food ripe from my garden

Sweet fennel and smoked fish flan

The layered flavours of salty fish, black olives and sweetly caremelised fennel turn this into a symphony of a pie. If you have no fennel but fancy making it, you could use onions instead. It would lack the delicate anise flavours that go so well with fish but it would still be delicious. I used…

winter in the garden – fennel

Another ancient medicinal herb with magical properties, fennel is a native of the Mediterranean. Wild fennel was naturalised throughout Europe , spreading eastwards into monastic gardens where it was used in herbal preparations and liqueurs, one of these being an early version of absinthe which has aniseed flavours derived from both anise and fennel. Despite…

Malaysian-style pumpkin soup

I would like to share this simple curry paste recipe that works so well with pumpkin and coconut cream. I would not be so bold as to call it a laksa which must be made for you in the heat and bustle of a Malaysian street using exotic ingredients such as candlenuts and galangal. This…

Beetroot top pie

This is a remake of a silverbeet pie I posted last November but here I have instead used the tops of the beetroot I used to make the fritters last week. If you don’t have any beetroot tops you can use silverbeet instead. I like the way the beetroot stalks give splashes of red throughout….

Beetroot fritters

Quick to make and full of flavour, these little beetroot fritters are versatile. Make them small, topped with crème fraiche and a sprig of dill, for an elegant starter. For a more substantial lunch make them bigger and pair them with a can of tuna stirred through a bowl of mayo. Huge, and they are…

the winter garden: beetroot

Aphrodite ate beetroot to increase her allure. Frescoes of beets decorate the walls of the Lupanare brothel in Pompeii. Beetroot, an ancient aphrodisiac, has a long history that begins on the shores of north Africa and the Mediterranean in a wild seashore plant called sea beet. The ancient Greeks and Romans only ate the leaves,…

Warm salad of beets, pumpkin and lentils with walnut mayo and maple roasted walnuts

These sweet and sour flavours combine beautifully with the earthy ingredients, and are finished perfectly with sweet candied walnuts and creamy mayo. It doesn’t take as long to make as it looks by the length of the recipe because you are doing everything at once: cooking the lentils while the veges roast. Lentils 1 ½…

Pumpkin ravioli, walnut pesto

A warm bowl full of nourishing and mellow autumn fruitfulness. Makes 18 ravioli INGREDIENTS Ravioli 1 quantity egg pasta made with 2 eggs and 200 g flour or 1 pack fresh pasta sheets Pumpkin 400 g pumpkin, peeled, seeded, chopped into cubes and roasted until soft and caramelised 1/2c almond meal 1 egg 100 g…

Parsley and walnut pesto

I have a friend in Collingwood who, each autumn, gifts me with a bag of fresh walnuts from her 30 year old tree. They arrive when the spring- sewn parsley is just coming of age and the December-harvested garlic is still fresh and juicy. INGREDIENTS 1 bunch of parsley which, roughly chopped, will fill two…

the winter garden: parsley

In folk-lore, parsley has a long history of magical properties. In medieval Europe, where it was believed only the wicked could grow it, parsley was associated with death and was used to decorate graves. Many types of bad luck are associated with transplanting it. In most of Europe it is believed it foretells a death…