Category Archives: Food

Autumn leaves and green leaves

by

The colours in the garden are heart-stoppingly beautiful. The glory vine has huge rose-pink leaves and next to it are four crabapple trees, all spangled in gold and around the corner the pomegranate tree has five beautiful fruit (its first crop).  My barrel of salad leaves is still producing exquisitely tender leaves that I harvest with scissors. I cut the outside leaves and each plant continues to grow. In five minutes I have a bowl full of frilly or crinkled or smooth leaves, each one around 10cm in length. Such a perfect salad just needs a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and a few flakes of salt. I add no acid at all.  The olive oil that was given to me last month by Lina and Tony Siciliano is very, very special.

Have been tweeting quite a bit and I think I am enjoying it. Still not sure about the etiquette of retweeting, or even how to do it to best effect, but am learning all the time. I do notice the blanket tweeting of political figures – is this in case they miss our attention by the blink of an eye, or the click of a finger?

Saw a great bit of footage after the first episode of Masterchef that followed the fortunes of several former contestants.  One was Fiona Inglis who is a kitchen specialist at Findon Primary School and she is doing a great job and the footage showed the children enjoying themselves in the garden and in the kitchen. I also attended a working bee at Stanmore Primary School near to Sydney airport, where thirty volunteers who work for one of our partners GPT Group had come to help create the beds for the  kitchen garden. The children had planted fruit trees, and enthusiastically showed me where they would free-range their chickens. In a few hours the volunteers had done an amazing job and the shape of the beds could be seen, where once had been bare ground.

We have been corresponding via Twitter with the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley California. Their schools are just starting up and soon we hope to create connections between the students themselves.

I have planted out crops for the winter months and will now sit back and watch, and scare away the white cabbage butterflies and the snails. I have a mixed arsenal. Copper ribbon along the edge of the bed, coffee grounds regularly sprinkled around the seedlings, twirly dangling things that are shiny and that scare the birds, and pet-friendly pellets near to the tiniest broccoli and spinach seedlings.   I have planted some chicory, some Tuscan kale, brussels sprouts (my first ever), more carrots, and small cauliflower and sprouting broccoli.

And I also have planted more of the beautiful sweet peas that I bought a year ago at the Chelsea Flower Show. They were spectacular and so highly-scented.

It has rained on and off all day and such weather always makes me think of soup. At dinner at Andrew McConnell’s Golden Fields a few nights ago a favourite was the chicken congee, a Chinese rice porridge that is a popular breakfast or anytime pick-me-up soupy dish and absolutely delicious.

Last week I made a pot of minestrone. This week it will be leek and potato, with the extra bonus of a large quantity of parsley to make it apple-green. I pick the parsley, give it a quick wash, then plunge it into boiling water for less than a minute, drain it and then blend it with the leeks and potato. And maybe the week after I will make my version of caldo verde that combines torn silverbeet or kale leaves, with potato and pieces of pork or spicy sausage.

I am really enjoying this autumn weather!

Autumn

by

Melbourne in March is justly famous  for superb weather – warm days with just a light breeze, mellow afternoons, and cool evenings. Perfect weather for gardening. I have made jars of pesto and still have armfuls of basil. Reminder to self. Don’t plant so much next year! I have made two batches of cumquat marmalade and there is enough fruit for another batch. And I rescued my almond crop before the birds found it. The leaves of the stripped crabapple trees are just starting to turn a bit golden and the first leaves of the glory vine have drifted down. The first few pomegranates are ripening on my tree. They do have to struggle for sunshine so will not be prize specimens.
In the vegetable department I still have wonderful crops of climbing yellow beans, bush beans both green and yellow, capsicums, round zucchini, two varieties of eggplant, and the very last of the stunning tomatoes.  I just couldn’t eat them fast enough so I made several pans of roasted tomato sauce and I have frozen it. Each container provides a perfect sauce for a grilled eggplant or a bowl or two of pasta, enlivened with more of that basil and some extra virgin olive oil.  I have also harvested my first ever watermelon and I was really very excited about it. Next year I will be more careful about pollinating more flowers to get more than one melon. And the Chantenay carrots were very successful and I have sowed a third crop.

I am about to publish my memoirs and am feeling both excited and anxious about it!  A Cook’s Life hits the bookshops on March 21. One’s own life is certainly very interesting to explore.  The challenge is to do it in a way that is not seen as self-indulgent, engages the reader, maybe leads to personal reflection, even some questions, and gives a convincing picture of a certain period in our history….One of the strongest motives for writing the book was because I wanted to tell the story of Australia’s food development, the importance of our migrants, and the rapid rise of restaurant culture from the late sixties to today.

Once you have read mine, another book to look out for is Annie’s Garden to Table written by my long-ago apprentice, the very talented Annie Smithers owner and chef at her bistro in Kyneton in country Victoria. I had a quick peep at her preview copy and was enchanted. There is more about country life and country cooking in Rosa’s Farm by Rosa Mitchell. Both books have me thinking up some delicious rustic lunches. Rosa’s book has also had me planning where I can plant the cicoria that I have ordered from The Italian Gardener (www.theitaliangardener.com.au)

The planting of the cooler weather crops may have to wait until I return from my own book tour which will take me to most states and a variety of venues over the next four weeks.

In amongst the touring and talking will be a delicious little Easter break with friends.

A new year

by

Having returned to the city after two weeks at the beach, the pace of life has increased dramatically. Instead of that enjoyably bracing early morning walk along the ocean beach, there is  now a morning battle with ever-increasing traffic. Still I always look forward to a new year with plenty of new challenges.

My garden offers plenty of climbing beans and carrots and cucumbers and dwindling supplies of fat tomatoes and zucchini. The eggplant and capsicum bushes are laden, the basil bushes are still luxuriant after all the rain, and my crop of pink fir potatoes has been harvested and I must say was a bit sparse.

Whilst the warm and humid weather persists I have planted another crop of bush beans, more carrots and I broadcast mixed lettuce seed hoping to have a crop I can harvest with scissors whilst waiting for my self-seeded frilly lettuces to develop.

The most dramatic garden news is that I returned to find my crabapple trees and my sole quince tree invaded by brilliant green and gold parrots. I frightened them off to quickly gather about three kilos of crabapples but as soon as I went inside they returned and the rest went in a matter of days. I was really angry about the quince crop as the fruit was nowhere near ripe. I made a small batch of crabapple jelly and included the two unripe quinces left hanging amongst the gnawed cores, and a branch of my rose-scented geranium. I have now bought an electronic bird scarer that supposedly deters the birds (and possums it is claimed) by emitting a high-pitched frequency signal. We shall see if it works.

The Black Krim tomatoes were magnificent and I will save the seed to plant again next season.

School is back and the team at the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation are all hard at it developing new resources and activities and supporting our schools. We have welcomed seven more schools in Queensland this month and our total across the nation is now 266 schools. Training is very important and at our Learning Centre we offer sessions for kitchen and garden specialists and some for the general public.

I am to give a demonstration of how to make fruit-based desserts that maximise the fruit element and minimise cream and butter so that our kitchen specialists can be newly inspired.  Yesterday I  poached some peaches and made a jelly with some of the diluted pink syrup, and will suggest that an exquisitely wobbly jelly surrounded by a delicious combination of diced seasonal stone fruit is perfectly possible for the students, and by omitting any sugar with the fruit is a healthier option than the fruit they may have encountered in cans. Cutting the fruit salad is good for the knife skills too.

 

Lemongrassade and possum eggs

by

The end of the school year is upon us. I squeezed in three visits in the last few weeks, two to schools in New South Wales, Bunghwahl and Forster ,and one in Victoria at Dunkeld.  All were memorable and it was a great way to finish the year. The enthusiasm of the students is a great energiser and over and over the staff at each school told me how much the program contributes to the life of the school and the differences it has made in so many ways.

We were welcomed to Forster (the largest of our schools in New South Wales with over 700 students)  with a smoking ceremony, and  a performance by the choir before a tour of both the extensive garden and the just-completed kitchen. A delicious morning tea had been prepared by the students and I tucked into hummus, various vegetable dips with grilled flatbreads, zucchini fritters with mint yoghurt and the most refreshing Lemongrassade.  One of the enthusiastic supporters of the kitchen garden, parent Amanda , surprised us by delivering a huge basket of local produce to our accommodation. Freshly-harvested oysters, freshly-caught snapper, salad greens, herbs, a lovely local cheese, some chocolates and a vase of home-grown roses. And special teas and cereals for breakfast. So special.  We sat on our balcony enjoying our banquet and listened to the soothing sound of the ocean slapping on the sand.

The next morning we visited tiny Bunghwahl as a complete contrast with just 42 students.  Once again we were warmly welcomed and we admired the very pretty garden where Nikki Dixon is both the kitchen and the garden specialist. She proudly led the tour of both the garden and the kitchen and told us a very funny story of how one morning the students found a possum sitting on freshly-laid eggs, and being very reluctant to allow anyone to collect the eggs. She has a wonderful photo to remember that incident. We watched an extraordinary display of the entire school population as they ‘Jumped rope for Heart health’ from the tiniest prep student to some very tall sixth graders.   And again we had a lovely lunch of stuffed eggs (from the chickens), leek tarts, home-made yoghurt, beetroot salad and a  leafy salad .

Both New South Wales schools included semi-tropical crops in their garden such as bananas and pineapples and lemongrass and chilli bushes.

I went to say Happy Holidays to our Kitchen Specialist extraordinaire Desley Insall at Collingwood College and her Wednesday team of volunteers, most of whom have been coming every week for nearly nine years.  I couldn’t stay for long but I left with a gift of honeycomb from suburban Surrey Hills, brought in by Jill, one of the star volunteers, whose husband tends hives in their garden. How delicious it was, the honey flooded my mouth with sweetness and perfume. I had forgotten what freshly-harvested honey tasted like. This was an important reminder.

And then I launched the program at another small school, at Dunkeld with towering and imposing Mt.Sturgeon in the background. The project has been embraced by the whole community, many of whom have signed on to a watering roster to care for the garden over the long school holidays. Irrigation will be installed in the new year.  The children have all adopted a tree in the extensive orchard and accept the responsibility for caring for this tree.  Lunch included a rosemary and potato pizza, a lovely salad with roasted pumpkin, green leaves, seeds and cauliflower, some parsnip crisps and a raspberry muffin. On each table was a big bowl of locally-gathered blackberries – donated by someone in the community, as well as bunches of country flowers that were absolutely beautiful.

I returned to Melbourne, ready for some downtime myself but feeling happy , knowing that our schools are forging ahead and that all that the Foundation does is truly appreciated.

 

 

A time of bounty

by

Summer is a time of bounty in the garden and our long evenings encourage gatherings of friends. My yellow pole beans have reached the top of their two metre stakes in a week!  My frilly lettuces are soft and luxuriant. Get out those recipes for tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, chili and eggplant.

Summer is the moment for fruity dessert. Do ask around – and maybe you will discover that a neighbour or a friend has a backyard tree or a passionfruit vine dripping with more fruit than can be used.

Here are a few of my quick ideas for summer platters. Cherries with fromage frais and a crisp biscuit; simple fruit tarts with the fruit settled onto a layer of lightly sweetened smooth ricotta; upside-down cakes with plums, or peaches, or pineapple; halved stone fruit, stones removed, drizzled with orange juice and a bit of brown sugar and baked; chilled watermelon with torn mint and a few drops of rosewater; fruit salads with scooped passionfruit added to the mix.

I hope your gardens are dripping with beans and basil and beetroot, and that your tomatoes are growing strongly. There is stunning buffalo mozzarella for sale in markets at the moment. Ripe tomatoes, mozzarella chunks, torn basil leaves, sea salt, freshly ground pepper and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil has to be one of the all-time great summer lunches.