Everyone’s comfort food! Here is a quick recipe for piping hot mac and cheese that is way better than anything you would find in a packet. Come into Blake Family Grocers and check out our range of local and imported cheeses. This is a great dish and an amazing crowd-pleaser.
Read MoreA tasty and easy fish pie to make for Easter or any time of the year. You can use any shellfish and white fish you can get your hands on. We have a great selection of fresh fish every day at Blake Family Grocers as well along with the beautiful premium all-butter pastry from Carême.
Read MoreMarch 1, 2022 is Tuesday and Pancake Tuesday. This is the day, traditionally, that Western Christian households would clear out their cupboards prior to the fasting period of Lent. We also reckon it is a great excuse to make these delicious buttermilk pancakes and serve them with the world’s best maple syrup from Quebec in Canada. Escuminac is made by Martin Malenfant who founded his own erabliere, the Quebecois French for a sugar bush or what we would describe as a maple plantation. Each year he taps 65,000 trees to produce this exquisite maple syrup. It is perfect on these buttermilk pancakes. Remember the secret to light and fluffy pancakes is to mix the batter slowly and gently to stop the gluten from forming.
Read MoreIf you have never had Kassler, try one of these. They are brined and smoked pork chops originally from Germany. When they come from Oakwood Smokehouse in Castlemaine, you know they are made from free-range and old breed pork.
Read MoreThis is an amazingly quick meal for two that looks sensational. We use Luv-A-Duck pre-cooked duck breast. They are packed with a load of their own jellied juices that make the perfect sauce! This is a great dish served with Blue Pyrenees rosé or even a Passing Clouds pinot noir.
Read MoreWhat to do when there is too much panettone lying around in the weeks following Christmas? Turn it into Panettone Summer Pudding. It takes about an hour from go-to-whoa and has the appearance of being healthy despite the amount of butter, sugar and cream. This uses about half a panettone and makes a rich, luscious, sweet bready custard with a crisp crust on the outside.
Read MoreA good tortilla should be rich, slightly wet, and tasting of good potatoes and quality eggs. We stock the best local Daylesford potatoes so you can’t go wrong there. Try using Honest Eggs. They are laid by chooks happily running around green paddocks locally, foraging for bugs and eating grass and grain protected by trusty Maremma flock dogs. This recipe takes a little time to perfect, but the secret is to help form the shape of the edges of the tortilla as the edges begin to cook.
Read MoreWe love Daylesford Cider. It is made by people who understand what a great cider should taste like. They grow the apple trees, harvest, crush and ferment the apples into cider that is reminiscent of the West Country of England but is distinctively a product of these rich volcanic soils. We also grow the best pork in the nation in this region. This hearty dish marries the two: pork and cider. You can use any cut with a good covering of skin, but it is best with shoulder.
Read MoreThis recipe came from a little café in the old town of San Sebastian in Spain's Basque Country. The café is famous for the cheesecake, and you'd think they would hold it as a closely guarded secret. This is the recipe that Frank Camorra from Movida and I got from the owner of the bar when we visited there back in 2008. It is a ripper of a recipe that to which Frank added a few tweaks for a little extra oomph. So easy to make, but do not scrimp on the quality of the ingredients.
Read MoreRalf Finke from Oakwood Smallgoods is a German Fleischermeister. We love the way his German-style smoked pork, from bacon to Kaiserfleisch can be used to change cabbage and Brussels sprouts from the every day to the extraordinary. This little dish is quick to make and perfect to serve with roasts and was developed here in Daylesford by food legend Mary Ellis a few years back.
Read MoreA really rich and fragrant take on the bread-and-butter pudding made with croissants. It is the way the essential oils of the lemon and orange permeate the milk and cream to make the custard, that gives this great winter dish its aromatic lift. Punctuated with chai-infused dried blueberries, this is as delicious as it is easy to make.
Read MoreMy goodness these are tasty. Tasty and zesty. Beautiful, pickled jalapeño peppers from farmers Edward and Fiona Benedict who grew them over summer at their beautiful little farm in the heart of historic Glenlyon.
Read MoreThis luxurious creamy risotto is perfect for late Autumn evenings and well into the winter months.
Read MoreAdsum farm in Glenlyon is producing some of the best jalapeño chillies in the country. The sauce is also very good on grilled chops, chicken and forest mushrooms.
Read MoreThe beetroots from Captain’s Creek Organics are so full of colour and flavour you can grate them raw and add them to a salad. But by cooking them you help transform some of the starch into sugar making them a little sweeter and less earthy.
Read MoreThe perfect way to make use of the late summer, early autumn bounty of ripe tomatoes. A time when the days are still warm and the nights long, when BBQs are firing up and there are chops and steaks on the grill.
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