Melbourne winter veggies

Custard tart (yum)

Leftover pie pastry (from our wild mushroom pie). Fresh eggs, half a little of cream later and we have one delicious tart!

Changes

A six month (or more) blogging hiatus needs a pretty good excuse, so rest assured, we have been mighty busy.

We have moved house, and said goodbye to our productive little garden. We are starting afresh, and hope to blog about some of the changes in our new inner city garden. 

And we have welcomed two amazing new additions into the house...

Our handsome little boy, now 5 months old... Mr Smiley

And...

Loved (almost) as much! I can't believe we haven't had a dishwasher in 8 years given all the cooking we do!

We have lots of little recipes in the archives. Just need to get them up on the blog! And here is the evidence that we have been doing plenty of cooking.

'Helping' to bake some red velvet cupcakes!

Kale and White Bean Ragout

Kale is in abundance in the garden at the moment. We largely treat it the same as silverbeet and have a great recipe for a bacon and kale pasta (bacon, the great flavour enhancer).

This is based on a recipe from a book by an American chef called Emeril Lagasse. It's very hearty and a great use of the earthy flavoured kale. Tastes even better the next day too.




Kale and White Bean Ragout:

1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 small red onion
1 bunch kale
1 tin cannellini beans
1 400g tin of tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat 2 tbs of olive oil in a large saucepan. Fry the garlic, red onion and add the bay leaf. Cook until the garlic and onion start to change colour, then add the kale and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the tined beans and tomatoes, together with the stock.
Cover and cook until the kale is wilted and cooked through (about 15 minutes). 
Season with salt and pepper.
Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately.

Gingerbread biscuits

These are extremely simple and like all Bill Granger recipes we have tried they are delicious. Bill calls them Iced Jumbles, but we'll just call them Gingerbread Biscuits. We followed Bill's recipe but also added 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground cloves and extra ground ginger- genius!

Cooking with a 2 year old takes a lot of patience and a fair amount of acceptance that things are going to get damn messy. And that things might not turn out quite like Bill's perfect looking little biscuits.

We made these for a picnic a few weeks ago- they were a real hit!



Gingerbread Biscuits:

60g unsalted butter
160mL golden syrup
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays with baking paper. In a saucepan heat the butter and golden syrup over medium heat until the butter is melted, then bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Sift the flour with the bicarb soda and spices. Stir in the butter mixture.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll into logs that are approx 2cm thick. Cut into 5cm pieces and place on the baking tray. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes or until light golden. Ice when cooled.

Royal Icing:
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 cups icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
Few drops food colouring

Stir together the egg white and icing sugar until smooth. Add the lemon juice (you might not need the full 2 tsp- adjust to runniness of the mixture). Add a few drops of food colouring.

We also made an eggless version of the royal icing. It sets hard and is a good substitute.

Egg-free Royal Icing:
2 cups icing sugar
2 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp lemon juice
Food colouring
Mix all ingredients together!

Mustard Cabbage Pickles

We have some very sweet and delicious white cabbages in the garden right now. After 3 weeks straight of eating coleslaw, we looked for more creative ways to utilise this resource. We went to our old faithful, Maggie Beer, and found a recipe for pickled cabbages. It's nice to get back into preserving- we haven't had much to pickle over winter!

This tastes very much like the corn relish we made last summer (they seem to have most of the same ingredients except for corn and cabbage!)  It can be served with cold meats, on sandwiches or on a cheese platter!

Mustard Cabbage Pickles:

 


1 small cabbage (about 1kg)
3 onions, sliced
2 red and 2 green capsicums, chopped
1/4 cup salt
2 cups white wine vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 TBS mustard powder
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
3 TBS cornflour
1 TBS celery seeds
1 TBS yellow mustard seeds

Shred the cabbage and combine in a large bowl with the onions and capsicums. Add the salt and mix through. Cover and leave overnight to draw out the moisture.

The next day, rinse in a colander and wash out all the salt. Meanwhile, add the vinegar, brown and wihte sugar in a large saucepan. Stir until the sugar dissolves , then bring to the boil and add the vegetables.
Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the cabbage is soft.

Mix the mustard, tumeric, ginger and flour with 125mL water to make a smooth paste. Stir into the vegetable mixture and stir until the mixture thickens. Add the celery and mustard seeds then pour into sterilised jars. Boil jars in a large pot of water for 5 minutes to seal then remove and cool.

Pasta with broccoli

We spent a wintery afternoon with a good friend whipping up some delicious hand made pasta- these tasty orecchiette. They are rolled by hand and the ear shape is made with your thumb. Here's a link to a recipe for the pasta and instructions...

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Orecchiette-with-Chickpeas-242012

Rustic looking, so everyone knows you made it yourself!

To make a simple and delicious broccoli "sauce" to go with your amazing handmade pasta (or your shop bought pasta!)
Orecchiette with broccoli:

Our super fresh looking home grown broccoli

Broccoli (1 large head or 2-3 smaller bunches) include the stems and cut into small pieces
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped.
2 red chillies, finely chopped.
3 anchovy fillets
Finely grated rind from one lemon
1 cup of coarse bread crumbs, make from crusty bread
Pecorino cheese
Olive oil

Boil a large pot of salted water. Add the broccoli stems (which need longer to cook), then add the florets after a few minutes. When cooked remove from the water. You can use this pot of water to cook your pasta in.

In a seperate pan, fry the breadcrumbs in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until golden. Remove from the pan. Add more oil then add the garlic, chillies and crushed up anchovy fillets (which really just add a delicious saltiness). Add the drained broccoli pieces, then add the lemon rind.  Remove from the heat.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the broccoli. Stir through a generous amount of pecorino cheese and add a drizzle of olive oil and pepper.