Camembert wrapped in prosciutto on a bed of braised cabbage and apple - A wintery Escape from the everyday!

Cabbage is one of those vegetables that I like when I eat it, but never think I’m going to,  so I have never used it very much. When we travelled to Taiwan a few years ago, where they love cabbage, I discovered that I enjoyed it and that Ian loved it so I am trying to use it more. From years of underuse ideas just don’t pop into my head the way they do with other vegies though. So when a cabbage turned up in our co-op bag while the girls were both away I had to google. I came across this wintery treat on taste.com.au. It was certainly in the category of occasional food from a health point of view but it was a delicious wintery change from the every day!

Ingredients (serves 4)

·             200g whole camembert

·             10 long thin slices prosciutto

·             50g unsalted butter

·             1 tbs olive oil

·             1 onion, finely chopped

·             1 garlic clove, crushed

·             1 Granny Smith apple, grated

·             1/2 (about 500g) Savoy cabbage, finely sliced

  Method

      Preheat the oven to 220°C.

    Cover Camembert with enough prosciutto slices so they slightly overlap and completely enclose the cheese. Freeze for 10 minutes, then transfer to a baking dish and bake for 6-8 minutes or until prosciutto is just crisp.

    Meanwhile, finely chop remaining pancetta slices. Melt butter and oil in a large pan over medium heat, and then add onion and prosciutto. Cook for 2-3 minutes, and then add garlic and apple and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add cabbage and cook, stirring, for 5-6 minutes. Divide between plates

     Slice Camembert and serve on a bed of the cabbage with a slice of rye toast.

I hope you enjoy this treat as much as we did.

Nicola

Winter Vegetable Gratin

I had a pile of winter root vegetables on hand and a mother-in-law coming to dinner at short notice. Just roasting them didn't seem quite fancy enough, soup didn't seem substantial enough so I googled sweet potato and parsnip and found my solution - gratin. I found a recipe which inspired me - then I made one up with what we had on hand.
Everybody (including me) loved it, and most had seconds (not including me).
Here's how I made it.


Ingredients
4 small Sweet Potatoes
2 Parsnips
3 Small Potatoes
1 large Carrot
2 brown onions
100ml cream
400ml milk
Salt & Pepper
Few sprigs of Thyme
a long stalk of Rosemary
a little butter for greasing pan
150g gruyere cheese


Method
1. Finely slice all 5 vegetables (a mandolin makes this much easier if you have one.)
2. Combine Cream, Milk, a good grind of salt and pepper and the leaves from the thyme in a jug and stir well.
3. Start layering into a large baking dish. I went sweet potato, onion, a little cream, parsnip, onion, cream, potato, onion, cream, carrot, onion, cream and then repeated til I ran out of things.
4. Top it all with gruyere and sprinkle the rosemary leaves over the top.
5. Bake in a moderate oven (180C or 350F) for about 50 min. - I needed to cover in foil for the last 15 min to stop the browning.


I served this with a salad of cos lettuce, cucumber slices and avacado dice with a lemon mustard salad dressing. (lemon juice, dijon mustard, honey and extra virgin olive oil). They were good together as the lemon and freshness of the salad balanced the richness of the gratin.


 I used Heirloom Purple Carrots in my gratin. They looked beautiful when I sliced them (like little tie-dye splotches) but the colour permeated the whole gratin in a slightly odd way. I think I would use orange carrots next time.


Enjoy
Nicola

Beef Stew - A rare treat for a change of season!

There has been a distinct change of season around here.
Indications this week included:- 

• a request for porridge for breakfast,
•  wearing boots all day, 
• the first athletics of the season,
•  wood chopping and the first open fire of the season, 
• the searching for the winter school uniform and once again teaching tie tying, 
• wheat packs at bed time 
• and a strange yearning for beef stew!!

Stew is something each of us has mentioned missing from time to time since we largely gave up meat. So today (with our true vegetarian away) we decided we'd have one for old times sake. (Eva agreed to eat beef just this once as long as it was organic.)


It was delicious and warming! 
The recipe came from Jamie Oliver (a reliable source of all comfort foods I find). 
We put it in the slow cooker before we went to athletics around 11.30am and it was perfectly cooked at 7.30pm when we were ready to sit down.


The sprinkling of rosemary, garlic and lemon zest at the end tasted fantastic on this - it made a huge difference to the final flavour.

Beef and Root Vegetable Stew with Rosemary Gremolata in the Slow-cooker.

• olive oil
• a  little butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• a handful of fresh sage leaves
• 800g/1¾lb stewing steak (I used organic blade), cut into 2cm pieces
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour, to dust
• 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• ½ a butternut pumpkin (squash), deseeded, peeled and roughly diced
• optional: a handful of Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved (I couldn't get any but think they'd be great if you could)
• 500g/1lb 2oz small potatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• ½ a bottle of red wine
• 285ml/½ pint beef or vegetable stock
• zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
• a handful of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Put a little oil and your knob of butter into a small frypan. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 or 4 minutes.

Transfer onion to slow cooker.

Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the slow-cooker with all the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and gently stir together.

Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and just a little salt.

Put slow-cooker onto high setting for approx 2 hours, the switch to low for 5-6 hours until the meat is tender. Test by squashing  a piece of meat and if it falls apart easily it’s ready. (Note if you won’t be around to turn the slow cooker down just cook on low and switch to high when you get home if needed)

Once it’s cooked, you can leave it on low until you’re ready to eat. 

Mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together and sprinkle over the stew just before eating. Just the smallest amount will make a world of difference – as soon as it hits the hot stew it will release an amazing fragrance.

Ladle into bowls and serve as is or accompanied by fresh, warmed bread and a bowl of steamed greens. 

Hope you are Enjoying the season where ever you are and which ever way it's changing!

Nicola