preserved lemons

Preserved lemons are great in stews and casseroles, and in salads (using just the rind, cut into thin strips).  They are especially delicious with chicken and fish.

Ingredients

about 12 unwaxed lemons

about 1 1/12 kg sea salt

1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

boiling water

Sterilise 2 x 1 litre jars by boiling them (and their lids) in a big pot of boiling water for a few minutes, or putting them in the dishwasher on the hottest cycle.

Rinse the lemons, and then partially split them into quarters with a knife, leaving enough of the bottom intact to keep the lemon together.  Fill them generously with salt.  Divide the lemons and lemon juice between the jars, and sprinkle per another generous handful of salt.  Fill to the top with boiling water.

Put the lids on tightly and put the jars into a dark place for at least three weeks, shaking them every now and again.  They should keep for at least a year unopened.

Rinse off the lemons before you use them.  Once you’ve opened a jar, keep it in the fridge.

pimms

Pimms Cup is a great cocktail for summer.  Pimm's is the much loved, gin-based drink of England, containing quinine and a secret mixture of herbs - a recipe said to be known to only six people. Originally consumed as an aid to digestion, Pimm's was served in a small tankard known as the 'No. 1 Cup', hence its name. A signature Pimm's is made mixed with lemonade or ginger ale, fruit, mint, and served over ice.

For one litre

1 cup Pimms No 1 liqueur

1 1/2 cups lemonade

1 1/2 cups ginger ale

1/2 a cucumber, cut into thin rounds

1/2 lemon, cut into thin slices

1/2 an orange, cut into thin slices

1/2 a lime, cut into thin slices

1/2 a cup of mint leaves

Fill a big glass jug with this and plenty of ice

It will be gone before you know it!

Jo's lemon curd

Lemon curd is very easy to make and is all lemony and buttery - like sunshine in a jar!  Eat it on toast or scones,  or you can make lemon curd cupcakes, or lemon tart,  or lemon meringue pie ....

Lemon curd

Grated rind and juice of 4 lemons

4 beaten eggs

4 oz butter

1 lb white sugar

Sterilise two jam jars by boiling them (and their lids) in a big saucepan of water for a few minutes, or put them in a dishwasher on a hot setting.  Leave them to cool.

Put all the ingredients in a double saucepan (or just on a low heat).

Stir until sugar is dissolved. Continue heating stirring from time to time

until curd thickens. Put in sterilized jars.

Makes 2 x jam jars

Keep in fridge once opened – that is if there is any left!

gillie's ginger biscuits

These are best eaten hot and straight out of the oven.  You can vary the amount and type of ginger you put in - Gillie's recipe uses ground ginger, but I've tried with fresh and a semi dried variety and they are all delicious.  To make ginger snaps, roll out the dough until it's about half a cm thick instead of rolling it into balls, and use a cookie cutter to cut them into shapes.

ginger biscuits

ingredients

125 g butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup  golden syrup

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 teaspoon bi-carb soda

a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190ºC.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.  Add the syrup and beat to mix.  Stir through the ginger.  Sift the flour and bi-carb and salt together and add to wet ingredients. Mix until it forms a dough.  Roll into walnut sized balls and put on a baking tray covered with baking paper.  Squash the balls slightly with a fork.  Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.

For something completely different ....

I did a wedding photography workshop with Jonas Peterson, who is one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world.  Check out his work - it's amazing.  Jonas is Swedish and for tea he served us ginger snaps with blue cheese.  It's a really delicious combination - give it a try!

Jo's beer bread

This is a more of a scone than a bread so it won't keep for more than a day or so and is best served straight out of the oven with lots of butter.  It's really easy to make and you don't have to wait for the dough to rise so it's done in less than an hour.  The name of the recipe is 'Willie's Creek damper bread' - Willie's Creek is a pearl farm near Broome in Western Australia and is apparently very famous for it's damper bread.  Serve it with soup or cheese or just butter.

Willie's Creek Damper bread

2 tbsp sugar

1 can beer

3 cups self raising flour

Mix the sugar and beer together and add the flour slowly until you get a soft dough (you may need to add a little more flour).  Put in a greased loaf tin and bake in a medium oven (180C) for about 35 minutes or until it's golden and cooked through.

pumpkin, butternut and sweet potato soup

This is a lovely warm, thick, golden soup for a cold winter's day.  Here are two versions of this soup, one where the pumpkin, butternut and sweet potato are roasted, and one where they aren't.  I've been making the un-roasted version for a long time, and learnt the roasted version from Penny, who served it in little paper cups as part of the canapés at an autumn themed wedding.   The roasted version has a smokier taste to it and I add more curry powder to make it a bit spicer.  You can change the proportions of the butternut, pumpkin and sweet potato, or make it just with butternut or just with sweet potato, but I like the combination of all three of them best.

Ingredients

I large butternut squash, chopped

a similar amount of pumpkin, chopped

1-2 large sweet potatoes, chopped

1 potato, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 thumb size piece of ginger, grated

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp curry powder

6 cups+  chicken stock

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

to serve

sour cream

freshly grated parmesan

chopped chives

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan and cook the onions gently until soft.  Add the ginger and the curry powder and cook for about a minute.   Add the potato, butternut, pumpkin and sweet potato and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes.  Add the chicken stock (enough to cover the vegetables), and garlic, and simmer, covered, until all the vegetables are soft (about 15-20 minutes).  Let it cool a little and then put it in a liquidiser or use a stick blender to blend it until it’s just smooth. (Add a little more chicken stock if necessary).  Don’t over blend the soup or it will go gluey.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve with a spoonful of sour cream, freshly grated parmesan and chopped chives and some crusty bread (Jo’s beer bread is particularly nice with this!).

Penny’s roasted version 

Use the same ingredients but toss the butternut, sweet potato and pumpkin in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a flat tray in the oven at about 200 C until the vegetables are soft.  Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan and cook the onions gently until soft.  Add the ginger and 1 tablespoon of curry powder and cook for about a minute.   Add the potato and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes.  Add the roasted vegetables, garlic and the chicken stock (enough to cover the vegetables), and simmer, covered, until all the vegetables are soft (about 15-20 minutes).  Let it cool a little and then put it in a liquidiser or use a stick blender to blend it until it’s just smooth. (Add a little more chicken stock if necessary).  Don’t over blend the soup or it will go gluey.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Top with sour cream.

Gaetano's spaghetti carbonara

Graeme was taught to make this carbonara by Gaetano, the Italian security guard at King's College when he was at the University of Queensland.  Gaetano is from Florence, and as with all original Italian recipes that haven't been Americanised, I think it is the best I've tasted.  It doesn't use any cream so it isn't as rich as most carbonaras, but it's delicious and it's really simple to make.

Spaghetti Carbonara

100g bacon or pancetta

100g parmesan

(or 50g pecorino and 50g parmesan)

3 large eggs

350g spaghetti 

2  garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

50g butter

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

fresh chopped parsley

Put a large saucepan of water on to boil. Finely chop the bacon, having first removed any rind. Finely grate both cheeses and mix them together. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, season with a little black pepper and set everything aside.

Add 1 tsp salt to the boiling water, add the spaghetti and when the water comes back to the boil, cook at a constant simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until al dente (just cooked).

Squash the garlic with the blade of a knife, just to bruise it. While the spaghetti is cooking, fry the bacon or pancetta in the butter with the garlic on a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the bacon is golden and crisp. The garlic has now imparted its flavour, so take it out with a slotted spoon and discard.

When the pasta is ready lift it from the water with a pasta fork or tongs and put it in the frying pan with the bacon.   Save a little of the pasta water.

Mix most of the cheese in with the eggs, keeping a small handful back for sprinkling over later. Take the pan of spaghetti and pancetta off the heat. Now quickly pour in the eggs and cheese and, using the tongs or a long fork, lift up the spaghetti so it mixes easily with the egg mixture, which thickens but doesn’t scramble, and everything is coated.  Season with a little salt, if needed.

Use a long-pronged fork to twist the pasta on to the serving plate or bowl. Serve immediately with a little sprinkling of the remaining cheese and a grating of black pepper and some chopped parsley.

 (If the dish does get a little dry before serving, splash in a little hot pasta water) 

pizza

I have a rather passionate dislike for pizzas in Australia - they have big doughy bases and far too many toppings so they are very heavy and cheesy and wet, quite unlike the Italian pizzas which are so thin and crisp with minimal but delicious toppings.  Making your own pizza dough is a bit of a schlep so I use a flat, round piece of lebanese bread as the base and it turns out lovely and light and crispy.

I use my electric pizza oven which is the next best thing to a proper pizza oven, but if you don't have either try and get a pizza stone so that the base cooks as quickly as the topping.  Be warned though - these pizzas cook really quickly!

1 packet lebanese bread

1 bottle good quality tomato-based pasta sauce

fresh mozzarella or bocconchini

grated cheese

Spread a couple of spoons of the pasta sauce on the base
and dot with pieces of mozzarella 

sprinkle with a little grated cheese and add any toppings you like:

eg salami, palma ham, prosciutto

olives, anchovies, mushrooms

fresh herbs e.g. basil

salt and pepper to taste

cook on a pizza stone in a hot oven for 5 to 10 mins

top with fresh herbs

Be economical with the toppings.  One of the most delicious pizzas I had in Italy was a 'pizza fresco' (below) which was a cooked pizza base topped with fresh tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and basil.  Yum.