Local is Lovely harvest Pracshop

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! 

Farm Kitchen, March 2015

Last weekend's Farm Kitchen lunch was the reason we do these things - perfect Autumn weather, lots of tasty seasonal food, a happy bunch of people and plenty of Orange wine to complement all of the above.

We had the below menu (and please forgive my shocking hand-writing, I'd forgotten to do the blackboards and had to scribble them in a hurry as the first guests began to arrive) and our neighbours and friends Justin and Pip Jarrett came over for lunch too with some of their new See Saw Wines to share (their Pinot is my favourite, really delicious and a great price). Thanks as always to my clever friend Pip for coming along to help me cook on the day. We couldn't do it without you or your kitchen chat Pip. Thanks also to my mother-in-law Judith Hansen for letting me raid her amazing garden for foliage to decorate the tables.

Tim took everyone on a bit of a farm tour and then we sat down to a rather long lunch, some not rising from the table again until well into the evening, but that's another story.




And true to form, after the lunch kicked off, I was too busy plating up, clearing etc to take many photos. None were captured of the entree and just a handful thereafter! I did grab one of the main course though, it was a colourful, crunchy Autumnal affair and we were really happy with how it worked out. Recipe follows...

Chargrilled venison with Autumn slaw, quince chutney, spuds and elephant garlic aioli

For the slaw

This is a really beautiful Autumn side-dish and it's also great with slow-cooked pork or lamb and full of flavour and crunch. I use a mandolin to shave the cabbage, apples and fennel nice and finely but a sharp knife would also do the trick. This recipe serves 8 people. The quince chutney recipe can be found here.

1/2 red cabbage, finely shaved
1/2 white cabbage, finely shaved
3 Granny Smith apples, finely sliced
1 fennel bulb, finely sliced (keep the fronds and toss into the salad too)
2 cups rocket
1 bunch mint, leaves picked from stems
1 cup walnut kernels, roasted and roughly chopped
 For the dressing; 1/2 cup buttermilk, 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp wholegrain mustard, Juice of one lemon and salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss well. Whisk the dressing ingredients together then work through the salad with your fingers. I find this is a pretty 'thirsty' salad so you may need to add more buttermilk.

To cook the venison;

As always we believe that simpler is better with our tender meat, particularly with a prime cut like backstrap. So all we do is rub it with olive oil and season then cook for four minutes on each side on a hot barbecue before resting for 10 minutes under foil and slicing across the grain.

For the spuds

This was my friend and invaluable helper Pip's domain, she scrubbed and washed a mixture of Kipflers, Dutch creams and Kestrel potatoes then par-boiled them before tossing with rosemary and olive oil and roasting at 200 for an hour. Our spuds came freshly dug from Dougal Munro's farm.

For the elephant garlic aioli

Elephant garlic is a fairly new discovery for me and I thank Dougal Munro for the introduction. Dougal grows this variety and much more at his Springside farm and I'm currently working on a post about him which I hope will be ready to go next week. In the meantime, if you can get your hands on elephant garlic for this, please do! The bulbs are huge, as the name suggests and have a gorgeous, mellow flavour that is perfect here. Of course, any smaller (Australian-grown) garlic would be great here too. Makes 1 cup.

3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 head elephant garlic

Preheat oven to 180C. Rub the garlic with a little olive oil, wrap in foil then place in the oven for one hour. Meanwhile, lay a tea towel on a work surface and place a bowl on top (this will help stop it slipping around while you whisk). Place the yolks, salt and mustard in the bowl and whisk until well combined. Now add the oil in a steady stream, whisking all the time so the mixture thickens up as you go. If it splits, just stop adding oil and give it a really good whisk, things should come back together after a bit. Your arm might be sore but the results will be worth it!

Keep whisking until all the oil is incorporated then transfer to a jar and place this in the fridge while the garlic cooks. After an hour, slice the top off the bulb and squeeze the soft, almost caramelised garlic 'pulp' into a bowl. Let cool then mix into the mayonnaise base, season to taste and return to the fridge until needed.

The highlight of the day for me, apart of course, from our beautiful venison, was the below fig and ricotta tart. I get disproportionately excited when a new recipe works out exactly as I'd hoped and this was one of those times. 

Basically a pretty simple affair; a sweet shortcrust pastry shell blind baked then filled with home-made ricotta and topped with white and black figs then baked again (but not too much, I wanted the ricotta to still be slightly wobbly and silky soft). The result was a perfect combination of flavour and texture (if I don't say so myself).  Here's the recipe, below, and please note, you could swap the figs with any fresh or poached fruit you think might work. 

We served these tarts with a dollop of Little Big Dairy cream (incredible stuff) and a sprinkling of sweet dukkah. 

Fig and ricotta tarts

Makes 2 tarts

1 quantity shortcrust pastry (here's my recipe)

2 cups homemade ricotta (of course you can use store bought ricotta and it will still be a beautiful tart, I just find the homemade version to be looser and more delicious, and truly it's easy to make).

3 free range eggs

1 tsp vanilla paste

3 tbsp caster sugar

Green and black figs, thinly sliced 

Roll out half of the pastry until about 4mm thick then drape over a loose-bottomed tart shell or pie tin. Press into the base and edges and trim. Repeat with the other half of the pastry then place the shells in the fridge to rest for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prick the base of each tart shell with a fork then line with baking paper and fill with baking weights, rice, lentils or similar. Bake for 10 minutes then remove paper and weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the pastry is turning a light golden colour and looking nice and dry. 

Meanwhile, whisk the ricotta, eggs, vanilla and sugar together until well combined - do this by hand not with an electric mixer as it will make the mixture too dense. Divide among both the blind-baked tart shells then top with sliced figs.

Return tarts to the oven for a further 20 minutes or until the ricotta is just beginning to turn golden and feels a little wobbly. Remove from the oven and serve warm or at room temperature.

If you'd like to join us at our next Farm Kitchen lunch, please jump over here for more information, please note we are in the process of working on some new dates and will update this page with them shortly.

Mandagery Creek Venison Farm Kitchen, Feb

Last Saturday, Tim and I held our first lunch at the Farm Kitchen for 2015. We welcomed a full house, and as always, at the end of the day were left feeling very grateful that those who chose to come and spend the day with us are always such great sports, so happy to meet and share a meal with new people and always so interested in the farm tour and what we do here at Mandagery Creek Venison HQ.

Our next lunch at the Farm Kitchen is on March 14 and we have ten spots left so please click here for more information and/or to book.



The menu was pretty simple and led by the beautiful produce of late summer, and as always with the Farm Kitchen, it’s important to me to source as much produce from this area as possible. Which, at this time of year is not hard to do. Stonefruit and many of the greens came from our own garden, the venison of course came from our farm, Olive oil was from Mum and Dad’s grove, and the rest of the greens plus all garlic came from my friend Libby Morgan’s incredible garden. I dropped in to see Libby on Friday morning, just as she was heading off to the Sydney farmers markets that weekend and she’d already collected bags of peppery rocket and mustard greens plus marigold, rocket and borage flowers. I also grabbed some garlic from the drying racks and then we picked a few armfuls of medlars, rose hip and bay from the garden for the table. Libby you are a good friend!

The next day, we kicked things off with an entree of seared venison carpaccio tossed with Libby's rocket, radish, Second Mouse Quark and my pickled peaches. This was drizzled with Kimbri Olive oil and seasoned. That's it - super simple but really delicious. We served this with warm garlic baguettes.

Here's my recipe for those pickled peaches. They are great with grilled meats and/or a cheese plate. If the peaches are finished where you are, you could always swap the peaches with pears. Recipe below.

Spiced pickled peaches

2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
4cm ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cloves
1kg peaches

Combine the cider vinegar, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and cloves in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Meanwhile, peel the peaches (score a cross at the base of each then plunge into a saucepan of boiling water for a minute then remove, plunge into cold water and with a sharp little knife, pull back the skin, it should come away easily).

Halve the peaches then gently remove the stones and cut into quarters. Add these to the pickling liquid and simmer for five minutes only. Any more and you'll lose the fruit's beautiful golden colour and the quarters might start to collapse.

Transfer to sterilised jars and wait for a few weeks before using if possible. Makes two large jars, keeps for up to a year.

 For the main we had kipflers tossed in nasturtium pesto, then shaved zucchinis in a minty/lemony dressing and seared veninson backstrap on a bed of red capsicum/walnut and pomegranate puree. Yummo.

For the venison

Simply rub the fillet with olive oil and season well and cook for six minutes on each side on a hot barbecue (for a backstrap, three minutes on each side for a tenderloin). Let rest then slice into 1cm thick medallions.

For the capsicum puree

Roast three red capsicums (halved and de-seeded) until completely collapsed and beginning to caramelise. Place these in a food processor with 3 cloves peeled and roughly chopped garlic, juice of one lemon, 2 tbs pomegranate molasses, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tbsp paprika, 1/2 tsp dried chilli and a few good glugs of olive oil. Blitz until well combined then throw in 1/2 cup toasted walnut kernels and the same amount of breadcrumbs. Blitz again and season to taste - you might like to add more lemon juice, more pomegranate or just another good pinch of salt. Makes about 2 cups.

For the zucchini salad

Shave three or four zucchinis with a mandolin or peeler and arrange in thin strips on a serving platter. Then place two handfuls of mint leaves, a couple of garlic cloves, the juice of a lemon (or more to taste) and a good tablespoon of dijon mustard all in a blender or food processor. Add a good few glugs of olive oil and blitz. Toss this dressing through the zucchini, really working it through each piece and finish with a sprinkling of toasted pepitas, sesame and sunflower seeds.

Our meal ended with nectarine tarts and a scoop or two of the below tarragon and spearmint ice cream. I am so sorry but I just didn't get a chance to photograph the tarts before they went out but as there was some ice cream left over in the freezer, I just shot some for this post and then ate that for my morning tea. Oops, then I remembered I'm supposed to be fasting for that nasty 5-2 diet Tim and I have just started. Ah well, it was worth it.

I first came across this recipe via one of my all time favourite blogs Golubka Kitchen, and the idea of using tarragon in a dessert really peaked my interest. Firstly, holy cow - how good is the no-churn-condensed-milk ice cream thing! So easy, so good. I may never bother with a custard base ice cream again. Secondly, the flavour combination was heaven, I used spearmint instead of plain mint and fine, freshly picked French tarragon from Libby and it was just perfect. Do give this combination a go some time, it's really interesting and lovely.