Tasting Plate for Two and a Family Trip to Canowindra
Recently, my family and I took a few days from reality to escape to the country, relax, eat and drink to our heart’s content. We visited a few local wineries and tasted the fresh local produce at various eateries in Cowra and Canowindra, (Western NSW - Australia). We have not had a family photo in some time, so I made the excuse that I needed our smiling faces to appear on this blog – ensuring at least one decent snap would result!
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Family Lunch!
In between sampling the regions finest grapes and soaking up the autumn sun at the Japanese Garden in Cowra, we stopped for a light lunch at a quaint little cafe – Taste Canowindra. Having already consumed a large breakfast, morning tea, coffee and number of wines, we opted for a light lunch in the form of ‘The Tasting Plate for Two’. (Yes there were 4 of us, both none of us were that hungry. Not at least until we started eating!).
This was my first attempt at capturing food out of my normal (controlled) environment! It went something like this: ‘hurry up Rach….it looks so good, that prawn is begging to be eaten’. I did feel instantly overwhelmed, but quickly set my exposure and aperture on the camera and snapped away. I think I did well!?
The idea of a ‘Tasting Plate’ is a great way to showcase your favourite nibbles whatever the occasion. Whether it be a light starter at the annual summer BBQ or something to pick at with your best friend over a bottle of wine and a few laughs. This dish could not be easier and you can incorporate/substitute your favourites with any of the ingredients mentioned in the recipe!
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Create your own Tasting Plate!
Serves two
Ingredients
6 Slices of chorizo
4 Peeled Prawns (shrimp)
2 Large slices of pastrami
Kalamata olives
Caperberries
Pickled capsicum (red pepper)
Sliced pickled red onion
Blue vein cheese
Persian feta cheese
Bocconcini
A generous handful of oakleaf lettuce
Snowpea sprouts to garnish
Diced chives to sprinkle
Assorted dressings - balsamic vinegar, honey mustard and seafood cocktail
Toasted bread
Olive oil
Directions
In the middle of a large serving plate, place the lettuce, garnished with snowpea sprouts and chives. Place around the lettuce the olives, caperberries, capsicum, onion and assorted cheeses. Place the dressings in three separate bowls and arrange on the plate.
In a pan, fry the chorizo until slightly crisp on the edges. Remove. Place peeled prawns in pan and cook for 2 minutes each side until flesh is white. Place both the chorizo and prawns on the plate. Roll the pastrami and add to the plate.
Serve with toasted bread and a dash of olive oil.
Note
This list of ingredients is a great place to start to assemble your tasting plate. Play around with the ingredients, substitute or add any your favourite nibbles!
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Hey Rachel! What a beautiful mess a tasting plate seems to be! I love your top, main photo – as always its the colors that grab me. The pinkish-purple of the onions and the bright yellow of the olive oil just jump right out of the picture! You have proven to us that even when you aren’t in as much “control” as you like to be, you still come through! Beautiful job… and a beautiful family – your parents are blessed!
I do love that photo too! Unfortunately Tastespotting did not! Maybe it is too messy, but that what makes you want to jump right in and start eating!
It was great lighting as we were dinning outside, so good conditions for a first time. Thanks.
Yes I am blessed to have a loving happy family.
Plus, its great to have you back. How is the book going?
I was thinking the same thing about the messiness of it all – THAT is what makes you want to eat it! Ah well, at least with this pic it was more than a photo shoot, it was a record of a memory with the family!
The book is going well, I don’t know what I’ve shared with you about it (if any?)… it’s a 21-day read geared to teens and young adults about 7 different injustices in the world. It not only gives information each day, but asks the reader to do something extreme to make that injustice more personal to them. For instance, on one of the poverty days they can only eat plain rice all day since that is what most of the world eats. Another day they go barefoot, and another they can only use 2 gallons of water for all of their needs that day. It’s been received REALLY well already with several thousand teens about to do it in Texas, and beginning in September it will be given to everyone who attends a number of differnt arena events over the next 2 years. Not sure if you’re familiar with Hillsong, but they’ll be a part of that as well.
Thanks for asking!
Yes I am familiar with Hillsong. It sounds great! Congratulations! Does it have a religious focus to it? I am teaching some of those concepts to my student at the moment (high school) so I can appreciate what you have written about.
Yes, it does have a religious focus… the book is called “The Justice Revolution”, with the tagline “A Biblical Response to Global Injustice”. Each day also has a devotional type of element that brings them to scripture to show them what God thinks about that issue. I was a youth pastor for 20 years and then stepped away from that a year ago this month. I’d been working on the book for about 3-4 years, and that gave me the ability to finish, and now I plan on traveling to support the book as the requests come in. We’ll see how that goes
I’d love to email you a PDF of the book… email me at barry@theroar.org and I’ll get that out to you. Otherwise, people can order actual copies at http://www.thejusticerevolution.com
Yes, you did well. The food looks very inviting and it is nice to meet your family!
It does look inviting doesn’t it. Laid back, but kinda fancy at the same time. Now you can put faces to names!
Hey Rachel so pleased you enjoyed our food. Next time you are in the area would love you to sample our evening fare, quite happy about you photographing our food, you’ve done a great job. As to the mess well we like it that way, each of the items is deliberately positioned for colour but we “drop”. Of course we must give a plug to ceramicist Bec Dowling who throws & fires our beautiful hand made platters!
Bob Craven taste Canowindra
Thank you Bob! I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Taste Canowindra. I loved the presentation of the tasting plate, creating that ordered mess is quite a skill to do well!
The photos and the food are both gorgeous!
Thanks! The dish was simply delightful!
I love this sort of food! Loads of bits and pieces, the flavours all sound like they’d marry together really well, beautiful
Its great isn’t it! So many little bits, tastes, flavours and textures! There are so many possibilities! You have some great recipes on your blog too!!
You did a great job! I can so relate to your comments about capturing food out of your normal environment! It can be quite a challenge but one that you have clearly already overcome – the photos are beautiful and the tasting platter looks amazing. That prawn really is begging to be eaten
Thanks Amy. I find it especially challenging when the food is hot…I hope I can do another sometime soon
Yes, the prawns. I wish I had some now!
Hi Rachel, beautiful photos and lovely exposure on the food shots. My favourite’s the tongs ‘action’ shot but I also *love* the sepia toned portrait. I know exactly what you mean about being under pressure from hungry diners to hurry up and take the photo!
Have realised that I haven’t been receiving your posts via email, even though I subcribed
Will have to look into this. Angelica
Oh dear! I have had one other person say that also? You are a wordpress follower so maybe in ‘reader’ you can change the settings?
Yes I loved the tongs photos. I had a few and found it hard to pick just one. The action shots turned out well for a first go. Many things to think about at once! If I feel ready Im ok with pressure! I also love the sepia portrait…so rock star!
Problem solvered, I’m now getting your emails
Hooray!!!