Must be love!

"Toad in the Hole"

I'm in love. Real, true, proper actual crushing love. I have my mum to thank for introducing me to this, my newest obsession. The object of my affection is the oft overlooked Celeriac. Yes, that scary, gnarled root vegetable - literally, it is the root of celery, though not the variet of celery which most of us would usually eat. This super veg is low in carbohydrate and a great tasting substitute for potatoes. Truly, it's amazing. Go get some, and make this!

What better way than this breakfast to tell the celeriac how I feel? And also to thank the piggies, chooks and cows who all combined efforts to make this deliciousness possible, nom.

You will need:

1cm sliced of celeriac - treat each slice as a piece of bread
Free range eggs - one per piece of celeriac, I usually work on two eggs per person
Optional - cherry tomatoes
Free range ham - mine is from Barossa Fine Foods

To do:

Use a sharp paring knife to carefully remove the hard skin from the celeriac. Discard. Use a cookie cooter to slice into the middle of the celeriac - I used a love heart. Set a frying pan over moderate heat and melt a little butter in the bottom.. just enough to lubricate the pan. Add in the celeriac - the edges and also the cut outs, as well as the tomatoes if using.

Allow the celeriac to cook for around 3 minutes on each side over low heat. Celeriac seems to have a tendency to caramelise, so keep the temperature low. Once it's started to brown, crack the eggs into the centre of each piece of veg. Don't worry if the eggs run out of the middle, this won't affect the flavour! Place a lid on the saucepan and leave until eggs cooked to your liking. Serve immediately, plated with the ham.

I also cooked up an egg in my love heart shaped cookie cutter, well greased..

NB I think this would also work with eggplant, which I have likewise developed a new affection for (don't worry, celeriac, it's nothing compared to how I feel for you. Mon amor!).

(coffee from my delicious delonghi coffee wizard)

Cauliflower and home grown pumpkin soup

We planted what we thought was a butternut pumpkin seed many months ago, but actually it turned out to be what we think is QLD Blue instead. Either way, sadly, our pumpkin growing attempt was somewhat abortive. Perhaps as a result of overwatering from the top side, our pumpkin patch developed a mildew that was unbeatable. Our Zuchini, which neighboured the pumpkin, were a sad casualty of this mildew, so we lost a lot of these, also. However, the pumpkin vine did yield one almost fully grown veg before it gave up on itself, and this we have picked and started to cook. It is quite beautiful, though a little green and underdeveloped, so perfect to give the cauliflower body in this recipe, without overwhelming the flavour.

You will need:

Extra virgin Olive Oil
1/4 of a small pumpkin
1/2 Cauliflower
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken or veggie stock
Salt and pepper for season

What to do:

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the diced onions and chopped garlic. Stir until becoming translucent. Add the cauliflower and pumpkin and mix well, seasoning now with salt and pepper. Cook until lightly browned and fragrant. Deglaze with verjuice or white wine (optional).

Add the stock and leave to simmer and bubble and soften. I pureed mine in the blender, though it would also be beautiful just hand mashed and left as a chunky soup.

Serve with parmesan cheese and spring onion (optional).

Creamy mushroom chicken with mashed cauliflower cheese