Cheese Biscuits

I have been making cheese biscuits for a while now but I have never been 100% happy with them until NOW! This recipe is the best yet and they are easy to make in a food processor. I got the idea for putting different toppings on them from my friend Jude.
125g cold butter, diced
150g sharp Cheddar cubed
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp Curry powder
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Using the shedding attachment of the processor, add butter and cheese through the chute.
Remove shredder and attach all purpose blade and add the other ingredients - but reserve 1/8 cup of the flour for rolling out.
Pulse until the mixture is well combined and forms a ball.
With your hands roll into a 30cm log, wrap in cling film and refrigerate until very cold.
Slice into thin discs (I made 22) and top with whatever takes your fancy. I used Nigella seeds, dried dill, fennel seeds and smoked paprika.
Bake for 12-14 min at 180C (fan forced)

These are so delicious with a cold glass of white wine and make a lovely change to cheese or dip when visiting friends for a catch-up drink.

Zucchini City

Well, it's no great achievement to grow a few zucchinis. They are the most forgiving of the summer veggies. I even water mine overhead and they don't seem to fall victum to fungal attacks until well into the hot weather.
Picking them when they are the size you want is another matter entirely. It's almost like if you don't get time to harvest in the morning, by evening they are too large!
I read somewhere that each little zuc has the same number of 'flavour cells' in each one, so when they get enormous, they just don't taste nearly as nice. Small and tender they are lovely in salads or pickled. Up to 30cm (1ft for you imperial people) they are great for fritters and the like. And over 30cm, I reckon forget it.

I picked this lot from the garden and found I had some feta in the fridge. This is such a great standby as it keeps for months in a vac-pack and is useful for lots of vegetarian stuff like filo pies, pasta and salads. Here's my favourite little fritter to use up all those zuccs - they are also lovely cold.
Zucchini Feta & Mint Fritters
3-4 20-30cm zucchini
1 leek or bunch of spring onions sliced
2-3 cloves garlic crushed
3 tbls wheat or potaoe flour
2 eggs
100g feta
1/2 cup of chopped parsely
and nearly as much mint

Grate the zucchini by hand or in the food processor, while you saute the leek or onion in 2 tbls oil . After 5 min add the garlic and zucchini. Cook down slowly on a gentle heat stirring occassionally. When its nice and soft (about 10-15 mins) take it off and drain the liquid out through a colander or coarse sieve. Squeeze a little to get rid of excess moisture. Return to the pan and sprinkle over the flour and half the herbs and cook through quickly, stirring for a few mins. Then let it cool right down in the fridge.

Lightly beat the eggs and add to zucchini mix with the cubed or crumbled feta, last half of the herbs & pepper. Stir through gently, cover and let it get really cold before shaping into fritters and frying in a non-stick pan with a little oil if needed.
I serve these with a simple avocado, cue, tomato salsa dressed with lemon juice, chilli sauce and basil.

I didn't have much mint in the garden (it has got a little dried out) so I made up the difference with Thai Basil.

Beauty in small things

I've been back in the studio not to paint yet but sew. Finishing some bags I started before Christmas took over. When I went to my sewing table I couldn't help but notice how my sewing things (with a little tweeking) made the prettiest still life. Hmmm... inspiration.
I've noticed this before I think...

Veni, Vidi, Velcro (I came, I saw, I stuck around)

2012

Crayfish Rice Paper Rolls

I've been away on our boat for 2 weeks on Rottenest Island. The weather was allsorts but the boys did a lot of diving catching crays and Dhufish. I'm not a huge fan of large crustacians BUT I came up with this idea of making them into rice paper rolls. I made a spicy dipping sauce and they were just the ticket with a glass of bubbly.
I have been in the kitchen all week since I got back home- I do miss creating recipes from the garden. I came home to a dozen cucumbers so I sliced lots into a spicy vinegar mix to keep in the fridge. I used a few different vinegars, chilli, garlic and celery seed. No salt - they taste great!

Didorf Salad

I couldn't wait to get my new dome sprouter going again so I filled that up straight away and today I created a Didorf Salad: Red Apple, celery, feta (low-fat), toasted hazelnuts (local) with Adzuki, fenegreek and alfalfa sprouts. I just tossed it in a light mustard viniagrette.

Summer Veggie Gnocchi

Other must sees this week was the first of the zucchinis with what's left of last years potaotes turned into veggie gnocchi with loads of fresh herbs including fried sage leaves. I've made this before many times and find I can knock it up in 30-40 mins - preparing the other ingredients while the spuds boil. Gnocchi needs a light touch so mixing and rolling out should be quick and rustic. I like to saute the cooked gnocchi in the garlicy oil I have done the veg in. Then put it all back together at the end. It gives the gnocchi a browned-off look and better texture. Of course a few shavings of good parmesan are essential too!

Promises



zucchini



Eggplant

Plum

Technically it's summer here now in Oz but it still feels like Spring. The days are in the mid 20s and we are still having lovely rain showers. All my new summer veggies are flowering away. I have some Eggplants (Long Purple) that have survived winter and have loads of those delicate lilac flowers promising delicious aubergines. Yum! I love these just sliced, sprayed with a little oil and baked in the oven. They are so versatile. I recently made a bruschetta style dip at one of my cooking classes and everyone loved it. I can post the recipe if anyone is interested. All the fruit trees in the orchard are loving the cooler weather and wet conditions and are bursting with ripening fruit.

Royal Gala

 The birds get to a lot of the top fruits but there is usually enough to go around except for my figs so I net this tree. And by the look of them I need to do this soon.
I've posted a link to this really great gardening blog you may want to check out. It's one of my favourites.

Fig

Scarecrow's Garden

Rubbish Day Curry

OK, on rubbish day I often give my fridge a good clean out and throw, compost or use any veggies that are looking less than salad fresh. I seem to have extra this week as I've been teaching these healthy cooking classes and whilst I give away as many leftovers as I can, I end up with bits and pieces. Older veggies like these just need to be picked over a bit and peeled. So, this is how I make a good curry you can use with any lonely pieces of veg from your fridge:

Get 1/2 cup of water going on the stove and start preparing the veggies and dropping them in as you go. Harder ones first, I had a parsnip (so ugly it's trying to hide behind that plastic bag of mint!), pumpkin and celery to begin with. Meanwhile I dry roasted aromatic seeds - about 1 tsp each cumin, corriander, mustard, 1/2 tsp of fenegreek and about 10 cardamon pods. Put a lid on as they want to pop right out of the frypan. Give them a shake nown and again - I only takes a few minutes, Now, if you have a mortar and pestle great, otherwise bash them about a bit with whatever you have. Chop some onion (I always seem to have 1/2 an onion lurking around and some wrinkly spring onions) and soften with 1 tsp oil, then add lots of chopped garlic and plonk all this into your simmering veggies. I had some over-ripe tomatoes - in! Some leftover pasta sauce - in! Some bunching onions from the garden (I never know what to do with them) - in! Some fresh chilli is best but, hey anything hot you have hanging around. In fact if you have some curry paste you might want to skip the whole roasting seeds thing BUT it won't be as nice. Check out what herbs you have, really anything goes. In my case I used corriander, parsley and mint because it was all there in front of me. Chop about a cupful, throw it in and give it all a good mix through. Now simmer all this for about 15min and then leave it for the flavours to infuse, all day or until the next day is ideal. When I reheat it tonight for dinner, I will add more delicate veggies. I have a few broccoli flowerettes, beans and spinache. Along with these I'll put in more herbs to give it a nice fresh note.
Personally, I like to make my curries hot so I serve them with yoghurt. I might add some mint to this as I have so much and this cools it down nicely as I eat.
This process only took 20 mins this morning (it took longer to clean the fridge!) It's yummy, healthy and not wasteful.

Chilli Jelly

I have been wanting to make some Chilli Jelly ever since I bought my Jelly Bag, which incidently was really hard to track down. I used a regular apple jelly base (750g chopped cooking apples including cores and skins, 500mls apple cider vinegar, 700 mls water) and added 5 chopped chillies. Boil for an hour and you should end up with about 1 litre of liquid after draining for a few hours. Do not squeeze it out or you'll have cloudy jelly!
Make it as you would jam by adding 500g sugar per 600ml of juice and boiling for about 30mins. I'm really happy with the taste (just the right amount of heat), consistency ( a little runnier than jam) and colour. Aaaaaw so pretty.....