Intro | Wombat News | New books | Awards | The Garden in August | Backyard Luxuries
A Few Recipes
. A Pikelet Feast
. Knitted Spaghetti with Prawns
. Baked Onions with Marjoram
. Spiced Quinces
. The Wow Factor Chocolate Cake
Intro
It’s good to be home again. Wombats scratching under the floor at 2 a.m., possums dancing in gumboots on the roof while we’re watching a DVD – but mostly just seeing the valley’s changes in the week I’ve been away (and the feeling of loss every time – like a mum who’s missed her baby’s first smile and knows there’ll never be that moment again).
The first tiny white plum blossoms bloomed while I was away in Byron, and the double daffs have grown fat and yellow and the tangelos, those deep orange luscious things, have grown soft and sweeter in the frost that also left the banana grove looking like a fashionably tattered brown and green skirt.
Which makes it sound like a week of hell, but it wasn’t. I was up in Byron Bay for the Literary Festival, which was superb, even though the rain bucketed down on Thursday and Friday, so that Friday’s sessions had to be cancelled. It was still a joy to watch the abundance of water, walk on the beach with the waves crashing and retreating and the surfers flexing their muscles in sheer machismo at being out among it all.
Someone once said that the world is divided into beach people and river people. I’m an inland river person now- or a creek person, at any rate. But our family spent every holiday at the beach when I was young, either on Bribie Island or on the Gold Coast which was more coast than gold in those days – a smooth clear shallow river where you could see the fish before they nibbled your line (it’s all canals and Macmansions now), high white dunes we slid down instead of high rises, fish and chip shops where everything came in greasy newspaper and the spuds (to be cut into chips) came in a sack still with the red clay from Redland Bay and the fish had been caught that morning. We ate salads of fresh tomatoes and lettuce with condensed milk salad dressing – which isn’t as bad as it sounds – and canned beetroot, with watermelon for afters.
It was my job to roll the daily watermelon home every lunchtime. The rest of lunch was Vegemite sandwiches from high-topped white loaves with black cracking crusts and then the surf again, styrofoam surfboards and white froth waves and sand forts trying to hold back the waves or castles dribbled into fantastic turrets and other kids who became friends just for those few days or weeks on the beach, as brown as we were and with red peeling noses.
We never got sick of it. Not the cold showers in the backyard (never indoor hot water), not the thin fibro walls, the same meals, waves and sand… it was perfect. Always perfect, even when it rained (when Mum was a little girl she’d run down to the beach after a storm and found coins washed up, and every storm afterwards we ran down hoping for treasure too, or at least a mermaid or a sea monster… )
Which was why I blinked this time when one of the wonderful volunteers (making sure we authors didn’t get lost/get food poisoning/get away before we’d finished signing) remarked that most people only ever came to a holiday place once and then they wanted a change.
Change? It never occurred to us. It was a competition all the way down in the car to see who could see the sea first and then we’d cheer and sing exactly the same song every time.
We joined the Navy
To see the world,
But what did we see?
We saw the sea.
We saw the Pacific
And the Atlantic
And the Atlantic
Isn’t romantic…
And I suddenly realised, if your idea of a holiday, or getaway, which is what holidays are called now, which seems to exactly sum up what so many people need – to get away, like an escaping prisoner, from traffic, timetables, supermarkets, rush and stress…if your idea is getting away to see or be given an experience – the day spa, the swimming pool, go to Sea World and all the rest of it – you may as well try something new each time.
But when you holiday to DO something you love then you’ll want to do it again and again… because by the end of that first holiday you know the feel of those particular waves, the curve of the beach, exactly where the best fish and chips – or maybe Thai or sushi – are, you’ve made friends with your landlady and exchanged hellos with the other regular walkers up on the headland… this is your place now, even if it’s a holiday place.
Somehow we have lost the idea of ‘heart’s country’, the places we know and are committed to, to love and to protect. I’d fight for my heart’s country – physically or in the law courts. When the land lacks people who love it there are too few to defend it, too.
And the high rises keep rising and the sand vanishes to resorts, and there are no longer things to do, just things to see.
Wombat News
A sudden clang, bang and shriek in the night last week. Looked out to see the garden chair upended – it had fallen against the wall – and one large grey wombat bum sitting on the paving in an attitude of ‘I don’t know what that noise was and it’s nothing to do with me and if I just sit here the whole thing will go away.’
Wombats are good at that.
It was Mothball, who’d tried to scratch her back on the too-flimsy chair. She’s massive these days, a real sumo wrestler of a wombat, shoulders like a Hereford bull and thick grey fur, very different from the small round brown wombat of twelve years ago. But she’s still stroppy. And still has the same wombat grin when she’s managed to chew through the doormat or bashed the garbage bin into submission.
Latest Books
‘The Camel Who Crossed Australia’ 
The Burke and Wills Expedition should have been one of the greatest explorations ever… white men venturing where no other white man had gone before.
Sure, you have probably heard about the Burke and Wills expedition… but have you ever heard it from the perspective of one of the camels on the journey? Or from one of the ‘Afghan cameleers’ hired from the Indian subcontinent to look after the camels?
The humans called him ‘Bell Sing’, but to the other camels he is known as ‘He Who Spits Further Than the Wind’. And spitting is something Bell Sing is not ashamed to admit he is very good at.
Transported from the mountains and deserts of the ‘Northwest Frontier’ (present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan), Bell Sing accompanies the explorers Burke and Wills as they try to cross Australia from south to north.
Bell Sing has never had a high opinion of humans – or horses. And this expedition is the worst managed caravan he’s ever been in. Cameleer Dost Mahomet and soldier John King are also beginning to wonder if their leader is incompetent or crazy.
Bell Sing can smell water over the sandhills on the horizon... and freedom too. Can the expedition succeed? And who – if anyone – will survive?
This is the gritty and true story about one of the most extraordinary and iconic events in Australia’s history.
PS And I had great fun with Bell Sing…
‘How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?’
Why does Australia have animals that are so different from others anywhere else in the world?
Why do ‘roos and wallabies have such big tummies?
Who were the kangaroos with fangs that lived 10 million years ago?
What’s the best way to become invisible (to kangaroos, at any rate)?
Which wallaby is a ‘living fossil’ – the same as the wallabies that grazed 10 million years ago?
Why do joeys eat their mother’s droppings?
And how high CAN a kangaroo jump?
This book also tells the stories of Rosie the wallaby, and her passion for flowers (eating them, that is), the Apricot Guzzler wallaby clan, and of course Fucshia, the real-life dancing kangaroo who became Josephine in ‘Josephine Wants to Dance’.
How High CAN a Kangaroo Hop?
The Wilderness Garden (a new and much larger edition)
Aird Books
The new edition of this is finally out. Want to create a wilderness of flowers, fruit and veg in your backyard, with only a day’s work a year? This is the book you need. It shows how we’ve created our own wilderness garden- to feed and delight us, the birds and wildlife. And if we can do it in a valley with down to minus 9ºC in winter and up to 53ºC in summer, so can anyone – though, thankfully, it’s usually more like minus 5ºC to 42ºC, though there was the year when we only had 10 ml of rain in ten and a half months… and, no, the garden wasn’t watered nor the trees irrigated…
Awards
No new awards or short-listings this month. ‘Pharaoh, the Boy who Conquered the Nile’ and ‘The Shaggy Gully Times’ are still short-listed for the CBC Awards – results later this month. And ‘Hitler’s Daughter’ and ‘The Goat who Sailed the World’ are short-listed for the Yabba Awards, Koala Awards, Croc Awards and Cool Awards – all the kid’s choice awards. Thank you enormously everyone who nominated them – and many, many, MANY thanks to everyone who might vote for them in the next month!
Schedule for this year and part of next year
I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage much more than the list below. (It doesn’t include trips away for things like dental appointments, family affairs, etc.) I usually receive at least one invitation to give talks or workshops each day, sometimes several. Much as I’d love to, I just can’t do them all – or even most of them. I really am limited to one trip away from home a month. Mostly I choose events with the biggest audience, because this means that I can speak to more people in less time.
Please forgive me if I can’t come to your town, school or event – it doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I wish I were superwoman and could do them all, and respond to every request for help or mentoring too.
August 17-19: 2008 Book Week talks, Adelaide
August 25-27: Melbourne Writers’ Festival, including a talk on Saturday morning and a talk on Monday and Tuesday mornings.
September 16-20: Brisbane Writers’ Festival and CU Later Alligator
14 October: Ceremony for the winners of the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge at the National Library (I’m the Ambassador this year).
October 28, 29, 30: Talks at schools in the Southern Highlands (Contact Lateral Learning for details).
November 16: Open Garden workshops at our place – contact the Open Garden Scheme (they take all the bookings and do all the arranging).
March ‘09: a trip to WA, though as yet I’m not quite sure who is organising it.
April 1,2,3 ‘09: Newington College Literary Festival, Sydney
May and September ‘09: Talks in Brisbane. For more details contact Show and Tell, helen@showtell.com.au
The August Garden
This is the time of year when you find out just how good your garden is. Are there still armfuls of flowers for you and the birds? Baskets of fruit? Sinks full of veg?
For us this is one of the best fruit and veg times – cold enough so that the citrus are soft and sweet and deeply coloured, and also too cold for fruit fly too. The late apples have matured nicely, and so have the late quinces, the avocadoes are fat and so is our single custard apple… but then as neither of us are fond of custard apple, a crop of one fruit is quite sufficient. The macadamias are falling nicely too as they split from their shells high up in the tree, the chokoes are dropping on our heads from their withered vines high up in the Japanese maple tree and the birds have just eaten the last pomegranate.
As for veg… even parsley has a sweetness you just don’t get in warm weather. The spuds are perfect, the Jerusalem artichokes nutty, the broccoli without even the faint whiff of sulphur and the chicory divine, especially stir fried quickly in olive oil with just a touch of onion and garlic, and the daikon radishes are adding a good crunch to salads- I grate them into long crisp strips. (I think only rabbits really like munching anything quite so big and crisp.)
What to plant
Vegetables
Spring crops can be planted when the soil is warm enough to sit on bare-bummed.
Frost-free climates
Good tucker plants: Fruit trees like limes, tropical apples, avocados, grape, choko, sweet potato and passionfruit vines, seeds of amaranth, artichoke, asparagus, basil, burdock, carrots, celery, chilli, corn, celeriac, choko, collards, eggplant, gourds, kale, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, okra, onion, parsnip, parsley, peas, pumpkin, radish, rockmelon, salsify, shallots, silverbeet, tomato, watermelon and zucchini.
Plants for beauty: Any ornamental shrub in the nursery! Seeds or seedlings of alyssum, Californian poppy, calendula, cleome, coleus, gerbera, helichrysum, honesty, impatiens, kangaroo paw, marigold, pansy, petunias, phlox, salvia, sunflower, Swan River daisy, torenia, zinnia,
Temperate:
Good tucker plants: Any fruit tree, vine or shrub, bare-rooted or evergreen, seeds or seedlings of baby carrots, beetroot, lettuce, parsnip, peas, radish, swede, turnips, celery, celeriac, leek, lettuce, onions, mizuma, mitsuba, seed potatoes, rocket, silverbeet and spinach. Pots of tomatoes or chilli plants can be grown on a warm sunny patio.
Plants for beauty: Seeds or seedlings of alyssum, calendula, heartsease, lunaria, bellis perennis, Californian poppy, English daisy, evening primrose, Iceland poppy, love-lies-bleeding, primulas, pansies, polyanthus, Iceland poppies and viola. For a touch of early colour pots of petunias or impatiens should stay warm on a sunny patio.
Cold:
Good tucker plants: Last chance this year for bare-rooted fruit trees, gooseberries, currants, grape vines. Plant seedlings of onions, cauliflower, collards, kale, mustard greens, peas, salad greens like mizuma, mitsuba, spinach, also rhubarb crowns, artichoke suckers, asparagus plants and seed potatoes. Plant early tomatoes, zucchini, melons and pumpkins in pots on a sunny windowsill to give them a head start.
Plants for beauty: Seedlings of alyssum, bellis perennis, calendula, Californian poppy, Iceland poppies, lunaria, primula, pansy, stock and sweet peas
Avoid pale straggly seedlings in nurseries that may be left-over from autumn. Otherwise, buy seed and sow it in pots indoors – take them out during the day. Restrain yourself from planting camellias or azaleas in flower – they will be badly set back, even if you plant carefully. It’s best to leave them in their pot till flowering has finished.
Fruit
Deciduous trees can still be planted now – with care, as they may be shooting. Evergreen trees do well if planted when the fruit trees are blossoming.
What to harvest
Vegetables
Carrots, beetroot, parsnips, turnips, foliage turnips, early broad beans or peas in warm areas, winter lettuce, celery, spring onions, garlic tops, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflowers, celeriac, corn salad, silver beet, potatoes if you’ve kept them growing over winter, leeks, parsley, winter radish, and oyster plant.
Fruit
Navel and late Valencia oranges, lemon, tangelo, mandarin, kiwi fruit, grapefruit, avocados and limes, early banana passionfruit, late tamarillos, and early rhubarb.
Flowers
Jonquils and daffodils should be carpeting the area under your deciduous trees now. Violets should be blooming in shady corners, and some lavenders will be flowering. Camellias will be wonderful, as will primulas, calendulas, Californian poppies, pansies, violas, daisies, ranunculi, anemones, Spanish blue bells, buttercups, daisies, euryops and banana passionfruit. Many early flowering trees and prunus will be spectacular by now.
Prune:
Winter flowering shrubs: Cut out straggly growth, trim off flowers just behind the dead flowers. Most native plants do well with a light 'tip prune' every spring.
Summer flowering shrubs: Buddleia, fuchsias, santolina and lavatera all flower best on new growth made in spring. Trim back straggly branches to the base or main stem. Prune back hibiscus, tibouchina, oleander, heliotrope and other shrubs now too.
Hedges: Trim then back till they're neat but don't cut back into bare wood past the leafing area, or the branch will probably die back.
Climbers: Give winter-flowering jasmines good hair cut – cut out straggly growth and trim it all back by about a third. Prune summer-flowering jasmines by taking out some of the major stems – if you just give them a haircut you'll end up with a shaggy mess.
What to propagate
Take chrysanthemum cuttings and strike them in sandy loam.
Snap off bits of lavender and wormwood and stick them in any bare patch round the garden, both for their beauty and to help repel pests and attract predators.
Dig up bits of comfrey root (you only need small bits), and plant them around garden beds to stop the grass encroaching, and under fruit trees as deep-rooted ‘living mulch’.
Roses
Modern hybrid tea roses need to be pruned to get more flowers – though they’ll give some flowers with no pruning at all. Prune them lightly now. Early pruning just encourages early shoots that can be snapped off by frost – leading to dieback problems later. I cut off any spindly growth and cut back other branches by about a third. There are more expert ways to prune, but this is a simple and effective method for the amateur.
Mulch roses heavily now. You’ll not only provide food for late-spring flowering, but you’ll also keep the soil cool – so that the roses will shoot later and are less likely to be damaged by frost. Scatter blood and bone or hen manure on top of the mulch if you have pruned heavily – the rose will need more feeding to make up for the bits you’ve amputated.
If you don’t like pruning roses consider rugosa roses. They’re old-fashioned Japanese roses that are incredibly disease, drought and salt resistant – and don’t need pruning. Some varieties are very thorny – wonderful for a rose hedge planted very close together to keep out dogs, cats and wallabies.
Backyard Luxuries
A Munch of Luxury in your Backyard
There are those (like me) who think that ANY homegrown veg is a luxury, caterpillars and all. But even gourmets who turn up their noses at a nice salad of gone-to-seed lettuce and bird pecked tomatoes start dribbling when they visit our place in spring.
Six varieties of asparagus – fat stalks, purple stalks, white stalks, tiny tips – baby artichokes in green and purple, snow peas so crisp that they snap (not bend), eleven sorts of avocado ripened half as long again as the ones in the shops so they are the richest nuttiest things you ever ate, tiny red or yellow alpine strawberries that will spoil any commercial strawberry for you forever...
Spring is a time for garden luxuries, the sort you'd need to take out a third mortgage to afford if you had to buy them, and even then they wouldn't taste as good. And they are so incredibly easy to grow.
Asparagus.
Good looking index: 7 – if you didn't know asparagus was delicious you'd plant it just for the red berries and ferny leaves. Asparagus dies down in winter except in hot climates.
Where to grow: Anywhere in Australia and NZ, but in hot climates they'll become exhausted after 3 - 5 years and you'll have to replace them. In cold climates they will live for decades and keep on producing crops of delicious spears for as long as you feed and water them. Asparagus needs full sun or light shade, good soil and regular watering for good crops.
Will it grow on my balcony? Yes. You can grow it in a big tub; when it dies down in winter add about 15 cm mulch or good potting mix, then plant alyssum or pansies over it. The asparagus spears will poke through the flowers in spring.
How long till you eat them? A well-fed seedling of any of the new hybrid varieties will give you a few spears the next year; old varieties like Mary Washinton grow more slowly and have to be harvested more conservatively.
How to grow: Do NOT buy asparagus crowns – they're so damaged they never do as well as seedlings. Plant seeds NOW, feed them every fortnight for the first year with liquid fertiliser so they race ahead and keep the soil moist. Then when they die down each winter give them a good mulch of compost or lucerne hay or well-rotted manure.
When to pick: In spring when the new shoots poke through the soil. Don't pick skinny stems though - if the shoots are skinny the plant needs to grow more before being picked. Leave skinny stems to get leafy and feed the roots for next year's crop.
Artichokes
Good looking index: 9 – lovely elegant plants with large, deeply divided silvery leaves growing as a striking rosette – a real winner in dry times as they don't need much watering or in winter when everything else is drab. If you don't pick the chokes they turn into giant, blue, thistle-like flowers.
Where to grow: Full sun, good well-drained soil, anywhere in Australia except in areas with extreme frost.
Will it grow on my balcony? Definitely. Artichokes are great balcony plants; grow them with yuccas and succulents, or lavender and rosemary for a Mediterranean look.
How long till you eat them? About a year after planting, though some seedlings will crop after 5 - 6 months. Plants die down after fruiting and new suckers appear at their roots, so eventually you get a giant clump or need to thin them out.
How to grow: Plant the seeds NOW; transplant when they are the size of your hand, mulch well in dry times and give them a handful of Dynamic Lifter or similar every couple of months.
When to pick: Long stalks will appear in spring with the artichoke on top. I like my artichokes tiny and sweet; others like them fist size, as you see them in the shops. But if they get too big the hearts become fibrous, so pick them before the leaves spread out too much – you'll see what I mean as yours start to crop. One plant will give you between two and eight artichokes – the better fed they are, the more they'll feed you.
Wild Alpine Strawberries
Good looking index: 6 - not gorgeous in their own right, but a nice bit of greenery to grow around other plants’ legs.
Where to grow: Anywhere in Australia/NZ, in full sun or semi-shade – the hotter the climate the more shade they'll tolerate.
Will it grow on my balcony? Yes. I grow my alpine strawberries in hanging baskets around fuchsias or geraniums or aloe vera. That's so the wallabies don't eat them – they love strawberry plants. It also means I can reach out and nibble a few every time I go out the door.
How long till you eat them? One year, though you may get a few the first autumn.
How to grow: Plant seeds now or find a nursery that sells the plants. (Alpine strawberries don't put out runners and do grow from seed, unlike most strawberries.) Feed them after they've fruited with mulch and complete fertiliser – unless the mulch is compost, in which case it's all they'll need.
When to pick: In spring. Some alpine strawberries’ berries stay white; others turn red or yellow. Pick them as they turn softish, but remember, they won't grow large, they are meant to be tiny and desperately fragrant.
Giant Japanese strawberries: These taste great, even though they are giants. Grow them as above, but you'll need to buy the plants, as you can’t grow them from seed. They'll put out runners and multiply each year.
Avocados
Good looking index: 5. You'd never choose them for their good looks alone, but they are nice enough trees with glossy green leaves and insignificant yellow flowers. Can look a bit droopy when blooming. Avocados make good highish hedges, and can be trimmed.
Where to grow: Won't tolerate heavy frosts – but see below. Avocados need full sun to light shade and very well-drained, well-mulched, fertile soil.
Will it grow on my balcony? Yep, as long as it's in a half barrel sized pot. You can also grow avocadoes by a sunny window indoors, though you won't get fruit indoors unless it’s in giant pot so it can get to fruiting size and you take the tree outside during the day when it's flowering so the bees can pollinate the flowers. Obviously this will involve a trolley or three strong men on hand twice daily – the trolley is probably easier. If you really want to get involved in your avocado tree's sex life, you can learn to pollinate the flowers with a paint brush.
How long till you eat them: Three years for grafted trees in warm climates or 5 - 6 years in cooler climates. Seedlings may take a year or two longer to fruit, though sometimes they are more vigorous and fruit earlier than grafted varieties.
How to grow: Plant a tree NOW before the weather gets too hot, mulch it well and mulch once or twice a year for the rest of its life.
When to pick: When the fruit looks big enough. Avocados don't soften on the tree, only after they've been picked. Even quite small fruit will ripen eventually, though it will taste a bit watery and the skin may shrivel. Have a look at the stem - it will turn yellowish when the fruit is ripe. Some varieties, like Hass, also turn colour. I leave the fruit on the tree for as long as possible, even when the next year's crop is ripening too – the bigger and older an avocado is before it’s picked, the better the taste.
Snow Peas
Good looking index: 3 when grown on strings with ugly wooden stakes; 7 when grown with sweet peas hanging down from a hanging basket or up a trellis.
Where to grow: Full sun, fertile, moist soil.
Will they grow on my balcony? Yes. Plant them around the edge of a large hanging basket – they'll either dangle down or climb up the chain.
How long till you eat them? 8 -10 weeks.
How to grow: Plant in autumn to winter in hot to temperate climates, or in spring in cool climates. Peas germinate best between 7ºC – 24ºC, but prefer about 13ºC. Avoid growing peas if the temperature will go above 24ºC for more than two hours a day – in other words, they need cool but not cold weather.
When to pick: Every day as soon as the pods look big enough. If you leave them too long the pods fill up with peas and toughen.
Tahitian and Kaffir limes
Good looking index: 7 - glossy green leaves, Tahitian limes have yellow fruit all winter.
Where to grow: Cool to tropical climates, but not where there are heavy frosts (both limes will tolerate frosts down to –4ºC and if anyone is planning to write in and say kaffir limes are tropical only, don't - I have a five year old tree in my frosty garden). Limes require full sun, but will tolerate semi-shade in hotter climates, and moist, fertile soil.
Will they grow on my balcony? Yes, in a large pot. (Grow alpine strawberries around them.)
How long till you eat them? Grafted trees may bear the first year, and Kaffir lime leaves can be picked as soon as the tree is knee high.
How to grow: Plant NOW before the weather gets too hot; mulch well, but not right up to the trunk or it may get collar rot. Mulch every spring after that and feed with citrus food or a manure-based fertiliser.
When to pick: Pick kaffir lime leaves as you need them – the fresher they are the more pungent their taste. Pick Tahitian limes when they are soft and yellow NOT when they are the hard green things sold in shops. (They're sold green so people won't think they are lemons, but they don't have much flavour or juice when they are green - if you want a decent lime you'll probably have to grow your own!)
A Few Recipes
Okay, I admit that Knitted Spaghetti and Prawns was devised for ABC South East Regionals Knitting Special… but it does taste good and (just possibly) even better without the knitting…
Knitted Spaghetti and Prawns
Ingredients
1 pkt spaghetti
2 knitting needles, any size
water
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
4 cups raw prawns, shells and heads removed
1 bulb garlic, peeled and chopped
2 large red onions, peeled and chopped
10 tbsps olive oil
juice of 1 lime or half a large lemon.
Place spag in boiling water till just soft – not cooked, just rope like.
Drain, wash with cold water under the tap, then cool. Knot the ends together with a reef knot – left over right then right over left.
Cast on 20 stitches. Knit one serving – about the size of a patchwork square or plate size.
Cast off.
Repeat with three more squares.
To serve: Bring a big pan of water to the boil. Drop in squares and cook for 3-5 minutes, or till soft. Place each square on a plate and add a dollop of sauce. Serve at once.
N.B. This is best eaten with a knife and fork.
Sauce
Cook the garlic and onion SLOWLY in the olive oil till soft.
Add the tomato. Simmer till thick. The sauce can now be left till you are almost ready to eat it.
Add the prawns, parsley and lemon juice. Cook on high, stirring all the while, till the prawns change colour and are cooked – about 3 minutes.
NB IF you prefer not to knit spaghetti, this is good with any pasta. I prefer it with kipfler potatoes baked till light brown in the oven.
The Wow Factor Chocolate Cake
3/4 cups brown sugar
4 tbsps butter
1/4 cup cocoa OR good dark chocolate
3/4 cup cream or natural yoghurt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups SR flour
Heat oven to 180ºC.
Line a cake tin with baking paper.
Place everything except the egg and flour in a saucepan. Heat very slowly, stirring, till it boils. Take off the heat and let it cool.
Now stir in the egg, then gently mix in the SR flour. Pour into the tin and bake for thirty minutes.
If you are using a very large tin the cake will be flatter and take less time to cook.
Adults only extra:
Now sprinkle 2 tbsps of Kahlua over the top of the cake.
Topping: Raspberries and cream, or cooked dark cherries and cream with more grated chocolate, or chocolate icing.
Chocolate icing:
2 cups icing sugar
3 tbsps cocoa or melted chocolate,
milk or more Kahlua.
Mix till stiff but spreadable.
PS If the cake is for kids don't add the Kahlua, but try jelly snakes curling around on top of the icing.
Serves: 8 good slices, but will stretch to 10-12, especially with cream and fruit or jelly snakes.
Ease of making: Easier than most cakes – suitable for a novice.
Time taken: Ten minutes mixing, but 45 minutes to 1 hour from getting the ingredients to eating the cake.
Spiced Quinces
These are good with any rich meat – roasted chicken, pork or duck, or even a dryish stuffed pumpkin...
Ingredients:
4 quinces, peeled and cored
1 slice fresh ginger
6 juniper berries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (no white)
2 tablespoons sugar
a little water
Place all ingredients in an oven-proof dish and bake at 20ºC for about an hour, or until the quinces are tender. Strain off the liquid and boil rapidly till it thickens. Pour over the quinces to give them a bright shiny glaze. Serve hot.
Onions with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Marjoram
Ingredients
8 medium-sized white onions, peeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon marjoram, chopped
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
black pepper
Combine all ingredients except the marjoram in an oven-proof dish. Bake at 200ºC for 45 minutes, stirring once or twice as the dish cooks. Stir in the marjoram and cook for another 15 minutes. Season with black pepper (don't add this earlier or it will turn the dish slightly bitter) and serve hot.
Hot Mascarpone Creams with Raspberry Sauce
Cream Ingredients
250 gm mascarpone (Italian cream cheese - at a pinch you can use the Aussie stuff)
150 ml sour cream (or light sour cream)
3 dessertspoons caster sugar
2 eggs
Beat the whole lot till smooth. Bake in one large or several small pots (don't fill each pot any more than two thirds of the way up so you have room for the sauce on top) in a moderate oven till set (about twenty minutes). Don't let it brown though a gentle gold colour is okay.
Sauce
Melt a carton of frozen raspberries – one of the few fruits that really freezes well and after all medieaval mid-winter feasts were traditionally based on preserved food. Heat gently in a saucepan; add a teacup full of Cointreau (this can be omitted if you don't have any). Mash a little with a fork, then reduce till it's thick and pour it over the cooked creams to the top of the pot.
Serve at once.
A Pikelet Feast
This is something for one of those blustery days when it's not really cold but the chill eats into your bones anyway and it seems like it has been grey for months. And even the cockroaches have decided to hibernate.
Pikelet making is especially fun for kids. It's messy, you get fast results and they taste good.
Pikelets should be made (and eaten) en masse. Don't be stingy with pikelets. They should be piled-heaped-mounded on a plate and kept warm and soft under a tea towel.
You also need oozings of butter (or cream or light cream instead – see below) and extremely good jam. If you don't have any home-made (your home or someone else's) use honey instead of synthetic stuff – all colour and plasticity.
Grandma's Pikelets
Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
2 eggs
one and a half cups milk
(Grandma also added sugar, but I don't, as the jam is sweet enough.)
Mix the egg into the flour gently, then add the milk slowly so you don't get too many lumps.
Heat a frying pan; grease with butter. Make sure the pan is HOT before you add the butter; pikelets need a hottish pan.
Pour in spoonfuls. Turn over and brown on the other side when bubbles appear on the top. The bottom should be brown. If it's black, turn the heat down; if it's still pale turn the heat up.
If your pikelets are a sort of stodgy brown you've added too much butter to the pan (a teflon pan doesn't need buttering of course).
If they're hard the temperature was too low.
If they're too fat, add more milk. A pikelet should be thinner than your finger... but not paper-thin like a crepe.
Cream of course goes well with pikelets (so does thick light sour cream) and even a generous glob of full fat, whipped cream has less fat and fewer calories than a moderate spreading of butter.
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