inner pickle

all in the name of research

OK so the David Lebovitz icecream was very good, but a little fiddly. 

Having a dedicated tendency to err on the simpler side of things, I remembered a friend talking about icecream made with condensed milk. Mmmmm, condensed milk. Another good reason to have it in your pantry, right!

So I tried this: 

BASIC VANILLA ICECREAM

1 x 400g tin condensed milk

1 x 600ml pot of thickened cream

1 x tsp vanilla extract

THAT'S IT!!

And oh my goodness, here it is:

Apart from being dead easy to make, it's so creamy and delicious, and you know exactly what's in it. No hidden "natural" colour 160b (careful one that little one.)

I poured the three ingredients into a big bowl and used a hand beater to whizz up well first. Then put in into an icecream maker and pulled it out after three hours or so and beat it again. You really don't need an icecream maker for this - but you do need to re-beat it once it's partially set to get that whipped up icecream texture. Handbeaters will do the job or a wooden spoon and some good elbow grease. Think about those burning calories. Or not. 

Store it in the freezer (obviously) - mine's just in a plastic container with a lid on it. You don't need anything fancy. And damn it tastes fancy. You'll LOVE this. 

xxx

Homemade Vanilla Icecream

Yuuuuuummmm. 

Ever made your own icecream? I've made it a few times, including a semifreddo phase I went through in the early nineties. THAT one was bad for my bum.

But I've never made a 'custard' based icecream. I wanted to try this because being pregnant I can't eat anything with raw eggs in it - which most homemade icecreams have.

This recipe is based on the AMAZING David Lebovitz's vanilla recipe here, with, I admit, a few steps skipped out. He's the king of the scoop, David Lebovitz, and I wonder if I'd stuck to his method, if it really could have been any more sublime. Truly. This stuff rocks. 

I served it for lunchtime dessert to a bunch of friends on Sunday (with this pavlova) a pairing which conveniently uses up all the whites of the yolks you used in the icecream! 

SO good. 

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Icecream (Recipe by David Lebovitz - with a couple of minor adjustments (*cough*, short-cuts)

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (250ml) whole milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup (150g) sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups (500ml) heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

METHOD:
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover and remove from heat.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

4. Stir the custard into the heavy cream, add the vanilla extract and remove the vanilla bean.

5. Either put into an icecream maker (which has a pre-frozen bowl and freezes the mix quickest) or a container with a lid or foil over it, in the freezer. Needs at least 8 hours to really freeze through. If you're using an icecream maker make you would usually pull it out and blend it again when semi-frozen (after 3-4 hours). I don't think this is necessary though. Still the creamiest, vanilla-y, most delicious icecream I've ever tried. 

There's about 2 small scoops left. Which I think Ad and I might polish off shortly with a small slice of this (even though it's not Friday night dessert night!!)

A new chocolate cake recipe with 4 eggs in it! (I only ever use 2.) Will try it and if it's any good, will blog it!

(All in the interest of recipe testing, of course. The things my bum and I do for you gorgeous people.)

xxx

strawberry shortcake

Shortcake is one of the things I don't make. 

I don't make it, because my Mum does.

And man, she makes a good shortcake.

I think in every family somebody specializes in something, right? Maybe you are the excellent birthday cake maker. Or the beloved scone bringer. Maybe you're known for your lasagne or your perfect roast. 

Mum has always made shortcake. Given that my aunts on my Dad's side also make it, I wonder whether it was my Grandma's recipe (she of the award-winning sponge, very soon to be forthcoming!!)... I'll ask Mum when they're back from galavanting around South Australia. 

Anyway, Mum makes passionfruit shortcake. Always has a passionfruit vine growing somewhere, always has frozen fruit in ziplocks in the freezer. It's the passionfruit shortcake she makes for her adored sons-in-law. And for Dad, for super special treats (when she has a house-full and can be sure he'll only get one piece, being diabetic and all that...) 

So I never make it. It's her thing. 

'Cept I have all these strawberries, and we were going to a friend's house for Sunday lunch, and I thought, why not...

I bought a couple of these cool bakers boxes at The Essential Ingredient (somewhere I should never be let loose) and boxed it up. 

 I neglected to take a 'slice-of' photo at lunch - too busy talking. And eating. And laughing. Sorry.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

Ingredients:

2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup sugar

125g butter

1 egg

1 cup icing sugar

60g butter

1 cup chopped strawberries

Method:

Mix flour and sugar in a large bowl then rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and stir in the egg. It will feel really dry, keep mixing until you can knead it well into a ball. 

Push into a round 7 inch (20cm) tin, rough up the top with a fork and sprinkle with sugar. Cook at 160° for 35 mins or until golden. When cooled, split into two.

To make the filling, mix the icing sugar with the butter and fruit. (This works really well with passionfruit too - probably better than my strawberry version.) Mix well to a cream then spread onto one half of the shortcake. Put together, and enjoy! 

Perfect with perfectly-made espresso (our friends run a coffee school!)

Highlights of the week so far:

* Having my seven year old nephew Doug to stay for a few nights. Awesome little dude that he is. Henry is now at my sister's place for a short holiday, and I am loving the time just with Tilly. We are having a truly lovely little break, just us. (Although she's pretty excited about bringing him home tomorrow night.)

* It's not often you can say that something helped you be a better parent, but I think this book has. I highly recommend it. I found it via Soulemama and am now on a mission to find out more about Buddhism generally.

* I'm not particularly religious but am always inspired by faith in other people. I stumbled on this blog tonight, via Mammajoy (finally posting again! hooray!) and read the story of Audrey Caroline. It's astonishing how strong some people can be. I thought this woman, Angie Smith, was amazing and I was really inspired by her perspective.

* Learning about white balance for photos from my friend Katie who in 10 minutes gave me a crash course and helped me take better 'inside' photos!! She is the best!

Hope you are having a fab week. 

xxx
 

Apple and Strawberry Crumble

YUM!

 

I know I always say that so I'm pretty much totally unconvincing but really, YUM!

I don't remember ever making crumble before. Adam says he thinks I have but I have no memory. And I certainly didn't have a crumble recipe. 

I googled 'apple crumble' and came up with many variations, three of which had the basic ingredients I wanted to use which I cobbled into this:

CRUMBLE:
mix 1 cup oats

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar with

100g cold chopped butter. Rub in butter. 

Rub together until crumble-like. Y'know.

FRUIT:
Peel and slice three green apples in a baking dish with one punnet of sliced strawberries. Spoon 'crumble' over the top and cook in moderate oven (180°) for approx half an hour.

NOTE: Strawberries wouldn't have been my first thought for fruit paired with apple. I'd think apple/blueberry or apple/blackberry but I really have a lot of strawberries at present (see Friday's post) and am thinking up ways to use them before my children turn into strawberries from eating so many sliced on yoghurt, blended in smoothies, in multiple small IKEA bowls generally...

NOTE 2: I made this crumble for beloved sister Suzie and family on Saturday for lunch. This plate, photographed, is actually Suzie's plate. Which she watched me whisk off the table to photograph before I gave it back to her. Icecream only a tad melted. *cough*. Tolerance as virtue and all that, hey?! She was very patient as everyone else at the table tucked in. Family is brutal. 

NOTE 3: Guess what? 

More strawberries tomorrow!!!

xxx

yoghurt maple balls

You mean I need to stop eating these long enough to write a post? 

Naaah. I can multi-task.

Yoghurt maple balls. *sigh*. 

You know I'm pretty finicky about recipe provenance. I always try to credit anyone and any recipe that has influenced one of mine. 

This one is a wee problem though. 

Adam and I stayed at a friend's weekender in the Blue Mountains one weekend a long time ago and I found this recipe in a magazine. It was a long time before I started blogging and I wrote the recipe down but didn't think to write down which magazine it was. Maybe Gourmet Traveller? Maybe Donna Hay? Maybe Delicious??

So, I'm sorry to the creator of this recipe, whoever you are. I'm reproducing it here because it is perfect and needs to be shared.

These little yoghurty nutty mapley things are gorgeous. I've scrawled at the bottom of my original page the author's suggestion to serve with balsamic pears or berries which is all very nice but totally unnecessary. Enjoy solo.

INGREDIENTS

1 kg thick greek style yogurt

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tblsp cinnamon

2 tbslp caster sugar

hazelnuts, roughly chopped and toasted

METHOD

Combine the yogurt and the syrup. Place onto a large square of doubled muslin and gather together tightly with string. 

Loop string around a chopstick and suspend over a bowl or container in the fridge for four days to remove the liquid.  

 

 After four days mine looked like this (above).

 And out of the muslin, like this (above). Weird!

Form tablespoon-sized balls with wet hands...

and roll in mix of cinnamon and sugar. 

Then toss to coat in the hazelnuts.  

Aaaaah. *gargle in back of throat.*

They are fabulously dense and not too sweet and totally delicious. 

Dear Greeninkgirl, this spoonful is for you. If I thought they'd ship, I'd send 'em. 

Meanwhile I'll just enjoy them on your behalf, I hope that's OK. (Thanks for the push to make these. A little encouragement goes a long way with me!)

Let me know if any of you make these!

(And in my next house, whenever that is, let's put an order in for natural light in the kitchen. Gosh that'd be awesome. The 'yellow' photos are taken in the kitchen, everything else I carry outside to photograph!)

OK, just one more spoonful...

xxx

lemon sago pudding

I soundly acknowledge I am not a sophisticated cook. So not. You've gathered this already.

I've catered a few degustations for large numbers but my menus were pretty simple.

I love truly skillful food blogs. You know, the ones that even beyond the really good photography are full of seriously talented food. Like this one. And this one. Oh and this one. And I love this one too. Sorry. Got distracted. 

ANYWAY.

The old lemon sago pudding. Right up there in sophisticated terms with sausages and mash. Baked eggs perhaps. Grilled cheese. I'm not knocking it. We're naming some of my favourite food here. Mmmmm. Grilled cheese. 

So Iku make a kick arse sago pudding. SO good. Dear me I've eaten a few. 

Once, I kept the container with the ingredients list and tried to replicate it. This was before I started blogging so no photographic evidence and do ya THINK I wrote down the recipe? 

I'm an idiot. 

It was pretty good.

So on that list on the left hand side I've had this thing where I wanted to recreate the Iku sago. (No recipe available as far as I can tell. The former owner of Iku has published a book which I'd love to get but I don't think the sago is in it.)

So first I made this:

Very yummy. Honestly: recipe straight off the back of the Lion Sago box. Incredibly quick and easy and delicious but not Iku's. Missing the coconut milk.

So I tried again today:

 This is really very yummy. 

But doesn't have quite the right solid consistency. Delicious and coconutty and lemony but not quite there. So I need to work my way through this batch then I'll try again (and knock it off the must-do list.)

Here's the recipe for this one, the not-quite-iku-lemon-sago-pudding

ingredients

2/3 cup sago

2 cups water

1 400g tin cocount milk

3/4 cup white sugar

2 tblsp golden syrup

juice of 2 lemons

zest of 1 lemon

method

Soak the sago in the water for 20 mins or so. Then pop into saucepan with coconut milk and bring to low boil, stirring constantly. Once thickened, take off heat and add sugar, syrup, zest and juice. Spoon/pour into containers or one big bowl and refrigerate till firm(ish).

Gosh it's so zesty and sweet and creamy and delicious that just thinking about it I need to run out to the fridge and maybe have just one more spoonful (hence it being in numerous small containers. One big bowl would spell disaster. DISASTER. Multiple small containers minimise the damage.)

Stay tuned for the next version. 

Likely to be soon. Once I lick these containers clean.

xxx

  

chocolate self-saucing pudding

If you visit here at all regularly you'll be aware of my tendency to make stuff over and over until I find the perfect recipe. It's a personality flaw.

When I first met Adam, I made him chocolate self-saucing pudding.  I think it was actually for our second date (chronology dependent on who you ask). He said he loved it. So I made it again. And again. And sometime after we were married (that would be SEVEN years later and heavens knows how many puddings) he confessed that he really didn't like chocolate self-saucing pudding. Any of them. 

So this week, while Ad was out of town overnight, I made one just for myself. (Because it wasn't Friday night dessert night and seriously, the kids would think it was the weekend next if I gave them pudding mid week.) 

I halved this recipe for my own sake given I knew I would not throw it away. 

 And I figured: 21 weeks pregnant. Earned it.

MICROWAVE SELF-SAUCING PUDDING

Original recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly and can be found here

60g butter

1.5 cups self raising flour

200g (1 cup) caster sugar

25g (1/4 cup) cocoa

180ml (3/4 cup) milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup brown suagr

35g (1/3 cup) cocoa (extra)

2 cups boiling water

Place butter in dish, melt in microwave. Stir in sifted flour, sugar and cocoa, milk and vanilla, beat until smooth. Sprinkle with combined sifted brown sugar and extra cocoa and pour boiling water over. Cook on high for 12 minutes or until just cooked in centre. Stand for a few minutes before serving because it will be piping hot. Awesome with icecream.

Sometimes just seeing these things on the bench is all I need:

Now I'm sure there is a spoonful left in the fridge and given Adam will ignore it... if you'll just excuse me...

xxx 

things are happening...

1. Friday night dessert night

We don't usually eat dessert in our house but (at Henry's suggestion) we started Friday night dessert night a few weeks ago and it's a highly anticipated new addition to family ritual. Here's tonight's: the recipe is at the end of the post.

2. School

or: Breaking in the new school shoes.

I've done a lot of reading about homeschooling in the last few weeks which I'll definitely talk about in a future post, but Henry is enrolled at our local school and due to start next Thursday. All very exciting. We've done a lot of preparation (particularly for a kid who doesn't transition well or 'do' change very well) and I'll tell you all about our school prep next week. He is super excited though. Me too.

And still on schools, of all the conversations I've had over the past two days, hardly one does not involve some discussion about www.myschool.edu.au

In Australia, the federal government has created what amounts to a 'league table' on school's performances. From a parent point of view it's very interesting seeing how your local school ranks (incidentally ours ranked very highly) but the rural and regional schools I suspect must be hating this system, and there are many issues with comparing apples with bananas (as my sister Suze, a teacher, described it.) 

For New South Wales our main broadsheet The Sydney Morning Herald actually provided school's rankings from 1 to about 800. A tough business. Great if you're in the top 20, not sure how the teachers in the smaller schools in the 700s will be feeling about this. Or the parents of the children at those schools... Very interested in your thoughts on this!

  

 3. Artificial colour in the garden.

I have somehow managed to kill the majority of my herbs in the past fortnight. Not from neglect, but perhaps too much water and/or fertiliser (from the worms). Very disappointing. Resorted to spinning cheerfulness to inspire the geraniums not to die too.

4. Beloved neighbours back home

Gosh we missed our lovely neighbours next door when they went away for two weeks! We do see quite a lot of them, most of all this family member above ('Cow') who has spent this week almost entirely at our place. I think she missed us too.

5. Sleeping!

Thank you you beautiful people for all the emails and suggestions about sleeping issues in our house. We are now (touch wood!) all good. 

6. Proud mum

Henry and Tilly made some chocolate chip cookies this afternoon almost unsupervised, and gave a little visiting playmate jobs to do that they thought he could manage. Henry retained the egg-cracking responsibility and only Tilly is allowed to handle the vanilla. I'm really so proud of my budding cooks. 

So what should we call this? Peach and blueberry pie, I think.

Peach and Blueberry Pie

You need 1 portion of short crust pastry, I always use this super quick and easy pastry recipe.

I then used half a portion of this recipe: PLEASE NOTE, Estelle's Mum's recipe, NOT mine... ie the one with the milk powder and water. If I want cold custard, this is the one I make. It sets really well, unlike mine. I used half the recipe because I made it a few days ago and that's all that was left!!

I pressed the pastry into the dish, spooned the custard on top then sliced fresh plums and peaches on top and sprinkled with blueberries. 

Bake for 20-30 mins (my oven was quite hot because I was cooking roast beef and baked potatoes at the same time.)

Anyway, it was delicious. Perfect with a spoon of good greek yoghurt. Yum. I love Friday night dessert night.

xxx

 

heaven-sent cheesecake

I have a proclivity to fixate on a food and make it repeatedly in varying versions until I get it right. 

You saw this here.

I admit I have also done this with cheesecake. I don't know how many cheesecakes I've made in my life. Many. Oh so many. 

But the best one I've ever tasted came from a cafe where I worked as a cook about a hundred years ago, and I could never recreate it. I knew the head chef had given me the recipe but I was 19 and I'm lucky if I can find my head at all from 19, let alone a recipe on an index card.

Then one day about 2 years ago it showed up. At Mum's place. 

I don't mean to overstate it but I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a recipe in my whole life. (I have a committed relationship to cheesecake, you have to understand.)

Anyway, for your enjoyment, here it is. 

 The Rose Blues Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS

(this makes a large cheesecake in a 24cm round springform pan)

2/3 box of tiny teddy biscuits (if this doesn't translate to UK or US, try plain chocolate biscuits, about 2 cups)

1/2 packet shredded wheatmeal biscuits

135g melted butter

500g philadelphia cream cheese

3 tablespoons sour cream

juice of 1 lemon

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

METHOD:

Crush biscuits in a food processor. Tip into a bowl and stir in melted butter thoroughly. Press into base of springform pan put into fridge while you make the middle.

Soften your cream cheese really well - either in a microwave until you can really poke it, or at room temperature. This will make it smooth. Using a mix master (ideally) or if, like me, you don't have one, hand beaters will do, whizz in the sour cream, lemon, eggs and sugar and beat until smooth. 

Pour onto cold base and bake in oven set to 100 deg for an hour. Then allow to cool/set for another hour in oven ideally or if you're making it late at night as I tend to be, wrap your pan in cling wrap when it's cool enough to go in the fridge.

Please make it, enjoy it, and if you lose the recipe you know it'll be indexed here.

xxx

a custard kinda day

{photo by Adam}

Some days are easy. Some days aren't. On those not so easy days nothing beats stirring up a delicious custard in the quiet kitchen after the two smallies are fed, bathed, storied, teeth-cleaned and bedded. 

(Or even better, stirring while Adam does the bath-story-teeth routine in time for me to creep in for a bedtime song or two. Bless him.)

I've talked about custard at length before. 

And tonight, because I just can't leave well enough alone, I tried a variation on those two perfect custard recipes. And this one is a keeper. It has just enough milk powder to give it that creamy solid feeling and enough fresh whole milk to satisfy a dairy-farmer's daughter. 

My absolute favourite custard

INGREDIENTS

2 tblsp custard powder

4 tblsp sugar

half cup cold water

2 eggs

half cup full cream milk powder

1 cup boiling water

2 cups full cream milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD
In a saucepan mix the custard powder with the sugar and the cold water. Then add the eggs and whisk. Then mix in the milk powder, not made up, just the powder. Stir in the boiling water then the milk. Cook over a low heat until thickened. Add vanilla at the end.

Divinely easy. Delicious. A perfect way to end a day.

xxx