Posting live from regional Queensland in the midst of mango harvesting at the Groves’ Tropical orchard!!! Long time readers may remember that I visited this very same farm in early 2016. This City Gal turned Northern Beaches Gal Wanna-Be-Country-Gal swept into Yeppoon, armed with cameras and all manner of gadgets, ready to get stuck into the farm life. Turned up dressed completely inappropriately (who wears a sparkly clean WHITE TOP to a farm??) and as it so happens, I just missed the harvesting season. The mango trees were bare, with just a few late bloomers remaining. But this year, I’m here to witness the action!!! YEE HA!
I arrived yesterday, was greeted so warmly by the Groves Family – Boss Man Ian, Boss Lady Sandi, their daughter Mel (Australia’s Best Mango Grader) and their son David (if it can be made of wood, he’ll build it, if it can’t, he’ll still probably figure it out) – caught up on farm happenings over the last 12 months (so. Much. TALKING!), shared laughs over mango daiquiris (oooh! Who wants the recipe??) and within 2 seconds of walking in the door of the homestead, I completely took over the kitchen. Can’t help it. I partially did it under the guise of “Oh, let me help you, you’re so busy with packing the mangoes!”, but really, I’m just ridiculously overexcited about the bounty of fresh farm produce that I get to use on a whim. “Oh, I need limes! Do we have limes?” “What herbs are there? Lemongrass? You grow lemongrass??” “Hmm. So for dinner, I need green mangoes for a salad, almost overripe ones for the mango ice cream, and perfect ripe ones for dessert.” Next week, I’ll be sharing all the tales from my visit. Including how I brought a giant suitcase which was mostly filled with food, including these Spinach Ricotta Rolls. Really. I know, who does that, right? Mad foodies. You don’t believe me? Hopefully one of the Groves will leave a testimonial on what they thought of these rolls. 🙂
The filling for these Spinach Ricotta Rolls is slightly different to what I use for my Spinach Ricotta Puffs and things like Cannelloni (woah, how have I not shared a recipe for Canelloni yet?), Lasagne (and again, no recipe yet??) and Spinach Ricotta Rotolo. The reason is because the ratio of filling to the buttery puff pastry is higher than the Puffs, and there is no sauce like with Cannelloni. So (I personally feel) the filling needs to have more flavour and be slightly juicer. While you can make this with fresh spinach, I find it super easy to use frozen because I totally buy into the whole “snap frozen” thing. I applaud you if you use fresh, and I’ve included notes in the recipe for how to do so. Happy weekend everyone! – Nagi xx
More cocktail food for parties
Cheeseburger Party Meatballs Cocktail Meatballs Smoked Salmon Stacks Ham and Cheese Puffs Sausage Rolls Chorizo Bites in Sweet & Sour Sauce Coconut Shrimp / Prawns with Thai Mango Dipping Sauce Truly Crispy Baked Wings – or Buffalo Wings See all Dip Recipes, all Party Food and the Top 25 Party Foods!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Spinach and Ricotta Rolls recipe video!
LIFE OF DOZER
When I travel, Dozer stays with a golden retriever boarder. Basically, he’s having a holiday too. He has so much fun that I fear the day that I go to pick him up and he refuses to come with me….!!
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