Harvest Box

Drying fruit is an age old custom and so hands on that they are expensive to produce but there is nothing quite like the flavour of our Barossa fruit and its all about minimum water for maximum flavour.     Try making a chocolate cake or pudding with dried pears; a wonderful combination. Even though the pears are quite moist, its still worth reconstituting them in a little verjuice or water to make them soft; allow them to dry a little and then add them to your favourite chocolate recipe. Or serve them with cheese or in a lunch pack with nuts if you’re going walking.

I was in Shanghai a few years ago and had a black sesame muesli for breakfast and fell in love with its distinctive flavour and goodness too….    My memory recreated this but I took it to another level by adding the dried pears which are the only sweetness here.  Full of protein and fibre and so moorish.  I have a bowl of this for breakfast with a big blob of natural yoghurt and then milk; however you can just add it sprinkled over yoghurt as a treat if you’re not as extravagant as I am.

A tradition of the Mediterranean that in South Australia we have adopted it as a staple when entertaining.   What makes this one so special is we make this product fresh every week, roasting the almonds and each of the spices to get maximum flavour and shelf life.     All you need is a flat dish with the dukkah;  some cubes of sour dough bread a day or two old with crusts off if that pleases you and a good Australian robust Extra Virgin olive oil in another dish.  With the cube of bread, first in the oil then roll in the dukkah. Really makes entertaining easy.

Quinces, a fruit dear to my heart yet each year we have windfall or sunburnt quinces that don’t go into the huge quince harvest that is used for making the quince paste.   So we wash, scrub and cut the quinces into chunks and freeze until we need them to make this fragrant preserve with that hint of ginger I love so much that I’ve made to accompany a beautiful ripe, creamy, rich soft cheese.   If you have any left over you can brush it on a rack of lamb or add a spoonful into a stock based sauce for a beautiful Roast Chook….

An Italian tradition I stole with no remorse given we too live in an identical Mediterranean climate. However I have changed this from the traditional Italian Mostardo which is hot and super sweet.    We make it to my palette by adding verjuice so I have a   ‘mustard hot’ , sweet sour condiment that is my favourite of everything we make from our orchard.     The uses are endless, serving with terrine, cold meats, a great sausage, with a leg of ham, rubbed over a well brought up chook with some olive oil and rosemary to make a paste;  bake a ripe brie in a little parcel with mustard pears atop.

Made from the ripe yellow fleshed peaches from our orchard with just a touch of tarragon which gives a slight savoury note which means it is particularly versatile.   Whilst a conserve is really a thick jam that doesn’t have as much sugar as a jam;   its as wonderful on a thick piece of sourdough bread with lots of unsalted butter for breakfast or serve with a ripe soft cheese after dinner.