Date, Chocolate and Almond (Birthday) Torte

I have agreed to make a cake for 60 people for a 50th birthday.. how exciting and how daunting. And, is it completely fool hardy to use a recipe that I have never used before?
I am thinking a Date, Chocolate and Almond Torte.. of varying sizes.. laid out on a board.. wait and see.

Pomegranate Molasses Iced Tea

This have become a nightly favourite for me when preparing dinner - a good replacement for that glass of red I'm trying to give up.

Ingredients
Light sugar syrup (made with 2 parts water, to 1 part sugar)
Lime Juice
Pomegranate Molasses
Sparkling mineral water
Ice
(White spirit to make a cocktail if inclined.)

Implements
Highball glass
Straw or stirrer

Method
Place Pomegranate Molasses, sugar syrup and lime juice in glass, with ice and mineral water. Stir and taste, and adjust accordingly. The pomegranate molasses tends to sit at the bottom, but I quite like the effect when drinking through a straw... a little bit like Vietnamese ice coffee with the condensed milk at the bottom.

Pomegranate Molasses

I spoke about Pomegranate Molasses last week on local ABC Radio, but in truth I had long since abandoned my bottle of pomegranate molasses which was looking pretty scungey. (Is this a word?) Of course, there was the initial honeymoon period where I used it in everything, and then bang! Nothing.. it had barely entered my repertoire for 18 months.. and then dear Alice wanted to talk about it last Friday.
I dragged the forgotten bottle out of my ex-linen closet-come-pantry, and in order to prepare for the task ahead, I poured some into a bowl and tasted it. Wow! It was good.. sour, sweet, thick and molasses like. I also sensed some mystery heady element... almost like alcohol. Now I was ready and this is what I discovered:
Pomegranate syrup is made from pomegranate seeds, sugar and lemon.. boiled down.
Pomegranates go way back.. to the old Testament (some believe it to be the forbidden fruit eaten by Even and offered to Adam) and to Greek mythology (eaten by Persephone, who was then banished to the underworld), but most positively spoken about in the Qu'uran, it is called the fruit of paradise.
Back to Pomegranate Molasses. Now, at the time I did this talk on radio, I had really only used pomegranate molasses in two ways.. as a salad dressing, and in pavlova. Yes, Pavlova. Only to be used for berry based fruits.. I put in a dash of pomegranate molasses and rosewater. It works, trust me!
Now, since I spoke about Pomegranate Molasses, we have finished off our old scungey bottle and bought a new bottle. The new bottle is nowhere near as nice and heavy and heady as the old scungey bottle, which Mark tells me he picked up in Hobart two years back, but it's OK. It's also much cleaner looking. It's Alice Springs, and I should thank my lucky stars that I can even buy it here, in the Centre of the Universe.
So, here is my favourite of the week (and I also added it to my boiling corn meat tonight. I figured pomegranate molasses had all the qualities that I would otherwise add as separate ingredients: brown sugar (sweet), vinegar (sour).. and that other special quality .)

Vietnam

10 days in Vietnam in April this year. Not long enough, but a good intro to this wondeful place. Why Vietnam? Because of the food and because it seemed to be the only destination Mark and I could agree on and the airfares from Darwin are incredibly cheap... I just want to say "Do it!" What a wonderful place, with so many lovely people and such great food. My food highlights were:
Sapote
Red Bridge Cooking School
Hoi An White Rose Dumplings
Tamarind Sorbet
DIY Hot Pot Restaurant
.. and possibly more, but I just can't remember right now.
Each morning, at breakfast, we were confronted with a stunning array of food: Vietnamese, French, American, Chinese, Japanese... without doubt, we would always head for the fruit.
The photo here is typical of the morning spread.. but the most amazing fruit of all was the brown fruit at the back, which I believe is a type of sapote. I did some internet research and discovered it is a different variety to the black sapote you get here in Australia. It is originally from Central/South America, and was introduced to the Phillipines and then to Southern Vietnam. What an amazing experience. A bit like eating a butterscotch fruit pudding. We even went to the Ben Thanh market and bought our own supply.
No sapote in Hoi An, but wonderful food. One of the local specialities are the White Rose dumplings, which look like little white roses with minced prawn and pork in the middle and sprinkled with crisp onion flakes. While in Hoi An, I tracked down the Red Bridge Cooking School and spent an afternoon in this beautiful location with my son Jorge, cooking many things, most memorable were the home made Vietnamese rice pancakes. Now I've since followed the recipe, and it just doesn't seem to work for me. Have I got the wrong type of rice, the wrong type of cloth, the wrong type of pot.. any ideas, anyone?
Jorge never eats eggplant, but we cooked this lovely simple dish, and he loved it. Not a great photo, but you get the general idea. The chef/teacher was a very funny fellow. Laconic.. yes, that is how I would describe him. And he made us wash our hands many times. I did start to wonder if food hygiene was particularly good in Vietnam, which is perhaps why we got no food upsets at all. I even ate prawns.. constantly.
Back in Ho Chi Minh City, Jorge and I discovered a funny hot pot restaurant. We thought we were going into a sushi train, as we saw all these little dishes on a conveyer belt.. but it was not to be. The hot pot restaurant consisted of a hot pot of soup base (Japanese, Thai or Chinese) put into a round space in front of you and then a knob which you controlled to bring it to boiling. On the conveyer belt were ingredients that you cooked yourself in the hotpot. Great for kids who like to cook and are kitchen-savvy.
Finally, and on the last day, I tasted a most wonderful Tamarind sorbet. I will do experimenting in the weeks to come, so stay posted.

Pumpkin

I was given three pumpkins yesterday, and I already had an uneaten quarter in the fridge. Is it pumpkin season perhaps? Autumn?

What to do with pumpkins?
Pumpkin soup of course and Cousin Rosa's Braised Pumpkin. There are also many variations on pumpkin pie (check out Kurma's no egg pumpkin pie), pumpkin bread, pumpkin gnocchi, Indian dishes with pumpkin, a northern Italian pumpkin and chocolate cake (Torta), a Greek pumpkin and carrot pie with Kefalgraviera (recipe needs improvement) and many more..

What do look for in a pumpkin?
I always go for a rich yellow-orange pumpkin that's ripe, preferably a Queensland blue (that's me) or a Kent (Mark's favourite). I would prefer a quarter of a large ripe pumpkin than a small pumpkin. Not a big fan of the Japanese pumpkin, but this is all a matter of taste. I am sometimes tempted by a butternut. There are other varieties available in Australia such as: dumpling, jarrahdale and golden nugget. This is a good website to go to for more information:
http://www.taste.com.au/how+to/articles/455/pumpkin. There seems to be many more varieties in the US, check out this site: http://www.allaboutpumpkins.com

I lived in a Paris for almost a year in my mid 20's, and began craving pumpkin after 6 months. I located one in a shop and promptly bought it, cooked it up according to Cousin Rosa's recipe, only to be bitterly disappointed at the flavour - there was none. I like this story, because with all the wonderful food in Paris, I could still not buy a decent pumpkin.

Tonight I made pumpkin soup, and it was delicious. This recipe (previously below, now moved to May 2010) may seem a long winded approach, and by all means, throw everything in together and boil away for a half hour if you're not in the mood. But for something special, this approach is well worth the effort.

Felafel with Quinoa

Making your own felafel is not so hard, but you do need to think about it a day ahead.
This recipe is an adaptation of a standard felafel recipe with quinoa (keenwa) replacing the cracked wheat.
What is quinoa?
Go to wikepedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
In my own words:
A South American grain that has a lot of uses. Gluten free. Apparently has a coating of a substance call saponin, which needs to be rubbed off in cold water. Very easy to use, and a great substitute for cracked wheat.

Bush Cooks:
I was once given a plastic bag full of felafel mixture by a Lebanese neighbour as a thank you present, and told to keep it in the freezer and cook as requried. I've done this when living out bush, and parceled up the mixture into meal size portions. It can be an easy meal, and much healthier than fast food. One other tip - if you don't have parsley, use celery leaves. In fact, I would almost recommend celery leaves over parsley.

FELAFEL RECIPE (Adapted from The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, by Tess Mallos)
Ingredients
225 gm dried chickpeas (organic preferably)
cold water
1/3 cup quinoa
2-3 cloves garlic
1 onion
2 spring onions
1/2 cup either flat leaf parsley, fresh coriander, or celery leaves (you can be generous with this amount)
1 teaspoon coriander, dry roasted and finely ground
1 teaspoon cummin, dry roasted and finely ground
lemon or lime juice to taste (start with a tablespoon and adjust to your taste)
salt (start with 1.5 teaspoon salt, and adjust to your taste)
freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

oil or ghee for deep frying (I prefer ghee)

Method

1. Rinse chickpeas and take out damaged or black ones.
2. Put in large bowl, cover with cold water and place in refrigerator. Soak for 24 hours.
3. Rinse the quinoa under running water and let soak. After around a half hour, rub the quinoa to get rid of the saponin and rinse in fine strainer. Let drain for 10 minutes.
   
4. Drain chickpeas and place all ingredients (except oil/ghee) in a food processor and grind until you have a coarse paste. Taste and adjust the lemon juice and salt to your taste.
5. Cover and let stand for a half hour.
6. Wet your hands and make small balls or patties, about a dessert spoon each.
7. Heat the oil or ghee, and when hot drop in the felafel patties. Move around with a wooden spoon and keep cooking until brown. Remove and drain on paper.
8. Continue with the rest of the mixture. Freeze what you don't deep fry.

To Serve
Serve with freshly baked Turkish bread, carrot and beans cooked with tomato, a green salad and a dip (yoghurt, carrot, babaganoush or beetroot.)

Focaccia de Patata (aka Baked Gnocchi)

Many years ago, my eldest sister returned to Australia after spending a few months with a family in Lecce (Southern Italy) with a new take on Italian cooking. Cream based pasta sauces ? Dried figs with bitter almonds and mandarin peel, and this, one of my most favourite recipes.

Focaccia de Patata is an alternative to traditional boiled gnocchi, much easier to make, and better tasting. This is also one of those great recipes for remote living. Almost all the essential ingredients are long lasting or available in most remote communities. (Although you will need to tap into that store of frozen parmesan in your freezer.)

Just a word about potatoes. Old potatoes are good, and those best suited for mashing. (Do not use waxy potatoes. Apparently desiree and Toolangi delight are good, and I also like binji).

Another word about the dough - don't overwork it, and whatever you don't use a machine to make the dough. It just won't work.

FOCACCIA DE PATATA
INGREDIENTS
Dough
4 -5 potatoes, peeled and sliced (around 500 - 600 gms)
salt
2 eggs
50 gms plain flour
50 gms SR flour
(or any combination of cornflour, gluten free - around 100 gms in total)
200 gm Ricotta (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (Italian or Australian, not prepackaged or pre-grated)

Sauce
1 medium onion, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic
Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
Tin tomatoes
Tomato puree
(Replace the above with fresh tomatoes if available.)
Piece of green capsicum
salt and pepper

Assembly ingredients
Olive Oil
Black olives, seeds removed and sliced in half; or
Diced eggpplant that has been salted and baked in the oven.
Parmesan Cheese

IMPLEMENTS
One lasagne baking dish, or pyrex baking dish

INSTRUCTIONS
Dough

1. Peel potatoes and slice.
2. Place potatoes in salted water in a medium-large saucepan and cook on a medium-to-high heat until falling apart.
3. Strain well and allow to cool.
4. Place the cooked potatoes in large bowl and mash with fork or potato masher. (Do not use a food processor or stab blender.)
5. Add eggs, ricotta and flour. The amount of flour may depend on the dense-ness of the potatoes.
6. Pull mixture together. (Do not over knead). Set aside.

Sauce

1. Heat oil, add garlic pieces and cook for around 2 minutes.
2. Add chopped onions and piece of green capsicum and cook until onions are well cooked.
3. Add tomatoes and cook down.
4. Add salt and remove green capsicum. (A pinch of sugar should be added if tomatoes are too acid.)

Assembly

1. Dip a table spoon of dough mixture in olive oil, remove and place on base of tray. Continue until the tray is completed covered and resembles a focaccia. (You should have about a third of the mixture left.)
2. Pour tomato sauce over dough mixture.
3. Next place olives (or eggplant) evenly over mixture, followed by fresh basil.
4. Dip smaller spoonfuls of mixture into olive oil and dot/drop on top of dough.
5. When finished, sprinkle over with grated parmesan.
6. Bake in medium to hot oven for between 30 and 40 minutes. Place alfoil or baking paper over top if burning occurs.
7. When finished, let the focaccia sit for around 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with fresh green salad.