Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion

If you have ever dreamed of picking fresh salad leaves for the evening meal, gathering vine-ripened tomatoes or pulling up your own sweet carrots, this is the book for you. Follow in the footsteps of one of Australia's best-loved cooks and food writers as she reveals the secrets of rewarding kitchen gardening. Be encouraged by detailed gardening notes that explain how adults and children alike can plant, grow and harvest 73 different vegetables, herbs and fruit, and try some of the 250 recipes that will transform your fresh produce into delicious meals. Whether you have a large plot in a suburban backyard or a few pots on a balcony, you will find everything you need to get started in this inspiring and eminently useful garden-to-table guide. Sample Recipes (pictured) Berry Crumbles SERVES 4 There is something very special about the deep crimson juice from raspberries. This crumble is one of my favourite dishes. Try it with blackberries and mulberries too. It deserves being served with the very best cream. 50 g unsalted butter 400 g raspberries (or mulberries or blackberries or a mixture) 1/3 cup caster sugar double or clotted cream, to serve CRUMBLE TOPPING 1/3 cup soft brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon ground ginger 60 g unsalted butter, chopped 2/3 cup plain flour EXTRA EQUIPMENT 4 x 125 ml-capacity individual gratin dishes Preheat oven to 200°C. To make the crumble topping, mix sugar, baking powder and ginger in a bowl. In another bowl, crumble butter into flour with your fingertips to make pea-sized pieces, then toss flour mixture with sugar mixture. Set aside. Use some of the butter to grease four 125 ml-capacity gratin dishes. Divide berries among dishes. Press them down lightly with the back of a spoon. Scatter over sugar. Spoon over crumble topping; it should be no more than 1 cm deep (any extra crumble topping can be put into a suitable container, labelled and frozen, ready for a crumble some other day). Divide remaining butter into small pieces and dot over tops of crumbles. Set dishes on a baking tray with a lip to catch any overflowing juices. Bake crumbles for 15 minutes or until topping is golden and berry juices are bubbling through. Leave crumbles to cool for several minutes before serving with spoonfuls of double or clotted cream. -------------------- Lamb Skewers with Fresh Bay Leaves SERVES 4 Children like to help assemble these skewers. The best family barbecues involve the whole family helping in some way. Although I've cooked the skewers on a metal grill over charcoal (see below), they are just as good when cooked in a char-grill pan or on the barbecue. Enjoy these lamb skewers with a salad made from ingredients picked fresh from your kitchen garden. 1 red onion, unpeeled 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons oregano leaves 8 fresh bay leaves, halved widthways 4 small lamb fillets, cut into 3 pieces each freshly ground black pepper 2 small lemons, halved widthways 4 flatbreads juice of 1 lemon sea salt EXTRA EQUIPMENT 4 metal skewers ridged cast-iron char-grill pan or barbecue grill-plate Place onion in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain onion in a colander, then rinse briefly with cold water and, as soon as you can handle it, peel and quarter it. Separate onion quarters into 3-4 'petals'. Place olive oil, oregano, bay leaves, lamb and onion in a deep dish and grind over some pepper. Mix lamb and onion around so that they are coated with olive oil/herb mixture. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour. To assemble the skewers, alternate onion, bay leaf halves and lamb pieces among 4 skewers, finishing with a lemon half. Heat a char-grill pan or barbecue grill-plate until very hot. Grill skewers, turning once or twice and brushing them with any oil remaining in the marinating dish, until lamb is tender. They will be cooked in about 5-8 minutes, depending on how pink you like your lamb. The onion pieces should look charred on the edges. Warm flatbreads on the barbecue grill-plate, if using, or in a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Place a lamb skewer in each flatbread, pull out the skewer, squeeze with some lemon juice, then add a sprinkle of sea salt and roll to eat. About the Author  Stephanie Alexander is one of Australia's most highly regarded food writers. Stephanie has written eleven books, including Stephanie's Menu for Food Lovers, Stephanie's Seasons and Stephanie Alexander & Maggie Beer's Tuscan Cookbook (co-author). Her signature publication, The Cook's Companion, has established itself as the kitchen bible in nearly 400,000 homes. A second edition of The Cook's Companion was published in 2004. Stephanie Alexander's philosophy is that there is no such thing as special food for children: if food is good, everyone will enjoy it regardless of age. In her latest publication Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids, published in 2006, tells the story behind the recipes of the Kitchen Garden at Collingwood College, which Stephanie set up in 2001 in the grounds of a large inner-city school. It includes plans, activities and lists that together make up a blueprint that other schools may wish to follow. The program has given hundreds of primary-school children the opportunity to plant, grow, harvest, cook and eat the very best kind of food - freshly grown, organic, unprocessed and delicious.