Showing posts with label Fruit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fruit. Show all posts

Such a country thing to do.....

Saturday, 30th August 2008.

As I was walking home from the supermarket, I found this just outside the fence of a strangers home!



Free lemons. Now what can I make with them! Lemon ice-cream? Lemon meringue pudding? Lemon Cheesecake? Lemon Cordial? lemonn Finger Biscuits?

Feeling the wonderful warmth of soup on a chilly winter night!


9th August 2008.


Another cold, wet, and chilly day in Melbourne. The need for some warm comfort food for our evening meal was required. Parsnip and Pear Soup with Herb and Cheese Scones seemed to hit for our taste bubs.




Herb and cheese scones

3 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
pinch cayenne pepper
50g butter, chilled, chopped
1/2 cup mixed herbs (such as oregano, rosemary and basil), finely chopped
1/3 cup grated light tasty cheese
1 cup reduced-fat milk

Preheat oven to 220°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
Sift flour into a large bowl. Add salt, cayenne pepper and pepper. Mix well to combine. Add butter. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add herbs and cheese to flour mixture. Stir well to combine. Add milk. Mix with a flat-bladed knife until a soft dough forms. Knead lightly on a floured surface. Pat dough into a 2cm-thick round. Using a 5cm cutter, cut into 12 rounds. Place rounds close together on a baking tray.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden and well-risen. Makes 12.


Pear and Parsnip soup

30g butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
250ml milk
500ml vegetable stock
2 tablespoons plan flour
pinch cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
4 parsnips
2 pears

Cook parsnips and pear (peeled and cut) in vegetable stock, once cooked and cool, puree.

Mix butter in a saucepan, add flour, salt, and cayenne papper, cook a few minutes.

Gradually add milk and the bay leaf, bring to the boil, stirring constantly.

Stir in cooked parsnip and pear mixture and simmer for a few minutes.

Remove bayleaf and serve.


Lemon Ice-Cream. So so easy!

This is the most yummy and most easy ice-cream to make as well as very quick! However if you are looking for a low-fat ice-cream, I wouldn't ever consiter this one, using a low-fat cream just doesn't work, you really need double cream, or cream higher then 35% fat content. It tastes like REAL ice-cream, so creamy and you only need to serve little amounts. It is also nice made with Mandarin juice insteed of lemon juce, (Mandarin ice-cream only has a light taste of mandarin, where I find the lemon ice-cream very lemmonly and tangy) I must admit this is my favoute ice-cream recipe (and I don't need to flaff around with the ice-cream maker) Recipe is found in Nigella Lawson's How to Eat, in the Week-end Lunch section.

Lemon Ice-Cream
Recipe from Nigella Lawson, How to Eat.
3 juicy lemons, perferably unwaxed
420ml double cream
170g icing sugar

Grate the zest from 2 of the lemons. Sqeeze the juice of all three and pour into a small bowl with the zest and icing sugar, stir to combine and leave for 30 minutes, if you can, to let the flavour deepen.

Whip the cream with 3 tablespoons iced water until holds soft peaks, then whisk in the sweetened lemon juice. Tun into a shallow container, cover and freeze- no stiring, crystal-breaking-up, mixing or anything needed-until firm. Place in fridge around 40 minutes before serving to ripen/soften.

Photo to come.

Quince and Nut Cake


26th July 2008
After a visit to Camberwell Food Market, I was left wondering how to cook some Quinces which I brought. I was looking for a different idea rather then just the normal way of roasting or poaching them, and serving them on top of Bircher muesli for a healthy breakfast or as a dessert served along with Vanilla Yogurt or ice-cream. This recipe was found in The Cook's Companion by the wonderful Auststralian food writer and well-known foodie, Stephanie Alexander.


Quince and Nut Cake (from Stephanie Alexander’s The cook’s companion)
This cake can be made using walnuts, almonds or pecans, or a mixture. I used a mixture of 3/4 cup walnuts and 1/4 pecans nuts) I also used Duck eggs, rather then chicken.

375g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground allspice
Pinch of salt
1cup roughly crushed nuts
2 cups poached Quince
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
250g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Pure icing sugar (optional)
Preheat oven to 180 C, then butter a 23cm ring tin and dust it with flour. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt and stir in nuts. Combine quince and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk eggs into butter and gently stir quince mixture and mix well. Spoon into prepared tin. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake in tin. Unmould and scatter with icing sugar, if desired, to serve.