cooking

CampO de Flori Farm Visit

~ Eloise Emmett ~ Leave a comment

The kids and I took a trip to Campo De Flori last week to catch up with Lisa to organise our Cooking with lavender workshop and collect some fresh cut lavender for our cooking. If you have been to one of my workshops you will know about Lisa, she has made a lot of the gorgeous ceramics that we use to serve food and drinks in the cooking school. I prepared a picnic for the visit knowing that the gorgeous lavender would be looking stunning in bloom.

Picnic:
Focaccia with herbs de provence (this herb mix features lavender)
Hot smoked salmon and lavender pate
Apricot and blue cheese salad with honey Lavender dressing
chicken cooked with herbs de provence
prawns and lavender mayo
apple, cinnamon, honey lavender tea cake


I have been including the lavender in my cooking for quite a few years since meeting Lisa. When creating the Tasmania pantry 2 cookbook a few years ago, developing some new recipes, I discovered that the lavender and citrus is a delicious partner to Seafood, it also goes well with meat with herbs like sage and rosemary and poultry.

Lavender has been used medicinally for a very long time. Lavender is thought to relieve headaches and migraine, assist sleep, lower Anxiety, alleviate depression, it is anti parasitic, used to treat skin blemishes, relieve pain, reduce blood pressure, lessen menopausal hot flashes, anti fungal , and potentially promote hair growth. Also, if you follow the ’30 plants for good gut health guide’ its another plant to tick off the list. I can’t think of a good reason not to include some lavender in our diets!

If you are interested in learning more about cooking with lavender then come along to our Cooking with lavender Workshop on the 14th of February, will make a fantastic valentines gift for your partner, friend or even yourself. Click through to my store to book a spot in a workshop

Old School Kitchen Term 1 2024 Workshop dates

Thursday 8th February Seafood Cooking
Wednesday 14th February -SPECIAL EVENT- Lavender cooking workshop with special guest Lisa Britzman from Campo De Flori
Thursday 22rd February Tasmanian Cooking Experience
Thursday 7th March Phone Photography and Food Styling -12 noon – 4PM
Thursday 21st March Bread Baking

Please enquire about other dates for private groups or if you have a few people and a date you think I should list something on.

Salt and Sichuan peppered squid with lemon aioli

~ Eloise Emmett ~ Leave a comment

I finally got my first squid for the year, it is so tasty when fresh! My Husband has recently got a new (old) fishing boat, we are so lucky where we live to be able to get so much fresh food. I didn’t catch any the day we went but he got a few when he was fishing for carp a few days later.

Fishing boat (1 of 1)

This salt and pepper flour is great with oysters and other fish too, here we had some boar fish.

squid in flour (1 of 1)

4 squid tubes (and legs if you like them)

2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon Sichuan pepper (or ground white or black pepper)
Oil for deep or shallow frying

 

Lemon aioli
1 egg
350 ml oil
10 ml white vinegar
2 lemons
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper

To make the aioli: blend the egg, vinegar, juice and zest of the lemon, garlic and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, then slowly add the oil in a slow drizzle.

Clean the fresh squid by removing the head and guts and pulling all the skin from the tube, remove the cartilage and flaps.

Cut the squid tube into squid rings about 1 cm thick or score by cutting the tube down one side so that you can open it and lay it down flat. Make incisions halfway through the flesh side of the flat squid tube on angle 5ml apart and then slice the squid tube into 2cm pieces. Put flour and salt and pepper into a plastic bag and give it a shake then add squid and give it a good shake so that all the tubes are covered.

Pan Fry over medium heat in a heavy based pan with a light covering of oil turning regular until golden brown and cooked or Deep fry in oil 170 C for approximately 2-3 minutes and drain for a minute serve with the aioli

 

salt and pepper squid

And Pink eye chips are the best, great with the homemade Aioli too!

pink eye chips (1 of 1)

fishing 2 (1 of 1)

fishing 3 (1 of 1)

Like this recipe? Find more in my first cookbook The Real Food for Kids Cookbook. When you cook this please let me know how you go with it and share it with your friends!