Local is Lovely harvest Pracshop

4.06.2015


Last week we held our second Local is Lovely Pracshop and it was just as wonderful, inspiring and fun as I'd hoped it would be. And as with our first Pracshop last November, it also reminded me how good it is to collaborate and share your ideas, experience and skills with others. 

The team we had brought together to teach this workshop; Luisa Brimble (photography), Stephanie Stamatis (styling), my Mum Annie Herron and The Flower Era florist Amelia Toohey, were a dream to learn from and work with and I really hope we can all align our diaries again to put together some more workshops for later in the year. For now though, here are a few pictures, words and recipes from last week. Thank you so much everyone who came to learn, teach and cook with us, especially Luisa Brimble who really made the whole thing take flight and whose generosity, beautiful spirit and talent continually blow me away.



We started our two day Pracshop with a talk by my mum, artist Annie Herron (above), who gave us all an overview on the art of seeing, the rule of thirds and some basics on perspective. As she said, with digital photography it's just so easy to snap away without really stopping and thinking about what we're actually photographing, how we have composed the shot and whether every element in it is working or not.

She told the story of famed artist Brett Whitely who, in his Sydney studio would tack his huge canvases up against a wall and set a chair way back against the opposite wall. He'd sit there for hours, staring at his work from a distance then dart forward, paint or edit something then return and realy look at the canvas all over again. Mum wasn't saying that we should all do this with our food photography, but just suggested we slow down a little and look harder before pressing that button. 


Morning tea was a warm almond and fig cake and the first of many many cups of tea over the two days. The recipe came from my book but I've added it here below too.

Fig and almond cake

The original recipe for this cake (in my book!) calls for roasted rhubarb but you can, and I do, make it with pretty much any fruit. It's also really good as a plain almond cake to serve alongside poached fruit. The only real key to this cake is to use freshly toasted ground almonds not almond meal from the shops, the nutty, rich flavour and coarse texture are deal breakers (in a good way).

150g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk 
180g freshly ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
6 figs, quartered

topping
Finely grated zest of one orange
30g butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup slithered almonds
Icing sugar, to dust 

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one by one. Fold in the buttermilk, almond meal and baking powder and spread into the prepared cake tin. Push the figs into and over the cake and bake for 1/2 hour.

For the topping, finely melt the butter and stir in the grated zest and almonds. Spread this over the half-baked cake, lower the heat to 160C and bake for a further 20 minutes. Cool the cake in the tin and then top with the almonds and dusting of icing sugar before serving.


Another key player in last week's workshop and its success was farmer Dougal Munro. Dougal has a farm just out of Orange NSW and will be appearing here on Local is Lovely with a little e-interview next week (whoop). He was also supposed to come along as a student to last week's workshops but farm jobs got in the way, as they do. That didn't stop him from driving down to Rydal on our first morning to deliver a ute-load of incredible produce; the last of his Autumn raspberries, Jerusalem Artichokes, spuds, garlic (enough for everyone to take a bag home each to plant or eat) and best of all I thought, a selection of rare, heirloom apples from his orchard (which happens to hold 30 different varieties of apple tree - cool hey). Here are some of them above and below.

And speaking of helpers in the food department, once again I had the clever Pip in the kitchen with me, together we ran food out to the studio all day to be either eaten and/or photographed and I am very very grateful for all that she did over the two days. Thanks lady!


After Mum's session and one from Luisa with the basics of manual photography, we trooped outside to get shooting. And first in the frame was the lovely Ella who came along to help Stephanie with the styling scenes but who most of the time, ended up modelling for us. Without complaint, Ella held baskets of apples, drizzled honey over porridge and rolled pastry like a pro while we clicked away like the papparazi. Meanwhile, Luisa hovered and gave everyone tips on angles, apertures, ISO settings and shooting in general.

After the orchard we returned to the woolshed to make apple pies and once again Ella was put to work in front of the camera. 

We used my basic sweet shortcrust pastry recipe (below) then just peeled and sliced our freshly picked apples, before tossing them (oh so artfully) with lemon juice, cinnamon and a little golden caster sugar. The apples were piled into their tart shells, topped with some lattice pastry then baked until golden and bubbly.


Sweet shortcrust pastry

Makes enough pastry for 2 medium-sized tarts

150g cold butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 egg, cold

Place the flour and icing sugar in a bowl and pop in the freezer for half an hour. Tip your cold flour and sugar into the bowl of a food processor and blitz for a moment. Add the butter and blitz until you have a coarse sand-like texture. Add the egg and blitz for a moment more. Tip the mixture out onto a work surface and bring together with the palm of your hand, working it until you have a lovely, smooth disc of dough. Divide into two, shape into discs and cover both with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes then, on a lightly dusted work surface, roll your pastry until about 5mm thick and drape into a loose-bottomed tart tin. Return to the fridge for another half an hour. Before baking or blind baking. You could freeze one disc of dough at this point, or even better roll it out and line a tart tin then freeze it like that, then when you fancy baking a tart quite quickly you can pull it out of the freezer and blind bake or fill and bake almost immediately.



Our first day wound up late in the afternoon after lots more scenes to shoot and one-on-one sessions between each student and Luisa. We then shared a casual dinner of our Mandagery Creek Venison ragu and polenta then sat by the fire outside chatting for ages. 


Day two started early with a pretty special breakfast picnic which I'll post about separately this week then morphed into a moving feast of flowers (beautifully arranged and facilitated by Miss Amelia Toohey of The Flower Era, more baking (which too will have its own post in a couple of days) and styling sessions with Steph. For me though, the highlight was a picnic lunch in the garden which of course, we all photographed the hell out of before eating!


 


Fresh Gingerbread

This was morning tea on day two. Hot with fresh ginger and a pinch of cayenne pepper, I often make this loaf cake at home and it's always popular. Plus, it lasts really well for a few days when wrapped tightly, so it's a handy one to keep in the cake tin. Recipe only slightly adapted from one given in the wonderful book Breakfast, Lunch Tea by Rose Carrarini

80g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup plain flour
2/3 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
A good pinch of cayenne pepper
A good pinch of salt
2 tbsp ground ginger
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
3 tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 tbsp molasses
3/4 tsp bicarb soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 180C and grease and line a loaf tin. Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl then place the butter, sugar syrup and ginger in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy.

In a third bowl, beat the molsasses together with 1/2 tsp of the bicarb soda and then pour this into the creamed butter mixture. Finally, combine remaining bicarb soda with 3/4 cup boiling water. Pour this into the creamed butter mixture too. Fold dry and wet ingredients together then finally fold through the eggs. Spoon mixture into your prepared loaf tin, smooth the top then bake for 35 minutes or until the loaf feels springy to touch and has begun to pull away from the sides of the tin.



Our picnic lunch on day two comprised of some of my favourite foods shared in the sun, on a crisp Autumn day with great company. It was a very simple but pretty tasty affair of; Mandagery Creek Venison salami from yours truly, hunks of mellow blue cheese by Orange's Second Mouse Cheese Company and a warm salad of roasted kipflers and purple congo spuds (grown by our mate Dougal, see above) with an aioli of elephant garlic (recipe here)  and Mum and Dad's olive oil.

We also had red capsicums, slowly roasted to the below recipe, bread and greens.

Piedmontese capsicums

These capsicum boats appear on antipasto plates all over Italy and are best when served at room temperature which makes them perfect for picnics. I pack them on a bed of salad leaves and by the time we’ve arrived wherever we’re picnic-ing, the capsicum’s juices have made a lovely dressing. Win win. Any leftovers make a great pasta sauce when chopped finely and tossed about in a hot frying pan for five minutes.

4 red capsicum, halved and seeded
4 tomatoes
8 anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp capers, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Mixed salad leaves, handful of basil leaves, to serve

Preheat oven to 160C. Lightly oil a large baking dish, place capsicum halves, cut-side up and well-spaced, in prepared dish. score a cross at the base of each tomato and slip into a saucepan of boiling water for 30 seconds. Dip in iced water and peel skin. Cut tomatoes in half lengthways and place one half, cut-side down, inside each capsicum boat.

Combine anchovy, garlic and capers and scatter over tomato. Drizzle with oil and balsamic and bake for 1 1/2 hours, until capsicum and tomato are soft and tender. Place mixed salad leaves on a large serving platter and top with capsicum. Scatter over basil leaves to serve. 



For dessert we piled figs onto a board and added honeycomb, sweet dukkah and nougat. I've only just started making nougat at home, and have to say, I love the whole process and end result but of course there's lots of beautiful nougat to buy out there in the shops. This is my kind of dessert, easy to assemble, share and best of all, no washing up! 

If you did want to try and make your own, I used this recipe from SBS's fantastic food website and found the video really helpful too. 



Lastly, with our lunch we drank glasses of quince cordial, which really was just a big jar of the poaching liquid from some quinces we'd had on our porridge this morning. I'd just reduced the leftover syrup by bringing it to a boil in a small saucepan and then simmering for about 10 minutes. The end result is gorgeous as a cordial, poured over ice cream, served hot with a simple vanilla pound cake or even mixed into a glass of sparkling wine.


Our next Local is Lovely Pracshop will be held on May 25/26 and we do have two 'day student' spots still available, 'day' meaning accommodation is not included in the price (though I can suggest a few options). If interested, please either send me an email (sophie_hansen@me.com) or jump over here to book. Thank you! 


28 comments:

  1. Oh my, that was a real treat. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bron! Hope you and yours had a lovely Easter x

      Delete
    2. windows 10 product key issues , microsoft visio professional 2010 product key , windows 10 activation windows 7 oem , microsoft visio professional 2016 , windows 10 serial key how to find , windows 10 activation from command line , office 2016 product key , windows 10 serial key enterprise , toaueT

      office 2016 pro plus key

      buy windows 10 pro key

      windows 8.1 professional key sale

      Delete
  2. Completely and utterly gorgeous Sophie! I CANNOT wait to see the breakfast picnic...two of my favourite things rolled into one! How good are your photos? Congratulations on putting together this amazing event, these things take a lot of work and I think you have completely nailed it x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jane, hope all is well with you xxx

      Delete
  3. Hi Sophie, the workshop was amazing and so is your blog post your food, your mum and and and.
    Big Thank You from me as well to Luisa, Stephanie, Ella, Amelia and Ella a truly amazing creative team!
    I am very tempted to come again, it was such a homely atmosphere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kristin, it was so great to have you at our workshop, I really hope you had a great time and thank you so much for the pics! They are stunning Sxx

      Delete
  4. Gorgeous photos.....x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lucy - you'll have to come to the next one! xxx

      Delete
  5. What a gorgeous experience... wow, I'd so love to make it to one of these... just beautiful Sophie!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Liz, we'd love to have you at one of our workshops! Hope you had a great Easter, Sophie

      Delete
  6. Oh man I'd SOOO love to come along to one of your workshops one day... I'll save my pennys and try for sometime next year if there's more. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Emma - we'd LOVE to have you along next time. Or better, yet, maybe we can bring the team west to do a workshop in your part of the world! Hope all is well with you and yours, Sophiex

      Delete
    2. We're moving home to NZ early next year.. which means we'll be closer to you than here in Perth (strangely?). Would love to have you all over in NZ in the future! xx

      Delete
  7. Hi Sophie, a big thank you for hosting this amazing workshop, it was a fantastic learning experience. Your food over the couple of days was just delicious and your hospitality warm and welcoming. Thank you to all of the contributors, Annie, Luisa, Stephanie, Ella, Pip and Amelia for sharing their knowledge and experience with each of us. I would highly recommend this workshop to anyone who enjoys food, photography, styling or blogging as it provided an excellent platform to learn practically about these topics. Thank you for this post and for sharing your thoughts and recipes, I will enjoy cooking them. Meredith

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Meredith, it was really lovely to meet you last week! Hope your trip home wasn't too long and thank you again for coming and being such a lovely part of our workshop. Sophiex

      Delete
  8. Man those are good apples.... and the pie she is making... its awesome...

    theater tickets
    theater events tickets

    ReplyDelete
  9. Its such a great blog where you can find all the information. You can also check my beautiful stationery blog Tally Books, Hardcover Journal, Autograph Book, Leather Journals, Custom Notebooks, Custom Journals, Prayer Journals, Legal Pads, Personalized Leather Journal, Custom Journal Printing which you can buy online from the best graduation products suppliers of the USA.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Strange "water hack" burns 2 lbs in your sleep

    More than 160k men and women are hacking their diet with a simple and secret "liquids hack" to lose 1-2 lbs every night while they sleep.

    It is painless and it works with everybody.

    Here's how you can do it yourself:

    1) Get a glass and fill it half the way

    2) Now follow this weight losing hack

    so you'll be 1-2 lbs skinnier when you wake up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This article offers advice on how to create a paper of HD quality that is incredibly clear. By creating a new fake Twitter profile, you can enhance your followers, likes, and inclusion of anything. To find out more information, click here create fake twitter account.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am appreciative that the site's owner shares this amazing work with the world. What a fantastic and helpful bit of knowledge. Check out this article on Auto Clickers For Mac In 2023. The greatest auto clicker for Mac is described in this post.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a charming post! Your dedication to local beauty shines through in your writing. Speaking of support, for businesses in Bedford, having reliable IT support is essential for smooth operations. IT Support Bedford offers comprehensive solutions tailored to the unique needs of businesses in the area. From network security to cloud computing, their expertise ensures businesses can thrive in today's digital landscape. Check out https://totalgroup.co.uk/it-support-bedford/ for more information on how they can support your business in Bedford!

    ReplyDelete

local is lovely All rights reserved
Design + Development by Ana Degenaar