Apple and sage sauce

Serve this with BBQ grilled Havoc Farm Pork and steamed garden vegetables.

Combine the following ingredients in a slow cooker.
10 medium apples, peeled and cut into large chunks
Up to 1 cup packed brown sugar (depending on sweetness of apples)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cloves
squeeze of lemon juice

Cover and cook on low 10 hours or until apples are very tender.

Press mixture through a sieve using the back of a spoon. Give pulp to chooks or worms.

Return apple mixture to slow cooker with the some finely chopped purple sage.

Cook, uncovered, on high 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill up to a week. Or preserve.

Spiced farm garden chutney

To do this weekend

 

225g onions chopped finely

500g apples cored and chopped
400g tomatoes chopped

110g sultanas, raisins or chopped dates

15g ground coriander

15g paprika

15g mixed spice

15g salt

340g granulated sugar

425ml pints malt vinegar

 

Fresh Prawns with Green Palm dipping sauce

Gary made these at our party on the weekend in Darook.

Delicious!

Ingredients

Fresh Prawns

1/2 cup Coriander finely chopped

1/2 cup Mint finely chopped

2 tbsp plum sauce

5 tbsp palm sugar

2 tbsp fish sauce

1/4 cup chopped spring onion

2 tbsp finely grated ginger

1 birds eye chilli finely chopped

2 limes: zest and juice

Method:

Boil 1 cup water with the palm sugar to reduce.

Throw in each ingredient as it is chopped except the mint, coriander and plum sauce.

Boil till reduced by half.

Remove from heat and add the greens and plum sauce and stir to combine.

Taste and adjust balance with more fish sauce or plum. It is meant to be sweet, not salty.

Enjoy!

Tomato Ketchup

Pick your cherry tomatoes and halve them.

place on a baking tray sprayed with olive oil and crack fresh pepper and a little salt over them.

Scatter thyme leaves and spray more olive oil.

Bake in a 180-200 degree C oven for approx 20-30 minutes. 

Then place in a saucepan and reduce further over low heat.

Once almost reduced to a ketchup consistency sieve the seeds and skins and return sauce to heat.

NB: Keep skins and seeds to add bulk to pesto or relish.

Reduce to the consistency you want your Ketchup then add flavourings.

Add worchestershire sauce by the teaspoon depending on your taste and how many tomatoes you have.

Add a little brown sugar.

Add a touch of apple cider vinegar.

Add more pepper or a little cayenne if you want it spicy.

Pour into jars and bring to the boil in a saucepan then let cool to preserve.

Wholegrain Stout Mustard

Ingredients

1/2 cup mixed mustard seeds (I used brown, yellow and tiny yellow ones)

1 cup dark stout beer (I used coopers stout)

1.5 cups apple cider vinegar

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

50g mustard powder

1/8 cup very cold water

1/4 tsp coriander powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp black pepper

1.5 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

Method

Soak mustard seeds in stout beer overnight.

Place the apple cider vinegar, shallot, garlic and onion in a saucepan and simmer till reduced by 2/3. Strain the liquid and chill it.

Make a paste with the mustard flour and cold water and let sit for 20 mintues.

Strain mustard seeds and add to them the rest of the ingredients. Pulse in a food processor a couple of times to blend and partially chop some of the seeds.

Place mustard in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until it thickens - about 15 minutes.

Cool the mixture and place in a glass jar. I used 1 Bormioli Rocco 250ml jar and pasteurized according to directions for that jar.

Age on a cool dark shelf for 3 weeks to mature.

I would have liked to use smaller jars to make a few so I could keep some and share. Then I ended up making more mustard to fill the other 250ml jars because it tastes so good! You could add whatever else you liked such as honey, chilli, or extra spices.

This is a lot better than bought mustard as it has many layers of flavour and a stouty deep undertone.

Great with steak and a beer.

Chimichurri Argentinian Sauce

Chimichurri is one of most delicious and versatile sauces around. It's Argentinean in origin and traditionally served with grilled steak, as well as being an essential part of the Argentinian Parilla BBQ. Chimichurri also works well as a marinade for all sorts of meats and vegetables (like potatoes). 


Put simply, Chimichurri is a parsley, garlic, and oil based sauce served with beef, and all recipies will have these ingredients. However, each recipe I have come across varies these proportions a little as well as adding others sich as pepper flakes or oregano. You will quickly develop your own proportions depending on what flavours you want to accentuate (Jamie Oliver adds tomatoes to his recipe). This is an opportunity to use your best olive oil since the sauce isn’t cooked, and the olive oil flavor is going to be prominent.

Ingredients:

1 bunch fresh parsley (approx 2 cups) minced in food processor.

3-6 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp onion, minced

1 cup olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup fresh oregano leaves (optional)
1 tsp red pepper flakes to taste (optional)

Method:
Use a food processor to mince the parsely, garlic and onion separately.
Add together in a serving bowl and mix in the other ingredients.

Note: consider trying apple cider vinegar, red wine or sherry vinegar, or lemon infused olive oil.

Adding the liquids outside of the blender gives the chimichurri the correct texture. You don't want the herbs to be completely puréed, just finely chopped, and you dont want to emulsify the oil so its frothy.

Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
 
Serve with any BBQ meat. Suggestion: Slow roast a boned and butterflied leg of lamb at 170C for 1 hour covered, then sear on BBQ to caramelize and colour the meat. Rest covered for 10 mintues then slice and serve with Chimichurri.
 
We ate this sauce over the slow roasted lamb leg at the German and Argentinian Food and Soccer night.
 
¡Muy sabroso!

Orange and Passionfruit Farm Marmalade

It's Autumn and last time we went down to Araluen Farm to visit Mark and Heather they gave us some really nice, tart first harvest oranges. There havent been many frosts down there yet so the oranges are not really sweet yet, and have a very big tang to them. I thought they were perfect for marmalade. I threw in the lone passionfruit we also found on a voracious little vine that was growing over a coral tree stump.

Ingredients:

1 part orange juice

2/3 part caster sugar

1/8 part orange rind finely sliced in 2mm x 2cm lengths

1 passionfruit

1 tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Use a potato peeler to take the rind off the oranges without removing the white pith. Slice these as above and set aside.

2. Use potato peeler to peel off white pith and discard.

3. Put oranges into food processor and blend till smooth. Press through a strainer and measure out the juice.

4. Put orange and lemon juice in a saucepan (large enough that it doesnt come up more than 1/4 of the height of the edges) with the rind and bring to the boil. Let simmer for 15 minutes till the rind is soft.

5. Add the sugar (2/3 of the measured juice amount) and passionfruit pulp and bring back to the boil till the bubbles are unable to be stirred down.

...This is the tricky part....

6. Periodically check whether the jam is ready for setting by dropping some on a pre-chilled plate and putting back in the fridge. See if it produces a film and looks like it is setting to a jam-like consistency. When it does, pour the hot jam into pre sterilised jars (boiled in water). Place a round of baking paper over the top and screw the cap on tightly. Label and share with friends!

Rachel's Homemade Dukkah

Rachel's Homemade Hummous

Ingredients:
2 cans garbanzo beans (chick peas)
3 cloves Australian garlic (less pesticides, looks purple and white)
2 tbsp Tahini
pinch of salt
2 medium lemons
sweet or smoky paprika depending on your mood
Good quality Australian locally made Olive Oil (support your local producers)

Method:
1. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in saucepan on medium heat and saute 1/2 the garlic, crushed
2. After a minute add the drained beans and retain one cans juices.
3. Cook beans for 5mins and be rough, they will eventually be mashed.
4. Add the can juices and tahini. Stir and squash beans. Cook for 10mins.
5. Add pinch of salt and juice of 1 lemon
6. Remove from heat. Use a handheld stick mixer or food processor to make most of the beans into a paste. Leave some half or whole for texture.
7. Add remaining crushed garlic, lemon and a pinch of paprika and mix well.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and paprika spinkle, use lebanese bread toasted and fresh locally grown foods from the garden like peppers, carrots, celery, blanched green beans or blanched broccoli.

NB: I often add 1 chopped dried Kashmiri Chilli for a bit of bite!