Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Simone's Raspberry Slice

Perfect for an afternoon tea of indulgence

  • 1 cup coconut
  • 1 cup SR flour
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup crushed weet-bix
  • 125g melted butter
  • 1 heaped tblsp golden syrup
  • 2 tablespoons Cunliffe & Waters Willamette Raspberry Jam
  • 125g Kennedy & Wilson White chocolate
  1. Add dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl, stir through melted butter and golden syrup.
  2. Press into a lined slice tin and bake in a moderate oven 180° for 20 minutes or until golden.
  3. Melt chocolate in a bowl over water.
  4. Once slice is cooled spread on the Cunliffe & Waters Willamette Raspberry Jam, then spread on the white chocolate.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Mussaman Curry - Peter Watson

Peter Watson has graced us with fine curry pastes, pasta sauces, marinades, stuffing mixes and viniagrettes.
This particular curry paste is a favourite of ours and looks stunning on a shelf to boot.
At Gershgoods headquarters it has been raining for at least 4 days, we've lost track.
What better way to cosy up than with a bowl of this delicious Mussaman Lamb Curry:



Ingredients:
550g of lamb in 4cm pieces
3 tablespoons of oil
1 can of coconut milk
1 tablespoon of Peter Watson Mussasman Curry Paste
125mL of water
2 medium potatoes peeled and cut into quarters
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 heaped tablespoon of chopped roasted peanuts
Boiled rice
Deep fried shallots to garnish

Brown the meat in the oil and set aside. Take the curry paste and fry gently until fragrant, add to that the coconut milk and water. Return the meat to the sauce and start to cook.
After 20 minutes of cooking over a medium heat, add the potatoes along with the fish sauce and roasted peanuts. Serve with steamed rice and garnish with more roasted peanuts and some deep fried shallots.
Delish.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Roasted Tomato Tart - Careme Pastry

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Serves: 4-6

INGREDIENTS

Roasted Tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 500g cherry tomatoes
  • 1 red onion, peeled and chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3 anchovies
  • 1 tablespoon baby capers, rinsed
  • 50g pitted kalamata olives
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup roughly, chopped basil leaves
Tart

METHOD
  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius (180 degrees fan-forced) and lightly grease a 22cm round loose-bottomed tart tin.
  2. Place tomatoes, onion, garlic, anchovies, capers and olives together in a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil, tossing ingredients to coat. Place roasting tin in preheated oven, cook for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, allowing to cool. Reduce oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees celsius fan-forced).
  3. Meanwhile carefully line the tart tin with pastry, so that it sits 1cm above the top of the tin (to allow for shrinkage). To help strengthen and support the sides create several pleats in the pastry, to prevent the sides from collapsing. To do this, simply press any loose pastry around the top edge together. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  4. To blind bake the pastry case, line the pastry case with baking paper or foil. Cover paper with baking beans, rice or a dried pulse (eg. chickpeas), to help support the sides and weigh the base down during cooking.
  5. Place tart tin on a baking tray in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove tart tin from oven, check pastry is lightly golden around the edges before removing beans and baking paper. Return tart tin to oven and cook for a further 15-20 minutes, until dark golden.
  6. Add the basil to the cooled tomato mixture and using a stick blender, puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste, before adding the lightly whisked eggs, stirring to combine.
  7. Pour the tomato mixture into the prepared tart case, dot with goats curd and bake in oven for 45 minutes or until centre of tart is cooked. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
  8. To serve, scatter over extra basil leaves, This tart is delicious served either hot or cold.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Ashbolt Farm in Sydney

Anne Ashbolt creator of Ashbolt Farm is in Sydney this week conducting some tastings of her amazing Elderberry and Elderflower products.
You can find her at the following stores:


Wednesday (Today!)
11am - 1pm
Norton St Grocer Bondi 
1027-1028 Fresh Food Hall Westfield/500 Oxford Street
Bondi Junction
1pm - 3pm
Parisi's Food Hall
21 Dover Road, Rose Bay,
3pm - 5pm
Maloney's Grocer Surry Hills
Shop 4/490 Crown Street, Surry Hills - 


Thursday

11am - 1.30pm

Blackwattle Delicatessen
Shop 8a/Sydney Fish Market, Blackwattle Bay, Pyrmont
1.30 3.30pm

The Essential Ingredient - Rozelle

731-735 Darling Street, Rozelle
4.30 - 6.30pm

Royal Randwick Fruit Market
Royal Randwick Village Shopping Centre 73 Belmore Rd, Randwick


Friday
11am- 12.30pm

Village Grocer

Shop 72, The Village - Stocklands 197 - 215 Condamine St, Balgowlah

12.30pm - 2.30pm
Accoutrement
611 Military Road, Mosman



Drop in to your nearest store, say hello and pick up some goodies!

For more information on Ashbolt Farm products head over to www.gershgoods.com.au/products

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Chocolate and Apricot Wonton Stack - Nicholsons FIne Foods

It's officially Autumn and what better way to get a little bit cosier for the colder months than with this beautiful recipe from Nicholson Fine Foods.
Ingredients

Wonton wrappers
Cinnamon and nutmeg castor sugar
Australian dried apricots soaked overnight in cold water
500gms sugar
1 lemon zested and juiced for each kg of apricots used
Nicholson Fine Food Belgian Chocolate Mousse (as per recipe on packaging).


Method
Gently poach soaked apricots in lemon sugar syrup until tender (30 min)
then allow to cool. Deep fry wonton wrappers, drain on paper. Dredge in spiced sugar and store in airtight container. Assemble stack by piping some mousse onto the centre of the plate. Top with a wonton wrapper. Place an apricot on top and top with a wrapper. Pipe some mousse on top and top with a wrapper. Top with an apricot and a half strawberry. Use the apricot syrup to decorate the plate. Pistachio praline could also be used for a garnish.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

quality food = quality life

There is an impeccable force out there when it comes to choosing your next meal. We're constantly battling with the argument that if it's good for you then it must be time consuming and quite dull.
The truth of the matter is that there is a significant importance to consuming quality foods.
As food is essentially a prerequisite for life, it's fair to assume that the quality of food that one consumes is proportionally linked to the quality of one's life. What else would the ancient proverb "you are what you eat" refer to?
Hippocrates said once "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food", not only is food your sustenance but it prevents illness.
It's so easy to obtain a quick fix for your hunger by driving up to those fast food mega chain outlets, but how satisfied are you after consuming their products? Really.
Food quality on a basic level refers to standards of manufacturing, hygiene, process chemicals and the ingredient list.
On a deeper level, food quality stands for the contributing health benefits, the processes by which a product is produced, the care and attention that is poured into providing you with a product full of natural flavours whilst delivering a ethical approach to sustaining the environment from where the product roots began.

The satisfaction of consuming a product that addresses a higher standard of care in all aspects that it may effect is much greater.

That ruling is just one of the considerations Gershgoods reviews before taking on a product line, so you have the peace of mind that any product consumed that is distributed by us is of the utmost premium quality.

To prove this theory we asked around our office to find out what some of our staff are looking forward to consuming, the consensus was that Gershgoods was not just a place to work but a way of life. A quality way of life.

Rae (Accounts) - Goan Cuisine's Vindahlo curry with a fresh garam masala spice sprinkled over the top
Bethany (Admin) - Nicholson Fine Foods Chocolate Mousse topped with a dash of NFF's Raspberry Passion Sauce
Luke (Sales) - Goan Cuisine's Spiced Blood Orange Marmalade Kangaroo Rissoles
Wilson (Warehouse Manager) - Cunliffe and Waters' Tomato Kasaundi Beef Curry
Elliot (Warehouse) - Tetsuya's Smoked Trout on poached eggs
Kim (Sales) - Lamb back-straps with Nicholson Fine Foods BBQ Sauce
Matthew (Warehouse) - Nicholson Fine Foods White Chocolate Mousse
Rebecca (Marketing) - Tabletop Grapes Muscatels on Simply Fine Foods Nigella Seed Lavoche with some double cream fromager d'affinois
Darren (Director) - Toby's Estate Single Origin Burundi light roast through a chemex.

The above selections from Gershgoods staff not only make use of the premium quality products on our shelves, but constructing each dish takes very little time. Contact us for more information on how you can add these products to your own shelves.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

News from our shelves

We can't believe it's already March! This month is shaking up to be a busy one with lots of tastings, events and people coming to visit. Not to mention some new goodies that are popping up on our shelves.

This month you can expect:

Anne Ashbolt from Ashbolt Farms is hitting Sydney to do some tastings. We're announcing where you can find her next week.

Don't forget Heilala Vanilla will be at Taste of Sydney on the NZ Stand March 10-13.

Gingerbread Folk have also announced they will also be at Taste of Sydney you can find them on Stand E, March 10-13.

Peter Watson will be conducting some tastings towards the end of this month, of their fantastic pasta sauces - official dates will be coming soon.

Rosnay Organic Farms - Flickerfest and dinner is on the 26th of this month. Tickets are available through their website.

All through March we are taking pre-sale orders for the indulgent Duck Creek Macadamia products, to be released in April, please feel free to contact us for more information.

Making it's debut on our shelves very soon is a brand new creation from Tetsuya's. The amazingly delicious Wasabi Mustard. Stay tuned for order details.