Unseasonal surprise

So far it has been a fairly text-book spring, everything in the garden seems to be coming out on time and the paddocks look incredibly lush and green after all that winter rain.  I was most surprised, then, to see these when I was mowing the other day:

Is climate change confusing even the mushrooms, which I would expect to see in autumn?  I couldn't just mow over them and although I am the only mushroom lover in the house I just had to pick them.   I often just pan fry them in lots of butter, garlic, parsley and s & p, but this time I thought I would bake them in the oven:

BAKED MUSHROOMS:

The measurements for this are a bit loose as it depends on how many mushrooms you have been able to find.  It is also good with bought mushrooms.

Preheat the oven to 180.

Chop the mushrooms and place in an ovenproof dish. Pile them up as they shrink down a lot.

Drizzle with olive oil and dot with a few pieces of butter.

Peel and finely chop 1-2 cloves garlic and scatter over the mushrooms.

Slosh over some white wine and the juice of half a lemon, and season well with s & p.

Strip a few sprigs of thyme and scatter over.

If you are feeling devilish pour over about a tablespoon of cream (or yoghurt if you're behaving), not really necessary, but makes the mushrooms a bit more velvety (?...is that a word???)

Bake for 20 minutes.

As you can see I have dotted this with my old favourite (Meredith Dairy Goat's Cheese).  It was yum.

We have had another 24mm of rain (nearly an inch) over the last 24 hours so there may be more spring mushrooms tomorrow.

Lunch.

This is one of my all time favourite lunch dishes.  It looks a bit lonely on the plate there, but I usually have it with a green/rocket salad on the side.  I originally encountered the recipe in a Delia Smith book and it was all the rage in the 80s.  It also makes a great starter with some crusty bread.

ROASTED STUFFED PEPPERS - Serves 2 (or one for lunch over two days)

1 large red capsicum
6-8 cherry tomatoes
2 anchovy fillets (it's good with white anchovies too)
1 clove garlic
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
Optional extras:  basil leaves, Meredith Dairy goat's cheese http://www.meredithdairy.com/products.html (to which I am hopelessly addicted), or fetta

Preheat oven to 180.
Cut the pepper in half and remove all the seeds but don't cut off the stalks.
Put the halves on a baking tray.
Chop the cherry tomatoes in half and divide between each pepper.
Chop anchovy fillets and add to tomatoes.
Peel garlic cloves, slice thinly place in peppers.
Drizzle with the olive oil, season with a little salt and some pepper and bake for 50 minutes - 1 hour.
Put the cheese and basil on before serving.

Dinner party

I am so behind with my posts and have lots to catch up on.  First things first.  Our friends Anna & Tom came to stay about a month ago so we organised a dinner party.  Anna and I spent a lovely afternoon in the kitchen chatting, cooking, drinking cups of tea, setting the table.  Anna took lots of photos, she is a very experienced photographer and made any of my attempts at food photography look hopelessly inadequate.   I would so love to have that eye for capturing an image.

She did ask me afterwards how I had managed to get it all together and onto the table so that it was still (reasonably) hot when we sat down.  Firstly, you must have hot plates. My secret weapon in the dining room is an ancient Magic Maid, which I inherited from my grandmother.  I could not live without this masterpiece of engineering and although it is lacking in style there it will remain until it dies.

So I heat the plates in the MM and the rest of the dinner can sit quite happily in there too.  I did something easy and ahead of time (lamb shanks) that I could reheat in the oven, along with the pearl barley and red wine (more on that in another post..) and even the green veg won't go grey if you don't put a lid on them (and a pinch on bicarb soda in  the cooking water helps to keep their colour).
Also it is easy to serve up (or plate up as they would say on Masterchef)  and I don't need a carver so he can get on with the wine.  It is always better to have everyone sitting down before you start serving too.  This is NOT EASY if everyone is busy talking but you must be firm..

Obviously not everyone has a MM, but it is possible to warm the plates in the oven with a menu like this if you have the room.  I have also been known to warm them by the fire and wrap a towel around them.

Dinner parties are always an effort, but if you get the right mix of people and don't burst your boiler with the food (keep it simple, no fancy tricks for any number more than six), they really are great fun.

Spring

When the bluebells and irises start to come out, I know that Spring is here. This year the garden is going mad, the weeds in particular are growing spectacularly well.  We have recently sprayed the garden with a liquid fertilizer called Calsap (www.optimaagriculture.com.au for more information) and that with the recent rains have made everything explode.

The garden and paddocks are starting to dry out and not every outdoor expedition requires gumboots.  We have had a couple of spoiling trips away in the last couple months, one to the snow and one to the sun (or more specifically, rain with patches of sun) so now it's time to get back into the busiest time of the year in the garden.  

We have recently built a new vegetable garden and because it has been so wet we have been unable to do all the earthworks to finish it, so the sun shines but I am not madly planting as I should.  It is really big and I am quite terrified about being able to maintain it:

I  said three would do but as usual my husband, who is big picture man and fancies himself as a talented garden designer (step aside Paul Bangay) said I never plant enough vegies for more than a feed and we need a berry cage, an asparagus bed, herbs and rhubarb which are all perennials plus a cutting bed and lots of potatoes.  He was most insistent that it be big enough but I can tell you now he will never set foot in it.

I made a beautiful summery salad on the weekend for some friends.  The picture looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast as this was the leftovers, the original looked much better!

PANZANELLA

250g day old bread (I used a french stick, but any loaf of white bread will do, except processed sliced bread), crusts removed and torn into pieces

Olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

8-10 tomatoes cut into wedges (again, any will do, romas are good)

2 red capsicums, seeded and cut into pieces

3 red onions, cut into wedges

1 zucchini, sliced

300g bocconcini, sliced

150g rocket or mixed salad leaves

Balsamic vinegar to taste (or vinocotto would be good too)

Preheat oven to 200.  Toss bread in enough olive oil to lightly coat and add garlic and oregano, mix up well.  Place in a roasting pan and cook for 20 minutes until crisp and golden.

Place tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini and onion into another large roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, season well and cook for 20-30 minutes until softened and lightly browned.

Put veg into a large bowl and mix in the bread.  Leave for 10-15 minutes to absorb the juices.

Add bocconcini and toss well with the salad leaves and drizzle with balsamic vinegar to taste.

Serves 6-8

Great with a barbeque

Boat of Life

Loved this.  Sums it up really.  Saw it on India Knight's blog:  indiaknight.posterous.com/ and it is a quote from Jerome K Jerome .

Books

Am so excited.  My two favourite writers have got new books out:

Always rewarding, funny, clever.












And my other favourite: brilliant, beautiful, observant:

While I was waiting for the paperback to come out I have been re-reading The Travelling Hornplayer which I am loving again.

Tea

I have been musing today about tea and how much I love it.

We are rather besotted with tea in our household.  My husband and I are both incapable of conducting a conversation before we have a cup of tea in the morning.   Tea really must come from a pot (or at a pinch one of those infuser things) and because the first cup is always the best a large tea cup is essential.  Teabags and coffee mugs are for picnics in the paddock.  Milk in a jug.  I love my mixed up collection of breakfast cups and am always looking for more....(way too much time spent on ebay UK).  The other thing is an enamel tea pot:

Purists may argue that the finest bone china is the best, but nothing can beat tea from an old enamel pot.  I had the extreme good fortune of marrying into a tea-loving family, and my wonderful mother-in-law gave us this funny old brown teapot that she found in a second hand shop.  Unassuming though it is, great tea comes from this pot. I always use a blend of Bushells Blue Label and Twinings English Breakfast which I mix together and put in a cannister.  It is a good everyday blend and you can buy the tea at the supermarket and god forbid if I ever change the mix because the sensitive palate of my dearly beloved instantly recognises the subterfuge.  We have Irish Breakfast when in Melbourne because it is stronger and you can't taste the water so much, and  I love Twinings Lady Grey in the afternoon (no milk). 

I love my daggy ski hat tea cosy that I bought in New Zealand too....

And I think it's important to have a sweet morsel with your tea in the afternoon.  Today it is Sultana Cake:

500g sultanas

1 tblsp golden syrup

125g butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tblsp grated lemon zest

1 teasp vanilla essence

1 1/4 cups SR flour

1 teasp bicarb soda

1/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 180.  Butter and line a 20cm square cake tin.

Put sultanas in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to the boil and simmer 2 minutes.  Drain then stir in the golden syrup.

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, then add zest and vanilla.

Fold in sifted flour and bicarb and add the milk, stirring gently.  Add the sultanas and fold evenly.  Put into prepared tin and bake for approx 1 hour until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool in tin.

Coffee I could possibly live without, but tea, never.....