Garlic and more

I recently received my Autumn Garden catalogue from The Digger's Club. I initially found the website after purchasing Digger's Club cherry tomatoes from my local nursery and being excited by the different varieties!

The Digger's Club offer a wide range of fruit and vegetable seeds and plants, in lots of interesting colours and flavours not normally seen in the supermarket. Last summer we grew about seven different types of tomato, including green zebra, tommy toe, black russian and mortgage lifter.

One of the articles in the current magazine discusses the merits of buying Australian, or even growing your own, garlic.

I have only recently (the last few years) really thought about where my food comes from, and one thing I have noticed is the difference in colour and flavour between Australian garlic and the imported garlic from China or Argentina. I now make it a point to purchase Australian garlic, and this is made easier by my local Fruit & Vegetable deli Scutti's usually stocking Aussie garlic and as a general rule locally grown produce.
Not to mention the fumigation that imported garlic undergoes... not a good thing!

I am very disappointed that the varieties available from the Digger's Club is not able to make it into Western Australia due to quarantine issues! I shall have to try and find a local source to grow my own.

Birthday spoils

I have been very spoiled this week with some excellent food themed gifts. This collection promises to provide hours of entertainment in the cupcake decorating stakes!

Short-black cupcakes: Take 2!

I had another crack at the short black cupcakes that I made back in January. This time around I made the recipe in the proportions to the book and ended up with seventeen 1/3 cup sized cakes.

I also made coffee buttercream icing to pipe onto the cupcakes, but I adjusted the quantities as follows:
150g butter
270g icing sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon coffee

Notes
- The consistency of the icing was much better than the previous time I had made it. I had just enough to ice all of the cupcakes as shown.
- The cakes themselves were really light and moist, so I am still very happy with the recipe!

Food processors

I am after a new food processor for my kitchen. I am currently using my mother's Breville, vintage unknown, but I suspect it is around 25 years old! It works, but only just. I am afraid every time that I switch it on that I will blow up the motor! It is very limited in its power and capability. I mainly use it for pastry, making scones, and grating food, and have to be careful as to how much I fill it!

Case in point, I attempted to make Nigella Lawson's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake after watching her breeze through it on the television. It did not look complicated at all - put everything in the food processor, turn it on, and then decant into two tins. At any rate, I had to get my trusty Sunbeam MixMaster out of the pantry to finish off the job, before I finished off the food processor! I am not sure of the vintage of that machine either, but I think that it belonged to my Grandma. It doesn't seem to want to die either, however since it is more than capable of the job that it is designed for I have no need to replace it.

Ah well, a new processor is on my wish list! More research is required before I spend my money... stay tuned.

High Tea with a view

Inspired by this post, E and I went to the Peninsula Tea Gardens in Maylands to sample their high tea. The venue is Tranby House, constructed in 1839, and the site of one of the first farms in in the colony. It is a lovely location, overlooking the Swan River. The location was very tranquil and it was a gorgeous spot to sit and relax and catch up on gossip.

High Tea consisted of finger sandwiches, fresh scones with jam and cream and some sweet cakes. It was arranged on a three tiered cake stand, and we worked our way up from the bottom.

E had not eaten anything, and I had spent an hour and a half running around in the sun so we were both fairly hungry!


The finger sandwiches were nice, and we had four varieties in smoked salmon, ham, beef and cucumber. The bread was not dry at all and to me this indicated that they had not been sitting around all morning or at least had been stored correctly.  The scones were extremely light and fluffy and very tasty when spread with the jam and cream. The lemon meringue pie was so light and tangy!  When I first saw the little pies I thought that the pastry looked very thick, and was expecting them to be a bit stodgy. How wrong I was. The cupcakes were very light and moist too, and they were my favourite. The little petit four was not really to either of our tastes purely because there was marzipan used in the construction. E and I both are not fans of marzipan. It was well constructed though, thin layers of cake separated by a mousse type filling.

Two rounds of tea are also included in the price. I had the Kenilworth blend both times, and E had English Breakfast and a Latte!

High tea costs $38 pp. They take bookings for high tea, and I had to pay a $10 pp deposit for our booking, taken off the total that I paid.

I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of sugar that we consumed. One of the tables next to us asked for savoury scones with their high tea, and I might try doing the same next time!

Pardon?

I was watching a repeat of Better Homes and Gardens this afternoon (and no, that is not the reason for "Pardon?") when Karen Martini announces that she is making Prawn, Pork and Corn Sui Mai.

Pardon?? Did she just say CORN???

They were essentially the pork and prawn dumplings you see on dim sum trays around Australia and the world, with the addition o corn and spring onions on the top.

My objection to this is that this dish is represented here as "a classic Asian dish" and you are urged to "add a touch of authentic Asian cooking to your next dinner party".

I am sure that my friends would look at me quite strangely if I offered them this variation and tried to convince them it was authentic!

For the uninitiated the siu mai are the ones to the left in the photo. The others are char siu bao (or barbeque pork buns).

Photo from Big in Hong Kong

Baked Beans - from a tin

It is so sad. Today I ate tinned baked beans. They were leftovers from C's lunch last weekend and were sitting in the fridge, just waiting to be eaten. I usually scorn the tinned baked beans and definitely the spaghetti. I am not sure what got into me!

The first mouthful was enough to remind me exactly why I do not eat them normally!

Pumpkin and red onion tart

Yesterday I roasted some butternut pumpkin and red onion. Splashed with olive oil. Approximately 25 minutes at 180C.

This morning I put it into my tart shell. It seemed like a lot for the shell but it kind of fit!

I then dolloped some ricotta over the vegetables, and put fresh thyme leaves on top of that. I mixed up three eggs with sour cream, more ricotta and some nutmeg, then poured that into the gaps.


I baked the whole tart for around 35 minutes at 180C. It may have been longer, I kept checking every five minutes to see if the egg was cooked.

I liked the pastry, it was nice and crisp, although a little bit fragile. I would try it again. I do like the nuttiness of the wholemeal flour.

Pumpkin and red onion tart - Part Pastry

My bridesmaids are coming around for lunch tomorrow, and other commitments make it necessary to prepare lunch today. N is vegetarian, so I thought that a quiche or tart would be something simple to prepare.

Perhaps foolishly, I thought that I would try a new pastry recipe. My staple is usually the Good, simple shortcrust pastry recipe from Belinda Jeffrey's "Mix and Bake". This time around I looked to Maggie Beer from The Cook and The Chef, a favourite program of mine. Each episode Maggie Beer (the Cook) and Simon Bryant (the Chef) would discuss food and cook several recipes around a theme. Simon's recipe tended to be a little complicated and stylish, Maggie's recipes were more rustic and hearty. I remembered a discussion of her sour cream pastry one episode and I adapted the recipe from here.

125g plain wholemeal flour
100g unsalted & chilled butter
60mL sour cream (approx.)


Chop the butter into small cubes. Put flour into processor.
Process flour and gradually add butter until the mix resembles a large breadcrumb consistency.
Add sour cream gradually.

Turn onto a floured bench and bring together with your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Roll and line your tin. Blind bake at 200C for 12 minutes. Remove the weights and bake another 5 minutes.



Notes
- The recipe called for plain flour. I used wholemeal.
- Maggie advises that the pastry will shrink, so line the tin high.
- The amount of sour cream is approximate. Adjust to get the right pastry dough consistency. I have found my dough to be too wet so I chucked it in the freezer to improve it!
- Remember to place the tart shell on a tray when you put it into the oven. It will make it easier to remove it from the oven without cracking the shell.

Assembly will be tomorrow! I have roasted butternut pumpkin and red onion, so it will be a matter of putting it all together and baking.

Hot Cross Buns!!

I have been waiting to buy hot cross buns - somehow it does not feel right to me to be eating them in January when Easter is in April! This morning I decided that it was close enough to Easter for me to be start eating them! I decided to take a different bus to work this morning and wandered down to my local Brumby's on Angelo Street.  Two rolls for lunch and a packet of hot cross buns later I was on my way to the office.

I had my first bun this morning when I got in.  How to describe the texture! So different from what I remember hot cross buns to be. Maybe because I bought them so fresh, who knows? The sultanas pop in your mouth, the crust is slightly crunchy and I really enjoyed eating them and not just for the taste!

It is 10.30am and already I have eaten three. I am feeling slightly gross from the large amount of sugar that I have ingested but I have enjoyed every mouthful.

Dessert: Inspiration

C and I went to a wedding down in Dunsborough this weekend at the Clairault winery. There was a great variety of entree canapes - including raw oysters! - and very elegant cheese platters.

Dessert was also canape style, and you can see the (poorly structured) selection on our plate. The selection consisted of:
- Autumn Berry & Cointreau Cheesecake,
- Tartlet of Lemon Curd + Strawberry, and
- Belgian Chocolate Tartlet.

C and I sampled all on offer, and went back for more Chocolate Tartlets. Unfortunately they had been the most popular and I had to settle for another Lemon Curd Tartlet! I am now inspired to try and find a similar filling, the chocolate was warm and quite liquid so we thought that they were most likely filled just before serving.

I did not remember to photograph the cheese platter, but I shall try to use the mix for future inspiration. There was a bowl each of dried muscatel grapes, pear slices and sourdough bread. There were three cheeses - a brie (or camembert, my palate is not refined enough to tell the difference!), a goat's milk feta and a gruyere.

Bliss!

Simple and scrummy dessert idea!

Fresh chocolate and churros. In a mug. Yum!

Image via Polkadot bride

Gelato!

I was terribly disappointed last year to hear that the iconic Western Australian ice cream Peters had been sold to Nestle. They shut down some of our favourite treats, including the Peters Trumpet (to make way for the inferior Nestle Peters Drumstick, soggy eh!) and CHOC WEDGE!! and shifted production of the Connoisseur range to the Eastern States. There went my local ice cream treat!


We do not eat ice cream that often, so it was nice to be able to buy a locally made, reasonable quality product.

I have since switched my take home allegience to il gelato. They have many different flavours of gelati and sorbets.

Gelato is a wonderful product, generally made from milk rather than cream (hence ice cream) and has a nice and smooth texture. If you ever go to Italy you have to experience real gelati. Yum!

It is $13.95 for a 1L tub of il gelato at my local corner store Scutti's. It is not a cheap treat! That is about twice what we were paying for a litre of Connoisseur (before it went Nestle). Our last tub was Ferrero flavoured, and now we are sampling Vanilla bean.

Images from here and here

Banananas

As I took the last banana out of the packet, I was struck today by the irony of purchasing organic bananas from Woolworths and being forced to take their packaging!

I am not sure what Woolworths' policy is on sustainable packaging, so even giving them the benefit of the doubt it still seems unnecessary to have the styrofoam as well as plastic packaging.

There is a lot to be said for being able to pick them out, and have the right to refuse packaging at all!

The other thing that makes the organic bananas that we bought less desirable is that they were packed in New South Wales, indicating that they were grown over east. In general I buy Carnarvon bananas to keep the food miles low and to buy local!

A simple summer lunch

I felt like a simple lunch today. It is warm outside - it made it to 38.3⁰C! So, rice and lentils. I was also inspired by this article on Landline on the ABC speaking about the lentil industry in Australia.

1/2 rasher bacon, diced
1/3 cup green lentils
2 teaspoons red wine
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup frozen peas

In a small saucepan, heat a splash of olive oil. Add bacon and cook. Add lentils, stir, and add red wine.

Add water and stir to mix. Place lid on saucepan, turn flame low and simmer. Let it simmer for around 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid is mostly absorbed.

Add frozen peas, leave lid on and let the pease cook for a minute or two.

Serve with basmati rice.

Notes
- quantities are approximate, I did not measure anything!
- I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow!
- I usually use chorizo for flavour, however there was bacon in the fridge just asking to be used.

The Windsor Hotel

I was a busy girl yesterday, running in the morning, then to morning tea , and finally catching up with some of the hockey girls at The Windsor Hotel in South Perth.

I really like the Windsor, it is a nice and funky pub, the food is generally good and it has a fairly relaxed atmosphere. It has been ages since I went to a Sunday Session, but the Labour Day long weekend in March seems the perfect weekend to enjoy it.

We started by chilling outside on the Mends Street side of the main bar. We sampled a couple of their pizzas as we were all started to get peckish. Eventually the sun forced us inside and we continued there until we went to the Cafe for dinner.

The Windsor has some great bar snacks on offer and the menu in their cafe is even better! I had pork belly and scallops on a green salad and soba noodle mix. Yum!

Image from The Windsor Hotel