little lemon and rosemary syrup cakes

Recipe

❤  Limone e Rosmarino piccole torte 

I‘ve made lots of little syrup cakes over the years, with (you guessed it) citrus. Top favourites include; gluten free lemon polenta cakes, a luscious lemon ricotta square and many 100’s of light lemon syrup friands.  Each recipe is moist and more-ish, thanks to an even and generous soaking of sweet syrup.  Do you have a favourite? 

In case you haven’t tried infusing your lemon syrup with herbs, especially freshly picked rosemary, thought I’d best share this subtle little secret with you. 

Ingredients

225 grams (8oz) unsalted butter, softened

230 grams (8 ¼oz /1 cup) caster sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 free range eggs

150 grams (5 ½ oz/1¼ cups) self raising flour, sifted

250 grams (9 oz/1 cup) sour cream

The syrup

3 large rosemary sprigs + extra for decorating plate

finely grated zest of 2 lemons

125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) lemon juice

125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) water

230 grams (8 oz/1 cup) caster sugar

Makes 12 to 15 mini cakes or slices.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Lightly grease 24 cm square tin or 16 x 26cm rectangular tin or individual mini tins, lining base and sides so cake/s can easily be removed. 

Beat butter, lemon zest, vanilla extract and sugar with a pinch of salt in a medium sized bowl until light, creamy and pale.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in sifted flour and sour cream in two batches, mixing until just combined. Fill tin/s with mix, smooth over and bake for 25-35 minutes depending on cake size or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Best to make the syrup while the cakes are cooking. Combine lemon juice, sugar, rosemary, water and lemon zest in a small saucepan. Stir mixture until sugar dissolves and comes to the boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Once slightly thickened, take off the heat.  You could use mint (if you prefer to rosemary) in the same way to infuse flavour into syrup.

Poke small holes into the slice top using a fine skewer.  Pour over the hot syrup in small amounts, allowing syrup to be absorbed fully before adding more.  Stand cakes for 15 minutes in the tin, allowing all the syrup to seep through. Cut into pieces and top with double cream if desired.

Travel Tale

I can’t pour syrup over a warm cake without thinking of one hilarious Sunday spent with my Mum in the crazy corrupt capitol of Naples, Italy. 

Sprawling Naples, with its formidable reputation and 4 million residents can’t help but shock and delight you all at once. The city is a conundrum of life’s best and worst. The full comprehension of which rests firmly with its residents.

For those of us just passing through, the “real” Naples is allusive and jumbled. Perhaps found somewhere between Mt Vesuvius and ancient palazzi, in extraordinary traffic jams, amongst treasure filled museums or under great piles of uncollected rubbish.  We are left to eat the world’s very best pizza and ponder...

The Bay of Naples!  That would be my answer. The bay is where Naples really shows off all her beauties.

Before racing to Sunday lunch with our surrogate Napolitano family, Mum & I just HAD to make a quick stop at one of the cities famous open air flea markets. To satisfy our appetite for fashion, electronics and...anything really, legal or otherwise. We had our sights set on the dealers of contraband designer labels; Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Louis V and more.

The scene unfolded (or perhaps unravelled is a better word) after we picked up ‘a great bargain’. A new mobile phone and video recorder for an unheard of price back home. But very soon and for quite some time we were being followed by a stranger through the tale end of the market. Once out in the street and with pure terror in our faces, the stranger approached.  He asked us to open our bags and boxes to check. And said he had only hoped to warn us of the great Napoli ‘switcheroo’ taking place as our money changed hands. Our boxes were filled with water bottles.

The comfort and relative ‘safety’ of Sunday lunch overlooking an active volcano became an urgent need. And so we were happy to sit down and begin what became one of the best, longest and largest meals of our lives. I always kept a diary during my years in Italy but looking back I haven’t recalled this meal in detail. It was superb and included all the Italian staples; green salad, risotto and lots of local seafood. Veal, chicken, baked vegetables and plenty of freshly made pasta and homemade sugo.

It is the dessert course (surprise, surprise) that I remember well. The moment when tall glasses of limoncello liquer were poured and the cake was presented. It was nearly 4pm!  Mum and I couldn’t move. We had seriously over eaten. And our zealous hosts still wouldn’t take ‘no grazie’ for an answer.  They soaked an enormous Baba Cake with almost an entire bottle of Rum and cut two giant slices.  A potent finale to a remarkable day in Naples. And the reason why I still prefer citrus to alcohol in most desserts. 

roman rosemary potatoes

Recipe

❤ Roman Rosemary Potatoes 

Let’s get some fantastic veggies in the picture before the sweet Easter treats take over.

This is my staple vegetable dish, by far the easiest and most understated recipe in my journal. Humble family opinion rates it right up there with British Cauliflower Cheese browning under the grill and the best Baked Eggplant Parmigiana to come out of Italy.  These three veggie classics do constant battle for top billing in My Farm Kitchen.  All go hand in glove with a Roast Chook or a lovely Leg of Lamb or Beef.

1½ kilos of waxy or all purpose potatoes (nicolas or desirees are fantastic), peeled washed, dried and cut in half

OR

same weight in a combination of white potato, sweet potato, carrot & pumpkin 

8 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and pricked

leaves from three freshly picked Rosemary Sprigs, chopped coarsely 

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper  (Serves approximately 6)

Method + Top Tips 

Preheat oven to hot 220°C (425°F). Line large baking tray with a layer of foil and baking paper.

Peel potatoes, wash and cut in halves. If using other root vegetables as well, cut them in smaller chunks as they will take less time to cook than the potatoes.

Wash rosemary sprigs, shake to dry and strip them bare by running your fingertips from the top to bottom of the sprigs.  Chop rosemary with a Mezzaluna (sharp half moon cutter, well worth buying a good one if you haven’t already) as they are brilliant for chopping all manner of herbs, nuts and dried fruits in an instant.

Place potatoes and peeled pricked garlic into a large bowl. Sprinkle over chopped rosemary and drizzle olive oil all over the potatoes. Stir/toss well to coat.

Turn veggies out onto the prepared baking tray, ensuring they are spread out evenly in one big layer for even cooking. Cover with a sheet of foil tucked into each end and bake for 20 minutes.  

Check potatoes after this time, remove foil cover and turn potatoes over.  Reduce heat to moderately hot 200°C (400°F) and cook uncovered for a further 40 minutes or until just crunchy and edges gorgeous golden brown.  Sprinkle generously with Australian sea salt (I use Murray River Gourmet Pink Salt Flakes or Maldon) and cracked pepper. Toss again. Lift them into a large serving bowl or platter. Garnish with an extra rosemary sprig or two if you have plenty. Serve with your best roast.

Tip: There’s no end to the veggies you can roast in this way.  Onion wedges are great to add, tomatoes or mushrooms added in at half way, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes and other tasty possibilities from your veggie patch or green grocer.

Travel Tale

Where IS that divine cooking smell coming from? And how do you buy a cheese grater in a foreign neighbourhood when you don’t know the word for cheese (or carrot for that matter), let alone “Do you have any cheese graters for sale per favoure?”   

When one doesn't speak or understand very much at all, setting up home in a foreign land becomes a challenge. A feat requiring good humour, a thick skin and endless enthusiasm. My 1st Roman kitchen wasn't much bigger than a shoe box. Normale, by regular Italian standards. Small I can handle, but a bare bones kitchen without utensils, cutlery or even a teaspoon was pretty challenging.  How can a little teaspoon be THAT difficult to pronounce! ‘Cucchiaino‘.

Fortunately my overcrowded ‘alimentari’ (local corner food store) seemed to sell everything from fresh flowers and Chanti to straw brooms and freshly baked ciabatta. That SMELL! There it was again...

Once stocked up with kitchen essentials and fresh Roman produce, this tiny apartment produced some of the simplest and finest meals of my life. I quickly learned that happiness nor success in the kitchen bears any correlation to square meterage or modern appliances.

And so with a small amount of bravado and lots of hope, my language skills slowly improved. On the other hand, my love for Italian cuisine soared. Roman cooking quickly proved to be the epitome of simple rustic fare and I adored it.

The seasons changed and soon after I relocated to the other side of town. “La Farnesina”, a zone named after the Ministry of Italian Foreign Affairs building at the bottom of my street.  Also closeby to “Lo Stadio Olympico” , the 1960 Olympic Stadium now home to the rowdiest soccer matches and traffic jams in Europe.  

Ponte Milvio, a beautiful and ancient Bridge connects this zone to the heart of ancient Rome. Couples in love make the old bridge famous, by attaching a padlock with their names inscribed to the railing and throwing the key into the River Tiber.

Not keen to profess my love quite so soon or dramatically, I loved dashing straight for the fruit and vegetable market alongside the padlocked Ponte. The inspiration for rustic roman cooking was endless. An open kitchen, expanding recipe journal and spare room for visiting Aussies made my Roman life complete.

Common vegetables become uncommonly fabulous to my meat and three veg palate.  One legendary local ristorante “Il Matriciano” changed my feelings for artichokes, zucchini flowers and broccoli forever. I’d order an antipasto of fried stuffed vegetables and nearly weep for joy. Followed by one of their signature family dishes, often the spicy pasta Bucatini Amatriciana bursting with bacon, tomato and basil.

The first Italian brave enough to employ me spoke as little English as I did Italian.  La Signora proudly produced her collection of Australian Womens Weekly Recipe Books at our first meeting. I was speechless once again.  Speechless and thrilled our Australian WW’s tried and tested recipes had found their way into this fine Italian family in suburban Rome.

Excuse my nostalgia, this time of year always reminds me of Roman days. The Spring crowds starting to gather in Piazza San Pietro in the lead up to Easter services. Carabinieri conferring outside the Vatican Walls...“ragazzi, cappuccino o espresso oggi?"

A scorching Summer always follows. Street food in roadside kiosks and bars; toasted sandwiches, little pizzas, sugar coated pastries, gelato, watermelon wedges and Grattachecca (shavings of ice flavoured with fruit juice or sweet syrup).  A variety of Slurpee you just won’t find at your local 7 Eleven. 

Romans head off to enjoy seaside and hillside villages.  I spent my first Summer working in Fregene, the seaside town 40kms west of Rome on the Tyrrhenian coast. “Where Rome goes for La Dolce Vita and a Sea Change”, says the New York Times.  Rome’s fashionable Via Veneto crowd have been coming to their Fregene holiday homes since the 1600’s! Most of the beaches are run by private clubs with pools, cabins, entertainment and bars. A lounge chair can be rented for the day at about 8-10EUR. I commuted from the city each day and enjoyed copious amounts of proscuitto and melon followed by rigatoni carbonara topped with fried zucchini, onion, chilli and bacon.  

When cooler Autumn evenings arrived I adored making “Farfalle con crema di noci e panna”, fresh pasta tossed in the ultimate sugo. A toasted walnut pasta sauce of tomato, basil, parsley, chilli, and gorgonzola cheese - with just a dollop of cream. And as for THAT smell, I finally tracked it down. Tucked away around the corner and down the street, Roast Chicken and piping hot Roman Rosemary Potatoes. 

Update on March 24, 2012 by Susie

Track down your local spud farmer!  They are a wealth of knowledge regarding Aussie varieties and recipes. Potato choice can be quite confusing, don't you think? floury vs waxy, boil vs bake - so have a good chat to your spud grower. Basically, the greater the moisture content in your spud, means a waxy texture good for boiling and salads.  If spud sugar content is low and texture 'floury'  they are perfect for chips, gnocchi and cajun spiced wedges.

Spunky Spuds is our closest spud farmer on the Gold Coast.  Just up the road from Weka Weka. They sell at Palm Beach & Bundall Turf Club Markets and also at Moggill and Powerhouse New Farm Markets in Brisbane, I think. Check their website for details.  If you click their link, there's a quick easy guide to which variety for what purpose. Today I got just dug Sebago, a floury spud perfect for making gnocchi and some Pink Fur, the ultimate salad potato very waxy and firm. I'm off to make a Salad of Walnut, Celery and Apple with warm spud slices & blue cheese drizzle. Let me know if you'd like the recipe...

spaghettini alla bottarga

Sorry to be absent this week.  No, I haven’t been away anywhere exotic, except in my dreams. But ‘Fine Food Queensland’ at the Brisbane Convention Centre was fun and provided loads of gourmet inspiration. 

I’ve been busy with my daughters and helping with an ‘autumn clean’ at Weka Weka too. Still fighting a ½ acre of weeds and lots of fruit picking.  My fruit bowls are piled high with freshly picked chillies, ruby red grapefruit and loads of limes. But there’s plenty of time for all that loveliness later in the week, isn’t there? Gotta show you the rubies though...

To top it off I just couldn’t make up my mind what to share with you next? Finally decided to surprise you with something from left field that’s neither sweet nor baked. An unexpected dish using a little known ingredient in South East Queensland that's coming into season very soon.  Or perhaps I should say swimming in.

Recipe

❤  Spaghetti alla Bottarga

The contestants on Australian ‘Masterchef’ created a lobster dish a while back using Bottarga, a seafood delicacy in many parts of the world. Simply put it’s sun-dried mullet roe. They complicated things (as per usual on that show) with a dozen different ‘elements’ to finish. My pet peeve! Bottarga isn’t meant to be a complicated dish. Gourmet Traveller got it right with their recipe. Hats off to them for keeping it so simple.  

What’s all the fuss about you ask? Please read on. This simple traditional recipe for Bottarga uses only five added ingredients; thin spaghettini, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, lemon and Italian parsley from your garden. It’s divine, something very different and should only take you ten minutes tops to prep and another ten to cook.

Ingredients

400 grams Spaghettini (I use fresh pasta or Barilla Spaghettini No.3)

3 lemons, juice and finely grated rind

3 cloves of garlic smashed

1 cup extra virgin Olive Oil

a big bunch of just picked Italian parsley coarsely chopped

25 grams (at least) of Bottarga, finely grated cold from the fridge

Serves 5-6 people

You can buy Bottarga from Philippe, The Truffleman. He sells online and sends it out directly (approx $24 for 100 grams). Philippe supplies select delis and restaurants too.  Bottarga is also available from specialist Aussie fish markets and David Jones food halls.

Bottarga is manufactured and packaged in Australia by Beach Gold Seafood Products at Eagle Farm in Brisbane. It is a totally natural product and only local Australian mullet is used. Bottarga is also known as karasumi (Japanese),  avgotaraho (Greek), boutarque(French), botarga (Spanish) and batarekh (Arabic). You can contact Beach Gold to find out your nearest stockist around Australia. Tel: (07) 3868 1983

Method + Top Tips

Finely grate your bottarga (use a microplane zester or any fine grater), chop the parsley and zest the lemons too - ready to mix all through the hot pasta when cooked.  Squeeze the lemon juice & discard seeds so juice is also ready.

Cook fresh or packet pasta in boiling salted water as per instructions until al dente. 5-6 minutes for packet spaghettini or only a minute or two for fresh pasta. 

Drain pasta into a colander and reserve 2 tablespoons of cooking water.  I like to do this with most pasta dishes when pasta is returned to the stovetop to incorporate a sauce or seasonings. 

Heat large pan with olive oil and cook garlic till fragrant.  Add spaghettini and all remaining ingredients to the pan, tossing through well to combine. Season with a little cracked pepper and tiny amount of salt if necessary, as naturally salty to begin with.  Serve hot with parsley and wafer thin slices of bottarga to garnish.

Tips: Wrap your bottarga leftovers up tightly -  it has a strong smell in the fridge. If you prefer to slice it really thin rather than grate it, use the longest, sharpest, thinest knife blade you have.  Other Bottarga serving suggestions; sliced very thin and served with olive oil, lemon wedges and country-style bread, sliced thinly over hot scrambled eggs and  Da Noi, Melbourne’s swish Sardi restaurant in South Yarra sometimes serves it with Malloreddus (little Sardinian gnocchi available from italian Delis) with prawns, chilli and fresh basil.

Travel Tale 

Sardegna. Bella Sardegna. That big beautiful island underneath Corsica in the middle of the Mediterranean.  That’s how I used to describe it to friends and family when I first went to live there.  That way they could easily plot me on the map and I would feel (perhaps?) not quite so far away from home. 

Ten years ago it wasn’t common place for a young Australian girl to set up house in mysterious Sardinia. “Haven’t you heard about the ‘banditos’, the notorious bandit hotspots in the hilly remote land of shepherds?!”, Aussie based Italians would ask me? “It’s not at all like living in Rome or Siena”, they’d say. That’s for certain.  Sardinia is of course so much more than its reputation and stunning seaside location. 

Sardinia is the ONLY location in Europe that reminds me of Australia. Pristine beaches, crystal clear water, Tasmanian blue gum trees (would a koala survive here?), Moreton Bay fig, poisonous oleander bushes and a superb cuisine based on sea and land.  Sure, we don’t have flamingos, an abundance of prickly pear cactus or rocky coves around every bend.  But if you pause and squint for just a minute ... you can almost call parts of it home.  Or was that just the homesickness talking? 

Like many Queenslanders, I’m a girl who grew up on local seafood; prawns, Moreton Bay bugs, crabs, oysters and whiting just reeled in from the Tweed River.  I’m no stranger to seafood.  But my first reaction to Sardinian seafood was pure dread.  I was in complete shock at the enormous platter placed in front of me. It was filled with every Mediterranean mollusc and crustacean a hook, pot or net could catch.  The stash included; spigola and other varieties of fish unknown to me, a couple of sea snakes, sea snails, cozze (baby mussels), vongole (sand cockle/clam - looks like a pippi to me) and gamberi and aragoste (prawns and lobsters). Complete with garum, a special fish sauce made from honey and vinegar. 

This slightly scary platter was delivered to our table at Ristorante Lo Scoglio, one of Cagliari’s most popular seafood dining spots, just out of town at Sant’Elia overlooking the sea. 

Isn’t it exciting when a new cuisine leaves you speechless and baffled. A whole new vocabulary opens up to test your tongue and taste buds. They didn’t teach this at the language school in Siena!

Bottarga was a word I’d never heard of or spoken. How could a piece of sun-dried mullet roe turn me so silly? I wasn’t even a fan of caviar.  But once converted to Bottarga, I had to seek it out at all costs (sometimes exorbitant) like an over zealous Italian hunting for mushrooms in the forest after heavy rain. I couldn’t get enough of it to grate on fresh pasta.

Once home, it’ll be no surprise to you that I started exploring what else was swimming in Queensland waters. I also scoured deli shelves and seafood specialists to find out if any Sardinian specialties were available here. I discovered with amazement that some of the world’s finest Bottarga is produced in Brisbane and exported to Japan and around the world.  Leads me to question ‘Was it Queensland or Italian bottarga I was eating in Sardinia?’ 

Luckily some call it poor man’s caviar in Australia, making it much more affordable and fresher than any import. Many species of mullet are found around the Aussie coast - mainly caught off beaches in Queensland, NSW and WA.  They move out to sea from April to July to spawn.  So look out for fresh, smoked or sun-dried mullet roe coming your way very soon.  

Sardi people are full of pride and their cuisine has developed and diversified slowly over many centuries. They are often a reserved mob & difficult to get to know.  The Italian word for foreigners is ‘stranieri’.  More often than not I felt a little strange or like a stranger living on their beautiful island.  My blonde hair and language skills not helpful to my cause.

First ruled by the Phoenicians, then Carthaginians and Romans, the Spaniards arrived on the island bringing their typically Catalan dishes, especially to northern parts such as Alghero. It's a gorgeous town that became an important tuna centre. Or at least it was before world demand for bluefin sushi tuna overtook supply.  $4 billion dollars in Tokyo’s fish market alone! 

The Arabs later brought rice and almond pastries to Sardinia which became popular staples of their cuisine. However Sardinia’s largest export to the world is Pecorino -  one cheese well worth stocking in your fridge.  Never to be grated on seafood pasta dishes though - try to resist the temptation.

The plates featured are handmade local ceramics and a Sardinian tradition that's many centuries old. The blue and white piece with crazy gallinas (chickens) is from Sardartis in Castelsardo, in the north west of the island. The town of Assemini in the south is also well known for its ceramics made by Nunzia Lecca.  I had boxes filled and very carefully wrapped to post home. Almost all arrived in one piece; vases, bowls, plates and dishes. A special way to serve up and capture the spirit of Sardi cuisine and this stunning region.

persian love cake

Recipe

❤  Persian Love Cake

One of my oldest and dearest friends does a lot of gluten free cooking for her family, some of whom are coeliacs and real foodies. Many years ago, when I first started baking like a woman possessed, she shared her gluten free Orange & Almond Cake Recipe with me. You know it, the popular one made from boiled pureed oranges and almond meal. No doubt you’ve seen it in many cafes in one version or another. Winter mandarins can be used too.  Once discovered, this wonderful world of flour-less baking is easily embraced. This superb gluten free recipe requires no lengthy boiling of fruit, no involved prep time, no fancy icing and only takes 30 minutes in the oven. Super quick sophistication. Love the Love Cake.

Ingredients

3 cups Almond Meal

1 cup Raw Sugar

1 cup Brown Sugar

120 grams unsalted Butter, at room temperature

2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten

250 grams Greek style yoghurt

1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg

45 grams pistachios, coarsely chopped

teaspoon sea salt

Method + Tips

Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). Grease and line bottom and sides of a 26cm-diameter round spring form cake tin with baking paper. Sometimes I make it in a 24cm square springform as pictured.

Chop pistachio nuts coarsely. Buy the already peeled ones if you want to save time.

Place almond meal, both sugars, butter and a teaspoon of sea salt into a mixing bowl.  Combine all ingredients by rubbing with your fingertips until the mixture becomes coarse crumbs.

Take half this mixture and press it firmly and neatly into the base of the prepared cake tin. Add yoghurt, beaten eggs and nutmeg to the remaining crumble mixture. Beat ingredients together using a wooden spoon to combine well until creamy and smooth.  Pour over the base and smooth top if necessary. Scatter the chopped pistachios evenly around the edge of the cake. 

Bake until golden (30-35 minutes).  Leave in the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.

When serving, slice thinly with a hot knife. Add a dollop of greek yoghurt on the side.  Keeps really well for up to one week in an airtight container. It's sweet and luscious - so you only need thin slices and a special friend/s to share it with. Happy Birthday Brit!

Travel Tale

Month to month, year on year, Australian Gourmet Traveller Magazine presents its ‘Fare Exchange’ column.  An opportunity for us home cooks to beg Australia's leading chefs for their best ever recipes.  These recipes complied into one extraordinary cookbook make for inspirational reading.

This Persian Love Cake appeared in Gourmet Traveller’s ‘Fare Exchange Cookbook’  2008. It came courtesy of Gerard Yaxley, the former head chef of Qom’s at Peregian, south of Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. Qom’s Persian cuisine was inspired by Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran - with authentic spice mixes, nuts and distilled waters such as rose and orange blossom featuring highly. 

In more recent times Pitchfork Restaurant has taken over Qom’s location at Peregian Beach and the Sunshine Coast has taken over as a prime destination for foodies. The coastal stretch from Noosa and Peregian to Mooloolaba and Caloundra covers it all - from five-course degustation, Australia’s top Thai Cooking School and more than a handful of exceptional restaurants and edgy eateries. Furthermore, you'll also be spoiled for charming choices when driving into the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

If you haven’t taken the quick detour off the highway into Peregian Beach for sometime - go for it!  Specialty small businesses and local council have created a revitalised Peregian Village with a vibe that’s creative, stylish and home grown. Wahoo Seafood Cafe serves fresh Queensland seafood (dine-in or takeaway) to hungry locals and tourists. I love the sea breeze and village outlook from under their sprawling Pandanus trees. 

After lunch you can easily spend a few hours browsing Peregian’s beatiful boutiques. My favourites being; the independent bookstore, Evolve for its exquisite childrens range and Otilly & Lewis for its fabulous French fabric collections and design ideas. Oh.. look at the time already! Almost time to eat again. A couple of sweet delicacies and coffee from the petite French Patisserie known as Le Bon Delice. Lovely.  

I adore staying at The Spotted Chook in the Hinterland. It's a french inspired Country Inn with spectacular views over the rolling countryside of Montville.

Flame Hill Vineyard  is a superb spot for a long lazy lunch and wine tastings.  In town we normally dine at Wild Rocket @ Misty’s or The Long Apron for inspiring seasonal produce. When in Maleny don’t miss Colin James Fine Foods for their fromagerie, artisan wares and house-made gelato.

Eumundi Markets are still held every Wednesday and Saturday - well worth visiting if you manage to time the days right.  There are a large number of diverse stalls offering everything from fine linens to outstanding sourdough. 

If you’ve got the time and $'s, try not to miss lunch or dinner at The Spirit House Thai (Yandina), Cocoa Chocolat (Eumundi), the Sunday Noosa Farmers Market at the AFL Club and Belmondo’s Fresh Food Market everyday in Noosaville. Any favourites I've missed? Please let us know in comments so we can all share the best of the Sunny Coast.

Update on March 14, 2012 by Susie

Hi - just a quick follow-up to this Sunshine Coast story. I met the lovely Petra Frieser at the Fine Food Queensland event. She has developed a fantastic directory that brings together local food producers, growers, markets, cooking schools, restaurants and the general foodie public - it's called Local Harvest.  This way you can plan ahead and not miss out on any of the seasonal gourmet produce. Cheers Susie x

Cavallucci

Recipe

I’m keen to share with you recipes and ramblings from sunburnt Siena. My favourite Tuscan meals, backyard Pizza oven stories and lots of digital photos are open on my Mac. But sitting in my lap is a journal filled with handwritten Sienese biscuit and cake recipes. Sweet turmoil. Where to start? And the winner is ... ahh, surprise surprise. Sweet tradition.

❤ Sienese Cavallucci (Spiced cookies with candied orange and walnuts)

Ingredients

200 grams 1 cup Caster sugar

6 tablespoons good quality honey

200 grams Walnut pieces, chopped

85 grams of Candied Orange Peel, finely diced - store bought or home made

½ teaspoon freshly ground aniseed

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

500 grams 4 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

plenty of icing sugar for dusting

Makes approx. 26

Methods + Tips 

Place sugar and honey in a saucepan with ¾ cup of water. Heat gently, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.  Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 5 minutes until temperature reaches ‘thread stage’.

Remove pan from the heat. Stir in chopped walnuts and diced orange peel.  Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). 

Sift the flour with the baking powder and spices into a large bowl. Pour in walnut/peel mixture and fold into the flour with a large stainless spoon. Knead the dough just a little and roll into generous sized balls whilst still warm.  Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, until puffed and set but not browned. Dust with lots of icing sugar and serve.

These crunchy aniseed cookies are a Sienese specialty, along with Ricciarelli - a soft almond cookie and all those lovely P’s; Panforte, Panpepato, Panettone and  Pancioccolato - steeped in centuries of tradition. They are surely linked to the Palio horse race and/or the servants who worked in the stables of Italian aristocrats. 

When I arrived in Siena I didn’t know Cavalli was Italian for horses. Or that you could make anything small and cute in the Italian language by playing around with the word endings e.g ‘inni’ & ‘ucci’.

Don’t expect these to taste like a melting moment or other butter type Aussie cookie. There’s no butter here. It’s a crunchy biscuit on the outside with a soft centre that leaves a lingering fusion of citrus, aniseed and walnut in your mouth.

Traditionally these biscuits were eaten after a meal, often dunked in red wine or sweet vin santo.  I also love dunking them in a good espresso. When I make them they remind me of ‘brutti ma buoni’ another Italian biscuit that’s famous for its ugly look but great taste.

If you have time to make your own candied citrus and pound anise seeds in your mortar and pestle - it is well worth the effort. If not, don’t stress. You will still enjoy the results immensely.

Travel Tale

If you have a recurring dream (asleep or awake) of living in a foreign country simply because you’d like to learn a new language, cuisine and culture, DO IT!  Follow your heart.   

This IS reason enough to pack up your life for a little while. Spend your hard earned savings. And be prepared - for when you get there your heart will burst and your soul will fly. 

My recurring dream was to learn Italian in bella Toscana. I chose Siena for its two great language schools; Dante Aligheri and Universita per Stanieri (The University for Foreigners)  and also because the town seemed more approachable than its much bigger sister Florence. 

The gods were watching over me as my fellow students checked-in to their Sienese family apartments in town. Meanwhile, I was directed to the outskirts of town, ‘back down the hill to the train station and continue on past the local Coop supermercato’, directions given in Italian. I didn’t understand more than ‘grazie’ and ‘buongiorno’.

Eventually I found the supermarket and a little further along 'Strada del Paradiso' (apt beyond belief) was a long cypress lined driveway. It whispered 'picture postcard Tuscany' to me. My two backpacks, one on each sore shoulder quickly became light as a feather. I strolled up the shady track, past overgrown grape vines and olive trees to a large courtyard featuring the best backyard pizza oven I had ever laid eyes on. My host welcomed me in Italiano troppo rapido and presented a key to my heart. Actually it opened a well equipped kitchen and my Tuscan bedroom, complete with antique furnishings and a frescoed ceiling! Dreams really do come true.

All settled into my ‘villa’, I headed back into town to find ‘la scuola’ my new school and go ‘in centro’ the centre to see the famous Piazza del Campo. Lying stretched out on the cobblestones of Piazza del Campo is a terracotta dream with azure lining.  Add an IPod, ear piece and the voice of Tuscan born Andrea Boccelli to the mix - sublime.

The fiercest competition and tradition in Siena is the annual Palio Festival held on the 2nd of July and 16th of August each year. Unfortunately, or fortunately however you look at it, I arrived just after the August Palio Horse Race had been run.  But there is no escaping the importance of this event and the fascinating history of the Contradas - the 17 districts into which the town of Siena is divided. 

Other sacred destinations and magic moments are never far away in Siena. Just a minute or two from Piazza del Campo is Italy’s finest (in my humble opinion) Gothic Cathedral ‘Il Duomo’. If you have visited Siena you will remember it well - the Duomo’s unique black and white licorice all-sort striped marble belltower.

Its campanille dates back to 1313, not long before they started making these lovely biscuits in the 1500’s. The mind boggles - a 500 year old biscuit recipe. More stupenda (splendid) Siena another time. A presto!