Neither rain, hail or shine kept us hard core farmers market go-ers from attending Melbourne Showgrounds Farmers Market this morning. Melbourne weather certainly had a tanty today. Luckily, this is one market that is undercover and the Kitchen Aid sponsored cooking demo went ahead as planned.

Click on “more” below to read on (and for the recipes)

Special thanks to the following producers at the market for their lovely produce. I love your stuff:

• Rose Creek Winery for your beautiful olive oil
• Major Bakehouse for the ciabatta
• Faranda for the broccoli
• John Howell for the lemon
• Blue Haze Mercuri Farm for the cherries
• The Orange lady for the oranges and mint
• Green Gully Organics for the carrots

If you would like to get a hold of some fresh Australian Native Produce, such as Lemon Myrtle used here, contact the very friendly team down at Peppermint Ridge Farm.

As promised, here are the recipes for today’s demo:

Soba Noodle Cups

makes 12

6 sheets Spring Roll pastry, cut into 4 squares
90 gm organic soba noodles
1 x carrot, julienned
handful snowpeas, julienned
1/4 cucumber, julienned
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
1/2 sheet nori, finely sliced
1/2 c. orange juice
zest of 1 orange
2 Tblsp ginger juice (finely grate and squeeze out juice)
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp shoyu or light soy sauce
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
handful fresh mint and/or corriander, finely sliced

1. Place 1 square of spring roll pastry on the bench, lightly brush with oil and place another square over the top at a diagonal. Push into a lightly greased muffin tin, forming a cup. Repeat with the remaining pastry and bake at 180 °C for 8 minutes
2. Meanwhile, bring a pot of unsalted water to the boil. Plunge in the carrots and snow peas and blanch for about 2 minutes until tender but firm. Using a slotted spoon, fish out the vegetables, keeping the water boiling.
3. Using the same water, cook the soba noodles gently for about 5 minutes. Drain well and lightly coat with sesame oil. Set asside.
4. Whisk together the orange juice and zest, ginger juice, mirin, rice vinegar, shoyu, sesame oil. Pour over noodles and gently fold through vegetables, herbs and nori and allow to marinate for 30 minutes
5. Scoop noodles into individual cups and serve

Broccoli and Toasted Macadamia Pesto with Grilled Ciabatta
1 x medium head of broccoli
1/2 c. macadamias, lightly roasted
1 x clove garlic
150ml mild tasting olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Ciabatta loaf, sliced into 1/4″ thick slices

1. Cut the broccoli head in half
2. Shave off the very tips of the broccoli florets from one halfe and set asside
3. Break up the broccoli into florets and blanch in lightly salted water for about 4 minutes until just tender. Drain and set asside
4. Add macadamias to a food processor and pulse a couple of times. Add the blanched, cooled broccoli, lemon juice and garlic clove. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube until a thick mayonnaise-like consistency
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Heat a griddle over medium-high heat. Drizzle ciabatta slices with a little olive oil and put in griddle, oil side down. Cook until sides marked and drizzle the other side with olive oil and turn over.
7. To serve, place a generous scraping of broccoli pesto onto a ciabatta slice, fold through cooked pasta or serve as a dip

Christmas Cherry Crumble with Lemon Myrtle Cream

Serves 6
1/4 c. rolled oats
2 Tblsp brown sugar
2 Tblsp organic butter
300gm cherries, de-pipped
250ml cream
Large handful Lemon Myrtle leaves

1. To make the crumble, place oats and sugar in a bowl and rub in butter. Place on a lined tray and bake in oven at 180°C for 8 minutes. While still hot, scrape mix back and forth with a wooden spoon while it cools to form loose crumbs
2. In a pot, bring cream to just simmering. Bruise lemon myrtle leaves with a rolling pin on a chopping board to release the aroma and place in pan with cream. Very gently simmer for 1 minute and remove from heat. Allow lemon myrtle to infuse cream while cooling. Strain off leaves with a fine mesh sieve and refrigerate cream
3. To serve, divide seeded cherries into 6 portions, drizzle over cream, sprinkle with crumble and top with some finely shredded mint leaves

Comment below if you have any questions or comments. I love to hear from you!