My Open Kitchen Podcast launch!

Welcome to the My Open Kitchen podcast! We are so very excited to be launching our new show today and really hope you love it as much as we do. Here below are all the links to everything we mentioned in episode one – from great new Instagram accounts you might like to follow to Sophie’s recipe for hazelnut and white chocolate bliss balls, great productivity apps and loads more to read, think about and cook. We have also included transcripts from our interviews with lovely Tamsin Carvan and Molly Yeh.

To listen, please click on the green ‘play’ button above or better yet listen and subscribe to us via I-tunes, just search for My Open Kitchen in the podcast page of your i-tunes browser or smartphone app and we will pop up (round yellow logo).

If you enjoy the podcast – please help us keep it going by subscribing via I-tunes and leaving us a rating and review. This is very helpful in these early days. And so greatly appreciated! Also, if there’s anyone you think we should interview on the show in future episodes please leave a comment below and we’ll try to make it happen.

So before we get into the links and such, here are the key things we want you to know about My Open Kitchen

What – A new podcast celebrating growers, farmers, cook’s and producers; telling their stories, talking hospitality, simple seasonal food, communities and the power of social media to help us farmers connect better. Your hosts are Sophie Hansen, from Local is Lovely, and Skye Manson, ABC Rural reporter. We are both passionate storytellers, love good food and our country homes.

When – For the first four weeks, we will release a new episode every Tuesday then move to a fortnightly schedule.

Why – because Sophie and Skye love telling stories, and we think there are some great ones out there. Also because we love sharing ideas, inspiration and recipes.

Where – We record out of Rolling Wheel studios in Orange NSW. But many of our interviews are done over the phone.

How – You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the play button above. Otherwise, listen to us via i-tunes, just search for My Open Kitchen in the I-tunes podcast page or app on your phone. And if you do – we’d love it if you’d subscribe, rate and review us.

The first eight episodes of My Open Kitchen are produced with the support of RIRDC’s Rural Woman of the Year Award. Sophie is the 2016 NSW/ACT RIRDC Rural Woman of the Year winner and part of the bursary she was awarded has gone to producing the first series of this podcast. We will be seeking sponsorhip/partnerships going forward to keep our show going! Email us if keen to chat about working together!

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SHOW NOTES, EPISODE 1 

Here below, in chronological order, are all the things we mentioned in this episode!

RIRDC Rural Woman of the Year Award

Sophie is the proud winner of the 2016 NSW/ACT RIRDC Rural Woman of the Year award this podcast is part of the project she is undertaking as part of this. Applications are now open for the 2017 award and we highly recommend anyone interested to read up on what it’s all about and throw their hat in the ring. It’s a wonderful initiative and opens up so many opportunities for its finalists and winners. For more information on the award, visit the RIRDC website.

Recipe for Sophie’s hazlenut balls with sweet dukkah

These little numbers are full of flavour, goodness and are the perfect treat to fill hunger gaps mid morning or satisfy the old sweet cravings many of us get in the late afternoon. Make up a big batch and keep them in the fridge for hunger emergencies! You can of course skip the white chocolate, they will still be beautiful uncoated – but this last step plus their dusting of sweet dukkah just gilds the lily in the most delicious way. Makes about 10.

1/2 cup oven-roasted hazlenuts*
2 tbsp cacao powder
6 pitted dates (soaked in hot water to soften)
1 tbsp coconut oil (I find the local hazlenuts are so full of oil that you only need one tbsp coconut oil but if you are using older, imported nuts then maybe go for 2 tbsp)
200g white, milk or dark chocolate, chopped into pieces
1/3 cup sweet dukkah (I love this recipe)

Combine the buts, cacao, dates, coconut oil and a pinch of sea salt in your food processor or blender and blitz to combine, pushing the mixture down and around the blades as needed so the mixture is fairly evenly worked through. Turn out into a large bowl and with slightly damp hands, roll into small balls (roughly walnut sized – but round!). Place these on a plate or tray lined with baking paper and pop in the fridge to harden up for about 30 minutes. Place a wire rack over a sheet of baking paper and lightly grease or oil the rack so the balls don’t stick later on.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Carefully dip the balls in the chocolate and turn so they are evenly covered then, dust with dukkah and transfer to wire rack. Let them set a little on the bench (about 15 mins) then remove to a plate or container and keep in the fridge till ready to munch!

*We love and use Fourjay Farms hazlenuts from Orange NSW.  If you can find fresh, Australian hazlenuts for this recipe you’ll notice a HUGE difference in taste. They might cost a bit more but it’s really worth it!

Tamsin Carvan interview

Tamsin Carvan lives on a 113 acre farm in Gippsland’s Poowong East, it’s a rolling green hilltop crowned by a beautiful home. This is where Tamsin runs her hugely popular long Sunday lunches and workshops throughout the year. With daughter Martha and partner Al (maker of beautiful wooden furniture), she also presides over a number of chickens, cows, turkeys, pigs and other creatures. They grow a rainbow of produce and all of this bounty is served forth every Sunday in seasonal set menus at Tamsin’s now famous long table. We just loved this chat with Tamsin, there are some wonderful pieces of advice in there, so please take a listen and if you like, you can also read the transcript.

Tamsin’s Instagram follows;
Floret Flower @floretflower
Saipua flowers @saipua
Belinda Jeffries @belindajefferyfood

Sophie’s top 5

1. The VSCO app; This is what I use to edit all my photos for Instagram – it’s easy to use, the filters are great and only costs a couple of dollars on the app store. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to bump up the quality of their photos;
2. Instagram Stories; unfiltered (mostly), unedited and very candid ‘behind the scenes’ clips and stills from the people you already follow on Instagram. Stories are Instagram’s answer to  Snapchat and lots of fun to follow and add to. If you feel like a bit of help getting started with this new Instagram feature, check out Xanthe Berkley’s great little video tutorial.
3. Dessert Island Discs; Not at all food related but an eminently entertaining podcast full of great music, people and ideas.
4. Kitchen Swagger – Spotify Playlist from Food 52; Food 52 is an American food website and I just love it – it’s populated with tens of thousands of recipes and fantastic blog posts and is an amazing resource if you are looking for food-related inspiration, ideas or entertainment. They have created a whole swag of playlists on Spotify and my current favourite is Kitchen Swagger – great tunes to get you dancing around the kitchen even when the washing up pile is depressingly enourmous or the prep list is dishearteningly long.
5. Lunchlady magazine; A wonderful independent Australian print magazine full of stories about family and food. Also loads of great crafty things to make and stories to read.

Skye’s top 5

1. GraziHer; Why didn’t someone come up with this idea earlier! A beautiful magazine about women on the land. Put together by 32 year old central Queensland farm girl Claire Dunn, it’s a visual feast for the eye and an much needed window into the lives of farming women in the far away places of Australia.
2. Posie Harwood, blogger at 600 Acres or @posiehh on Instagram; Most blogs draw me in with their beautiful pictures, 600 Acres gets me with her writing. Try this S’Mores Pie if you dare; highly indulgent!
3. Erin Benzakein, @floretflower on Instagram; Erin’s pictures are pure joy. Think pictures of a pick up truck called “Little Fat Dragon’ laden with freshly picked Dahlia’s at sunset. A rich commentary of family life on a flower farm in the US. This one pic has had almost 32,000 likes, including by the likes of Brittany Spears and is still doing the rounds!
4. Tumeric; we’ve just been in Byron for a week and Tumeric is everywhere! Really really good medicinal qualities, especially for the long wet, flu ridden winter we’ve just had. I don’t know how I have never come across Golden Milk before.
5. Daphne. One of my all time favourite flowers. So many country gardens have a Daphne bush that has likely been rooted in the same place for decades, while other plants have come and gone, I feel like Daphne is an ancient favourite of everyone’s. Upon our return from holidays recently, we opened up our back door to find a freshly picked bunch of Daphne wafting through the house alongside an icecream container of fresh eggs as a welcome home present from my Mother-in-law. This is what country living is all about – Celebrate it!

Molly Yeh

Molly Yeh from My Name is Yeh has got to be one of the funnest, most adorable food bloggers, photographers and stylists in the world. And whatsmore she’s now a country girl!! Moving her bustling, food filled life from New York to live with her husband Nick on a sugar beet farm in North Dakota has given Molly time to hone her unique storytelling style. (As well as becoming an expert in chicken keeping). After hanging out with her at the Winter Local Is Lovely workshop at Kimbri Farm at Rydal – it’s easy to see why she’s got 150,000 plus followers on Instagram.  She is infectious in everyway – we love her! If you would like to read the transcript of our interview with Molly, please click here.

Molly’s speed round questions:
Your last amazing meal? Lamingtons from Flour and Stone
Favourite kitchen utensil? Rubber spatula
Next big food trend? I would love to say Mid Western and Jewish food but from what I am hearing it’s Bugs and sustainable proteins.
Instagram loves – Australian cake makers!
Favourite podcast – Radio Cherry Bombe, Food Seen, A couple cooks.
Instagram, Twitter Facebook or Snapchat – Twitter. I follow the weirdest people on Twitter and I love it, it’s certainly the quirkiest.

Jane Hillsdon from Dragonfly marketing

This episode Jane shares five minutes of marketing gold! Look out for her new podcast Miss Bossy Boots, launching on Monday, September 19. It will be all about inspiring leadership in business and we can’t wait to have a listen