Roast Cabbage with Lentils and Sauerkraut

Joachim Beuckelaer, The Four Elements- Earth, detail, 1569

GET

1 small cabbage, cut into 8 wedges
6 tbsp olive oil
Some salt and ground black pepper
400 g cooked (Puy) lentils or chickpeas
3 bay leaves
500 g sauerkraut
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1½ tsp caraway seeds, toasted
1 litre vegetable stock 

To serve
60 g yoghurt
10 g parsley leaves, finely chopped

DO
Heat the oven to 240C. Put the cabbage and oil in a large ovenproof casserole dish with a half-teaspoon of salt and black pepper, mix to combine, then roast for 25-30 minutes, until slightly charred in places.

Cook the soaked lentils or chickpeas. Drain when cooked.

Put the pulses in the cabbage pot, add all the other ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and mix gently to combine. Cover the pot with a lid, then bake for 45 minutes, until the mix is soft and buttery. Uncover and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until the tops of the cabbage wedges have darkened slightly.

Sprinkle with the parsley, and serve with yoghurt.

Inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for winter vegetables

Rice Pudding with Davidson's Plum Syrup

GET

1 cup of Arborio rice 

2 cups of water

1 cup of milk (animal or vegetable)

A pinch of real vanilla and salt

Some Agave syrup 

and

Davidson's Plum Syrup 

DO 

Wash the rice. Add the water and the rice in the pot and boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 20 min. Should it become 'pudding' like add the cup of milk, salt and vanilla. Turn the heat down and stir regularly. When it gets sticky cover the rice with a lid, turn the heat off and let it rest for another 20 min. Mix in the agave syrup and refrigerate.

Serve with the davidson's plum syrup, fruit compote or cinnamon.

Bunya Smoothie and Atherton Nut Cake

Bunya Smoothie and Atherton nuts

It is bunya and Atherton nut time again. We now use a cold press juicer and smoothie maker.

The smoothie

GET

2 cup of milk (cow or vegan)

2 bananas

1 avocado

5 cooked bunya 'nuts'

3 tbsp. cacao powder

A pinch of cinnamon/ vanilla (optional)

DO

Peel the fruit. Cut into small pieces that will fit into your machine. Mix the cacao powder with milk and stir. Close the chute off. Add half of the liquid into the machine, then add half of the banana and let the machine run for a while. Add  the rest of fruit pieces and milk and open the chute. Close it again then add the bunya nuts and the optional cinnamon/ vanilla. Let it run for a while, then open the chute and refrigerate for 25 min. Serve cold.

Coffee enthusiasts could of course replace the milk with strong coffee instead.

The Atherton nuts are visible if you click the picture

The cake

The delicious Atherton nut and fruit cake was prepared and baked by the North Bank Institute. There are many cake recipes here that could be utilised for an abundance of endemic nuts.

Atherton nut production

It's athertonia time again.

• Remove the beautiful blue and purple outer skin by lightly hitting it with a hammer.(centre)
• Dry the nuts with their shells in the sun for a day.(left)
• Crack them in a nut cracker.(right)
• Remove the nut. Store in the brown skin. Blanch them when they are ready to be used.
• Or blanch and eat the nuts straight away.  

Apple dessert

Get

One cup of rolled oats

2 cups of grated hazelnuts
½ cup grated almonds
½ cup grated macadamias
One egg

8 tablespoons of yoghurt

Davidsons syrup

6 green apples, or pink ladies 
cinnamon

Do


Preheat the oven at 180°c.
Grate almonds, hazelnuts and macadamias coarsely to flakes

mix egg and yoghurt, cinnamon and sweetener
add most of the nut flakes mix in.

Peel the apples. Cut cheeks from the core and cut parallel cuts into each one.

Distribute the oats evenly on the bottom of a baking dish.
Sprinkle some nut flakes on top.
 Pour the mixture on and spread it out evenly.
Add more nut flakes.

Arrange the apple pieces on top and pour more sweetener onto it.
Bake on the 2nd shelf of the oven for 45 mins, turn the oven off and leave it in there for another 15 mins. 

Serve with remaining nut flakes.  

Rhubarb Dessert

GET

One cup of oats
2 cups of ground almonds
One egg
5 tablespoons of yoghurt
Agave syrup
1 bunch of rhubarb 

Do
Preheat the oven at 180°c.
Grate almonds coarsely to flakes
mix egg and yoghurt and sweetener
add most of the almond flakes mix in.
clean, trim and finely cut the rhubarb.
Distribute the oats evenly on the bottom of a baking dish
Pour the mixture on and spread it out evenly.
Arrange the rhubarb on top and pour more sweetener onto it.
Cover with the remaining almond flakes
Bake on the 2nd shelf of the oven for 45 mins, turn the oven off and leave it in there for another 15 mins. 

 
Tips
The oats will cook to form a pastry base so it can be cut up like a fruit flan. You may like to bake it in a baking form.
Try it also with plums (maybe Davidsons plums) or apple halves, scored with a knife

Bello Linzer torte

The Linzer torte is a shortcrust pastry filled with jam and topped with a double lattice. In Italy the Crostata is a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart". In Greece, Egypt, and South America they call it Pastafrola. The history of the Linzer torte goes back to Egypt and the Roman empire. It usually contains  red jam, lemon and nuts as the main ingredients for taste. Exotic ingredients like cane sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla and nutmeg were only added later in Europe.

The Bello Linzer torte is adapted for local NSW ingredients. Seasonal native Davidson's plums have been made into a prize-winning jam by Jan. And Ross baked the 'rustic free-form version' of the open fruit cake. Edible Culture found the result very delicious.

GET
A 26 cm cake form ca 4 cm high

350g davidson plum jam (or any thick jam)

200 g wheat flour
125 g butter or macadamia oil
150 g macadamias or almonds, grated
125 g honey
2 egg yolks
1 sm spoon of cocoa
½ tsp cinnamon
some nutmeg
a pinch of cloves
vanilla
½ lemon peel grated
some Kirschwasser
egg and lemon rind

DO

Mix honey, nuts flour and cocoa, cinnamon cloves and vanilla in a large bowl. Form an indentation and add the egg and the kirsch liqueur in the middle. Add the butter or Macadamia oil on the edges and quickly knead into a dough. Cover it and let it rest for an hour in the fridge. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Take two thirds and roll it over the bottom cake form. Keep some for the sides, ca 2- 3 cm high, trim edges. Roll out the remaining dough and cut it into equal strips.

Cover the casing with a thick layer of jam and lay the strips into a double lattice across the jam. Cover the lattice and margins with a mixed egg, Kirschwasser and the lemon zest.
Bake for approx. 60 minutes at 180 degrees on the second shelf from the bottom.  Let it cool on a rack in its form.

Davidson's Plum Syrup

This year the Davidson's plum syrup is of a very translucent quality. It can be made with Davidsonia jerseyana or Davidsonia pruriens. This syrup method is very time saving and contains agave nectar and no sugar. Also, the absence of the tough skins seems to make it less sour. The syrup goes well with joghurt or most desserts. Davidson's plum sauce is thick with skins and requires more work.

1 o'clock: finger limes, 5 o'clock Davidson plum, 11 o'clock Atherton Oak Nut

Fruit and nut cake

Get
50g dried apricots
110g blanched chopped almonds
200g sultanas
250g butter
150g honey
7 eggs
400g flour
4 tbsp rum
Butter paper and wheatgerm for the form


Do 

Butter a bread form and sprinkle with wheatgerm.
Pre-heat oven to 190°c.
Chop apricots. Mix with sultanas and mix both with a little flour.
Beat egg whites stiff, add some honey and beat again till stiff.
Beat butter and honey until smooth. Add egg yolks on at a time while beating for a few minutes. Add alternately a little flour and egg whites until a smooth mixture forms.
Then add the rest of the floor and egg whites and carefully lift under the mixture.
Add the fruit and nuts and lift under.
Add the rum and lift under.
Pour into the bread form.
Form the top into an M shape.

Bake on the second bottom shelf for 40 minutes.
Cover with parchment paper and continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes.
Leave it in the hot oven for a further 10-20 minutes in necessary.
Test if it is baked with a wooden skewer or small narrow knife. Even if the skewer comes out clean, leave it in the turned-off oven for 10 more minutes to ensure it does not have a soggy centre.
Remove from the form and cool . Wrap in paper.

This cake lasts well even in hot weather out of the fridge. Good for camping trips.
Optional: leave out the fruit and nuts for a dry cake ('sand cake').

Green Beans with Pesto and Atherton nuts

Atherton oak nuts unpeeled

GET 

500 g Green beans

2 Tbsp. Pesto (Macadamia)

Garlic 

Lemon, Juice of half a citrus

Atherton nuts (Macadamia or almonds) a hand full

Atherton nuts to be cracked open

DO

Wash and snip the ends of green beans. Steam until they are still crisp.

Mix pesto with lemon, garlic and olive oil. Mix dressing lightly under the beans.

Roast chopped atherton nuts and sprinkle over the beans.

The Vegan Chocolate Mousse Fruit

Sapote ripening

Sapote eaten after ripening

Black Sapote is known as the Chocolate Pudding Fruit. Diospyros nigra is a species of persimmon (Sapotaceae). Like so many fruit, it has been cultured by the peoples of the Mexico, Central America and Colombia. The tropical fruit “has more than three times the amount of Vitamin C than an orange does."

Barlotti Zucchini Fritters

GET

2 cups of Barlotti beans (cooked)
3 med. zucchinis/ courgettes
1 plain bread roll
Some Pine nuts
1 egg
Some finely grated Parmesan cheese/ or feta
Some garlic
Some finely cut shallots
Some finely cut herbs (thyme, oregano, sage etc)
Pinch of black pepper (Tasmanian pepper)
A few spoons of flour
Olive oil

DO
Cook beans. Wash zucchinis and herbs. Grate zucchinis in long strips and drain in sieve for 10 min. Soak the bread roll in some of the bean cooking water for a few minutes. Beat one egg in a large bowl. Drain  the beans and use a potato masher to make them smooth. Squeeze the liquid from the bread roll. Both the zucchinis and the bread should be very well drained! Add beans and bread and mix. Chop the garlic, shallots, herbs and pepper. Add with the cheese and nuts to the mixture.
Leave mixture in the fridge for 30 min. or more. Should they feel 'soggy', add some flour to the mixture. Sprinkle some flour on a plate and form balls from the mixture. Flatten them on the flour, let them rest for a while.
Heat oil. When the oil is hot fry them till they are golden.

The fritters are best consumed hot on the first day. For two people you might want to do half of the measurements.

Serve with steamed taro or potatoes and green beans. A tzatziki cucumber salad complements the dish.

Banana Blueberry Cake

Get

200g organic macadamias
9 ripe bananas (more if small)
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
5 eggs separated
180g unsalted butter
about 100g flour
5 tsp baking powder (no aluminium or phosphate, quantity depends on the type of baking powder, do not use too much)

Do

Peel the bananas, cut them up.
Whip the egg whites until stiff, then add 1 tbsp honey and continue beating until stiff.
Beat the butter in a large bowl with a mixer until it is soft. Beat in alternately the egg yolks and 2 tbsp honey.
Beat well into a soft mixture.
Mix in half the banana pieces.
Grate the macadamias coarsely. Beat them into the mixture.
Add the cinnamon.
Add the flour a tablespoon at a time while beating. Alternately add the baking powder so it mixes in evenly. Only use enough flour so that the mixture is thick but still falls slowly - “heavily” - from the spoon (maybe only 3-4 tbsps). Beat well.
Lift the egg whites under the mixture. 

Preheat the oven to 190°. Butter a baking form and dust it with a little flour.
Add half of the mixture to the form and spread it evenly to cover the whole bottom. Place the remaining banana pieces on top and press in a little. Cover with the remaining mixture.
Sprinkle some fresh blueberries on top.
Bake on the 2nd shelf from the bottom for 40 minutes. If it starts to get too brown cover it with paper after 25 minutes. It should be golden. Test with a thin knife that it is cooked. The knife should come out clean. If it is not clean, return covered to the oven for another 10 minutes and test again.
Remove from form and cool.
Store in a glass dome.

Coffee and Snakes

Coffee plants are flowering and snakes rub against the rough jute bag. No, the coffee grounds do not deter snakes. Our favourite cup on the mid north coast: