Posts Tagged With: winter

Cabbage, barley and coriander soup

Posted on June 13, 2013 by melhm

Thick and chunky, perfect for a winter’s day outside in the fields threshing wheat, or even dealing with the Westfield car park… We used Demeter organic pearled barley – super texture, super delish!

ourkitchengarden.net

Fresh from the garden: cabbage, onion, garlic, carrots, bay, coriander
Recipe source: Melissa
Serves: 8 or 24 tastes

Equipment:

  • Kettle
  • Chopping board & knife
  • Bowls – large, med
  • Peelers
  • Colander
  • Salad spinner
  • A large stockpot
  • Measures – jug, ½ cup, tablespoon
  • Wooden spoon
  • Serving bowls
 Ingredients:

  • 1 medium onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 4 large carrots
  • 1/2 large head cabbage
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1½ litres stock (or 1½ litres boiling water & 1½ tablespoons bouillon)
  • 1 tin diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup pearled barley
  • A teaspoon of ground coriander
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Black pepper
  • A small bunch of fresh coriander

What to do:

  • Fill the kettle and set it to boil.
  • Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic.
  • Peel, wash and chop the carrots into small bite-sized chunks.
  • In a large stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
  • Add onion and garlic, and cook until fragrant and translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in carrots and cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
  • Measure out the boiling water & add to bouillon, stir and carefully pour in to the stockpot. Bring to the boil then measure out and add the barley, bay leaf, the ground coriander and a few grinds of pepper.
  • Cut the cabbage into quarters, wash them then chop out the core (good for the chooks!) and roughly chop. Then add the cabbage and tomatoes and return to the boil. Simmer for about 25 minutes all up, stirring occasionally, until the barley is cooked.
  • Meanwhile wash and spin the fresh coriander dry, then finely chop (but not into mush!!!)
  • When the soup is done, divide among bowls, sprinkle on the coriander and eat hot!

Notes: What does fragrant and translucent mean? What is barley? What does pearled barley mean? What else is coriander known as?

ourkitchengarden.net

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Green soup!

Posted on May 20, 2013 by melhm

(Rocket, silverbeet and potato…)

These sunny-but-cool days & lengthening nights sing to me of soup, soup and more soup – and this is a great way to use up the bolting rocket!

ourkitchengarden.net

Green soup!

Fresh from the garden: rocket, silverbeet, potatoes, chives
Recipe source: Melissa
Serves: 8 or 24 tastes

Equipment:

  • Kettle
  • Scales
  • Chopping boards & knives, scissors
  • Peelers, garlic press
  • Bowls – big
  • Salad spinner
  • Large stockpot
  • Wooden spoon
  • Measures – litre jug, tablespoon
  • Handheld mixer
  • Ladle
  • Serving bowls
 Ingredients:

  • 500g waxy potatoes
  • A small bunch of chives
  • 1 big bunch rocket
  • 2 or 3 silverbeet stems & leaves
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 1 litre water
  • 1 tablespoon bouillon
  • Black pepper

What to do:

  • Fill the kettle and, making sure you have dry hands, set it to boil.
  • Peel the potatoes under running cold water & cut into 2cm cubes.
  • Wash the chives, shake dry and slice into 1cm bits.
  • Peel the garlic cloves and squeeze them through the garlic press.
  • Melt butter in the large stockpot over medium heat and sauté the chives and garlic for a minute, and then add the potato cubes and turn so that the potato sweats in the butter.
  • Meanwhile wash the rocket in several changes of water and spin dry. Roll up and slice into thin ribbons.
  • Wash the silverbeet in several changes of water and shake dry. Slice or cut the leaves up the middle to remove the stems, then chop them into cm pieces. Roll up the leaves and finely slice them into ribbons.
  • Measure the bouillon & boiling water into a litre jug, stir and then pour it into the potatoes. Bring them to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, cover and cook gently over low heat for 10 minutes, then add the silverbeet stalks.
  • Cook for 2 minutes – check that the potato is tender, then stir in rocket and silverbeet leaves. Increase heat to medium and simmer for another 2 minutes. If it’s really thick you may want to add another cup of hot water.
  • With dry hands, plug in the handheld mixer and carefully whizz the soup until it is silky smooth.
  • Taste for correct seasoning (the bouillon is salty so you may not need any extra salt) and ladle into bowls to serve.

Notes: What other vegetables can be used for soup? How many different procedures are there in this recipe? Why do we want the potato to ‘sweat’?

ourkitchengarden.net

Thick green soup!

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Ribollita

Posted on June 20, 2012 by melhm

Our kitchen garden Tuscan kale

From the garden: parsley, celery, carrots, cavolo nero

Recipe source: adapted from a recipe by Ruth Rogers in The River Café Cookbook

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Ribollita is a famous Tuscan soup. Like a lot of European cooking, the soup has peasant origins. It was originally made by reheating (ie. reboiling = ribollita) the leftovers from the previous day. Some sources date it back to the Middle Ages, when the servants gathered up food-soaked bread trenchers from feudal lords’ banquets and boiled them for their own dinners.

Equipment:

  • Colander
  • Medium saucepan
  • Chopping board & small knife
  • Large heavy-based saucepan
  • Salad spinner, colander
  • Potato peeler
  • Garlic press, fork
  • Measures: tablespoon
  • Wooden spoon
  • Serving bowls
  • Ladle
 Ingredients:

  • 125g dried cannellini or borlotti beans
  • 1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 5 cloves garlic, 2 red onions
  • Small branch sage (about 10 leaves)
  • 4 tablespoon olive oil plus extra for drizzling
  • 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 head celery, 2 carrots
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1kg cavolo nero
  • ½ loaf stale ciabatta bread
  • Flaked salt & black pepper

What to do:

  • The night before, place your dried beans in a large bowl and fill the bowl with cold water and the bicarb.
  • The next day, rinse and drain the beans, then put them into the medium saucepan with about 3cm cold water to cover. Add 3 garlic cloves, a branch of sage, a teaspoon of salt & grind of pepper. Set on a medium heat and simmer until beans are soft – could be anything from 20 minutes to an hour.
  • Meanwhile, wash and spin dry the parsley and chop finely.
  • Wash and shake the celery dry then chop stalks and leaves into thin strips.
  • Wash and peel the carrots, chop into small pieces.
  • Peel and chop the onions into small dice.
  • Peel and squeeze the garlic cloves through the press.
  • Heat the oil in the large saucepan and fry the parsley, garlic, celery, carrot and onion together for about 10 minutes until the flavours combine.
  • Add the tomatoes and continue to cook on a gentle heat for a further 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile wash the cavolo nero, remove the stalks and coarsely chop the leaves. Add them to the pan. Stir in half of the beans with enough of their liquid to cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Carefully cut the crusts from the loaf with a breadknife and tear the bread into pieces.
  • Mash the remaining beans with the back of the fork and return to the soup with just enough boiling water to make the soup liquid. Add the bread, a generous amount of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. As exact amounts are not possible, you must balance the amount of liquid to bread so that soup is very thick. Ladle out into your bowls.

Notes: Why do we soak the beans overnight? What does cavolo nero mean? What are other names for cavolo nero? What other soup names do you know?

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Hearty cabbage & chickpea soup

Posted on June 15, 2012 by melhm

Winter = soup! This is lovely hearty way to get stuck into some cold weather… I used some Nolans Road organic kabuli chickpeas (from Wholefoods House, Woollahra) that were fantastic & only needed about 20 minutes cooking after soaking all night… and also ate it with some toasted day old Iggy’s country round sourdough (just seen) of course!

Our Kitchen Garden soup

Equipment:

  • Bowls – glass, large, med
  • Garlic press
  • Chopping board
  • Stockpot
  • Medium saucepan
  • Colander, sieve
  • Measures – tablespoon, jug
  • Wooden spoon, ladle
  • Serving bowls

 

 Ingredients:

  • 150g dried chickpeas
  • 1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
  • A small branch of sage
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2 leeks
  • 1 onion
  • 1 head cabbage
  • A small handful parsley
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Flaked salt & black pepper
  • 2 litres vegetable stock
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes

What to do:

  • The night before, place your dried chickpeas in the glass bowl and fill the bowl with cold water to double the height of the chickpeas, add the bicarb and stir. They will need to soak for at least 12 hours.
  • At the start of the lesson:
  • Drain the chickpeas into the colander and rinse them well, then put them into the medium saucepan with about 3cm cold water to cover.
  • Rinse the sage, keeping the branch whole, and shake dry. Peel 3 of the garlic cloves and add them, whole, to the saucepan. Also add the branch of sage, a teaspoon of salt & grind of pepper. Set on a medium heat and simmer for 2o minutes.
  • Meanwhile wash the leeks, scoring and peeling the outer layers off to look for hidden dirt, and then finely chop the leeks into thin slices.
  • Chop the cabbage in half and wash, checking for slugs or dirt to clean! Chop finely, cutting the core into small slivers.
  • Peel and chop the onion into small dice. Squeeze the remaining 3 cloves of garlic through the press. Wash the parsley and spin dry. Finely chop.
  • In the large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Stir in the onion, leeks and garlic and cook GENTLY until onion is transparent, about 5 minutes.
  • Stir in stock or water, with a teaspoon of salt and grind of pepper. Bring to the boil, then stir in bouillon powder if using, and the cabbage. Simmer until cabbage wilts, about 10 minutes.
  • Chickpeas: After 20 minutes set the sieve over a heatproof bowl and carefully pour the chickpeas and their liquid in to drain, then scoop the chickpeas out into the cabbage soup with a cup of the cooking liquid.
  • Stir in the tomatoes and return to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes stirring often.
  • Check for seasoning and add in the chopped parsley. Ladle into serving bowls.
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Kitchen News – June 7th 2012

Posted on June 8, 2012 by melhm

Well that’s definitely it for summer then! With crazy winds and notice to tidy up gutters and garden toys we’ve well and truly launched into the coldest season…

And that’s fabulous news in the kitchen!

A hit this week is our Hearty Cabbage & Chickpea soup, with veggies left chunky and our knife skills put to the test… also using up our bumper crop of cabbage: the crunchy, slippery goodness of iceberg Sang choi bao with stir-fried cabbage & crispy kale. Fingerlicking good… passed the dripping-soy-sauce-down-the-arm test! We’ve also been experimenting with a gluten and lactose-free version of Schiacciata con l’uva e olio d’oliva, and I can confidently say that it was gobbled up by everybody! And last but not least, our ever-morphing Our winter salad with poached eggs & baby beets – simple and delicious!

Placing the grapes just so...

And click on these links for recipes from the last few weeks: Gnocchi with burnt butter & sage and Broccoli and garden herb pizza. If you need any other recipes and don’t see them on this site, drop me a line here & I’ll put them up for you!

What you lookin' at?

Happy souping everybody!

And don’t forget, spaces are filling fast for Our Kitchen Garden School Holiday Program… Head on over to the page & check it out!

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Cannellini beans with sage, garlic and rocket

Posted on June 4, 2012 by melhm

We’ve recently discovered the joys of cooking our own soaked beans – the only thing is to remember to start at least 12 hours before as the beans need that soaking time.  These accompaniments are very basic but so delicious & perfect for a one-bowl supper in front of Masterchef! You can also substitute borlotti beans for an earthier dish…

Cannellini beans with sage, garlic and rocket

From the garden: sage, parsley, rocket

Recipe source: Melissa, kitchen specialist Bondi PS

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Soaking dried beans and then cooking them the next day is such a rewarding experience – and these simple accompaniments make the beans a lovely autumn dish. Serve with crusty sourdough!

Equipment:

  • Bowls – large, heatproof
  • Colander
  • 2 saucepans – medium
  • Kitchen towel
  • Measures: tablespoon, jug
  • Chopping board & knife
  • Sieve
  • Microplane grater
  • Serving bowls

 

 Ingredients:

  • 250g dried cannellini beans
  • 1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
  • A small branch of sage
  • A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
  • A handful of rocket
  • Cooking salt
  • Flaked salt & black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • A splash of extra-virgin olive oil
  • 50g grana padano cheese

What to do:

  • The night before, place your dried beans in the large bowl and fill the bowl with cold water well over the beans, add the bicarb and stir. They will need to soak for at least 12 hours.
  • At the start of your lesson, drain the beans into the colander and rinse them well, then put them into the medium saucepan with about 3cm cold water to cover.
  • Rinse the sage, keeping the branch whole, and shake dry. Peel 3 of the garlic cloves and add them, whole, to the saucepan. Also add the branch of sage, a teaspoon of salt & grind of pepper. Set on a medium heat and simmer until beans are soft, probably about 2o minutes.
  • Meanwhile wash the parsley and spin dry. Discarding the stalks, finely chop the leaves.
  • Wash the rocket and spin that dry too. Chop the stalks in half or thirds depending on the size.
  • When the beans are soft, turn off the heat and let them cool slightly in the water for a minute or two.
  • Set the sieve over a heatproof bowl and carefully pour the beans and their liquid in to drain.
  • Scrape the beans into a large bowl and toss in the rocket to wilt. Add a cup of cooking liquid back in with a splash of olive oil and stir.
  • Check for seasoning, then sprinkle over the chopped parsley and divide among serving bowls. Grate over some parmesan cheese and serve.
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Rocket & coriander soup

Posted on June 4, 2012 by melhm

Winter has hit with force… I juggle the washing line with obsessive compulsion, trying to dodge the showers and sprinkles and hoping for a ray or two of sun to dry the tea towels and aprons. And sit at this computer with a thick scarf double-draped around my neck, and dream of soup… this recipe has been slurped up greedily in the last two weeks and is a cinch to make. Soup on!

Fresh from the garden: rocket, potatoes, spring onions, coriander, bay leaves

Recipe source: Melissa, kitchen specialist at Bondi PS

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Soups have always been a popular dish for the students at Bondi Public – no matter how green they are (the soups, not the kids!) And it’s fun to prepare, with many different procedures and fun equipment.

Equipment:

  • Salad spinner
  • Bowls – large and medium
  • Potato peelers
  • Chopping board & knife
  • Garlic press
  • Large stockpot
  • Wooden spoon
  • Handheld mixer
  • Ladle
  • Serving bowls
 Ingredients:

  • 4 spring onions
  • 1kg waxy potatoes
  • 1 big bunch rocket
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 60g unsalted butter
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Small bunch of coriander
  • 1.5lt water
  • Cooking salt
  • Flaked salt and black pepper

What to do:

  • Wash and trim the spring onions, removing & discarding the tough outer layer. Slice into 1cm bits.
  • Peel potatoes and cut into 2cm cubes.
  • Peel and squeeze the garlic cloves through the garlic press.
  • Wash the rocket in several changes of water, spin dry and remove & chop into ribbons.
  • Melt butter in the large stockpot over medium heat and sauté spring onion and garlic for 2 minutes.
  • Add the potato cubes, a teaspoon of cooking salt and the bay leaves and stir a few times with the wooden spoon so that the potato sweats in the butter.
  • Add the water, bring to a simmer over medium heat then cover and cook gently over low heat for 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile wash and spin dry the coriander and then chop the stalks & leaves really finely.
  • After 2 minutes check that the potato is tender, then stir in the chopped rocket, increase heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and turn heat off, adding a good grind of pepper.
  • With dry hands, plug in the handheld mixer and carefully whizz the soup until it is silky smooth.
  • Taste for correct seasoning, sprinkle in the coriander and ladle into bowls to serve.

Notes: What other vegetables can be used for soup? How many different procedures are there in this recipe? Why do we want the potato to ‘sweat’? Why do we take out the bay leaves?

 

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May 24th 2012

Posted on May 23, 2012 by melhm

With a sniffle and a snuffle we’re slowly making our way into winter – one more week to go chaps! – with cold nights and misty mornings, and my scarf wardrobe getting a workout… we’ve been late-autumning it up a bit in the cottage: last week the classes made the hearty ribollita soup from Tuscany (cavolo nero, overnight-soaked cannellini beans, carrot, tomato, celery, onion, stale ciabatta) and warmed up with a hit of chilli oil in Sean’s Panaroma’s recipe of handmade lingine with rocket, chilli, lemon and parmesan… alas the children ate all the linguine and left little for the grown-up volunteers… not even the chilli held them back! There was a little rhubarb for some crumble (of course!) and a drizzle of crème Anglaise for a lovely and rare sweet treat 😉

So we’re continuing on this week with the dried bean obsession – cooking off soaked borlotti beans in water with lots of sage and garlic until soft, then dousing in some rosemary-infused olive oil and finishing with a sprinkle of parsley. So simple and sooo good. Only bettered by spreading over buttered Iggy’s country sourdough! And jazzing up a crunchy radish salad with poached eggs and tarragon sauce – and we’ve now finished off the olives we picked in March in some hand-punched olive and rosemary foccacia.

To finish: for those cold nights with the heater dusted off and turned up to 11, we heartily recommend the rocket and coriander soup we’ve been making this week. Recipe to follow!

Keep warm out there… Melissa

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Wind

Posted on August 3, 2010 by melhm

Goodness it has been windy here the last 24 hours… windy and cold. I thought a part of someone’s roof had fallen into our garden and was harbouring ideas of wandering along the street door-knocking to find out who it belonged to… until I realised it’s from our own house. D’oh!

My poor nectarine tree is in the middle of budburst: little blossoms have started to appear, beautiful pink delicately-scented flowers – after a lovely warm weekend it must have thought we were ready to start thinking about balmy summer evenings and getting our swimmers out (I certainly was!) but alas, the wintry reality has set in and here we are again with heaters at full steam ahead and me wearing my jacket inside as I type this… sniff (really)

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