Monday, 5 September 2011

Sue Hughes' Fresh Garden Salad with Goats Cheese and Chilli Thai Dressing

Chilli Thai Dressing

100ml White Vinegar
50 ml Light Soy Sauce
15ml Sesame Oil
2 fresh red chillis (chopped)

Add all ingredients together and shake in a sealed bottle
Keeps for months in the fridge

Salad - all ingredients available from Causley Fresh Yamba

4 - handfuls of mixed lettuce and rocket
3 - Roma Tomatoes - sliced
1 - Lebanese cucumber - sliced
1/2 - Red Onion - sliced
9 - Kalamata Olives
2 - blocks of Meredith Dairy Goats Cheese - sliced

Place all ingredients in a bowl and add salad dressing. Serves 4.

Serve with BBQ Wagyu Beef or Nettle Creek Brangus Beef or Yamba King Prawns.

Friday, 12 August 2011

Marg Travers Mussaman Nettle Creek Beef Curry

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
500 g of Nettle Creek Brangus round or topside steak
2 cloves garlic, crushed
⅓ cup mussaman curry paste
400 ml can coconut milk
1 cup beef stock
2 tsp brown sunshine sugar  ( harwood mill)
2 large peeled, cubed Baryulgil School potatoes
2 tsp fish sauce
a small handful of fresh basil leaves.( Tyndale Organics available at grafton farmers markets each thursday)

Trevor Day pecans crushed or whole , extra basil leaves, and steamed rice to serve
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cut the steaks across the grain into strips (about 1.5cm wide). Season with salt and pepper. Add a little oil to the beef strips, mix well.
2. Heat a wok or frypan, ensure it is hot. Stir-fry the beef in 2 batches, remove each batch and place it in a casserole dish. Add a little oil to pan, add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, reduce the heat and add curry paste, stir for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, stock and sugar, stir until the mixture boils. Add potatoes. Pour over the beef in the casserole dish and stir to combine.
3. Cover the casserole dish, place in oven, cook 30 minutes or until beef is tender. Serve sprinkled with roasted peanuts and extra basil leaves, and steamed rice on the side.
Tips
Brown the meat in small batches as you do a stir-fry. Ensure the pan is hot when you add the meat, it should sizzle when it goes in.

Make sure the casserole simmers as it cooks – it must not be allowed to boil or the result will be tough, chewy meat.

Friday, 22 July 2011

Merediths Mini Orange Cheesecakes

The Clarence Valley is home to the juiciest and sweetest oranges you will find anywhere.
Some of the best are available from Keith Taylor at Blaxands Creek ( Nymboida River Region)
Keith also sells these oranges at the Farmers Markets each Thursday at Market Square in Grafton.
BASE
1/2 packet plain sweet biscuits, such as Marie
90g butter, melted
FILLING
1 x 250g packet cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar (Sunshine Sugar from the Harwood Mill)
2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind ( Keith Taylor oranges)
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons gelatine
2 tablespoons water
150ml thickened Norco cream, whipped (for filling)
150ml thickened Norco cream, whipped (for decoration)
serve with Challacombe Strawberries and Corindi Blueberries also available from the Farmers
Market at Market Square in Grafton
METHOD
1. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin papers.
2. Process biscuits until finely crushed. Combine crumbs with butter in a bowl. Press 1 tablespoon of mixture over base of each case. Refrigerate while preparing filling.
3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, rind and juice until smooth. Sprinkle gelatine over
water in a cup, stand cup in a pan of simmering water, stir until the gelatine is dissolved;
cool. Stir gelatine mixture into cream cheese mixture; fold in the cream.
4. Spoon filling into prepared cases. Cover; refrigerate for several hours or until firm.
5. Serve with remaining whipped cream and decorate with rind

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Tis the season to - LIP, SIP, SUCK LOCAL LEMONS

Lisaʼs Lemon Curd (Lemon Butter) - Made with the luscious golden yolks of eggs from our own Clarence Valley chickens which are for sale every Thursday at the Farmers Market and zesty fresh bush lemons from the Valley . These are also for sale from the markets or Causley Fresh. Spread on a fresh baguette or sourdough toast; or on crunchy meringue with whipped cream; or fill a tart shell and top with local Corindi Blueberries, Challacombe Strawberries available from our farmers markets and Causley Fresh .

125g butter
2 cups sunshine sugar (Harwood Mill)
1 tablespoon bush lemon zest
juice of 3 bush lemons
4 large Clarence Valley eggs well beaten

Method
Beat eggs with sugar in saucepan (Just whisk - not stiff). Add butter, lemon juice and zest.
Stir over medium heat until it thickens (this happens quite quickly) like honey.
Cook for another 2 -3 minutes - DO NOT BOIL!
Cool & bottle
NOTE - Nice clean skinned lemons.  Zest gives majority of flavour.
A very nice spread!


Lemon Chiffon Pie -
"Chiffon pies are absolutely wonderful, rather like elegant Victorian ladies, quivery or trembly, always delicate, but with a sound, well-bred constitution."
Marion Cunningham, The Fannie Farmer Baking Book 1984

Lemon Chiffon Dessert has to be the most favoured recipe in my collection and has been handed down from my mother in law -Pam Dougherty. Pam has always used local lemons from her tree to make the dessert and when you taste it you will know why she is a local baking legend.

Preheat oven to 200° Celsius

Crust
1/2 cup packet of biscuits ( Nice or Marie work well )
75g of butter
crush biscuits in a food processor, melt butter, combine and press into a greased pie plate.
Refrigerate whilst making filling.


Filling
4oz packet of cream cheese
1 can condensed milk
2 clarence valley free range eggs separated
juice and grated rind of a local lemon
1/2 cup sunshine sugar

Method
Beat cream cheese, add condensed milk,egg yolks, lemon rind, and juice . Pour over the crust.
Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually adding 1/2 the sugar. Fold in the remainder of the sugar
Spread over the filling and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes to brown the meringue.
Cool on bench before serving
Serve with cream , Corindi Blueberries and Challacombe Strawberries