Cumquat Cordial

The original recipe for this was in ounces and pints and came from a woman who lived near us; her life was a story of resilience and hard work, intelligence and cheerfulness. As time passes and I learn more about life's challenges, I find her even more inspirational. Mrs O'C gave us recipes and conversation; challenged us to think critically but act pragmatically; loaned us boxes and boxes of books and encouraged us to believe that we could achieve whatever we set our minds toward.

As my boys made their own version of Cumquat cordial recently I thought of Mrs O'C and what a wonderful woman she is. My parents brought an enormous bag of cumquats a week ago so D helped me juice them and we made the real thing - it's tangy and sweet and a hundred times better than any commercial mix.

I've removed the sodium benzoate preservative, which means you need to store it in the fridge/freezer. The best cumquats for this are the round sourer Calomondin variety - they are also best for Cumquat jam.


~Cumquat Cordial~
2 1/2 cups cumquat juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 cups water
900g white sugar
1 teaspoon citric acid

To juice the cumquats, halve them and squeeze over a seive in a bowl. Reserve the seeds and freeze them for use in setting jam.

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Dissove the citric acid in a little hot water and stir in.

Stir in the juices while the sugar water is still warm, then bottle in sterilised bottles. Store in the fridge or freeze until needed.

Once makes almost 2 litres of cordial.

Quince Paste/ Membrillo

It's a year to the day since last posting; we've had lots of food memories with friends since then but none have made it past my folder into blogland. Running too hard with work, kids and life. But there have been exciting discoveries - sweet potato leaves are a fabulous substitute for spinach or silverbeet. Truly.

Now quince time has come again, and we are making quince paste. This recipe has evolved from combining several others and is made in the microwave - no possibility of burning. Very easy.

~Quince Paste~
quinces
white sugar

We make reasonably large amounts, so say 8 quinces and about 600g sugar. Wrap each quince in alfoil, place in a baking paper lined tray, and roast in a medium oven until they are tender. Remove and cool in the alfoil.

Unwrap quinces, peel back off the skin and work out the core and any lumpier granules around the core; discard these. Push the flesh through a seive with your hands and a large spoon, then weigh the seived quince.

Measure out half the weight of sugar, so for 1.2kg seived quince you will need 600g sugar. Stir quince and sugar together in a large microwave proof bowl (twice the volume of the quince+sugar) and cook on Medium for 10 minute bursts, stirring between each. Continue cooking until it is thick enough - when you pull a spoon across the bottom of the bowl it will leave a distinct trail.

When it is ready, spread the quince flat in a baking paper lined tray and place it somewhere to dry. We use the fan oven with the fan turned on and no or very low temperature, but have also tried a dehydrator and under glass in a sunny spot. A solar dehydrator would be perfect, or the back window of your car in the sun.

Test it to see when it is set, then store wrapped in alfoil in an airtight container.

Homemade quince paste is more granular than the commercial product, but the smell is divine and the colour deep ruby red. Perfect for autumn picnics.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Passionfruit syrup

Adapted from a Donna Hay recipe. We made this recently to use the lemon and passionfruit glut, and it was delicious - beautiful texture. Would be good for afternoon tea or dessert.

~Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Passionfruit Syrup~

125g butter at room temperature (cool climate!)
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup thick plain yoghurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
2 1/2 cups SR flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

syrup:
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup passionfruit pulp

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Sift flour and baking powder together. Stir juice, rind and yoghurt together.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add a little flour at the end to stop the mix curdling.

In a large bowl fold the dry and wet ingredients through the creamed butter mixture and combine so it is mixed well. Spoon into a 23cm round cake tin or large ring tin (I used a large bundt tin) and bake for 40 minutes or until skewer is clean. I covered it loosely with alfoil for the first 20 minutes, and then it needed only a further 8 minutes uncovered to finish.

Leave the cake in the tin for 5 min to cool, then turn out on a rack and cover loosely with a cloth. I left the bundt tin upended over the top of the cake, which allowed space to cool but kept it warm.

For the syrup: combine ingredients in a saucepan and heat on low heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Simmer 4-5 minutes until the syrup thickens.

Pour half the hot syrup over the cake and serve with cream or icecream and the remaining syrup.

D rated it 95 out of 100 and T gave it a 9 out of 10.

Frangipane Tart

This began with an apple flan from the Woman's Weekly a long time ago. I've substituted pear, nectarine, peach and plums, and all are good. Figs look beautiful but somehow the taste doesn't work. I think quince could look spectacular, must remember to try it when they are in season again.

~Frangipane Tart~
350g frozen puff pastry
1.5kg Golden Delicious apples or similar amount of fruit to substitute
100g ground almonds or hazelnuts
7 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
375ml cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 tablespoons brandy
3-4 tablespoons flour

Butter a 12" flan dish (in future I'll try a rectangular dish to cut squares) and line with pastry.

Peel and core apples and cut into 1cm thick slices, or halve and stone plums/nectarines etc. Mix fruit with lemon juice, zest, and 2 tab sugar.

Sprinkle the pastry base with almond meal and arrange fruit evenly on top. Bake at 200 degrees C for 15-20 minutes.

Whisk cream, eggs, vanilla, brandy, 5 tab sugar and flour together until smooth - I use a stab mixer. Pour over the fruit and cook 15-20 minutes until the centre isn't wobbly and the bumps are starting to colour.

Serve warm or cool, with cream.

Chicken (& Lamb Shanks) with 39 Garlics

We ate this a few nights ago, on a cool rainy evening, in an effort to use the beautiful purple striped garlic from early summer; this Italian hardneck variety doesn't seem to store for long, whereas the Australian white keeps well.

It's an adaption of an Ian Parmenter recipe from the mid 90's. He used red wine rather than oil for the base, and I prefer stock. Unsuprisingly he didn't use lamb shanks, but we had a few on hand and they were delicious; sticky, rich and sweet with garlic. I think it would be fine to substitute beef, lamb or pork for the meat.

~Chicken & Lamb Shanks with 39 Garlics~
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
slurp olive oil
2 lamb shanks
6 chicken legs
500ml chicken stock
39 unskinned cloves garlic
500ml chicken stock
rosemary and thyme sprigs
(6 juniper berries crushed - I left these out)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
100ml milk
2 tab cornflour

Heat the oil on low and cook the onion until golden and sweet. Remove from the pan and turn up the heat. Brown the lamb shanks and chicken legs all over and remove.

Use some stock to deglaze the pan and pour this into a crockpot or casserole dish. Place all of the ingredients (except the milk and flour) in the crockpot/casserole and cover.

Cook for 6-8 hours in the crockpot, or 1-2 hours at 140 degrees C in the oven (casserole) - or until the meat is tender and falls away from the bone.

Remove the meat and bones, and garlic, to a large serving bowl and keep warm. Strain the liquid and simmer this in a pan until it is reduced to half its volume. Squeeze the pulp from the garlic cloves into the reduced liquid. Mix the cornflour and milk until smooth, then thicken the reduction with this, and simmer for several minutes to cook the flour.

Pour the thickened reduced stock over the meat and serve with jacket potatoes and lots of crunchy steamed veges.

Lemon Meringue Slice

Jules adapted this from a Woman's Weekly recipe last year and we have passed it on to many people since. The topping is crunchy-sweet, the filling smooth and tart and the base very short - most probably good over vanilla icecream or with clotted cream, but we have it for decadent smokos. It doesn't last long around here!


~Lemon Meringue Slice~
125g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs, separated
1 cup self raising flour, sifted
1/2 to 3/4 cup lemon butter
1/2 cup caster sugar extra
1 cup desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line an 18x28cm slice tin with baking paper.

Cream the butter and 1/2 cup sugar, then add the lemon zest and egg yolks and beat well.

Mix in the flour; it will be a very soft mixture. Spread over the base of the tin with floured fingers and bake for 10 minutes until golden.

Remove the base from the oven and allow to cool while you make the meringue. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar gradually until it is all dissolved and you can't feel any granules in the mix. Fold in the coconut gently.

Flatten the base with your hands if it is too puffy, then spread with lemon butter to cover. Spread the meringue over the top, starting at the edges and working inwards.

Turn the oven down to 150 degrees and bake for 20 minutes until meringue has golden peaks. Check half way through and adjust the temperature down if needed - we covered it with alfoil for the first 10 minutes to stop it burning in my thermostat-challenged oven.

Cool in the tin, then lift out using the baking paper. Cut into small squares on a board when it is completely cooled.

Corned Beef Curry

This was something we had often as children, to use up the leftover corned (or other) beef. It's sweet and salty comfort food. The approximate recipe is something like this :

~Corned Beef Curry~
2 double handfuls of cubed cooked corned beef
slurp olive oil
about 1 tablespoon Keens dry curry powder
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, sliced in rounds
1 stick celery, sliced
leftover veges, eg capsicum
hot water to cover
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dessert spoon brown sugar
1 large handful sultanas
1 green apple, cored and diced
flour and water to thicken

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan or frypan and fry off the onion, carrot, celery and any other veges. Add the curry powder and stir through.

Cover with hot water, add salt, sugar, sultanas and apple and allow to simmer for about 20 min. Add the meat and allow to simmer for another 20 minutes or so.

At this stage you can turn off the curry and leave to sit until ready to thicken before serving; the flavours will develop if it sits a while.

Before serving, reheat the curry till simmering; mix a tablespoon of flour to a paste with a little water and stir through; stir whilst simmering for several minutes to cook the flour and thicken the curry.

Serve with rice and lemon juice. This quantity is approx 4 smallish meals.