Aquaponics 2.0

The second version of the aquaponics system was fantastic. There were alterations and certainly improvements. But first, the news...

Well, there's good news and bad news.

Good news: Elliot successfully built a filter from a rubbish bin and scourer pads and the system ran brilliantly with filtered water, and the tank looked clear and clean and great.

Good news: We bought four new fish three weeks ago and they are still alive.

Bad news: We have to move.

Bad news: The new house has no area for an aquaponics system so yesterday it got dismantled and the fish have been relegated to a life of living in a tank and having people stare at them.

They do seem rather happy though

We did have a good chance to get the filter up and running for a while and the new fish in the system before we had to start the packing and moving process. We don't know how long it will be until we get to set it up again but the filter certainly improved it and we will be well on track to having a flawless system when that time comes. The water levels were all really good and the fish seemed happy and well, didn't die.

The filter came as a result of there being quite a bit of sediment at the bottom of the tubes where the plants sit. Some Youtube research was done and a trip to the Warehouse and some plumbing place later, one filter was built.

Elliot made the filter from a rubbish bin, taped the top of it up, cut a circle from a peg basket for a mesh/net type effect which sat 10 cm or so off the bottom of the bin and then 30 or so scourer pads were placed on top of that. He put a 25mm tank fitting in the top which is where the water from the tank comes in and goes down a pipe which takes the water to the bottom of the filter, it then leaves the pipe in two directions which creates a swirl and that takes all the yucky sediment stuff to the bottom. The water then fills up to the top, travelling through the scourer pads which catch any other nasties. The water then exits the filter from the outflow fitting into the tubes where the plants are. Elliot also made a overflow which was another fitting higher than the outflow pipe just in case that got blocked the water would exit the overflow as a last resort.

I was amazed at the difference it made. The tank was so much cleaner and the water so much clearer. We thought the water before was pretty good, but this was amazing. I could actually see the fish. The ornamental vase that was in there became completely clean and the fish look happy (as happy as fish can look I guess).

Elliot also added a new pump to the sump tank to pump the water out faster as the water level in the fish tank was getting to low. This was also a great improvement and did the job perfectly.

We had one survivor from the first lot of fish and he had a few lonely weeks but was stellar. We cycled the system for a while and the water tests were all good and stable so we made a trip back to Hollywood Fish Farm, got four medium comets and introduced them to their new home.

They and the aquaponics system were going great (after the two very minor floods) and we were hoping to grow some new chilli plants in there but then got the unfortunate news that we had to move. We sadly leave behind our beautiful garden and conservatory that has served us so well.

The fish will come to our new home at Tern Place (doesn't quite have the same ring does it?) and we will have a nice big new deck for some planting which I am sure we will make the most of. There will still be chillies and hot food and we still have 10 bags of dried chillies to get through!

Herbs and veges will still be grown and it's all just another chapter in the life of a renter I guess.

Sunset Road has served us well - not only the garden and conservatory, but has been the perfect place for our first chilli growing season and our first home together (awwwww). It also gave me the inspiration for "Sunset Chillies" - a name which will stick and some memories that will last a lifetime.

Habanero hot sauce

Well I had to do something with them all...

After scouring the internet for recipe ideas for hot sauces I decided I wanted to try two types - one that used raw chillies and one that roasted the chillies.

Well, at least one of them was good.

The first recipe I tried basically blended habaneros, garlic, vinegar, water, oregano, sugar and salt.
I followed the recipe and got, well, habanero water. It was so watery and was simply liquid with specks of habaneros and oregano. I did still taste it despite the look and pungent aroma. It was not good. It was not good at all.

This is the before. The after was not much better.

Recipe number two surely had to be better. I found it on the net and it was entitled "The best spicy habanero hot sauce recipe". That said it all really. It must be good.

I altered it slightly, so these are the ingredients I ended up using:

• 20 habaneros
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp oregano

Method:

• Gut the habaneros - this means taking out all the placenta and the seeds (a rather lengthy process and one for which you MUST wear gloves).
• Peel the garlic cloves and cut them into quarters.
• Place the habaneros and garlic on an oven tray and rub a bit of olive oil over them.

• Put them in an oven preheated to 180°C and roast until golden brown - about 20 minutes.

• Once they have cooled down blend together with the rest of the ingredients.

This sauce was perfect. It was everything I wanted.

A lot of the sauce recipes I saw used carrots and onions to bulk them out - I guess to try and take away from the sheer heat of the chillies but I didn't want a thick sauce; I wanted more of a Tabasco sauce consistency that you can put a few drop of on eggs, on kebabs, in sauces, on nachos etc...

This sauce was delicious when first blended but was so much better the next day. It is nice and hot but is so tasty. I am stoked and will make this many times again. It went well in a cool tall bottle I had and as I am saving for a house at the mo, guess what people are getting for presents this year...

Burger night

Two weekends ago Elliot and I had Kel and Will over for dinner. Kel and I lived together way back when I first went flatting in 2003. Despite a string of weird and psychotic flatmates, Kel and myself, along with our friend Kylie, managed to live together and have a blast doing so for a couple of years. We did part ways, as you do, but through the joys of Facebook managed to at least check out where each other's lives had taken them.

I learnt Kel had travelled to Canada (amongst many other fabulous places), met Will, fell in love and got married. They stayed living in Canada until late last year when they decided to return to Kel's home land.

Also through the joys of social media I learnt Kel shared the passion for food and cooking that I did - she writes a great blog about all things food and I have been inspired by it on a number of occasions - check it out at http://arumblytummy.blogspot.co.nz/.

It also seemed her husband was somewhat of a food lover. As long as it had meat. And ideally in a burger.

So when the latest Cuisine magazine came out and had a section on burgers I knew this was the chance to stop just saying we would catch up for dinner - and actually do it.

I decided on two different burgers - the one that immediately caught my eye in the magazine - pork burgers with kimchi mayonnaise and my own version of a Hawaiian chicken burger using the pineapple pico de gallo recipe from the mag.

That along with homemade onion rings, slaw and gherkins ought to please any boy I am sure (and hopefully a great cook and someone who critiques food on a regular basis).

And the great thing about these recipes is you can do all the prep work in advance and then just have to cook the meat and onion rings and assemble.

Pork burgers and kimchi mayonnaise 
(these are the halved quantities I used and they made plenty)

• 1/2 bunch of coriander with roots and leaves
• 500g pork mince
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 Tb gochujang paste (a Korean chilli, soy bean paste which is delicious and I've made good use of the rest of it)
• 1/2 Tb soy sauce
• 1/2 Tb grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup kimchi (pickled spicy cabbage - sounds revolting but it is so very not)
• 1/4 good mayo
• 1/4 cucumber, deseeded and cut into fine matchsticks
• 1 1/2 cups savoy cabbage, cut finely
• 1/2 Tb rice wine vinegar
• 2 spring onions, cut very finely length ways
• 1/2 Tb peanut oil
• Buns (the recipe used steamed but I'm not a huge fan plus I was making mini ones using slider buns)

• Cut the roots and stems off the coriander and chop finely. Reserve the leaves.
• Put the coriander roots and stems in a bowl with the mince, garlic, gochujang, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil and half the salt.
• Using your hands, mix well.
• Shape into patties then cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.

• Put the kimchi and mayo in a blender and process until combined.

• Put the cucumber, cabbage, remaining salt and vinegar in a bowl and mix well. 
• Put the spring onions and coriander leaves on top but do not mix in.

• Heat the peanut oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry patties until cooked (I, well Kel, browned them and them finished them off in the oven while the chicken and bacon cooked and I did the onion rings).
• Toss the spring onions and coriander through the cabbage salad.
• Fill each bun with a patty, some of the green mix and a dollop of kimchi mayo.
• Eat a few (the joy of sliders is you can eat more than one and not feel too bad).

Pineapple Pico de Gallo

• 1 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple
• 1/2 red onion finely chopped (a regular red onion and not our ones the size of a baby's head)
• 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 3 Tb chopped coriander
• 2 Tb lime juice (do not use bottled, it is rubbish)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tb olive oil

• Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.

Add chicken and bacon to a slider bun for a mini Hawaiian chicken burger.

Fennel and hazelnut slaw

• 2 Tb orange juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large fennel bulb
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley
• 6 Tb roasted hazelnuts, chopped
• 3 Tb capers

• Whisk together the orange juice, mustard, olive oil and season with salt and black pepper.
• Remove fronds from fennel. Chop and set aside.
• Remove the course outer layers from the bulb then cut the fennel as thin as you can (use a mandoline if you have one, or borrow one if your Mams has one).
• Add to the bowl with the dressing and toss to combine.
• Put the carrot, parsley, hazelnuts, capers and fennel fronds on top of the dressed fennel. 
• Cover and refrigerate.
• Just before serving mix everything together.

Cuisine served this slaw in a bun with gurnard fillets. Sounded delicious and might be the next one to try.

Onion rings
These are super easy and passed on from Mams who passed on from Rachael Ray.

All you do is cut the onions into rings, dip them in buttermilk then into flour then back into buttermilk then back into the flour. Can deep fry them but I just shallow fried in really hot canola oil. Drain on paper towels and grind some salt over the top. Do them in small batches so the oil temperature doesn't drop too much and they stay nice and crispy.

Before

After

The verdict
Pretty successful all round. Everything seemed to go down a treat. My personal favourite was the pork burgers and the kimchi mayo was divine. The gochujang paste really made these burgers and I think they were El's favourite too. And it's not often he will eat anything that has something in it that he can't pronounce and there was a proud moment when I realised he had eaten the kimchi mayonnaise and not only did so without a grimace on his face, but quite possibly a smile. I'll knock that "bland westernised palate" out of him yet (his phrase, not mine).

The spread

The onion rings were salty and crispy and the Hawaiian burgers yummy too - was a nice twist having the pineapple as a salsa with chilli and coriander. Worked well with with the chicken and salty bacon. Mmmmm.

For dessert we were treated to Kel's spicy cookies - a cakey chocloately creation with ginger, smoked paprika, chilli chocolate and some other yummy things (sorry Kel I think at that stage I had had four or so glasses of wine).

Anyway, they were delicious (and we got to keep the leftovers)!

Pair all of the above with some lovely Pinot Gris (or Chardonnay which I think the second bottle was) or Dark Tui or Tsingtao (ok, so any wine or beer goes with burgers), some fabulous conversation and you've got yourself a good ol time.

Oh, Kel and Will also share our love of spicy food and I was super impressed Will even tried the killer jerky which was ridiculously hot... while Kel and I snacked on the milder and less wanting to rip your tongue out version.

I look forward to many more dinners, recipe trials, drinks and laughter.

Twas a great day for gardening

Well it would have been a crime to have had the weather we had this weekend and not get into the garden so a trip to Bunnings later we were restocked with greens ready to revive the empty planter beds.

Having pulled all the tomatoes out some weeks back and with most of the epic red onions gone and the lettuces all going a bit crazy the garden was in desperate need of attention.

Monster onion

The chillies are of course a different story and are looking after themselves pretty much (except a water every few days) and are in abundance. Habanero sauces are to be made this week to deal with them and the rest are pretty much getting dried at this stage to just make sure we can keep them as in this heat they over ripen extremely quickly.

Chilli row

They are super easy to dry in a dehydrator and get stored in bags ready to ground to powders or rehydrated when needed.

We also have some new Poblanos, Jalapenos and Habaneros on the go as they were seeds we wanted to try out and they are growing super well and have shot up and will probably go into the aquaponics as they can't go outside as really need the heat of summer and the chilli season is soon coming to an end. As a side note, the aquaponics system has just had a major overhaul, post to follow on the new and improved (read: hopefully will keep fish alive) version.

Poblanos and Habaneros

Today I decided the planter beds needed some more spring onions - as have been using them a bit lately and buying them just seems wrong after having such an abundance of them last year. The key to spring onions is making sure you separate them out to the single sprig (pretty sure it's not called a sprig) if you want them big like the ones you'd be used to from a supermarket but you get about 50 single sprigs (ok, so I'm going with sprig) so there is just not enough room for them. So we separated about 15 out and planted them and the rest stayed in their bunches and planted in a pot on the back steps and can just be cut off for salads and garnish as they stay fairly small when grown like that.

Bunches of spring onions

I also decided on iceberg lettuces this time which you do need to be a bit more patient with if you want to wait for the whole head to form as opposed to just buying lettuces to use bit by bit as you would do with cos, tom thumbs, little gems, etc. They are worth they wait though and the end result is quite satisfying.

Spinach also went in (something I tend to use as a salad green as opposed to cooked). I tried the "popeye" variety as opposed to perpetual which I have used before so will see how that grows and tastes. Broccoli was also planted (perfect time for planting brassicas) which again I prefer in salads as opposed to boiled and plopped next to a bit of meat. These need to be spaced quite far apart as the leaves grow huge so they need a lot of space.

Broccoli and lettuces

Spring onions and spinach amongst the red onions 

For the first time we also planted garlic which is certainly super easy to plant but will see what happens. You basically get a bulb of garlic, break it into cloves and plant each clove with the tip up about 5-7 cm deep in soil with a bit of compost - apparently using some soil from last season's grow is ideal so the potato tubs were perfect. Will see how they go.

Got four cloves in each of the two tubs

I also replanted a few herbs - trying my luck with coriander yet again, planted some more thyme which grew really well last time and got all used up in sauces and such (this time Elliot picked "pizza thyme"... have taken the hint) and also got some more rosemary and planted it in a big pot as it has always grown well but in the wheelbarrow just doesn't have enough room for the roots to get big enough.

Do not pay any attention to the long lawns -
it may have been good weather to garden but far too hot for lawn mowing...
That's my excuse anyway

So it was a successful day reviving the garden - a great end to a great weekend of drinks with friends, Thai dinner, Japanese goodness with my Mams overlooking a stunning Brown's Bay and a unexpected visit from the father.