Loving that Coriander.

Coriander is a herb that we love to grow, and have done so from seed ever since we arrived in Alice. I saved a large jar of it last year , which we have subsequently packaged up and sold at seed stalls. But we do sometimes find ourselves not using our fresh coriander. i pick a big bunch and it sits in a vase - and i get sort of annoyed and pace around.

But i have a fabulous solution to using coriander and preserving its freshness and flavour.
We make a sort of Laksa come curry paste using:
lots of garlic
and ginger
2 onions
large bunch of coriander
vegetable oil
lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves or lemon rhind
pepper and salt.
chili optional

You can use it as a curry paste, add some shrimp past and fish sauce and make your laska (coconut cream of course) and even as a pizza base for a seafood pizza. You can add sugar and more chilies and make a chili jam - Jamie Oliver has a good recipe.
(this paste freezes well)

Other News afoot is that  the Vege garden comapnion is being revised and expanded and should once again be in print. It is planned that this new version will cover fruit trees and maybe even the chooky side of the back yard.

Big planting weekend this weekend as David came around with a suite of perennial edibles and medicinal plants that he had received from a seed company. Many i had never heard of but i was able to look them up on the "plants for a future" database. The website is definately worth a look although i don't think i have mastered the search function yet. I did find out that it was just as well we planted these seeds in winter as some of the plants benefited from cold stratification before the warm growing period. Some of the plants also may take quite a while to emerge - 18 months!!

After cleaning out the hot house last weekend it is once again quite full.