strawberry jam

I made strawberry jam last monday and it created such a heavenly smell i wished i had been able to capture the aroma with a smell cam and shared it on this blog.

The strawberries themselves weren't anything special they were a bargin @ 89c a punnet and just right for making jam, and as some of you might know i can't resist a bargain so i dived in without planning ahead.

I bought them at Preston market on the Friday intending to make jam over the weekend but along with attending dance performances and musicals (of the Poppins variety) I managed to get side tracked along the way. Surprisingly after spending a few days in the fridge i was pleased to find that the punnets held up well, there were only a few casualties and after washing and picking over I had an easy kilo to work with. I prefer to use a smaller firm fruit rather than the big fleshy ones - save them for dipping in chocolate, a real crowd pleaser (mmmmmm thanks Caz!). When buying i check to see that the fruit has good colour, not too over ripe and that there isn't any condensation inside the containers (a sign they have been picked wet) and no mush or mold showing through on the underside.

I checked out a few recipes online but returned to an old faithful recipe which is a kilo of berries for a kilo of sugar with the juice of one lemon thrown in. I would love to find jam recipes that uses less sugar but i am not so keen on runny jams, especially strawberry (although i would love to hear from anyone who can recommend one. I think apricots can work quite well with less sugar if they are a firm fruit.)

Other recipes suggested soaking the berries in sugar for a couple of hours before cooking or only boiling the fruit and sugar for 12 minutes as the berries were said to spoil.

However i kept it simple - I mixed the fruit and sugar together in a big pot, with the lemon juice and gently warmed the mixture through stirring it till the sugar dissolved. Once the sugar had dissolved I turned up the gas and brought it to a quick boil and kept the mixture rolling along on a steady boil for about 25mins. I tested it by coating the back of a wooden spoon and dripping a small amount onto a saucer to check the viscosity. You can add butter just before bottling but i didn't bother. I think this helps with removing the bubbles from the top of the jam but as you can see i don't tend to bother.

check out the colour!! (OMG it looks a bit like I just killed someone!)

parsley pesto

Its that time of the year again when we have an abundance of flat leaf parsley in the garden and while i let some of it go to seed to allow for next years crop I have been filling in some spare moments by making pesto with the rest. Pesto pasta is a form of comfort food in our house, it's one of the green foods that doesn't involve coercion or other forms of negotiation with non compliant minors.

I would normally add parsley to a basil pesto, its seems to alleviate the bitterness that can occur when chopping basil with a steel food processor blade (not the correct way but the quick way). Using the processor allows me to make pesto in bulk (literally bucket loads) and easily vary the consistency according to preference (chunky or smooth). I add it to vegie or meat sauces, mayo to dress coleslaw, lasagna, or spread it onto pizza bases. Recently I made some potato and spinach gnocchi and dressed it with parsley pesto which was feast of green! (that nobody complained about, much...)

3 cups of chopped parsley

1 cup of cashews ( i buy the broken ones much more affordable than pine nuts)

2/3 extra virgin olive oil

1-2 gloves of garlic

1 cup grated parmesan

pinch of salt

Process according to preference. Store in sealed containers in the fridge for a week (longer if you pour more oil over the top) or freeze. When adding to pasta retain some of the cooking water and/or add some olive oil to encourage good coverage.

Birthday girl

Well the birthday girl got her cake and she ate it too. I was surprised how significant turning six was,

for me rather than for M. It feels like its gettin

g serious and I don't just mean the party. She's a big girl and filled with ideas and attitudes which i tried for a couple of weeks in September to channel into party preparations and she did quite well.

She painted a donkey (outline supplied by V), helped make and paint the pinjate(sp?), wrapped the pass the parcel and iced the cake. The party planning was mostly driven by her and each morning

she would prepare me with "now you'll do such and such for the p

arty today won't you mum, or you'll buy......"

Prep parties seem to be quite important milestone and for weeks M was making lists and telling me who she was or wasn't going to invite but I put a cap on it and decided to limit it to girls from her school. I was pleasantly surprised to find them also filled with id

eas and attitudes, luckily i had a party plan!! P.S actual party cake was tri-coloured which i managed to over cook not that they cared they seem to only ever like eating the icing.

Little m thought it rocked as well!!

Homemade Mayonnaise

It was mentioned to me recently that we only cook two recipes from any one cookbook, which sounds ridiculous when i think about how many books i have but perhaps it's not far from my truth. I have been meaning to post this recipe for Mayo for some time, as it is one I always return to. It's taken from my tatty old Moosewood cookbook a wholesome whole foods delight i bought (?maybe it was a present?) sometime back in the 80's (yes the good old days) and I haven't gone near supermarket mayonnaise since. I tend to make it when eggs are plenty and with the onset of spring i am pleased to report that my girls are laying well. The three chicks we raised from the creche hatching have all turned out to be ladies (although not laying yet it looks like it will be any day now), so we have seven chickens in total. When out on my walks along the Merri Creek I pick them a bunch of greens so that when i let them out to free range they tend to by pass my vegies. I have some garden beds fenced off but none the less they still get in and their scratching around can cause enough damage to make me twitchy. So watch out ladies if you don't prove you can earn your keep.....

Mayonnaise makes 3.5 cups

1/2 cup vinegar (or part or all lemon or lime juice)

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp tamari

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

Beat together in a blender (eggs should be at room temp)

Gradually drizzle in while blender is still running

2.2 cups of oil (I have used extra virgin olive oil in the past but i find its flavour too strong, so i either mix it with another oil such as rice bran or just do rice bran or whatever i have avail.)

The mayonnaise will thicken as the oil is drizzled in. As soon as it thickens stop or it will thin again.

You can add pesto parsley ( I will post about this soon) or garlic to make aioli or thin it down with a little milk to cover a coleslaw.

chocolate cake

Mariana is very excited as she turns 6 at the end of the month and she asked me if i could make her a practice birthday cake. This is a simple oldy but a goody chocolate cake recipe and as you can see it satisfied the demand!

125gm butter

175gm sugar

2 tlbsp. golden syrup or honey or omit

1 egg

1 .5 cup flour

2tblsp cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

1 tsp baking powder

cream butter and sugar

add egg and golden syrup and mix

sift in flour, bp and cocoa and add alternatively with baking soda mixed in with milk

line a cake tin with baking paper

bake at 180 or slightly lower if using fan oven for 1hr. keep an eye on it and it the top is cooking to fast cover with tin foil

ice with chocolate icing and serve with lashings of cream!!

Tofu Vege bake with Pomegranate molasses and prunes

This photo doesn't do this meal justice, but it was so good that i thought i better take an image and post it. I guess if your not into tofu you could replace it with chicken.

Tofu Vege bake with Pomegranate molasses and prunes

Chop pumpkin, potato, parsnip, leek, carrot in to 2cm cubes

Place in a deep enamelled cast iron pan with some olive oil and mix together

Begin cooking with lid off for 15mins

Mean while

Cut tofu block in to 2-3cm cubes place in a bowl

Add finely chop 1-2 garlic cloves

Sprinkle with Tamari and a good lathering of Pomegranate molasses

Mix and marinate for 10mins

Take cooking pan out of the oven

Add a handful of prunes, sour berries (sorry i don't know the name), pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Mix tofu and vegies together and bake with the lid off 45 – 60mins approx at 180. allow vegies to brown and mix every 20mins or so.

Chop silver beet in to pieces about 2cm

10 mins before ready remove pan from oven place silver beet on the top of the vegies and return to oven with lid on to cook through.

Serve with cous cous

Cabbage, Parsley, Ricotta Cannelloni

Once a week we get an amazing box of local and seasonal organic vegies and fruit. Its always a bit of a mystery what's in the box which makes for part of the fun. While eating seasonally makes good environmental and health sense it means you need to be creative with your cooking or it starts to get a little bit repetitive. I like to experiment and on a whim i will throw things together. The next couple of posts are recipes that i have either adapted to what's in my fridge or i have made them up. They require you to intuit quantities and timing a little as they have not been tested, let me know if you have any success or failures with them. p.s because i am trying to get the kids to eat them the flavours a simple - you could try adding chilli or anchovies to the cannelloni stuffing if you like.

Cabbage, parsley and ricotta Cannelloni

One box of Cannelloni tubes

Finely cut ¼ of a green cabbage and steam

Finely chop onion and lightly brown in olive oil

Add one finely chopped clove of garlic

In a bowl bring cabbage and onion mix together

Add ¾ cup finely chopped parsley and one egg

1- 1 ½ cups of crumbled ricotta Salt and pepper to taste

Tomato sauce

One onion finely chopped One clove or two of garlic finely chopped

Tin of tomatoes chopped 2 tblespoons of tomato paste plus tin of water or one bottle of Passata

In a pot brown onion in olive oil add garlic

Add tomatoes tins + paste or sauce

Salt and pepper and dried or fresh oregano for flavour

Cook till sauce thickens slightly say 20 mins

While sauce is cooking fill Cannelloni tubes with vege mix

Place in a heavy bottomed (cast iron) pan and cover with tomato sauce

place lid or tinfoil over the top and cook 30 -40mins till pasta tubes are soft. You may need to add a little bit of water if the sauce is drying out too much.