Recovery and Discovery

Recovery: Poor Hubby has been running himself into the ground. Trying to run a business and then racing and working on his farm all the while overseeing his calving cows and trying to protect them from wild dogs and dingoes. A bad cold was definitely not ordered. But he got one. I felt so sorry watching him go off this morning, heaving and coughing.I crossed my fingers desperately hoping any newborns would be okay; unlike last time. Right then, I decided that I would make a good old fashioned chicken noodle soup. Nothing but goodies in it. Hubby needed lots of goodies and there is nothing better for the soul or a 'cold' than chicken soup. I didn't need to hit the cookbooks for this one. I have been in 'throw-together' mode a bit lately and I have enjoyed feeling 'liberated'. I just hoped that a nutritious soup would help him recover sooner rather than later.

Chicken Noodle Soup

3 skinless lovely legs (drumsticks)
2 chicken necks
1 peeled carrot, cut in half
2 stalks celery, including leaves, roughly chopped
1 leek, roughly chopped
1 brown onion, cut in half
2 bay leaves
several whole black peppercorns
2 1/2 litres water
a bunch of continental parsley
4 green shallots
3/4 cup short, thin pasta

Place everything into the pot, except for the pasta and shallots. Put 1/2 the bunch of parsley into the pot; reserve remainder. Bring to boil; reduce to a simmer; cook for up to two hours; no longer.

Take out the chicken; set aside. Strain the liquid through a sieve, catching all the veggies in the strainer. Discard the cooked veggies.

Return the liquid to the pot; bring to boil; add pasta; boil till pasta is cooked through. It should take no more than three or four minutes. Take off heat; put in green shallots and whole leaves from a couple of parsley stalks. Remove all the meat from the chicken legs; shred or dice. Add to the soup. Keep the chicken necks whole and return those to the pot as well. Season with lots of cracked pepper and salt.

Delicious served steaming hot with some crunchy bread.

Discovery: A few nights ago I received an SMS from Mitch. He and Maxi began their bike trip last week from Stuttgart and their destination was to reach Amsterdam. It was very special to hear they were in Dusseldorf.

My mum was born in Dusseldorf, or at least I think she was. She died when I was almost two years old and I know hardly anything about her or her family. I won't go into detail but most of my upbringing has centered around the "Balkan" way. My half being German has played no significant role in my life. That is until my Aussie boy became best friends with a German boy.

Then his curiousity about his German ancestry began. He has a great deal of respect for German people and he thinks they are one of the smartest races on earth. Ah ha, maybe that is why Mitch fancies some German in him. The bottom line is he wants to know and he wants me to find out. I haven't really. It is almost like a scary place for me to go. But my curious boy just won't let it rest.

I leave in less than seven days. Yes, you heard me right. I'm going to Europe. I haven't been since 1981!! The plan is to meet up with Mitch and stay with Maxi and his family for a couple of days. We are being rather spontaneous about things and absolutely do not have things mapped out to a tee. It shall be interesting to say the least.

Our sketchy plan is to head down the Adriatic coast and reach Montenegro. From the coast we shall venture up into the continental part and through the mountainous terrain until we reach the village of 'Potrk', where my father was born back in 1924. My father would have been so proud of Mitch and so happy to learn about his grandson's interest in his European roots. My dad passed away three years ago.

The house is still there and my uncle and his wife are still alive. Mitch expressed a desire to stay with them for two weeks. He wants to experience their isolated part of world and work and live as they do in the mountains. Let's just say I don't think it is a place where many tourists, if any, are ever seen. Once again, it is going to be interesting.

After that we shall do some touristy things and visit the must see places in Montenegro. We have other relatives there so they will help us out and Mitch is looking forward to meeting his "on the other side of the world" relatives with whom he will not be able to communicate. Fortunately I can speak the language, so, phew.

The sketchy plan, then sees us heading to Greece for a short stint and I was hoping to see Crete and spend maybe even a week there. I am really fascinated with that place, so we shall see how it turns out. After that, back to Germany and Mitch will spend one last week with Maxi who should be back at university in Franfurt.

The week before that happens, we were thinking we might go to Dusseldorf and look into finding out about my mother and any of her relations. I have a strange, shaking feeling as I write. It is like going into the unknown and not knowing what I shall discover. And I am slightly scared. You probably think I am being foolish but that is how I feel.

Fear aside, I feel I owe it to my boy who has a clear and interested connection in his family roots. I need to do this. I have avoided it for a long time but now the time has come. I need to find out just exactly who I am.



See you in two months. Bye for now.
Mariana.

Orange Overdose

I was scratching my head wondering what to do with my oranges. They have been falling off the tree for the past two weeks. I have been retrieving as many as I can and using as much as I can but I am running out of ideas. Dear Filomena, down the road, said she was juicing and freezing her freshly squeezed orange juice. Fine, but what am I going to store all the juice in. Hmm. In the meantime.....I remembered a recipe that I absolutely adored many, many years ago.

When I lived in Wollongong I used to work occasionally for my hubby's aunt, Peg, who was a very successful caterer running her own business. Gosh I would have been 22 years old back then. A lifetime ago. It is fascinating when I recall the type of food that was popular at that time. Some of it was terribly sinful. I remember we used to go through loads of cream and butter, in both sweet and savoury dishes. Nobody had heard of olive oil back then. Olive oil was something you could purchase from the pharmacy in a small plastic bottle and it was supposed to be good for the skin. It certainly wasn't available for food purposes. Like I said; a lifetime ago.

In amongst this flood of memories I recall an orange recipe that Peg made from the Australian Women's Weekly. She was one of the test cooks at the Weekly and she never made anything unless it had been tested and endorsed by them. This particular recipe was probably one of the rare 'healthier' ones at that time. It was basically segmented oranges in a wonderful whisky syrup and the cream that she made to go with it was to die for. I hit the bookshelf; dusted off the cover and found the recipe.

Amazingly I didn't have to dash off to the shops to get anything. The oranges I collected fresh from the tree and the rest was easy. I wonder what my little trip down memory lane shall bring. I wonder if the oranges were going to taste as divine as they did all those years ago. Only one way to find out.

Whisky Oranges with Atholl Brose Cream
adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup scotch whisky
9 oranges
juice of one orange

Cream
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon scotch whiskey

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan, stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add whisky, cool.

Remove all rind from oranges and all the white pith. This is slightly time consuming but necessary. Cut oranges into segments, cutting between membranes; do this over bowl, to catch all the juice.

Put into bowl, pour cooled syrup over, cover, refrigerate.

Whip cream, honey and whisky till thickened. Refrigerate till serving time. Oranges can be kept in fridge for several days. The longer it is left the more intense the flavour develops.

Simply whip more of the cream as needed or for a change try eating the oranges with some ice cream and straight whisky poured over the top. Double the dose but yummy.



Was it delicious? Yes, very. Was it as wonderful as my memory serves me? Not sure. I think my palate has changed since that time. It was a long, long time ago. Although it really is delicious it doesn't seem to be as "to die for" as I had thought. The oranges are truly wonderful but I think I would serve it with a honey, orange zested ricotta instead of the Atholl Brose cream. It is very decadent and I am aware that I shouldn't be indulging in too much cream these days. The days of the 'excessive eighties', at least for me, are over. I think I shall stick with ricotta or yoghurt instead.

Meringue an' Tang

I'm comfortable in my cooking. I must be. I recall years ago scouring through my cookbooks, picking out a recipe, making sure I had all the ingredients even if it meant going down the street for a sprig of rosemary or a stick of cinnamon. I'd re-read the recipe several times to make sure I "got" it, prep away and have all the appropriate cookware in place before I would commence. Honestly, it was like an orchestra about to perform on stage with yours truly being the very nervy conductor.

Ahh I'm chuckling at the absurdity of it all. But then I wonder if that is what I needed to do in order to get to where I am now. Maybe. Maybe that was my destined culinary journey to get comfortable in the kitchen. I look back and cringe at how 'seriously' I took it all. But I love how I am so much more relaxed and easy going now. Not to mention knowledgeable. I ought to know a thing or two because I have practised long enough! I think that definitely contributes to my sense of freedom and risk-taking in 'zee' kitchen.

I had three spare eggs. Beautiful free-range eggs. I had a hankering for lemon butter and so it began. I have been very unhappy with some of the lemon butter recipes I have tried. I feel they haven't explained the procedure well. Nor the ingredients. I get very annoyed when I see a recipe state "the juice of two lemons'. I would rather a measurement please!!! Like say 1/2 a cup or something. Some of our lemons are so big they would pass for grapefruits. Our average lemon is much bigger than a "shopsized" lemon, so how accurate do you think the juice of two lemons is. Ours would surely yield two cups and I am pretty certain the cookbooks don't mean two cups.

I'm not getting worked up; remember I'm relaxed in the kitchen these days. But things like this really annoy me because it is critical to the overall result. After making a few lemon butter recipes recently, following them to a tee, I have still ended up with disasters. The mixture separated. Therefore I am turfing the books. I have decided to "boldly" steer this orchestra without the sheets of music. Yep. I am making it up. Or perhaps what I ought to be saying is, I am drawing on my years of experience. I am challenging myself to see what being in a comfortable, relaxed and confident place in my cooking will bring.



My Lemon Butter

1 lemon
2/3 cup of lemon juice
130gm unsalted butter, cubed
180gm castor sugar
3 egg yolks

Peel the rind from the lemon into long strips. I used a large lemon and peeled most of the rind. If you don't want too much lemon "zing", then only peel a couple of strips of rind.

Place the rind, lemon juice, butter and sugar into a glass or ceramic bowl. Using a heavier bowl offers you more control from the mixture curdling. Bring a saucepan with a 'little' water in it to boil. Of course it depends on the size of your saucepan. You want enough water in there so as not to boil the saucepan dry but it mustn't in any way be too close or touching the bowl. One and a half cups of water was sufficient for my saucepan.

Bring the water to boil. Turn right down to a gentle simmer. Place your bowl with ingredients over the saucepan. Using a wooden spoon stir occasionally till the sugar has dissolved.

Take off the heat; add egg yolks one at a time, whisking each one well as you go.

Return to heat and continue to stir slowly over a very low simmer till mixture has thickened and easily coats the back of the wooden spoon. This requires nuturing so expect to stand and stir for about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat.

Empty the hot water from the saucepan; dry quickly with a clean teatowel. Strain the mixture into the hot saucepan; strain well. Pour immediately into jar. Seal when cooled.

This quantity gave me two small jars. My little pots of lemon butter were gorgeous. The yellow was brilliant, probably as a result of our happy chooks. I was very pleased with the taste too. Vibrant with lots of "tang". If you prefer quite a thick lemon butter then I recommend you mix a little cornflour with some lemon juice and add it towards the end of cooking. I am happy with a looser consistency, so generally I was happy overall. Take a bow!




What does one do with three egg whites? Well my fabulous neighbour Filomena would make biscotti in a jiffy. Hmmm. Not sure my lemon butter would go with that. I haven't made a pavlova or meringue in ages. I remained in cookbook rejection mode and carried on in confidence mode. Let's see how this one turns out.

My Meringue

3 egg whites
a good dash of cream of tartar
almost one cup of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Place the egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean, glass bowl. Using hand-held electric beaters, beat till the mixture works up into a good froth. Add vanilla extract; beat a little more. Begin adding the sugar and whisking at the same time. I added about a tablespoon to begin with then increased the quantity slowly. Make sure you keep beating the whole time.

Once all the sugar has been added; beat till the mixture looks nice, firm and glossy. My beating time took about 12 minutes. With one minute to go, I added the lemon juice and whisked this right through the mixture. Done.

I took a small baking sheet and lined it with baking paper. I know from past experience pavlovas can be difficult to remove. Especially as they can release moisture from the sugar that hasn't dried out enough. For extra caution, lightly grease the baking paper and sprinkle lightly with some cornflour. This should ensure easier removal.

Spread the meringue mixture over the sheet and using a flat knife level out evenly.

Place into a very low heated oven. No kidding it has to be low. It's tricky for me to know how to explain this one. I didn't use my regular oven, but instead a small grill and convention oven that sits on one of the kitchen benches. I baked it for about two hours on 80degrees celcius. You would have to use your intuition and your oven light to determine how long to bake this. I am guessing in the bigger oven I would bake it at about 110 or 120 degrees celcius for about 1 hour. Approximately. It's your call. Whatever you do, do not open the oven door!

When you feel the meringue has cooked; just leave it in the oven to cool. Don't take it out. You will get less cracks that way.

I did have some liquid seepage from the sugar; but that's fine. It was a lovely colour with a beautiful crispiness. I was very happy.



So here goes the fun bit. I cut up the meringue into equal parts. Spread with some whipped cream, topped with some beautiful strawberries I purchased from the farmer's market, drizzled with lemon butter. Top with some more meringue; continue layering with more cream and lemon butter if desired.



As chance would have it, I was taking photos of this very creation when one of Nikka's friends Kyle happened along. He walked in bemused to find me taking photos of my little meringue delight. The funny part is, Kyle is a "serious" photographer with amibitions of turning professional. He is working towards this goal and I am confident he will make it. He is very good. I only wish he had his gear strapped on him at the time so that I could have had an 'amazing' shot of my meringue. Oh well, I think you get the picture.

After my little shoot, we sat down and ate my lemon butter meringue together and I lost count of the amount of times Kyle used the word "awesome". I think that means its good. Is that clapping I can hear? Time for another bow.

Spiced Vegetable Fritters

When I first began visiting blogs about three years ago, Kathryn Elliot from Limes and Lycopene was a regular site I loved to check out. Kathryn is a nutrionist with her own clinic in Sydney and she always posted interesting and useful facts about healthy eating and nutrition together with wholesome but delicious recipes.

I was delighted to pop over last week to find she had a little surprise. Both she and Lucy from Nourish Me had come together to create this lovely e-magazine (first time I had heard of that). Pouring over the pages, this recipe caught my eye so I thought I would give it a go. It's rather timely actually as I find I need to lose a couple of kilo's and that's where Kathryn's food and advise always comes in handy. I tweaked a few ingredients and also some of the method; so my fritters although close, are not exactly the same as the fritters in An Honest Kitchen. Hope you don't mind Kathryn.

Spiced Vegetable Fritters
adapted from An Honest Kitchen

300gm (combined weight) cauliflower and broccoli
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 x 400gm can lima or butter beans
1 egg, whisked
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1/2 bunch fresh continental parsley, finely chopped
light olive oil for cooking

Roughly chop the cauliflower and broccoli.



Place the cauliflower, broccoli, beans and onions in a food processor.



Process till all the ingredients are finely chopped and clump together.



The recipe says to transfer this to another bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, except the oil. Mix well together and it may be necessary to mash the mixture slightly with the back of a spoon to get the right texture. Season with salt and pepper. Form the mixture into 12 fritters and it may be easier to mould the mixture with wet hands.

That is what you are supposed to do. But this is what I did instead. And discovered I had gotten myself into a slight bit of bother. Umm, maybe the author knew what she was talking about after all.

Instead of transferring to a bowl; I kept going with the processor. Next I added the egg.



Then I added the cumin, ground coriander, cracked pepper and paprika (in place of cayenne pepper).



Next I added fresh parsley (in place of fresh coriander), the oats and the flour. The recipe stated using 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour but my mixture was looking rather wet and I added the same again.



Hmmm. I felt my mixture was still too wet but I didn't want to add any more flour. Perhaps that is why I should have paid attention to the recipe and not continued on with processing. I think processing definitely created a wetter mixture.



I really didn't want to mould the fritters with my hands so I had to become creative. I remembered this round metal ring I had been wanting to use, so I searched in my overloaded gadget draw until I found it. It has a nifty little holder attached so I thought I would give that a go.

I took out a tray, lined it with glad bake and sprinkled it generously with dried breadcrumbs. I felt this was the best way to help with the fritters not sticking. I placed the well floured ring onto the tray and began filling it with the mixture to create my fritters. Perhaps I should change the name to burgers, because that is what they were resembling.



This is fun. I was really enjoyed making the 'fritters' and seeing how they would go.



I made exactly six and they fit perfectly onto my tray. I was very pleased. I placed them in the fridge for half an hour to help them firm up a little.



The recipe says to place fritters in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat; add a drizzle of canola oil and when hot cook fritters in batches. Cook for about three or four minutes on each side till browned and cooked through. I didn't have any canola oil so I used light olive oil instead. As my fritters were twice the recommended size I cooked them for about five minutes on each side and I even covered the frypan with a lid during some of the cooking to ensure they cooked all the way through.



Yep. They turned out. And they were delicious. I ate mine with some plain yoghurt drizzled with a little sweet chilli sauce, baby spinach leaves and a wedge of lime.



I really would have liked to have had some of my homemade sweet red pepper relish. Then half way through eating I remembered I had some roasted red peppers in the fridge. I quickly zapped them in the microwave to bring them to room temperature then draped them over what was left of my fritter. The perfect touch.



I froze the remaining uncooked fritters. They will certainly come in handy when time is short and I need some good nutritious, healthy, tasty, "honest" food.