What is GREAT at the market?
Do you love a quick easy meal? Who doesn’t and nachos is a favourite. This week Duska from Spice Palace posted a before photo on their Insta page of a baking tray filled with tomatoes, red capsicum and chillies ready to be caramelised. The after photo of them coming out of the oven in preparation for making their salsa dip had my taste buds dancing. I can’t wait to buy a jar.
Spice Palace’s Mexican salsa makes a delightful dip surrounded by Dona Cholita’s Chipotle Corn Chips. And as for nachos – my easy version is simply to toss a packet or two of Chipotle Corn Chips on a griller, top with a light sprinkling of grated cheese, cover with salsa then more grated cheese and grill until the cheese bubbles and browns slightly. Serve with heaps of sliced avocado or guacamole and a dash of sour cream. Yummo!
Once my focus was on nachos I felt compelled to find a more filling recipe for a hungry family and who better to check in with than Jamie Oliver who says “with every dish of this fairly blank-canvas … there are plenty of variations. It’s very common to include refried black beans, and, for a full-blown version, ladles of hot-as-hell chilli. More outrageous variations include toppings of indulgent shredded seafood, like crab or lobster, or a rich and succulent pulled pork or brisket chilli.” His recipe ideas and links are included below.
Also delightful this week is another new product – passionfruit and papaya jam from Mad Mountain Family Farm. Their Christmas cakes are baked and wrapped already to go again in case you missed out last week.
This week we are SHINING the spotlight on Thanks Dahl’s new caramel pecan dahl bar.
Joel from Thanks Dahl introduces his NEW caramel pecan dahl bars and the man behind this great flavoured bar – Greg Manson in his most recent blog. They met and connected at our market. Greg – you may recall – sits at the entry to the pavilion with his small table from which he offers a test of you his Shoshone pecan oil – great for your skin. And I can vouch for it too.
But as Joel says with a wicked grin – hand picking pecans is a risky business as spiders often nest in the pecan trees but apparently Greg doesn’t mind as his trusty Akubra keeps them from falling on his head. But back to the dahl bar story. Joel writes in his blog that “one day he (being Greg) asked me if I’d be interested in trying pecan flour in my Dahl Bars which he explained is a by-product of his oil production. Before I could answer, he scooped a spoonful of flour into a paper bag and insisted I try it.
When I got home that afternoon, I whipped up some Dahl Bar batter and threw in some of Greg’s pecan flour. While they were baking, the whole house was filled with a scrumptious pecan aroma. As soon as they were ready, I scooped them out of the oven and had a taste, almost burning my mouth off in the process. But it was worth it – I couldn’t believe my tastebuds! The flavour was unlike anything I’d ever tried before – pecany, caramely, a little tangy and super nutty. So many flavours going on. Laura and I polished off a tray in about 5 minutes.
And so the Caramel Pecan Dahl Bar was born.
