More spring

Spring might be pretty, but it is also fickle.  Last week  it rained, blew and hailed and we were back in the woollen jumpers and lighting the fire.  I so love the lilacs in the garden, the scent is heavenly...

We had a lot of fun in the school holidays.  There was the Melbourne Show,

some farm work,

friends to stay,

billy tea and marshmallows.

I love finding new ways to cook our lamb.  Last night I made a marinade that I used on some mini roasts that I rescued from the depths of the freezer.

Olive and almond paste for lamb

This amount made enough for 3 mini roasts, and would be enough for a small leg or 8-10 chops.

3 tblsp pitted olives (black, green or a mixture of the two)

2 heaped tblsp ground almonds

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 dessp of balsamic vinegar to taste

1 teasp rosemary leaves, chopped

salt and pepper.

Roughly chop the olives and put them in a container suitable for a stick blender.  Add the rest of the ingredients and whizz to form a paste.  You could do this in a food processor.  Taste the mix and adjust according to your preference, you may prefer more or less balsamic, and it does depend on how salty the olives are.  The almonds give it a good texture.

Spread the mixture over the lamb and refrigerate for a few hours if you can.  

Take the meat out of the fridge an hour before you want to cook it to get it back to room temperature.

Cook to your liking, either in the oven (start it off at 220c for 15 minutes then turn it down to 180c to finish) or on the BBQ.  It doesn't look much below, but it tasted great.

Spring...

Beautiful canola crops in the Western District

I am often heard to say that autumn is my favourite season, it is the end of the heat of summer, the relentless moving of hoses and sprinklers and the fire season.  But this year's spring has nearly swayed me with her charms.  The garden is bursting with activity and the evenings in particular, when the wind drops, are glorious.

Blossoms seem to appear overnight..this is the quince tree: (the blossom is actually a delicate pale pink, although they look white in this photo).

And so do the weeds:

I am in the garden most days and I cannot believe how they sneak up on me.  This one was looking me in the eye it was so big.  

Not much to report on the cooking front, I made a pan pie (not really a quiche, not really a pie) which worked quite well:

I had some pastry left over from making a quiche, but not enough to make another one so I rolled it out put it in a cast iron frying pan, threw in some cooked bacon, pumpkin and spinach, then cracked three  eggs onto it.  I mixed another egg with a bit of cream and drizzled it over the top with some grated cheese and seasoning.  Into the hot oven of the Aga and 15 minutes later, lunch is ready.

I learnt another great tip from a friend recently.  When she makes cauliflower cheese instead of steaming the cauliflower first, then pouring over the thick cheese sauce and baking in the oven, she puts the sauce straight over the raw cauliflower and cooks it at a slower temperature for about an hour.  A grating of parmesan on the top will brown it nicely.  I do love a short cut that makes something better than the original..

In other news, our great friends Sara and Jerry Grayson have made an incredible IMAX film called "The Earth Wins".  They have had a great response for it in the States and are seeking some support for its distribution.  It features footage they have taken over the last few years whilst aerially filming (mostly in a helicopter) international sporting events such as the soccer World Cup in South Africa, the Athens Olympics and the Doha Asian Games and it is AMAZING.  I have only seen a promo, but to watch this on a full size IMAX screen would be breathtaking.  Also the music is brilliant and  includes The Temper Trap and New Order, as well as Cold Play and The Who.

This film needs to be seen, especially by, as the website says, "an entire generation of young adults who are about to inherit the earth".   Click on this link and be a part of a truly inspiring project.

A lot on

It was a stunning morning yesterday..

The clivias are looking so pretty..

We have, as Tim would say, got a lot on at the moment.  We're lamb marking, Tim is in China on a trade delegation looking for lamb markets, there's been sports day and a school dinner, it's frantic in the office, golf, the weeds are bouncing out of the ground (how do they get so big in such a short time??), there's mowing and cutting back to do constantly and we seem to be always on the road to Melbourne.

Still I'm loving the blossom

and the spring flowers:

Needless to say, not much interesting cooking has been going on but now that the days are getting longer I have definitely moved into spring mode with less long and slow cooking and more throw it all in at the last minute.  This chicken dish is a perfect example:

I know it's a bit soon for home grown cherry tomatoes, but sometimes needs must.

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Allow 1 1/2 chicken thighs per person, cut them all in half.

Put them in a roasting dish lined with baking paper.  Halve an appropriate amount of cherry tomatoes and black olives and scatter them over.  Add a couple of unpeeled garlic cloves.  Drizzle with olive oil (I used a little Cobram Estate garlic olive oil and a little basil infused olive oil) and season generously with salt and pepper.  Cook in the oven for approx 20 - 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

While that is happening I steamed some cauliflower and pureed it with a little butter, sour cream and salt and pepper.

Serve the chicken with the cauliflower and some chopped basil over the top, making sure you drizzle over the pan juices.  Quick, delicious and low fat.  We had this with some pan fried rainbow sliver beet from the garden.

I braised the last of the brussel sprouts, broccoli and carrots from the garden a few nights ago:

I just melted a small knob of butter in the pan, added the vegetables and poured over about 1/2 cup of chicken stock.  Cooked them until tender and finished them with lots of salt and pepper a sprinkling of fresh parsley.  So simple.

Winter's still here..

You know how I said a couple of weeks ago that the winter hadn't been too wet?  Well we had 30 mm of rain two weekends ago....

The creek flooded and we had to rescue some horses and move them to a drier paddock:

which they were very happy about.

An old elm tree split in half and fell over...

The new pup is settling in well..she enjoyed her first paddock picnic:

Her companion was wary to begin with, but it was only a matter of time..

Lots of cooking has been going on, it's just finding the uninterrupted time to tell you about it.  I made my own celery salt the other day, which I saw on 101 Cookbooks.  It is so easy...I have loads of celery in the garden so it is a great way to use some up.  You just wash and dry the leaves, dehydrate them on a tray in the oven (180c for about 5-8 minutes, don't let them burn), cool and crumble the leaves and mix with an equal quantity of your favourite sea salt.

It is wonderful on a poached egg, and I am finding myself adding it to all sorts of dishes.

I made chocolate afghans for the picnic the other day...these definitely fall into the oldie but goodie category.

This is Mum's recipe.  These biscuits have a lovely light crumb, thanks to the addition of cornflakes.

CHOCOLATE AFGHANS

200g butter

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 teasp vanilla essence

1 cup SR flour

1/2 cup plain flour

2 level tblsp cocoa 

3 cups cornflakes, lightly crushed

2 tblsp desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 180c.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla till light.

Sift flours and cocoa and add to butter with the cornflakes and coconut.  This is how I crushed the cornflakes:

and this is how crushed they need to be:

Mix thoroughly, roll into balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.  They may seem a bit crumbly, but they hold when baked.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the tray and leave to cool.

CHOCOLATE ICING

1 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 tblsp cocoa

30g melted butter

Mix the above together and add about a tablespoon of boiling water and stir till you have a nice icing consistency.  Ice the afghans and if you want them to last more than five minutes, you can freeze them in a bag.

Out of season

We have had some glorious afternoons lately...

Lambs are arriving thick and fast..

The garden is in the final throes of winter..

So it does seem like an odd time to be thinking about strawberry ice cream.

We were given three large punnets of strawberries by some visitors recently and although I probably should have made jam, for some reason the ice cream gods were speaking.  I've never made strawberry ice cream before so I did a bit of research and this is what I came up with.

STRAWBERRY AND VINOCOTTO ICE CREAM - makes about a litre

For the strawbs:

About 3 cups strawberries, washed, hulled and cut in half

1 tblsp castor sugar

2 tblsp vinocotto, to taste

a squeeze of lemon juice

Put the berries into a frying pan with the sugar and the vinocotto and cook over a gentle heat, stirring, until the strawberries have softened and the juices released.   

Squeeze over some lemon juice to taste.  You can add more vinocotto if you wish. Allow to cool.  Keep about 1/2 cup aside and chop into smaller pieces (only if you would like some strawberry bombs throughout the ice cream) and puree the rest.  I did this in a jug with my stick blender, but they can go in a food processor or blender.  Refrigerate.

For the ice cream:

2 eggs and 3 egg yolks

3/4 cup castor sugar

a vanilla bean, cut in half

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups cream

Put the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla bean and bring to the boil.  Remove from heat and allow vanilla to infuse for a few minutes.  Scape out seeds and add to the milk.

Beat the eggs and sugar for a few minutes until pale, then gently pour in the milk whisking.  Return the mix to a clean saucepan and stir continuously until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon.  Do not allow it to boil.  Cool slightly then refrigerate until cold.

Add the cream, strawberry puree and strawberry bits and churn in an ice cream machine.

Other things to come out of the kitchen lately include these yummy lamb ribs, marinated with garlic, mint and rosemary with a yoghurt dipping sauce. 

For the dipping sauce, combine the zest and juice of one lemon, 1 tblsp chopped mint, 1 tblsp honey, 1 tblsp olive oil and 1/2 cup yoghurt.

An oldie but a goodie...parsnip puree with breadcrumbs..

Mum used to make this and it is great for winter:  boil some parsnips, mash (best done with the stick blender) with butter, a tablespoon of cream and salt and pepper and put in an ovenproof dish.  Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and dot with butter, then cook in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.  This photo does it no justice at all.

And finally, the newest member of the family...Twiggy...

Winter drinks

There's some interesting fungii in the garden at the moment...

and lots of lambs are being born out on the farm..

The winter so far has been fairly mild, there have been few frosts and not too much rain: this time last year the flats were flooded.  The conditions are ideal for the ewes and lambs and there is plenty of feed.   I say mild, but it is still winter and there are times when a fortifying hot drink is called for.

There is a teacher at our local school who makes his own cider.  At an old farmhouse on our property there is a cider orchard and he comes every year to collect some of the fallen fruit to add to his brew.  Here are a couple of bottles from last year's crop:

It is very dry, not at all like the commercially produced "dry" ciders and I thought it would lend itself to a bit of spicing up.  If you are using a commercial cider, it is probably not necessary to add sugar, up to you, and just add spices to your liking.  This would be great to take out on a winter's picnic.

I tipped a bottle into a saucepan and added:

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 cinnamon quill

a few gratings of nutmeg

2 star anise

5 cloves

2 strips of orange zest

the juice of half the orange (you can add the rest if you fancy)

Boil for about 5 minutes then take off the heat and leave for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to infuse.  Strain and reheat gently then pour into glasses.

Hot spiced cider, by the fire, good book....what more could you ask for?