Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

Simple Country Living: Cooking From The Garden {Recipe} Skordalia

When Hannah was a toddler, we flew down to Melbourne for a long weekend. Remember how easy one small child was? Me neither. Those days are long gone. Our trip was one of the first times we went away after having Hannah. Country Boy had wanted to see Heronswood garden which is south of Melbourne. Heronswood is where the Diggers club is based, and is where Country Boy gets a lot of his seeds for the vegetable gardens from, so we decided to make a weekend of it.
I was keen to go too, and have lunch at the cafe, where the menu was based on the fresh produce grown in the garden. I still remember the cauliflower skordalia because it was so amazingly creamy and silky, and had just the slightest hint of lemon in it. We had a fabulous time looking around the garden, and enjoyed watching Hannah toddle around and explore.
Back then I never imagined that one day I would be making my meals based on the seasonal produce from our own kitchen garden.
Country Boy has been growing purple cauliflowers, and we have 6 or so that we need to eat in the next few weeks, so I thought it was the perfect time to try to make my own cauliflower skordalia. Purple cauliflowers change to a creamy green colour when they are cooked, so my skordalia is a creamy colour rather than the brilliant purple (which is a bit of a shame).

Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower
2 large potatoes – peeled
2 garlic cloves – peeled
Enough milk to just cover the cauliflower in a saucepan
1/2 lemon
2T olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method
1. Thoroughly wash the cauliflower, then cut into small pieces (including the stem).
2. Dice the potatoes into 1cm cubes.
3. Place cauliflower, potato, and garlic clove in a saucepan and barely cover with milk. Peel a 3cm strip of lemon rind off the lemon and add to the milk.
3. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes or until the vegetable are all soft.
4. Drain most of the milk off and set aside.
5. Remove the lemon rind, then puree the ingredients to form a smooth paste consistency. You may need to add a little milk to the mixture.
6. Slowly beat in the olive oil.
7. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice, and season well.

I serve it with pork cutlets and a caramelised balsamic marinade instead of potato mash. Country Boy and Hannah went back for thirds! It can also be served as a dip. Place in a bowl and drizzle with a little more olive oil.

Do you have any recipes to use up lots of cauliflower? Have you been to Heronswood lately? Do you remember what it was like to have just one small child?
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