herbs de provence and rose olive oil cake

do you remember in the seventies when carrot cakes were all the rage? no..weren't even born then! well..believe me when i say they were de rigueur and cutting edge gastronomy back then..what? a vegetable in a cake? oil instead of butter? wow!

i got on the carrot cake bandwagon with great enthusiasm..come on..i'd just returned to australia after having lived in a small town in the mountains of northern greece for a few years..i was easily excited.. 

one day i thought i was being clever when, instead of using a flavourless oil, i used extra virgin olive oil to make my usual carrot cake..no surprise then that it tasted strongly of olive oil but my taste buds just weren't up to the flavour in a cake even though they were olive oil inured so i reverted to the flavourless stuff..now fast forward to yesterday when i put all of my decades old extra virgin olive oil in cake prejudices aside to make this recipe..the cake has herbs de provence in it too..what? herb de provence in a cake? wow!

i found the recipe for this herbs de provence and rose olive oil cake here when i was looking for ways to use all the grapefruit my girl kat gave me..the flavours in this cake intrigued me but i wasn't sure how i would like them but i think they're wonderful..i thought the rose water* would dominate but it's quite subtle and goes really well with the grapefruit..and the herbs de provence* add intriguing and delightful notes that complement the delicious fruity flavours of the olive oil..not being one to waste much i made candied peel from the juiced grapefruit skins..that was the only thing i did differently..oh..hang on..i did cut down on the sugar a bit..

note: * i used a french rose water concentrate imported by the essential ingredient purchased from here and herbs de provence, brought back from france by my dear friend robyn, that included rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram and summer savoury..

have you come across any flavours that have intrigued and surprised you lately?

bitter grapefruit and whisky* marmalade

my girl kat brought me a whole lot of home grown fruit recently that she got from work..several of her colleagues had taken apples, lemons and grapefruit to work for anyone to help themselves but because there were so few takers i became the lucky recipient..i've made a few different things as well as this marmalade but i still have many kilos of fruit left..none of it will be wasted

bitter grapefruit and whisky marmalade

tea with hazel

makes 5 jars

ingredients

1 kilo grapefruit

1 kilo sugar**

1 litre filtered water

1/3 cup whisky (i used chivas regal that was gifted to me by a friend for cooking)

method

~ cut the grapefruit in quarters, remove and retain any seeds, and then slice the fruit finely

~ place the seeds in a muslin square and tie up into a sachet with string

~ place the grapefruit and sachet in a large saucepan, add water, and leave overnight or for about 12 hours

~ boil the fruit for 30 minutes

~ add warmed sugar but do not allow to boil until the sugar has completely dissolved

~ once the sugar has dissolved boil rapidly, stirring every now and again, until set has been reached

~ add whisky and boil for a minute to cook out the alcohol

~ squeeze the seed sachet to extract as much pectin possible and discard the sachet

~ ladle the marmalade into warm sterilised jars and cap immediately

notes:
*   'whisky' denotes scottish whisky whereas the spelling 'whiskey' denotes irish or american whiskey
** i tasted the jam as it was reaching set and it was not sweet enough so, after removing the jam from the heat, i added an extra 250 gms of sugar..after the sugar had dissolved i brought it back to the boil and set was reached quickly

i really like the bitter flavour of marmalade..do you?

this post submitted to punk domestics

may in my garden

i don't think i'd fully appreciated how much work i actually do in my garden until i came back from a recent two week trip..nettles, flanders poppies and borage plants had literally taken over my front garden as well as the degraded and in need of resurfacing gravel paths..most of the seeds i'd planted a week or two prior to leaving hadn't come up..kikuyu was sprouting long tentacles from next door's lawn and from my own lawn into my various garden beds..and my broccoli seedlings had a sporty polka dot look from being eaten by cabbage moth larvae..but my neighbour's father had mown my lawns..they'd well and truly needed mowing before i went away but i'd not had time..thanks ray..you're a legend!

the hard yakka

planted

~ broad beans, radish, onion, oak leaf lettuce, carrot and sweet pea seeds directly in soil (only the broad beans and radish survived my trip away)

~ ruby chard, dill and mustard greens in a seed raising box (the chard survived)

~ broccoli and pansy seedlings

~ relocated self sown cornflower seedlings

pruned

~ lemon verbena

removed

~ eggplant bushes even though they were still producing flowers

~ parsley and rainbow chard

~ lots of the ever over abundant nettles, flanders poppy and borage 

~ invasive kikuyu from my next door neighbour and from around vegetable garden beds that threaten to take over my hard won vegetable garden beds

~ carnations from the window box 

dug

~ vegetable garden bed where parsley and rainbow chard were removed and a section of the same garden bed that i have been trying to rehabilitate with compost and manure (it was covered in concrete up until a few years ago)

composted/manured

~ continue to compost all kitchen scraps and to cut up and compost all garden waste apart from invasive bulbs such as oxalis
~ composted and manured window box for resowing

extended new vegetable garden bed

~ i covered the remaining area in another op shop purchased woollen blanket ($4) and started adding kitchen waste and cut up garden material

the rewards

picked/picking

~ green beans (blue lake)..the plants are still producing a handful of beans every few days, radishes, egg plant, spring onions, chilli and rainbow chard

~ parsley, basil, celery, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, mint, sage, chives, lemon balm, comfrey, pineapple sage, lavender, nettles, borage flowers, lilac flowers, marigold petals, violets, roses, hollyhock flowers, nasturtium leaves and flowers

~ rhubarb, the last of the pomegranate, cumquat and alpine strawberries

more hard yakka

need to

~ pick chillies for drying

~ plant peas, spinach, coriander, beetroot, mustard greens and potatoes (check seasonal suitability first)

~ plant a manure crop on bed where parsley and rainbow chard were removed and in the area being rehabilitated

~ replant onion, lettuce, carrot and sweet pea seeds 

_ replant carnations in window boxes

~ finish tidying garden edges

~ stay on top of weeding

~ remove bean plants when production ceases

~ pick crabapples

~ transplant lemon verbena and black currant bush
~ mow lawn (i use a hand mower)

rainbow chard, rice and lemon soup*

tea with hazel

ingredients**

1-2 bunches of young rainbow chard well washed

6 spring onions cut fine

3 celery stalks cut fine

6 cloves garlic cut fine

1/2 cup chopped parsley 

1/2 cup chopped celery leaves

1/4 cup torn mint leaves

1 cup arborio rice

2 litres stock (i used homemade)

juice of 1/2 lemon per serve

olive oil

salt and pepper

method

~ remove stalks from chard and cut into approximately 2 cms pieces and cut leaves to desired size

~ in a large saucepan heat a few tablespoons of olive oil, add chard stalks, celery stalks, and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes

~ add rice and cook for a few more minutes

~ add stock and bring to the boil and cook until the rice is al dente

~ add chard and celery leaves and mint and parsley and cook until the leaves are softened

~ add salt and pepper to taste

serving

~ drizzle each bowl with lemon juice and a little oil

rainbow chard coloured broth

notes

* this soup was inspired by a greek dish called spanakorizo (spinach rice)..i love the flavour of dill but i didn't have any growing so i added mint instead
** all the greens were from my garden

see you next month for 'june in my garden'

cumquat cordial

please don't judge me too harshly when i tell you this but i've watched the film 'meet the parents'! there's a scene in the film where milking a cat is discussed..now you're probably wondering what the heck cumquat cordial has got to do with cats and their mammaries but bear with me..

i've made a few cumquat recipes over the last few years..there've been brandied cumquats and cumquat peel, cumquat jelly (the  gelatine one), cumquat marmalade, cumquat jelly (the jam one), cumquat curd and cumquat delicious (like lemon delicious but without the lemon)..and i've added cumquat marmalade to bread and cake..if you had a cumquat tree like mine you'd understand..and you can't give them away because the only people i know who'd be interested in all things cumquat already have their own supply to deal with..but don't get me wrong here people..i'm not complaining..it's just that cumquats are so small..yeah they're ever so cute and they smell adorable but they're the devil to juice..

cumquat cordial

sally wise

i doubled the recipe which made 6 bottles

ingredients

1000 gms cumquats washed and stems removed
3 kgs sugar
8 cups boiling water
2 heaped tablespoon citric acid

method

~ place sugar, citric acid and water in a large bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved
~ process cumquats finely, add to the sugar solution, and then leave until cool
~ strain through a muslin lined sieve pressing to extract as much juice possible
~ pour into sterilized bottles and refrigerate

to serve

~ a splash of cordial with soda water or water

comments

even though this cordial is delicious i think it needs a higher cumquat to sugar ratio..and that's not just because i've got so many cumquats i don't know what to do with them! to counteract the sweetness i've been adding some fresh juice to each glass of made up cordial and that's worked well but next time i make the cordial i'm going to add it directly to the syrup to get the tangy flavour i'm after..i've given up on the juicer method since i made a miraculous discovery that's entirely technology free..i just squeeze each half between my fingers..mieow!

do you make cordial? if so what's your favourite?

jubilee cake

this is a cake that my mother used to make when i was a child and it's been one that i've wanted to make for ages..i have fond memories of my mother making it to take on the picnics that we went on regularly..i can make heavy weather of packing for a picnic but in no time my mother would throw together a few chops or sausages, bread, butter and sometimes a jubilee cake and off we'd go..

the jubilee cake or loaf was created in 1936 for south australia's 100th jubilee year and the recipe* was published in the 1936 edition of the 'green and gold cookery book'..i'm not overly fond of using the baking recipes in this book because i find the measurements inexact and the instructions unclear so i used the jubilee cake recipe* in 'the blue ribbon cookbook' by liz harfull..it's a book of recipes and anecdotes from south australian prizewinning country show cooks..

after making the jubilee cake for the first time i can say that it's a winner..the flavour and texture belie the simplicity of the ingredients and how quickly and easily it's made..in a way it's a bit like scones in the sense that it can be made and served in no time and with staple pantry items..it's the sort of cake i'd now make for impromptu guests or if i wanted something with a cup of tea after a day in the garden..

best eaten slightly warm with butter

note: * for copyright reasons i'm unable to post the jubilee cake recipe from 'the blue ribbon cookbook' but the recipes from the 'green and gold' are quite similar but this recipe from the cwa (country women's association) offers a different method..

crab apple paste

this year my crab apple tree (malus gorgeous) produced its largest yet crop of crabs and, because they looked so pretty on the tree, i was tempted to leave them on the tree well into the winter months..i did that last year though and many dropped to the ground and rotted so by the time i noticed there were only a few left..

in the past i've always used the fruit to make crab apple jelly but this year i didn't really want to make any more jelly..that's because i'd made a few, albeit small, quantities of different jellies in late summer with various mixes of blackberries, elderberries, apples and plums..having made quince paste a few days earlier the idea of using the crabs to make crab apple paste was just a natural progression..

crab apple paste

tea with hazel

ingredients

crab apples (mine weighed 1500 gms)

sugar

lemons

method

~ remove the crab apple stalks and wash well

~ place in a shallow baking tray with a couple of tablespoons of water, cover with foil, and bake at 160 deg c for an hour or until soft

~ puree the fruit in a mouli

~ measure the pulp and place in a large saucepan

~ for every cup of pulp add 3/4 cup of sugar and the juice of 1/2 a small lemon

~ place the saucepan over a diffuser and heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved then increase heat and cook stirring regularly until thick and the spoon leaves a trail on the bottom of the saucepan 

~ spoon the paste into a baking paper lined tin and leave to set for 24 hours

~ cut into squares and store in an airtight container or wrap pieces in baking paper strips and place in cellophane bags

comments:

~ i like quite a tangy paste but for a sweeter palate increase sugar to 1 cup per cup of pulp

~ the quantity of fruit i had made 16 generous pieces of crab apple paste which cost, excluding the cost of gas and electricity, about $0.03/piece

verdict:

i wasn't sure how the crab apple paste would turn out but it has a lovely colour and, even though i've only tasted a small piece, a delightfully tangy crab apple flavour..i plan on doing a cheese board with bread as part of dinner for my children tomorrow night so it'll be interesting to see how it's received by them..