We're convinced the garden grows at night, when we aren't looking, or are we???

Our jalopeno pepper has been going strong for so many years. We got it as a house warming in 2007 and it still graces our meals most nights. What a trooper

The mint, sage and basil area with a smattering of violets felt left out so we're officially giving it airtime.

We have secrets that we are refusing to tell

SO,

We have a new thing (after this ridiculous detox we are currently on). We are buying produce and meat and as many things are we can from the people who grew it (or raised and butchered it) or is at most 1 step removed. So if not the person who grew it then someone who knows the person who grew it. It's a battle but we are slowly getting there. Out where I grew up there are still stalls on the side of the road with local produce. We make a point to go out at least once a month- sometimes every 2-3 weeks depending on how we've been eating. On that trip we spend about $60 (and thats the most we've ever spent) and the food lasts for at least 3 weeks, sometimes 4. Firstly because we also grow food to eat but also because it is so fresh that it does not go off in the fridge like the crap from supermarkets. Anyway. Here is the spoils from one such trip. All homegrown, all bought from the people who grew it.

Chicken Teriyaki with rice and Miso soup

So I got this awesome book called commonsense cooking, no, not common sense cookery, common sense cookING. It's hilarious, and kind of looks like it came out of the 80's (which is great, I came out of the 80's). Anyway it has heapsof recipes, for everything, so we took a crack at their Teriyaki chicken. Essentially it is soy sauce, mirin (get it from an asian grocery), sugar for the Teriyaki and oil to cook the legs. Now they had measurements for these (obviously) but we changed them to taste. You want a strong but not overpowering taste. Also try to use salt reduced soy, this will make that whole overpowering thing easier to avoid. So all you need to do now is boil the sauces, marinate the chicken and cook in the oil. The Miso you can also get from Asian grocery storer. Easy

Pavlova

I can't remember. I think maybe we had made Leche Frita (cannot believe I have no photos of this!!) and hung out with our friend who has worlds largest passionfruit vine but anyway we ended up with many egg whites and passionfruit. this led to the natural conclusion of pavlovas. I used the same recipe that I use for a bit one, which is to say:

4 Egg whites

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1TBLS corn flour

1tsp white vinegar

1-2 tsp vanilla essence- depending on how much you love vanilla

It's the usual from here, beat the egg whites til stiff, gradually add the sugar (at max speed) then when thats all in quickly add the corn flour, vinegar and vanilla. People say you need to dissolve the sugar but at this point if you have some granules it is so not going to matter.

So usually I make a big one but it was only the two of us so I went individual and kept some plain meringue for eating later.

Anyway, so we had some fresh peaches from an orchard near where I grew up and some bananas and of course copious amounts of passionfruit. We skipped the cream but the meringue was creamy enough. The results are below.

Hamburger Challenge

It's a real issue here. Hamburgers. We make them too big, but are not including anything that shops don't. They taste fantastic but cannot close, drip everywhere and, after the first bite are barely recognisable. It's a structural thing, I'm sure. It's a dream. To make the perfect home hamburger and so we continue the search. Over the years we have made smaller patties, put less in them etc but recently we've decided to just embrace it and build towering feats of hamburger-dom. This is one such example. We were missing the US. Don't judge us.

Chicken wrapped in Jamón Serrano with Brie and sage

It doesn't happen often, but sometimes you find yourself with useless amounts of brie and Jamon serrano, not enough to make a before meal snack out of but certainly too good to waste. We found ourselves in this situation and so, using things from the fridge and garden made this amazing din din. It's also super easy which is always good.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken thigh fillet per person

2 small-ish slices of brie cheese per fillet

sage

1 small slice of butter per fillet

2 slices of Serrano per fillet

Kitchen string

1. Wash chicken thigh fillets.

2. Lay the Slices of serrano on a board next to each other (2 pieces for each fillet)

3. Place the chicken on top of the serrano slices so that the cut of the thigh is turned up.

4. Place 3-4 sage leave on the meat (we put heaps more but we LOVE sage so you only need to put as much as you like)

5. Lay the slices of brie cheese over the top so you now have a layer of sage and a layer of cheese.

6. Place a small amount of butter in the centre of the brie (keep some butter to cook the chicken in)

7. Roll the thigh fillets up from left to right, like making a coil, so that the serrano is on the outside.

8. Tie the roll on each end.

9. Heat some olive oil and the remaining butter in a pan. Cook on all sides until the juices are clear. Be careful turning it, it's kinda fragile and you don't want to lose the serrano!

10. Once it's cooked transfer to a plate and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving

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Serve with salad (from the garden if you got it) and a burnt butter and sage dressing.

Crabs without skirts and cooked in Char Sui

So whilst on the BEST DATE EVER we discovered a great Asian grocery store that just keeps going. Seriously, you round a corner and instead of there being a wall there are just more aisles with more Asian awesomeness. Anyway whilst exploring we discovered (amongst other things- like did you know you can buy Edamame and cook them yourself?) we discovered Soft Shell Crabs- loads of them (frozen granted) but there. And in a box of 10! We lost it, right then and there in the frozen food section. I know it seems lame but I never bothered to look for Crabs before. I thought only Atom Thai in Newtown could do an amazing Crab. I need to learn some self confidence.

I'm totally aware that this is not the best picture but in my defense, just as the crab made it to the plate the lights went out. Some maniac had driven a cement truck into an electricity pole (and house) two streets over and then continued on a rampage of the Inner West. We lost our power for 4 hours but at least we had a romantic candle lit dinner.

If I cast my mind back, main ingredients include:

Onions- red

garlic

shallots

crab (hah ha)

Soy sauce

oyster sauce

Char Sui (totes special sauce, barbeque style)

Rice to serve

Just make sure to prepare the crabs carefully first, take their skirts off and their lungs or whatever off. Google it, very informative

As far as the sauce goes the Char sui is pretty flavourful so be careful. Just add the rest in smallish amounts till it tastes good. Not the best photo, surely not the more informative recipe but a bloody good crab meal.

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