Sago Plum Pudding

Posted on 29 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Sago Plum Pudding, an old-fashioned dessert made from simple ingredients, is one of my all-time favourites. I think its origins must be Antipodean as I never came across it when I was growing up in England. Some in our family see it as an excuse to eat Brandy Butter when it’s not Christmas. I’ve never been a big fan of Brandy Butter and prefer it with thick, unsweetened cream.

I like to make individual half cup puddings rather than one large one. They keep in the fridge for several days and are quicker to cook than steaming one large pudding. I love being able to whip one out of the fridge, zap it in the microwave and demolish it whenever the mood takes me, which is quite often when I know they are there! This recipe came from my mother-in-law.

¾ cup sago
2 cups milk
180g butter
½ cup sugar
2 cups sultanas or mixed dried fruit
2 cups breadcrumbs (made in food processor from day old bread)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
2 tsp mixed spice
To serve:
Brandy Butter, thick cream or custard

Soak sago in milk overnight. Place butter in a mixing bowl and zap in the microwave to melt. Mix in remaining ingredients then scrape into a one litre pudding bowl, lightly buttered. Cover with a piece of buttered foil, buttered side down and place in a large saucepan on something to lift the bowl slightly. A metal trivet, old saucer or a small brick will do. Add boiling water to come halfway up bowl. Cover with the saucepan lid, bring to the boil and steam steadily for 3-3½ hours, adding more water as necessary. The top of the pudding will have an even dark brown colour when ready – lift foil from time to time to check. Stand for 5 minutes then turn out, cut into slices and serve with thick cream, Brandy Butter or custard.

Serves 8-10

Note: make individual puddings in 8-10 half cup ramekins, dariole moulds or Chinese teacups, lightly buttered, as shown in the second photo. Fill almost to the top as they don’t rise much. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish and add boiling water to come halfway up the cups. Cover the whole dish with a sheet of foil, buttered side down. Bake at 160°C for an hour to an hour and a half, or until evenly rich brown on top. Tip out and serve immediately or store covered in the fridge and reheat for about a minute in the microwave, covered in plastic wrap, then tip out.

Mangoes in Ginger Wine

Posted on 17 January 2013 by Linda Peek

If you want to be sure to get every bit of flesh off the stone the best place to eat a mango is in the bath.

My mother in law once attended an official lunch at Government House in Hong Kong. For dessert the waiter passed round a platter of whole fruit. She was tempted by the mangoes, but knew that this would not be a good idea. Eating a whole mango delicately with a knife and fork is not easy and you wouldn’t want it to shoot across the table and land on another guest’s lap. Experienced guests like my mother in law played it safe and took a banana or an apple. One lady, through lack of experience or perhaps without thinking, chose a mango. Everyone finished their fruit quite quickly then sat back to watch this poor woman struggle with her mango. It took forever, but to give her credit she persisted and finished the task. Perhaps a round of applause would have been a nice gesture.

Here in Australia the mango season is in full swing. I’m always tempted to buy a case of 12, but there are just the two of us and after a few days the mangoes have ripened to the point where the remaining few need to be used immediately. Mangoes in ginger wine is a delicious solution and will keep in the fridge for a day or two. I think this recipe will appeal to my friends at the Sarojin Resort in Thailand and I’m sure they could cut up the fruit more decoratively than I have. Perhaps the chef can give me a lesson next time I’m there.

4 large fresh mangoes
¾ cup Stone’s ginger wine
2 Tbs chopped glace ginger or ginger preserved in syrup

Peel and slice mangoes and place in a serving bowl. Heat ginger wine with ginger and pour over. Chill and serve very cold.

Serves 4-6

Berry Meringue Ice Cream Slice

Posted on 7 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Not everyone likes Christmas pudding, so I like to serve two desserts on Christmas day, so people can choose. This Bill Granger recipe for an easy ice cream slice full of berries and chunks of meringue appeared in the December issue of Delicious. We have raspberries in the garden at the moment, so it was perfect.

Some people, who shall remain nameless, had both the Christmas pudding and the ice cream slice. They blamed this indulgence on me saying it was too hard to choose.

350g berries (I used raspberries)
600ml thickened cream or whipping cream
2 Tbs icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
50g bought meringues broken into chunks
To serve:
Runny honey and extra berries (I used a mix of raspberries and halved strawberries)

Grease a 1.5L loaf pan and line with plastic wrap or use a silicone pan which doesn’t need to be lined. Drop some berries into the loaf pan – these will be the top of the slice. Whip cream with sugar and vanilla to soft peaks then fold in berries and meringue. Pour into pan, shake to remove any air bubbles, and smooth top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 3 hours or overnight.

Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving. Tip out and garnish with extra berries, drizzle with honey and cut into slices to serve.

Serves 8-10

Note: frozen raspberries are fine for the ice cream, but if you can get them fresh ones are best for the garnish. Mango and passionfruit could be used instead of berries.

Blueberry Pie

Posted on 14 December 2012 by Linda Peek

Fruit pies freeze well and are handy to whip out for dessert during the holiday season. Just bake for about half an hour, so it’s not quite thoroughly browned, cool and freeze, covered – a shower cap is ideal! When you want to serve the pie thaw (remove shower cap!) and reheat for 20-30 mins in a moderate oven to finish off the browning.

Pastry:
See recipe for Apple and Blackberry Pie
Filling:
About 450-500g frozen blueberries (pkt sizes vary)
grated zest 1 large lemon
juice ½ lemon
½ cup sugar
3 Tbs cornflour
1 punnet fresh blueberries (about 125g)
2 eating apples peeled, cored and diced
1 egg, beaten
Granulated sugar

Make pastry and chill wrapped in plastic wrap. Thaw frozen blueberries. Place in large saucepan with lemon zest and sugar. Heat to boiling point, then add cornflour mixed with lemon juice and cook, stirring until very thick. Add fresh blueberries and diced apple and cool.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Roll out half the pastry to line a large deep dinner plate or similar sized pie dish, trim off excess. Fill with blueberry filling. Roll out remaining pastry and cover pie. Trim off excess pastry, seal and crimp edges. Use any leftover pastry to make leaves to decorate the top. Brush with beaten egg, arrange “leaves” on top, brush those also. Bake for 35-45 mins or until well browned. Or bake for only 25 mins until light golden, remove from oven, cool then refrigerate or freeze until serving time. To serve put back into a moderate oven for 20-30 mins. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 12

Pavlova

Posted on 8 December 2012 by Linda Peek

My friend Chris Wride in Paris has just requested my recipe for Pavlova via the Café Cat Facebook page. He remembers I served it at a dinner when we were living there. Well his timing couldn’t have been better. We’ve just picked our first raspberries and one of the nicest ways to enjoy fresh berries, especially raspberries, is in a Pavlova. Chris your wish is my command! Here it is.

Australians and New Zealanders argue about where this dish originated and both claim it as their national dessert. It doesn’t really matter who invented it – it’s a world class dish by any standards. Sometimes I make individual ones but they’re a bit more fiddly. One big one can be whipped up in no time at all.

4 large egg whites (approx 125g) at room temp
250g caster sugar
1 tsp white or cider vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
400ml fresh cream, whipped
2-3 cups fresh berries such as raspberries, blueberries, strawberries

Serves 10

Preheat oven to 170°C. Place a sheet of non-stick baking paper or foil on a large baking tray and draw a 25cm circle on it using a dinner plate. Place egg whites in a large bowl and whisk using electric beaters until soft peaks. A Kenwood or Kitchen Aid mix-master is ideal for this, but hand held beaters will do, although it will take twice as long. Gradually add sugar and keep whipping until you have a stiff, glossy meringue with no crunchy bits of sugar left. Halfway through stop the machine and scrape mixture down from sides of the bowl. Add vinegar and cornflour then pile the meringue onto the baking paper circle. Spread to an even thickness then remove some from the middle to the edges so you end up with a meringue which has a dip in the middle for the cream and fruit. Bake for 10 mins then turn off the oven and leave there till cool. Fill pavlova with unsweetened whipped cream and berries. Dust with sifted icing sugar (optional).

Notes:

leftover egg whites from a recipe which uses only yolks can be stored in a plastic container in the freezer, adding more on other occasions. Thaw and weigh: one egg white weighs 30g (1 ounce) more or less
if there is any trace of egg yolk left in the whites they will not whip
all ovens differ so you may need to adjust the oven temperature and/or the cooking time till you get this right
the finished meringue should be crisp on the outside but soft like marshmellow on the inside
passionfruit pulp is also nice on pavlova and some people like to use slices of kiwi fruit

Rhubarb Crumbly Slice

Posted on 26 November 2012 by Linda Peek

Matthew said the rhubarb was going berserk and needed picking. All the other little desserts you’ve seen on here recently have been devoured and the fridge was looking bare. I thought I would concoct something with this delicious under-rated fruit from the garden and came up with this. A cross between a crumble and a slice which can double up as a dessert or something sweet to go with a cup of tea for the next few days.

250g plain flour
250g butter
200g brown sugar
200g porridge oats (not the quick cook variety)
About 1 kg washed and trimmed rhubarb, cut into 2-3cm slices
1½ cups jam (any flavour will do)
3 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place flour and butter in food processor and process to fine crumbs. Add sugar and oats and process briefly, just enough to mix. Butter an oblong cake tin or roasting pan. I used a roasting pan 28x34cm. Tip in about ¾ of the crumble mix and spread evenly. Top with the rhubarb, then drizzle over the jam, mixed with the ginger if using. If jam is a bit stiff zap it briefly in the microwave. Cover with remaining crumbs then bake for 30-40 mins or until browned and bubbly. Cut into 16.

Keeps in the fridge, covered, for up to a week. Can be eaten cold as a cake/slice or hot as a dessert. If you just want to heat up one portion use the microwave. However, if you want to reheat say half a dozen slices to serve as dessert with cream or vanilla ice cream, remove the required number of squares from the tin with a fish slice and reheat in a moderate oven for 10-15 mins on a sheet of baking paper.

Serves 16

Maggie Beer Inspired Pears

Posted on 23 November 2012 by Linda Peek

Everyone dreams of spending a few weeks in Paris. To live there for 4 years, as we did from 1999 to 2002, is nothing short of “jammy” as my dear Uncle Ed would have said.

Our apartment was on the 8th floor of the Australian Embassy complex with spectacular views of the Eiffel Tower. Australian architect Harry Seidler designed this interesting curved building in the 1970s to house the Embassy and staff.

We crammed a lot of food and culture into those four years. Visited the Louvre so many times I could have got a job as a guide, entertained more house guests than we knew we had friends, saw in the new millenium in style, ate our way through scores of Michelin stars, became addicted to champagne (before Paris I didn’t like it very much) and travelled extensively throughout France and the region. Life’s tough, but someone has to do it.

The French played a significant role in the European discovery of Australia and if things had gone differently we could all be speaking French. French navigator Nicolas Baudin first sailed to Australia in about 1793, but two consecutive cyclones prevented him doing any work and he had to take the ship to Bombay for repairs. In 1802 he returned to Encounter Bay, just off South Australia, where he met the British navigator Matthew Flinders who was also there to map the Australian coastline. They could have saved each other a lot of time if they had come to some arrangement – okay you work your way round from here east and I’ll head west and when we meet up we can swap notes, although it could have all been lost in translation.

To mark the bicentenary of this event the Australian and French governments released postage stamps and the Embassy threw a big party. Renowned South Australian cook Maggie Beer flew in to cook up a storm and when I heard that she needed someone to help in the kitchen I put up my hand. A number of South Australian ingredients were also flown in for the occasion, including a whole tuna which arrived in what looked like a small coffin. Nobody knew quite where to start with this beast, but fortunately we found a man on the fish stall at the Rue de Grenelle markets who said “Pas de problème” before cutting it into more manageable pieces.

Two days in the kitchen with Maggie was an unforgettable experience and great fun. We laughed a lot. We made delicious goat’s cheese and leek tartlets, individual champagne sabayons served in shot glasses and deep fried soft shelled crabs, all crispy and crunchy and served with an Asian dipping sauce. It was impossible for Maggie to make all the food for the party, so the Cordon Bleu cooking school made up the shortfall. Everyone learnt a lesson on how not to serve finger food to a large number of people. Don’t send all the waiters carrying food in through the same door. Inevitably guests standing close to this door did extremely well, while those further into the throng got lean pickings. As you can see from the programme it was a wonderful evening.

Flicking through an Australian Women’s Weekly magazine at the hairdresser’s the other day I came across a quick and easy recipe for pears by Maggie Beer. The recipe uses Maggie’s famous verjuice and I have a bottle in the pantry, so I made a mental note of the ingredients and made my interpretation of the dish last night.

4 large pears (Conference or similar elongated variety)
50g unsalted butter
50g sugar
⅓ cup verjuice

Wash and dry pears, but don’t peel or core. Leave the stalks on for a nice rustic look. Slice lengthwise about ½ to ¾ cm thick. Heat butter in a large frying pan, add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add pears in one layer. If there are too many, do them in two lots. Cook slices on both sides until lightly browned, remove then do the remaining slices. Return all the pears to the pan. Add verjuice and simmer for a few minutes, shaking the pan and carefully moving the slices around and turning them, to ensure even glazing. Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4-6

Apple and Blackberry Pie

Posted on 20 November 2012 by Linda Peek

My paternal grandmother was born in Scotland, just outside Edinburgh. When she met my grandfather she was running the dairy in a stately home. As kids my Dad was always telling us that his mother could make butter into the shape of swans. My mother would roll her eyes and say if he wanted swans made of butter he’d better go back!

Jessie was a wonderful cook but she died when I was 12, a year after I started to take an interest in cooking, so she didn’t have time to teach me many tricks. She kept chickens and sold the eggs, so after my grandfather died I used to go and help her to clean them and put them in boxes. She taught me to make pastry, fruit pies, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. And a rule I have never forgotten – always put a good pinch of salt into anything sweet (such as cakes) and a good pinch of sugar into anything savoury (such as gravy) because it brings out the flavours. Jessie insisted that the success of a good gravy or white sauce depended on the way you held your mouth, pronounced “mooth”, with her soft Scottish brogue. She was what you would call a dour Scot, so I never really knew when she was joking.

Greengrocer’s in the UK sell two kinds of apples – eating apples and cooking apples. Here in Australia I have never seen cooking apples for sale commercially, except at an orchard outside Canberra in Pialligo, where they sell them for about 3 weeks in the short picking season which starts late January. For the rest of the year we have to make do with Granny Smiths, which are really not the same. The most popular cooking apple in England is the Bramley – a large lumpy fruit which makes a deliciously fluffy apple sauce to go with pork or a tangy apple pie. About two years ago Jonathan Banks at the apple farm in Pialligo grafted a Bramley for us to plant on our rural property near Braidwood. I can’t wait for it to bear fruit.

My first apple and blackberry pie was made under the watchful eye of Jessie. When her three sons were growing up she said they could eat one whole pie each. I thought this was a bit of an exaggeration, but my Dad confirmed it was true. I don’t make fruit pies very often these days, but whenever I do I’m transported back to that cozy kitchen with its wood-fired Aga stove and Nana standing watching me, holding herself up on wooden crutches. She was very tall, had undergone two unsuccessful hip operations and had a lot of difficulty getting her large frame from A to B.

The pastry I use for fruit pies is the one Jessie taught me. It uses self-raising instead of plain flour and a mixture of lard and butter. It’s not sweet, but it’s the way I like it, contrasting nicely with the filling.

Apple and Blackberry Pie

Filling:
1 kg cooking apples or Granny Smiths, peeled, cored and sliced
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
1/4 cup water
2 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
Pastry:
250g self-raising flour
75g lard
75g butter
3-4 Tbs cold water
To glaze:
A little milk or a beaten egg
Grantulated sugar

Place apples, water and sugar in a large saucepan. Cook for 10 minutes or so until softening. As Granny Smiths tend to hold their shape more than cooking apples I usually break them up a bit at this stage with a potato masher. Remove from heat and add the blackberries.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place flour, lard and butter in food processor. Process to crumbs then add water gradually through the feed chute, with the motor running. When mixture starts to form a ball stop adding water and stop the motor, tip out the pastry and form into a ball. Cut pastry in half. Roll out one half on a floured surface into a circle slightly larger than a 25-30cm pie dish or dinner plate which is not too flat – mine is 28cm. Trim off excess. Fill with apple and blackberry mixture, leaving any excess juice behind. Mop up any excess on the pastry edges with paper towels. Roll out remaining pastry to cover the fruit, trim off excess then seal and crimp the edges. Cut four holes in the pastry lid to allow steam to escape. Brush surface with milk or beaten egg and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 35-40 mins or until nicely browned. Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice cream. Keeps for several days in the fridge, then just reheat in the oven to serve.

Serves 12

Variation: use raspberries instead of blackberries or make the pie with just apples, in which case increase the quantity to about 1½ kg.

Note: It’s not a good idea to use your best dinner plates for fruit pies. Use old ones or acquire a couple at a secondhand shop.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Posted on 9 November 2012 by Linda Peek

At 3pm on the first Tuesday of November Australia comes to a virtual standstill. The Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major thoroughbred horse race, has been run since 1861. Even people who never bet on horses place a bet in this race. Lunches with sweepstakes are organised all over the country by those who can’t make it to the Flemington racecourse in Melbourne. Ladies come dressed to kill, wearing their best hat, in order to create the right atmosphere.

Asked to bring a plate to a Melbourne Cup buffet lunch I decided to make an old English favourite, Lemon Meringue Pie. As you can see, the lemon tree outside our kitchen window is laden with fruit. Last year we picked all the lemons and put them in a second fridge we keep in the garage for drinks. After a few weeks they started to go off, so this year we’ve decided to leave them on the tree and pick them as we need them. Not sure if this will affect next season’s crop, but we’ll find out.

My ceramic quiche dish holds about a litre of filling, so this makes quite a large pie. If you find you have too much filling, put the excess into little glasses to eat with a dollop of cream.

1 large fully-baked sweet shortcrust pastry shell
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup lemon juice
1 Tbs grated lemon rind
2 cups water
½ cup cornflour
3 eggs, separated
75g unsalted butter
½ cup caster sugar, extra

Keep the egg white from making the pastry and use it in the meringue.

Mix cornflour with some of the water to a smooth paste in a small bowl. Heat lemon juice, sugar, remaining water and grated rind in a saucepan. When boiling add cornflour mixture and stir until thickened with a wooden spatula. Remove from heat and mix in egg yolks and lastly butter. Cool a bit then push through a sieve to remove any bits of cooked egg white and spoon evenly into the pastry case.

With electric beaters whip the four egg whites (one left from making the pastry) with a pinch of salt until they hold soft peaks, then gradually add the extra sugar and continue whipping until you have a glossy meringue. Pile onto the lemon filling, covering completely so there are no gaps. Bake at 170°C for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool. Serve chilled.

Serves 10-12

Mango Semi-freddo with Macadamia Praline

Posted on 7 November 2012 by Linda Peek

Catherine drove from Newcastle to Canberra, to stay with us for a few days. On the way she bought a tray of mangoes from a vendor by the side of the road. James and Karen hosted a family BBQ on Sunday evening and I volunteered to bring dessert. Catherine suggested we make a mango semi-freddo with praline, so we had a look at a couple of recipes online and a few more in my large collection of cookbooks and devised this between us. A triangular tin bought in Paris about 10 years ago in a kitchen shop called E. Dehillerin made a perfect mold. I could spend hours in that shop. The mold is also a good shape for pâté and terrines.

Mango Semi-freddo with Macadamia Praline

2 large mangoes, flesh pureed in a food processor
4 eggs, separated
400ml cream
⅓ to ½ cup plus 2 Tbs caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup caster sugar
Praline:
80-100g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
⅓ cup caster sugar

Make praline: Place nuts in a small frying pan and stir for a minute or two over medium heat until lightly toasted. Tip out. Add sugar to pan. Heat and swirl until you have a nice caramel, then add nuts, mix through and tip out onto a piece of foil. Leave to cool then break into pieces and blitz very briefly in food processor. It should remain quite chunky.

Line a plastic or metal mold which holds 1.5 to 2L with plastic wrap, leaving excess hanging over. Take out three large bowls. Place egg yolks and sugar (⅓ to ½ cup according to taste) in one, cream in another and egg whites and a pinch of salt in the third. With electric beaters, whip egg whites until soft peaks, then add remaining 2 Tbs sugar and whip till thick. With the same beaters (no need to wash) whip egg yolks and sugar till pale and frothy and lastly the cream till thick. Scrape cream and meringue into egg yolk mixture, add vanilla essence, then whip the whole lot together until well mixed. Taste and if liked add a little more caster sugar.

Tip praline into mold to cover the bottom. Tip in about half the semi-freddo mixture, then drizzle with half the mango puree. Use a knife to swirl the mango evenly through, then pour in remaining semi-freddo, drizzle with the rest of the mango puree and repeat the swirling. If you have too much filling pour into small glasses and freeze individual ones.

Freeze for several hours or overnight. Remove from freezer about 20 mins before serving. Tip out onto a serving plate and cut into thick slices with a knife dipped in hot water. You may need to hold a cloth rung out in hot water on the outside of the mold for a few seconds to loosen this dessert.

Serves 10-12

Note: this recipe contains raw eggs