What is Mace?

I recently discovered the spice ‘Mace’ when I made the Traditional Plum Puddings.  Mace is a traditional plum pudding ingredient. 

Mace is the lacey outer layer of the nutmeg seed.  It has a similar flavour to the nutmeg seed, which we commonly buy ground, but it is less intense.  It is a regular spice added to Indian curries.

We stock it at Maxi Foods Ballarat in the gourmet herbs and spice section.  It will soon be available in Castlemaine as well.    I provide some images which I sourced from Google images and Pinterest.  The nutmeg seed (black) and the mace (red), in situ, is particularly beautiful.

Chunky Tomato and Shallot Soup

Shallots are like little onions but my experience with them is that they are more delicate, they require less heat at a slower rate in oil to extract the best flavour.

Ingredients

2 shallots, sliced into rings

3 sprigs of spring onion

A handful of chopped Continental Parsley

12 whole ripe tomatoes

One teaspoon Massel powdered chicken stock

Murray River Pink Salt

Freshly ground or cracked pepper

Two tablespoons of Leggo’s Tomato paste.

Fill the kettle and set it to boil.

Slice your shallots into rings and gently fry them in olive oil in a soup pot.  Flip them after a couple of minutes.  Cut your tomatoes in half and squeeze out the inside pulp and seeds.  We will only use the outer of the tomato.  Toss all your tomatoes into the pot.

Chop your spring onion into little pieces alongside the parsley and chuck them in the pot.

Place the teaspoon of Massel chicken stock into the pot and add two cups of boiling water from the kettle.  Add the Leggo’s tomato paste and the add salt and pepper to taste.

Cover and bring to the boil.  Once boiled turn down to the lowest possible setting and simmer, covered, for about 45 mins to one hour.  Stir the base very ten minutes or so to ensure nothing sticks.

Add or reduce the amount of water you use to make this soup thicker or thinner.

Garnish with fresh Continental parsley to serve.

Serve with thick crusty bread.

Burn your beans, burn your zucchini

‘Control burn’ your veggies.  It brings out delicious flavours.

Char Grilled barbequed Zucchini:

Ing.

Zucchini

Olive Oil

Murray River Pink salt

Cracked or freshly ground pepper

Slice the zucchini, add olive oil, salt and pepper and add to hot grill barbeque, one minute each side.  Done.

So simple!  So good!

Blistered beans and ginger:

Ing.

Any quantity of beans (the lager quantity the better because they will all be consumed)

10 very fine slices of fresh ginger or grate fresh ginger instead

3 sprigs of spring onion

Sesame oil

Mirin

Sake (if you have some, otherwise don’t worry about it)

Soy Sauce

Murray River Pink salt

Cracked or freshly ground pepper

Trim the ends from the beans, place into a hot skillet with sesame oil.  Add sliced spring onion, sliced ginger, a splash of mirin, a splash of soy, a splash of sake, a sprinkle of Murray River pink salt, freshly ground pepper.   Toss frequently.

 Keep on high heat until ‘control burnt’.  Blistered beans are what you are looking for.

Now eat!  Delicious!

Liquorice Root and Fennel - Lamb Shanks

A slow cooker can be used. The recipe advises the changeover time.

I think I have discovered something unique. The flavour of this dish is something I have never tasted before. It was naturally sweet and had the most amazing unique flavour!

Fennel has a terrific flavour. Added to Crushed Licorice Root and allowed to infuse, the flavour really livens up. I wouldn’t say it has a licorice flavour, but it was a flavour I had never tasted before. It was so good I had to share it!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of Licorice Roots, infused in 2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 fresh lamb shanks
A large bunch of fennel, sliced
1 onion, cut into rings
2 shallots, whole, peeled
1 red capsicum, cleaned and sliced
3 Sprigs of spring onion, chopped
A handful of Continental parsley, chopped
Massel powdered chicken stock
Murray River Pink Salt
Cracked or freshly ground pepper

Prep.

Preheat oven to 200c. Place the Crushed Licorice Roots into 2 cups of hot water. Stir and allow to infuse whilst you continue on below. Set aside.

Method

In a large oven ready pot (with oven lid) gently pan fry the onion rings in olive oil. Flip them after a few minutes. Now add the shanks. We want to externally brown the shanks. Turn them over every five minutes or so. Once browned, you can transfer this dish to your slow cooker.

Once the shanks are browned throw all your vegetables (fennel, capsicum, shallots, spring onions and parsley) into the pot on top of the lamb. Sprinkle Murray River Pink salt, cracked pepper to taste and the Massel chicken stock.

Now pour the infused licorice root water into the pot. Top up the pot with hot water so that the liquid in the pot comes up to two thirds the height of the ingredients. Leave some of the ingredients out of the liquid. Allow the contents of the pot to heat, covered, on the stove for about five minutes.

Place the pot into oven for 1.5 hours. Check it every 30 mins or so to ensure the liquid has not reduced. If it has, top it up with hot water. Don’t let the pot run dry. If it is well covered it should not lose liquid.

Once ready, this can be eaten as is or on a bed of rice.

Enjoy. This one is especially good!

Spicy Australian Brandied poached dried fruit

You have all read my posts where I don’t believe we should wait for December to enjoy the delights of Christmas food.  Today I poached Australian dried fruits with brandy and spices.  OMG! This is so good words cannot explain, but facial expressions can!

In your pot, bring to the boil 1 cup of brown sugar with 2 to 2.5 cups of water, two cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean scrapings (and the bean), a teaspoon of mixed spice, about 12 cloves and a good splash of brandy.  I gave mine a really good splash of brandy!  The alcohol evaporates early but the flavour remains. Boil for 2 minutes.

Now turn down the stove to the lowest possible heat setting and add 500g of Australian dried fruit.  I added pears, apples, prunes, peaches and apricots.   Given the fruit is dried, 500g is a lot of fruit.  Let it simmer for 30 mins, slowly turn it over occasionally so all the fruit absorbs the liquid. 

Remove and discard the cinnamon stocks and vanilla bean. Let it cool and slap on a dollop of freshly whipped cream.

Incredible!!

You can place these fruits in their liquid into sealed glass jars for storage in the refrigerator, guaranteeing a week’s supply of excellent lock down food.  

You can eat this as a meal.  Who needs savoury food?

Stay well, enjoy isolation!

A simple winter warming chicken soup

Simple chicken and veg soup (broth)

I know you can all make this, so this will serve as a reminder of how delicious it is and simple to make.  You’ll need:

2 fresh chicken carcasses

2 carrots

1 potato

3 sticks of celery

I onion

3 sprigs of spring onion

3 cloves of garlic

A bunch of fresh Continental parsley

Massel powdered Chicken Stock

Murray River Pink Salt

Cracked or freshly ground pepper

Put the kettle on as we require lots of hot water for this soup. 

Chop all the vegetables into little pieces.  A good knife is essential.  Perhaps I’ll do a review on the knife I use...  A good chef’s knife will make this chopping easy.  Of course the onion, the garlic and the parsley should be finely chopped.  We are not going to fry anything in oil.   

Place all your vegetables into a large pot on medium heat.  Stir them for about five minutes whilst they soften.  They will create their own moisture so there is no need to add water at this stage.  We are just softening the veggies.  When they start to stick to the pan, add about 100ml hot water.  Now add your chicken carcasses to the top.  

Add hot water to just cover the chicken carcasses.  This may be a litre or two, depending on the pot size you use, so be ready to refill and reheat the kettle.

Add a good pinch of Murray River Pink salt, cracked or freshly ground pepper, a teaspoon of Massel chicken stock.  Cover and bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and leave for one hour.  

After an hour, remove the chicken carcasses, keeping any chicken meat you can extract.  Then toss the remainder of the carcasses away.  The soup will be ready, but fairly heavy in chicken fat!  There are several options now to remove the fat:

1.     Place the soup in the refrigerator overnight and remove the floating chicken fat with a spoon when it has settled the following day; or

2.     Let the soup cool a little, place ice into a metal ladle, place the ladle gently into the hot soup. The fat will stick to the bottom of the ladle!  Brilliant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYugpggPaTs

3.     Let the soup cool, place an ice cube into the soup.  The fat will stick to the ice cube.  Remove it before it melts!

Serve with warm crusty bread.

Roasted Roots

Inspired by the Hemlock post, I decided to roast five root vegetables.  The vegetarians and vegans will enjoy this very much, as will the carnivores!

I selected orange carrots, purple heirloom carrots, parsnips, celeriac and beetroot.  I peeled them and cut them into large pieces, then lightly covered them with olive oil, sprinkled Murray River pink salt and freshly ground pepper.  I roasted them for about 45 mins at 200c alongside another tray of roast pumpkin with sweet potato and a bacon and parsley quiche. 

Well, the root vegetables were fantastic.  Slightly blackened, the carrot gave a sweet taste, the celeriac and beetroot were perfectly cooked, nicely soft and full of flavour.  The purple heirloom carrots had less flavour than the orange carrots and the parsnip was excellent.  I had not eaten parsnip for a few decades, but I enjoyed it more tonight than I did when I was seven years old!

Several of these roots have already offered their green tops for other vegetables, so in a way you get two meals from the one vegetable.  As mentioned earlier today, I would like to grow some parsley so I can eat the parsley and then pull the root and roast it too.  The celeriac did not taste like celery, so I expect the parsley root will not taste like parsley.

Given the range of colours in which carrots can grow, tomorrow I’ll post an interesting piece about why the orange carrot is the most prolific of all the carrot colours and why it should be called the ‘heirloom’ carrot as opposed to the purple, yellow and white varieties which have been given that title.

Eat well, stay well.

Kind regards,

Brendan Blake

Product review: Salt Kitchen Charcuterie, Pork and Fennel Sausages

We are so fortunate in Central Victoria to be blessed with so many local food producers right at our door step, many of whom are relatively small and dedicated to their trade.

We discovered Mick Nunn and Salt Charcuterie in Ballarat about five years ago and we have ranged his products ever since. I bring them to your attention! Sometimes the local producers are drowned in the marketing of the multinational brands and their excellent products are overlooked.

Mick produces a large range of gourmet sausages and meats. Wagyu beef products, hams, bacons, pastrami, Spanish Chorizo and a load of sausages, all smoked in the traditional way. This is the Salt Kitchen website: Please take a look.

https://saltkitchen.com.au/

Tonight, I review the Pork and Fennel Seed sausages. I have always been a big fan of the pork and fennel blend, often found in ‘Sicilian’ pizzas so I was delighted to get that big fennel flavour with dinner. Cooked inside on the stovetop. No tomato sauce needed! These beauties are a meal in their own right, but as usual I had to add a ‘large’ range of oven roasted potato, sweet potato, onion, carrot and of course Brussel sprouts to round off a full meal and avoid being called a carnivore!
However, given the fact that there are fennel seeds in the sausages frees me from that title!

Unfortunately, there was no room for dessert! I have been told it is time to bake a cheesecake. A few months ago, I baked three cheesecakes in one week because I wasn’t happy with the recipes I chose and had to make a few changes to get it right. I think I’ll do it! I’ll let you know if I do!

I post a range of photos of the Salt Charcuterie range taken at the Castlemaine store. Ballarat has an equal offering. Offer them some local support. We do!

The Brendan Burger

Tonight was burger night. A self-serve, create your own burger from the usual ingredients.

I made six big meatballs from 750g premium beef mince, one chopped onion, a handful of breadcrumbs and one egg. Cracked pepper and Murray River pink salt of course.

The balls were flattened and pan fried in olive oil for about 5 mins. Meanwhile the Tip Top burger buns were split into two (a top and a bottom) and gently toasted in the oven grill.

Once the burgers were cooked I used the same pan to cook six fried eggs, not flipped, and laid a piece of melting cheese on the egg before they were removed. Too easy!

Brendan's Construction: buttered bread base, chopped iceberg lettuce, meat burger, tomato sauce, egg and cheese, then the top bun.

I had a can of beetroot and pineapple rings awaiting opening, but it's not summer, so they stayed in the can for another day.

I took one bite and said 'good burger'!

Easy to make at home, kids love them and they are healthy! All the food groups are represented: protein, carbohydrates, sugar, a little fat and a lot of flavour!

Make them on the weekend. Get the kids involved. The sooner your children learn to cook, the sooner you can handball the task!

Stay well, stay safe.

Kind regards,
Brendan Blake

Six large meatballs

750g premium beef mince, one onion, breadcrumbs and one egg. Salt and pepper of course.

Product Review: Oakwood Free Range Berkshire Pork Smoked BBQ Pork Ribs

If you think the name is a mouthful, wait until you try these beauties.

Ralf smokes these meaty free range pork ribs in a real smoke house where they develop their delicious flavours. They can be pan fried on the stovetop and they are ready to eat in less than 10 minutes. They are very good indeed. There is no need to add cracked pepper or Murray River Pink salt. All the flavour is provided in the pack!

Now, to save you my usual rhetoric about how good things taste, I provide you with a quote from a vegetarian who ‘sampled’ these BBQ pork ribs:

‘it’s enough to make you stop wanting to be vegetarian!’

Broccoli

I cooked the usual seasonal Brussels sprouts and broccoli with these ribs. I want to briefly talk about cooking broccoli. As you know steam is hotter than boiling water, so don’t boil broccoli, steam it. 2-3cm of water in a pot, lid on, will boil in a minute. Once boiling, put in your broccoli and steam for 3 minutes. No more, no less.

Remove with tongs and add fresh olive oil and sprinkle on the Murray River Pink salt.

Ready to eat in 4 minutes from go to gob.

BTW, the broccoli stem is the best part of the broccoli, not the worst. Eat it first!

Oakwood BBQ Ribs!

Located in the Delicatessen

Minced Pork and blistered beans

Tonight’s minced pork dish is made in two parts, the beans and the pork.  Both have to be cooked on high heat.  The beans have to burn and blister and the pork has to be dry fried so it accepts the sauce.  At the end they are all added together to make very memorable dish.

Both pans should have a sesame oil base as opposed to the regular olive oil.  Gently pan fry the spring onion, garlic and minced ginger.  I grated my fresh ginger using a zester over the pan.  Once they are nicely cooked, add your minced pork and turn the heat up high. 

 Whilst the pork is cooking add your fresh beans to a different pan and turn up high.

Now make your sauce.  ¼ cup chicken stock, (I used the powdered Massel chicken stock with hot water) a tbspn of Hoi Sin sauce, a tbspn of cornflour (I didn’t have any so I used plain flour), a tbspn of white wine vinegar, a tbspn of soy sauce, a tbpsn of Chinese cooking wine, if you have some and a tbspn of Oyster sauce.  The recipe required a tbspn of sugar, but I skipped that.  Stir it all up and when the pork is brown or charred, add the sauce to the hot pan.  It will thicken quickly so give it a good toss around and remove it from the heat before it dries out.

At this late stage I added a chopped fresh chilli, not to everyone’s delight, but it looked good!

Pour the minced pork over the beans and eat.  I served it over Jasmine rice, with Brussel sprouts and oven baked sweet potato.  This dish is a real crowd pleaser!

Masani Lasagna - Product review

Hi Ballarat foodies, I'm considering ranging these hand made lasagnas from the famous Masani Restaurant in Carlton, which is currently closed due to the crisis. We are ranging them in Castlemaine.

There is a Black Angus Beef and a Vegetarian lasagna, both precooked, so all you have to do is heat them in the oven (not microwave!)

They are made completely from scratch including hand rolled pasta from a small Victorian flour mill.

I 'quality control' tested one tonight. Oh my goodness! They are so good. They are actually unbelievably good!

I was asked tonight if we should range them in the delicatessen at Maxi Foods. If you want them, you will have them!

The question is: should Maxi Foods offer Masani Italian precooked Lasagnas? $9.95 pce.

The photo below is the vegetarian version. The beef lasagna didn't make the shot...

Teriyaki Salmon

Q. What can you do when you want to cook Teriyaki Salmon but the only Teriyaki sauce available is a thick sugar laden marinade?

A. Make it yourself!

So I made the most fantastic Teriyaki sauce that I use to cook salmon fillets on the stovetop. This cooking sauce was so good I actually said 'this is the best salmon I have ever had'.

I don't always measure ingredients. Work with me...

1. a good pour of Mirin (Sweet cooking Rice Wine);
2. the same quantity of sake (or cooking sake which is what I had);
3. the same quantity of soy sauce;
4. the same quantity of hot water; and
5. about a tablespoon of honey

Mix it all together.

To coat your salmon fillet: leave the fillet(s) in the plastic bag. Open the bag. Sprinkle into the bag some freshly ground pepper, a pinch of Murray River Pink Salt and about two tablespoons of plain flour. Fill the bag with air and give the top a twist until it is sealed. Now shake the air filled bag (like a lunatic) for about 10 seconds until all the fillets are completely coated. No mess, no fuss.

In your medium temp heated frypan, splash some olive oil to get it started. Place the salmon fillet skin side down. Pour into the frypan half your homemade Teriyaki sauce and let it gently simmer. Move the fillet about so it doesn't stick to the pan. After about two minutes flip the fillet and pour the rest of the sauce into the pan. Progressively turn the fillet over onto each of the four sides. If the sauce becomes sticky or dry, add a little hot water which will re-create your initial sauce.

When it looks cooked, eat it.

Reports please people...

Stay well, stay safe.

Enjoy and develop your cooking skills over this time. Every cloud has a silver lining...

Kindest regards,
Brendan Blake

Teriyaki sauce - made at home!

Oakwood Cheese Krankys - product review

Oakwood Free Range Berkshire Pork Cheese Kranskys

For those of you that have not yet discovered the Oakwood Smallgoods smokehouse at The Mill on Walker St, Castlemaine, I strongly urge you to use this venue as an excuse to break your self isolation and legally go to buy some food.

I write a brief review of the Free Range Berkshire Pork Cheese Kranskys here, but the bigger picture is the production house where all the goods are made in the old traditional german style. Ralf smokes his range of delicacies in a real smoke house. The flavours are unique, the process is clean and traditional and the result is as expected.

We offer a relatively small range (although large) of Oakwood's products at the supermarket, but the range Ralf offers at his Charcuterie is extensive. Just the aroma of the products as you walk in the door is enough to bring out your adventurous spirit and sample meats you may have never tried before.

My search for local suppliers has revealed some gems in Castlemaine and Ballarat. Supermarkets are generally boring. My task in life is to make your supermarket experience a whole lot better. Maxi's wonderful staff are my greatest support.

We are fortunate to be one of Oakwood's local re-sellers.

OK. Cheese Kranskys. I'll keep it brief:

I usually cook them on an open flamed barbecue, but given the climate I know you will forgive me for cooking them inside on the stove. I used a ribbed cast iron pan so the authentic stripes formed on each sausage.

It is of course appropriate that given the weather, this is the type of food that would ordinarily be consumed be on a wintery European day with snow building up on the window sills and a chilly arctic breeze forcing its way under the door.

So my review is exactly that. Once you bite into these beauties, the flavour, whilst I have never been there, makes you feel as though you are in a German Village in the Black Forest. Quite a unique experience indeed.

Close your eyes and sip another schnapps! If you have a pair of lederhosen, wear them.

The coveted Pork Belly

Inspired by the range of Mother’s Day roasts the butchers created last week, I thought I should cook a pork belly because I have not cooked one for some time and it tastes very good.

I researched a couple of recipes and created a hybrid of two, which I probably should not have done, but it worked out well.

The rind was already scored by the butchers so my first task was to place it on a wire rack and pour boiling hot water over the rind. This opens the score lines, into which I rubbed olive oil and loads of Murray River Pink salt.

The oven was preheated to 240c. I cooked the belly on the wire rack in a baking dish, with a little water in the dish for tenderness, uncovered for 50 mins at 240c and then turned down the heat to 160c for a further 25 mins. I rested it for 10 mins and sliced it to serve. Easy!

The rind crackled a bit. Had I not placed water into the base of the pan to ensure its tenderness it would have crackled more but it was still good (and moist!).

The vegetables were largely chopped Pontiac potato, sweet potato, skin on carrot, two shallots and for a bit of colour I added some broccoli. All tossed in olive oil. I placed the veggies in the oven with the belly and removed them at the 50 minute mark. They were deliciously soft. The broccoli, which I had never roasted before, shrunk in size and burnt a little but was really tasty.

The Brussels sprouts were done as usual, in oil and butter in a hot frypan on the stovetop.

Don’t fear the pork belly. It is possible to achieve this meal with little cooking experience.

Traditional cloth wrapped Plum Pudding

Why do we have to eat wintery foods in summer at Christmas time?  We are not in Europe and the snow is not falling.  July seems to be the best time to enjoy these delights, so given the time to prepare, I thought I’d make a traditional plum pudding, or two, to eat in July when it is very much required!    

Now, this is not a challenge to you excellent food makers, but people have been asking me for meals and dessert ideas, so why not challenge yourselves!  I found making these puddings very easy.  I had not made one before.

I created a hybrid of two recipes, one from Australia, the other from the UK.  For those who are interested, the two recipes I chose are listed here.

https://bakingwithgab.com/2013/12/20/christmas-and-pudding/

http://www.paulcouchman.co.uk/how-to-make-a-traditional-christmas-pudding-in-a-pudding-cloth/

My ingredients were:

450g raisins

450g currants

200g sultanas

300g shredded apples

50g glace cherries

250ml St Remy brandy

450g butter

500g brown sugar

8 eggs

350g plain flour

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp mace (I’ll deal with Mace in a separate post)

1 tsp mixed spice (heaped!)

50g chopped almonds

250g breadcrumbs

¼ tsp bi-carb of soda

Pinch of salt

For two days I soaked the raisins, sultanas, currants, mixed peel and chopped almonds in brandy.  I left the bowl on the bench, covered with clear film.

Before I started to assemble the pud, I cut and boiled two lengths of calico.  Calico is in abundance at Spotlight.  A roll costs about $10.00 and it can make a lot of puds. The calico needs to boil for 20 mins in water to sanitise it and encourage the fibres to swell.  It was ready to come off the stove when the mix was ready to be put into the calico.  Once the calico is wrung out, which is a memorable task due to its intense heat, it needs to be laid over the sizing bowl and dusted with flour.  The flour absorbs into the fibres and seals the calico.  This stops the brandy from escaping!  

As I assembled all the ingredients, I mixed the butter with the sugar in the mixer.  I beat 8 eggs separately and left them in a bowl, I measured my bread crumbs and flour then added the nutmeg, mace, mixed spice, bi carb and salt into the flour bowl.

I tipped the lot onto the bench and blended it all by hand! Who needs a bowl when you have bench? I separated my mass of uncooked pudding into two separate bowls and cleaned the bench.  Calico time:

The calico was laid over the bowl, dusted with plain flour, mixture inserted and then tied twice with cotton string.

I then put them both into boiling water where they currently sit and will remain for 3.5 hours.  Once the water boils, the heat can be turned down to very low and the water will continue to boil, making the energy cost relatively low.  It requires a top up of hot water from the kettle every hour or so.

After 3.5 hours of boiling, I removed them from the stove and hung them in a ventilated outdoor area (garage) where they will remain for about 2 months.   

Christmas Day

In the morning of the day they are to be consumed, remove your pudding from it’s resting place, boil in water (in the sealed cloth) for three hours. Remove it from the water, allow it to drip dry for a few minutes and then put it aside to cool. It needs time to reach room temperature, probably about two hours. Don’t open the cloth until it has cooled to room temperature. To remove the cloth, cut the wrapped seal and gently peel the cloth away from your pudding, ensuring nothing breaks off. Place it, inverted, onto a serving plate. It is now ready to serve.

You need to prepare the standard whipped cream or custard (or both), but you will have ample time to prepare these sweet condiments whilst the pudding is settling.

To light the pudding with brandy, this is what you do: using a metal soup ladle, place a generous quantity of brandy into the ladle. Do not fill it to the top. Light a flame, preferably the stove top flame and gently warm the brandy in the ladle over the flame. After about ten seconds, simply tilt the ladle and the brandy will ignite!

Pour the flaming brandy over the pudding. If your guests thought it was a spectacular sight and they want to see it again, simply collect the brandy from the pudding plate and do it again. The brandy will ignite multiple times!

Enjoy!

How to cook Brussels Sprouts

Cut the sprouts in half (long ways) heat up your fry pan and place a slab of butter and a good pour of olive oil, for Vegan, hold the butter (if you have some!). Pan fry hot and quick until the sprouts a slightly charred, but retain their bright green colour. Add some cracked paper and Murray River Pink salt.

They are ready to eat. They are hot and crunchy and delicious!

Bull Horn Peppers

They only look like bull horns. They are genuine vegetables.

Place them straight onto a high naked flame on the stove or barbecue. Using tongs, turn them over every couple of minutes. They will blister and then turn black. Once they are black remove them from the flame, place them on a board and remove the charred skin with a butter knife. The skin will peel or scrape off easily.

You can add salt and pepper or olive oil, but without any other additions, they are good to go as they are.

Tomato and Basil soup

Tomato and Basil Soup (Veg and Vegan)

This can be served chunky or as a thin soup simply by placing it into the blender or using a hand held Bamix blender in the pot. I served it chunky!

The redder your tomatoes, the redder the soup will be. We are not going to fry the onion, so there are no fats to add to this soup.

Cut your tomatoes in half and squeeze out the centre. We are not going to use the centres or seeds. Throw your squeezed tomatoes into the saucepan with your finely diced onion with a couple of cups of water and let them reduce. Allow it to boil then turn it down to simmer, covered, with a very low heat.

In the meantime, chop your fresh basil, spring onion, garlic and Continental parsley. Once the tomatoes have started to soften and reduce, into your saucepan goes the rest with another two cups of water. At this time you can determine the thickness of the soup by varying your water quantity.

The other ingredients all merge in nicely.

Now, add a good pinch of Murray River Pink salt, some freshly ground pepper to taste, a tsp of Massel powdered chicken stock and a couple of good tablespoons of Leggo's tomato paste.

Let it simmer for about an hour. Serve it chunky or blend it for a puree version.

Serve with crusty fresh bread.

Very basilly!

Onion and Bacon quiche. No pastry!

So tonight I made an onion and bacon quiche. No pastry!

The circular onion slices and bacon were pan fried in olive oil. Meanwhile I mixed 8 eggs, 300ml of Bulla cream, added freshly chopped parsley, a sprinkle salt and pepper. I whisked it until it was aerated. I placed the onion rings and bacon on the base of a baking dish, poured the mixture on top and placed it into a hot oven at 220 C and watched it double in height. It was ready in about 20 mins.

Whilst it was cooking I sliced a sweet potato and a Pontiac potato into chips and deep fried them in a shallow saucepan of olive oil.

I cleaned and sliced two baby cos lettuces, added olive oil and salt for dressing and served it all up. Preparation time to eating...about 30 mins.

Too easy.

Good eating!