The Garden Clinic

Gazpacho

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The freshness of fennel and lemon add a modern zing to our favourite cold soup for hot days.

Ginger: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

More recipes for ginger!

Homegrown: Sweet Potato

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

This delicious tuber is one of the least-demanding vegetables in the patch. All it wants is sun and space.

Hot and sour prawn soup, Tom yum goong

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

With the fragrance of kaffir lime and lemongrass, the heat of ginger and chilli, and the tang of fresh lime juice this soup is mouth-wateringly good.

In Greece local cooks prefer to make their spanokopita (spinach pie) with the mix of wild greens known as horta. To do the same from you own garden pick a mix of spinach, silverbeet, sorrel, endive or other dark leafy greens

How to: cook with bayleaves

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The winter cook’s herb supply is much depleted but the noble bay tree is still offering leaves to flavour savoury and sweet dishes. Robin Powell shares some favourites.

How to: cook with broad beans

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Cast yourself back a thousand years and the humble broad bean could have made you king of France for the day!

How to: cook with cherries

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Even though only gardeners in cold climates will be picking their own cherries over the summer, we’ll all find ways to celebrate Christmas with a fruit that is still stubbornly, deliciously seasonal.

How to: cook with lavender

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Lavender’s flatmate from the hot dry rocky spots of the Mediterranean is rosemary. Both share a fabulous fragrance that scents the garden, especially when summer’s heat draws out the essential oils in the foliage. And both can be thugs in the kitchen: cooks must proceed with caution.

How to: cook with wattleseed

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

It’s said that there is a wattle in flower somewhere in Australia every day of the year. Not all of the seed of these 1000-odd species are edible, indeed some a slightly toxic, but there is evidence that aborigines ate the seeds from at least 120 of them. Wattleseed has a unique fragrance and flavour – mocha-chocolateyy, smoky and nutty all at once.

How to: deal with zucchini overflow

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

What we love about growing zucchini – it is so generous you need to harvest every day all through the summer – is what drives us crazy about growing zucchini - you have to harvest every day all through the summer! Around about now gardeners are on the lookout for some clever new ways with zucchini.

How to: grow chocolate

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Wherever we take travellers in the tropics, from Mexico to Singapore, the Daintree to Cuba, there is one tree that grabs their attention - cacao, the source of our lingering love, chocolate.

How to: herb feast

18 March, 2021 | Isla Barlow

Skye, Eden and Isla love to collect fresh herbs from the garden to add to dinner. Herbs are easy to grow: a perfectly delicious project for the summer holidays.

How to: make a garden-grown smoothie

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

How do we get through all the greens we grow in the garden? We drink armfuls of them – as a green smoothie for lunch a few times a week. Call it a Ross family secret for more energy and verve!

How to: make fruit ice-blocks

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

When it’s sweltering outside and the kids need some cool relief, homemade fruity ice-blocks are the answer. When they’ve been demolished, ask the children to help make a new batch, ready for the next hot afternoon.

How to: make pistou

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The difference between a pistou and a pesto is pine nuts. The Italians use them, and the French (who took up the basil and garlic paste when Italian migrants moved into Provence in the 19th century) don’t. Typically a pistou is served with a soup made from summer vegetables and white beans.

How to: make rose petal jam

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Life’s good when we stop to smell the roses; and even better when we stop to eat them! Scones fresh from the oven, spread with fragrant rose petal jam and cream, and shared with friends in the garden: what could be finer!

How to: make rosella jam

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Rosella is a fascinating member of the hibiscus family grown for its delicious calyx which makes irresistible jam. Linda Ross tells how it’s done.

How to: make sweet chilli jam

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

This recipe is easy to increase to meet your chilli surplus. Every year I team up with my father-in-law for our Chilli Jam Day - We turn six kilograms of chilli into 25 jars of delicious ruby-red sticky jam.

How to: make tabouli

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

I like a tabouli that is mostly green with herbs, not beige with grains, but you can adjust the balance to suit your own palate. Serve it with lamb backstraps that have been rubbed with ground cumin, olive oil and salt then barbecued. Add a dollop of yoghurt or baba ganoush for a sensational late summer meal.

How to: make the most of mint

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The zingy freshness of mint smells of summer. It adds life and lightness to salads, both sweet and savoury and is indispensable in any number of summer cocktails and mocktails.

How to: make tomato ketchup

18 March, 2021 | Alex Elliott-Howery & James Grant

Try this ketchup just once and you and the kids will never go back to shop-bought again. Spice it up with chilli or smoked paprika if you like. The recipe makes six 250ml jars.If you are cooking to share with friends and consume within weeks there is no need to heat process the sauce, but if you’d like to store the ketchup for up to two years, you need to protect against bacterial growth by heat-processing

How to: make vegetable stock

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

If you planted out root vegetables in early autumn you’ll be harvesting them now. While roots make great side dishes for whatever you’re cooking for dinner, your home-grown produce also makes the best stock.

How to: mix the best salad dressings

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Dress summer salads fresh from the garden in something new. We asked three of our favourite cooks to share their best-ever dressing.

How to: pickle cucumbers

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

When cucumbers are on, you may find you have more than enough for salads, sandwiches and crudite platters. The secret - pickles. Our favourite recipe is from Cornersmith: Recipes from the Cafe and Picklery by Alex Elliott-Howery and James Grant.

How to: pickle olives

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Olives are one of those foods that conjure a sense of awe about the culinary curiosity of our forebears. Now is the time to make like the ancients and soak down olives for enjoying over winter.

How to: preserve lemons

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Winter’s gorgeous harvest of lemons offers steaming lemon delicious puddings, and zesty additions to juices, stews, and salad dressings. But to really extend the glory of the harvest, try preserving the lemons in salt to use for the rest of the year.

How to: use edible flowers

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Eating flowers sounds exotic but in fact we do it all the time. Some are disguised, like saffron, which is the dried stigma of the crocus flower; others are obvious, like the gold flowers of zucchini.

How to: use lemon verbena

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

This herb is loved by cooks for the fragrant citrus scent of its leaves, which at this time of year are fresh and soft. One bonus of adding lemon verbena to everything you can think of – the more you use the better it looks! Robin Powell shares a few ideas.

How to: use your herb harvest

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

As the growing season draws to a close, our herb gardens are blousy with late summer growth.

How to: use your pea harvest

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Peas are one of those crops that can make the home gardener feel smugly self-satisfied because they taste so good fresh from the garden.

In my kitchen garden: Camden, NSW

18 March, 2021 | Mickey Robertson

Mickey Robertson’s kitchen garden at Glenmore House is as beautiful as it is productive, experimental and instructive.

Kale pesto

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

This tasty paste is a winter standby in the Ross family kitchen. It’s packed full of healthy nutrients, is endlessly versatile and simply delicious.

Lamb and kumara tagine with macademias

18 March, 2021 |

Macadamia nuts add a luxurious touch to an easy, slow-cooked winter stew, fragrant with spice.

Lemon and yoghurt cake

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

We have declared it the Year of the Cake, so are keen to try this lemon cake. It’s from our editor, Robin Powell, who moonlights as food writer.

Lemon Delicious

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Self-saucing puddings are a dessert staple at my place through winter, and the tangy, silky lushness of an old-fashioned lemon delicious is a favourite. I like it with icing sugar sprinkled on top and whipped cream on the side, but my kids always vote for the hot/cold thrill of vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment. If you like, instead of serving from a pudding dish, you can cook the puddings in six individual one-cup ovenproof dishes.

Lemons: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

3 delicious ways to use up your lemons.

Lobster Russian salad

18 March, 2021 | Jane Lawson

A variety of vegetables, including peas, are mixed with a touch of dill, and folded into home-made mayonnaise to become the perfect partner for seafood, especially shellfish such as lobster or prawns.

Macadamia nuts: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Some ideas to use your macadamias.

Mango, papaya and watermelon salad

18 March, 2021 | Tom Kine

Tom Kime says he was first served this vibrant fruit salad in south Vietnam. He loved the combination of spicy ginger, cooling mint, mouth-tingling citrus and sweet ripe tropical fruit.

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