lunch - 50g of cous cous and tomatoes, cucumber, long sweet pepper, spring onion, celery, basil, mint and parsley with a good serve of olive oil and cervesa!

A hot start to the challenge week

Day one - I eagerly headed out at 7 am to harvest what I could before another day of 40 degree heat killed my babies.

While there has been slim pickings on the potato front I am doing OK in other areas - though I may be rationing my big tomatoes.

Below is a shot of this morning's harvest, which includes very full purple climbing beans, some large zucchini and squash, ripe cucumbers, a long sweet pepper and a good collection of tomatoes (mostly of the cherry variety - Truss Sweet the pick of these)

Potatoes

I have previously discussed my spud trials. Well I have investigated the products from the black tube and if they were a country music band they would be called Slim Pickings. The potatoes yielded from the tube do not fill a one litre ice-cream container!

While I still have another patch to investigate, it seems that I am in dire straits for this challenge.

Will have to do a hard search of the recipe pages for the rest of the week.