Wild Food Supper

My favourite kind of food is food that has a story. An honest and inspiring story. Food that can be traced back to where and how it grows and especially who grows it. Sometimes nature grows it all by itself and that food is simply grown wild. To me, this is the very best and honest type of food. I get goosebumps just at the thought of it. I picture gumboots on, secateurs in hand and the thrill of the hunt for untouched, region specific and completely in tune with the seasons food. In the late Autumn around coastal NSW Australia, this means finding everything from wild Warrigal greens and lemon myrtle, neptunes necklace and dandelion, wild pepper and fennel seed, rose hips, slippery jacks and stinging nettle. To me, food and it's accompanying story doesn't get any better. Wild food is always exhilarating to get a hold of and once found, its story is best continued to be told in an unfussy, pure and honest way. Simply prepared, cooked simply too and laid out on the table family style, for friends to simply enjoy and eat. 

Earlier this May, myself along with co-hosts Aaron Teece of Studio Neon and Annabelle Hickson of The Dailys, dreamt up a wild food supper to do just this. It was late Autumn and the perfect opportunity to draw on all things wild from the regional radius between the Highlands and the Hawkesbury. It was held at the Balzac family's stunning 1880's converted church on the Colo River. Aaron planned an insane wild menu and was head chef and forager for our afternoon. A long banquet table was made specifically for the occasion, and we set it up outside with alfresco dining, candles and Hawkesbury stars in mind. Annie transformed the table into a wild foliage wonderland with a spectacular installation complete with long gum leaves, grey wattle, prickly pear and twinkling lights (Annie never ceases to amaze me with her creative plant genius). We dressed the table with moss covered twigs, oyster shells and fabric wrapped bento gift bags for each guest - with a glass tube of homemade wild fennel salt and a jar of The Husk Mill cacao tea inside. The most beautiful handwritten menus also graced the table, calligraphed by the ever generous and stylish Caitlin Melling.

As guests began to arrive, we greeted them with craft cocktails made with local Poor Toms Gin, lemon myrtle syrup and wild rose hip jam. The cocktails accompanied a starter menu of coal baked oysters with seaweed butter, Aaron's fresh baked focaccia and servings of soft shell Hawkesbury school prawns collected the day before from Gary up the road. Before we sat for supper, we all went on a participatory guided foraging walk led by Aaron, where we were introduced to the likes of wild grown wood sorrel and dandelion. The bridge then led us across the river to an overflowing organic orange orchard, once owned and recently sold by the Balzac's family friends, where we were able to fill up our baskets with as many navels and valencias as we could carry. With baskets heavy and overflowing, we all wandered back in the last of the afternoon light to be welcomed by a festoon light lit church, a cracking fire, pre dinner drinks by local winery, Logan Wines and a long banquet table lit by flickering candles. We sat for supper and out came our wild meal! Aaron indulged every one of our senses with unfussy, flavour filled and honest plates of nettle and potato soup, wild weed quiche, emu with nasturtium, tuna with Warrigal greens, wild rabitt with dandelion and orange eton mess from our citrus picking stint in the orchard. The wine continued to flow and the table hummed with the sweet sounds of chatter and clinking plates. 

It's evenings like these that I only wish we could pause. It was such a thrill to watch our supper and our wild food story unfold. I am ever so thankful to Annie, Aaron and Caitlin, our supper sponsors and particularly all our guests who made the trip to the Hawkesbury to dine with us and spend the afternoon. It was so great to meet you all, and I hope we all get to dine together again. 

There is hope to hold more of these events in the future - so please do keep and eye out here and here if you would like to join us for the next one. For now, I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story and keep you full on all things wild until then. 

Daily Plenty Workshop

It’s difficult to summarise four rather spectacular days into one blog post. Perhaps that’s why it’s taken me the best part of five months to share photos from the Daily Plenty workshop from last September. Pulling up each image brings with it such vivid, joyful memories. But that’s why we take photos most of the time, isn’t it? So we can look back, no matter how many months have passed and allow the photographs to take us back for a bit and make us feel like we were there just yesterday.

As you scroll through these photos you will have to imagine all that was going on in the background during the rest of the four days here at Moorabinda Station. All that couldn’t simply be compressed into photographs or into this post. Imagine Annabelle Hickson and her children showing us through their garden, where a broody hen took care of little baby chicks and golden afternoon light strew across groves of budding pecan trees. Imagine Caitlin Melling in all her spring time glory, on the old wooden and corrugated iron veranda, arranging cream cans, rusted tin chests and buckets full of cascading purple wisteria, dancing heads of dusty pink hellebores and budding stone fruit blossoms. Imagine Luisa Brimble putting down her camera and picking up the tongs, calling out ‘next!’ as she heated pita bread to over the evening camp fire and handed them to a line of hungry people to make an ice-cream coned shape souvlaki of slow cooked lamb and salad. Imagine Megan Trousdale arriving with boxes of enamelware and aprons, brewing pots of coffee while standing in hushed window light and soaking up honest and heartfelt words to write down later. Imagine Sarah Glover, waking at dawn to pre-heat the wood fired oven in the original shearers quarters kitchen, where she would go on to make the likes of eucalyptus infused biscuits, duck egg meringue, breakfast cinnamon buns, upside down plum and sage cake and wallaby raggu. Imagine the long tables and picnic blankets full of people and chatter and roaring with thigh slapping laughter. Imagine the quiet moments too. Sunsets beaming through mountain gaps of the Dumaresq Valley, morning light filtering into rustic, wood paneled bedrooms and momentary midday naps, snuggling into pure linen sheets. All the generous, full and appreciated moments that come from being on a rural property miles from nowhere, without phone reception and with very little connection to the outside world.

Another exciting thought to imagine is that in three short months, we will be back here – the whole team – creating similar moments all over again. A second workshop. A KITCHEN STORIES + COOKBOOK CREATION workshop.  Sarah will create and make a mind blowing menu for us, recipes inspired by the local area and country scene. Caitlin Melling will be styling up a storm and sharing her tips and tricks. Luisa and I will be teaching photography and offering guidance behind the lense.  Megan will be there with props from her Nundle store and shedding light on the written word and getting published in the editorial world. And of course Annie will be opening and sharing her beautiful haven with us – flowers, photography, country life and light. 

If you would like to join us - and we would very much like to have you – then tickets are now on sale for this workshop – KITCHEN STORIES + COOKBOOK CREATION. As this post goes live, only a few tickets remain, so please jump in quick if all this imagining has made you want to come with. 

For more information, head on over here.  

Cherry Almond and Olive Oil Cake

There is a story here. About my ever thoughtful friend, Sarah from Switzerland, sending me a surprise gift of a traditional, second-hand kouglof cake tin (or kougelhopf as it’s called on her side of the Rhine) and its arrival inspiring me to bake again. About a sweet summer memory I have of my first time ever picking real cherries from real cherry trees at Sarah’s parents’ house in a Swiss German village called Möhlin, some twelve years ago. About being ever so pleased by a country scene of cherry trees, cherry pickers and the abundance of cherries themselves, and all the possible ways to make use of them. About the current season and overflow of local cherries here in Australia, and men with their trucks and boxes full of this lush summer stone fruit, lining the side of roads all the way from the farm lands of Young, through to Canberra and over here to the South Coast. About simply knowing that despite the call for a traditional kouglof/kougelhopf recipe, I just had to make a cake, and cherries were the absolute fruit to put inside this cake tin. 

The story would continue, about other bountiful summer produce currently growing within local bounds to us. Particularly the furry, mint coloured almonds, ever so photogenic and remarkable to watch as they slowly dry and split and offer their tough, stippled shell and their well-known edible insides. About my adoration for olive trees and branches in the summer time. Or any time. About adoring the taste of olive oil in sweets (reminiscing about the genius flavour that is olive oil ice-cream) and of knowing what olive oil does to the texture of cake.  About the immediate need to combine all of these flavours and produce - cherries, almonds and olive oil - into a recipe to be baked in Sarah’s darling cake tin. And about my immediate need to share it.

There is certainly a story here, a much longer story. There always is. But sometimes you don’t need the whole story. You just need cake.

I can’t call this a traditional kouglof/kougelhopf recipe - because it isn’t. That would involve something about Marie Antoinette and the inclusion of yeast and raisins - and some almonds, too (that part is at least in there). Instead, this recipe is the non yeasted, fruit filled version, but still baked and in the shape of the kouglof tin. And it's delicious. Bursting with the seasons plumpest cherries, crumbly almond meal and robust and grassy olive oil (the more robust the better I say, especially for cake) all wrapped up in one of the most moist cake textures and flavourful combinations I have ever tasted. Especially when paired with a simple home made quick cherry jam to dollop on top. When you stumble onto making a cake this good, you simply have to skip the story and just share it. To pass it on, for or others to enjoy. The way that Sarah passed on this kougelhopf cake tin to me.
I hope that you can enjoy and share it too.
Here it is. 

Cherry, Almond and Olive Oil Cake

prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 1hr 15 minutes
total time: 1hr 25 minutes

250g / 2 cups all-purpose flour
100g / 1 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
200g / 1 cup sugar
½ cup pure maple syrup
240ml / 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
240ml / 1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
500g fresh cherries, pitted and halved

1.   Heat oven to 180°C / 350°f. Thoroughly grease your cake tin – if you are using a cake mold or bundt tin, generously grease with olive oil then lightly coat with flour.
2.   Mix together the flour, almond meal, baking powder, maple syrup, olive oil, buttermilk and eggs in a large bowl until just combined and smooth. Do not over mix.
3.   Gently fold in the cherries.
4.   Pour the batter into the pre-greased cake tin, until about 2/3 of the way up the side. Bake in a moderate oven at 180°C / 350°f for 1hr 15 mins or until deep golden brown or until a cake skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5.   Let the cake cool in the tin for no longer than 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Quick Cherry Jam

prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 20 minutes
total time: 30 minutes

500g cherries, pitted and halved
2tbs lemon juice
350g / 1 ¾ cups sugar

1.    Combine the cherries and the lemon juice in a medium saucepan and cook, stirring once in a while, over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until cherries are wilted and completely soft.
2.    Add the sugar and continue to cook and stir over medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes.
3.    Transfer the jam to a serving bowl to dollop onto the cake, or store in a sterilised jar.

All photos taken at the THE COTTAGE Kangaroo Valley, a stunning country cottage retreat / boutique accommodation. 
Hand modeling by the one and only Vicki. x 

Back to Spring - Baked Eggs

There’s been a little radio silence here these past few weeks… I hope you’ll forgive me for that! I have been gallivanting - back to the States. I travelled back ‘home’ to Florida to see our two dear friends marry, to finish off the photography for a book project and to visit all my most missed southern spots and people in between. So many great cities and towns and long drives to get there, so much seafood and grits and long sticky summer days…

I will write more, I promise that. But although I am home to NSW on the South Coast again, my gallivanting hasn’t stopped yet! There is just too much to write and too little time, so I am just going to leave you with this: An early spring morning of baked eggs, blossoms, cozy jac + jack cashmere jumpers and sweet, sweet September rain. OH! Spring! It’s so nice to see you again!

This baked egg recipe is the very best in-between gallivanting, last minute whip up kind of dish. For brunch, with coffee or for dinner with wine. Full of spring time fuel. The last of last season’s beetroot leaves (feel free to substitute any greens you like here) and the first of this seasons Ewes milk cheese from Pecora Dairy, just over the hill (keep an eye here for a visit later this month!).

I’m off now to re-pack again ready for a drive north with Taj the dog - for a very exciting workshop, a birthday, a Slovenian aunt and a visit to see mum. Eating these baked eggs for dinner. Ignoring the jet lag. Opening a bottle of wine. Oh, yes. 

Baked Eggs with Beetroot Leaves and Sheep Cheese

Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes

6 free range eggs
1 cup loosely packed beetroot leaves (or other dark leaf greens such as kale or swiss chard)
100g soft sheep cheese (I used Pecora Dairy’s Bloomy White in Ash) 
2tbs extra virgin olive oil
100ml pouring cream
flaked sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 350° F and grease two ramekins or small oven safe bowls with a little of the olive oil.
In a small bowl, mix together oil, cream and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Evenly pour the cream mixture into the two baking dishes. Divide the leaves into the two dishes and gently toss in the cream mixture. Dot around small pieces of the sheep cheese. Finish by gently cracking three eggs into each dish.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes for a soft baked egg or 20 minutes for a hard baked egg, or until eggs are cooked to your liking.

Enjoy with buttered sourdough toast. 

All photos were taken at THE COTTAGE Kangaroo Valley. Pink cashmere jumper by Jac + Jack.