A Hearty Autumnal Ploughmans Lunch

I’ve promised to post the recipes from the Trust Organic Festival last Saturday – it’s taken me a few days, but here I am. The crackers have way laid me – that is the crackers I’ve been working on for the Baking book, and I have been deep into cracker land. Here’s a peek at the Barley, Wheat and Rosemary Crackers – very crisp and very yummy. That’s salt you can see dusted on top of them.

The photo up the top and below – that’s my glorious Mexican Rose vine, which seems to be undaunted by the hideously hot weather that this summer has bestowed upon us. It remains unashamed of who she is, climbs freely, and is deliciously pink. And below – that is the ceiling of my front verandah – who would not want a ceiling like that ? I certainly do want it, love it – the flowers are like pink jewels, dripping down. I will cut this back to nothing (and I mean nothing – short sticks really) in about 2 months time, and it will without fail, come to life to take over the front verandah again next summer. I am a very lucky woman. But for another photo of beautiful flowers, check out this and this. Heidi Swanson is a most gifted photographer and I wish her camera and eye could catch my Mexican Rose – I’m sure it would do it better justice than mine!

But, to the Ploughmans Lunch. Gosh I love them, my favourite way to eat – a bit of this and a bit of that. There’s going to be a few recipes – but that will make up for all the times I don’t give you any at all and I did promise to post them, but alas I didn’t take a photo – it was a mad, bad (in the sense that is was fabulous) day.  I made two versions – a meat based, and vegetarian/vegan based. The Waldorf Salad was a mix of fresh Gala apples and the inside celery greens and stems – both very finely chopped, mixed with greens available on the day. Tossed with some home made mayonnaise flavoured with just a touch of sweet curry spices, and nice and lemony. Oh, and a few roasted new season walnuts! I also served the Vegetarian Plate with a good slab of cheese – preferably goats, but on the day, we used the Over the Moon Organic Feta, but can I tell you the Lentil and Walnut Pate with Goats Cheese is a winner combination….

Meat Based:

1.     Slow Braised Shoulder Pork (Spencers Brook Farm)

2.     Waldorf Salad

3.     Apple Jelly

4.     Apple Chutney

5.     Yallingup Wood Fired Bread – grilled

Vegetarian:

1.     Lentil and Walnut Pate (Mt Zero, Victoria)

2.     Waldorf Salad

3.     Apple Jelly

4.     Apple Chutney

5.     Yallingup Wood Fired Bread – grilled

LENTIL & WALNUT PATE

Dairy free –  gluten free – vegan 

Serves  approx 12 – 16

A simple and delicious pate, which can be served as is, or left to set so it is easy to slice. Can be frozen and keeps for approx 3 – 4 days when refrigerated.

            2/3 cup green lentils – sorted and rinsed well

            1 bay leaf

            2 cups walnuts

            1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

            1 medium purple onion – finely diced

            3/4 tablespoon dried basil

            3 teaspoons  minced garlic

            3 teaspoons mirin

            1/4 -1/2 teaspoon umeboshi paste or salt

            1 tablespoon shiro miso

           

Pre – Heat your oven to 180c or 165c if fan forced.

Place lentils in pot and cover with water to reach approx 2 cm above lentils. Bring to the boil, lower heat and simmer until lentils are tender, approx 30 – 45 minutes. Drain lentils and set aside.

Roast the walnuts until just aromatic – approx 10mins. Walnuts burn easily – when they are lightly browned they can be overdone.

Very gently sauté the onions, basil and garlic in oil, over a low heat approx 10 – 15 minutes until soft. You are cooking, not frying the onions.

Combine all ingredients together in food processor. Check for taste, adding more mirin, salt or miso as needed. Serve as is for a soft dip, or place into desired dish and refrigerate until cold to slice.

·      Shiro Miso helps bind and give body to this vegetarian pate. I prefer to use Spiral brand.

·      Mirin  balances the astringency of the lentils beautifully, and again I prefer Spiral brand

A QUICK AND SIMPLE APPLE CHUTNEY:

Gluten free / Vegan

3 – 4 medium apples – peeled, any bruised spots discarded, cut into small dice

½ cup approx raisins or sultana’s

½ medium onion, finely chopped

½ cup apple juice

½ cup approx rapadura sugar

2 – 3 teaspoons approx, fresh ginger, cut into small pieces

1 teaspoon good garam masala

½ stick cinnamon

1 cup approx apple cider vinegar

Add ingredients to a 24cm pot and gently simmer, stirring often. After approx 15 mins, check and adjust the sugar and vinegar for flavour, adding more of each as needed to get the flavour I wanted – sharp, and not too sweet.  You can add more spice as desired. 

Continue to simmer for 50 mins or until the apple has cooked, the mix has reduced and thickened. Store in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

* Rapadura Sugar is a whole cane sugar, where the cane juice is filtered, and the water is evaporated off at low temperature. It is rich in minerals and vitamins and considered one of the most nourishing of sweeteners. It gives the chutney the most luscious, not too sweet and rich flavour.

FRUIT JELLIES –  traditional and vegetarian

Gluten free 

You can make it with either gelatine  – which provides great nutrition, or with Agar sea vegetable, which provides a wealth of minerals. Gelatine will give a smoother textured jelly, but takes a long time to set, whereas agar will set as it cools, but has a coarser texture. I will only use a very high quality and pure gelatine – Bernard Jensen is the brand and you can get it here. When the jelly has set, turn it out and slice as desired.

Agar based jelly:

Agar dissolves best in high pectin and low acid juices. Simple juices such as Apple, Apricot, Pear, with some Strawberry or Guava are all good choices. Avoid high citrus, grape and pineapple juices. I’ve included fruits in this jelly, but you can easily leave them out, and have a simple jelled fruit juice.

Kitchen Notes:

Adding Kudzu to the jelly: will give an agar jelly a smoother texture.

Mix 1 ½ teaspoons kudzu with 1 tablespoon juice. Once the agar has dissolved, whisk this into the pot and allow to come to the boil, stirring constantly.

2 cups freshly pressed apple juice – any scum removed

1 teaspoon agar powder

Place juice into a saucepan and whisk in the agar powder. Gently bring to the boil and cook at a gentle simmer for 8 mins from the time it first came to the boil. Stir frequently with a whisk or spoon to prevent the agar from sinking to the bottom. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

Pour the jelly into dish of choice. Cool slightly and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until set.

Gelatine Based Jelly:

Kitchen Notes:

You’ll need 1½ teaspoons of gelatine to set 1 cup of jelly to a wobbly consistency, which is great for young toddlers. For a firmer set jelly, increase the gelatine to 2 teaspoons per cup.

2 cups freshly pressed apple juice – any scum removed

3 teaspoons gelatine

Place juice into a saucepan and bring to a boil and immediately turn off. Add the gelatine to the hot liquid and stir through until it dissolves.

Pour the jelly into dish of choice. Cool slightly and refrigerate for 5 – 8 hours, or until set.

Pork Along the Lines of Cath Claringbold’s Pulled Pork:

Cath made an amazing pulled pork terrine for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival – this is my rough version, using the Spencers Brook Pork, shoulder neck/collar butt. I didn’t have any chicken stock, so cheated and used water, with a chicken carcass in the pot and made the stock as it cooked! 

1 pork neck/shoulder collar butt – approx 1 kg 

1 tablespoon  good quality Garam Masala (a nice fragrant one)

good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

60 gm olive oil

2 brown onions, cut into large dice

3 cloves garlic

good splosh white wine

500 ml chicken stock

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 sprig fresh sage

5 gm fennel seed

Pre heat oven to 120c. If fan forced, this may need to be approx 110c

Rub the garam masala, salt and pepper over the meat. If possible, leave this to marinate overnight (if doing this, don’t use the salt, rub that on the next day).  Heat the oil in a large cast iron casserole dish, add the pork should and cook over a medium heat, turning the meat to lightly brown all sides evenly.

Remove the pork to a plate.

Lower the heat and add the onion and cook gently until browned, then add the onion and cook gently until browned then add the garlic cloves and soften them slightly (if you haven’t got chicken stock and are using a carcass, add this now so it browns with the onion.)

Add the white wine and half of the chicken stock, thyme, sage and fennel. Place the pork shoulder back in the pot, cover with a lid and transfer to the oven. Leave to cook gently, basting occasionally and gradually adding the remaining wine and chicken stock throughout a 5 – 7  hour cooking period. If like me, you don’t have chicken stock, simply use water.

When the pork is ready it should pull away from the bone. 

Lift the pork shoulder carefully out of the pot and set aside to cool a little.  Leave the pork until it is cool enough to handle and then pull the meat apart into small strips. Cut off any dry outside pieces there may be.  

Place the stock and chicken carcass back on the stove and reduce over a high heat until thick and delicious – pour this over the meat.