Once again, the cold, windy weather makes it too unpleasant to walk along the seafront, so I have confined myself to the kitchen. The Cornish pasties from last night are re-heating in the oven (the leftovers!) and apple crumble and custard are waiting in the wings for weary travellers. Baked chicken and vegetables were my supper - my favourite!
I think it's going to be a cooking weekend - this weather lends itself to comfort food, whereas in summer we tend to eat very lightly - baked meats and salads - and sometimes meatless meals, as we become less and less inclined towards eating red meat and prefer free range chicken and fish. For the moment, it's stew time and soup.
The indigenous nursery way down the Peninsula near Cape Point Reserve has advertised a guided walk on the mountain slopes to introduce us to foraging - this is gathering your food from the veld. There are all kinds of edible plants out there, as well as in our gardens, and there is no harm in finding out more about what is freely available, as well as identifying the poisonous species at the same time! They offer advice on how to use the plants in your cooking, and it will be interesting to find out what they taste like, as well as how nutritious they are. I have a ground cover in my garden which is a rampant grower and read in a gardening magazine that it can be eaten like spinach - presumably lightly steamed - and if that is so, I have an apparently limitless supply of greens on my doorstep. A field of nasturtiums is next door for salads, and dandelions are rife, another valuable food source.
Soon we will be competing with the baboons in their kitchen! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
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