very tarty lemon tart

One of the hallmarks of a good cook in my mind, is the use of seasonal ingredients.  Lemons are in abundance right now.  I've seen boxes of them outside, on nature strips marked 'free'....clearly they are in season!  My favourite way of using them is in a lemon tart.  This recipe is adapted from Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion and is noticeably tart.  In  fact, so tarty you can almost hear the trill of wolf whistles as you bite into a slice!  You need to make your own pastry though to get sublime results.  So get your food processor out!   Serves 8 - 10.

Pastry:
1.5 cups (225 g) plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
125g cold, unsalted butter cut into chunks
1/4 cup iced water

Filling:
3 large lemons
4 eggs
250g caster sugar
250 ml cream
pure icing sugar

Whiz the plain flour and salt in the food processor.  Add the butter and whiz again till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Pour in iced water while motor is still whirring and process it until it forms a ball around the blade. 

Tip the pastry out onto a chopping board and shape it into a ball.  Flatten it into a disc and wrap it tightly in plastic film.  Chill the pastry in the fridge for about 40 mins or until its firm but supple enough to roll.  It keeps well in the fridge for 3 days if you want to make it ahead but it needs to come to room temperature before it can be rolled out.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry into a large round about 2mm thick.  Roll the pastry over your rolling pin.  Carefully lower it over a 24cm loose- bootomed deep flan tin.  press it into the edges of the tin well, leaving an overhamg all around the edge.  Place a baking tray underneath (easier handling)  and then chill for about 30 mins until the pastry is firm.  Preheat oven to 200degrees.  Completely cover the pastry with a big sheet of foil or baking paper, presssing it gently down into the corners.  Spread pastry weights, dried beans or rice over the base to weigh it down so base stays flat.

Bake for 20 mins then remove the foil and weights and bake for another 5 mins.

Reset oven to 160 degrees.  Zest and juice lemons.  Combine eggs and sugar until well amalgamated, then add zest and juice and stri well.  Add cream and mix well using electric beaters or a balloon whisk.   Pour into just baked pastry case and bake for 35 - 45 mins until almost set.  Cool in tin for at least 30mins before serving.  Serve dusted liberally with icing sugar and a big dollop of thick cream.

zucchini and feta fritters

When a couple of vegetarian friends popped in for  a visit  I wasn't sure what to serve as a light supper.  I couldn't whip up a pizza using pitta bread and ham...But I had zucchinis and feta in the fridge.  So I turned to my beautiful Middle Eastern cookbook by Claudia Roden,  Arabesque.  And within it's sublime pages I found this recipe, which I hasten to add, have made before.  It is one of the best ways I know to transform this rather bland vegetable to something quite delicious.  This also proved popular with the youngsters in our troupe!  Serves 4


1 large onion, chopped coarsely
3 tbs corn oil
500g zucchini, grated coursely
3 eggs
3 tbs plain flour
black pepper
2 - 3 tbs finely chopped fresh mint
2 - 3 tbs finely choppef fresh dill
200 g feta cheese, mashed with a fork
extra corn oil for shallow frying

Fry onion in 3 tbs of the oil over a medium heat until it is soft and golden.  Put the grated zucchini in a teatowel, you may need to do this twice, and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible.  I usually get my husband to do this, because you need muscle!  Anyway, he likes to contribute in some way to the cooking process...Add the strained zucchini to the onion and continue sauteing until they too are soft.

In a bowl, beat the eggs with the flour until well blended.  Add pepper and herbs (there's no need to add salt because the feta is salty enough). Mix well.  Fold the mashed feta into the eggs, together with the cooked onions and zucchini.

Film the bottom of a frying pan with oil and ladle in 2 tbs of mixture for each fritter, making a few fritters at a time. Turn each over once, and cook until both sides are browned a little.  Drain on absorbent paper.  Can be served hot or cold.

Anzac Biscuits

I was sitting shivering in the aircraft hangar that is my daughter's venue for learning circus skills, when I was offered a treat by another bystander.  This nanny to two youngsters who hail from a rather affluent inner eastern suburb, kindly offered me organic popcorn flavoured with manuka honey.  It came in a small foil package.  I tasted one and laughed when I read the packaging.  In fact, I couldn't stop chuckling, thinking about how brazen this type of marketing aimed at parents who are perhaps time poor but want their children to eat 'healthy' snacks which are conveniently packaged.  I was actually appalled.  And besides being poor value for money and environmentally unsound, they were so bland!

If you want a healthy snack, make it.  Anzac biscuits are easy to make, moorish and provide fuel for growing children so they can engage in energetic activities like swinging on trapezes and walking on stilts.   I would be untruthful if I said that they are convenient because one batch doesn't last more than 2 days in our household!

This recipe is from one of my favourite cook books, Belinda Jeffery's Mix and Bake.   These are the chewy kind not the crunchy, just the way I like them.  The only point of difference in the recipe is that I added more coconut.  Makes 24 - 30.

1 cup rolled oats (not quick cooking oats)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiing water
1.5 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 160 degreesC.  Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper and set aside.  In a large bowl, thoroughly mix oats, coconut, flour and sugar.

2. Put the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan and warm them over a medium heat, stirring occasionally till the butter has melted.  Remove the pan from the heat.  Add the boiling water and bicarb of soda and stir them in briefly as the mixture froths.  Pour this buttery liquid into the dry ingredients adding the vanilla.  Quickly stir the two together until they are thoroughly combined.

3. Roll the resulting sticky dough into walnut-sized balls, then flatten them slightly and sit them at lest 5 cm apart (as they spread quite a bit) on the prepared baking trays.  You might need to bake these in batches. 

4. Bake for 16 - 20 minutes or until the biscuits are deep golden brown but still soft, then remove them from the oven.  (To ensure the bisuits cook evenly, rotate the trays from shelf to shelf halfway through the baking time.)  Leave them to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.

Potato and leek soup

Our beautiful Vulcan Magnolia in the front garden is in bloom.  Vivid purple flowers on bare branches ....a glorious reminder that spring is just around the corner.  Hooray!!  But the harsh reality is Melbourne in August it's still frightfully cold.  Well, you can seek much- needed succour by making a creamy leek and potato soup using your delicious homemade chicken stock.

I was quite lucky the other day, visiting  Healesville, ostensibly to go to the sanctuary with my little darlings, and stumbled across their monthly farmers' market.  Of course,  I bought beautiful organic leeks and potatoes.  This recipe is adapted from Stephanie Alexander's original Cook's Companion.  Serves 4.

30g butter
2 tbs olice oil
3 large leeks, washed and sliced
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into medium sized cubes
1 large onion
1 stalk celery
2 cloves garlic
500ml chicken stock
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs thyme
2 tbs finely chopped parsley
1 tbs chopped chives
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat  butter and oil on medium heat till melted in  a medium sized saucepan.  Add vegetables and garlic and saute for 5 mins.  Lovwer heat and cover till leeks have softened, making sure to stir from time to time, about 10 mins.  Tie bay, parsley and thyme with kitchen string (effectively making a bouquet garni) and add to concoction along with stock and enough water to barely cover.  Simmer for about 20 minutes till potatoes are tender.

Remove herbs and puree/blend soup .  Season well.  Reheat to boiling point, when ready to serve, and scatter with herbs.  This soup is so creamy that the addition of  cream is superfluous.  But, if you must.....

TIP: Wash leeks by cutting in haf legnthwise , keep attached to root end and fan leaves under cold running water like a pack of cards.  Cut about 2cms off the the green tops of the leeks for this recipe.

Baklava

If  love is directly proportional to the degree of effort required to produce a dish, then making baklava for someone is akin  to telling them you love them madly!  To make a fabulous baklava, it takes time.  For me, the secret is using whole nuts and roasting and grinding them myself.  I always buy walnuts in their shells, because they do go rancid tres vite, once shelled.   I've used only walnuts and almonds but pistachios are wonderful too, speckling the baklava with vivid green.  And in the spirit of the dalliance, why not use other whole spices like cardamon pods and star anise in the syrup??  Makes 30 pieces.
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2 cups shelled walnuts
1 cup almonds
3 tsp cinnamon powder
375 g filo pastry
180 g melted unsalted butter

Syrup
2 cups  sugar
1.5 cups water
3 thinly peeled strips of orange rind
6 cloves
1 cinnamon quill

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.  Place nuts on baking tray and roast till golden, about 10 mins.

Reduce heat to 170 degrees.  Finely chop nuts using a food processor.  Be careful not not to grind them to a powder though.  Combine with cinnamon in a bowl.

Butter base and sides of a 33x23x5 cm baking tray.  Cover base with a single layer of filo and brush lightly with the melted butter.  Continue to layer the filo, brushing with butter between each new layer until 10 sheets have been used.  Keep the rest of the filo pastry under a damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out.

Sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the pastry and pat down evenly.  Repeat the layering and buttering of  five more filo sheets and then sprinkle with the rest of the nuts, keeping the layer relatively even.  Layer and butter remaining filo sheets and finish by brushing top layer with butter. 

Cut the top layers of the baklava with a sharp knife into diamond shapes.  Flick a little  water onto the top layers to prevent them from curling upwards,  Pour any remaining butter evenly over the top.   Bake for one hour.  If it is browining too quickly, cover loosely with foil.  Pastry must be allowed to cook thoroughly.

Once cooked, immediately cut through the original diamond markings and let cool.

In the meantime, make the syrup.  Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 10 mins.  By this time the syrup will have thickened slightly.  Pour hot syrup uniformly over cooled baklava.    Step back and inhale the ambrosial aromas of the East!

Chicken Stock

Winter heralds ruminations of risottos, soups, hearty pies, tagines, stews....And all these wintry dishes require the addition of  a flavoursome stock.  I make chicken stock right throughout winter and keep freezer bags of it in my freezer.  Some recipes call for the chicken bones and vegies to be roasted first, for a deeper flavour.  I find this recipe with everything thrown in with aplomb, produces a decent stock.  Regardless, however you make it, home made stock is always going to taste infinitely better than the stock powder or the vacuum sealed liquid packs from the supermarket.  So pick up your favourite book, a glass of wine and inhale the delicious aroma as your stockpot of liquid magic bubbles away for the next couple of hours. Makes about 2 litres


2 kilos of chicken carcasses
500 grams of chicken necks
about 10 stalks of parsley
2 bay leaves
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot, chopped up roughly
2 celery stalks, cut up
10 peppercorns

Put all ingredients into a large saucepan or stockpot and cover by up to 7 cm with water.  And just let it simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. I don't skim or worry about the fat whilst it's cooking as according to my guru, Maggie Beer, it removes the flavour.  After this period of simmering, strain the stock through a sieve into a bowl.  Let cool before placing in the fridge.  Once cold, you'll notice a fatty layer has collected at the top.  Remove with a spoon and pour the liquid into a measuring jug.  I usually measure out 500 ml and put into 4 labelled freezer bags.

Lentil and Spinach soup

Being in the dead of winter, a homemade, nourishing soup is just what the doctor ordered, I believe.  And having your own home made stock makes it extra wholesome.  I was lucky enough to have secured some fresh English spinach from a neighbour, so this only multiplies it's nutritional allure!

I came across this recipe from the fabulous food blog, Love Bites, who in turn sourced it from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. This makes enough soup for 6 people.

- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 sticks of celery, sliced
- 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1.8 litres vegetable/ chicken stock
- 300g red lentils
- 1 thumbsize piece of fresh root ginger, sliced
- 10 cherry tomatoes halved
- 200g spinach leaves
- salt and pepper, to taste

Saute carrots, celery, onions and garlic in oil for 10 mins on medium heat, or till softened and golden. Then add stock.  At this point, add the lentils, ginger and tomatoes and cook for another 10 mins by which time the lentils should be cooked. Finally, add the spinach and cook for a short  while, till wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with a thick dollop of Greek yoghurt and some crusty bread.