Fig and Ginger Jam

The fruit man's fig tree has come to the end of its run, with autumn now well and truly upon us.  Sandra shared the last of the figs with Lee and I, and with mine, I decided to make fig and ginger jam to preserve those glorious figs for the long winter months.  (In Melbourne, it certainly doesn't get as cold as in parts of Europe and North America, but it doesn't really warm up again until November-December.)

My fig and ginger jam was inspired by this recipe on TahiniToo.  However, I didn't use as many figs (as I didn't have as many ;)), I left the skins on, and I upped the fruit:sugar ratio so that I didn't have to use pectin.  However, I did take on board all of their glorious flavours, including the addition of vanilla, cinnamon and of course, fresh grated ginger. The resulting jam was just marvellous - I could eat it by the spoon from the jar.

My recipe is as follows:

900g fresh figs, washed and stalks removed, mashed
600g white sugar
1" knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Sterilise some glass jars and their lids by boiling them, or heating them in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes (my preferred method).

Put all of the jam ingredients into a large, heavy-based saucepan, and bring to the boil over medium heat.  In the meantime, place a saucer in the freezer.  Once the ingredients have come to the boil, reduce the heat and continue simmering the ingredients ("a rolling boil") until they begin to thicken.  Test whether the jam is ready by taking your saucer out of the freezer and dropping a small amount of jam onto it - leave it for around 30 seconds, then run your finger through the jam (being careful not to burn yourself) - if the jam does not run back into the gap made by your finger, then it is ready.  Otherwise, if it is still runny, keep boiling the jam, but be careful not to overboil it or you will get candy.

Once the jam is ready, pour it into the sterilised glass jars (ideally you should fill them almost to the top to eliminate air), then seal.  Allow the jam to cool on the bench in the jars.

Enjoy your jam however you fancy and remind yourself of summer on a cold day.

Chocolate Fudge Cake for Lee's Birthday

Today is my colleague Lee's 40th birthday.  Happy birthday Lee!  Lee is hosting a wonderful party for the occasion, into which she has put so much effort and planning.  I don't think I have put so much effort into anything since I ceased having to choose then timetable University subjects.  I hope Lee has a magnificent evening.

To celebrate Lee's birthday, I made her a cake for work.  Lee is on a weight loss plan at present, so I made her a Low Fat Chocolate Fudge Cake from the Australian Women's Weekly 501 Low Fat Recipes.  You can find the recipe online here.

This is the cake before frosting:

However, a birthday cake is not a birthday cake without decoration, so I made it a little less low fat by making up a frosting with low fat cream cheese (250g) and icing sugar (100g).  The decorations are writing gel, silver cachous and crystallised violets.

This is what the cake looks like once sliced: 

Lee seemed to enjoy her cake - glad she liked it.

Have a great weekend all.

Daring Bakers - Armenian Nutmeg Cake

If you are looking for a gorgeous cake that is different from the norm, then this month's Daring Bakers challenge serves up a gorgeous, caramelly nutmeg coffee cake:

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

(This is not my grammar - these are the blog checking lines and I cannot change them.)

I didn't have time to make both, so it was a no brainer to choose the Armenian nutmeg cake.  And what a lovely cake it is - it has a dryer bottom crumb layer topped with a rich batter, with nuts on top.  I didn't have walnuts, so I used flaked almonds instead.   Here is the end result:

The cake has warm, caramel-like undertones from the brown sugar, with a spicy edge from the nutmeg.

A slice of the cake served warm with icecream was just perfect:

To see how the other Daring Bakers fared, visit the slideshow at The Daring Kitchen.

FFwD - Navarin Pritanier

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Navarin Pritanier, a lamb stew.  This is a gorgeous stew of lamb shoulder, braised onions, turnip and carrots, peas and potatoes in a rich sauce of tomato paste and stock. 

You were supposed to use 1 1/2 kg of lamb shoulder, but at $40, there was no way I was using that much, so I bought slightly less than half of that.  With all of those vegetables, I wasn't hungry:

I had never cooked a turnip before, but quite enjoyed it.  Judith Lucy asked the audience the same night what a turnip was, and the person she asked correctly identified it.   However, Judith reckons 65% of Australians can't correctly identify a turnip. Hmmm ...  

To see what some of the other participants thought, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

Anzac Biscuits

It is Anzac Day today, as I mentioned in my previous post, so I could not resist making Anzac biscuits for the occasion.  Merle's award winning recipe would have been terrific; however, my aim was to go for less fatty boombah, slightly healthier, so I used the National Heart Foundation's recipe instead.  That way, I can bake my cookies and eat them too.

And the verdict?  Well, they are nothing like the ones mother used to make, and they certainly not as buttery and rich as I am sure that Merle's would be; however, they are very servicable Anzac biscuits for the weight conscious, with the lovely caramelly flavours of golden syrup and sugar against the crunch of the oats.  They also beat the commercial version, as far as I am concerned.  I realise a lot of people love the commercial version, but for me, the homemade version wins every time, even the low fat version made with margarine.

I hope that my fellow Australians are enjoying their Anzac Day.

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Hummingbird Slice

It is Anzac Day today, and Australians have a national holiday to remember the contribution of service men and women from all wars fought by this country.  A big cheer to all those service men and women marching in today's parades around the country.

From my blog's perspective, today is the last Wednesday with Donna Hay for a while as the group goes into hiatus.  Today's recipe is Hummingbird Slice, chosen by yours truly.  Donna's version of hummingbird cake/slice is light and spongy and fruity all at once.  Donna suggests serving it with honey, but it really doesn't need it - the slice is sweet  enough from the carrots, banana, pineapple and sugar without needing frosting or honey, unless of course you want it.

To see what Kayte, Chaya and Margaret think of this slice, visit their blogs in around 15 or so hours time.

It is cold and wet miserable in Melbourne at present, so excuse me while I wrap myself in a blanket and curl up with a good book and engage in some California Dreamin'.

Queen of Puddings for St George's Day

Today, 23 April, is St George's Day.  St George is the patron saint of England, and 23 April is the date of his  death.  It is also celebrated as Shakespeare's Day to celebrate the birth and death of William Shakespeare.  Keeping with the English theme, it was Queen Elizabeth II's 86th birthday on Saturday.  Putting all of these together, I thought it would be most appropriate if I made that most English of puddings to celebrate today, Queen of Puddings.

Queen of Puddings is comprised of a baked egg custard with breadcrumbs, topped with a layer of raspberry jam, then topped with fluffy meringue.  It is meant to be enjoyed warm from the oven.

I am a fan of custard of all varieties, so I loved this - it is the perfect treat for the rather chilly night that we are having.

There are many  different recipes for Queen of Puddings, but I used 1/4 of the recipe from the Great British Book of Baking.  If you would like to try it, the pudding for one recipe (slightly adapted by me) is as follows:

Custard

150ml milk (I used low fat)
1 teaspoon vanilla (they used a vanilla pod for their grander scale version)
1 tablespoon butter (I used reduced fat margarine)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon white sugar
25g fresh white breadcrumbs

Topping

1 tablespoon strawberry jam (I used raspberry jam)
1 egg white
25g white sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease a one cup ramekin (or spray with oil, as I did).

Put the milk into a small saucepan with the vanilla, and heat until the milk is steaming (not boiling).  Remove the milk from the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes to steep in the vanilla flavour.

Put the egg yolk into a small bowl with the lemon zest and sugar, and beat until creamy.  Stir in the milk, drizzling it in slowly while constantly stirring so that you don't cook the yolk.  Stir in the breadcrumbs, then pour the custard into the ramekin, and leave standing for 15 minutes.

Place the ramekin into the oven and bake for ~ 30 minutes or until the custard is set.  Remove the ramekin from the oven and leave it stand for at least 5 minutes.  Spread the jam over the top of the custard.  Beat the egg white until soft peaks form, then add the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Pile the meringue on top of the jam, and bake in the oven for a further 15 minutes, until the top is crunchy and golden brown.  Serve warm from the oven.

Enjoy!  Happy St George's Day to those in England.