Aussie Farmers Deserve A Break!

It's this time of the year when the first harvest from out west bares it's luscious fruit and I set about making my annual batch of ruby apricot paste to sell in store for Christmas. So, as they do in the country, I swapped my time as the camp cook for a pallet of Earlicot apricots and headed to Menindee to pick, pack and cook for a few days.



 

It was so much fun and if I didn't have such a huge amount of fruit mince tarts to make I probably wouldn't have come home!!



We take so much for granted when we pluck our fruit and veg off the supermarket shelves. As an ambassador for Australian Year of the Farmer I would like to take my hat off to every single farmer in the country. Blood, sweat, tears and a whole lot of worry goes into producing our food. After my time on the orcahrd, I am making a personal quest and urging everyone I know to get behind the Aussie farmers and only buy Australian grown produce. To my mind, this is the foundation on which everything else is built on.

The bees are brought in to do their job when the flowers are setting to pollinate the fruit.




A welcome place to lay one's head after a big day in the orchard and a big cook up for the weary workers.





The long road home from Menindee as I farewell my new friends at the desert fresh produce.

My apricot paste is available to purchase off the Christmas brochure along with lots of other gorgeous goodies for the holiday season. Click here to view.

Happy cooking,
Simmone x

Apricot Season!

Well it's apricot season again and my good friend and orchardist Dave Murphy has come good again and delivered me the sweetest little apricots for my yearly cook up of all things' apricot.

Big Dave's orchard, Pegasus, is in the Coal Valley in Tasmania where the unique cool climate helps slow the growth of the fruit, which then enables them to ripen for longer on the tree. What that means is the apricots are sweeter and juicier than fruit produced on the mainland.......... I'm so lucky!

I started with the Goldrich variety and simply poached them in a light sugar syrup. These will be used over the coming months in my classic chicken with braised leek and apricot, frangipane tarts, upside down cakes and ice creams.

With the More Park variety I cooked them up in equal amounts of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice to make the most divine apricot conserve.

Last, but certainly not least, the little Orange Reds were used for a very large batch of my apricot paste. The perfect accompaniment to goats cheese, cheddar or my chicken liver pate with green peppercorn. Delicious!!!

All of these apricot beauties are available now in both my Cammeray and Double Bay stores.

Simmone's Apricot Paste

1 cup water 250ml
1 cup wine 250ml
1 cup sugar 400g
2 bay leaves
Juice from 1 lemon
Apricots 500g

1. Combine all ingredients except the apricot and bring to a simmer.


2. Add apricot halves and gently simmer for 1 hour or until the fruit becomes transparent.


3. Remove the bay leaves and process the fruit to a smooth paste. Pour into a lined and greased cake tin. Cover and refrigerate until set.

Happy cooking,
Simmone x