Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

I enjoyed this so much that I thought I’d share it with you. Grab a cup of tea and pop your feet up for ten minutes. An entire series was made, each based on a real-life experience from the lead actor’s childhood…

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I had an excess of root vegetables leftover from the tagine we made for dinner with our vegetarian friends G&T.

On a whim, I peeled and diced them all (we had half a butternut pumpkin, a large sweet potato, a handful of small Desiree potatoes, and a large swede), then tossed them in a little oil and salt and baked them in a 200C oven until tender.

Some of the pumpkin, potato and sweet potato were combined with half a thinly sliced fennel bulb (the last one from our garden for this season) and some of our home marinated feta, before being simply dressed in a little extra virgin olive oil and white balsamic vinegar…

Inspired by my friend Em’s recent post, I turned the remainder into a thick soup. After frying a chopped onion in a little oil, I added the roasted vegetables and a container of frozen chicken stock (homemade), and brought the pot to a boil. An immersion blender smoothed it all to a creamy consistency, and we served it with lemon oil infused sourdough croutons…

It was nice not to have to waste our excess veggies. When I made this a few weeks ago, we were having unseasonally cold weather, and the warm salad and comforting soup really hit the spot!

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Hazelnuts and chocolate are a match made in heaven!

Last weekend, Pete and I made two large batches of hazelnut praline. As I’ve mentioned previously, I never make this on my own, as hot sugar and I don’t get along. Pete’s detailed instructions for this process are here…

The darker of the two batches was chopped up into chunks…

…and stirred through a bowl of tempered Callebaut 811 (54% dark). This is the only time I use the 811 straight, as I find the sweeter chocolate balances out the dark caramel flavours…

The lighter batch of praline was blitzed up in the food processor and added to dark chocolate truffles. Our instructions with photos are here, and for this batch, I used the following ingredients:

• 300ml cream (minimum 35% fat)
• 500g Callebaut 811 (54% cacao) callets
• ¾ cup crushed praline (stirred through after the ganache is smooth)

I sprinkled a dusting of crushed praline over the finished truffles while the chocolate was still wet…

Finally, the easiest way to incorporate hazelnuts into chocolate making is by stirring Nutella through a batch of tempered milk chocolate! This blend is always popular, and can be used with feuilletine to create a “Ferrero Rocher” style chocolate or, as I did in this case, a two-layered treat.

I began by pouring a small quantity of tempered dark chocolate into the base of our mini tart pan liners. Once it had set, I topped it with Nutella chocolate (one part Nutella to two parts each of tempered milk and dark chocolate)…

Praline crumbs were scattered on top. It wasn’t my neatest work, but you can see the two layers of chocolate in the photo below…

It’s worth mentioning that the Nutella chocolate never sets as solidly as straight chocolate and will melt more easily, so it’s important to store it in a cool place.

Thank you to everyone who has given our chocolate tempering tutorial a whirl – you make writing these posts worthwhile! x

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Turkuaz Motif have now closed their retail store, but can still be found at various Sydney markets (details below).

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A quick post to let my fellow Sydney-siders know that Metin and Moya will be closing their Burlington Street Crows Nest shop at the end of January. They’re currently having a huge sale to clear out surplus stock, so if you’re after a bargain for Christmas, now is the time to pop in.

Long time readers will remember our earlier post on Turkuaz Motif, and it’s been over a year since our last visit. Thankfully, Stefanie left me a comment last week to let me know that they were closing (the building is being redeveloped), and Pete and I were able to pop in today. Metin and Moya will be keeping their market stalls, so the business continues to do well, but they won’t have a permanent shop for much longer.

The shelves are still packed with Turkish ceramics…

I hadn’t seen these hand-painted ceramic coasters before…

They now sell lamps as well…

Beautiful textiles fill a corner of the shop. We bought a tablecloth here last year…

I bought a few gifts, and a couple of large pieces for myself, including this gorgeous fish plate…

…and a traditionally patterned serving platter…

Coasters were only a few dollars each…

…and lovely Moya gave us this pot holder as a gift (and she made us both apple tea)…

Oh, and there were fezzes! Fezzes are cool, Doctor Who says so (Lizzy, I bought one for your Peter)…

I found this traditional Turkish hat with its jingly trim so irresistible…

…that I brought it home and wore it for the rest of the night. Oh go on, laugh, the neighbours all did!

I have no affiliation with the business, but Metin and Moya are genuinely lovely people, and I’m glad that their business continues to do so well. If you get a chance before January, do pop in and say hi (they’re more than happy for folks to just browse), or visit them at one of their market stalls.

Turkuaz Motif

Metin: 0413 638 591
Email: info@turkuazmotif.com.au
www.facebook.com/turkuazmotif

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Friends often comment on how obliging our sons are when it comes to housework.

Big Boy and Small Man will cheerfully and without complaint take the rubbish out, stack the dishwasher, fold the clothes and clean bathrooms whenever asked. And the reason they’re so willing to help is because I’m not really fussed about when they do something – I’m just happy that it gets done.

For example, once a week, I dump all the clean laundry on the lounge in the living room, and ask Small Man to sort it out. At some time in the following 24-48 hours, he will put on an episode of Mythbusters, and fold a sofa’s worth of clothes into neat little piles. Similarly with the dishwasher, if I ask Big Boy to unstack, he might do so a couple of hours later, after he’s finished whatever he’s working on.

In an odd sort of way, this approach extends to our garden. We’ve never been overly concerned about neatness or planting to a schedule, but this year we’ve struggled to find time for anything beyond basic maintenance. Having observed more than we’ve tilled, we’ve been amazed at how the garden has evolved!

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Perennial leeks are the backbone of our vegetable garden – they’re always around, and they make a wonderful substitute for onions (both regular and sprouting varieties). On the weekend, we moved the chook dome, and pulled these leftover leeks out…

Here are the babies that came with them! We gave a handful each to Maude and Bob the Builder, and at some point in the next few weeks, we’ll go out with a stick and drop the rest of them into the ground. They pay wonderful dividends for very little effort…

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Eggplants have started coming up of their own accord; it will be a while before we know what variety they are…

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Our red amaranth has been so glorious that we’re going to let some of the plants go to seed, and hopefully they’ll be all over the garden next year…

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Our self-sown squash is sprawling into the adjacent bed…

…and (drum roll)…it’s a mutant tromboncino! I was so excited when the first fruit appeared…

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Broccoli rabé has become a mainstay in our garden – the plants seed easily and germinate well, and this year, squillions of seedlings have come up by themselves. Purslane, our edible summer weed, is back as well…

The large self-sown broccoli rabé plants in the front bed are the healthiest we’ve ever grown…

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We have sunflowers growing – a byproduct of the grain mix we feed to the chooks…

We haven’t had any for a couple of years now, so I’m eagerly waiting for the flowers to open. As the seeds were of a commercial feed variety rather than ornamental, it looks like the plants will produce lots of smaller flowers rather than one giant bloom…

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I have no idea how the rainbow chard plants survived the chickens, but they did, and they’re now growing back with gusto…

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We loved having fennel in our garden this year, so we’re letting the last few bulbs go to seed…

We always let some of the broccoli go to seed as well – that way we’re guaranteed to have volunteer plants next season…

Continental parsley grows tall and straggly as it gets older, but the flowers (like all the others) are essential for insects, and the seeds ensure a constant supply of self-sown plants…

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Linda’s yellow cherries have been an absolute winner in the garden – we’re getting more than we can eat! The plants are wilt-resistant and relatively bug-free, which is amazing given the fruit fly problem in our neighbourhood…

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Remember how excited we were about our snake beans earlier this year?

Well, we were holding off planting seeds until the weather warmed up, and lo and behold, a stack of seedlings came up of their own accord. So all we had to do was move the growing frame back into place…

We did plant these purple climbing beans, and they’re going gangbusters…

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Our mint has regrown in its pot after dying off earlier in the year…

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I was all set to publish this post, when Pete pointed out a few more plants that I’d missed. Here’s an early morning photo of self-sown bok choy, and baby basil seedlings which are popping up all over the front bed…

And finally, our one and only lettuce at the moment – these small cos were prolific in our winter garden, but it’s getting a bit too warm for them now. Nonetheless, we haven’t planted any seedlings for ages, and we’re now eating the third or fourth generation of self-sown cos in our garden…

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This approach to gardening isn’t for everyone.

Some people need order and tidiness to feel calm, and for them, a messy garden (or a living room full of laundry) would be unbearable. But it works for us – not only do we find it easy to manage, we’re also intrigued and excited by every new plant that appears!

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