Hi all, sorry for the current luck of posts, but we have been busy creating a series of breakfast themed recipes for Anthology Magazine.
The first one was Blueberry Cinnamon Buns with Orange Cream Cheese Glaze.
And week two was a recipe using some of the nectarines from our garden. It can be found here.
Many years ago I was at a restaurant in Melbourne called Sud with my parents and we had stuffed zucchini flowers as our entrée. It was the first and last time I’d ever eaten them, but they were amazing and the taste and idea stayed with me ever since. Then last weekend I was most pleased to see that they were available to buy at Salamanca market. Exciting times! So I tried to re-create that recipe from my memory and I have to say I think I’ve come close. This is so easy to do, which surprised me, and has a great combination of textures and flavours.
This recipe is for about 8 zucchini flowers. Carefully unfurl the petals of the flowers so that they are open and easy to work with, remove the stamens from the centre and spoon in (or like me use your fingers) to gently fill the centre of the flower with the cheese stuffing mixture. Then gather the tops of the petals together and gently twirl to seal the mixture in.
Stuffing mixture:
50g goats cheese (I used the beautiful Tasmanian Tongola cheese)
100g ricotta cheese
freshly grated nutmeg
about 6 basil leaves finely chopped
pinch of sea salt
Put the stuffed flowers in the fridge while you make a salsa and the batter.
Salsa
Handful of finely diced tomatoes
Lug of balsamic vinegar
Lug of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt
Batter
100g plain flour
175ml soda water
combine these together with a fork until there are no lumps.
Heat a good inch or so of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan until it sizzles when you put in a dot of the batter. Remove the flowers from the fridge and coat in the batter before cooking in the oil until lightly golden. Rest on paper towel before serving with the tomato salsa and a sprinkle of finely chopped basil or parsley.
Last Sunday was the best day tuna fishing I have ever had.
We left Hobart at 6am and headed South. A few hours later we had the lines in the water and started to troll. I think it only took 3 mins and we had a quadruple hook up – was rather tricky with only 4 of us in the boat. After that we decided that it would be more sensible to run 3 rods and while later we went to 2. The tuna were coming to the boat thick and fast and it didn’t take long for the seals to cotton on to what we were doing – there was quite a bit of tug of war going on, I think my arms are still sore! Once we had got our bag we headed for the shack where we had a cold beer waiting. A perfect day.
I think alone I have eaten about 5kg of tuna this week but I’m still not sick of it. We normally eat it by it’s self with a bit of soy and wasabi but by the end of the week we decided we need some vegetables so I made this salad.
Ingredients
300g Fresh Tuna
1/2 cup of Green Beans
2x Cos Lettuce Hearts
2x Tbs Caper Chopped Roughly
2x Tbs Red Onion Chopped Finely
3x Eggs
2x Tomatoes – quarted
4x Small Waxy Potatoes
1/2 Cup Sunflower Seed Oil
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
2x Egg Yolks
2x Tsp Horseradish
2x Tsp White Vinegar
Juice of 2 Lemons
3 Tsp Cracked Black Pepper
Salt to taste
Mayo
In an electric whisk beat the egg yolks, horseradish, pinch of salt, and vinegar. The while whisking slowly add the oil. Now add the lemon and pepper to taste.
Salad
1. Soft boil the eggs, boil the potatoes and blanch the beans and set aside. Break up the cos hearts and dress with a bit of olive oil and salt. Plate up the cos, potatoes, beans, tomatoes and eggs.
2. Season the tuna and sear in a hot pan on all side – this should only take say 20 seconds on each side. The slice finely and place on top of the salad. Add the capers and onion on top of the tuna and add bit of the dressing.
No fish today – mainly due to the guy in the top photo. He must have been pretty full by the time we pulled stumps. Sausages for tea it is then.
This summer we have been so lucky with fresh produce, the apricots were sweet and juicy and it looks like it is going to be equally as good for tomatoes. I don’t have a garden of my own but I raided my mum’s, she has an amazing basil patch and some really great tomatoes, and so wanted to do a nice simple recipe where you can just enjoy these fresh flavours.
I was given a copy of Giorgio Locatelli’s Made In Sicily for Christmas which is beautiful book and in it he describes a recipe called truck drivers pasta where essentially they would use whatever was around to toss through pasta, hence the name here.
Pasta
300 grams 00 flour
3 eggs (but mine were small so I used 4)
Put the flour on a bench surface and make a well in the middle, break in the eggs and with a fork gently break up the eggs and start mixing the flour in, once together as a dough kneed for 3 to 4 minutes until it feels smooth and silky. Cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Sauce
While you are waiting for this prepare your sauce. I chopped up one big clove of garlic and placed in it a bowl with a handful of yellow cherry tomatoes and six or seven small roma tomatoes chopped, a handful of chopped basil, pinch of sea salt, some grated strips of zucchini and a lug of good olive oil. Just let this sit and rest.
Put the pasta dough through the machine and perhaps make something a little fatter like linguini, I think I only took the pasta to 4 so it was still quite thick. Cook the pasta in some boiling salted water and then drain. Stir through the sauce and serve with some parmesan or pecorino.
