Wattle-seed Milkshake

Jorge insisted, yet again, on entering the bushfoods competition in the junior category.  He had some great ideas such as bush tomato soup and quandong red-skins, but when it came down to it, I was pushed for time and ideas, so we opted for a wattleseed milkshake and quandong truffles.  We chose these recipes because children can make both of them, and they're fun and yummy!

I'm not sure how we ended up with 4 children, over two days... plus a dog, and a number of friends dropping in for a cup of tea...  and there were moments, when it was great, and moments when it was not.

Now, the recipe....

Wattle-seed Syrup

INGREDIENTS

1 cup roasted wattle-seed

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

METHOD

Using a mortal and pestle, grind up the wattle seed roughly.

Place the wattleseed, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil on a medium heat.

Allow to simmer for 20-30 mins.

Strain the syrup through a fine sieve, and allow to cool.

Wattle-seed Milkshake

INGREDIENTS

30mls wattle-seed syrup

100 mls full-cream milk

1 scoop vanilla ice-cream

METHOD

Place milk, syrup and ice-cream in large cup or milkshake container, and press that button.

That's it.

Toffee as Jewels... the Belt of Deltora

Recently my son - Jorge - had a Book Day at school. This is where the kids are expected to turn up to school dressed as their favourite 'book character' for the year.  Given that we have only read one book (or trilogy) over the past year, and this being the much loved  Deltora Quest  (apart from a few forays in Zach Power, and Jorge went as Zach Power last year).. there was little choice but for Jorge to go as the young hero - Lief. 

Jorge's dad fashioned him a sword out of plywood, and I was left with the task of making the belt and the finding a cape.

Now, for those who haven't read this fabulous book, the belt of DELTORA is made up of 7 gems/jewels, these being Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Luzuli, Topaz, Opal, Ruby, Amethyst (spells Deltora).... and so I was pondering, how I would get hold of seven large coloured jewels, in less than 24 hours, in Alice Springs. I thought about glass, coloured glass, melted glass... and then I wondered if there was any substance that I could create that looked a bit like glass... of course I thought food.

I thought of jelly, agar, and then I thought:  toffee... of course.

This belt is half made of toffee, and half of found objects like Christmas decorations.  For the Emerald, I put green glitter though the toffee, the Topaz is pure toffee, and the Opal is my ultimate creation with about three different colours of glitter through the toffee. The red toffee in the photo is for the ruby, it was a bit soft and then we found a lovely ruby coloured Christmas decoration, so Jorge got to eat these toffees.

Of course, I had to explain to Jorge not to let any of his class mate eat the toffees (apart from the Topaz). He claims there were many greedy eyes on his belt all day... but not thieves..

Garden Instalment #3

Up to my 4th bed... potatoes looking good, and surviving (just)  the mad dashes of one red heeler puppy called CC.  Can't say the same for the silver beet, although fennel seems indestructable.

I got one tomato from all my healthy bushes (see below), and it was fab.... but way too much effort for one tomato (a couple of small ones).. although this ox-heart variety tasted fantastic... check out the colour and the flesh.  Served here with a splash of olive oil, parsley (sadly no basil) and some wet sea salt.  I am currently pulling out my vines and getting read to plant more seedlings.. 

  From now on, I will plant according to the Alice Springs calendar, rather than assume I know better... I don't.

Fennel Head below...is a champ!   Already sick of fennel and dog can't seem to destroy it.

And here are my carrots... very proud of this effort.  Got purple ones in at the moment...

But really, what I am most happy with is my daikon radish (below)... I can't begin to explain the joy of planting seeds and growing a particular vegetable you can't get locally so you (me) can cook a particular dish... In this case: Agedashi Tofu.. yum!

Cannoli ... first try

I made my first (not quite the last) attempt at Cannoli (evening of the macarons... cooking Sunday!)  I had finally purchased some cannoli tubes in Melbourne, in between meetings, and had my heart set on trying these delightful treats.

I found a Gourmet Traveller recipe which used a chocolate/marsala pastry and a pasta machine for rolling out.

Now, I was disappointed with the pastry... quite fragile and easy to burn, and just didn't crisp up like I wanted.  Cooking these pastries is also a bit tricky....  Also the filling was just not right... next time, I think I'll do chocolate custard.

Stay posted for the my next attempts.

my best macarons yet....

Yes, I feel I've finally achieved a significant Macarons goal.. I made salted caramel macarons, and they were divine...

As you can see, Jorge was also delighted.

Now the recipe for them I got from two websites, which I highly recommend:

For the macarons, go to the food geek.  He uses Italian meringue, which is the key.  I've used recipes with the French meringue, but the results are nowhere near as good. (I also used a natural food colour here...)  Zumbo also uses Italian meringue.  (One tip I just read from Zumbo, is to add your food colour to the toffee!  Check out Zumbo here.)

For the salted caramel, I found this lovely site called Honey & Soy..  I kept thinking I was making honey and soy macarons... now there's food for thought!

Yes, macarons are tricky but well worth the effort.  Wanting to try passionfruit macarons this weekend, and maybe perfect my cannoli.

Joy!

Melbourne, macarons & other joys...

Lovely tea-house in Block Arcade, can't remember the name, but never seem to have the time or right head-space to go in and try the treats and have a cup of tea.

 Not sue where this one was....

For some reason I took very few photos of macarons when recently in Melbourne on a short stay... but I did taste a lot, not just macarons but many other joyful foods.

The cakes above and below are from one of my favourite pastry shops in Little Collins Street.  Yes, they had macarons as well.

Melbourne & Macarons... and many other delights