Honey

Well hello blog, fancy meeting you in this dusty dark corner of the internet.  It has been a long time I know, and I was even thinking of abandoning you, but you have been saved by the honey.  More on that later.  I took this photo of the sweet peas back in the Spring, which is when I started writing this post.  The Summer has been busy but there's been lots of action in the kitchen and with Autumn approaching I thought I'd get back into it.

So much to report.  Since our last encounter I have learnt to make Komboucha,

which I will discuss in another post.

Have been to Marrakech:

And Chengdu in China

We  had a visitor on the verandah:

I have also been watching a bit of this:

and spent a bit of time here

It is horribly dry here and I am in a state of despair about the garden.  There has been little rain here since September and the farm is looking pretty parched.   In all the time we have been here I have never known this dam to be dry:

I haven't been able to keep the lawn green at all, and it went brown just before Christmas.  Some of the trees in the outer garden that don't get watered may not make it.  Oh well, I suppose it is February and it is southern Australia, so to a degree it is to be expected but I really cannot wait for it to rain.

At least I have been able to keep the veggie garden going...

But getting back to the honey.  I am delighted to announce that the beehive I was given for my birthday has yielded a spectacular 30kgs of honey from two extractions.

It is really very good honey, and I can say that because, let's face it, it's the bees who do all the work. My contribution comes from making different flowers available in the garden all year for the bees to go about their business.  So needless to say I have been trying to use it in some different recipes, but really, on toast, with butter, is hard to beat.

PAN FRIED PEARS WITH HONEY Serves 4

2-3 pears (not too ripe), peeled, cored and quartered

1 tblsp butter

1 tblsp brown sugar

1/2 teasp cinnamon

1/4 cup verjuice

another 1 tblsp butter

1/4 cup good quality honey

1 teasp vanilla extract

grated rind of 1/2 lemon

toasted hazelnuts or crumble topping to finish

Melt the 1 tblsp butter in a frying pan over a medium high heat.  Add the sugar and cinnamon and stir until well combined. Add the pears and cook for a couple of minutes until golden on both sides.  Remove pears from the pan and place in a serving dish.

Add the verjuice to the pan and boil rapidly for a minute or two stirring occasionally until the sauce has reduced slightly.  Stir in the remaining butter, honey, vanilla essence and the lemon rind and simmer for a further couple of minutes.  Pour the sauce over the pears and top with hazelnuts or crumble topping.

Crumble topping:

You can make this in a big batch and keep it in a container in the freezer.  Then use it to sprinkle over any fruit or ice cream to add a bit of crunch.

50g SR flour

15g ground almonds

35g castor sugar

100g cold butter

Preheat oven to 180c.  Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.

Whizz above ingredients in the food processor in short bursts till it resembles chunky breadcrumbs (don't over do it).   Spread the mix onto the tray and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.  Check and give it a good mix around, it will brown on the edges first.  Cook until evenly golden, about 10 more minutes.