A Few of My Favourite Things !

Disappointed to miss out on yet another blogger meet-up , I ensured that our weekend included a food-related adventure by dragging A away from a Saturday sleep-in to the Docklands Farmers Market at the Waterfront City Piazza, Docklands.

Apparently the opening, held last week, was pretty disastrous due to the windy weather but even the pleasant morning we had on Saturday didn’t attract a larger crowd. The market was so well attended that there could have been tumbleweed rolling across the concourse!

I have not seen most of these stalls at the other markets around Melbourne before. We discovered one that sold the most delicious lamingtons - traditional and a passionfruit.

We also picked up some ingredients for dinner. A. cooked the King Island steak to perfection while I made a salad of rocket, white peaches, prosciutto and Berrys Creek Oak Blue cheese.

We also picked up bread from two different stalls - Amici and Matisse - and an amazingly moist and tasty carrot cake.

Well, this market doesn’t appear to have reached the radars of Dockland residents yet but hopefully it soon will. It’s great to have a farmers market in the city area although, in my opinion, locating it in Southbank would guarantee more success.

On our way home from Bright a couple of weekends ago, we stopped at Seymour to fill up. As we were finishing up at the service station, a ute laden with fresh farm produce pulled up next to us. How could we resist the temptation of purchasing the just-picked fruit that was on its way to the market?

We bought peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes…then A. spotted the green & black figs in a corner. The farmer told him that the figs would be a little more expensive than the stone fruit - $6.00/kg. What with places around Melbourne CBD sell figs at $20-25/kg, this is a bargain!

My search for a fresh fig recipe led me to a Brigitte Hafner recipe which I would love to submit for the The Mini Pie Revolution, however having misplaced the cable for downloading photos from my camera I am late, late, late for this event.

I’ll share the photos and recipe with you anyway. The pies, baked in mini tart pans, look and taste great especially with a dollop of King Island cream (or the vanilla bean yoghurt for those watching their waist) or good vanilla icecream.

Pastry:

100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
70g almond meal
200g plain flour
pinch of salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the egg and yolk. Mix well.
2. Incorporate almond meal, flour and salt to form a dough. Gently knead to form a smooth ball but be careful not to overwork the dough.
3. Divide into 4 portions, wrap and refrigerate for 30 min
4. Roll out each portoin of dough to 5mm thickness and line the bottom of the tart tin. Prick the base and freeze for 30 min
5. Blind bake for 12-15 min at 180C, then cool

Filling:

1.5 cups cream
zest of 1/4 orange
1 bay leaf
1 egg

1. Bring the first 3 ingredientsto a boil then simmer for 5min until reduced by 1/2
2. Remove from heat and add 2 tbs brown sugar. Allow to cool.
3. Whisk in 1 large egg.

Tart:

1. Line the pastry base with fresh figs.
2. Pour over cream mixture
3. Bake for 25 min at 175C
4. Cool and serve!

We don’t have a tradition of celebrating Shrove Tuesday or have an actual need to use up ingredients before Lent but as A. is an ardent lover of pancakes, I made some in honour of this day.

The pancake (yes, just a single one as he was rushing to a meeting) was served with some strawberries that we had picked up from a farmer was filling up at a Seymour service station at the same time and honey from the Milawa Mustard store.

PS- try not to acciddentally shake in too much bicarb soda or the batter will be bitter!

In some parts of the world spring is in the air and an abundance of delights such as strawberries and asparagus can be found in the markets. In my part of the world however the leaves are changing colours and being shed in preparation for winter but other things are springing up everywhere - mushrooms!

At the local market, I found slippery jacks, pines (aka saffron milk caps), baby swiss browns and these other ones that I can’t remember the name of but I’m sure Neil could identify. I haven’t cooked much with wild mushrooms before so I had a look at whether they had to be prepared differently. Apparently the slimy skin of slippery jacks can cause diarrhoea for some and mushrooms with gills should be blanched briefly before sauteeing. So, off came the skin of the slippery jack and into the water went the pine mushrooms. All the mushrooms were then sauteed in butter and olive oil then generously seasoned.

I prepared the pastry two nights ago according to my French friend’s mum’s recipe. When S. wrote the recipe out for me, she noted that the same pastry could be used to make a savoury pie and a ’sweetie’ pie! I rolled the pastry out thinly then fitted it into a tin with great care but I still managed to create some tears and holes that had to be patched up. The mushrooms were spread over the base, poured over with a mixure of eggs, cream and milk, and the tart baked at 200C for 30 minutes. Keep a piece of foil handy to make sure that the top doesn’t burn though.

Well, this isn’t the ultimate spring dish but a savoury tart would be perfect for a spring picnic, right? So hopefully you will all accept this for my first monthly mingle and enjoy it all the same!

Melbourne has been showing off with wonderfully mild weather - low 20s with blue skies - and I’ve been enjoying it fully. On Saturday morning, we walked along the Yarra River from Fed Sq to Prahran Market. The Giant Sky Wheel, the largest travelling ferris wheel in Australia, was erected in Birrarung Mar a couple of weeks ago. I spotted it on the way to the footy last week just prior to the opening and managed to get a closer look this morning. We have already had two failed feris wheel proposals for the rooftop of Crown Casino and Sandridge Bridge so I guess this will do us until plans for the Southern Star Observation Wheel comes to fruition.

These are the Federation Bells and it plays compositions from seven contemporary Australian composers at set times each day. I have only heard the 39 bell structure chime once and it sounded very discordant but maybe that’s due to the way it has been tuned.

The view from Morrell Bridge.

Before entering Prahran Market, we stopped by at Fujimart for some Japanese groceries and crockery. Having come back from Japan a couple of weeks ago where I had Mentaiko Spaghetti for the first time, I was delighted to find the spicy cod roe in the freezers here.

We finally managed to make it to the market where we picked up all our pizza topping ingredients.

We als got a few things at the organic shop just at the entrance of the market but these tomatoes absolutely floored me. Are they meant to be any different from sun dried tomatoes or is the renaming meant to rejuvenate interest?

How do you spell spelt?

Of course, we had to stop by at the Essential Ingredient where I lustfully flicked through the pages of Ferran Adria’s book, gasping in amazement at the incredible photos and creations.

We ended the perfect morning with tea, cheese and bread in the courtyard.

Giant Sky Wheel
Birrarung Marr - Lower Terrace
Adjacent to Federation Sqaure, along Yarra River
Melbourne 3000

Prahran Market
163 Commercial Road,
South Yarra 3141

Look at those fat Queensland prawns! They were very simply immersed in a brothy congee made with mixed grains and chicken stock until just cooked.

We also picked up some ‘Tabletop Grapes’ dried sultanas, crockery and teatowels from Portugal and a ‘Cowpat‘ fruit loaf that smells of chocolate and is stuffed full of figs, juicy sultanas and almonds. Gotta love a name like that!

We only spent 1.5 days there but I think we manage to fit an admirable amount of food in during this short period! On our first night, we visited Guerney Drive. It was pouring with rain so we wandered through the shopping centre next door until the skies let up. As soon as the rain eased, we were out of the shopping complex and in amongst the stalls. Good timing because we managed to get seats just before the crowd descended.

We started with Assam Laksa, one of A.’s favourite dishes, and boy was it good. Fantastically sour and spicy, the only thing it was missing was the black sauce - what’s that called again? We also tried a cuttlefish salad (Ju Hu Eng Chai) and I cannot recommend this dish highly enough - I just couldn’t get enough of it!

Of course, after reading so much about Poh Piah, we had to try this as well. Nyeh, wasn’t the greatest poh piah that I’ve had. A little on the soggy side.

This was washed down with soya bean milk, which we kinda had to order whether we liked it or not because the tables belong to that stall. Good thing that we did like it. I was told off at another table because I didn’t want to order freshly squeezed fruit juice and the guy grumbled that I couldn’t just sit there and not order from them! Ooops!

A. decided that he couldn’t leave without tasting the satay too so here’s the picture.

We came back to Guerney drive another night, after spending a couple of days in Langkawi, and ordered the Assam Laksa from another stall. This one did come with the black sauce but A. thought that the Laksa from the first stall was better.

The ice kachang served in Penang is also slightly different, made more decadent with the addition of ice cream. The one you see here had peanut icecream. Yum, I love ice kachang. I used to just eat the shaved ice sweetened with rosewater and evaporated milk from the top and leave the other stuff at the bottom of the dish for dad. Naughty, huh? I didn’t like all that red bean, corn and attap although the grass jelly was okay. Now, I’m happy to try some of it but my favourite part is still the flavoured ice.

One of my other favourites is Ban Chang Kueh, a pancake sprinkled with crushed peanuts and sugar. I had a really hard time tracking them down both this trip and the last, especially the thin crispy ones, so when we came across this stall selling Apong Manis and Apong Balik, we got a serve of each. The Apong Manis just consisted of batter spread very thinly over the little wok so it’s very light and airy. Didn’t love it. The Apong Balik was better though and I think it was filled with corn and coconut.

A. loves anything with peanuts so we tried these thingys as well. I cannot remember what they are called although I’m sure some Malaysians could help me out with this. We really liked this version cos the pastry was really thin and it was choc full of peanuts (makes it sound like a Snickers bar, doesn’t it?).

I’ve always wanted to try cooking with zucchini flowers but I’ve also always chickened out at the last minute. Not today though. Today, we visited the Abootsford Convent market and we happened to stop by one of the stalls to ask if they were selling mulberries. Only ones that had gone mouldy unfortunately but they did have zucchini flowers, 10 heads of which came home with us.

What to do with them though? We didn’t have any ricotta or fetta but I remembered some home-made babaganoush and parmagiano reggiano sitting in the fridge. So, our zucchini flowers were filled with a mixture of these two ingredients before being battered and fried. A sprinkle of fleur de sel from Ginny together with some lemon wedges on the side and voila! Serve and eat immediately!

While the boys were enjoying the zucchini flowers, I prepared the salad. While browsing at a book sale a couple of days ago, I was instantly smitten by the beauty of Julie Le Clerc’s cookbook ‘Taking Tea in the Medina’. The vibrant photo of this particular cucumber and fennel salad scattered with torn mint leaves and pomegranate seeds made me buy the book. Thumbs up for this salad. The pomegranate seeds are a little pale but they were revived from the depths of our freezer so you will have to forgive them for looking a little anaemic.

I also grilled some chicken thighs which had been marinated in a Jamaican Jerk spice mix for about 30 min. The thighs were basted with a sauce of brandy, lime and more of the spice mix while grilling. Serve with a wedge of lime.

Battered Zucchini Flowers

3 egg yolks
2-3 tbs flour
1/2 cup cold mineral water

3 egg whites

1. Remove stamen from centre of flower, wash gently in cold water and pat dry
2. Fill flowers with mixture of babaganoush and shaved parmagiano reggiano
2. Beat the egg yolks with flour. Season with salt & pepper then add mineral water and mix until smooth
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into egg yolk mixture.
4. Dip flowers into batter and shallow fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown.
5. Sprinkle with salt and serve, with a side of lemon wedges, straight away

This morning saw us down at the Abbotsford Convent as part of the first national Slow Food, A Taste of Slow - Australia 2006, festival. First off, our usual stop at the Collingwood Children’s Market on what was forecasted to be an overcast day with showers. As you can see however, the sunny blue sky held sway. Get ready now for loads of photos!

The animals at the Collingwood Children’s Farm always has lots of young visitors:

You wouldn’t think by looking around that we were just 5 minutes drive from the city centre:

Brightly coloured pasta:

Green eggs with ham anyone? (or is that duck egg blue?):

Golden and dark sultanas, currants, almonds, pepitas:

The BEST butter made fresh at The Dairy Shop. They cut it like cheese for tastings!:

Try the ‘Dark Nut Cove’ with roasted hazelnuts, pistachio, caramelised sugar & fine dark couveture chocolate from Cocoa Rhapsody:

Get yourself a coffee here but don’t be fooled into joining the queue for the pancakes next door. The high demand often has them churning out golden brown pancakes that are uncooked in the middle:

At the Abbotsford Convent, we started with freshly shucked oysters. Mmmm:

The Convent Bakery with delicious artisanal breads baked in the woodfired masonry ovens built in 1901:

Egg and bacon roll with relish!

Cheeses & honey from Tasmania:

We picked up a jar of tangy, piquant Desert Lime Jam which we are hoping to put to good use in a jam drop cookie soon:

Stephanie Alexander signing copies of her new children’s cookbook:

The spring market garden planted by children from Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden. The produce was harvested and turned into salads for this weekend’s activities:

A gentle giant - bull mastiff:

If you were not able to make it today, come down for the final day of the Abbotsford Convent Weekend tomorrow from 10am - 5pm to enjoy some great food.

Abbotsford Convent, St Heliers Street, Abbotsford. $12 entry fee.

The day started off promisingly enough despite the weather report warning of impending showers and so, with grey clouds looming, A. & I bravely set out from our hotel at The Rocks in Sydney’s CBD. Following Helen’s impeccable and detailed instructions to “head down George Street (away from the Opera House and towards Chinatown) until you get to Market Street (walk = 17min or bus it). Turn right at Market Street and continue down the hill, up the ramp and along the pedestrian bridge over the water”, A. & I found the Good Living Growers Market in Pyrmont with no trouble at all.

With great foresight, we headed straight to the coffee stall to pick up one cup of coffee and one sweet milky tea. It started drizzling as we stood in line for our hot drinks, then two stalls further on, it poured! We took shelter under a large unbrella that the busker had set up, happily nursing our hot drinks. Hey, being Melburnians we’re used to the weather being unpredictable.

The rain let up not too long after and we were able to browse through the market stalls quite freely, sampling Pink Lady apples, lamb burgers, spiced macadamias, dried fruit & nuts, cheeses, honey, olive oils and the odd french pastry or two (okay, we had one whole escargot and palmier):

Amongst other things, we ’somehow’ (read ‘courtesy of A.’) ended up with a bag of apples. What’s the big deal with that, right? Well, we were heading back to Melbourne the following day and Victoria has strict rules about bringing in fruit from interstate. I don’t think we’ve eaten quite so many apples in one and a half days before.

Having had our fill at the market, A. & I , made our way towards the Sydney Fish Market on Bank Street, Pyrmont. It was still early enough in the day for the market to be relateively quiet. I expected the market to be a lot bigger than it actually was so it didn’t take us long to look around and decide that next time we would stay somewhere with cooking facilities. We had an early lunch of tuna kebab and, of course, grilled fish and golden chips.