A little bit nutty...

Pistachio nuts that is!

In another first for me I got to use fresh pistachios in some baking this week. My neighbour J has a pistachio tree and picked some pistachios for me. They have a beautiful pink husk when ripe that is easy to remove revealing the shell and pistachio nut beneath. The fresh nut is more milkly than the dried nut - a bit like pistachio icecream. I decided to make a cake with the pistachios but you could also dry roast them in the oven and just eat them!

Yogurt and Pistachio Cake

1 cup Pistachio Nuts
1 cup plain Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
6 Medium Eggs -- separated
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Remove as much skin from the pistachios as possible then grind the nuts finely in a food processor.

Butter and flour a 26cm springform tin inch.

Sift flour with baking soda and baking powder.

Beat egg yolks with half the sugar until pale and very thick. Mix in the yogurt and then the olive oil. Fold in the flour and nuts.

Beat egg whites to form soft peaks. Add remaining sugar and beat to firm peaks. White should look shiny and not dry and granular. Gently fold egg whites into the batter.

Pour into the pan and bake 55 minutes or until done. Cool on a rack.

This week it's been figs...

This past week I have been busy doing things with figs. We have a very old fig tree down near the creek that has been bearing some fruit. The crop is fairly sparse tho as the tree has been without water (the creek is dry). So I have been picking half a dozen every other day. T loves them and eats them straight off the try. Have yet to get B to try any....
My neighbour J has 2 fig trees that are very well cared for (unlike mine) and she gave me a bucket full of beautiful figs last week. A bucketful is way too many to eat fresh so I went thru the cookbooks again and came up with...

Crystallised Figs

J let me try some that she had done last year and they were yum. She tells me that they are divine when dipped in chocolate so I thought I would give it a go.

500g fresh figs

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup water

2tblsp vinegar

Cut the ends off the figs and prick them all over with a fork.

Bring the sugar, water and vinegar to the boil. Place the figs in the boiling syrup and boil gently for 3 hours

Take the figs out of the syrup and place on a wire tray and allow to stand for 2 days in an airy place. Turn the figs over every 24 hours.

Pop in the oven on the lowest temperature setting (mine was 80 degrees) to help dry them out. Check every 6 hours or so. It may take 24 hours or more for them to be dry enough.

Store in an airtight container.

I have yet to dip them in chocolate but will do it on the weekend and let you know the results.

As well as crystallising the figs I thought I would give a chutney a go. I was after something a bit more savoury rather than sweet like jam and the addition of ginger into the mix helped that. This chutney goes really nicely with cheese, especially a sharp cheddar....

I have frozen the syrup, which was the most beautiful rose colour, to use later in the year as a marinade for pork or ham.

Gingered Fig Chutney

4lbs ripe figs

2 lemons

3lbs sugar

3 cups of water

5 tblsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

Trim the stems on the figs and cut a small cross in the base of each one.

Slice the lemons thinly.

Simmer the figs in the water and spices for 5 minutes, add the sugar and simmer over a low heat until the figs become glassy and the syrup thickens. This is will take about an hour. Bottle into jars immediately.

R and I actually tried some of the syrup poured over ice-cream and it was wonderful!

If all of this is too labour intense you can always cut the figs in half, sprinkle with brown sugar and roast in the oven for around 20mins at 200 degrees. The sugar will caramelise and the figs will soften. Yum...

It's harvest time

It is harvest time in the Barossa and this morning we watched our neighbour machine pick four rows of Petit Verdot. The picking is staggered depending on the readiness of the grapes and they can either be machine picked or picked by hand.

Our neighbours have 28ha of vines and many different varieties. They also have 27 varieties of table grapes which we have been lucky enough to try.

I feel lucky to be able to see the workings of a vineyard...now I just need the wine education!

What to do with fruit from the branch...

I got some lovely fruit from a friend in the Adelaide Hills last week - fresh from her garden. Beautiful peaches that taste like they SHOULD taste. The way they used to taste when mum would buy them from the local orchard when we were kids. It has been YEARS since I have tasted such wonderful peaches. It seems that nowadays things are grown to look good and last a long time in the supermarket rather than for taste. The older peach varieties are not much to look at but they make up for it in taste. They also don't keep as long as the newer varieties so you either need to eat them up quickly or stew them. We ate some and I stewed the last few up. This is very easy!

* Peel the peaches and halve to remove the seeds(this will be easy if the peaches are freestone varieties. If they are clingstones you will need to cut around the seed). Pop into a saucepan with a little bit of water and some sugar if you like. Cook slowly and simmer until the fruit is soft. Cool and store in the fridge. It will last for about a week. *

Then you can enjoy your stewed fruit with yoghurt for brekky or warmed with custard and icecream for dessert!

I also was lucky enough to get some blood plums from my friend's garden too. Beautiful and juicy but too many to eat all at once! As I had already stewed the peaches I went looking for something slightly different to do with the plums and came up with this recipe.

Poached Plums

1 1/2 cups water
1 cup of port (or red wine)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 stick cinnamon
750g plums, halved

In a saucepan place all the ingredients except the plums. Over low heat bring to a simmer, stirring as you go to dissolve the sugar. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the plums gently and simmer for 10 minutes then remove from the heat and allow to cool in the liquid. Pop in a container and keep in the fridge for a week.

Divine with icecream!

So our desserts are sorted for the week. I froze a batch of the plums for later. I think they will be great on a cold winter's night!

Baking for the Tanunda Show - Part 2

Date and Walnut Rolls

I like this recipe because it's a bit old fashioned and you need a nutroll tin to do it. You can still buy these tins new but I think the old ones that you pick up at the op shop are better!

This recipe makes 2 rolls so it helps to have tw0 tins! You could also use a loaf pan if you like.

1 cup (160g) chopped dates
1 cup (200g) brown sugar
1 cup water
60g butter
2 cups (300g) SR flour, sifted
1/2 cup (60g) chopped walnuts
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease 2 nut roll tins with lids.

Combine the dates, sugar, water and butter in a small saucepan. Stir on low heat for 1-2 minutes, without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.

Stir flour, walnuts, eggs and bicarb into the date mixture. Mix well. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins, filling only half full.

Replace the lids and bake, standing upright for 30-35 minutes. Stand for 10minutes before removing from the tins.

I received a 2nd placing for this cake in the Show!

Baking for the Tanunda Show

Have had a busy couple of days baking cakes and biscuits to enter in the local Tanunda Show. I decided to enter 4 categories: Cooking with Grapes (sweet), Fruit and Nut Roll, Machine baked bread and Anzac biscuits.

Cooking with Grapes (sweet) - GRAPE CAKE

This is a recipe that is based on one from a Barossa recipe book called Riches from the Vine. Maggie Beer also has a version too.

3 eggs

150g castor sugar

1/3 cup olive oil (extra virgin)

60g melted unsalted butter

75ml milk

200g SR flour

finely grated zest of 3 lemons

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

3 cups of seedless grapes (a mix of red and white is attractive)

2 tblsp demerara sugar.

Preheat oven to 180C (fan forced)

Grease and line a deep 20 0r 22cm springform cake tin with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer beat the eggs and sugar together until they are pale and thick. Add the butter, oil and milk and mix together well.

Sift the flour and stir in the zest and nutmeg.

Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Add 2/3 of the grapes and stir just to combine. Pour into the prepped tin and bake for 15minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining grapes and the demerara sugar. Return the cake to the oven and bake for another 40minutes. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Release the springform and leave the cake to cool.

This is very nice warm too and would go very nicely served with a dollop of cream!

Am very happy to say that I received 2nd placing in the Cooking with Grapes category with this cake. The prize was $30!

Well here we are!

As the title suggests we are in Rowland Flat for a year, having relocated from the Riverina in NSW. This is just going to be a bit of a ramble really - a sharing of experiences and recipes! I do like to bake and will be sharing recipes as the year goes on.

So far it's been 3 weeks in the new house. I shouldn't really refer to her as new though I guess as the original part of the house was built in 1847, with a second building attached in 1900. So she is old! It is taking me a while to warm to her. I loved her in the beginning...romanticised what life with her would be like before we moved in. The reality is a little different! Lots of dust, lots of cracks and holes and .......creepy crawlies!!! I had conveniently forgotten what living in the country was like!

But after hubby has plugged alot of cracks and we have unpacked more of our stuff I am slowly starting to feel better. It's going to be an interesting 12 months!