It's Winter here in Tropical North Queensland, and we've just harvested our annual crop of fresh ginger, and whilst we've dehydrated a large percentage of it, and ground it in the spice grinder to make the most fragrant ginger spice imaginable, the pink-tipped young ginger pieces reminded me that I must make this very gingery cake. I've been working on perfecting this recipe for a long time, and now I'm very happy with the result. I hope you love it too.
The month of March and into early April, including Easter Week, called for some calming and comforting food, and some careful planning. I needed assurance that food would be catered for throughout the month and particularly over Easter when our club's Annual Easter Indoor Pickleball Tournament was being held, and most importantly, our daughter Shannon was driving home for Easter. I know that also means that a cake needs to be baked, and I also planned that her favourite Monte Carlo biscuits would be in the biscuit tin, or in the refrigerator, still necessary at this time of year.
When it's mango season in the tropics, one of our favourite ways to eat them as a dessert is in egg free and creamy Mango Mousse. Fresh or frozen mangoes can be used for this recipe. It's the perfect dessert to enjoy on a hot Summer's Day and over the Australia Day long weekend, which we are enjoying right now. However, I think you will love this dessert, anywhere and anytime.
This delicious Sticky Date Pudding recipe is my go to Winter dessert for feeding a large number of people or for taking to a party for lunch or dinner and makes at least 16 serves. However, the recipe can easily be halved for a smaller dinner party or your family. They will love you for it.
Who would have thought that Portuguese Custard Tarts would be so simple to make in a standard Pie Maker? Please believe me they are. However if you don't own a Pie Maker, don't despair, this recipe can easily be adapted to a normal oven. We bought our Pie Maker originally from K Mart, (no advertising intended), it wasn't expensive, but it does the trick.
Apple Crumble is comfort food in a dish. Sometimes a very simple recipe can provide you with the most unexpected treat. This recipe for Crunchy Nut Apple Crumble is no exception. It is also a good friend's recipe, so it is tried and true.
This classic Crème Brûlée is a very chic dessert to have in your entertaining food repertoire. Donna Hay's recipe was the one I used, but I added a couple of modifications to it which worked beautifully. A silky and rich custard has a topping of thin caramelised crunchy toffee. It's an absolute delight to crack through the toffee layer with a spoon to discover the rich vanilla infused custard waiting below.
Lemon and blueberry yoghurt loaf cake can be the sweet and tangy ending to a meal, served warm with yoghurt, blueberries and a drizzle of honey, or served as the sweet component of a morning or afternoon tea with lemon icing or a dusting of icing sugar. It's versatile and delicious.
Last month, much of the activity In My Kitchen was a celebration of the fresh and plentiful bounty of fruits and vegetables available at the markets and in the supermarkets, and at quite reasonable prices. This will change as the weather warms up, as Summer sets in with a vengeance on our beautiful sunburnt country, and the inevitability of the dreaded bushfires of the season have an impact on certain parts of the country. Let's hope the bushfires are averted by careful management practices. The following is in a nutshell what I created in my kitchen. This post is part of the In My Kitchen Link Party series hosted by Sherry at Sherry's Pickings.
There are so many beautiful things involved with cooking your own custard. The result is just delightful. Making your own, without a packet of Foster Clark's custard powder to be seen is a labour of love, but so well worth it. Allow an hour max to make it. On the day of THE big event such as Christmas lunch, if you making it to have with Plum Pudding or dessert or even for an evening dinner, I would suggest making it first thing in the morning, even before you open the presents, and then it's done. In my part of the world in North Queensland, that's how we beat the heat on Christmas Day. Your custard will keep in a covered jug, on your kitchen bench until you are ready to serve it. This recipe is Part 2 to my previous post on how to cook your own Christmas Plum Pudding. This is the perfect custard recipe to serve with your Plum Pudding, with Apple Crumble, or another type of fruit crumble.
Using a precious Vanilla Pod is very special and gourmet in cooking, and brings a unique flavour to the custard. However, Vanilla Custard was made from scratch many years ago before we had access to vanilla pods, so good quality vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste will still work beautifully. It is definitely acceptable to substitute vanilla extract for the vanilla pod. However, vanilla essence can be of poor quality, so it is preferable to use a teaspoon of vanilla extract, not essence, or a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste will still disperse those beautiful flavours of vanilla through your custard.
Did you know you can make your own vanilla extract quite easily by steeping 3 vanilla beans in 1/2 a cup of cheap vodka for about 4 weeks. This is all that vanilla extract is. You can find out more about how to make your own vanilla extract in a previous post I have written, at this link.
Before I made this jug of custard I compared Jamie Oliver's recipe to my family recipe, the one that we always used at home, and the only real difference was the use of the vanilla bean. There are many fancier ways of making vanilla custard from scratch, and Jamie Oliver has a great video and recipe which uses cream and milk and serves more people, but I am happy to use this more cost effective one, using more full cream milk and without the bottled cream. On Christmas Day, a custard without even more calories suits me just fine. It still tastes delicious and with a beautiful consistency.
Ingredients:
Makes 500 ml, and serves 4-6 people. Allow an hour cooking time
600 ml full cream milk
4 large and very fresh free-range egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
Method:
Halve the vanilla bean down the middle lengthways and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites, and if you don't intend to use the whites in the short term, I suggest you store them in a covered container in the freezer for that pavlova you are making in the future.
Add both the bean and the seeds to a saucepan on a medium-low heat, pour in the milk and bring the milk just to the boil. You will know this is starting to happen when light steam evaporates off the milk.
Take the saucepan off the stove, and leave to cool slightly, then remove the vanilla beans.
Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and cornflour until pale. (I started this before I heated up the milk.) My eggs never became really pale as I used large, organic, free range eggs from a local supplier. They were expensive, but I thought it was worth it.
Pour a ladle of milk into the bowl and whisk well.
Then gradually add the warm milk, a ladle at a time, whisking well each time.
Pour the milk mixture back into the saucepan and cook gently on a low heat for about 20 minutes or until thickened, lightly whisking continuously in a figure of 8 motion. Please don't leave the stove or allow yourself to be interrupted during this process. It's only for 20 minutes at the most. Your reliable kitchen apprentice could help with this.
To check if the custard is thickened, dip a wooden spoon into the custard, and run your finger along the back of the spoon. If this leaves a line through the custard it is thick enough.
This custard is delicious served with Christmas Plum Pudding, and any type of fruit crumble. You can find the link to my recipe for Christmas Plum Pudding here.
Bring a little sunshine back into your life with this delicious Mango, Lime and Coconut Sago pudding. Sago pudding and Kensington Pride mangoes pureed with lime juice, are a perfectly balanced combination in this gorgeous dessert.
This avocado cheesecake is creamy, tangy with lime, and beautifully garnished with fresh berries. It's cinch to make, and only the lime syrup needs to be cooked. I've used a Shepard avocado for this delicious dessert cheesecake.
We camped at Takarakka Bush Resort for two nights last week. Takarakka is used as the base for those wanting to experience the Great Walk through the spectacular Carnarvon Gorge located in the rugged highlands of Central Queensland. The Gorge is about 35 km long, created mostly by very significant water erosion, where many natural features exist such as the dripping Moss Gardens and the cavernous Amphitheatre. There are many examples of impressive red ochre rock art painted by the local Aboriginal tribes, thousands of years ago, which are still in remarkable condition in the "Art Gallery". Local Aboriginal peoples such as the Garingbal, Gayiri, Gungabulla, Nguri, Wasjigu and Yiman have all believed through time that the Rainbow Serpent, Mungagudda, began its movement through the landscape here and formed the waterways including the sandstone gorge itself.
Most people access Carnarvon Gorge via Rolleston to the North or Injune to the South. This is a rough terrain walk, best attempted during the dry Winter months, however we gave it a go in November, it was quite the challenge for me. Walking poles were my saviour, that's for sure, and I've never used them before, but keen bush walkers swear by them.There are about 13 creek crossings across strategically placed rocks to the top of the walk, I think I crossed about 7, and emerged with dry feet. A real test of balance was that little exercise.
The Carnarvon Gorge Great Walk begins at this sign, which is about 10 minutes drive from Takarakka.
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| Photo of a cattle truck on the Capricorn Highway taken from our car. |
Coal trains run back and forth along the railway tracks beside the highway transporting coal from the Bowen Basin to Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay terminals near Mackay, for export.
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| Coal carriages neatly loaded with coal |
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| A cattle truck ahead of us in the distance, and a coal train on the track beside us. That's Central Queensland, busy busy. |
Empty coal train carriages below on their way back to be refilled.
Now for some cooking, thank you for your patience. Our Irish Brother in Law, Jim, lives in Rockhampton and when we called him we discovered that Mr. HRK's cousin and his wife were there for dinner, and Jim said I'm making Fowl Pie, come and join us. Lynette, who is another lovely cousin, also arrived. Jim is an amazing person, and is completely blind, and has been for many years. His sense of humour has inspired our family through many difficult situations. He lives independently, and loves to cook. His Fowl Pie was the Turkey pie that we ate for dinner. So the night we arrived he had two sous chefs at his disposal, Annette and I, and he cooked up a storm. I was so inspired by his cooking expertise, and I hope you will be too. He obviously has these two recipes down to a tee, cooked from scratch though, knows where everything is in his kitchen, but he also makes the family gluten free Christmas Cake each year, and loves to have people for dinner. He's a writer, enters short story competitions, has published a book of poems and is a qualified social worker. He has also been a very active campaigner in Rockhampton for people with disabilities.
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the Turkey (Fowl) Pie. I was too busy cooking and laughing with Jim and Annette while Mr. HRK and his cousin Ross, caught up on old times. I thought I could make the pie again so I could post some photos, and I might still do that but not in the next few days. I really want to post this now, so please try and imagine a long pyrex baking dish with a filling of delicious cooked turkey mince, and a topping of creamy potato with a golden grated parmesan cheese topping. I know you can imagine such a pie very well.
Turkey Pie with creamy Potato topping
Ingredients:
500 g Turkey mince
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
3 large carrots, finely chopped
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 cup hot water
2 teaspoons Gravox thickener
8 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup milk
Grated parmesan cheese to cover the potato
Method:
Lightly saute the onion in oil, add the carrot, celery and garlic and saute until slightly softened. Add the turkey mince to the saucepan, then the herbs, and cook until the mince and vegetables are cooked. Add the gravox to the hot water to dissolve, and add this liquid to the mince mixture.
Cook until slightly thickened. This is the easiest way for Jim to thicken the mince mixture.
Add a good teaspoon of salt to a large saucepan of boiling water, and boil the potatoes until soft but not falling apart, and ready to be mashed. Drain the potatoes, and add some butter and the milk and mash the potatoes until smooth.
Grease a large baking dish with butter, add the turkey mixture, cover evenly with the mashed potato.
Rough up the surface of the potato with a fork. Jim was very specific about how this should be done. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top of the potato, and place the baking dish in a preheated moderate oven. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden on top. (Then we had a well deserved glass of red wine.)
When I make this pie again I am going to add fresh herbs instead of dried mixed herbs, such as finely chopped parsley and thyme, and a tablespoon of finely chopped tarragon. The fresh herbs will take the turkey to a whole new tasty level.
Now for dessert. Annette and I had peeled and cored the apples for which Jim was very thankful, and he located the bottled cherries in his pantry.
Cherry and Apple Crumble
Ingredients:
8 Granny Smith cooking apples
2 x 680 g jars of Pitted cherries
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
1/3 cup water
Let's cook the apples
For the Crumble:
1 cup plain flour (wholemeal is preferable)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown or demerara sugar
3 tablespoons coconut
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon Rolled oats optional (use a little bit less flour)
(Jim used a variation of this crumble recipe which was delicious. He used Honey and Nut Granola cereal for crunch, add this after the flour, butter and demerara sugar are rubbed together into a crumbly consistency).
Serving up the Cherry and Apple Crumble
Serve the Cherry and Apple Crumble with homemade custard. Jim made custard by hand on his stove top using Uncle Toby's custard powder. He just knew which ingredients to measure out, how long to stir it and it was a perfect consistency. If he can do it, well so can anyone.
It was a great family night, and Jim's love of food and cooking shone through.
Happy thanksgiving holiday to my readers in the United States. I expect you will be very busy in the kitchen today. I had my Turkey dinner with family a week early.
Thanks for dropping by and take care.
Warm wishes,
Pauline
