Billy Kwong Comes to Eveleigh Market!

Kylie Kwong has a new big book in the works and from my little sneak peek it looks absolutely awesome! The photography by Simon Griffiths is stunning. You may already be familiar with his work in cookbooks such as 'Winter In The Alps: Food by the Fireside' by Manuela Darling-Gansser and Stephanie Alexander's 'Menus for Food Lovers'. There's no doubt that this next publication will be the best one yet. It highlights some of the best produce that is grown and bred here in Australia, not to mention some of the growers' and producers' favourite ways to eat it all!

There is one thing that disappoints me though. Now that I've seen it, darn it I want a copy of it right away but it doesn't hit the shelves until July!! Oh well.. On the flip side however, Kylie Kwong has joined forces with Eveleigh Farmers' Market so until July comes around, I can satisfy my cravings for deliciously hot and silky pork wontons at the new Billy Kwong stall every Saturday! Okay, well maybe not every Saturday. By next Saturday I'll most likely never want to look at another wonton again considering I made 480 of the bloody things and they all sold out in the first 3 hours. It took me that long just to make them. I don't even want to think about how many more I'll have to prepare for next week. Argghh!!

If you've never been to Eveleigh Farmers Market, now is the perfect opportunity. Come by, try our terrific pork wontons and sip on some refreshing green tea! Don't forget to say hi and let us know what you think!

Eveleigh Farmers' Market

Every Saturday from 8am - 1pm

243 Wilson Street, Darlington

(5 minute walk from Redfern Station)

(02)9209-4220

www.eveleighmarket.com.au

Elderflower Milk Tea To Sooth a Sore Throat

collecting basil seeds / silverbeet from my garden ­

Now that summer is over and the tomato harvest has finally died down, I'm back in the garden and as busy as ever. There are plants to be cleared, seeds to be saved, harvesting to be done and sowing in preparation for next spring.

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White icicle radishes are growing to about carrot-sized proportions and eggplants are still going strong. Coloured silverbeet have been nibbled on by caterpillars but there's more than enough to share a little here and there. A massive 2.2kg gourd was harvested and the ground cleared to make way for black Tuscan kale and golden beetroot. The crimson rhubarb have finally settled in and are getting bigger every day. Purple podded climbing peas.. Wow.. I only sowed the seeds a month ago and they're already as tall as me and covered in glorious, deep purple pods!

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I just started reading a new book called 'A Year With James Wong: Grow Your Own Drugs' and I'm learning so much about the inherent properties of plants, especially herbs and edible flowers. Have you ever used lemongrass as an insect repellent or made your own cough syrup from hollyhock flowers? Who knew that so many common ingredients could be used as remedies for such a myriad of ailments! The book even covers tips on growing your own herbs, flower preservation, foraging, and 'how-to' of concoctions, decoctions, tinctures, infusions, etc. Definitely something I'd recommend for every home gardener with an interest in sustainable living on a household level.

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potted cardamom

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With a terrible scratchy throat, a hacking cough and home remedies in mind, I started mixing up an infusion of elderflowers last night to create my own decoction to fix a sore throat. Elderflowers were traditionally used to treat the common cold and flu and are known for their anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties. Peppercorns and ginger are warming spices with ginger working to improve circulation. When crushed, cardamom pods are intensely aromatic with the essential oil known to be antibacterial. Similarly, the essential oil from cloves are used as an anodyne for pain relief and like ginger, it also acts to warm the body.

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Elderflower Infusion

25 g elderflowers
2 g lemon zest
3 g orange zest
50 g lemon juice
500 g water
250 g castor sugar
2 g salt

Make sure there are no leaves or stalks attached to the elderflowers.

Place elderflowers and zest in a bowl.

Bring lemon juice, water, sugar and salt to a boil and simmer until dissolved.

Pour over flowers and steep overnight.

Pour into sterilised jars and refrigerate.

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Elderflower Milk Tea

300 g milk
5 g fresh ginger root
1 g cardamom pods (approx. 4)
1 g cloves (approx. 5)
1 g black peppercorns
20 g elderflower infusion

Slice ginger, crush cardamom pods and place in a pot with milk, cloves and pepper.
Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to lowest setting.

Allow spices to infuse for 10-15 minutes.

Add elderflower infusion, strain and drink hot.

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How To Make Perfect Green Tea Macarons

For some strange reason, macarons seem to be the pinnacle of every home baker's repertoire. They're held in such high esteem that it's almost as if being able to make the perfect macaron is an initiation right into a secret society of pastry chefs. I had a few failures when I first tried my hand at making macarons. Once I understood how the recipe worked though, I realised how simple they really are!

Most people are probably unaware that macarons actually originated in Italy, however not in the form that they are most commonly known as today. Queen Catherine d' Medici brought her Italian pastry chefs to France with her in 1533 whom introduced the macaron in a singular state. Louis-Ernest Laudurée opened the Laudurée bakery in Paris in 1862, but it wasn't until 1930 when his grandson Pierre Desfontaine sandwiched two cookies together with ganache, creating the macaron that we are so familiar with.

To overthrow the notion of macarons being notoriously difficult to make, I'm sharing a recipe for Sugar High Friday #65 that rids the need for conventional Italian meringue once and for all. It's based on the very first method which I was taught and have adjusted a little here and there since.

There are of course, a few things to keep in mind before you begin. You will need electronic kitchen scales to attempt this recipe as achieving the correct consistency is paramount. You cannot substitute icing sugar mixture for pure icing sugar as it contains cornstarch. Almond meal does not have to be passed through a fine sieve before using. If you use liquid food colouring instead of powdered, add an extra 5 g of almond meal for each 1 g of colouring and combine colouring with the egg white at the first step.

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Green Tea Macarons

155 g pure icing sugar
100 g almond meal
5 g green tea/ matcha powder
66 g egg whites

Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Whisk egg whites in an electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes.

Add egg whites to ingredients in the bowl.

Smear the egg whites into the dry ingredients with a spatula until completely combined and glossy.

Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a size 7 piping nozzle.

Grease a heavy steel baking tray with oil and line with baking paper.

Pipe mix onto tray 2cm wide, 3 cm apart.

Tap the underside of the tray sharply against your palm to flatten the macarons.

Leave in a warm, dry area for 20 minutes (longer, depending on ambient humidity and temperature) or until you can touch the surface lightly without any sticking.

Bake on a low rack in a convection oven at 140ºC for 15 minutes, turning halfway.

Cool macarons completely on the tray.

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Pork, Beans and Braised Fennel

I eat a lot of rice with my dinner most nights of the week. I love the stuff but as it turns out, polished white rice loses most of its thiamin content during the production process. It's the same for white flour too, however flour is fortified with thiamin before being turned into bread and pasta, or simply bagged up for sale. Thiamin is essential for a healthy life and deficiencies have been linked to all sorts of nasty illnesses, most commonly in Asian countries where polished white rice is the staple source of carbohydrates.

Of course, there are other foods which can provide us with a bountiful supply of this essential nutrient: nuts, beans, milk, eggs, pork and yeast, to name a few. Always the rebel, I'm celebrating this Easter weekend with a tasty, thiamin-rich dish of roasted pork belly with cannellini bean puree and braised fennel.

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For the pork belly, I simply scored the skin all over with a sharp knife, placed it on a tray, rubbed sea salt all over the skin and left it in the refrigerator for 6 hours. Then I trussed it up, rubbed it with olive oil and threw it into the oven on a super-high heat for half an hour to get the crackle going before lowering the temperature and letting it continue to sit in the oven until the internal temperature reached 72ºC. I soaked the cannellini beans overnight, cooked in unseasoned chicken stock, strained and blended with a combination of stock, butter and seasoning to taste.

I suppose you could say that the fennel is my take on Italian agrodolce - the caramelised sugar enhances the natural sweetness without being too sweet, while the vinegar keeps it quite light and provides a balanced counterpoint to the rich and fatty pork. The Spanish tradition of eating pork with beans is a lesson worth remembering too. The cannellini bean puree is smooth like velvet in the mouth, and combined with pork, the two connect to recreate an earthy flavour combination that was meant to be.

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Braised Fennel

1 fennel bulb
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 Tbsp cane sugar
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 C. shaoxing
1 C. pork trotter stock

Heat a pan over medium-high heat.

Trim fennel (keeping the fronds).

Cut in half, then each half into 5 wedges.

Add oil to hot pan and swirl to coat the bottom.

Place fennel into the pan cut sides down.

Sear for 2 minutes on each side until caramelised.

Add sugar, vinegar, shaoxing and reduce liquid until almost dry.

Add trotter stock and reduce until fennel is cooked through and stock has thickened.

Season to taste.

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