Food & Advocacy: Tony Bilson & The Intervention: Evelyln Bilson & her Christmas Pudd

Picture from here

There's nothing like mixing politics and food.  My Aunt Bina used to mix her Marxism with interior decoration and dressmaking.  Thanks to Cheryl and Michele for passing on this letter of protest from well-known Sydney chef, Tony Bilson, to Jenny Macklin the Minister responsible for the horrors of the Intervention.

As well, I am taking the opportunity because of the Season to pass on a recipe for Christmas Pudding.  Behind every great man is a mother and behind Tony Bilson (Bilson's)  is his mother Evelyn who makes the most wonderful Pudd.  I have Evelyn Bilson's recipe from the Good Living magazine of The Sydney Morning Herald of Nov 23-Nov29 1999.  The recipe was republished at a reader's request from Good Weekend sometime in 1995. I make Evelyn's Pudd and highly commend it. Tony is serving the Pudd on his Christmas Lunch menu at his wine bar number one.  

So first, Tony's letter; then Evelyn's wonderful Pudd. BTW, the links inserted in the text are done by me.

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----- Original Message -----

From: Tony Bilson

To: jmacklin.mp@aph.gov.au

Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 3:19 PM

Subject: Indigenous Racial Disrimination Act and NT Intervention

Dear Minister,

I write as an extremely concerned Labor supporter of many years standing.

I have been working with the One Laptop Per Child organisation and other activities including a dinner in Parramatta to celebrate Indigenous culture at the time of Govenor Macquarie.

My time spent with the Yolngu in Arnhem Land and on the homelands has given me the highest degree of respect for the complexity and moral strength of their culture.

I am currently involved in two programs to try to promote their culture in a contemporary context.

One is with Professor Bob Holman of Columbia University NY who will be coming out to Australia to work with Yolngu poets and musicians to formulate a celebration of Alan Ginsberg's time spent with them in 1972 for the 'Ginsberg Year' next year. From this collaboration will emerge a celebration to tour here and the USA.

Secondly I am doing a small Australian cultural/trade festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh for two weeks in February featuring new music from Yolngu musicians.

At the same time I have been working with financial benefactors to provide training at the highest technological levels to allow the production and export of high quality food products from the community at Yirrkala.

My wife Amanda and I attended last night a screening of the film Our Generation, produced by Sinem Saban and Damien Curtis and were shocked by the proposals of the 'intervention' and the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act.

We had previously been totally unaware of the campaign of falsehoods used to justify the intervention policy of the previous Liberal and Labor Governments and the cynical misuse of accusations of systemic pederasty to justify this inhumane and socially destructive policy. We now know these accusations were totally without foundation. A lie of Goebellian proportions.

We appeal to you in the strongest possible terms to abandon this policy and to institute a genuine dialogue with Indigenous representatives of the communities so as to guarantee theintegrity and continuity of their culture.

If you have not seen the film I ask that you do so as a matter of urgency. Here is the link : www.ourgeneration.org

Please Minister do not let our nation be further shamed by these proposals to treat our Indigenous peoples and cultures with what may be a final blow to their very continuity - in a word, genocide.

Yours sincerely

Tony and Amanda Bilson

~~~~~~~~~

Picture from here

Evelyn Bilson's Christmas Pudding

(serves 12)

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups suet

3/4 cup plain flour, sifted

1/2 cup almond meal

4 cups soft breadcrumbs

1 cup white granulated sugar

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

4 and a half cups mixed fruit (raisin, sultanas, currants, figs)

1/3 cup mixed peel

1/2 cup stout

4 eggs

2 tablespoons marmalade

1 lemon, zest and juice

1 fresh tart apple, grated

4 tablespoons of rum or cognac

1/4 cup plain flour, sifted.

Method:

Rub suet into the flour and add remaining dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Add stout, stir in eggs and add marmalade.  Add lemon zest, juice, and apple and finally the rum or cognac.  Let stand in a cool place overnight for the flavours to amalgamate.  Take a wet pudding cloth (use a 75cm square of unbleached calico) and wring it out.  Sprinkle liberally with the extra flour and place the pudding on top.  This helps give the pudding a better skin.  Gather corners and sides of the cloth around the pudding and pull tightly to give it a good, round shape. Tie tightly with string about 2.5cm above the top of the pudding to allow for expansion.  Steam pudding in a bowl sitting in boiling water in a large saucepan for 4 hours and then hang it in the pantry for at least 2 weeks, until Christmas.  This pudding must not touch anything. In hot weather, it is better to store it in the refrigerator. 

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The Magic Pudding

• Behind every successful man, there is a good woman. Tony Bilson is one of Australia's top chefs. The Christmas Pudding recipe is below is from Tony Bilson's mother. It was published in The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Living of Nov 23-Nov 29 1999. A reader with a l-o-n-g memory reminded The SMH that it had once published such a recipe many years before and, please, could they reprint it. Miss E has done this pudd - and it is a corker. Is it because it has stout - and the rum? Miss E being an expatriate Queenslander always uses Bundy Rum. The stout, of course, is Guinness. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Evelyn Bilson’s Christmas Pudding
  Ingredients (serves 12)
• 1½ cups suet
• ¾ cup plain flour
• ½ cup almond meal
• 4 cups soft breadcrumbs
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1tsp mixed spice
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4½ cups mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, figs)
• 1/3 cup mixed peel
• ½ cup stout
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp marmalade
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 fresh tart apple, grated
• 4 tbps rum or cognac
• ¼ plain flour, sifted.
  Method:
• Rub suet into the flour and add remaining dry ingredients.
• Mix well.
• Add stout, stir in eggs and add marmalade.
• Add lemon zest, juice and apple and finally the rum or cognac.
• Let stand in a cool place overnight for the flavours to amalgamate.
• Take a wet pudding cloth (use a 75cm square of unbleached calico) and wring it out.
• Sprinkle liberally with the extra flour and place the pudding on top. This helps give the pudding a better skin.
• Gather corners and sides of the cloth around the pudding and pull tightly to give it a good, round shape.
• Tie tightly with string about 2.5cm above the top of the pudding to allow for expansion.
• Steam pudding in a bowl sitting in boiling water in a large saucepan for 4 hours and then hang it in the pantry for at least 2 weeks, until Christmas.
• The pudding must not touch anything.
• In hot weather, it is better to store it in the refrigerator.
  Brandy Sauce
  Ingredients:
• 6 egg yolks
• ½ cup orange juice
• ½ cup caster sugar
• ½ cup brandy or cognac
• ½ cup melted butter
  Method:
• Have ready a pot of simmering water.
• Mix yolks, orange juice and sugar in a stainless-steel bowl and whisk over simmering water until doubled in bulk and falling off the whisk in a stream or ribbon.
• Remove from heat and whisk in brandy, then melted butter.
• Serve warm with the pudding.
  Serving the Pudd
• Steam pudding in a large saucepan for a further 2 hours,
• remove cloth and
• transfer to a serving dish.
• Bring to table, pour over warmed brandy
• and ignite immediately.
• Serve with brandy sauce.

First catch your ironing board....

Miss Eagle thinks that Ian Parmenter and Christopher Lawrence have taken leave of their senses. Christopher Lawrence had Ian Parmenter on 936 ABC Local Radio in Hobart with a recipe for Ironed Salmon. Whoever heard the like! The first instruction Method is "Turn the iron on". Depending on how you like your salmon done you can opt for either the linen setting or the cotton setting. Whoda thunk it!?!

Essaying into the kitchen: or Jekyll and fried?

The endpapers show a 1922 design by the painter George Sheringham called 'Clusters of stylised fruits, flowers and shell motifs', a domestic design with a hint both of the pastoral and the abstract.

As you understand, dear Reader, your Miss Eagle loves traditional food - traditional food done well. This is why she has to direct you to read to-day's article in The Age by Australia's wonderful and well-regarded, Stephanie Alexander.

Our Steph is talking about a book by Lady Jekyll, published in 1922, titled Kitchen Essays. Some of you will be familiar with the work of her sister-in-law, the great gardener Gertrude Jekyll. Agnes Jekyll's father, William Graham, was a patron of the Pre-Raphaelites of whom Miss Eagle is very fond. Stephanie has published for us some of the recipes. So, if you are looking for recipes for Orange Jumbles; Sand Cake; and Winter Cake please go here.

Flyin' high

Photo by Denis Wilson of The Nature of Robertson

Well, now! Whoda thunk it! Miss Eagle is flyin' high.

Matt over at Abstract Gourmet has compiled a list of the Top Aussie Food Blogs - and Food from Oz is on it. OK. Miss E is well down the list and there is no prize for guessing who came top. None other than that very busy gal, Grab Your Fork! Pop over and have a look. If you are a visitor to Aussie food blogs, you won't be surprised with who is there. Miss Eagle was particularly pleased to see that great friend of Food from Oz, The Old Foodie, on the list. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, trot over to The Old Foodie for an historic food feast. To-day's post is of great interest. The Old Foodie writes about that popular salad, The Waldorf Salad. There it is - the original sans walnuts! Now - no resting on laurels! Where's the Miss Schauer. And if I can dig out that recipe for Tony Bilson's mother's pudd.