Quince Tart with Sour Cream Pastry

I wish i wasn't so interested in making great desserts and cakes. Its the eating, which is integral part of the experience, that really causes the problems! And no sadly i don't seem to be able to stop at tasting. If you have success making this recipe you will understand why.

You need to prepare three or fours quinces by peeling and slicing them and then cooking them for three hours with some sugar on the stove top for three - four hours or baking them in the oven for the same amount of time. They should come out a beautiful red colour.

I use Maggie Bear's sour cream pastry recipe for the base.

200g chilled unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces

250g plain flour

1/2 cup sour cream

Put butter and flour into the bowl of the food processor, then pulse until mixture resemble bread crumbs. Add the sour cream and pulse again until the dough just forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill for 15-20mins. Roll out the dough on some baking paper and line a 20cm tart time with a removable base. Chill the pastry case for 20min. To blind bake, preheat the oven to 200 c. Line the pastry case with foil, then cover with pastry weights. Blind bake for 15mins, then remove the foil and pastry weights and bake for another 5mins.

Cover the pastry base with quince paste or plum jam (or something similar) then cover the base well with the pieces of quince. Bake for 30mins approx and serve with cream. I was a bit short on quinces for the last one i made and i added some preserved peaches.

porcini, chicken ball soup

This recipe was listed in the Good Weekend magazine not so long ago and i have made it twice. It wouldn't be hard to adapt it to an asian style soup by omitting the parmesan replacing it with fresh coriander and exchanging rice or soba noodles for pasta. It calls for porcini mushrooms but i happened to use shitaki the other night and it was still great. It's perfect fodder for the cold nights ahead.

Porcini Chicken Ball and Noodle Soup

size 14 chicken skinned with breast removed and reserved

2 brown onions, cut in half

2 carrots

2 celery sticks

10 sprigs of parsley

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp pepper corns

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

extra virgin olive oil

3 shallots, finely diced

3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

30g porcini mushrooms soaked in 2 tbsp boiling water

3 sprigs thyme

80g fresh breadcrumbs

30g grated parmesan

3 eggs

150g broken spaghetti

120g frozen peas

1 lemon, juiced

to make stock, place chicken carcass ( with legs attached) in a large pot, along with onion, carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaves, and peppercorns, and enough cold water to cover. Bring to the simmer, add 2tsp salt and simmer for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, add a splash of oil to a small pot over med heat and fry shallots and garlic for 2 mins. Add drained porcini and thyme and cook for 2 minutes.

Chop breast meat into small dice and place in a food processor, pulsing until you have mince. Combine chicken mince with cooled porcini mixture, breadcrumbs, parmesan, s and p and 1 egg. Roll mixture in small balls about the size of 20cent piece across.

Strain stock (about 1.5 ltrs) into a clean pot, setting aside chicken carcass, and bring to a simmer. Skim any excess oil and bits off the top. Add broken pasta, simmer 6 mins, then add chicken balls. Pull meat from chicken legs and chop, then add to stock and simmer for 4 mins. Season with s and p and add peas. Whisk 2 eggs and lemon juice together and add to soup. Bring almost back to the boil and serve.

Two ways with pears

Lately i have been having my way with pears!! Thanks to a generous donation from Ali and Blair's Maldon orchard i have had plenty of tasty fruit to play with. First I tried making the Belgian Pear recipe below. It asks for whole pears but i had to work around a little bit of codling moth so mine were cut into pieces. There were some advantages to working this way as it shortened the cooking time by half (3-4 hours as apposed to 6!) but i imagine whole pears would make quite a spectacle when served as they turn a honey pink colour. These pears were delicious, beautifully textured and oh so flavour some if served with a little or a lot of cream! I think i would double the recipe next time as they make a special preserved dessert option to have on hand.

I also tried making the Ginger and Pear Preserves. These turned out well despite or perhaps because I cut back on the sugar.

The other recipe i tried was an upside down pear cake however, this was not as satisfying as i hoped because the syrup leaked out making a mess in the bottom of my oven. I made it in a quick release tin lined with baking paper but it really must be made in a tin without any seams. I seemed to remember making this mistake before duhh!! Sorry too despondent to include the recipe:(

Belgian Pears recipe

Ingredients:

2 kilos of pears

500g of white granulated sugar

150 ml of white wine vinegar

Method:

Wash and peel the pears. Leaving the stalk on.

Melt the sugar in the vinegar and any pear juice in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.

Add the pears and simmer gently with a lid tight fitting lid for three hours.

Remove the lid and simmer for a further three hours with the lid off.

Pot into sterilised jars and seal in a Bain Marie.

Test the seals when cold before labelling and storing.

N.B. You need 2 kilos of pears. 1 kilo doesn’t make enough juice if you are going to bottle them.

Thanks to the www.cottagesmallholder.com/

Ginger pear preserves

Ingredients:

3 cups granulated sugar

3 cups water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated

2 lbs pears, cored, peeled, and quartered

3 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped (candied ginger)

5 or 6 half-pint jars and lids

Preparation:

Sterilize the half-pint jars and lids and set them aside.

In a large saucepan, heat the sugar, water, lemon juice, lemon zest, and fresh ginger to a boil. Lower the temperature so the mixture is simmering, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Add the quartered pears and crystallized ginger to the saucepan and continue cooking for 30 minutes, until the preserves thicken and coat a spoon.

Pack the pears and gingered syrup into the sterilized jars, and seal in a boiling water canner.

This gingered pear preserves recipe makes 5 to 6 half-pint jars.

Really must try triple ginger pecan biscotti

This recipe has travelled around our neighborhood and having sampled at Rina's house a couple of times I finally managed to get a copy the recipe. For lovers of ginger its worth making a double batch because believe me the biscuit tin won't stay in the cupboard for long. Sorry i can't credit the origins of this recipe but its lovingly written with lots of attention to detail so you cant go wrong. One tip - you can replace walnuts with the pecans.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of fresh ground black pepper

5 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (if you only have salted perhaps reduce the amount of salt)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 Large eggs

1 tablespoon peeled and finely grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger

1 cup pecans

1. Position two racks near the centre of the oven and preheat the oven to 160. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, salt and pepper. set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until well blended about 1min. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping dowm the sides of the bowl as necessary. beat in the fresh ginger and vanilla extract. At a low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until blended. stir in the crystallized ginger and pecans and mix until combined.

4. Scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface and gather it into a disk (the dough will be quite sticky). Divide the dough in half. sprinkle the surface with more flour and shape each piece into a 12 inch log. Transfer the logs to one of the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart (the logs will spread). With the heel of your hand, flatten the logs slightly, until they are 2 inches wide. Place the baking sheet on the upper oven racks and bake for 35mins, or until the logs just start to brown lightly. Set the baking sheet on a wire rack and cool for 10mins. Reduce the oven temp to 150.

5. Slide a pancake turner under each log to loosen if from the parchment paper. carefully transfer the logs to a cutting surface. Line the baking sheet with clean parchment paper. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange the slices cut side down and 1/2 inch apart on the two baking trays. Bake for an additional 18 -22 minutes switching the position of the baking sheets halfway through the baking (perhaps even turn the biscuits over) until the biscotti are dry and barely beginning to colour around the edges. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Tomato Sauce for snags 'n stuff

Once you try this recipe you will never bother with store bought sauce again. Its pretty straight forward - throw it all in a pot, cook, wizz and bottle. I make it around this time most years, I keep aside sauce bottles during the year so i when its time i am ready to go. Usually I half the quantities as this seems to make enough to keep us supplied for the year. Thanks once again to Edmonds Sure to Rise Cookery Book.

Tomato Sauce

3.6 Tomatoes

1 litre Vinegar

125gms Salt

1kg Sugar

1 tsp pepper corns, 1tsp Whole Allspice, 25g Cloves in a muslin bag ( i make one by cutting a pice of muslin, place spices in the middle and bundle up with a piece of string that i then tie to the handle of the pot)

1kg Apples

6 Large Onions

1tsp of Cayenne Pepper (if a hot sauce is desired I omit this for ours)

Cut tomatoes, apples and onions. put all ingredients into a heavy based large pot. Boil for 3 hours. Strain through a colander (i just wizz is up with the bar mix) and bottle in sterilized bottles ( place them in the oven 150 for 15mins should be fine).

spicy plum jam and spicy plum chutney!!!

Recently i was quietly thrilled to be invited into the secret garden at the bottom of our road. i walk past on the way to the tram and often wondered how i could gain access to the bounty that I could catch a glimpse of behind the tall wooden fence. My neighbour Nancy dropped by recently and we compared notes on the number of plants going missing from the nature strip or in her case front yard when she mentioned the plums ripening in the garden down the road. It turns out that the block is owned by another neighbour and they allow Nancy and her husband to house their chooks, grow some vegies and pick the fruit etc. The next day Mariana and I were guided through the hole in the fence by one of Nancy's daughter and had some fun filling a bag of little plums. While they weren't much good for eating they made perfect fodder for jam and chutney. I had a feeling there were better recipes than the British inspired standard 1:1 kilo fruit to kilo sugar and came across this recipe at Taste.com which i tried. Vito describes it as for mature tastes so if you need help determining if you are grown up or not give it a go - it is subtly laced with Cinnamon, Annice and black pepper and its delicious!! I also made a spicy plum chutney recipe which i think could be similar to an apricot one i tried before christmas. I will let you know if i manage to track the apricot version because it was the best chutney ever!!! (this is a subtle message to remind my contacts to pursue the recipe for me!)

Plum Jam

Ingredients

• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp anise seeds
• 6 cloves
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 2 dried bay leaves, crumbled
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 1.25kg white sugar
• 2 kg plums (try amber or blood plums), quartered, stoned
• 1/3 cup (80ml) lemon juice

Method

1. Place a couple of small saucers in the freezer to chill. Place spices, bay leaves, wine and 1 cup sugar in a large, wide, heavy-based saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave to cool. When cool, strain though a fine sieve over a bowl.

2. Return strained syrup to pan with 1 cup water and plums. Bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and simmer over low-medium heat for 35 minutes.

3. Uncover pan. Add lemon juice and remaining sugar. Cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil then simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, skimming any scum from top, for 45-50 minutes or until jam jells when tested. To test, place a small spoonful on a chilled saucer then return to freezer for 1 minute. Run your finger through chilled jam; it should be the consistency of honey and wrinkle slightly when pushed. Once at this stage, pour into hot sterilised jars and seal.

Spicy Plum Chutney

Ingredients:

• 8 cups cut up pieces of plums, pits removed, skins left on
• 3 lemons, cut into small pieces, seeds removed
• juice from 3 more lemons
• 1-2 Tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated (a microplane works great)
• 1 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups brown sugar
• Throw everything except the sugar in a sauce pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the fruit starts to soften.dd sugar and cook until it thickens to a consistency you like. Soft enough to dip apapadum piece in it is a good goal. Remove cinnamon stick after cooking.
• thanks to www.evilmadscientist.com for this recipe

splendus hibisicus

Shame i didn't take a photo of this earlier in the day, such a beautiful apricot colour. We haven't had many flowering plants in the garden until recently we made room by removing a Wattle that was past its best. We are trying a few native hibiscus as a screen to soften the front fence. This one is call Hibiscus splendens x heterophyllus, not sure if being hybrid disqualifies it from being strictly called a native? Happy to be advised