This meal was probably the spiciest meal I have cooked since I starting this challenge, not necessarily hot, just spicy, largely due to the peppercorns.

I’m a sucker for stir-fries and my favourite meal thus far has been the Spicy beef stir-fry with eggy rice, so I was interested to see how this chicken dish faired.

It is definitely 20 minute worthy, as are most stir-fries. Quick to prepare and full of exotic flavours, though we did have a bit of a hard time locating unsalted peanuts.

I was able to use the fresh ginger I picked up at our local organic market, though sadly by the time we got there they were out of the lovely spring onions I was so looking forward to.

It was roughly about that time I got a tip off via Twitter from Pia of Mother City Living about the Ariston Elemental Organic Garden Spring market day, which is situated on the corner of Dunluce and Malone Avenues, Claremont.

This garden and project are the brainchild of Brigid Jackson, who has turned this vacant, dormant land in the middle of urban Claremont into a treasure trove of organic floral and edible goodies, it really is a marvel to behold and her full story is a must read.

In chatting to her I found out that she will be opening up a few plots for the developing of a community garden project, something I’m most passionate about and I’ve thrown my name into the hat for a plot, and am holding my fingers crossed.

She then introduced me to Mildred who leases some of the land for growing her own vegetables. She sells them from her location there every Saturday from 10am – 2pm, right out of the ground, depending on what is ready to be gleaned. This week was lettuce and spinach, next week or the week after will be the spring onions, I’m already salivating!

Right, back to the meal, Spring Onions. I managed to find some organic ones at Woolies, which while great, doesn’t give one the satisfaction of supporting your local market and/or farmers, though kudos to them for offering them for the same price as their non-organic counterparts.

Once all the ingredients were in place it was a cinch to prepare and it was served on some brown basmati rice (we prefer brown rice and happened to have basmati, so we cheated, a bit).

Overall it was a great meal, and one we would certainly cook again, though will less peppercorns.

I still feel the beef dish pips is, but this is a great, healthier alternative to a red meat dish, with equally inviting flavours and fragrances.

Speaking of healthy… desert was certainly not, a rather indulgent affair actually.

Eaton mess was unfamilar to me, as it may be to many of you. Essentially it is mixture of crushed meringues served with double thick vanilla cream, castor sugar and mixed with fresh strawberries, about the only ‘healthy’ thing in it, but it tasted so good and it felt great to let our hair down for once.