Merry Christmas....

Christmas is my favourite time of year. We are so excited to have our family Christmas together at the farm for the very first time.

For the love of Garlic!!!

I spent a perfect Sunday afternoon smashing garlic. Two wonderful ladies, Natalie Moore

(Moore Garlic)  and Rita Dixon (My Fathers Table)  held a fantastic cooking class. On the menu....Toum and Falafel. Most people are familiar with falafel, and at some point almost everyone would have tasted Toum, although you may not have picked the flavour.

Toum is a garlic sauce made by mixing garlic, vegetable oil and lemon juice to form a creamy smooth paste. It has a mild flavour, and considering we used one entire head of garlic-it wasn't at all overpowering like you'd imagine raw garlic to be. The end result was not unlike Aioli, with added kick! Toum has a million different uses, and will last a few months in the fridge. It's absolutely delicious!! 

You can make it in a food processor, but as first time "Toumers" we used a mortar and pestle. Obviously it's a slower process, but you can watch the garlic change to a silky paste and gauge when to add the oil. I found the smashing of garlic very relaxing , although Rita did mention I was a little bit over zealous with the smashing!!!

Next on the menu was falafel. they take a little bit of forward preparation, but basically they are very easy to make and the end product is SO much better than anything you could ever buy or make from a packet.

A quick brief from the Master

Then it's all hands on deck! (Note the sneaky hand in the chick peas!!) 

Apparently having Tahini sauce running out of the kebab and down your hand it the CORRECT way to each falafel. Clearly I'm a stickler for tradition....