Pickled Grapes

Lucy thought the Beavers had a very snug little home … there were hams and strings of onions hanging from the roof ...

Excerpt from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis 

In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the Beavers have a very well stocked house.  They seem to be prepared for anything, as is well shown by the original illustration that accompanies the text.  Their home is depicted as being piled from floor to ceiling with food and sewing equipment and tools.  It was just as well that the Beavers were well stocked, because Edmund's treachery meant that they and the remaining three Pevensi children had to leave hurriedly.  The Beavers were quickly able to fill sacks with tea, ham and bread for their escape from the White Witch.

At the moment, I feel a little like the Beavers, stocking up for a long period of social distancing as opposed to a long winter.  It does feel rather cosy and homey.  Although having a well stocked pantry is no defence  from COVID-19, it does mean that you are prepared if required to go into social isolation or further lockdowns.  I am lucky in that because I enjoy cooking and baking, my pantry has always been well stocked.  My mother also taught me to have plenty of provisions in the house, a habit that she learned from a childhood spent on a farm, subject to the ravages of drought and flood.  Her family grew their own fruits and vegetables and preserved and canned and bottled them in the good times to help them to deal with the hard times.  I can't grow my own fruits and vegetables as I don't have a garden, but I can still prepare in my own way.

On the subject of preserves, I recently saw Maggie Beer make pickled grapes on The Cook and The Chef.  I was intrigued, as I had never heard of pickling grapes before.  Maggie said that they are good on cheese platters or to go with meats.  I thought heck, I have to give them a try!

I found a recipe based on Maggie's recipe for pickled grapes on Morsels and Musings.  Armed with the ingredients, I made my own small batch of pickled grapes. They are indeed what they say on the tin - the sweetness of the grapes is combined with the sourness of the vinegar and the spiciness of the cinnamon and peppercorns.  Pickled grapes are honestly good enough to eat on their own, straight from the jar.

If you would like to make your own pickled grapes, you will need:

400g white seedless grapes, divided into small bunches
300ml white vinegar
100ml water
200g white sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
12 black peppercorns

Put the vinegar, water, sugar, cinnamon sticks and peppercorns into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Sterilise a large glass jar.  Remove the cinnamon sticks from the liquid, then place the bunches of grapes in the jar. Pour over the pickling liquid and screw the light of the jar on tighly.  Turn the jar upside down briefly to sterilise the lid of the jar.

Peach, Basil, Ricotta and Honey Cake

When someone said count your blessings now
For they're long gone
I guess I just didn't know how
I was all wrong

                                                   Who Knew - Pink

How are you all this Tuesday morning? Today is usually Tuesday with Dorie, but as there are five Tuesdays in March, I have a free Tuesday to post whatever I like.

I love a cake with unusual ingredients, and Jordan Rondel, a New Zealand born cake genius, publishes lots of brilliant recipes featuring different to usual flavour combinations.  Before the world as we know it changed forever, I made Jordan's Peach, Basil, Ricotta and Honey Cake and took it to share with my work colleagues.  You can find the recipe online here.

This cake has a richness from the ricotta, sweetness from the peaches and honey (which is brushed on top of the warm cake rather than being in it), and an unusual but delicious twist from the basil.  It is also a very pretty cake (though I left off the fresh basil leaves that Jordan used to decorate the top of the cake, as I am sure no-one I know would have dug that.)

You can see from the photos of the interior of the cake that it is really smooth and creamy and dense from the ricotta:

There are still lots of beautiful peaches around in Australia right now, so I highly recommend making this lovely cake before peach season is over.

TWD - Nutella-Banana Panna Cotta

Last night, my external-to-work choir had practice via live streaming on Facebook.  I was not certain it would work, but it did, and it was marvellous. It lifted my spirits and is the most joyous thing I have done for a while. Singing and baking are my refuge and joy in these troubled times, so despite having no-one to share my baking with for now, I hope to minify recipes and bake on.

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Nutella-Banana Panna Cotta.  I was skeptical as to whether the banana flavour would come through, but it did.

The finished dessert was smooth and silky and delicious:

It was like a chocolate banana mousse.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Bacon and Egg Pie

Rosina goes to market everyday ...

For a while last week, I felt like Rosina, going to market every day to try and buy what I needed from the supermarket. To the credit of the supermarkets, I was eventually able to buy everything I needed but one, and that one thing I can live without.

Australia is implementing phase one lock down to stop non-essential travel.  Many state borders are locked down from tonight. It is a very uncertain time.

Baking is dear to my heart. It makes me happy. I also love sharing my baking with my colleagues, but that is not possible right now. However, I intend to bake on, albeit in a more limited way.

I decided to make my Mum’s Bacon and Egg Pie on the weekend. I have made it once before in a different form. You can find the recipe here.

The changes that I made from the published recipe are as follows:

1. Instead of filo for the crust, I mixed 1 cup of VitaWheat biscuit crumbs with 60g of melted butter and pressed the mixture into the base of an 8” pie pan, and chilled it while I made the filling.

2.  I swapped the ham for 2 large bacon rashers which I chopped into small pieces and fried with a chopped onion before adding to the filling.

3. I chopped up half a fresh tomato and added it to the filling.

This pie is delicious served with salad or cooked greens.

Enjoy!

TWD - Garam Grahams

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Garam Grahams. I was pleased as I already had all of the ingredients.  These biscuits are savoury Graham Crackers flavoured with garam marsala.

I made only a quarter of the recipe, which is just as well as that is all the garam marsala I had left.

I was pleasantly surprised by these biscuits - they are utterly delicious, with a mildly spiced earthy wheaten flavour.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Cherry Pie for Pi Day

Today is Pi Day (3/14 in US date format), being the first three digits of the mathematical value, Pi. I finally remembered to make a pie for the occasion, joining in all the online fun.

I decided to make a cherry pie using some fresh frozen cherries I had. This pie was not the most successful pie I have ever made, as the filling was quite runny (the recipe insisted on 3 cups of liquid):

However, it tasted pretty good anyway, despite resembling a pie that had been run over by a car once I cut into it:

I will publish  the recipe for completeness (someone gave it to me from a photocopy), and you can decide for yourself whether to reduce the liquid (I recommend doing so because it was very runny):

Pie crust

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup Crisco
1/4 cup ice water

Mix the flour and Crisco together with a pastry cutter until it looks like small peas. Add the water and bring the mixture together with your hands.  Roll the dough into a ball, divide it in two, and roll each ball out with a rolling pin between 2 sheets of baking paper until it is large enough to line an 8” pie tin.  Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Filling

3 cups fresh frozen cherries, thawed and juice retained
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup water
4 tablespoons cornflour

Pit the cherries and drain the juice out of them into a bowl. The recipe says this should yield 2 cups of juice - I only got 1 cup.  Add the water to the juice to make up to 3 cups of liquid (which I believe is way too much).

Take 1 cup of cherry juice mixture and whisk in the cornflour.

Put the remaining 2 cups of juice, 2/3 cup of the sugar and the salt into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil.  Add the remaining 1 cup of juice, and cook the liquid until it becomes clear and thickens slightly.  Add the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar and mix to combine.

Place the drained cherries into a bowl and pour over the liquid, and stir to blend. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally  to avoid scum forming on top.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Line a greased 8” pie tin with one sheet of pastry. Pour the cherry mixture into the pastry crust. With the remaining sheet of pastry, form a lattice crust on top the cherry mixture. Brush the top of the lattice crust with a beaten egg.

Bake the pie in the oven for 35-40 minutes then remove from the oven. Allow the pie to cool on a wire rack to room temperature before serving.

Best Ever Chocolate Cake for Queen Baking Club

For one of the Queen Baking Club challenges, our challenge recipe was Best Ever Chocolate Cake from this Queen recipe. 

As someone said on the Facebook site, this chocolate cake is so wonderfully chocolatey and rich, it could well be the Bruce Bogtrotter cake.

The recipe tells you how to convert it to cupcakes if you prefer.  I only made a half recipe as it was quite a big cake.

I think the photos speak for themselves.  Enjoy making this easy but delicious chocolate cake from Queen Fine Foods!