“Hi honey,

I had a lovely bath last night and watched Miami Ink while lying in the bathtub which had lots of people with tattoos. They actually looked really interesting but don’t worry I’m not getting one.

I have to get up bright and early for the Barossa Farmer’s markets tomorrow morning so have fun sailing! Call me at The Louise.

Love,
Me-me-me
xxx”

I start the day off with my breakfast in the suite. I knew I’d be nibbling a lot today so this was eating light. I had a glass of premium cloudy Adelaide Hills apple juice (I adore cloudy apple juice) and a plate of locally cured smoked ham with Ballycroft fresh cheese and house baked rye bread. It’s perfect low carb food and the rye bread is sliced super thinly. The cheese, soft, ripe fresh cheese and thin bread are just ideal for a day of snacking and feasting.

That was the grand plan at least but when the bed is this comfy and the wind and rain are beating down outside rocking you to sleep. I look outside the window while having breakfast and it is still bucketing down. South Australia is the the driest state in Australia-yes even drier than the centre of Australia which was news to me! So this torrent of rain is an anomaly. I’m afraid I had a bit of a late start. And I start the day off in style when my fantastic tour guide John picks me up in this beauty! “Instead of driving Miss Daisy I’m going to be Driving Miss Lorraine” he says smiling. Aww why can’t life come with a  tour guide like John?

There are only six of these Daimlers in Australia and John owns three of these. This beauty was found in a paddock rusted out with chickens living in it in country Victoria. John himself has lovingly restored it and I get to be a passenger in it. The car itself lets you have 180 degree views as your seat is far back to allow you to see more. They were also built to be royal cars so that these windows open and you could wave to the people outside! I refrained from doing so

It’s cold and wet but despite the late arrival it is still buzzing. These farmer’s markets are undercover and held every Saturday and are where locals do a lot of their regular weekly food shop. To qualify for a stall here, you  must be a primary producer so that this is a true farmer’s market. I meet Jan Angas who is part of one of the most well known families in the area. The Angas family settled the nearby town Angaston.  She has her own stand which is the Hutton Vale Farm which grows pasture fed lamb.

For a state as dry as South Australia, most of the livestock is fed on grain as the pastures do not allow for it. Jan prefers to keep it small and keep true to making pasture fed lamb done as naturally as possible. Jan tells me that she gets feedback that celiacs and gluten free eaters have reported having some issues with grain fed lamb but not with grass fed lamb. South Australians are the first and so far only state to have banned plastic bags at the supermarket checkout and they have a rather nifty idea to make newspaper bags to help recycle the newspapers.

Newspaper bag!

We start with the pastry brand Carême. OK all of you pastry aficionados in Australia are probably familiar with the Carême premium puff pastry using real butter. What you may not have known (and I admit I didn’t know) is that Carême also bake tarts, pies, galettes and all sorts of other pastry goodies.

There are some absolutely luscious looking apple tarts, some chocolate tarts with gold leaf on top and the piece de resistance, a lemon meringue pie. It’s clearly calling my name. You hear it too don’t you? Interestingly some brands don’t have shop fronts and they only sell at these markets. Carême is one of them-I guess they’re too busy making pastry!

Lemon meringue tart

We start off at Ellis orchards. They previously had three orchards where they grew fruit figuring that if conditions or weather affected one then the others would help in that regard. They’ve now sold two of the farms but have kept one.

Everyone behind the stalls is from the company itself and Carmella is another example of this. She makes three products in Angaston, a Kasundi which is a versatile wet curry paste that can be used for curries but also for things such as marinades for fish and meat. Each jar can make up to ten curries.  She also does a dry curry spice blend which is intoxicatingly fragrant and a chutney. And Carmella was kind enough to give me a jar of her Kasundi paste! I’m suddenly the best wife for bringing this home.

The man who was the face of the Barossa farmer’s Markets and a favourite of the French journalists that visited is John from Cornucopia Olives. He’s strumming a guitar when we arrive at his stand. His speciality is seawater olives that are said to have a milder salt taste than regular olives but this also means that they have a stronger olive flavour to them. They’re so popular that they’ve sold out by now. He uses Lecchio olives from 20 year old trees that have never been fertilised or irrigated and they were planted wide which means that they survive the drought.

I stop by Bite The Biscuit where Melting Moments take on mammoth proportions. As Jan says they’re not melting moments, they’re melting hours. They’ve been making biscuits for three years now and the woman behind the counter hands me a Melting Moment “to enjoy later at your own leisure”. How lovely! I’ve got my cup of tea already planned for this (oh and by the way it’s delicious with a lovely tangy icing in the centre of the biscuits!).

We stop by the award winning honey placed Turner’s Honey. Their creamed honey, barossa valley pasture honey and their cup gum honey have all won awards. He is an ex accountant of all things!

We meet Rosemary at Four Leaf where I instantly recognise those packets as the same ones that sit in my pantry. When she first started making certified organic products people told her that she was mad and that no-one would be interested in them. Fast forward to several years later and now there is a big demand for organic produce. Her husband had an interest in engineering so he built the stone mills which meant that the cash outlay for the equipment was lower. The company have just celebrated their 40th birthday.

We pass by Fleming and Ware who make several types of muesli using Four Leaf’s organic oats and South Australian only fruit and almonds “The worst thing I can hear is when a Turkish apricot is in muesli” she says defiantly. Oops, better not tell her that I happen to love Turkish apricots then!

Among the businesses there is also a mix of cottage industries. There is a small grower that sells the produce from her farm.

We suddenly bump into Mark McNamara who is doing today’s shopping for supplies for tonight’s dinner. He is talking to Michael Voumard who is well known for having his own garden  and for striving for fresh and natural ingredients while doing things like growing his own paprika. He has five biodyanmic acres on which he grows produce and on Thursday and Fridays he holds Stonewall society dinners in the Rockford Winery on a table that seats twelve people only. And it’s for Stone Wall Society members and their friends and is booked out months in advance.

I try some delicious little morsels at the Steiny’s stand. Jan tells me that every town has a butchers and a smokehouse and that people buy their Mettwurst (a smoked sausage similar to salami) from their favourite supplier and everyone has their own favourite.

Another cottage industry is Elaine’s relishes, chutney and pickles. She has both a standard line and a seasonal line which reflects the fruit of the current season.

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“I think you use a syringe and you inject the soup into it”

“No no too fiddly, I think it’s like a blob of gelatine that they put in it”

“No no you’re both wrong. They cook the meat and the skin separately and then put them together and pour soup inside and seal them up”

Dumpling Auntie

It’s almost Chinese New year and as an avid Xiao Long Bao eater, I had always sworn to find out how they put the soup in these little beasties and when New Shanghai asked me if I would like to learn how to make these dumplings I jumped at the chance. My mother is also curious to know so she comes along. Shanghai dumplings seem to have taken over as the new Yum Cha and on weekends (and some weekdays) eager hordes queue to try these delicious little morsels.

Dumpling Auntie

Traditionally these dumplings are actually eaten as breakfast foods or snacks in the afternoon rather than the way in which we eat them here as lunch or dinner. Today the two dumpling aunties are going to show me how to make four of the dumplings. The fillings and dough are all made up already but they’ll show me how to fill them and Shirley and John who own New Shanghai will explain the differences in making each bun.

Roll the circle mainly around the outside…

So that the centre is slightly thicker than the edges

First up are the regular gyoza type dumplings. These are steamed and then pan fried. The skin for this and the Xiao Long Bao are the same although the Xiao Long Bao are rolled thinner. They show me how to roll the skin which has an emphasis on rolling out the sides leaving the centre slightly thicker as the sides are to be pinched and gathered together. I watch as the other dumpling auntie fills a dumpling with the pork filling and then cradles it between two fingers in the hollow of her thumb ad forefinger and pinches the sides using her right hand while turning the dumpling slightly with her left so that they can a slightly rounded shape.

Fill generously (fill with less if you are starting out though)

Pleat with thumb and index finger

Ta-da! Sort of…I’m not getting hired with this one

My turn! OK not bad, she kindly fixes it up for me before I see that it has made the cut (although they might have binned it when I turned away to avoid hurting my feelings ).  Each Dumpling Auntie has worked for years making these dumplings and they can make them all.

Xiao Long Bao attempt one

Hmm could have used some more pleats!

Second attempt: fail. No-one wants their meat showing do they?

Now for the Xiao Long Bao. They estimate that they make up to 1,000 of these a day. The secret to how they get the soup in them is this. John remains a little evasive I think in an effort to keep the secret recipe a secret but it is with pork skin broth which produces gelatinous cubes that once steamed, melt into a soup. The other trick to these is in the pleating.  You sit it in one hand (your left if you are right handed) and fold each over in tiny pleats using your pointer finger to fold it against the already folded pleats in a total of 22 pleats per dumpling!

Watching the pro do it

Pinch, pinch, pinch

And if you, like me, love the puffy, pan fried dumpling with the lovely burnished bottoms but often found that you were too full to eat them as they always arrive last I now know the reason why. The filling and method for these dumplings is the same as the Xiao Long Bao but the dough is a different yeast dough. They store the dough in the fridge and these dumplings are only made once an order is placed or the dough will start to puff and develop and the result will be a puffier, more porous dough.

My last attempt

In a powerful commercial steamer like this, Xiao Long Bao are steamed for a total of a mere two minutes

Once they are made (and these Dumpling Aunties only take a few minutes to make a batch), these are then moved onto the frypan area where they are placed in a lightly greased frypan and then once they sit there they ladle over about four ladles full of oil and 1 of water-yes water! This is then cooked for 10 minutes which explains why they take so long as each batch is cooked to order. And yes don’t lift the lid while you are cooking these as the water and oil combination is explosive!

Four ladles of oil and one ladle of water. Yes, seriously!

She’s a brave woman opening up the pan halfway through…

But look how purty they are!

Chinese proverb: a brave person opens up the pan fried dumpling pan once they are cooking

White Tea $3.50 per person

A couple of weeks later dumpling fiend Mr NQN and take a seat to try these dumplings for ourselves. It’s busy with a crowd gathered at the front. We take a seat and the crowd is mixed-there are Chinese families as well as people from all sorts of ethnicities. The design inside here evokes that of a Shanghai alley and there definitely appears to be an effort to raise this above the usual Shanghai dumpling eateries. There is a selection of teas from white tea, spiral green tea, dragon as well green tea as well as additional extras like XO sauce (a divine and extravagant mixture of dried scallops, dried shrimp, chilli, garlic and Yunnan or Jinhua ham)  for $2 for a small serve- I looove XO sauce (I’ve considered carrying it around with me)!

XO chilli sauce $2

#514 Stir fried Chinese rice cake with blue swimmer crab $18.80

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