Pear, Thyme & Ginger Cake with Ginger Custard & Walnut Praline

So, this is the dish I cooked for the Gourmet Garden Best Blogger-Come-Chef competition a fortnight ago in Noosa. After I won my heat back in November last year and once the dust had settled, I set my mind to what I might cook come May. You all know how I love to bake and I wanted to show how versatile herbs could be in sweet dishes. So, what to cook?

I didn't have any brief, like what equipment was available, how long we had, did we have an oven, could we do a sweet, blah blah blah. I had visions of a savoury cheesecake, a baked pastry plait, tropical tapioca puddings featuring herb infused tropical fruits. My mind was working overtime. I've always known pear goes well with thyme as I've had it in fruit loaf my Nanna cooked. I experimented with a few different recipes and all worked well in the oven but what if I didn't have access to an oven? Two weeks out from the competition, we found out we had 45 minutes to cook and an oven between 11 of us so I figured I'd steam the cake instead. A bit of tweaking to the recipe and the above cake was born. My son and I tried it about half a dozen times, so about 6 kilos later, after experimenting with ice cream, custard etc, I decided on the custard and walnut praline additions.

I would rather this cake be baked in an oven and served with a side of double cream and I will whip one of those up in due course (once I get through the overflowing supply of pear cakes in the freezer). The recipe would be slightly different should you want a baked cake. I did bake this recipe in the oven and although okay once straight out of the oven. It goes quite hard when cold but could easily be zapped in the microwave to soften up.

Here's the recipe, for one cake but could easily serve two. (It might seem like a lot of components but they work pretty well together. You could just make the cake and serve with ice cream.)

Pear, Thyme & Ginger Cake

• 1 egg
• 2 tbs milk
• 1 tbs oil
• 1 tsp Gourmet Garden thyme (or 1 tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1 tbs Gourmet Garden ginger (or 1 tbs grated fresh or 1 tsp powdered)
• 2 tbs sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ c SR flour
• 1 pear
• extra butter for greasing dish

Caramel Sauce:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/4 cup cream

Ginger Custard:

• 300ml milk
• 1 tbs cornflour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs Gourmet Garden ginger (or 1 tbs grated fresh or 1 tsp ground ginger)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Walnut Praline:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 cup sugar

1. Put saucepan with steamer insert (or wok with bamboo steamer) filled with water onto boil.
2. Mix together egg, milk, oil, thyme, ginger, cinnamon and sugar until well combined.
3. Sprinkle flour on top and mix well.
4. In a small saucepan, melt together 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2 tbs butter.
5. Peel pear and dice. Add half diced pear to cake batter and other half pear to melted brown sugar/butter mixture and remove from heat.
6. Grease a suitable container well with butter. (I used a large round tea cup.)
7. Spoon a couple pieces of diced pear into greased container.
8. Spoon over batter, cover with foil and put in steamer and steam for approx 20 mins.
9. Cake will be done when a skewer is inserted and comes out clean.
10. Toast walnuts in an oven or pan until warm to touch.
11. In a pan, sprinkle sugar for praline and do not stir. Move pan around to finish melting all the sugar. Pour over walnuts and spread out on a baking dish lined with baking paper. Will harden in a short time.
12. Add cream to brown sugar/butter mixture and return to heat to warm through.

Custard:

1. Add a little milk to the cornflour in a saucepan.
2. Add egg yolk, ginger, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
3. Add remaining milk and stir over a medium heat with a wooden spoon until thickened or it coats the back of the spoon.

To assemble:

1. Spoon caramel sauce on the plate where cake will be placed.
2. Carefully place cake on top of caramel sauce. Add custard to a serving bowl.
3. Take 2 or 3 sugar coated walnuts and place on top of cake.
4. Finely chop remaining sugared walnuts and place on the side of the cake and on the plate.

It might seem like a lot of ingredients and a lot of processes but honestly, its quite simple to put together. Trust me, I wouldn't want to put myself under any unnecessary stress!

Pear, Thyme & Ginger Cake with Ginger Custard & Walnut Praline

So, this is the dish I cooked for the Gourmet Garden Best Blogger-Come-Chef competition a fortnight ago in Noosa. After I won my heat back in November last year and once the dust had settled, I set my mind to what I might cook come May. You all know how I love to bake and I wanted to show how versatile herbs could be in sweet dishes. So, what to cook?

I didn’t have any brief, like what equipment was available, how long we had, did we have an oven, could we do a sweet, blah blah blah. I had visions of a savoury cheesecake, a baked pastry plait, tropical tapioca puddings featuring herb infused tropical fruits. My mind was working overtime. I’ve always known pear goes well with thyme as I’ve had it in fruit loaf my Nanna cooked. I experimented with a few different recipes and all worked well in the oven but what if I didn’t have access to an oven? Two weeks out from the competition, we found out we had 45 minutes to cook and an oven between 11 of us so I figured I’d steam the cake instead. A bit of tweaking to the recipe and the above cake was born. My son and I tried it about half a dozen times, so about 6 kilos later, after experimenting with ice cream, custard etc, I decided on the custard and walnut praline additions.

I would rather this cake be baked in an oven and served with a side of double cream and I will whip one of those up in due course (once I get through the overflowing supply of pear cakes in the freezer). The recipe would be slightly different should you want a baked cake. I did bake this recipe in the oven and although okay once straight out of the oven. It goes quite hard when cold but could easily be zapped in the microwave to soften up.

Here’s the recipe, for one cake but could easily serve two. (It might seem like a lot of components but they work pretty well together. You could just make the cake and serve with ice cream.)

Pear, Thyme & Ginger Cake

• 1 egg
• 2 tbs milk
• 1 tbs oil
• 1 tsp Gourmet Garden thyme (or 1 tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1 tbs Gourmet Garden ginger (or 1 tbs grated fresh or 1 tsp powdered)
• 2 tbs sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ c SR flour
• 1 pear
• extra butter for greasing dish

Caramel Sauce:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/4 cup cream

Ginger Custard:

• 300ml milk
• 1 tbs cornflour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs Gourmet Garden ginger (or 1 tbs grated fresh or 1 tsp ground ginger)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Walnut Praline:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 cup sugar

1. Put saucepan with steamer insert (or wok with bamboo steamer) filled with water onto boil.
2. Mix together egg, milk, oil, thyme, ginger, cinnamon and sugar until well combined.
3. Sprinkle flour on top and mix well.
4. In a small saucepan, melt together 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2 tbs butter.
5. Peel pear and dice. Add half diced pear to cake batter and other half pear to melted brown sugar/butter mixture and remove from heat.
6. Grease a suitable container well with butter. (I used a large round tea cup.)
7. Spoon a couple pieces of diced pear into greased container.
8. Spoon over batter, cover with foil and put in steamer and steam for approx 20 mins.
9. Cake will be done when a skewer is inserted and comes out clean.
10. Toast walnuts in an oven or pan until warm to touch.
11. In a pan, sprinkle sugar for praline and do not stir. Move pan around to finish melting all the sugar. Pour over walnuts and spread out on a baking dish lined with baking paper. Will harden in a short time.
12. Add cream to brown sugar/butter mixture and return to heat to warm through.

Custard:

1. Add a little milk to the cornflour in a saucepan.
2. Add egg yolk, ginger, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
3. Add remaining milk and stir over a medium heat with a wooden spoon until thickened or it coats the back of the spoon.

To assemble:

1. Spoon caramel sauce on the plate where cake will be placed.
2. Carefully place cake on top of caramel sauce. Add custard to a serving bowl.
3. Take 2 or 3 sugar coated walnuts and place on top of cake.
4. Finely chop remaining sugared walnuts and place on the side of the cake and on the plate.

It might seem like a lot of ingredients and a lot of processes but honestly, its quite simple to put together. Trust me, I wouldn’t want to put myself under any unnecessary stress!

Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off, Noosa - Day 2 + Grand Final

Further to my last post regarding my lovely 3 days away in Noosa last week, on the Thursday we all woke early from either a bad night's sleep or missing our kids or bad mattresses (I've become a real homebody and love my bed at home). I went for a 'little' walk along the beach and watched the sunrise before having a lovely hot cup of chai tea and toast. I then went back to my accommodation to get ready for the day. Breakfast on both days was provided at the nearby Hard Coffee which had excellent coffee and great food.



And here we were, us Queenslanders, gloating about our beautiful autumn weather and what a day we had. It drizzled rain all day, quite heavy at times and it was freezing cold. And what did we get up to today? We went to the SjW Mushroom farm in Woodford and for an outdoor lunch cooked by Sammy and Bella Jakubiak (of My Kitchen Rules fame).

I've never been to a mushroom farm before and I found this really interesting. There's quite a science to it and Steven Willemse, a third generation mushroom farmer, explained the various processes and quantities these rooms of mushrooms produced. Up to 8 tonnes of mushrooms can be harvested from one of these temperature controlled rooms over a 3 week period.

Lunch was soon to be served so we were soon ushered outside to a shelter where we were served Moët champagne, fine wines and other beverages and seated at a beautifully decorated table with bouquets of roses and mushrooms and little Belgian mushroom chocolates.

After a lot of drinking and great conversations about food and family memories, we tucked into a beautiful three course, mushroom inspired lunch cooked by Sammy and Bella. Entree was a Peking Duck Broth with duck and Swiss Brown mushroom stuffed wontons garnished with crispy duck skin. Main course was a Thai egg net  filled with mussel and Asian vegetable salad and topped with steamed pork belly and drizzled with a caramel chilli sauce. The meal was topped off with a beautiful dessert of mushroom shaped meringues, a spicy dark chocolate and orange ganache, ginger cream and a gorgeous tasting 'dirt' which was a biscuit crumb cooked with mushrooms and blitzed to serve and dressed with native violets. Just beautiful.

The day finished with a tour of the Gourmet Garden plant and presentation by CEO Nick White. The weather was dark and dreary but the day was informative, delicious and everything was an absolute delight. A quick dinner out to Season on Hastings Street for a White Rock veal cutlet cordon bleu, parsnip mash, pickled beets, green beans and then we were off to bed and a good night's sleep before the cook off grand final tomorrow.

We woke to an absolutely glorious day and headed off to Spicers Tamarind Retreat in Maleny for the cook off grand final. We were broken up into groups of 4 to cook. It all seemed very casual except for Sammy and Bella, the judges, asking us the odd question. I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't win so I felt quite relaxed and knew that I was amongst friends but very stiff competition. Some absolutely amazing dishes were created so I was well out of my league.

The lovely Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums cooked really yummy fish tacos and made her own tortillas within the 45 minute time frame. She has some totally amazing recipes for busy mums on her blog.

My dish of a Pear, Thyme and Ginger Cake with Ginger Custard and Walnut Praline worked out really well I thought. Everyone said it looked nice and tasted pretty good, including the judges who said they'd happily pay for it in a restaurant. I was happy with that. (Recipe to come.)

It wasn't long before the competition was over and it was time for a quick bite for lunch and to wait for the judge's decision.

The winning dish was this beautiful brunch consisting of an individual zucchini quiche cooked in pancetta with mushrooms and salsa created by Laney of Crash Test Mummy. A well deserved win. The overall winner between Laney, Filipa (from Gourmet Mum in the UK) and Alberto (Mucha Vida in Spain) was Filipa with a Piri Piri Chicken and Sweet Potato Chip dish. I can't wait for the recipe. 

An absolutely wonderful couple of days spent with like minded people in beautiful surroundings. Something I'll probably never get the chance to do again but one I'll remember for a life time. It was really cute that on my return, the kids asked me if I'd won. That meant more to me than anything that they must've been thinking about me. Thank you to Gourmet Garden for a year long of behind the scenes organising, coordinating, liaising and a very generous event. It was truly appreciated. If you get the chance, you really should enter should the competition be held again.



Disclaimer: I was gifted an all expenses paid trip to Noosa as the prize for winning my heat of the Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off at the Good Food & Wine Show. All thoughts, photos and opinions are my own.

Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off, Noosa - Day 2 + Grand Final

 

 

Further to my last post regarding my lovely 3 days away in Noosa last week, on the Thursday we all woke early from either a bad night’s sleep or missing our kids or bad mattresses (I’ve become a real homebody and love my bed at home). I went for a ‘little’ walk along the beach and watched the sunrise before having a lovely hot cup of chai tea and toast. I then went back to my accommodation to get ready for the day. Breakfast on both days was provided at the nearby Hard Coffee which had excellent coffee and great food.

 

 

And here we were, us Queenslanders, gloating about our beautiful autumn weather and what a day we had. It drizzled rain all day, quite heavy at times and it was freezing cold. And what did we get up to today? We went to the SjW Mushroom farm in Woodford and for an outdoor lunch cooked by Sammy and Bella Jakubiak (of My Kitchen Rules fame).

 

I’ve never been to a mushroom farm before and I found this really interesting. There’s quite a science to it and Steven Willemse, a third generation mushroom farmer, explained the various processes and quantities these rooms of mushrooms produced. Up to 8 tonnes of mushrooms can be harvested from one of these temperature controlled rooms over a 3 week period.

Lunch was soon to be served so we were soon ushered outside to a shelter where we were served Moët champagne, fine wines and other beverages and seated at a beautifully decorated table with bouquets of roses and mushrooms and little Belgian mushroom chocolates.

After a lot of drinking and great conversations about food and family memories, we tucked into a beautiful three course, mushroom inspired lunch cooked by Sammy and Bella. Entree was a Peking Duck Broth with duck and Swiss Brown mushroom stuffed wontons garnished with crispy duck skin. Main course was a Thai egg net  filled with mussel and Asian vegetable salad and topped with steamed pork belly and drizzled with a caramel chilli sauce. The meal was topped off with a beautiful dessert of mushroom shaped meringues, a spicy dark chocolate and orange ganache, ginger cream and a gorgeous tasting ‘dirt’ which was a biscuit crumb cooked with mushrooms and blitzed to serve and dressed with native violets. Just beautiful.

The day finished with a tour of the Gourmet Garden plant and presentation by CEO Nick White. The weather was dark and dreary but the day was informative, delicious and everything was an absolute delight. A quick dinner out to Season on Hastings Street for a White Rock veal cutlet cordon bleu, parsnip mash, pickled beets, green beans and then we were off to bed and a good night’s sleep before the cook off grand final tomorrow.

We woke to an absolutely glorious day and headed off to Spicers Tamarind Retreat in Maleny for the cook off grand final. We were broken up into groups of 4 to cook. It all seemed very casual except for Sammy and Bella, the judges, asking us the odd question. I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t win so I felt quite relaxed and knew that I was amongst friends but very stiff competition. Some absolutely amazing dishes were created so I was well out of my league.

The lovely Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums cooked really yummy fish tacos and made her own tortillas within the 45 minute time frame. She has some totally amazing recipes for busy mums on her blog.

My dish of a Pear, Thyme and Ginger Cake with Ginger Custard and Walnut Praline worked out really well I thought. Everyone said it looked nice and tasted pretty good, including the judges who said they’d happily pay for it in a restaurant. I was happy with that. (Recipe to come.)

It wasn’t long before the competition was over and it was time for a quick bite for lunch and to wait for the judge’s decision.

 

 

The winning dish was this beautiful brunch consisting of an individual zucchini quiche cooked in pancetta with mushrooms and salsa created by Laney of Crash Test Mummy. A well deserved win. The overall winner between Laney, Filipa (from Gourmet Mum in the UK) and Alberto (Mucha Vida in Spain) was Filipa with a Piri Piri Chicken and Sweet Potato Chip dish. I can’t wait for the recipe. 

 

An absolutely wonderful couple of days spent with like minded people in beautiful surroundings. Something I’ll probably never get the chance to do again but one I’ll remember for a life time. It was really cute that on my return, the kids asked me if I’d won. That meant more to me than anything that they must’ve been thinking about me. Thank you to Gourmet Garden for a year long of behind the scenes organising, coordinating, liaising and a very generous event. It was truly appreciated. If you get the chance, you really should enter should the competition be held again.Disclaimer: I was gifted an all expenses paid trip to Noosa as the prize for winning my heat of the Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off at the Good Food & Wine Show. All thoughts, photos and opinions are my own.

Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off, Noosa - Day 1

You know when you hear people say they have never won anything? Well, except for a couple giveaways within the last couple of years from people's blogs, I was one of those people. That was up until last November when I happened to win my heat of the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off at the Brisbane Good Food & Wine Show. It didn't take long for May to come around this year and us three contestants from Brisbane, plus 3 from New South Wales, 3 from Melbourne, 1 from the UK and 1 (a guy) from Spain all gathered at Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland for 3 days of informative guest speakers, fancy food, fine dining and the ultimate grand final last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

After an early rise, I drove north (via the roadside coffee shop where I met up with fellow contestant, the lovely Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums) and checked into my accommodation before we were 'whisked' (pardon the pun) away to Freestyle Escape at Dulong in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. An absolutely gorgeous accommodation, cooking and art class venue with views out to the Pacific Ocean.

Martin Duncan, the owner (and also owner of the famous Brisbane "Freestyle Tout" restaurant) gave us a quick tour of the property, showing us various art works and exotic fruit and vegetable species, some of which had been planted by visiting chefs. We headed back down to the beautiful outdoor kitchen and heard the very inspiring Jody Allen from Stay at Home Mum talk about her successful web site. 

Jackie Passmore, cookbook author and food stylist gave us all a quick lesson on food photography and styling, something I need a lot of help in. I hope to put her tips to good use.

Effervescent and bubbly Kim McCosker, leading recipe creator and cookbook author of 4 Ingredients fame, led us into cooking lunch for the hungry crowd. Her selection of recipes included dips, marinated chicken wings, salads, prawn and chorizo skewers and a vegan chocolate mousse dessert which I helped put together with Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums.

After a gorgeous lunch, we heard Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella speak about her experience launching her new book. It was lovely to meet Lorraine and you can check out the review on her short visit to Queensland on her blog here. Next up was Edmund Pelgen from Traffika who gave us a lot of information on search engine optimisation which was all a bit technical for me but very interesting. I'd love to find out more and will study Edmund's notes thoroughly when I get the chance.

By the time we got back to our accommodation, had a quick shower and a cuppa, it was time to go out for dinner. We had a lovely dinner at Gaston and it felt so nice to go out for a meal where you didn't have to worry about ensuring the restaurant served hot chips for the 'fussy one' and making sure there was a kid's play room.

Crispy skinned barramundi served in a Thai red curry broth and a mint and green papaw pickle

The food was great, the company awesome and the night late before we all decided to call it a night and prepare for the next day's activities. We were all ready to hit the hay. Stay tuned for Day 2 of the Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off this week on the blog. (Oh, and if you see a couple of gorgeous looking guys in the background of all my photos, that'd be the lovely Sam and his offsider from Wild Bunch Media who were on hand to catch every moment on film. I'll share any footage with you once its produced.)

Disclaimer: I was gifted an all expenses paid trip to Noosa as the prize for winning my heat of the Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off at the Good Food & Wine Show. All thoughts, photos and opinions are my own.

Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off, Noosa - Day 1

 

 

You know when you hear people say they have never won anything? Well, except for a couple giveaways within the last couple of years from people’s blogs, I was one of those people. That was up until last November when I happened to win my heat of the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off at the Brisbane Good Food & Wine Show. It didn’t take long for May to come around this year and us three contestants from Brisbane, plus 3 from New South Wales, 3 from Melbourne, 1 from the UK and 1 (a guy) from Spain all gathered at Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland for 3 days of informative guest speakers, fancy food, fine dining and the ultimate grand final last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

 

 

After an early rise, I drove north (via the roadside coffee shop where I met up with fellow contestant, the lovely Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums) and checked into my accommodation before we were ‘whisked’ (pardon the pun) away to Freestyle Escape at Dulong in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. An absolutely gorgeous accommodation, cooking and art class venue with views out to the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

 

Martin Duncan, the owner (and also owner of the famous Brisbane “Freestyle Tout” restaurant) gave us a quick tour of the property, showing us various art works and exotic fruit and vegetable species, some of which had been planted by visiting chefs. We headed back down to the beautiful outdoor kitchen and heard the very inspiring Jody Allen from Stay at Home Mum talk about her successful web site. 

 

 

Jackie Passmore, cookbook author and food stylist gave us all a quick lesson on food photography and styling, something I need a lot of help in. I hope to put her tips to good use.

 

 

Effervescent and bubbly Kim McCosker, leading recipe creator and cookbook author of 4 Ingredients fame, led us into cooking lunch for the hungry crowd. Her selection of recipes included dips, marinated chicken wings, salads, prawn and chorizo skewers and a vegan chocolate mousse dessert which I helped put together with Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums.

 

 

After a gorgeous lunch, we heard Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella speak about her experience launching her new book. It was lovely to meet Lorraine and you can check out the review on her short visit to Queensland on her blog here. Next up was Edmund Pelgen from Traffika who gave us a lot of information on search engine optimisation which was all a bit technical for me but very interesting. I’d love to find out more and will study Edmund’s notes thoroughly when I get the chance.

 

 

By the time we got back to our accommodation, had a quick shower and a cuppa, it was time to go out for dinner. We had a lovely dinner at Gaston and it felt so nice to go out for a meal where you didn’t have to worry about ensuring the restaurant served hot chips for the ‘fussy one’ and making sure there was a kid’s play room.

 

Crispy skinned barramundi served in a Thai red curry broth and a mint and green papaw pickle

The food was great, the company awesome and the night late before we all decided to call it a night and prepare for the next day’s activities. We were all ready to hit the hay. Stay tuned for Day 2 of the Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off this week on the blog. (Oh, and if you see a couple of gorgeous looking guys in the background of all my photos, that’d be the lovely Sam and his offsider from Wild Bunch Media who were on hand to catch every moment on film. I’ll share any footage with you once its produced.)

 

Disclaimer: I was gifted an all expenses paid trip to Noosa as the prize for winning my heat of the Gourmet Garden Blogger Cook Off at the Good Food & Wine Show. All thoughts, photos and opinions are my own.

Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off Grand Final

 

 

This is it folks. The time has come. No time for dilly-dallying or lollygagging (sorry, I've seen the kid's movie "Cars" too many times). This week, I will be travelling to Noosa to compete in the grand final of the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off.

 

 

You may remember how, around this time last year, I cooked a few dishes for the competition, hoping to get to the next round, which I did successfully. I then competed against talented foodie Kirsten from K&Co at the Brisbane Good Food & Wine Show, where I luckily won. Now, this coming Friday, I will compete against 8 other bloggers from Australia and one from the UK and one from Spain (the only guy in the competiton) for the Best "Blogger-Come-Chef".

source

 

On Wednesday, I head off for a 2 hour drive north to the beautiful Sunshine Coast, where we'll be staying right in the heart of Hastings Street, Noosa.  Australia's answer to the French Riveriera some might say.

 

 

We'll assemble at our accommodation and head off to Freestyle Escape, a gorgeous venue in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.  Kim McCosker, of 4 Ingredients fame, will lead us into a cooking class. We'll meet the lovely Jody Allen from Stay at Home Mum to learn more about turning blogging into a business. Jacki Passmore, Food Stylist and Gourmet Garden recipe guru will be conducting a workshop on food photography and styling. After we've all been involved in cooking lunch, Lorraine Elliott from Not Quite Nigella will be holding a Q&A Session on all things relating to food, photography and blogging and we'll finish the session off with a social media expert. Later that night, we're all catching up for dinner somewhere on the Hastings Street dining strip.

 

source

On Thursday, we'll head off to the Gourmet Garden plant where we'll meet staff and take a tour of the plant, which I'm really looking forward to. From there, we'll head to SjW Mushroom farms in Woodford for a tour and a delicious mushroom and herb themed lunch cooked by none other than Sammy and Bella Jakubiak, previous winners of My Kitchen Rules and our judges for the cook off (along with Gourmet Garden's Jackie Passmore). After returning back to Noosa, we'll have free time before we head out to dinner again. Gosh, life's tough.

 

source

But on Friday, the touring and sight seeing ends. It'll be pick up tools and let's get cooking for the decider at Spicer's Tamarind Retreat near Maleny. It will be exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time but I'm just beside myself with excitement looking forward to cooking as well as having 3 days and 2 nights away in luxury with a good bunch of Aussie and overseas bloggers. What a dream come true.

 

If you want to stay tuned as to what's going on, I'll be live streaming through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #ggcookoff so if you want to stay up to date, follow along with me. I'll blog all about it when I get back home. I'll be honest in saying that I don't care if I win or lose but I can't believe that I've been given this opportunity through blogging and cooking, something I absolutely love to do.

 

And if you want to re-live the excitement of the last cook-off, here's the Youtube clip of me from last November. I can't believe I didn't share it with you. See you on the other side!

 

 

Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off Grand Final

 

 

This is it folks. The time has come. No time for dilly-dallying or lollygagging (sorry, I’ve seen the kid’s movie “Cars” too many times). This week, I will be travelling to Noosa to compete in the grand final of the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off.

 

 

You may remember how, around this time last year, I cooked a few dishes for the competition, hoping to get to the next round, which I did successfully. I then competed against talented foodie Kirsten from K&Co at the Brisbane Good Food & Wine Show, where I luckily won. Now, this coming Friday, I will compete against 8 other bloggers from Australia and one from the UK and one from Spain (the only guy in the competiton) for the Best “Blogger-Come-Chef”.

source

 

On Wednesday, I head off for a 2 hour drive north to the beautiful Sunshine Coast, where we’ll be staying right in the heart of Hastings Street, Noosa.  Australia’s answer to the French Riveriera some might say.

 

 

We’ll assemble at our accommodation and head off to Freestyle Escape, a gorgeous venue in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.  Kim McCosker, of 4 Ingredients fame, will lead us into a cooking class. We’ll meet the lovely Jody Allen from Stay at Home Mum to learn more about turning blogging into a business. Jacki Passmore, Food Stylist and Gourmet Garden recipe guru will be conducting a workshop on food photography and styling. After we’ve all been involved in cooking lunch, Lorraine Elliott from Not Quite Nigella will be holding a Q&A Session on all things relating to food, photography and blogging and we’ll finish the session off with a social media expert. Later that night, we’re all catching up for dinner somewhere on the Hastings Street dining strip.

 

source

On Thursday, we’ll head off to the Gourmet Garden plant where we’ll meet staff and take a tour of the plant, which I’m really looking forward to. From there, we’ll head to SjW Mushroom farms in Woodford for a tour and a delicious mushroom and herb themed lunch cooked by none other than Sammy and Bella Jakubiak, previous winners of My Kitchen Rules and our judges for the cook off (along with Gourmet Garden’s Jackie Passmore). After returning back to Noosa, we’ll have free time before we head out to dinner again. Gosh, life’s tough.

 

source

But on Friday, the touring and sight seeing ends. It’ll be pick up tools and let’s get cooking for the decider at Spicer’s Tamarind Retreat near Maleny. It will be exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time but I’m just beside myself with excitement looking forward to cooking as well as having 3 days and 2 nights away in luxury with a good bunch of Aussie and overseas bloggers. What a dream come true.

 

If you want to stay tuned as to what’s going on, I’ll be live streaming through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #ggcookoff so if you want to stay up to date, follow along with me. I’ll blog all about it when I get back home. I’ll be honest in saying that I don’t care if I win or lose but I can’t believe that I’ve been given this opportunity through blogging and cooking, something I absolutely love to do.

 

And if you want to re-live the excitement of the last cook-off, here’s the Youtube clip of me from last November. I can’t believe I didn’t share it with you. See you on the other side!

 

 

Two course seafood lunch with John West & Gourmet Garden

Here in Australia, we enjoy Christmas in summer and where I am, in the sub tropical climate of Queensland, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to fresh seafood options. If you're running out of time though and need to put together something really quickly and want to avoid those long queues at the seafood stores, grab yourself some John West Atlantic Salmon with tomato, garlic and bell peppers and fresh prawns from the chiller section of the supermarket and whip these dishes up for Christmas lunch.

For starters, make up this Spicy Prawn and Plum Salad. I love the use of tropical fruit with seafood of any kind. I'm not usually a fruit in savoury dishes kind of person but in salads and with seafood, its the perfect flavour combination.  Mango, nectarines, peaches, apricots, cherries or lychees would be lovely with the prawns. Serve on a bed of salad greens and add ribbons of cucumber and drizzle with the dressing just before serving.You can add any other salad ingredients you like.

Spicy Prawn and Plum Salad

John West fresh prawns
seasonal plums
salad greens
finely peeled cucumber

Dressing:
1 tbs Gourmet Garden coriander
1 tbs Gourmet Garden mild chilli
1 tbs Gourmet Garden garlic
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 tbs fish sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup of olive oil

For dressing, combine all ingredients in a jar and shake. Arrange salad ingredients on a platter and drizzle over dressing. (These quantities are for 1 so multiply depending on number of people.)

For main course, impress your guests with these Mediterranean Salmon Parcels served with Mustard and Dill potatoes and dressed salad greens. The John West Mediterranean Salmon with tomato, garlic and bell peppers is good enough on its own but by cutting each piece in half and adding a nice mix of Gourmet Garden herbs mixed with parmesan in the centre and wrapping in pastry, you will get more for your money and they will look like you've gone to a lot of trouble. Salmon en croute, as it is also known, is a French term meaning 'crust', where you wrap the salmon in pastry and add extra herbs for flavour.

To begin, combine Gourmet Garden herbs and grated parmesan cheese in a bowl.

In each packet of John West salmon, you get two fillets. Cut each fillet in two down the centre and cut in half horizontally. Spread with the herb mixture and recover with the other half of salmon.

With a sheet of (defrosted) frozen puff pastry, cut in half, place the fillet on top and fold over pastry. Brush with beaten egg around the edges to seal. Cut 3 slits in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape, brush with egg on top and bake in a 180 deg C oven until brown (approx 20 mins).

For the potatoes, boil unpeeled potatoes until tender.

Mix mayonnaise (or sour cream) with Gourmet Garden dill and garlic and Dijon mustard, etc and add warm potatoes. Sprinkle with diced green onions if desired.

Mediterranean Salmon Parcels with Dill & Mustard Potatoes

John West Atlantic Salmon with tomato, garlic and bell peppers
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry
1 tbs Gourmet Garden Mediterranean seasoning
1 tbs finely grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten (for brushing)
salad greens
salad dressing of your choice

3 potatoes, with skins, boiled until tender
1/2 cup whole egg mayonnaise (or sour cream)
1 tbs Gourmet Garden dill
1 tbs Gourmet Garden garlic
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs lemon juice
salt & pepper

1. In each packet of John West salmon, you get two fillets. Cut each fillet in two down the centre and cut in half horizontally. Spread with the herb mixture and recover with the other half of salmon.
2. With a sheet of (defrosted) frozen puff pastry, cut in half, place the fillet on top and fold over pastry. Brush with beaten egg around the edges to seal. Cut 3 slits in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape, brush with egg on top and bake in a 180 deg C oven until brown (approx 20 mins).
3.  Mix mayonnaise (or sour cream) with Gourmet Garden dill and garlic and Dijon mustard, etc and add warm potatoes. Sprinkle with diced green onions if desired.
4. Dress salad greens with your favourite salad dressing.
5. This recipe is for two. Multiply quantities for more people.

The Spicy Prawn and Plum Salad is perfect for lunch on its own or a quick mid week meal.

The Mediterranean Salmon Parcels are easy to do and don't take that much extra time. Remember, a little bit goes a long way and when served with potatoes and salad, you'll have a dish to fill even the hungriest person.

 

 

Why not sign up to the What2Cook 5 day Meal plan where you can find heaps of easy meal ideas and the hard work of menu planning is already done. Remember to substitute, substitute, substitute with ingredients you already have or browse the extensive recipe list on the Gourmet Garden web site.

 

 

Disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post. I received John West products, Gourmet Garden herbs and a gift card. All ideas, photos and recipes are my own. For more information, go to the Soup Project.