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DIY garden greenery

 Azaleas are starting to bloom – cerise, peach and deep red, and jasmine scents the air twining around fences and trees. Outside the back door sweetpeas tumble out of baskets, petunias and California poppies make a wonderful purple and golden contrast and Namaqualand daisies dance in the breeze tossing cheerfully their yellow and orange heads. Hooray for colour.
Johannesburg is more about glass, wood and steel and restaurants bursting out of dedicated food malls which are slick, comfy, warm and welcoming. The Firs in Rosebank must boast at least half a dozen and Friday evening charming waitrons – most of them Zimbabweans – are hustling politely for business. Luckily I didn’t have to choose and was hosted to a warming winter meal of pork belly slow cooked in cider at Doppio Zero – a restaurant on two levels which in daytime provides a comfy library nook and coffee, and at nighttime is overflowing with patrons.
Harare just doesn’t have the same traffic volume and I am happy to shift gear into a quieter pace and enjoy garden greenery after days of hotel and restaurant food. The vegetable garden is a real pleasure. Picking a pea pod, splitting it open and eating the sweet little green peas right there in the sunshine is a huge treat. So many shades of green leaves are flourishing. Bright Lights spinach –  some with red stems, some with yellow, some bright green, share space with grey green rape, lime green cos, crimson-tinged radiccio, iron green spinach. Coriander (with its feathery, fragrant leaves) acts as an insect repellent next to the lettuce, rape and radishes. Some people avoid it saying it smells like a stink-bug itself – but I love its pungent taste and use it a lot. Also known as cilantro it’s a staple flavour in Mexican, Asian and Indian cookery.
It goes to seed quickly though, especially as the weather warms up – so sequential plantings are necessary for a steady supply. I have not got that right yet and currently have an over abundance. One way to preserve that flavour is to turn it into a sauce  which will keep for weeks in the fridge. I blend a big bunch with oil (a mixture of sunflower and olive), salt and a few cloves of crushed garlic and the resulting pesto can be used to add flavour to sandwiches, as an accompaniment to grilled chicken or fish, or, with the addition of chillie and ginger, as the basis for a Thai curry paste.
Coriander seeds are also special and when dried up and ground are an essential flavouring in most Indian and Middle Eastern recipes.  Sweet and warm, small quantities of the spice add something special to sweet cakes, and combine really well with pepper in savoury dishes.
The different greens call out for a pie. Make your own pastry or use frozen puff pastry or filo. Adapt the filling to what you have in your garden or from the store. I am using swiss chard, spinach, Chinese cabbage, mint, spring onions and parsley. Strip the swiss chard from its stalks. Chop the stalks and sauté them in olive oil with a pinch of salt till soft with one white onion and a bunch of spring onions . Add the washed and chopped leaves to the pan and leave on a low heat to wilt. Mix in salt, pepper, chopped mint and parsley and 150g crumbled feta cheese.
Surround with pastry and bake in hot oven till cooked and crisp. Easy, delicious and really fresh!
– g.jeke@yahoo.com