Sourdough Panettone, Marinated Fetta, and Tasmanian Peppers.

Hmmm- lucky I tried this recipe for Sourdough Panettone before Christmas as it has not been the raging success I had hoped. It tastes very nice, just like Panettone but is very dense (almost puggy one might say!). I think I might go back to my original yeasted version to ensure success for Christmas Day breakfast. Ah well, it was worth the try. The original Italian Panettone from Milan was a sourdough type bread which took several days to make and ended up light and fluffy in texture. This is not what was produced in the Preserving Patch kitchen today.

Yesterday I decided to marinate some of the fetta cheese I made a few weeks ago. I threw in some fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs, chilli flakes and some Tasmanian native peppers then covered the cheese with olive oil. Tried it on top of a pizza last night and it was pretty delicious.

When we went up to our hut near Cradle Mountain a couple of weekends ago, I was hoping to pick some fresh Tasmanian peppers (Tasmannia lanceolata) but I was a bit late for this year's crop and there were hardly any berries left. Instead I was given the task of getting enough prunings for several hundred cuttings for Max to propagate in the nursery. The cuttings have to be from a female tree to be able to produce the berries but Max had his favourite tree just up the track from the hut. It was a bit chilly perched up on a ladder with snow on the ground below. The peppers add quite a different flavour to dishes from normal black peppercorns and as we have literally hundreds of trees on our land in the mountains, it seems too good an opportunity to miss to harvest them occasionally. Here are some I prepared a little earlier - along with some dried leaves. I am keen for anyone to give me recipe ideas to use them!