Spring into Spring Cooking

Broad bean garlic chilli

Also known as Fava Beans. These were picked from the garden in Merrylands, fresh was good. They are ripening now, even though ours ripen earlier than they used to. The first crop was in November, this lot was september. If you harvested too many to eat, they can be dried and kept for months.

Ingredients

• 1 Chilli
• 1 head of Garlic
• 2 kg of broad bean
• 3 tablespoons Oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

Method

• Shell the broad beans
• Finely chop the garlic
• Finely chop the chilli
• In a pan, brown garlic and chilli in oil
• Add the beans, add soy sauce and stir fry for 3 mins.
• Serve with rice or just as entree

Avocado dressing for a fresh garden salad

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 lime or lemon
• 1 chilli
• 1 bunch Garlic Chives
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar

Method

• Cut avocado in half, remove the seed and scoop out the flesh into a bowl
• Finely Chop garlic chives, add to bowl
• Finely chop chilli and add to bowl
• Cut lime in half, add the juice to bowl
• Add sugar and soy sauce to bowl and mix in well until smooth and creamy
• Pour over prepared salad from Mother Earth, toss in well and serve.

Mok Het

The ‘Mok’ refers to a method of cooking in Laos. It is kind of like baking. It traditionally would be a dish that is wrapped in banana leaves and put in the hot coals of the fire, or it may be steamed. In sydney, you might put the dish in the oven. On this day, being flexible, we cooked the ingredients in a pot, rather than use banana leaves. Still turned out sensational.

The ‘Het’ means mushrooms. Typically in Laos, it would be Mok Pa, ‘Pa’ being fish. So here we are with a meat free alternative.

Ingredients

• 3 cups boiled rice
• Veg Laksa/Curry paste – 3 tablespoons
• Swiss Brown Mushroom – ½ kg
• Bamboo shoots – 2 x 540 g cans
• Dill – 1 bunch (or rice paddy herb from your garden)
• Kaffir Lime – 1 cup of leaves
• Lemon grass – 5 stalks
• chilli – x 3
• coconut milk – 1 x 375ml can
• soy sauce – 5 tablespoons
• onion – 1 large

Method

• Cook the rice, add 3 cups of water and the 3 cups rice and cook on a low heat.
• drain the bamboo into a sieve, wash the bamboo in hot water. Choose the young bamboo shoots, discard the old ones. Slice the bamboo shoots thinly and set aside.
• peel and finely slice the onion,
• take the lemon grass and remove the old tough stalks and chop the remaining stalks into 2cm sections 
• In a frying pan with some oil, add the onion, kaffir lime and lemon grass and stir fry for 3 minutes.
• add the coconut milk and stir in.
• add the curry paste, stir in and bring to the boil.
• Add the bamboo shoots to the fry pan and cook for 5 minutes
• slice the mushrooms,  add the frypan.
• add the soy sauce.
• Add the rice, stir through and turn off the heat, allowing the flavour to infuse the rice.
• finely chop the dill or rice paddy leaves, garnish the Mok Het.
• Serve in a beautiful bowl