Plums!

It took me the best part of the afternoon to decide what to do with my freshly picked plums... I got lost in a sea of Internet recipes and wonderful blogs.....I read about one blogger who suffers depression and finds solace in cooking. She is not alone there. I find cooking such a heart-warming and uplifting past-time. Sometimes I listen to tunes, other times I bake in silence just listening to the kids outside, the odd car driving past and usually the south westerly wind that blows the leaves down my driveway.  Baking makes me happy in ways that are soulful. I don't even have to eat any of what I cook, I like the process plain and simple. Although, the rewards I've gotta say, are usually always good.

Today, I had a mission. A heap of wonderful dark plums, picked from the trees at one of my current workplaces'. At times I am incredibly indecisive - today is one of them. So many choices! My original idea was to make a strawberry vanilla tart and use plums instead, but some little voice inside my head (that got extremely loud mind you) told me to keep looking. I stumbled across The Bojon Gourmet, who not only had the most luscious sounding dessert but won me over with the photos. Always judge a dessert by its cover....well nearly always, yes. She had adapted it from a book called 'Pure Dessert' and I in turn adapted them both! Very easy to make with all the ingredients in the pantry. I have to wait to taste because I'm taking it to a bbq....ok, I might have just tried a little bit, really....

Chocolate Christmas!

Sunday morning...pancakes have been made, devoured and are digesting...slowly. Coffee is hot, the dog is lying in the sunshine, the cat curled up in her corner of the world and the son & heir....well, he's doing what many 11 year old boys do - play cricket on the PlayStation until his little mate arrives to play the real thing. Brushing up his skills he tells me! 

I'm just out of my jammies and into trackies - yes, its all about class here on slow Sundays! Haven't checked the mirror yet for bed hair, sleepy eyes and dream chaos; best not to and just get cooking. It's time for (more) hot chocolate fudge sauce. Same recipe as yesterday, but a little more carefully as I convert to metric, exactly as my scales tell me. This time I also stir the cream, golden syrup (oh my that stuff is heaven!), sugar and cocoa BEFORE I heat the hell out of it and add the chocolate. When I tried this last week, it went a bit grainy because I hadn't combined the ingredients properly. 'From little things BIG things grow' or rather, big mistakes happen (to take a really beautiful song line from Paul Kelly and turn it into a foodie mantra!).

I'm cleaning the old labels from the jars. I've decided soapy water and patience is the best trick, although I've read everything from vinegar to oil to peanut butter works! I'm not wasting good (and expensive peanut butter, especially when I've only got organic macadamia nut paste in the pantry). 

I decide I don't like my labels and spend the next few hours cutting, drawing, and gluing new ones together. I'm happy with plain old brown paper, white tags and string. Simple.

I now have 12 jars of delicious decadence - fudge sauce, salted caramel and lemon curd (thought I'd whip up another batch with the duck eggs I get from a lady at work). They look great, taste unbelievable and now I need a little lie down with a packet of chips, I'm sugared out!

This recipe is adapted from various sources, and I added a bit of this and that to make it my own. Print if you dare! Print Recipe

A tempest in the kitchen!

For years I've been meaning to make Christmas food gifts, but always seem to run out of time, get distracted with having holiday fun and end up buying some mass made, corporation ruled gift. This year I have my 'buy local, eat local' hat well and truly on. It's time to get those old jars off the top shelf of the (very crowded) pantry, get my funky new apron on and cook up some delights. 

I've decided on salted caramel sauce, hot chocolate fudge sauce and lemon curd. I have my labels ready to go, it's raining outside so there's not much gardening to be done. I just went for a wander around the green lush backyard - that until yesterday was looking decidedly dry - and propped up the corianders, now going to seed, standing tall but on a lean. I wrapped them in string and just watch them flower, seed and then move on to the next phase. Sometimes I collect the seeds but generally I am lazy and just let them do their thing where they are. Organic gardening at it's best. Coriander seem to like growing in the same spot. As my mum says - "I am the coriander Queen" - she can't grow it at all. 

Anyway, I digress. Salted caramel sauce is on the agenda. I follow a simple recipe from Recipe Girl, converting tablespoons of butter to grams. It seemed too little butter but I went with it anyway. Caramel has always scared me, its tricky and a bit tempestuous - it looks like a tempest when it's bubbling and gurgling away. I measure everything out before I start (I'm learning, slowly) and I watch it like a hawk. The mixture bubbles peacefully, I add the cream and all hell breaks loose. It spits at me like a hissing feline. Then it starts to solidify, as in lumpy, gooey and not smooth caramelly at all! I add the butter and vanilla, then the salt and whisky away. The lumps stay but the rest of it goes nice and smooth. I take out those little sticky mounds of badness and am left with a delicious caramel sauce. Phew! This is quite stressful.

I'm wondering if there's another version I can try, just because I want to get this right. I go to old mate, Google and find Nigella's recipe. I love her cooking style, it's usually uncomplicated and this one has golden syrup which I love!It's very easy - the measurements are metric which I like as I can use my favourite digital kitchen scales. No satan's uprising here, all is calm on the caramel front and I have another lovely jar of sauce, ready for labelling and wrapping. They both taste fabulous - the 2nd recipe is richer because of the golden syrup and easier - for someone like me who is still scared of hot gurgling sauces that just do their own thing. Conquered part of my fear at least. 

Lemon Curd Muffins

Lemon muffins with lemon curd

[Print Recipe]

Makes about 8 large muffins

Heat the oven to 190°C. 

Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

Sift 200gm (1½ cups) SR flour into a bowl, mix in 100gm (½ cup) golden caster sugar.

Mix together 1 egg, 75ml sunflower oil or melted butter, 150ml milk and ½ tsp vanilla extract in a bowl.

Make a well in the dry mix, add some of the liquid mix into the centre, then stir in (this helps the dry and wet mixes mix together), continue to stir in the wet mix, add some lemon juice if desired.

Fill the muffin cases half full with the batter, then place 1 tsp of lemon curd on top. Top up the muffin cases with remaining batter. Place in pre-heated oven on the middle shelf.
Bake for 10-15 mins (check and give an extra 5 mins if needed), until risen and firm.

For the sugar coating, microwave the lemon curd on high for 20 seconds until melted. Put the sugar into a shallow bowl. Brush on the melted lemon curd top of each muffin and dip the tops of each muffin in the sugar to coat the tops.

Just as I was topping the muffins with the lemon curd & sugar the kids came back from playing footy in the rain and freezing cold! What timing! Silence descended on my warm kitchen as these delights were literally wolfed down. What better gratitutde than the thanks of silent mouths enjoying my food. My Sunday, at best.

Lemon Curd

So many recipes, so little time to read them all....my options are to open up my son's school cookbook and see what the kids think! No double boiler, no fuss lemon curd, that tastes citrus sweet and divine. 

I whisk 4 egg yolks with 2/3 cup caster sugar, add 2-3 tspns lemon zest, 100 mls lemon juice & 60gm butter then bring to simmer over med-high heat, stirring constantly for approx 5minutes. Leave to cool then pour into sterilised jars. Lick the spoon and bowl clean.

Now, off to make some lemon curd muffins, though I may have to wait 'til tomorrow, as it's suddenly dark and I'm in need of leftover bolognese sauce on fresh sour-dough from the market this morning....Definitely need a glass of Maclarenvale red to wash it down....

Until tomorrow, when the muffins will be complete! Unless I eat all the lemon curd of course....

In the kitchen

Finding out about my father for the first time in my 40-something years is opening doors and vaults left, right and centre! Discovering he was in a band and meeting a fellow band member, who has ended up on holidays in my sleepy, wintery town is serendipity at its most splendid.

Photos, stories and anecdotes have spilled out onto the table, the 'lazy susan' spinning wildly, not sure which way to go! Food has played an important part in these sharing of memories, with a collaborative dinner cooked by myself and Clive, the banjo player in the 'Caedmon Singers' - my fathers' folk band of the late 1960's.
Moving around the kitchen tonight cooking up a storm - simmering the sugar syrup, sifting flours, marinating  chicken, reducing the sauce to create a rich, thick blend - food and memory, friends and warmth.

Bob Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde' album played in the background while Clive cooked Marsala Chicken - a delicious dish with mushrooms and a rich, sweet sauce. I made steamed orange puddings with syrup & muscatels, dolloped with thick cream. [Thanks to a Jill Dupleix recipe from today's Age newspaper.]


Whilst I can never be in the kitchen with my own father, I can be with those he knew, creating a family-like bond with food to fill the space. A beautiful evening with new family friends, reconnecting to a long lost father who I will never see but now maybe won't stay so lost, in memory at least.

Baby it's cold outside

Winter has hit with a big icy chill, bucket-loads of heavy, heavy rain and wind whipped straight up from the Arctic ice. It is the wind I dislike intensely but I get out in it anyway, embrace the enemy, my foe. What other options do I have? To be cold and bitter? Well, bitterly cold at the least.

What I do love about winter is food! Hearty casseroles, slow cooked, stirred lovingly & tasted at regular intervals, seasoned 'just right' and then indulged in. Usually with piles of creamy mashed potato, French style. Butter is no issue. In fact, I do like to include most dairy products in my mash - cream, milk, cheese, even yoghurt if need be...
I also love moist cakes. An afternoon cinnamon tea cake, or an almond & orange cake, eaten warm with fresh cream and orange flower syrup. The evening generally calls for a chocolate pudding, soft and delicate with a bit of sweet crunch on the outside, slathered in dark chocolate sauce, ice cream and cream. Dairy intolerance? Thank goodness NO!
I was reading a copy of Delicious at work when a fellow co-worker commented "fantasising again are you Dani?". I was taken aback and gushed, "this is reality, REALITY I am living here". I am memorising these recipes and going to cook them all. Yes indeed, so righteous about my food. I take it seriously. I know that many people don't get enough, and that many over consume themselves to death. What a strange world we live in.

So, tonight was all about leftovers. I'd made a hearty bacon-bone and red lentil soup during the week, just enough left for one big steaming bowl. The son and heir was happy with noodles, yes from a packet. Bad mother, bad. I had planned on a beef bourguignon, but as I type it's still in the oven, cooking slowly and luxuriously. It's going to taste amazing tomorrow. Dessert was the fail-safe chocolate pudding that I'd made for the kids yesterday, making sure to leave some for leftovers. Glass of red in hand, I am sated and can settle in for the evening 'cos baby it's COLD outside.