This week I held a one-on-one cooking class for a wonderful new friend, and fellow volunteer from the Garden for the Community at Stratford, Maggie. She wanted to learn how to make my gluten free Weed Pies – I continue to be fascinated how popular these pies are. I did a blog on them last year and whenever I serve them up they are a hit – they have been served at lunches, morning teas, even the opening of the local Stratford Shakespeare Festival a couple of months ago! Continue reading
Gluten Free Recipe
Apples for pie
A couple of months ago we visited Picnic Point Apple Orchard, about an hour’s drive from here, to pick up some new season’s apples. We purchased a box of Picnic Apples, which were very juicy, but the flavour was not as intense as I expected. Continue reading
Marinated Coleslaw
Marinated Coleslaw
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
2 mins
Total Time
17 mins
I was asked to prepare the coleslaw to be served at the Banquet for the 2017 Shakespeare Festival in nearby Stratford, but they needed quantities for approximately 120 people! I used my mum's recipe for the dressing. The salad was served alongside orange glazed leg ham , baked potatoes and a root veg bake.
Category:
Salad, Side Dish
Quantity: 10 cups
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg cabbage thinly shredded
- 170 g red onion thinly sliced
- 2 large carrots 220g, grated
- 2/3 cup celery 100g, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 2/3 cup vinegar
- 1 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon horseradish cream
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp reshly ground black pepper
Instructions
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Combine the cabbage, onion, carrot and celery together in a large container, and mix well. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the vegetables.
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Place remaining ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes.
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Pour over salad, and cover immediately. Allow it to cool slightly and then refrigerate for 24 hours.
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Just before serving toss the salad, check the seasoning and adjust, if necessary.
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Arrange in a serving dish and serve.
Notes
- Ensure that the container you are using has a lid to cover the salad while it is marinating.
- You may need to drain some of the dressing from the salad prior to placing it in a serving dish.
- You can replace the red onion with white onion if you wish.
- The method used in this salad is more like that for a quick pickle, making it the ideal prepare ahead salad for large numbers.
- I have made much smaller quantities and served the salad after only an hour or two of marinating, it was still delicious.
(Updated 22 August 2023)
Ravioli Ignudi (Naked Ravioli)
These delicate little pillows of ricotta and Swiss chard / silverbeet were given their wonderful name because they are not blanketed in fresh pasta like the ravioli that we all know and love. This dish is fast becoming a favourite in our home – it is delicious, surprisingly simple to make, very economical and has very few ingredients. I love making it because it means I get to make use of produce from our vegie patch. It is so rewarding to take your basket and fill it with the ingredients needed to prepare your next meal…
Ravioli Ignudi (Naked Ravioli)
Ingredients
- 300 g ricotta
- 400 g Swiss chard, leaves only
- 1 1/3 cups freshly grated Parmesan
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup gluten free flour blend
- 90 g unsalted butter
- 16 whole fresh sage leaves
- Salt
Directions
- Bring a large saucepan filled with salted water to a boil.
- Add the Swiss chard and boil until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Drain thoroughly, wrap in a cloth and squeeze until the chard is very dry. Chop very finely.
- Gradually combine the Swiss chard with the ricotta. Add about two-thirds of the Parmesan, the nutmeg and egg yolks. Mix thoroughly.
- Scoop up a small quantity of the mixture with a spoon and, with well-floured hands, form it into a little oval pillow about 3cm long.
- Dredge the little pillow lightly with some of the flour and set aside.
- Continue forming little oval pillows with the remaining ricotta mixture.
- Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter with the sage leaves in a frying pan and keep warm.
- When the water reaches a rapid boil, add the ravioli, a few at a time, and cook until they rise to the surface (as you would for gnocchi).
- Remove the ravioli with a slotted spoon, draining well, and place them into the warm melted butter and sage.
- Continue cooking the remaining ravioli in the same manner.
- Arrange the ravioli in a serving dish and drizzle with the melted butter and sage. Dust with the remaining Parmesan and grind over a little black pepper.
Notes:
- I like to bake some tomatoes and add them together with a few shards of crispy prosciutto to the plate when serving, just for colour, flavour and texture.
- We also like to crisp some of the Ignudi up a little in the butter.
- While I have used my Gluten Free Flour Blend, this recipe was originally made with normal wheat plain flour, so either can be used, depending on dietary requirements.
- Adapted from a lovely old book, Tuscany – The Beautiful Cookbook (1996) L De Medici, p78.
- I make my own soft ricotta style cheese.
Links
Generous Gifts
I love coming up with new recipes to highlight new produce, and this weekend we received a wonderful gift of home-cured meats from a friend. Mike, Chris and Mon, our son’s future in-laws, visited from Melbourne and came bearing beautiful gifts, including beautiful flowers, some wonderful wine and Mike’s cured meats.
The flowers went straight onto the table, they were so pretty, and the meats were put to good use as the foundation of a couple of amazing anitpasto platters, one as a starter to our evening meal, the other for a light lunch on the terrace.
Meal times were wonderful chatty affairs and we spent a lot of time getting to know each other better, talking about family, funny experiences, food and gardening. Previously we only seemed to catch up at family gatherings where there was little or no time to talk and get to know each other.
On Saturday while they went visiting, I took the opportunity to race into the local farmer’s market -I wanted a little something to send home with them, and the vegie patch is really not quite up to speed at the moment. I also needed to top up our supplies of Wuk Wuk steak.
When they returned they came bearing another gift, a wonderful heritage apple tree for our garden, a Ribston Pippin – another lovely thoughtful gift. 
I have already worked out where it is going to live and how it will be espaliered… We were so pleased to be able to give them a bag of fresh local produce – potatoes, beetroot, zucchini, corn, eggs, etc. as well as rhubarb from our garden and some Jalapeno Chili and Sprouting Broccoli seedlings. But after they left I was kicking myself, as I also wanted to give them some preserves from the store! Oh well, next time, they will be returning in March to help with some repairs to our home, and there are some cooking projects on the agenda as well.
Now… I wanted something different to cook to highlight one of Mike’s cured meats. Inspired by a recipe Endives Rôties au Roquefort, Chips de Jambon from Saveurs no 234 p59, I created Roasted Belgian Endive (Witlof) with Shadows of Blue Cheese and Mike’s Prosciutto, a recipe highlighting a luscious, creamy local blue cheese, Mike’s amazing prosciutto, and my fig vinegar. It’s a wonderful entrée with the bitterness of the endive, the crispness of the prosciutto, the creamyness of the cheese, the salt from both, and the sweetness of the fig vinegar all complementing each other.
This is a recipe that will definitely be reappearing on our table in the future.
Until next time…
Bon appétit!
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