AWARD-winning Coldstream restaurant Belle Vedere has earned a reputation for sourcing its produce straight from the garden and the farmyard and delivering it to the plate with minimal artificial interference.
One of the restaurant’s owners and its head chef, Gary Cooper, fresh from being awarded a Chefs Hat in The Age 2007 Good Food Guide, has offered Mail readers a few simple tips for bringing seasonal spring produce from the home garden into the kitchen.
THE SPRING KITCHEN GARDEN
What to plant right now:
artichoke
broad beans
garlic
snow peas
spinach
mezuna
kale
turnips
ruby cos
What’s flowering right now:
nasturtium
snow peas
What’s cooking right now:
Nasturtium Soup
Ingredients:
1 litre golden chicken stock (see below)
3 good handfuls of nasturtium leaf
20 nasturtium flowers
half a cup of cream
half a nutmeg grated
salt and pinch of white pepper
Method:
Once the chicken stock is ready, strain then add half a cup of cream, half a grated nutmeg, salt and a pinch of white pepper, and bring to the boil. Add the nasturtium leaf and the nasturtium flowers, bring back to the boil and then puree and serve.
Golden Chicken Stock
It is always good to have chicken stock in your freezer for soups, roasts, sauces and when the family come down with colds. A bit of ginger and bone broth does wonders.
Ingredients:
5 chicken carcasses
3 brown onions skin on
2 sticks of celery
4 carrots
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves
water to cover twice the amount
Method:
Roast all ingredients in the oven until golden brown, place in a large pot with cold water and bring to the boil.
