Turnip for the books - turnip trumps!

It makes complete sense to eat seasonally instead of having broccoli all year round. Local fruit and vegetable harvests are such wonderful and significant gestures of time.

I love that the end of Winter is marked by these wee turnips, and the beginning of Spring offering a bouquet of spinach! Oh! and what can't I say about baby carrots!

Besides being able to access local produce at local farmer’s markets more easily these days, I must say that Beanstalk is a truly wonderful local community food resource. I know we go on about it but I LOVE the way this works and that every Tuesday we meet and gather, and share our ways with turnips.

- R

Cookie crumbles.

We had the loveliest morning tea today with Ashnash, our terrific intern, who baked us love cookies for Valentine’s Day - so special!

Saint Valentine would’ve approved of the softly misshapen white chocolate cranberry love cookie goodness. It may not be a perfectly smooth and circular thing, this love, but it’s the way it crumbles that counts :)

Going nuts for Bunya.

*Oh dear, it’s another post about food ;)

But I love native foods. I’m perplexed that we have so little access to it and use so little of it in everyday cooking so any chance I get to talk about ‘bushtucker’ or make a lovely dinner with native vegies, I always take up :)

I didn’t manage to take any photographs of the pasta we made because we were too excited and hungry to document it beforehand… but here are the wonderful Bunya Nuts that we had for dinner :) A heavenly gift from South QLD / Northern NSW - from the native Bunya Pine tree :)

...beautiful papery shells of the bunya pine cone encases the almond-shaped nut within...

Beautiful colours.

Beautiful textures.

To get to the fleshy nut inside, we first incised the pointy tops of the shells with secateurs and then boiled them for 20mins to soften. Then we wedged a cleaver in the incised section and chopped the nuts open to reveal the cooked soft chestnutty-kernels within.

We delighted in their simply wonderful nutsome goodness with handmade pasta, garlic, lemon, sea salt, olive oil and truffle oil :)

- R

Beanstalking.

The best day of the week is definitely Tuesday. Tuesday is the day we go beanstalking :)

Beanstalk - our local Newcastle organic farmer’s community co-op is absolutely amazing.

Every Tuesday we collect our fine and fresh fare from our local farmers. We get together out on the farm once a month to weed or lend a helping hand, we help raise funds for equipment when it is needed and generally, as a community, we become more part of the process. We eat what is in season, and boy, is it all ever delectable, delightful and delicious!

We get to try all sorts of weird and wonderful vegetables, and learn new recipes along the way. Garlic never tasted better, kohlrabi ever quirky and amazing in a Vietnamese salad.

Nothing compares to real vegetables :) Fresh. Robust. Colour-full. With a grub now and then.

And we hardly need to go to the supermarket anymore, yay! There ain't no going back!

...

And I thought Tuesdays couldn't get any better until yesterday (Tuesday).

Upon a little visit to the local Asian grocer for some daikon (radish),  something caught my eye that I hadn't seen since I was last in Japan.

The rush of memories came flooding back...

with sashimi,

with onigiri,

with yakiniku,

from the roadside market stall, the biggest ones I'd ever seen... Oh, the longing to return to Japan to graze on these little beauties.

Turns out there's a local lady that grows it in her backyard. Awesome!!!

I LOVE SHISO!

The perilla has a similar flavour to mint or fennel but even better! Admittedly, I am slightly biased… but isn't she beautiful!

Happy Tuesday!

- A

Black water dragons.

Happy New Year!

Farewell to the rascal rabbit and a warm welcome to the black water dragon! 

We hope the brave and mighty dragon, ever-so crafty and enterprising, occasionally quick-tempered but positively passionate, will bring a terrific year to us and you all!

And in the true spirit of Chinese New Year...

we clean the house

we go the market

we prepare

we cook

we cook some more

we eat

we talk

we compare recipes and methods

we rest

we eat some more

we laugh

we make each other eat just a little more

we thank all each other for all the wonderful food 

we complain about how much we ate

we blame each other for making each other eat too much

we argue about whose pineapple tarts taste the best

we pack leftovers to eat for the next 15 days of new year

we roll out the door

like mandarins tumbling down the hill...

...

Yee sang / lo sang / lo hei - bestest new year salad ever!

With chopsticks in hand, everyone tosses the salad higher and higher together!

The higher the toss, the greater the fortune!

(much of it does land on the table or floor, what remains is eaten very quickly!)

curry leaves, chicken and ginger sauce… steamboat fun for everyone…

   

 

 

...and the best pineapple tarts ever (thank you Jamie!)

...and that was not even half of the feast prepared.

Oh, it is going to be a good year indeed. xxx

- A

Wreath all about it.

And so, we gathered around a very round and crispy potato, rosemary, thyme
and sea-salty olive oil wreath at our end-of-year Xmas merry happy get-together...

Oily paper lamp bulbs, carnival lights, flowing reds and whites, slow-cooked servings

of sweet meats, greens and ice cream, big laughs, stupendous tales and soft waxing lyricals

illuminated this wonderful evening…

We’re blessed with the best Mrs Woo Team in the universe :)

Season’s Greetings! Happy Holidays!

x Big big thank you to Mr Book and Mavis for the incredible feast and lovely service x