It has been a while since our last themed family feast. We usually save them for special occasions like birthdays and in the last 6 weeks we’ve had plenty of opportunities as we had 4 birthdays to celebrate. First was Anne’s, who turned 15 and requested her junk food, aka KFC, MacDonalds, pizzas and ice cream cake. I prepared a green cob salad for good measure, but dinner was pretty much a matter of Mr T driving around collecting take out!

Then it was Tania’s turn, and though we didn’t celebrate on the actual day, we all gathered 2 weeks later for a “comfort food” lunch. The cold weather had a lot to do with the theme choice and unsurprisingly everyone picked delicious high carb dishes to make. Think roast pork, cauliflower gratin, mac and cheese, pulled pork pies, apple pie and ice cream. A very white and brown meal saved for the fennel and mache salad I put together at the last minute (I can’t help myself, I need greens on the table!)

For the boys (Malcolm and his son, Harry), the choice was easy: Mal elected to eat out at the Bavarian Café, so we all feasted on pork knuckle and sauerkraut (and copious amount of beer for some of us) while Harry preferred to host the family at home (his) with you guessed it, KFC, pizzas, sausage rolls and lollies! It is a Steen’s ritual after all I think.

By now you are probably wondering whatever happened to our gourmet feasts of old. Well let me take you back to late April, on a balmy autumn afternoon. It was close to my birthday, and though lunch wasn’t meant to be a birthday lunch, we ate and drank in a celebratory fashion…I called the theme “Wine country picnic lunch”, inspired by a recent trip to the Mornington Peninsula where we spent 4 days exploring vineyards and eating our way thru glorious restaurants and cellars doors. One of the highlights was at Foxey’s Hangout where 9 of us sat on the terrace overlooking the vines and feasted on the 7 course chef’s menu, which consisted of little plates of everything from the menu matched with their house wines. The standout was mushroom sausage rolls, which were so meaty and flavourful, I swore to replicate the dish as soon as we came home.

When asked by our guests what to bring, my instructions were thus to think of anything that they would take on a picnic and would fit on a wooden board.
I love to be surrounded by people who love food just as much as I do, so it is always exciting to see the girls roll with whatever theme is chosen and the results were nothing short of delicious.

Shelley and Tania gave me a giant board as a gift, shaped from the top of a wine barrel. That was the perfect vessel for the best looking cheese and charcuterie board, showcasing all sorts of cured meats, pates, gooey cheeses, briny olives and luscious honeycomb.

Tania made a smoked salmon terrine, enriched with anchovy and caper butter.

Rosalie’s filo pastry quiches were a hit, as were Danielle’s pork sausage rolls and perfect companions to my mushroom rolls.

As usual I prepared a green salad, this time it was a warm one, made of sautéed zucchinis and mint served alongside roasted sweet potatoes. These were to go with the chicken kebabs that Craig had brought along.

Dessert was a lot of fun: I could not decide on a single one so I prepared 4 plates. Admittedly, one was a fruit platter, because who doesn’t like to pick at berries and grapes at the end of a meal. Then I had leftover white chocolate and raspberry birthday cake from the day before, so cut it into bit sized squares. Still wanting to cook something, I turned to the pantry and found a bag of culinary lavender I brought back from Tasmania a while ago and decided to make madeleines with them. Finally, following Anne’s request for a paleo kind of dessert, I came up with a peanut chocolate tartlets recipe which was a hit.

The morning after…

To keep with the Wine Country Picnic theme, I selected wines to match from my own cellar (more a dark spot in the recess of our laundry masquerading as a cellar!) which we had collected during our road trips over the past 3 years. With Sparkling Rose from Foxey’s Hangout ( Mornington Peninsula ), Keith Tulloch’s Semillon ( Hunter Valley ), Devils Corner Pinot Noir ( Tasmania ), Artemis Pinot Noir ( Southern Highlands ), Cupitt’s Slaughterhouse Red ( NSW South Coast ) and the iconic Wolf Blass grey Label Shiraz ( McLaren Vale ), lunch lasted well into the night as we ate and drank our way around Australia’s wine country.

Needless to say that we had some leftovers and the beauty of finger food is that it was perfect for lunch boxes or just light snacks to have with coffee!!

Mushroom “Sausage” rolls

This is my take on these yummy mushrooms rolls from Foxeys Hangout. It is adapted from a recipe from Le Petit Oeuf, which also include comte cheese. I have kept it very simple with only mushrooms and a few aromatics and puff pastry ( or paleo pastry if you prefer ), leaving out the cheese. Serve with a spicy tomato chutney or plain tomato sauce, and watch them disappear. Even our mushroom haters love them!
Serves 18-20 bite sized pieces as part of a buffet or 4 rolls

Ingredients
4 sheets of puff pastry ( thawed out if frozen )
4 tbsp olive oil
1 kg of mixed mushrooms (swiss browns, flat, portobello…the more variety, the stronger the flavour ), cleaned and roughly chopped
2 large brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Thyme sprigs ( or 1 tbsp of dried thyme )
1 beaten egg
1. Keep the puff pastry in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Prepare the mushroom filling: Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and fry for 5-10 minutes, stirring until softened. Add the thyme and garlic and cook for another minute or two. Remove the onion mix from the pan and set aside in a bowl. Place the pan back on high heat, add the rest of the olive oil then the mushrooms. Cook for about 10 minutes, until they are soft and all the moisture has come out of them. You want a dry pan. Turn off the heat and remove the mushrooms, add them to the onion/garlic/thyme mix and leave to cool. Chill in the fridge until ready to assemble the rolls.
3. Assemble the rolls: Take the puff pastry sheets out of the fridge. Lay a quarter of the mushroom mix down the long middle of the pastry, making a big pile that runs to the edges of the pastry. Roll the pastry over the top, squeezing the contents tight ( as you would for a sushi roll ). As you reach the end of the roll, brush the last 1cm of pastry with the beaten egg, before finishing rolling. The egg will seal the roll. Trim the ends of the roll and place on a grill over a baking tray. Brush all over the top with the beaten egg and place in the fridge. Repeat with the other 3 sheets of pastry then leave in the fridge for 20 minutes or so for the rolls to firm up
4. Once well chilled, bake for 25 minutes in the oven pre-heated to 220C. They should be golden and puffed on top.
5. Slice in bite sized pieces and serve on a board accompanied with tomato sauce.

Lavender Spiced Honey Madeleines

Lavender madeleines garnished with rosemary twigs, because I ran out of lavender sticks and I was told they both belong to the same family of plants

I have made these delicious sweet morcels a few times now, using a packet of culinary lavender I purchased during our Tasmanian road trip. The recipe is not mine, it is from Donna Hay, one of my favourite Australian food writer/stylist. It only takes 5 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to bake, so I find it ideal to pop in the oven when pressed for time and you still want to have something nice and sweet. The lavender lends a subtle yet not overly floral scent while the honey gives the cake a lovely spicy taste. Delicious for dessert or with a cup of tea!

Makes 12

Ingredients:
½ cups plain flour, sifted
½ tsp baking powder, sifted
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp dried lavender
2 eggs
80g unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla essence
1. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, lavender, eggs, melted butter, honey and vanilla in a large bowl and whish until smooth.
3. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 12-hole madeleine tin. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until puffed and golden ( they certainly don’t take longer than 10mn !)
4. Remove from the tin and set aside to cool a little. Sprinkle with icing sugar and 1 tsp of dried lavender and serve.

Chocolate Peanut Tarts

I found this recipe in a Vegan magazine, and adapted it to suit our paleo’s palate. While our diet is becoming increasingly plant based, we still like a bit of meat and dairy. I think, flexitarian is the term? So though this is a gluten free dessert, it does contain a little bit of dairy from the chocolate and a lot of nuts. The filling is a mix of coconut cream, peanut butter, chocolate and maple syrup which is smooth and quite rich. The base is coconut flavoured, and very short and crumbly in a nice way. Because of the richness of it, I find it better to bake small bite sized tartlets rather than bigger tarts. Then again, it depends how hungry your guests are!!!

Makes 5-6 tarts or 24 bite sized tartlets

Ingredients:

For the base
100g plain gluten free flour ( I mix tapioca and corn flour )
65g coconut flour
160g coconut oil, solid
5 tbsp maple syrup

For the filling
2 tins of coconut milk, cream only ( place the tins in the fridge first )
80g smooth peanut butter ( I used Mayver’s Smooth Dark Roasted Peanut Butter )
20g dark chocolate ( 70% or more )
1 tsp maple syrup

1. For the base: preheat the oven to 180C and grease the tartlet tins with butter
In a large mixing bowl, combine the gluten free flour, coconut flour, solid coconut oil and maple syrup. Mix and bring together with your fingers until a dough forms.
Press the dough into the tins, prick with a fork and place in the oven for 9-10 minutes until golden in colour ( watch that they do not burn! ) Allow to cool before filling
2. For the filling: scoop out the solid coconut cream from the top of the coconut milk and place in a saucepan. Heat gently until hot ( not boiling )
While the coconut cream is hot, stir in the peanut butter, chocolate and maple syrup until smooth and creamy. Set the filling aside to cool for about 30 minutes.
3. Once all cooled, spoon the filling into the tartlet crusts, pop into the fridge and allow to set, 1 or 2 hours.
4. The tarts/tartlets will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days, though the crust will soften over time.

The same crust, 2 ways: peanut butter chocolate filling in the foreground, raspberries and cream in the background