Taste Festival

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TASTE FESTIVAL– Hobart, Tasmania. 28th December- 3rd January

A wonderful week long foodie festival that I was lucky enough to enjoy for the first time, I was there over two crammed days and one night. A festival showcasing some of Tasmania’s delicious locally produced foods, with a dash of music, busker action and children’s area thrown in for good measure.

Why was I there for such a short time and where on earth were my usual entourage of The Monkeys? Back home stepping out with Dadda for the weekend. Mama was having a little ‘me’ time and enjoying the best Christmas present ever from her husband.

So many tastes to linger on… but where to start?

Taste Theatre– Running sessions throughout the day. Presenters talked of what they know and love best. From local chefs, artisan food producers, and wine makers. Tetsuya Wakuda even popped in. I managed to catch two presentations. One with Sally Wise demonstrating how easy it is to make your own preserves and scones. The other, an interesting talk on Slow Food within Tasmania. Both great and well worth the tiny entrance fee ($5 and gold coin donation respectively).

Another great thing to do at the festival was the Red Hat Tours. Run by volunteers, (mine was done by the lovely Peter and Margaret, members of Slow Food). $15 for a guided talk around some of the stall holders, whilst also sampling some of the deliciousness they have to offer.

I did ‘Mad about Cheese’ which covered four local food producers. Two of the stand outs being, Bruny Island Cheese Co. and Tasmanian Highland Cheeses.

Bruny Island Cheese Co. is run by Nick Haddow, artisan cheese maker. He’s taken his back ground of cheese making around Europe, and put in to his Bruny Island business with a Tasmanian touch. These were some seriously delicious cheeses. From day old soft cheeses (O.D.O.) to the  rather exciting new Raw Milk C2. This was the first time at the festival, that a raw milk cheese (that had been legally recognised) has been available to the public in Australia. I can only hope that this opens more doors in the raw milk industry as this was a truly wonderful cheese. (You can read more about raw milk within Australia here.)

If only I had an esky and larger hand luggage allowance, I think I would have been coming home with rather a lot of cheese goodies.

 

Thorpe Farm- Tasmanian Highland Cheeses is a family run business that has seen 7 generations of family members passionate about farming. John Bignell recognised the fact that his family needed to diversify from farming just sheep, and started expanding with wheat, wasabi, horseradish, venison and also on to cheese. Now perfecting their cow, goat and sheep milk range of cheeses, the charismatic Will (his son) was selling at the Festival. Also truly tasty cheeses. Marinated fettas and secret recipe Blue Cheese being amongst the tastings. There was also the aptly named “2 Sexy Twins” goat chevre which was a perfect way to end the day with a cracker or two. (Again, the esky!)

This stall was 50 people deep every time I went by. I still didn’t get to taste them, but judging from the keen crowds, they were good, really good.

If you like your wine, Taste was certainly the place to be. Buy a glass at the start, (or bring along last years one) and off you go. (As a greener option, I loved this. No plastic glasses!) With more stalls then you can shake a wine glass at, there was plenty to choose from.

A stand out wine maker for me was Bream Creek Vineyard. The winery is located on Tasmania’s South East Coast, and produces some excellent cool climate wines. Talking with the lovely Fred Peacock, (it had been a long day/week and he was still more than happy to answer all my questions). He has owned the family run vineyard for the past 20 years. My favourite drop was the rare variety, Schonburger…”rose petal and subtle tropical fruit/lychee characters. The palate is persistent…” (Just like me, I persistently came back the next day to buy a bottle.) All grapes are hand picked and with the offer of a set aside pair of secateurs for me, I say who needs to go to Italy or France for a working holiday?

The over whelming feeling I got from the festival, from the producers and volunteers involved. Was passion, and a whole lot of it. Passion for the area in which they are in, and the world class foods that are coming out of it. I can’t help but feel a little in awe of someone that is willing to put their everything into food and wine they so obviously believe in. From trialing, diversifying, willing to risk and perfecting. I think they are on to some bloody great winners here.

Most of these products I focused on at the festival aren’t readily available on mainland Australia. However there are a few ways and means, and availability in a few selected mainland stockists. This to me just makes it even more special. More of a reason to come down and seek them out. Everyone knows things are enjoyed more if you have to make an effort to get it. If that means a flight, a ferry, a day long car trip, a mail order system or a holiday that factors in a food festival. Well then that’s what it takes. But.. to be honest, I think it’s definitely worth the effort, and your belly, mind and palate will thank you for it.

in search of the uber healthy loaf

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I have been in search of the uber healthy loaf for breakfast. I wanted tasty, filling, healthy, low glycemic, easy to make, good for toast, could last well in the fridge for the week, and a little moist. Shouldn’t be too hard?

There was the light rye with sunflower seeds and sultanas. It was almost there. Just needed a little more oomph to it though. A little bit more depth to the taste, and perhaps a touch too dry.

A few loaves later, and finally the uber healthy loaf steps up. (Actually I’m sure it could be made even healthier, by adding more grains and nuts, but if I just write the almost uber healthy loaf…well it doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?…)

The Almost Uber Healthy Loaf

200gms starter

1 cup rye flour

1/2 cup chestnut flour

3/4 cup strong bakers flour

3/4 cup sunflower seeds, LSA, (linseed, sunflower and almond meal) sultanas

1 tps cinnamon

1 tps salt

1/4 cup natural yoghurt

For this particular loaf I mixed the dough up, quick knead, and let prove for 4 hours. A fold, and then popped into my banetton for a further 6 hours in the fridge. Brought back to room temperature for another hour. Then baked at 250C with steam for approximately 25 minutes top shelf.

I find the natural yoghurt gives a touch more moistness to a sourdough with lots of other ‘bits’ in it. Not too sweet with the sultanas, which just helped balance out the nuts and seeds flavours. With the cinnamon rounding up the taste buds in it’s usual subtle way.

This post submitted to YeastSpotting.

ginger bread men out and about

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hippy gingerbread man

it’s a little cold out today

crime scene

comes from a big family

*****

Ginger Bread

125 grams softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 beaten egg

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup golden syrup

4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tps cardamom

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

Mix wet ingredients together. Mix dry ingredients together. Mix them all together. Knead it a little on a floured surface, until you get a smooth dough. Let it rest in the fridge for 1/2 an hour, then roll out dough .5cm thickness (or thicker if you prefer) and shape.

Bake at 190C for approximately 20 minutes, or until light golden.

Cool and then dress appropriately.

Stollen

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Stollen is a traditional German cake usually eaten at Christmas time. Filled with spices, fruit and nuts, then dusted with icing sugar. The shape is to represent an all wrapped up baby Jesus.

So, I had procrastinated for too long about whether to make this or not. Yes, no, yes, no…. To make or not to make?

Why would I make it?…

Because it’s delicious, I hadn’t made one before. Panettone was too daunting. I love all things German. I could sneak some marzipan in there. It would be a good Christmas cake to have. Doesn’t take a whole day (or several) to make…

Why wouldn’t I make it?…

Time factor. I’m squishing in quite a few things as it is, did I really need one more to add to the list? Not too many other dried fruit fans going to be around at Christmas…(no wait, that was a reason TO make it.)

Right let’s get cracking.

I had come across this delightful recipe. Who in turn had tweaked it from another German baker. Both sounded delicious, and as my german language skills are limited to asking how someone has slept, I opted for the English recipe.

Now obviously I can’t just follow a recipe to the letter, so a few tiny tweaks of my own were in order.

* 500gms of a mixture of sultanas, mixed fruit, macadamias, glace ginger, glace cherries, and almond flakes.

* I may have been a little heavy handed with the rum. My hand slipped and that’s the story I’m sticking with.

* Some Stollen has marzipan rolled within the dough log. This recipe didn’t have it. However, as my middle name is marzipan, I thought I should pop it in.

The shape wasn’t as easy as I had originally thought, however that just means I have to make it again and practise a little, (oh well. ) I hadn’t tucked in the top part enough, so there was a little unfurling.

Now I’m dying to cut into it. Smell it, see how it’s looking, but apparently it will taste better once ripened in a couple of days.  Also, as these are to be taken else where and given to others, I couldn’t cut in to for photo purposes. (Although it was rather close, I nearly did.)

Fingers crossed it’s as delicious as I hope it is.

And for something completely different…a little Christmas in the city.

Ginger Chocolate Biscotti

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The first time I tasted a biscotti I thought it was a really stale biscuit. I kept going with it though, gnawing at the hard little morsel like a terrier with a bone until it was all gone. I was a guest and would never say no to anything I was given to eat in someone elses house. Looking around me, while gently massaging my poor gums, and discretely dusting all the crumbs that lay on my chest I realised that everyone else was dunking their biscuits in to either a coffee or little glass of sweet wine.

Ah… I tried again, reaching for another hard biscotti. If nothing else, my back teeth would a get a good work out. Dunk, dunk, dunk…a tentative nibble. Ohhh, now that’s the ticket!

Why didn’t some one tell me before?

Now for these little biscotti, there has been a varied trail of evolution behind them. The first batch tasted too plain, it lacked depth of flavours. The consistency was fine but the taste wasn’t grabbing me. Next batch, added green ginger wine and changed the sugar to a darker one. Much better in flavour, but did I need the chocolate?  Third batch, chocolate gets ditched, green ginger wine and dark sugar stay. I think the winning combination. However if you do want to give them a try, tweak them to your own taste buds.

The great thing about biscotti is that they are really versatile with their flavour combinations.

Ginger Chocolate Biscotti

2 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar (if you can get a dark unrefined one, it gives more depth to the flavour. eg. Muscavado or dark molasses sugar)

1 tps vanilla essence

2 tbls green ginger wine

1/3 cup chopped uncrystallized dried ginger

1/3 dark chocolate chips (optional)

1 1 /3 cup plain flour

1/3 cup s/r flour

Mix all the ingredients together, and give a quick knead on lightly floured surface. Divide mixture in to two and roll out, approximately 1.5 inches wide. Pop in the oven at 180C for about 30 minutes. Take out and carefully slice on the diagonal with a serrated knife (bread knife). Lay biscotti down and back in to the oven for a further 10-15minutes at 160C either sides.

These little biscotti are good dunked into an espresso or a little dessert wine, (and if not, then prepare your back teeth).

Also an easy Christmas gift.

(top picture without chocolate, bottom with.)

Rosemary and Sea Salt Grissini

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Now instead of taking a bunch of flowers to someone what about a bunch of grissini?

Easy breadsticks, that look a bit different to your usual bready business. Usually made about the thickness of your finger, and as long as you want to make them. Perfect thing to give someone as a little gift, take to a picnic, or a funny little snack that The Monkey’s thought were very cool.

Rosemary and Sea Salt Grissini

(adapted from The Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook)

600gms strong bakers flour

2 tps dried yeast

400mls water

3 tbls olive oil

2 tps salt

* 180gms old dough (I keep some in the freezer, you can easily omit this if you don’t have it though.)

extra sea salt

roughly chopped fresh rosemary

Pop all ingredients in to mixer, and mix until throughly combined (approximately 5 minutes). If using the old dough add it in, broken in to small pieces. Keep mixing on low, until dough is smooth. Cover with a damp  tea towel and let prove for 1.5 hours with two folds in between at the 30 minute marks.

Put the dough on to a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 1cm thickness. Any tears in the dough just join it together, rest the dough for 5 minutes and then roll again. Once it’s rolled out let it rest for another 5 minutes and then cut the dough into strips. Any thickness you like, and then gently roll them in some fresh roughly chopped rosemary, and roughly ground sea salt. I twisted my ones which you can just make out in the end product. Pre-heat oven to 170C. Place them on a lined baking tray and let prove for 20-30 minutes. Turn oven down to 150C and bake for about 30 mins. I then turned the oven off, but left the grissini in their to further dry out.

Grissini should be dry with a great snap when they are finished.

This post submitted to Yeast Spotting.

A foodie gathering

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What to do when a friend says I have free tickets to a foodie event, would you like to come on Sunday?….Hmmmm, let me think about that. Yes! Food and free ticket. Doesn’t get much better.

What are we seeing?

Master Chef Live. Billed as a live theatre and cooking festival, running over 3 days in December, it’s the first time the reality TV series has branched out in to this sort of thing. With cooking demonstrations, an extensive list of top Australian Chefs, junior master chef, hands on cooking classes and more food samples from producers than is possible for one City Hippy Farm Girl’s tummy. I have to say it was fun!

Some stand outs of the day were.

Brasserie Breads (top picture) 25 minute lesson on sourdough making. I have long wanted to do one of their classes and it just hasn’t happened for various reasons. Now, I’m not sure that I need to. I was able to get lots of little tips in that condensed lesson, that I am as ‘keen as mustard’ to try out when making my next batch of sourdoughs.

Geoff Hudson from The Italian Gardener (Italian vegetable and herb seed from Franchi Sementi, est 1783), was a likeable and knowledgable fella that just makes you want to go stick your fingers in some dirt and start gardening. Specialising in heirloom varieties from Italy, he had a vast array of seeds that made me yearn for a garden even more…one day, one day. (The website has an extensive selection of Italian vegetable treasures, along with an organic section.) In the mean time I am going to try my hand at a few chillies in a pot and I couldn’t resist buying some tomato seeds that may find their way down to my mother’s garden. (With a few fruit firmly set aside for me!)

The Little General was selling some knock out olive oils. Sam Mancini (on left) is the one pictured on the great looking bottles as a two year old. As a kid, The Little General was what he was affectionately known as. Locally produced and based in Griffith, in the Riverina area. This is a family run business that seems to be doing some great things with their olive crops, as this olive oil really was a delicious drop. I couldn’t resist buying a bottle as it was begging for some home made sourdough to be dunked in it…dunk me, dunk me.


There were two other stand outs of the day. One them being Rochester Ginger, a non- alcoholic ginger drink that came in two flavours, or two levels of gingery deliciousness. So I was quite happy to find out that one of their stockists was just local to me. I think this particular one may find itself being drunk quite a bit over Christmas, I do love anything with a hint of ginger.

Mayfield Chocolates is quite possibly the best chocolate I have tasted in quite awhile. Incorporating some distinctly Australian flavours in these tasty little numbers such as, Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey, Macadamia, Lemon Myrtle, Wattleseed, QLD Rum, and Kakadu Plum. An Australian company that is based out of Brisbane. If you live in the surrounding areas good luck trying to stay away from these once you have had a taste. Lucky for me, I don’t live in the area, (and for now I will ignore the fact that they have a n Express Post Trackable postage option….it’s for the best.

A lovely day out that introduced me to some great local products that I didn’t know about. Time to sample a lovely array of tasty delectables. A chance to listen to some top Aussie chef’s speak about things they are passionate about and pass on some handy cooking tips. To also watch a master baker pass on his skill and knowledge with sourdough, (and you know that’s where my heart lies…deeply embedded in sourdough.)

chasing the sun

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A nudge awake at 5am.

A frantic run towards the coast.

No buses.

Just have to leg it.

Wait sun!

Wait until I get closer to raise your sunny head above the horizon.

Please wait…I’m coming.

Chest heaving, legs running.

It feels so good. The Monkeys are still tucked up in bed, their Dadda can whisper the good mornings today.

It’s 5am, and it’s my time this morning.

My time to chase the sun…

Spiced Indian Potatoes- Frugal Friday

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Spiced Indian Potatoes

in a pan take

a good double slurp of vegetable oil

pop in

1 diced onion

2 tps cumin

2 tps coriander

2 tps tumeric

(if you have them 2 tps mustard seed, black or brown)

1 knob of diced fresh ginger

2 cloves of diced garlic

gently cook all these ingredients, letting the spices waft around the kitchen tantalizing your taste buds

Now pop in 4 roughly cubed medium sized potatoes, (you can partly cook them in the microwave beforehand just to make the process quicker. Only partly cooked though, you don’t want mush.) Stir it round, spices and onions coating the potatoes. Done when the potatoes are soft when pierced through.

Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt, and a seasonal salad.

Easy dinner for Frugal Friday.

garlic

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Allow me a rant, just a little one…

Big inhalation now…so I can feel the rant build up a little.

Garlic. I’ve mentioned it a little before, but have restrained myself in the past, because…it gets me a little het up. (Garlic and canned tomatoes, but I’ll save that one for another post.)

Today though, I’m letting the garlic flag fly…

I love cooking, and I love using garlic in my cooking, and yet in recent times, there haven’t been too many dishes with even the hint of garlic in them. Why? Because I don’t want my garlic to come from China. Nor Mexico, or Argentina and these are the countries that we frequently import our garlic from here in Australia. I have nothing against these countries, I just really want to eat Australian garlic. From my readings, it seems that the majority of our imported garlic is from China where every bulb is rayed, sprayed and then resprayed against ‘critters’ coming in at quarantine. (Strict quarantine laws in Australia, require many products to be treated with methyl bromide.) That is a lot of handling for a little bulb, that by the time it gets to the supermarket shelf it’s old, wrinkled, soft, and bless its little heart ready to try and shoot. Tasteless and disappointing.

Where have all the different varieties gone? Where have our garlic options gone?

Garlic happily sits in so many flavoursome dishes. It brings a tasty depth, that few other vegetables can compete with in the same way.

I’m getting garlic envy from all the lovely blogs I have seen with tantalizing pictures of their freshly harvested garlic. I recently bought some “spring garlic” or green garlic from the farmers markets and it was divine. Stalks and all, a little bit more subtle than when its has been dried, but truly delicious and locally produced. Every meal that those little green stalks and bulbs went in to was treated as it should. With gratitude and thanks, and more than a little smacking of lips. It makes a meal. (Maybe wouldn’t make a cake…but I wasn’t going for the garlic chocolate cake combo anyway.)

Garlic is planted in the cooler months and harvested in the hotter months, approximately 17-25 weeks after planting. If you have any space at all, I highly recommend giving growing your own a go. I don’t have any. I tried doing it in pots and it just wasn’t in the right position for growing. So now I just get to look longingly at others growing it and put my nose in the air in a huff when I see the sad little excuses for garlic for sale in the supermarket. That is, until I see some locally grown garlic for sale and then will be pouncing on it with gusto.

So tell me, where does your garlic come from? What types can you get? Do you grow it? Do you find it tricky to grow? I would love to hear your garlicky stories…

*****

More information on growing garlic here.