Blackberry (and apple) jam recipe

*sigh*  Yet more blackberry stuff.  *sigh*  I HATE blackberries.  But I whipped up some jam at the request of the big man and the household is going through it at a rate of knots, so I thought I'd share.  All jams are dead easy, this one is no exception.

Ingredients
1.5kgs blackberries, preferably fresh-picked
1 kilo granny smith (green) apples
2.5 kilos white sugar
1 cup water.

Throw the blackberries into a saucepans with the sugar and water.  Peel, core and then finely dice the green apples (and I mean FINELY dice).  Throw that in too* and give it all a good stir.

Bring it all up to the boil and boil the life out of it until you get the thick jammy bubbles happening.  In my opinion there's nothing at all wrong with runny blackberry jam but if you're worried about it, test it out on a small dish pre-chilled in the fridge.  Your final bit of work before sterilising bottles and sealing depends on whether you like your jam chunky or smooth.  If you want it smooth, you're going to want to stick a bar mix/stick blender in there and give it a wizz.  In our house we go chunky because I'm lazy.

As previously mentioned, I am not a blackberry fan (mainly because I'm the idiot that has to go pick them) but the reception this stuff received indicates everyone else thinks it's the bomb.  There's always a small amount of jam left over after bottling and I tend to pop it in a bowl in the fridge for the household to consume over the next couple of days.  This time half of it was gone within an hour as Lis imbibed it still-warm, straight from the bowl with a spoon.  The rest went the next morning.  It's not even a week on and they've almost finished the first 500ml jar of the stuff and Charles is getting defensive and lashing out when I suggest giving jars of the stuff away.  Definitely a winner.

*  It's worth noting here that for some reason granny smith apples pad berry jams out beautifully.  Quite aside from the pectin in them helping the jam to reach the setting point, which can be a bit tricky with berries alone, something about the apples changes the flavour in a good way.  I've noticed previously when making strawberry jam that if I make it with strawberries alone it can be a bit cloying and sweet and not necessarily taste strongly of strawberries.  Make it with a 50-50 strawberry to apple ratio and the resultant jam has an amazing strawberry taste more true to the original berry and you'd never know there were apples in there.  The blackberry jam was the same.  The resultant jam is far more blackberry-like in flavour, it set better and you can't tell it has apples in it.  Plus it means I had to pick less blackberries!

Plum paste recipe

Plum paste is one of the quickest, easiest products to make come harvest season.  You may have seen it near the cheeses at the super market with the cabernet paste, fig paste, etc.  It's a very thick, sweet concoction in a small tub that goes on your cheese board and costs about $5 a pot.  Ludicrous.  You can make enough of the stuff to last a year and many, many cheese boards for just a little bit more than that.

Plum paste is the perfect accompaniment to the bitiest of blues and washed rinds.  This is my own recipe that I put together after checking out what was out there and then having a go myself.  It makes about 2.5 litres of the stuff and I recommend you bottle it in the smallest jars you can find - a couple of tablespoons is the most any cheese board needs.

Ingredients
2kg of plums
2kgs white sugar
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (bottled in a pinch)
1/2 Cup malt vinegar.

Dump your plums in the sink, wash thoroughly and de-stalk.  Cut the seeds out and throw the rest in the food processor along with the vinegar and lemon juice. Do it in two batches - and just blend the life out of it until it's liquid.  Dump it into a saucepan and bring it up to the boil.  Be aware that the mix is quite thick in this state - so keep stirring to avoid burning.  It may also be quite a neon colour;

Once the bubbles start, dump in the sugar.  This will make it lots more liquid and, much darker, thank goodness;

Keep stirring until it boils.  The mixture here is quite thick and needs to be stirred frequently.  But apart from that, just keep boiling until it gets super thick (maybe thirty minutes?) and then start bottling it up into your sterilised jars.  Seal immediately.  The following day when you turn the jar, the paste should not move.  If it does, you're in for a reboil and seal session.  That's all folks.  The paste will last weeks in the fridge once opened but if you don't use a 200ml jar in a month, you're just not eating enough cheese.

When I grow up...

I found this quote on the Internet today and uploaded it for a day as my Facebook profile pic because I'm going through a month of quotes that strike a chord with me (just for something different to do).  This image resonated with me because of something that happened to me when Charlotte was a baby.  When my baby girl was born I landed in a mother's group in a wealthier part of town and they were almost all career women in their forties who had given up their jobs to have their IVF baby before it was "too late" and they were treating motherhood just like they'd treated their job - something to succeed at, something to win at, something to devote themselves to, to the exclusion of everything else*.

I had a number of issues with these women and we clashed on almost all fronts - mainly because I tend to wing motherhood like I wing everything else, making it up as I go along and generally just trying to fit my parenting into the space created by my lifestyle, beliefs, values and philosophies.  I am ashamed to admit that I've only ever read a parenting book once and that was only because Charlotte had a weird rash.

Anyway, the upshot is that mother's group was not a happy place for me because Charlotte excelled at everything and hit all the milestones before everyone else's kid, despite the fact** that I was a dead loss who ignored the experts and this made these women furious.

Why this particular image was such an awesome discovery for me is because one day we had a guided discussion in the group about what we wanted our children to be when they grew up.  As they took their turns it gradually dawned on me that my time in mother's group was coming to a close.  Because my daughter was three months old, and had only just discovered her toes which were now her biggest obsession, I had never so much as wondered what she might be interested in career-wise.  But these women weren't held back by the fact that most of their kids hadn't even mastered holding their heads up for longer than nine seconds. They had plans.

What really tore it for me was the mother holding her dribble poo bomb who announced that they had already enrolled their son at King's College in Sydney because they wanted him to have the very best opportunity he could have to become Prime Minister.  "The way I see it," she said airily, "You should aim as high as you can and then it's up to them.  And let's face it, you can't really do much better than running the country."

I was really, genuinely appalled.  I didn't even know mother's like this existed.  All I could see for this poor kid was a future full of structured play in educational environments and stern warnings about picking his socks up and living up to his potential.  It sounded like the childhood equivalent of a salt mine.  And then it was my turn.

"Tell us," the queen bee mother sneered, "What would you like Charlotte to be when she grows up?"
I flirted with saying something like "stripper" but in the end I went with the only thing I could think of.
"Um... Healthy and happy.  What she does for a living will obviously be up to her..."

Which is why I love this quote so much.  Because I don't think it matters how smart you are or what you do for a living, what matters is whether you wake up every day and love the life you're living.  You only get one.  Make the most of it.  That's what I want for my kids.

The footnote to this little anecdote is that when she was three Charlotte was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and she fixed this particular person with a stare that conveyed that she was unimpressed with having to answer such a stupid question and said very slowly and clearly, "I'm going to be Charlotte."  Solid.  Gold.

*  Anyone who knows me is probably already giggling.
** Or, dare I say it, because of...

Licorice Parfaits with Lime Syrup

This one is, wholly and solely, ripped from the Chef's Pencil and you can find it here.  I am willing to concede I'm a good cook, but only a GREAT cook could come up with this recipe and only a fool would mess with it.  I have elaborated a little on the method, basically dumbing it down for those who aren't au fait with what a sabayon is and how to cook it.

I chose this recipe for my man because he loves Army and Navy boiled lollies - a citrus aniseed combination that's like heaven on the tongue, even for those of us who don't normally like licorice.  Oddly he didn't make the connection until he actually tasted the dessert.  They're a wicked combination and this recipe WORKS.

So without further ado, let's start with the lime syrup.  You'll need;

250g sugar
1 Cup water
1 lime

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan with the zest of the lime (it's important to get this as absolutely fine as you can get it - use a grater that turns it to powder).

Bring to the boil and then decant into a bowl or jug.  Stir into the syrup the juice from the lime and then refrigerate.  That's it folks.  Now to the parfait(s);

Ingredients;
300ml pure cream
50g soft eating licorice finely chopped
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tspns glucose
2 Tablespoons Sambucca (I used white but black will add more colour to your parfait)
60g castor (fine white) sugar

In a small saucepan heat the cream with the licorice in it until the licorice is very soft.  Do not boil.  Then place in the food processor and blend.  Run it through a sieve to get the lumps out and set aside to cool down to room temperature.

Now to make your sabayon!  Sabayon, as I've discovered, is like a cross between meringue, cream and custard.  The Italians call it zabaglione and it can be served as a stand-alone dessert or poured over fruit, whatever you like really!  In a large saucepan bring some water up to a simmer.  The Chef's Pencil recommends a stainless steel bowl, but I only own pyrex and I like that it takes longer - less chance that I'll wind up making sweet scrambled eggs.  Good for your arm muscles too.

A little tip with the glucose - put your bowl on some scales and weigh it instead of trying to use a measuring spoon.  Go for about 10g of glucose.  Place all the remaining ingredients into your bowl, give them a whisk to combine and then pop it over the saucepan.  Just combined your sabayon will look like this;

Careful that your bowl doesn't touch the water.  Now start whisking.  The trick with sabayon is to make sure it doesn't get too hot.  Stick your finger in periodically and if it feels warmer than room temperature, take it off the heat.  Keep whisking and it should become lighter and airier, turning from yellow to a pale cream colour and increasing in size;

The colour and texture change is obvious, no?  Keep whisking while it cools down and then fold about half of it into the licorice cream.  Once that's combined, tip it back into the remaining sabayon and fold through until well combined.

Pour into your moulds.  I used individual serve-sized moulds but in future I will probably use one large mould lined with cling wrap or baking paper to get the thing out easier.  To remove from the moulds dip into hot water for a few seconds and turn out onto plates.  Top with some strips of lime zest and allow your guests to top with the syrup.

The flavours of this dish just can't be accurately described.  The licorice flavour is very subtle and almost totally obscured by the lime syrup.  The two together are just something else entirely.  Enjoy!

Polenta chips recipe

Many a time when we've dined at Rubicon I've marveled at their most excellent polenta chips.  Crisp on the outside, creamy on the inside...divine.   Like the pomegranate jus, no one website gets the credit for this one - a bit of research and then I came up with my own recipe.  I would like to bang on just one more time about using fresh rosemary.  There is no excuse for not growing it.  The stuff is incredibly hardy and grows everywhere.  It smells amazing, it tastes divine, you should have as many rosemary bushes as it takes to have fresh young sprigs always at hand.  We personally own five shrubs.  If you can't grow it, steal it.  Using the dried stuff is a crime and somehow the "fresh" rosemary in the herbs section at the supermarket just never has quite the same punch.

So either grow your own or take a walk around the neighbourhood - someone's sure to have a massive bush somewhere and won't miss a few sprigs. Always take the top spires where it's soft and fresh or pull the leaves off if the stem is thicker and woody.  Now to the polenta chips - this recipe makes six incredibly generous serves with a few spare for the inevitable few that will break up while you try and flip them.

Ingredients;
3 Cups chicken stock
300ml pure cream
60g finely grated parmesan
Cracked pepper to taste
Fresh rosemary to taste
2 Cups polenta

Bring the stock and the cream to the boil in a large saucepan.  Throw in very finely chopped fresh rosemary (about a tablespoon) and some cracked pepper.  Once it boils, remove from the heat and quickly whisk in the polenta and the parmesan.  Keep stirring until the polenta becomes thick and pulls away from the edge of the saucepan.  This will happens pretty quickly.

Transfer the polenta into an inch-thick slice tin lined with baking paper and smooth out the mixture.  Fold the baking paper over the top and place in the fridge, preferably overnight.

The following day (or at least a few hours later), preheat your oven to 100C and then lift the slab from the tin onto a chopping block.  Slice into chips. In a skillet heat some butter and olive oil until hot.  Place the chips in the oil and cook until crisp.  Lift each batch and place on a tray in the oven until you've cooked them all and you're ready to serve.

The final step in the process of these amazing chips is to serve them with rosemary salt.  For this you'll need a mortar and pestle.  Simply throw in your finely chopped rosemary and a bunch of sea salt flakes (or in my case Murray River Salt Flakes) and grind to powder.  Serve for your guests to sprinkle over their chippies.  And that, as they say, is that!

Beef eye fillets with pomegrante jus

No one website can get the credit for this one - I looked at several different pomegranate jus recipes and then devised my own which wound up being sweet with a deep, heavy flavour.  It may just be one of the easiest things in the world to make.  The ingredients are as follows;

1 cup pomegranate juice (and you can either juice your own or buy it in a bottle from the veg area in Coles)
1 cup port (go for something reasonably good.  I went for Orlando's liqueur port mixed with an De Bortoli's Old Boys Tawny)
1 cup chicken stock

Throw it in a saucepan and boil the hell out of it until it reduces down to maybe half a cup or a little more.  Set it aside and then gear up to cook your steaks.  In my opinion, eye fillet is absolutely the best cut of steak.  Fat, gristle and bone free, succulent and delicious.  When I buy from the butcher I ask him to cut 1-inch thick steaks for me and 1.5 inch thick steaks for Charles.  It's not just that my man likes more meat than I do, but that with the added thickness they will take the same time to cook but his will be rare and mine will be a nicely pink medium.

Some tips on awesome steak - bring them out of the fridge and put them on the bench an hour before you're ready to cook so they'll be at room temperature.  If you forget, throw them in a 100C oven for five minutes, no more, to warm them.  Also, pat them with a paper towel to make them dry before they go into the pan.  This will help seal them quickly and keep them moist.  And finally, make sure your pan is hot and don't turn them more than once.  I personally like to cook in a cast iron skillet because it retains the heat really well as you cook.

Once your steaks have cooked , place them on a warm plate to the side, clean the pan quickly with a paper towel and throw the jus in.  Bring it up until it's bubbling thickly and then throw the steaks back in.  No more than five seconds either side, but get them nicely coated in the jus.  Plate them up and voila!  Beef eye fillet with pomegarante jus.

Welcome home dinner for the big man

To celebrate Charles' return home this week I promised a welcome home dinner of epicurean proportions.  I selected a few likely candidates and let Charles choose what I would actually make.  He went for eye fillets in pomegranate jus (thank's for the idea Lamberts) with polenta chips (a favourite of ours from Rubicon) followed by a dessert of licorice parfait with lime syrup.  The licorice parfait I got from one of my favourite sites, the Chef's Pencil.  This website caters to my epicurious side but does not stoop to step-by-step instructions which, while flattering (and empowering if you succeed) can also be kind of tricky.  Case in point, the licorice parfait recipe which simply instructs you to use the ingredients to make a sabayon...until it's pale and fluffy.

Which is how I found myself researching what the hell a sabayon is and how to make one.  More on that in the actual recipe.  I've decided to pop all three recipes into different posts just to help people find them later if they come looking for them.  Despite my apprehension the only disaster came at the start of making the parfaits when the food processor vibrated itself off the bench while I was blending my licorice cream, splattering it everywhere and sending me back to the shop for emergency supplies to start all over again.  Not my finest moment.

But despite that minor hiccup, the welcome home dinner was an unqualified, raging success.  To me the biggest test was not my man and his reaction but the reaction from my fickle kids.  Abandoning every sense of propriety and all manners ever taught, they both took turns licking their bowls when they thought I wasn't looking.