5 Ingredients We’re Loving In July

By Niall Roeder.

During July, Sydney’s coldest month, let’s take a moment to reflect on the hero flavours that make our terrible (quite mild in reality) winter bearable. We shined a culinary Bat-signal upon the sky and our legendary suppliers replied with vigil ante globe artichokes, goat’s curd, rainbow chard and silverbeet, and purple and green sage. They are here to save the day… let’s meet them.

Globe artichokes

Greg Xerri of Freemans Reach comes from a long line of Maltese farmers who have grown vegetables in the Hawkesbury region for years. During summer he pumps out zucchini, zucchini flowers, eggplants and peppers. However, at this time of year he’s all about cauliflowers, broccoli, broccoli shoots, rainbow chard, silverbeet, a variety of kales, as well as a treasured family variety of beautiful rhubarb, all of which is renowned for being of super high quality.

We’re currently getting leafy greens, cauliflower, flat leaf parsley and globe artichokes from our mate, Greg, for dishes like the Stuffed Up Globe Artichokes (Filled with fresh goat’s cheese and pecorino, with salad of raw zucchini, fennel, squash and dill,
on a smooth vodka tomato sauce).

Rainbow chard and silverbeet

On a compact four acres, Liz and Tim Johnstone of Johnstone’s Kitchen Gardens in Richmond boast a solid range of organic heirloom vegetables, herbs and edible flowers… edible flowers – did anyone else’s thoughts drift to Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka eating that flower? Again, just me?

Anyway, their focus is on soil health to develop flavour, i.e. feeding the soil rather than the plant. For these kids, freshness is also paramount – they harvest no more than 24 hours prior to delivery. This month we are featuring their beautiful greens in The Provincial Wood Roasted Black Truffle 1/2 Chicken (Lemon thyme, Paris mash potatoes, steamed rainbow chard with green garlic), but we also use a number of other lines they grow in season including radish flowers, red elk and a variety of kales.

Goat’s Curd

The Borg Family of Willowbrae Chèvre in Wilberforce have been producing award winning goat’s milk cheeses and yoghurts for 17 years, after trading their corporate lives for five acres, some Toggenburg and Anglo-Nubian goats and a cheese-making book. Is it just me or would this make a good reality show? … just me? Alrighty then.

The smooth, creamy texture and mild flavour of their curd varies with the seasons – at the moment milk is in very short supply so we are damn lucky to have it on the menu. For anyone wanting to try more of their cheeses, they sell the good stuff at a number of farmers markets, including Eveleigh, Castle Hill and Frenchs Forest.

We use the curd in Salt Baked Baby Beetroot Salad with Ashed Chèvre (Beet juice, goat’s curd, garnet leaf salad shallots, beet pepper).

Purple and green sage

Native to the northern shores of the Mediterranean, sage has also been cultivated for centuries for both medicinal and culinary uses and is now cultivated in our QT Sydney rooftop garden! The common, broadleaf variety we grow is silvery grey and pungent. It is one of the original seedlings we planted when the rooftop garden was first installed and continues to thrive.

We’re using this delicious shrubbery in our Wood Roasted Jumbo Quail “Rockefeller” (Filled with malt bread, sage, truffles-foie gras, steamed lettuce, minted peas, fava beans, bone jus).