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.

An adventure

I am off tomorrow on a little adventure to Italy with a group of friends and will be away for a couple of weeks.  We are going to Rome, Sicily and Postiano.  There will be a lot of eating involved.  Which will be dangerous.  All in the name of research, of course.

photo - aegee.org

In the interests of thrift, I made this beautiful quince and apple jelly with star anise yesterday.  I am worried the birds will eat all the quinces while I'm away so some are going to a friend with a Thermomix so she can make quince paste.  If anyone wants the recipe just email me and I'll send it to you when I get back.

I roasted some pears and quinces that were hanging around in the fruit bowl and made a beautiful crab apple sauce to pour over them.

Just put the peeled and cored pears in a roasting tin and sprinkle lightly with castor sugar.  Add a couple of strips of lemon peel and squeeze over the juice of one lemon.  I also added a split vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick.  It wouldn't be against the rules to throw in a bay leaf if you fancied either.  Cover with foil and bake at about 150c for an hour or so.  Have a look and check it they are soft, give them more time if they need it.  The quinces, which I did in the same dish, took about 2 hours.

Gently remove the fruit to a plate while you make the sauce.  Put the pan (don't be tempted to wash it) on a gentle heat and add about a cup of boiling water.  Let it simmer while you scrape all the bits off the bottom as you would when making gravy.  When it has reduced slightly add a tablespoon of either quince or crab apple jelly.  Stir in and cook gently for another couple of minutes, tasting for sweetness.  (Add more jelly if it needs it.   It will depend on the sweetness of the fruit and how much sugar you added at the start.  Add more lemon juice if it is too sweet).  Serve with cream or ice cream.

Can someone do a rain dance while we are away?

dry creek bed

Using the autumn bounty

I am slightly overwhelmed with all the fruit and vegetables that need attention at the moment.

There are loads of quinces on the tree.  They are not quite ready, but will be perfect for making jelly next week.  I couldn't resist using a couple of the riper ones to make pot-roasted quinces though.  I roughly used Nigella Lawson's recipe, which she says she got from Maggie Beer.

Before you start, wash the down off the quinces.

Put 1/2 a kilo of castor sugar and 750ml of water in a large saucepan and add one chopped up quince (skin, pips and all).

Bring to the boil and simmer until you have a thick syrup.  This can take up to an hour, but I was impatient and only gave it 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Cut each of the remaining quinces in half (I had three) and place cut side down in a roasting tin.  Pour over enough syrup to come up to about 1cm deep and put the quinces in the oven for an hour.

Turn the heat down to 160 and cook for another 2-3 hours, basting from time to time and adding more syrup if they're drying out.  Turn occasionally to caramelise on both sides.  Mine looked a bit disastrous at this point, but seemed to look okay at the end.  These will be amazing in the AGA.

Serve with cream.

The other tree that is groaning is the crab apple:

I always make enough crab apple jelly to last a year, it is heaven with roast lamb.  Actually I have given up making gravy altogether and use crab apple or quince jelly instead.  I have to make extra this year for the school fete, which is in October.

This is my mother's recipe. Pick a big basket full:

Rinse them and put in a big pot (leave the stalks on and it doesn't seem to matter if a few leaves get in as well) and cover with water.

Bring to the boil and cook gently until tender.  This won't take long.

Strain the liquid through a fine sieve, then if you have one, put the fruit in a jelly bag (which I do, thanks Matt) and allow the juices to drain into a bowl.

Measure the liquid, and Mum's recipe says for each pint (600ml) of liquid allow 1 lb (500g) sugar.  I find this a bit sweet, so I use 400g sugar per 500ml.

Put the liquid and sugar in a large saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per 600ml and put a few cloves in a gauze bag (a clean square of chux will do, tied with string).

Bring the the boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.  

Boil until it reaches setting point (put a saucer in the freezer for 5 minutes, take it out and put a tablespoon of jelly on the saucer and return to the freezer for a couple of minutes.  If the jelly runs it is not ready, if you run your finger through it and it wrinkles it is ready).  This can take up to 45 minutes if you have a big pot, it depends on the ripeness of the fruit.

Bottle into hot jars ( I do this in the oven, about 100c for 10 minutes).

And there you have it, beautiful ruby red jelly.  Now I must address the apples, pears, quinces, rhubarb, tomatoes, late raspberries and last of the zucchini...