An adventure

I am off tomorrow on a little adventure to Italy with a group of friends and will be away for a couple of weeks.  We are going to Rome, Sicily and Postiano.  There will be a lot of eating involved.  Which will be dangerous.  All in the name of research, of course.

photo - aegee.org

In the interests of thrift, I made this beautiful quince and apple jelly with star anise yesterday.  I am worried the birds will eat all the quinces while I'm away so some are going to a friend with a Thermomix so she can make quince paste.  If anyone wants the recipe just email me and I'll send it to you when I get back.

I roasted some pears and quinces that were hanging around in the fruit bowl and made a beautiful crab apple sauce to pour over them.

Just put the peeled and cored pears in a roasting tin and sprinkle lightly with castor sugar.  Add a couple of strips of lemon peel and squeeze over the juice of one lemon.  I also added a split vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick.  It wouldn't be against the rules to throw in a bay leaf if you fancied either.  Cover with foil and bake at about 150c for an hour or so.  Have a look and check it they are soft, give them more time if they need it.  The quinces, which I did in the same dish, took about 2 hours.

Gently remove the fruit to a plate while you make the sauce.  Put the pan (don't be tempted to wash it) on a gentle heat and add about a cup of boiling water.  Let it simmer while you scrape all the bits off the bottom as you would when making gravy.  When it has reduced slightly add a tablespoon of either quince or crab apple jelly.  Stir in and cook gently for another couple of minutes, tasting for sweetness.  (Add more jelly if it needs it.   It will depend on the sweetness of the fruit and how much sugar you added at the start.  Add more lemon juice if it is too sweet).  Serve with cream or ice cream.

Can someone do a rain dance while we are away?

dry creek bed

Autumn needs to become Autumn

We gazed longingly at the radar yesterday, watching a rain front crossing South Australia and held our breath in hope.  7mm.  It's a start.  2 inches would be nice.  I am still dragging hoses around the parched garden which just seems wrong when it is cold enough to light the fires.

There has been plenty going on in the kitchen, as it always does in Autumn, with quince and crab apple jelly underway, pesto being made with the remaining basil and roasted tomato sauce with the last of the tomatoes, which just seem to keep on coming.  I made this beetroot dip a while ago, using some beetroot from a friend's garden:

It is very simple and makes a good healthy homemade dip:

Wash 3 big or about 5-6 small beetroot and top and tail them.  Put them into a roasting tin with about 3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled, cover with foil and bake at 180c for about half an hour until the beetroot is tender.  Allow to cool, then peel off the skins (your fingers may become purple so use gloves if you prefer).  Squeeze the pulp out of the garlic.  Put into the food processor and add about a cup of natural yoghurt, a handful of chopped mint and salt and pepper to taste.

Yesterday I slow roasted some quinces, froze some and made a cake with the rest.  This cake would work with any suitable fruit: apples, pears, plums etc. You could also make this as an upside down cake and put the fruit in the tin first.

QUINCE CAKE

2 roasted or poached quinces

125g butter

3/4 cup castor sugar

3 eggs

Zest of one lemon

1 teasp vanilla essence

1 cup SR flour

1/3 cup ground almonds

100g sour cream or natural yoghurt 

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Slice the quinces and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light.  Add eggs, zest and vanilla and combine.

Fold in flour, almonds and sour cream/yoghurt.

Pour into tin and arrange the quince slices on the top.

Bake for about 40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  It took quite a while for the centre to be fully cooked, so make sure you check.

Allow the cake to cool, then turn out on a wire rack.  Serve with cream.  Or ice cream.

Easter Holidays

I picked this zucchini the other day:

and because it is school holidays came down the next morning to find this:

which really gives it a personality of its own.

We had a lovely Easter, with friends to stay, shooting, paddock picnics and way too much cheese:

why do I love it so much??

The boys all went to a shoot at a neighbour's lake and bought home some ducks, we decided to teach the children to pluck and breast the birds ready for cooking.

 We breasted the smaller birds and left the black ducks whole for roasting.  Wild duck can be gamey and quite strong so we decided to make a duck red thai curry.  It was surprisingly good.  Here is what we did:

WILD DUCK RED THAI CURRY

This amount would have served about 8.  If you have too much paste you could keep it for another curry.

Paste:

In a food processor combine the following ingredients:

1/2 an onion

2 cloves garlic, peeled

a small knob ginger, peeled

1 red chilli, roughly chopped (remove seeds if you don't like it too hot)

some chopped lemongrass if you have it (we didn't so I squeezed in some lemon juice)

1 teasp ground cumin

1teasp ground coriander

1 tblsp fish sauce

1 dessp sugar

juice of one lime

1 tablespoon coconut cream (we used the rest in the actual curry)

Whizz the lot and have a taste to make sure all is well.

We then put all the duck breasts on an oven tray and cooked them at 200c for about 15 minutes.  It looks like a lot but they are really quite small.

In a pan heat a slosh of neutral oil (grapeseed or the like), add a chopped onion and a clove of crushed garlic and fry gently until soft.  Add a couple of tablespoons of the paste and cook for a couple of minutes.  I also added some chopped baby spinach for a bit of green.

Slice the duck and add to the pan with the rest of the can of coconut cream and simmer gently for five minutes.  At this point you should taste it to check the seasoning.  Add more fish sauce if it needs a little salt.  Serve with rice and a good scattering of coriander.

Jane Webster

I had the great pleasure last Monday of hosting a dinner with a talk by Jane Webster.  Jane is a Melbourne mother of four children who along with her husband has bought a magnificent chateau in Normandy, totally renovated it and is now offering accommodation, cooking classes and food and wine tours. It was inspiring to hear her amazing tale of moving the family to France, which they did for two years, and now they spend six months here and six months at Chateau Bosgouet.

Which sounds magical, especially when you see the Chateau:

I might add that the exceptionally talented Jane cooks for all her guests on top of managing this very large house and her family, which I think is amazing.  She very generously gave me a copy of her most recent book...

I love that they are 'living the dream'....it is all possible, although it takes bravery, fortitude and determination and I'm not sure I would be game.  Read more about Jane here and plan a trip to France.  I can guarantee you will be beautifully looked after.  Thank you to my friend Jo for organising Jane's visit.  And thank you to Tim who gallantly stepped in to the role of butler and kept our wine glasses topped up throughout the night.

I decided I wanted to cook something French for Jane and our 14 guests, using some produce from my vegetable garden.  I eventually decided on a Tomato Tarte Tatin with a rocket, pear and roasted hazelnut salad.  Simple fare, but perfect for a late summer supper or lunch.

The beauty of this is that you can make it ahead of time.  The only thing is that the pastry will not be crispy if you do it ahead.  This doesn't really matter as the juices from the tomatoes soak into the pastry which gives it great flavour.  I did put them (I made two) into the Aga to slightly warm them before serving.  

TOMATO TARTE TATIN

The measurements for this are fairly loose as it depends entirely on the size of your pan.  Mine served 8.  You need a frying pan that can go in the oven, or I suppose you could do it in a shallow cake tin.  I also added a layer of gently softened onions and a layer of grilled zucchini because I wanted a thicker tarte and the tomatoes shrink down to nothing.

Make a batch of sour cream pastry, wrap it in baking paper and put it in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Cut up a couple of brown onions and fry them gently in a knob of butter and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Stir occasionally until they are very soft.  Set aside.

In the same pan fry slices of zucchini until slightly browned.  Set aside.

Add a little more olive oil,  and add enough cherry tomatoes to cover the bottom of the pan you intend to use for the tarte.  Shake the pan gently to roll them around and partly cook them.  You don't want them to lose their shape.

Put a round of baking paper on the bottom of your tarte pan.  Tip in the tomatoes and make sure they fit snugly in one layer.  Season with salt and pepper.  Spread over the onions and zucchini in layers.

Roll out the pastry and drape over the top, cutting a couple of holes in the top for the steam to escape.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Allow to cool for about 20 minutes before inverting onto a plate.  Tear up some basil leaves and scatter over the top.

Hot..

Photo: news.com.au

It is so hot.  We have had a week of over 33c, we are just sweltering and it is now becoming tedious.  It is 38c today.  We are breaking records. Outside jobs are not getting done.  The garden is wilting.  We had a houseful of people here for the weekend and we could barely leave the house.

sorry about the dot on the photos, have tried to get it off..

I was delighted to read this post by Sarah Wilson last week about exercise.  Hooray!   There is no need to overdo it.  I happen to like exercise and my body tells me when I have to do something but I have been plagued with a persistent tennis elbow injury which is a cumulation of things, but I mostly put it down to over-doing it at boxing a year or so ago.  And gardening (secateurs).  And probably tennis.  Truth be told it doesn't seem to matter what my exercise program is my weight stays roughly the same.  So while I am trying to recover I am happy to walk with the dogs for miles and do a bit of yoga.  They are loving this pile of cypress trees...

 I have been experimenting with yoghurt marinades for chicken lately and have come up with some quite good combinations.  Yoghurt helps to tenderise the meat and seems to take on flavours very well. It definitely fits into the quick 'n easy category, although you can marinate it up to 6 hours, if you get home late, half an hour will do the trick.  

The first one I tried used pomegranate molasses, which gave the chicken a lovely burnished crust.  I have tried this with both chicken breasts and bone in chicken thighs.  I'm sure you could even do it with a whole chicken.  I also made a little dipping sauce with a bit of yoghurt and some chopped preserved lemon and sprinkled it with coriander and paprika.

I allowed 1 tablespoon of natural yoghurt to one chicken breast, or two smaller pieces.  Just multiply the recipe for larger quantities.  If using a chicken breast it is a good idea to make a few slashes in the thickest part of the breast before you marinate it.

For each tablespoon of yoghurt add 1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses, the juice of half a lemon (or thereabouts.  Pomegranate molasses, while sweet, is also quite tart, so make sure you taste it), 1 clove garlic, grated and a little salt and pepper.  Toss the chicken in the marinade and refrigerate for half an hour (or up to six hours).   Preheat the oven to 200c.   Line a roasting tin with foil and put the chicken pieces on a rack.

Cook for approx 30 minutes until chicken is cooked and golden.

The next one used the same method, just different flavours:

1 tblsp yoghurt as above

1 teasp Dijon mustard

1 teasp tamari (to taste)

black pepper

The last one I tried had the following:

1 tblsp yoghurt per chicken breast

1 tblsp lemon juice

1/4 teasp tumeric

1/4 teasp cumin

1 teasp grated ginger

1 teasp grated garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Praying  for a cool change. 

February

The weather these days never ceases to confuse me.  Last Thursday we were minding our own business, having dinner actually, when totally out of the blue a massive hailstorm descended.....

It hosed with rain and we had 32 mm in about 20 minutes.  One kilometre up the road there was not a drop.  When I went outside on dusk about an hour later to lock up the chooks it was as if nothing had happened.   Not a puddle remained.  This is how you do it:  you run out of rainwater so you get a man to bring a huge tanker of water to fill up your rainwater tank.  You pay him to do this.  Then it is guaranteed to rain within the next week.

It's been very hot since then.  There have been spontaneous lightning strike fires erupting in the Grampians:

Photo:  The Hamilton Spectator

30 degree plus temperatures are typical for February.  It is tinder dry.  It is always the time of year that I retire indoors to make tomato sauce and relish to last us for the coming year.

The beans are coming thick and fast now, and I made this bean and roasted hazelnut salad:

I flashed the beans in the hot oven of the Aga to roast them as an experiment, but the colour wasn't great, so it would probably be better to just blanch them (the flavour was good though).  I also roasted the hazelnuts then wrapped them in a tea towel and rubbed the skins off.  For the dressing I mixed about 3 tblsp olive oil with 1 tblsp vinocotto, added salt and pepper and a dash of lemon juice.  Dress the warm beans in a bowl with the dressing, then arrange on a plate, crumble over some goat's cheese or feta and top with the hazelnuts.  Drizzle over a bit more dressing to finish.

Farewell to 2012

I thought I should sneak in a last post for 2012.  I can't believe the month of December has slipped by without so much as a cursory glance in the direction of this blog.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind: lots of end of year bits and pieces, a trip to Adelaide, friends to stay, school break ups, gardening and general Christmas busyness.

Flowers on the potatoes

Some South African friends came to visit the weekend before Christmas.   We chased kangaroos, watched the shearing, played lots of cricket and went yabbying.

Ate lots of this,

drank far too much of this:

We had our first Christmas at home this year.  After lunch my mother-in-law declared that she would never cook Christmas lunch again and after more than 40 years of preparing the feast, I think she deserves a break.  The tree is down, decorations packed away, linen napkins and placemats washed and ironed, holly and ivy removed from the mantlepiece and pine needles swept away.  Quite a relief really.

It has been non stop in the kitchen, but alas very few photographs to show for it.  I made my first batch of strawberry jam from home grown strawberries, which was gratifying...

Here is a good chicken dish for the holidays.  It looks like it might be tricky, but is really so easy.  Just marinate in the morning and bung on the BBQ when you get home from the beach.  The kids will appreciate a change from a sausage in bread, which is their standard dinner at this time of year.

First you need to butterfly a chicken.  DON'T PANIC.  It is very simple, but you do need a pair of poultry shears (cheap).  Place the chook breast side down on a chopping board with the parson's nose facing you.  

With the shears cut along one side of the back bone from tail to neck.  Pull open the bird and cut along the other side of the back bone and remove it (use it for stock). 

 Turn the chicken over and open out then press firmly down to break the breast bone.  Hard part done.

Season with salt and pepper and then marinate in a large zip lock bag in the fridge for up to 24 hours.  I would put it in a dish and turn over a couple of times.  Here are a couple of marinades you could try:

1/2 cup lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, crushed

handful each of parsley, thyme and oregano, all chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

Mix together and add to bag.

Here is one based on a Nigella Lawson recipe:

1 carton buttermilk

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tblsp dijon mustard

1 tblsp maple syrup

1 tblsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Mix in a bowl and add to bag.  The buttermilk makes the chicken very tender.

I then cook this on the BBQ skin side down, with the lid down for about 15 minutes (don't let the barbeque get too hot, you don't want it to burn), and flip it over and give it another 20 minutes.

Don't know about you, but my sweet peas have been a bitter disappointment this year.  They were so amazing last year.

I just couldn't get the seeds to germinate.  I have just pulled up the most enormous onions..

and the garlic looks good too..

I hope you had a lovely Christmas.  Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2013 and hopefully there will be less chaos and more time for new recipes and news from the garden.  See you next year!