Kitchen Garden Blog #12: Term 1 Cooking Highlights

 



Kitchen Garden Blog #12: Term 1 Cooking Highlights

The dry summer really knocked our Kitchen Garden around, so we've spent a lot of Term One installing drip irrigation on timers so that we never have to worry about that again. The water comes from the big dam at the bottom of the "golf course" so should be a great water source for years to come. What the dry summer didn't take care of, the kangaroos and possums did. So the other big project this term has been building some garden beds inside the completely wired off orchard and to do our best to net and protect all of the garden beds outside. 

On top of that we've been planting seeds to put in the green house, many of which are getting very close to planting out. Brassicas, spinach, leeks, beetroot and lettuce. We've been direct sowing broad beans and are starting to contemplate garlic plantings. 

We did manage to harvest some beautiful yellow zucchinis and the apple trees in the orchard are laden with apples, albeit slightly small ones. So with that modest harvest we got to work in the kitchen. 

First up was a Mac n Cheese. We talked about making a roux with half fat and half flour. We talked about various variations and combinations you could do for different purposes and then using it as a base for all sorts of things to elevate flavours and create sauces. A roux with various stocks, wines, creams etc start you on your way to somewhere pretty good in my experience. 

In this case we made our roux with butter and flour, then added some of our harvested garlic and then our grated zucchini and cooked all of that down for 10 minutes to really get that garlic caramelising and the butter browning. Then we gradually added our milk to create our bechamel sauce. Lastly we added some cheese and grated in some fresh nutmeg. Ah nutmeg. Always use fresh nutmeg, it's incomparable. People didn't risk life and limb to sail around the world to get this wonderful little seed for nothing. Then we added our cooked pasta, poured it into a baking dish, topped it with more cheese and rosemary - i'd often use breadcrumbs at this point too, but on this occasion we didn't. Into the oven and then into bowls and oh my didn't every body go quiet for the five to ten minutes it took to inhale that.




Next up were the apples in the orchard. We made lovely little Tarte Tarins. Essentially we sliced the apples, dunked them in a brown sugar and butter mix and arranged them on baking paper and topped with some puff pastry and then baked them in the oven. Once out, we flipped them and topped with cream. A quick delicious autumnal treat. 








Cheers from John & The KG Crew. 




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