Another red curry this time with winter vegetables

I know it's spring, but I still feel the winter in the air. So what is more appropriate than cooking with some of these winter vegetables, including: parsnips (grown in Perth, Scotland), carrots, shiitake mushrooms (grown somewhere in the England) and sweet potatoes (from the USA). One of the supermarkets was also selling Tofu for half price. I bought four packets as the sell by date was very good. I like a bargain now and again.
The recipe is inspired by Nancie McDermott's book Real Vegetarian Thai, but as someone who likes to tamper with recipes I did not follow it to the book and have changed it with two ingredients,mainly tofu in place of wheat balls and shiitake in place of a winter squash.

D's not a fan of tofu, but he said he actually enjoyed it this way as the red curry sauce has penetrated well into it's texture.

Red curry with winter vegetables
Serve 4 generously
Ingredients
400ml can of unsweetened coconut milk
3 - 4 tablespoons of shop bought red curry paste
1 packet of tofu (250g), drained well and cut into cubes
200ml vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of soy or tamari sauce
500g of vegetables made up of parsnips; carrots; and sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into even sized cubes, bare in mind that these vegetables cook at different so cut the cubes accordingly.
75g shiitake mushrooms, halved
Coriander leaves, chopped for garnish
Method
Spoon out 1/3 of coconut milk into a pan and bring to a gentle boil until it starts to release its fragrance, then add curry paste and cook for a few more minutes until it is well blended.

Add tofu cubes and parsnip and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the sweet potato and carrot cubes along with remaining coconut milk, vegetable stock and soy or tamari sauce. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to maintain gentle heat while winter veg are cooked through, but not mushy. This should take about 15 minutes

A couple of minutes before the dish is ready add the shiittake mushroom and stir thoroughly.

Remove from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes, sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves and serve with plain boiled rice.

Ants in the compost bin

We spent all morning at Plot 45, the weather was changeable. One minute it was spitting rain, the next it was sunning, then it was showery, then finally the sun came out and decided to stay.

We did quite a bit, mostly focusing on the brassica plants: Silverline sprouting broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli, Arcadia broccoli and the cabbage hispi all wanted to get out of their pots and begging to get into the ground. How could I say no, so that is what I did. Once all were firmly planting into the ground, there home for the next few months, D went ahead and build a net shield. Beautification of the allotment bye bye. Protection from those pigeons is the main priority here. D also put netting over the gooseberry plant, as the berries are starting to fatten up.
I continued with the gardeners favourite job of weeding. All that rain early in the week, although good for the potatoes and plants, also brought with it the weeds. So I weeded the potato bed gently, so not to disturb the potatoes that are starting to emerge. The strawberry bed and the front two beds, one of which merrily displayed the daffodils, that have now all died down, but another flower,with an orange buds (can't think of its name right now) is beginning to emerge.

I went to put some daffodil dead head cuttings into the compost bin and I had noticed some ants, actually hundreds, maybe even thousands of them had made themselves at home there in the nice moist warmth of the bin. I know this is our fault for having not turned the soil, but what do I do now? Any advice on how to encourage them to leave - other than chemicals. I don't really want to harm them. I have always been impressed with these insects, once as a child I witnessed how they had come into my mothers kitchen from the garden and carried granules of sugar, how they passed it over to the next ant and then the next in a neat orderly line. I was amazed at their teamwork. So if any one has experience of a friendly or organic method to move them along, please let me know.

Paris Je T'aime

We, the royal we got married last year in October and did not get the opportunity to go honeymooning for a number of reasons, but now the time has come, so we will be going on our belated honeymoon to Paris. I have never been to France, so am quite excited, but I have been told by a number of people that Paris is a world of it's own, very different from the rest of France.

While in Paris, I won't be doing too much of the tourist expedition thing, such as the Eiffel Tower - I will be happy to see that from a distant. I am more interested in wandering the streets, visiting the outdoor markets, feeling the culture, tasting the food.

So, if any of you lovely people have any recommendations of vegetarian establishments, food places or community gardens worth a visit, please do let me know.

For now I will start researching the web and practising my french, I wish I had focused more when I was at school.