Berry Nice

The kitchen has been busy here lately, despite the heat.  I got a good deal on some blackberries (12 x 6oz punnets) through our food co-op a fortnight ago and this week I've ordered strawberries.

One punnet was made into blackberry and apple galette based on Sophie Gray's "Free-form fruit galette" (from Destitute Gourmet: Everyday Smart Food for the Family, p. 51).  The pastry is deliciously 'short' and easy... 1 heaped cup flour mixed with 80g butter until crumbly, add enough water (a few tablespoons) to bring it together in a smooth dough.  Rest in fridge 20 mins.  Roll out in rough circle of 35cm and place on baking sheet.

The recipe calls for egg yolk to seal the pastry but I didn't bother.  It is then supposed to be sprinkled with 2 Tbsp of semolina, which I didn't have.  I didn't have quick cooking tapioca either (the US pie-making staple) so I substituted 2 Tbsp of dry baby rice cereal (of which I have plenty at present!) to absorb the fruit juices as the galette cooked and prevent soggy pastry.  Then pile prepared fruit in the centre (about 700g).

Fold up the edges to encase the fruit and sprinkle with sugar, up to 1/3 cup.  Instead of using egg white to glaze the pastry, I dampened the exposed edges with water and sprinkled some sugar there too.

Bake approximately 35 minutes, or until fruit is cooked and pastry golden.  Serve with cream or icecream for a decadent touch. :o)

This one wasn't as spectacular as another galette I baked earlier in May with super-ripe apricots, mangoes and blackberries... odd but delicious combo!  This is a very versatile recipe that can be used with preserved, tinned or fresh fruit in virtually any combination (draining the juice or syrup off, of course).

Two more punnets of blackberries have been frozen for use in future pies, muffins, etc.

The remaining punnets were cooked in two batches of apple and blackberry jam.  The recipe is from a NZ food magazine but I've lost the reference (I think it may have been the inaugural issue of Dish).

Wash and thinly slice 350g of apples, leaving the core in and skin on. (I took out the stalk.)

 Place in a large saucepan with 1 kg of (washed) blackberries and 2 c water.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer until apples are very soft.

 Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon and blend in a food processor until smooth.

 (Weigh the bowl you are about to use, or reset your scales to zero with the bowl on top.) Place a sieve over a bowl and push the fruit pulp through using the back of a spatula or metal spoon.  You should have about 1/2 c of seeds to discard, or else your sieve may be too fine. (I had way more to discard but I wasn't about to ruin my flour sifter!)

 Strain the cooking liquid over the sieved pulp and whisk together.  Weigh the mixture and add an equal weight of sugar, e.g. 500g of fruit pulp needs 500g sugar.  (See why it was important to weigh the bowl now?)  Put fruit and sugar back into the cleaned saucepan.  Add the juice of 1 lemon.  (I had frozen lime juice so I used about 4 Tbsp.)  Heat gently to dissolve the sugar - important so jam doesn't crystallize and go sugary when stored. (Put a saucer in the fridge to cool.  Sterilize jars.)

 Increase the heat and boil rapidly to setting point (see below), skimming any foam from the top.  (It only means the finished jam is more attractive, but I figure that the apples here are usually waxed so skimming of the froth can't be a bad thing!)

 Pour quickly into sterilized jars and seal.  (I finally found a use for all those baby food jars that are accumulating.)  Seals should 'pop' in when cool.  Store in a cool dry place.  (If seals don't pop, store in fridge and use within 6 weeks.  Makes about 4 cups.

Setting point:  To test for setting point, place a small amount of jam on a chilled saucer.  Gently push it with a spoon (not your finger - this stuff is hot!).  If it wrinkles it is at setting point otherwise, keep boiling.  When setting point is reached this jam sets quickly!
Sterilize jars: put through a hot cycle of the dishwasher.  Or wash in hot, soapy water; rinse well; place on an oven tray on a cold oven; heat to 250*F and leave for 1/2 hour.  Handle with care!

Christmas Story

Before the Christmas season disappears entirely, I thought I'd share a link to a great Christmas poem on Sophie Gray's website. She is NZ's Destitute Gourmet and I love her recipes, and own a fair few of her books. They are also very apt for the PhD budget! Find the poem here.

Food Course: Food For the Household

Monday started with a class session discussing gardens, meals, and cooking. Mary Ruth talked about the gardens in The Bible. Eden and the garden where Jesus was laid in the tomb act as bookends to the salvation narrative. (I think the tree of life on each side of the river in Revelation 22 probably is a more fitting bookend). The garden of Gethsemane falls in the middle, a symbol of the opposite of both Eden & the world after Jesus' resurrection, despite its beauty. We talked about the 'more than' essence of Christian life, and the role gardening plays in being more than just producing food.

Meals are a means of celebrating culture, family, history and being mindful of God. Mary Ruth talked about creating a meal culture that cultivates these through table settings, companions, and thankfulness to God.

Our cooking discussion focussed on how we learn and teach basic cooking skills, practice economy, use gardens and make decisions about what we eat (or don't eat). My quote comes from Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food. "To eat slowly, then, also means to eat deliberately, in the original sense of that word: ‘from freedom’ instead of compulsion." (The subtitle is a good summary of his book: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.")

We then went to visit an organic 6-acre farm at the north end of Galiano, owned by Donna and Hans (friends of the Wilkinsons). It is a self-sustaining garden, that produces enough to supply a number of households on the island. Donna runs a CSA-type of arrangement with these families, makes preserves (like her yummy Kiwi, Blackberry & Orange Jam) and sells any extra veges at the local market. This place also reminded me of my grandparents' garden, but Grandad doesn't have to set (humane) beaver traps to protect his orchard!

While most of the class remained to help in the garden for an hour or so, I returned with my group to prepare our 'mindful meal'. More about that next post!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Here is our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner before: And after:We had roast chicken with cranberry sauce, roast sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and green beans. For dessert we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream (sorry, I forgot to take a picture).

As you can see from the first picture, I got the cranberry sauce from a can, and a ready-made pumpkin pie from the supermarket bakery. I had not intended to do this. Being on a budget, however, I was surprised to find that it was cheaper to buy both these items rather than to make them from scratch. Even cheating - by making it with pumpkin pie filling in a can - was more expensive!

Apparently, the North American art of baking is being lost. It is rare to find someone who has the time, budget, and inclination to cook from flour, sugar, butter, etc (except in food blogs - see links). Maybe this is why the faculty are gobbling up my baking so readily! It is generally accepted that cookies come from a tube of dough, frosting comes in a can, muffins are packet mix with milk added, pie crusts are not made but bought, and afternoon tea for guests is bought at a bakery on the way home. This is a tragedy! (Can you tell I'm calling for a counter-cultural revolution?!)

The tragedy of packet cooking aside, the other possible tragedy of big dinners is wasted leftovers. So the chicken and veges were made into potato-topped pie and the pumpkin pie was happily consumed in the following days. My one dilemma was what to do with the cranberry sauce because most of the can was leftover. After a stint in the freezer as I deliberated, the sauce was drained of excess liquid and became the filling, along with a red eating apple (skin on), for a cranberry & apple shortcake. Here it is with some apricot yoghurt, before being devoured.

P.S. Check out the library blog my mum contributes to here. It is a great resource for teachers and lovers of children's books. She is 'Lynn, P. North', and you can see a picture of her display "Kikorangi Blue" there too. Well done, Mum!

Trapping and Triumph

In the latter end of summer we have had a problem with those pesky little fruit flies that always seem to come home with us from the greengrocer! They wouldn't be a problem under usual circumstances, but the fact we have insect screens over the windows and keep the door closed to keep cool, means they are trapped inside our home (and multiply)!

Since fly spray would circulate through the air vents to our upstairs neighbours, this wasn't really an option. Our friends, April and Claire, shared a simple way to trap these pests, and humanely release them outside (though my instinct was to squish them mercilessly). A slice of banana (or another strongly scented fruit) is put in a glass. The glass is then sealed with plastic (Saran/Glad) wrap and small holes pierced in the top. (This was reminiscent of bugs brought to school!) The flies were attracted by the fruit, worked their way into the glass through the holes, and then couldn't make their way out (thanks to the stretchy, clear properties of the plastic). This ingenious solution caught 10 flies within 24 hours, and over the following days, 'netted' the rest. Isn't it great when simple, cheap solutions work just as effectively as the usual quick-fix?!

On another note, I got some jam and made another two batches of Grandma T's Spice square, with better results than last time (see here)! Some was used for a faculty coffee break and we consumed the rest. This time I doubled the cake part of the recipe so it was thicker overall. Our various guests over the last week have all given it a thumbs up!