Struan Farm

Texture in the Trees

There are days when I get captured by the scenery here at Struan Farm, the trees especially. As our frequent blog readers know, we love our trees!

Biding Our Time

Farmer John advises that lambing here at Struan Farm should start around August 20th, more or less, this season. We've already seen some new lambs across the river at the neighbouring farm, and on the Piopio golf course, so our "Pet Pen" is up and ready for anyone who might be in need of a warm bottle and substitute mum!

When Hunkering Down

These past few days we've had some wild winter weather here at Struan Farm. High winds, heavy rain, chilly temperatures. Definitely indoor weather! Here's a video I took of the Douglas fir trees swaying in the winds for our Instagram page.... for some reason Typepad won't let me post a video directly on my blog.

So I've busied myself shelling walnuts, shelling walnuts, shelling walnuts, and with a bit of baking.

First cab off the rank on the baking front was a lovely "Almond and Tamarillo Cake" from the NZ Herald's weekly "Bite" supplement. It sounded and ended up being quite delicious. Not one of those sick-y sweet cakes, rather the sort of moist, flavourful cake we prefer. 

I do need to tell you a few things about the recipe though. It isn't well written and contains a few errors. The ingredient list references vanilla, which then isn't mentioned in the instructions, while salt is mentioned in the instructions, but not in the ingredient list. And there's a fair amount of confusion on many readers' parts about the orange. Half of the orange (zest and juice) is put into the cake, the other half orange into the topping. The instructions don't say zest and juice for the topping, rather just 1/2 orange, but that's what I also put into the topping. The cake itself is made with almond butter (I used Pic's, which worked really well). Then the topping calls for "butter." Most people would query if they also meant almond butter, making the recipe dairy free. I used normal butter for the topping, which made more sense to me. And since we liked the cake the way I made it, we'll stick with what I did. It's good served with either a bit of yogurt or ice cream, but conceivably is moist enough to eat without either of those if you feel like depriving yourself of dairy products.

Second cab off the rank was an improvised "Syrian Seven Spice Damson Bread Pudding" for Sunday night dinner with visiting farmstay guests/friends. I used a big bag of leftover croissants I had in the freezer, cut and buttered them then slathered on my Syrian Seven Spice damson jam. I then tore the buttered and jammed croissants into big chunks, putting those into a buttered rectangular baking dish. For the custard I combined 1 cup each of cream and whole milk, four eggs, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp of the Syrian Spice Mix for extra flavour. Once this was whisked I poured the custard over the croissants in the baking dish, making sure everything was soaked, and then let everything absorb for 20 minutes before baking at 180C for 50-55 minutes.

It was wonderful. This can be served with ice cream, whipped cream or yogurt.

On Becoming A Spice Girl

After my adventures making Syrian Seven Spice damson jam here at Struan Farm earlier this week I decided to have a go trying to make up my own version of the Spice Diva's amazingly aromatic Syrian Seven Spice Mix. I'd purchased reasonable quantities of the seven ingredients: allspice, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom, rosemary, and nutmeg, but wasn't too sure about the relative proportions used in the mix, so went off to investigate further to see what I could find.

I found various versions of something called "Baharat," a Middle Eastern spice mix with similar but different ingredients. Some had cumin and coriander, others had paprika. What I like about The Spice Diva's version is that it is versatile, can flip flop between sweet and savoury. It doesn't have cumin, coriander or paprika, which I think would shift the balance more to savoury.

So here's what I did: ten teaspoons of allspice, four teaspoons black pepper, two teaspoons ground cloves, and one each of cinnamon, rosemary, nutmeg and green cardamom. It looks and smells pretty darned close to what I'm trying to achieve. Think I'm going to have to cook two fruit dishes, maybe an apple crumble, and use each to compare the end results.

Worse case I'll have friend Kris ship me more of the real deal from Charlottesville!

 

Damsons & Syrian Seven Spice Mix: A Match Made in Heaven

I froze several containers of damsons from the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand this past summer so that I could play around them a bit further when time permitted. And damp, chilly winter days are usually a good time for playing around in the kitchen here at Struan Farm.

On my recent trip to the US I went to a store in Charlottesville, Virginia called The Spice Diva, where I purchased a container of the shop's custom blended "Syrian Seven Spice Mix." I've since discovered that this is one of those things that is different in every home, with every cook, and also in different Arabic countries. The Spice Diva's mix has allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, rosemary, nutmeg and green cardamom, although I'm not sure of the relative proportions of each spice/herb. It's fragrantly aromatic, heady even, and smells like it would be great in both savoury and sweet dishes. It's also something I've been wanting to play around with.

Today I decided it was time to play with both, making "Syrian Seven Spice Damson Jam." And boy am I glad I did this.

First the fruit is covered with water in a pot and cooked gently until soft, skins breaking.

The cooked fruit is then drained, and either sieved or put through a food mill ("mouli") to remove the stones and make a puree. I've bought a new mill that has interchangeable plates with different sized holes, and this has made a big difference working with damsons. Much easier!

Weigh the puree before putting it back into the jam pan, where it is warmed gently. Then add an equivalent amount of sugar and any spices. I added one tablespoon of the Syrian Seven Spice mix for 1.4kg of puree, but I've also used a combination of ginger, cloves and cinnamon that works well too. Boil the jam vigorously until set. (Trust you know about putting a plate in the freezer and then drizzling hot jam on the cold plate and running your finger through it. If it stays separated and doesn't run you're good to move on.) This doesn't take very long at all, the fruit must have heaps of pectin. Pour into prepared sterilised warm jars and seal.

This jam is a beautiful ruby colour, and tastes delicious. It's not terribly sweet, with savoury elements thanks to the Syrian Seven Spices. I am just loving it.

I'd intended to contribute the jam to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand, but am thinking I may need to hold back a jar or two for our use. Fortunately the fruit yielded seven good sized jars, so think I can keep a jar or two without feeling too guilty...