PASSATA MAKING DAY AT BALLART COMMUNITY GARDEN - JOIN IN

Picture above from here
together with how to make passata if you can't get to the class
listed below at Ballarat Community Garden.

The post below is from Better Together -  Passata Day

Saturday 28nd February 2015, 9 a.m. sharp-till ?

Once more into the Red! Ballarat Community Garden will be hosting a passata (tomato bottling) day on the 20th of February. Come learn how to preserve tomatoes and enjoy a day of work, fun and community. We'll have a meal and share a good time! Participants will take home approximately 6 litres of tomato puree.

The cost will be $20 dollars which will include a 10kg box of tomatoes, tea & coffee. Please bring a plate to share for lunch. Payment must be received by Deb Ramsey (0401 824 110) by the 16th of February. Numbers will be limited, but children, friends and family are all welcome to come and help. You will be responsible for bringing glass jars or beer bottles. You will need to have your own safe, undamaged lids for jars, but we will provide bottle caps for beer bottles.

Things to bring:

• Plate to share for lunch.
• Large pots will be vital so please be sure to bring those. Vital! (Stainless steel please, as aluminium may leach.)
• Anyone who has a camp stove or gas burner and bottle please bring those along.
• cutting boards and knives are vital
• aprons and pot holders
• funnels
• large stirring spoons
• ladles
• pouring jugs
• Stick blenders would also be very welcome.

Deluxe and desperate dessert - yoghurt, pears, and chocolate hazelnut sauce

 

Picture from here 

Last night was a cold bleak July night in Ballarat.  I had been out for most of the day and it was too late to do the Apple Crumble I had planned for dessert. This should happen to-night.  So it was time to think outside the square or there would be no dessert at all ... and there is someone in the house who asks for it.

I have taken to the pear this winter since I substituted one night pears for apples in the Butternut, Apple & Cinnamon Soup.

What I rustled up - perhaps even invented - was a stunning close-yoour-eyes-in-rapture delight!

I had two pears and I fried them in a mixture of butter (yes, real butter!) and brown sugar. I sliced and chopped the pears into small pieces.  The butter and brown sugar melted together so I was effectively cooking the small pieces of pear in the butter & sugar mix to make a sauce.  I used Nestle's Ski Divine Vanilla Creme Yoghurt and spooned it over individual dessert bowls.  Onto this I spooned the pear, butter & sugar sauce.  Now this alone would have made a sufficient taste sensation - but there is nothing like luxury in one's desserts. 

I had in the store cupboard a bottle of Alice Langon's Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce.  It had been there for years unused.  I think I had purchased it at Simon Johnson's in Toorak.  I poured this around the circle of pear sauce.

Scrumptious! More-ish!  And the left-over of the dessert was wonderful for a Sunday morning breakfast as well.

Dressing the salad with mayonnaise

The season of salads is upon us. This Boiled Salad Dressing, which Miss Amy Schauer in The Schauer Australian Cookery Book subtitles (Useful Dressing), was a regular menu item in Miss Eagle's household as she was growing up. Phyllis, Miss E's mother, made an excellent Potato Salad and this was the secret. No need for bottled mayonnaise from a nameless factory in a who-knows-where place. Make your own - quickly, simply, cheaply.

BOILED SALAD DRESSING (Useful Dressing)

Dissolve 1 level tablespoon butter in a saucepan over fire. Remove from fire, blend in smoothly 1 tablespoon flour; add small cup milk, return to fire, stir all the time until it boils. Add a level teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon mixed mustard, the yolk of an egg. Place again over fire just to cook egg, stir with a wooden spoon, add slowly 2 tablespoons vinegar.

Simple really!

Miss Eagle's dear friend Jim came to Melbourne last weekend leaving his better half, Sylvia, back in Tennant Creek in the far away Northern Territory because he was purchasing a truck for his earthmoving business. The beautiful Angela, his daughter, flew down - on an exit week-end because it was Labour Day in Queensland - from St Peter's in Brisbane to meet her father.

So, on the night they spent at The Trad Pad, a roast dinner was on the menu - followed by this wonderful Steamed Apple Pudding straight out of Miss Eagle's favourite, The Schauer Australian Cookery Book.

The Steamed Apple Pudding (a slice is pictured above) is a variation of Miss Schauer's A1 Pudding. So, firstly, the recipe for A1 Pudding then Miss Schauer's variation and, finally, Miss Eagle's notes:

A1 Pudding

Cream 4 oz. butter and 4 oz. sugar together till quite white, add a yellow rind of a grated orange, 2 well-beaten eggs, beat well after adding, then add 1/4 cup milk alternately with 6oz of twice-sifted self-raising flour. Put into a greased pudding bowl, three-parts full. Cover with a buttered paper. Steam 2 hours. Allow to stand 2 or 3 minutes before turning out. Turn out carefully and serve with an orange sauce.

Clear Lemon, Orange or Pineapple Sauce

Put the juice of 1 lemon or orange, or 1 cup pineapple juice with a dessertspoon of lemon juice, into a saucepan with 1/2 pint of water and a heaped tablespoon of sugar. Bring to the boil, then add 1 level dessertspoon of cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, stir till it boils, then boil three minutes. Add a few drops of pink colouring. Strain and serve with steamed or boiled puddings. Use juice of 1/2 a lemon if making Orange sauce with the orange juice. A teaspoon of lemon or orange grated rind may be boiled with sauce.

Delicious Steamed Apple or Any Other Fruit Pudding

Grease a pudding basin or small individual moulds, then spread A1 mixture round the bottom and side, reserving a little to cover over top; fill centre with apples minced, sprinkle with sugar, adding 2 cloves, then spread mixture over top; cover with a buttered paper, steam for 2 hours; if served in small individual moulds, would only need 1.2 hour. Any other stewed fruit may be used instead of apples. Serve with a custard sauce.

NOTE. - Grate apples for individual moulds.

Miss Eagle's Notes

• Miss Eagle used orange juice and a little milk instead of milk alone
• Purchase a good quality aluminium steamer complete with lid to obviate the need for the butter paper procedure
• Use Granny Smith apples
• As will be noted, Miss Eagle quartered the Granny Smiths and sliced them. Next time, she will slice them even thinner - or put them in the food processor.
• Didn't do well with having the mixture adhere to the sides. So put half the mixture in the bottom of the steam, then just laid the apple slices on top, laid the remaining mixture on top and pressed it down lightly with the back of a spoon.
• You can omit the sprinkle of sugar - the pudding is really sweet enough.
• Miss E forgot the cloves but didn't miss them.
• The Pud was delish.
• Highly recommended.

Hey, Pistou - THE Vegetable Broth

The sick girl that has been Miss Eagle for weeks on end, forever and ever, amen may have turned a corner to-day. (Hugs and blessings please to keep the feeling!) May try to put in an appearance at work to-morrow and hope my job is still there and that they recognise the person who comes to sit in that particular playpen. What passes as food for an invalid these days? This is probably the most superb dish - the queen of all broths. Miss Eagle accessed it this wonderful Pistou over at the ABC courtesy of that superb and ethusiastic foodie, Ian Parmenter.

Pistou - The great French provincial soup

Chef: Ian Parmenter

The French call this a soup. They are being unduly modest.

Pistou is a supercharged gastronomic scene-stealer. It is a triumph not just because it is a great vegetable soup, but because it’s served with the mixture which gives it its name, a delicious sauce of basil, garlic, egg yolk and olive oil. It is within reach of those of us who are able to acquire fresh basil. For the rest of you - I’m deeply sorry. If you plan to serve it as an entree, you’ll only need a very light main course, perhaps a grilled sardine on a lettuce leaf.

The soup: 2 large onions, sliced in rings; 2 leeks, sliced in rings; 2 carrots, grated; 2 sticks celery, chopped; 2 large potatoes cut into small cubes; 200 gms fresh green beans chopped into bite sized lengths; 200 gms dried beans (haricot, kidney, etc); 5 or 6 cloves garlic crushed; 2 Tbsp olive oil (preferably extra virgin); 200 gms cooked macaroni.

The pistou sauce: 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 1 cup chopped fresh basil; 1 egg yolk; 1/2 cup olive oil.

To serve: 100 gms grated gruyere or emmental

Method:

To make the soup:

The day before, soak the dried beans in cold water. In a heavy saucepan or stockpot put the 2 Tbsp olive oil. Gently cook the onions, leeks, carrot and celery for five minutes. Add soaked dried beans, green beans, potato pieces and garlic. Cover with water and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Just before serving, season to taste and stir in the macaroni.

To make the Pistou Sauce:

Pound the fresh basil and garlic in a mortar - or blend. Add the egg yolk. Gradually stir in the olive oil, starting a few drops at a time - as you would for mayonnaise. The mixture should thicken. The pistou sauce will go brown if exposed for a long time to air. It sort of rusts. This is not a problem, except that it can look unsightly. The solutions are either to put it in an airtight jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil or to make up the sauce immediately before serving. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for several days though because it contains raw egg yolk. I prefer to make it up as I need it.

To serve:

Put a small dollop of sauce in each bowl, sprinkle in a little grated cheese, pour on a good amount of soup and get everyone to wait a full two minutes, savouring the wonderful aroma, before stirring the mixture up well and eating with tremendous enthusiasm.

Truly, this is one of the world’s great dishes! This recipe featured by Carole Whitelock