Birds of a Feather

There was a lot of this today at the Birds of a Feather class at the Agrarian Kitchen.  More to come... 

Desserts to Die For

A few outtakes from today's class with Alistair Wise held at the Agrarian Kitchen.  I think I'm still on a sugar high... ;)

Cooking with Fire at the Agrarian Kitchen

Do you like a roaring bonfire?   I do.  Lots.  During the day, we worked with three different fires: hearth/fireplace cooking; the Alan Scott woodfire oven; and the bonfire in the garden.  One thing that I hadn't appreciated about cooking with fire, is that there's an extra dimension to it, literally.  You can cook over flames, coals, under ashes...  It's amazingly versatile.

As Rodney said, if we were going to have roast chicken, we might as well have something great.  Doesn't the bird look beautiful?  It was only dispatched days ago, and hung to dry out the skin.  The chicken was strung up on a string and placed in front of the fire, and was kept turning throughout the class.  All that delicious dripping didn't go to waste either -- a pan of jeruselam artichoke was set underneath, roasting over coals.  The finished roast was juicy, flavoursome and firm, a reflection on the great life it had.  It was one very special roast chicken.

From then on we moved outdoors and started cooking using the bonfire.  One of the most memorable dish was the roast lamb.  A whole middle section was cut, butterflied, hooked onto a few stakes and set next to the bonfire.  It took most of the day to cook, and it was so good.  I stole a stray piece of crispy skin while it was being served.  Salty, lemony and fatty.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

While that was cooking, we huddled around the fire.  At times, the heat was so intense, it felt like we were going to go home without our eyebrows. We had some delicious spiced cider (also cooked on a fire) that kept us warm.  Who doesn't like a tipple next to a bonfire?

Our side dishes included a traditional polenta was cooked over coals, made with the very last dried corn from the garden, harvested a few months ago.  It took forever and a lot of dedicated stirring by everyone.  The polenta was creamy, thick and taste of sweet corn.  I'm blown away, again, by now the simplest things can taste so good. 

For morning tea, we've had some crumpets, freshly made an cooked over the fire.  The texture was amazing!  Toasted to perfection on the outside; morishly soft in the middle.  These were the best crumpets I've ever had.  It really was :)  We ate them hot with lashings of butter and some of the beautiful jam made by Rodney.  The  morello cherry is my new favourite jam...

I've always loved food cooked under coals.  It remind me of barbeques we had as kids,.  Hot coals in a pit and barbeque forks skewered with all manner of things.  We'll wrap up sweet potatoes in foil and stick it under the dying embers.  So sweet, they were like desserts. 

We didn't have any sweet potatoes, but we did bury some pumpkin and fantastic onions under the ash, skins and all.  How simple is that?

The onions were amazing and had a gorgeous sweet smokey smell as we took them out.  We used it as toppings for woodfire pizzas that were cooked in the amazing (and the last of) Alan Scott oven.  The pumpkins had such a striking look when it was removed from the ash -- bright orange against the gray.  We had them with toasted almonds and tahini yoghurt sauce.  It's a different take on roast pumpkins that I really enjoyed.

Last, but not least, we cooked a great Robins Island wagyu rump that was hung for 28 days.  It was marinated with tamarind, cumin and a host of other spices and grilled.  It's not your ordinary BBQ...

After cooking all day long, it was time to sit down for lunch.  We tucked into our feast with gusto.  Forks were abandoned in favour for fingers.  It was a wonderful -- and fitting -- way to eat. 

Our very late lunch was topped off with a couple of desserts: pancakes de leche panqueque with stuffed roasted apples.  It was served with marscapone made by Rodney just days before.  The baked apple and pancake was a dream to eat.  They were so good together!  With a full belly and a long day, I was ready for a grandma nap.

Thank you again Rodney & Severine for yet another great class.  You've made standing outside in the cold so enjoyable, and delicious! :)

Cooking with Fire at the Agrarian Kitchen

Just a few quick photos from today's class at the Agrarian Kitchen.  There's just something magical about fires.  My clothes and hair still smells of smoke.  The good kind of smell.

Full post to come soon.

The Agrarian Experience

Yes yes!  I'm very lucky to be invited back by Severine for more photos of the Agrarian Kitchen.  Being a little late with my mother's day present, I asked mum to come along.  She always talks the truffle lunch we had there few years ago, so it was the perfect opportunity to lavish her with a class.

A day at the Agrarian Kitchen involves a lot of eating.  Even before the class began, we were presented with this blueberry frangipane.  I love the deeply baked crust that was so short and buttery.  You know the day will be great when it starts with a coffee and cake.

This class was all the season, cooking from the garden right now and from recent autumn harvests.  Going back to the basics.  Even though it's winter, the garden is anything but bare.  The brassicas are abundant: kale, cabbage and brussel sprout.  There are leafy greens as well: cimi de rapa, purple choi and chicory.  Under the ground, daikons and radishes are ready for harvest.  Next to the polytunnel are the broadbeans.  It's my all time favourite vegetable, because they are quintessentially spring.  

Through the kitchen window, there were white boxes sitting on top of a table.  These are the bee hives, and have had their first harvest just days ago.   Luckily, we were given a taste of this.  Teaspoons dipped in a bucket of honey.  It was raw, slightly opaque, runny, and sweet.  It was the Agrarian Kitchen in a spoon: pollen from trees, vegetables, herbs and wild flowers.  Did you know it takes a bee's whole life to make a teaspoon of honey?  Think about that next time you have it...

We visited the pigs, who were quite excited to see Rodney with buckets of food.  They were fed a meal of grains and spent apples from cider making.  One of them was particularly hungry!

On the way back, we collected a few more items: carrots from a root cellar, pumpkins hiding in hay, garlic and potatoes from the dry store.  With all these ingredients in hand, we headed back to the kitchen for some cooking.

We cooked for a few hours before we sat down for lunch.  It began with the potato gnocchi, cooked with cimi de rapa, house made pancetta and breadcrumb.  It was followed by rabbit (raised just metres away) slow braised in apple cider.  It was served with a potato and pumpkin gratin and winter coleslaw (with a dressing that had a surprising ingredient -- milk!)

We finished off the meal with a grapefruit (locally sourced -- unbelievable!) meringue tart with lavender ice cream.  The lavender was trimmings from the garden and has been dried.  Oh, the ice cream was gorgeous, and reminded me of Nice.  I'm definitely saving the recipe for this one to make in summer.  The tart is nothing short of amazing: silky curd, buttery crust and mini puffs of meringue that were so sweet.

Guess which one was Rodney's and which one was ours? :)  Regardless of looks, it was the a delicious way to finish off the meal.  We could hardly contain our joy as we dug into the dessert.  I think that sums it up the Agrarian Kitchen so beautifully: ingredients produced with love, cooked with care, and shared with great company. 

Mum and I had such a fantastic time on the day and as always, thank you to everyone at the Agrarian Kitchen: Lee & Rainer for keeping the farm so productive; Stacey for cleaning the never ending parade of dishes (!); and of course, Rodney and Severine for letting us into their home, and sharing the joys of eating from the land.

http://www.theagrariankitchen.com

Handmade Pasta at the Agrarian Kitchen

When the opportunity to go to the Agrarian Kitchen for the handmade pasta masterclass, I quickly asked for, and gratefully granted, a day off work.  I was so excited to be invited back in the kitchen.

I think pasta is a bit underrated.  Think aisle of bottled sauce; blandly cooked pasta; cafeteria-bain-marie pasta swim-a-thon.  Bleh.  But when it's done right, it's so simple and so amazing.  Needless to say, I love pasta in all its forms.

The menu had 5 pasta dishes, a great showcase of the variety of different ways you can make pasta: gnocchi, tortellini, lasagne, tagliolini and pici noodles.

We started off by making a simple fresh pasta dough: eggs, flour and a tiny dash of water.  I love cooking at the Agrarian Kitchen --  we used eggs so fresh that they were still warm.  I've been suffering from chicken envy for a while now, it's about time to get a few chooks for my garden.  They are the ultimate food bin, converting scrapings into delicious eggs and food for the garden.  Soon... soon I hope.



While the dough rested, we had a look around the garden and harvested some fresh and tasty vegetables for lunch.  The garden was full of life.  There seems to be a different herb in every available space, and plants, plants everywhere.  The polytunnel was full of trestles of tomatoes, with eggplants, chili and cucumbers that smells incredible.  We nibbled on fresh, super sweet and juicy corn off the cob as we walked through the garden.

There are tomatoes, and then, there are these tomatoes (it's an Italian variety, but I can't recall the name now), grown specifically for making sauce.  They are unlike anything that I have eaten before.  Sweet without any of the tartness in like a cherry tomato with a dense texture.  Slicing them with a knife gives a satisfying feel and they make a brilliantly red passata. 

Do you know what a carrot smells like?  I didn't until we dug some out from the garden.  There was this unmistakeable waft of carrot.  As daft as it sounds, it tastes exactly like how it smells.  It was another one of those moments when I realise how disconnected I am from food.

We got back into the kitchen and got started with cooking.  First was learning to roll out the dough with the pasta machine for the saffron tagliolini.  Instead of using the usual herbs like coriander, we opt to use some shiso (the purple bush in the above photo).  It was a bright and fresh pasta that was the perfect introduction to our long lunch.

It was followed by gnocchi with heirloom tomatoes, and tortellini with agrodolce burnt butter.  The gnocchi was really soft and comforting.  I think I might make some of that during the colder months.  The tortellini was great too -- I mean, you can't go wrong with butter, freshly made ricotta and butter.

A small break and then it was to the heavier dishes: the best lasagne and pici noodles with a lamb ragu.  The pici noodles was great fun to eat.  The texture, as one of the guests had commented, was similar to udon.  Unlike other pasta, it wasn't lost in the thick lamb ragu -- it was as much a part of the dish as the sauce.  Maybe that's why I liked them so much.

I had a rather full belly by the end of lunch.  But before we went home, we said hello to the farm animals.  The goat is so cute! 

Thank you again to Severine and Rodney for inviting me back to the Agrarian Kitchen.  I always, always learn something new.