And what next?
Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work and Blogging
Good Food Month is pretty much over and I’ve finished (for the moment) rabbiting on about carrots (yes I have been waiting all week to say that), so what’s next at Limes&Lycopene?
Well, firstly, I have quite a backlog of recipes to post, so there will be lots more cooking over the next couple of weeks. I’ve got some ideas for “healthy” puddings, plus there’s going to be some blogging-by-request. I’ll post Novembers’ what’s in season guide and I’m thinking about a regular Monday night cooking segment – meals to make in 15 minutes using minimal ingredients. What do you think?
I’m also about to start researching an antioxidants article, so no doubt some of that information will filter through to my blog.
I’ve spent today with a stylist and photographer, cooking and photographing the Ten Minute Kitchen sections for Life etc next March and May. I always find these days so exciting and rewarding, especially to see my recipes professionally photographed.
Oh yes and on the magazine / writing front, I have some exciting news . . .
Update: for the full story on what’s been happening during Good Food Month, take a look at Cucina Rebecca’s GFM Final Round-up .
Irrepressible.Info
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Came across this at BuzzMachine , Amnesty International are asking bloggers to show their support for online freedom of speech and the bloggers who are being denied this human right. As Kate Allen, the UK Director of Amnesty International, writes in the Observer :
Governments still fear dissenting opinion and try to shut it down. While the internet has brought freedom of information to millions, for some it has led to imprisonment by a government seeking to curtail that freedom. They have closed or censored websites and blogs; created firewalls to prevent access to information; and restricted and filtered search engines to keep information from their citizens.
The campaign is called irrepressible.info – and it uses internet censorship to defeat itself. Scroll down the right-hand sidebar and you’ll see an irrepressible.info banner, like this:
Underneath it you’ll see a fragment of web content that somebody has been persecuted for writing. So every time someone visits a site with an irrepressible.info button we are spreading this information further – doing exactly what the censors are trying to prevent.
This is not a political blog – I write about food, health and wellbeing, but I value my online freedom, that I can say anything I want here, without fear (except of losing readers!). I also follow overseas blogs, particularly from Iraq and I believe we need these voices in the world today.
If you don’t have a blog, there’s also an online petition here . And you can follow the conversation at the technorati tag irrepressible.info .
Sydney Food & Wine Fair
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Saturday was one of the main events, not only in the Good Food Month calendar, but also in any foodlover’s diary – the annual Sydney Food&Wine Fair . From its origins 16 years ago in the David Jones Food Hall, as Counter Aid, this event has morphed and grown every year to become the primary annual fundraising event of the AIDS Trust of Australia .
More than 100 stallholders, including some of the top Sydney restaurants, donate their time, their produce and their staff. About 40,000 people were expected and the AIDS Trust hope to raise more than the 2005 total of $277,000.
I was there all day as a volunteer – helping set up stalls; answering stallholder questions; delivering produce, ice and drinks and then helping pack up at the end. I also got to hang out with Cucina Rebecca , who was also volunteering. It seemed that everyone, from stallholders through to customers, were enthusiastic and determined to have a good time. It was also hard work – I wish I’d worn my pedometer, given how many times I walked around Hyde Park, I’d love to know how many steps I did!
It was a beautiful sunny Sydney day, with the Jacarandas out in full bloom and Hyde Park was chock-a-block full of people by about 11.30am. The Food&Wine Fair is an opportunity to try out meals, wines, cakes and desserts from some of the leading Sydney restaurants, wine makers, bakeries and cafes.
With so much on offer, how do you make a choice? Well, being vegetarian simplified this, as per usual there were only a handful of options to choose from, rather than over 100. Richard met me for lunch and we shared a paneer, chickpea, spinach and mint yoghurt salad from Oh Calcutta and Thai noodles from Longrain .
I didn’t have the time or opportunity to take many photos, but am sure other bloggers will have been there and covered the event more thoroughly. I’ll post links here as they become available:
This was my final GFM event, but to see what other bloggers have been up to, keep an eye on Rebecca’s weekly round-ups or the technorati tag: gfm06 .
Mangia Italiano
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Vegetables
During this year’s Good Food Month I’ve most enjoyed the opportunities to try out new shopping locations and new places to buy produce. While not always following the official trail, by going out of my normal comfort zone, I’ve discovered new foods and ingredients – which have, of course, led to new recipes and eating experiences.
Campsie , the Castle Hill growers’ market and Hawkesbury Farmgate Trail have led me to the tastiest of strawberries, vegetables fresh-picked that morning, four different types of tofu, Ocello’s blue cheese, kimchi, toasted sesame seaweed, celeriac, dried wild oregano, hot chilli pastes. These are all foods I’ve bought this month: bought, eaten, researched and tested different recipes with.
My last GFM food tour was an official one (finally!) – Mangia Italiano – the self-guided food tour of Five Dock. Described as the place “Italian’s like to shop”, Five Dock is in the inner west of Sydney, with the main shopping area on the busy Great North Road. Shops and cafes are slightly old-fashioned. Most are open early, closed by 6pm and half the street is closed on Sunday. Money is obviously spent on stock, rather than expensive and glamorous fit-outs – something I’ve got no problems with!
For some reason the official guide only includes six stops, which is a shame, as there are plenty of other shops, cafes and delis to investigate. Officially the tour starts at Caffe Migliore , which is about 15 minutes walk from the main drag, on Queens Road. They roast their own coffee, sell coffee-making equipment, run barista courses and also have a little cafe out the front. To be honest the coffee is okay, but hardly startling, shallow in flavour and much more bitter than I like it. There are also plenty of coffee shops on Great North Road.
Next door however, is Duccio Gelato , where they sell a small but good-looking range of fresh-frozen pasta. Most of the freezer is taken up with one brand of pasta, but displayed on the lower shelves is a more simply packaged range, with no labels, all made by a local lady. I purchased a large bag of home-made gorgeous looking spinach gnocchi.
Number 6 on the official tour is Caminiti’s Butchery, which being vegetarian, I gave a miss (see Cucina Rebecca’s round-up for more info). Next door is Dominic’s Fruit&Veg, which I also bypassed, as I’d already spied better fruit and veg at Five Dock Fresh (125 Great North Road) . Globe artichokes are in season and they had large bags on special for $1.99. The bag included about 8 heads and while one was slightly sweaty, the others are all good quality (the full-priced artichokes are also a bargain – 10 for $5).
My best purchase however, was a kilo of truss tomatoes – bright red, ripe and smelling of summer, they were better than any I’ve seen recently and at $5.99 a kilo, were also significantly cheaper. Fresh broad beans in the pod were also included in my shopping basket.
Raineri’s Delicatessen is an aladdin’s cave: piled high with produce, there’s every Italian foodstuff you could possibly want. Plus an excellent delicatessen with meats, cheeses, olives and so on. Having got the heads-up from Rebecca, my main purchase was frozen porcinis. These are flash-frozen, straight after picking. To convince me of how good they were, the assistant just opened the bag and out wafted a wonderful, earthy mushroom smell. Porcinis are not cheap and these are $65 per kilo. You can buy part of a kilo – for example, I bought the two lovelies below for $10. Having only ever had dried porcinis before, I’m looking forward to tasting these.
Also included in the official tour is Pasticceria Tamborrino , an Italian cake shop. Yes, I know, I know, I’m a nutritionist and cakes are “bad” food, but to be honest, it’s all about balance and proportion. I aim to eat well 80% of the time and try to exercise regularly, which leaves me the flexbility and space for the occasional little cakey-thing. Tamborrino’s are worth it and they sell a range of their cakes in mini-size, so you can taste a couple without doing too much damage.
Five Dock is a great place to shop. Unlike Leichhardt, it has an unpretentious and authentic feel. All the shops are reasonably priced, quality is high and there’s a wide range of Italian foods available. It’s not a large shopping area, with most of the delis, cafes etc in a small two-block strip and you could easily cover most of the ground in an hour. As well as the six shops on the tour, there’s another deli, a good bakery, Five Dock Fresh (the fruit and veg shop I visited), at least one other butcher and several cafes. The Mangia Italiano guide can be downloaded here and it includes all addresses and opening hours. Note that most of these shops are closed on Sunday and some do shorter hours on Saturday.
For more about what’s happened during Good Food Month, take a look at Cucina Rebecca’s weekly round-ups, or follow the technorati tag gfm06 .
100th post: baked carrots
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables
This is my 100th post, a milestone.
And, yet again , it’s about carrots . As I’ve said, I don’t really like them . There are only two carrot “recipes” that actually get me excited. One of them is this sandwich and the other is young carrots baked in the oven.
When they retired, my parents moved down to Jervis Bay and converted their garden into a vegie patch. For a couple of years I was regularly supplied with beautiful, young, just-picked, tender, sweet carrots. Last year, they bought a caravan and headed off on the grey-nomad route for several months of the year. It’s great for them and I’ve never known them happier than when they’re off on their trips.
But it means no more fresh young carrots to bake, as their garden is mulched and dormant at the moment. On our recent trip to the Hawkesbury however, a beautiful bunch of carrots (picked while we were there) were included in our box at the Hawkesbury Vegetable Farm .
Time for baked carrots again.
Baked carrots
This is a very loose recipe and usually changes according to what I have in the cupboard. You could use thyme, some dried chilli, fresh marjoram, white wine instead of sherry. I do usually put a bit of butter on, but you could also use olive oil.
- 1 bunch of young carrots , scrubbed and left whole – no need to peel them
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- About 2 teaspoons dried oregano (see picture below)
- 3 – 4 small knobs of butter
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
Preheat the oven to 200C.
You’ll need a double-thickness of foil, enough to wrap around the carrots, fully enclose them and pinch together so no steam escapes.
Place the carrots and all the other ingredients in the middle of this foil (pinch the sides up a bit so the sherry doesn’t escape). Fold the foil together around the carrots and scrunch all the edges to form a seal.
Place on a baking tray in the oven and cook for about 45 – 50 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.
Whups – forgot to take a picture of the final product . . . but they were de-licous!
Technorati tags: Vegetarian , carrot , oregano , cumin .
Carrot fritters
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Vegetables and Kid's nutrition
While I don’t like carrots , I would also try these recipes for carrot fritters. Vegetables in fritters taste completely different from their raw origins and it’s a good way to ””fool vegie-hating kids and adults .
Bron Marshall has worked out Peter Rabbit’s Favourite Carrot&Caraway Fritters , while Running with Tweezers came up with Carrot&Scallion Fritters . Both recipes are easy and while they include carrots, the flavour is enhanced, mellowed and changed by the addition of herbs and spices.
These recipes were posted as part of Jenjen’s fritter challenge and her round-up includes yet more fritter ideas.
Tags: fritter , carrot , nutrition , vegetable , Vegetarian , picky eaters .
Least favourite vegie in favourite sandwich
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Vegetables and Kid's nutrition
Continuing the theme of encouraging non-vegetable eaters to like the green stuff , I was posting yesterday on the idea, that preparing vegies in different ways suits different people.
A good example of this idea – while carrots are my least favourite vegetable, they’ve become one-quarter of my current favourite sandwich.
And here it is – cream cheese, grated carrot and sultanas on grainy bread. The cream cheese is spread on both slices of bread. I use a whole carrot and grate it on the smaller blade of my grater (this is important as I don’t enjoy the sandwich if its grated on the thicker setting). Plus there’s about one tablespoon of sultanas or flame raisins in there.
Generally I find carrots boring and bland, but there’s something about their taste and texture when grated that I do like – it’s a totally different experience from steamed chunks of carrot. This sandwich gives me two servings of vegies and one serving of fruit.
So, this is one way to get me to eat carrots.
Technorati tags: vegetable , Nutrition , carrot .
More on carrots and eating vegetables
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Vegetables and Kid's nutrition
So, as I posted earlier today , carrots are good for you, but that’s not really startling information is it? I mean, we all know vegetables are good for us , we should be eating lots of them, carrots are a “good” food, blah, blah, blah.
The question is still , if you (or your kids) don’t like them, how do you get them into you (or your kids’)?
Okay, confession time, while carrots are really good nutritionally, I don’t like them . Me, one of the biggest vegetable fans on the planet, I don’t like carrots. It’s not that I hate them, I just think they’re boring, they’re bland and don’t have a good flavour. The only exception to this, is really fresh, young carrots like we bought from the Hawkesbury Vegetable Farm – that’s a completely different proposition, but normal carrots, even organic carrots, leave me cold.
Over the years, however, I’ve reached a truce with carrots. I eat them, because I know they’re good for me and gradually through experimentation, I’ve found ways that I do kind-of like them. For example, steamed carrots are pretty horrid, but I enjoy the taste and texture of grated carrot, so I include that in salads and sandwiches. Carrots, along with celery and onions, are a really good base for most soups and stews – so in our house, carrots also go in the cooking pot. I don’t like them in stir-fries and I don’t like them cut into thick chunks, so I simply don’t prepare them that way. I’ve also found, I like them juiced with a bit of beetroot, apple and a big wedge of ginger, so sometimes I’ll pick up a juice for an afternoon snack.
This is one of the important things to remember with vegetables, they taste different according to how you prepare and cook them . There’s something about the taste and texture of grated carrot that’s different from chunks. If your kids don’t like steamed or stir-fried broccoli, they may still enjoy it raw and dipped in hummous. It’s possible you avoid coleslaw like the plague, but cabbage tastes completely different when cooked into a dal , or sauteed with some mustard seeds and spices.
So often, for both adults and kids, it’s about experimentation. Trying vegies in different ways and persisting with them, until you find a way that you do like.
Technorati tags: vegetable , Nutrition , carrot .
Carrots
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables
Carrots are packed full of good stuff. Not only are they high in fibre, low in fat and kilojoules, but they’re also an excellent source of the antioxidant and vitamin A precursor: beta-carotene . In fact carotenes are what make carrots their lovely orange colour.
Carrots are also a useful vegetable and are generally cheap. They can be grated raw and put in salads, they can be used in stirfries, baked in foil in the oven, steamed, used in soups and stews, made into a cake.
Carrot Myths&Trivia:
Carrots are believed to make you see better in the dark, but this is not necessarily true . A lack of vitamin A will effect your eyesight. Beta-carotene is a precursor to vitamin A, so if you’re deficient, then eating carrots could help. However, in the absence of deficiency, carrots won’t help you see in the dark. It’s believed this myth was started during the second world war, as a campaign of disinformation to cover up the discovery of radar technologies and account for the British ability to “see in the dark”.
Eating too many carrots turns you orange? This one is actually true and there’s even a fancy-pancy name for the condition: hypercarotenaemia . It basically means there’s too much carotene in the blood and it makes your skin look slightly orange. It’s not dangerous and will soon go away once you cut back on the carrot consumption
Carrots are believed to be loved by bunnies everywhere. Bugs Bunny and Peter Rabbit both flouted the rules to get their little paws on the orange vegie. However, given the choice, a real-life rabbit is much more likely to eat the green tops, than the carrot itself.
And my two favourites from Wikipedia – the world’s largest living carrot was 8.6kg (your average carrot weighs about 120g) and the world’s largest carrot statue is, freakishly enough, not in Australia, but in New Zealand .
Nutritional Info:
100g of carrots gives you 101 kJ, 0.8g protein, 0.1g fat, 5g carbohydrate, 3.3 g fibre, 88.5g water, 43mg sodium, 260mg potassium, 31mg calcium, 10mg magnesium, 10,350mcg beta-carotene, 0.9mg niacin, 6mg vitamin C.
Life etc issue 7: out now
Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work and Recipes: 15 minute
The latest edition of Life etc came out today, with the Christmas recipes I was working on a couple of months ago. These were both a challenge and a joy to create. As per usual, with Life etc, it’s all about fuss free cooking – in fact the theme was Don’t make it, fake it . Each dish is simple, easy and quick to cook. While not all of them fit in the Ten Minute category of my other recipes for Life etc, they’re all pretty quick. I’m especially proud of the cute little Berry, Ricotta&Panettone Cake I made.
Of course, the magazine also includes the usual Ten Minute Kitchen recipes. This time the theme ingredient is tuna and the recipes are:
- Tuna steaks with capers, coriander and basil
- White bean and tuna salad
- Asian-style tuna ceviche
All of these can be cooked in ten minutes and only use a handful of ingredients – very handy at the end of a busy day.
The Christmas recipes can be downloaded from the Life etc website – go to this page and the button is about half way down on the right hand side (look for the Ten Minute Kitchen banner).
Hawkesbury Harvest: growers' market & farmgate trail
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Blogging and Vegetables
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Yet another GFM event I didn’t book in time was the Flavours of Sydney’s Hills Region tour. Not to be outdone, last weekend Richard and I set off ( again ) on our own, unofficial tour of the market and farmgate trail.
The importance of the Hawkesbury as an agricultural region dates back to the very early days of European colonisation of Australia. Food was grown in this fertile area and transported by boat, down the Hawkesbury, out to sea and then down the coast to Sydney. Even today, there’s still a lot of farming going on in the Hawkesbury region and all around the outskirts of Sydney. This urban agriculture is an important source of food to us in the City. In fact, 12% of NSW’s total agricultural production occurs in the Sydney region, on only 1% of the states’ land.
The * Castle Hill Growers’ Market * takes place on the second Saturday of each month. It’s a great market with interesting stalls and lovely fresh food. There’s definitely more fresh produce than at the Good Living market , which sometimes seems dominated by the chutney, muesli and jam makers. At Castle Hill there’s plenty of super-fresh fruit and vegies, eggs, meat, fish, bread, cheeses, as well as the jams, chutneys and a fresh pasta stall.
We were there on the freakishly hot (for this time of year anyway) 37C day and it was just too much to wander around the outside stalls. It had been an early start, so we did kick off the day with some coffee and an Okonomiya before heading inside. These are Japanese pancakes made from flour, eggs, lots of vegies and then topped with mayonnaise and seaweed. It’s a delicious combination.
Inside is a whole lot cooler and there are plenty of stalls, so we hung around there for a while. After a bit of taste-testing we bought celeriac, beautiful young rocket and the freshest of corn from the Grimas Farm stand; bread and blue cheese from Ocello ; passionfruit butter from the Blue M Food Co , goat’s milk soap from Willowbrae and fresh artichokes from the Farmgate Trail people.
Despite the scorching weather (and not having airconditioning in our car), we then headed up along the Old Northern Road to Galston Strawberries at 359 . The Barba family grow strawberries, blueberries, nectarines, peaches and tomatoes and they sell their beautiful harvest at a roadside stall outside their property. We picked up three punnets of strawberries – one best and two seconds (for making into jam). Half of the best punnet was gone by the time we were back to the car (20 metres away). These are simply the best strawberries I’ve eaten in years. They aren’t super sweet, but they are super-flavoured, in that oh-my-gosh-that’s-what-strawberries-should-taste-like revelation, kind of way.
Once back on the Old Northern Road, only about five minutes from Galston Strawberries we also picked up a punnet of mulberries from a road-side seller (for $2.50!). So they sat nestled between the strawberries, on the backseat of our car.
From Galston Strawberries we headed up the Old Northern Road. We didn’t stop, but there are rose farms, geranium sellers and also an aromatherapy place (Balanced Essentials). Down Wiseman’s Ferry Road we got to the Sackville ferry over the Hawkesbury river.
From there our next stop was the * Tizzana Winery * at Ebenezer. This is a beautiful spot, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. The wine-tasting area is in a beautiful old stone building that was just wonderfully coooooool inside – such a relief from the scorching weather. Here you can taste the wines made by Tizzana, but also those from other smaller local vineyards. They make cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, petit verdot, rose, dessert wines and a fine, fine port.
After the winery we went to the *
Hawkesbury Vegetable Farm * . This is a great place to buy vegies. They grow a huge range and everything you buy was picked that morning. In fact, our carrots and beetroot were picked, from the ground,
while we were there . Without having your own backyard vegie patch, you just can’t get any fresher than that. We decided to buy a $25 box and it was
the best value box I’ve ever seen. It included:
- bunch of Dutch carrots (picked while we were there)
- huge bunch of beetroot (also picked while we were there)
- silverbeet
- 4 onions
- potatoes (about 5kg)
- brocolli
- whole cabbage
- iceberg lettuce
- huge bag of mushrooms
- a leek
- 3 tomatoes
- 3 Josephine pears
- 6 mandarins (Honey Murcott’s I think)
- 3 oranges
- 2 mangoes
While this picture looks a bit of a mess, it does give an idea of the size of the box. We used the silverbeet that night (because it wouldn’t fit in our fridge with all the other food), in a pasta sauce. It was juicy and delicious, packed full of flavour that you just don’t get from supermarket-bought silverbeet.
They also do $35 boxes, you can get fresh eggs, or you can make up your own box of produce. If you go up to the Hawkesbury, it’s definitely worth a visit.
Our last stop was in Windsor, where we bought a couple of bottles of cold beer and sat by the Hawkesbury, enjoying some of our fabulous produce. Ocello blue cheese and bread, rocket from the Castle Hill market and tomatoes from the Hawkesbury Vegetable Farm. Followed by passionfruit butter and bread and fresh strawberries. It was a fine way to end our farmgate experience.
The Hawkesbury Farmgate Trail
Apart from the market, we only visited three places on the Farmgate Trail , but there are a huge range of farms, wineries and produce sellers that retail to the public. These include citrus fruits, walnuts, chestnuts, fresh duck, stonefruit, fresh flowers, berries, free range eggs, meat, jams and so on.
The Hawkesbury Harvest organisation provides lots of information about the Farmgate Trail – what’s in season , where to go , opening hours and so on. Their website has suggested maps and itineraries , plus info on upcoming events and so on.
This area is so close to Sydney, it’s an easy day out. The fruit and vegies we bought are some of the best I’ve ever had, largely because of their freshness. You just don’t get this in shop-bought produce, no matter how good the shop is. Given the nutritional losses that occur after harvesting, being able to get this kind of fruit and veg is a real bonus, both taste-wise and also nutritionally.
It’s a day out though and not something you’d probably do every week. However I’m already looking forward to going back. Next time I want to to the Kookootonga Walnut&Chestnut Farm , where you can collect your own nuts, as well as Pine Crest Orchard (numbers 1 and 6 on this map), to pick your own fruit – couldn’t be any fresher than that.
Where we shopped:
- Hawkesbury Harvest Growers’ Market . Open second Sat every month 8.00am – 12.00pm. Castle Hill Showground, Castle Hill – enter via Carrington Road.
- Galston Strawberries at 359 . Open Sept: Sat – Sun 8.00am – 5.00pm, Oct – Apr: 7 days 8.00am – 5.00pm. 359 Galston Rd, Galston – number 41 on this map.
- Tizzana Winery (4579 1150). Open Sat, Sun&public holidays 12.00pm – 6.00pm. 518 Tizzana Rd, Ebenezer – number 29 on this map.
- Hawkesbury Vegetable Farm (4576 3529). Open Sat 9.00am – 3.00pm and at other times call beforehand. 135 Carrs Rd, Wilberforce – number 28 on this map.
For more about Good Food Month, take a look at Cucina Rebecca’s weekly round-up, or follow the technorati tag gfm06 .
Meeting other Sydney bloggers
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
On the second to last night of the GFM Night Noodle Markets I met up with a group of other Sydney bloggers: Grab Your Fork , Morsels&Musings , Cucina Rebecca , Initiales JB , PiCkLes PeRks , Jenius and Sweet Little Treat . It was lovely to put names to faces . . . or should I say blog names to fully-rounded, real-live human beings. It was also fun being with a group of people who don’t think twice about photographing their food and are probably more obsessed with food than I am.
After the noodle markets we headed over to the Sofitel for a Sugar Hit . While I don’t normally blog about desserts, I’m not adverse to the the odd cakey thing. Sugar Hits are a GFM invention: 10 Sydney hotels offering a dessert plate and glass of dessert wine or whisky for $15. It’s a lovely way to round-off an evening.
And the Sofitel’s Sugar Hit is a good one – white chocolate creme brulee; a Valrhona dark chocolate praline nugget and milk chocolate mousse topped with raspberries in a shot glass. I particularly liked the latter combination, with the sharpness of the berries balancing the richness of the chocolate.
The Sugar Hits have become popular in the last few years. At 9.00pm, on the dot, the hotel lounge changed from it’s normal half-empty state, to being chock-a-block full of people all demanding their sugar hit. This means that reservations are a good idea. It also means that the desserts are not made fresh. All the plates are made earlier in the day and then refrigerated, ready for the onslaught of people at 9.00pm – in fact two of our party saw them being wheeled out, on huge layered trolleys. I do understand the expedience of this – after all it’s logistically difficult to get fresh dessert plates out to a mass of people, at the same time. However, bear in mind that dishes like creme brulee suffer when they’re not fresh – the sugar topping becomes soft and soggy during refrigeration.
It’s still good value and worthwhile making a trip to one of the Sugar Hit venues during Good Food Month.
For more about Good Food Month, have a look at Cucina Rebecca’s weekly round-ups or the technorati tag gfm06
Beetroot curry
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Recipes: vegies and Vegetables
To say I love beetroot would probably be an understatement. To say I adore it, am obsessed by it, think about it far more than is healthy, is probably a more accurate statement.
Which means, this has been a GREAT week. On the weekend I purchased the hugest bunch of fresh, baby beetroot I’ve ever seen. Plus, yet more beetroot arrived in my vegetable box this week. Oh dear, how awful, an excess of beetroot.
It gave me the chance to make one of my favourite dishes ever – a beetroot and tomato curry, from Madhur Jaffrey.
Why beetroot? Well firstly, it is of course, the most gorgeous colour. Plus it’s incredibly flexible – you can use it raw in salads, or wrap it in foil with a few herbs and some olive oil and then bake in the oven. You can add it to a tray of roasted vegies and you can even use it in a sandwich.
Beetroot is also, of course, really good for you. It’s high in fibre and packed full of the carotenoid antioxidants. It’s known in naturopathy as a food that assists the liver and gallbladder. Plus it’s high in vitamin C and folate, although some of these are lost when you cook it. For more about the healthy-ness of beetroot, take a look at my post on the nutritional value of beetroot.
When I was growing up in the UK, you could only buy whole pickled baby beetroots in glass jars and these were really quite sophisticated. As long as you had a special pickle fork, you could serve them at a party, or as part of a smorgasbord lunch. I LOVED the special pickle fork, thought it was really quite the grooviest kitchen implement, therefore loved beetroot, because I got to use the fork.
Cut to 1988, when I moved to Australia and suddenly beetroot was a sandwich and burger ingredient – how bizarre was that? While I wholeheartedly embraced this new use of beetroot, it was only when I started using the fresh stuff, that the obsession started. In fact, one of my first uses of fresh beetroot was this curry. Even more trivia – my first published recipe included beetroot – it was for vegan chocolate & beetroot cake with a spiced beetroot glaze (which I shall post in the next few days).
Enthusiastic? Yes. Obsessed? Almost certainly.
So here it is, probably my favourite recipe ever. I usually serve this with dal and rice, in fact this time, I made the lentil & cabbage dal.
Beetroot & tomato curry
This recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking . I’ve made very few changes to the original recipe as it’s pretty much perfect – except that Madhur uses fresh tomatoes and I always make it with tinned – mainly because I can never be bothered to peel that many tomatoes. This time I also added mushrooms, for a change.
Oh yes, while it’s even better the next day, this time I discovered the leftovers are exceptionally good over a baked potato! Serves 4.
- 900g raw beetroot
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 whole dried chilli
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 800g tin of tomatoes
- 200g button mushrooms, cut in half
Cut the leaves and stalks off the beetroot, peel and cut into roughly 2cm cubes.
Heat the oil in a medium sized pan, with a lid. Once it’s hot, add the cumin seeds and chilli, stir once and add the garlic. Stir for about 10 seconds and then add the turmeric. Stir once and add the tomatoes (with juice) straight away. At this point the mixture will hiss and spit. Just put the lid on and wait for it to calm down.
Add the beetroot and mushrooms and then season with salt. Bring to a simmer. Then turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for about 45 mins – 1 hour, or until the beetroot is tender.
- Jaffrey, Madhur, Eastern Vegetarian Cooking, Arrow, London 1990.
Nutritional information per serving
- Total kilojoules: 673 kJ
- Protein: 6g
- Fat: 4g
- Saturated fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrate: 25g
- Fibre: 9g
- Sodium: 246mg (without adding any salt)
- Number of vegetable serves towards your daily total: 2 serves
- Additional nutrients: LYCOPENE, beta-carotene, potassium, niacin, folate
Cherries hit by frost
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Fruit
One of the many fine things about summer in Australia is the fabulous fruit – mangoes, nectarines, peaches, cherries, melons, lychees are all grown in this country and quality is fabulous. However, it seems this summer is going to be a mixed season.
While the mango harvest in the Northern Territory is going to be huge , there will be a shorter supply of other stonefruit. A few weeks ago frosts in the Goulburn Valley destroyed a significant portion of their apricot and pear harvest, as well as cherries in the nearby Warby ranges and severe frosts have now also hit Tasmana, destroying cherries. The extent of the losses are not yet certain, with estimates ranging widely from 30 – 80%. Tassie apple and apricot growers have also experienced damage.
Stone fruit and cherry orchards in the Coal River Valley (north-east of Hobart), were the worst hit, while orchards in the Huon Valley, near Devonport and around Launceston, were also affected by the -2C temperatures.
According to the Hobart Mercury , it’s one of the worst frosts to hit Tasmania in the last 20 years and will significantly effect their $120 million fruit industry:
Apricot grower Heather Chong, of Qew Orchards in the Coal River Valley, had been expecting a crop of 700 tonnes this year, netting more than a million dollars . . . “the preliminary assessment is about a 50 per cent loss on average,” Ms Chong said.
“Some varieties will be completely lost, some will be much less.
“What can you do? You just feel rather numb I suppose … and then you have to work out what it means and how bad it is.”
She said efforts were now focused on protecting the remaining crop from disease caused by rotting fruit.
bq.
Is this the future of organics?
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity
Interesting article by Mark Morford, entitled The Sad Death of ‘Organic ’. After seeing an advert for Kellogg’s Organic Rice Krispies, he ponders if this means the end of true organics?
The point being, if you take the word “organic” to just mean pesticide and hormone free, then yes the Kellogg’s cereal is exactly that. However, up until now, organics has meant so much more than that. At it’s heart has been the ethos of farming and manufacturing sustainably and ethically.
As the demand for organics grows and become more mainstream, it gradually moves out of the arena of small, local producers and is taken over by larger companies, who can smell the aroma of money in the air. Unfortunately this means compromises are often made and the risk is that the word “organic” gradually gets squeezed down to its most basic level – pesticide and hormone free. Gone are principles of fair trade; the ethical treatment of people (let alone animals); and farming for the long-term good of the soil rather than short-term gain.
Mark gives an example:
Stonyfield Farm’s organic yogurt. As BusinessWeek points out , the stuff is made not on an idyllic working farm, like the one on the label, but rather in a giant industrial factory. They get their milk trucked in from a whole range of suppliers and it’s possible they will soon begin to import some of their organic ingredients – in dried, powdered form – from New Zealand, so as to meet national demand, delivering it all over the country via pollutive trucking companies.
Here in Australia, we’re not yet at this stage. There are still plenty of small organic producers, that are doing wonderful thing. To get organic certification from NASAA , the BFA or Demeter , you still have to comply with ethical and sustainable practices. Standards are set for soil health and management, crop rotation, dealing with pests, animal health, water management, buffer zones, what happens after harvest and so on. As the BFA puts it :
Organics is not just chemical free by testing. It is about the way your food is grown and handled. The whole system is linked – Soil. Plants. Animals. Food. People. Environment.
However, I’ve noticed that more and more of the big companies are selling organics. Coles have organic products available in their own brand. As the popularity of organics grows in Australia, the big companies will want market share. So, are we heading the way of the States?
A tale of bread and disasters
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
””:http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/2711089/
Who would have thought there’d be a World Bread Day ? Well, according to the International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners, it’s today. A time to celebrate and honour both bread and the people who make it.
While I’ve made bread heaps of times in the past, it’s definitely not something I do regularly. It takes time and elbow-grease to knead and there are so many fabulous breads available in Sydney, why would you bother?
About two weeks ago, however, an idea took hold in my brain: a gluten-free loaf that would only take minutes to make. I researched, I obsessed, I bragged to Richard about it, I obsessed a bit more, until I had it, THE RECIPE. The gluten-free loaf that would only take 10 minutes to put together and 30 minutes to cook. Gluten-free bread within 45 minutes. Gluten-free bread that even the most basic cook could make. Wow, I’d done it.
Well, I thought I had, because then I actually made the bread: my new, fabulous recipe. And to say it was awful was an understatement. It didn’t rise, it didn’t brown, it was the weight of a lead doorstop. The flavour was awful, the smell was awful, the texture was truly awful. On every single count, by which you judge a loaf, my bread failed. I ate two mouthfuls of a slice and threw the rest away. Richard, not believing it could possibly be as bad as I said, took a huge bite, chewed it twice and then rushed to the bin to spit it out.
No photographs exist of this bread disaster – they were well and truly deleted, while I sulked about the end of my naive bread plans.
So my world bread day is going to consist of eating a slice from a shop-bought loaf and having it with my favourite topping . . . home-made jam.
For a whole lot of bread successes and recipes, take a look at Kochtopf’s roundup or the technorati tag world bread day ‘06 .
A family spice blend in its early infancy
Posted by kathryn in Blogging, Recipes: eggs, Fruit and Recipes: pudding
I grew up in the UK in the 70s and 80s, a time way before Jamie, Nigella, Gary, Ainslie, Rick, Gordon et al started redefining British food. This was the time of roast dinners, semolina pudding, Victoria sponges, steak and kidney pie, toad in the hole, gammon and pineapple. A time when kedgeree was exotic, pasta was a weird “foreign” meal and Angel Delight was considered sophisticated.
In talking to my mum about the spices she used when I was growing up, I think her spice collection would have consisted of six jars – cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice, mustard powder and Keen’s curry powder. Spices were rarely used and when they did feature, it was in isolation – a little bit of cinnamon in the biscuit mix, a sprinkle of nutmeg on top of rice pudding, some cloves in the apple pie. Spice mixtures were pre-ordained, generic blends, bought from the supermarket. Mixed spice (a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice) was occasionally used in baking (for which the recipe would always be called Spiced biscuits / cake / scones) and also at Christmas in the mince pies and Christmas cake. All curries were made with Keen’s curry paste, no other flavouring was considered.
During the conversations with my mum she wrote:
Cloves were big actually; always used with apple, pushed into ham before baking, studded into onions before making stock or bouillon. Very daring people would use mustard powder when cooking with cheese, ie welsh rarebit, cheese scones. English cookery relied so much on meat or fish with veg, spices just didn’t figure.
My mum was and still is, a fantastic cook and I certainly wasn’t deprived in any way. In our house meals were always home-cooked; the house was often full of the aromas of a cake baking or an apple pie in the oven; mum cooked vegetarian food a lot (very way-out at the time); she watched our nutritional intake; we were well fed.
Mum also worked hard to give us a sense of what good food looked and tasted like. While my brother and I weren’t always receptive to her teachings, I think I’m really fortunate to have had this upbringing. My mum taught me about food and cooking, she sent me on the path to my current career.
I didn’t really become aware of the potential of spices until well into my 20s. I had my first Indian meal at the age of 20, dragged along by my then-boyfriend, I was convinced I wouldn’t like Indian food (a fact he still reminds me of). And yet it was a revelation. I loved every moment of that meal and I still remember the absolute shock and amazement at how food could taste. This was unlike anything my Anglo taste buds had ever been exposed to.
However, it was only in my late 20s that I started to “get” spices a bit more. I realised that curries weren’t made from a homogenous powder, but instead their flavour came from the blending of a number of indvidual spices. It was at this time I became aware of what different spices smelt and tasted like and began experimenting for myself.
Cut to now and spices are substances I use every day. If making a curry, I wouldn’t dream of buying a generic powder when I could use the individual spices. I’m starting to learn how different cultures use spices in different (and also similar) ways. In my small, narrow, six-shelved pantry, where space is a premium, one whole shelf contains spices. My spice palate is still young, but it’s developing.
This month’s Spice is Right is hosted by Habeas Brulee and her topic is family spice blends. Unlike previous months, this had me completely stumped. I mean it makes sense, now I think about it, but I’d never considered before that families might have their own spice blends, ones that are handed down from parent to child. This just didn’t happen in the UK when I was growing up.
Since talking with my mum about spices and the food she cooked while I was growing up, I’ve been thinking more about the subject of family spice blends. We don’t have one at the moment, but to update one of the generic blends from my childhood, may well be a neat and relevant way to straddle both my mum and mine’s cooking knowledge and heritage. This might be the beginning of our own family spice blend, a starting point from which we could continue to blend and refine.
I’m too much of a spice snob (now) to touch Keen’s curry powder, so I went searching Ian Hemphill’s Spice Notes for advice on developing the mixed spice blend, used so often during my childhood. It’s on this that I’m basing the new spice blend. It still contains the core group of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, but these three are tempered, extended and made more complex by the addition of coriander, ginger, cloves and cardamon.
To make this into a true family blend, I have to give some to my mum and we both need to use it over a period of time, in all sorts of recipes. Richard has to taste it, as does my dad and brother. Only then will we know whether we really like it, whether it’s better than the generic mix and also, if we want to make any changes to it. So, this is a family spice blend in its very early infancy, who knows where it will go from here.
A new mixed spice
- 5 teaspoons ground coriander seed
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamon
Mix together and use whenever you would use mixed spice.
I used this spice mixture in the following recipe which was taken from David Scott’s The Penniless Vegetarian. I bought this book years and years ago, when I’d just moved out of home, just become a vegetarian and was slightly penniless. It’s full of good, slightly old-fashioned, hearty wholefood cooking.
Plums in spiced custard
I made this recipe using tinned plums (shock, horror?), although of course fresh ones would be fine. The original recipe used 1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, but I’ve bumped this up to 1.5 teaspoons of the spice blend above. I’ve also changed the honey to maple syrup (just because I love it) and increased the quantity slightly (the original used 2 tablespoons of honey). While whisking the egg whites and cooking the whole thing in a bain-marie might seem like a bit of a hassle, it’s actually quick and easy and makes a tasty and reasonably healthy dessert. Serves 4.
- 450g fresh plums or an 825g tin
- 200ml natural yoghurt
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 large eggs, seperated
- 1.5 teaspoons new mixed spice blend
- 2 tablespoons flaked almonds
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a shallow, ovenproof dish.
Halve and stone the plums and place cut side up, in a single layer at the bottom of the dish.
In a seperate bowl, beat together the yoghurt, maple syrup, egg yolks and spices.
In another clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gently fold a spoonful of the whites into the yoghurt mixture, to loosen it, before folding in the rest of the whites. Do this slowly and not too vigorously. Spoon this evenly over the plums and top with the almonds sprinkled over.
Stand the dish in a roasting tray and pour enough water into the tray to come halfway up the side of the dish. Cook in the oven for 35 – 40 mins, or until the custard is cooked and its golden brown on top.
- Scott, David, The Penniless Vegetarian , Rider, London, 1992.
Night noodle market
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and A Balanced Diet
Most nights I enjoy cooking a meal, I find it relaxing, engrossing and it gives me a sense of wellbeing, through nourishing and nurturing Richard and myself with good food. I’m also in the fortunate (?) position of having a partner who can (and is happy to) cook as well. We don’t eat out a lot, probably about once a week and we get take-away about once a fortnight.
As well as enjoying cooking, eating at home gives me control over what I eat. It means I know what’s in there – I can control the type (and quantity) of fat used, I can make sure we’re using quality ingredients, I know it’s fully vegetarian (no sneaky chicken stock or oyster sauce slipped in).
My general food philosophy is that it’s what you do most of the time which counts. If you’re eating well most of the time, then the occasional tripe fudge chocolate torte with cream isn’t the end of the world. Go for your life, really enjoy it and get back to your normal eating patterns tomorrow.
However, if eating out is your “most of the time” then you need to be more careful about your restaurant and take-away choices, because this is your every day food.
In the eating out choices, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese are some of the best. Most dishes are low in saturated fat (as long as you steer clear of the curries with coconut milk); the fish used in Japanese is often high in Omega-3 fats; most dishes contain lots of vegetables; miso soup and green tea go along with Japanese food and both have nutritional positives.
All of which makes the Good Food Month Night Noodle Markets a good eating-out option. You can buy Japanese pancakes, which are full of vegies; stirfries with fish, meat or tofu; noodle soups; Indian curries and dals; sushi – all sorts of great things. Most dishes are in the $7 – $9 range, so it’s also a cheap option.
When we visited I bought Chole Pattice (above on the left), which was lovely soft and spicy potato cakes, covered in a hot and sour tamarind chick pea curry, while Richard had a Pad Thai (on the right). The Pad Thai was also good, although it didn’t contain enough vegies, or tofu for Richard’s tastes.
While most GFM events are now fully booked , you don’t have to reserve a seat at the Night Noodle Market. Red lanterns light up the area and you can sit outside, in Hyde Park over dinner and a glass of wine. We’re having such beautiful, balmy Sydney weather at the moment, it would be a shame to miss this experience.
After your meal, make sure you walk through Hyde Park and enjoy the big photographs on display as part of the Art&About exhibition.
- Where: Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park North
- When: now until Friday 20th October
- Time: 5.00pm – 9.00pm Monday to Friday
- Cost: dishes start at $7.00
- For more about Good Food Month, take a look at Cucina Rebecca’s weekly round-up, or follow the technorati tag gfm06 .
Zucchini fritters
Posted by kathryn in Blogging, Recipes: main dishes, Recipes: vegies and Recipes: eggs
Fritters are a great way to make vegetables a bit different. If you struggle to get your daily vegetable quota, or find it impossible to get your kids to eat vegies, then fritters are a good option. They don’t really look or taste like vegetables and don’t have an obvious vegetable texture. They can be “sold” to kids as burgers, something all kids recognise (certainly in Australia).
Fritters are also quick and easy to cook – grate some vegetables; mix together with eggs and a bit of flour; add in some herbs for extra flavour and then you just have to cook them. If you use a grill plate or a non-stick frying pan, you don’t even need to use a lot of oil, which keeps the fat content down.
I recently bought a new cookery book – Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. I love a new cookery book and am quite happy to spend hours poring over it staring intently at each recipe and photo. My mind is sent on a train of thought about what I’m going to cook and when. Plus there’s working out which recipes can be vegetarian-ised and reading the story behind the book. As per usual, I’ve been cooking obsessively from the new book. In the two weeks I’ve owned it, I’ve made three salads, one stew, one pie and these fritters.
I’ve made very few changes to Claudia’s recipe. I’ve reduced the onion and added in some garlic. Just as I was about to cook these fritters I noticed that I Love Milk & Cookies is hosting the latest round of the beautifully named food event – Hay, Hay, it’s Donna Hay and the theme is F for Fritters , so this also doubles as my entry.
Zucchini Fritters
Adapted from Arabesque by Claudia Roden. Serves 4.
- 1/2 red onion, chopped finely
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
- 500g zucchini (about 4), grated – I used the coarser blade on my grater
- 3 eggs
- 3 tablespoons plain flour
- 3 sprigs mint, chopped coarsely
- 3 sprigs dill, chopped coarsely
- 200g feta cheese, mashed with a fork
- Olive oil for cooking
Heat a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the onion and stir-fry gently for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and zucchini and continue cooking gently, until they are soft (about 7 – 8 minutes).
While this is cooking, beat together the eggs and flour, ensuring there are no lumps. Add the herbs, feta and season with black pepper (it won’t need any salt added, because of the feta).
Once the zucchini is cooked, add that to the egg and feta mixture and stir to combine. As you can see from the photo above (on the right), this forms quite a sloppy, wet mixture, don’t worry, it’s meant to be like that.
I cooked the fritters on the flat side of a grill-plate, but you could also use a non-stick frying pan. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the pan and heat to a medium temperature. Cook on one side for 2 – 3 minutes, until browned and then turn over. They will still be quite wet at this stage, so take care when turning. Cook the other side for 2 – 3 minutes, again until browned. Drain on kitchen paper and then serve.
NB: I used about 2 dessertspoonfuls of batter to make each fritter and you can cook a few at a time. It’s important you don’t make them too big, otherwise they fall apart when turned over. At the end of each batch you’ll need to add another drizzle of oil to the pan.
- Roden, Claudia, Arabesque , Michael Joseph, 2005, London
More on fresh vs frozen
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, A Balanced Diet and Vegetables
I blogged last week about fresh vs frozen vegetables. While frozen vegies have lots of good points nutritionally, up until recently, one of the problems here in Australia, has been the limited choice. For a long time frozen vegies meant bags of peas, or peas, corn and carrot, or frozen spinach. There was nothing much else available.
However in the last couple of years food manufacturers have cottoned on to the growth in stir-fries as a common dinner. We’ve become a nation of Thai and Vietnamese eaters and we are replicating those meals at home. A stir-fry is seen as a quick and easy meal to end the day with.
There’s now a growing range of frozen vegetable options, with a variety of ingredients and a variety of choices. Two of the best ones I’ve found recently are the Findus Wok Asian Greens and the Bird’s Eye Stir Fry range.
- Asian Greens: bok choy, sugar snap peas, broccoli, green capsicum and spring onions.
- Thai Style Stir Fry: broccoli, carrots, green beans, snowpeas, bamboo shoots and baby corn.
The Bird’s Eye brand is also available in five other vegetable mixes% . Both brands contained a good mixture of vegetables. Another problem in the past has been mixed veg packets full of the cheaper vegetables, such as carrots, corn and peas. This is not a problem with these two products.
Both worked really well in the stir-frys I made. I was particularly impressed with the Asian Greens mix, because, at the moment, no other company is providing these vegetables in the frozen form.
I eat a lot of vegetables, so one of these packets would provide me with about two meals (for one). They cost between $3.00 and $3.50 each, depending on where you shop, so it’s not the cheapest way to get your vegies, but it’s super-convenient and worthwhile having a couple of packets in the freezer.
These are two of the dishes I made:
I added cauliflower to the first one and used a mixture of both packets in both stir-frys.
NB: The first picture is the result of the Bihon Guisado packet I received from Sugar Cocoon as part of Food Blogging By Post . As it was a pre-mix, I haven’t posted a recipe, but according to Sugar Cocoon, there’s one here .
What I've been up to
Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work and Blogging
Apart from my foodie tour of Campsie, I haven’t posted much this week, as I’ve been working on new recipes for Ten Minute Kitchen in Life etc . With Sydney only just gearing up for summer , I’ve been compiling autumn and winter recipes for March and June next year. I’ve also been pitching new ideas to Wellbeing magazine, so it’s been a writing week so far.
In amongst this I have, of course, still been cooking, eating and thinking about health. Which means I have a backlog of stories to post, so expect a flurry of blogging over the next few days. There’ll be more on fresh vs frozen vegetables; I’ve been cooking bread and fritters, as well as a fabulous gluten-free pumpkin pie; and I made a trip to the Night Noodle Markets .
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31 October, 2006
