Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb, cut into 1cm wedges
• 1 large red onion, cut into 1cm wedges
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed I usually use the base of a glass to smash garlic, then remove the skin.
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• ½ bunch fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 salmon fillets, skinned
• 1 lemon, halved

Method

1. Heat oven to 200°C.
2. In a roasting pan, place the fennel, onion, garlic, tomatoes, thyme, ½ the salt, ½ the pepper, and the oil. Roast for 20 minutes.
3. Move the vegetables to the sides of the pan; place the salmon in the centre. Squeeze the lemon halves over the salmon. Sprinkle with the remaining salt and pepper.
4. Return the salmon to oven and roast until it is the same color throughout and flakes easily, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Halving this recipe easily fits in a benchtop oven, serving 2.

If your garden is producing lots of rocket lettuce then here's a recipe to use it without making another salad. this recipe makes about a cup.

Ingredients

• 125g rocket lettuce, stems trimmed, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 50g parmesan cheese, grated
• 70-80ml extra virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper to season

Method

1. Blend the rocket lettuce, walnuts, parmesan cheese, and seasoning in a food processor until smooth.
2. Gradually pour in the olive oil into the running food processor until well mixed.
3. Store in the fridge.

This recipe is based on a traditional favourite sold in most New Zealand bakeries. It was pretty easy to make and I'm sure I'll be making it more often.

Base

Ingredients

• 120g butter
• 1 egg
• 120g sugar
• 225g flour
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ - ¾ cup raspberry jam

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar.
2. Mix in the vanilla essence and egg.
3. Add sifted dry ingredients. Mix until it forms a stiff dough.
4. Divide in half. Roll out both halves to the size of slice tin to about ½cm thick.
5. Line a small slice tin with baking paper.
6. Place bottom half in the tin. It's fragile but you can just blend it together.
7. Spread raspberry jam generously over the bottom layer.
8. Place rolled out pastry (second half) on top. (It often breaks so cut top layer into 4 pieces to make it easy to move. Just blend edges together; it won't matter as it's covered by icing.)
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes in a pre-heated moderate oven (180°C).
10. Ice (frost) with raspberry icing (frosting) when cold.

Tip: Strain the raspberry jab to remove the seeds, or use some other flavoured jam.

Icing/Frosting

The icing is a hard icing, quite different from a butter icing.

Ingredients

• 2 cups icing sugar
• ¼ teaspoon butter, softened
• 30ml (2 tablespoons) hot water (approximately)
• A few drops raspberry essence or red food colouring

Method

1. Sift icing sugar into bowl.
2. Add butter, and enough water to melt butter and mix to a smooth consistency.
3. Spread over the cold base.
4. Make wavy lines with a fork when the icing is nearly set.

What's your favourite memory about raspberry slice? Let me know what you think when you try this recipe.

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This recipe is based on an old recipe of my mother's. You may know this as Lemon Squash (UK), Lemonade (US), or Lemon Cordial (NZ).

Ingredients

• 1 kg Sugar
• 2 cups Water
• 15g Citric Acid
• 15g Tartaric Acid
• Zest of 3 lemons - this can be finely chopped, long strands, of even just thinly peeled avoiding the white pith.
• ½ cup Lemon Juice (about 4-6 lemons)

Tip: do not use an aluminium pot for this.

Method

1. Soak the zest in the lemon juice. This will help to soften it.
2. Dissolve the sugar, citric acid, and tartaric acid in the water over heat; making a syrup. Allow to cool.
3. Add juice and zest to syrup.
4. store in clean bottles, diving the zest evenly.

This makes about a litre of concentrate.

To serve
Dilute with chilled still or carbonated water to taste.
This also can be served with hot water; useful if you have a cold.

How do you like your lemon drink?

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