Classic French Apple Tart

I was particularly proud of how this one came out.  I'll even try to update this post with the recipe!

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Artichokes in Sydney

I have very fond memories of eating artichokes both in France and in the UK when I was younger. As a child, it seemed to be one of the few dishes when all the normal table rules were put aside. Steaming artichokes arrived at the table with a cold, well salted and peppered vinaigrette. Everyone put their forks under the tops of their plates and we spooned vinaigrette into the plate where it collected in at the "smile" of the plate closest to us. Then, we would take the artichokes, strip the tough outer leaves and then dip the succulent tips of the younger leaves into the vinaigrette and scrape the tender meat from the artichoke leaves.
Bliss!
When I moved to Australia, all my research told me that Sydney was too warm to grow artichokes, however, I love this plant's beautiful silver, jagged leaves so they were planted (from seed) as an architectural backdrop at the bottom of our garden. Unexpected success is unusual, particularly with plants so I was so excited to see the first crowns appear on my plants a few weeks back.
They are mid sized now and in a few weeks, if the possums don't get there first we'll have our first home grown Australian artichokes. I am looking forward to reliving that wonderful childhood memory.

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Chicken and Puy Lentil Salad

This is one of our summer favorites  Really easy and fast to prepare and perfect with a glass of chilled dry white wine. This feeds four as a light lunch with nice bread.


Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts cut into thin strips about 2 inches long.
• 200 grams of puy lentils
• Bacon bits
• 1 medium sized shallot
• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar
• Dijon mustard
• Mixed leaf salad
• Chicken stock (optional)
• Thyme, sprig
• Oregano, sprig

Put the puy lentils into a saucepan with cold water, a pinch do salt, thyme, oregano and a little chicken stock if you are using it. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until they have bite but are soft enough to eat.

Pour yourself a glass of wine or open a beer.

Next make the vinaigrette. In a salad bowl, measure in 3 salad spoons of olive oil, one of white wine vinegar and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Season. Finely chop the shallot and add this to the vinaigrette and then mix to emulsify.

Cook the chicken either on a griddle pan or on a barbecue, you are looking to get some good colour on the chicken but not over cook it. Cook the bacon until it is a little crispy. When the puy lentils are cooked, drain them and allow them to cool a little.

Add the salad to the vinaigrette, then the puy lentils, mix then layer on the grilled chicken and the bacon.

If you have some, sprinkle some chopped fresh herbs like parsley, fennel or dill. Serve with crusty bread, chilled dry white wine and lots of sun.

Location: Bobbin Head Road,North Turramurra,Australia

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Building our Pizza Oven - Part 4

We're getting close, today I start building the oven itself, first I have to put a vapour seal on the top of the slab to keep any moisture from the concrete and then a thicknsheet of insulation. On top of this go the fire bricks.





The oven itself comes in three precast section. The biggest section, the back section weighs 112 kg so I needed some muscle to help me lift it into place. Thanks Simon and Luc.



Now the middle section lifts on and with some minor adjustments fits in perfectly. After that the front section seems easy at only 30 or so kg.




Next step is to cut the sheets of insulation and once that is in place, cover it with aluminium foil and then chicken wire.



Here it is nearly complete, all I need to do now is fit the flue, render the oven and then cure it for a week to dry it out. Then we will be ready to go, Pizza anyone?

See Next Pizza Oven Post


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Building our Pizza Oven - Part 3

With the concrete slabs complete, I moved onto building the base that the oven will sit on. The oven weighs over half a tonne so it has to be pretty substantial construction. Bessa blocks are certainly man enough for the job so I laid the blocks for the base over a Saturday. The base is a H shaped structure with the middle part designed to take most of the weight of the oven.




Here is the base complete with the form work and reinforcing for the top slab.

Once the base was complete I then had to cast the slab onto which the pizza oven will sit. This is probably the most risky part of the build as this slab spans the supports so has to support both it's own weight (several hundred kilos) and the weight of the oven. Thick reinforcing mesh and concrete give me a nice flat sturdy surface to work on. This will need to cure for a few days to that the concrete develops its full strength so next weekend I can start building the oven.

And finally with the shuttering removed and the slab cured it can at least take my weight and the weight of a glass of wine.  Next week we find out if it will take the weight of the full oven.

We are just a few weeks away from wood fired pizzas at home.

See Next Pizza Oven Post

Location:Bobbin Head Road,North Turramurra,Australia

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Our First Eggs

The girls have come of age. Yesterday morning we woke up to a lovely surprise, our chickens who have just reached 24 weeks laid their first eggs, not just one or two but 5! We didn't check the nesting box on Friday so it looks like the first eggs were laid on Friday.

It is a great feeling knowing that most of the eggs we eat from now on will have been laid at home. Scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning!

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Building our Pizza Oven - Part 2

I am not sure I realised how much hard work this was going to be, Pizza ovens certainly don't build themselves.  The oven itself is not a lot of work but we are building a full outside kitchen including a sink, a small barbeque, a preparation space and a tiled area just off the deck.  The pizza oven however is the priority and I am aiming to get it complete before Christmas.

Clearing the ground proved to be one of the easier tasks.  From there, I had to build the reinforcing for the concrete slab that would form the base of the tiled area.  This meant mixing and pouring nearly 0.5 M3 of concrete which certainly wasn't a job for hand mixing.  Here is the site with the reinforcing in and the concrete ready to pour.  Tia Belle, our springer spaniel isn't too sure what is going on, what was her running ground is now covered in blue tarps.

With the first slab poured, it was time to start on the pizza oven itself.

 

The oven weighs in at about half a tonne and with the base weighing in at nearly a tonne, the foundations need to be strong enough to handle the whole weight.  Deep trenches, rebar and half a tonne of concrete...

Once the foundations have been cast, the next job is to move the mains water pipe out of the way so I can build the base for the pizza oven.

Building the oven base has taken a lot longer than I thought it would, hoping to get the rest of the base finished over the next few days so I can then start on the oven itself...

See Next Pizza Oven Post

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Daisy, Geraldine and Boris - Part 2

With the coop and chicken run complete the girls have now moved in and have settled well into their new home.  We kept them confined to their coop for the first week so they could get used to their home but for the last few weeks, they have been scratching around their run, getting to know their new surroundings.  They have tried to escape once and one of the trio managed to get out but once out she seemed to want to go back to the company of her "flock".

They love our kitchen scraps, so what the compost heap used to get, the chooks now get.  They seem to love celery and fennel so they are living in a great home!  They are also getting through most of the weeds I put in their run so finally I have found a use for weeds.

Each of them is showing some of their own personalities, Geraldine is always the first one to come out of the coop each morning, she is showing all the signs of becoming the boss.  Boris is no push over and we have seen her squaring up to Tia Belle our Springer Spaniel.  Daisy is the shy one, last one to come out and first to go back in.

They are still a way of being ready to lay but I am looking forward to those first poached eggs on a weekend morning!

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Daisy, Geraldine and Boris - Part 1

Each year here in Australia, the end of August to beginning of September is always a treat for me. With my birthday on the last day of August and Fathers Day normally just a few days later, I get treats in heaps and this year was a particularly bountiful one.

As part of my goal to be more involved and knowledgeable about the food we eat as a family, I have long wanted to keep chickens.  I don't think I am ready to keep chickens for meat (and my kids are certainly not) but fresh eggs from chickens where I knew exactly how the chickens had been cared for, what they had eaten and how fresh the eggs are seems to be attainable to me.  

So, my birthday present this year was a chicken coop big enough for 4 chickens. The day after my birthday was a Saturday so I spent part of the morning assembling the coop and building the chicken run in a rarely used part of the garden to one side of our house.

Here is the coop in pieces, how hard can it be! 

And partly assembled before being moved to the chicken run at the other side of our house.

 And finally, fully assembled in the chicken run on the west side of our house.  The chickens will get good shade here, and also, once I have finished building the fencing for the chicken run, will be well protected from Tia Belle, our English Springer Spaniel gun dog who loves chasing Brush Turkeys and no doubt, chickens.  It is very unlikely our dog and our chooks will get on!

Daisy, Geraldine and Boris are getting used to their new home and I'll post an update in part 2 soon.

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Mini Pork and Mushroom Terrine

I haven't made pâté for a while but as we move towards spring, it comes back on the menu as it is the perfect starter for a meal outside in the sun.

Previously, when I have made pâté, I have made large terrines can be a little difficult to portion and freeze (pâté freezes really well). This time I wanted to try mini terrines as they look better on a serving plate and they are easier to store. This is probably the fastest terrine recipe I have come up with and possibly one of the best. You will need:

500 grams minced pork

500 grams chicken livers

2 cloves of garlic

2 shallots (not spring onions or scallions)

Brown mushrooms

Fresh herbs (eg thyme, oregano, marjoram, parsley)

1 slice of good bread

1 egg

Butter and olive oil for frying

Finely chop or process the garlic and shallots and soften in a frying pan with some butter and olive oil. Pre-heat an oven to 150 deg C. Whilst this is cooking, process the herbs and the bread until you have a fine crumb. Today I used thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, marjoram, a few mint leaves and parsley stalks as these are what I currently have in the garden. I would have preferred to use parsley leaves rather than stalks but the damn possums keep on eating all my parsley leaves. Put the herb and crumb mixture into a bowl along with the softened shallots and garlic add the pork mince. Process the chicken liver and add that. Add the egg and combine until evenly mixed.

Spoon the mixture into mini loaf tins having greased the tins with butter, I used one with 8 loaves. Place in a Bain maree filled with hot water, cover with foil and then put in the oven for an hour. After an hour, check the temperature in the middle of the loaves. If it is 70 deg C or over they are done. If not, return them to the oven until they are. 

Here they are just about to go into the oven.

And here they are plated with cornichon and cocktail onions and Chiabbata, quite cute I think!

 

We had this for a starter before dinner this evening. Great for building up an appetite!

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Building our Pizza Oven - Part One

Since we moved to Sydney from the UK, we spend most of the time at home, from August to May, outside.  Either in or by the pool, on the deck or socialising and eating on the balcony.  For us that is part of what living in Australia is all about, being outside and making the most of the climate and our beautiful surroundings.

We have decided to make more of this by building a Pizza oven in our garden.  Eventually it will be pride of place in an outside kitchen that will sit just next to our deck.  I am not sure how long it will take to finish the entire kitchen but I aim to get the Pizza oven ready for the Australian summer in December.

Why a Pizza oven?  Well, I have distinct childhood memories from my Uncle Jean, in Paris.  He was the ultimate handyman and had personally built two houses before he built a bread oven in his garden in suburban Paris.  I remember vividly the ceremony of firing up the bread oven, cooking Pizzas and then huge batches of bread which he then froze for the month ahead.

The first part of building the Pizza oven was to get the ground ready (see the photo below).  From here I need to build the shuttering, the reinforcement and then pour the concrete slab for the tiled area in front of the kitchen.  Then the foundations for the oven and then the oven itself.

I will post updates every couple of weeks over the next few months.

See Next Pizza Oven Post

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My Fast Food - Garlic Chilli Prawns on Turmeric Rice

Sometimes we just want a quick dinner; we don't want to compromise on ingredients or flavour but after getting the kids to bed when it is late, sometimes there is not much time to get our dinner ready.  This is one of our favourites as I can get it onto the plate in the same time as it takes the rice to cook.

For two people you will need:

• Large prawns (8 per person or more if you are hungry)
• garlic, a medium sized clove
• red chili (as much as you want for your taste)
• butter
• Olive oil
• kaffir lime leaves (optional but they make the dish)
• rice (basmati)
• a noddle of fresh turmeric
• small glass of white wine

Put the rice on (a rice steamer is best).  Grate the turmeric onto the top of the rice.

Pour yourself a glass of chilled white or a light red.  

Chop the garlic, chili and the kaffir lime leaves.  Heat the butter and olive oil in a frying pan.  Add the garlic until is has softened and is just starting to colour, add the chili and the kaffir lime leaves.  Fry the garlic, chili and kaffir lime leaves until the garlic is just starting to brown but do not let it burn.

Add the white wine and once it is bubbling, add the prawns.  At this stage the rice should be cooked.  Plate the rice, having stirred it to mix the turmeric coloured rice with the plain rice.  Plate the prawns on top of the rice.  Serve!

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The First Asparagus of the Season

Just over a year ago I planted a bed of 15 two year old asparagus crowns. To avoid the worst of the Sydney summer sun I placed them in a relatively shaded part of the garden that gets afternoon sun but no full midday sun. They have done well so far with bushy fronds over the spring and a few small spears that I left in to strengthen the crowns in their first year in the garden.

Last weekend, the first spear of the season tentatively poked its tip into the air. Time to mulch, feed and water and in a few weeks time as we move into spring, we should be eating fresh asparagus straight from the garden.

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This Year's Turmeric Harvest

I have been growing Ginger, Turmeric and Galangal for about three years and over the last two years, I have had great harvests. This year, although my Turmeric has grown really well, I have had no luck with my Ginger and Galangal.  I blame the very wet summer inflicted on us; just as well it is easy to buy both of those in the shops as fresh turmeric is so much harder to find.

Most people use dried and powdered Turmeric but I find that it looses much of its beautiful flavor when dried.  Fresh turmeric doesn't have the vibrant colour that powdered turmeric has so I tend to use some of each, fresh for the flavor and dried for the colour.

I started growning turmeric from a single tuber that I bought from Daley's Nursery a few years ago.  Since then I have split the tubers each season and replanted and now have well over 6 plants growing each year.  This is more than enough to keep us in fresh turmeric for the whole year and, as if freezes so well we are well supplied through the out of season months as well. This is one of my plants just before I harvested it over this weekend.
  

And just after it had been dug out of the ground.

As is is a tuber, it can be quite difficult to clean so after harvesting, I tend to soak the tubers in water for an hour or so and then break of the smaller tubers which I then keep for food use. 

Turmeric is also a very beautiful plant with long elongated, variegated leaves.  They are perfect for serving Asian dishes or condiments and add green lozenges of colour to the table when used this way.  

The main part of the plant (below) gets kept back to be replanted into pots and I then over winter them in the greenhouse ready to be planted back in the garden in early to mid spring.

Turmeric takes nearly no maintenance and doesn't seem to be susceptible to pests or disease.  I love the tropical, leafy feel it brings to our garden and would grown them even if I couldn't eat them.  Next year, I'll be growing more turmeric but I'll also be giving some special attention to my ginger and galangal so that I don't miss another years harvest.

Anyone else growing turmeric?

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Homegrown Herbs for the Kitchen

I started growing my own produce on a small scale as a way to relax at the weekends.  Initially, it was more about having some time to myself but then developed into a way of making sure I had certain ingredients to hand when I needed them.  Living where we do on the North Shore in Sydney,  finding that specific ingredient often meant a trip to the local mall and more often than not, that special ingredient was out of stock on that particular day.  Not great for the sort of spontaneous cooking that I prefer.

Over time, I realised that outside of staples and proteins like fish and meat, I could grow pretty much all of what I needed and at that point, a plan seemed to emerge.  If I could have to hand the essential ingredients for the food I often cooked, I could be as spontaneous as I liked without having to rush to the shops.  I also started saving money and that is never a bad thing.

My main focus is on herbs and a few spices, any vegetables I grow are a bonus.  There are some things that just don't make sense to grow for various reasons.  I'd love to grow vanilla but it takes several years for the vine to develop and then nine months for the vanilla pods to ripen.  Too hard, I'll just have to buy vanilla like everyone else!  Other things, like many spices are cheap, easily available and keep for a reasonably long time if stored correctly.  Again, it just doesn't make sense to grow these even if I could.  Other things you can buy but they are a poor imitation of the fresh version.  Curry Leaves are a great example of this, you can buy them dried but they have none of the pungent flavour that is so critical to many Indian and Malaysian dishes.

So, what do I grow, and what styles of cooking do I grow them for?  Here is a summary…

French

• Parsley (flat and curly leaf)
• Thyme (normal and lemon)
• Rosemary
• Marjoram
• Sorrel (work in progress at the moment)
• Mint, various varieties
• Dill
• Bay Leaves
• Fennel (seeds as a spice and leaves as a flavouring)

I'd also like to grow French Tarragon but it is hard to find good quality plants here in Sydney.  Russian Tarragon is easy to find but doesn't have the same quality of flavour that French Tarragon has.

Italian

• Oregano
• Basil (various varieties)
• As well as most of the French herbs above

Indian

• Coriander (traditional as well as Mexican Sawtooth that grows better in hot climates)
• Curry Leaf (you can buy these dried but they loose their flavour)
• Chillies (many different varieties)
• Turmeric
• Ginger
•  Fenugreek

Thai

• Coriander (traditional as well as Mexican Sawtooth that grows better in hot climates)
• Thai Basil
• Ginger
• Galangal
• Lemongrass
• Thai Chilli
• Mint

Vietnamese

• Vietnamese Mint
• Lemongrass
• Coriander (traditional as well as Mexican Sawtooth that grows better in hot climates)
• Mint
• Chillies (various varieties)

Malaysian/Indonesian

• Coriander (traditional as well as Mexican Sawtooth that grows better in hot climates)
• Curry Leaves
• Chillies (many different varieties)

So, do I save money by growing my own herbs? Yes, that that is not the point.  It is about going to into the garden and picking what I need to cook what I want whenever I want.

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Bread

No Post, just bread!

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Scallops on Israeli Couscous

Just before Christmas (2011) we spent a week in Bluey's Beach just south of Forster on the NSW coast.  A wonderful week of swimming and good food and one of the culinary highlights was a dinner at Kingfisher Restaurant, part of Bluey's Retreat.  Whilst dinner was great (try the Pork Belly - out of this world), we were served an ingredient that I had never come across before.  After talking to the chef we learned that it was Israeli Couscous.  Not actually couscous at all (much larger and rounder grains), but stunning all the same.  The dish in this post is not the one we had at the Kingfisher but I wanted to give them some credit for introducing me to this wonderful ingredient.

Israeli couscous (also known as pearl couscous) forms a wonderful base that you could use in many dishes, it absorbs flavours wonderfully and adds great texture to a dish.  This particular dish is one I served to friends on New Years Eve.  Very quick to prepare and plate so it doesn't interrupt the flow of a dinner party.  The proportions below are starter size but you could make a main course by increasing the quantities appropriately

Scallops on Israeli Couscous

• Scallops (4 per person)
• Israeli Couscous (30 grams per person)
• Stock, good quality chicken or vegetable stock (1/3 cup per person)
• 1 shallot (not spring onion)
• 1 clove of garlic
• Butter
• Parsley to garnish

Pour the stock into a saucepan and add the couscous.  Add some salt if the stock is not already seasoned. 

Chop the shallot and garlic finely and add to a hot pan with some butter.  Once the shallot and garlic has become translucent (don't let it burn), add it to the cooking couscous.  Give it a good stir.  Turn the heat down to a simmer.

Remove the scallop roes if they are still attached.  Make sure the scallops are dry, pat them dry with  kitchen paper if they are not.

Once the couscous has been simmering for a minute or so add some more butter (if necessary) to the pan you just used for the garlic and shallots and return to a high heat.  Add the scallops and after a minute turn the over to cook on the other side.  There is a balance between getting a nice colour on the scallops and overcooking them.  In preference, leave them uncoloured rather than overcooking them.  At this stage the stock should have been mostly absorbed (think restaurant risotto) so it is time to plate.

Spoon 2 - 3 spoons of couscous into each plate along with any reduced stock that remains.  Place the scallops onto and garnish with finely chopped parsley.

Enjoy.

You should be able to find Israeli couscous in good delis or in the international section of good supermarkets.

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