Eventually I found all the spices and other ingredients I needed after a trip to MT Market.

Green Curry Paste

1 tsp coriander seeds
generous 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 cardamom pods
1 tsp white peppercorns
pinch of grated nutmeg
20–30 small green bird’s eye chillies
good pinch of salt
2 tbs chopped lemongrass
1 tbs chopped galangal
3 tbs chopped red shallots
2 tbs chopped garlic
1 tsp lime zest
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp Thai shrimp paste

Toast the spices in a pan until aromatic. Put them in a spice grinder ( dehusk the cardamon ) and grind to a fine paste. Chop the chillies and add them to a mortar and pestle ( or blender ) with some salt and pound to a paste. Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time pounding to a paste before adding the next. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the shrimp paste ( you can do this in the mortar if you want, but I prefer not to put fishy stuff in mine ).

Braised Beef
1 cup coconut cream
good pinch of salt
250g flank steak
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
1 carrot
10 whole green chillies ( optional )
2 sticks of celery
2 red shallots, bruised – optional
2 cardamom pods, roasted and husked
1 bay leaf
about 3 cups coconut milk

Slice your steak and salt it. Brown the Beef in a hot pan in some oil, careful not to overcrowd the pan. While browning chop the vegetables. Remove the Beef from the pan and pour out any oil. Add the coconut cream to the pan and cook over high heat until it splits. Add the vegetables and cook briefly, then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.

Once cooked take off the heat, strain off the liquid ( save it to go in the rice ) and discard the bay leaf and chillies.

Putting it together

Heat a cup of coconut cream in a wok until it spits. Add 2 tablespoons of the curry paste and cook for a few minutes until fragrant, stirring to stop it from sticking ) add about a tablespoon of fish sauce and about a tsp of palm sugar ( soft brown sugar will do ). Cook for another minute or so then add the beef and about a dozen green chillies. You can add some green beans or other vegetables at this stage as well, also squeeze half a lime into the wok. Simmer for about 10 minutes until thick and creamy ( may need to add some coconut milk or water as it cooks down).

Serve with Rice.

The sauce is made from Annatto powder, Chillies, Bitter Orange Juice, Cinnamon, Cumin, Coriander, Mace, salt and pepper. This is blended well and the pork is marinated in it for at least a couple of hours.

The dish is then cooked covered ( traditionally wrapped in banana leaves, but in foil is fine ) slowly for a number of hours. I cooked it in the smoker over charcoal at about 150 C for 4 or so hours.

While this was cooking I sliced two red onions and pickled it in some cider vinegar, salt, bitter orange juice, and some spices ( cumin, garlic chunks, sichuan peppers, chillies ) for several hours.

For the Blue Corn tortillas I mixed the blue corn flour, some plain flour, water and a pinch of salt. I then wrapped it in cling film and rested it for a few hours. To shape the tortillas I made it into balls and then pressed them under a cookbook. I then cooked them over low heat on a cast iron griddle, and then cooked them again over high heat until they puffed up.

I poured a litre of milk into a heavy bottom saucepan and put it over low heat. I added some citric acid and some rennet and brought it up to 31 C. I gave it a good stir and then turned off the heat and covered it for several hours.

When I opened the lid I was happy to see the curd had seperated out. I cut the curd into squares and brought the temperature up to 42 C stirring occasionally. I held the temp at 42 for about 30 minutes stirring every 5 minutes or so.

I strained the curds into a cheesecloth and let it drip for about 30 minutes. The curds went into a bowl with a dash of salt and was mixed. The curds then went into the microwave for 45 seconds and then I needed it by hand until it gave me a nice elastic mozzerella feel to it. Into the fridge to cool and done!.

The panna cotta itself is a combination of cream and the raw milk which soaks a bunch of toasted cornflakes for about 45 minutes. The cornflakes are the strained out and discarded ( or turned into Tuille in my case ). The cream is heated and sugar and gelatin are added. The Panna Cotta is then poured into moulds and refrigerated.

The Candied Captain Crunch is a mixture of Capt Crunch, light brown sugar, butter and a dash of cream. It’s spread out on a baking dish and baked at 150 C until golden brown. It’s then put aside to cool and then fed through the food processor to turn into a rough powder.

The corn flake tuille takes the soggy corn flakes mixed with an egg and flour. Spread out thin on a pan and baked until golden.

The Avacado puree is simply an avacado with a pinch each of sugar, salt and citric acid. Blended until smooth.

Anyways, because of this I’m always on the lookout for local farms that sell direct. I’ve found often the prices charged by the farms are very similar to that of CM and generally far superior being pastured, grass fed, etc. I stumbled across MooJesus Farm’s website and after a quick read knew that I had to go there. Not only pastured meats, but raw dairy!

We set out yesterday with some friends for the 90 minute trip and without major incident arrived mid morning. Pastor Gina the Matriarch of the farm/family greeted us as we walked into their little restaurant and sent us down to the milking shed where they were about to milk some cows. We wandered down a little trail and a few minutes later arrived at the shed.

Inside the shed we met a very polite young man who was washing the cows thoroughly from head to toe. We chatted with him for a while and then went outside and moo’d with the cows in the yard for a while so he could finish up. Not long after he called us in and made us wash our hands and put on gloves.

Just before we were due to start one of the cows let out and massive poop which splattered all over the place, managing to keep clear of the poop grenade we headed back outside while the washing process started all over again. They’re very serious about keeping their milk clean ( and should be! ).

Back inside and cleaned a couple of us got the chance to have a go at milking. I took a turn and was surprised at how much pressure was required to get the milk flowing. Obviously little calves have strong mouths.

After milking the cows we went back up to the restaurant and sat down for lunch. As well as being hardcore Christians the family also believe in a raw food diet. Almost all of the food served to us was grown at the farm itself.

The meal started with massive glasses of raw milk which tasted amazing. Gina then served us up a green leaf salad with a beautiful dressing of olive oil, garlic, cumin. I’m sure there was other stuff in there, but they were the dominant flavours. She also served us some raw crackers made with grains and seeds with a some raw butter and some herbed cream cheese, and some pepperjack cheese.

Following this was a bowl of spicy beef mince for me, and some vegetarian wraps which were collard green leaves filled with some fresh tomatoes, a pate made of nuts, yogurt and more. These were served with a large stack of fresh sprouts and portabello mushrooms in a delicious marinade. There were also a couple of sauces, one tamarind based, the other a spicy green sauce. Both were terrific.

Gina also gave us a bowl of dried kale chips with a slightly spicy seasoning on them to nibble on between courses.

Finishing the meal we had some chocolate truffles made of coconut and ginger and coated with a thin chocolate shell made from organic cocoa nibs. The truffles were so good that I totally forgot to take a photo of them …

After the meal we picked up our grocery orders. I got a gallon of raw milk, a 2 lbs pork shoulder roast, two sirloin steaks, a couple of pounds of oxtail and some lacto-fermented sauerkraut.

All up we had an excellent day. There were some lengthy delays in between courses for lunch which caused a few grumpy moments from some of us, but overall for me at least it was well worth it.

more photos

I made a white sauce by gently cooking down half an onion with some almond slivers being careful not to colour the onion. I added a good splash of white wine, a bay leaf, a couple of cardamon pods and some salt/pepper. I reduced the wine down and then added some milk and left it on low heat while the fish cooked.

For the hot chocolate I mixed half a teaspoon of corn starch with a cup of milk and brought it to the boil. As soon as it started to boil I took it off the heat and added 120g of good chocolate. I left it about a minute for the chocolate to melt and then whisked vigorously to mix them. Letting the chocolate melt before stirring helps stop it from going grainy.

The churros were made from a tube of Pillsbury crescent roll dough, brushed with butter, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon then cut into lengths, twisted and baked for about 12 minutes at 200 C.