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Spring Time Chicken and Mint Salad

by | Sep 28, 2020 | Elle Armon-Jones, recipes, Vegetable Garden, Vineyard Cottges

Orange Sour Cream Cake

Chicken and Mint Salad

 

I’ve got a garden full of mint which for some people is a curse, but for us, it is definitely a blessing. I love fresh mint tea, we use mint in all our water bottles for events, mint syrups, mint in hot chocolate, mint in cooking, you name it, if I can use it, I do. There is also always a roast chicken cooked in the house once a week. When there are a number of mouths to feed around the table and sandwiches that need filling, cooked chicken is quick and easy. Nothing gets wasted. The bones are made into stock with any vegetable peelings and the animals get all the stock scraps once it is cooked. In fact I think Archie’s favourite thing in the world is a carrot from the stock pot! This is a great throw together salad where you can add and take away any flavours you want apart from the mint and chicken. If you have tahini in the fridge it’s the perfect dressing.

 Ingredients.

    • 200g Roast chicken
    • 1/2 cup washed mint finally chopped
    • 1/2 cup chopped parsley
    • 1 cup chopped cucumber
    • 1 cup shredded lettuce
    • 2 raddishes finely sliced
    • 1 spring onion finely chopped
    • handful toasted nuts or seeds – I love toasted hazlenuts and pumpkin seeds. 

Wash all the fresh salad ingredients, dry and add to your salad bowl. Top with the chicken and toasted nuts and seeds. Mix with Tahini dressing.

If you want to go one step further with this add it to a pita pocket as an easy chicken salad lunch. 

Tahini dressing is one of these really easy sauces you can add onto anything. There are varying ways of making a tahini sauce but mine is simply

  • 1–2 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup tahini past
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup cold water, more if needed
  • 1 cup fresh chopped parsley leaves

Blitz it all together in a blender or pestle and mortar. Will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge. 

 

Orange Sour Cream Cake

Orange Sour Cream Cake

by | Jul 7, 2020 | Elle Armon-Jones, Local Producers, recipes, Vineyard Cottges

Orange Sour Cream Cake

Orange Sour Cream Cake

 

With theglut of oranges we have at VC during the winter, finding the right recipes and not just making marmalade is vital. Our oranges are wonderfully sour, so perfect for desserts, juice and marinades. The dehydrator is full of finely sliced fruit which has crisped up and is a delicious snack or addition to a dish. This sour cream cake is dense and decadent. We added some rosemary flowers for additional aroma.

Of course you could try this with lemons, lime and grapefruit too. Finish off with a great dollop of yoghurt for a pud or afternoon tea. 

 

Ingredients.

  • 125g softened butter
  • 2tsp grated orange rind
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup standard flour (or substitute gluten free plain flour)
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • sugar for the tin
  • grease for the tin

    Preheat the oven to 160 C.

    Throughly grease the tin. We used a bundt tin sprayed with bake oil and sprinkled with sugar. 

    Beat the butter, rinds, sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy. 

    Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into the egg mix, alternating with the sour cream.

    Make sure it is mixed together evenly all the way through but be delicate.

    Pour into the tin

    Bake for 45 mins or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. 

    Leave to cool for at least 10 mins before turning onto a rack. 

    Foggy Days and Fireplaces

    Foggy Days and Fireplaces

    by | Jun 8, 2020 | Hygge, Vineyard Cottges, Wellness, Winter Stays, Winter Weddings

    We’re into the first week in June and it’s certainly got that wonderful winter feel about it. My morning walks with the dogs have been very very foggy. Usually it means we’re in for a stonking sunny day and I watch as the mist rolls away over the vineyard to bright sunshine and a chill in the air. 

    This weekend was the weekend we tackled the wood pile. Feeding 8 log burners throughout winter and spring means we get through around 10 sq metres plus of chopped wood between May and October. Of course with Covid 19 turning 202 on it’s head, the fireplaces went on in March, more for comfort than necessity. 

    When we first came to VC we were getting wood delivered two or three times a winter. It was expensive and took a lot of time away from the day to day winter tasks. Over the years, I got a bit smarter, keeping my eyes open for people wanting to get rid of wood from their properties in early spring or seeing if any arborists were wanting to offload wood cheaply. 

    We started making Swedish log piles at the front of the property which were visually lovely as well as practical. The logs would spend summer in the sun seasoning for winter. 

    Why do we season the logs? By seasoning or drying the logs we reduce the moisture content by about 50%. They reduce in weight and burn a lot better, without the natural oils and resins spitting in the fire. 

    Last spring I arranged for a local arborist to deposit a truck’s worth of logs on the grass outside the house. The logs were double the size I’d seen (or glanced at speed) in the photos and when Barry arrived home from work, he took one look and announced he wasn’t cutting them up! Cue the log splitter. 

    The logs spent summer in the garden and yesterday we lopped and chopped firewood into chunks. I’ll be honest there is still a huge amount to go, but between us we filled the bins and tackled at least half the piles. Fuelled by the dhal we grew to love during lockdown, by sunset it felt like a good job jobbed!

    The fireplaces at Vineyard Cottages are much loved by everyone that stays here and are a real highlight for our winter wedding photography. We use a mixture of hard and soft wood to keep the rolling heat from the fires continuous throughout the evenings. Many of the guests will head out to dinner, so we pop in to throw a log on the fire and make sure it’s still warm for when they return. Last year I sat with one of our regular guests, now a lovely friend and we drank tea, ate cookies and watched the fire in the log burner. When we topped the fire up with macadamia nut shells, they cracked and made little clinking noises as they burnt.  It was the simple notion of just being there watching the flames that we loved and she remembers the most. 

    Come and stay and enjoy the fires. 

    Elle

    Dhal – ing comfort food

    by | Jun 8, 2020 | Vineyard Cottges

    Simple and fabulous Dhal

     

    Over the duration of lockdown cooking for the team at VC became my source of comfort. For the first couple of weeks we were all in a bit of a daze wondering what was happening with the world. Dhal became the simple answer to a nutritious lunch, made in large quantities to feed us either on the run or in front of the 1pm news bulletin. 

    As a child the moment my mother mentioned split peas or lentils, I threw a wobbly at the idea and various dismissive expressions that I watch children do now and think “just you wait, one day you’ll love it!”

    From India to the West Indies, the dish is made from lentils or split pulses. Literally translated from Sanskrit it means “to split” and has been a staple in many nations around the world. During lockdown Chef and Author Sabrina Gahyour kept me entertained on her instagram feed with simple four ingredient recipes she was making in her kitchen with her camera shy mum. Green lentils, curry powder, tomato puree, onion and water – Dhal, so easy!

     

    I make ours from split peas. We have bags in the cupboard and for a few $’s it’s a great value meal. It’s a great recipe to bung in a pressure cooker or slow cooker too.

     

    2 cups of split peas (washed in a sieve to remove all the dust)

    One onion finely chopped

    2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

    1inch ginger root, skin removed and grated (or 1tbsp ground ginger if you don’t have fresh)

    2 tbsp curry powder

    2tbsp oil

    1tbsp tomato puree

    1 tsp fresh chopped chilli.

    6 cups of chicken / vegetable stock

    Salt and Pepper to taste

     

    Rinse the split peas well until the water runs clear. 

    Heat a large pan and add the oil.

    Gently fry the onion and garlic until translucent.

    If you have fresh ginger add it now and fry until fragrant. 

    If you are using ginger powder add to the curry powder and add to the pan. Fry gently until you can smell the aroma of the curry powder. 

    Add your tomato puree and mix, followed by the split peas and stock. Bring up to the boil and drop to a simmer stirring regularly for 45 minutes if soaked to 90 minutes if straight from the packet. 

    If you are cooking this in a slow cooker you probably want to leave it cooking for 5 hours. 

    Of course the quickest way to make this is with a couple of cans of lentils!

     

    Season the dhal when the peas are soft and serve with chopped chilli and flat breads. 

     

    Extra flavours you can add during cooking:

    Cardamon, cumin, garam masala, fresh coriander, fresh tomatoes, grated vegetables, cauliflower, peas. Tart it up with fresh coriander, fried curry leaves and a dollop of yoghurt. 

    Hot Buttered Whiskey

    by | May 21, 2020 | Cocktails, Vineyard Cottges

    Sticking with the warming Whiskey theme, our hot buttered Whiskey is a wonderful winter warmer. Forget the calories and just enjoy the naughtiness. I didn’t have a bottle to hand, but this would be marvellous with the Thomsons Manuka smoke whisky which is distilled locally. 

    30g unsalted butter
    Pinch of ground allspice
    Pinch of ground cloves
    Pinch of ground cinnamon
    Small grating of fresh nutmeg
    20g soft light brown sugar
    225ml whiskey

    1. Mix the unsalted butter with a small pinch each of grond allspice, ground cloves and ground cinnamon and a small grating of nutmeg.

    2. Beat in the light brown sugar, then chill until ready to use.

    3. Heat the whisky with 350ml water until hot but not boiling and pour into 4 mugs. Dollop a small teaspoon of the spiced butter into each mug and serve immediately.

    Roast Lemon and Bay Leaf Spiked Lemonade

    by | May 1, 2020 | Cocktails, Vineyard Cottges

    So in times of lockdown while we had a resident mixologist we decided to fling some cocktails around to keep our spirits up. We do love a good Vineyard Cottages cocktail and with a huge bay tree and lots of lemons this is a favourite!

    It’s lemon season here at VC so we pulled some perfectly ripe lemons off the tree and created this delicious spiked lemonade! Perfect for a day hanging the laundry out in the sunshine and chopping up firewood for the cottage fireplaces!

    • 3 lemons, quartered lengthwise, plus 6 wheels for garnish
    •  3 fresh bay leaves, plus 6 more for garnish
    •  1 cup caster sugar
    •  3 cups water
    •  1 ½ cups vodka
    •  Ice
    • One cup Club Soda
    Preheat the oven to 200 and in a small roasting pan or dish add the lemons and bay leaves.  Roast them in the oven for 20-25 mins until they have softened. If they have started to brown a little that is perfect. Scrape the contents of the pan with all the juices into a large jug and add the caster sugar, water, ice and vodka. Leave in the fridge to cool for a while.  Strain through a sieve into a pitcher after one hour. Serve in high balls with ice and club soda.