I grew up on a dairy farm in the Gippsland outside the town of Loch. As a young girl, I would read the cookbooks that mum kept in the bottom kitchen drawer. As there was always flour, butter, milk, and eggs in the house, I was continuously searching for new recipes for baking.

As a girl, I would make spend my weekend baking puff pastry to make tarts, creating new versions of candies and baking all the colour rainbow cakes. Not much has changed; I’m still searching for recipes that I can cook using what I have on hand or growing in the kitchen garden.

Now that I am grownup, I can cook what I want, using any type of milk. How happy was I when Gippsland Jersey started producing buttermilk? I now use that in everything I bake.   

But I am going to start you off with a simple buttermilk recipe, pancakes.

We all need to know how to make pancakes from scratch. This recipe will be with you forever.

This recipe will make a dozen 10 cm fluffy pancakes

Buttermilk Pancakes recipe

• 2 cups of Oak & Swan stone ground wholemeal flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of GJ buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons of GJ butter

Method

If you haven’t noticed its same measurement of all the ingredients in this recipe, hence it is easy to remember forever; 1 part to 1 part to 1 part to 1 part.

1. Into a bowl, sift together flour and baking powder.
2. Make a hole in the middle of the flour and crack in the eggs. Pour over the buttermilk.
3. Beat together until smooth.
4. Heat a little of the butter until foaming in a frying pan. Add two spoonful of pancake batter. Swirl around into a round shape.
5. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until firm enough to flip. Then cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
6. Serve warm

I had mine with topped with berries I saved frozen from the summer, warmed homemade berry jam and whipped Gippsland Jersey Crème Fraiche. #yum

Over the last few months, I have spent many hours in the kitchen garden weeding, planting and mulching. The one thing is though, the weeds never seem to go away. So, I have come up with a way to deal with them – Eat them!

There is always an assortment of greens growing wild in my kitchen garden – kale, nasturtiums, rocket and this year self-seeded red leaf lettuce has lined the patch around the citrus tree all by itself. I am always cooking blanched and braised green. I do love mine braised with white wine, seasoned with a little salt and pepper and finished with some cream.  

I'm going to get back out in the garden and see what weediness I can find.

Braised Warrigal greens with Oyster Sauce

Warrigal greens (Tetragonia Tetragonioides) is a native ground cover found in Australia, New Zealand, and eastern Asia. A little while ago, I visited an urban farm in Melbourne, their nursery was selling very small plants for $20.00 each. Mine just grows wild from a cutting someone gave me and has a spread of about two square metres.

We pick this leafy green in my harvest lunches and serve alongside beef dishes. It turns out I like it boiled and dressed with oyster sauce - just like you would find greens served at the local Chinese restaurant.

To cook your Warrigal greens

1. Pick as many as you would like to serve. Warrigal greens will not shrink down like spinach so only take what you will need.
2. Pluck leaves away from stems and wash very well.
3. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add Warrigal Green and boil for two minutes. Drain.
4. Place in serving dish and drizzle over the oyster sauce.

Always on the lookout for things to grow to cook, this year, I tried tomatillos for the first time.

Tomatillos need to cross-pollinate with each other, so I pick up four plants from the farmers market.

From the four plants, I ended up with a haul of about 5 cups.

Not enough to made jam, but enough to come up with a cake recipe.

Recipe - Tomatillo upside-down cake

Gluten-free, made with tomatillos fresh from the kitchen garden, stone-ground cornmeal and Gippsland buttermilk.

Ingredients

2 cups of tomatillos

1 pinch of vanilla seeds

330 grams of caster sugar

4 eggs

2 egg whites

160 MLS of buttermilk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

110 grams of cornmeal

90 grams of almond meal

1 teaspoon of baking powder

0.25 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Weigh out sugar into 165-grams, 110-gram and 55-gram portions
3. Grease and line a 23 cm springform pan. Place the springform onto a sheet of aluminium foil and bring up the sides of the pan to prevent the syrup from leaking during cooking.
4. Random place the tomatillos in the lined springform pan.
5. Place the 165-gram portion of sugar in a small saucepan with 80 MLS of water and a pinch of vanilla seeds. Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook until thickened, but not golden. Pour over the tomatillos.
6. Separated eggs. Place egg whites, with extra egg white in the bowl of the mix master. Whisk to soft peak. Add cream of tartar and the 55-gram portion of sugar. Whisk until you have stiff peaks
7. If you only have one bowl for the mix master, scarp out the egg whites and put in a spare bowl. Put aside until needed. Wipe out the mix master bowl, you may want to rise out the whisk.
8. Combine egg yolks with the 110-gram portion of sugar in the bowl of the mix master. Whisk until egg yolks combine to a ribbon.
9. Fold the cornmeal, almond meal and baking powder into the whipped egg yolks. Stir in the buttermilk.
10. Fold in the egg whites. Pour the cake batter over the tomatillo.
11. Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.
12. To serve, invert on to a plate.

Braising cucumber and greens is not something that jumps to mind when you are thinking about using this summer’s cucumber crop in dinner.

But years ago, I came across a recipe for braised cucumber and greens.

I think it was served with couscous, but who really knows.

Sometimes I can’t remember where the recipes I have in my head come from!

For this recipe, I use the larger pearl couscous.

Braised cucumber and lettuce with pearl couscous recipe

To cook the couscous

• • Finely dice two shallots. Heat a little butter in a saucepan, that has a tight-fitting lid. Add shallots and fry until translucent.
  • Add couscous and two cups of stock. For this recipe I used turkey stock – that’s what I had in the freezer and I’m trying to use up what I have on hand at the moment – but you could use chicken. Bring to the boil.
  • Place on the lid and reduce the heat to as low as possible. I cook with induction, so down to number one it goes.
  • Leave the couscous alone for the next 15 minutes.
  • After 15 minutes take off the lid and stir with a fork. You have to use a fork, as to not squash the couscous. It should be cooked.
  • If it isn’t, place the lid back on the saucepan and leave for another 5 minutes.

I used Blu; gourmet Pearl Couscous, which I had in the cupboard. At the moment I am trying to use up what I have on hand and not visit the shopping centre, unless really really needed. Gabriel Gate had no part in me deciding to use this product and I would have paid for it sometime in the past.

To braise the cucumber and greens

• • Go to the garden and pick two cucumbers and lettuce.
  • Slice the cucumber into rounds. Wash and break up the lettuce into bite-size pieces
  • Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan, that has a tight-fitting lid.
  • Add the cucumber and fry off for a couple of minutes. Add the greens.
  • Add one cup of white wine (I had to open a bottle for this and drank the rest).
  • Season with salt, white pepper and sugar. Place lid on the saucepan and cook for five minutes over medium heat.

To finish off, fold the cooked cucumber and lettuce into the couscous.

Enjoy!