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!