Lady Lunchalot

Zoeball has been going on and on and on about the amazing flavour of her sweet onion jam. I’m yet to taste her version (hmph), and yet to receive the recipe which she promised me for Blogathon a month ago… (double hmph)… so I decided to make up my own recipe in time for Sugar High Friday.

The theme of this month’s Sugar High Friday is preserving, however all those beautiful summer fruits that Northern hemisphere cooks are preserving at the moment are still a few months off down here. And while Sweet Onion Jam is not strictly a preserve (it only lasts a week or so in the fridge), it does have the word “jam” in the title, and would preserve quite well with a pressure canner if I had one - which I don’t. Besides, judging by the smell of it, it won’t last very long anyway, particularly if I buy a nice piece of blue cheese and bake a loaf of bread before O gets home from work.

So, in lieu of Zoeball’s recipe, I scoured the web reading everyone else’s recipes for inspiration and then took the bits I liked and used the ingredients I actually had in the pantry to make up my own. It went something like this:

Sweet Onion Jam for Sugar High Friday

5 or 6 red onions (aka Spanish onions or salad onions)
half a cup-ish of malt vinegar
3/4 cup of brown sugar
some caraway seeds
a few gloops of olive oil
star anise
a generous sprinkle of cinnamon
a couple of cloves of garlic

Slice onions in half lengthwise, and then slice them up. Put in saucepan with a few healthy glugs of olive oil. Sautee on medium heat until transparent. Toss in minced garlic, vinegar, sugar and spices. Cook down for another 30-40 minutes with the lid off. Taste and see if it needs more vinegar or sugar. It should be a beautiful caramelly brown colour and have a nice balance of flavour between sweet and tart.

Put in jars and seal, and store in the fridge. It will last a week or so, unless you eat it sooner! Tastes great with a good piece of bitey cheese, fresh bread and roast chicken.

Suze at work is such a trooper. Despite being under the weather, she whipped up this amazing carrot cake for Lisa’s birthday, and even talked her partner into dropping it into the office because she was unwell.

Now that is what I call a true commitment to cake. And it was a triumph!

Great job Suze!

Suze’s Mum’s Carrot Cake Recipe

*Bananas are in short supply in Australia at the moment after Cyclone Larry wiped out our crops a few months ago. You basically have to mortgage your house to buy a bunch of ‘nanas right now.

I can clearly remember the first hamburger that really blew me away. I was about seven years old and we were visiting my Uncle Ross who lived in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. We stopped at a local burger takeaway to take some lunch back to my uncle’s place, and I ended up with a beautiful fresh hamburger that was bigger than my head.

The juicy patty was piping hot and the lettuce was crisp. The bun was as soft as a pillow and the beetroot juice trickled in a fuchsia stream down my arm and stained my t-shirt. I ate every bite of that mammoth burger (which was no small task for a seven year old girl) and kept on talking about it all the way back to Sydney.

Homemade hamburgers were a relatively regular feature on our family menu after that.

For some reason yesterday I was remembering this burger, and thinking about the myriad of gourmet burger joints that are now (almost) as ubiquitous as, well, McDonalds outlets. It’s great that kids now have burger options other than the Big Mac. A fresh home-made hamburger is actually a very healthy nutritious meal. You’ve got meat, cheese and fresh raw vegetables all packaged together in a tasty bun. That’s four of the five food groups covered in one hit!

So last night I decided to relive that first burger moment and cook up a few burgers for dinner.

Patty

• Leanish mince meat (known as ground beef to our North American friends)
• A handful of breadcrumbs
• Tomato paste
• A clove or two of garlic
• Half a finely chopped sauteed onion
• A light sprinkle of cumin
• Half a zucchini, grated
• Half a carrot, grated
• An egg

Mix it all together with your hands and shape into patties. I like to sautee the onion instead of using it raw as it enables the onion to caramelise a tad and adds an extra level of sweetness to the burger. The grated veggies also add some moisture to the patty without being too fatty.

On the subject of fatty patties, I quite like a little grease in my burger, however my waistline doesn’t. If I was one of those waifish women who could eat whatever I wanted, I would not use lean beef in my patty. But seeing as every calorie packs a brutal punch with me, I sacrifice a bit of juiciness and use diet mince instead.

Pop onto a hot plate or frying pan with some thickly sliced onions. I also sliced the leftover zucchini and put that on the grill too.

Toast some soft bread rolls under the grill. I spread some of my quince and apple chutney on the base. I would also generally use a good whole egg mayo or avocado, but once again, my hips are not allowing it right now. Layer the patty with cheese (next to the patty so it melts), thick slices of tomato, onions, iceberg lettuce (for extra crunch) and fresh grated beetroot (much better than the tinned stuff). Yes, Australians love beetroot on our hamburgers even though the rest of the world thinks it’s kind of strange. Personally, I think a hamburger is not worth looking at unless it contains beetroot.

I would have also fried up an egg but I couldn’t be bothered dirtying a frying pan, and I already had to dislocate my jaw to bite through this formidable tower o’ burger anyway.

So much for cheap website hosting. My server crashed and burned, and I have been blogless and emailless for a few days. It’s strange how cut off from the world I felt, with my communication being restricted to just a mobile phone, landline, two other email accounts, Australia Post, the rest of the internet, and a good old-fashioned fax machine. I don’t know how I managed to survive.

But the time away from the blog gave me a chance to… you guessed it… do some cooking!

Last Friday I became fixated on roasting a chicken. Roast chicken is the best soul food I can think of. And I don’t mean pork ‘n chitterlings style soul food, I mean food that nourishes your soul when you cook it as much as it does when you eat it.

I never fail to be moved by the sight of a whole chicken dressed and ready for the oven. I think it’s one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Chicken must have been a pretty strong symbol of satisfaction throughout history. Even Henry IV, the King of France in the 1500s, promised a chicken in every peasant’s pot each Sunday as proof of France’s prosperity.

There are so many ways to roast a chicken and I love them all, but my favourite way is on the rotisserie in my oven. I chop a lemon into quarters and pop it in the cavity with a few fresh herbs. Or you can also mix some herbs (tarragon, parsley etc) with butter, make a pocket between the breast and the skin with the underside of a teaspoon and spread it inside. As it roasts on the rotisserie the butter spreads all through the chicken, basting the skin and making it go all crispy, herby and juicy. That’s the great thing about a rotisserie - it ensures that all the juices are spread throughout the meat, and evenly bastes the meat as it turns.

If you are using a rotisserie for the chicken, make sure you string up your chook properly otherwise you’ll end up with dry wings and legs. The first time I used my rotisserie I didn’t use any string and it looked like my chicken was doing the YMCA every time it turned on its side. The aim is to try and make the bird into a compact, even shape, so you string the ends of the legs together and tie the wings in nice and close to ensure the bird cooks evenly.

If you want something sinful to spread on your toast over brekkie, give this a go.

• A tub of cream cheese
• A couple of shallots, finely sliced
• A couple of generous teaspoons of sweet paprika
• A sprinkle of mustard powder
• Some finely chopped pickled baby cucumbers
• A clove of crushed garlic
• A handful of chopped chives
• A sprinkle of caraway seeds

Mix together. It should go a great shade of pink. Spread it on toast or rye bread and speak with a Hungarian accent.

If you’re looking for something that’s semi-sinful for your toast, mix it with some quark cheese to cut down on the Philadelphia calories.

I’ve have been meaning to make marmalade for ages and finally, I have a few jars of marmalade cooling on the kitchen bench.

Marmalade is pretty easy to make. I used a recipe from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess as a guide. Use seville oranges - they’re in season now so they’re pretty cheap, and they ensure that the marmalade remains clear rather than becoming murky while it’s cooking.

Boil the oranges whole until they become quite squishy and then chop them very finely, removing the pips. Boil the pips in some of the water you boiled the oranges in.

While the pips are boiling, add sugar and the juice from a few lemons. You can add other flavourings too, like ginger or alcohol. Pour the pip water in and boil the lot for about 15 minutes, then pour into sterilised jars.

I’ve still got enough oranges left over for another batch, so tomorrow night I might do a fancy version. We have a bottle of brandy tucked away, maybe brandy and orange? How would quince and orange go together? Or maybe I could pick up some cranberries from somewhere. Are they in season?

I’ve been a bit experiemental tonight. I made a casserole of some chicken breast I had in the fridge, mixed with some fresh blood oranges and chunks of fennel.

It was very quick. I just greased a casserole dish, juiced and zested a few blood oranges, chopped up a fennel bulb and mixed it all together.

I love blood oranges. They’re so dramatic. Did you know they originated from a mutation in an orange grove in Malta? My mother also originated in Malta, though presumably not from a mutation…

I chose a beautiful female fennel from the Vic Markets the other day. You can tell the difference between male and female fennel bulbs, because male ones are more oblong-shaped and female ones are nice and round. Female fennel has a softer flavour and is more versatile - you can eat them raw or cooked, whereas the male ones taste so sharp they are too harsh for eating raw.

Blood oranges are the perfect pairing for fennel. They have a deep flavour and sweetness that cuts right through the liquoriceness of the fennel.

I’m making a pot of chicken stock to use up the veggies from the weekend’s cooking frenzy.

I love making chicken stock. If I am feeling sick I always make chicken soup, and it always makes me feel better. Though I am not sure whether it’s eating the soup or making the soup that makes me feel so good.

Home-made stocks are excellent to keep on hand. They freeze really easily and are a great low-fat way to add flavour to anything from stir-fries, to soups, to pasta sauces. They also ensure that no food goes to waste when you are cooking. In fact, if I am having a major cookup, I often keep the veg scraps aside to use in a stock later.

When I was at the Vic markets the other day I picked up a bag of chicken frames for $1. This is the basis of the soup. You just throw in some raw chicken bones into a big pot, and add any vegetables like carrots, onion, or whatever you have on hand. Today I used two carrots, a leek, a big onion, some leftover parsley (just chuck that in whole), some garlic and celery. remember you don’t have to use the “good bits’ of the veg. Just pop the whole lot in there - leaves, stalks and all.

Steer clear of using potatoes, or anything that might make your stock cloudy.

Cover the lot with water and bring it to the boil, then turn it down to a simmer and let it go for a few hours. You can top it up with more water along the way if you like. Give it a skim with a slotted spoon every now and then to remove the scum that gathers around the top.

When it’s done, strain it through a colander (or a sheet of muslin if you’re feeling really fancy) into another pot or bowl to remove the bones and vegetables.

Then let the pot cool and put it in the fridge overnight. The fat will float to the surface and congeal. Skim this off, and then put the stock in freezer containers or ice cube trays and freeze it until you need it.

Leo, our little 1.5 year old friend, can’t get enough of the spinach pie. Here’s the exact recipe for Ben and Julie.

Mix a 500g tub of ricotta with about 4 eggs, chopped onion, a generous few handfuls of chopped parsley, half a bunch of chopped spinach and some crushed garlic. Place in a baking tray, sprinkle some cheese on top and layer about 6 sheets of filo pastry over the top. Spray with olive oil spray. Bake for about 30 minutes.

I’ve got all the ingredients in the pot. Just working up the nerve to go outside into the cold to the lemon tree for the final touch.

• Quinces
• Apples
• Sultanas and raisins
• Vinegar
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Orange juice and zest