Fowlers Vacola-d fruits

For my birthday this year I requested and received a Fowlers Vacola kit.

For the uninitiated, Fowlers Vacola is an Australian company that manufactures home canning kits. Canning is the process of preserving foods by packing them into glass jars and then heating the jars to kill the organisms that would create spoilage.

The American equivalent is a Mason Ball system. From what I can gather, the main difference is that the Mason Ball is a pressure canner and capable of processing low acid foods including meat. Conversely, the Fowlers Vacola is a water bath canner and can only process high acid foods such as fruit. I'm not really interested in preserving meat and seafood, so was happy enough to buy a Vacola.

Basically, you fill your jars with whatever you want, put your filled jars in the Fowlers Vacola and turn it on. The Vacola heats up and creates a vacuum seal, thus preserving the contents of the jars.

Vacolas were extremely popular in the 30s - 60s. My grandmother had a Vacola that she used to preserve the excess fruit from her family's orchid. Hers was an older style stove top pot but my Vacola is a new style that you plug in.

I am fortunate enough to have a couple of Aunts who live in Stanthorpe. One of my lovely Aunts brought me down a mixed box of peaches, nectarines, apples and pears for my first attempt at Vacola-ing.

I prepared the fruit by peeling and coring it and then segmenting it. I also prepared a jug of sugar syrup. I made a 'light sugar syrup' which was 3 cups water to 1 cup sugar, but next time I think I will go 2 cups water to 1 cup sugar because I have a sweet tooth.

I poured an inch or two of sugar syrup into the jars, then started packing the fruit. It's pretty time consuming because you need to pack the fruit tightly and ensure there are no air bubbles.

I then clipped the lids on and put the jars in the Vacola. 50 minutes later they were done! The jars can be stored for years.

Pears on the left and peaches on the right

After 7 days I opened a jar of the nectarines. It was very hard to open the jar. I was pretty weak compared to the vacuum seal. The jar had to be prised open with a knife. Quite impressive. I ate nearly a whole jar, with a generous slug of cream. Delicious!

Baked Goat's Curd & Lemon Tartlets

When I am stressed, I like to bake or look for new recipes. Lately, work has been very busy and a tad stressful so I have spent a bit of time browsing the recipe archives at Gourmet Traveler.

This recipe was found on one such morning. The recipe is from Gourmet Traveler's Fare Exchange column, where readers can request the recipe of a fantastic meal they have enjoyed in a restaurant.

I love a lemon tart. The addition of goats curd initially sounded intriguing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised the two foods would work very well together.

These tarts were yummy. The goats curd makes the filling velvety soft. Next time, I will probably use the rind from two lemons, not one, because the lemon flavour was pretty subtle.

The recipe says it makes 8 x 9cm tart tins but I made 6 x 7.5cm tarts and 6 x 9cm tarts. I also had enough pastry (but not filling) to line 4 x 11cm tins.

I served the tarts with some homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Yummy!

Baked Goat's Curd & Lemon Tartlets (with very slight adjustments)

From Gourmet Traveler but originally from a cafe at Port Willunga called Star of Greece. Chef: Jonathan Kemble.

Tart filling

180 gm goat's curd (I bought some at James St Markets. I think it was from the Yarra Valley Dairy)

100ml pouring cream

2 eggs

55gm caster sugar

1 lemon, finely grated rind and juice only

Shortcrust Pastry

75 gm caster sugar

300 gm plain flour

150 gm unsalted butter, coarsely chopped

125 ml pouring cream

For the pastry, combine sugar and flour in a bowl and rub in the butter until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add the cream and mix until combined. Give it a couple of kneads to bring it together, wrap in glad wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins or until cold.

I like to then roll out the pastry between two sheets of baking paper, line my greased tart tins with the pastry and put the pastry lined tin in the freezer until frozen. I find it helps to prevent shrinkage when you blind bake the pastry.

When you are ready to make the tarts, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Blind bake the pastry. Straight from the freezer is best. First for 15 minute with paper and weights (although I skipped this step) and then about 10 minutes until golden. The original recipe then says seal the cooked pastry case by brushing with egg yolk and putting back in the oven for a minute, but I didn't do this and my tarts were fine.

Reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees. Combine goat's curd, cream, eggs, sugar and lemon rind and juice in a jug. Pour into the prepared tart shells. (I fill my shells in the oven to avoid spillage. But I'm very clumsy.)

Bake for 18 minutes or until set. Serve the tarts at room temperature, dusted with icing sugar.

Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Orange Cake

This cake has a well deserved reputation. I don't know a cake that is so well known and timeless. Three of my favourite cookbooks include this recipe: Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion, Nigella Lawson's How to Eat and David Herbert's The Really Useful Cookbook. I think the original recipe was written in the 1960s.

The cake doesn't use butter or flour so is perfect for people with dietary requirements. But dietary requirements or not, people gobble this cake up.

Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Orange Cake

2 large oranges, washed (preferably unwaxed)

6 eggs

250 gm almond meal

250 gm caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Slivered almonds to decorate (optional)

Place the oranges in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil the oranges for 2 hours. I often do this step a day or two ahead of time. (My aunt says that you can even freeze the whole, boiled oranges.)

Allow the oranges to cool, cut open and remove pips. Process in a food processor.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius and butter and line a 24cm spring form pan.

Beat 6 eggs and 250gm caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until voluminous and thick. Add in the almond meal, baking powder and liquified oranges. Stir together.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and scatter the top with slivered almonds. Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer can be inserted cleanly.

Leave to cool in tin for about 10 minutes before turning out. Dust with icing sugar and serve. Some double cream wouldn't go astray.

Healthy Muesli

I am a firm believer in kick starting your metabolism with a good breakfast. In winter, I like to eat porridge. I make it with about half a cup of organic oats and water and while it's cooking on the stovetop, I add in a peeled, diced apple, a sprinkle of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of brown sugar. Takes about 5 minutes. Healthy, yummy and filling.

In summer, it is too hot to eat porridge. Instead I eat corn thins with peanut butter (weird, I know, but I love the crunch of corn thins and I am a massive peanut butter lover) or I eat muesli with yoghurt and milk.

I make my own muesli. It makes me feel virtuous. Besides, store bought mueslis often have a lot of sugar in them and are very expensive. I can make a big 2.5L jar of muesli using mostly organic ingredients for about $15.00. Pretty good, considering it lasts me about a month.

The amounts and ingredients I give below are very rough. I go to the health food shop and buy whatever they have got. Oats are the base, but then I buy whatever cereals and seeds they have. It's usually a mix of bran flakes, raisins, apricots, cranberries, pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, linseeds (flax), raw almonds or macadamias, coconut, maybe some rice puffs.

Homemade healthy muesli

5 cups oats

1 cup bran flakes

1 cup rice puffs

3/4 cup coconut

1/4 cup pepitas

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup almonds, chopped

1/3 to 1/2 cup agave syrup or applesauce or a mix of both

1 cup dried fruit (I like cranberries and raisins)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine all the cereals, nuts and seeds in a big bowl and mix in the agave syrup and/or apple sauce (or you could use rice syrup or canola oil and runny honey). Give the cereal mix a good stir so everything gets coated in the sweetener. Just a light coating is fine.

Place on a foil or baking paper lined tray. Bake in the oven, giving it a stir every 10 or so minutes, until golden brown.

Leave to cool. When the cereal is cool, mix in the dried fruit.

I like this muesli with a generous spoonful of Barambah yoghurt (passionfruit, please) and a drizzle of Barambah full fat (dark blue capped) milk. Maybe a fresh passionfruit over the top. A cup of Twinings English breakfast tea with a drop of Barambah milk. A good start to the day.

Mint-ed & Caper-ed Potato Salad

I have never been a fan of heavy, potato salad. I don't like mayonaise, and I certainly don't like those horrible fat laden tubs of pre made supermarket potato salad that my bogan Aunt insisted on dishing up Christmas after Christmas. shudder.

However, I came across this fantastic potato salad on teaforsix.com.au . Tea for Six is written by the lovely Natalie and is my new favourite food blog. I have cooked many, many things from Natalie's blog.

I have made this salad several times. It is delicious. The capers and shallots give it a great kick.

Please excuse the picture. It doesn't do the salad justice. The potatoes were forgotten about on the stove and were a little overcooked, then the salad was taken to a BBQ and dropped twice by a clumsy person (me). Thank goodness for tupperware!

I'm not sure if it is good blog etiquette to reproduce another blogger's recipe, so I have hyperlinked to Natalie's blog so as not to cause any offence!

Potato Salad with capers and mint