Recipes

We use a herby flavourful mayo as the 'it' factor in many of our meals. As a dip, a spread, a side-sauce, a dressing for pasta, potatoes, roasted root vege, smoked fish and slaws. I guess it's a big perk as market gardeners that we have beautiful fresh herbs at hand year round. Dill, mint, rocket, parsley, basil, coriander, sorrel ... changing our herby mayo's up with different seasonal combos means never boring. 

I make this herby mayo by blending my fav vinaigrette recipe with store bought mayo, then blend in the chopped herbs. I tend to make a tang-forward vinaigrette, I love the strong tang that comes from using just as much vinegar as oil and a good amount of mustard. Using store bought mayo makes things easy and reliable. Our mayo favourite is Best Foods.

I like to hand chop rather than process because I like some texture. But if you'd like a smooth consistency and a lovely bright green, use a stick blender at the end. Don't be afraid to use the stems from soft herbs like rocket, dill, coriander, basil. 

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp mayo 
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove, minced
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 cup Salty River Farm rocket, chopped
2 Tbsp Salty River Farm dill, chopped
2 Tbsp mint leaves picked off stems and chopped
4-5 small sorrel leaves picked off stems and chopped

Method:
In a jar, shake together oil, vinegar, mustard, garlic and seasoning. Blend with mayo until ingredients are combined. Stir through the chopped herbs until well combined or process smooth. You're done ... yum!

Store in a jar in the fridge and use within 4 days.

We love slaw! We take our slaws from slaw to slawtastic by adding lots of fresh herbs and dressing them in an extra tangy mayo. Dill, mint, rocket, parsley, basil, coriander, sorrel ... changing it up with different seasonal herb combos means its never boring. Always delish. Great as a supporting act on the dinner plate ... or in lunch rolls, hamburgers, wraps - slaw is handy to have in your fridge.

My take on the dressing is to blend a my fav vinaigrette recipe with store bought mayo. I tend to make a tang-forward vinaigrette, I love the strong tang that comes from using just as much vinegar as oil and a good amount of mustard. Using store bought mayo makes things easy and reliable. Our mayo favourite is Best Foods.

Dressing:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
4 Tbsp mayo 
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove, minced
Salt and black pepper to taste

Slaw:
1/4 green cabbage
1 broccoli head
1/2 cup Salty River Farm rocket finely chopped
2 Tbsp Salty River Farm dill finely chopped
Small handful mint leaves picked off stems finely chopped
4 small sorrel leaves picked off stems finely chopped

Method:
Shred cabbage finely. I like to do a diced shred if that makes sense, rather than strands. Chop and slice the broccoli head into ribbon like shreds and little pea sized florets. Peel the broccoli stalk and shred that too. Blanch all the chopped broccoli with boiling water for 1 minute, rinse with cold water to cool, then drain really well. Toss together the cabbage, broccoli and herbs.

In a jar, shake together oil, vinegar, mustard, garlic and seasoning. Blend with mayo until ingredients are combined.

Mix the dressing through the slaw. You're done ... yum!

500g smoked sausage sliced
4 tbsp olive oil
3 medium carrots diced
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves garlic peeled and minced
3 tsp smoked paprika
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups chopped cabbage
2 cans cannellini beans drained
Salt and pepper to taste
30g Salty River Farm dill, finely chopped

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or large pot and add the sausage slices. Saute until nicely browned. Transfer to a plate.

Add the carrots and onion to the pot and cook until the onions are starting to brown. At this stage I like to put a lid on and let the veges sweat down until they're nice and soft and sweet.

Stir in the garlic and paprika. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in the chicken stock and sausage. Increase the heat until simmering. Cook covered, stirring occasionally, for about 20mins, or until the carrots have softened and the flavors have had time to build.

Add into the pot the cabbage and cannellini beans and check seasoning. Cook for a further 10 minutes, then add the finely chopped dill. Let cook for 5 minutes, check seasoning, serve. Dillicious, hearty, warming, tasty.

Serves four

This is a cool refreshing side dish that looks great, is simple to throw together and is yum with fish or prawns.

4-5 lebanese cucumbers, finely sliced (or 1 large, halved lengthwise & seeded)
70g finely chopped Salty River Farm coriander
1 red chilli, seeded and finely sliced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp fish sauce
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp soft brown sugar
3 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
salt and pepper

Toss it all together and check for sweet/sour/salty/hot balance. Pile high on a platter next to bbq prawns, or fish. 

This is one of our favourite summer side dishes and one that's always on our Christmas lunch table. I usually make the dressing on Christmas Eve, and then finish the recipe off Christmas morning. It's well worth roasting the garlic head - the garlic ends up sweet and mellow. 

600g Salty River Farm green beans
8 rashers thinly sliced prosciutto (Salash Deli's is devine and without nitrates)

Dressing
1/4 cup pinenuts
1 bulb garlic
4 Tbsp chopped Salty River Farm basil leaves
1/2 cup vinaigrette (my recipe below)
Salt and freshly cracked pepper to season

For the vinaigrette ... put 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp dijon mustard, cracked black pepper and 1/2 tsp salt in a jar and shake it up.

Cut the top off the garlic, drizzle with olive oil then wrap in baking paper and roast in a small dish until soft, then set aside to cool.

When cool, squeeze the pulp from the roasted garlic into the vinaigrette dressing jar. If the garlic is chunky, wizz the garlic and dressing together with a stick blender until smooth. Add the basil. Shake together and season well with salt and pepper to taste.

Top and tail the beans and quickly blanch in boiling water (we want them crunchy). Place blanched beans on a hot bbq grill or hot frypan. Once the beans are slightly blackened (but still crunchy), set aside to cool. Lightly fry the prosciutto until it's crisp and cut into small pieces. Toast the pinenuts until lightly browned.

Dress the beans with the dressing (you may not need all the dressing that my recipe makes ... so store any left over dressing in the fridge for tomorrow's salad!), and fold through most of the prosciutto and pinenuts, reserving some to sprinkle on top. Voila! 

We adore tartare sauce - forget store bought - making your own with fresh dill is the best. It's a quick recipe that takes simple food to another level. We dollop it next to our fish and chips, slather it in our chicken or fish burgers, and dress our potato salads with it.

1 cup mayonnaise - we love Best Foods mayo
3 Tbsp capers
3 Tbsp finely diced gherkin
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
2 Tbsp finely chopped Salty River Farm fresh dill
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

Simply fold it all together. Taste-test once combined and season to taste.

Make very pretty ice-cubes, ice-rings and ice-bowls using our edible flowers. It's a fun job you can do ahead of the festive season or weeks before a party. 

I use ice rings or ice bowls to house the ice-cubes on the drinks table. It's colourful and adds a bit of whimsy!

To make a ice ring, I use a round, flat bottomed cake tin with a smaller, heavy round bowl inside. Tip water into the cake tin until it's about 2cm deep. This will end up being the bottom of the ring. Freeze. Take out of the freezer and place edible flowers on top of the frozen water. Top with 1-2cm water and freeze. Repeat the process until you have the desired depth. To remove from tin, just run some warm water over the tin and inside the smaller inner bowl. 

Over the years I've used the above method to make all sorts of cubes, rings and bowls. Have fun experimenting!

1 bunch or 100g bag Salty River Farm coriander, roughly chopped

Here at Salty River Farm we love to grow edible flowers. We have traditional edible flowers such as calendular, nasturtium, cornflower, dianthus, viola and borage. But we also often let our vegetables flower as their flowers can be so delicious and pretty - chinese broccoli flowers and kale flowers taste just like their parents and look lovely scattered through a salad. Rocket flowers give a peppery zing. Sage flowers can be whipped through sweetened cream cheese for a gorgeous cake icing. And my favorite of all is to fold nasturtium petals through butter - a very pretty and delicious spread.

½ cup packed coarsely chopped coriander
Juice from 1 golden lime
½ cup sour cream
½ cup mayo
1 tbsp Earthbound Honey's apple cider honeygar
salt and pepper to taste

Place lime juice, vinegar and coriander together in a blender or food processor. Process until well blended and smooth. Stir through sour cream and mayo until smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Put some away in a jar for later in the week, it will keep for 5 days. Use as a dressing with salads or veges, a dip, a spread in wraps or sandwiches or sauce with bbq chicken or meat.

This is one of our all time favorite recipes here at Salty River Farm. We eat it warm in the winter with toasted crusty baguette, or cold in the summer. Here's the recipe:

Lettuce - either Cos or the Baby Lettuce Leaf Mix
2 tbsp fresh Dill, chopped
3 cups cooked chicken - I usually poach the chicken for this
Bunch spring onions sliced thinly
1/4 cup green olives, pips out and sliced
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the lettuce, chicken, onions, olives and dill in a serving bowl. Combine oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper in a screw-top jar, shake well. Just before serving, add the dressing to the salad and toss gently to combine. Enjoy!