jammy cow

A sneak peek at the menu for the Gluten free dining event.

2012-01-23T22:48:00.000-08:00

The Gluten Free dining event is generating a lot of interest, which is really exciting. I can't wait to hold the first dinner at the Jammy Cow.
Before I owned the cafe, I worked as a chef, my hours mostly being evenings and weekends. Now that I work from early morning to the afternoon, I didn't think that I would want to go back to working at night, but I guess part of me just loves cooking for others... And the fact that this dinner is going to be gluten free is a welcome challenge and a chance to learn new and alternative recipes. I haven't been this excited to plan something sine I planned my wedding!
So, the menu...

Freshly baked nut and seed bread served with ricotta and honey

Wild mushroom tart with tarragon and goat's cheese

Roast chicken with quinoa, herb and nut stuffing

Roast potatoes

Green beans

Lemon gravy

Vanilla poached peaches with almond biscotti

Vego Tarts

2012-01-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

The buckwheat pastry that we are making at the cafe really seems to be taking off. Today we used it to make Vego Tarts, buckwheat pastry shells filled with roasted vegetables, ricotta and pesto.

Because buckwheat can make the pastry quite dry and crumbly, we add xantham gum. This allows the pastry to be stretched and easily rolled out.

A gluten free dining event

2012-01-18T22:18:00.000-08:00

So I've had my thinking cap on trying to come up with some new ideas for the cafe for the coming year.
Our new gluten free goodies like the Hippie Roll (made with buckwheat flour) and corn fritters (made with corn flour) are being extremely well received, so well that it occurred to me that perhaps an evening centred around gluten free fare might be something worth considering.
At the moment I'm thinking about a set three course dinner featuring a totally gluten free menu. There would be one seating at 7pm and a complimentary glass of organic white or red wine would be offered.
I'm thinking that there should also be some added incentives to come to the cafe for a gluten free feed, things like recipes for the food featured on the menu, partner businesses offering discount vouchers and wine tasting offered by a local organic vineyard.
It won't be a fine dining affair, just a relaxed, healthy meal with friends.
Watch this space.

Eggplant and tomato tart (gluten free-made with buckwheat pastry) with feta and fresh basil

A week of specials

2012-01-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

Monday 16th January

It's the New Year and a time of resolutions.

Every January people set themselves goals to help them be healthier and happier for the year ahead., to go to the gym more often, to cut down on fatty foods, to eat less sugar...

At the cafe, we are trying to make this goal easy for everyone to achieve by preparing delicious salads and healthy savoury options for the lunch time rush.

Today the salads were green bean and spinach, with mint, sheep's feta and sesame. This salad is highly nutritious for a number of reasons. Spinach amongst other things is rich in antioxidants and beans are a good source of dietary fibre. Sesame seeds contain amongst other things iron, zinc and folate and feta cheese is a good source of calcium. The second salad was black bean, red capsicum, avocado and basil. This salad also provides a number of benefits. Beans really are good for you. They provide low-GI carbohydrate, protein, iron and are high in dietary fibre. Avocados are also a wonderful sources of many nutrients and provide vinamins E, C and K, folate, fibre, potassium and magnesium among other things.

The savoury special for today was buckwheat crepes filled with ricotta, mushrooms and sweet potato. Buckwheat is a great alternative to flour and is not a grain, like wheat, but a seed. It contains essential amino acids and is high in fibre, as well as being gluten free.

I am not a nutritionist, nor do I have any formal training in nutrition. I am very interested in the healing properties of food though and the wonderful benefits that it can provide our bodies with, as well as the uplifting qualities that a delicious meal can have. I hope to incorporate this philosophy more ad more into the food at the Jammy Cow.

Tuesday 17th January

Potato salad with artichoke hearts, peas, mint and prosciutto and chickpea salad with roasted carrots, green onions, celery and an orange and harissa dressing.

Wednesday 18th January

Silverbeet and pasta gratin, a good source of calcium and iron.

Green bean, cherry tomato and pumpkin salad with pine nuts and mint.

Thursday 19th January

Cous cous salad with spinach, currants and almonds

The Hippie Roll!

Buckwheat pastry filled with a mix of ricotta, pumpkin and spinach. Gluten free lunch full of calcium, antioxidants, magnesium and iron. Great with sweet chilli sauce.

Follow jammy cow on instagram...

2012-01-04T21:29:00.001-08:00

http://instagr.am/

I love the Intagram app for the iPhone.
It's a really cool way of sharing what you are doing with others through photos.
Everyday at the cafe, there is always something delicious to snap and share with everyone, so that they can see what we are cooking.
Download the app now and start following us @ jammycow.

Monthly special baguettes

2012-01-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

This year, every month we will be making gourmet fillings for our daily delivered baguettes

from La Banette in Avalon.

This month, as a nod towards Australia day, we are offering slow cooked leg of lamb

with red lentils and harissa baguettes.

Be quick though, they are selling fast!

a week of salads

2011-10-20T02:31:00.000-07:00

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Elevator Pitch...

2011-10-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

An elevator pitch is a 30 second statement that describes your business in such a way that it grabs people and makes them want to do business with you...

Easier than it sounds! Here's what I have come up with.

What do I offer?

The Jammy Cow is an up market cafe that offers freshly made food, prepared from scratch in the cafe kitchen. Customers can see the food on offer as soon as they walk in to the cafe, beautifully displayed in large glass cabinets, each item having its own unique platter. On offer are sandwiches, filled baguettes and wraps and other 'portable' items such as pies, quiches, risotto cakes, frittatas and sausage rolls, as well as a number of cakes, biscuits and sweet teats.

What do people who come into the Jammy Cow want?

The majority of people who come in to the Jammy Cow are looking for good food in a nice atmosphere. A great number are hungry people who are on a lunch break from work and want to quickly grab good quality, freshly made food. Others are regular customers who have their favourite items and value consistency.

So what's my solution?

Food is made fresh everyday to exacting standards and when ready goes in to the display fridges. People can visually choose their preferred items and they buy on a first come fist served basis. There is no waiting time as everything is ready to go.

My promise.

Consistently good food, made with care and quality ingredients, always home made and always fresh.

The Jammy Cow cafe.

We offer a unique range of high quality, ready made, portable, sweet and savoury foodstuffs to eat in or take away. Everyday we consistently prepare our food range with care and quality ingredients.

OR more simply put...

"Top quality, home made food, consistently prepared

and ready to go."

Home made banana bread

2011-08-09T00:17:00.000-07:00

Our banana bread recipe at the cafe is pretty simple and involves just two stages. The first stage is to combine the wet ingredient. We pour eggs, vanilla essence and vegetable oil in to the bowl our industrial mixer, add banana puree and brown sugar and then turn the mixer on. Once the wet ingredients are combined we add the dry ingredients of flour and cinnamon, mix these ingredients in and thats it!

Pour the mixture in to greased loaf tins and bake.

Apple and almond galette

2011-07-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

A simple but beautiful pie with Granny Smith apples, short crust pastry and almond cream.

The big orange mixer

2011-07-27T01:23:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of my favourite pieces of equipment in the cafe and we use it nearly every day. While a KitchenAid mixer is a substantial investment, it's well worth it. I chose orange because it's a happy, high energy colour.

The Jammy Cow Herd

2011-07-27T01:17:00.000-07:00

This is a mural that Karri painted on the wall at the cafe. It's adorable! We are hoping to add customers too.

Orange and almond cakes

2011-06-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

The ever popular gluten free orange and almond cake, made with whole boiled oranges, almond meal, sugar and eggs.

The Jammy Cow, my dream cafe...

2011-06-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

I would like to express a huge thank you to all the wonderful and amazing people who helped with this project. The biggest thanks of all must go to my incredible husband, who not only did a huge amount of work in the weeks leading up to the reno and worked tirelessly over the Easter break to complete the work, but who inspires me to live my dreams.

THANK YOU ALL X

The Renovation

2011-06-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday 21st April -Bridget in the last few hours of the old cafe...

Taking the cabinets apart and removing EVERYTHING from the cafe!

Friday 22nd April - Knocking the wall down!

Luke knocking out the first bricks...

Bea and Tash loading the bricks onto the truck, 3.2 tonnes in total!

The last ceremonious brick!

Steve and Mark and the BIG beam!

Trent putting the beautiful old railway lights in

Sunday 24th April - Painting the red wall with Linda

Rob and Mark hanging one of the blackboards

Stocking the drinks fridge at 5pm on Tuesday 26th April, the night before the exciting reopening!

french cafes/bakeries

2011-02-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

I love French cafe culture. I love the way the French eat. At every meal people sit down and take time to enjoy their food. There is always a daily special, either one, two or three courses. Bread is always served, sometimes a glass of wine and always a coffee at the end-preferably an espresso.

The Fat Duck

2011-02-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

Red cabbage gazpacho

Snail porridge

Roast foie gras

Mock turtle soup

Sound of the sea

Salmon poached in a liquorice gel

Saddle of venison

Hot and Iced tea

Taffety tart

The BFG-Black forest gateau

Whisk(e)y wine gums

A truly memorable and inspirational meal and a once in a lifetime experience.

Patatas flamancas-Barcelona

2011-02-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

I was in Barcelona in January and took this photo of a simple cone of chips in a take away falafel bar. They were seriously the best chips and I loved the little hole in the counter for the cone to stand it!

Christmas party 2010

2011-02-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

The obligatory secret Santa.

Home made mincemeat

2010-11-19T00:38:00.000-08:00

Home made mincemeat. Its strange that this mixture of dried fruits and spices should be called mince meat, as it contains no meat, but historically it always contained meat.
English mincemeat recipes from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries called for a mixture of meat and fruit, flavoured with vinegar or wine and it was used as a savoury pie filling. The use of spices like clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and mace were common during this period. In the 18th century though, the Victorians started to use brandy and other distilled spirits to flavour mincemeat and the increased use of sugar began to steer mincemeat pies away from a savoury dinner course and in the direction of desserts.
It was also the Victorians who popularised mincemeat pies as a Christmas tradition, yet before this time they had been seen as an old fashioned, rural, homely food stuff.

chocolate cake

2010-11-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

Today we made a chocolate and pecan cake, a large one that can be cut into 12 slices and we put it on the counter. To my surprise though, it didn't sell very well. I think that the jammy cow customers prefer our small individual cakes to a slice of a larger cake... but we will persist!

fruit mince tarts are back!

2010-11-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, believe it or not there are only 45 days until Christmas and today we made our first batch of fruit mince tarts. And they are delicious!

Rice paper rolls

2010-07-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

We are starting to make rice paper rolls again. They are delicious. Cabbage, capsicum, carrot, onion, coriander, mint, fish sauce, kecap manis and chilli.

Birthday cakes!

2010-06-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

We do a lot of baking at the cafe and recently have been asked to make larger cakes for special occasions. Here are a few examples.

We can do square, round, mini, gluten free, single layer, double layer, decorated and much much more.

we've gone naked!

2010-06-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

At the cafe we use Single Origin coffee Single Origin Roasters and these guys are really passionate about their coffee. They have come up with the concept of a 'naked' handle. Basically this is where the 'spout' on the coffee handle has been sawn off, to make it 'naked'. The baristas at Single Origin found that by using naked handles, a richer and more consistent shot of coffee can be achieved. In addition to this, a cleaner coffee shot is obtained, as there is no spout for the coffee to travel along with nasty, dirty oils on and the heat of the shot is retained as there is less metal to absorb it.

We have only been naked for two days, but are really liking the coffee results!

baby shower girl or boy cakes

2010-05-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

We did some catering for a baby shower recently and as a little extra, made these little blue and pink cakes for the mum to be.

Red lentil soup with spiced butter

2010-05-17T01:51:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

For the soup,
2 brown onions, chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
4 cups red lentils
8 cups water
salt and pepper

For the butter,

200g butter

2 birds eye chillis, finely chopped

1 tsp whole cumin seeds, toasted

small bunch coriander, coarsely chopped

Method

First make the spiced butter.
Put the butter, chilli, cumin and coriander in a food processor and process until thoroughly combined.
Next scrape the butter from the bowl of the processor onto a piece of greaseproof paper, that is sittitng on top of a piece of foil.

Now roll the butter up in to a sausage shape and seal the ends by twisting them together.
Pop the butter in to the freezer while you make the soup.

Sweat the onion, celery and carrot in a pot until soft and translucent.
Add the lentils, water, salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables and lentils are soft.
With a hand held blender, blend the soup until there are no lumps.
Check the seasoning is correct.

To serve, ladle a portion of hot soup in to a bowl. Cut a disc of butter, remove all paper and foil and place on top of the soup to melt in to it.

cauliflower soup

2010-05-17T00:22:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

2 brown onions, chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped

2 large cauliflowers, cut in half and sliced

water to cover

salt and pepper

pinch fresh thyme, leaves picked

pinch ground nutmeg

milk

Method

Sweat the onion, celery and carrot in a pot over a low heat.

When soft and translucent add the cauliflower, enough water to completely cover the vegetables, salt pepper, thyme and nutmeg.

Simmer until the vegetables are soft and can be blended, ideally with a hand held blender. Whilst blending, add milk until the desired consistency is achieved.

Check for seasoning and enjoy!

Nyree

2010-05-06T00:05:00.000-07:00

It's always rewarding to get positive feedback from customers. It lets us know that we are doing our jobs well at the cafe and making people happy. This is definitely the case in the following post, titled "Kindness of strangers" by Susan Duncan for Random House's blog.
If you know Nyree, you will understand why Esther sits up "proud".

Kindness of Strangers. By Susan Duncan
May 5, 2010 by randomhouseaustralia

Last night, the moon was round and full. The water shivered with silver. A magical, spectral light. It was so still, I could hear cutlery clinking on the other side of Lovett Bay. The sound of our neighbour’s daughter practising her clarinet carried up the hill. “Heavenly,” I thought, unashamedly sentimental.
It is our habit each night, when we sit down to dinner, to run through our plans for the following day. “It’s a mother day, tomorrow,” I told Bob. He looked up from his fiery lamb curry and raised his eyebrows.
“Medical or social?”
“Dentist.”
“Ah!” he said, knowing the trip will involve a visit to Esther’s favorite café, the Jammy Cow, for four scoops of ice-cream, a very hot cappuccino and a chicken schnitzel wrap to take home to eat later.
My mother adores this café. The manager, Nyree, makes such a fuss of her. “You’re lookin’ great!” she says, whipping around the counter to lay a gentle hand on my mother’s arm. I understood long ago, that it is her touch that means most to my mother. When you are old and live alone, a fleeting second of skin on skin has the power to sustain. Even heal.
My mother fluffs up. “Not bad for an old girl, am I?”
“Who’s talkin’ old here? Huh? Not me. I’m lookin’ at prime!” And my mother fluffs again, and she feels – I am sure – as though she is standing in a pool of warm sunlight.
“Now,” says Nyree. “Five scoops, right?”
My mother grins. It is a weekly game.
“Just four. Five is greedy.” A white china bowl is filled with chocolate, hazelnut, vanilla and burnt fig and flung on the table with great gusto. My mother sighs happily. Picks up her spoon. Her face is ecstatic. Another truth hits me. When we are limited by age and ability, the mundane becomes celebration.
“How you keep that amazing figure…” Nyree says, walking away, shaking her head in mock wonder. My mother straightens in her seat. Proud.
It is the kindness of strangers that makes her day.

http://randomhouseaustralia.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/kindness-of-strangers-by-susan-duncan/

Fijian macaroons

2010-05-04T00:47:00.001-07:00

Raquel, the Jammy cow's chef, recently went on holiday to Fiji. Whilst there she interrogated the cook at the place she was staying and came home armed with an abundance of coconut recipes. These coconut macaroons were among those recipes. They were simple to make, look very appealing and taste rather good.

Mother's day

2010-05-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

We made these delicious little heart topped sponge cakes for Mother's day. They are proving to be quite popular. I think that people must like small treats as they are not as naughty!

capsicum chilli jam

2010-04-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

This is one of the relishes that we make at the cafe. It's totally delicious and very versatile. I have used it with salmon steaks and stir fried veggies, fried eggs on toast and instead of sweet chilli sauce with cream cheese as a dip.

chicken vindaloo, hot hot hot!

2010-04-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Vindaloo is hot curry originating from Goa in South India. We made this batch for the take home dinner freezer from scratch.

After marinating chicken pieces overnight in a mixture of ginger, garlic, chilli, fenugreek, pepper, bay leaves, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cloves, tumeric and cinnamon, together with onion, tomato and potato it was cooked in this large karahi.

A karahi is a thick, circular, deep vessel (similar to a wok) used in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. It is used for shallow or deep frying meat, potatoes, sweets, and snacks such as samosa and for simmering stews.

2010-04-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, as of yesterday, coffees at the cafe increased in price by 20 cents. This was a hard decision to make. I value people's custom and don't want to upset anyone by changing prices, but all other costs within the business increase annually and so I have to change my prices accordingly. I believe that the last time coffee prices were changed was about 3 years ago.

2010-03-16T00:07:00.001-07:00

indonesian coconut chicken curry paste

2009-12-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

i saw this curry on an Indonesian food safari and thought that i would give it a try for the take home dinners. it has lots of fresh tumeric, lemongrass and ginger and is extremely tasty!

jammy cow Christmas party 2009

2009-12-18T23:22:00.000-08:00

For our Christmas party this year, we had sushi and cocktails at the cafe.

The sushi came from Rainbow Sushi, just across the road from the cafe and was plentiful!

its a wrap

2009-11-17T15:47:00.001-08:00

delicious summer time wraps - moroccan chicken with preserved lemon mayo, falafels with yoghurt tahini dressing and chicken schnitzel with avocado. all homemade.

jammy cow cookies

2009-11-02T23:04:00.000-08:00

home made maple and macadamia cow cookies

mini tarts...

2009-11-02T22:55:00.001-08:00

the jammy cow makes quiches which we sell to various delis and cafes throughout sydney and the central coast. monday is out biggest quiche making day. here are some photos...

mince pie making

2009-11-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

so here are the finished mince pies made from scratch - the mincemeat, the pastry and the cute Christmas shapes on top!

one year and one day

2009-10-28T01:24:00.000-07:00

today we started the process to make our own mince pies for Christmas. our own mincemeat, our own pastry, our own seasonal designs on top. for a good English mincemeat recipe, I consulted Delia, and then adapted her advice to my tastes. hopefully in 24 hours we will have some delicious Jammy Cow mincemeat. photos to follow.

one year today

2009-10-27T00:22:00.001-07:00

i can't believe that it has been one year today since i became the owner of what was then morgan's too cafe. a year later, the cafe has a new name, the jammy cow, and several other changes have taken place. there is now a freezer in the cafe stocked full of homemade take home dinners, all of the cakes are now made in the cafe kitchen, there are new sandwiches and wraps and a new brand of coffee - single origin. apart from these things, everything has remained pretty much the same and i am very happy to say that all the staff are the same! thank you to all of you. without you all of this would not have been possible! so what will happen in the year ahead? a jammy cow website is about to be born which is very exciting, and rennovations are set to take place soon. also a Jammy Cow product line is being developed... watch this space

ps. i cannot believe that it has been a year and a half since my last post when i was researching buying a cafe!

wine tasting dinner

2008-04-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

i held an eight course dinner party and served each course with a matching wine. i invited nine friends and at the end of the dinner gave them a questionnaire to answer to find out if they enjoyed the evening, the wines, the concept etc.

the dinner party was held for fun, to try out wine and food pairings and also as an experiment to see if this kind of meal might work in the future at the jammy cow, once a month say.

everyone said that they thoroughly enjoyed the evening and all went home full and satisfied!

sonoma bread

2008-03-30T20:01:00.001-07:00

tasting more bread from another potential supplier, sonoma bakery. the bread was very good and what sourdough should taste like!

quince paste

2008-03-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

homemade quince paste! i was surprised how easy it was to make, and it tastes great with manchego cheese, which is how the Spanish eat it.

more cheese and wine tasting

2008-03-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

cheese and wine tasting night, trying out a selection of cheeses to learn more about the different varieties and how they match a small selection of wines

blue moon bread

2008-03-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

tasting bread from potertial supplier, the blue moon bakery

menu testing

2008-03-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

testing an idea - roast pumpkin and ricotta bruschetta with thyme.

inspiration...

2008-02-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

when i was in France i found this cafe which looks so warm and friendly. I love the red and the signs outside, the small tables all close together and the awnings. it looks like a great place to stop for a snack with friends...

la tour eiffel

2008-02-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

ok, i know that many people don't particularly like the French, but i do! having worked and holidayed in France, i have to say that i love their attitude to life, work and above all, food! i would love my cafe to be the recreation of a small bistro serving crusty bread and good butter, a tasty plat du jour (dish of the day), a good glass of wine and a coffee for lunch. somewhere that has a distinct atmosphere, loud, casual and friendly, with character.

beefsteak tomatoes, produce market, Lyon

2008-02-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

ultimately, i would like my cafe to serve food in harmony with the seasons. still, too many people expect all types of food all year round, but this is not what nature intended. there is a reason that strawberries, for example, taste best in spring, tomatoes best in summer, pears best in autumn and kale best in winter.

REAl hot chocolate

2008-02-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

i would love to sell hot chocolate like this cup that i had in a chocolate shop in Paris