A year of deliciousness

Last night’s Masterchef was all about the Country Women’s Association and their classic baking recipes – lamingtons, scones, neopolitan cake, fruit cake, and a jam. The contestants struggled mightily (which I have to admit, I found enormously encouraging as I struggle with anything I bake, and have more failures than successes).  I don’t actually own a CWA cookbook – but I will be nicking out to get one before we leave. How can I be without? I feel it could be my last patriotic act before heading North.

Instead, I do have this doozey of a book from 1930 (from what I can gather from a little research, but it’s not actually dated), which I rescued from my late Grandma’s house last year. A Calendar of Puddings? How good is that? Do you dare me to do a Julie and Julia and cook each pudding for an entire year? I don’t think so. We would roll like little pudding people down the side of our new mountain home, and then bob about in the lake below.

I like that this probably hung in the kitchen in my Great Grandmother’s house – there are pencil ticks against the ones she was interested in (someone in the family must have liked chocolate), there are food splats across the pages where she’s obviously given something a go. Each recipe has been submitted by a New Sout Wales CWA member, and I have flicked through to find the recipes submitted from the town where my family lived (and many still live!). There’s a Mrs Arthur’s Fruit Flummery – and that’s it. So disappointing. I was hoping to see a Reid or a Rogerson but no such luck. Maybe there’s some genetic lean away from baking in my family. I have determined that Junee must have been an epicentre of baking back in 1930 as they are strongly represented – perhaps one of the calendar co-ordinators was a local.

Anyway – I am off to make a one pot pasta wonder, while I dream of steamed pud. Or Apple Snowballs. Or Honolulu Delicious. Or even Raspberry Tapioca. Can I tempt you with a Washing Day pud from October 26th? It’s so easy when you’ve been washing all day; Grate a pineapple, pour over whisky and stir in 1 dozen bananas. Done!

So, to start a tradition, here’s the recipe from July 1st to leave you with:

July 1 – Drought Plum Pudding

3 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 lb. raisins (340g), 1 lb. currants (450g), 2 cups of hot water, 2 tsp. carb soda, 1 scant teasp. salt, candied peel and spices if approved. Mix the dry ingredients well together. Put dripping (the amount of dripping is not actually specified) into 1 cup of hot water and dissolve the soda in the other. Pour intogether and mix well. Boil for 4 hours and serve with sauce.

Mrs Gallen, Nandewar Branch.

Sunday Night Spag Bol

There is nothing nicer than something bubbling away on top of the stove on a Sunday evening. When I was small, Sunday evenings were the pits. I would watch the Donnie and Marie Show and then cry, every single Sunday of the term. Donnie and Marie meant that Monday morning – and school – was nigh. The horror! But now I like Sunday evenings. Is it because Monday morning and school is nigh? Possibly! But I also like the nesting feeling; the last moments of quiet and calm before the busy week begins, the turning on of the lamps, the kitchen radio playing, the kids are well rested and usually involved in some game, or drawing or watching a beloved movie on the couch, finally without screeching at one another. And so the cheerful burble and the delicious smells of something in the big pot fits into all of that.

Lately, that big pot is filled with bolognese sauce on a Sunday, which we serve up for dinner and then freeze the rest. It’s so easy and so delish! Until early this year my bol sauce consisted of meat + a jar of Paul Newman’s. Not very posh really. Wanting a change, I had done a little research (well, I opened Stephanie’s encyclopedia of cooking) and felt that inward lazy sigh when I looked at the list of ingredients… it looked very good but I wanted something quick –  a step up from the meat + Paul’s, but quick just the same. While we were holidaying up in Sydney in January my Sister-in-Law defrosted two tubs of her bolognese sauce and it was so good. So good! And she assured me that it was very easy and exceptionally freeze-able. I copied out the recipe pronto – it’s a Ragu recipe from Delicious magazine — and I can’t find a copy of it online and I didn’t note down which issue it was from … but I have fiddled with it now anyway. Here’s what I do:

Sunday Night Spag Bol

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove (or more) of garlic, minced
500 g beef mince (ground beef)
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
3/4 cups (180 ml) beef stock (or half red wine)
2 x 400 g cans diced (crushed or even chopped up after opening) tomatoes
1 dessert spoon of dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato sauce (use my Mum’s if you can get your hands on it! It’s as rare as hens teeth).
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large nonstick fry pan over high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened.
Add the mince and brown well for 10 mins – making sure to break up any big lumps with a wooden spoon.
Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
Add stock and stir until the stock has almost evaporated.
Add canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes. At this point I cover it again and let it bubble away for another fifteen minutes or so. I don’t know why – I seem to think that it makes it taste better, but I have never tried *not* doing it so I have nothing to compare it to, so let it bubble away for another 15 to 20 mins, stirring every so often so that it doesn’t stick on the bottom, and making sure it doesn’t dry out too much.

Serve on pasta with parmesan cheese and a green salad – or in lasagna. It’s pretty good in lasagna actually.

Serves 4

I usually double the batch and then divide it up into small containers and freeze it. My Sister-in-Law also suggests added grated veg to it to get the extra goodies into veg-phobic kids.

By the way – did you see the Gruffalo on the ABC a few weeks ago? We taped it and play it so much! It’s our favourite Sunday evening viewing.

Sunshine before the rain

Top to bottom: Amelia’s bird list, Totoro playing to itself in the sitting room (there’s too much else to do to be sitting around watching tv  - nice for a change), a cup of tea and a slice of mum’s boiled fruit cake. Wanna know how to cook it? Straight from Mum who is sitting next to me on the couch listening to the rain while my Dad reads the girls their bedtime story:

My Mum’s Boiled Fruit Cake

Soak 4 cups of mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants and mixed peel etc) in 1/2 cup of brandy overnight.

Next day put 125g of butter, the soaked mixed fruit, 2 tablespoons of treacle and 1 cup of water in a big saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. Let it simmer for a minute or so. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Beat 2 eggs together and add to the mixture with 1 cup of sifted self-raising flour and 1 cup of plain flour. Mix it all around and pour into a square tin lined with baking paper.

Cook at 150°c on the bottom shelf for at least a couple of hours. Test with a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake. When it comes out clean, it’s ready. Let it cool in the tin. Eat with cups of tea or glasses of milk in the middle of the night (at least, that’s what my Dad recommends).

Saturday night pasta

There’s nothing like a deliciously creamy pasta dish when you are bone tired. All the better if someone else is cooking. Phil’s specialty is a weekend favourite he has nicknamed “Heart Clog” which is actually Jamie Oliver’s Farfalle with Carbonara and Spring Peas. Totally delicious.

We had a birthday party for Amelia’s school chums today and I am so tired tonight that I have made an annoying animated gif.

Hmm. Annoyed yet? Here’s something soothing:

Left over musk sticks from the party bags. Yummo.

Salads!

I have already posted this on twitter, but it’s so worth a quick mention here. 101 Simple Salads for the Season in The New York Times – unusual ideas that all look pretty yummy. The season referred to in the title is Summer, but as salad seems to be the only thing Lily will eat regardless of the season, 101 variations on a theme (9 A4 pages) are a welcome addition to my recipe file. I’ve been making my own crutons lately, and feeling like that makes me adventurous… but now I have large amounts of inspiration.

via @swallowfield

Special Stuff – Monday: Cookbooks

Pip is hosting another “A Week of” – this week it’s “A Week of Special Stuff” – and I am going to take part because I have lots of special stuff piling up around the house. I have lots of not-special stuff piling up too, but maybe that will be next week.

This notebook doesn’t actually belong to me, but it’s in my house at the moment and it’s pretty bloomin’ special. It’s my Mum’s first of many cookbooks: “The Robertson Family Cookathon Guide; 1970 est”. One day I will inherit this piece of family history but for now I am borrowing it to mine it for gems for our own sequel “The Robertson McCluskey Cookathon Guide; 2009 est”.

Top: Cover

Middle: Mum’s fab marble cake recipe which I loved as a kid – it was always pink, vanilla and chocolate. And yes, it did tend to be dry.

Bottom: My illustrated recipe for Coconut biscuits – c. 1974 (I know it’s around 1974 because that’s my brother in my Mum’s arms.  She did have boots like that. Doesn’t every mother of a newborn… no?)

*** update… hang on, it can’t be 1974, that would make me 2 and I doubt I was writing like this at age 2… so maybe it’s more like 1977 or so ***

Bread!

For the first time in – I can’t even remember – years? I got up this morning and felt like making bread. I used to make bread a lot – around the time Lily was a wee baby. I can distinctly remember patting a very tiny Lil to sleep in her cot one night in a sleep-deprived daze only to realise after a few minutes that I was gently kneading her like a loaf of bread. But life gets busier and bread, while it takes little effort, does require you to be around the house for a chunk of hours so that you can return to your dough after each rising to whup it into shape some more. But today was wet and cold and we had absolutely *nothing* on the agenda – no playdates, no expected guests (so no cleaning), no shopping, no anything by popular demand… so time I had.

The girls were completely absorbed in a complicated make-believe game of teachers and babies and school photos and what-not so I cracked open my copy of the Tassajara Bread book which I bought late last year after reading Amanda’s recommendation.

Here is the Tassajara Bread Book, sitting victoriously on top of The River Cottage Cookbook, whose bread recipe I usually use. I have a soft spot for the Tassajara cookbooks because one of my first cooky books in my collection was this one:

My Mum’s old hippy copy of  Tassajara Cooking which contains awesome line drawings of vegetables

and this fabulous picture of author Edward Espe Brown (and unnamed woman and child), who still teaches zen baking at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre (have you seen How to Cook Your Life which Amanda also recommended some time ago? A much older and hairier Edward Brown is the subject of the doco.)

So I made the “sponge” and it was crazy and sticky and I am sorry to say that I had very little faith in all of this at this point because it just seemed way too wet, but I left it to rise, and when I peeked under my damp tea towel after about thirty minutes it looked like an enourmous frothy milk shake. When you see yeast work so thoroughly, you get pretty enthused. And the rest of it worked like a charm.

It certainly isn’t a quick loaf, but boy is it a good one. Light and tasty and all gone in the blink of an eye. We devoured an entire loaf with butter for afternoon tea after returning from the library. (I borrowed Stephen King’s “On Writing” – thanks for the many recommendations!)

I made the “basic” recipe today and I am keen to try more of the numerous variations and then move on to the pastry chapter. Mmm.

Homemade: The Handmade Recipe Book

Hello! It’s been quiet around here, I know. It’s the school holidays, and along with another round of Wintery colds my  blogging, writing, crafting, drawing etc etc (those Marshmallow Bunnies are coming along slowly) have taken a bit of a back-seat.

Something not in the back-seat is the newly released “Homemade: The Handmade Recipe Book“.

In February 2009 Victoria was victim to the worst bushfires on record, which wiped out entire communities, caused 173 deaths and left thousands without homes or shelter.

The Handmade Help Recipe Book evolved as part of handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com by a group of crafters and artists who wanted to contribute to the recovery effort.

The result is a truly international cookbook, packed with treasured recipes and family favourites, donated by people across the globe who wanted to help including well-known chefs such as Margaret Fulton, Allan Campion and Michele Curtis.

All proceeds from sales of the recipe book will be donated to the Salvation Army.

I can’t wait to check it out. I was asked to do the cover illustration and very happily obliged.

PDF copies are available now for download at a tasty $8 (AUD) or you can pre-order a paperback copy for $15 (AUD).

Rock buns and colouring in

I can tell Winter is here because I am spending time looking at beach-holiday destinations and imagining how nice it would be to lie on the warm sand. Hmm. Byron Bay looks nice in wide-angled photos. I seemed to remember doing similar browsing in the middle of Summer, imagining chilly  destinations including the Ice Hotel in Sweden.

Because it was a more than a little Wintery here today, the girls and I spent large amounts of time drawing pictures for each other to colour. And when I wasn’t answering to the call of “Mum, draw me! Draw me!”,  I made rock buns – have you ever made Jane’s rock buns? They are delicious and lemony and I highly recommend them. Leave them to cool a little when they come out of the oven, but make sure to eat them while they are still a bit warm. Lily did not eat hers (which is unsurprising, as she is a non-eater in general, unless it’s bread or chocolate), but the rest of us devoured two each.

Shepherd’s Pie in Ramekins

Last night I finally used the ramekins I bought from an ebay seller back in 2003. I remember it was my first ebay auction experience and I got them for a song, so it was a great day, but they have been sitting up in the very top most shelf of the cupboard since we moved into the house, and in a box in storage before that. If I was following along with that Oprah Clutter Clearing guy I would had to have thrown those ramekins to the wind because I hadn’t used them in the last 12 months, so sometimes it pays to hoard. They were absolutely perfect for making our scheduled (weekly menu plan in action) Shepherd’s Pie all the more exciting. All I had to serve along with the pie was frozen peas so we made them look (according to Amelia) “more Japanese” and less completely pathetic by serving them in Japanese tea cups.

My Twitter people already know this,  but Amelia poked at the meat under the potato crust and said “so, this bit in the middle is the shepherd?”. 

Anyway, it’s super easy and super yum and pretty cheap and can be baked in a big baking dish or individual ramekins. It’s real Nanna food and we love it!

Shepherd’s Pie

500g minced beef (definitely not shepherd, and try to avoid the diet stuff if you can)
1 medium onion finely chopped
Olive oil or butter for frying
Handful of fresh marjoram leaves (chopped)
Handful of fresh parsley leaves (chopped)
Black pepper
1/3 cup of tomato sauce (ketchup or something of better quality if you have it)
Tablespoon of bonox (or a stock cube or even some vegemite)
Lug of woustershire sauce
Tablespoon of gravox (I have NO idea what an international equivalent to this stuff is. It’s like a gravy mix powder with cornflour in it. Basically I use it for a bit of extra taste and to thicken the mixture)

Mashed potato (your favourite way)

Grated cheese.

While you are cooking this I recommend wearing your most slumpy tracksuit, comfiest slippers and a scrunchie in your hair.

Gently fry the onion over a medium heat in a big skillet until it is soft and transparent. Add meat and brown it while breaking it into small lumps with a wooden spoon. Add herbs, tomato sauce, bonox (or stockcube) and a generous lug of woustershire sauce and a generous grinding of black pepper. Let it simmer for 30 minutes and add gravox to thicken in the last minute.

Make your mashed potato (basically? 4-5 big potatoes, peeled, chopped, boiled until soft, drained and then mash and mix in 50g butter, pepper, and enough warm milk to make it the right consistency – but if you want a good recipe try Delia’s).

Put the cooked meat in a nice chunky baking dish or ramekins, and cover with a generous layer of mash. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top.

Cook in an oven at 200°c (aprox 400°f) for 10 minutes until the cheese has melted. I actually gave it a quick grill on the top at the end to brown it up.

Served with steamed vegetables (or a tea cup of peas!). This is my mum’s classic recipe. We grew up on this stuff. Last night I made double the mince recipe and have frozen half for another day. Bonza.