Intro- Spring, plus eating oranges | Wombat News | New Books
Schedule for this Year | September in the Garden | Growing Your own Citrus | Some great orange lemon lime mandarin etc recipes, including a superb Apricot and Orange jam, and Apricot, Orange and Ginger Marmalade, plus a classic lime or lemon tart
Spring creeps up on you. One minute I’m hunting for a clean pair of thermal underwear in the cupboard (It gets coooollld in the garden here in winter.) The next we’re leaving the doors open for all the scents to flood in...early daffodils and the first plum blossom, scented camellias and sages, plus that almost indescribable scent of grass which has decided to start growing, instead of just sitting there being chomped by hungry wombats.
The first sign of spring here is usually dirty fingernails i.e. mine. Suddenly I’m planting again... six sorts of potatoes yesterday- interesting ones, like Pink Fir Apple and blue fleshed potatoes that are best just baked in their skins in the oven, then broken up to show all that lovely blue flesh among the steam.
When I went for a mooch after work last night there were two baby wallabies just out of the pouch bounding around under the apricot trees, and new echidna diggings in the termite mound by the front gate, everything was budding- the crab apple buds turning pink, and new red rose leaves along all the winter bare twigs.
The Japanese have a cherry blossom ceremony every year. It’s a sitting still and watching sort of ceremony, not a parades and music one. It happens on the one day each year that starts with the cherry blossom still tightly furled, then by evening the flowers are open and dangling from the branches. And you spend that day sitting with friends or family under the branches, just looking at spring beginning.
It’s a ceremony we try to follow here- not with cherry blossom, but with the crab apple out the living room. Once you start watching a blossom tree carefully you’ll find there really is a day that’s filled with spring promise- the buds will turn pink or red or white instead of green and brown, and you’ll know that with just one more day of sunlight they’ll burst into full colour.
I’ve only missed blossom burst a couple of times in the past two decades, and I’m careful now to arrange my diary so I don’t miss it again. It’s never the same date from year to year, but I’m pretty safe if I keep the first two weeks of September clear.
Then when the blossom day comes I can sit under the tree, or in my favourite chair in the living room, or at my desk in the study...all of which have a good view of the tree. And just wait and watch and smell the scents of spring, and dream of fruit and flowers.
Ps I’m not the only one who dreams of new blossom. By the end of blossom day the king parrots and the crimson rosellas will have found the flowers too, and the odd bowerbird will be carrying a few off to decorate his bower. But the lovely thing about spring is that it’s so wonderfully, ridiculously lavish. There’s always bloom enough to share.
Oranges
I am eating oranges.
I have been eating oranges.
I will be eating oranges...at least till the bower birds finally hollow out the last one right on top of the tree, and I have to admit that finally the navel orange season is over. (Then I get stuck into the blood oranges instead.)
The first orange of the day is the biggest, deepest coloured one of the tree that I pass when I come back from my morning walk. It’s ice cold- there’s still frost on the wombat droppings these mornings- and I eat it after I’ve had my slice of Dojo baker’s wholemeal bread covered with boiled egg, a dark brown one from my favourite chook, who lays the biggest eggs in the chook house. (Eggs at our house are divided into big brown ones, big ‘tinted ones’ , and the small bantam eggs that I use for cooking Bryan’s cakes and biscuits.
But back to the oranges. A freshly picked orange is as firm as a tennis ball. The skin tastes good too- it’s slightly crisp, and not yet bitter, and I always leave a few shreds of it when I peel the orange.
I think there is a Chinese term, ‘breath of the wok’- the scent and flavour of just cooked food. I think there is a breath of life in just picked fruit, too- something more than just the extra sweetness and flavour that’s lost as fruit is stored. I know I feel, well, more alive, when most of the food I eat is still alive too, just from the tree or the soil.
There’s no rational reason for it, of course. I don’t even quite believe it. But I do know that life without something picked fresh every day would lose a lot of its richness.
Anyway...see below for how to grow your own oranges. (ANY home in Australia can grow their own oranges, even if you have to grow them in a big tub by a sunny bedroom window. Or at least grow cumquats- the sweet kind, not the sour ones.
And also see below for a very very easy Dried Apricot and Orange jam. It’s the sort of jam to make now, when oranges are at their best and it’s not too hot to steam up the kitchen with jam making. Make twenty pots now and you have Christmas presents in the larder...just add another pot of something good or maybe a plate of hazelnut and dried cranberry macaroons, instead of another golfing paper weight for uncle Charlie.
Wombat News
Feisty has been renovating again- a great barrow load of dirt every day for a week for Bryan to scoop up and carry away, because Feisty’s renovations block the drain around the house- if we leave the dirt there the spare room will flood the next time it pours.
On day eight though something finally penetrated that small wombat brain, and he realised that someone was interfering with his territory, and moved down to the hole under the avocadoes in a huff...or maybe from nervousness, as he’s still a timid wombat. But he’s still back at 6 pm each evening for his bowl of rolled oats. And I suspect that as soon as the Feisty smell has taken over from the Bryan smell again, he’ll move back in.
Book News
The latest books are still:
The Dog Who Loved as Queen...the true story of Mary Queen of Scots’ dog
Pharaoh...a novel about the boy who united upper and lower Egypt into one nation
My Pa the Polar Bear...the 8th Wacky Family book
Coming soon:
The Shaggy Gully Times.... Another hilarious book with Bruce Whatley, and the punniest newspaper you have ever read! (In October)
School for Heroes (early next year). A new series starring Boojum Bark, hero and werewolf
A Rose for the Anzac Boys (April next year) ...a novel, though all the bits of it are true. Not an easy book to write. But I’m glad I did.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
13-16 September Albany Writer’s Festival, W.A.
17- 18 September: talks and workshop at the Fremantle Children’s literature Centre, W.A., including a workshop on how to use the picture books like Diary of a wombat and Josephine wants to dance and the historical novels like MacBeth and Son and Pharaoh in the classroom.
17 September The Lesley Rees Memorial lecture at the Fremantle centre for Children’s literature. Contact the centre for details.
18 October workshop at the early Childhood Development Conference, Canberra
19 October a few talks at schools in Brisbane. But I’m sorry- the schedule is now full!
24 October Children’s Day Award ceremony, Canberra
24 October workshop for carers at the Marymead centre The Six Great Reading Myths...and how to find the perfect book for every child.
Sunday 11 November: talk on gardening at the Bungendore primary School Spring fair, and signings of Shaggy Gully Times too
November 17, Sydney- Dymocks/Four Seasons Storytelling party...and introducing The Shaggy Gully Times! Contact Dymocks Sydney or the Four Seasons Hotel for details.
Nov 23 Launch of the Tasmanian Early Years Foundation, Launceston, Tasmania.
Sunday 4 November Open Garden Workshops at our place...rain, hail or drought these will go ahead, even if someone has to wheelchair me around the garden with a broken leg!
Ps I’m sorry- really sorry- that I can’t do much more than one trip away from home each month these days. I would love to read stories at your preschool, or open your fete, or give a garden workshop. But I get about ten requests like that a week- and often much more. Sometimes I can’t even cope answers and apologies for events I can’t do. So please do understand if I can’t come to your event...or if it takes me a few months to get to your letter (assuming the wombat doesn’t chew it up first).
The costs for any trip away are large too- it’s two hours drive from here to the Canberra airport, so most trips away involve airfares at least.
The Garden in September
Jobs for September
. This is the best time to browse the nursery for seedlings – planting a few punnets in spring will give you months of flowers or vegetables.
. Feed lawns now – stronger, well fed roots will help the grass stay greener longer. But don't feed lawns if they are very dry- you may do more harm than good. Wait till after rain then water fertiliser in well.
. Feed everything else too! Plants GROW in spring- and they need good tucker to grow well.
. If your mower won't work, ask the kind person at the repair shop to show you which bit is the spark plug, so that next time it fails you can take out the spark plug and just buy a new one. (Most sulky lawn mowers just have bung spark plugs!)
. Pick enormous bunches of sweet peas and inhale the scent ... or a note to plant sweet peas next year!
. If birds fly into your windows, dangle something in front of them- a stained glass parrot, a line of glass beads – anything to indicate to a fast flying bird that this isn't open space!
What to Plant in September
Frost free climates
Food garden : choko, lemon grass, sweet potato and passionfruit vines, Jerusalem artichokes, paw paw and Cape gooseberry seeds, also seeds of artichokes, asparagus, LOTS of basil (Try Thai basil and sacred basil too) beans, beetroot, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, celery, celtuce, chicory, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, lettuce, melons, okra, parsley, peas, peanuts, pumpkin, radish, rosellas, salsify, scorzonera, sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, salad greens like mizuna, mitsuba, spinach.
PS. Don't forget rosella seeds – they make the world's best jam and are almost impossible to buy
Plants for beauty: Seeds or seedlings of ageratum, alyssum, amaranthus, carnations, celosia, coleus, cosmos, dichondra, echinops, erigeron, gaillardia, gazania, gloxinia, gourds, hymenosporum, impatiens, nasturtiums, phlox, salvia.
Very hot and dry gardens: move a shade cloth to cover vegie and flower gardens now to shelter them from the worst of the heat, pull out tired plants that grew all winter, mulch and water twice a day if you have the energy. Concentrate on a few small bright patches of flowers rather than struggle with large areas.
Temperate
Food garden: citrus, avocado, guava and banana trees, seed potatoes, sweet potatoes, choko, strawberries. Plant seeds of artichokes, asparagus, LOTS of basil, beans, beetroot, broccoli, brussel sprouts, burdock, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, celery, celtuce, chicory, collards, coriander, corn salad, cress, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, kale, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce, melons, okra, parsley, peanuts , pumpkin, radish, rosellas, salsify. scorzonera, sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, salad greens like mizuna, mitsuba, zucchini.
Cold
Food garden: Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, strawberries, go wild with spuds – red ones, blue ones, yellow fleshed ones – fresh spuds taste as good as fresh tomatoes. Plant seedlings of artichokes, asparagus, beans, beetroot, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, burdock, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, celery, celtuce, chicory, collards, corn salad, cress, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, kale, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce, parsley, peas, , pumpkin, radish, salsify, scorzonera, spinach, sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, salad greens like mizuna, mitsuba.
Flower garden (temperate and cold): achillea, ageratum. alstromeria, alyssum amaranthus, aster, balsam bellis perennis, bells of Ireland, brachycome, calendula, candytuft, Canterbury bells, carnation, celosia, Clarkia, cleome, coleus, coreopsis, columbines, cosmos, delphinium, dichondra, echinacea, echinops, erigeron, euphorbia, foxglove, gaillardia, gazania, globe amaranth, gloxinia, godetia, gypsophila, helichrysum, heliotrope, hellebores, honesty, lavender, marigolds, nasturtium, petunia, phlox, Flanders poppy, portulaca, rudbeckia, salpiglossis, salvia, scabious, sweet william, viola, zinnia, snapdragons.
How to grow vegies
Growing your own veg needn't be a lot of work.
The trouble is most vegie gardens are planted in the wrong spot (semi-shade under a fence); are the wrong shape (long and narrow so the grass and weeds invade from all sides) and the owners try to keep them weeded instead of covering them with a good thick layer of mulch.
A good vegie garden should take no more than half an hour a week. The rewards - the savings and the sheer JOY of growing your own food - are incalculable.
The Ten Rules for a Good Vegie Garden
• It must have at least four hours of direct SUNLIGHT a day - avoid siting it next to fences. The best spot may well be in the middle of the lawn. So what? Veg look much nicer than grass - well, to my mind they do anyway.
• EDGE it with bricks, sleepers or at least dig around the edges so the grass doesn't invade.
• MULCH it with dried (not fresh) grass clippings or (even better) lucerne hay from the Garden Centre. This keeps down weeds, retains moisture and slowly feeds your plants.
• FEED with a scatter of Dynamic Lifter, old hen manure, seaweed based or other fertilisers every three weeks - a little and often is best - as well as with good mulch.
• WATER whenever the soil under the mulch feels dry. This is probably about twice a week. Without mulch you'll probably have to water every day. (Young seedlings need a light sprinkle every day for a week or two.)
• You don't even need a garden for a vegie garden. Grow tomatoes, bush pumpkin varieties, 'cut and come again' lettuce varieties, zucchini or climbing beans in POTS or BARRELS or HANGING BASKETS on a sunny veranda, balcony or patio.
• PLANT something every month ... when in doubt, it's probably the right time to plant any seedling for sale at your Garden Centre.
There are two main planting times - just about everything in spring, then plant the veg you'll eat in winter and early spring in mid to late summer - broccoli, cabbages, silverbeet etc.
• PICK something fresh from your garden every day - even if it's just a bunch of parsley or some silverbeet or a lettuce leaf for your cheese and lettuce sandwiches. The more you pick and enjoy your own produce, the more you'll remember to look after your vegie garden.
• REMEMBER - one packet of lettuce seeds will cost about $1.60 ... but will give you literally hundreds of lettuces. The more you grow, the more you'll save.
How to look after a no-care garden
Water when everything - including you - is dusty or drooping.
Feed EVERYTHING (except you and the cat) with a scatter of pelletised hen manure in spring to mid-summer; water it in well to cut down the stink.
Hack it all back when it starts to look like a Hollywood jungle... or after the things flower, which is the best time to prune.
RESIST buying small delicate flowering things - unless you want to spend large chunks of your life caring for them. And stay away from grass and bare dug soil.
PS If you do choose this sort of garden, all you need is a hose and a spade, and either LARGE secateurs to cut back the shrubs - or do what my Mum does - get someone in once a year for a few hours to do it all!
Citrus
Why bother:
• what's food without lemon juice or breakfast without orange juice? and EVERY house in Australia (some might need to build a conservatory) can grow their own, if they work at it the right way.
• also use citrus for perfume and hand cleaners.
EVERY house needs a citrus tree - limes, mandarins, lemons, lovely pink grapefruit, blood oranges, fragrant tangelo. Try a lime or Meyer lemon in a tub (or even a mandarin - then it won't grow big in a tub) on the patio or by the front door - especially in cold climates where they need the extra heat.
Which citrus?
Oranges - plant Navels for winter fruit, Valencies for picking the rest of the year (they may look greenish, not bright orange when they are ripe - commercial Valencies are gassed to give them colour). Bitter Seville’s are cold tolerant, and can be eaten like grapefruit; also great for cooking especially marmalade - though sour they have the most intense orange flavour. Red fleshed blood oranges are fun and reasonably cold tolerant; like Valencias, they are the best juice oranges. If you grow both Navels and Valencias you'll have fruit all year round.
Lemons - Eurekas give year round fruit- a thick skinned, tough cold and heat resistant lemon. Most other lemons give most of their fruit in winter. Lisbon has the most beautiful flavour and aroma.
Tangelo - thin, bright orange skin, like a tangier mandarin; fruits in winter
Mandarin - Ellendale has the biggest sweetest fruits; thorny varieties are more cold tolerant; fruits in winter
Citron - thick skinned and cold and heat tolerant; aromatic skin, great for candying; not much juice but can be used like a sweetish lemon
Chinotto - musty small fruit; small ornamental tree; usually juiced for a drink sometimes called 'Italian coca cola.'
Limes - Tahitian limes are said to be the most cold tolerant; Kaffir limes the best for tropical and hot areas. I find our kaffir lime, however, survives minus 6 C happily. Kaffir limes are said to have the most fragrant leaves for cooking. Not sure this is true - Eureka lemon leaves are about as good.
Pomelo - giant, heat tolerant and grapefruit-like.
Grapefruit - Wheeny and other thick skinned varieties are the most cold tolerant; pink fleshed varieties the most fun. Try them grilled with brown sugar and a touch of gin or rum. Avoid grapefruit if you have a tendency to gallstones.
Cumquats - Miniature mandarins - most commercial varieties are sweet, but do eat the skin as well - it's even sweeter than the tangy flesh. If you can't eat a cumquat like a mandarin, it's calamondin.
Calamondin - Most people mistake calamondins for cumquats. Calamondins have more segments, and are smaller and sourer, but again, try eating the skin too - it will make the fruit taste sweeter. Small kids love to eat them. So do birds.
Plant the seeds? Yes, straight from the ripe fruit. Citrus seed germinates easily, and ungrafted trees grow fast and are much larger and usually hardier in cold heat and drought than grafted ones once they've reached head high.. But if your soil isn't well drained, grafted trees are more resistant to root rots.
Where to grow: Anywhere - with the correct varieties and growing methods. Require sun, frost protection and dislike wind. Relatively rich soils and a reasonably constant supply of moisture (otherwise you tend to get fruit drop or dead trees).
How to keep alive: LOTS of feeding - use well made compost, a complete citrus food or Dynamic Lifter at least twice each summer. I also give ours a dose of seaweed spray once a year. Plants in pots need to be fed once a month while they are growing strongly. Mulch well - they're shallow rooted.
NB: If citrus leaves stay yellow even after feeding, look for scale, or use a complete citrus food and seaweed spray together in case they have a trace element deficiency. Citrus leaves often look yellowish in cold weather. (They're trying to decide whether to die or not).
Citrus in cold climates - Commercial citrus are grafted onto dwarfing root stock. This keeps them nice, small trees - and the rootstock is resistant to root rots too. HOWEVER, if you live in a chilly climate i.e. woollen jumpers not cardigans in winter, you'll find that a seedling citrus will be MUCH hardier.
Forget about Meyer lemons - they're actually not cold hardy at all. Go for Eureka lemons. Plant a few seeds and they'll grow fast and big. (The faster they grow the better they withstand the cold.) Also try Seville oranges, citrons and Wheeny grapefruit. Tahitian limes seem more cold tolerant here than lemons too. Calamondins (a bitter version of cumquats) are very cold tolerant. So are cumquats ... which aren't really citrus, but that's another story.
Grow against a sunny north facing wall; feed every six weeks in summer. Try paving around the citrus to retain and reflect heat. If all else fails grow citrus in a tub on wheels - and take it indoors on cold winter nights.
In tropical areas: try kaffir limes and pomelo - a bit like an overgrown, segmented grapefruit, or some of the native Australian citrus if you can get hold of them..
In arid or drought prone areas: try rough or bush lemons, also called citronelles. You get lots of peel, sweetish pulp, lots of seeds - but they do survive. They used to be used as grafting stock for other citrus, so when the graft above dies the rough lemon took over. They grow very fast from seed. In very dry areas mulch citrus well and grow among other greenery to shelter them. Our area is drought prone: I grow ours surrounded thickly by deciduous trees. These shade them in summer. In winter the citrus get the sunlight when they need it.
Scale (they look just like tiny scale). Use an oil spray like Pestoil when the temperature is under 24 C; stink bugs are attracted by rotting ripe fruit and so are fruit fly. (In bad fruit fly areas you can net trees in tubs). If your citrus trees don't put out new leaves during most of summer - or if the new leaves are darker than the old leaves - the poor thing is hungry. Feed it. Most people starve their citrus. (The rotters!)
Harvest: We have lemons and Valencia oranges on our trees all year round - constant picking means we don't have one great big 'flush' of fruit and then none for the rest of the year. But citrus are best in winter - soft and sweet.
Store: Waxed commercial citrus rot from the inside out. I have kept one of our untreated organic oranges for two years on a shelf (it had an interesting, extremely obscene shape). Then someone ate it. They said it was quite good - though by then the skin was dry and hard.
Healthy citrus keep a long time - the skins just get harder. Keeping them in the fridge slows down the mould - it doesn't help keep the oranges, which are best kept on a dry shelf where they can slowly desiccate.
Some Great Citrus Recipes
Citrus flower water.
Leave orange, lemon or other citrus flowers in a small sealed pot just covered with vodka for three weeks in the sun to make a perfumed essence for adding to cakes etc. Strain; repeat with more flowers if necessary for a stronger flavour. Citrus flower water can replace vanilla in cakes and custards - the taste is definitely not the same, but the added fragrance fulfils the same role.
Incredibly good Dried Apricot and Orange Jam
500 gm dried apricots
1 cup orange juice
5 cups water
8 cups sugar (2 kg)
half cup lemon juice
Simmer apricots in water till soft and starting to break up. (You can soak them overnight to speed this up.)
Now add everything else. Simmer or about an hour till a little sets on a cool saucer. Bottle and seal while still very hot...and beware if any kids are making this! It is very easy to burn yourself badly making jam! Don’t try it except with a very sensible experienced adult.
Apricot and Ginger Maramalade
This is the one I’m making for my dad for Father’s day...if Bryan doesn’t guzzle it all first. Make the jam as above, then about ten minutes before it’s ready (doesn’t matter if you add it a bit early) add one or two cups finely chopped glace ginger, for real ginger lovers, or 1 tb chopped glace ginger if you just want a bit of a ginger tang.
Cumquats or Calamondins in syrup
cumquats
sugar
water
Simmer cumquats till tender. Pour off water. Add 1 cup of sugar and half a cup of water for each cup of fruit. Simmer till a little juice sets like a soft jelly when dabbed on a saucer. Bottle at once. Seal. Great with ice-cream, or to decorate cakes.
Whole Preserved Spiced Lemons
Prick lemons at least twenty times; cover with salt and leave for three days. Rub off the salt and pour boiling vinegar scented with a touch of nutmeg, cloves and black pepper over them. Leave for three months before using.
Lemon Essence
Grate off lemon zest with absolutely no white; place in a jar and top with vodka. Leave for a week, then strain.
Limes in Salt
This is very good indeed - wonderful in summer.
Take a dozen limes, prick at least ten times each. Place in a dish and cover with salt. Leave alone for a month. The juice will seep out and form brine. When needed take out the limes and slice thinly. A thin slice of salted lime is excellent with cold water or soda water; it can be added to curries; mixed with natural yoghurt as a side dish; added to honeyed chicken.
Dried Mandarins
Pierce each mandarin in many places. Choose small ones, sweet and seedy - not giant Ellendales, soft and slushy. Leave them in the sun till they start to shrivel - usually about three days, but more or less depending on the weather. Boil a syrup of one cup sugar, a third of a cup of water, a dessertspoon red wine vinegar, a grate of fresh ginger and a couple of cloves. After ten minutes add the mandarins, take off the heat, leave overnight, boil the lot again. Bottle and seal. Leave for three months before using.
Orange Jelly (other citrus can be substituted)
For people who love oranges but don't like bitter marmalade. This jelly is sweet and good.
a dozen oranges
a cup of apple juice
500 grams sugar
Juice the oranges; strain carefully to get out all bits of flesh as these will make it bitter. Sprinkle the sugar with a few drops of apple juice, boil for five minutes. Add the other ingredients. Boil till a little sets in cold water or the boiling mixture coats the spoon.
Strain again if you want a very clear jelly, though this isn't necessary.
This jelly can be eaten like jam, or in small pots with cream.
Dried Mandarin Peel
Peel mandarins, scrape off as much of the white as you can. Place in the sun till crisp - this will take anywhere from a day to a week. It's quicker if you slice the peel and place on alfoil but neither is necessary. When it is dry crumble it (if it doesn't crumble it isn't dry enough) and store in a sealed box.
Mandarin peel can be invaluable once you are used to using it. A little powdered into cakes, a teaspoon with a beef stew, a teaspoon of the powder added to whipped cream is better than any liquor. Place some in a bottle and cover with brandy or gin; drink in six months and savour.
Green Orange Preserve
This is a very good way of using fruit that drops off in wet weather. Other citrus can also be used, especially limes, mandarins and cumquats.
Take whole green oranges, just before they start to show colour. Stick a knife down the centre and cut out the middle - just like coring an apple. This should get rid of the seeds. Soak the fruit in salty water for 24 hours - about three cups of water to half a cup of salt. Drain and wash well in fresh water. Boil the fruit in a large pan of water with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to every six cups of water. When a skewer will easily prick the skins, take them out, wash in cold water inside and out. Don't cook the fruit till they are squashy or they will become too hard in the syrup.
Take two kilos of sugar and boil with a litre of water and the juice of two lemons for ten minutes. Pour over the fruit, leave for 24 hours, reboil the syrup till a little sets in cold water, add the fruit and bring to the boil again. Bottle while hot and seal.
Lime butter. (other citrus can be used)
Take a cup of fresh lime juice, half a cup of sugar, add two eggs, well beaten, half a cup of butter and a teaspoon of cornflour mixed in with the juice. Heat in a saucepan as slowly as possible, stirring all the time till it thickens. Bottle and seal and store for up to six months in the fridge. This is a strong and tart butter - add more butter if you like a blander mixture.
Lime tart. (VERY VERY good. Other citrus can be used; mandarin is interesting)
Fill a cooked pie crust with a cup of cream in which two eggs and half a cup of sugar have been beaten, then half a cup of lime juice added. Add the lime juice at the end or the lot may curdle. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake in a moderate oven about 30 minutes, or till set.
Ps I make this without the pie crust- pour the mixture into six small containers or coffee cups, and bake them for about 20 minutes.
Classic Marmalade
1 kg fruit- one sort or mixed
1 kg sugar
water
Peel fruit, leaving as much white as possible of the fruit, chop the peel. Now peel off the white and throw it out- the white makes the marmalade cloudy. Chop the fruit roughly. Cover with water. Leave overnight. Simmer till soft. Add the sugar. Simmer till a little sets on a cold saucer. stir often. Bottle and seal at once.
|
