Autumn needs to become Autumn

We gazed longingly at the radar yesterday, watching a rain front crossing South Australia and held our breath in hope.  7mm.  It's a start.  2 inches would be nice.  I am still dragging hoses around the parched garden which just seems wrong when it is cold enough to light the fires.

There has been plenty going on in the kitchen, as it always does in Autumn, with quince and crab apple jelly underway, pesto being made with the remaining basil and roasted tomato sauce with the last of the tomatoes, which just seem to keep on coming.  I made this beetroot dip a while ago, using some beetroot from a friend's garden:

It is very simple and makes a good healthy homemade dip:

Wash 3 big or about 5-6 small beetroot and top and tail them.  Put them into a roasting tin with about 3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled, cover with foil and bake at 180c for about half an hour until the beetroot is tender.  Allow to cool, then peel off the skins (your fingers may become purple so use gloves if you prefer).  Squeeze the pulp out of the garlic.  Put into the food processor and add about a cup of natural yoghurt, a handful of chopped mint and salt and pepper to taste.

Yesterday I slow roasted some quinces, froze some and made a cake with the rest.  This cake would work with any suitable fruit: apples, pears, plums etc. You could also make this as an upside down cake and put the fruit in the tin first.

QUINCE CAKE

2 roasted or poached quinces

125g butter

3/4 cup castor sugar

3 eggs

Zest of one lemon

1 teasp vanilla essence

1 cup SR flour

1/3 cup ground almonds

100g sour cream or natural yoghurt 

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Slice the quinces and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light.  Add eggs, zest and vanilla and combine.

Fold in flour, almonds and sour cream/yoghurt.

Pour into tin and arrange the quince slices on the top.

Bake for about 40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  It took quite a while for the centre to be fully cooked, so make sure you check.

Allow the cake to cool, then turn out on a wire rack.  Serve with cream.  Or ice cream.