Peach and almond slice

I used up some of my preserved peaches to make delicious snack for Gib to take to work. I used this very quick and easy Peach and Almond Slice recipe, with my peaches that I had preserved in a light cinnamon infused syrup.

It went from this:


To this:




The hard part was making sure Gib didn't eat it all at once! It kept well for about 5 days in an air tight container. Yumyumyum.

Pickled eggy weggies and other things

Today I teamed up with some friends for another pickling day. I decided to keep my list of things to pickle nice and simple, just a pear chutney and some pickled eggs. There was an attempt at preserved rockmelon, which I personally wouldn't recommend...! The others from the day might have different thoughts on that. But we also made brandied peaches, tomato salsa, chili pickled onions and some of our own pineapple sweet and sour simmer sauce: our "Kan Tong" blend.

"We were/making Kan Tong/doesn't take long/to make your own!"

I can't wait to try my pickled eggs. Not the best photo, only taken on a phone, but I reckon they looked really ace in the jar. In a week or so I'm going to try them. I followed the recipe on this website, which had some great recipes, but the one called 'British pub pickled eggs' sounded most appealing to me.

The recipe for the pear chutney I picked up from a feature on pears in The Age's Epicure section a few weeks ago. I've heard a few references to pear chutney recently and how amazing it is, from all sorts of odd places, so I was itching to give it a go. The pears have been great these last few weeks, it was really hard not to just eat them instead of making them into chutney.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Peach chutney

We had a few leftover peaches last week, so I chopped them up and put them in with a bunch of other ingredients and left them to "marinate" overnight in vinegar, sugar and spices. I've done this in the past with mango chutney, and it improves the flavour... and because I was feeling tired and lazy, but the peaches needed to be chopped up or they were going to go nasty. The peach chutney is a refreshing change to mango chutney.

I adapted this recipe over at the ABC website:

75g brown sugar
70ml red wine vinegar
6 -7 large firm peaches cut into chunks
2 tblsp sultanas
1 chopped onion
1 small diced capsicum
1 tblsp lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 tbsp curry powder
1/4 teasp mustard seeds
1/4 teasp salt
1/4 teasp pepper

1. Combine brown sugar, red wine vinegar, peaches, sultanas, onion, capsicum, lemon juice, ginger, curry powder, mustard seeds, salt, pepper. Leave over night.

2. The next day, bring mixture to the boil in a saucepan and boil rapidly for 15 - 20 mins until the mixture is thick and syrupy

3. Transfer to sterilised jars and process in a water bath to seal.

A pickled rainbow

A small selection of our pickles in their Fowlers jars. I think they look gorgeous!


I'm really enjoying the simplicity and of pickling. It's very rewarding to just open a jar of preserved something (chutney, tomatoes, fruit, onions) that I have on hand, it tastes great, and greatly reduces my cooking times, or having to go down to the shops to buy whatever it is. Preserved fruit goes great for desserts, pickled eggplant or onions goes well for an appetiser, and the tomatoes have been really handy for whipping up simple pasta sauces. I love it.

Excited by aubergines!

I'm thrilled! A feature on eggplants in today's Epicure (The Age). I'm just making a note here so I know where to find it later. And to remind myself to make the recipes. That relish sounds fantastic. Yum...

Eggplant Bake: From The Age

Preserving the moment

I was so relieved and excited to discover that another friend of ours (incidentally, the one I made sausages with) is also into pickling and preserving. I was also pleased to read this article in Epicure (The Age) this week that showed that it's not just us (excluding people >60 or in the CWA) that are doing it either.

And this is only a small sample of our preserving efforts.


We made:

• Preserved lemon (both sweet and salty)
• Preserved orange (sweet)
  
• Preserved tomatoes
• Tomato relish
• Pickled onions
• Mango chutney
• Pickled cabbage
• Pickled chilis and peppers
  
• Preserved tomatoes with garlic and basil
  

Red Onion Relish and Orange curd

Gib is working tomorrow morning, so I think I'll get stuck into the kitchen and do some preserving. I have made red onion relish before, but I think I'd like to try a new version. I'm typing it up here so I can go straight here without having to remember where I put my written out version, which I always lose.

Caramelised Red Onion Relish

3-4 tbsp olive oil
12 red onions, sliced in the food processor
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
330 ml white vinegar
330 ml apple cider vinegar
330 ml red wine vinegar (or even just red wine is fine)
3-4 cups brown sugar
2-3 bay leaves
~20 crushed black peppercorns
Grated zest of 3 oranges

Heat the oil a large, heavy based pan. Add onions, cook until starting to soften a little. Add garlic, cook for a further 1-2 mins.

Add brown sugar, cook 1-2 mins, then pour in the vinegars, bay leaves, pepper corns and orange zest. Bring mixture to the boil, then reduce to low heat for about 2 hours until well caramelised.

Transfer mixture to small, sterilised 250 ml jars, until mixture reaches 1cm from the top of the rim. Boil in a water bath for 15-20 mins


I have a habit of getting oranges for the orange zest, but never knowing what to do with the rest of the orange (apart from just eating it). Well this time I'm prepared: I'm going to make...!

Orange curd

• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 egg yolks, at room temperature
• 170g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 2 tsp finely grated orange rind
• 185ml (3/4 cup) fresh orange juice
• 125g butter, chilled, cubed

Lightly whisk the eggs in a medium saucepan until pale. Add the orange zest and juice, caster sugar and butter. Place the saucepan over medium heat and whisk the mixture continuously for about 7-8 minutes until thickened. It will continue to thicken upon resting.

Can be frozen for up to 3 months.



Ok. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Can't wait!

Edit: I think I'll use only 2 cups of sugar in the red onion relish next time! (18/2/10)

Make your own cheese!

I decided to make my own cheese. Well, kind of cheese. Labne.

I couldn't believe how ridiculously easy this was to make.

1. Take a 1kg tub of Greek yoghurt. Take a large piece of muslin, or, alternatively cheese cloth (makes sense, doesn't it?). Up end tub of yoghurt onto your cheese cloth.
2. Draw up the edges of cloth around the yoghurt. Drain as much of the fluid as you can initially then tie a string around it so it's a tight ball. Suspend the ball over a bowl (suggestions from here): tie the ball to a wooden spoon, then rest the spoon on the top of a bowl (or jug!), allowing the ball to hang down. I thought I'd be able to do it with some bamboo skewers, but they couldn't take the weight, even when I used 3-4 skewers. Wooden spoon is definitely the way to go.
   
3. Leave to drain in the fridge for 5 days. You can leave it for less time, but it just tastes like thickened yoghurt. 5-6 days mean it's starting to mature slightly.
   

Spoon it out. Roll in spices or herbs (dukkah, paprika, parsley etc). Mix in dried fruit, like apricot. Serve with bread, marinated vegetables, with roasted mushrooms, on anything really! It's creamy and slightly tangy... and too good because I can't stop eating it. It keeps for up to a week.

Cheese made using cheese cloth. Who'd have ever thought?

Pickled onions are now pickling!

Ok, so to finish from yesterday...

• After you have your nicely infused vinegar, strain it through some muslin and set aside.
• Rinse and wipe down the onions using a clean towel to remove any excess brine. Pack your onions into sterilised jars (although part of me wonders why you bother sterilising the jar when you're about to add loads of vinegar to it, but I still do it anyway). I use the blunt end of a skewer to pack them in nice and tight, but I'm sure there's an easier way of doing it that I'm yet to discover. Remember, if you're using chilies, put them in first.
• Pour the vinegar over the onions and fill to about 2cm from the top. I like to use a funnel to do this (that might sound obvious but I just tried using a ladel for years and I'd make a horrible mess). Optional: Add a few of the spices for extra decoration and to help the flavour develop, although note that sometimes you'll get a little bit of sediment forming from the spices if you do this.
• Pop the lids on your jars and seal them. I prefer the water bath method myself, which I do in a very deep pot.

Et voila!


Wait at least two (but I always wait four) weeks before eating.

Time to get pickling!

Another thing I like to make for Christmas presents (and for myself) is pickled onions. I'm getting them done now because it's at least 2-3 weeks before you can eat them after they are in the jar, although I like to leave them for 4-6 weeks, just to be sure. I get a bit nervous at the thought of eating pickled onions that aren't quite fully pickled. Don't ask me why.

I think the secret ingredient in pickled onions is honey. It gives a lot more depth in flavour to the pickled onions. Oh, and the long, bright red chili. It makes the jar look really pretty and also gives the pickled onions a bit of kick. I've been making pickled onions annually for about 5 years now, and my recipe has adapted over time, but this is the one that I've used for the past 2 years and was the best yet.

Day 1: Brine the onions

• 1.75 kg pickling onions, peeled, topped & tailed (roughly enough for 5 x 500 ml pasta sauce jars)
• 150 g salt
• 1.5 L water

Dissolve the salt in the water: it may need to be heated gently for the salt to fully dissolve. Add onions. Leave in the brine overnight (or two nights, if you run out of time on the first night, like me).



Day 1 or Day 2: Make the spiced vinegar

Make the spiced vinegar. I prefer to make this the same night I cut up my onions, to allow the spices to really infuse through... and also because I am lazy and like to just make it and pop it in the fridge and forget about it. You can make it the following day, just remember to allow the vinegar and spices to infuse for at least 2-3 hours. Use whatever vinegar you like: I use a combination, generally because I don't have enough of just one type lying about the house. I do like to add at least a cup of apple cider vinegar give it a slightly sweeter flavour and because it gives the vinegar a nice golden colour, which contrasts beautifully with the red chili and white onions. For a few years I used the honey from my friend who was a backyard apiarist, but unfortunately he moved interstate, so now I just use whatever rich flavoured honey I have on hand (leatherwood or similar).

• 1 litre white vinegar
• 1 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 15 g all spice
• 15 g coriander seed
• 10 g black peppercorns
• 10 g mustard seeds
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 3-4 whole cloves
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup honey (or to taste)

Heat all ingredients to boiling, cover, simmer for 15 mins. Allow to cool and infuse for 2-3 hours at least, or overnight.

Day 2. Packing and pickling

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next installment. I'm actually putting the onions and vinegar into the jars later tonight because I realised I wont have enough time to finish them tomorrow, and leaving it til Thursday to jar them up is a bit much (I love pickling because it is flexible, but I think I'd be pushing there boundaries there!). When I'm done I'll be too tired to post, but it builds the excitement anyway... in case there are any of you out there who also get excited by pickled onions!

Recipe Box Swap: Garden fresh lemon curd!

The theme for this month's Recipe Box Swap is "Garden fresh: "If you can pick it from the garden, buy it at the farmer's market or get it from the produce section of the grocery store, tell us how to prepare it!". It was a tough choice as nearly all of my meals are from the garden, market or produce section (well, rather, delivered fresh to my door). Deciding was all too much, so I decided to really stick to the theme and go with stuff that I get from my garden. It's not quite Thursday in the US, so you still have time to join in too!

My garden has lots of herbs: sage, basil, a giant rosemary bush that's threatening to overrun our bbq, oregano, mint (kept in a pot, as that has been known to overrun the garden in the past too). But the thing that brings me most pleasure is our lemon tree. I adore lemons. So I decided to post my recipe for lemon curd. I generally use it to fill sponge cakes or to go with fruit salads and Gib loves to have it spread on toast. I've also been known to eat it straight out of the pot with a spoon (not too much though, it's not the healthiest thing ever!). Lemon curd is just so versatile.

Lemon curd:

• 3 home grown lemons, juiced and strained (about 125 ml). Zest one of the lemons.
  
• 200g sugar (you can also use "smart" sugar or other diabetic substitute)
  
• 3 free-range eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten and passed through a strainer (helps prevent curdling). I strongly recommend free range for this, not only to keep with the theme and because the hens they come from are more ethically treated (speak to Jamie Oliver for more on that), but also simply because eggs are a key ingredient in the flavour and consistency of your curd. Good quality lemon curd is dependent on good quality eggs.
  
• 100g butter cut into cubes (dairy-free margarines also work)
  

1. Use a double boiler, or a heatproof bowl that fits neatly into a medium sized saucepan. Make sure it wont touch the water in the bottom. Fill the saucepan 1/4 or 1/3 with water and bring to just boiling (medium to high heat).
2. With the bowl not sitting in the saucepan, combine the lemon and sugar in the heatproof bowl. Add eggs and lemon rind to the lemon and sugar mixture, mix until combined.
3. Place the bowl into the saucepan and reduce the heat so the water is at a simmer. Stir the mixture constantly for about 20 minutes -- don't leave it or it will curdle! (Oh yes, I've curdled my curd before). It will have thickened and be of a smooth consistency.
   
4. Remove the top part of your double boiler or your bowl from the pan and add the butter to your mixture, a few pieces at a time, making sure each is dissolved before the next addition. Sometimes I need to add up to 1 tsp cornflour if the mixture is too runny, or if I want it thicker as a filling for sponge cake.

Lemon curd can be stored in sterilised jars in the fridge for up to a month.

Lemon curd by Patricia Scarpin

Chutney to try

I found this recipe for chutney at Willow House and boy does it look delicious! The chutney I made overy summer is starting to run out, and this looks like it'd be a great one to make.

Leftovers and seconds

I loathe to throw out any fruit or vegetables (except for maybe those furry gray carrots that get pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten about for a few weeks) and so I'm always trying to think of inventive things to do with nearly-past-their-used by date items in my fridge and fruit bowl. My food delivery comes on Fridays, so often Friday or Saturday is when I cook to make way for the new stuff.

I'd been pondering what to do with some broccoli I had in the fridge: I hate the stalks and I'm always trying to find ways to conceal them in things so I can't taste them and don't have to throw them out. I also had some daikon and carrot lying about so, before I headed off to work I whipped up some quick Japanese pickles. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to turn out, but I'll let you know how it tastes in about 4 days.


My favourite thing to do with tired fruit, apart from stewing it and eating it with ice cream, is turning it into muffins. Three lonely kiwi fruit were still left. They'd been left in the bottom of the bowl and almost forgotten. I also had a banana that I had frozen in the back of the freezer. I made this recipe from a base muffin recipe that I have and hoped for the best. Although the photo doesn't look that exciting, these muffins are actually very tasty and are definitely on my "to make again" list. The kiwi fruit gives them a bit of zing, the banana keeps it smooth and sweet, and the ginger gives them a lift.

Kiwi fruit and banana muffins

Wet ingredients:

• 100 g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 banana, mashed
• 3 kiwi fruit, diced
• 1/2 cup low fat milk

Dry ingredients:

• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 12 hole muffin pan.
2. Combine the wet ingredients.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix until the dry ingredients are just combined.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked through. Let to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool.

Apple and rhubarb compote

This morning I visited the Holmesglen Tafe farmers market and, in addition to the delicious goats cheese, locally made olive oil, freshly baked sour dough, zucchini pickles and organic kipfler potatoes, I also bought 1kg organic fuji apple seconds. I used a portion of these to stew up with some rhubarb I had lying about in the fridge.

I adapted this recipe from the recipe for rhubarb compote in Beverley Sutherland Smith's "A taste for all seasons".

• 250 g apples, peeled and diced
• 1 rhubarb bunch (500 g)
• Juice of 1 orange
• Several strips of orange rind
• 1/2 cup sugar

Place all ingredients in a dutch oven or heavy based saucepan (I added a little bit of water just to get it all started). Bring to the boil then reduce to a low simmer for ~30 mins until the rhubarb is just soft. Remove orange rind and serve. Can be frozen for up

Pickled onions!

I made these at Christmas time and have just opened them, and I have to say, they taste delicious. It's all about that bright red chili you can see there and the honey used in the pickling mixture. The weather has been so damn hot that I haven't really bothered to do anything other than eat pickled onions and drink beer -- gosh, I sound like such a bogan. I saw some pickling onions on special for $1.50 for 2kg (only at Oakleigh market) and I'm inspired to make more. Hmm, I should post the recipe for these so I don't have to keep going through the random pile of recipes that I have written out on scraps of paper to find it. I have tried many pickled onion recipes, but this one delivers consistently fantastic results for me.

Mango Chutney

Summer means mangoes! Apart from eating them fresh and chewing on the giant furry pip for ages, I like to make mango chutney. My dad refuses to eat any other mango chutney than the stuff I make, so I'm pretty stoked (my dad can be a bit fussy about his food!). The thing I love about making chutney is its simplicity: Chop up a whole lot of stuff, put it in a pot, forget about it for a while, come back, cook it for a bit, bottle it, eat it. This is my own recipe. I read about 4 different recipes for mango chutney (long since forgotten where I found them) and merged bits and pieces of them to create this:

• 4 cups peeled, chopped mangoes (6-8 mangoes, depending on the size)
• 2 green capsicums, chopped
• 1 red capsicum, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves
• 3 medium brown onions, diced
• 1 1/2 cups raisins
• 1 2 inch piece ginger root, minced
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground chili

1. Combine all ingredients in a large glass bowl and stir well. Cover and let stand overnight.
2. Pour mixture into a Dutch oven and bring to the boil, then turn down to low heat, stirring occasionally until the consistency of jam (about 1 1/2 hours).
3. Spoon into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1 cm gap at the top of the jar. Remove air bubbles, wipe jar rims and seal with lids with screw-on bands. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.