Introduction | What I have Learned this Month | New Books
New Words | The April garden : what to plant, a friendly garden, a little bit sweet, how to grow a year of…
A few recipes: pumpkin fruit cake, Peg’s lemon mousse, Peg’s incredible curry
Introduction
For the first time doing this newsletter I’m not sure what to write: part of my brain is still with a novel I began over Easter. Whenever I start a novel I am sure it isn’t working, that it will never work, that I will never be able to write a novel again.
Finally the words have begun to feel like a book. It no longer feels as though I am creating it, but am merely pushing aside the shadows to let it emerge.
It is a difficult reality to leave.
The other part of my brain is marvelling at what I just saw out the window – a sudden movement from the corner of my eye, so I turned around to see a lyrebird soar perhaps 200 metres across the garden, down from the mountain behind me; land on a branch perhaps 30 metres up, warble as he danced down the branch – definitely a ‘he’ with tail outspread – then do a ballet-type leap of his toes, to soar again down the slope to a tree by the creek.
I have seen lyrebirds soar many times, but never like this, never that far. Nor have I ever been close enough to watch its toes. Those giant feet aren’t just for scratching. They are for that necessary tiny leap upwards – the wings entirely static – that propels it out, with gravity bringing it down. The wings are a kite, no more, or perhaps a touch of rudder. But all the propelling was done by those toes, in that one tip-tupping leap….
I’ve been sitting here for perhaps twenty minutes, just lingering on the memory. Now, of course, the book is gone. I’ll join it again tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, this…
What I Have Learned this Month
Wombats can walk backwards. We accidentally caught the wombat we call Short Black in the feral cat trap. Wombats can turn in tiny areas, but not this small, so even after I had opened the door (we never leave it set when we aren’t here to keep an eye on it - literally, with me in the study looking out at it) we were afraid we’d have to tip her out, which might mean catching her legs in the trap.
But, wombat-like, she thought about it for a few minutes, then walked backwards. Exit one wombat, annoyed.
. Cherry guavas will fruit in autumn as well as spring, if they have a good burst of rain. The autumn ones are richer, bigger, softer, fewer. If all cherry guavas were like these they’d oust cherries from the supermarket.
. There is a dragon that guards our hearts – a gift of wisdom from Sue de Gennaro over breakfast. Sometimes you need to learn to say, ‘Good dragon. Lie down and go to sleep.’ so you can respond to others without fear and without reserve.
. No government department appears to know anything about wombats. Correction: anything true about wombats. But they’ll issue licenses to cull them without blinking.
Recent Books
A Year in the Valley
This is a reissue of ‘Seasons of Content’, with a new introduction, as well as a new ‘what happened next’ section about our lives in the valley since I wrote the book, more than twenty years ago now. I wrote it mostly for my own pleasure then, and only hauled it into publishing shape on an impulse many years later and sent it to HarperCollins. It is about the valley – the wombats, our lives, the dances of the lyrebirds. It is also very much about food; the growing of it, the cooking, the sharing with friends, human and otherwise.
The Tomorrow Book
Illustrated by Sue de Gennaro - a look at the paradise we could create, maybe just tomorrow.
This is a special book. It’s closer to my heart than anything I’ve written before and Sue’s work is inspired: funny, whimsical and extraordinarily beautiful. It’s what happens when the king and queen retire and go off in their campervan, leaving the kids in charge, who find the solution to each of the world’s major problems in their library, and create… tomorrow.
Every one of the solutions really does exist – and the possible tomorrows are very, very good indeed.
P.S. Sue created the extraordinary artwork in collage, using materials she found in her kitchen, from tea bags to labels. It is too magic to even have words to describe it.
Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs
The sequel to ‘Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior’, continuing the crazy adventures of Boo, werewolf and hero-in-the making!
 Boo’s back… in another crazy adventure of Heroes, dinosaurs and the most fearsome weapon in the universes… the zombie sausage!
Boojum Bark, werewolf puppy and student Hero, is about to do what no Hero has done before – go into the scariest universe of them all, the Ghastly Otherwhen, rescue his mum and come back alive.
And he’ll need help from his friends: mysterious Yesterday, gorgeous Princess Princess Sunbeam Caresse of Pewké, Mug the down-to-earth Zombie and Squeak the warrior mouse.
But the Ghastly Otherwhen isn’t what Boo expects! And his friends start acting strangely, too…
What is the bond between Yesterday and her dinosaurs? Why won’t she let Boo rescue her from slavery? Can Mug really be as dumb as he looks, or are Zombies smart in Zombie ways? And could Princess Princess be an actual Hero underneath her cowardly exterior?
The bogeys are scarier – and the food is grosser than ever!
And illustrator Andrea Potter’s dinosaurs are the best in the universes.
The Night They Stormed Eureka
A fresh look at the history we thought we knew.
Are the history books wrong? Could the rebels have succeeded? Could we too have seceded from Britain, like the USA?
This is the story of Sam, a modern teenager, thrust into the world of the Ballarat goldfields, with the Puddlehams, who run the best cook shop on the diggings and dream of a hotel with velvet seats, ten thousand miners who dream of gold and rebellion, and Professor Shamus O’Blivion, who tries not to dream at all. But there is a happy ending for Sam, who discovers that when you stand together, you really can change the world – and your own life, too.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
I’m sorry I can’t accept every invitation – there are often two or three day, and much as I’d love to, there is no way I can do them all, or even most of them. Basically, I can only do one trip away from home a month, and that includes trips to Canberra, so I mostly only speak to groups of more than 200 and when it will take no more than six hours travel each way (except Western Australia). I’ve also stopped doing early morning and after dinner talks.
But as I have family in Brisbane and Perth I always love an excuse to travel there... or anywhere that might involve a stop-over in Perth, too.
New South Wales bookings are done by Lateral Learning, Queensland bookings by Helen Bain at Speaker’s Inc, Victoria by Booked Out, simon@bookedout.com.au, and for other bookings contact me at jackiefrench72@gmail.com.
But please don’t use this address for help with school projects or just to have a chat, again much as I’d love that, too – there are answers to nearly all your project questions on the website, and gardening questions in my books, and I can only answer 100 or so emails a day, not the thousands needed to answer school project and gardening questions from overseas as well as Australia.
April onwards: Sue de Gennaro’s artwork for ‘The Tomorrow Book’ will be at the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre. Contact the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre for more details.
April 27, 28, 29, 30: Talks in Brisbane, as well as an address at The 3 R's - Reaching Reluctant Readers Conference. Contact Helen Bain: helen@speakers-ink.com.au.
May 22, 23: Sydney Writer’s Festival, including two workshops on creating picture books, a talk with Bruce Whatley about our ‘Diary of a Wombat’ books, and a panel talk, A Wombat At My Table.
Jun 3, 4, 5: Talks at libraries in Melbourne, including the Monash Literary Festival on Saturday. Contact Booked Out (simon@bookedout.com.au) for details.
June 18-19: NSW Children’s Book Council Conference, Sydney. Session with Bruce Whatley, the genius who created those incredible images of the wombat in ‘Diary of a Wombat’ and ‘Baby Wombat’s Week’. There is also a regal cocktail party to launch our next joint book, ‘Queen Victoria’s Underpants’, the almost entirely true story of how Queen Victoria revolutionised women’s lives. (It is rumoured that Victoria and her Albert may actually appear at the cocktail party, but I don’t know about the underpants).
July 7: Sydney, National History Conference.
July 14-17: Whitsunday Literary Festival, including a public gardening talk, Mackay, Qld.
July 30: Seymour Centre, Sydney. Opening night of Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People’s incredible play of ‘Hitler’s Daughter’. I’ll be there, with knobs on.
August 2-7: Talks and workshops at the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre, contact the Centre for details or bookings.
August 18: Abbotsleigh Literary Festival, Sydney.
September 18: Talk to Friends of the Botanic Gardens, Canberra, 12.30 in the auditorium. All welcome, adults and kids.
October 2,3,4: Talks each day at Floriade, Canberra.
October 10: Talks at Floriade, Canberra.
October 27: International Children’s Day. I’ll be speaking at the awards in Canberra in my capacity as ACT Children’s Ambassador, and probably giving a talk or two somewhere else in Canberra that day too, if previous years are anything to go by.
November 6 and 7: Open Garden workshops at our place. Contact the Open Garden organisers for bookings, act@opengarden.org.au. If you want to make a weekend of it, there are lots of places to stay, from cheap pubs to luxury B&Bs close by. Look at the Braidwood web site.
November 20: Eurobodalla Slow Food Festival at Moruya, NSW. I’ll be giving a series of talks during the day, on everything from fruit trees to wombats, and launching the festival once again as its patron.
Recent Awards.
‘Baby Wombat’s Week’, ‘The Donkey Who Saved the Wounded’ and ‘A Nation of Swaggies and Figgers’ have all been made Notables in the recent Children’s Book Council awards, Wombat in both the Younger Readers and Picture Book categories.
The April Garden
Looking glorious now: Autumn leaves, tibouchinas, asters, nerines, Autumn crocus, storm lilies or Zephyranthes, Kaffir lilies, crab apples, Japanese anemones, early camellias, orange fruit on the persimmons.
What to Plant in April
Hot climate.
Plants for beauty: Coleus, gerberas, impatiens, nasturtiums, petunias, zinnias, ornamental shrubs, plus all the cooler climates flowers below.
Plants to eat: Just about any veg can be planted now, plus fruit trees, choko and passionfruit vines.
Temperate climate.
Plants for beauty: Daphne for stunning winter scent, plus annual flowers to bloom all winter like primulas, pansies, polyanthus, Iceland poppies, alyssum and viola. Plant sweet peas, lunaria, nemophilia, lupins, Californian poppy, evening primrose, gazanias for spring.
Plants to eat: Cumquats, calamondins and lemons for winter fruit; seedlings of beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chicory, leeks, lettuce, spinach, seeds of broad beans, peas, snow peas, winter lettuce, spring onions, parsnips, fast-maturing Asian veg like tatsoi, pak choi and mitsuba.
Cold climate.
Plants for beauty: Potted roses, daphne for stunning winter scent plus seedlings of annual flowers to bloom all winter, like primulas, pansies, polyanthus, Iceland poppies, alyssum, viola and lunaria; nemophila, lupins, Californian poppy, evening primrose and gazanias for spring.
Plants to eat: Seedlings of broccoli, Brussel sprouts, chicory, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, leeks, lettuce, spinach, seeds of broad beans, peas, snow peas, winter lettuce, spring onions and fast-maturing Asian veg like tatsoi, pak choi and mitsuba.
Jobs for April
. Plant winter savoury. This much neglected herb is really fragrant in cold weather, and great with any tomato dish, with carrots, new potatoes and with cheese in quiches.
. Give your indoor plants a holiday outside in dappled shade for a few days.
. Feed all flowers and veg to encourage lots of blooms over winter.
. Keep an eye out for attractive seed heads – burdock, echinacea, eryngiums and sunflowers look great, but there are many others too. Pick them with long stems and hang upside down indoors till fully dry. Use them in dried flower arrangements. A spray of gold paint will really make them glow, but I love the natural cream to brown shades best.
. Prune lavender, lavatera, buddleias, curry bush and other shrubs that start to straggle in frost-free areas; in very frosty areas wait till early Spring as the plants can die back where they are cut.
. Feed and water camellias well for a good long flowering season.
. Trim hedges – they may look straggly with a new flush of growth in autumn.
. Wriggle your hand under clumps of dahlias and remove surplus tubers. Give to friends or make another dahlia bed. (If you do this now while there are still a few blooms you can tell which colour dahlia you are digging up!)
Do you have a friendly garden?
Score (1) for each 'yes' answer!
Do you have:
. outdoors chairs for nattering to friends?
. a bird bath or small fountain for feathered visitors?
. a place where kids can play without being told to 'be careful of my petunias!'
. rocks, walls or logs where lizards can sun bake?
. a tall tree to keep possums and birds happy?
. flowers, cuttings, surplus tomatoes or spare bulbs to give away to friends?
. a green and blossoming front garden that helps to soothe and refresh passers by?
Score: 4 or more... your life is full and generous- and so is your garden.
Using immature vegetables
If your veg haven’t ripened by the first frosts:
Unmatured corncobs can be kept on the stalk by bending the stalk over them, to shelter them from frost and rain so they won’t rot before they mature. They will continue to mature slowly this way until the stalks are almost brittle. Young corn, Chinese style, is delicious. Whenever you pull out a corn stalk, run your fingers down the leaves to make sure an immature cob isn’t forming. If it is – pluck, stir-fry and enjoy!
Tiny cucumbers – as small as they come – are even better than the big ones, either raw or cooked. A Chinese friend introduced me to them and they have become my favourite vegetable. Try frying thin slices with a little ginger and garlic for 10 seconds on as high a heat as you can get.
Pumpkins can be eaten as soon as they form behind the flower – they’ll be just like small squash, which is, in fact, what they are. They won’t taste as sweet as mature pumpkin – more mellow and nutty, like zucchini.
Try picking small watermelons before they turn pink inside. Use a sweet, well-spiced marinade. It’s not that the melon will taste of much – the only taste will be of the pickling solution – but the texture can be excellent.
Carrot, beetroot, parsnip, turnip and the like can all be picked and eaten as soon as you can be bothered with them. The smaller the sweeter. But all these vegetables should continue to mature through winter as long as the ground doesn’t freeze – especially under a thick bed of mulch.
Cook lettuce that hasn’t hearted – in stock, to eat by itself and for lettuce soup, or wrap it round rice for stuffed ‘cabbage’.
Green tomatoes can be pickled, or you can make green tomato chutney or jam with them.
A year of lettuce
During summer I plant a punnet of lettuce – about twelve plants – every week if we have enough water – which we usually don’t. Any we don’t eat get thrown around the garden as mulch: nothing is wasted in the self-sufficient garden. I like the small, sweet mignonettes that can be grown all year round. But there are literally dozens of other varieties to choose from – one of the advantages of growing your own is the chance to gourmandise. There are now punnets available that contain several sorts of lettuce, all maturing at different times: excellent for people who only need a couple at weekends.
I plant masses of lettuce in autumn, enough to see us through the winter. Although mignonette and other winter lettuce are frost resistant, they don’t grow much in cold weather. As soon as the ground warms up I put in more: small sweet mignonettes are ready to eat about eight weeks after planting, but individual leaves can be pulled off after one month.
Consider growing the following varieties:
• Mignonette (red or green) all year round.
• Red or green cos lettuce: pull a leaf as you need them – they’re great if you only want a few lettuce leaves at a time.
• Oak leaf lettuce (red or green) for a frilly extravaganza.
• If you like old-fashioned, crisp-headed lettuces, there are many varieties like the common summer iceberg, heat-resistant Narromar, or winter’s green velvet.
If, like us, you don’t have much water - or any - in summer, plant red-stemmed Italian chicory in spring instead of lettuce. It’s hardy, perennial if you snip off the flower stalks and doesn’t turn bitter. If it dies back in the heat it will return with rain.
A year of onions
We mostly eat spring onions. But onion planting is simple. Even though different varieties have different optimum times for planting, if you follow the general rules you’ll get a good crop.
Basically, cold weather means large bulbs, and warm weather means green tops. So, plant spring onions in spring (or at any other time of the year when the soil is warm enough for them to germinate) and other onions from autumn through winter. An exception are the flat white onions that don’t keep well. Plant these in early autumn so they’ll have a good amount of leaf growth before winter. This will give you crisp, fresh, sweet onions in spring and throughout summer. The other main crop onions will mature from mid-summer through to autumn. I’ve found that sweet, red salad onions can be planted at any time, though late winter gives the biggest bulbs.
Be adventurous with your onions. Fresh onions don’t taste at all like shop-bought ones. Home-grown onions have flavour and sweetness as well as acidity.
Plant lots of varieties. They all vary wonderfully in taste as well as in their keeping ability. A wide range of onions will give you fresh ones to harvest most of the year, as well as a good number for storage. Only a few of the many varieties available are given here.
A Year of Apples
We have about 130 varieties of apples and eat them fresh all year round. Nowadays I mostly grow early apples and very late ones, as they are reasonably fruit fly proof (we have cold winters; you won’t be as lucky further north). The late ones store well for at least three months. Early ones need to be eaten fast; they go soft and mealy if stored and lose much of their flavour.
Late November: Irish Peach (young trees won’t crop till late December)
December: Early Victoria, Vista Bella
January: Akane, Alexander, Gravenstein, Tydeman’s Early, Beauty of Bath, Early Macintosh, Joaneting, Lady Sudely, White Transparent, Stark’s Earliest
Feb-May: Most of the ‘normal apples’ like Jonathon, Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fuji, plus yummy ones like Cornish Aromatic.
May-June: Bess Pool, Braeburn, Cornish Aromatic (my favourite), Grimes Golden, Mutsu, Splendour, Edward V11, Sweetman, Fuji, Red Granny Smith.
June: Granny Smith, Democrat, Pink Lady
July, August: French Crab, Lady Williams, Sturmer Pippin
Dried apples without a dryer
Peel apples; slice as thinly as possible, then as you slice them dunk into water and lemon juice - 1 lemon to 3 cups water.
Now thread them onto a needle and thread, leaving about a finger space between each slice. Hang them up in the sun and wind, preferably under the eaves of the house where they won't get wet in the dew or rain. Bring them in when they feel rubbery.
How to store apples: Wrap each in a sheet of newspaper so they don’t get stung by fruit fly or codlin moth; keep in a cool dark place like the spare room with the curtains shut.
Cooking apples
Don’t neglect cooking apples. For years I neglected the ‘wild’ apples growing round here – the ones planted generations ago and still bearing, no longer pruned because they aren’t modern varieties and their value has been mostly forgotten. They looked gross to my inexperienced eye: too massive, too corpulent. A random bite didn’t improve matters: they seemed tasteless and much too floury.
It was only when I was served the best apple crumble of my life at a neighbour’s – made with Twenty-ouncers, a very old variety – that I realised these were cooking, not dessert apples: a category I’d never seen advertised in the fruit shops, and mostly ignored in the fruit tree catalogues, even by large suppliers.
I became a devotee of cooking apples like the English Bramleys, the classic cooking apple which explodes into sweet flouriness when baked. Or King Cole, an old Australian cultivar dating from the beginning of the century. It is very like a Jonathan: red, firm and juicy, but with the capacity to pulp finely and easily, and keep its flavour when cooked. That is the real test of a cooking apple: whether the flavour dissipates with heat, or actually improves, to become subtle and highly scented. Granny Smith, Five Crown Pippin and Sturmer Pippin are ‘dual purpose’ apples – good for both cooking and eating – but they still can’t compare with the specialised cookers of last century.
A Year of Citrus
Any area with no more than light frosts should be able to have citrus all year round. With a bit of extra work you can grow citrus in areas that have up to eight degrees of frost.
Citrus in hot areas
Citrus are heavy feeders. Many subtropical citrus trees are stunted by lack of food, as mulch breaks down quickly in warm climates. Feed them at least four times a year with old hen manure or pelletised hen manure and at least two mulches.
Citrus in hot areas are also attacked by sooty mould: black patches over the leaves, which interfere with photosynthesis. Sooty mould grows on the sweet secretions of sap suckers like aphids. Spray sap suckers with white oil when the temperature is below 24°C and there’s no blossom on the tree. (Don’t spray the whole tree, just the bits with the pests.) Control ants with a thick layer of grease around the base of the trunk or with a skirt of sump-oil impregnated wool or rags. Dab woolly aphids with methylated spirits, or just squash them.
Citrus in dry areas
Citrus are shallow rooted and die in droughts. They need year round THICK mulch and whatever water you can give them. Citrus in groves survive much better, in the shelter of other plants.
In harsh climates – hot, cold or dry – don’t plant grafted citrus. They tolerate wet soil better, but are grafted onto semi-dwarfing stock. The bigger the roots, and the faster they grow, the hardier the tree. Plant seedlings instead. Citrus grow fast and well from seeds. But in water logged or wet soils, go for grafted trees.
Citrus in cold areas
Grow your citrus against a north facing wall, protected from cold winds, or within a grove of well established evergreen trees. Use a tube of clear plastic sheeting to provide shelter during winter in the first two years, and to encourage growth in late autumn and early spring. To reduce frost damage, spray with seaweed spray(a commercial spray), or home-made nettle spray (cover the nettles with water and spray when the liquid is a weak-tea colour.) Give a sprinkle of potash or wood ash in late summer: potash deficient plants are more prone to frost damage.
Don’t mulch around exposed trees in cold areas, as mulch will increase frost damage to the leaves. Plant in groves instead. Citrus grow surprisingly well in dappled shade protected from frost and drought by other trees. They don’t grow as fast – but they survive and flourish better.
Plant your citrus deeply – deeper roots will be more protected from the frozen soil on the surface. Water every day – a lot of ‘cold stress’ is in fact moisture stress due to evaporation – and water the leaves as well.
Don’t worry if your citrus turns pale yellow in winter – it will green up again when the weather warms up.
Valencia oranges are more cold tolerant than Navels, and Seville oranges, though sourer, are more cold tolerant than Valencias. Eureka lemons are pretty cold hardy, and fruit all year if picked regularly. Meyer lemons ARE NOT COLD HARDY AT ALL – ignore any book that says they are. But they can be grown in a large pot and taken indoors in winter. The bush lemon is the most cold-hardy citrus of all. This is the warty, thick-skinned ‘wild citrus’.
A Little bit of Sweet
Bees
Go to library. Find books on beekeeping. It’s hot, heavy work and you’ll get stung… but it’s also fascinating and a single hive does well in a backyard. Keep away from kids though, in case they develop an allergic reaction to beestings.
Maple Sugar
You need the sugar maple tree and a climate with cold nights and warm sunny days in late winter. Cut a gash in the side of the tree, or (as I do) prune off a small branch leaving a 'knob' to hang a billy from or, even better, an old plastic milk carton that will mould to the tree better. Keep checking till the seepage stops.
Strain out bark and beetles, and simmer the sap till it thickens and tastes sweet. Freeze or store in the fridge. Throw out if it ferments or grows mould.
If you wish you can keep simmering it till it forms toffee-maple sugar. Don’t harvest until your tree is at least 40 cm thick.
Silver birch trees also produce an excellent sweet sap and can be tapped the same way as sugar maples.
Canary date palm
Sweet sap can be tapped from this tree at the flower stem in the same way that maple sugar is tapped.
Sugar beet
Sugar beet is mostly grown for stock food in Australia. You plant and grow it just like beetroot, and young ones can be eaten. Older ones are too coarse and fibrous. It is hard, grows fast and huge. Chop it and cook it in a little water until soggy, then strain it and reduce the liquid further until it forms a sweet brownish syrup. Keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or freeze, or dry it till it turns to crystals.
You can also use the syrup from boiled beetroot, if you don’t mind red syrup. Makes spectacular cakes.
Sugar cane
As decorative as bamboo, sugar cane is normally subtropical, but it can be grown as far south as Sydney in any fairly frost-free area. The hotter the climate, and the more sun it gets, the more sugar it will produce. So don’t be disappointed if you manage to grow it in a cool area but the juice isn’t very sweet. On the other hand, a slight period of cool weather before harvesting will increase the sugar content of the cane – but you need hot weather first.
Sugar cane is propagated vegetatively, by planting sections of stalk, 35 to 40 cm long and carrying three to four buds. The canes will eventually grow up to 4 metres high and 5 cm in diameter. In cooler areas the canes will be much smaller, and may take two years or more to get to crop size. Sugar cane is very hungry, so feed and water it well if you want a high sugar content.
Sugar cane is usually harvested at ground level, and then the underground buds shoot again. Commercially, about three of these ratoon crops are grown before the whole area is re-planted. For home growing you can just let the canes continue to re-grow.
Commercial sugar cane is crushed and raw sugar is made from the extracted juice. For home sugar production, split the cane with an axe, chop it into pieces – as small as possible – and boil it in water until it forms a thick syrup. This will be brownish and very rich.
Sugarwood (Myoporum platycarpum)
The Australian sugarwood is a small, dry country tree from eastern mainland Australia. It has slender drooping branches. A white manna is exuded from the trunk after wounds from insects or humans, and this sap eventually hardens into very sweet icicles.
A Few Recipes
Basic Pumpkin Fruit Cake Mix
1 cup mashed pumpkin
125 gm butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
500 gm sultanas, or mixed fruit (I prefer just sultanas)
2 cups self-raising flour
Line a large tin with two layers of baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs one by one; then pumpkin, vanilla, fruit, then the flour.
The mixture should be quite moist, but if is seems too dry (which it may be if the pumpkin is dryish) then add a little milk or water or plain yoghurt.
Pour the mix into the tin; bake at 200ºC for one hour or till it's brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.
This cake is rich, moist and very, very good.
The Extraordinarily Good Lemon Mousse Peg Served Us Last Night
From an email from Peg:
“185 g caster sugar
3 large eggs separated (I used 4, but one was quite small)
Juice and grated zest of 2 lemons (I also added a lime)
3 tsp gelatine (or probably 4 leaves… I used 2)
300 ml cream
Whisk sugar and yolks in large bowl until pale and thick. Whisk in lemon juice and zest. Combine 100 mls boiling water and gelatine, whisk until dissolved and let cool somewhat, then add to egg mixture. Beat cream to soft peaks and fold in; beat whites to stiff peaks and fold in. Pour into dishes or a large dish, cover with clingwrap and chill for 6 hours or overnight.
I meant to put some berries/mint leaves on the edge for decoration, but forgot.”
I have a feeling Peg’s mousse was the best I have ever eaten because
a. she used fresh lemons/limes, and
b. she accidentally didn’t use ‘enough’ gelatine, so the top was soft and ethereal and the base puddled in the most delicious lemon lime syrup.
The Curry Peg served Last Night, Too (again quoted from her e-mail).
“90 g butter
1 kg or more diced leg of lamb (or diced kangaroo in this case)
3 onions - chopped
Garlic cloves (at least 3) – chopped
5 cm piece of green ginger – finely chopped (but these all go in the blender and come out a paste, so only need to chop a bit if that is the case – can also be done by hand, but gives a ‘grittier’ texture to the sauce, rather than the thick gravy)
1 teasp cinnamon
1 teasp cardamom
2 teasp garam masala
2 tablesp curry powder
1 small carton of plain yoghurt (the recipe says two, but this I find makes the curry sour)
3 cups water (or more)
1 cup tomato paste (and/or 2-3 chopped tomatoes)
Salt/pepper
1 teasp chili powder (or 3-6 chopped chillies)
1 cup lemon juice
2 chicken stock cubes (or beef if using roo)
Heat butter in heavy-bottomed big pan (I use my pressure cooker), add meat in bits to brown, remove and set aside.
Put onions, garlic, ginger and spices in food processor/blender to make a fine puree. Tip into meat pan, stir until thick, add yoghurt, water, stock cubes, salt/pepper, tomato paste (tomatoes) and lemon juice. Return meat to mixture, stir well and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour or so (I sometimes give it 2 hours, add more water if needed, but it should be a fairly thick curry). I then add a spoon of brown sugar for the last 15 mins or so. Improves if left until next day to eat. Freezes well.”
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