samphire update

The week got away from me a little. It’s visitor time, that means – eating out, other people cooking or having to cook for other people’s palates. It wasn’t til days later that I got a sneaky meal on my own and time to experiment. But getting home tired and hungry after 7 pm doesn’t find me in the most creative headspace.

I compromised, wanting quick carb comfort food. Knocking up wholemeal pasta with a speedy oil based tuna sauce, I added the well rinsed samphire in the last few minutes of cooking, around the time the tin of tuna went in. The ‘sauce’ du jour (not very saucy but a good stir through mix) was onion, lashings of garlic and some diced zucchini to get the mandatory vegetable component. Lastly a can of good quality tuna and the salty samphire instead of my usual olives, finished off with some parsley from the garden, black pepper, salt and a squeeze of lime juice.

The samphire had a little crunch left which added a pleasant texture. Cooked, it was less salty than raw still with a hint of the sea. Even if it was really a salt marsh.

I look forward to more samphire experimentation in future.

Note: Samphire still on sale at Vic Market today at $30/kg (it’s lighter than you think).

Feijoas down a notch: $4 kg but a bit smaller in size. The samphire stall has plumper ones but at a whopping $12 kg.

market goodies

Without any disloyalty intended to my beloved mango and delicious summer berries, the autumn cornucopia is something to be marvelled at. I am loving the short season of feijoas even if i did have a sneak preview a couple of weeks ago in NZ. Last week my secret stall had them for $3/kg but I knew it'd only take a few days before the word got out and the price jumps up. Today they clocked in at $5/kg which was still 1/3 of the price that 2 other stalls had them for. I have also been romancing persimons for the last month. A cheery orange fruit with a vanillary sweetness inside, I don't know why I haven't gone mad for them before.

But my finds of the day came from a specialist stall. I got my first hit of samphire, straight from some South Australian salt marsh and enjoyed bitting into the salty vegetation then and there. I was on the look out for this underused delicacy, since reading Ed’s recent post. Other than washing it well to get off the grit, its hard to resist nibbling them as is. I’m thinking salad with something fishy or in a simple stir fry. Any other suggestions?



The other beauty were some desert limes, or at least one variety of. I’m loathed to honestly describe what the hard, cylindrical fruit really remind me of but all scatological reference is forgotten when tasting the citrusy beads inside. Think juicy explosions of intensified kaffir lime leaves. The market guy, another shopper and I debated over best use of the fruit – which went in unison “alcohol”, “muddled” and “copious”. It definitely would be a great addition to a citrus flavoured cocktail. In the meantime, I sprinkled some beads on smoked salmon for my lunchtime sandwich. A great combination. I suspect they were used in a a curry sauce I had at Gingerboy (hang on to your hats for that post).




With winter a mere week away, it’s time to enjoy the autumn abundance while it lasts. Mandarins are well and truly in and apples still at their crunchy hiatus. The remaining grapes on the vine are 99% gone or shrivelled meaning the laborious task of pruning is before me. Hopefully by next year the recently planted rhubarb would have gone forth and multiplied in my tiny garden.

Enjoy whatever season you are in.