Thursday, February 4, 2016

New England summer vegetables and lamb Sunday lunch

Made a lovely Sunday lunch the other day for some friends--a fragrant and delicious meal built primarily around the produce of our New England(Australia) garden, accompanied by tender and juicy New England lamb.
The raw ingredients first:
Eggplants(aubergines) green capsicums, herbs, lamb, tomatoes and garlic for the ailoli crumbs(for the lamb)

Field mushrooms picked that morning in our paddock(there's been lots of rain, so we are enjoying good mushrooms!)

The full meal--grilled lamb(which had been marinated in lemon, garlic and rosemary first) with sauteed Kipfler potatoes, capsicum and tomato stew, fried aubergines with crouton crust, tomato salad with special dressing(below) and green salad. All vegs and herbs from our garden!
Tomato and basil salad with a dressing made from a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and a little pomegranate molasses

Entree(not illustrated as forgot to take the photos!) was very nice wild game pate(bought) served with fresh field mushrooms, lightly sauteed, with tarragon(our own produce!), and mushroom and spinach pesto(bought). Dessert(also not illustrated) was a fruit salad of our own produce: plums, melon and blackberries, served with a quince and rosewater icecream of my own confection! The whole washed down with a very nice Riesling.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Three delicious home-grown entrees

We have an entree every day at the main meal--it's a lovely, colourful and appetising way to start a meal and I love thinking up new ways of presenting things, especially vegetables from the garden!
Here are three we have had recently:
Fresh field mushrooms(picked out of paddock after rain) sauteed in butter with garlic, chives, tarragon and salt and pepper, served with little Roma tomatoes straight off the vine

Fresh sweet corn, grilled, then coated with a sauce made of home-made mayonnaise to which a little extra white balsamic vinegar has been added, then covered with grated cheese

Home-grown eggs, boiled, then split in half, and the yolk taken out, mixed with mustard, salt, pepper, and a little sour cream, then stuffed back into the whites, served with red Danish lumpfish caviat, on a bed of creamed home-grown spinach