Lemon time

When the snowflakes are out, I know it's really winter, and gosh haven't we been dealt some wintry weather lately?  It's been very hard to prise myself out of the warm doona in the dark to take the dogs for a run in the mornings (let's just say that it doesn't happen every morning) and I think they prefer to be here anyway...

The farm is looking lovely and green at the moment, although it's hardly wet 'n muddy, which it often is at this time of the year.  We have been carrying what can only be described as the United Nations of the cattle world.....

We had a lovely trip to New Zealand in the holidays, to stay with some friends near Queenstown.  It is impossibly beautiful.....

and enormous fun. 

When we got home I was faced with the urgent need to prune the roses.  It's a big job, but I'm always so glad when it's done:

The Albertine is always the worst

After very busy holidays with the kids home and two lovely English vet students staying with us it is all very quiet on the kitchen front.  Tim is off carbs, dairy and sugar which is somewhat limiting but I must do all I can to support him.  As you can see the lemon tree is fully laden so I have putting them to work and not just in the gin and tonics.

In this jar is the peel of 3-4 lemons and vinegar.  I leave the lemon and vinegar to infuse for 2-3 weeks then dilute it 50/50 with water and use it as a multi purpose spray.

Cheap, effective and environmentally friendly...got to love that.  I also made a lemon syrup yoghurt cake, which has to go into the category of an oldie but a goodie:

LEMON SYRUP YOGHURT CAKE - with a whisper of rosemary:

185g butter, softened

1/2 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup ground almonds

1/2 teasp bicarb soda

1/2 cup natural yoghurt (I use greek)

2 lemons

Syrup:

2 lemons

1/4 cup castor sugar

1 sprig rosemary

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease and line a 20-22cm round cake tin.

Cream butter and sugar for a few minutes until pale then beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides as you go.

Sift flour and bicarb soda and fold in with the almonds.

Gently mix in the yoghurt and the grated juice and rind of two lemons.

Turn into tin and bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on your oven. 

While the cake is in the oven make the syrup so the rosemary can infuse.

Heat the juice and zest of two lemons with sugar and the rosemary in a saucepan stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Set aside.

The cake will be ready when it is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Using the skewer, poke holes all over the cake and pour the syrup over so that it can soak in.  Allow to cool in the tin then using a plate over the top, flip it over then flip onto your serving plate.  You can make some more syrup for when you serve it up if you like.  This is one of my all time favourite cakes, on a par with Nigella Lawson's Damp Lemon and Almond Cake from How to be a Domestic Goddess, which uses rather more butter and eggs.

Another use for the mighty lemon is this herby lemon salt from The Kitchn, I am definitely going to make a jar of that this afternoon.  I also whipped up a lemony salsa verde, which would go so well with lamb, beef or chicken...

Of course it is also time for Seville oranges, so I always make my year's supply of marmalade in the middle of winter:

PS:  If anyone would like some lemons let me know.  I also have lots of purple iris if anyone needs to fill a dry sunny patch in the garden.  This is what they looked like in the spring:

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.

And welcome 2013

Well we are a month into the year, I hope it is treating you well so far.  It has been a busy month of holidays, with plenty of beach time ...

with short periods at home in a mad frenzy of trying to resuscitate my dying garden.  The front lawn looks like this:

It is beyond depressing.  It is just so dry, until last Thursday we hadn't had a drop of rain since October, which is rare in this part of the world....driest Spring/Summer since 1932.  No matter how much water (in our case slightly salty bore water) I put on, there is no substitute for the nitrogen-rich rain that falls from the sky.  The 13 mm we had on Thursday has freshened up the garden a bit, but will probably not help the summer crops.  Even the real dry weather garden stalwarts, like the roses, buddlieas and euphorbias are looking miserable.  The plumbago seems happy even though it gets no water..

And think of those poor Queenslanders, who have been flooded out for the second time in two years.

Even the agapanthus looks scorched

We have not had a good start to the year.  It is largely utilities that are letting us down:  no power last Friday, a massive burst water pipe in the garden (no water for days on end) and our rainwater has run out.  It is unheard of for this to happen before the end of January.  And our hot water service in the bathroom has packed it in.

There's plenty of action in the veggie garden

so there's been apricot jam, zucchini slice and pesto galore.  I also made some zucchini soup which I am proud to announce was made exclusively with vegetables from the garden:  yellow zucchini, onion, garlic and a potato to thicken it  up.  Even the chicken stock was homemade:

I was given a large bucket of blood plums so I made plum sauce..

and a very nice plum cake:

PLUM CAKE

200g butter

2 cups castor sugar

1 tblsp honey

6-8 blood plums (mine were very small so I used a lot more), halved and stones removed

3 eggs

slosh of vanilla essence

200g SR flour

1/4 teasp Dutch cinnamon

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Butter and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.

Put half the butter and sugar into a saucepan with the honey and heat until the butter is melted.  Pour this into the cake tin and swirl to cover the base.  Arrange the plums cut side up over the mixture.

Beat the remaining butter and sugar until light.  Add eggs, one at a time and add vanilla.

Add flour, cinnamon and milk and fold gently until just combined.

Spoon the mixture over the plums and bake for approx 45 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Put on a rack and cool in the tin.

Run a knife around the edge of the cake and place a serving plate on the top and invert the cake.  Leave for a minute or two then gently remove the tin.  Serve with cream.

A little rain

You will not believe this.  Whilst much of northern Victoria and 75% of New South Wales are practically underwater, it is still incredibly dry here.  Here is a photo I took last week.  The sheep have gathered in a circular formation because we are feeding beans out to them to supplement the feed in the paddocks.

I know I'm always going on about rain.  On the land it can make or break your year: it can mean holiday or no holiday, going ahead with house rennos or not, being able to pay school fees or not.  I just hope that after the floods subside, that the country will flourish, and help those affected recover from more than ten years of drought.

In less weighty matters, look at the lovely apples on the tree.  And I take it back what I said about the tomatoes, they are coming thick and fast now, I'll soon be able to make sauce and relish.....

We did have some rain last Friday night and woke up on Saturday morning to no power, which goes beyond not having lights, stove or technology (we couldn't download the Saturday papers!).  It meant no water pressure (no pump), and no phones as mobiles don't work in the house.  Oh the silence.  It didn't come back on until lunch time.  There wasn't much rain, just enough to give me a few day's reprieve from watering.

We discovered this little fellow in a tree about five metres away from the house...

the dog sat and stared at it for hours..

He was gone the next day and hasn't been seen since.  Does anyone else find that bananas these days go from this

to this in ABOUT FIVE MINUTES??

I have been making frozen banana ice cream (just bung chopped banana in the freezer for a couple of hours then whizz in the food processor...it is surprisingly good), muffins for the lunch box and banana cake.  If you are not in the mood for cooking just put them (whole, unpeeled) in a plastic bag and freeze them for a later date.  They will only be good for cakes or muffins.

BANANA CAKE

1/2 cup sultanas

1 tblsp golden syrup

170g butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 teasp vanilla essence

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 3/4 cups SR flour

1 teasp bicarb soda

Line a loaf tin with baking paper.  Preheat the oven to 180c.

Put the sultanas in a saucepan, cover with water and simmer for 5 minutes.  Strain off the water and add the golden syrup to the sultanas.  Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, mix well, then add bananas and buttermilk.  Sift flour and bicarb soda and fold in gently.  Stir in the sultanas.  (Add a bit more milk or buttermilk if the mix looks dry).

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack.

Christmas goodies

Still praying for rain.  It is so dry here.  Apparently some is coming tonight.  The Chinese Star Jasmine doesn't seem to mind.

I love these garlic plants coming into flower, it is like they have their own little hat..

I have been busy cooking up Christmas goodies to give as presents this week.  I have made lemon cordial and summer berry jam as well as preserved lemons and apricot jam,

 which I always make in December.   In a mad rush of blood to the head I was going to make a Christmas cake but decided to make a Bara Brith, which, according to our English jackaroo, is a popular Welsh fruit cake.  It is infinitely easier to make than a Christmas cake and although not necessarily a Christmas treat, I thought I should make it for him, he being so far away from home 'n all, and besides, his mother is Welsh.

After a bit of googling I discovered it is translated as 'speckled bread' and many recipes have yeast, but as luck would have it in a trawl through my recipe folder I found a clipping with an easier recipe, which I think came from Matthew Evans:

BARA BRITH

500g mixed dried fruit (just sultanas, raisins & currants)

85g sugar

300ml hot tea, best made in a pot

500g SR flour

2 tblsp marmalade

2 teasp mixed spice

1 egg, beaten

warmed honey to glaze

Start the day before.  Mix the fruit and sugar in a large bowl and pour over the hot tea.  Leave overnight.

Preheat the oven to 170c.  Grease and line a large loaf tin (or two smaller ones, it freezes well).

Give the fruit a stir and add the flour, marmalade, mixed spice and egg.  Mix well.

Put the mix into the loaf tin and bake for about an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.  Brush the top with warm honey when it comes out of the oven.  Cool in the tin for about five minutes before turning out on a cake rack.   Good with butter and a cup of tea.  This has been going out with the packed lunches to the sheep yards all week.

Rhubarb, rhubarb

The rhubarb that I moved from our old vegetable garden to the new one seems overwhelmingly happy with its new location..

to the point that I'm not really sure what to do with it all.  I give a bunch to everyone who walks in the door (along with some eggs).  There is only so much rhubarb crumble and its variations that the family is prepared to eat (even though we have an eighteen year old English jackaroo in residence, who is, by his own admission, always hungry), and I have never found a rhubarb jam or chutney recipe that really took my fancy.

The world of Google is however, a wonderful place.  I found a recipe for roasted rhubarb and buttermilk ice cream here.

Buttermilk was originally the liquid left behind after cream is churned into butter.  Now it is basically skim milk with culture added to it, which results in a  lovely acidic flavour, not unlike yoghurt.  So good news, it is low in fat.  It is wonderful for baking and in pancakes.

The ice cream is so easy.  Roast the rhubarb till soft, mix in buttermilk and vanilla, then churn in an ice cream maker.  The flavour of the ice cream is good, but when it freezes it is so rock solid it takes an hour to thaw out and would be best on the day you make it.  I think it needs cream in the mixture.  So when I've perfected the recipe, I'll pass it on.  I roasted the rhubarb in a hot oven so it was browned on the edges and beautifully caramelised, reminding me of Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig and Honeycomb ice cream.

I had some buttermilk left over so I thought I should make a cake.  I ended up with a cross between a tarte tatin and an upside down cake, all cooked in the same pan, and yes, we do anything to save on dishes.  This came from Rachel Allen.

RHUBARB CAKE

50g butter

150g brown sugar

400g rhubarb, cut into 2cm pieces

200g plain flour

1 teasp baking powder

pinch salt

2 eggs

200ml buttermilk

70ml vegetable oil

1 teaspoon grated ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 180c.

Melt the butter in an ovenproof frying pan (mine is 26cm in diameter).  Add half the sugar and stir to dissolve.  Add the rhubarb and mix gently.  Set aside.

Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk lightly.  In a separate bowl or jug whisk the eggs, add rest of sugar, buttermilk and oil.  Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Pour over the rhubarb and place in the oven.  Cook for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool for 5 - 10 minutes then turn it out.  I put a large plate face down over the pan and flipped it over.  Lovely with cream.