Mandarin Almond Cakes

My neighbour Rex swung by and gave me a bag full of Mandarins from his laden tree. I was over the moon, I can eat them morning, noon or night, they are so easy to peel and their flavour is sweeter than oranges and their fragrance is distinctive.

I had a play around with them in the kitchen and came up with this Mandarin & Almond cake with Mandarin curd. I served them up on ABC North Coast radio Good Gardening show on Saturday and Phil and Graeme gave me a big thumbs up, so did my boys!

Graeme Stuart & Phil Dudman on ABC North Coast Good Gardening show

Mandarin & Almond cake with Madarin curd

Give these cakes a whirl or even just whip up the curd which is great in scones, pancakes or smothered over the middle of a sponge. Enjoy!

Mandarin & Almond Cakes with Mandrin Curd

Makes 12

125g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked

1/2 cup thickened plain yoghurt

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

2 large mandarins, peeled, chopped and seeds discarded

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup self-raising flour

3/4  cup almond meal

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

to serve

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 mandarin, zest and peeled and broken into segments

1/4 cup mandarin juice

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush 12 non-stick mini loaf pans with oil.

Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until thick and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until well combined. Stir through the yoghurt, ginger, mandarins and vanilla.

Use a large metal spoon to fold through the flour, almond meal and cinnamon into the butter mixture until well combined.

Spoon the cake mixture into the loaf pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cakes are light golden. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

While the cakes are baking, put the sugar with 1/4 cup water into a small saucepan and stir over a medium to low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the mandarin segments, zest and juice and cook over a medium to high heat for 5 minutes. Remove the segments and zest and cool onto a plate. Keep the liquid onto a medium to high heat for a further 5 minutes or until thickened.

Top the cakes with mandarin segments and zest. Serve with mandarin curd (recipe to follow) and whipped cream.

Quick and Easy Mandarin Curd

Makes 1 cup

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup mandarin juice

80gms butter, cubed

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until combined, careful not to overbeat you don’t want bubbles to form.

Pour the egg mixture into a medium sized saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil over a medium-high heat and keep stirring for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and pour into a clean bowl. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until cool. Place into a sterilised jar and keep in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Grilled Asian Fruit salad

Unfortunately my memories of eating a fruit salad as a child is from a can served with over-whipped cream and a cherry on top.  Thank goodness today we have a large variety of fruits and multicultural influences, you can have a fruit salad in so many different ways. If you are having a gathering for mothers day this weekend this makes a great end to the meal.Enjoy!

GRILLED ASIAN FRUIT SALAD

SERVES 4

1/2 pineapple, peeled and thinly sliced

4 bananas, sliced thinly lengthways

140g Indonesian palm sugar or dark brown sugar

1⁄2 cup coconut cream

1 kaffir lime leaf

16 fresh lychees or grapes

1⁄3 cup macadamias, roasted and chopped

Preheat an oven grill on medium. Place the pineapple and bananas on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the palm sugar. Place the baking sheet under the hottest point of the preheated grill. Cook for 3 minutes on both sides or until golden. Set aside.

Place the remaining palm sugar, the coconut cream, kaffir lime leaf and 3 tablespoons water in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved. Place the grilled fruit and the lychees or grapes on a large serving plate and drizzle over the coconut cream dressing. Serve sprinkled with the roasted macadamias.

Adelaide Central Markets

One of my favourite places in Adelaide is the Central Markets, I could spend hours here….from Barossa Fine Foods with all their special German smallgoods, the Smelly Cheese Shop (say no more), Lucias amazing choice of Italian pasta and sauces, Marinos Meat wild boar sausages to the House of Organics….

House of Organics veg board

and if your tastebuds crave Asian flavours pop next door to Chinatown.

The Central Markets is the biggest fresh food markets in the southern hemisphere, fruit & vegetables, meat & poultry, seafood, gourmet cheeses, cakes and so much more, a great showcase for South Australian foods.

Perfect boiled eggs

I love having a long drawn out brekky on a Sunday morning and  I had a nostalgic moment this morning and had a craving for soldier or dippy toast.  It brought smiles to hubby and the teenage boys. Brekky can be ruined if you get your timing wrong, the eggs need to be runny so the soldiers can soak up the flavour of the eggs and if you are a vegemite fan I love smearing it over the toast before dipping into the egg. Here is a recipe for boiled eggs, from just set to hard boiled. Enjoy!

Perfect boiled egg

Remove 4 eggs from the fridge and allow them to reach room temperature. Fill a medium saucepan with cold water. Bring the water to the boil over high heat. When it has reached boiling point, reduce heat. After a minute, use a spoon to gently lower the eggs into the water. Boil eggs gently for 3 minutes for very soft yolks and barely-set whites, 4 minutes for runny yolks and just-set whites, 5 minutes for just-set yolks and set whites, and 8–10 minutes for hard-boiled eggs. Serves 4.

Phil & Juls @ Sydney Royal Easter Show

Phil and Juls present garden2kitchen at Sydney Royal Easter Show

If you are going to the Sydney Royal Easter Show this Fri, Sat, Sun or Mon, be sure to come and see us when we harvest the very best of the season’s garden produce and cook up a storm on the main stage in the Flower and Garden Pavilion.

We’ll be showing you how to cook some of our delicious recipes from ABC Organic Gardener magazine including:

Spicy Szechuan Eggplant
Roasted Pumpkin Risotto and
Lemon, Ginger Four Herb Salad with Lemongrass Chicken Satay Skewers

We love macadamia nuts, so we’ll also be preparing some yummy macca snacks for you to try utilising other unique flavours and spices of the Australian bush.

As always, will be sharing lots of our tips for successful growing, including how to improve your soil, what seedlings to be planting now and how to get your plants growing strong and healthy with organic fertilisers and liquid soil conditioners.

We’ve got a stack of giveaways too, including ABC Organic Gardener magazines, organic 5 in 1 and Kickalong fertilisers from Searles, seedlings from Oasis, Seasol and Powerfeed and macadamia trees from the Australian Macadamia Society.

We’ll have a ball, so come and join us.

garden2kitchen
Flower and Garden Pavilion
Sydney Royal Easter Show
3 shows daily:
Good Friday 11am, 12pm, 2pm
Easter Saturday 1pm, 2pm, 4pm
Easter Sunday 11am, 12pm, 2pm
Easter Monday 11am, 12pm, 2pm

Spicy Lamb Burgers with Eggplant & Chickpeas

My boys had a hankering for hamburgers on the weekend but I didn’t have fresh beetroot or pineapple to cook them up an Aussie burger. I did have some eggplant and a can of chickpeas though, so enjoy .

SPICY LAMB BURGERS WITH EGGPLANT & CHICKPEAS

Serves 4

600g lamb mince

1 red onion, grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 red chilli, deseeded, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Chermoula spice mix

1⁄4 cup chopped coriander

1 cup Panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs

1 egg, lightly whisked

Olive oil

2 small eggplants, thinly sliced lengthways

1 loaf Turkish bread, cut into 10cm slices, split horizontally

400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained, roughly smashed with the back of a fork

3⁄4 cup Greek-style yoghurt

1⁄2 cup chopped mint

Place the mince, onion, garlic, chilli, spice mix, coriander, breadcrumbs and egg in a large bowl. Season with salt and ground black pepper. Mix with your hands to combine well.

Divide the mince mixture into 4 equal portions and shape into discs about 10cm in diameter and 2cm thick.

Heat a char-grill on high. Lightly brush the lamb patties with the olive oil and place the lamb patties on the grill, flatten slightly with a metal spatula and cook for 5–7 minutes on each side or until browned and cooked through, set aside and keep warm. Brush the eggplant lightly with olive oil and cook for 5 minutes each side or until golden.

As the eggplants cook, grill the Turkish bread under an oven grill until golden. Mix the smashed chickpeas with the yoghurt and mint. Top each slice of the toasted Turkish bread with a lamb patty, a slice of eggplant and a generous spoonful of the chickpea mixture. Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper and top with the other Turkish bread halves. Serve immediately.

Roasted Corn, Pumpkin & Tomato Salad

It is corn time and whether you are harvesting your own, picking it up from your local farmers market or your local green grocer the flavour is sooo sweet.

Corn is so versatile, great on the barbie with smotherings of butter (if you haven’t already check out my recipe for Salt & Pepper BBQ Corn with Chilli Butter) steamed, thrown into a stirfry, delicious in salsa, tossed through salads or roasted.

I also have a prolific pumpkin patch – corn and pumpkin love hanging out with each other so give this warm salad a try. It is great with your favourite roast. Enjoy!

Roasted Corn, Pumpkin & Tomato Salad

4 Roma tomatoes, quartered

2 red onions, peeled and cut into eighths

1 kilo pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks

2 corn cobs, husks and silk removed and sliced

2 tablespoons rosemary leaves, chopped

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 180C fan forced. In a large bowl combine rosemary, olive oil, season well and toss through the corn. pumpkin, tomatoes and onion.

Place the vegetables on a baking dish and roast for 30-40 minutes or until tender. Remove from the oven and place into a serving bowl. Toss with 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and serve.

Casino Flower & Garden Show

I had a very busy Saturday…first up on air with Phil and Graeme. Phil asked me to come up with some recipes using corn and beans…after a bit of brain storming we decided on a Portugese-Spanish feel, so sardines had to be on the menu. Fresh sardines, (a thousand times better tasting than canned sardines) evoke memories of my backpacking days in the Algarve, Portugal.

After the radio show, I rushed to Casino for their annual garden & flower show, to do a cooking dem in their retro Civic Hall…big day but as always I had fun. Here are the recipes from ABC north coast Good Gardening show. Enjoy!

Fried Sardines with Green Bean Roast Capsicum Salsa

Sardines with a Green sauce

Serves 4

8 sardines, butterflied

flour for coating

salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

vegetable oil, for shallow frying

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon quartered

Place flour onto a dinner plate and season with salt and pepper. Coat the fish (do this just before you are about to cook, otherwise the flour will go soggy) shaking off any excess flour.

Heat oil in a large frying pan and shallow-fry the fish on a high heat for a minute each side, or until crisp and golden.

To make the green sauce, in a small food processor or hand held blender, whiz the parsley, garlic, oil until well combined and season well.

Serve the sardines with the green sauce, a wedges of lemon, corn cobs and salsa.

Green Bean & Capsicum salsa

2 red capsicums

2 ripe tomatoes, halved, seeded, finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

olive oil for brushing

150gms green beans, top, tailed and blanched

1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely diced

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper

Preheat a barbecue grill or char-grill pan on medium-high heat. Add the capsicums and cook for 2-3 minutes each side or until tender and charred and blistered. Transfer to a heatproof bowl, cover with a cling wrap (this helps lift the skin) and set aside until cool enough to handle. Peel and finely chop flesh.

Lightly brush hot barbecue or char–grill with olive oil and cook the blanched beans for 2-3 minutes turning often.

Combine the capsicum, tomatoes, beans, onion, pine nuts, lime juice and season with salt and pepper.

Salt and lime pepper barbecued corncobs with chilli butter

4 corn on the cobs, in their husks with silk removed

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

50mls lime-juice

100g butter, softened

2 teaspoons sambal oelek (chilli paste)

Soak the corncobs in a large bowl of water for 1 hour.

Heat a barbecue on high heat, remove corn from water and shake off any excess water. Place corn with husks onto the barbecue, reduce heat to medium and cover with lid and cook for 30 minutes or until corn kernels are softened, turning often.
While the corn is cooking, combine pepper, salt and lime juice and set aside.

Combine the butter and sambal oelek, set aside.

Place the cooked corn onto a serving plate, smother the butter over the corn and spoon over the lime pepper and serve.

Having a ball at the Harris families macca farm

Getting up in the dark, at 5am, to go and play at the Harris families orchard (Piccadilly Park) a 200 acre macadamia farm in Northern NSW, was worth it.

Rex & Lynette Harris

The Today Show was in town and Steve the weather man was doing crosses from the farm. Of course we had to showcase the many ways you can use macadamias in every day cooking.

You can watch the quick segment on youtube.  It was a miracle that they got away without me saying a word…it was a challenge!

Here are the recipes for the Australia Day Trio of  Macadamias, they were not only featured on The Today Show they are in The Australian Macadamia Society 2012 calender for January, of course. Enjoy!

Ausralia Day Trio of Macadamias

AUSTRALIA DAY TRIO OF MACADAMIAS

Roasted Macadamias with Australian Sea Salt and Wattleseed

100gms raw macadamias

Australian Sea Salt

1 tablespoon wattleseed

Preheat an oven to 200°C fan forced.

Prepare a baking pan by generously sprinkling salt across the bottom. Add the macadamias to the pan in a single layer, and sprinkle over the wattleseed and generously sprinkle more salt over the macadamias.

Roast the macadamias in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the nuts are golden and fragrant.

Allow the macadamias to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Roasted Macadamias with Australian Pepperberry & Bush Tomato

100gms raw macadamias

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tablespoons macadamia oil

1 tablespoon bush tomatoes, roughly crushed

1 teaspoon Australian pepperberry

1 teaspoon Australian salt

Preheat oven to 200°C. Toss macadamias, garlic and oil in a medium bowl to coat. Add the bush tomatoes, Australian pepperberry and salt and toss well. Spread macadamias in a single layer on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

Roast until fragrant, about 10-12 minutes. Cool macadamias on baking tray before storing in an airtight container.

Roasted Macadamias with Australian Honey & Lemon Myrtle

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons macadamia oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 teaspoon Australian sea salt

100gms raw macadamias

2 teaspoons lemon myrtle

Preheat oven 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Combine the honey, macadamia oil, garlic, and sea salt in a small frying pan over low heat. Stir until the honey has melted and the mixture is well combined.

Transfer the honey mixture to a large bowl. Add all the nuts and lemon myrtle and stir until they are evenly coated with the honey, lemon myrtle mixture.

Spread the macadamias on the prepared baking tray. Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning occasionally. Remove and set aside to cool completely before serving.

 Note

• These nut mixtures can be stored in an airtight container for up to two days.

Chargrilled ratatouille spaghetti

We have eggplants, zucchini and squash in the garden and the family love them chargrilled whether it is on top of a pizza for our regular Saturday home made pizza night or like last nights dinner thrown into a pasta dish.

Japanese eggplants ready to harvest

Phil Dudman, the other half of garden2kitchen, has given me great tips on harvesting eggplants and zucchinis:

“Pick young. Zucchinis are best at around 15cm in length. Any longer and they start to get watery and lose flavour. Young eggplants are best too because they are less bitter so don’t need salting. Grab them when they are just plump and shiny”.

Yellow zucchini ready for picking

Thanks Phil. Of course there are lots of other ways to cook with eggplants and zucchinis, like  the Szechwan Eggplant recipe in the ginger post, give it a go but here is the Chargrilled ratatouille spaghetti recipe.Enjoy!

Chargrilled ratatouille spaghetti

serves 4

4 Japanese eggplants, cut in half crossways and sliced lengthways in 1cm width

2 zucchinis, cut in half crossways and sliced lengthways in 1cm width

1 red onion, peeled and cut into small wedges

1 red capsicum, deseeded and coarsley chopped

4 small yellow squash, quartered

2 toamatoes, seeds removed and cut into quarters

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

400gms spaghetti

1 cup black olives

1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

1 tablespoon thyme leaves

Shaved parmesan, to serve

Heat a chargrill on high. In a bowl combine the eggplant, zuchinni, olive oil, capsicum and tomato with the olive oil and garlic and season well. Cook the vegables on both sides until softened.

Cook the spaghetti in a saucepan of salted boiling water until firm but tender to the bite (al dente). Drain and reserve 1-2 tablespoons of cooking liquid, return the pasta and liquid to the saucepan and toss through the chargrilled vegetables, olives and herbs. Serve with shavings of parmesan.