Tag Archives: food

Farmers Markets- a love story

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Farmers Markets. Oh how I love you all.

Good ones that is. The ones where it really is locally produced food. Food that has been made with love and care. Food that isn’t mass-produced and tastes divine.

Be it a crispy celery picked the day before, a hand crafted cheese, some aromatic fair trade coffee, an organic free range piece of meat, a back yard grown punnet of strawberries or some lovingly tempered chocolate.

I love it all.

There is nothing that gets me happier than a morning spent in a great Farmers Market. I feel like a kid in candy store. The promise of all things delicious. I try not to clap my hands with glee, but I tell you, when its a specially good one. A little clapping with glee may happen.

Good food miles- check.

No unneccessary additives- check.

Different ideas- check

Supporting small businesses- check

Super fresh- check

All looks delicious- check

Having recently travelled north for 10 days, I was lucky enough to go to 3 lots of farmers  markets that were just beautifully timed for our holiday. (and yes, I may have planned our holidays around one of them..)

Getting to see what the locals are producing is wonderful, and it’s certainly not long before my purse is hemorrhaging money,  my fridge is looking bountiful, and my tummy is looking rotund.

One of the markets was in Port Macquarie for the Hastings Valley Markets, when a stall caught my eye…

Goat Meat. Now this red meat I had been wondering about for some time. The taste, the cost and where to buy it, as it sure as eggs isn’t bought any where near where I live. So whacked it in the freezer and to be cooked at a later date.

I was also was very happy to see some locally produced garlic. Why is it the beginning of April already and I’m yet to see any Australian garlic in the local shops? It’s the garlic season people! Come on. I don’t want my garlic to be chemically treated and come from Argentina, China, and Mexico if it doesn’t have to.

Some gorgeous tomatoes were bought. Tomatoes that actually taste like a tomato, and has not had the taste bred out of them in order to look good. These were knocked back as quick as I good get them out of the bag by the monkeys.

I love buying things that I’m not sure what they are, or have heard off but not eaten or cooked before.

Its the taste sensation possibility factor that I love the most.

I didn’t get any great sour doughs. They didn’t seem to be happening which was a bit disappointing as they are a firm favourite with us. However, I did get some knock out individual sticky date puddings the size of tennis balls. Even I, had to pause mid way through eating one of these little beauties that had a grand total of 57grams of fat in each serve. Oh sweet mama!….best not to think of it really. I didn’t, and bravely soldiered on.

I can see all our holidays planned in times to come, planned around when the local foody markets are on.

Farmers markets and possibly where to get a great massage… two very important things when thinking of ones next holiday.

The secret of the picnic

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To me the perfect Sunday is spent under a shady tree in the park, in the company of wonderful people, and with a  scrumptious selection of delicious-ness spread out on a picnic rug before me. Lucky for me this was just how Sunday was spent.

A group of people not seen for 5 years, but the conversation commenced like it was just the day before that we had all gotten together. We had all changed a little. Three little ones that weren’t there last time, some hair was lost, some hair was greyer, some weight was gained, and some was lost. The minor details were incidental, the excitement of being there and not a phone call away was wonderful. Catching up on events, news and wishes. Monkey Boy made a campfire of twigs and cooked us some ‘soup’ and the Little Monkey flaked out in his pram with his little monkey pal.

A gorgeous day followed by coffee and hysterical monkey giggles back at our place.

Thats what I love the most. Easy conversation amongst people that I respect and value their company… (with a little cake on the side.)

Orange and Coconut Cake

Serves 8-10.

2 oranges

185g butter

1  cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup desicated coconut

1 1/2 cups of self raising flour

Preheat the oven to 160C. Cook the chopped orange flesh up a little until soft, add the grated rind of the two oranges. Process them until lumpy consistency. In to the processor add the butter, sugar, eggs, coconut and flour. Process until smooth.

Line a 22cm round cake tin with non-stick paper. Bake for 1 hour 20 mins.

(Adapted from a Donna Hay magazine recipe)

Frugal Friday

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Once more Friday rolls around and there is not much left in the fridge. Not quite so little as to go shopping but not quite so much as to have many options. What to do with some organic pumpkin, carrots, and some flaccid celery and still get the monkeys to eat it? Carrying on from the Indian theme from last Friday, I think it was going to have to be dhal. Add a little red lentils, vegetable stock, some garlic, a fistful of spices and I had myself a tasty, healthy, budget friendly, monkey friendly dinner. Add a little natural yoghurt on top, and some fresh naan bread and dinner was done for ‘Frugal Friday’.

Naan bread I had tried to make a number of years ago, with the end result being little hard round bricks. That was the last time I had attempted them. Naan bread being a firm favourite here and with an excellent little Indian take away around the corner to happily oblige us when the taste for naan over comes us.

But not today. I wanted to give it another crack…..

160ml warm water

1tsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbls oil/or ghee

2 tbls yoghurt

Mix the water, yeast and sugar together in a bowl until dissolved. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Add flour salt, half the oil and yoghurt. Mix to a soft dough then knead on floured  surface until smooth and elastic.

Place dough in a bowl with wet tea towel over the top in warm place for approx 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Knead dough on floured surface for 5 minutes, then divide into 6 portions. Roll out into rounds. I pulled one side to get the traditional ‘teardrop’ shape that you would get if cooking in a tandoor oven.

Cook in a very lightly oiled frying pan and pop the frying pan under the grill to get those distinctive brown puffy circles to finish it off. Brush naan with remaining ghee or butter.

Free range Goat

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Goat meat. What to make of it? What to do with it?…

I have been curious about this meat for quite some time now. Even though it’s the most widely eaten meat in the world it’s not much eaten here in Australia. I think I may have eaten it once about 10 years ago in a Nepalese restaurant but that has been it.

So why the curiosity? I have been playing around with different meats. Organic, free range, locally produced, environmentally best options etc etc. Even though I couldn’t care less whether I ate meat ever again, everyone else in our family thoroughly enjoys it. So to keep meal times flowing, I cook the beasts.

In different circumstances I like to think that I would be able to rear my own animals and then either butcher them my self or take them to an abattoir to be slaughtered. However I’m not in that position at the moment so who knows how that would go down when it came to crunch time. (I think I could walk my talk though).

Free range chicken and organic beef sausages are staples with us here. They are easy and it keeps the monkeys happy. I tried to do kangaroo sausages once and am still traumatised by the whole ordeal. It’s a lean meat, with high levels of protein, and is also a natural wild meat- so not the environmental problems that can be associated with domestically bred animals…. it’s just not for this city hippy farm girl.

I tried so hard to like it. All I can liken it to is…

um…… lets just say it has a very unique taste, that may not be for everyone. If you can eat the stuff- good on you.

However I digress. It was goat I was talking about.

So. I was at some farmers markets and saw a stall for some locally produced free range goat meat. It was the first time they had run the stall, so it would be good see how they do down the track. The stall was certainly getting some attention and a lot of people were trying the different goat dishes that they had for samples. I bought some and away we went.

One Goat Curry later served with Basmati rice and steamed vegetables. The verdict….

Delicious! Everyone really enjoyed it. The meat was soft and tender. There wasn’t an over powering meaty taste. The older monkey said ” I like the chicken, but not the curry”. After I had explained it was goat. (He’s 4 though, if it doesn’t involve pizza, or hommus and capsicum then dinner needs some encouragement.)

Two things to remember when cooking goat.

1/ Cook it at a low temperature- as there is not much fat in the meat it can loose moisture and toughen up quickly if cooked at high temperatures.

2/ Cook the meat with moisture- enhances flavours and increases tenderness.

Will I cook it again?

Sure will.

You say Barfi I say Burfi

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Now it could be said, that I am a fan of all things Indian… and yes it would be true. From Bollywood to Indian sweeties and much in between. I love it all.

These were made yesterday, to end the week off well. They are so simple to make but are utterly delicious as well.

Barfi (or Burfi) is a delicious sweet from India. You can get many different types both in looks and flavours.

You are expecting a small sweet coconut flavoured morsel as you pop it in to your mouth and then you bite down. The chewyness of the pistachio, the sweetness of the condensed milk, the texture of the coconut and the comfort of the cardamom.

Comfort from cardamom?… A bit odd, but thinking about it… No, I will still stick by that one. Eating or drinking things with cardamom gives me comfort. (Nutmeg does it too, but nutmeg doesn’t go into these Barfi’s.)

I’m yet to take these little beauties anywhere where they haven’t been demolished within a short space of time. And that’s exactly what the woman said from Gourmet Food Safari when she made them- which is where I got the recipe from.

250g desiccated coconut
395g can sweetened condensed milk
10 cardamom pods – grind/crush seeds into a powder (already ground cardamom works fine I think as well)
Handful of pistachio nuts, roughly crushed

Mix 200g of the coconut and the remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Heat a non-stick pan on low heat and add mixture to the pan. Stir over low heat until the mixture starts to dry and rolls easily into a ball. Remove from the heat. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes until cool enough to handle.

Place the remaining coconut onto a plate. Using damp hands, roll the mixture into balls and then roll in coconut to coat. The coconut balls can be refrigerated for up to a week.

All though they certainly don’t last a week here!

Accident prone gingerbread men

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Gingerbread men. I have had the taste for these little fellas all week, and it was about time my fingers walked the talk. Besides there is nothing the monkeys like more, than helping to make biscuits.

We have these funny little gingerbread men cut outs with an arm or leg missing- although the boys just think some one has been tucking into their biscuits.

Biscuits should be their middle names. The hint of a biscuit and the older monkey is clambering all over me to get in on the biscuit action. This is done with shouts of “Glook! Glook!” (what the little monkey calls biscuits) as he shoves them  in as quick as possible, as obviously the quicker he eats them the more he gets (or so he thinks).

This is then followed by their dear father, muttering “I feel like biscuits” as the monkeys go to bed and quiet time ensues. Quiet time except for the persistent grumble of a stomach only hungry for biscuits.

Actually…. Maybe biscuit should be our family name.

Unusual yes.

But fitting….