Remember there is no bread in our Tuesday boxes this week! Hannah from Mother Mary is having a well deserved long weekend. If you’d like to pick up your bread on Friday or Saturday from our farm gate instead, just let us know by Wednesday so Hannah can get it fermenting!
In the small and regular boxes:
Brown onions – Caramelised onions are really a spectacular addition to any meal, particularly on pizza, stirred through pasta, in a goat’s cheese and onion tart or on a wrap or burger. For some deep-fried goodness, you could even make some cheeky onion bhajis.
Carrots – While my usual go-to carrot recipes tend to lean towards the sweeter side, such as Nigella’s gorgeous Venetian carrot cake (gluten free, and you can pop a lemon in from the fruit box), this sourdough carrot cake I made last month, or honey glazed oven roasted carrots, I am always on the lookout for new ways of eating them. Recently I found Sabrina Ghayour’s recipe for carrot, haloumi and dill balls, and they make a wonderful snack or dinner if you serve them up with a nice salad.
Broccoli – Roasted with lemon, garlic and parmesan, enjoy some crispy broccoli goodness this week, or use your broccoli, mushrooms, potato, garlic and leftover chilli from last week to make a delicious variation of this curry.
Silverbeet – My friend cooked a glorious dinner which she brought over to my house the other week, and I cannot express enough how delicious it was and it has now become a weekly meal in our house. It’s a type of stew called Nivik, generally with chickpeas and silverbeet (though the best thing about this meal is it that you can substitute any greens including spinach, beetroot leaves, chicory etc..). It’s super simple, just start by cooking up your onion and garlic with paprika, or a Turkish pepper paste if you have it, add your greens, tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, lots of lemon juice, and let it simmer for a while. Served with a risoni and rice mixed pilaf, this is a perfect, warming and flavoursome dinner for cold winter nights!
Mushrooms – These beautiful mixes of shiitake and oyster mushrooms grown by Sam and Dave from Mushroom Forestry are bursting with flavour and are brilliant in an egg noodle stir-fry with garlic, chilli, snow peas, carrots and onions. Add some soy sauce and sesame oil, and enjoy on its own, with prawns or tofu, or get some gyoza pastry and assemble some shiitake and oyster mushroom dumplings.
On Tuesday, Avocado– As promised last week, and finally delivered! Your avos are ready to roll. Here are our recipe tips again! If you’ve been yearning to sit down in your favourite cafe and indulge in some smashed avo and eggs on toast with a flat white, why not recreate it this week (served with a side of buttery mushrooms if you’re getting a large box). Another one of my top-rated avocado brunches is this recipe for soba noodles with avocado, lime and cardamom. It’s such distinctly aromatic mixture of flavours and is extra delicious with some pan-fried salmon, a soft-boiled egg, tofu or some prawns.
On Friday, Pumpkin -Sorry folks, you had your avos last week! Delicious in a warming roast pumpkin and carrot soup with some crusty sourdough bread, or cook up slices of pumpkin on the griddle pan and serve in a salad with black rice, sage, feta and lentils!
In the large boxes:
Garlic – I’ve seen some really extraordinary varieties of garlic around lately (has anyone else tried Russian garlic?!), and the purple garlic this week is a richly flavoured, sweet variety commonly grown around Australia. Garlic is the key ingredient to a classic bruschetta dish where it is rubbed into the warmed grilled bread with olive oil and salt so that the flavour seeps in. While tomatoes are a classic Summer topping, this herby mushroom combination is one of my favourites, and you can also add some diced brown onions from this week’s box!
Potatoes – Homemade pizza is such a soothing and cathartic process, from the process of kneading your dough, to customising your favourite toppings and there really is something deliciously special about the simplicity of potato and rosemary on pizza. For a little more vibrancy, Ottolenghi’s white pizza with potato, anchovy, lemon and sage is a really appetising flavour fusion.
Rhubarb– We love rhubarb as a perennial in our garden- it keeps on giving year round, prevents winter run off and erosion, and has deep roots for drought tolerance. And as an added bonus, it’s delicious! If you’re not a rhubarb crumble kind of person, try this stunning rhubarb and gingernut cheesecake. Or give savoury rhubarb a chance in a creamy rhubarb and potato gratin– use your potatoes and rhubarb as well as some onion and mushrooms.
In the fruit boxes:
Lemons – When the fruit box gives you lemons…make lemonade! Or how about some lemon, honey and ginger tea? Lemon, anchovy, chilli and garlic linguine? Preserved lemons? Or grab some lemon juice and zest, onions, garlic, chilli and oil and make your own dazzling marinated feta!
Pears – Poached pears and dark chocolate really are a match made in heaven, so grab a lemon and make Nigella’s devilish Pears Belle Helene.
Mandarins – Last week I mentioned about making Bill Granger’s almond and mandarin cake… Well, my lovely mum made it and I absolutely devoured it! Super simple, only 4 ingredients (mandies, eggs, sugar and ground almonds) and dairy and gluten free so extra superb if you’ve got allergies and intolerances.
Remember if you’re picking up your veggie box our farm gate is located at 1494 Stumpy Gully Road, Moorooduc and is open on Friday afternoons between 3-5pm and Saturday mornings 9am-12pm.
Or we deliver to your door on Tuesday afternoons (Mornington and Mt Martha), and Friday afternoons (Mt Eliza and Frankston), as well as our additional pick up points in Dromana and Red Hill.
Our locally sourced, organic vegetables are harvested as fresh as possible and are still subject to change depending on what’s available from our growers.
