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August
The seasons turn. Winter fights
on for a bit longer down south but the earth is warming and spring produce will
start to appear during this month. In Sydney, all we need is some more rain!
Much of New South Wales is still officially in drought with follow up rains
needed after welcome recent falls, thankfully good rain in other areas have
produced great quality fruit and vegetables. Expect to enjoy tomatoes,
capsicums, beans, zucchini, sweet corn, eggplant, Betanut pumpkin,
strawberries, mandarins and custard apples for some time to come. All are great
value. If you're practising eating seasonally, you might need a bit of help to
add some colour and variety to your winter fare. Here's a few ideas.
BEETROOT – and a secret chef's trick
Brighten winter meals with delicious beetroot and discover
its natural, sweet and delicate flavour. Beetroot can take an hour or so to bake
or boil, but a clever chefs' trick is to microwave them for about 10 minutes.
Choose 4 or 5 small beetroot, scrub well and trim stems and roots to within 3 cm
of bulbs. Prick bulbs all over with a skewer. Place in a heat-proof dish and add
2 cm water. Cover and microwave on High (stirring once) for 10 minutes, or until
cooked when tested with a skewer. Drain and when cool enough to handle, peel
beetroot wearing rubber gloves to prevent stains on fingers. Enjoy as a
vegetable. Microwave beetroot for a terrific warm salad. Just drizzle with a
dressing made from seed mustard, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice and top with
baby rocket leaves and cubes of fetta or goat's cheese - delicious with lamb
cutlets ! Raw beetroot can be peeled and grated for salads. Beetroot leaves can
be cooked like spinach.
MINI ROMA TOMATOES
From Bundaberg QLD, they are one of the best new products
we've ever seen. When deep red and ripe, they are sweet and bursting with juice.
So delicious you can leave them in a bowl in the kitchen and eat as a healthy
snack, just like fruit. (Technically they are a fruit anyway.) Halve mini Roma
tomatoes and scatter over salad leaves, spread with pesto as a savoury, add to
pasta dishes at the last moment and pack nutritious, colourful mini Roma
tomatoes into lunch boxes.
SENSATIONAL SWEETCORN
Corn varieties planted in far north QLD for winter have a
thinner husk, smaller kernels and the sweetest flavour imaginable. ‘Gold Sweet'
corn is so sweet and crisp, you can nibble the raw kernels or toss in a green
salad. For flavour, texture and colour add healthy corn to stir-fries, Asian
soups, corn fritters and omelettes. Cut 3 cm ‘cobettes' and steam or barbecue.
Put corn kernels in a dish with a little water, cover and microwave in seconds.
Drain and add a little butter – absolutely delicious!
BETANUT PUMPKINS
This fantastic new cultivar of pumpkin developed in
Queensland could be the pumpkin of the future. Betanut is a hybrid of butternut
and looks similar, except the flesh is a brilliant orange-red colour. It's a
sweet nutty pumpkin and the texture firm and moist. ‘Betanut' is high in
beta-carotene, a valuable anti-oxidant converted in the body to Vitamin A and is
a good source of Vitamin C. It cuts and peels easily and is superb baked,
steamed, mashed, made into soup, added to risotto, pasta, frittata, muffins,
pies, cakes or old-fashioned pumpkin scones !
For fast, every-day Mashed Pumpkin, peel and cut Betanut
into 3 cm cubes. Place in a heatproof dish (no water), cover and microwave a few
minutes until tender. Drain, mash with a little butter or olive oil, salt and
ground pepper. Excellent served with any grilled, pan-fried or barbecued meat or
fish.
CITRUS FRUITS FOR GOOD HEALTH
I hope like me you rise and shine each day by juicing half a
sweet ruby grapefruit and a navel orange. Full of Vitamin C, this juice is
delicious and I'm certain helps ward off those winter colds and ‘flu.
 MANDARINS
From sunny Gayndah, popular zipper-skin ‘Imperials' are in full swing with
larger loose-skin Ellendales following closely. Honey Murcott mandarins soon
available are beautifully sweet, have a tighter skin and contain seeds. It's
easier to just cut these mandarins and eat like an orange. (Incidentally growers
are anxious to breed the seeds out and we could have seedless Honey Murcotts for
next season.) What ever happened to a plate of healthy oranges or mandarins at
half time in sport ? Bring them back please ! Expect to see new hybrid varieties
of Honey Murcott like Duchess, Daisy and Monarch.
TANGELOS
Early season fruit is from Emerald QLD then later we'll have tangelos from the
SA, VIC and WA. Tangelos are popular being one of the juiciest citrus fruits,
they have a ‘zipper' skin for easy peeling, segments pull apart easily and they
are virtually seedless. Use them wherever you use oranges. Tangelo zest is great
to flavour cakes, muffins and desserts.
EXOTIC MUSHROOMS
We all know button and flat field mushrooms, but exotic mushrooms add a new
dimension to dishes. Be adventurous and try a new one next time you shop.
OYSTER - a delicate pale cream, grey or even pink fan-shaped mushroom with a
mild flavour. Perfect in salads, sauces, seafood and noodle and dishes. Can also
be gently stir-fried or barbecued.
SWISS BROWN - looks like a brown button mushroom but has more flavour and is
firmer in texture making it ideal for sauces, stir-fries, risotto, pasta dishes
and stews or casseroles. It can also be barbecued.
ENOKI - this elegant mushroom is cream in colour, has slender stalks with tiny
caps and grows in clusters. The flavour is mild and savoury. Trim the end of
stalks before using. Enoki is crisp when raw so goes well in salads or can be
added to Japanese soups, one-pot dishes and stir fries.
SHIMEJI - is a short-stem mushroom with little cap and also grows in clusters.
It has a sweeter flavour than enoki and is popular for salads, soups and
stir-fries.
SHIITAKE - this popular Japanese mushroom now grown in Australia, has a dark
brown cap, white gills and a wonderful earthy aroma and flavour. Its meaty
texture makes it perfect for soups, sauces, stir-fries, casseroles and
barbecues. As the stem is fibrous, remove before cooking. Shiitake are also
available dried and are popular in many Chinese dishes.
BLACK FUNGUS - is not grown in Australia so arrives in dried form and is
reconstituted. Also known as wood ear or cloud ear mushroom, it has a chewy and
crunchy texture and pleasant mushroom flavour. It is popular in Chinese
stir-fries, noodle and particularly vegetarian dishes.
 SINGLE CLOVE GARLIC
We're were very impressed with this new moist, plump garlic when it first
appeared. It's deliciously mellow
in flavour and so easy to use. To peel, trim the top and base and slip off the
papery skin. Slice, chop, mince or crush the garlic and use as desired.
Roasted Garlic is a favourite in our house because the natural sugars in garlic
caramelise when roasted, providing a sensational flavour and texture. Just place
unpeeled single cloves of garlic on a sheet of foil, drizzle with Rosto extra
virgin olive oil and roast at 180 C for 50 minutes, or until tender. Serve with
a week-end roast, colourful roasted vegetables or slip the sweet, soft flesh out
of its skin and add to sauces, soups, salads, dressings, mayonnaise, vegetables,
risotto and pasta dishes.
Store Single Clove Garlic in a paper bag in the refrigerator and use within two
weeks of purchasing. Also look for garlic recipe ideas in the Gourmet Single
Clove Garlic leaflets in our stores.
BLOOD ORANGES
Be quick to enjoy them during their very short season from August to
early September. The typical red pigmentation on the skin and in the flesh is
not indicative of quality but of the variety of blood orange and the growing
climate.
These fragrant, exotic oranges originated in Sicily and the
flesh colour ranges from orange-raspberry to dramatic burgundy. They are loaded
with juice, their flavour is sweet yet tart with hints of cherry.
Back in the 1920's Blood Oranges were popular in Australia
then went out of fashion and trees were removed. Now grower Mike Arnold from
Waikerie in South Australia produces a brilliant crop and there are only one or
two other growers. Blood Orange juice is truly exquisite and served in the
finest hotels in Italy, Sicily and Spain for breakfast. Before dinner, it's
fashionable to sip on a Blood Orange and Campari cocktail. As early season fruit
can be tart in flavour, it's a good idea when juicing Blood Oranges for
breakfast, to add the juice of a navel orange or two. Blood oranges are superb
to flavour jellies, custards, syrups and sorbets. They make wonderful salads and
love the company of fennel, artichoke hearts, avocado, asparagus, black olives,
walnuts, fetta cheese and fruity olive oil. For a quick dessert, slice oranges,
top with maple syrup, sliced dates or figs, scatter with pine nuts (and serve
with a generous dollop of our low fat Harris Farm plain yoghurt).
* Blood oranges can be stored in the refrigerator for up to
one month. One blood orange provides twice the recommended daily allowance of
Vitamin C and is a good source of dietary fibre and folic acid.
Regards,
David Harris. © Harris Farm Markets P/L
A shameless plug! That's what it said on the label to
the olive oil bottle stopper that arrived with the press release for ROSTO olive
oil. We knew that there was a connection with the Harris Farm clan but with that
declared, we figured you'd like to know about their oil anyway, especially as
they're making it available in 750ml bottles at a reasonable $10. They want this
to be an everyday oil, not just a precious taste one.
ROSTO OLIVE OIL
‘Roey and Steve's Olives' is a family owned and run company in the Hunter Valley
where they grow 50,000 olive trees of Italian, Spanish and Greek varieties, to
produce a blended, consistent high quality, ‘every day' Extra Virgin Olive Oil
with a delicious taste. Their passion and commitment is to provide Australians
with a fresh, affordable olive oil as a healthy alternative to refined oils.
Be sure to check out their website
www.rostogrove.com.au for ‘Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Appreciation and Education - History, Health and Harvest.'
OLIVE OIL FACTS
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL (EVOO) is made from the first pressing of olives, without
the need for any additives or chemical refining as required by all other oils
including Pure and Light Olive Oil.
It has a distinct olive taste and rich fruity flavour. It's the highest quality
olive oil obtainable and has the greatest health benefits, containing more
(good) monounsaturated fatty acids than any other vegetable oil. It is a rich
source of antioxidants, is cholesterol-free and has no preservatives.
(In contrast, light olive oil is made from the last (4th) pressing of olives, is
highly processed, is light in flavour but not in kilojoules and lacks
some of the health benefits of EVOO).
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Olive oil is the preferred oil used by chefs for cooking
meat, poultry or fish, vegetables, making soups, sauces, marinades,
bruschetta, salsas, salads, dressings and for dipping with crusty bread,
often into Dukkah ! Chefs use it in pasta, risotto, couscous and for healthy
cakes too
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EVOO can be heated to a higher temperature than other
oils, so is ideal for shallow or deep frying.
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Unlike a good wine, olive oil doesn't improve on
keeping. It's fresh flavour can diminish after opening, so use it daily as a
healthy oil.
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Always buy olive oil in a dark bottle as oil is affected
by light. Use it within 12 months. Australian olive oil is required to have
a ‘best use by date' on the label, whereas many imported oils do not.
Seasons’ Best information comes from our market visits, information provided
by interstate readers and especially, from Harris Farm Markets. |
