Hello my loves,

Beautiful ones!!!! I’m back! I missed you! I love you! How the blooming hell are you??!! I for one am excellent, blissfully lolling in the lazy energy that this time of year always brings in my part of the world. It gives me a bit of a giggle every year actually – each December, I watch the energy ramp up and up and up, becoming more and more frenetic as the world braces for Christmas. It reaches its manic zenith on December 25th, and then poof! It vanishes! As if it was never there at all. In Sydney, from December 26th to January 26th, absolutely nothing happens. Nothing at all. It’s lazy, quiet, languid, slow, often warm and always delicious. Work is quiet, weekends are quiet, life is quiet, and it’s really rather lovely.

Allow me to bring you up to speed with my goings on over the last month (I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since I last wrote!). My December break began with the scuppering of a two-week holiday to Victoria that I’d so been looking forward to. November and December had been big months (yup, 2020), and our long-anticipated road trip had been the light at the end of the tunnel. Until Covid. Again. I have to admit, on the day the borders closed, I lost a little of my customary equilibrium. However, as always, all was completely on purpose. In my last note of the year, I wrote about making time to rest. I was fully intending to do a good amount of that, but once we found ourselves unexpectedly at home, I realised I needed much more rest than I’d thought. I was so tired. Way more so than I’d realised. So, I retired to the garden. I recently acquired a cunning backyard recliner that allows me to feel like I’m suspended in the air (don’t get too excited, it’s from Bunnings, but I freaking LOVE the thing). I spent an entire two weeks floating above my lawn, literally watching my pumpkins grow. Just breathing in the sky and the leaves and the air and the peace. It was incredibly restorative.

Something else happened over my break, something very exciting. SUMMER PRODUCE ARRIVED!!!! We tend to think of summer as starting on December 1, but I always find that it’s more around summer solstice (December 21), that the real summer harvest action starts. My first trip to the farmers' market in January saw me loading up like a maniac on new-season tomatoes, corn, eggplant, stone fruit and peppers. Godddddd I love summer produce! I’s all just so lush and juicy and sweet and joyful! To say I’ve been a pig in mud is the understatement of the century. And after I roused myself from my floating garden recliner, good and rested as I was, I went pickling and preserving mad. Mad I tell you. I’ve made zucchini chutney and plum chutney, and pickled radishes, zucchinis, fennel, plums, oranges and cherries. Pickled peaches are next on my list: do not underestimate the power of the pickled fruit people. Pickled fruit is amazing.

There’s one more element that’s wound its way right through my lazy month, and that is fire. I’ve been cooking everything over fire. Huge tomahawk pork cutlets, juicy beef bavettes, corn, eggplant, and my absolute favourite: damper. Yup, I’ve been wrapping a simple dough around sticks, and cooking it over some lovely dry wood helpfully provided by a dead branch on my conifer tree. Obviously in summer we need to be careful about fire, but it’s a wet one this year and the conditions have been perfect to embrace some good old traditional bread-on-a-stick action. I can’t even describe how delicious it is, especially when dripping with butter. And don’t think that I have some fancy wood-fired set up that enables me to do special things that you can’t do. Oh no my love. My set up is literally a small metal box and, if I can be bothered, some bricks to balance my damper sticks on. If I’m cooking meat, I use an old cake rack as a grill. My process is this: light fire in box. Cook food over fire. The end.

My fire box set up, complete with damper and a random eggplant. Like I said, just a box with some fire. I'd just thrown these damper on so they are yet to reach their golden peak. As you can see, this is not a day I bothered with bricks.

There’s just something so primally fulfilling about the flavour of anything cooked over fire, it speaks to eons of human history, and the crackle and snap of the branches as they burn is simply mesmerising. I can watch the flames for hours. So I will leave you with my very simple damper recipe, a super-fun one to try with kids, and super-delicious for absolutely anyone. But before I go, can I just say that I’m so excited to be back in your inbox for another year! I can’t wait to spend 2021 reporting in a weekly-ish fashion on all things delicious and nourishing. Happy new year my darlings - let’s hold hands and jump gloriously into whatever awaits us! No matter what happens, I’ll be right here. Sending you so much love for a wonderful start to this bright and shiny new year 💛💛💛💛.

Fireside Damper

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour (I use bread flour but plain will also work)
1 sachet yeast (7g)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
Warm water to make a firm dough

You will also need
Thick green sticks to wrap your damper around (I cut mine from a bush in my garden)

Method
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. You can add flavourings if you like - herbs, a little chilli, or some garlic would all be amazing. Add warm water bit by bit, mixing with your hands until you have a firm dough. Turn out onto your bench top and knead for 2-3 minutes. Put the dough back in its bowl and rest it, covered, in a warm place until it's doubled in size (30 mins to 1 hour depending on the heat of the day).

Push the dough down, divide it into 3 or 4 portions (3 + large damp, 4 = medium damper). Roll each portion into a long sausage and wrap it around a stick in a spiral fashion (see picture above). Repeat until all damper is mounted on your sticks. Cook over a wood fire or hot coals for 10-15 mins, turning occasionally, until damper is puffed and golden. Slide off sticks, douse in butter (optional but recommened) and enjoy.

Love, Rachel xxx