"Balmoral Park" farm garden

In the absence of any international dining around here, other than the dumbed down ubiquitous Chinese and Thai, I strive to keep my own cooking international and flavourful. Well I haven't been to Morocco yet but I like all the flavours that appear in recipes for Moroccan food so have come up with my own quick and easy Vegetarian Tagine or casserole. I like to make this when I feel we need something a bit special and have had a surfeit of meat. Monday nights when we have guests staying and have eaten too much meat, eggs and the like on the weekend. Ingredients  Two brown or red onions cut into chunks 2 cloves Garlic, smashed 1 dessertspoon finely grated ginger 1 tablespoon Turmeric, fresh if you have it, I never do so its the powder 2 tsps Ground cumin seeds 1 tsp ground coriander seeds about four cups of vegetables cut into cubes, you could choose from sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, carrots, celery, cauliflower, beans etc. whatever needs to be used up really. I think the car...

At last I have enough coriander to pick and make a difference in flavour to something I am cooking. In celebration of this I made my standby pantry thai style fish cakes for dinner.  These are easy to make and taste pretty good. Of course if you have fresh salmon you could use that instead. Ingredients 2 200 g cans of red salmon 2 eggs 2 small chillis (or to taste) 4 tablespoons of fresh coriander 4 tablespoons shredded coconut 1 tsp five spice powder 2 kaffir lime leaves 1 tablespoon fish sauce 4 spring onions oil for frying What you do simply put it all in the food processor and give it a quick whiz until it is a chunky sort of paste refrigerate for about half an hour then form into small balls and fry I served these with a  rice vermicelli salad consisiting of soaked vermicelli, lots of julienned radishes fresh from the garden, a few turnip tops, a julienned capsicum, mint, and more coriander, tossed with a sauce made of caster sugar, water, lemon juice...

Whenever we are having children to stay I make a double batch of my choc chip and oatmeal cookies. Always popular with children and adults alike and quite a healthy cookie I think. I didn't discover these until after my girls were grown up so they used to get the much less healthy version. It didnt seem to do them any harm. Choc chip and oatmeal cookies Ingredients 150 grams softened butter 1 cup soft brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla paste 1 egg 1 cup plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 1/3 cups rolled oats 1 cup choc chips To make cream the butter and sugar add vanilla and egg add flour and baking powder and mix stir in rolled oats and choc hips form into balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper press down with a fork Bake at 180 degrees until golden You might as well make a double batch they will be gone in a flash While cooking for Jemima last time she was here i made an old fashioned pasta and salmon bake. I used to make this a lot when the girl...

Last weekend I cooked dinner for fifty people at our Lions Club changeover dinner. This is a big event in the Lions club year. Normally it is held at the Eugowra Bowling club and catered for by either the resident cook, if we have one at the time, or external caterers. This year it was to be catered for by the current Chinese Cook. Until the Monday before, that is. Invitations had already been sent and accepted. It was far too late to hire caterers and we hadn't charged enough to get anyone good in any case. So I said I can do that, no problem. I've catered for quite a few big family events in the past. Cooking for fifty doesn't faze me. As it turned out the cooking was not a problem and went without a hitch. The hard part was transporting everything to the Bowling club and serving hot food in what was a very inadequate kitchen.  I worked out the following menu that I thought had: universal appeal could  be mostly cooked ahead was economical and value for money easy ...

Today I am busy cooking for our Lion's club stall at our car boot sale. The Sale looks like being a huge success, i thought i would be happy to get ten boots booked in but have closer to twenty. Its important that we have some nice things to sell so i am making my trusty recipes. Carrot Cake, Sour Cream Chocolate Cake and Pumpkin chutney. I have often given this chutney as a gift and people always want more or the recipe. Today I am making it with a beautiful pumpkin from the garden. Pumpkin chutney About 2 Kilos of pumpkin, peeled and cut into small chunks 1 large red onion , finely chopped 1 apple, grated 1 pear grated handful or raisins or sultanas 1& 1/2 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger  600 grams sugar 1 cinnamon stick pinch ground cloves a red chili, finely chopped 1 tsp salt 400 ml cider vinegar 1/2 cup water Put all ingredients into a large pan and boil for about ten minutes. then simmer for about two hours. You made need to add more water bottle...

I was feeling quite overwhelmed by this monster of a garden on Saturday. I have been away three days a week for the last few weeks and things are quite out of control again. The tomatoes are in urgent need of attention as are the pumpkins. Zucchini vines and pumpkins are covered in mildew and my giant pumpkin has dissolved into a rotting mess. Not to mention the lawns need mowing, the edges need trimming, the cat heads are flourishing. I had hoped for a tidy, orderly garden by the time Katie and Jemima arrived but it is not to be. At least it is a productive mess. I was considerably cheered up by the very first decent eggplants I have ever grown. Aren't they just beautiful. I don't know why they have failed to fruit in the past but this variety in particular is doing very well this year. The eggplants inspired me to make a sort of tasting plate for our dinner fresh from the garden. The beans have come good again so there were: beans with olive oil, garlic and preserved lemon...

Don't  you love it when you find a new recipe that is simple and delicious! Zoe brought some of this home at Christmas, one of her colleagues had given it to her. We all really liked it. I asked for the recipe thinking it would be quite complex. Its not at all. I made it for the first time on Saturday to take to a friends place for dinner. It was a big hit. Fortunately I hid some away in the crisper of the fridge so we can have some for our guests tonight. Peter ate all the bits that he could find while I was away. I used 70% dark chocolate with mint from Aldi and used about 180 grams for the base and half milk chocolate with the dark mint for the topping. I didn't have any peppermint essence and it still taste minty enough to my mind. Chocolate Peppermint Slice 1 pkt (250g) plain chocolate biscuits (Chocolate Ripple) Melt 125g margarine/butter with 1/2 tin condensed milk.  When very hot, add pieces of 1 family block Cadbury Peppermint cream chocolate.  Stir unti...

Plum Jam has never been my favourite. Growing up Plum Jam was the jam most on offer in our house. It came in a can and was smooth, sweet and somewhat tasteless.My thoughts of Plum Jam are coloured by this memory. Nevertheless I could not let the last of the blood Plums go to waste and there is no more room for bottled or frozen plums. Plum Jam it would have to be. We have a fundraiser coming up so I can sell some there in anycase. I used my usual stone fruit jam method of equal parts of sugar and fruit with no added liquid. Cooked the quartered plums in their own juice for about twenty minutes until they were a bit soft and then added the warmed sugar. I had 3 kilos of plums, so 3 kilos of sugar. This produced a lot of liquid and quite a bit of foamy, scum on the top which I skimmed off. I used my thermometer and cooked it until it reached 104 degrees centigrade. This takes the jam right to the edge of being burnt and has produced a magnificent flavour. I thought I had overdone it for...

All day yesterday I was looking forward to making one of our favourite summer dinners, fresh pasta with grated Zucchini. When I went to make it I discovered that I didn't have any of the flour I usually use. I was disappointed for a minute then remembered the packets of Spelt   flour that Zoe had bought for me. I'm sure I have seen spelt pasta so I decided to give it a go. I am really glad I did as it was a revelation. the best pasta I have made. We have been making our own pasta for about two years now, starting off hand rolling and progressing to using a small pasta machine. It is easy to do, satisfying and uses up eggs. Spelt Pasta 1 1/4 cups spelt flour 2 small eggs (I usually use three eggs to this quantity of flour so the spelt is moister perhaps) process is food processor until it just comes together, form into a disc and wrap in gladwrap. Rest on the bench for about an hour. Ours rested for two as I got sidetracked putting the poultry away. I think the long resting...

I decided it was cool enough yesterday to make some apricot Jam. Our Apricots are not as beautiful this year as they have been in the past.The humid weather led to many of them being covered with brownish/black freckles. A lot of them outgrew these though so there are still plenty of delicious apricots. I have bottled some and we have given quite a few away. We have actually run out of apricot Jam so I had better get busy and make a few batches. It is always popular and makes a good gift. I don't have a sweet tooth and generally prefer to eat pickles or chutneys on my toast but apricot Jam made in the following way is not too sweet and has a delicious depth of flavour. Very good on sourdough toast. Apricot Jam You need equal amounts of apricots and sugar. I used 3 1/2 kilos for this batch. I like a mix of very ripe, just ripe and underripe. Very ripe for deep colour, ripe for holding their shape and underripe for pectin which will help the jam set. Halve the apricots and rem...

There was a time when in my mind cheese and biscuits was synonymous with cubes of Coon cheese and Jatz crackers. The height of culinary sophistication. Usually accompanied by bright green pickled onions.  Around here people still serve it as well. However we progressed to rubbery Camembert and water crackers quite some time ago. Our exploration of new cheeses continued as we travelled and I read about food and as Sally and Zoe worked in the restaurant industry and taught us a thing or two. Rubbery Camembert has long been a thing of the past. However we continued with mass produced crackers until much more recent times. When Sally was working at Bistro Mont in Bowral we discovered Lavosh and that became our cracker of choice. Very nice, very expensive! About two years ago Ii was shopping in Orange and went to buy some. $5 for a little packet, I thought to myself "I'll bet I could make that" and came home to find there was a recipe in my Margaret Fulton cookbook. Super easy...

Our vegetable garden is in a bit of a lull for the moment that corresponds with the time Peter was in hospital and I didn't get much done. All the summer vegetables are going well and I expect to pick the first Zucchini's in about a week. Once they start there will be plenty of choice again. At the moment it is quite restricted. Yesterday I was in Parkes and as it was Thursday the fish man was there so I bought some nice fish for dinner. Thinking of a sort of Mediterranean Fish dinner I had a forage through the pantry and garden to see what I could come up with. I found some lovely potatoes that have grown in places other than the potato patches. I cut the larger ones into chunks and used the smaller ones whole, tossed in olive oil, salt and chunks of lemon and roasted. I really wanted some beans to make my lovely olive oil bean recipe but they are just beginning to flower. Then I thought that recipe would work just as well with silver beet. Usually I just wilt silver beet w...

The other week I saw some chocolate and rhubarb Muffins in a cafe. As I am often looking for ways to use our lovely rhubarb I thought I would have a go at making some. I searched the Internet and my recipe collection but could not find any recipes that looked promising so I thought I would make up my own. Recipe Ingredients 1 cup plain wholemeal flour 1 cup ground almonds 2 tablespoons cocoa 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup of buttermilk (or you could use yogurt) 2 eggs 100g chocolate, melted 1 cup rhubarb cut into 2cm pieces Put all dry ingredients in bowl then fold in eggs, buttermilk and chocolate, add the rhubarb, put into muffin tins and bake at 180 for about 35-40 minutes  . I think they turned out well but would be nicer with dark chocolate.

I have experimented with making yogurt quite a few times but have usually been disappointed with the result. We do use a lot of yogurt though so I have been on the lookout for a good recipe. I came across this one on the blog figjamandlimecordial. It sounded too good to be true. They used a yogurt making system called easiyo and this is quite inexpensive to buy. So I decdided to buy one and give it a go. You don't really need the system if you already have a widemouthed thermos flask. What you do is use long life milk, then you don't need to go through the process of heating and cooling the milk. One litre of long life milk, four dessertspoons of full cream powdered milk, one dessertspoon of Greek yogurt ( for subsequent batches use your old yogurt). Pour half the milk into the container, stir in the powdered milk, then the yogurt, fill up with the rest of the milk, stir again, screw on lid, fill the thermos up to the insert top with boiling water, place container in the therm...

The finished result of the chocolate cake with berries from the garden for decoration.  A very good cake and supposedly better the second day. I'll keep you posted!

When the girls were little I used to make the Christmas cake on the long weekend in October. I'm a bit behind this year but realised that i need to get a move on as I am donating one for a raffle on the 4th December. I have been making the same recipe for many years now. I have an Old Margaret Fulton entertaining recipe book which is the first recipe book I ever owned. Mum gave it to me for Christmas when i was twenty, so it is getting on! I still use it and I think this is a great Christmas cake recipe. Often when people say they don't like fruitcake it is because they have never had a real one cooked with plenty of care and lots of fruit. I put the fruit in to soak yesterday and will soak as long as possible. It is interesting to note that it gets harder and harder to buy Glace Fruits each year. I knew there would be none here so asked Zoe to get them at David Jones food hall but even there they didn't have the full range. I don't think the cake works nearly as well...